Ravenscliffe Read Free

arranging her face into a mask of brave resignation. ‘We shall put him off.’
    She picked up her novel and began to read, though it was upside down. For a short while he watched her, more amused than annoyed. Then he said: ‘Now, Clarissa. That won’t be necessary.’
    She looked up.
    ‘Oh, you’re still here! Well, I beg to differ, Teddy. Far better the king doesn’t come to Netherwood at all, than to come and find us lacking.’
    The Earl of Netherwood knew well enough what the royal visit meant to his wife. As Prince of Wales he had visited three times: as king, not at all. Now that the monarch was at last expected, Teddy knew how important it was, in Clarissa’s opinion, that Bertie should leave with the impression of having enjoyed limitless hospitality at the finest, most gracious country house in the whole of England. But still. To insist upon a programme of complete and lavish redecoration was one thing: to declare the bathrooms – all of them – as unfit for use was quite another. And this, just four weeks before King Edward and his entourage were due. Lord Netherwood decided to make one last appeal to reason.
    ‘My dear, the house has never looked so spruce. You’ve done a magnificent job’ – this to appeal to her vanity – ‘and your instincts in matters of style and taste are unsurpassed.’She looked at him askance now, because even she detected flattery and flannel. ‘But there is neither the time nor the need to tear out perfectly good bathroom furniture for the benefit of Bertie. A lavatory he sat on as Prince of Wales will serve him just as well as king.’
    ‘Teddy!’ she said.
    ‘Well it’s true. We entertained him in grand style before, without any real upheaval at all. I’m perfectly confident we shall do the same again.’
    She put down her book.
    ‘I’m sorry, Teddy. New baths, new basins, new lavatories, or I shall declare us indisposed. Something dreadfully infectious, perhaps. A polite letter to the horrid Knollys warning of a risk to the king of scarlet fever.’
    Of course he knew, as she knew, that the ultimatum was preposterous. Clarissa would sooner run naked through the streets of Netherwood than write such a letter to the king’s man. In any case, if it suited Bertie to visit Netherwood Hall – and it did, as he was coming from Doncaster and the St Leger – then visit he would. An outbreak of scarlet fever, real or imaginary, would be of no account. He pleased himself, did Bertie, and on this occasion he had done as he always did by blithely announcing his intention to visit, entirely at his own convenience, leaving the honoured hosts to a tumult of anxious preparation. However, standing before his beautiful, pouting, manipulative wife, Teddy decided – not for the first time, nor for the last – to cave in. It was certainly his quickest route out of the countess’s rooms and into the fresh air and it wasn’t as if they couldn’t afford the work. And if Clarissa was happy, generally speaking, they all were happy. She had, after all, already been forced to concede the vexed point of Dorothea Stirling’s invitation to Netherwood Hall. No small concession either, given her initial opposition to that particular scheme.
    ‘Very well,’ said the earl. ‘Talk to Motson. If he believes the work can be achieved in the time available, go ahead.’
    ‘Thank you, Teddy,’ she said, briskly now that her mission was accomplished. She blew him a kiss by way of dismissal so he took his cue, exiting his wife’s room just as a housemaid arrived with lemon tea. The girl stepped back and bobbed a respectful curtsey, and the cup rattled in the saucer in her trembling hand. She should save her awe for a figure of actual authority, thought the earl wryly as he strode off down the long corridor. Underfoot, the pile of the new carpet felt soft and rich – not that the old one had ever seemed unsatisfactory to him. New bathroom furniture indeed. He wasn’t sure who was the