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The Fairbairn Fortunes
By Una-Mary Parker Severn House Publishers Limited
Copyright © 2016 C Cheval Associates Ltd.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84751-693-0
CHAPTER 1
Cranley Court, 1913
'Darling Laura! I'm so glad you arrived before the others,' Diana exclaimed, hurrying forward to kiss her sister. 'Come and sit by the fire in the library. I want to hear all your news. And how are you, Caroline?'
She bent down to hug her nine-year-old niece. 'Archie and Emily are so excited at having you to stay.'
Caroline, pretty and bright-eyed, gazed up at her favourite aunt in silent awe, not knowing what to say.
Laura smiled encouragingly and murmured, 'Say hello to Aunt Di, darling.' Then she straightened her back, looking tired. 'I thought we'd never get here. There was snow on the line and we were held up for ages.' As she spoke she put down her fur muff and started taking off her small, chic hat.
'You're here now and that's the main thing,' Diana said soothingly. 'Caroline, why don't you run up to the playroom and surprise the others? With all this snow on the drive, I don't think they heard you arrive.'
The child was staring wide-eyed at the splendid Christmas tree with its quaint Victorian decorations that had been in the Kelso family for two generations. The small, carved and painted animals, miniature bugles and stars had been hung artfully from the dense pine branches and there were even cream-coloured candles held in place by little metal clips.
'It's beautiful, Di,' Laura exclaimed. 'It must have taken you hours to decorate.'
Diana laughed. 'Mrs Armstrong and I did it after the children had gone to bed. We didn't finish until about two in the morning! Their faces were priceless the next day. Emily wondered if Father Christmas had delivered it.'
'Thank God for Mrs Armstrong,' Laura observed, sotto voce. 'I wish we'd had such a good housekeeper when we were young. Poor Mama wasn't exactly artistic, was she?'
Diana nodded. 'That's what happens if you have eleven children. I look back on those days of living in a big castle and wonder how Mama managed to keep the staff we had. Do you remember how cold it was? Even in summer? Living in a house, even a big one like this, is so easy by comparison. Now, let's get you settled in.'
She turned to Burton and at a signal the butler gave the first footman orders to take Lady Laura Leighton-Harvey's luggage up to her room, where one of the chambermaids would do her unpacking. Meanwhile, Mrs Armstrong had already taken Caroline up to the playroom where Nanny Kelso was about to preside over nursery tea, while the cousins eyed each other with silent curiosity and suspicion. Caroline couldn't help feeling inferior when she stayed at Cranley Court. In fact, she felt inferior when she stayed with any of her mother's sisters. They were all rich. They all had big houses and servants — even Aunt Georgie, who'd scandalized Scottish society by marrying an Irish working-class man who owned several pubs. Every one of her many cousins also had a father they could see every day; respectable men who didn't get drunk and hadn't been thrown into an institution. No one really mentioned her father these days, and that hurt her a lot. It was as if he'd brought shame on the family. No one asked after him or mentioned his name, and yet they talked about the other uncles. He might have been dead for all they cared.
Caroline knew he'd spent all their money and it was called 'going bankrupt', but Mama earned money with her dressmaking so why couldn't Dada live with them? Why did he live with his sister?
'Come along, Caroline,' said Nanny Kelso. 'You'll fade away if you don't eat something.'
Caroline put on what she considered to be her rather grand and grown-up voice. 'I'm not hungry, thank you very much.'
'You won't thank me if you get ill,' Nanny retorted sturdily. 'Now, come along. Eat your bread and butter and then you can have a nice slice of Dundee cake.'
While Caroline nibbled with reluctance, Archie, who was two years older, decided to engage her in stilted conversation.
'How is Edinburgh?'
'It's still standing,' she replied, glancing balefully at him.
'Is Aunt Laura still making dresses?' Emily enquired curiously.
She's a designer, not a common dressmaker,' Caroline said rudely.
Nanny sighed inwardly and raised her eyes to heaven. It was going to be a very long Christmas holiday at this rate. Caroline was offended by everything that was said to her. Her Ladyship had warned her it was better not to mention Mr Leighton-Harvey in front of his daughter, because this would be the third festive season when he'd remained with his sister. He'd made no contact with Caroline; not even a Christmas card.
It was Nanny's private belief that Caroline was the most spoilt little girl she'd ever known. Lady Laura pandered to her one moment and then scolded her the next because she could turn nasty in a flash. For all her prettiness she was a treacherous child who needed a firm hand, in Nanny's opinion.
Downstairs, Diana and Laura were sitting by the crackling log fire in the book-lined library, which had two French windows leading on to a terrace, and beyond, the snow-covered lawns of Diana's large estate in Perthshire.
To Laura, Cranley Court had become a sanctuary. It was the only place that occurred to her to flee to with Caroline when Walter had become bankrupt. The only place where she could afford to take the train to. The only place where kindness and understanding were generously given by both Diana and her husband, Robert. The sheer comfort and warmth of the house and the scent of smouldering pine logs made her feel as if she was drifting into paradise, where she could forget about working for up to eighteen hours a day in a cold, rented flat in Edinburgh.
'Let's have some tea,' Diana was saying. 'The others won't be here for ages. I want to hear all your news. How is the business going?'
Her sister looked older: there were fine lines on her face and her dark hair had lost its lustre. But her hazel eyes were as spirited as ever, and when she smiled her whole face lit up.
'I'm doing quite well,' she replied. 'I'll be able to repay your loan by Easter ...'
Diana raised her slender hand in protest. 'You don't have to, my dear. I want to make sure you're really all right financially. There's absolutely no hurry.'
'Thank you, but I'd like to,' Laura protested. 'Once again, Mrs Sutherland, who got me going the first time, has contacted all my old clients as well as new ones to get their wardrobes made by me. She really knows what to say to the "ladies of Edinburgh" to persuade them to buy their clothes from me!'
'So your former assistant, Helen, who bought the business from you when you got married — she didn't want to join forces once more?'
Laura's mouth tightened. 'Unfortunately not. I offered to buy her out but she was quite nasty. In a way I can understand. She now looks upon me as a rival who will steal all my old clients from her. But I did start the business in the first place and I did let her have it for a song.' She sighed.
'Does this make it awkward for Mrs Sutherland?'
'No, because when I left she stopped finding clients for Helen. Just imagine! Helen refused to give her a commission!' Laura started laughing. 'Dear old Mrs Sutherland is thrilled I'm back. I also pay her to fetch Caroline from school every afternoon, which is a great help.'
Diana leaned back in her chair and looked at her elder sister with admiration. 'Good for you. I'm so glad it's all going so well.' Then she smiled indulgently. 'And how is Caroline getting on at ballet school? Is she still determined to be a dancer?' She covered her eyes with her hand in mock horror and giggled. 'Have you told Mama that her granddaughter wants to be a dancer? My dear, she'll have a heart attack on the spot.'
'I'll cross that bridge when I come to it,' Laura retorted, crossing her fingers. 'Caroline is determined and she's very talented. Her ballet teacher thinks she should start training seriously at some point with Madame Judith Espinosa.'
Diana raised her eyebrows. 'That is serious.'
'I know. She thinks Caroline has great potential.'
'Did you know that Lizzie and Humphrey have bought a house in London? Apparently it's near the Victoria and Albert Museum.'
Laura nodded. 'I'm dying to see her and hear all about it. So who is staying here for Christmas? I haven't seen any of the family for so long.'
'All of them,' Diana replied in a low voice.
'All of them?' Laura looked stunned. 'Where will they all sleep? I know you've got over thirty bedrooms, but isn't it going to be rather a crush?'
Diana looked unperturbed. 'I'm putting all the very little ones in the night nursery. Some will have to sleep on camp beds but they'll be fine.'
Laura's eyes widened. 'There will be complete chaos when they all wake up on Christmas morning and find that Father Christmas paid them a visit in the night. Have you thought this through, Di?' She started laughing. 'How is Father Christmas going to know which child is which if they're asleep higgledy-piggledy all over the place? Supposing ... you know ... he trips over the camp beds ...?' Overcome with mirth and unable to continue, Laura leaned back in her chair, helpless with laughter at the thought of Father Christmas stumbling around in the pitch dark.
Diana started giggling. 'Let's at least thank the stars Robert is now an orphan as well as being an only child. If he'd come from a big family too, half of us would be sleeping in the stables, which might be apropos at Christmas but jolly chilly, I'd have thought.'
Laura wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. 'There could be complete chaos if all the children woke up to find Father Christmas in the night nursery.'
'Oh dear, what shall we do? I'd forgotten all about Father Christmas.'
'You'd forgotten? How could you have when that is the whole point of their visit?' Laura exclaimed.
Overcome with gales of laughter, the sisters were still guffawing loudly, unaware their mother, the Dowager Countess of Rothbury, was standing in the door watching them disapprovingly.
'May I ask why you're both behaving like kitchen maids in a scullery?' she asked crisply.
'Mama!' Diana jumped to her feet like a child who's been caught stealing chocolate biscuits. 'I'm so sorry. I never heard you arrive.'
'I would have thought we all made enough noise to awaken the dead,' her mother replied.
Laura was the only one who had never been scared of her mother. She rose slowly — a tall, slim and elegant figure in a dark plum-red dress, which showed off her small waist.
'Hello, Mama. You're looking very well,' she said, kissing her lightly on the cheek. 'Where are the others?'
'We're here,' chorused her three younger sisters as they came rushing into the room.
'We were checking we had all our luggage,' said Alice, sounding flustered.
'The trouble is we have far too many suitcases,' complained Flora.
'That's because we're so looking forward to dressing up for dinner every night! We haven't really done it since we left Lochlee,' added Catriona in a small voice.
Laura gave Catriona a hug and kissed her warmly. She felt particularly sorry for the youngest member of the family because she'd had to leave the castle when it was sold and, apart from attending the last ball Lady Rothbury had held before the new owners took possession, she'd gone straight from the schoolroom to a comfortable but very ordinary house. Unlike her mother and sisters, she had missed out on knowing what it was like to be a grown-up living in a grand castle that had belonged to the Fairbairn family for five hundred years.
It was all right for Alice, who had married the local parson the following year when she turned twenty, and Flora, who had made up her mind to become a teacher, but for Catriona it was staying at home, doing needlework and reading the newspapers aloud as her mother's eyesight deteriorated.
Lady Rothbury had long ago decided she would keep the sweetest and most amenable of all her daughters at home with her as the perfect companion with which she would share her dotage. Watching her mother send Catriona off to fetch a cushion for her back made Laura sad, but Catriona seemed to relish her role of a nurse. It made her feel important and at the same time safe from the world. Laura was of the opinion that her mother shouldn't be allowed to deliberately force Catriona into spinsterhood for her personal benefit, but Diana had insisted it was what their youngest sister wanted.
At that moment they began to hear the approach of several motors, and suddenly the rest of the Fairbairn family were spilling out on to the drive, greeting each other with hugs and cries of delight. This was the first time they'd all gathered together at Cranley Court, and it was a bittersweet reunion because they no longer had Lochlee.
Diana's husband, Robert Kelso, went out to greet them all while the footmen rushed around, collecting the luggage.
'Welcome!' he said. 'How lovely to see you all.' Kissing the women on the cheek and shaking the men by the hand, he led everyone into the hall, including the eldest of the Fairbairn sisters, Lizzie, with her husband Sir Humphrey Garding and their four daughters. Beattie followed behind them with her husband Andrew Drinkwater, who had travelled all the way from London.
Always keen to show off his wealth and the only son-in-law who was 'in trade', Andrew pumped Robert's hand enthusiastically.
'Hello there, old chap. By George, this new train, the Royal Scot, is remarkable! We booked first class, of course.'
'Of course,' Robert agreed gravely, but his eyes were twinkling with amusement.
'It's the last word in luxury,' Andrew continued. 'It's only been running for a few months and the restaurant car is magnificent — not quite the Ritz, you know, but jolly good. The wine list is excellent. It was built in England in spite of its name, you know. So here we are in two ticks because I ordered three motor cars to meet us at the station in Edinburgh and bring us here.'
Robert's eyebrows rose a fraction. 'Three cars?'
'One for Beattie and I, another for Nanny, Henry, Kathleen and Camilla and then, of course, one for the luggage.'
'Of course,' Robert said gently before making a move to talk to the rest of his guests, but Andrew hadn't finished.
'It's incredible to think it's the fastest passenger express so far with Pullman-style cabins. Do you know one day it might even be possible for ordinary people to travel like that?'
'Oh, I do hope so,' Robert retorted.
The drawing room was crowded now and children were running all over the place while Burton stood in the middle of the hall keeping track of everyone's luggage, commanding the footmen to take it upstairs where Mrs Armstrong would make sure it was put in the right rooms.
Meanwhile, Jock, the six-year-old son of Georgie and her husband Shane O'Mally, was doing his best to create chaos by throwing a small cardboard aeroplane into the air again and again.
'Mind out!' Flora snapped sharply in her schoolmarm manner. 'That could hurt someone, Jock.'
Georgie, very overweight after the births of her three children, smiled indulgently. 'He's all right. He's only playing.'
'He could knock over the Dresden figurines on the mantelpiece,' warned Lizzie, inwardly thankful she'd had four girls.
'It's only a small toy,' Georgie pointed out. Unfortunately, Jock chose that moment to deliberately target Diana, hurling the aeroplane up into the air, where it crashed into the side of Diana's face, causing her to give a small shriek of shock.
'Where did that come from?' she asked.
'Your nephew is trying to kill you,' Flora retorted, turning on Georgie angrily. 'You really should keep him under control. The child is a menace.'
Shane O'Mally sauntered towards them, grinning from ear to ear. 'It's only a bit of cardboard, Flo, and he's just a kid ...'
Jock, who was watching Diana, roared with laughter as she rubbed her cheek. Then he ran to pick up his toy from the floor but Flora was nearer and scooped it up, refusing to give it back to him.
'You're not to play with this indoors again,' she told him firmly. 'You've hurt poor Aunt Di. Supposing it had gone into her eye?'
'You've no right to speak to my son like that,' Georgie said querulously.
Flora swiftly retaliated. 'I wouldn't have to if you'd brought him up properly.'
'Leave Georgie alone,' said Shane defensively. 'She's a first-rate mother.'
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Fairbairn Fortunes by Una-Mary Parker. Copyright © 2016 C Cheval Associates Ltd.. Excerpted by permission of Severn House Publishers Limited.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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