The Forest - Edward Rutherfurd [308]
‘Miss Albion.’ He was calling her back to daylight. ‘I may be mistaken. These are only things I believe I heard when I was a child.’ He wasn’t quite sure if she had heard. ‘It makes no difference to anything,’ he told her kindly. But all she did was bow her head, and murmur some thanks; and then she departed.
A few minutes later Isaac Seagull was back in his usual place, enjoying the sun. The Albion girl’s secret was safe with him. He’d been keeping secrets all his life. But he contemplated her embarrassment with a philosophical wonder all the same. That, he supposed, was the price you paid for belonging to the gentry, where you had to display your ancestors like plumage and your acres were laid out for all to see. Too high a price, he reckoned; and not for the first time, the clever Free Trader shook his head at the all-embracing vanity of the landed class.
Personally, he was comfortable with all things dark and subterranean. Besides, his fortunes were always riding on the wild and open sea.
Fanny had gone halfway down the High Street when she encountered Mrs Grockleton, who greeted her most warmly. ‘You have not heard from your clever cousin Louisa, yet?’ She was positively beaming.
‘No, Mrs Grockleton. But I don’t think I expected to. Why do you call her clever, by the way?’
‘Oh, come now, my dear.’ Mrs Grockleton wagged her stout finger at her. ‘You and your cousin must not suppose you can hide your secrets from all us old people.’ She gave her a knowing look. ‘Methinks we may expect news from that quarter before long.’
‘I really have no idea what you mean.’
‘My dear child, I caught sight of Mr Martell with Louisa the day before his departure. Do not tell her so, mind. But these eyes can see. And sure enough, he has asked her to Dorset with her brother. Just the two of them. Had he not been serious I should think very likely he’d have asked you as well.’
‘I see no reason why.’
‘Oh, Fanny, you are a good and loyal friend, and I shall ask no more. But my dear child, we both know Louisa means to marry him and I can assure you, knowing the world as I do, that I think she will succeed.’ She patted Fanny’s cheek. ‘What celebrations you and I may enjoy with her then.’
She did not wait for any further comment, but billowed away, under full sail, up the street.
September came: the days were warm, but the oaks’ first golden leaves appeared, hinting at the sharp excitement of the rutting season ahead. At Boldre, Mr Gilpin’s school resumed, and the troop of girls and boys in their green coats were to be seen walking up the hill to Boldre church on its knoll each Sunday morning.
Among them was Nathaniel Furzey. The weeks of summer he had just spent with his own family up at Minstead had certainly done nothing to lessen his appetite for cheerful mischief. In school, he was more or less in order. Mr Gilpin had given him a book of simple algebra and geometry to study, since he had long ago mastered all the sums the other children were doing. Also, somewhat against his judgement, the vicar had agreed that one day a week he might read a history book. But the rest of the time, he was to confine his reading to the Bible. ‘For there is quite enough there, young man,’ the vicar told him sternly, ‘to occupy you for a lifetime.’
Even so, the schoolmaster found him a trial. He would start playing curious games with numbers instead of the problems set; if he was set to learn a text he would do so, but then rearrange the words to make foolish rhymes. More than once it had been necessary to punish him for practical jokes – and this was all since the term began. As for his questions, his infuriating habit of demanding the reasons for things instead of simply learning what he was told, the schoolmaster had to report to the vicar: ‘His mind is too active. It must be curbed.’
The Prides, however, were more indulgent. If Nathaniel