18

KATHERINE went down to the servants’ quarters after luncheon while Jasper went in search of his steward. And she had a word with the housekeeper and the cook and the butler. They must be consulted, after all, before she proceeded further with plans for the fete. It was upon them that much of the work would fall-and they already had a houseful of guests to prepare for.

They were indeed alarmed at her initial suggestion. A grand fete and ball in one month?

But as soon as she had assured them that the bulk of the planning would be hers and that most of the work would be shared among whichever neighbors could be persuaded to take on the task, they became almost instantly enthusiastic, even excited-and comically offended that she should try to release them from some of the work.

“But I am going to be in charge of the food, mind,” the cook declared in a voice that brooked no contradiction. “I don’t mind a bit of help with the planning and even the cooking, my lady, but I am going to be in charge.”

“I never thought for an instant that you would not be,” Katherine said, smiling. “Indeed, I hoped you would be, Mrs. Oliver, as I suspect the kitchens here would collapse if ever you were to abandon them.”

“And I will be in charge of decorating the house and ballroom,” Mrs. Siddon said, “and ordering the supplies. You will find any number of people, my lady, who will be only too eager to help out and give you ideas and even set them into effect, but I must be in charge of the house.”

“And happy I am to hear you say it,” Katherine assured her. “But I will see to it that you get all the help you need.”

“I will speak to Benton myself, my lady,” the butler said. And lest she not remember who that was, “The head gardener, my lady. He will want to supply all the flowers for the ballroom from the kitchen gardens and the greenhouses.”

“I was so hoping he would,” Katherine said. “And I would be much obliged if you would ask him.”

“And I will be in charge of the food tables,” he said as if he thought she might argue, “and the footmen serving at them.”

“Oh,” she said, “how very kind you are, Mr. Couch.”

“It will be just like old times,” Mrs. Oliver said with a sigh. “Ah, the fete at Cedarhurst was always the best day of the whole year. It was always good, clean fun for everyone, I don’t care what anyone says to the contrary. It was not the devil’s own work. The very idea!”

“The last one was less than a year before Lord Montford died,” Mrs. Siddon said. “Less than a year before his present lordship was born. Bless my soul, how quickly time does fly. Though there have been long, dreary years in between, there is no denying.”

“Those days,” the butler said, “are like something out of another lifetime.”

“And now they are to be resurrected,” Katherine said. “Oh, I do want the fete to be as it always was-with some new touches too. I want it to be perfect and something everyone will want repeated every year for the rest of their lives.”

“The people you need to speak with, my lady,” Mrs. Siddon said briskly, “are…”

And she listed an impressive number of mostly older people in the neighborhood. Mrs. Oliver and Mr. Couch added the names of some younger people, who maybe did not remember the fetes but who would be only too delighted to plan a new one.

They could not go visiting at all during the rest of that day as Jasper needed to be busy with the steward, though he did come and fetch her from the drawing room during the afternoon so that she could join him, Mr. Knowles, and Mr. Benton on the east lawn. They spent an hour out there, discussing what was wanted and needed, pacing back and forth across the grass to see how large the orchard could be and where exactly the rose arbor should be situated.

It rather intrigued Katherine to see Jasper without any of the artifice he affected in London and kept up most of the time when alone with her. With the two men he was all seriousness, all business, all energy and intelligence. And he clearly knew a great deal about land and drainage and plants and sunshine and shade and everything else one needed to know to be a successful gardener.

He knew the house and he knew the park. He knew all of his ancestors pictured in the gallery. He might have hated Cedarhurst for most of his life, but he had not neglected it or his duty to it.

She found it all a little disconcerting. And reassuring too. She could like this man.

The rest of the afternoon she spent in the making of lists of things that would need to be done if the fete and the ball were to be a success. Something of this magnitude would usually take a whole year to plan, she guessed. But there was only one month.

It was a daunting, exhilarating thought.

Perhaps, as Jasper had assured her on more than one occasion, this new life would not be so bad after all.

They spent much of the next three days calling upon the neighbors, some of them in the village, some in the countryside around. Jasper had known them all as a boy, though only a few of them had been deemed worthy of being officially visited or of being invited to visit or dine. He had played with some of their children whenever he could steal away to do so, and indeed some of those children were now grown up and settled with families of their own.

He had enjoyed genial relations with everyone since growing to adulthood. But he had not spent a great deal of time here, except that one year when the disaster of the Vauxhall wager had driven him home. He had never had any problem getting along with his neighbors.

It had not dawned upon him, though, until now that these people were his people, that they shared a background and heritage and memories with him, that they had known him most of his life, that they were, in fact, fond of him.

They were all eager to meet his wife, and it struck Jasper that word of the scandal that had precipitated them into marriage had undoubtedly arrived here. But rather than looking upon him with disapproval and Katherine with suspicion, everyone seemed more inclined to take their own to their collective bosom and let the world beyond their neighborhood go to the devil.

It was clear to him that they all fell in love with Katherine almost as soon as they met her. She had beauty, of course, and charm and a way of dressing that was smart and elegant without in any way suggesting that she was trying to put on town airs. Her roots were in a country village. These might not be people she knew, but they were people with whom she could identify. And they recognized that in her and respected it and liked her the better for it.

And she had a way of showing interest in everyone, of deflecting attention away from herself and onto them. She listened to their stories, their woes, their triumphs, their jokes, their reminiscences of the past and always responded appropriately.

And of course-he might have expected it-she had only to mention the idea of reviving the Cedarhurst summer fete and ball for everyone to exclaim with delight and offer to help in any way they could. The older people remembered the fetes as the high point of the year and had wondered when his lordship intended restoring them.

“It had not occurred to me,” Jasper explained more than once as they moved from house to house, “since the last one happened before my birth. Now that my wife is determined to revive it, however, I am all enthusiasm.”

For which pronouncement he was always favored with a dazzling smile from Katherine and fond nods of approval from his neighbors.

The younger people could not wait for the revival of something they had heard spoken about with happy nostalgia so often down the years.

Before the three days of visits were over, they had seen everyone there was to be seen and had drunk more cups of tea and consumed more cakes than Jasper had done in a decade. And the fete was well on the way to becoming a reality. Mrs. Ellis had agreed to head a committee to organize games for the children, Mrs. Bonner had volunteered to look after the needlework contests, Mrs. Penny had been unanimously declared the best one to be in charge of the baking contests, and Mr. Cornell had been persuaded by his wife and four daughters and a sister-in-law-he had not stood a chance, poor devil-to form a committee to plan games and activities for the men.