Read Online Belgravia by Julian Fellowes - Free Book Online

risk, of course, but I would ask her to keep it toherself. Of course I know I couldn’t force her to, but I don’t think we have the right to keep it from her that she has a grandson.”
    “We’ve kept it from them for more than a quarter of a century.”
    “But we didn’t know them. Now we do. Or at least, I know her.”
    James had climbed in beside his wife and blown out his candle. He lay down with his back to her. “I forbid it. I will not have our daughter’s memory defaced. Certainly not by her own mother. And get that dog off the bed.” Anne could see there was no point in arguing any further, so she gently snuffed out the candle on her side, settled down under the bedclothes, and lifted Agnes into the crook of her arm. But sleep was a long time in coming.
    The family had returned to England before Sophia told them. The aftermath of the battle consumed James’s efforts for some weeks, but at last he had brought them all back to London, to a house in Kennington that was an improvement on their previous abode but hardly a fashion leader. He continued to supply foodstuffs to the army, but catering to an army in peacetime was not the same as dealing with the drama of war, and it was increasingly clear to Anne that he was bored with the work, bored with the world he was operating in, bored with its lack of possibilities. Then he started to notice the renewed activity of London’s builders. The victory over Napoléon and the peace that followed had stoked a new confidence in the country’s future. The figure of the French emperor had loomed over them all, more perhaps than they had recognized, for twenty years, and now he was gone to a faraway island in the South Atlantic, and this time he would not be back. Europe was free, and it was time to look ahead. And so the day dawned when James came into the house flushed with excitement. Anne was in the kitchen, supervising the stores cupboard with her cook. There was no need for this. Their life and income had overtaken the way they used to do things, as James never tired of pointing out, and seeing his wife in an apron checking groceries was never very pleasing to him, especially as he was still flying high from their experiences in Brussels. On this particular evening, however, nothing could spoil his humor.
    “I have met an extraordinary man,” he said.
    “Oh?” Anne stared at the label on the flour. She was sure it was wrong.
    “A man who is going to rebuild London.” Anne didn’t know it then but he was right. Thomas Cubitt, a former ship’s carpenter, had devised a new method for managing a building project. He undertook to deal with, and employ, all the different trades involved: bricklayers, plasterers, tilers, plumbers, carpenters, stonemasons, painters. Those responsible for the commission would only ever have to deal with Cubitt and his brother, William. Everything else would be done for them.
    James paused. “Isn’t it brilliant?”
    Anne could see that there was considerable appeal in this system, and it might have a bright future, but was it worth throwing over a perfectly established career when James knew nothing about it? Still, she soon learned that he wouldn’t be shaken. “He’s building a new home for the London Institution at Finsbury Circus. He wants help with the funding and dealing with the suppliers.”
    “Which you have been doing all your working life.”
    “Exactly!” And so it began. James Trenchard the developer was born, and everything would have been as merry as a marriage bell if Sophia had not dropped her bombshell barely a month later.
    She came into her mother’s room one morning and sat on the bed. Anne was at her glass as Ellis finished her hair. The girl waited in near silence until the work was done. Anne knew something was coming, something big, but she wasn’t eager to begin it. At last, however, she accepted the inevitable. “Thank you, Ellis, you may go.” The maid was curious, naturally; if anything,