Bath Tangle (22 page)

‘So that is all you have to say! I might have known how it would be!
Recover
from it!’

‘Yes, recover from it,’ said Rotherham. His lips curled. ‘I should be more impressed by these tragedy-airs if it had not taken you so long to make up your mind to enact me an affecting scene! I know not how many weeks it is since the engagement was announced, but –’

‘I came into Gloucestershire the instant I knew of it!’ Gerard said, half starting from his chair. ‘I never saw the announcement! When I’m up at Cambridge, very often I don’t look at a newspaper for days on end! No one told me until only the other day, when Mrs Maldon asked me – asked
me
! – if I was acquainted with the future Lady Rotherham! I was astonished, as may be supposed, to learn that you were engaged, but that was as nothing to the – the horror and stupefaction which held me s-speechless, when Em – Miss Laleham’s name was disclosed!’

‘I wish to God you were still suffering from horror and stupefaction, if that is the effect such feelings have upon you!’ broke in Rotherham. ‘Be damned to these periods of yours! If you would play-act less, I might believe more! As it is – !’ He shrugged. ‘You came down at the beginning of June, it is now August, your mother is well aware of my engagement, and you say you heard no mention of it until a few days ago? Coming it too strong, Gerard! The truth is that you’ve talked yourself into this fine frenzy – putting on airs to be interesting!’

Gerard was on his feet, colour flaming in his cheeks. ‘You shall unsay that! How dare you give me the lie? I have not seen my mother, that is I had not done so until yesterday! I went with the Maldons to Scarborough! When I learned of the engagement, I posted south immediately!’

‘What the devil for?’

‘To put a stop to it!’ Gerard said fiercely.

‘To do
what
?’

‘Yes! It did not occur to you that
I
might thrust a spoke into
your
wheel, did it?’

‘No, and it still does not.’

‘We shall see! I know, as surely as I stand here –’

‘Which won’t be very surely, if I have to listen to much more of this rodomontade!’

‘You cannot silence me by threats, my lord!’

‘It seems improbable that you could be silenced by anything short of a gag. And don’t call me
my lord
! It makes you appear even more absurd than you do already.’

‘I care nothing for what you may think of me, or for your jibes! Emily does not love you –
cannot
love you! You have forced her into this horrible engagement! You and her mother between you! And I say it shall not be!’

Rotherham was once more lying back in his chair, the derisive smile on his lips. ‘Indeed? And how do you propose to stop it?’

‘I am going to see Emily!’

‘Oh, no, you are not!’

‘Nothing –
nothing
will prevent me! I know well how the business was accomplished!
I
was out of the way,
she
,
so
gentle, so timid, so friendless, a dove, fluttering unavailingly in – in the clutches of a
vulture
(for so I think of Lady Laleham, curse her!) and of a – a
wolf
! She, I say –’ He broke off, for Rotherham had given a shout of laughter.

‘Oh, I don’t think the dove would do much fluttering in such a situation as that!’ he said.

Gerard, white with fury, hammered his fist on the desk between them. ‘Ay, a splendid jest, isn’t it? Almost as droll as to lead to the altar a girl whose heart you know to be given to another! But you will not do it!’

‘I probably shouldn’t. Are you asking me to believe that her heart has been given to you?’

‘It is true, for all your sneers! From the moment I first saw her, at the Assembly, last Christmas, we became attached!’

‘Very likely.
She
is a beautiful girl, and
you
were the first young man to come in her way. You both enjoyed an agreeable flirtation. I’ve no objection.’

‘It was not a flirtation! It endured! When she came to London, before
you
had cast your – your predatory eye in her direction, the attachment between us had been confirmed! Had it not been for the odious pretensions of her mother, who would not listen to my offer, it would not have been your engagement that was announced, but mine!’

‘Rid your mind of that illusion at least! I should not have permitted you to become engaged to Miss Laleham, or to anyone else.’

‘I can believe it! But I do not admit your right to interfere in what concerns me so nearly!’

‘What you admit doesn’t signify. Until you come of age, I have rights over you of which you don’t appear to have the smallest conception. I have not chosen to exercise very many of these, but I will tell you now that I shall allow you neither to entangle yourself in an engagement, nor to embarrass my affianced wife by obtruding yourself upon her.’

‘Obtruding – ! Ha! So you fancy she would be embarrassed, do you, cousin?’

‘If you subjected her to such a scene as this, I imagine she would be thrown into a fever. She is recovering from a severe attack of influenza.’

‘Is she?’ said Gerard, with awful sarcasm. ‘Or was it a severe attack of the Marquis of Rotherham? I know that she has been hidden from me:
that
I learned at Cherrifield Place, this very day! From Lady Laleham I expected to hear nothing of Emily’s present whereabouts! She would take good care not to let me come near Emily! Now it appears that you too are afraid to disclose her direction! That tells its own tale, Cousin Rotherham!’

‘I have not the smallest objection to disclosing her direction,’ replied Rotherham. ‘She is visiting her grandmother, in Bath.’

‘In Bath!’ cried Gerard, his face lighting up.

‘Yes, in Bath. But you, my dear Gerard, will not go to Bath. When you leave this house, you will return to London, or to Scarborough, if you like: that’s all one to me!’

‘Oh, no, I shall not!’ countered Gerard. ‘It is not in your power to compel me! You have told me where I may find Emily, and find her I will! She must tell me with her own lips that her feelings have undergone a change, that she is happy in her engagement, before I will believe it! I tell you this because I scorn to deceive you! You shall never say that I went without informing you of my intention!’

‘I shall never say that you went at all,’ said Rotherham, thrusting back his chair, and rising suddenly to his feet. ‘And I will tell you why, cockerel! You dare not! For just so long as I will bear with you, you crow a puny defiance! But when my patience cracks, you have done with crowing! Beneath all this bombast, you are so much afraid of me that one look is enough make you cringe!’ He gave a bark of laughter. ‘
You
disobey my commands! I wish I may see it! You haven’t enough spirit to do so much as keep your knees from knocking together when I comb you down! I know exactly what you will do in this case. You will boast of what you have a very good mind to do, play the broken-hearted lover to gain the sympathy of the credulous, whine to your mother about my tyranny, and give as an excuse for your chickenheartedness the fear that if you failed to respond to my hand on your bridle I should wreak my vengeance on your brothers! What you will not say is that you fear my spurs! But that is the truth!’

He paused, scanning his ward. Gerard was as white as his preposterous shirt-points, trembling a little, and breathing jerkily, but his burning eyes were fixed on Rotherham’s face, and did not flinch from the piercing challenge of those contemptuous gray ones. His hands were clenched at his sides; he whispered: ‘I would like to
kill
you!’

‘I don’t doubt it. You would probably like to hit me too, but you won’t do it. Nor will you treat me to any more of your heroics. You may remain here tonight, but tomorrow you will return whence you came.’

‘I wouldn’t remain another instant under your roof for anything you might offer me!’ Gerard gasped.

‘Gerard, I said I would have no more heroics!’

‘I am leaving Claycross
now
!’ Gerard spat at him, and plunged towards the door.

‘Not so fast! You are forgetting something!’ Gerard paused, and looked over his shoulder. ‘You told me that your pockets were to let, which is not surprising, after all this posting about the country. How much do you want?’

Gerard stood irresolute. To spurn this offer would be a splendid gesture, and one which he longed to make; on the other hand, there were the post-charges to be paid, and more than a month to be lived through before he received the next quarter’s allowance. His sense of dramatic value was outraged by what he perceived to be an anticlimax of a particularly galling nature, and it was in anything but a grateful tone that he said: ‘I shall be obliged to you if you will advance me fifty pounds, cousin!’

‘Oh, you will, will you? And what shall I be expected to advance midway through the next quarter?’

‘Rest assured that I shall not ask you to advance me a penny!’ said Gerard grandly.

‘You wouldn’t dare to, would you?’ said Rotherham, opening a court-cupboard at the end of the room, and taking from it a strong-box. ‘You would apply to your mother. Well, since it appears to be entirely my fault that you are at a standstill, I’ll let you have your fifty pounds. Next time you wish to upbraid me, do it by letter!’

‘If you refuse to advance me my own money, I will only accept
yours
as a loan!’ declared Gerard. ‘I shall repay you the instant I come of age!’

‘As you please,’ shrugged Rotherham, unlocking the strong-box.

‘And I will give you my note-of-hand!’

‘By all means. You’ll find a pen on my desk.’

Gerard cast him a look of acute loathing, snatched up a quill, dragged a sheet of paper at random from a sheaf, and in trembling haste wrote a promise to pay. He then flung the quill down, and said: ‘I shall meet that on the day I gain possession of my principal at latest! And, if I can contrive it, much sooner! I’m obliged to you! Goodbye!’

He then crammed the bills held out to him into his pocket, and hurried out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Rotherham put his strong-box away, and walked slowly back to his desk. He picked up the note-of-hand, and began, abstractedly, to tear it into small shreds, his brows lowering, and his lips compressed. The door opened again, and he glanced up quickly.

It was his steward who had entered, and who said in a quiet but resolute voice: ‘My lord, you will please allow me to have speech with you!’

‘Well?’

‘I saw Mr Gerard as he left the house, my lord. It is not for me to remonstrate with you, but since there is no one else to do it, I must! You must not let him go like that!’

‘I’m damned glad he has gone. My temper will stand no more of him!’

‘My lord, this will not do! He is your ward, remember! I have never seen such a look on his face before. What did you do to him, to make him as white as his shirt?’

‘What the devil do you suppose I did to a whey-faced weakling I could control with my right hand tied behind me?’ demanded Rotherham wrathfully.

‘Not that you used your strength, my lord, but your tongue!’

‘Yes, I used that to some purpose,’ said Rotherham, with a grim smile.

‘My lord, whatever he may have done –’

‘He has done nothing. I doubt if he has the spirit to do anything but nauseate me with his gasconades and his fustian theatrics!’

‘Let me fetch him back!’ Wilton begged. ‘You should not frighten him so!’

‘I should not be able to frighten him so!’

‘You frighten many people, my lord. It has sometimes seemed to me that when your black mood is on you it is your wish to frighten people. But I am sure I don’t know why, for you can never tolerate anyone who fears you.’

Rotherham looked up quickly, a reluctant laugh escaping him. ‘True!’

‘It is not too late: let me fetch Mr Gerard back!’

‘No. I should not have flayed him, I acknowledge, but the temptation to do so was irresistible. It will do him no harm, and may do him a great deal of good.’

‘My lord – !’

‘Wilton, I have a considerable regard for you, but you have not the power to make me change my mind!’

‘I know that, my lord,’ Wilton said. ‘There was only one person who ever had that power.’

Danger flickered in Rotherham’s eyes, but he did not speak. The steward looked steadily at him for a moment, and then turned, and walked out of the room.

Mr Monksleigh reached Bath after dark, and in a Thrasonical mood. When he had given the order to the post-boy to take the Bath road, he had done so in the white heat of his rage, but with a quake of fear in his heart. The experience he had passed through had set every nerve in his slight body quivering, for although he had been stung to fury by the lash of Rotherham’s tongue only pride had kept him from breaking down, and betraying the terror beneath his bravado. He was both timid and abnormally sensitive; and from having a keen and often morbid imagination was apt to fancy that persons who, in fact, never gave him a thought were criticizing him unkindly. Anticipation was more dreadful to him than performance; and to be harshly rated turned him sick. A wish to appear to be of consequence was unhappily allied to a lack of self-confidence which he tried to conceal under a boastful manner; and nothing could more surely have won for him the contempt of his guardian. There was never a more ill-assorted pair; and if Gerard was the last boy alive to appeal to Rotherham, no worse guardian than Rotherham could well have been found for a boy compact of timidity and vainglory. A much younger Gerard, at once anxious to impress an almost unknown guardian and afraid that he would be despised by him, encountered a look from those hard, bright eyes, and wilted under it. It was neither angry nor disdainful; it was almost incurious, but it utterly disconcerted Gerard. He had the feeling that it pierced right into his mind, and saw everything that he most wished to hide; and he never recovered from that first, disastrous meeting. Rotherham indifferent made him feel ill-at-ease; when, later, he saw Rotherham angry, he was terrified. A natural abruptness he mistook for a sign of dislike; he read a threat into every curt command; and if he was reprimanded, he was always sure that the brief but shattering scold was but the prelude to hideous retribution. The fact that on the only occasion when condign retribution had fallen upon him it was neither hideous nor even particularly severe quite irrationally failed to reassure him. He thought it a miracle that he had been let off lightly, just as he was convinced, every time he annoyed Rotherham, that he had escaped chastisement by no more than a hairsbreadth.

It was doubtful if Rotherham, with his nerves of steel, his tireless strength, and his impatience of weakness, would ever have felt much liking for so delicate and nervous a boy as Gerard; but he would not have been intolerant of him had it not been for Gerard’s unfortunate tendency to brag about himself. In the early days of his guardianship, he had frequently invited him to one or other of his country seats, feeling that however great a nuisance a schoolboy might be to him it was clearly his duty to take an interest in him, giving him a day’s hunting, teaching him how to handle a gun, or cast a line, and how to keep a straight left. He very soon realized that Gerard, so far from being grateful, regarded these benefits in the light of severe ordeals,and would have become merely bored had he not heard Gerard, after an ignominious day in the saddle, during the course of which he had contrived to evade all but the easiest of jumps, boasting to one of the servants of the regular raspers he had taken. Rotherham, caring nothing for anyone’s admiration or disapproval, and contemptuous of shams, was violently exasperated, and thereafter regarded his ward not with indifference but with scorn. Even Gerard’s docility irritated him. He preferred the more resilient Charles, whose predilection for getting into all the more damaging and perilous forms of mischief had made him declare that never again would he have the whelp to stay with him. But as soon as Charles had outgrown his destructive puppyhood he had every intention of opening his doors to him, and of taking him in hand. Charles provoked him to anger, but never to contempt. Severely castigated for setting a booby trap for the butler, which resulted in a splendid breakage of crockery, the chances were that he would bounce into the room not half an hour later, announcing in conscience-stricken accents that he feared he had killed one of the peacocks with his bow and arrow. He found nothing unnerving in the look that made his elder brother shake in his shoes; and when threatened with frightful penalties he grinned. He was outrageously mischievous, maddeningly obstinate, and wholly averse from respecting prohibitions; and since these characteristics never failed to rouse his guardian to wrath neither Gerard nor Mrs Monksleigh could understand why he was quite unafraid of Rotherham, or why Rotherham, however angry, never withered him with the remarks which made Gerard writhe.

‘Cousin Rotherham likes people who square up to him,’ said Charles. ‘He’s a great gun!’

But Rotherham today had shown no signs of liking it, thought Gerard bitterly, unable to perceive the gulf that lay between his rehearsed defiance, and his graceless brother’s innate pugnacity. It had angered him into uttering words so scathing that for several stark minutes Gerard had been thrown into such a storm of shocked fury that he was jerked out of his shams, and hurled his defiance at Rotherham without the smallest thought of impressing him. He was angry, and frightened, and deeply mortified; and for quite some time continued in this frame of mind. But as the distance increased between himself and Claycross the tone of his mind became gradually restored, and from quaking at the realization that he was flatly disobeying Rotherham, and wondering what the result would be, he began to believe that he had acquitted himself well in his distressing interview with him. From thinking of all the retorts he might have made was a very short step to imagining that he really had made them; and by the time he reached Bath he was almost set up again in his own conceit, and much inclined to think that he had taught Rotherham a lesson.

Since nothing would be more disagreeable than to be obliged to apply to Rotherham for more funds, he prudently sought out a modest hostelry in the less fashionable part of the town, and installed himself there with every intention of discovering Emily’s whereabouts on the following morning. In the event, it was not until two days later that he saw her entering the Pump Room with her grandmother, and was at last able to approach her. The task of locating the house of a lady whose name he had never been told had proved to be unexpectedly difficult.

Emily was very much surprised to see him, and accorded him an ingenuously delighted welcome. He was a pretty youth, with pleasing manners, and such an air of fashion that his company could not but add to her consequence. His passion for her, moreover, was expressed with the greatest decorum, and took the form of humble worship, which was quite unalarming. Upon her first going to London, he had been assiduous in his attentions, and she had enjoyed with him her first flirtation. Not a profound thinker, if she remembered the vows she had exchanged with him, she supposed that he had meant them no more seriously than she had. She did recollect that she had felt very low for quite a week after Mama had forbidden him to visit them again, but Mama had assured her that she would soon recover from her disappointment, which, in fact, she had. Amongst the crowd of Pinks, Tulips, Blades, Beaux, and High Sticklers with whom she rapidly became acquainted, Gerard was to a great extent forgotten.

But she liked him very well, and was happy to meet him again, and at once presented him to Mrs Floore.

Mrs Floore came as a shock to him, for although he had frequently heard his mama stigmatize Lady Laleham as a vulgar creature he had paid very little heed to a stricture he had heard often before, and which generally denoted merely that Mrs Monksleigh had quarrelled with whichever lady was in question. He had expected nothing as unrefined as Mrs Floore, who was arrayed in a gown of such a powerful shade of purple that he almost blinked. However, he had very good manners, and he quickly concealed his astonishment, and made her a civil bow.

Mrs Floore was inclined to favour him. She liked young persons, and Gerard struck her as a pretty-behaved beau, dressed as fine as fivepence, and plainly of the first respectability. But her shrewd gaze had not failed to perceive the ardour in his face when he had come hurrying up to Emily, and she determined not to encourage him. It would never do, she thought, for him to be dangling after Emily in a love-lorn way calculated to set Bath tongues wagging. There was no saying but what Emily’s grand Marquis might not like it above half, if it came to his ears. So when she heard him asking Emily if she would be at the Lower Rooms that evening, she interposed, saying that Emily must stay at home to recruit her strength for the Gala night at the Sydney Gardens on the following evening. Gerard, on his guard from the instant he realized this amazing old lady’s relationship to his adored, took this with perfect propriety. It was Emily who exclaimed against the prohibition, but so much more in the manner of a child denied a treat than in that of a damsel bent on flirting with a personable admirer, that Mrs Floore relented a little, and said that they would see. It naturally did not occur to her that Emily could have a
tendre
for any other man than her betrothed, but she was well aware that Emily was apt (in the most innocent way) to give rather more encouragement than was seemly in her situation to her admirers. It was all very well for the chit to talk in that misleadingly confiding way of hers to a steady young fellow like Ned Goring, whom one could trust to take no liberties; quite another for her to be giving this smart town sprig to think that she would welcome a flirtation.

But when, after Gerard had escorted the two ladies back to Beaufort Square, very politely giving Mrs Floore his arm, she told Emily that it would not do for her to be too friendly with such a handsome young beau, Emily looked surprised, and said: ‘But he is such a splendid dancer, Grandmama! Must I not stand up with him? Why ought I not? He is quite the thing, you know!’

‘I daresay he’s of the first stare, pet, but would his lordship like it? That’s what you ought to think of, only you’re such a flighty little puss – well, there!’

‘Oh, but Lord Rotherham could have not the least objection!’ Emily assured her. ‘Gerard is his ward. They are cousins.’

That, of course, put a very different complexion on the matter, and made Mrs Floore exclaim against Emily for not having told her so in time for her to have invited Mr Monksleigh to dine with them. But that was soon rectified. She took Emily to the ball, and there was Mr Monksleigh, nattier than ever in evening dress, his ordered locks glistening with Russia Oil, and the many swathes of his neckcloth obliging him to hold his head very much up. Several young ladies watched his progress across the room with approval, most of the gentlemen with tolerant amusement, and Mr Guynette, who had attempted unavailingly to present him to a lady lacking a partner for the boulanger, with strong disapprobation.

Gerard was in no mood for dancing, but since there seemed to be no other way of detaching Emily from her grandmother, he led her into the set that was just forming, saying urgently: ‘I must see you alone! How may it be contrived?’

She shook her head wonderingly. ‘Grandmama would not like it! Besides, everyone would stare!’

‘Not here! But we must meet! Emily, I have only just learnt of this – this engagement you have entered into! Have been forced into! I know you cannot – I have come all the way from Scarborough to see you! Quickly, where may we meet?’

Her hand trembled in his; she whispered: ‘Oh – ! I don’t know! It is so dreadful! I am very unhappy!’

He caught his breath. ‘I knew it!’

There was no time for more; they were obliged to take their places in the set; to school their countenances; and to exchange such conversation as was suitable to the occasion. When the movement of the dance brought them together, Gerard said: ‘Will your grandmama permit me to visit her?’

‘Yes, but pray take care! She said I must not be too friendly, only then I told her you were Lord Rotherham’s ward, and so she will ask you to dine with us, and go to the Sydney Gardens tomorrow. Oh, Gerard, I do not know what to do!’

He squeezed her fingers. ‘I have come to save you!’

She found nothing to smile at in this announcement, but threw him a look brimful of gratitude and admiration as they parted again, and waited hopefully to know how her rescue was to be accomplished.

She had to remain in suspense until the following evening; and when he was at last able to disclose his plans to her, she found them disappointing.

After dining in Beaufort Square, and taking immense pains to ingratiate himself with Mrs Floore, Gerard accompanied the ladies to the Sydney Gardens, where various entertainments, ranging from illuminations to dancing, were provided for Bath’s visitors. Here, by great good fortune, a crony of Mrs Floore’s was encountered, who had been staying at Lyme Regis for some weeks. The two ladies naturally had much gossip to exchange; and when they were fairly launched in intimate conversation, Gerard seized the opportunity to beg permission to take Emily to look at the waterfalls, which had all been illuminated for the occasion. ‘I will take good care of her, ma’am!’ he promised.

Mrs Floore nodded indulgently. She still thought him an agreeable youth, but he would have been affronted had he known how swiftly and how accurately she had summed him up. He was, in her estimation, a harmless boy, scarcely fledged as yet, but anxious to convince everyone that he was a buck of the first head. She had been much amused, at dinner, by the carelessness with which he related anecdotes of
ton
; and when, encouraged by a good-nature which he mistook for respect, he played off a few of the airs of an exquisite, her eyes twinkled appreciatively, and she decided that however much pride and sensibility the Marquis might have he could scarcely take exception to Emily’s accepting the escort of so callow a young gentleman.

Since two or three thousand persons were in the Gardens, it was some little time before Gerard could find a vacant and sufficiently secluded nook to appropriate. All his mind was concentrated on this, but Emily, who possessed the faculty of living only in the immediate present, kept on stopping to exclaim at Merlin grottoes, or cascades, or festoons of coloured lanterns. However, he eventually discovered a discreet arbour, persuaded her to enter it, and to sit down upon the rustic bench there. Seating himself beside her, he clasped her mittened hand, and uttered: ‘Tell me the whole!’