NOT HAVING SEEN Katherine since their trip to Bath, Mildred was overjoyed to see her ladyship. Katherine took her hand in her own and pressed it warmly in reception. Mildred could hardly wait to have a moment alone with the woman.
“You are a welcome sight to these old eyes,” Katherine said, taking Mildred’s arm in hers, as she led the Abbotts into her house.
“You may describe your eyes as old, but they are sharper than mine,” Mildred replied. She never regarded her ladyship as old, despite the appearance of grey in her hair and wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and mouth. Her ladyship was still possessed of impeccable posture and a stout carriage.
“I regret that it has been so long since last we had each other’s company, but Harriett required me.”
Harriett was Lady Katherine’s daughter by her first husband.
“I pray she is in better health?” Mildred asked.
They had a moment of partial solitude, for her father, still drowsy from his nap, walked at a slow pace behind them. Her mother would have been at their side but was busy marveling at her surroundings.
“Yes, but I forbid her to make the trip to Edenmoor till the babe is older.”
“You must be overjoyed to have another grandson.”
Katherine beamed. “He is quite the rumbustious little babe, as are all the d’Aubigne men.”
Mrs. Abbott came up to them. “What a fine entry you have, Lady Katherine! What brightness fills this space! And how nicely appointed all your furnishings and decor are. So light and uplifting to the mood!”
“I must credit Richard for that. My first husband was partial to dark hues, and as all our furniture was made of mahogany then, it all felt rather somber. I pray you will make yourselves comfortable here. You are first arrived and have the run of the place.”
“And whom else shall we be delighted to expect?”
“My son, Edward, his wife and sons will arrive today. My nieces, Louisa and Caroline, will come the day before Michaelmas and stay two days.”
“What? We shall have the pleasure of their company but two days? It is quite the distance to travel for such a short duration.”
“The distance is nothing for the young,” Mildred intervened, though her mother’s lack of grace had never seemed to bother Katherine. Mildred was secretly relieved that Louisa Wilmington and Caroline Brewsterwould not stay for the entire sennight. She had met the women sparingly, but neither could hide their disdain that Katherine had chosen a second husband so far beneath her station.
“And when does your nephew arrive?” Mrs. Abbott asked of Katherine.
Mildred stiffened.
“I do not expect him at all,” Katherine answered.
“Indeed? He will not spend Michaelmas with his family?”
“Alastair does as Alastair pleases.”
Still unsatisfied, Mrs. Abbott inquired, “I hope he is well?”
“I have no reason to believe otherwise. He did not elaborate in his letter to me.”
Mrs. Abbott raised her brows. “Oh?”
“Come, Mother, let us see to our chambers,” Mildred said.
As they proceeded through the house, Mrs. Abbott had the grandeur of the staircase, the warm and engaging tapestries in the hall, and the very fine paintings upon the walls to distract her. After leaving Mr. and Mrs. Abbott in their chambers, Katherine showed Mildred to her own room. With a window that overlooked the gardens and pastel silk upon the walls, the room was delightful to Mildred.
“I shall have tea ready within the hour,” Katherine said, “and hope that is enough time for you to change out of your traveling clothes.”
Mildred nodded. “I cannot thank you enough for your invitation to spend Michaelmas with your family. My mother was beyond thrilled, and I think her excitement overwhelms her…”
“Do not fret of that, my dear. While I understand why Richard was hesitant to have me consort with your family, I had told him it troubled me little. I may be a d’Aubigne, but you know that I am not a conventional sort of woman.”
The women shared a smile.
“I shall be forever grateful to have had your acquaintance, my lady,” Mildred said.
“I require none of your sentimentality, my girl, but I will find a moment for the two of us. I wish to hear how you have fared all this time.”
With the appearance of the dressing maid, Lady Katherine took her leave. As Mildred divested her coat, she recalled that the Marquess was not to spend Michaelmas at Edenmoor. She could not help but be a little disappointed, as their last exchange had been unsatisfactory. But she was also relieved that he was to be absent. Though she was determined to maintain their relationship as it had been prior to Château Follet, she knew she would be deceiving herself that it could be perfectly the same.
*****
“Are you disappointed?” Lady Katherine asked.
Her ladyship and Mildred strolled the manor after tea. Mrs. Abbott, fatigued from the traveling, had retired to her chambers to rest. Mr. Abbott read the newspaper in the sunroom.
“Disappointed?” Mildred echoed.
“That he will not be here.”
“How could I be when I have your company?” Mildred cried.
Katherine smiled. “Nonetheless, you would rather he were joining us.”
Mildred shook her head. “For what purpose would I desire to see him? He refused my request to return my dowry to its initial amount, and it is too late now for him to change his mind.”
“There need not be a purpose. If you take pleasure in seeing him, that stands irrespective of anything else.”
Mildred studied her ladyship, wondering if the woman had attempted, as she had with the Château Follet, to put the two of them in each other’s way once more? But there could be no reason for a second meeting. Mildred would be forever grateful to Lady Katherine for her introduction to Château Follet, and grateful that she had set it up so that Alastair could be the one to fulfill her desired night of debauchery. Her ladyship knew that if she had revealed her plans to Mildred, Mildred would have balked at the notion of submitting herself to the Marquess.
“My vexation with him has not vanished,” Mildred said. “I have been besieged by all manner of unwanted suitors, and my present misery is all due to Alastair.”
“Is there none among them that you would consider for a husband?”
Mildred shuddered, but then she considered Mr. Winston. She wondered what sort of husband he might make.
“Ah, there is one,” her ladyship discerned. “Who is he?”
“His name is George Winston.”
“That name is vaguely familiar, but I do not think I have the pleasure of knowing this man.”
“I mention him only because he is more tolerable than the others. His manners are pleasing, and he is both intelligent and articulate.”
“That sounds quite promising. Do your parents approve of him?”
“He has a gentleman’s income, undoubtedly, but my mother believes there are better prospects to be had. But I am inspired by you, my lady, to place more weight upon the character of a spouse than his riches.”
“I did come under much criticism when I married Richard, but then, I had done my duty in my first marriage, and as my children were settled in their marriages, I had more freedom to follow my heart.”
Mildred looked out the window. How her life would differ if she had a similar liberty.
“I had thought I would sooner be a spinster than wed a man I did not love or desire,” she remarked. “But it is my duty, and I should be considered most ungrateful if I did not choose to marry. Many young women have not the privileges I now have.”
“Then be ungrateful. I should hate to see your spirit crushed by the weight of an unhappy marriage.”
“There is not a man who could accommodate me, and the fault is entirely my own I fear I am too fastidious…and too wicked.”
“Do not give up hope, my dear. Come, let me show you something.”
Lady Katherine led her to the end of the corridor, produced a key, and unlocked a set of double doors. They entered a room of darkness, but her ladyship found the curtains covering the room’s lone window and drew them aside.
Though the rest of the house was light and airy, this room was dark and could appear, without light, foreboding, with its dark wood paneling, bare flooring and stone hearth. Mildred’s breath stalled as she gazed about the room. Many of the apparatuses were familiar to her—as she had seen them at Château Follet.
Heat percolated in her loins as she beheld a Saint Andrew’s cross and remembered what it had been like to be shackled to one. She observed a wooden bench that was meant to be straddled, for the back of the bench was on the narrow side. Beside the bench stood a pillory. It was slightly above waist height, and she did not think she would be very comfortable locked in one of those.
“You have your own Château Follet,” Mildred noted with awe and even envy.
“Given that Richard and I shared this interest, it was much more practical to have our own place. Traveling to Château Follet is difficult in winter, and we often had not the patience to make the journey.”
Mildred looked about the room once more. She would consider herself truly blessed if she should find a man as Lady Katherine had.
“The room gets dusty from want of use,” her ladyship said, “but I clean it from time to time, as the servants do not enter. I will not let it fall into disrepair, as it holds too many memories for me.”
“You have many fine rooms, my lady,” Mildred remarked, “but this one is my favorite.”