Читать книгу Jandy Mac Comes Back - Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley - Страница 7

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The celebrated Doctor of Music gave his little lecture to the listening schools and introduced his singer. Then Janice looked at the Countess in amazement, as the sweet contralto voice pealed out, in “Barbara Allen” and “Ca’ the Yowes,” and then in “The Frog and the Mouse,” and “Go and tell Aunt Nancy,” and “The Gentle Maiden.”

“What a wonderful voice!” Janice murmured.

Rosamund nodded. “We’re very proud of Maid. Sir Ivor Quellyn has helped her a great deal. Her voice has developed enormously in the last few years. She’s to sing a couple of Italian nursery songs, to interest the children—yes, he’s explaining that she is half Italian. They’re delightful. Now, ‘Soldier, won’t you marry me?’ to finish. That will please the twins; she sang it once as an encore in the Albert Hall, for their sake, and they listened in this room.”

“Will they be listening to-day?”

“Oh, sure to be! They worship ‘Aunty Maid.’ That’s the end! Now will you have more gardens, or would you like to see something of the Castle? It needs a week to do it thoroughly!”

“We’re taking up all your afternoon,” Janice exclaimed. “You’ve been more than kind, but don’t you want to get rid of us now? You must have had some plan for us when you kidnapped us as you did!”

“I’ll tell you my plan after we’ve had some tea. Come for a walk round the walls! That will show you the keep and give you a general idea of the Castle. We’ll look down on the children and see that they’re all right.”

“But don’t you want to do other things?”

“No, I don’t. I’m glad to have you here. As I told you, I feel like the cat who’s stealing the cream off the family milk. It’s really most amusing that I should have you all to myself when they don’t even know you’re in England.”

Janice laughed. “It’s extraordinarily nice of you to feel like that!”

“Oh, but I’ve heard of Jandy Mac for years! I’ve heaps of questions to ask you.”

“I haven’t told you very much yet.”

“There’s plenty of time. The car will take you back to town in a couple of hours, or anywhere else you want to go. But I think you should stay here for a night or two. I’m sure Joan-Two would be thrilled to sleep in a castle.”

“I know she would! But you said”—and Janice turned to her hostess as they climbed a narrow stair in the walls, leading to the battlements—“that there was somewhere else, and that you didn’t believe we’d stay with you! What did you mean? Where could we want to go? What could be better than this?”

“That’s very nice of you! If you’ll go on to the top, what you see may make you feel you’d like to stay with me. I’ll tell you about the other place after tea.”

Janice laughed ruefully. “You know how to keep secrets! Where will this lead us? Oh!” as they reached the battlements and stood looking down between stone pillars on the gardens spread below, and the park and lake beyond, and the great keep on the other side. “Oh, how marvellous! What an amazing place to live!”

“Yes, I’m not properly used to it yet. I was terrified at first; I nearly funked it. But it’s wonderful for the children to grow up here. They won’t be frightened of it! See their little garden down there? Joan-Two and Roddy are digging in the pit.”

“Littlejan will be thoroughly happy. She’s our only girl, but she has small brothers and she hasn’t seen enough of them, because of school. She loves little boys.”

“Good for her!” Rosamund led the way along the walls towards the keep.

After half an hour’s wandering, during which Janice looked down on the Castle buildings from all possible angles, Rosamund left her in the Kindergarten with Joan and Roddy, and went indoors to take her baby from his nurse.

Agatha, the younger nurse, led the visitors out by a private gate into the park, and they looked across the narrow lake, where the water was deepest green and very still. People were picnicking on the grass banks and feeding the swans and ducks, and peacocks were strolling about and showing their tails.

“Oh, Mother! Can’t we go down there?” Joan begged.

“Tea will be ready,” Agatha demurred. “My lady said in half an hour.”

“We mustn’t keep her waiting. Come, Joan; we must go back,” Janice said.

“This is the most fascinating place!” Joan sighed. “I’d like to stay here for a month!”

“And yet Lady Kentisbury insists that there’s somewhere else we shall want to go, when she tells us where it is. I can’t imagine what she means.”

“Hasn’t she told you yet?” Joan cried. “I did think you’d have found out by now!”

“I wasted my opportunities, evidently,” her mother said, laughing. “I understood her to say she’d like us to stay for a night or two, if we cared to do it.”

“Oh, Mother, do, do, do!” Joan shouted. “Then I could go in the park! Oh, Mother dear!”

“I like the idea myself, so you needn’t shriek like that, Littlejan. But I must hear this mysterious plan first.”

Joan rushed up to Rosamund as soon as she saw her. “Lady Kentisbury, let us stay with you! There couldn’t be any nicer place! Will you tell Mother your other plan, so that she can choose? She won’t say she’ll stay here till she knows.”

The tea table was spread under the trees in the garden, and basket chairs were placed for the guests.

“Tea first, Joan-Two! After tea I really will discuss plans with your mother. Where did Agatha take you? To the lake? I wish Tansy was here; she’d be the one to show you round. But she’s at school, of course. She’s nearly fifteen, and she has lived here since she was four. Her aunt is my housekeeper, and some day Tansy is going to take over her job.”

“Gosh! I’d like to be Tansy!”

“She’s very keen, and she’ll do it well. Tell me what you and Roddy did together!”

Rosamund kept the talk going until tea was over. But at last, with Joan’s eyes fixed hungrily on her, she drew her chair away from the table and turned to Janice.

“Jandy Mac! It seems very queer to me. You talk of Joy and Joan, and you’ve tried to see them both. Having failed, you have no other idea but to go back to town. What about Jen? Why not go to see her?”

Janice sat up. “Jenny-Wren! Now that is queer! It’s not that I’ve forgotten her; she was just as much a part of those old times as Joan and Joy. But—well, the truth is, I’ve completely failed to realise that Jen must have grown up. I haven’t been writing to her; when I wrote at all it was to Joan. There’s been a reference to Jen now and then; usually that Jenny-Wren had had another baby! But I’ve never quite believed it. To me, Jen is still a noisy, perfectly delightful tomboy of fourteen, with long black legs and long yellow plaits and very blue eyes and a very short tunic.”

Rosamund gave a shout of delight. “I knew it! I was sure you didn’t think of Jen as married and the mother of a large family!”

“Where does she live?” Janice pleaded. “Is it too far for us to go? Could I ring her up? How I’d love to see Jen again!”

“Oh, Mother! But I want to stay here!” Joan wailed.

“I knew Jen would cut me out,” Rosamund said tragically. “That’s why I’ve kept so quiet about her, and why I wouldn’t let you tell me about the old days. I knew she’d come into all your stories and that you’d ask for her; and I was sure that as soon as you remembered her you’d go off and leave me.”

“I don’t want to go—not for anybody!” Joan said with emphasis.

“Tell me about Jen!” Janice begged. “How I loved her as a kiddy! Did you say she has a big family? She’ll be a lovely mother!”

“The boys all have saints’ names,” Rosamund remarked. “But it’s just an accident, and they’re anything but saintly. It didn’t occur to Jen that they were saints until she gave Michael his name; they’re Andrew and Antony and Michael, but Antony is always called Tony.”

Janice nodded, her eyes eager. “Not Ambrose?”

“Not yet,” Rosamund said seriously. “Jen thinks Ambrose would be a little heavy for nowadays. She says if she has any more boys they’ll have to be Christopher and Martin and Simon; but she only thought of it when she realised that all the rest were saints. She wants to have six boys, so that they can dance morris together.”

“Six! Three’s a good beginning! Hasn’t she any girls?”

“Oh, yes! Rosemary comes in the middle of the saints; she’s the third. The baby is six months old; she’s Katharine.”

“Jenny-Wren with five children!” Janice murmured. “I simply don’t believe it!”

“She married when she was twenty. Her parents had died and she wanted her own home. She was engaged to Kenneth Marchwood, brother of Joy’s first husband—the father of the twins. When Andrew was killed in Africa, Ken became Sir Kenneth and settled at home and married Jen.”

“Then Jenny-Wren is now——?”

“Lady Marchwood, and she lives next door to Joy and the twins, at Marchwood Manor.”

Janice gazed at her wide-eyed. “The big house with the pond, where we used to trespass? That’s now Jen’s home?”

“It is.” Rosamund looked at Joan. “My dear Joan-Two, you don’t understand. Jansy Raymond is staying with the Marchwood children; and John, too, of course. Now what about it?”

“Oh!” Joan sprang up. “I want to see Jansy! Oh, Mother, let’s go!”

“Where did you suppose Jansy had gone?” Rosamund retorted. “You might have guessed she’d be with the Marchwoods, either at the Hall or the Manor. So now you want to go too? Didn’t I say you would?”

“I didn’t know Jansy would be there,” Joan pleaded. “I’ve come home on purpose to see her. I want to ask her something, but it’s a secret, so I can’t tell you about it. Do you really mind if we go away?”

“I was prepared for it! Now, Jandy Mac, do you want to go off at once? Won’t you have one night with me, and tell me about Joy and Jen and Joan at school? Jen won’t disappear before to-morrow; I’ll ring up and ask if I may drive over for lunch and bring a friend, who is an old pal of hers and wants to see her again. I’d love to see Jen’s face, if we confront her with you suddenly! I’ve no engagement for to-morrow and I shall be alone again, as Geoffrey has to be in town. Will you fall in with my plan? It only means waiting a few hours longer before you see Jen.”

Janice flushed. “I’d like it immensely. We must wait till to-morrow, in any case; we couldn’t arrive to see her in the evening! It would look too much as if we took it for granted we could stay for the night.”

“She’ll make you stay, of course. But I agree that it would be rather late to pay a call after seven, and you couldn’t be there before. I’m sure you don’t want to go back to town! Stay with us, and let Joan-Two have a night in a castle; and to-morrow we’ll descend on Jen, having asked first if it’s all right for us to go.”

“One for me!” Janice sighed. “It was mad to drop in on Joan as we did, of course!”

“I wasn’t thinking of that. Jen’s a sport and she has all sorts of public engagements. She’s the Lady of the Manor and she does her duty; she goes to garden-parties and fêtes, and opens sales of work, and gives away prizes. She might be out to lunch, so we’ll ask before we go.”

“How good of her to do all that, when she has the children to look after!”

“As she says, she can afford to pay for school and nurses for the family, but she can’t pay for people to do her public duties. She’s invaluable to the whole countryside; everybody wants her, and she never refuses for her own convenience. She’s shown me what I shall have to live up to!” Rosamund owned ruefully. “I can’t be a slacker, with Jen’s shining example before me. Her motto seems to be that one must help, if one can. But people don’t tease me much yet. It’s recognised that I’m still newly married and that a husband and small son must be considered. Presently my time will come! I shall have to grow used to appearing on platforms, and receiving flowers and purses, and declaring things open, and laying foundation stones. Then you’ll fall in with my plans?”

Janice looked at her frankly. “There’s just one thing against it. We haven’t any clothes. We’ve brought no luggage, so we can’t change for dinner. It seems rude to you and your beautiful Castle.”

“I sympathise, and I’m really sorry to ask it of you,” Rosamund said earnestly. “We don’t care, of course, but you’d have felt more comfortable. I’m sorry we can’t send for your things, but the car wouldn’t be back till ten. I apologise deeply for running off with you as I did. But if we don’t change, you won’t mind so much, will you? I only care for your sake, you know.”

“That’s delightful of you, and most convincing and kind. We’ll try not to see the scornful eyes of your butler,” Janice said. “After all, we’re Colonials, so we may be supposed not to know how to behave properly! Perhaps you could drop a hint to the butler that we’ve come straight from a South Sea Island.”

“Don’t be rude to Colonials! They’re always charming. I shall tell my maid that I met you in the morning and am keeping you for the night, but that, of course, you didn’t go out early in the day complete with evening clothes, and so I shan’t be changing to-night. Everybody will understand, and it will save me trouble. I’d like you to meet Geoffrey; he’ll be overjoyed not to have to dress! Come and choose your bedroom,” and Rosamund led them off in triumph. “We’ll talk all evening about the old days!”

Joan, delighted but a trifle shy, begged to be allowed to sleep with her mother. “Your Castle is so huge. I’d like to feel I’ve Mother close to me, to hold on to.”

Rosamund laughed and agreed to let her have her wish.