‘There are, but I doubt that Nellie will be attempting them, although I am sure she would make an accomplished Alpinist if she ever took up the sport.’
‘What about her nasty husband?’ said Richard with a sour expression. ‘It would be very convenient if he was to climb up to the top of a mountain and fall off. I wish he would.’
‘I think that would be a very unpleasant circumstance for everyone concerned.’
‘I doubt it.’
‘But Richard —’ Mina prodded his arm to get his attention — ‘I need to speak to you now on serious family business.’
‘Really?’ he protested. ‘Must you? Serious talks are such a bore.’
‘Yes, I insist.’ Mina turned to the nurse. ‘Miss Cherry, if you could oblige us?’
The nurse understood and departed without raising an objection.
Mina took her brother by the hand. Her own hands, now she looked at them, were almost child-sized by comparison, and both together could not encompass his one. ‘Richard I want you to concentrate very carefully on what I am saying. This is very important.’
‘I always listen to you, Mina, you know I do.’
Mina gave his fingers an affectionate squeeze. ‘You know how much I worry about my family. And there always seems to be so much to worry about. At present, however, Enid is as well as we can reasonably expect, Edward is thriving and looking forward to his wedding, and Dr Hamid has confirmed to me that Mother is in good health, and that I am on the mend, so —’ she paused for emphasis — ‘the only person I need to be concerned about is you.’
‘Me?’ Richard laughed. ‘Oh, Mina dear, I assure you, you have nothing to worry about. I am well and happy.’
‘And prospering?’ she queried.
‘But of course!’
‘Does Edward pay you well?’
He shrugged. ‘Oh, you know Edward, his is ever the closed purse, but actually I am beginning to think that all this business nonsense is starting to suit me. And it is the family business after all, so I will probably be made a partner one day.’
Mina knew that look from Richard — the bland, open-countenanced expression of a soul at peace with his conscience, the look that always told her he was lying.
‘Richard,’ she said softly, ‘I know your situation. I know why you are here. I received a letter from Edward. He told me everything.’
It took several moments for denial and protest to cross her brother’s features and scurry away in shame, then his posture slumped. ‘I was going to tell you, really I was.’
‘I assume that Mother doesn’t yet know?’
He shook his head and tried to look at her appealingly. Mina believed that she was one of the few people in the world who was immune to this expression.
She patted his hand. ‘Don’t worry, I will say nothing to her for now. But it is not for your sake. I have no wish to conspire with you to keep your secrets, but Mother has far too much to concern her at present, with both her daughters indisposed, and I don’t want to upset her any more. I will not, however, be silent for ever. I will allow you perhaps three months, to make some significant improvement in your prospects. By that time, I sincerely hope that Enid and her new-born and I will all be less of a trial to Mother. So I suggest that you begin looking for a new career without delay.’
Richard, as Mina expected, did not appear pleased by this demand. He withdrew his hand from hers and searched in his pockets, as he usually did when looking for the small cigars he favoured, but then he caught the look in her eye and desisted.
‘There isn’t anything else I am suited to,’ he sighed. ‘I had hoped to marry well, but the season is done here, so all the rich families with single daughters are gone.’ He rested his elbows on his knees, chin in his hands. ‘Why didn’t Father leave me more money?’
Mina made no compromises with the truth. ‘Because the value of his estate mainly lay in this house and the business. He left you enough to make a start in life, and you spent it.’
Richard gave a little groan and rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes. ‘If Mr Jordan would only oblige me by falling off a mountain, Nellie would be rich and I could marry her. I know she’d have me.’
‘Richard, please be serious.’
‘I am!’
‘Then be practical. Find some occupation which will enable you to earn your keep; something respectable that won’t have to be kept a secret from Mother, and then stay with it. That is all we ask of you.’
He pouted. ‘You make it sound so easy.’
‘Other people in the world achieve it. Richard, you cannot go on like this forever — living a life of pleasure on other people’s money.’
Mina’s heart sank, because from her brother’s expression that was exactly what he thought he could do.
CHAPTER FOUR
Mina never felt weaker than after the regular bedding and nightdress change and tepid sponge bath, delivered with brisk efficiency by Miss Cherry, but it was a wonderful relief when it was over and she could sink at last into laundered linen and newly plumped pillows, feeling very much as a monarch must feel when lying upon what he suspected might turn out to be his deathbed.
Thus enthroned, she received the visit of Mr Marcus Merridew, the famous actor of Brighton.
Mr Merridew entered every room as if emerging from the wings onto a stage where he was the acknowledged leading man. It naturally followed that the mere act of his appearing made him the admired object of all eyes. On his arrival, he stood for a moment, framed by the open doorway, looking like the portrait of a great benefactor, and gazing upon Mina with a tender and wistful expression, before extending his arms and bowing with deep respect.
Mr Merridew, as Mina knew, had not one single hair on his head, which was as smooth and polished and pink as a sweet apple. In his recently acclaimed portrayal of Hamlet, he had been wearing a wig of long straight darkly melancholy locks but he was now displaying a torrent of golden curls that dipped almost to his shoulders, an echo of the long-departed wavelets of his youth that had once shimmered in the limelight, and made his legions of lady admirers sigh.
‘Dear, dear Miss Scarletti,’ he breathed, ‘how delighted I am to see you again, although the circumstances of this visit leave something to be desired. I hope and trust that you will soon be in good health, and when you are, we must take refreshments together at one of the select establishments of Brighton and talk about the delights of the town. I cannot as yet entertain you at my apartments as they are being extensively decorated and are quite unfit for visitors.’
Miss Cherry brought a chair for the honoured guest and set it by the bed. ‘It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr Merridew,’ she said, a little shyly.
‘Oh likewise,’ he smiled. ‘I am sure that your good care of my dear friend will soon restore her.’
Miss Cherry blushed at the compliment, and was unable to prevent herself from blurting out, ‘My mother will be beside herself when she knows I have met you! She has seen all your plays!’
Mr Merridew, with practised ease, looked not one whit offended at this reminder of his antiquity. ‘Please convey my very best wishes to your dear mother,’ he said, as he took his seat.