Read Online A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Patrick Gale
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them aloud.’
While Winnie, he could see, was mastering her irritation that she had been so upset for no reason, her mother fumbled behind a tapestry cushion beside her to bring out an envelope from which she extracted two letters, one suggestively wrapped about the other, and handed one to each of them. They read in silence, as the chanting of the girls’ lesson continued to reach them from overhead, then exchanged them with a smile.
In one, Jack apologised for the shock but explained that George and he were deeply in love, impatient to be man and wife, and loath to put their families to any fuss or expenditure. Banns had been duly read in his parish church in Chester, over preceding Sundays. Yesterday George had joined him at the church, where they had been married, with friends as happily startled witnesses, and Mrs Jack Cane had moved into her new home. In the other, shorter letter, George assured her family that she loved them all but was unable to contain her love for her dear Jack and was now the happiest woman alive.
Giddy with relief at having finally shared the news, and apparently also reassured by Winnie and Harry’s happy reactions that it was unreservedly good, and not a cause for worry or shame, Mrs Wells insisted on opening a bottle of champagne forthwith, and summoned Julie, Kitty, May and Madame Vance to enlighten them, allowing them a glassful each in celebration.
She was predictably nervous of Robert’s response to what was, after all, a subversion of his authority, but her fears proved groundless. Leaving Winnie en famille for a couple of hours, Harry took the letters to Lincoln’s Inn and set them before the brothers. Just as he’d expected, Robert preserved his dignity by harrumphing a little at the young people’s cheeky subterfuge but was swift to admit that they were very well suited, that Jack was plainly a hard worker with good prospects and that, at a time when the household needed to reduce its outgoings, he was delighted to have married a sister off sensibly at such minimal cost.
Hands were shaken and Frank cracked a joke that perhaps the next two should be enrolled in a ladies’ rowing club at the first opportunity.
Harry left the letters with the brothers and walked the short distance to his own lawyer. There he gave instructions that the deeds to a pair of their father’s houses be made over to Jack by way of a wedding present. The rental income was improving, was steady, and would help cushion Jack against the inevitable extra expense involved in keeping a wife.
It was one of his lawyer’s juniors who took his instructions, but as Harry was preparing to leave, the older man emerged to greet him and take him into his office for a quiet word. Harry’s financial affairs, he was told, had indeed suffered from his misguided investment in Frank’s sure thing. Was he certain he wanted to reduce his income yet further in this way? Harry insisted. He had a duty to his brother, but with marriage he felt Jack truly became independent, and he wanted to mark that transition with a significant settlement. In which case, the lawyer said, economies would need to be made elsewhere. With which he opened a gloomy file of figures and forecasts.
Travelling back out to Strawberry Hill to retrieve Winnie for the journey home, Harry wrote several drafts of a letter congratulating Jack, forgiving him the understandable secrecy, presenting the gift of property and welcoming George to the sparse tribe of Cane. The pair must visit, he insisted, as soon as was convenient. Either that, or prepare to receive visitors immediately.
Now that I can leave off any pretence that being your older brother has conferred anything on me approaching wisdom, he confessed, your marriage seems at once romantic and sure-footed compared to the one you both so kindly nudged me into. I have always been the more conventional and cautious of us two, and now am left feeling somehow the less manly. You are making your way in
While Winnie, he could see, was mastering her irritation that she had been so upset for no reason, her mother fumbled behind a tapestry cushion beside her to bring out an envelope from which she extracted two letters, one suggestively wrapped about the other, and handed one to each of them. They read in silence, as the chanting of the girls’ lesson continued to reach them from overhead, then exchanged them with a smile.
In one, Jack apologised for the shock but explained that George and he were deeply in love, impatient to be man and wife, and loath to put their families to any fuss or expenditure. Banns had been duly read in his parish church in Chester, over preceding Sundays. Yesterday George had joined him at the church, where they had been married, with friends as happily startled witnesses, and Mrs Jack Cane had moved into her new home. In the other, shorter letter, George assured her family that she loved them all but was unable to contain her love for her dear Jack and was now the happiest woman alive.
Giddy with relief at having finally shared the news, and apparently also reassured by Winnie and Harry’s happy reactions that it was unreservedly good, and not a cause for worry or shame, Mrs Wells insisted on opening a bottle of champagne forthwith, and summoned Julie, Kitty, May and Madame Vance to enlighten them, allowing them a glassful each in celebration.
She was predictably nervous of Robert’s response to what was, after all, a subversion of his authority, but her fears proved groundless. Leaving Winnie en famille for a couple of hours, Harry took the letters to Lincoln’s Inn and set them before the brothers. Just as he’d expected, Robert preserved his dignity by harrumphing a little at the young people’s cheeky subterfuge but was swift to admit that they were very well suited, that Jack was plainly a hard worker with good prospects and that, at a time when the household needed to reduce its outgoings, he was delighted to have married a sister off sensibly at such minimal cost.
Hands were shaken and Frank cracked a joke that perhaps the next two should be enrolled in a ladies’ rowing club at the first opportunity.
Harry left the letters with the brothers and walked the short distance to his own lawyer. There he gave instructions that the deeds to a pair of their father’s houses be made over to Jack by way of a wedding present. The rental income was improving, was steady, and would help cushion Jack against the inevitable extra expense involved in keeping a wife.
It was one of his lawyer’s juniors who took his instructions, but as Harry was preparing to leave, the older man emerged to greet him and take him into his office for a quiet word. Harry’s financial affairs, he was told, had indeed suffered from his misguided investment in Frank’s sure thing. Was he certain he wanted to reduce his income yet further in this way? Harry insisted. He had a duty to his brother, but with marriage he felt Jack truly became independent, and he wanted to mark that transition with a significant settlement. In which case, the lawyer said, economies would need to be made elsewhere. With which he opened a gloomy file of figures and forecasts.
Travelling back out to Strawberry Hill to retrieve Winnie for the journey home, Harry wrote several drafts of a letter congratulating Jack, forgiving him the understandable secrecy, presenting the gift of property and welcoming George to the sparse tribe of Cane. The pair must visit, he insisted, as soon as was convenient. Either that, or prepare to receive visitors immediately.
Now that I can leave off any pretence that being your older brother has conferred anything on me approaching wisdom, he confessed, your marriage seems at once romantic and sure-footed compared to the one you both so kindly nudged me into. I have always been the more conventional and cautious of us two, and now am left feeling somehow the less manly. You are making your way in
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