Kezia turned. For all the distance in her manner, she was as striking in the perfection of her form and features as that day at Sezincote when he had first understood how much he desired her. She threw him a parting smile; but it spoke of sadness.
Hervey's confusion was now the greater, to the point of despair, almost; but some instinct to protect overtook him, so that his frustration gave way instead to gentleness. 'I am happy to retire early,' he said, quietly. 'For I must be at Hounslow by ten.'
Kezia smiled thinly again. 'You must do as you will, my dear. But please try not to wake me when you come up.'
She kissed his cheek before he could find her lips, and left him to the tray of brandy and water.
Hounslow did not, in the event, detain him long, for Lord Holderness was returned to muster, and there had been no regimental defaulters in the brief hiatus of command. Hervey made his farewells before midday, certain that taking lunch in the officers' house would protract his stay overlong, there being old friends at duty. But he did not intend returning directly to London. He had resolved to call on Sister Maria, and although he did not know anything about conventual routine, he supposed that the early afternoon, as with any household, was the appropriate time to visit without appointment.
He therefore made his way to Hammersmith, enquiring of several passers-by where was the convent, until a drayman was able to give him authoritative directions. To his surprise, he found that he had passed it each time he had come and gone from Hounslow, but so high was the wall that there was no clue to what lay beyond.
He dismounted from the roadster, one of Kezia's aunt's, and rang the bell at the great double gates which fronted what he could now see was an establishment of some size. After not too long a time, an oldish man answered. He held a trowel in one hand, and he stooped, but he evidently possessed the authority to admit callers, since Hervey had given but his rank and name before one of the gates was opened to him. The man was at home with horses too, taking the reins willingly, and nodding to the gravel path between trimmed box, which led to the door of the convent.
Hervey advanced cautiously in these hallows, more so than ever he had in Spain. And he knew why, for in the Peninsula the convent was an entirely native thing; here, if not exactly in London then close enough to be counted a suburb, it was altogether alien. The high walls did not help, of course: doubtless they were supposed to make for seclusion, but they spoke also of secrecy. And the whole appearance – purporting to be a sort of gentleman's residence,
He came to the door, which was at least arched like a church's. He took a deep breath, and pulled at the bell. He heard it ring, distantly. There was now no going back.
One of the sisters answered. She wore a black habit, like many of the Spanish and Portuguese nuns. Hervey was a little surprised, though, for having seen Sister Maria (the Reverend Mother Maria, as he must remember she now was) in a day dress at the bishop's house, he had assumed that the sisters kept the custom at home. It was, after all, the law of the land. But then, why should an Englishwoman not wear what she pleased in her home? And in truth, alien though the habit was, he was strangely pleased to see it, for at once it ordered, and therefore made easier, their intercourse – exactly as did the soldier's uniform.
He took off his hat and cleared his throat. 'Good afternoon, Sister. Might I speak with the reverend mother?'
The nun, not quite as old as the gardener-gatekeeper, peered at him through ivory-framed spectacles. 'Which?'
Hervey cleared his throat again. 'The reverend mother, ma'am.'
'
He should have known, for he had not supposed that Sister Maria was likely to be superior of
'Come,' she replied, briskly and with no flicker of curiosity.
Hervey assumed it to be an extension of the confidentiality of the confessional, except that he was not come to make his confession. Well, not in the strict sense. Nor, he knew for sure, could a nun pronounce absolution.
The floor of the inner hall was flagstone, the hall itself rising to the third storey by a broad, scrubbed oak staircase. There were pictures of male and female religious on the walls, a niche with a crucifix, and another with a statue of the Virgin, but other than a tall long-case clock, there was no furniture of any kind. It was cool despite the heat of the afternoon, and silent but for the movement of the pendulum. Although the paintings were not those that would grace the walls of the gentry, the place might have been a friendly old manor house in Queen Anne's day.
He was shown into a small receiving room.
'Please wait.'
The sister had been of few words, but he thought he detected an accent of the Low Countries. That was nothing surprising; so many priests and religious had taken refuge in England during the late war. Indeed, Parliament had paid many a stipend to foreign Catholics in holy orders. He smiled. The irony of it: Parliament, fount of the penal laws and yet paymaster to the clergy of Rome!
In the receiving room there was a crucifix on the wall, three chairs, and nothing else. He thought he might as well sit down since he expected that Sister Maria would be at prayer or study or some such, and therefore not immediately to be disturbed.
In this he was wrong, however, for scarcely had he sat but he was on his feet again, and bowing.
'Colonel 'Ervey, this is a most pleasant surprise!'
Sister Maria wore a habit the colour of the day dress she had worn at the bishop's house – brown, like some of the Franciscan friars he had seen in Spain. Evidently the other nun and she were of different orders, unless her position required her to wear a different colour (in France she had worn white, but, as he recollected, it was an overmantle). He did not suppose it was of importance.
Her manner was not in the least like that of the other sister, however. Here was the same easy welcome of the bishop's house, and of all those years ago at Toulouse (though he did recall that at first their meeting had been
