Every Mother's Son by Val Wood

She’s been by Beatrice’s side constantly.’
    ‘A neighbour’s daughter,’ Melissa said. ‘No relation whatsoever. Will you excuse me?’
    She had seen that Stephen had sought Maria out and was taking her to the anteroom where the supper table had been laid, and she was filled with a sudden misgiving. The evening had been deliberately informal so that the young people could come and go as they pleased, to the supper room, or to sing by the piano or play chess or cards in the library, but now she decided to make the short announcement as planned. The party was to be the forerunner of similar events over the next few years, for although Melissa believed in love in marriage above all else, she also believed that young people should have the chance to mingle before deciding on their future life partner and to this end she had chosen the guests carefully.
    She signalled to Christopher, who had kept very much in the background, disappearing into his study from time to time, and he came across to her. She picked up a silver teaspoon and tapped it gently on a crystal celery vase to bring everyone back into the drawing room.
    ‘I wanted to say how very pleased we are to see you all, and trust you are enjoying yourselves. Beatrice and Charles are today celebrating their sixteenth birthday, a time that bridges the line between childhood and adulthood, and we hope that today you will have made lasting friendships.
    ‘We also wanted to tell you that in January, Beatrice will be going away to school in Harrogate, which will prepare her for finishing school in Switzerland.’
    Delighted applause broke out from some of the young ladies, and then Christopher spoke up.
    ‘Charles will continue at school in York,’ he said, ‘and then go on to university, after which I sincerely hope he will join me in running the Hart Holme estate. With three sons,’ he joked, ‘I will soon be able to retire.’
    Daniel glanced at Charles from across the room. Charles caught his eye and gave him a negative look, and Daniel realized that Charles’s father had no idea that his son wanted to travel first. As for Beatrice, he thought that a few feathers might fly in Switzerland if any attempts were made to turn her into a lady. He saw her looking his way and couldn’t read anything into her expression, but he grinned at her and put his thumb up.
    She came over to him when the speeches were finished. ‘What was that supposed to mean?’ She put up her own thumb. ‘Will you be pleased to see me go away?’
    ‘No!’ he protested. ‘Of course not, but I suppose it’s what you want.’
    ‘I told them I was bored,’ she said petulantly. ‘I’d grumbled about still having a governess and so Mama said I ought to see some of the world and she sent off to Switzerland for a prospectus. But where are you going, Daniel? I heard Charles say he was going somewhere with you.’
    ‘Oh, it was nothing,’ he said. ‘One of Charles’s pals was being stupid and asked if I was going back to Rome; he called me a plebeian . I think he thought I didn’t know what it meant, so I told him that yes, I was going there.’
    ‘To Rome?’ she said breathlessly. ‘Oh, Daniel!’
    He shrugged. ‘I only said it to shut him up, but then I thought that perhaps I might. Not to Rome especially, but somewhere,’ he added. ‘When I’ve given it some thought.’
    ‘But that will ruin my plan,’ she said.
    Daniel raised his eyebrows. ‘Surely whatever you’re planning, Beatrice, it won’t mek any difference where I am?’
    Her cheeks turned pink. ‘It might, and you know that Papa won’t let Charles go with you.’
    ‘I never supposed that he would,’ he said drily. ‘It was Charles who said he was coming with me, and I only mentioned it to score over that toffee-nosed idiot Hanson. It wasn’t something I’d really thought about.’ Although, he realized, I suppose the idea was planted in my mind a long time ago.
    ‘So you might not?’ Beatrice persisted.