Northanger Abbey

27

Cat was entirely charmed by the cobbled square at the heart of Kelso. ‘It’s the largest town square in Scotland,’ Henry said as he eased into a parking space on a side street. The three of them walked back to the square with its array of Victorian and Georgian buildings. Cat felt like the luckiest person in town to be walking the streets in such company. Henry looked every inch the country gentleman, complete with tweed cap and matching jacket, while Ellie lacked only a Labrador to complete her county set image.

‘There’s a café with free wifi on the square itself,’ Ellie said. ‘Do you want to do that first, or have a walk around?’

‘Let’s go to the café first. Then we’ll have something to gossip about, I feel sure.’

Henry groaned. ‘What have I let myself in for?’

‘Oh, shut up,’ Ellie said. ‘You know you love knowing everything that’s going on. I never met a man who loved a good gossip more than you.’

They entered the café and sat at the three points of a triangle round a table. They restrained themselves until they’d ordered their drinks, then they each whipped out their smartphones, piggybacked on to the free wifi and lost all sense of where and with whom they were.

Cat logged on to her Facebook account first of all and was amazed to see there were no messages from Bella. A quick trip to her friend’s page revealed only a couple of anodyne messages about a comedy event and a Book Festival reading she’d been to. Even more surprising was that there were no new photographs in any of her albums. It was odd, for a woman whose evening was not complete until she’d taken at least half a dozen photographs, and not all of them selfies. The only explanation Cat could think of was that her brother had returned and the two lovebirds had no time for anyone but themselves. She gave a little shrug and went back to her own Facebook page so she could let her sisters and Susie Allen know what a wonderful time she was having.

Once she had completed her updates, she went to Twitter, where she quickly responded to a handful of tweets from her few followers and the many writers, comedians and broadcasters she followed. She had barely finished when she spotted the alert that indicated she had a Direct Message waiting.

Wondering who was sending her a private communication, Cat clicked through to the appropriate page. To her surprise, the message was from her brother. James had written:

Where have u been? Been trying to get hold of u for 2 days.

Soz. No wifi or 3g at Northanger. Had to come into Kelso with H&E to get a signal. U ok?

Feel like shit. Finished with Bella. Left her & Edinbro y’day. Never want 2c either again.

‘Oh my God!’ Cat gasped.

Ellie looked up. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘Later,’ Cat said, thumbs darting over the keypad.

WTF? What hap?

I’m stupid, that’s what hap. I trusted Bella, big mistake. Feel total fuckwit, esp after talking to M&D about getting wed. I’m gutted ...

... Only u kno what she’s like. How she can be all charm & fun & that’s all u can c. Just hope ur gone from NA b4 tt bastard Tilney announces ...

... their engagement. Cuz I know u will want to slap him till his ears bleed

‘Oh my good God,’ Cat exclaimed again, waving away Henry’s questioning expression. ‘In a minute.’ He carried on watching her, clearly seeing that whatever she was reading was not improving as it continued.

Freddie Tilney? Engaged to BELLA? Tell me this is a wind-up, I thought he was just flirting 4 something 2 do.

U saw him flirting and u didn’t say anything 2 me?

Henry sd he was just bored and playing silly games. So i never sd anything. My bad, bro, so sorry

Johnny T will be gutted 2. And M&D. Have emailed all of them. What’s worst, she kept pretending she still loved me, rt to bitter end ...

... then finally she dumped me in a txt. A fucking txt. Can u imagine how I felt? She totally played me. Sucker that I am ...

... She sd, “this has been a terrible mistake, I see that now Freddie has proposed to me” ...

... Be very careful round that Tilney family. I don’t want them wrecking ur life like they wrecked mine. L8rs, sis. Tk cr.

Cat’s eyes filled with tears. ‘My poor sweet James,’ she said, her voice shaky.

‘Whatever has happened?’ Ellie said, reaching out for Cat’s hand. ‘Trouble at home?’

‘I think I can hazard a guess,’ Henry said bitterly. ‘Our brother.’

‘Is he ill?’ Ellie asked.

‘Not physically. Just heartsick.’ Cat looked at her friends. Her rapprochement with Henry was so recent, it still felt fragile. She didn’t want to risk it by launching into the stream of invective she wanted to hurl at his brother.

‘Cat’s trying to spare our feelings,’ Henry said. ‘Bloody Freddie has had his way with the lovely Bella Thorpe, and I’m guessing that James found out.’ He shook his head and sighed. ‘He just doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself. Is that what happened, Cat?’

‘Not exactly, no. Bella dumped James, not the other way round. She dumped him because she’s got engaged to your brother instead.’ She couldn’t keep the anger out of her voice, which was why she’d been reluctant to talk about it.

‘Oh my God,’ Ellie groaned. ‘What an utter bastard Freddie is.’

‘I’m so sorry about this,’ Henry said. ‘It never crossed my mind that she’d fall for his bullshit. I thought she was having as much of a laugh as him. I’d no idea—’

‘Never mind that,’ Cat said. ‘I need to ask a favour.’

‘Anything. After this, anything.’ Ellie gripped her hand tightly.

‘I want you to take me back to Northanger so I can pack up and head off to Edinburgh. The Allens are there till tomorrow. I’ll go back to Dorset with them.’

‘But why? Surely you don’t blame us for Freddie’s shitty behaviour?’ Henry protested.

‘No, of course not. But if he’s getting engaged to Bella, surely he’s going to have to talk to your father? He’ll have to come home to Northanger. He’ll probably bring Bella with him to meet your father properly, as a future daughter-in-law. And I can’t trust myself under the same roof as them. I swear, I’d want to scratch her eyes out. Honestly, who’d have believed she could treat poor James like that? From being the loveliest man in the world to the poor sod who gets dumped in no time flat. It sucks.’

‘Duped and dumped, by the sound of it,’ Henry said. ‘But I can’t believe she’s engaged to Freddie. I think there must be some mistake about that. I’m really sorry that Bella has chucked your brother, but it’s just not credible that Freddie’s actually going to marry the girl.’

‘It’s true. She texted James that it was all over, that Freddie had proposed to her. Look –’ She proffered her phone and Ellie shuffled round the table so she could read it too. ‘Sorry about the bit at the end, but he’s just upset. He doesn’t mean it. He hardly knows you two.’

The Tilneys said nothing as they read the DMs. Henry handed back the phone and sighed. ‘Well, if it’s true, God help us all. What a disaster that would be. Freddie wouldn’t be the first man who has chosen a wife with less sense than his family expected.’

‘It’s awful,’ Ellie said. ‘Can you imagine Bella Thorpe running Northanger? And that mother of hers with her interior designs? I think I want to kill myself.’

‘I almost feel sorry for Freddie,’ Henry said. ‘Both as husband and son. He’s going to spend the next few years getting it in the neck from both sides. Cat, you know them better than we do. What sort of family are they? What’s the mother like?’

‘Apart from her terrible taste,’ Ellie said darkly. ‘I’ve seen the pics she’s always shoving under people’s noses with her iPad.’

‘I don’t believe there’s any harm in her,’ Cat said. ‘She thinks her family are the brightest and the best looking and the most talented in the country, but she’s not the only mother who’s that misguided about her kids. I expect my mum’s quite nice about me when I’m not there.’

‘What was Bella’s father?’ Henry asked.

‘A solicitor, I believe. They live in Crouch End. Though Bella has her eye on Chelsea,’ Cat added with a trace of malice.

‘Are they loaded?’ Ellie asked.

‘Don’t think so. Bella’s always going on about being skint. And the flat they’re in for the festival is pretty poky and on the edge of the centre. They only come so Mrs Thorpe can pick up potential clients. But that won’t matter in your family, surely? Your father said the other day money only mattered because it allowed him to promote the happiness of his children.’ Cat made the quotation mark sign in the air.

‘But would it be promoting Freddie’s happiness, to support him marrying an empty-headed gold-digger like Bella Thorpe? I know she was your friend, Cat, but I assumed that was just because her mum is Susie’s old pal and you were thrown together.’

‘She can be good fun.’ Cat felt a little uncomfortable at the wholesale trashing of someone whose company she had enjoyed, even though she clearly hadn’t understood what Bella was really like.

‘Fun’s not enough. You think she’s a gold-digger?’ Henry said.

Cat thought for a moment. ‘Now I think about it, she did seem pretty put out that my parents weren’t about to set them up in a nice little house in London, with a cushy number for James in a London set of chambers. I don’t know where she got that idea from, but she wasn’t thrilled at the thought of York and a mortgage. So maybe Ellie’s right and she saw Freddie as a better prospect.’

‘In fairness to Freddie,’ Ellie said, ‘he’s not the sort to go around busting up other people’s engagements. It’s not like he has any trouble finding girlfriends. He’s just not met the right one before.’

Henry gave her a condescending smile. ‘You’re much too indulgent of our brother, Ellie. When he’s in the mood, he’ll chase anything with a pulse. But if Bella Thorpe’s really got her hooks into him, his days on the town are numbered. It’s all over for him. He’s a dead man, and not just brain dead.’ He gave Ellie a gentle punch. ‘Just the kind of soul mate sister-in-law you’ve always craved, Ellie. Open, candid, artless, loyal, unpretentious and not in the least devious.’

‘The very qualities that would delight me if they were for real, dear Henry. I’ll have to leave that up to you to supply me with.’

Henry looked quickly away and grunted.

‘Poor James,’ Cat said. ‘He’s never going to get over this.’

Henry swigged his coffee, realised it had gone cold and pulled a face. ‘It’s tough for him right now. But I think it’s hard on you too, Cat. Bella was your friend. You did everything together in Edinburgh. You’ll miss that intimacy too.’

Cat shook her head. ‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘I only saw in Bella what I wanted to see. I was desperate for a friend and I thought she was the one. I’m hurt, yes, but I’m not grieving like James is. If I never hear from her or see her again, I won’t lose sleep over it.’ She turned to Ellie and smiled. ‘Besides, I’ve got a better friend now.’

Henry looked fondly on the two girls. ‘Ah, Cat. You’ve got a gift for always finding the positive. We should all learn from that.’

‘And the positive is that Father will never accept Bella Thorpe as a suitable chatelaine for Northanger,’ Ellie said firmly. ‘She might think she’s engaged to Freddie, but five minutes with Father and it’ll be all over. There’s no way he’d support Freddie marrying someone with nothing to bring to the party.’

‘Surely your father doesn’t expect Freddie to marry for money?’ This was as monstrous a notion to Cat as any she’d attributed to the General.

‘It’s not quite that simple,’ Henry said. ‘It’s always good to bring more money into an estate like Northanger, to build for the future. But it’s not about greed. It’s more to do with understanding the power and obligation that goes with great wealth and great property. It’s the reason why you seldom get divorces among the dukes and earls and landowners, unless the estate is entailed. Divorce means splitting the land and the money, which ultimately makes life very hard for your children. So the landed classes put up and shut up and send the wife to live in the dower house or the cadet branch property. Thank God I’m a younger son and don’t have to bother about all that crap.’

‘And you don’t have to bother about leaving,’ Ellie added. ‘Northanger is the last place you’ll find Freddie right now. If he really is engaged to Bella, he won’t dare come near Father. And if he’s not? Well, he’s due to rejoin his regiment very soon and he’ll be desperate to make the most of every minute of freedom. So you’re safer with us than anywhere else.’

Reassured by this, Cat found herself able to rediscover some pleasure in the day. Since Henry was departing that evening for Glasgow, they made the most of their time, visiting Coldstream and Jedburgh as well before returning to Northanger. But before Henry left, they extracted a promise from him that he would have them to Woodston for lunch on Saturday. The General insisted he’d drive them over himself. ‘Always good to see the place,’ he said. ‘Besides, if I’m coming, Henry will have to make sure to lay on a decent spread. I’m doing this for your sake, ladies.’

It was, Cat thought, a small price to pay. What counted was that she would be in Henry’s company once more. She would have another opportunity to demonstrate that she had moved on from her disastrous adventure. An opportunity, in short, to demonstrate how much more amenable she was than Bella Thorpe.