Alaric shot a glance at Charlotte, brilliant with inquiry; then in perfect soberness he took the hand Emily offered him.
'How charming to see you, Lady Ashworth. I hope you are well?'
'Quite well, thank you,' Emily replied coolly. 'We called to express our sympathy to Mr. Spencer-Brown. Since we have done so, perhaps we should allow you to pay your visit uninhib shy;ited by the necessity of making courteous conversation with us.' She rose gracefully and gave him a smile that was barely more than good manners.
Charlotte rose also; she had been on the point of excusing them when the parlormaid had come to announce Alaric.
'Come, Mama,' she said briskly. 'Perhaps we may call upon Mrs. Charrington? I did so like her.'
But Caroline remained seated. 'Really, my dear.' She leaned back in her chair and smiled. 'If we depart the moment Mon shy;sieur Alaric arrives, he will think us most uncivil. There is plenty of time yet for other calls.'
Emily caught Charlotte's eye with a sudden appreciation of the perverseness that faced them. Then she turned back to her mother.
'I'm sure Monsieur Alaric will not think ill of us.' This time she flashed a charming smile at him. 'It is sensibility for Mr. Spencer-Brown that makes us withdraw, and not a lack of wish for Monsieur Alaric's company. We must think first of others, and not of ourselves. Is that not so, Charlotte?'
'Of course it is,' Charlotte agreed quickly. 'I am sure that if I were feeling distressed there would be times when the company of my own sex would be especially valuable to me.' She also turned and smiled at Alaric, and was a little disconcerted to see his eyes, bright and faintly puzzled, regarding her so closely.
'I should be flattered beyond the point of vanity, ma'am, to believe any man would prefer my company to yours,' he said with a softness in his voice, although whether it was irony or merely humor she could not tell.
'Then perhaps a little of each?' Charlotte suggested with her eyebrows raised. 'Even the sweetest things become boring after a while and one longs for a variety.'
'The sweetest things,' he murmured, and this time she knew unquestionably that he was laughing at her, although there was nothing to show it in his face and she believed it was lost upon everyone else in the room.
'Let alone those with considerable acid to them,' she said.
Alston had not followed the conversation, but his innate good manners overrode his confusion. There was an ease in convention, the comfort of knowing the rules.
'I cannot imagine wishing you to leave, any of you.' His gesture embraced them all. 'Please do remain a little longer. You have been so kind.'
Caroline accepted immediately, and there was nothing Char shy;lotte or Emily could do but reseat themselves and, with as rnuch grace as they could muster, begin a new conversation.
Caroline made it easy for them; from being merely polite and silently sympathetic, suddenly she was glowing, her intensity reaching out until it could be felt throughout the room.
'We were just encouraging Mr. Spencer-Brown to take the best care of himself,' she said warmly, looking from Alston to Alaric. 'It is so easy in one's grief for someone one has loved to forget oneself. I am sure you will be able to help him more than we can.'
'That is why I called,' Alaric said. 'Social gatherings are unacceptable, naturally, but to remain alone inside the house makes everything harder to bear.' He turned to Alston. 'I thought in the next few days you might like to come for a carriage ride? It can be very pleasant if the weather is fine, and you would not be required to meet anyone.'
'Do you think I should?' Alston seemed uncertain.
'Why not? Everyone must bear grief in his own manner, and those who wish you well will not grudge you whatever ease you can find. Music pleases me, and contemplating the great works of art, whose beauty survives the life and death of their creators to reach out to all pain and all aspiration. I would be happy to accompany you to any gallery you choose-or anywhere else.'
'Do you not think people might expect me to remain in?' Alston frowned anxiously. 'At least until after the funeral? That is not for several days yet, you know. Friday. Yes.' He blinked. 'Of course you know. How foolish of me.'
'Would you care for me to ride with you?' Alaric asked quietly. 'I shall not be in the least offended if you would like to be alone, but I rather think if I were in such a situation, I should prefer not to be.'
The crease ironed out across Alston's brow. 'Would you? That really is most generous of you.'
Charlotte was thinking the same thing, and it annoyed her. She would much rather have disapproved of Paul Alaric, and have had grounds in her mind for doing so. She glanced side shy;ways at Caroline and saw the radiance in her eyes, the softness of approval.
Then she looked at Emily and knew that she had seen it also. — 'How kind of you,' Emily said with an edge to her voice that had far more to do with her own fears than any concern for Alston. 'I am sure it is a most excellent act. Companionship is invaluable at such a time. I recall when I was bereaved, it was the company of my mother and my sister that gave me the most comfort.'
Charlotte had no idea what she was talking about-surely not Sarah's death? That had affected them all equally-but she knew of no other bereavement.
Emily continued, regardless: 'And I see no reason why you should not take a small drive if Monsieur Alaric is good enough to offer his company for that also. No one of any sensibility at all-no one who could possibly matter- would misunderstand that.' She lifted her chin. 'People do misconstrue some associations, of course, but that is more often so when it is a friendship between a lady and a gentleman. Then people are bound to talk, no matter how innocent it may be in truth. Do you not agree, Monsieur Alaric?'
Charlotte watched him closely to see if she could detect in his face even the faintest degree of comprehension of what they really meant, the purpose under their superficial words.
He remained completely at ease; seemingly his attention was still upon Alston.
'There are always those who will think evil, Lady Ash worth,' he answered her. 'Whatever the circumstances. One cannot possibly afford to cater to all of them. One must satisfy one's own conscience and observe the most obvious conventions so as not to offend unnecessarily. I believe that is all. Beyond that, I think one should please oneself.' He turned to Charlotte, his eyes penetrating, as if he understood in some sense that she would have said exactly the same, were she to be truthful. 'Do you not agree, Mrs. Pitt?'
She was caught in a dilemma. She hated equivocation, and her own tongue had caused enough social disasters to make anything but concurrence with him laughable. Also she would like to have been agreeable because there was a quality in him far beyond elegance, or even intellect, which drew her-a reserve of emo shy;tion as yet unreached that fascinated, like a thunderstorm, or the splendor of a rising wind far out at sea: dangerous and over shy;whelmingly beautiful.
She shut her eyes, then opened them wide.
'I think that can be a very selfish indulgence, Monsieur Alaric,' she said with primness that made her sick even as she was speaking. 'Much as one would like to on occasion, one cannot ignore Society. If it were ever to be only oneself who paid the price for outraging people's sensibilities, no matter how misplaced, it would be quite a different matter. But it is not. Gossip also hurts the innocent, more often than not. We are none of us alone. There are families upon whom every stain rubs off. The notion that you can please yourself without harming others is an illusion, and a most immature one. Too many people use it as an excuse for all manner of self-indulgences, and then plead ignorance and total amazement when others are dragged down with them, as if it could not have been foreseen with an ounce of sense!' She stopped for breath, not daring to look at any of them, least of all at Alaric.
'Bravo,' Emily whispered so softly that to the others it must have seemed as if she were no more than sighing.
'Charlotte!' Caroline was stunned, unable to think what to say.
'How very perceptive of you.' Emily rushed in to fill the hot silence. 'And you have expressed it so well! It is a subject which has long needed some plain speaking! We delude our shy;selves so often to give us excuse for all sorts of behavior.
Perhaps I should not, since you are my sister, but I do so commend your honesty!'
Since it was a precept Charlotte had been the last to obey in her own life, Emily's remark could only be ironic, although there was nothing but translucent candor in her blue eyes now.
