The Hertfordshire countryside. January 1817
âTURKEY? You want to go to Turkey? Have you taken leave of your senses? A titled lady, a widow, travelling alone? Outrageous! I absolutely forbid it.â Sir Hubert Morvall fixed his stepmother with what he no doubt believed was a look of firm authority, suitable to the head of the household.
âI fail to see how you can stop me, Hubert.â Caroline, Lady Morvall, returned the glower with a smile of sweet reasonableness which she knew was bound to inflame him further. Try as she might to love her stepson, she had never found him anything but a humourless, self-absorbed bore, who seemed indecently pleased to have stepped into his fatherâs shoes and become fifth Baron Morvall.
At her side, her pregnant daughter-in-law produced a faint cluck of distress. âBut you are not out of mourning yet, Caroline Mama,â Clara whispered, her small hands fluttering above her swelling figure, ignoring Carolineâs tightened lips at the form of address.
Why a woman scarcely two years younger than herself insisted on calling her Mama she had no ideaâunless it was Hubertâs influence. It made her feel ancient.
âTomorrow is the anniversary of dear Sir Williamâs death,â Clara persisted, dropping her voice to a reverential whisper.
âAnd the day I intend putting off my blacks and packing my bags,â Caroline responded briskly. Her husband would have hated this mawkish sentimentality. She could think of no better way to honour the memory of darling William than by making the journey he had read and dreamed about and which he had planned in such minute detail for years; she could almost hear his whisper of approval in the stuffy room now.
The death of his first wife and then the restrictions put on travel by the long war with France had first postponed the journey. Later, his second marriage had made the Baron reluctant to expose his young wife to the rigours of such an expedition. Finally they had decided to goâjust when he was struck down totally unexpectedly.
âI have it all organised,â Caroline added, pushing away the bad memories and cheerfully heaping fuel on the flames of Hubertâs wrath. He reminded her of the turkey cock at the Home Farm, gobbling with indignation, his incipient double chin quivering. âI have hired an experienced courier whom I shall meet in London on Tuesday. We sail on Saturday.â
For an awful moment Caroline feared Hubert was about to succumb to a heart stroke, like the one that had carried her husband off at the age of fifty-six, then the puce colour faded a little to crimson, and she breathed again. âYou have been planning all this behind my back. To do such a thing at your age is outrageous!â
âHubert, I am twenty-six. You are twenty-seven. I fail to see what my age has to do with it. Or what you have to say in the matter, come to that. As you well know, I am legally and financially independent of you, and may do as I wish. I most certainly do not have to make you privy to my plans or my correspondence. I am simply informing you now for Claraâs convenience.â She turned to the younger woman. âI am sorry not to have confided my plans before now, but I knew we would find ourselves having this discussion, and I could not bear weeks of Hubertâs opposition.â
Clara took her hand and whispered, âBut Sir Hubert is head of the family now. We must obey him.â
Caroline, as so often, marvelled at Claraâs sheeplike obedience to Hubertâs pompous demands. It was hardly that she loved himâor at least if she did physical passion did not enter into it. Only the other day, when Caroline had sympathised with her morning sickness, she had confided that the discomforts of pregnancy were amply compensated for by an absence of what she referred to coyly as marital demands.
Caroline had enjoyed a short but extremely happy marriage to Hubertâs father. Sir William had proved to be a man of abundant physical energy, a huge appetite for life and an undoubted talent for making love to his young wife. Caroline was well aware that he had acquired his ability to please her from years of extramarital adventures, and could only be grateful for it. She had to conclude, looking from Hubert to Clara, that amatory skills, and the desire to acquire them, were not inherited traits.
She missed Williamâs enthusiastically noisy company greatly, but she also pined for his lovemaking. Twenty-six was far too young to learn to be celibate, she concluded with an inward sigh. Although how one went about solving that without finding oneself tied to another husband, one whom she was certain not to like so much as the first, was a puzzle.