Just Deserts (28 page)

Tidmarsh and Siegfried, who came forward to greet them as
the phaeton clattered into the stable yard, managed, though indeed
unintentionally, to fling both parties back into
embarrassment.

‘
May I be permitted to offer my felicitations, ma’am,’
Tidmarsh said, smiling up at her, ‘and to be the first to welcome
you to your future home?’

‘
Thank you,’ Persephone said, her tone gruff.

‘
Aye, mistress,’ piped up the jockey. ‘An’ I
reckon as how his lordship will have his hands so full, he’ll mebbe
give
me
a bit o’ peace.’

‘
Hold your tongue, varmint,’ Chiddingly
commanded.

Tidmarsh, quite as annoyed but more direct, dealt Siegfried
a buffet on the side of the head, and gave Persephone an apologetic
smile. ‘Your pardon, ma’am. I’ll take him away, my
lord.’

‘
Do so. And keep him out of my sight.’

Whereupon Tidmarsh collected the jockey by means of
attaching his fingers to his ear and led him off, his victim loudly
complaining.

‘
You let go, you persecutin’ Tidmarsh. I hopes you get
nibbled to death by ducks, I do.’

As their acrimonious voices died away, Chiddingly turned to
hand Persephone down from the phaeton, trying to infuse naturalness
into his tone.

‘
I think perhaps it would be as well if we walked out to the
paddocks, where we will find most of my best cattle.’

Persephone merely murmured her agreement, and stepped out
beside him, her confusion increasing as she took in the covert
glances being cast at her by the stable lads and grooms busy about
their business. She had dressed in an unusually frivolous way, in a
cotton open robe in blue over lighter-toned petticoats, with a chip
hat perched at an angle on her golden locks, and this scrutiny made
her feel shy and unlike herself.

It was a relief to leave the yard behind them and walk out
by the field where several fenced off areas could be seen ahead of
them, in which pairs and groups of horses grazed in the peace of a
sunny April morning.

Persephone halted, looking from one paddock to
another.

‘
Oh, how can you bear to spend your time in town,’
she said impulsively, ‘when you could be here with all these
beautiful
creatures?’

She picked up her skirts and ran to the wooden palings that
divided her from the animals inside the paddock. Holding out her
hand, she leaned across to call out to the pair of horses within.
They had been naturally curious, watching the approach of people
from the stables, and now came trotting over to
investigate.

Persephone greeted them with soft words and a soft hand to
stroke their muzzles, and turned her glowing features to
Chiddingly.

‘
They are delightful. Such wonderful colours. I have never
seen a bay so light. Why, he is almost gold. And this chestnut is
like a flame.’

The baron, following her, had remained standing a few feet
away, watching with a smile in his eyes.

‘
I confess I love them, too,’ he laughed. ‘In fact they are
my favourite pair.’

‘
I am not surprised,’ she said. ‘Would I might try them at a
light phaeton.’

‘
You may certainly do so,’ he responded, ‘when once you are
living here.’

She blushed, consciousness returning, and made an excuse to
move on. But the ice was broken and they found themselves deep in
discussion on the idiosyncrasies of individual animals, and the
difficulties of maintaining order and discipline in a large
stable.

‘
And the worst menace, if you will believe me,’ Chiddingly
said in tones of amused vexation, ‘is the clash of personalities
among my people.’

Persephone laughed. ‘People are always more troublesome
than horses.’

‘
Are they not? Well, you have seen what I am obliged to
endure from Siegfried. But the little devil is so superb a racer
that I cannot let him go. He knows it, too, and takes atrocious
liberties. Truth to tell, though, it is Tidmarsh—and he I would not
lose for a fortune, believe me—who is like to create mayhem in my
stables.’

‘
Tidmarsh? Why, how is that? He seems to me to be an
admirable person.’

‘
So he is. Except that he must needs become amorously
involved with my head groom’s daughter. It only needs for
Clatterbridge to get wind of the matter for me to find myself
hovering on the brink of a domestic crisis.’

Persephone could not help laughing. ‘Lord, if it is not
just as it was in Bombay. Ufur—an autocrat, you know, but the
greatest horseman in the world—was used to complain of the
self-same problem. If you take his method, you will marry them off
as quickly as possible.’

‘
Like us,’ Chiddingly remarked drily. Then, as the colour
flew into her cheeks, he added contritely, ‘That was maladroit.
Forgive me.’

Persephone shook her head, turning her eyes away to gaze
unseeingly upon the two dark foals gambolling together in the
paddock behind them.

‘
It does not matter.’

‘
In any event,’ Chiddingly pursued, ‘the girl is too young
to marry yet. What is more, Tidmarsh fondly believes me to be
ignorant of his attachment. Though he ought to have realised that
with Siegfried on the loose that were impossible. But I should not
care to embarrass him by referring to it.’

Persephone hardly heard him. At that precise moment, she
had scant interest in Tidmarsh. Now, if ever, was her opportunity.
She drew a resolute breath and turned to face the baron, leaning
against the wooden palings for support and grasping them at either
side, her face pale but determined under the straw hat.

‘
Chiddingly, there is something I want to say to
you. No, not that. Something I
must
say.’

‘
Persephone, I—’

‘
No, let me speak, I pray you.’

He stood silent, watching her gravely, a slight frown in
his eyes.

She met them squarely. ‘Chiddingly, I—it was—’
Then out it all came in a rush. ‘Oh, Chid,
forgive
me. It
was indeed all my folly that compromised us both so dreadfully. I
have been so wrapped up in my own stupid predicament that I had not
even
thought
how it has affected you, when I dare
say there is nothing you desire less in the
world
than to be
tied to such a
harridan
as I am.’

Chiddingly stepped up to her and captured the hands which,
having released their clutch on the palings, were now waving
distractedly in the air.

‘
Seph,
don’t
, I beg you. I
cannot
bear
to hear you talk so, when I have
behaved to you in a manner so unbefitting a
gentleman.’

‘
No, no. You would
never
have done so had
I not created the situation in the first place,’ she cried,
determined to shoulder the blame. ‘And I am so
sorry
that
you find yourself obliged to marry me.’

‘
Well, I am
not,
’ Chiddingly
declared, imprisoning her hands more tightly within his own. ‘I
assure you, I am growing every day more reconciled to the
prospect.’

The grey eyes gazed at him uncertainly. ‘Oh,
please, Chid, don’t
say what
you do not mean.’

‘
But I do mean it. My fear is that
you
—’ He broke off, smiling. ‘The truth is, Seph, that we have
never had an opportunity to know each other.’

‘
Believe me, you do not want to know me,’ she retorted, with
a rueful look. ‘What you have so far seen of me is all there
is.’

He laughed, and dropping her hands, caught her into his
arms. His blue eyes, so close to hers, were alight with an
expression she did not recognise. But her heart beat fast as his
fingers came up to caress her cheek.

‘
Everything
I
have so far seen,’ he murmured softly, ‘drives me wild in every
possible way.’

Then his lips were on hers. Not hard at all, but gently
persuasive, drawing from deep within her soul a rush of tenderness
that made her dizzy so that she sagged a little in his arms.
Chiddingly cradled her closer, his mouth passing from her lips to
her cheeks, and up to kiss her closed eyes, which fluttered open to
gaze in wonder into his own.

‘
Persephone,’ he breathed, ‘you are the most
beguiling, the most
miraculous
creature—and the most infuriating.’

He kissed her again, and then leaned back his head to smile
into her eyes. ‘We will probably end by slaughtering each other,
but I confess I find the prospect infinitely enticing.’

Persephone’s low gurgle of laughter escaped her,
and her eyes warmed to a luminous glow. ‘You are undoubtedly
unhinged, Chid. And do not say that is to be set to
my
account.’

‘
Totally,’ he retorted, grinning. He hugged her with rough
tenderness, and then let her go. ‘Come, I have something to show
you which I think—no, I am sure—you will like.’

Taking her by the hand, he led her to where a group of
young horses played and cantered together about a large paddock.
Chiddingly pointed out his Barbary mare, whose dainty white legs
were twinkling across the green as she raced, easily outstripping
her companions.

Persephone looked, and a gasp of dismay left her
lips.

‘
Shiveen,’
she cried out in sudden anguish, and tore her hand from
Chiddingly’s grasp, covering her eyes against so painful a
sight.

‘
Why, what is amiss?’ he said in quick concern. ‘Seph, my
heart, what is amiss?’

She was shaking, and as he dragged the hands from her face,
the deep sadness in her eyes rent him in pieces.

‘
I b-beg your pardon,’ she quavered, ‘it—it is only that the
horse reminded me—she is so like—’

‘
You had a mare the same,’ he said, understanding at once.
‘And you had to leave her. My God, you poor child.’

She drew a shuddering breath, her fingers clinging tightly
to his. ‘It was the greatest wrench of all. And yet I did it to
myself.’

Haltingly, she explained how Shiveen had been too old to
start afresh and that she had given her to Ufur. For the first
time, she spoke to him of all that she had left behind and what it
had cost her to do so.

‘
All, Chid! All my horses.’

‘
God help you, but that is a tragic thing to happen to a
girl like you.’

‘
I have not yet been able to bring myself to purchase any
over here. I told Papa I had not made up my mind, but the truth is
I could not bear to replace my loved ones. So foolish of
me.’

‘
Foolish indeed,’ Chiddingly smiled, ‘but I would feel
exactly as you.’ Briskly then, he said, ‘But it is time to lay all
these ghosts aside. We will begin with this one.’

So saying, he left her side and going to the paddock
vaulted easily over the fence. He went into the knot of horses,
fetched the Barbary mare and guided her back to the fence with a
hand to her sleek neck. She came willingly enough, followed a
little way by her fellows who stopped to stare when they saw
Persephone waiting.

A pang shot through her as she stepped up to lift a hand to
the filly’s muzzle and the picture of her lost Shiveen flashed
momentarily through her mind. But she was not proof against the
gentleness and beauty of this new animal, and could not close her
heart against it. Within a very few moments, she had made friends.
The filly nuzzled her neck as she turned once more to Chiddingly,
her eyes in a fresh glow of exhilaration.

‘
What is she called?’

Chiddingly smiled, and his blue eyes were tender. ‘That is
for you to say, Seph. She is yours.’

‘
Oh no,’ she cried involuntarily, feeling that she
could not blot the memory of Shiveen with another such grey mare.
Then she recalled Ufur’s words.
You will be knowing many horses, Missee Seffee.
Yes, Ufur would have told her to stop
being a fool. Still she hesitated. ‘I—I could not. Such a lovely
horse. And—as I can clearly see—your especial
pride.’

‘
Take her, Seph. A betrothal gift.’

‘
Oh, Chid,’ she said shakily. ‘You could not have found
anything I would treasure more.’

Chiddingly suddenly grabbed her hand and jerked her into
his arms so that her straw hat slipped off. His kiss was fierce,
his arms about her crushing the breath from her body. Persephone
melted against him, drowning in the demanding pressure of his lips.
He released her as suddenly, and held her away from him, his voice
harsh with passion.

‘
She is pure Barb. I had her brought all the way over from
Constantinople. Until this moment, I did not think I valued
anything above her. Not even Indigo. Then you—’