Roses and Champagne

‘Oh, you’re on his side—I might have known!’ Virginia sounded spiteful. ‘Just because you’re getting on and not married yourself!’

Katrina went faintly pink. ‘You don’t mean a word of that, love. But I do think it will be a great pity if after all these years we shouldn’t be on speaking terms with Lucius—after all, he knew you in your pram.’

Virginia tossed golden hair over one shoulder. ‘What a silly girl you are, Katrina,’ she observed, and Katrina thought: twice in one morning, Father used to say ‘Never mind the looks, the girl’s got a good head on her,’ but I haven’t even got that. She said placidly: ‘Yes, I daresay I am. Would you like to go away for a while, darling?’

Her sister’s beautiful blue eyes opened wide. ‘Go away? With the Hunt Ball only a few weeks off and James Lovell taking me up to town to see that new play everyone is talking about?’ She smiled beguilingly. ‘I do need a new dress, Katie.’

‘You had that blue taffeta last month. What are you going to do about Lucius?’

‘I won’t speak to him again, and I hope you won’t either.’ She added viciously. ‘I hope some perfectly frightful widow with a horde of children gets her hands on him—it’s all he deserves!’

‘I don’t imagine he’ll marry unless he wants to,’ said Katrina, and instantly wished she hadn’t as Virginia’s tears began again. To stop them she promised a new dress, and the tears disappeared as if by magic.

She got up from the bed, observing mildly that James Lovell was on his way and shouldn’t Virginia get dressed. At the door she paused to ask: ‘Did Lucius actually ask you to marry him, love?’

Virginia was out of bed looking at herself in the dressing table mirror. ‘Don’t be such a nosey-parker,’ she said crossly, ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ She smiled suddenly. ‘Darling Katie, what would I do without you? You’re the nicest person I know.’

Katrina spent the next hour going about her household duties. None of them were heavy, but all the same they had to be done; her parents had left them in comfortable circumstances—a charming Regency house with a splendid garden as well as the paddocks, Mrs Beecham, who had been with them since Katrina was born, Lovelace, who had been chauffeur, houseman and part-time gardener for almost the same length of time, and two girls from the village who came each day to help in the house. There was Old John too, who was what the villagers called a little light in the head; he came when it suited him and saw to the garden; he had a magic way with anything growing and no one had ever thought of interfering with his work there.

She discussed food with Mrs Beecham, agreed that someone should come and re-hang the shutters outside the living room windows, suggested that Lovelace might like to take some harness to be repaired, whistled to Bouncer, the Black Labrador snoozing before the stove, and went into the garden to cut chrysanthemums. It was a clear day with frost underfoot and just for the moment warm enough for her to go outside in her tweed skirt and thick sweater, but with November half done, the days were getting short and she doubted if the weather would stay fine for much longer. She gathered her flowers and then walked on, round the house and up the sloping path which led to the kitchen gardens at the top of the slight hill. Old John was there, picking Brussels sprouts and talking to himself, and she joined him for a bit before crossing to the far wall where there was a stout wooden door.

She opened it but didn’t go through, leaning against it and looking across the valley to where the chimneys of Stockley House sent pale wreaths of smoke into the clear air. The house was large; a great deal larger than her own home, with a park around it and a comfortable jumble of outbuildings, stables and barns at its back. Katrina knew every inch of it, for she had gone there very often as a child, first with her mother, when she went to call on Lucius’s mother, and then on her own, to seek him out and plague him to let her go with him fishing or riding, but later on he went to school, and although she still went there frequently, she only saw him during the holidays, and when it was her turn to go to school she saw even less of him. All the same, they were firm friends and had remained so—until now. She hadn’t always approved of his goings-on, by all accounts he was very much the man about town while he was in London—but that, she had told herself loyally, was his business, he was still Lucius; a friend to consult and someone to ask advice of, and when her parents were killed, a stout shoulder to cry into.

But as Virginia grew from a pretty little girl into a stunning young woman, he started to take her out; he took Katrina out too, riding or visiting friends, or walking the dogs, but when it came to dinner and the theatre in London, it was more often than not Virginia who was asked. And Katrina couldn’t remember when her sister had persuaded him to take her to the Hunt Ball; she had done it so prettily that it would have been cruel to have refused her, and she herself, cheerfully protesting that she didn’t care who she went with, had gone with the eldest Frobisher boy, a worthy young man, already going bald and for ever nattering on about the obscure work he had to do at the Foreign Office. And after that, Lucius had taken Virginia each succeeding year—since she was seventeen. Not that he’d singled her out deliberately; he had a great many friends and went out with them all, never showing preference for any of the girls he knew, but gradually everyone came to take it for granted that he and Virginia intended to marry sooner or later, and indeed, Virginia made no effort to deny this, and Katrina, since the awful occasion when she had observed that it was nothing but gossip and been asked if she were jealous of her own sister, had kept silent.

As she watched a car came round the corner of the house and raced down the drive towards the big gates. That would be Lucius in his Jaguar, going up to London to do big business, she supposed. He’d be back by the evening, though, because Emily’s mother was giving a dinner party and they had all been invited. Katrina made a mental resolve to warn Virginia to be polite at all costs.

As it happened there was no need; her sister told her over lunch that she was going out to dinner with James, and she didn’t care who knew it.

‘Then I’ll phone Mrs Drake and say you’ve got a heavy cold,’ said Katrina. ‘That’ll give her a chance to get someone else.’

Virginia gave her a pitying look. ‘You always do the right thing, don’t you? Say what you like—and I’m going up to town tomorrow to find a dress. What about you? I know you’ve no looks to speak of, but you’ve got a good figure—why don’t you tart yourself up a bit?’

On the way up to the studio after lunch, Katrina stopped in front of the enormous wall mirror on the landing and took a good look at herself. Medium height, a little too plump, nice legs and hands and feet, a face unremarkable save for her eyes, pale brown hair expertly cut to frame it, and well cut, expensive clothes suitable to the life she led.

‘Very dull,’ she told her reflection, and went on up the small staircase to the next floor and into her studio, where she lost herself in the happy world of fairy tales. She was illustrating a new edition of Hans Andersen, and got carried away on a stream of elves and gnomes and princesses in distress. She painted until the light failed and went downstairs to the sitting room where they always had tea. There was no sign of Virginia, and Mrs Beecham, coming in with the tray, offered the information that Miss Virginia had gone out in the car not half an hour past.

‘Well, we’ll both be out this evening, Mrs Beecham, so don’t wait up, will you? Whoever comes in last will lock up.’

Katrina poured herself a cup of tea, took a scone, picked up the daily paper and settled herself in a chair by the fire. The room was cosy, softly lighted and prettily furnished; her mother had always used it unless there had been people for tea—besides, there was no sense in having fires in the other, larger rooms unless there were guests. Bouncer was there too, and the two cats, lying in a friendly heap at her feet. She was a lucky young woman, she told herself soberly, to have so much when so many had so little. All the same, she felt a twinge of panic, glimpsing the years ahead. Supposing she didn’t marry? And after all, she was turned twenty-seven and no one had actually asked her. Would she be content to stay here, painting and drawing and running the house and watching her friends grow old? And not being friends with Lucius any more?

She shook herself briskly. He had behaved very badly; come to think of it, he had changed over the recent years. His eyes could be as hard as stones on occasions, and he smiled a nasty little mocking smile far too often. The thought struck her that perhaps he was really in love with Virginia after all, but something had caused him to draw back from marrying her. He was a good deal older, of course, but that shouldn’t matter; he was a handsome man and didn’t look his age. There could be a girl somewhere, of course, but she discarded the thought at once. He wasn’t devious, he would have made no bones about telling her that there was someone else. He had only laughed and said that poor Virginia had no heart. Katrina frowned; her sister was a darling—spoilt, perhaps, but who could help that, she was so enchantingly pretty and had such a way with her. To say that she was heartless was quite untrue.

Katrina bestirred herself, took Bouncer out for a run and went up to her room to change for the evening. She chose a dress with care. Lucius would be there and for some reason she wanted to look her very best—’Like a soldier cleaning his rifle before a battle,’ she explained to Bouncer, who had made himself comfortable on the end of her bed.

The dress was soft green crêpe-de-chine, very simple, very expensive and just a shade too old for her. As most of her clothes were. Now that Virginia was grown up and went everywhere with her and to a great many parties on her own, Katrina had begun to think of herself as very much the older sister, and she dressed accordingly, which was a pity, for she had a pretty figure and a clear, unlined skin and looked a lot younger than her age. But even if she bought the wrong clothes, her taste in shoes was not to be faulted. They were her weakness; sensible enough during the day but replaced as soon as maybe by elegant high-heeled models by Rayne and Gucci. She looked with satisfaction at the strappy kid slippers which went with the dress, slung on the quilted jacket she wore in the evenings if she was driving herself and went downstairs. There was no sign of Virginia and she wasn’t in her room, so Katrina left a note for her and went outside to where Lovelace had parked the car for her, a Triumph Sports, quite elderly now but still going well. Lovelace had never quite approved of it, too fast for a young lady, he had averred, although he had to admit with the same breath that Miss Katrina was a first-class driver.

The Drakes lived five miles away in another village. As Katrina went down the drive and turned into the lane bordered by Stockley House’s high wall, she thought with regret that normally Lucius would have called for her and driven her there and brought her home again. It was a sobering thought, rendered even more so when his Jaguar overtook her half way there, sliding sleekly past without him even turning his head, and even though it was dark, he would have known her car in the light of the headlamps. She watched his tail light disappear round the next bend and felt lonely.

There were only a dozen people at the Drakes’ house, and she knew them all, and since she was the last to arrive the drawing room was full enough for her to be able to avoid Lucius. Or so she thought.

She was sipping a dry sherry, which she detested, and listening to the Reverend Bartram Moffat’s equally dry conversation, when he wandered over to them. He greeted them both affably, advised the Vicar that their host wanted advice about some parochial business and took up a position in front of her so that to escape would be difficult.

‘Got over your nasty temper?’ he wanted to know with what she considered to be sickening indulgence. She said: ‘No,’ and took another sip of sherry.

He took her glass from her, poured the contents into his own and gave her back the empty glass. ‘You always hated the dry stuff,’ he observed, ‘and what you need at the moment is something sweet—I could pickle walnuts with your expression, Katie.’

She felt a bubble of laughter longing to escape, but all she said frostily was ‘Indeed?’

‘Where’s our brokenhearted Virginia? I’m willing to bet Gem against Bouncer that she’s gone out for the evening with young Lovell.’

Katrina twiddled her glass and went red. ‘She needs comfort,’ she observed.

‘Rubbish, and you know it. Tell me, what are your plans? Am I to be ignored in future? Is the whole silly affair to be decently forgotten and a return made to the status quo, or do we speak to each other in private?’

She raised serious eyes to his. ‘You know quite well that I could never hate you, Lucius, we’ve grown up together, we’ve been like brother and sister, but I don’t want to be friends any more; maybe you weren’t serious about Virginia, but you’ve hurt her deeply, and I can’t forgive that.’

‘All I hurt was her vanity and her pride.’ He was staring down at her and the nasty little smile was there again. ‘But have it your own way, my dear, although you’re greatly mistaken.’

She didn’t avoid his look. She said steadily: ‘You have a lot of women friends—oh, I’m not curious, but people gossip, you know. That makes it so much worse, because Virginia is so young and you’ve known her since she was a baby.’

His voice was silky. ‘And yet far better able to face the world and its wicked ways than you, Katie. We’ve had pleasant times together, haven’t we? But in future I’ll remember what you’ve said.’ He smiled gently. ‘I’m sure Mr Moffat is dying to talk to you again—such a nice quiet, well brought up young woman—and so correctly dressed.’ The silky voice bit into her. ‘You should change your style, Katrina, you’re not thirty yet.’ He moved aside to make room for Mr Moffat and she watched him go across the room to Mrs Drake. He looked handsome in his dinner jacket and his height and size made him noticeable wherever he was. She smiled politely at her companion and wondered miserably what it would be like to treat Lucius as a mere acquaintance when they met.

Dinner was a cheerful meal, since everyone there knew everyone else, and afterwards they sat around and talked for an hour or so until old Lady Ryder announced that she must go home, which was the signal for everyone else to do the same.

Katrina said her goodbyes, kissing the ladies and being kissed by the men, even Lucius, who brushed her cheek lightly and held her hand in an impersonal clasp and made some laughing remark about seeing her soon. And of course he’d been quite right to do it; in a day or two everyone would have heard that he and Virginia had broken up, but until then no one needed to know. She had felt mean listening to kind Mrs Drake’s concern for Virginia’s cold, and then seethed as she caught Lucius’s cynical look as he overheard. The comfortable, dependable man she had known all her life had changed into a remote, mocking stranger with cold eyes.

Driving back, she debated as to whether he was hiding a broken heart under that deadpan face, and if so what she could do about it.

Nothing; one didn’t interfere with other people’s lives even with the best of intentions, although she could wheedle Virginia into telling her what had happened. She would have to wait for the right moment, of course.

Which came a good deal sooner than she had expected. She was in the house, sitting at the kitchen table drinking the hot chocolate Mrs Beecham had left out, when she heard the front door open and close, and a moment later her sister came into the kitchen.

‘Hullo,’ said Katrina. ‘Did you lock up?’

Virginia gave her a dreamy look. ‘No, was I supposed to?’

Katrina got up. ‘Never mind, I’ll do it. There’s loads of chocolate if you’d like a cup.’

‘After two bottles of champagne? You must be joking! Did you have a very dull evening?’

‘I enjoyed it.’ Katrina spoke over her shoulder on the way to the hall and the front door. When she got back, Virginia was curled up in Mrs Beecham’s chair by the Aga.

‘Was Lucius there?’ she asked.

‘Yes, of course.’

‘Did you talk to him?’