Page 57 of A Sense of Misgiving
‘No, my lady, it’s my monthlies. I get the cramps something terrible, but never as bad as this before.’
Mary sympathised. She did too, and tried not to resent the inconvenience. It was not as though Maud had done it to deliberately irritate Mary. The girl was new to her employ, her services having been engaged just a few weeks previously when her existing maid left to marry a farmer.
‘Oh dear, you can’t carry out your duties like this. You had best take to your bed, I suppose. There’s nothing else for it.’
‘No, ma’am, I couldn’t possibly. I’ll be all right in a moment or two.’ She groaned as a fresh spasm hit her. ‘You need me to come with you this afternoon.’
‘You are in no fit state to do so. Now take yourself off to bed. I will have someone send up a hot brick and a tincture to help with the pain. I expect you will be all right tomorrow, but if you are not, I shall manage.’
‘You’re very kind, ma’am.’ Maud looked pale and frightened. She was probably worried that she would be dismissed. ‘But who will help you dress?’
‘I’ll cope well enough. Now be off with you.’
Mary watched her maid walk through the door, doubled over, tears in her eyes, still clutching her midriff and moaning to herself. She rang the bell and briskly gave orders to the maid who answered it to have Maud made as comfortable as possible. One of the parlour maids with aspirations to become a lady’s maid enjoyed the opportunity to help Mary dress. She dismissed her as soon as she had done so, and with time to spare pondered upon her difficulty. She couldn’t take the parlour maid with her. She would be needed here, and Maud was in no condition to accompany her. She wondered if Grandmamma could spare Flora, but decided against asking. Lucy didn’t like Flora and Mary didn’t want her pleasure interrupted by their spats. Flora was not, Mary knew, the type to accept thinly veiled insults without retaliating.
But she had given Luke her word. Well actually, now that she thought about it, she had not. He had advised her to take her maid along and had assumed that she would. Mary had not actually agreed to do so. Besides, they were simply going on a drive for a few hours, and stopping to admire the view from the top of Swallow Hill. Not that there would be much of a view to admire, she silently conceded, glancing out the window at the dull sky. But that was not the point. Mary straightened her spine. There was nothing else for it. She would go alone.
Fortunately, there was no sign of Luke or any of her brothers when Captain Redfern’s carriage bowled into view at precisely the agreed time. Woodley opened the door for her when it came to a halt at the front entrance portico, saving the captain from the inconvenience and leaving his team and coming into the house. He drove Lucy’s landau himself, with Lucy was seated behind him, protected from the elements by the vehicle’s hood. The captain smiled at Mary, got down from the box seat and took her hand.
‘Punctual. I like that,’ he said.
‘As a military man, I dare say you do.’
He helped her into the conveyance and she took up the place beside Lucy. If Maud had accompanied them, she would have had to sit up front with the captain and it would have looked odd. With her conscience thus salved, she resolved to enjoy herself.
‘Good afternoon, Lucy,’ she said brightly as the captain pushed his team forward into a trot. ‘It is such a shame that we don’t have a finer day for our excursion. I so wanted to see the view.’
‘We shall just have to make the best of it, my dear. How are you after all the excitement and attention of the other evening?’
‘Oh, perfectly well, thank you. I trust I find you the same. When does Mr Arnold return? Have you received word? I dare say you are anxious.’
‘No. He tends to come and go without consideration for my convenience.’
Mary dealt her friend a sharp look. ‘But you are not dissatisfied with your marriage, I hope.’
Lucy smiled. ‘Things do not always turn out the way one expects,’ she said, looking away from Mary. ‘You are an heiress, so you cannot be expected to understand.’
‘And yet I shall never know if gentlemen are attracted to me for myself or my fortune. You on the other hand are very beautiful and I recall lots of eligible men falling at your feet. Yet you chose Mr Arnold, so I always assumed it must have been because you were deeply in love with him.’
Lucy’s dour expression evaporated and she offered Mary a brittle smile. ‘Let us not dwell upon my domestic felicity. I am more interested in your affairs.’
‘Then your curiosity will be quickly satisfied. I spend my days drawing and painting, visiting friends and neighbours and generally accustoming myself to not having Emma around. But of course I have Flora, who is wise and kind and the greatest possible fun, and that means a great deal to me.’
A momentary frown touched Lucy’s brow, but she made no comment and the rest of the journey passed in idle conversation.
Captain Redfern pulled the conveyance to a halt at the top of Swallow Hill, but as Mary had feared would be the case, the view was completely shrouded in mist. A fine rain had started to fall.
‘Oh, how disappointing!’ Mary cried. ‘I so wanted to see it again.’
‘It’s freezing up here,’ Lucy complained when a strong gust of wind rocked the carriage. ‘I have no intention of getting out and ruining my hat in this wind and rain. Take us back home, Fergus. We will give Mary tea in warmth and comfort.’
The captain touched his hat. ‘Very well. I am sorry this is so disappointing, Lady Mary. We shall have to do it again when the weather decides to be kinder.’
‘I don’t want to put you to the inconvenience of going home and then having to go out again to take me home.’Alone.Mary felt suddenly uneasy, as if she was somehow being manipulated. ‘It would be easier if you took me back to Beranger Court and I will entertain you both to tea there.’
‘I wouldn’t hear of it,’ Lucy insisted, and since her brother had turned the conveyance and set off back down the hill, it was evident that her opinion would not be taken into account.
They are just being kind.
