‘Yes, of course she does. She has known for longer than I guessed. And let me tell you, my lord, that when I took your place at the dinner-party you skirted she had very nearly made up her mind to refuse your very obliging offer! For all your lordship’s charm and address! You can’t think how set up I am in my own esteem to know that one person prefers me to my engaging brother!’
‘I said she had a great deal of sense!’ retorted Evelyn, laughing at him. ‘I could tell you of some others who share her preference, but you’re much too puffed-up already, so I shan’t. But, Kester, no more funning! You mean it?’
‘Well, of course I mean it, you gapeseed!’
Evelyn seemed to be thinking it over. He said slowly: ‘Yes, Cressy is your style, isn’t she? Oh, twin, I do wish you happy, and I see that you will suit! She’s a most agreeable girl: I like her very well myself – though I can’t conceive how you should fall in love with her!’
Kit opened his mouth to make the obvious retort, but shut it again. He had never before hesitated to speak his mind to Evelyn, but he perceived that their relationship had undergone a subtle change. The bond between them was as strong as ever, but there were some thoughts they would no longer give utterance to. So all he said was: ‘Very likely not. But don’t fly into alt too soon, Eve! We may have unravelled one knot in this tangle, but it seems to me that we are still in pretty bad loaf. I know you wouldn’t have offered for Cressy if you hadn’t thought the case desperate. What I don’t know is how desperate it is. To what tune is Mama down the wind?’
The cloud descended again on to Evelyn’s brow. He replied curtly: ‘About £20,000 – as near as I can discover.’
There was a frozen silence. Then Kit got up, and went to pick up the decanter. ‘I think, Eve,’ he said carefully, ‘that we had best have a little more cognac!’
Fifteen
Evelyn picked up his glass, and held it out. ‘I daresay you need it more than I do,’ he observed, ‘I shouldn’t have thrown the total at you like that.’
‘For how long have you known?’
‘Oh, some time now! Not all at once, however. I don’t know that I have the total sum yet, but I think it isn’t more than that.’
‘How much of it is owed to tradesmen?’
‘The least part – though there’s a pretty staggering amount owing to Rundell & Bridge, and there’s no saying what she may owe her dressmaker. Rundell & Bridge don’t dun her: they’re far too long-headed! I should think they must have been jewelle
rs to the Earls of Denville ever since they set up their sign, wouldn’t you? And I shouldn’t wonder at it if they have a pretty shrewd notion that if Mama don’t pay them now, I shall, later! I can’t tell about Céleste: you see, Kester, poor Mama don’t understand! The ready just – just slides through her fingers! She don’t know where it goes to, and I’m damned if I do! You never know what she may do next, either! I suppose we always knew that she was in debt, but it wasn’t until some time after my father died that I discovered how far she’d run into Dun territory, or that she’s been borrowing money for years!’ He laughed, but not very mirthfully. ‘Poor darling! If you gave her a century tomorrow, because she was all to pieces, and being dunned by the harpy who designs her hats, the chances are she’d give it away to one of her indigent old friends! And even if she does settle the most pressing of her debts with the money she’s borrowed, she don’t see – and you can’t make her! – that she’s no more in the clear than she was before! You might not know this – I didn’t, until a year or two ago, and there’s not another soul on earth I’d tell it to.’
‘Of course not.’ Kit stood frowning down at the glass cupped between his hands. ‘I didn’t know, but I’ve learnt a good deal since I stepped into your shoes. By the way, Eve, my feet are bigger than yours, so I didn’t step into your shoes!’
‘Thank God for that, clodcrusher!’
Kit smiled, rather abstractedly. He said, after a slight pause: ‘Does it ever occur to you that it was a case, rather, of Poor Papa?’
‘No!’
The word was uttered explosively. Kit glanced up quickly, and saw in Evelyn’s eyes an expression of implacable hatred, which startled him. ‘Well, don’t eat me!’ he said lightly. ‘I only meant –’
‘I know what you meant! And it doesn’t occur to me! Nor would it occur to you, if you knew all I learned from Mama when this – this business first crashed upon me! She was seventeen when my father married her! As innocent as Patience, but not reared as Patience was! What she told me about that household – ! All Grandmother Baverstock ever cared for was that her daughters should be taught accomplishments, so that they might make good marriages! As for economy, Cosmo is the only Cliffe I ever heard of who knows how to hold household! My father – years older than she was! – fancied himself to be in love with her! Love? He was dazzled by her face, and her captivating ways, and had no more love for her than I have for Cressida Stavely! That was soon over! Everything in Mama which makes her so lovable he disliked! Cold, selfish – ! Kester, he drove her off – pokered up when she showed her affection, in that impulsive way she has! It was not the thing for Lady Denville to allow the world to suspect she had a heart! Can you wonder at it that she turned from him, let herself be drawn into – Well, never mind! You don’t understand that, Kester, but I do, and I tell you that whatever sins or follies Mama has committed are to be laid at my father’s door!’
‘Take a damper!’ Kit advised him. ‘I’m entirely at one with you in believing that Papa was grossly to blame; but dearly as I love Mama I can see how maddening she must have been to a man of his cut! You think he could have taught her to hold household: you may be right, but I doubt it. Now, don’t fly up into the boughs again! None of that signifies today: it’s past mending. What we have to do, Eve, is to find a way to tow her off Point Non-Plus now. I know she stands in Edgbaston’s debt, and in Child’s. Anyone else?’
‘Yes, several people’s – including Ripple!’
‘Well, he isn’t dunning her, at all events,’ said Kit thoughtfully.
Evelyn’s angry flush had faded, but it surged up again. ‘What difference does that make? Are you suggesting that I should permit Mama to remain in debt to him? Or anyone else! Would you be content to turn a blind eye to such obligations?’
‘No,’ confessed Kit. ‘They must all be paid, of course, but not all immediately. It’s the devil of a sum to raise, Eve!’
‘Fiddle! I could do it in the twinkling of a bedpost, if I could but persuade my uncle to wind up the Trust!’
Kit shook his head. ‘You must know he won’t. He’s not going to like this proposed marriage of yours.’
‘Then he should! He’s been preaching sobriety to me from the day my father died! If I would become less volatile he would gladly wind up the Trust! If he wasn’t cutting a sham – and I acquit him of that! – he should welcome my marriage to such a girl as Patience!’
‘Unfortunately,’ said Kit, grimacing, ‘he is enthusiastically welcoming your marriage to Cressy. You had a letter from him this morning. I’ll give it to you.’
‘I don’t want it. Does he imagine that with my heart given to Patience marriage to Cressy would make me less volatile?’