An Introduction To The Eternal Collection Jubilee Edition (142 page)

She mounted the steps on the front door and looked at the horses as they were being led away to the stables. Then impulsively she put out her hand and slipped it into Lord Brecon’s.

“We will have dinner together,” she said in a very small voice. “Our day is not yet ended.”

“Shall we dine alone in your boudoir?” he enquired.

Caroline’s eyes were suddenly bright.

“Could we?” she breathed.

“We can do anything we wish for today,” he answered.

“Then let us dine alone together, my lord,” Caroline murmured, and she went through the hall and up the stairs swiftly, as if she were half afraid that something in the Castle might awaken her from this dream of happiness and force her to look again on hideous realities.

Maria was waiting for her in her bedchamber.

“Oh, m’lady, such a stir! No sooner had your ladyship left the house than the Reverend Gentleman arrived demanding his lordship. Mrs. Miller spoke with him in the hall and I was able to hear all that passed between them.”

“What did the Vicar say, Maria?” Caroline asked.

“He was in a terrible pucker, m’lady, having found Mr. Stratton’s letter to Miss Wantage.”

“How like Harriet to leave such incriminating evidence lying around!” Caroline exclaimed.

“Just what I thought myself, m’lady,” Maria agreed. “‘My, daughter is ruined,” the Reverend Gentleman shouted, “and I hold his lordship directly responsible for the dastardly behaviour of this rapscallion he calls a friend.” “Indeed, sir” Mrs. Miller replied. “If Mr. Stratton has gone off with your daughter, ‘tis not his lordship who is at fault but her ladyship. For having led Mr. Stratton on to declare himself her slave as I heard with my very own ears – she has obviously cast him from her and in a fit of despondency or pique he has eloped with Miss Wantage.” “Gad, Ma’am!” cries the Reverend Gentleman. “Do you infer that he has not even a tenderness for my daughter? This is beyond all bearing. I will to horse and, having caught them, will flog this blackguard until he screams for mercy. As for my daughter – she too shall suffer for this!” With that, m’lady, he pulls on his hat and stumps from the house, without even a good-morrow to Mrs. Miller.”

Caroline clapped her hands.

“Enter the Dragon! Now, Sir Thomas, you must prove yourself. Oh, Maria, nothing could be better, for with the barest minimum of good fortune they should be comfortably married before the Vicar catches upon them.”

“Indeed, m’lady,I hope so, for otherwise I swear Miss Wantage will die of fright.”

“I am not alarmed,” Caroline smiled. “They have a long start and Mr. Stratton can afford the best horses at the posting inns.”

Thinking of Harriet and wrapped in the wonderment of her own happiness, it was only as Caroline was undressing and Maria was preparing a bath for her that she remembered Mrs. Miller’s ominous words of last night and the fact that Mr. Warlingham had left the Castle. Instantly the sense of danger sharpened her wits and she gave a little exclamation.

“What is the matter, rn’lady?” Maria asked.

“I have but this moment thought of something,” she said. “Maria, will you do something for me, for it is of the utmost urgency?”

“I will do anything you ask of me, m’lady, you know that by this time,” Maria replied.

“Then listen,” Caroline said, pausing for a moment with only her shift around her, one foot outstretched to test the temperature of her bath water. “I want you immediately you have dressed me, to go to a caravan which you will find a little way down the road after you turn out of the main gates of the drive.”

“I know it, m’lady,” Maria exclaimed, “for is it not a pretty vehicle painted in red and yellow?”

“Yes, that is it,” Caroline said. “When you reach it, Maria, ask to speak to Gideon. He will be there for a certainty, tell him that I sent you and beg that he will keep a special watch around the Castle tonight and all nights from now onwards.”

“A special watch?” Maria questioned.

“He will, I think, understand,” Caroline said. “Tell, him I fear that Jason Faken and his friends are plotting mischief.”

“I will tell him that, m’lady.”

“Go quickly, Maria,” Caroline said, “for I have a conviction that danger to his lordship grows nearer hour by hour.”

“
Oh, m’lady, you don’t think that his enemies, whoever they may be, would kill him?”

“No, I do not fear that,” Caroline said. “If it were so, it would be easier. What they will do, Maria, is something more subtle, something infinitely more difficult to circumvent. Promise me you will not delay. I shall not feel happy until you have visited the caravan and told Gideon what I require of him.”

“I will do as your ladyship wishes immediately you are dressed,” Maria said simply and satisfied, Caroline let herself drift away once again into an enveloping haze of happiness.

Dinner alone with Vane was a pleasure such as she had never experienced before. The little boudoir which opened off her bedchamber was a small informal room decorated in the Italian style. Caroline had found no reason to use it and it might have seemed cheerless had not Lord Brecon in the space of time which it took her to bathe and robe herself had it transformed with bowls and garlands of flowers so that it was a veritable bower of beauty

Caroline had chosen for this evening a soft robe made of a semi-transparent material which in defiance of the new fashion trailed behind her in a little train. Ribbons of blue velvet cupped her breasts and there was a blue velvet ribbon tied among her curls. The very simplicity of her gown enhanced her natural beauty and as she entered the boudoir to find Lord Brecon waiting for her, she knew by the look in his eyes that she was even lovelier than he had anticipated.

“We will have no servants in the room tonight,” he said, “for I am your servant and would wait upon you.”

They lingered a long time over dinner, though Caroline had no idea of what they ate. She was only conscious that Vane was opposite her. His hands touched hers as he brought the dishes to her side, and every now and then he could control himself no longer and must lift her face to his so that he might kiss her lips. He toasted her with a glass of sparkling champagne.

“To Caroline,” he said softly, “my most perfect love.”

Caroline raised her glass in response.

“To Vane,” she said, “the man I shall love for all eternity.”

It was as if for a moment a shadow passed across his face, then he rose and drew her to a sofa beside the fire. Caroline sat down, laid her head against a cushion and looked up at him.

“Was there ever a man like you, Vane?” she asked. “That very first moment when I saw you in the wood, bemused and distressed though I was, I thought you were the most handsome man I had ever seen.”

“Would you make me conceited?”

“Yes, indeed,” Caroline answered, “for I vow that I love conceited men, they are invariably masterful.”

“And so you wish to be mastered,” he said softly.

“It would have to be a strong man to do so,” Caroline answered, looking at him from under her long eyelashes.

“Are you suggesting that I am not strong enough?” he enquired, and then suddenly with a swift movement he pulled her to her feet and into his arms.

“I would like to be your master, little Caroline,” he said, “for methinks at times you are spoilt with too much admiration and too many men bow slavishly to your wishes. I would make you obey me, I would love you, but at the same time you would never forget to whom you belonged, to whom you owed your allegiance.”

“You think that might be difficult?” Caroline asked teasingly.

“I think you have never been conquered,” he answered. “You are like a young horse, wild and beautiful, which has never been broken to the bridle. I would conquer you, Caroline, not by fear but by love, and yet you would know my strength.”

Caroline drew a deep breath for his words had excited her, then she felt herself crushed against him. She knew that he had not boasted lightly of his strength. His lips were fiercely possessive, she felt his hands against her body and knew that it would be indeed impossible to withstand his demands of her.

And yet he had himself under control, though there were moments as the evening passed when their passion seemed to rise like a flame ready to consume them utterly. Yet always at the last moment, when Caroline felt that Vane’s will must break beneath the strain, there was that new tenderness and gentleness about him which made her feel that he regarded her not only as a woman, and utterly desirable, but also as something sacred, something for which he had a complete and utter reverence.

There came a moment when Caroline knew that their golden day had ended and they must retire in loneliness to their separate bedchambers. They must say good-bye and spend the night wondering miserably what the morrow must bring.

She had decided earlier that she would make no demands of Vane this evening but would keep strictly to his suggestion that this should be a day apart, a day stolen from eternity. One word out of place and they would start their wrangling with all its attendant bitterness, and Caroline was determined that such things should wait for the morrow. Time enough then to argue to tell Vane that he should not be rid of her. Tonight they would part - if part they must - in peace.

It was very late and the candles were burning low in their sockets when at last they tore themselves away from one another. With the memory of Vane’s lips murmuring against hers, the sound of his voice in her ears, the feeling of his arms around her, of his hands touching her body, Caroline found herself standing alone in the Great State Bedroom and knew that he had gone from her.

For a long, long time she stood in the centre of the room burning still with an ecstasy, quivering with the thrill of his presence, knowing that the heaviness of her eyelids was not from tiredness, but from a desire that had not been requited.

At length, she moved across the room and after snuffing out the candles sat down on the window-seat. Far away in the silence of the sleeping house she heard a clock strike. It was three o’clock. She did not ring for Maria, for she wanted above all things to be alone to savour these moments, to recall the happiness of the day, to let no other voice or presence banish the feeling that Vane was still with her.

She loved him, her love seemed to well up within her so that she tingled all over and she longed to throw out her arms in her yearning for him and to recall his name. She laid her face against the cold stone of the window-frame. The moon was high in the sky, its silver light seeming cold and ghostlike compared with her memories of the warm sun and of the day that was gone for ever.

Caroline closed her eyes, trying to recapture those hours among the pine trees, trying to remember what they had said to each other.

“Is this the only memory I shall have when I am old?” she asked herself in a sudden passion. “Will there be nothing in my life save one isolated, perfect day to fill the years?”

It was a terrifying thought, and Caroline raised herself feeling suddenly chilled and ready for bed. Her coldness made her realise that she must have sat for some time. She was just turning into the darkness of the room when something arrested her attention.

There was a movement in the garden. She was sure that something had moved by the darkness of the trees just where they bordered the lawn. She looked again. Yes, she had not been mistaken. Someone was there! Caroline, watching that shadow, not certain whether it was man or beast, suddenly felt her heart begin to beat quickly. Was this what she had been waiting for? Was this the danger to Vane which she had anticipated for so long?

Someone was moving towards the house, then she saw that it was not one person but two.

And one shadow figure, dark because not for one moment did it step into the light of the moon, was grotesque and distorted. Caroline bent forward, straining her eyes, until where the trees ended, the persons, whoever they might be, came to a stop.

There was a sound, a click and a very slight squeak, but Caroline heard it. It came from below and now, kneeling on the window-seat, she craned her head forward, wondering what she could have heard.

Some dozen feet below her a window was being opened. As she watched it being pushed by some invisible hand, she remembered that the room below was the Library. The State Bedroom in which she slept and the Library has been added to the house at a fairly recent date. The structure jutted out a little awkwardly from the rest of the building, and Caroline saw that the persons who had been lurking in the trees were crossing the lawn swiftly to where the shadow of the house would afford them shelter from the moon.

They had only a short distance to travel, but Caroline saw them clearly, and she kept very still for fear that by some slight movement she would attract their attention.

The first figure was Gervase Warlingham. There was no mistaking his height and his broad shoulders he was easily recognisable, although he wore a hat pulled down over his forehead. He was followed by another man and Caroline thought at first that he carried a sack upon his shoulders. It was this which had made him seem grotesque in the shadows but as they drew nearer, she saw that it was not a sack the man carried over his shoulder but a body.

They reached the shadow of the house and moving quickly against the wall, came to the front where the open window awaited them.

It was difficult for Caroline to bend very far out of her own casement for fear she might attract attention but she was able to see that Mr. Warlingham climbed in at the window, that the body the other man carried over his shoulder was handed in after him, and then Gervase Warlingham climbed out again and the window closed behind him. There was a click as it was latched and with incredible swiftness the two men, keeping as much as they could to the shadow, hurried round the house and across the lawn to disappear into the darkness of the trees.

Caroline realised that she must have been holding her breath for a long time, for she felt it now come gaspingly between her lips. She stood up and as a sudden thought struck her, moved swiftly across the room. Caroline’s bedchamber, like the library below, was connected with the earlier structure by a narrow passage leading from the main corridor. At the end of the passage was a high tallboy. Moving in the dark, Caroline stood sheltered by the tallboy but in a position from which she could see the top of the main staircase and anyone ascending or descending it.