The Unknown Mr. Brown (3 page)

“Work for you, Mrs. Allen?” Victoria exclaimed ecstatically. “But that would be pure heaven! What would I do? When could I start?”

“Gently, child, it’s only a tentative suggestion to fill in time while you were looking around for something more suitable. You mightn’t find life at Farthings such heaven after the advantages of being finished abroad. We live very quietly and don’t entertain.”

Victoria regarded her with grave, suddenly unchildlike eyes, the vivacity dying out of her face, leaving it blank and a little pinched.

“But don’t you understand?” she said like an anxious child. “I’m grateful, of course, for what has been done for me, but I’ve never had any feeling of permanence. You treat me as a person, you see, and Farthings sounds like a real home.”

“Yes,” Kate answered with gentleness, “I think it has that quality. I only rent it, you know, but it’s mine for as long as I need it.”

“Need it? But won’t you always need a home for Timmy?”

“Yes, of course, but one day he’ll grow up and I won’t want to be tied to one place for ever. In the meantime Farthings serves us very well, but there are domestic problems. Timmy needs companionship while I’m working and my old Elspeth who’s been with us since he was born has enough to do with cooking and running the house to be at the beck and call of a child. He doesn’t need a nanny now but someone young enough to play with him as well as teach him his alphabet. You and he seemed to click at once. Do you think you could be happy being a general dogsbody for a time?”

“I don’t need to think. I can imagine nothing more—more rewarding than to share in your family life at Farthings for a little while. Oh, damn, there’s Mr. Brown!”

For a moment Kate looked up, startled, half expecting to see an elderly stranger bearing down upon them, then she laughed.

“Don’t cross your bridges. Just write, to the solicitors and state your wishes. After all, you’re nearly twenty and entitled to order your own life within reason,” she said.

“Yes, I am, aren’t I? But they don’t treat me as an adult. They won’t consider my wishes if they’ve got other plans.”

“Well, you can but write and find out. I’m quite willing to present myself and my credentials for their inspection if necessary.”

“Do you know any influential people—the sort, I mean, to impress lawyers?” Victoria asked hopefully, and Kate laughed.

“One or two, I expect,” she said. “The cousin from whom I rent my house would doubtless put in a word if asked, but you must put your own case first. After all, it’s possible that your Mr. Brown is faced with a problem owing to this fresh development. You can hardly stop on here indefinitely now that your education is finished.”

“Mr. Brown is never faced with problems, and if he was, Mr. Chappie or Mr. Ponsonby would devise means to iron them out with prompt dispatch. It’s being borne in on me of late that they must have made a very good thing out of Mr. Brown’s little ploy all these years,” said Victoria astutely, and Kate’s eyebrows went up.

“Very likely, but one must assume that rich eccentrics expect to pay for their whims, so run along and get that letter off before it’s too late to alter plans.”

CHAPTER TWO

BUT as the days went by with no reply to her letter, Victoria’s spirits sank. At first she had consoled herself with the thought that negotiations would have to be effected with Mr. Brown who might well be at the other ends of the earth engaged on one of those nameless projects which Mr. Ponsonby had said covered such a wide field, but when, still without news, the day came for the Allens to leave for England, their departure seemed to put an end to her hopes.

“After all, it was only a dream,” she said as she bade them goodbye, and Kate gave her a quick kiss.

“Cheer up! One’s never sure what’s round the corner, and for all you know, your Mr. Brown may be laid up with some dire complaint and unable to conduct any business,” she said lightly, and was amused to see Victoria’s face undergo one of its lightning transitions.

“I never thought of that!” she exclaimed. “Oh, poor Mr. Brown! And all this time I’ve been thinking unworthy things about him. I must write at once, and tell the lawyers not to worry him.”

“I shouldn’t bother,” Kate retorted somewhat dryly. “I doubt if they would be impressed by a belated concern for their client. You have, I fancy, a secret fondness for this unknown patron, Victoria, or is it just wishful thinking?”

Victoria stood considering with that grave deliberation which she employed at times before answering the question.

“Perhaps,” she said then. “Perhaps everyone needs a figurehead—a kind of touchstone against adversity. I hardly knew my father, you see, for I so seldom saw him. I admired him tremendously from a distance, but he wasn’t much more real than Mr. Brown, so if ever I do meet Mr. Brown, I shall find something to like in him—even to love, if necessary.”

“In that case content yourself with your own creations, the reality may turn out to be a big let-down,” Kate retorted with some crispness, and as the sound of approaching sleighbells announced that the hour of departure was upon them, Victoria turned to her with a forlorn attempt to smile.

“Oh, I
shall
miss you—you and Timmy, and all the fun we’ve had. Perhaps it was a pity we met, after all.”

“Nonsense, child! Even if you aren’t allowed to accept employment with me we shall meet when you’re back in England. You can at least come on a visit to Farthings and we’ll pick up the threads again.”

“That will be nice,” Victoria replied politely but without conviction. Then Timmy created a timely diversion by clutching Victoria tightly round the legs and bursting into anguished wails.

“Don’t want to go home ... don’t want to leave T—Toria ... I won’t, I won’t, I
won’t
!” he shouted, scarlet in the face, and by the time his mother and Victoria had soothed him into a hiccoughing state of compliance, there was no margin left for prolonged farewells.

Victoria picked up the bundle of English periodicals which Kate had left behind for her and sat down to idle away the time, reluctant to return to the hostel. Most of the glossies were filled with seasonable snapshots of notable winter sports enthusiasts holidaying at the more fashionable resorts. Under one of them a familiar name caught her eye and she read the caption:
Mr. Robert Farmer, who has recently added fresh laurels to his legal reputation, relaxing in the sun.
Mr. Robert Farmer was certainly relaxing with a glamorous blonde alongside, but since an enormous straw sombrero was tipped well over his face, he could have been anyone, thought Victoria, and upon picking up
Country Life,
was irritated to find that he figured here too.
Our candid camera catches Mr. Robert Farmer in holiday mood on the slopes at St
.
Moritz,
she was informed cosily.
A little bird whispers that this brilliant young junior Counsel might be thinking of settling down, so we may expect to hear an important announcement soon.
So he hadn’t married after all, thought Victoria, hoping the little bird might still be a forerunner of disaster, at the same time examining the photograph for remembered characteristics, but here, too, Mr. Farmer was effectively disguised by a large pair of dark glasses. It was odd how the mention of him could still rankle, she reflected as she made her way back to the hostel, and was thankful that this modest little holiday resort was not smart enough to attract a more publicized clientele.

There was a postcard from Kate at the end of the week announcing their safe arrival, but nothing from Chappie, Chappie & Ponsonby, and Victoria sat down to pen a tactful reminder that she was still awaiting instructions and were they aware that the hostel would shortly be closing down for its spring respite before the start of the climbing season?

When at last the reply came, she opened it with no anticipation of agreement, but whether her arguments had at last found favour, or whether Kate’s efforts had proved more persuasive and her credentials suitably impressive, permission was granted for a trial run agreed upon with Mrs. Allen on certain terms. There followed precise instructions as to dates of departure and modes of travel and concluded with prim good wishes for the future.

From then on the days seemed to fly past and all too soon she was making her farewells and discovering with some surprise that she would be missed. For a moment as her plane took off from the airport, she experienced regret for those carefree months which would never come again and could be grateful now for that meticulous attention to her father’s wishes which at the time had seemed so pointless. Later as the plane passed over the English coast and touched down on English soil, such philosophic musings vanished on a wave of eager anticipation. She was a child again, returning for the holidays, but this time it was a real homecoming. There was Kate waiting at the barrier and signalling frantically and all around her was the almost forgotten buzz of English voices and the inevitable patter and hissing of English rain.

“Oh,
Kate
! If it wasn’t so wet and dirty, I’d fall on my knees and kiss the ground like what’s-his-name,” she cried as she was clasped in a warm embrace, then grew pink with embarrassment. “Oh, how
awfu
l
! I’ve never called you that before, and now you’re my employer! It was just that I was so pleased to see you that I didn’t think.”

“Well, please go on forgetting,” Kate replied, her brown eyes twinkling. “I hope we’re going to be friends rather than mistress and mother’s help, for which neither of us are very well fitted. Come along now—we’ve got a fair drive ahead of us and it’s a stinking day.”

It was, indeed, a most unpleasant day, but to Victoria, repeatedly rubbing a clear spot in the condensation on the passenger window and peering out at familiar surroundings, it seemed only right that the weather should be traditional on her return to her native land.

“How did you work it? Did you blackmail old Mr. Chappie? Did you even, perhaps, get into the Presence and do a spot of persuasion on Mr. Brown?” she asked among other less relevant questions, and Kate laughed.

“No, I did
not
get into the Presence—it didn’t occur to me to try,” she replied. “As it happens, Chappie, Chappie & Ponsonby handled my affairs when my husband died, so I wasn’t unknown to them.”

Kate turned her attention again to the countryside. New estates and factory sites seemed to have encroached still further on green fields and commons, but gradually these were left behind and the car took a sudden plunge down a steep, winding hill into the narrow lanes and wooded pockets of the Sussex Weald. Every so often a gap in the trees would reveal an unbroken vista of rolling country, but the line of downs lying beyond was hidden in a misty curtain of rain. Another hill was climbed, twisting sharply through the trees, and at the top Kate turned the car into a rough, puddle-pitted lane which ended at a pair of white gates standing open to the long, mellow walls of an old farmhouse.

Even in the rainy bleakness of a March afternoon, Farthings offered a welcome and a sense of homecoming and Victoria fell in love with it on sight. Kate gave her no time to stand and stare, however, but hustled her in out of the wet, and there was Timmy clutching her round the legs with the remembered tenacity, though this time his fervour found expression in piercing squeals of delight.

“You’ve come for always, haven’t you, Toria? Elpet
said
it was just to visit, but it
isn’t,
is it?” he said as she hugged him in return.

“Now, young man, don’t plague the young leddy as soon as she’s set foot through the door,” said a big, capable-looking woman hurrying to relieve them of their luggage. “Losh me, Mrs. Allen, don’t you go out in the wet again. Sam will fetch in the rest of your traps and put the car away, too.”

“Very well,” Kate smiled. “Victoria, this is my dear Elspeth of whom you’ve often heard me speak. She manages the house and us with equal impartiality. I expect she’ll manage you, too, if you don’t make a stand from the start. Elspeth, this is Miss Hayes who is going to take Timmy off your hands for a bit and think up fresh uses for magic for me when I run out of plots.”

“How do you do?” Victoria said, disentangling herself from Timmy and holding out a hand.

Elspeth took it after an instant’s deliberation and Victoria, watching the woman’s shrewd grey eyes travelling over her face, knew that she was being silently appraised.

“We’re pleased to welcome you here to Farthings, miss,” she said politely, but there was reserve behind the pleasant burr of her native Scotland and Victoria knew that Elspeth would accept her only when she had formed her own assessment.

“Well,” said Kate, hoping that her old servant would not extend her past distrust of the au pair girls to Victoria, “I expect you’d like to see your room and freshen up generally, after which we’ll have our well-earned tea. I know Elspeth was making a batch of her special griddle scones in your honour, so come along and I’ll show you the lie of the land.”

Very soon it seemed to Victoria that she had known Farthings all her life, or perhaps, as Kate pointed out, it was simply her first real experience of home.

Mr. Brown was forgotten for days on end in the pleasure of fresh discoveries. She loved the old rambling house with its many passages and hidden stairways and rooms opening invitingly one upon another. Elspeth grumbled at the inconvenience when it came to carrying coals and trays, but she kept the, place spotless with only the help of a daily girl from the village and a youth who periodically dug the garden and cleaned the car, and would allow no one but herself to wax and polish the rather fine period pieces which graced many of the rooms. It was a long time before Victoria realised that the contents of the house which seemed so much to reflect Kate’s tastes belonged to her no more than the house itself.

“Took the whole lot furnished at a nominal rent for these times and no strings attached,” Elspeth told her. “It was a merciful dispensation at the time of her trouble, for poor Mr. Allen left very little money and the bairn needed special care and quiet, born as he was. Aye, there’s some good folks in this world yet.”

Victoria remembered that Kate had said she leased Farthings from a cousin for as long as she might need it. She must be a very nice and devoted cousin, Victoria thought, to offer her home for an indefinite period, unless for some reason she had never cared for it herself.

“Yes,” she said, “that was generous of the cousin, but perhaps she’s old, or maybe lives abroad?”

Elspeth paused in her attentions to a piecrust table long enough to favour Victoria with a look of amused surprise, then fell to again with renewed vigour.

“Neither old nor female, and as far as I know has no thoughts of settling abroad,” she retorted.