Whispering by Jane Aiken Hodge Page A

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    â€˜Yes, of course.’ She was remembering his mother with more and more dislike. ‘Perhaps Miss Emerson will be more lucky with my cousin. He is my mother’s sister’s son. I don’t quite know what happened to her. She must be dead, I suppose. He certainly talks of a solitary childhood.’
    â€˜Poor fellow,’ said Frank Ware perfunctorily. ‘As to lodgings for him. Miss Gomez, would he perhaps like to come to us? My mother was saying just the other day how we rattle about in our big house, with only the two youngest still in the nursery. I am sure we could make a set of apartments available to him, if he fancied it. And it is only a step up the hill from our house to the Emersons’. I am sure my mother would be delighted to have him.’ He was sure of nothing of the kind, but meant to see to it that she was. It was beginning to strike him that he could do a great deal worse than marry Caterina Gomez and her promised vineyards. She had grown to be a fine figure of a woman, and seemed to have quite lost the wildness that had made her formidable in their childhood days. And if it did nothing else, marriage with her would free him from his mother. He stayed ten minutes longer than the statutory length for a morning visitand pressed her hand so warmly when he took his leave at last that Harriet watched his retreating figure with a look of amused comprehension. ‘A suitor, no less.’ She smiled at Caterina.
    â€˜I am afraid so.’
    â€˜You don’t like him? He seemed well enough to me.’
    â€˜A nonentity; always has been. I am afraid I led him by the nose when we were children. And all he wants now is to get away from his dreadful gossip of a mother.’
    â€˜But, Caterina, love, have you thought – It might make him just the man for you.’ It cost her a curious pang to say it. She had rather liked the diffident young man.
    â€˜Never!’ said Caterina savagely. And then, ‘Forgive me. I don’t mean to be cross with you, Harriet dear, but I’d rather die an old maid than marry a cipher like that.’
    â€˜You’ll hardly do that,’ said Harriet.

Chapter 5
    To her son’s relieved surprise, Mrs Ware agreed readily enough to his suggestion that they take in Jeremy Craddock as a paying guest. ‘It will help to keep the wolf from the door until you get things settled with Caterina,’ she told her son. ‘I am glad you find her tolerable.’
    It did not strike him as at all the right word. ‘She may not have me, mother,’ he warned.
    â€˜Not have you? Ridiculous. She’ll do as her father bids her. He’s not a man I’d like to cross. And this first freak of hers is bound to have outraged him.’
    â€˜What’s that, mother?’
    â€˜Just walking home up the hill from the ferry like a girl of the streets! I could hardly believe my ears when Mrs Bland told me this morning. But Mrs Sandeman saw them with her own eyes, the three of them, setting off up the lane by the Franciscans’. With not so much as a servant in attendance.’
    â€˜Much quicker than taking a sedan chair, mother.’ He felt suddenly sorry for Caterina, and glad that she had that agreeable little Harriet Brown for company and support.
    â€˜What’s that to the purpose? And the party? When shall that be?’
    â€˜Not quite yet. She was most grateful, but needs some time, she says, to get herself outfitted. It’s true, she’s not quite in the ordinary way …’
    â€˜She never was. But she’ll need help with that, advice; I’ll call tomorrow.’ Visions of the commission she would get from recommending her own dressmaker danced in her head.
    â€˜Do you think –’ He could not imagine how to phrase the protest that leaped to his lips.
    â€˜Poor motherless child,’ she went on as if he had not spoken. ‘It will be a pleasure to guide her in her