Page 35 of A Landscape of Love

I have not received a letter from you in over a week. Have you run away with some no-good libertine who has stolen your heart and your wits? I can think of no other reason for such recalcitrant behaviour on your part. Something, or someone else, has stolen my share of your attention. I want it back.

The weather has finally set fine here at Goshen Court, just as well as I believe Leo and Ashburton may have murdered each other if they were confined to the house for another day. Ashburton’s ‘Little Bird’ has kept Leo entertained at least and busy drawing pictures for her and playing games. I have mixed feelings about the child. She slips me food under the table, which I appreciate, and she pets me often, but she also likes to dress me up in her dolly’s clothes, which is most undignified for a cat of my magnificence and stature. Leo thinks it most amusing. I’d like to see him wearing a frilly bonnet and a pink pinafore. I suspect he would not grin so inanely then.

Well, duty calls, for I hear a rustling in the wainscotting that tells me a hunt is in the offing. Wish me luck, fair lady. To the victor, the spoils.

P. S. Perhaps I shall send you a nice, juicy rat, beautifully wrapped and tied with a blue ribbon to match your eyes.

―Excerpt of a letter to the Hon’ble Miss Violetta Spencer (cousin and adopted daughter to The Right Hon’ble Kitty and Luke Baxter, Countess and Earl of Trevick) from The Hon’ble Cat, Mau.

2nd March 1850, Goshen Court, Monmouthshire.

The sound of the front door slamming had Leo looking up from the letter he’d just finished. Mau, sitting on the desk beside him, paused in the act of licking his paw, listened for a moment as something moved in the panelling beside them, and carried on washing.

“You’re a lazy devil, Mau,” Leo observed, carefully adding two small paw prints to the bottom of the page. “I give you far too much credit.”

Mau yawned, showing an expanse of pink tongue and many sharp white teeth.

“There’s no need to be rude,” Leo said to him, shaking his head.

Voices emanating from the entrance hall suggested they had a visitor, a rare occurrence at Goshen Court, which was not exactly a place that people thronged to. Still, Pip seemed to like it that way. That the man had a child who was now seven had come as rather a shock to them all but explained a good deal about Ashburton’s behaviour over the past years. Tilly was a sweetheart, however, if rather spoiled and headstrong. Hardly to be wondered at, however, when Pip was so thoroughly smitten he could deny the child nothing. Only her nanny seemed to hold her in check: a rather terrifying female who seemed to hold Pip in contempt and was barely civil to him if Tilly was not in earshot.

Deciding it was time to investigate the new arrival, Leo put the letter to Vi aside to post later. He smiled unrepentantly to himself as he imagined her chagrin at the promise of a nice juicy rat arriving through the post. She could not be quite certain he wouldn’t really do it. Leo could just imagine her opening parcels at arm’s length for the next few weeks, just in case.

“Come, Mau, let’s see who’s here,” he said to the cat, who stretched luxuriously and leapt onto Leo’s shoulders. Leo shook his head as the heavy weight settled in place. A deep sonorous purr rumbled in his ears and Leo reached up to scratch Mau under the chin. “You’re a good fellow, but you weight a ton, you lazy brute,” Leo told him, and walked to the stairs.

The voices were muted now and coming from Pip’s study, not bothering to knock, Leo strode in.

“Ash!” he exclaimed, grinning broadly. “Well, well, this is a turn up. I didn’t expect to see you here. What brings you to these parts?”

Ash shrugged and accepted Leo’s hand, shaking it. “Needed a change of air,” he said noncommittally before smothering a yawn. “Lord, it was a devilish long journey, though. Couldn’t you get a place in Surrey, Pip? Be a sight easier to get to.”

“Then you’d not have your change of air,” Pip observed dryly, holding out a drink for Ash.

“Don’t mind if I do, thanks,” Leo said, swiping it before Ash could get his hands on it and settling himself down in a chair by the fire. Pip sighed and went and poured Ash another drink. Ash downed it in one go, grimaced, and asked for another.

“Blimey,” Leo observed. “Like that, is it? Well, it’s a bit early, but I’m game if you are.”

Ash shook his head. “I’m having this and going to bed.”

“Bed?” Leo repeated in astonishment. “It’s still morning.”

“It’s after two,” Pip replied. “Which you might realise if you were ever up before noon.”

“Well, even so. It’s a damned odd time to go to bed. Are you sick?”

“Yes,” Ash replied, taking the second glass of brandy from Pip and treating it much like the first. “Sick to death.”

Pip and Leo exchanged glances. “Who is she?” they asked in unison.

“Bugger off,” Ash replied. “I’m going to bed.” And with that he headed for the door.

“Top of the stairs and turn right, third on the left,” Pip called after him as Ash disappeared.

“Well,” Leo replied, shaking his head. “He’s out of sorts.”

Pip frowned and settled himself in the chair opposite Leo. “It certainly appears so. Any clues?”

“Not a one,” Leo replied. “Must have happened since I’ve been here.”