Fated Folly (22 page)

‘
Has he put you against Rupert?'

‘
Never,' Clare said forcefully. ‘Nothing he could do or say would serve to do that. I told him so, you see. And—and all his venom and hatred came pouring out. Oh, it was chilling.'

‘
Yes, well, I dare say any woman might flinch a trifle on being informed that her husband was a murderer.'

‘
Don't say it, don't say it,' begged Clare, shuddering.

‘
But, my dear child, you surely cannot have any doubts on that head?' Blanche said tartly.

Clare looked at her, misery in her heart. ‘Doubts? No. It is not that.'

‘
What, then?' She added, as Clare hesitated. ‘Come now, my child. You came to me for a reason. Much better out than in, if you have anything on your mind.'

Drawing a resolute breath, Clare held her gaze. ‘Mrs Dearham—'

‘
Blanche, if you please,' smiled the lady.

Clare blinked, impatient with this distraction. ‘At a time like this, it cannot matter how I address you.'

The elder lady looked a trifle taken aback, but she smiled. ‘You are right. Do forgive me. Go on.'

‘
There are two things,' Clare said in a determined way. ‘One is that it pains me even to hear such an epithet attached to my Rupert.' Her fingers twisted as she thought of the second thing. ‘But you see, I have seen him lose almost all control. And there was no real justification for doing so. He admitted it himself afterwards.'

‘
Ah, you are afraid that something of the kind may have occurred.'

‘
Not a deliberate thing, you understand, as Ash suggests.'

‘
Let me set your mind at rest,' Mrs Dearham said, catching one of Clare's unquiet hands.

‘
Can you?'

She watched the amusement light up Blanche's face and wondered at it.

‘
Dear Clare, can you imagine, if such had been the case, that Rupert would have lied about it?'

Clare stared at her blankly. Then her world suddenly brightened, and she broke into laughter.

‘
Oh, I deserve he should beat me!'

‘
I should hope he would not!'

‘
No, of course he would not.' Mischief leapt into her bosom and she twinkled. ‘He is not quite such an ogre, though I call him that.'

Blanche laughed, but Clare's amusement was short-lived as she recalled Ashendon's venom.

‘
What is it?' Mrs Dearham asked, apparently aware of the change.

‘
What does Rupert say about what happened, Blanche?'

‘
Very little. Nothing at all, these days. There was some sort of accident, that is all anyone knows. Poor Will appears to have fallen. There was a steep bank.'

‘
Close by the river!' Clare put in suddenly.

‘
Yes,' Mrs Dearham agreed, looking at her oddly. ‘How came you to guess that?'

Clare blinked. ‘I don't know. It seems logical, I suppose. But go on.'

Blanche shrugged. ‘There is little more to tell. Somehow Will fell and Rupert was unable to save him. The tragedy was that he hit his head quite violently on a rock.'

‘
Oh, how dreadful.'

‘
Yes, it was.' Mrs Dearham's eyes darkened almost to black with the memory. ‘We were all in fear for his life, for he was unconscious some days. Rupert was distraught, as you may imagine.'

‘
They have always been close, I gather,' Clare commented, harrowed by the thought of his pain.

‘
Since Rupert was a boy. St Merryn is his senior by ten years, but as I understand it, they were like brothers, notwithstanding Edward. He and Rupert were never close, and I believe that troubled Rupert when his brother died.'

‘
Pippa's father, you mean?'

‘
Yes, and I believe Rupert's conscience is responsible for his strictness with Pippa. I think he felt guilty and was determined to do right by his brother's child.' Blanche sighed. ‘Rupert's has been an unfortunate life one way and another.' Then a smile came. ‘Until now.'

Clare flushed, and turned away. ‘You did not tell me the rest.'

Mrs Dearham shrugged. ‘It is as you see. Will lived, but he recovered neither his sight nor his memory of the incident.'

‘
So all rests on Rupert's word.'

‘
Exactly. Ashendon chose to think that Rupert had tried to slaughter his cousin in order to come by his father's earldom.'

‘
Absurd!'

‘
Naturally we think so, but the boy is obsessed.' Blanche raised her hands in a hopeless gesture. ‘We all began to think that his grief at his father's brush with death, and the sad consequences, had turned his brain.'

‘
Not all, it seems,' Clare put in with a grimace. ‘Ash said that—that even the late Lady Wolverley—'

‘
Meriel?' Blanche's lips tightened. ‘There were reasons for Meriel's defection.'

Clare stared at her. ‘Defection?'

‘
Forgive me, I cannot say more. It would not be right.'

No, but it might help me, Clare thought. Help her to understand Rupert. Not that she was concerned about all that now. What was of far more importance was this dangerous enmity of Ashendon's. It seemed he would stop at nothing. Could not Lord St Merryn control him somehow? Rupert, she knew well, would never tell the earl about his son's conduct. But she had no such nice notions. Ashendon must be checked, or where would it all end?

She got up abruptly. ‘I am going to the Grange.'

Blanche Dearham rose, too, putting out a restraining hand. ‘What are you going to do there, Clare?'

‘
I don't know yet. But I must do something. I cannot allow that vile creature to continue in this way.'

‘
But what can you do, a young girl? He will not listen to you.'

‘
I know that,' Clare said fiercely. ‘But I won't let him hurt Rupert any more, Blanche.'

‘
But, Clare—'

‘
You did not see his face, or hear the way he spoke. I tell you, he will not be satisfied until he has done Rupert a serious mischief.' Her fingers crooked into claws, and she almost bared her teeth. ‘And if he succeeds at that, I shall kill him!'

Then, ignoring Mrs Dearham's cry of alarm, she flew from the room.

***

 

Rupert turned up on Blanche's doorstep towards the end of the afternoon. He was irritable, and inclined to snap.

‘
You have had a difficult time of it,' Blanche commented, as Rupert shifted restlessly about the parlour, fidgeting from place to place.

He passed a hand across his brow. ‘I am not in the best of tempers, I admit. But that is possibly owing more to my potations last night than today's events.'

‘
Very likely,' Mrs Dearham agreed tartly. ‘Men!'

‘
Women!' he returned tetchily.

There was a silence. Then Blanche rose from the sofa and came to him, laying a hand on his shoulder. ‘Rupert, be still. She is perfectly all right.'

He gazed at her in painful enquiry. ‘Is she?'

Blanche smiled. ‘You will scarcely believe me, but the first I heard of Mrs Arksey's visit was this moment past, from you.'

‘
You are jesting. Then why did she come here?'

Mrs Dearham's hand left his shoulder and she sighed. ‘That tiresome boy has told her of Will's accident.'

‘
Oh, my God,' Rupert said heavily. ‘His version, I don't doubt.'

‘
How else would he tell it?'

‘
All the more reason, then.'

‘
For what? What do you mean to do?'

The fire in Rupert's breast flared up. ‘Never mind. Suffice it that I have dealt with Biddy. I shall deal with Ashendon presently.'

‘
Rupert, you were not—you were not unkind, I trust? To Mrs Arksey, I mean.'

‘
Would you have expected me to thank her?' He strode away to the window. ‘No, I was not unkind. She was, after all, duped. But she had no business going to the Manor at all. She knew that.'

‘
You have broken with her?'

Rupert did not look round. ‘I would have done so in any event. Matters have reached such a—I could not allow—' Then he turned in abrupt annoyance. ‘God, Blanche, why must you pester me?'

‘
Don't make me your scapegoat, Rupert,' Blanche said tartly. She came up to him and grasped his hands, saying urgently. ‘Open your eyes, man. You have something so precious, so much worth the taking. Reach out!'

‘
I
cannot
,' Rupert uttered, anguished, trying to draw his hands away.

But Blanche tightened her hold. ‘Rupert, listen to me. You are allowing Meriel's memory to rule you. Bad enough that you judged your niece by her—'

‘
I did not do so.'

‘
You assumed, Rupert, that because Meriel's love for you proved transient, so also would Pippa's for this boy Justin.' She released his hands, saying more moderately, ‘You may be right. I can't tell that. But you may as easily be wrong. Don't make the same mistake with Clare.'

Rupert strode restlessly to the window and back again.

His voice was clipped, concealing the churn of emotion in his breast. ‘It is not only that. I know that Pippa and Clare are of an age. But Clare seems younger. Much younger. I cannot explain it, but—'

‘
Fiddle,' scoffed Mrs Dearham. ‘It is only the fact of her being so slim, so small-boned, particularly in the face, that makes you think so. She is a woman, Rupert.'

He shook his head. ‘Not to me. At least, there have been moments when—but I see her as an infant, and I cannot do with her—'

He broke off, and sought the protection of the window again, the better to hide the feelings that threatened to overcome him.

‘
You had better know,' said Blanche from behind him, ‘that your “infant” has donned toy armour, Sir Rupert Wolverley.'

He swung round. ‘What do you mean?'

Blanche's features relaxed into amusement. ‘She has gone to the Grange with drawn sword, my friend. With the expressed intention of saving you from Ashendon's mischief.'

By the time Rupert arrived at the Grange, however, Clare had already left.

‘
She was here, Cousin Rupert,' Kitty told him. ‘She wanted to see Papa.'

Oh, my God. No, Clare. But he asked merely, ‘And did she?'

Kitty shook her head. ‘He was taking his nap, and I could not permit her to disturb him.'

Thank God. There was time to dissuade Clare from so ruinous a course. He became aware that the Lady Katherine Wolverley was eyeing him rather warily. Now what? He smiled encouragingly.

‘
Is there something you want to tell me, Kitty?'

‘
Well, yes,' she confessed, relieved. ‘I hope you will not mind it, because I do like Clare, and I would hate to get her into any kind of trouble.'

Rupert managed a laugh. ‘I am not a schoolmaster, Kitty. Clare is my wife.'

‘
I know that, but it seems so odd,' Kitty blurted out. Then she threw a hand over her mouth. ‘Oh, I beg your pardon, Cousin Rupert.'

‘
Don't concern yourself,' he said. He leaned towards her and said in a deliberately confiding tone, ‘To tell you the truth, it seems quite odd to me, too.'

Kitty laughed. ‘Papa holds that it is charmingly romantic.'

‘
Does he, indeed?' said Rupert, smiling in genuine amusement almost for the first time that day.

‘
Yes, he says that he envies you such a “pretty little miss”. Of course he would not say so to you.'

‘
It is not precisely the kind of thing gentlemen say to one another,' Rupert agreed, adding wistfully, ‘I wish he might
see
Clare.'

‘
Oh, but he can, Cousin Rupert,' exclaimed Kitty gaily. ‘I have described her to him exactly.'

‘
Will always says that you are his eyes, Kitty,' Rupert told her, reaching out to stroke the girl's hair in an affectionate gesture.

‘
Papa can tell a great deal about a person from their voice, too, you know.' The light in her face dimmed a little. ‘That is why I was so glad he was asleep when Clare called.' She eyed Rupert worriedly. ‘She was—she was asking about the accident, and I was afraid that—'

‘
That she might have spoken to Will about it?'

It was a rule in the family that Lord St Merryn was never encouraged to discuss the affair, for it invariably upset him to do so and he would brood for days. Not because of his disability, but because he would rack his brains trying to remember. It was the wasted effort and negative result that distressed him.

‘
Never fear, Kitty, I will see that Clare understands. She is too tenderhearted, you know, to wish to cause him any anxiety.'