ALICE WAS MADE to feel very welcome at Pendower Manor, quickly becoming firm friends with the lovely Lowena. She also took an immediate liking to Lord Kendall, the head of the family, who returned home two days after Alice’s arrival, having been at the House of Lords in London.
A rather abstracted and reserved man, he did not seem in the least surprised to find her staying in the house and Lowena said it was because her brothers had always been in the habit of frequently inviting their friends, both male and female, to come and stay at Pendower and he had become resigned to having them about the place. Lady Kendall had an easy-going nature too and it was apparent to Alice that Jory belonged to a loving, understanding and caring family.
Jory replied to his mother’s letter by return. He was delighted that Alice was a welcome guest at his family home and grateful to her for the warning she had for him. He was intrigued by the reason for her visit and declared he would try very hard to return home before Alice left, so he might learn the full story of what it was Jeremy had done to make the Trevelyans believe it was a Kendall who had been the cause of Isabella’s tragic suicide.
Unfortunately, on the fifth day of Alice’s stay, Lady Kendall received another letter from him in which he said he would be unable to return to Pendower as he had hoped because he had been summoned to the Admiralty in London for a meeting about proposed changes in the Coast Guard Service. He also hinted of a promotion in the offing for him.
Reluctantly, Alice felt that as Jory was not likely to return to Cornwall in the immediate future, she should return to the Trethevy rectory and her brother. David had been without her or Eliza for almost a week. He was not the most practical of men and she felt he needed to have someone at the rectory to take care of him.
It was agreed Alice should return on the following day, having been given Jory’s London postal address. As she and Lowena were walking together in Pendower’s beautifully kept gardens, shortly after the decision had been made, Lowena said wistfully, ‘I wish you did not have to return to Trethevy so soon, Alice. I understand your reasons for leaving us but what will happen to David when you eventually marry? Will he be able to cope in the house without you, and with only a female servant for company, will his parishioners not talk about him?’
‘They most certainly would,’ Alice agreed. ‘A parish priest is always a favourite subject for gossip but David needs to have someone living in the rectory to take care of him. He could employ an elderly housekeeper, of course, but actually, there are the first signs of a romance between him and the friend I was staying with when Jory last came to Trethevy. Her father is Dean of Windsor, and that puts such a great distance between them that courting is not going to be easy.’
‘I am sure that if they are serious about each other they will find a solution,’ Lowena said, sympathetically, ‘and, as you say, if you leave the rectory perhaps your brother could bring in a much older woman to take care of him, if only as a temporary solution.’
‘Perhaps,’ Alice agreed, ‘but it is not a problem that needs to concern anyone in the immediate future. I have received no offer of marriage from anyone yet.’
Astonished, Lowena said, ‘You mean Jory has not actually proposed to you? He talks so much about you when he is home that Mother and I felt quite certain you had already agreed to marry him!’
‘To be perfectly honest, although we have always been very comfortable in each other’s company on the occasions we have met, he has never actually said anything about his feelings for me.’
‘Well! That is taking being honourable too far! I never took my brother for a such a laggard. I know how he feels about you and so does Mother. In fact the whole family knows.’
‘I think Eliza is aware of his feelings too.’ Alice gave her companion a weak smile, ‘It seems I am the only one not to know, and I have behaved so badly towards him recently I would not blame him if he decided to change his mind.’
‘I know Jory better than that, Alice. Quite frankly I think the thought that you might have taken an interest in another man has given him just the jolt he needed. When he next comes home I will tell him you have charmed every man who has come to Pendower during your stay here and that unless he makes his feelings clear very soon he will find he is last in line of those asking for your hand in marriage.’
Alice laughed, ‘It makes me very happy to know that I meet with your approval, Lowena, but I think we must wait for Jory to decide what he wants to do – and when.’
‘Nonsense!’ Lowena declared. ‘He is my last brother to marry and I enjoy being a bridesmaid. It is time he married and you are absolutely right for each other. Mother likes you very much and Father thinks you will make Jory “a good wife” – and that is the first time Father has actually approved of any of the women his sons have eventually married. Besides, I want you as my friend, so he has to marry you.’
‘Thank you. You have all been so very kind to me while I have been staying here I feel I am part of your family already and you and I are certainly friends. I hope we always will be, but I think it is for me to convince Jory that he wants to marry me, and I can promise you that if he really does I will give him every possible encouragement.’
As Alice was driven away from Pendower Manor, Lady Kendall and Lowena stood outside the main entrance waving until the carriage passed from view. Inside, Alice sat back in her seat and said to Eliza who was seated opposite to her, ‘I feel quite emotional about leaving Pendower, the family made me so very welcome it was as though I had known them for years.’
‘It is a very happy household, Miss Alice. Most of the servants have been working there for many years and wouldn’t want to work anywhere else. They know they’ll be looked after when their working days are over too. A lot of cottages dotted about the estate are kept ’specially for them and Lord and Lady Kendall see they want for nothing. It’s easy to see why Lieutenant Jory is such a nice man.’
‘You always have been a champion of Lieutenant Jory, Eliza, even when I doubted him, but you are right, he is a good man and Lowena in particular thinks the world of him.’
Settling back in her seat happily, Eliza said, ‘I am glad you and Lieutenant Jory are friends again, Miss Alice, and that Captain Trevelyan has gone back to India. I had the shivers whenever he looked at me. He was a thoroughly bad man. Worse even than Eval Moyle.’
It was a comparison that was destined to undergo revision all too soon.