Philippa Carr - The Adulteress

“Well,” said James, “if you put it like that … naturally, most men like to be their own masters.”

“That’s what I wanted to know.”

I went to them and kissed them. “You have been good friends to me,” I said.

“What has happened?” asked Hetty. “You look as if you’ve seen some miracle.”

“Yes,” I said. “Perhaps I have. Be patient with me. If it works … you’ll know soon enough.”

Dickon arrived confident and certain of himself, sure, I knew, that I would have by now, what he would call, come to my senses.

I said to him: “Dickon. What would you say if I told you I was passing Eversleigh over to you?”

I had rarely seen him taken off his guard, but he was then. He looked at me suspiciously.

“I mean it,” I said. “After all, it is Eversleigh you want. You’d be ready to forego Lottie for Eversleigh, wouldn’t you?”

“Dear Zipporah, you talk most amusingly but somewhat obscurely. This is one of the few matters about which I do not care to joke.”

I said: “Lottie is in France with her father.”

His face clouded. “What is your game, Zipporah?”

“Very simple. You wanted to marry Lottie for Eversleigh. Eversleigh is what you want. You would manage it perfectly, I know. The ancestors would rise up and sing Hallelujah, I am sure. They never liked the idea of its being in the hands of a woman … although I had a husband to help me. Could you forget Lottie if you already had Eversleigh?”

“Do you mean could I be persuaded to forego my courtship?”

“I mean would you stop writing to her, talking to her of marriage … for Eversleigh?”

“Please, please explain.”

I said: “James Fenton will buy a farm. He wouldn’t stay here with you around. There will be many things to be worked out. I have had an offer of marriage from Lottie’s father. I have decided to accept. I shall live in France after I’m married … and so will Lottie. Dickon, I am going to make over Eversleigh to you now. You are, after all, the male heir.”

He stared at me. Then a slow smile spread across his face.

“Eversleigh!” he murmured and I had never seen him look so tender. I saw then that he loved the place as he could never love anything else.

I said: “You will have to put a manager in at Clavering. You will have to come to Eversleigh with Clarissa and Sabrina … your courtiers, as it were, and you will reign supreme … as you schemed so basely to do.” I laughed suddenly. “It’s virtue rewarded … in reverse.”

Dickon looked at me admiringly.

“I do love you, Zipporah,” he said.