The changeling

He was gazing at me as he said: “I have been looking forward to this pleasure. I must confess I was apprehensive, fearing that you might have decided not to spend Christmas here.”

“We shall be here,” cried Belinda, jumping into the air.

“What fun that will be!” he replied. “Christmas in the country with the most delightful of companions.” He included us all in his smile.

“Are you going to stay for a long time?” asked Belinda.

“That will depend on how long my host wants me to.”

“Is your host my father?” asked Belinda a little blankly.

“Indeed he is.”

“Let’s go into the house, shall we?” I suggested.

The groom took our horses and we went into the hall. As we did so Benedict came down the stairs.

“Oh, there you are, Gerson,” he said. “They have your room ready. I’ll get one of them to take you up. It’s good to see you.”

“I am delighted to be here. These ladies have already made me feel welcome.”

“So I see ...” said my stepfather vaguely. “Your bags will be taken up. Good journey?”

“Quite good, thanks.”

“I’d like to have a chat about things before dinner.”

“But of course.”

“Right.” He walked with Oliver Gerson across the hall. He seemed hardly to have noticed our presence.

I looked at Belinda. Her eyes were shining. “It’s wonderful,” she said. “Aren’t you pleased, Lucie? He’s going to be here for Christmas.”

“He’s very nice,” said Lucie.

“Of course he’s nice. He’s the nicest man I know.”

“You don’t really know him yet,” I reminded her.

“I do know him. I like him. I’m glad he’s here.”

She skipped up three stairs.

I looked at Lucie and laughed. “It’s clear that he has Belinda’s approval,” I said. “She talks about him a lot. She says he’s like one of those knights who did all sorts of daring things to win the King’s daughter.”

“Let’s hope she’s right,” I said.

When I look back it seems that that Christmas was dominated by Oliver Gerson. He devoted quite a lot of time to the children which I thought was kind of him. He seemed to understand Belinda and she was certainly happier in his company than I had known her to be before. She had become a normal funloving child. It proved to me that she craved attention and that her waywardness had been a method of calling attention to herself. The change in her was remarkable.

Oliver Gerson was, for the greater part of the day, in my stepfather’s company. It was for that purpose, I supposed, that he had been invited to the house. He told me that he was my stepfather’s right-hand man.

“I knew that you were in business together,” I said. “It’s those clubs, isn’t it?”

“That and other things. I worked for your stepfather’s grandfather, you know.”

“Oh yes ... Uncle Peter.”

“He was a wonderful man. Astute, knowledgeable and crafty as a fox.”

“Did you like working for him?”

“Immensely. It was a great adventure.”

“He is very much missed in the family although we all knew there was something rather shocking about what he was engaged in. Is it the same still?”

“Those who are shocked are envious of others’ success. The clubs provide a need for certain people. If they want to gamble why shouldn’t they? If they lose money it is their affair.”

“I believe there are other things besides gambling.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “No one is dragooned into attending. They use the clubs of their own free will. It is all legitimate business. There is nothing illegal about it.”

“Uncle Peter wanted to be a member of Parliament and there was some scandal about the clubs. It ruined his parliamentary career.”

“I know. It happened years ago. People’s ideas changed after the Consort’s death. It would have been different if it had happened now. It was the Prince who set out these rigid codes.”

“But might it not still be dangerous for my stepfather?”

“I think you can say he knows what he is doing.”

“My mother was very upset when she knew he had inherited the business. She wanted him to sell out.”

“He is too good a businessman to do that. How could he resist the chance of adding to his immense fortune?”

”Easily, I should have thought, as he has enough already.”

“You don’t understand the mind of a businessman, Rebecca.”

“I think family happiness comes before all that.”

He put his hand over mine. “ ‘Oh wise young judge,’ “ he quoted. “ ‘How I do honour thee.’ “

“I am no Portia but I should have thought that was clear. My mother was very worried. It was just before she died.”

I pulled myself up sharply. I was trying to blame him for what had happened. I was telling myself that in his greed for more wealth he had worried her, weakened her so that when her ordeal came she was unable to face it.

It was nonsense. That had had nothing to do with her death. “You see,” Oliver Gerson was saying, “he has a great flair for business. I gathered he did well in Australia before he acquired his goldmine. Didn’t he have men working for him?”