An Introduction To The Eternal Collection Jubilee Edition (132 page)

She was not mistaken. Footmen flung open two high double doors, there was a sudden burst of organ music, and Caroline saw that the whole company of Lord Brecon’s guests were packed within the narrow stone edifice. Some were squashed into the oak pews, others lined the walls, many of the gentlemen leaning nonchalantly against the marble tombs and monuments, while the servants of the household peeped over the gallery, their mob-caps and powdered wigs white patches against the darkness of the heavily beamed roof. For a moment Caroline felt that she must shrink from the wave of curious faces turned to look at her. Her hand on Lord Brecon’s arm trembled, yet she received no reassurance from him but felt herself drawn relentlessly forward.

The Chapel was a gloomy place despite the great gold candelabra each holding a dozen candles, which had been set one on either side of the altar. It was cold and chill and there was a smell of must and dust which made Caroline feel as if she could hardly breathe.

As Lord Brecon led her to the chancel where the Bishop and his private chaplain were waiting, Caroline looked up at the east window behind the altar and thought for a moment that it was draped with dirty curtains then she saw that it was half hidden by cobwebs - cobwebs, dark and grey with age hanging like tattered lace from the beams of the roof, shrouding the stone arches and stained glass and ornamenting with beggar’s rags the ancient reredos with its carved angels.

It-was eerie and ghostlike, and when Caroline reached the altar steps and had her back to the assembled company, it seemed to her that she and Lord Brecon and the Bishop were a living picture menaced by the decay and dust to which all life must ultimately return.

Little details seemed to Caroline extraordinarily clear. The brightness of the silver cross as if someone had quickly rubbed away its tarnish, the purity of the lace-edged altar cloth, and in contrast the tarnished dimness of the embroidered frontal, its gold thread broken, its crimson surface pitted with tiny holes as if it had been eaten by moths. The floor of the chapel was dirty, but the two cushions placed for the bride and groom to kneel on were of spotless white satin.

The Bishop’s voice boomed out. Once again a dreamlike spell seemed to descend on Caroline and hold her almost mesmerized so that she was able to watch what was happening with almost supernatural detachment. She could see herself standing pale, yet calm at Lord Brecon’s side, hear her own voice clear and unhurried with the responses, watch her fingers, white and nerveless as if they were made of wax, pass from the Bishop’s plump hand into the bridegroom’s keeping.

Still in a dream she heard Lord Brecon say,

“I, Seymour Berkeley Frederick Alexander Treweeke, take thee, Caroline Justina, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health to love and to cherish till death us do part, according to God’s Holy Ordinance, and thereto I plight thee my troth.”

He spoke firmly and audibly but with a coldness which seemed to Caroline to be even more chilling than that of the Chapel itself. She knew that she shivered physically because of his tone, and yet it was not herself who shivered but some stranger - a woman who bore her name and spoke with her voice, but who had for the moment ceased to feel any emotion within a frozen breast.

Caroline held out her hand and Lord Brecon slipped the ring on the third finger of her left hand. It was not a wedding ring, she noticed, but a signet ring which he had taken from his little finger. On it was his crest engraved on an emerald. It was too big for her so that she must bend her finger to prevent it from falling off.

And now the service was ended, and bride and groom knelt to receive the Bishop’s blessing. The organ, which had been playing quietly the whole time, burst into the Wedding March, and turning, Caroline and Lord Brecon faced their guests as they walked towards the door. Before they reached it, they were surrounded. Lord Brecon was being clapped on the back by the men, women Caroline had never seen before were kissing her on the cheek and speaking to her familiarly in flattering tones.

At last they were able to make their way back to the large ballroom. Here there was champagne to be consumed, healths to be drunk, and so many expressions of good wishes to be answered that Caroline wondered when it would ever end. The musicians played, but no one wished to dance. The guests preferred to talk, a glass of wine in their hands, a jest upon their lips. It seemed to Caroline that hours went by until her lips were stiff with smiling. She was tired, with a tiredness which made her whole body ache.

She stood by Lord Brecon, but she might have been a hundred miles away from him. Never once did he address her, never once did he even look in her direction. At last some of the more elderly people began to say good-night. Their carriages were called to the door and one by one they came up to express their good wishes all over again, to shake Lord Brecon’s hand and kiss Caroline’s fingers. Many guests, Caroline noticed, had returned to the card-room. Among them was Mrs, Miller. But Gervase Warlingham stood for a long time, leaning against the wall at the far end of the ballroom, watching the crowd round Lord Brecon and Caroline.

Caroline was well aware that he was there and more than once she found herself glancing involuntarily in his direction. She found it hard not to be conscious of him and she was al-most physically sensitive to the venom he was pouring out in their direction. But when at last a large number of guests had gone, she saw that he too had disappeared.

There was a sudden lull. There was no one waiting for the moment to say good-night. Lord Brecon and Caroline stood alone in the ballroom save for the musicians still playing a melody and half a dozen gentlemen sitting at the far end of the room who, judging by their voices and laughter, were slightly the worse for drink.

Caroline looked up at Lord Brecon. It was the first time that she had looked directly at him or spoken to him since they were married.

“May I retire, my lord?”

She spoke formally and if he had turned his head he would have seen that there was pleading in her eyes, and that her lips asked him a very different question but he barely glanced at her.

“If it please your ladyship.”

He bowed and offering her his arm led her formally to the foot of the Grand Staircase.

“The State Bedroom has been prepared for you,” he said. “You will find your maid awaiting you there.”

Caroline hesitated. She would have spoken his name, she had already put out her hand as if she would lay it in his, but at that moment a party of guests burst from the card-room.

“Ah, there you are Brecon,” they called gaily. “Come and drink a glass of wine with us.”

Lord Brecon turned towards them, and Caroline went quickly up the stairs. She knew where the State Bedroom was, though she had only peeped into it once on her way downstairs. There had been little to see for the shutters were closed and the furniture shrouded in dustsheets. Now the doors stood open and the candles were lit.

It was a vast room, its windows draped with curtains of hand-sewn tapestry, the great bed curtained in the same manner, while ostrich feather fronds surmounted the carved and gilt bedposts. The furniture was of gilt and marble and the walls were inset with panels of rose-tinted brocade.

But Caroline had little interest in her surroundings. All of a sudden she felt too utterly weary to bear even the weight of the diamond tiara, and as Maria hurried towards her she put up her hand to her forehead and swayed on her feet.

“You are tired, m’lady. ‘Tis little wonder,” Maria cried, “for it has been a vastly exciting evening both for your ladyship and for all of us. Come, let me undress you. You will feel better when you are free of that head-dress and your gown.”

Gently, as if she had been a child, Maria took off Caroline’s pearl and lace gown, drew off her stockings and shoes and slipped over her head a night-robe of transparent softness. Then she brought her a pelisse of crepe trimmed with lace.

“Sit by the fire, m’lady,” Maria suggested, “and I will fetch you a cup of warm milk.”

“No, Maria, that is all for tonight. I only want to be alone,” Caroline said.

Maria smiled knowingly.

“Of course, m’lady, and I will not disturb you again, though you have but to pull the bell-rope should you have need of me. Shall I extinguish the candles, m’lady?”

“Yes please, Maria,” Caroline answered.

The candles were put out, the corners of the great room settled into shadow. But the fire was bright, the flames casting a glow on the ceiling and on Caroline as she sat in a low chair, her chin in her hand, her eyes looking deep into the flames.

How long she sat there she did not know. She was not really expecting anyone, feeling only that time waited and that the end, whatever it might be, was inevitable. It seemed to her that her past had been swept away from her and there was no promise as yet of the future.

The door opened. She did not turn her head, but she knew who had come into the room. Suddenly the feeling of detachment had gone completely. She was no longer tired. She came alive, she could feel the blood running quickly through her veins, her pulses pounding, a sudden excitement galvanizing her to life as if she had been dead and was resurrected. She heard his footsteps moving purposefully towards the centre of the room, and then there came his voice.

“Come here!”

The order was sharp, abrupt. Slowly Caroline turned her head and looked at him. He seemed silhouetted against the shadows, the firelight illuminating his face very clearly, flickering on the blue coat he had worn for their marriage, its diamond buttons twinkling like stars.

Caroline rose to her feet. She hesitated. There was half the length of the room between them.

“Come here!”

He spoke the order once again, and now she obeyed him. As she moved, she saw the wildness in his eyes and an expression on his face such as she had never seen before. She drew close until at last she stood before him, waiting, her robe falling about her feet, her hands holding the thin pelisse close across her bosom.

“I had not meant to come to you tonight,” Lord Brecon said harshly. ‘I had intended to leave you alone, and yet I have come. I want to see if you can still look at me with innocent eyes, you who have lied and intrigued, you who have betrayed my love.”

“But, Vane – you must listen to me – ” Caroline began then before she could say more Lord Brecon put out his hand and laid it roughly over her mouth.

“I told you I have come but to see you, to look at the pretty bride I have gained - a bride who has already succumbed, it seems, to the charms of Sir Montage Reversby.”

Caroline released her hold on her pelisse, put up her hands and tried to tear his fingers from her mouth.

“It is not true, – ” she managed to say, and then suddenly Lord Brecon’s arms were round her and he was drawing her close.

“Are kisses the only thing that will stop you talking?” he asked, and his voice was bitter and insulting.

Then she was crushed against him, his mouth was on hers, and he was kissing her - kissing her wildly with hard, brutal kisses which hurt and bruised her lips. It was a moment of agony it seemed to her, that his kisses must bruise her very spirit, for she knew them for what they were the cruel and lustful expression of a mere bodily hunger.

They hurt her, they bruised her skin and the pain of them seemed to strike into the very depths of her soul and paralyse her very will so that she could not struggle but, broken and breathless, must endure his onslaught without protest. She wanted to cry out, to beg him not to strip from her the last illusion of his love, but her voice was gone. She was helpless and the savagery of his embrace was almost unendurable. She was near to fainting when she heard him say,

“It that how Reversby kissed you? Like this? and this?”

His lips were on hers again, and then she felt them cruelly hard against her neck. His fingers gripped her shoulder then with a sharp movement he tore aside her night-robe, and his lips caressed the little hollow between her breasts.

He gave a sudden cry which was half a groan - a cry both of triumph and of pain.

“God, but you are beautiful!” he exclaimed, and his voice was low and hoarse with passion. “Why should I care what has happened to you in the past? You are mine now – mine – my wife.”

He swept her off her feet, lifting her high in his arms. The firelight revealed his face, distorted, diabolical, and it seemed to her that it was the face of a man who has suffered beyond all endurance, and become a devil.

Then, as she cried out in a fear such as she had never known before, he carried her across the room towards the shadowy darkness of the great bed.

“Vane! Vane!” she cried. “Do not frighten me. I love you. Oh, Vane, spare me!”

Her voice was hardly audible as it came between her bruised lips and yet he must have heard her, for he paused, looking down at her as she lay in his arms, her head flung back, her torn night-robe revealing her nakedness, her pelisse trailing from her on to the floor.

“Please, Vane. Please!” Caroline whispered again, and now she was sobbing like a child who has been frightened.

The expression on his face altered and she knew that he had heard her.

With a sudden movement, so unexpected that she screamed in sheer, physical terror, Lord Brecon threw Caroline from him and on to the bed. She fell helplessly against the softness of the pillows. Then with a sound too inarticulate for her to interpret he turned, from her and left the room.

10

When Maria called her in the morning, Caroline was sitting at the bureau writing. As Maria set down a cup of chocolate beside her, Caroline said,

“Take this letter and arrange to have a groom carry it immediately to Mandrake. I would not have Mrs. Edgmont learn of my marriage from other sources before I inform her of it myself.”

Maria gulped.

“Oh, m’lady,” she said, and Caroline, looking up in surprise, saw that there were tears in her eyes.