The Virtuous Cyprian. Nicola Cornick

monstrous tedious place, the country!’ She stopped.

      Lucille, used to her sister’s butterfly mind since childhood, did not display any impatience. ‘Did I understand you to be saying that you had been visiting our father’s house? I was not aware that he owned—’

      ‘But of course you were! We were born at Cookes! I understand that Mr Kellaway always lived there between his travels!’

      Lucille frowned in an attempt to unravel this. ‘Of course I knew of Cookes, but I thought it to be leased. Yet you say you have inherited it?’

      Susanna smiled patronisingly. ‘I have inherited the lease, of course! Old Barnes told me all about it—you remember Mr Markham’s lawyer? I kept him on to deal with my business—why, whatever is the matter?’

      Lucille had clapped her hand to her mouth in horror. ‘Susanna, you do not employ Mr Barnes as your lawyer? Good God, the man’s business was composed solely of country doctors and parsons! Surely you shocked him to the core!’

      Her sister threw back her head with a gurgle of laughter. ‘Which shows how little you know of business, Luce! Barnes was only too happy to take on the work I gave him! What was I saying—oh yes, it was Barnes who read of our father’s death and drew to my attention the fact that I had a claim on the copyhold of Cookes. He is nothing if not thorough! And I thought—why not? There might be some financial advantage in it! After all, mine is not a very secure profession!’

      Lucille put down the china teapot and passed her sister a cup. ‘I see. So you have the right to claim the house and its effects as George Kellaway’s eldest child?’

      ‘So Barnes tells me. But there is no inheritance, for he spent all his money on his travels, and the house is full of nothing but books and bizarre artefacts from China!’ Susanna looked disgusted. ‘It’s all of a piece, I suppose! At any rate, you need not envy me my good fortune!’ She gave her sister her flashing smile.

      Lucille raised her teacup and drank thoughtfully. ‘But what are the terms of the lease? I collect our father held the house from the Earl of Seagrave?’

      ‘Lud, who knows?’ Susanna shrugged pettishly. ‘I leave all that to Barnes, of course! Anyway, it is the dullest place on earth and if it were not for the fact that I may have something to gain, I would not stay there another moment, I assure you!’

      She looked a little furtive. ‘Actually, Luce, it was that which brought me here. You see, I need to go away for a little and I want you to go to Cookes and pretend to be me.’

      Lucille, who had just taken a mouthful of tea, almost choked. She swallowed hard, the tears coming to her eyes. Susanna was watching her with a calculating look which made those limpid blue eyes look suddenly hard. There was a silence, broken only by the distant voices of some of the girls as they played rounders outside. Lucille put her teacup down very carefully.

      ‘I think you must be either mad or in jest to make such a suggestion, Susanna.’ Her voice was level and quite definite. ‘To what purpose? Such childish tricks were all very well when we were in the schoolroom, but now? I would not even consider it!’

      Susanna was now looking as offended as her indolence would allow. ‘Upon my word, you have grown most disagreeable since we last met! This is no childish ploy; I was never more in earnest! Do you think I would travel all the way from Suffolk to Oakham for a mere jest…’ she gave an exaggerated shudder ‘…and stay in the most appalling inns along the way just for the pleasure of it? Well, I declare! You are the one whose wits are going begging!’

      There was some truth in this, Lucille reflected. Susanna could be relied upon never to do anything against her own comfort. She knew she should not give the suggestion a moment’s thought, not even discuss it…and yet…

      ‘Why on earth do you need me to consent to so foolish a masquerade?’ Her curiosity had got the better of her, for Susanna was looking both dogged and determined, expressions normally alien to her.

      ‘I need you to do it because I have to go away,’ Susanna said with emphasis. ‘Sir Edwin Bolt has invited me to go to Paris with him, and I cannot risk delay. I do not want to let him escape me!’ She pulled a dainty face. ‘The timing is most unfortunate!’

      Something which might have been pity stirred in Lucille. ‘Is Sir Edwin so important, then, Susanna? Do you love him?’

      Susanna laughed, a bitter sound which matched the scornful sparkle in her eyes. ‘Love! Lud, no! But he might be persuaded to marry me! And you know, Luce, we are neither of us young any more. Twenty-seven! I cannot bear to think of it!’ Her unsentimental blue gaze considered her sister. ‘I suppose you might continue teaching here until you died, but it’s different for me. I need to secure my future!’

      Lucille swallowed her sister’s carelessly hurtful reference to her own prospects. ‘I see. But I thought that you had claimed Cookes for that purpose…’

      ‘Exactly!’ Susanna rewarded her with a flashing smile, as though she had said something particularly clever. ‘I cannot be in two places at once! My best chance lies with Sir Edwin—after all, he might make me a lady!’ She did not appear to see the humour in her own remark. ‘But at the same time I do not wish to relinquish my claim on Cookes in case there is some money in it for me! It really is so unfair! Why did our father have to die so inconveniently?’

      Lucille’s lips twitched at this supreme piece of self-centredness. ‘I daresay he did not think of it,’ she said, with a sarcasm that completely passed her sister by. ‘Forgive me if I am being a slowtop, but I do not really understand why you feel you cannot leave Cookes now. Surely there could be no danger in you travelling abroad for a little now that you have secured the lease?’

      Susanna pulled a face. ‘But I know they want me out of that house! They wish I had never claimed it!’ She saw her sister’s look of scepticism and hurried on a little defensively, ‘Oh you can look like that, Luce, but you didn’t see those lawyers! They have been pestering me all week, trying to disprove my claim! I know they don’t want me there! Why, they will break the lease if I give them half a chance, and then I may never be able to claim the inheritance I deserve! So I daren’t go away without knowing that there’s someone to look after my interests, and it’s easiest for you just to pretend to be me for a little while! That way it looks as though I’m really interested in living in the house. After all,’ she added, tactlessly, ‘no one even knows you exist, so they would not suspect!’

      Lucille felt as though she was struggling in a quicksand. ‘But cannot your lawyer represent your interests? After all, he was the one who told you of your claim to Cookes in the first place. Would he not be the most appropriate person—’

      Susanna was shaking her head stubbornly. ‘But my lawyer is in Holborn! I need someone in Suffolk! I need you, Lucille!’

      ‘But, Susanna,’ Lucille said helplessly, ‘the deception…It is fraud, after all! And if they were to realise—’

      Susanna curled her lip. ‘Lud, you always were so pious, Luce! No one would guess! The only person you could possibly meet is old Josselyn, the agent, and even he has probably tired of trying to disprove my claim and will leave you alone! I thought you might like a chance to look at Cookes,’ she added slyly. ‘It is full of dusty old tomes that would no doubt be fascinating to you. For myself, I cannot bear bookish things, but I know that you are the most complete bluestocking.’

      There was another silence whilst Lucille struggled against an inner compulsion. ‘It wouldn’t work,’ she said, more forcefully this time. ‘Why, we do not even look alike!’

      Superficially, this was true. Lucille felt her twin’s gaze skim her with faintly malicious consideration. She knew what she must look like to Susanna’s sophisticated eyes: a country dowd in an old dress, angular where Susanna was generously curved, her silver fair hair several shades paler and drawn back in a disfiguring bun. They had the same sapphire blue eyes, but whilst Susanna made flirtatious use of hers, Lucille’s were customarily hidden behind her reading glasses. Lucille’s complexion