‘I’ve got to find Nick,’ Tia was saying. ‘I want him to hear it from me, first.’ But she’d no sooner spoken than Will was back yet again, kissing her once more before dashing around to the back of her chair and pushing her through the library and out the other side, towards the ballroom. His smile was so wide it threatened to split his face in two, Stevie observed.
Betty followed closely behind, dusting her hands together. ‘Two down, two to go,’ she muttered, letting the pair of them rush ahead. It was then she spotted Stevie trying to hide in her chair. ‘Heard all that, did you?’ she demanded.
Stevie gave her a sheepish grin. ‘Erm, yes. Sorry.’
Betty shrugged. ‘Doesn’t matter. Everyone will know by the end of the night, anyway.’
There was a long pause as the two women stared at each other.
Stevie had a question and although it wasn’t any of her business, she couldn’t help saying, ‘I don’t think you’re an old maid. My Aunt Peggy never married.’
‘Did she want to?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘I did. I would have given everything to get married – I did give everything, but it wasn’t enough.’ The sorrow in the elderly lady’s voice cut Stevie to the quick. ‘I just didn’t want those two to go through what me and Percival went through. Such a waste…’
Percival? Stevie had heard that name before, and recently too. Tonight, in fact. And the name had come from Betty’s own lips. That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?
‘Percival? Not the same Percival who is Will’s grandfather?’ Stevie asked.
Betty walked to the chair next to Stevie and sat down heavily, the lines on her face more prominent than she had ever seen them. She worried at her bottom lip with her teeth and stared into the empty fireplace. ‘The very same,’ she confirmed.
‘You and this Percival were in love?’
Betty shrugged her thin shoulders, then nodded slowly.
‘What happened?’ Stevie asked gently.
‘It was different back in them days. I was a nobody and he was the heir to all this.’ Betty waved a hand at the room. ‘His father wanted him to marry some duchess or another; he wanted to marry me. We met when I was working in that hotel down south and I know this is corny, but it was love at first sight for both of us. But I wasn’t rich enough and he wasn’t strong enough. His father said no and Percy couldn’t stand up to him.’ She laughed sadly. ‘Neither of us had any money, so even if we had married, we’d have had nothing to live on.’
‘But Percival must have been rich,’ Stevie exclaimed.
‘Nah. None of them were. His father was land-rich and cash-poor, and Percy didn’t have a bean to his name. All the money was tied up in land and property and none of it was his anyway. He was going to come into some funds eventually, but not until the ripe age of thirty, and when his father told him he would disown him, he caved.’
‘That’s so sad. But, couldn’t you have managed somehow?’
Betty shook her head firmly. ‘On what? He was a lord’s son, and that hardly equipped any man for a life of proper work in those days. He had less chance of getting a job than a convict. At least a convict might have some skills, like safe-breaking, or sheep rustling. No,’ she said. ‘I was the one with the job, but what would happen when the babies came along? Who would keep a roof over our heads and food on the table then?’
Stevie’s heart went out to her friend. ‘How long ago was this?’ Betty was making it sound as though it was in the dark ages. Betty was somewhere in her early eighties, wasn’t she? Surely things couldn’t have been so different then.
‘In the late sixties,’ Betty said. ‘And I know what you’re thinking, but the sixties didn’t happen around here, and especially not to the aristocracy. They’ve stayed the same for generations.’
Surely Betty and Percival could have worked something out, for love? Love was worth it, wasn’t it? Look at what Betty had done for Tia and William.
‘I regret not fighting harder for him,’ Betty said, as if she had read Stevie’s mind. ‘And for a while I hated him for not giving everything up for me, almost as much as I loved him.’ Her old hands stroked her dress, her fingers sliding over the material, her expression wistful. ‘I moved here to Tanglewood to be near to him,’ she said. ‘He never knew I was so close.’
‘Oh, that’s so sad.’ Tears again brimmed in Stevie’s eyes, threatening to spill over.
Betty continued to stare into the fire, her own eyes dry, lost in the past. ‘I came to a summer ball once, hoping to see him. It was the year before Percival was married. He wasn’t here. Apparently, he was in London with his new fiancée. His father announced the engagement during the ball. I haven’t been to one since.’
‘You wore the dress you have on now, didn’t you?’ Stevie asked, with sudden insight.
Betty’s lips curled into a wry smile. ‘I did. I’ve no idea why I kept it.’
‘Thank you for coming to this one. It must be very hard for you, with all those memories.’
‘It had to be done. I knew Tia was going to be here, and I hoped William would be too. He’s a fine young man, and he loves her to bits. All it took was a push from me to make Tia see it doesn’t matter to him whether she’s in a wheelchair or not. He loves her, all of her, every part of her, exactly as she is.’
At this point, Stevie really did cry.