Saraband for Two Sisters by Philippa Carr Page B

sometimes I used to think that if Bastian married her that would be sufficient punishment for his treatment of me.
    The servants did not like Carlotta. She was too arrogant with them, reminding them always that she was the great lady and they beneath her notice, except for what they could do for her. She and her mother shared a Spanish maid whom they had brought with them. Ana was a woman in her mid-thirties, dark-haired, with a faint line of black hairs on her upper lip, and deep-set eyes. She was very quiet and I had never heard her speak, but I imagined she was efficient and an excellent lady’s maid, for the manner in which she dressed Carlotta’s hair was a wonder in itself. Silent-footed, almost mouse-like, one was hardly aware of her. She slept in a small ante-room adjoining Carlotta’s bedroom.
    When my parents returned and Sir Gervaise with his manservant and two grooms moved into Trystan Priory, life changed. We were now living in greater style, for to have a man such as Sir Gervaise in the house made that a necessity. His business, he told my father, would take up a whole week, he believed, and if he could intrude on Landor hospitality all that time he would be gratified.
    Of course we welcomed him. My father was delighted, for Sir Gervaise was as deeply involved with the Company as he was himself.
    They rode out together, and were closeted together and talking a great deal. They went down to the sea and inspected my father’s ship; they discussed the cargoes he had brought back and were constantly in each other’s company.
    Meals had become ceremonial occasions. Not only was Sir Gervaise our guest but also Senara and Carlotta, and there was no doubt that our society had become much more grand and sophisticated by these arrivals.
    There was a great deal of talk about the Court, and in this Sir Gervaise, Senara and Carlotta had a good deal in common, since they had all moved in Court circles, and though Sir Gervaise was connected with Whitehall and Senara and her daughter with Spain, there had been a connection between the two Courts when the King—Prince, as he was then—had visited Spain in order to arrange a marriage between himself and the King of Spain’s sister.
    Sir Gervaise told us that as a boy of eighteen he had had a small role in the King’s entourage and it seemed very likely that he and Senara had actually been at the same functions. Senara had met King Charles on one occasion. She said this was before his father’s death when he was but a prince, though heir to the throne, and she had thought him a handsome man, though smaller than was becoming in a king. He had great charm of manner, however, and being young and handsome created quite a good impression.
    ‘Of course,’ she said, ‘he was more interested in getting help for his sister Elizabeth and her husband Frederick, who had lost his country, than he was in marriage with the Infanta.’
    ‘The King saw the present Queen at the French Court when he passed through Paris,’ Sir Gervaise told us, ‘but of course she was but a child then, and he did not give her a second glance.’
    ‘It’s strange,’ said my mother, ‘that fate doesn’t give us a little nudge when we are face to face with a situation or a person who is going to change our lives.’
    ‘You ask too much, my love,’ said my father.
    ‘There are some people who say they have premonitions,’ suggested Senara, and admitted, ‘I do now and then.’
    ‘Is it because your mother was a witch?’ I asked.
    There was a silence at the table. My mother was frowning.
    ‘Oh, that’s all nonsense, Bersaba,’ she said. ‘I can’t think where you hear these things.’
    ‘But it’s true, isn’t it?’
    ‘It was said that she was,’ Senara told us. ‘That was when she was here. It was never mentioned when I joined her later.’
    ‘People build up these fantasies,’ said my mother. ‘I am glad they are not talking of such things nowadays. They’re …