The Complete Mapp & Lucia (112 page)

There had nearly been one dreadful disaster. In fact there had been the disaster, but the amazing Lucia, quite impromptu, had wrung a fresh personal triumph out of it. It was on the last day of the fête, when the green would hardly contain the influx of visitors, and another tier of benches had been put up round the pond where the
Golden Hind
lay, that this excruciating moment had occurred. Queen Elizabeth had just left the deck where she had feasted on a plateful of kippered cinders, and the procession was escorting her away, when the whole of the stern of the
Golden Hind,
on which was the fire and the previously roasted sheep and a mast, streaming with ancients and the crowd of cheering cooks, broke off, and with a fearful splash and hiss fell into the water. Before anyone could laugh, Lucia (remembering that the water was only three feet deep at the most and so there was no danger of anyone drowning) broke into a ringing cry. ‘Zounds and Zooks,’ she shouted. ‘Thus will I serve the damned galleons of Spain,’ and with a magnificent gesture of disdain at the cooks standing waist-high in the water, she swept on with her procession. The reporters singled out for special notice this wonderful piece of symbolism. A few of the most highbrow deemed it not quite legitimate business, but none questioned the superb dramatic effect of the device, for it led on with such perfect fitness to the next topic, namely the coming of the Armada. The cooks waded ashore, rushed home to change their clothes, and were in time to take their places in the mob that escorted her white palfrey. Who would mind a ducking in the service of such a resourceful Queen? Of all Lucia’s triumphs during the week that inspired moment was the crown, and she could not help wondering what poor Daisy would have done, if she had been on the throne that day. Probably she would have said: ‘Oh dear, oh dear, they’ve all fallen into the water. We must stop.’

No wonder Riseholme was proud of Lucia, and Tilling which had been greedily devouring the picture papers was proud too. There was one possible exception, she thought, and that was Elizabeth, who in her visit of welcome just now had said, ‘How dreadful all this publicity must be for you, dear! How you must shrink from it!’

But Lucia, as usual, had been quite up to the mark.

‘Sweet of you to be so sympathetic, Elizabeth,’ she had said. ‘But it was my duty to help dear Riseholme, and I mustn’t regard the consequences to myself.’

That put the lid on Elizabeth: she said no more about the fête.

Lucia, as these random thoughts suggested by that stack of press-cuttings flitted through her brain, felt that she would have soon to bring it to bear on Elizabeth, for she was becoming something of a problem. But first, for this was an immediate concern, she must concentrate on Georgie. Georgie at the present moment, unconscious of his doom, and in a state of the highest approbation with life generally, was still at Riseholme, for Adele Brixton’s brother, Colonel Cresswell, had taken his house for two months and there were many bits of things, embroidery and sketches and little bottles with labels, ‘For outward application only’, which he must put away. He had been staying with Daisy for the fête, for Foljambe and the rest of his staff had come to Tilling at the beginning of August and it was not worth while taking them all back, though it would be difficult to get on without Foljambe for a week. Then he had stopped on for this extra day with Daisy after the fête was over, to see that everything was tidy and discreet and Lucia expected him back this morning.

She had very upsetting news for him: ghastly in fact. The vague rumours which had been rife at Riseholme were all too true, and Cadman, her chauffeur, had come to Lucia last night with the bomb-shell that he and Foljambe were thinking of getting married. She had seen Foljambe as well, and Foljambe had begged her to break the news to Georgie.

‘I should take it very kind of you, ma’am, if you would,’ Foljambe had said, ‘for I know I could never bring myself to do it, and he wouldn’t like to feel that I had made up my mind without telling him. We’re in no hurry, me and Cadman, we shouldn’t think of being married till after we got back to Riseholme in the autumn, and that’ll give Mr Georgie several months to get suited. I’m sure you’ll make him see it the right way, if anybody can.’

This handsome tribute to her tact had had its due weight, and Lucia had promised to be the messenger of these dismal tidings. Georgie would arrive in time for lunch to-day, and she was determined to tell him at once. But it was dreadful to think of poor Georgie on his way now, full of the pleasantest anticipations for the future (since Foljambe had expressed herself more than pleased with her bedroom) and rosy with the remarkable success of his Drake, and the very substantial rent for which he had let his house for two months, with this frightful blow so soon to be dealt him by her hand. Lucia had no idea how he would take it, except that he was certain to be terribly upset. So, leaving the garden-room and establishing herself in the pleasant shade on the lawn outside, she thought out quite a quantity of bracing and valuable reflections.

She turned her thoughts towards Elizabeth Mapp. During those ten days before Lucia had gone to Riseholme for the fête, she had popped in every single day: it was quite obvious that Elizabeth was keeping her eye on her. She always had some glib excuse: she wanted a hot-water bottle, or a thimble or a screw-driver that she had forgotten to take away, and declining all assistance would go to look for them herself, feeling sure that she could put her hand on them instantly without troubling anybody. She would go into the kitchen wreathed in smiles and pleasant observations for Lucia’s cook, she would pop into the servants’ hall and say something agreeable to Cadman, and pry into cupboards to find what she was in search of. (It was during one of these expeditions that she had discovered her dearest mamma’s piano in the telephone-room.) Often she came in without knocking or ringing the bell, and then if Lucia or Grosvenor heard her clandestine entry, and came to see who it was, she scolded herself for her stupidity in not remembering that for the present, this was not her house. So forgetful of her.

On one of these occasions she had popped out into the garden, and found Lucia eating a fig from the tree that grew against the garden-room, and was covered with fruit.

‘Oh you dear thief!’ she said. ‘What about garden-produce?’

Then seeing Lucia’s look of blank amazement, she had given a pretty peal of laughter.

‘Lulu, dear! Only my joke,’ she cried. ‘Poking a little fun at Queen Elizabeth. You may eat every fig in my garden, and I wish there were more of them.’

On another occasion Elizabeth had found Major Benjy having tea with Lucia, and she had said, ‘Oh, how disappointed I am! I had so hoped to introduce you to each other, and now someone else has taken that treat from me. Who was the naughty person?’ But perhaps that was a joke too. Lucia was not quite sure that she liked Elizabeth’s jokes, any more than she liked her informal visits.

This morning, Lucia cast an eye over her garden. The lawn badly wanted cutting, the flower-beds wanted weeding, the box-edgings to them wanted clipping, and it struck her that the gardener, whose wages she paid, could not have done an hour’s work here since she left. He was never in this part of the garden at all, she seemed to remember, but was always picking fruit and vegetables in the kitchen-garden, or digging over the asparagus-bed, or potting chrysanthemums, or doing other jobs that did not concern her own interests but Elizabeth’s. There he was now, a nice genial man, preparing a second basketful of garden-produce to take to the greengrocer’s, from whom eventually Lucia bought it. An inquiry must instantly be held.

‘Good morning, Coplen,’ she said. ‘I want you to cut the lawn to-day. It’s got dreadfully long.’

‘Very sorry, ma’am,’ said he. ‘I don’t think I can find time to-day myself. I could get a man in perhaps to do it.’

‘I should prefer that you should,’ said Lucia. ‘You can get a man in to pick those vegetables.’

‘It’s not only them,’ he said. ‘Miss Mapp she told me to manure the strawberry-beds to-day.’

‘But what has Miss Mapp got to do with it?’ said she. ‘You’re in my employment.’

‘Well, that does only seem fair,’ said the impartial Coplen. ‘But you see, ma’am, my orders are to go to Miss Mapp every morning and she tells me what she wants done.’

‘Then for the future please come to me every morning and see what I want done,’ she said. ‘Finish what you’re at now, and then start on the lawn at once. Tell Miss Mapp by all means that I’ve given you these instructions. And no strawberry-bed shall be manured to-day, nor indeed until my garden looks less like a tramp who hasn’t shaved for a week.’

Supported by an impregnable sense of justice but still dangerously fuming, Lucia went back to her garden-room, to tranquillize herself with an hour’s practice on the new piano. Very nice tone; she and Georgie would be able to start their musical hours again now. This afternoon, perhaps, if he felt up to it after the tragic news, a duet might prove tonic. Not a note had she played during that triumphant week at Riseholme. Scales first then, and presently she was working away at a new Mozart, which she and Georgie would subsequently read over together.

There came a tap at the door of the garden-room. It opened a chink, and Elizabeth in her sweetest voice said: ‘May I pop in once more, dear?’

Elizabeth was out of breath. She had hurried up from the High Street.

‘So sorry to interrupt your sweet music,
Lucia mia,’
she said. ‘What a pretty tune! What fingers you have! But my good Coplen has come to me in great perplexity. So much better to clear it up at once, I thought, so I came instantly though rather rushed to-day. A little misunderstanding, no doubt. Coplen is not clever.’

Elizabeth seemed to be labouring under some excitement which might account for this loss of wind. So Lucia waited till she was more controlled.

‘—And your new piano, dear?’ asked Elizabeth. ‘You like it? It sounded so sweet, though not quite the tone of dearest mamma’s. About Coplen then?’

‘Yes, about Coplen,’ said Lucia.

‘He misunderstood, I am sure, what you said to him just now. So distressed he was. Afraid I should be vexed with him. I said I would come to see you and make it all right.’

‘Nothing easier, dear,’ said Lucia. ‘We can put it all right in a minute. He told me he had not time to cut the lawn today because he had to manure your strawberry-beds, and I said “The lawn please, at once,” or words to that effect. He didn’t quite grasp, I think, that he’s in my employment, so naturally I reminded him of it. He understands now, I hope.’

Elizabeth looked rather rattled at these energetic remarks, and Lucia saw at once that this was the stuff to give her.

‘But my garden-produce, you know, dear Lulu,’ said Elizabeth. ‘It is not much use to me if all those beautiful pears are left to rot on the trees till the wasps eat them.’

‘No doubt that is so,’ said Lucia; ‘but Coplen, whose wages I pay, is no use to me if he spends his entire time in looking after your garden-produce. I pay for his time, dear Elizabeth, and I intend to have it. He also told me he took his orders every morning from you. That won’t do at all. I shan’t permit that for a moment. If I had engaged your cook as well as your gardener, I should not allow her to spend her day in roasting mutton for you. So that’s all settled.’

It was borne in upon Elizabeth that she hadn’t got a leg to stand upon and she sat down.

‘Lulu,’ she said, ‘anything would be better than that I should have a misunderstanding with such a dear as you are. I won’t argue, I won’t put my point of view at all. I yield. There! If you can spare Coplen for an hour in the morning to take my little fruits and vegetables to the greengrocer’s I should be glad.’

‘Quite impossible, I’m afraid, dear Elizabeth,’ said Lucia with the greatest cordiality. ‘Coplen has been neglecting the flower-garden dreadfully, and for the present it will take him all his time to get it tidy again. You must get someone else to do that.’

Elizabeth looked quite awful for a moment: then her face was wreathed in smiles again.

‘Precious one!’ she said. ‘It shall be exactly as you wish. Now I must run away. Au reservoir. You’re not free, I suppose, this evening to have a little dinner with me? I would ask Major Benjy to join us, and our beloved Diva, who has a passion, positively a passion for you. Major Benjy indeed too. He raves about you. Wicked woman, stealing all the hearts of Tilling.’

Lucia felt positively sorry for the poor thing. Before she left for Riseholme last week, she had engaged Diva and Major Benjy to dine with her to-night, and it was quite incredible that Elizabeth, by this time, should not have known that.

‘Sweet of you,’ she said, ‘but I have a tiny little party myself to-night. Just one or two, dropping in.’

Elizabeth lingered a moment yet, and Lucia said to herself that the thumb-screw and the rack would not induce her to ask Elizabeth, however long she lingered.

Lucia and she exchanged kissings of the hand as Elizabeth emerged from the front door, and tripped down the street. ‘I see I must be a little firm with her,’ thought Lucia, ‘and when I’ve taught her her place, then it will be time to be kind. But I won’t ask her to dinner just yet. She must learn not to ask me when she knows I’m engaged. And she shall not pop in without ringing. I must tell Grosvenor to put the door on the chain.’

Lucia returned to her practice, but shovelled the new Mozart out of sight, when, in one of her glances out of the open window, she observed Georgie coming up the street, on his way from the station. He had a light and airy step, evidently he was in the best of spirits and he waved to her as he caught sight of her.

‘Just going to look in at the cottage one second,’ he called out, ‘to see that everything’s all right, and then I’ll come and have a chat before lunch. Heaps to tell you.’

‘So have I,’ said Lucia, ruefully thinking what one of those things was. ‘Hurry up, Georgie.’