On the following day Joanna was surprised when Sir Kenelm suggested he show her round the ruins of the old castle.
'You said once you'd like to explore, but since that time when the twins were in here I have had the gate locked. Would you like to see? While they are at their lessons?'
'Yes, and hear about the history of it,' she said. 'Do I need to change into some old clothes?'
'No, we will simply walk round, a staid pair of visitors. I've no intention of clambering on broken walls or rubble.'
'Why the name Rock Castle?' Joanna asked as they went through the stable yard.
'No one is really sure. It is believed the first people here who built the castle were named Roche. Perhaps they came from some place of that name in France, with the Conqueror. But the name changed to Rock, and so it has remained.'
He unlocked the gate and they went in to the ruins.
'The original wall of the castle outer ward enclosed what is now the stable yard and the ruins. My father separated them. Come, behind what remains of the keep there is a private garden. Or what used to be one,' he added, as they came to a patch of overgrown ground. There were all kinds of weeds, but Joanna thought she could smell some herbs, thyme and rosemary.
'Some of the old maps we have show there were once trees here, probably fruit trees, but all traces of them have gone. There was a fire here during the Civil Wars, and that was the main reason the castle was abandoned and left to fall down.'
Joanna turned to what had been the keep. Only the outer walls remained, and the floor had fallen in long ago, into what had been an undercroft. She saw the room where Amelia had been locked in and shivered.
'Are you cold? Shall we go back?'
'No, thank you. I was thinking of poor Amelia, when she was locked in. She is frightened of the dark, and being enclosed.'
He nodded. 'She told me something of it, what it had been like in the hut. You must have had a difficult time with her.'
'She was terrified, which was not surprising after being caught by those men as well as being in the dark. But she was very good, she calmed down, and even went to sleep.'
'And some good has come from it, for she now accepts you. She told me, that first day when you were asleep, you had asked her to use your name.' He laughed. 'She feels she is grown up now, but it was an excellent notion.'
Joanna moved to where she could look through a gap in the wall and up towards the sky.
'I can imagine living here long ago,' she said, 'but I much prefer the comforts of a modern house! One would always be aware of being in a fortress, expecting to be attacked at any moment. Was there a great deal of fighting in this area?'
'I don't think there was, until the Civil War, and I believe that was an isolated raid. It is too far from useful towns where there might have been plunder. And it does not guard any river crossing, or a major road. In fact it is rather a puzzle as to why it was built here in the first place.'
'So it served no real purpose apart from being a home.' Joanna laughed. 'I am glad, I don't have to dream about sieges and fighting, and people being shut away while their enemies tried to get into the castle.'
Just, she thought, the occasional nightmare she had now about being shut in by her own enemies.
*
Sir Kenelm went several times to Leeds in the next few weeks. He had to give his evidence against Captain Thomas and his associates, but he said he also wished to hear about the progress of affairs on the continent. The cosy domestic closeness of the night they'd eaten in her room was not renewed. In fact, after showing her the ruins of the castle Sir Kenelm seemed colder, more withdrawn, and Joanna wondered whether it was all to do with concern for Matthew, and the prospect of more battles against Napoleon, or something else. On several occasions he stayed the night in Leeds, and Joanna, however much she told herself it was none of her business, could not help speculating he might have renewed his liaison with Selina Kirk, or even found another mistress.
If she discovered that he had indeed sought out another woman, she would be devastated. She had entered, freely and with open eyes, into a marriage of convenience. She had not expected to grow to love her husband, but it had happened. In many ways, she thought, this was worse than it had been when she did not love him. Now, every time she saw him, she craved his smiles. She longed to touch him and to feel his hand on hers, his arm around her waist. She was restless when he was away from her, and suffered pangs of jealousy when she imagined him with another woman. And all the time she had to maintain a tranquil demeanour, greet him calmly, and never for a moment let him suspect she had feelings for him warmer than simple gratitude.
Not only did she have to hide her feelings from him, she had to conceal them from her very astute friend Brigid. The new governess was a resounding success with the children. They enjoyed their lessons, said she was fun, and wanted to be with her even outside schoolroom hours. Joanna worried in case Nanny might feel neglected, but Brigid was tactful and frequently made excuses to leave them with the old woman.
Brigid was a favourite with all the servants too.
'She isn't too proud to chat wi' us,' Betsy said. 'And when she rides out with the twins, they often go into a farm kitchen to eat cakes. She gets on with everyone. Not like that cat Busby. Has she been sent to Botany Bay yet?'
'Soon, I expect,' Joanna said, laughing slightly. 'You are more bloodthirsty than I am, Betsy.'
'Well, what she did was wicked. I think she oughta be hanged!'
'She'll enjoy being a convict much less!'
Life for several weeks was uneventful. Joanna had new curtains made for the drawing room and dining room. She ordered one of the new closed stoves, much to Cook's delight, and had even embroidered two chair seats for the morning room.
Her embroidery skills were, she thought, improving. Brigid offered to help, and they often sat in one of the small saloons during the afternoons Brigid was not with the children, or when they did not ride out, sewing and chatting.
These quiet times were a pleasure for Joanna, apart from her having to ensure she did not give away to her friend what her feelings for Sir Kenelm were. Brigid would never betray her, she knew, but to have anyone else, even her best friend, aware of her secret would be intolerable. That was something she had to keep to herself.
Her main cause for satisfaction was the changed attitude of the twins. George had always, to a large extent, followed Amelia's lead. Now Amelia accepted Joanna he too became friendly. Brigid helped. Without Miss Busby dripping her poison, and the twins being aware Joanna and Brigid were friends, they no longer resented her.
Sir Kenelm had congratulated her on this achievement.
'I feel I know my own children better these days,' he said.
So when he came home from Leeds one day and suggested taking Joanna to London for a few weeks, she begged him to take the twins too.
'It is very frustrating. I cannot find enough news here in Yorkshire, not even in Leeds,' he said one evening when he had just returned from two days in the town. 'There are people I can talk with in London, who know far more of what is happening than appears in the newspapers. Would you like to go? It would not offend you, as you are still in mourning for your father?'
Joanna shook her head. 'My mourning is only for convention, what people expect who do not know the circumstances of his death. I can wear half mourning in company, even if I do not wear the colours I do here at home. I need not go out in Society, but I would enjoy being there, perhaps visiting Miss Benson. But I would not like to leave the twins behind.'
'You fear for them? Thomas is safely behind bars. And we make sure they are guarded, a groom always with them when they ride out, and he is armed, for fear someone else has the idea of kidnap.'
'No, it is not that. I feel we are getting on well now, and I do not want to risk that. Besides, there is a great deal in London which would interest them.'
'Tyburn! And the Tower, especially the dungeons.'
She laughed. 'Why not? Oh, not an execution, of course, but to see the reality of prisons might make George less bloodthirsty.'
'How soon can you all be ready? I will send Firbank and Mrs Aston, with a couple of maids and a footman, to open up the town house, then we can follow in a few days.'
*
This journey was so different from her journey north with her father. Then they had drifted from town to town, sought the cheapest lodgings unless he had been lucky at cards the previous day, when they would stay at the best inn in an effort to meet well-heeled gamblers. Now they travelled in comfortable carriages and stayed at the best inns as a matter of course.
'We will use my post chaise,' Sir Kenelm said. 'Venner and Betsy can go in the large travelling carriage with Brigid and the twins.'
'And Sally,' Joanna reminded him. 'Won't it be rather crowded?'
'The twins don't take up much room, and I prefer to have you to myself.'
Joanna wished it was because they were truly man and wife, but she realised it was because he might want to talk to her in private. Would he, perhaps, warn her that in London they would go their own ways, and she must not depend on him for company? Of course, most married couples had their own friends, and different interests, so she must expect it, but the prospect of having to make her way on her own, and without a circle of friends, or even acquaintances, terrified her. It would be almost as bad, she thought, as being kidnapped. By now, in late May, the London Season was in full swing, there would be many entertainments, and no doubt, once people knew Sir Kenelm was in town, he would receive many invitations.
'Why have you not spent the Season in London for so many years?' she asked impulsively soon after they had left Rock Castle.
He shook his head. 'Pride, I think.'
'Pride?' That was a most unlikely reason.
'Yes.' He paused for a while, then continued. 'Before I married Maria I was, I believe, popular both with my male friends who enjoyed the same sort of sport I did, and females who were on the catch for a husband. I was, somewhat to my surprise, considered a good catch,' he added, laughing. 'I did not have an important title, and my fortune, though large, was not exceptional.'
Joanna nodded. She had no notion of what was considered a good fortune, but it was clear Sir Kenelm was far wealthier than she had at first supposed, and could spend lavishly. And no doubt part of the attraction, at least for the young ladies, was his elegant figure and handsome face.
'Then I married,' he went on. 'It was a good match, very appropriate. Maria came of a good family, she had several suitors, some more eligible than I. But I have told you how disastrous a marriage it was. I could not bear, after she died, to face my old friends and acquaintances who knew how she had betrayed me. I suspected they would blame me, wonder in what way I had failed her, and I could not endure to see them speculating, laughing at me.'
'No, they would not!' Joanna exclaimed.
He shook his head at her, smiling at her vehemence.
'Perhaps not, but I did not care to risk it. Even though malicious gossip has a habit of being overtaken very swiftly by newer causes of wonder, I was a coward and feared it.'
'They will have forgotten now,' Joanna said. She could not bear to see him looking so sad as he recalled those days. He had clearly loved Maria, and been bitterly hurt by her, so badly damaged he could not contemplate a normal marriage for fear he would again suffer such disillusionment.
'Two of my sisters will be in London,' he said, deliberately changing the subject. 'Catherine is expecting to be confined early in June, and is remaining in Hampshire. It is her first child, and the first grandchild in her husband's family. Elizabeth and Sophia will be in London, though, and they are both longing to meet you.'
'Tell me about them.'
'Elizabeth is the eldest in the family. Her husband is the Earl of Sheldon, and they have six children from the age of eighteen to four years. Charlotte, the eldest, is being presented this year, and her two younger sisters will also be in Hanover Square. The boys are at school. Sophia is two years younger than I, her husband is plain Mr Langston, which was a disappointment to my mama, but his wealth made up for the lack of a title. They have just two boys, much the same age as the twins, but they will be at school, thank goodness.'
Joanna laughed. 'Are they so bad?'
'Not bad, but inclined to lead my two into mischief whenever they meet. I prefer they meet other than in London.'
He told her more of his family, and she came to realise his childhood had been happy, as they roamed the moors, climbed trees, fished the nearby streams, and rode out all day. It was the sort of childhood she would dream of for any children she had. Then she suppressed a sigh, for she would have no children.
They halted twice on the journey, and drove into London late on the third afternoon. Firbank was waiting for them as the coaches drew to a halt outside the house in Upper Brook Street.
Sir Kenhelm had explained he kept just a few servants at the town house, and had decided not to send many more this time, as he did not expect to remain in London for much longer than a month or so, until the end of June.
'Firbank will have hired a chef, I trust. Cook would never manage here,' he said, laughing. 'She is accustomed to having most of our food straight from the farms, and could never deal with buying from London tradesmen.'
Joanna was interested to see the house. The twins had never before seen it, and as soon as they could they raced up to the nursery floor to lay claim to bedrooms. Brigid and Sally followed them, and Mrs Aston appeared to show Joanna to her room.
As at Rock Castle, it was connected through two dressing rooms to Sir Kenelm's bedroom, but there was also a small boudoir leading from Joanna's room and overlooking the garden.
'It's quieter than the street side,' Mrs Aston said. 'I hope the noise won't keep you awake, it seems to go on all night with folk making their way home from some ball or other.'
'I think I will sleep,' Joanna reassured her. 'I was used to far worse conditions in the Peninsula.'
'We have fewer saloons here, my lady, just the two drawing rooms and a morning room, but you can be private here in your boudoir whenever you wish. I'll send up a tray of tea straight away, no doubt you are longing for one. Dinner will not be until eight. I've no doubt in the next few days we'll have many morning callers anxious to make your acquaintance.'
And to see what sort of nobody Sir Kenelm has married, Joanna thought ruefully as she sat in the boudoir. She had heard some of the girls at the school talking about their families and tracing their connections to cousins and even more remote relatives. No one would be able to do that for her family. Which, she acknowledged, was perhaps as well, after what her father had been. She began to prepare evasive but polite answers for anyone who attempted to enquire into her antecedents, and was grinning at some of the more unlikely when Sir Kenelm knocked on the door and came in.
'May I join you for some tea?' he asked. 'Mrs Aston tells me she is sending some. Then we can discuss what we mean to do. There was a stack of invitations, for news of our coming has spread already.'
*
To Joanna's surprise Sir Kenelm suggested they drove in the Park the following day.
'It will serve to notify my friends I am in town, if they have not already heard. Then you must visit some modistes. I think I will ask Sophia to take you, she is by far the most modish of my sisters.'
'But I have so many clothes already,' Joanna protested. 'You have been so generous to me.'
'Nonsense. You will need more, and there are no doubt many other things you will wish to purchase, and here they are far more fashionable than you can find in Leeds.'
Joanna wondered whether he was ashamed of her gowns, most of which she had made herself, but the prospect of new clothes, particularly some new hats, was enticing.
'We were only planning to stay a few weeks,' she reminded him.
'If you had seen the amount of clothes my sisters regarded as essential when they were presented, you would consider your existing wardrobe totally inadequate,' he said, laughing. 'Put yourself in Sophia's hands. As for how long we stay, it depends on what that monster in France does. I may wish to remain for longer.'
She made no more protests, and on the following afternoon when they were to drive in the Park at the hour when most of the ton would be there, donned her best walking gown of pale grey muslin, and a darker grey pelisse, with a matching hat trimmed with lavender ribbons and a lavender ostrich feather. Sir Kenelm had sent some of his horses and grooms ahead, as soon as he had determined to visit London, and Potts drove a smart high perch phaeton round to the house. He kept the carriage in London, even though he used it so rarely, Sir Kenelm explained as he assisted Joanna to climb into it. He climbed in and took the reins, nodding to Potts that he would not need him.
Although Joanna had lived in Kensington, she had very little knowledge of fashionable London, and looked about her in delight at the smart houses of Mayfair, and the many carriages in the streets, but when they turned into the Park she gasped to see the throng of people driving, riding or walking there.
'It's all of London.'
'Not quite, London is thin of company this year, as so many of the ton are in Brussels. They flocked to Paris and Brussels after Napoleon was sent to Elba, even to Vienna, and some of them are now fleeing home, expecting him to attack the Low Countries any moment.'
He had to stop then to greet an elderly lady and a simpering young one riding in a barouche, and they halted so frequently to speak to people there was little opportunity for further private conversation.
'Do you know everyone?' Joanna asked during a pause when they moved away from the latest barouche containing two dowagers who had peered, she thought in annoyance, somewhat impertinently at her.
'Not quite!' He laughed. 'There are many people I never met when I spent the Season here. Mamas with daughters to bring out, men and women who were probably in the schoolroom ten years ago. There are many old friends, though, and as I do spend the odd few days here I keep up with my particular friends.'
'I shall never remember their names!' Joanna said despairingly as they drove back to Upper Brook Street.
'You will the ones we meet often.'
That evening, after dinner at the fashionable hour of eight, Sir Kenelm excused himself, saying he wished to visit White's and try to discover what was happening in Paris and Vienna, where the Congress was still, he said, staggering on.
Joanna was weary, and soon went to bed. The noise of carriages in the street kept her awake though, despite her room being at the back of the house, and it was almost dawn before she heard Sir Kenelm come in.
Had he been at his club all this time? Or, and the notion sent a fierce pang of agony through her, had he some mistress she knew nothing of in London, and had been to visit her?
*
She was able to push the thought to the back of her mind the following day when Sophia appeared. She was a lively young matron, dressed in the height of fashion, and to Joanna's relief made no enquiries about her marriage. Had Sir Kenelm told her the truth, or warned her not to ask?
'I have the carriage, we will go immediately to order you some gowns, and then, I think, Bond Street for hats and shoes and shawls and other necessities. I know how impossible it is to buy anything modish in places like Leeds, which are so antiquated.'
Joanna was whisked away, and very soon gave up protesting that she really did not require yet another evening gown, or more walking dresses, and to purchase that outrageously expensive Norwich silk shawl just because she had admired the pattern was too extravagant.
Sophia just laughed at her.
'Kenelm is wealthy, my dear, and he has had no one to spend his blunt on since Maria died. If he can't spend it on his new bride, who will he spend it on?'
Perhaps a mistress, Joanna thought, but pushed it aside. With Sophia's encouragement she had been inveigled into the pleasure of shopping without counting the cost. She rapidly abandoned any notion of keeping to the half mourning colours of grey and lavender, for the gowns were too attractive and the colours too gorgeous to resist. Few people would know the date of her father's death, and she rather guiltily realised she did not truly mourn him. She had not known him well, and he had not treated her as she expected a father to behave, when he deliberately flaunted her in front of rich men he wanted to entice into a card game.
There were several gowns she had been able to buy which did not need alterations, plus hats and slippers and a dozen other items. When the carriage arrived in Upper Brook Street and the purchases were carried into the house she looked at Sophia in dismay.
'I hadn't realised I had bought so much! And there are still all the gowns which have to be altered! Oh, I must have been mad!'
'Nonsense. This is only a fraction of what you will need for the rest of the Season. But we will wait a few days until we have another expedition. Now you must rest, you are coming to dine with us tonight.'
*
There were just two other couples at Sophia's that evening. They all knew Sir Kenelm and made Joanna feel welcome, congratulating him on at last finding a pretty bride for himself after his years of being alone. One of the men, Sir Randolph Curtis, had been in the army until losing an arm, the other, John Bloom, was a former naval captain who had served with Nelson at Trafalgar. Most of the talk revolved round the Congress and the threat of Napoleon and more battles.
Sir Kenelm was concerned with what he had learned the previous evening at White's.
'The army is assembling, but Wellington does not have enough troops, and those he has are mainly inexperienced. He keeps asking for more, but the Government is afraid to call out the militia because of the objections of the opposition. And they are trying to insist the veterans be discharged, as was the plan, when what the Duke needs most is experienced men.'
'I hear from my brother, who is in Brussels, that the Prussians are quarrelling amongst themselves,' Sir Randolph said.
'Gneisenau dislikes Wellington, and has positioned the Prussian troops at Namur, which is too far from Brussels, and leaves a gap in the line of defence,' Bloom added.
'And leaves the road between Charleroi and Brussels open,' Sir Kenelm said. 'However, Blücher is in charge.'
'Isn't he mad?' Lady Curtis asked. 'Did he not believe himself enceinte a few years ago?'
Mrs Bloom tittered. 'With an elephant, I heard.'
Sir Kenelm shook his head. 'Whatever delusions he had then he is a brave soldier. I would depend on him more than many others.'
'Like Slender Billy?'
'The Prince has been forced to concede Wellington is in charge, which has infuriated him, but he is too inexperienced and impetuous to trust completely.'
'Some of the troops have returned from America, I believe. They are experienced.'
'He needs them, and more experienced staff officers.'
*
When the ladies withdrew the talk of war was abandoned for more domestic concerns. Mrs Bloom told Joanna how pleased she was Sir Kenelm had remarried.
'You know about his first wife, I expect?'
Joanna tried to be discreet. Was the woman probing for gossip?
'Yes, he has told me about his first marriage,' she said calmly.
'So sad she died when giving him the twins,' Lady Curtis sighed. 'I don't believe that vicious rumour.'
What rumour? And how was it vicious? Joanna frowned, but decided she must not show either ignorance or knowledge. Somehow she would discover what the woman meant.
'However, no doubt you will be giving him more children soon,' Mrs Bloom added.
Did she hint Joanna might die in childbirth? Was she being deliberately obtuse, or malicious? Was this connected to her reference to a rumour? But many women died in childbirth. However, Joanna thought with an inward smile, as she would never have children the prospect of such a death did not arise.
Sophia then asked them what they thought of the new bonnets which were becoming so fashionable, and the talk remained on these matters until the men rejoined them. Joanna breathed a sigh of relief. If this was a foretaste of the sort of inquisitive questions she could expect, she would have to learn a few tricks of turning the conversation, or prepare some uninformative answers without, if possible, offending people.
'Don't be concerned,' Sophia said quietly as she was wishing Joanna farewell later. 'They will have forgotten everything in the morning.'
Could she ask Sophia about that rumour? She decided she must wait until she knew Kenelm's sister better.
'I will invite other people next time. I asked these because they and Kenelm have interests in common.'
'The prospect of more fighting?'
'Yes. They both have younger brothers in the army, and are naturally concerned, as we all are for Matthew.'
'Have you heard from him?'
'A letter came a few days ago. He is eager for the fighting to begin, of course. Why are men like that? Kenelm was mad to join the army after he left Oxford, but Papa was very ill, and in fact did die a few months later. As the eldest he accepted Papa's decree that he had to stay at home and secure the succession.' She laughed. 'To hear Papa you would have thought it was a great dukedom to be carried on instead of a minor baronetcy! And there were two other sons if Kenelm failed!'
*