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Mr and Mrs Morville pulled up to Gilbourne House, and alighted from their carriage. By the time Mr Morville had helped Mrs Morville down from the carriage, their daughter Drusilla was standing at the front steps, waiting to greet them. Mrs Morville had been very much looking forward to seeing her daughter, after an absence of months. She had had her fill of literary people. Sometimes she could wish her beloved and only daughter was slightly less prosaic, but Drusilla was prodigiously practical and organised—as Mrs Morville knew both she and her husband were not—and their child awed them somewhat. So it was that Mrs Morville smiled at her daughter with delight, and then she startled and gave her a daughter a second look. Drusilla had arranged her hair in a more complicated fashion than usual, putting two pink ribands through it, and something of her usual sharpness was lacking in her gaze. Moreover she was wearing the garnet earrings which she had always purported to loathe.
Mr Morville, of course, noticed nothing, and greeted Drusilla in his usual gruff fashion. Mrs Morville kissed her daughter too, and they went into the drawing room.
“I suppose it’s been terribly dull for you, being stuck with Lady St Erth,” said Mr Morville, genially. “But never fear, we’re home now.”
“Oh no, Papa,” said Drusilla, with deceptive calm and equanimity. “I am afraid circumstances have changed since Mama wrote, and I shall have to stay another week at Stanyon. You see, Lord St Erth was shot two days ago, and everyone suspects Martin of seeking to do away with St Erth. Consequently, St Erth has banned Martin from his bedchamber, and the poor Dowager was in almost in tears, begging me not to leave, and to stay another week.”
“Pshaw!” said Mr Morville. “You don’t need to listen to the Dowager, my girl. Just tell her that your parents are home, and you’re not going to stay another day! Be firm about it!”
Mrs Morville felt that her husband had missed the important part of this statement. She stared at her daughter. “Shot? What on earth do you mean?”
Drusilla leaned forward earnestly. “St Erth rode out to Kentham to see if he could convince Mrs Neath to permit Pug to stay at her house—Pug is Lady Grampound’s dog, and the Grampounds intend to hire out Mrs Neath’s house—and on the way back, he was shot in the shoulder, by a person unknown. Lady St Erth is convinced it was a poacher, but everyone else is convinced it was Martin.”
“I fail to see what this has to do with you, Drusilla!” said Mr Morville, in shocked and wounded tones. “It seems to be a concern for the Frants, and not for my daughter. I would think you would want to return to us immediately!”
“Ah, but I have been looking after St Erth, you see, and Lady St Erth would be vastly relieved if I were still on hand to care for him.” Drusilla folded her hands in her lap and assumed an innocent look which did not fool her mother for a moment, for all that butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
“What rot! Why, I am sure that Stanyon employs as many as thirty servants to look after St Erth’s comfort. I do not see any reason why you need to stay there, my child!” Mr Morville’s face darkened. “I hope, Drusilla, that you have not been led astray by grandeur! I wish that you will come away from that house now!”
Drusilla sat up, and her cheeks flushed and her eyes flashed. “‘Led astray by grandeur’! Papa, it is you who is speaking rot! Stanyon is half-falling apart, full of draughts and inconvenience, and nonsense—and you know that I have never cared for grandeur! Indeed, I told St Erth when I first met him that I have no very great opinion of Earls—”
Mr Morville looked utterly delighted. “Did you just, my girl? There’s the Drusilla I know and love! And how did he respond to that?”
“With amusement, unfortunately,” said Drusilla, a sudden gloom falling over her face, and a certain suspicion which had been lurking at the back of Mrs Morville’s mind came to the forefront.
“H’mph,” said Mr Morville. “Well, I still think you should tell Lady St Erth to get one of the many servants to look after that Earl. Most irritating woman! If there’s a thing I cannot stand it is amateur historians of the Dowager’s ilk.”
“Hervey, why don’t you take a walk around the garden?” said Mrs Morville. “You know that you always get a crick in your back after carriage journeys. Meanwhile, I’ll stay and talk to Drusilla about what is to be done next.”
Mr Morville stretched. “Yes, you’re right, Cordelia, my back is dashed uncomfortable. I’ll go for that walk, and no doubt you’ll be able to persuade Drusilla to see sense.”
Once Mr Morville left, Mrs Morville said to her daughter, “You’re looking very well, darling?”
“It’s too nice of you to say it, because I know I’m not looking my best. I’m rather tired in fact, as I’ve been staying up to look after St Erth…”
“Your father is right, you know,” said Mrs Morville. ‘You don’t have to do this for the Dowager, if you don’t want to, particularly if it is dragging you down like this.”
“Oh, no no,” said Drusilla, her eyes sparkling. “It gives me such pleasure, Mama, to be useful. And now I have been useful on two occasions!”
“The organisation of the ball—and now nursing St Erth—?” prompted Mrs Morville.
“Oh, I forgot about the ball,” said Drusilla, airily. “That was nothing! I was thinking of the time when St Erth was knocked unconscious. I think, Mama—I think I may have saved his life on two occasions—! On the first occasion, I realised he had fallen from his horse and loosened his cravat and held smelling salts to his nose, but I also think I scared off the person who is responsible for these terrible things. And the second time, of course, was when he was shot! You have to convince Papa: it is entirely necessary for me to stay by his side until he is recovered—”
“Goodness gracious!” Mrs Morville looked at her daughter with interest. “How did you save his life on the second occasion?”
“He was bleeding out, and Dr Malpas thought he would have died, if I hadn’t staunched the wound with a table cloth, and properly bandaged the wound by the time Dr Malpas came—”
Mrs Morville put her hand to her face. “Why would Martin Frant do something like that?”
“We don’t actually know whether it was Martin—neither St Erth nor Chard saw anyone—but around the same time Martin disappeared, only to reappear with a preposterous tale about being kidnapped, so naturally, suspicion has fallen on him—”
“Is there any reason for Martin’s resentment?”
Drusilla’s face transformed, and she beamed at her mother. “Oh, not at all, Mama. St Erth is a very polite, quiet gentleman. Quite the loveliest temperament you ever could find. Martin, on the other hand, is just as tempestuous as always, and has had several tantrums—”
“You said the Earl was a soldier—?”
Drusilla nodded. “With the 7th Hussars. He’s got a beautiful seat on a horse, did I tell you that? We had a very nice ride back from Whissenhurst one day, and discussed hunting—”
Mrs Morville was now severely worried. “He was in the Lilywhite Regiment?”
“Just so, although he doesn’t make much of it, not like Lord Ulverston. Ulverston is St Erth’s friend, and he’s also presently staying at Stanyon. That’s the other thing that’s made Martin unhappy! You recall Marianne Bolderwood?”
“A very pretty girl,” said Mrs Morville, tentatively. “Didn’t Martin have his heart set on her? I’m sure you wrote that St Erth was paying court to her?”
Drusilla waved a hand. “No, no, St Erth is not courting Marianne. I did not mean to give you that impression, so I apologise if I did! Lord Ulverston is engaged to Marianne, although it won’t be announced until she’s presented in London. Martin behaved very badly towards Ulverston, but luckily St Erth was able to fix it all up.”
“St Erth sounds like a most enterprising and peaceable young man.”
“Oh yes! He is excellent at getting his own way without anyone even realising it, but I assure you I have noticed, and he’s not pulling the wool over my eyes!”
Mrs Morville chuckled. “Dear Drusilla! There’s no hoaxing you! Does this Earl realise this?”
“I suspect he does. We have played chess together, and he beats me.” Drusilla heaved a sigh. “So although I’m aware of his ways and means, it’s quite difficult to counter, because he’s got you surrounded before you know it.”
“You played chess together?” Mrs Morville raised her eyebrows.
“His suggestion, not mine. I do wonder if he is showing off, although I wouldn’t know why he’d want to show off to someone like me—”
“You’re a very pleasant and sensible girl.”
“That is just about the most ghastly thing you could possibly say, Mama,” said Drusilla, sadly. “I don’t want to be pleasant and sensible. I would like to be ravishingly beautiful, and have just a whit of a romantic soul, but it’s no use at all.”
“H’mm,” said Mrs Morville.
“Mind you, there are good things about my nature. Ulverston seemed convinced that I would fail in a heap at any minute, but I must say, I was more concerned about him when they brought in St Erth after he was shot. Blood dripping everywhere! Ulverston went quite pale! I shall have to tell Chard how to bind a wound like that, for next time.”
“I rather hope there is not a next time,” said Mrs Morville. “Stanyon sounds like a very dangerous place to be. Maybe your father is right, and you would be better off coming home to us right now?”
“Oh no, Mama, there hasn’t been the faintest bit of danger to me! Not in the least! I’d just like to stay one week more, if you wouldn’t mind? Turvey and I are taking turns watching over St Erth. I really couldn’t trust anyone else! Turvey is St Erth’s man, and a very good fellow.”
“I see. When do we get to meet this estimable young Earl, Drusilla?”
Drusilla coloured and looked at her mother suspiciously. “Meet him? Why would you want to call upon him?”
“Oh, it’s the polite thing to do, of course. Among other things, we need to thank Lady St Erth for looking after you for all this time.”
Drusilla frowned. “I suppose I can’t disagree with that. I expect, however, that Papa will dislike St Erth excessively, simply because he is an Earl. Do you think Papa would be able to restrain himself?”
“I doubt that he could,” said Mrs Morville, regretfully. “I’ll try to restrain him, love. But if this St Erth is as pleasant as you say, he might not mind Papa?”
“I did warn him about Papa, right at the start. He seemed to find it funny, but he said I should be warned that he was never going to have Republican beliefs—”
Mrs Morville sat up. “Did he now? Tell me now, is he also engaged to be married, like his friend?”
“Oh not at all! Of course Lady St Erth has ridiculous plans to marry him off to some daughter of the Earl of Arun, but I can’t see him acceding to the Dowager’s plans. He’ll wriggle out of them, some way or another, and she won’t even realise how he’s wriggled out until too late, because he’ll have done it so very charmingly and quietly—” Drusilla frowned. “I very much dislike how Lady St Erth tries to put things upon him, and scolds him for things which aren’t in the least his fault, but he’s very good with her nonetheless. I should like to tell her off on his behalf, but of course I don’t have the least right to do so, and I hold my tongue.”
Mrs Morville wrinkled her brow. “I should be very much obliged to St Erth if he could teach you some wriggling out skills in regard to Lady St Erth’s demands. I worry that you’re so competent and hardworking that you get used—”
“Oh yes, so does St Erth,” said Drusilla. “He felt dreadfully guilty when he discovered how much I’d had to do for the ball, but I told him I enjoyed it. Nonetheless, he felt obliged to give me two dances to make up for it—”
“I don’t think you wrote to me of this?” said Mrs Morville. “He danced with you? Twice?”
“I collect that I didn’t, because I didn’t think it worthy of mention,” said Drusilla, colouring a little. Then she sighed. “I wouldn’t read anything into it at all, Mama. It’s just that St Erth was pleased to find someone who danced as well as he did, and so after we had the first waltz, he insisted on keeping me as a partner for the second.”
“I’m inclined to like him on that basis alone,” said Mrs Morville thoughtfully.
Drusilla bit her lip. “Oh, Mama, I do hope you like him! Even though he’s an Earl! He’s a very pleasant person, you see.”
“I’m sure I shall,” said Mrs Morville, absently, already mentally planning how she was going to raise the fact with her husband that their beloved daughter seemed to have fallen head-over-heels in love with an Earl, moreover, one who had an objection to Republican principles.
Drusilla sprang up. “Oh! I have just recalled! I should get back to St Erth—he’s due another draught of medicine—and I’m sure Turvey shan’t think of it, so I’d better give it to him. It’s lovely to see you, Mama, and I’ll speak to you soon.”
“Very lovely to see you too, darling,” said Mrs Morville, kissing her daughter soundly.
She hoped fervently that the Earl cared for their daughter in the same way as she evidently cared for him. She was sadly aware that Drusilla had not gotten a great deal of attention when she was introduced, and that she was not regarded as pretty. She hoped, without much confidence, that the Earl was not a man who cared solely about superficial appearance, and could look beneath the surface to see Drusilla’s intelligence, dry sense of humour, excellent good sense, and pleasant nature.