Anna settled back in her chair to listen, as Elizabeth clearly wanted to talk.
She talked of her father, a cheerful, hearty, irresponsible man who had been mad for hunting and lavished most of his fortune on horses, dogs, guns, and other hunting gear, followed the hunt about the country, and hosted lavish hunting parties on his own property. By the time he died, his farms and all the buildings on it had been long neglected and there was very little ready money left with which to bring all back from the brink of financial disaster. But Cousin Alexander had done it through sheer hard work, determination, and the sacrifice of his own comforts. At the same time he had looked after their mother, who had sunk into the depths of a devastating grief for a year or so after the death of her husband. And he had taken on the care of his sister too not long after their father’s death when she had fled from one of her husband’s drunken rages. He had even defended her, with questionable legality, when the husband had come to take her back. Her brother had refused to give her up.
“Oh, Anna,” Elizabeth said, “I had never before seen Alex resort to violence, and I have not seen it since. He was perfectly . . . splendid.”
His property in Kent having been restored to prosperity, Cousin Alexander had looked forward to securing some personal contentment by marrying and settling down to raise a family. He really had not wanted the earldom. He was not an ambitious man.
“And the worst of it is,” Elizabeth said, “that Cousin Humphrey—your father—did not like Brambledean Court, his main seat in Wiltshire, and rarely spent time there. I have never been there myself, but we have always been under the impression that he neglected it shamefully. Alex is very much afraid it is in a similarly bad way as Riddings Park was when our father died, but on a far larger scale, of course. He could continue to neglect it, but that is not Alex’s way, I fear. He will be very conscious of all the people who live and work on the estate or are otherwise dependent upon it for a livelihood, and he will consider it his duty to set matters right there. I do not know, though, how he will do it. His income had at last become sufficient for his needs until this happened, but now it will be woefully inadequate. And he will doubtless abandon his plans to marry until he feels he has something of substance and security to offer his bride. He may be forty by that time, or older. It may never happen.”
In the silence that followed it occurred to Anna that if she had not existed everything would have gone to Cousin Alexander and he would have had quite sufficient money to restore Brambledean Court and still look for a bride to complete his happiness. But she did exist, and the money was all hers.
“If I pull on that bell rope,” she said, “will someone come?”
Elizabeth laughed. “Doubtless bearing the tea tray,” she said.
Anna got to her feet and pulled gingerly upon it.
“Mrs. Eddy wants to show you the account books and the house treasures tomorrow morning,” Elizabeth said. “Mr. Brumford wants to call upon you tomorrow at your convenience, preferably in the morning as well. Madame Lavalle will want your opinion and approval of a hundred and one little details in the sewing room. Cousin Matilda’s genteel acquaintance will possibly arrive and wish to begin explaining to you to which persons you should curtsy, to which you should merely incline your head, and upon which you should look with gracious condescension as they bow or curtsy to you. And I daresay Cousin Mildred’s dancing master will make haste to claim you as a pupil. Some or all of your aunts may call here before luncheon with further plans for your education.”
“Oh dear,” Anna said as the tray was carried in and set on a low table before her and Elizabeth put her work away in her bag. “Will there be enough hours in the morning?”
“Absolutely not,” Elizabeth said, taking her cup and saucer from Anna’s hand. “Let us go shopping.”
Anna looked at her, the teapot suspended above her cup.
“I promised not to give you either instruction or unsolicited advice,” Elizabeth said, mischief in her smile. “But I will break my own rule this once. Whenever a lady is overwhelmed by obligation, Anna, she goes shopping.”
“I am not supposed to venture out of the house for at least the next ten years,” Anna said, smiling back. “Let us go shopping.”