Portrait of Jonathan (6 page)

‘My
dear
Lady Melmoth,' Lady Anthea was saying in deep-throated tones. ‘How
nice
to see you again. So
kind
of you to invite us to dine and so unexpectedly too. Oswald dislikes entertaining, you know, so my social life has been sadly neglected.' She moved on, with similar inane words to Lord Melmoth and thence to Jonathan, as if, Lavinia thought shrewdly, she had not meant to seek out Jonathan particularly from the moment she stepped into the house.

‘Jonathan, my dear,' she purred, stretching out her hands to him, which he took in his, but after a moment's hesitation.

‘How are you, Anthea?' A slightly cynical note in his voice was apparent.

She grimaced. ‘ Bored my dear, but well in health. And you—how are you?'

‘Far from bored and quite well, I thank you.'

Anthea pouted, her eyes flirting outrageously with him. Jonathan turned and introduced Lavinia to Lady Anthea.

‘This is Miss Kelvin,' he said.

‘How do you do, my dear.' Lady Anthea's hand was limp in Lavinia's, and her eyes flickered briefly and disinterestedly over Lavinia. ‘Are you being allowed to stay up late to dine with us—what an honour for us?' Lady Anthea laughed cruelly. The remark heard by everyone in the room did not appear to amuse anyone else but Lady Anthea, and Lavinia herself blushed scarlet and hung her head.

Giles was by her side in a moment. ‘ Come over here, Vinny, and sit with me.'

Taking her arm he led her to the far end of the room but over his shoulder he exchanged an angry glance with his elder brother. Jonathan, the smile gone from his face, wore an expressionless mask, but deep in his eyes was a strange look as his gaze followed the figure of the young girl, whose head was bowed, her shoulders hunched as if she had been dealt a hurtful physical blow.

‘Come, Jonathan,' Lady Anthea's soft voice tried to lure his attention back to her, ‘we have much to catch up on, have we not?'

Giles led Lavinia over to the piano out of earshot of the rest of the conversation.

‘No doubt we shall have to suffer Lady Anthea's playing after dinner,' he said.

‘If she plays as well as she is beautiful,' Lavinia said wistfully, ‘it should not be a sufferance.'

‘Don't envy her, Vinny. She's not worth it, especially after what she had just said to you.'

She looked up at Giles' face, which was unusually serious.

‘You sound bitter, Giles—surely not on my account.'

He sighed. ‘Partly—and partly not. It's an old story. Jonathan was in love with her several years ago and we thought she loved him, but she treated him shamefully. There was a quarrel over her between Jonathan and Viscount Selwyn. Rumour had it that that was how Jonathan got his scar, but he has never admitted it. However, that seemed to finish it—Jonathan would have no more to do with her and soon after, she married Lord Thorwald—obviously for his money and title.'

‘And Jonathan,' Lavinia asked in a small voice, ‘what of him?'

Giles shrugged. ‘I don't know. He doesn't show his feelings at all now—if he's got any. But seeing him now with her again, I wonder …'

Lavinia followed his eyes to where Jonathan and Lady Anthea stood, oblivious of the others in the room, it seemed. Lady Anthea was talking softly looking up into his eyes, whilst Jonathan listened with that curious smile playing at the corner of his mouth once more.

In that moment, Lavinia felt her heart breaking over Jonathan.

The second event which had a profound effect upon the young girl was directly concerned with Jonathan.

During the week following the dinner party, Lavinia saw very little of Lord Melmoth, Jonathan, or, for that matter, Giles. Usually the whole family were only gathered together at dinner and for a short while afterwards. Her days were spent with Lady Melmoth, or alone in her room, where, unbeknown to the Eldon family, she pursued her favourite pastime of sketching, which she had always done in secret. Her parents, having once seen her sketches, had jeered at her efforts—unjustifiably so too, for her talent in that direction was considerable for a girl of her years, especially in view of the fact that her work was always done in secret and without encouragement or advice.

One evening after dinner, when the gentlemen rejoined the ladies in the drawing-room, Jonathan seated himself beside Lavinia, setting the girl's heart thumping painfully. She kept her eyes firmly fixed upon her hands in her lap, her fingers twisting nervously.

‘Would you like to see our clipper ships at the docks, Vinny?' Jonathan asked, so softly that she could hardly hear him, and his use of the pet-name which Giles had bestowed upon her startled her even more than his unexpected suggestion.

‘Oh, y-yes, I sh-should, please.' She raised her brown eyes to meet his.

‘That's settled then. Tomorrow afternoon I have some time to spare and we shall go. Not a word to anyone, mind.' He smiled his curious smile, his voice little more than a whisper. ‘I want you to myself for once.'

Abruptly, he rose and left her. Her eyes followed him, worshippingly, as he crossed the room to talk with his father. Would tomorrow ever come? She was fearful that the promise of an afternoon in his company would surely never come to pass.

But the following afternoon found her seated beside Jonathan in the brougham, her cheeks pink with excitement. She was wrapped warmly in a fur-trimmed cape which Lady Melmoth had given her.

The East India Docks, which she had never visited before, were a different world to her. The wharves seemed cluttered with cargo being unloaded from the tea clippers. Cranes lifted the tea-chests and boxes from the shops on to the wharf, and then the men with running-barrows methodically moved the chests again, though how, she wondered, they knew where everything was or where it should go, she could not imagine. Voices filled the air—instructions from those in charge, with replies, sometimes, of disagreement if the order was impracticable. Horses harnessed to carts stood patiently whilst receiving a load. The men were dressed in work-a-day clothes, many in shirt sleeves and cloth caps, some had a leather apron over their trousers. Here and there smartly dressed gentlemen in top hats and frock coats stood watching the proceedings. They must be shipowners, Lavinia thought.

‘Take my arm lest you slip, Vinny—mind that rope.'

Shyly she put her arm in his and although the surroundings captivated her attention, she was nevertheless conscious the whole time of his nearness. The masts of the sailing ships lined up along the wharves resembled a forest of tall, straight trees. Jonathan pointed out the ships belonging to the Keldon Line.

‘Do they only carry tea, Jonathan? Surely it is a wasted journey if they go from here empty?'

He smiled down at her. ‘No, they take a great deal of merchandise from this country on their outward journey—almost everything you could think of: lead, iron, cottons. And of course, on the return although the main cargo is tea, they also bring other merchandise back—silks and so on.'

They walked on. The sight of the clippers enthralled Lavinia, not only because they were Jonathan's ships, but the thought of them travelling gamely across the wild oceans captivated her romantic imagination.

‘Come,' said Jonathan. ‘I want to show you my pride and joy.'

Eagerly she followed him as they returned to the brougham to travel a short distance.

‘This is Blackwall,' Jonathan explained as the vehicle drew to a halt once more, ‘ where ships are built.'

They walked some distance amongst the workmen—carpenters, blacksmiths and joiners. Jonathan greeted many of them by name and they grinned and touched their caps to him. It seemed he was a regular visitor here and was popular with the shipbuilders.

‘Here we are.'

Above them rose the enormous skeleton of a ship in the process of being built.

‘We're keeping to much the same graceful shape of the clipper ships, Vinny.'

As Jonathan spoke, Lavinia looked up at him. His eyes were afire with enthusiasm, and his gaze roamed over the lines of the unfinished ship caressingly almost. It was obvious to her, in a moment, that all his hopes and dreams were bound up with this ship.

‘But she will be fitted with a compound steam engine, which we hope will mean she should be able to travel from China to England non-stop.'

As Lavinia seemed puzzled Jonathan continued. ‘You see the steamships are having a hard fight to prove themselves against the clippers. They have to carry huge quantities of coal—which naturally takes up valuable cargo space, or they have to make frequent stops to refuel, and that can cause a lot of difficulties in various ways. But with this more economical engine plus the fact that the Suez Canal will be opening soon—the steamship will begin to prove itself.'

‘I see, and will the clipper ship be useless then?'

‘Oh no—they'll last for many years and be worthy craft, but gradually they will be superseded by steam, there's no doubt about it. But all changes of this nature don't happen overnight. It takes years of gradual development, of trial and error by the inventors and a good deal of risk on the part of the shipping companies like ourselves.'

‘What are you g-going to call her?' Lavinia asked.

‘We haven't decided yet—it will be some time before she is launched, they've only just well begun. But I had wondered about “Mélanie” after your grandmother.'

‘My grandfather is involved with the s-steamship then?'

Jonathan nodded.

‘He must be a very—forward-thinking p-person,' she murmured.

‘He is. He's a wonderful man, Lavinia. You'll like him.'

Lavinia looked away, none too sure. She was afraid of the proposed meeting between herself and her grandfather, and, even more, she feared her return home to her parents, which must be inevitable once she had met her grandfather. But with determined resolve she put such dismal thoughts from her mind and continued to enjoy her precious afternoon spent with Jonathan.

On their drive back home, Jonathan pointed out various places of interest to Lavinia.

‘But I am forgetting, Vinny, you live here, you must have seen these places a hundred times and here I am showing them to you as if you were a stranger to London.'

‘No—I haven't seen them before—truly. Mama does not believe in visiting p-places of interest. I've heard about them, of course, and occasionally seen such places as the Tower or the Houses of Parliament and even Buckingham Palace. But it's not the same as really visiting them for that purpose. I try to read as much as I c-can, but it's not always easy. Papa says it is a waste of time educating a girl and Mama says all the m-money for an education must go for Roderick.'

‘Poor child,' Jonathan murmured under his breath and hoped that above the rattling wheels of the brougham Lavinia had not heard him. He could not bring himself to answer her. He was so overcome with anger against her thoughtless, selfish parents that he could think of no suitable reply.

Lavinia fell silent too. But the glow of the afternoon remained with her for a long time and indeed helped her to face the meeting with her grandfather with a little more equanimity.

The day arrived all too soon for Lavinia for she wished her stay with the Eldons could last for ever, and the meeting with her grandfather, she imagined, would terminate her stay here. She felt sure she would then be despatched home to her parents, and that the Eldons had, in fact, only extended their hospitality to her until her grandfather had met her.

In her room, dressed in the blue afternoon dress Lady Melmoth had bought her, Lavinia heard the carriage arrive. She could not bring herself even to peek out of the window—so afraid was she that he was a terrifying person. A few moments elapsed. Then she heard the maid's footsteps outside the door and her soft knock.

‘Will you come down now, please, Miss Kelvin? Lord Rowan has arrived.'

‘Y-yes.'

The footsteps moved away. Lavinia remained sitting before her mirror as if rooted to the dressing-table stool. She could not move, fear held her captive. But she knew she must go down. She could not disgrace the Eldons who had been so indescribably kind. They wanted her to meet Lord Rowan so she would do so.

The length of the stairs seemed all too short whereas normally it seemed interminably long. Lavinia paused outside the door of the drawing-room and took a deep breath. She reached for the knob with trembling fingers.

‘Oh!' she gave a startled cry. Someone had come up from behind her and taken her hand.

She looked round to meet Jonathan's brown eyes and see his small smile.

‘Don't be frightened, Vinny. He can't help but love you.'

Before she could reply, he opened the door and led her into the room.

Lady Melmoth was seated on the sofa looking up at her husband and a stranger who stood together in front of the fire. Giles stood behind his mother. He turned and smiled at Lavinia as she entered with Jonathan. But immediately, Lavinia's eyes went to the stranger. He was an elderly man, but so tall and straight that his appearance belled his age. His hair was silver and he had a moustache which ended in two sharp points.

Lord Rowan turned, mid-sentence, and caught sight of Lavinia's small figure standing beside Jonathan, almost shrinking towards him for protection.

Her huge brown eyes were riveted upon her grandfather's face. Instantly, he saw the likeness between this child and his wife, Mélanie. Although this girl was only a shadow of Mélanie's beauty and personality, he could see at a glance she was a potential beauty. What chance had she had, he thought angrily, with Gervase as a parent?

Lord Rowan had stopped speaking without finishing his sentence, losing concentration as his attention was caught and held by the sight of his granddaughter.

‘Here she is, sir,' Jonathan was saying leading her forward.