“Well, ma’am, I am a biased observer, but I will do my best. The house itself is looking tired and much in need of redecoration and new furnishings. You may remember that it is neither too small nor too large but, towards the end of her life, my godmother only lived in two rooms on the ground floor because of her heart condition. Her servants cared for her very well, in particular the housekeeper, Mrs. Jones. Her husband has been looking after the grounds around the house for my godmother, but had been given no instructions to do anything apart from keeping the grass cut with the help of the gardeners. Mr. Whitaker is a younger man who has been in charge of the farm stock and the rest of the land, which is generally in good condition, although there is a need for investment in new buildings.”

“How much land is there, Mr. Hatton?” asked Emily.

“About five hundred acres, Miss Brandon, plus the park immediately around the house, which has an area of about forty acres. Mrs. Harrison will remember that the manor house is about five miles from the sea, on one side of the Marshwood Vale, which is a very attractive rural area between Lyme Regis and Dorchester. I believe that you have not been in Dorset yourself, Miss Brandon?”

“No, although I am beginning to wish that I may have the opportunity sometime in the future.”

“I think you said, Mr. Hatton,” said Julia, “that your godmother was a widow with no children?”

“Yes, her husband, Henry, was given the house many years ago by an uncle who had been one of a large family. You can see that, in some of the bedrooms, the children’s toys are still stored in cupboards, as though they might come back at any time. When I visited the house with my mother as a child I used to play with some of them.”

Aunt Lucy was obviously charmed by this idea, but at that moment the butler entered the drawing room to announce that dinner was served. The rest of the evening passed with pleasant conversation before their guest took his leave.

The following day was Wednesday, the last day that the young ladies would have together before Emily had to leave for London. The Brandon’s carriage arrived early in the morning from town with Annette Labonne, the Countess’s maid. After luncheon, she was to pack Emily’s clothes for the journey back to London the next day.

Julia and Emily went out in the sunshine and spent most of the morning shopping in Milsom Street, where they paused at Mollands’ pastry shop for a few minutes to take tea and cakes. They were seated at a table inside the window, watching the crowds pass by, when Emily suddenly exclaimed to her friend, “Look, Julia, isn’t that Dominic on the other side of the road?”

They both peered through the glass and, between the various people passing by, saw that it was indeed Dominic Brandon, talking to Mr. Jepson.

“I wonder if Mr. Jepson will tell him that I’m here?” Emily leant back in her chair. “I don’t really want to know what Dominic is up to.”

“Nor I. We will not make ourselves known to him, for I am sure that I do not want to meet Dominic myself,” said Julia.

At that moment, they were amazed to see Annette Labonne approaching the two gentlemen along the pavement and, when they met, Dominic and his friend were clearly not surprised to see her. For several minutes, the three were engaged in deep conversation, oblivious to their surroundings and the two young ladies watching from the shop across the street.

At last Dominic and Mr. Jepson doffed their hats to Annette, and she walked quickly away in the direction of Aunt Lucy’s house. Emily and Julia looked on as the two young men then turned away and proceeded together down the road towards the Abbey.

“How extraordinary,” said Julia at last. “What can they have been discussing?”

“I have no idea, but I won’t say anything about it to her at present, or to the Countess when I see her in town. But nor will I forget, for Dominic and Mr. Jepson were not surprised to see Annette and must have arranged to meet her there. Something very odd is going on.”

“Well, Mr. Jepson was right about your cousin Dominic visiting the city. When Freddie is next on leave, Emily, try to speak to him about it. And please don’t tell my aunt anything.”

“Of course not.”

“I hope that I don’t see Dominic again whilst I’m here. I really do not want to think about anything to do with Derbyshire whilst I’m here in Bath.”

As soon as she had spoken, Julia realised that there was an exception to that. Mr. Hatton might not have been part of her life in Derbyshire, but Kit Douglas certainly had been.

Six

The next day, the friends said an emotional farewell to each other and promised to meet again as soon as Julia had returned to Derbyshire. Emily had a large number of new purchases to accommodate in the outside box at the back of the Brandon family’s carriage, as well as inside next to Annette Labonne, and she also took with her some gifts that Julia had purchased for her younger sisters.

At her aunt’s suggestion, Julia rested after luncheon before they set to work to pack their trunks for their journey.

Aunt Lucy spent the next two hours choosing and then changing the clothes that they would take with them to Dorset. “We may not find ourselves in fine company, Julia, but it is possible that we should be invited to some social events whilst we are staying with Mr. Hatton. So make sure, my dear, that you have at least two of your best dresses with you. I will send Martha now to help you, so that we are ready to leave in the morning soon after breakfast. She can do my trunk after yours.”

The weather proved to be rather grey as they left Bath the next day. It had rained during the night, and the carriage wheels kept slipping on the cobbled surface as the horses pulled the carriage towards the bridge over the River Avon. Julia gazed wide-eyed at the poorly dressed people at this end of the city, for she had heard that it was the rougher part of town, and Aunt Lucy had warned her not to venture there on her own.

“You see what I meant, Julia?”

She did indeed, although to assume that everyone who was rather poorly dressed must be unpleasant or threatening seemed to Julia to be going rather too far.

“Have you ever come to this end of Bath, Martha?” asked Julia.

“Yes, Miss, but never on my own, and only during the day time. I would not risk it at night, for I have heard some terrible tales of robbery.”

“And worse,” said Aunt Lucy.

The locality did not seem much improved on the other side of the river, as the carriage passed by the mean houses huddled together along the street, and was pulled by the horses up the Holloway Hill on the far side of the city.

However, once beyond the edge of Bath, the dilapidated yellow stone houses gave way to open green fields as they made their way along the Wells Road and on through pleasant countryside and then down the slope into Norton Radstock. There they stopped to rest the horses for a few minutes at the coaching inn.

Whilst they waited, Martha ventured to say that her elder brother Jem had worked in the town.

“What does he do?” asked Julia.

“He is a coal miner, Miss. There has been mining in the area in Somerset, especially around Radstock, for a long time. Those strange pointed hills that you can see over there are not natural; they are made from the coal waste.”

Julia was surprised, for she had not realised that there was any mining in Somerset. She looked at the conical shapes with interest, for she was familiar with coal mining near Derby, for fluorspar for decorative objects and iron smelting on the Brandons’ land near Cressborough Castle, and in the lead mines on other estates nearby in Derbyshire.

“Is your brother working here now, Martha?”

“No, Miss, he has got a new job with some of the other men. They are busy down by the coast. But I don’t know exactly where. He only comes back home every month or so. But my mother says that he’s getting good money.”

Aunt Lucy looked at her maid with surprise, then at Julia, raising her eyebrows in disbelief. But she didn’t say anything until they stopped for the night at an inn near Yeovil, and she came into Julia’s bedchamber to make sure that she was comfortable for the night.

“Martha must have got that wrong, Julia, about her brother, I mean, for I don’t know of any mining taking place down near the coast. She’s a nice girl, but not always very bright.”

Sometimes her aunt could be rather dogmatic, thought Julia, just like Mama. Martha seemed to her to be as bright as anyone in her aunt’s employment.

The following morning, the weather seemed better and the carriage made good progress past Yeovil and towards Halstock. The colour of the local stone in the buildings now was tinged with brown amongst the yellow, and most of the roofs were thatched, although many were in a state of disrepair. The tumbled green fields were so small that Julia thought that they must be quite difficult to farm, but the wild hedgerows seemed to be full of singing birds as they passed by, with some of the branches almost meeting across the narrow lanes above the top of the carriage.

Julia had brought a book with her for the journey, but trying to read as the carriage shook from side to side on the rough surface was almost impossible. Aunt Lucy dozed fitfully opposite her. Martha gripped the seat rather tightly with her hands, and just managed to smile at Julia.

“I was interested in what you mentioned yesterday about your brother, Martha. Did you say he was down here, mining near the coast?”