Northanger Abbey

16

Anticipation is often the enemy of pleasure; our sights are set so high that disappointment is inevitable. So it was for Cat when she went to dinner with the Tilneys. There was nothing specific she could put her finger on. Although all three seemed to fall silent when Calman showed her into the drawing room, the General greeted her warmly and was impeccably polite. Both Ellie and Henry were more formal in their welcome than she’d expected, and the easy lightness that had grown between them on their walk seemed to have evaporated.

Thinking about it afterwards, Cat couldn’t help feeling somehow let down. She’d gone determined to enjoy herself and left feeling disgruntled. She’d expected the closeness between her and Ellie to develop further but it had stalled. She’d hoped that the intimacy of a family party would allow her relationship with Henry to blossom further, but he had never been more silent and withdrawn in her company. In spite of General Tilney’s constant kindness and compliments, in spite of the delicious dinner Calman served up to them, in spite of the fascination of seeing how the Tilneys lived, leaving their house had felt like a release.

She couldn’t make sense of it at all. It couldn’t be General Tilney’s fault. He had been charming and entertaining, completely avoiding stories of his military successes. She could see where Henry got his looks and his easy manners. Obviously it wasn’t the General who had put a damper on the evening. The best she could hope for was that Ellie and Henry’s lack of animation was just one of those things. And maybe she had just been overawed by the splendour of her surroundings and the complications of a menu that had included ceviche of salmon and duck so rare she half-expected it to quack.

It was still early when she left Ainslie Place, so she texted Bella to see where she was and whether she’d heard from James.

In bar @ traverse, heard nothing, come @ once!

Came the reply. So Cat hustled across the West End to the theatre café bar, where she found Bella slumped in a corner with a glass of red wine in front of her. ‘Not a bloody word from him,’ she greeted Cat. ‘He was due into Dorchester nearly three hours ago.’

‘He’ll be picking his moment,’ Cat said. ‘Don’t fret. Ask me how my evening with the Tilneys went.’

Bella sighed. ‘Don’t tell me. Henry was even more gorgeous and cool than ever.’

‘No, actually.’ Cat gave Bella a quick run-down on the disappointments of the evening, and settled back in her seat ready for commiseration.

Unfortunately she was to be disappointed for the second time that evening. ‘I knew it,’ Bella said. ‘Totes up themselves, the Tilneys. They think they’re something special. Honestly, I don’t know how you let them treat you like that. I always thought that Ellie was a supercilious snob.’

‘I never said that, Bella,’ Cat protested.

‘Don’t defend her, Cat. Not when she’s treated you like a stranger in her own home. And Henry, who acted like he totally fancied you – he hardly says a word to you all through the meal?’

‘Maybe he wasn’t feeling great.’

‘Stop kidding yourself, Cat. He’s moody, you never know how he’s going to be. He’s so not like our brothers. He’s just been playing with you, stringing you along. One minute he acts like the sun shines out of your arse, the next minute he’s acting like you don’t exist. I can’t be doing with messing people around like that. You should make a decision and stick to it. I hate people being disloyal. Henry should take a leaf out of Johnny’s book, he’s totally loyal to the people he loves.’

‘I don’t think he means to mess me around,’ Cat said. But before they could take the conversation any further, Bella’s phone beeped with a text.

‘It’s Jamie,’ she squealed. She closed her eyes and held her phone at arm’s length. ‘I can’t look, tell me what he says, Cat.’

Cat squinted at the screen. ‘“Mum and Dad thrilled to bits,”’ she read. ‘“Totally supportive. Will call tomorrow.” See, I told you there was nothing to worry about.’

Bella screeched, turning heads all over the bar. ‘Cooooool! It’s all going to be perfect!’ She hugged Cat so hard it hurt her ribs. ‘Now we have to go out and celebrate. There’s a party at the Roxburghe, some guy who works for Johnny’s company. We’re invited.’ Bella began gathering scarves and bag together. ‘But I warn you, I’m going to be shocking company because my heart’s in Dorset. And as for dancing, you’ll have to find somebody else to hit the floor with because I am saving all my dances for my husband-to-be.’ She gave a long, shuddering sigh. ‘How amazing does that sound? Husband-to-be ... Anyway, you know how it is. When you’re in love like I am, you glow and all the guys see the glow and they want it to rub off on them. But I am not sharing my glow with anybody except Jamie.’

The party was in a pair of large upstairs rooms. One held a cash bar, a somewhat depleted buffet table and an array of tables and chairs where people sat and chatted or chilled. In the other, a DJ hunched behind his equipment, the dance music thudding and the coloured lights flashing. The dance floor was half-empty, but those who were dancing were throwing themselves into it wholeheartedly.

Bella grabbed a table and Cat bought them a couple of Red Bulls; it was late and they were both in need of a kick of caffeine. No sooner had she sat down than a trio of young men came swaggering in. Cat blinked hard, for the first of the three looked like a pumped-up version of Henry Tilney. Everything about him was bigger, somehow – he was taller, his jaw stronger, his shoulders wider, his chest deeper, his legs longer. And certainly, his voice was louder. ‘Get them in, Charlie,’ he said to the third of their group.

‘Oh my God,’ Bella said. ‘Tell me that’s not Henry in an Iron Man suit.’

‘It must be his brother Freddie. Ellie said he was due home from Afghanistan on leave.’ He was, she thought, more coarsely attractive than his brother, and certainly more noisy. But he had the same unreadable dark eyes and pale skin, though there were two spots of high colour on his cheekbones. He had the trademark wavy blond hair swept back from that familiar widow’s peak. Already, he was mocking his friend Charlie for even thinking about dancing.

‘What? When there’s drink to be drunk?’ he said. ‘We’ll find ourselves some gorgeous girls soon enough, Charlie. All the nice girls love a soldier.’ And he looked round the room, sizing them all up with a flirtatious grin and a wink.

Almost unnoticed, Henry had slipped into the room behind Freddie and his pals. Cat began to understand why Henry might have been off his food, knowing his loud, handsome, brave brother was in town. It would throw anyone off their stride.

Seeing Cat and Bella, Henry waved and came straight over. ‘This is a nice surprise,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you again tonight, Cat. And Bella, you look particularly radiant.’

‘She’s just got engaged to my brother, that’s why.’

‘Really? Congratulations. But where is he? If I was engaged to you, Bella, I wouldn’t want to let you out of my sight.’

‘Oh, Henry, you are such a schmoozer,’ Bella said coyly, all her earlier criticisms of Henry apparently forgotten and forgiven. ‘He’s gone back to Dorset to give his parents the good news.’

Just then, Freddie planted himself in the fourth chair at their table. There was something dangerous in his expression, as if he was only moments away from losing the veneer of civilisation. Cat thought a lot of girls would find that darkness exciting, but it didn’t set her pulse racing. She far preferred the more domesticated brother. ‘Henry, you dog,’ Freddie said. ‘Are you going to keep all the gorgeous girls to yourself? Who are these visions of loveliness?’

With some apparent reluctance, Henry made the introductions. When he heard Bella was so recently engaged, Freddie opened his eyes wide in a look of mock innocence. ‘Then you need a chaperone, Bella. Someone to protect you from all those predatory bastards gagging to steal you away from your fiancé. And to take you out of yourself. Come on, come and dance with me. I’ll take good care of her for your brother,’ he added, with a wink to Cat.

‘Wow,’ Cat said as they headed for the dance floor without a word of protest from Bella. ‘He’s a bit of a force of nature, your brother.’

‘Mmm.’

‘But that was kind of him, to think of Bella being alone and miserable without James while everybody else is having a good time.’

Henry made the kind of noise that purports to be a laugh but isn’t. ‘It must be lovely inside your head, always attributing your good-hearted motives to everybody else.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘There’s no cynicism in you, Cat. You never think anything but the best of everyone. Not everyone has the best of motives, but you persist in thinking well of them.’

‘I don’t understand you.’

‘Then I’m one up on you, because I understand you perfectly well.’

Cat gave a wry chuckle. ‘Right. Because I can’t speak well enough to be obscure and unintelligible.’

This time Henry’s laugh was genuine. ‘The perfect satire on modern pretentiousness. Well said.’

‘But tell me what you’re getting at.’

‘I don’t want us to fall out, so I think I’ll just shut up now.’

‘We won’t fall out, I promise. Just tell me what you meant.’

He considered for a moment then shrugged. ‘It’s typical of you to take my brother at his word. To believe he meant it when he said he was asking her to dance to protect her and cheer her up. Me, I know him well enough to know that was the last thing on his mind. Which proves, if I needed proof, that you are probably the most good-natured person in Edinburgh.’

Cat flushed deep scarlet. ‘You’re making me blush,’ she said. ‘But here’s the thing. Bella was so determined not to dance with anyone because she’s so in love with James, that only kindness would make her break that determination. And she knows Freddie is your brother, so she trusts him.’

‘That might be her first mistake,’ he said grimly. ‘Freddie’s always found beautiful girls irresistible. And they seem to think the same about him. As soon as I walked in and saw you two, I knew he’d be across like a bullet from a gun. And no matter how firm Bella’s intentions might have been beforehand, I knew they would melt under the heat of my brother’s charms.’

‘I think you’re reading too much into a simple act of kindness, Henry. Bella is totally devoted to James. And she’s a woman who knows her own mind.’

He threw up his hands in a gesture of submission. ‘If you say so. But the other side of the coin of people who say they know their own mind is obstinacy. The secret is knowing when to give in. So maybe that’s Bella’s secret. She knows when to back down.’

‘Which is a good thing. So, Henry, are you going to sit here gassing all night or are you going to cheer me up on the dance floor? Or do I have to get one of Freddie’s buddies to shake his booty?’ She jerked her head towards Freddie’s companions at the bar.

Henry shuddered. ‘I could never do that to you.’ And so they followed the music next door and threw themselves into unstructured gyration with all the energy and passion they had previously devoted to the strict patterns of Scottish country dancing. Still, Cat had enough attention to spare to notice Bella and Freddie making the most of the music, dancing perhaps a little closer than Cat would have done in Bella’s shoes.

It was past midnight when Cat and Bella extricated themselves from the party. Both Tilney men had offered to escort them home, but the girls had refused. ‘We’ll walk down to the Allens and call a cab for Bella from there,’ Cat had insisted. Henry’s words had made her a little more cautious where his brother was concerned, especially since he had had at least four beers and two whiskies that she had counted. Drink, she knew, could blur boundaries and make people behave in ways that would shame them afterwards. Better to avoid the possibility.

Arm in arm, the two girls tottered down the street on feet made sensitive by energetic dancing. ‘I’m knackered,’ Bella complained.

‘It’s your own fault. You said you weren’t going to dance.’

‘I took pity on him. Don’t forget, Freddie’s been out in Afghanistan risking his life, not swanning around courtrooms like his brother. He deserves a bit of cheering up. And it was so sweet of him to be concerned that I might be lonely without Jamie.’

‘I don’t know how thrilled James would have been about that.’ Cat tried not to sound disapproving and dull.

Bella tutted. ‘Jamie doesn’t want me to be mis. Anyway, I feel like I did my bit for the troops tonight. My personal Help for Heroes. Poor boy, he’s had such a tough tour of duty, he needed to let down his hair. And once he’d danced with me, nobody else would do. If I’d gone and sat down, he’d just have been pestering me non-stop.’

‘That must have been flattering.’

‘It was quite. Anyway, what are you complaining about? Me being occupied with Freddie meant you got to dance with Henry all night. He’s a lovely mover, isn’t he? Much more stylish than his brother. Positively hetero-flexible!’ She giggled.

Cat wasn’t in the least comfortable with pursuing that angle, not being entirely sure what it meant, but reasonably certain it was nothing that would bring her comfort. ‘I suspect his conversation’s a bit more interesting too.’

Bella groaned. ‘You’re not kidding. There’s nothing modest about Freddie. He’s a bit up himself, like all the Tilneys.’

‘That didn’t stop us having a good time, though.’

Bella squeezed her arm tightly. ‘It passed the time. Because I’m on tenterhooks to talk to Jamie tomorrow, to hear what your parents said. I can’t wait!’