106. Love's Dream in Peril (12 page)

A man who seemed to be watching them.

As she strained her eyes to see who it might be, the man stepped aside and vanished into the bushes.

“What is it?” Digby asked.

“I thought I saw someone.”

“Mrs. Dryden, probably – seeking her lost brood.”

“No, it was a man, I think.”

Digby turned to look.

“There is no one there,” he said. “Nothing but the trunks of the trees and shadows on the path.”

A strange feeling of apprehension passed through Adella, so that she shivered. The golden dream that had possessed her a moment ago as they kissed had vanished like mist.

“What’s wrong?” Digby gazed at her. “You look as if you have seen a ghost!”

“Don’t leave me,” she whispered. “I have only just found you again, I cannot bear you to go so soon.”

“I have to. I must. Adella, don’t look so anxious.”

“I can’t help it,” Adella said, for the strange cold feeling of fear was growing stronger. “I have lost you once. I might lose you again.”

“Of course you won’t. I am only a few doors away and, although I am busy all the time and I have no choice in the matter, we will meet again soon.”

He linked his arm in hers and they walked together back to the iron gate that led into the Square.

Adella now saw that Mrs. Dryden, a tall elegant woman had come out onto the front steps of her house, No. 90 and was looking at them, shading her eyes in the sun.

Digby waved to her.

“I must fetch the children,” he whispered. “Soon, Adella, soon!”

And he turned and ran back into the garden.

*

Lord Ranulph stood in front of Fowles Place, the gracious mansion, his family’s London residence.

His head was spinning and the image of Adella as he had just seen her in the arms of another young man, a fair-haired devil who looked amazingly like Digby, swirled incessantly around in his mind.

He had to escape from the torment of it. The only way that he could think of was to have Major saddled at once and to gallop as far and as fast as he could.

As Rotten Row opened up before him, he dug his spurs into Major’s flanks, pushing him to go faster.

Lord Ranulph crouched over Major’s sleek black neck, urging him on.

“Whoa, there!” a high voice called.

A rider was coming up behind him, also pounding along at a breakneck gallop. In a few more strides a grey horse came up to Major and a slender hand seized the reins from Lord Ranulph and pulled his black horse to a halt.

It was Lady Ireton, her cheeks flushed and her eyes flashing with the excitement of the chase.

“You are riding as recklessly as the Devil,” she asserted. “Are you trying to kill yourself? To say nothing of your excellent mount?”

Lord Ranulph muttered something to the effect that he might as well kill himself.

“Nonsense!” Lady Ireton laughed. “A young man who is just about to get engaged to the prettiest girl in London! Or has she refused you? Is that what drives you to such a dangerous excess of speed?”

The sound of her laughter was like a shock of cold water, bringing him to his senses.

“She has not refused me,” he growled angrily.

And then, as the reality of what he had just seen returned to him, he added,

“At least, not yet.”

Lady Ireton raised her brows.

“Oh, dear. Perhaps she prefers another? Is that it? The young gentlemen were flocking around her last night.”

He could still say nothing, but at the same time the expression on his face gave away the truth.

“Oh, my poor boy!” Lady Ireton said. “What has happened?”

At last he found his voice and, forcing the words out, Lord Ranulph told her the events of the morning.

“I spoke to Adella last night as I think you guessed, Lady Ireton. She seemed a little shocked, but not unwilling to consider my proposal.”

His voice was unsteady as Lady Ireton watched him keenly, a little smile on her face.

“This morning I called upon her uncle to gain his permission to continue with my suit and he was delighted.”

“You are a good catch, Ranulph.” Lady Ireton’s hand was still firmly gripping Major’s rein. “I am not at all surprised that the old stick should be delighted to have you take his niece off his hands.”

“He told me Adella had gone to the garden and I hurried after her to tell her the good news of her uncle’s agreement and to propose to her again.”

Lord Ranulph could not continue. It took a moment before he was able to tell her what he had then seen.

Adella in the arms of another young man. A fair-haired chap, who bore a startling resemblance to his old friend, Digby.

Much to his surprise, Lady Ireton laughed.

“That will teach you, dear Ranulph, to go spying on people!”

“But how could she, with another man, when she knows how I feel about her
and
when she has received my offer of marriage? What is she thinking of?”

“Calm yourself, Ranulph. She is just a young and foolish girl.”

Why was she making so light of this? He felt anger begin to overcome his feelings of shock and pain.

“She should not have behaved so,” he said loudly. “I must go now and speak to Adella. I must tell her that it is I who love her and – ”

Lady Ireton’s gloved hand released the reins of his horse and caught his arm.

“No!” she said firmly.

“I must! I cannot delay one moment.”

“Don’t be silly, Ranulph.”

Lady Ireton’s grip was immovable. Strong as he was, her determination to keep him with her was stronger.

“You must leave her alone. This girl, Adella, is very young, very inexperienced. All this attention from the male sex is turning her head, which is quite natural. If you run to her now and show her that you are jealous and start urging her to accept your proposal, you will most definitely lose her.”

“No!”

“Leave the girl. Let her see what she is missing!”

“How can I?”

Lord Ranulph felt as if the breath had been knocked from him by her words.

“You must. If she is yours, Ranulph, she will come back to you. If she is not, then you are well rid of her.”

“But how can I?” he said again, shocked to realise that he was almost weeping.

“Easily, my dear.”

Now a winsome and flirtatious smile crept onto Lady Ireton’s lips. She let go of Major’s reins.

“I am homeward bound, it is almost luncheontime. Ride with me, Ranulph.”

As if it had heard her mention of home, her grey horse tossed its head, fretting to be on the move.

Lord Ranulph, hurt and confused though he was, could not help but admire how elegantly she sat on the restive beast and how supple and slender her tightly-laced waist was under her dark-green riding habit.

It was hard to believe that Lady Ireton was only a few years younger than his Mama, she was so youthful and so alive.

She was indeed a striking and beautiful woman, he thought. And then he recalled Adella, her lovely young face, her soft eyes and the glory of her golden hair.

What was he thinking of? Lady Ireton’s charms could not in any way compare with Adella’s sweet tender beauty.

“I must go to her,” he insisted.

“No! Do that and you may lose her, let her wonder where you are and what you are doing. Absence makes the heart grow much fonder. You are the most eligible young gentleman in London, make no mistake. She cannot fail to miss you if you don’t call upon her for a few days.”

“I must know that she will be my wife. How can I live until I have had her answer? And what if she is seeing this other man?”

“Come.” She flicked her whip. “Ride with me.”

Despite himself, Lord Ranulph loosed the reins so that Major could walk alongside her grey horse.

“But then what if Adella turns me down?” he said, scarcely able to utter the words.

Lady Ireton shrugged.

“She will not, if you keep your courage and leave her to think it over.”

Her dark eyes travelled over his face, watching him through the veil that wreathed her green velvet hat.

“If she is really yours, she will come back to you. Remember that.”

“I cannot bear to wait.”

“You are a passionate man, I know, but forgive me, I think you know very little of the ways of women. She is a sweet little thing. But is she the right girl for you? Has she the breeding, the spirit, to make you a good wife?”

“How dare you criticise her! She has spirit – ”

“Yes, more than I would have thought. But she is so slight, she looks so small beside you. Would you not be happier with another, perhaps a more aristocratic girl? ”

“She is the one! I knew so the first moment I laid eyes on her.”

Lady Ireton laid her gloved hand on his arm again, but more gently this time.

“Don’t rush into marriage,” she advised. “There are many advantages to the single state. I was very fond of Lord Ireton, but I cannot deny that I am altogether much happier as a widow and I am in no hurry to give up my independence.”

Lord Ranulph could not understand why she was telling him this. He felt suddenly impatient with so much conversation.

“I
must
go to her!” he reiterated.

Lady Ireton’s eyebrows arched over her languorous eyes.

“Will you ride home with me, Lord Ranulph? We could take luncheon together.”

She looked up at him through her veil and tapped her riding whip softly against the side of her leg.

Lord Ranulph felt a strange shiver pass through his body. She was turning her horse now, looking at him, the invitation plain to see in her eyes.

Could it be that she would offer him more than luncheon, if he accepted?

But, how could he think of such a thing, when he loved Adella? He pulled Major to a halt.

Lady Ireton did not look back, as she rode slowly away from him, but he saw how her waist under her tight green habit swayed to her mount’s long strides.

‘Perhaps she is right,’ he thought, as he watched her go, ‘when she tells me not to press Adella for an answer. If Lady Ireton had implored me just now, begged me to go home with her, I would have refused at once and I would not have been tempted to follow her.

‘Yet now she rides away from me in that graceful, enticing manner, ignoring me and yet I am drawn to her, even though it is Adella who I love.’

Lord Ranulph shook his head and gathered up his reins.

“Thank you, Lady Ireton,” he called out after her departing back. “But I am otherwise engaged.”

As he left Hyde Park, he turned Major’s head not towards Dorset Square, as he so longed to do, but towards Fowles Place.

He would master his unruly emotions and then win Adella’s hand with calm determination.

He would keep his distance.

But, at all costs, he would win her.

Adella scarcely felt the pavement beneath her feet as she walked back to No. 82, for it was as if she was being borne along on bright wings of happiness.

Digby had not forgotten her!

He had deeply regretted not writing to her before he left Oxford and, now that she understood why he had not been able to, she could only forgive him.

She closed her eyes for a moment and leant on the railings outside the house, as she conjured up once more the moment when he had held her in his arms.

‘How could I ever have doubted him and thought him cold-hearted and forgetful?’ she wondered.

She remembered the kiss he had snatched from her lips before they parted and the sweet joy of it filled her with singing.

But she could not linger out here in the street all day like a serving girl playing truant from her chores. She must not fret, as Digby was living just a few doors away and had promised that he would see her again very soon.

Adella let go of the railings and skipped up the front steps and into the house.

As soon as the front door had clicked shut behind her, Uncle Edgar stepped out from the drawing room and Adella could not help smile as something in his unusually cheerful expression reminded her of the little cuckoo that popped out from his wooden clock.

“Adella, you have been out in the Square for a very long time. And you have a very different expression on your face from the one I saw at breakfast.”

“I had a lovely walk,” Adella told him. “The fresh air was delightful.”

“I doubt it was that which brought such a fine glow to your cheeks. I suppose you encountered your beau while you were perambulating in the Square?”

“Yes, yes, I did,” Adella sighed.

She was so bemused with happiness at the thought of the moment when she first saw Digby that she did not realise what Uncle Edgar meant.

He smiled.

“His Lordship called just a few moments after you had left the house and asked for my permission to propose to you. I told him where he might find you.”

“Oh – !” Her breath caught in her throat. “Lord Ranulph – ”

“Who else? He was most eager to join you.”

Of course, it must have been Lord Ranulph she had seen while she was with Digby.

“I trust your ardent admirer renewed his proposal and met with a more favourable reception than last night?” Uncle Edgar was saying, an eager light in his eyes.

“No, no, not at all – ” Adella began, trying to think how she could explain.

“Might I congratulate the future Lady Fowles?”

She had to sit down, as she was suddenly feeling very weak.

“I – did see Lord Ranulph in the Square.”

She shivered, as she recalled the tall figure standing on the path staring at her.

Uncle Edgar looked at her.

“You have turned very pale. Are you not well?”

Adella shook her head, but she was feeling so faint that she had to close her eyes for a moment.

Why had she accepted the gift of those beautiful Hanoverian horses from Lord Ranulph and why, why had she told him that she would consider his proposal?

Now that she had found Digby again and felt the absolute thrill of his arms around her and his lips against hers, she knew that she loved him and that no other man ever could take his place.

“Perhaps the prospect of becoming the Mistress of Manningham is a little daunting for you,” her uncle said, a glint of greed in his eyes.