A Wager for Love (10 page)

“Oh, when I was in Bath at the seminary, there was an ensign there who wanted to elope with me, but grandfather stopped us,” she confided artlessly.

Richard viewed her with increasing suspicion. His knowledge of young ladies’ seminaries was scanty in truth, but he did not think that meetings with young and probably impecunious ensigns were part of the curricula. He pushed a weary hand over his face. What folly had he entered into? Still it was too late to repine now.

Trying desperately to maintain his grip on the situation. he started again. “This inn you mentioned, the Green Man, where is it?”

To his horror, this seemingly innocuous comment had the effect of making his young charge fling her arms round his neck, sobbing, “Oh no, please do not take me there.”

What with her sobs and wild entreaties not to hand her over to the mercy of the innkeeper, and the interested stares of his men, Richard was beginning to feel distinctly uncomfortable. He withdrew a large handkerchief from his pocket, and disengaged Kitty’s arms from his person, feeling that the situation was rapidly assuming all the attributes of one of Congreve’s farces.

“Now, now,” he palliated hurriedly, “l merely wish to send my man with a note. You cannot disappear from sight without so much as a word you know.”

“Why not?” responded the young lady sweetly.

“Well, your grandfather would be worried for one thing,” floundered Richard desperately. “Now never fear, I shall tell him I am taking you to my sister.”

With a heroic attempt to sum up the whole strange situation in a few succinct sentences, Richard penned a letter and handed it to one of his grooms. “Deliver this to the Green Man, and ask one of their people to see it reaches Sir Gervase Markham.”

“In the morning,” interrupted Kitty, with a sidelong glance at Richard.

“Aye, all right, in the morning,” amended Richard, his heart sinking.

The horses were champing nervously, and the coachman was eyeing him with impatience. He handed Miss Kitty into the carriage, climbed in himself, and leaning out of the window, instructed the grooms to start the carriage again. Sinking back against the cushions he eyed his damsel in distress, wearily, feeling suddenly a good deal older than his twenty-one years.

An hour or so later, during which Kitty had chattered non-stop, they drew up at an imposing gatehouse, only to find the gates firmly locked. Richard bit back a curse, whilst Kitty turned to face him her eyes alight with triumph. “See, I told you how it would be. There is no-one here. Now you will have to take me to London.”

“Damn, I won’t,” cried Richard with asperity. “If-there is no-one here, then there is nothing else for it but to return you to your grandfather. If you think I am going to career all over the countryside with a wench not yet out, well you can think again, because I ain’t, and I tell you that straight.”

Pouting a little at this ungentlemanly response, any further comments she was about to make were lost, as the lodge door opened and a small sharp-visaged man shuffled to the gates.

“Now then, what’s all this ‘ere commotion. Can’t have you kicking up a dust here you know. This ‘ere’s an Earl’s residence, that’s what, and the Earl, ‘e don’t like dusts kicking up ‘e don’t.”

“The Earl is in residence then?” cut in Richard eagerly. The man stared at him suspiciously, “And what if he is. what business is it of yours, I asks myself?”

“He has my sister with him, that’s what,” Richard replied out of temper.

·

“Oh ho, has he now. Run orf with ‘er, ‘as he. And you’ve come charging down here to rescue her. Well, my fine cock. I tell you straight, the Earl won’t like you interfering, not one little bit, ‘e wont,” leered the gatekeeper. “And who might I ask is this you ‘ave with you? Another sister. I expects,” he asked with deep sarcasm.

Richard, striving to maintain control of his temper, already much exacerbated, and seeing the questions trembling on Kitty’s lips, leant forward. “I have reason to believe my sister and the Earl have recently been married, although what possible business it is of yours, I cannot conjecture. “

“No more can I,” broke in another voice, causing Richard to swing round. A man on horseback loomed up from the shadows. “Really, Johnson, I vow I agree with Richard here, you forget yourself, and now please open the gates for my brother-in-law, and please try to refrain from conducting vulgar brawls on my driveway.”

It was difficult to see who was the most astonished. Richard or the unfortunate Johnson, who, with his mouth agape, ran to do the Earl’s bidding.

Richard, his colour a little high, instructed his coachman to drive on, fuming a little. What infernal luck to be caught at such a disadvantage. All too aware of Kitty’s speculative eyes on his face and the Earl’s sardonic expression, he bit back the questions on his own lips. Surely he would soon be able to see Lavinia and get to the truth of the matter.

The Earl, edging his horse a little nearer to the coach, leaned forward, murmuring softly to Richard, “Most wise of you, brother. Save your questions until later.”

Poor Richard flushed anew. The man ‘s eyes were far too sharp. Richard vaguely recognised the Earl as being one of the persons who had been witness to his defeat at the hands of Ordley, and of course from Charles he knew him to be Ordley’s cousin, but as to how he had come to marry Lavinia and in such haste he still could not comprehend. He shook his head wearily, recalling snatches of Kitty’s conversation. She had called the Earl a sad rake, and told him that the countryside hummed with tales of the wild goings on of the Earl. Well, he certainly looked the part.

They were nearing the house now, traversing a drive flanked with fine elms, but Richard was in no mood to appreciate the beauties of nature, the trees turned to luminous silver by the moon. Kitty, who under the Earl ‘s forbidding eye had fallen silent, allowed Richard to assist her to alight and

followed the two men towards the house, looking round her with interest. She had heard much of the Earl, and his wicked reputation, and was finding this, her first sight of his home somewhat disappointing. A Gothic castle, something in the fashion of the Romances she got from the Circulating Library, would have been much more in keeping with her ideas of a dissolute rake, or perhaps even better a crumbling ruin, but not this immaculate Tudor building, with its air of quiet elegance.

At length, seated in a comfortable salon, Kitty supplied with Ratafia and sweet biscuits and Richard with canary, the Earl viewed his two visitors. “Well, your sister will be with us in a few minutes, but perhaps you would be good enough to explain what brings you here, and, of course, introduce me to your charming companion.”

Faced with the actuality of the Earl, Richard found all his self-confidence slipping away. How could he possibly challenge this man? Would he be sitting here so casually drinking wine and smiling pleasantly if he had in fact pressed Lavinia into a marriage she did not wish for? Surely not… Realising that the Earl was still waiting, Richard hurriedly collected himself.

“Oh, yes, of course, may I present Miss …” There was an agonised pause whilst he realised he could not remember Kitty’s last name. Cursing himself for being all kinds of a fool, Richard bit his lip.

“So.” The EarI’s drawl became a trifle more pronounced, his eyebrow raised a fraction higher, “And perhaps you would be good enough to explain to me how she comes to be in your company unescorted?”

Indignantly Richard turned to him. “I didn’t make off with the chit, if that is what you are thinking.”

“My dear Richard, I take it you have no rooted aversion to my using your christian name? Good. I never thought for one moment that you had made off with the young lady. Indeed I suspect the boot might well be on the other foot.”

A tell-tale flush ran up Miss Kitty’s face, and the Earl bent down, apparently lost in deep contemplation of his immaculate clocked hose. “No doubt you have some reason for bringing her here, and no doubt I shall hear of it in the fullness of time. However, I only trust that some irate parent or guardian is not about to descend upon me. Too fatiguing!”

Richard, catching a vagrant smile in the Earl’s eyes, found himself warming to his new relative. Obviously a gentleman of perspicacity. Hurriedly, he started to tell him the story, and so intent was he upon explaining the whole that he missed the occasional twitching of his brother-in-law’s lips.

“So, you see. I thought the best thing to do would be to bring her to my sister,” he finished.

“You have a good deal of faith in your sister.”

All too aware of his meaning, Richard’s eyes dropped. Yes he did. Dearest Lavinia, who had sacrificed a good part of her own fortune to help him. Her fortune and what else? It was this question that tormented Richard, and until he had heard from her own lips that Lavinia had married the Earl willingly, it would continue to torment him. These thoughts recalled to mind his original purpose in visiting the Earl. .

He spoke a little stiffly. “No doubt you can well imagine my surprise on hearing of my sister’s marriage to you?”

“Oh indeed,” replied the Earl politely. “It must have come as a great shock. Still we are none of us immune to Cupid’s darts you know, my boy.”

Richard waited warily. In all honesty his burning desire to run a rapier straight through Saltaire’s undoubtedly black heart, had become less pressing with every mile of his journey from London, as he began to recall rumours of his skill with the sword. Life could be very sweet, especially now he was his own man, and, as he assured himself, Saltaire and Lavinia were married. But despite all this, the “wager” mentioned by Charles nagged uneasily at his mind. If only Lavinia would come. With Kitty an extremely interested bystander, he could hardly demand that the Earl produce his sister, and at that very instant.

At this juncture the door swung open to reveal Lavinia, wearing one of her simple gowns brought with her from Rome, and her hair dressed with matching ribbons. She gave Richard a calm reassuring smile and held out her hands to him. She had been preparing for bed when her husband had sent up a message that her brother had arrived, and fearful for Richard’s safety, she had hurriedly dressed and returned downstairs.

Relieved to see her looking so normal, although it was hard to say just what he had imagined she would look like, Richard rushed forward, grasping her hands in his and searching her face with eager eyes. She met his gaze steadily, and only a slight trembling of her fingers in his betrayed a degree of agitation.

“Lavinia, are you all right?” Conscious of Kitty’s interest, he changed his words hurriedly, “What I mean is, why on earth did you not tell me?”

The Earl broke in smoothly, “Come, my love, your brother’s surprise is natural, but hardly flattering. However, I understand brothers are wont to underestimate the charms of their sisters.”

He walked softly across the room taking one of Lavinia’s cold hands in his own, carelessly raising her fingers to his lips.

Lavinia, her colour heightened, tried to withdraw her hand, only to find it retained in a firm grip, the Earl’s face mocking. “But, my love …”

She gritted her teeth at this endearment and had the satisfaction of seeing her husband’s eyes darken with anger, swiftly masked. “Your brother has a problem and seeks your help.”

Worried, Lavinia turned to Richard, concern showing in her eyes, “Oh Richard, not more gambling . .”

Ashamed, Richard broke in, “No, Lavinia, never fear, not that.”

Brother and sister exchanged a look of mutual understanding. No-never again would be risk everything so foolishly. His one regret was that it was his sister who had paid the price and not himself.

The Earl smiled grimly, “I collect the problem is of a different nature this time. Come, Richard, make your friend known to your sister.”

Following the direction of her husband’s eyes, Lavinia realised for the first time that they were not the only occupants of the room. Bewildered, she could only ask. “Richard, what have you done?”

“That’s rich indeed. What have I done? I ain’t done anything,” replied Richard indignantly, about to enter into a lengthy explanation, which was checked by a languid wave of the Earl’s white hand.

“Richard, I believe the housekeeper is preparing a room for your friend, perhaps you would be good enough to take Kitty to her, whilst I explain things to your sister.”

With a grateful look at his new relative, Richard conducted the now very chastened Kitty from the room.

As the Earl outlined Richard’s story, Lavinia found herself laughing in a manner she would have thought quite impossible twenty-four hours ago. However, she was rapidly learning that one could accustom oneself to anything, with a little will-power. “Oh dear, poor Richard,’ she said ruefully, “And to think I almost accused him of running off with the girl. No wonder he was so indignant.” For a second her brow clouded. “I suppose the story is true?”

The Earl shrugged, a gleam appearing in his eyes. “He is your brother, not mine. but I should think so. ” With a wave of his hand, he dismissed Richard. “I confess, my dear, you surprise me.”

“I do, why?” Lavinia raised her eyes to his, puzzled.

The Earl swung his quizzing glass thoughtfully on its slender ribbon. “Oh ‘tis just that I had thought to hear that at the very least you had been overtaken with an attack of the vapours this morning, and certainly some malady necessitating your remaining in your room for the entire day. And yet what do I find?” His eyes sharpened. “I find instead that you are up and partaking of breakfast before me.”

Lavinia cast her eyes down demurely. “Well, as to that, My Lord, I fear I was hungry. You know I missed my supper last night.” Not for worlds would she have him know what heart searching it had cost her to appear at the breakfast table that morning as if nothing untoward had occurred.

For a second the Earl stood in silence. one booted foot resting on the hearth, the candlelight picking out the glitter of the embroidery on his waistcoat and throwing into relief his proud features. “Well, about this tiresome girl and your equally tiresome brother. I had intended that we return to London after a suitable interval.” He watched the delicate colour run up Lavinia’s face with detached interest. “But now I think we shall have to return sooner than I had envisaged and, of course, take your Richard’s orphan with us.”