MISS GRIMM BROUGHT Albert Trevelyan to dinner that evening and seated him at the head of the long dining-table, in a high-backed Carvers’ chair which reminded Alice of the Bishop’s throne in her father’s cathedral.
The reason he had not put in an appearance earlier was immediately apparent. Seemingly unaware of anyone in the room, his vacant expression was that of a man whose mind was far away from all things temporal.
Following the instructions given to her by Miss Grimm, Eliza placed a soup plate in front of the master of the house without saying anything and the ancient butler carefully ladled soup out for him.
The aroma rising from the soup succeeded in bringing Albert Trevelyan back to the world occupied by the others in the room and, looking around him, he seemed to be seeing them for the first time, although his mind was still pathetically muddled.
Frowning at Hugo, he shifted his glance to Alice and his expression underwent an amazing transformation. Showing uninhibited joy, he cried, ‘Isabella! Nobody told me you were here. What a delight it is to have you home!’
Turning his attention to the butler, he said, ‘Jenkins, why did you not tell me?’
The deaf butler never heard him properly and, before he could reply, Hugo cast a brief glance in Alice’s direction before saying, ‘Isabella arrived unexpectedly this afternoon, Father, and you were sleeping. We thought we would keep it as a surprise for you.’
‘I have no need of any of your surprises.’ Raising his voice he shouted, ‘Jenkins, fetch some of that French wine from the cold room, half-a-dozen bottles. It’s high time we had something to celebrate at Helynn.’
‘I’m not certain we have six cases of champagne there, sir.’
‘I said bottles, you fool and of course we have them!’ Albert Trevelyan bawled, irritably, ‘Go and fetch them – and be quick about it.’
When the aged butler hurried from the room in a short-paced shuffle, Albert Trevelyan beamed at Alice. ‘Make a start on your soup, my dear, you must be tired after your long journey. We can leave talk of what you have been up to until after the meal, you must be hungry after travelling all that way.’
Still beaming, the master of the house began spooning soup into his mouth with a liberality which ensured that his patterned silk waistcoat was not excluded from the first course.
While his father was so engaged, Hugo leaned across the table towards Alice and said softly, ‘Don’t worry about anything my father says. He thinks you are Isabella but that was a rare moment of near-rationality, sadly it will not last. By the time dinner is over he will have forgotten you are here, let alone who he thinks you are.’
Alice found it upsetting to be mistaken for Albert Trevelyan’s dead daughter but she resigned herself to accepting the incident as yet one more bizarre happening in her disastrous visit to Helynn Manor. But she soon had more serious concerns.
When the champagne arrived the ancient butler was carrying only five bottles and not six but, true to Hugo’s prediction, Albert Trevelyan had already forgotten why they had been brought to the dinner table and he did not query Hugo’s explanation that they were celebrating his own homecoming.
Hugo wasted no time in getting the ‘celebration’ underway and by the time the meal came to an end there were only two full bottles of champagne remaining.
By this time the son of the house had become loud-voiced and not only leered openly at Alice across the table, but was also beginning to make thinly-veiled insinuations about how the evening’s ‘celebrations’ should progress.
When the three diners moved to the sitting-room, the East India Company cavalry officer continued his heavy drinking but by now had moved on to brandy.
Suddenly, Albert Trevelyan rose to his feet and left the room without a word of explanation. Taking advantage of his departure, Hugo rose from the armchair in which he was seated and moved unsteadily across the room to sit down heavily upon the settee occupied by Alice.
‘You have hardly touched your drink, Alice, is there something you would prefer. A port, perhaps, or a gin?’ His voice was slurred and, although Alice had met with few drunken men in her lifetime, she realised Hugo had already drunk far more than was good for him – or for her.
‘No thank you, I am not used to strong drink and I had a glass of champagne with my dinner.’
‘It was only the one glass, as I recall, Alice, and we are celebrating your visit to Helynn and an opportunity to really get to know each other. What will you have to drink?’
‘I am quite content with what I have, thank you – and I think we can talk more easily if we are facing each other across the room.’
‘Come now, Alice, surely you are not going to behave all prim and proper with me, after all, I did save your life.’
‘For which I have expressed my gratitude, as has my brother.’
‘Expressed with words only, Alice, surely I deserve something more than that? I think …’
Before Hugo was able to give Alice the benefit of his thoughts the door opened and Albert Trevelyan returned to the room carrying two pistols and closely pursued by Miss Grimm.
Leaping unsteadily to his feet, Hugo demanded, ‘Father! What are you doing with those pistols? Be careful!’ He hastily pushed aside one of the weapons that was pointed in his direction. ‘Are they loaded?’
‘Of course they’re loaded, you don’t go on guard with an unloaded weapon!’
‘On guard? What are you on guard for – and against whom?’
‘I don’t expect you to understand, you have never put family before self. Had you looked after your sister the way a brother should I wouldn’t have to sit up night after night in the hallway making certain Kendall never again comes near her, but I can’t stay here talking to you, I have a father’s duty to perform. You can sleep well tonight, Isabella, there will be no Kendall coming anywhere near you.’
With this, Albert Trevelyan turned and left the room.
Hugo made as if to follow him, but he found his way barred by a determined Miss Grimm. ‘Leave him, he’ll come to no harm seated in the hall in the darkness.’
‘He’s a totally confused old man with two loaded pistols, anything could happen. If one were to be fired accidentally….’
‘Nothing will happen. He has the pistols with him most of the time “in case Kendall comes to the house”, but within half-an-hour or so he will fall asleep. I’ll gather up the guns then wake him and lead him up to his bedroom, by which time he will have forgotten all about Isabella and Kendall and will be grumbling because I have let him fall asleep downstairs and not made certain he was safely tucked up in bed.’
‘I think I will take Eliza to help me and go up to bed too,’ Alice said, welcoming the unexpected opportunity to escape the unwelcome attentions of the son of the house.
‘You can’t go to bed yet,’ Hugo protested, ‘We have much to talk about and the evening is still young!’
‘There is also a great deal of washing-up to be done and the kitchen put to rights …’ This from Miss Grimm. ‘… Your servant girl will be busy for an hour or so yet.’
‘As I have said before, Eliza is my personal maid, not a kitchen servant,’ Alice retorted. ‘Please tell her she is needed upstairs in my room – or do I need to go to the kitchen and tell her myself?’
Before the housekeeper could reply, Alice turned to Hugo Trevelyan. ‘Thank you for your hospitality, Hugo, I will see you in the morning, before I return to Trethevy.’
Leaving Hugo still protesting, Alice pushed past the indignant housekeeper and hurried upstairs, taking with her the lighted candle in a holder that had been the sole light in the passageway outside the sitting-room.