Sally James (14 page)

He soon returned with the drink and suggested that to cool themselves they might walk for a while in the conservatory. Susannah agreed and they exclaimed in delight at the many small coloured lamps which had been placed amongst the leaves of the plants and gave an impression of twinkling flowers.

The conservatory was large and there were several secluded corners. They had strolled into one such, expecting to be able to walk behind some of the plants and regain the main avenue, only to find the expected path did not exist. As Susannah laughed and turned to retrace her steps, she was startled to be roughly pulled into Richard’s arms and the involuntary exclamation she gave was stifled as he crushed his lips on to hers.

Immediately Susannah twisted her head away and tried to free herself from his embrace. Apart from the surprise, for Richard had previously always behaved with the utmost punctiliousness towards her, she was aware of a feeling of utter revulsion and wanted to wipe from her lips all trace of that kiss.

After a momentary tightening of his arms about her when she resisted his embrace, Richard released her, but contrived to seize her hands in his and stood looking down at her ruefully.

‘Oh, my dear! Have I offended you? You are so lovely, Susannah, and I have for so long wanted to put my fortune to the test and beg you to be my wife. Having you beside me made me lose all sense of decorum! Susannah, my dearest, say you forgive me and that I may hope?’

Susannah, somewhat astonished at her own instinctive aversion to his kisses, despite the fact that she liked him, mutely shook her head, and Richard looked deep into her eyes.

‘I must beg your forgiveness,’ he said quietly. ‘I had meant to wait until your father returned and I could ask his permission to address you, but your nearness made me forget all propriety! It is no wonder you are shocked. I am truly sorry.’

‘You think it necessary to ask his permission first?’ Susannah enquired in a rather strained voice.

‘Of course. Any honourable man would and I am deeply ashamed my passion betrayed me. Will you forgive me and tell me that I may still hope?’

He drew her slowly towards him, and emboldened by the glow in her eyes, put one arm about her shoulders.

‘Susannah, you are adorable!’ he exclaimed.

She hastily extricated herself from his light hold and moved a few feet away. Her look of joy had been caused by the realization she had not wanted to evade Everard’s kisses, they had not been repulsive to her. She had wondered, rather ashamedly, whether she liked him because he was the only man, apart from her brother and father, who had ever kissed her. Now she knew it was not the kisses but the man who gave them, and with an inward gurgle of laughter at the misapprehension it would cause, was tempted to embrace Richard in gratitude for having shown this to her. She controlled the desire to show her happiness at this sudden, unexpected revelation and schooled her features into a becoming gravity.

‘Richard, of course I forgive you,’ she began and hastily stepped backwards as he moved towards her, a smile on his face. ‘No, pray do not misunderstand me! I am honoured by your declaration, but I am sorry, it will not do. I cannot love you.’

‘You are offended,’ he stated mournfully.

‘Of course not,’ she replied bracingly. ‘It was but a compliment, after all, that you should feel so deeply for me, but nothing momentous to make a great fuss over.’

‘I do not take kisses lightly,’ he protested, looking at her in some dismay, and she hastened to dispel the impression she had unwittingly given him of a frivolous nature.

‘Nor I, believe me, Richard, but I can understand they happen sometimes, without anyone precisely intending it! It is not that, it is because I do not feel for you what I want to feel for the man I might wed.’

‘I have been too sudden and yet I thought you could not be unaware of how I felt!’

‘I promise you, I had not the slightest notion,’ Susannah tried to convince him. ‘I had been pleased we were on easy terms, that we could be friends, but I never dreamed of, or wished for, a closer relationship.’

‘It is as I said, I have startled you. Perhaps, when you are more accustomed to the idea, you will come to think of me more warmly.’

‘No, Richard, I never will,’ she told him quietly, but he continued to blame himself for his impetuous behaviour and in the end, without moving in the slightest from her assertion that she would never change her mind, she realized he would continue to hope until she was shown to be promised to Lord Chalford.

They went back to the ballroom and Amanda, unaware of Richard’s discomfort, pounced on Susannah.

‘Oh, there you are! Where on earth have you been? I’ve been searching for you this age!’

Susannah smiled dismissal at Richard and permitted Amanda to drag her into a corner.

‘What has caused this excitement?’ she demanded.

‘Sir William! He has left the ball!’

‘Confound him!’ Susannah exclaimed in unladylike fashion. ‘When? How do you know?’

‘I was passing through the hall some time back and heard him calling for his coach. I could not hear where he directed it, but, Susannah, suppose he has returned to Green Street! He will catch Julian, for he had not been gone very long before!’

‘We must hope he is not returning to Green Street,’ Susannah said bracingly. ‘Amanda, you must not look so worried! People will wonder what in the world is the matter. Is Augusta still here?’

‘Yes, but of what use is that?’

‘She may know where her father has gone. I will see if she does. You must not meet her while you look so anxious.’

Admonishing her cousin to smile, she crossed the ballroom to where Augusta stood with a small group of damsels who, like her, lacked partners for the country dance about to begin. Laughingly refusing several requests herself, Susannah eventually reached Augusta and after a moment or so detached her from the group.

‘Your father has left early?’ she said, a slight question in her voice.

Augusta looked at her quickly and then, blushing slightly, replied she had not been aware of his departure.

‘But he does not relish these affairs,’ she added, ‘and I suppose he has gone to visit one of his clubs for a few hours. He will certainly return to escort us home.’

Susannah moved away. The explanation was reasonable, but did not explain Augusta’s embarrassment. Then she thought of another possible visit Sir William might be making and almost laughed in relief.

‘I am certain he has gone to see one of his paramours,’ she reported to Amanda later. ‘You can be sure Augusta knows he still keeps a mistress, despite his pursuit of you, and only that could explain her discomfort at my questions.’

They were satisfied at this explanation and forgot Sir William as they danced. Richard, subdued, claimed Susannah for the supper dance and they made stilted conversation. Susannah was relieved when they fell in with a large party of young people in the supper room itself and the burden of appearing on normal terms with each other was made easier. It was only afterwards she suddenly realized that Julian had not, as he had predicted, returned in time for supper.

She glanced round the ballroom, but he was not visible. He would surely have sought her out if he had returned, to tell her, if only briefly, the result of his search. She saw Amanda was also looking tense, doubtless from the same reason, and from then on the ball took on a nightmarish quality for both of them. Julian did not reappear and neither, to Susannah’s increasing dismay, did Sir William.

The time for their departure arrived and Susannah, while collecting her wrap, noticed Augusta’s chaperone at the far side of the room, talking with another dowager. She edged across to them. The chaperone was obviously indignant.

‘Left to go home by ourselves,’ she was complaining. ‘Urgent business!’ she snorted contemptuously. ‘It’s a peculiar sort of business that occupies him at this time of day!’

‘He’s been a widower for a long time,’ the dowager said indulgently. ‘You’ve plenty of servants for escort, I take it, and it’s only a short distance.’

She had heard enough and moved away, more desperately worried than she dared reveal to Amanda. If Amanda knew what she suspected, she could not conceal it from her parents, and Susannah was reluctant, until it became absolutely necessary, to confess their doings to her aunt and uncle. They would be incensed, whatever the reason, and it would not aid Julian in their eyes. She determined to go as early as possible on the following morning to Horder House in Grosvenor Square, where Julian lived with his grandmother. If he had not returned there she would confront Sir William and demand to know what had occurred.

It was late, but Susannah hardly slept. First she had been forced to attempt to sooth a frantic Amanda and her deliberately nonchalant assurances that Julian had in all probability decided to pay a visit to one of the gaming establishments he patronized had sent her cousin, tearfully declaring Susannah was a monster to be so uncaring for her brother, flouncing off to her own room.

When left alone to contemplate the turn of events, Susannah decided there was even more cause for concern than she had yet realized. If Sir William had the jewels, it seemed probable he had murdered his friend to obtain them, and he would undoubtedly not hesitate to murder again to keep the secret, so long as any killing could be made to appear accidental.

Restless, she was dressing in her riding habit before it was light and crept downstairs to look for some breakfast in the kitchens. She was not hungry, but forced herself to eat the ham and drink the milk an astonished cook provided. Casually she explained that since she could not sleep she had determined to have an early ride in the Park, where she hoped to be able to gallop the restlessness out of her before other riders appeared, compelling her to behave with greater decorum. A message was taken to the stables and her groom soon appeared at the front door with her own mare, a small and compact but surprisingly fleet animal, and they set out.

‘I must call at Horder House first, Sanders,’ she explained, when the groom expressed surprise at setting out in the opposite direction to the Park. He was puzzled, but he had been in Sir David’s employ for many years and was accustomed to Miss Susannah’s taking it into her head to do inexplicable things. Beyond observing she would be unlikely to find her brother up unless he had just returned from an all-night party, he thought no more about it and rode along behind her more preoccupied with the remedies he was using on the strained fetlock of one of the other horses than with her doings.

The night porter was still on duty at Horder House and confirmed Susannah’s suspicions when he informed her Lord Horder had not yet appeared.

‘Though there’s no need to be put in a taking, Miss Susannah,’ he said kindly. ‘His lordship often doesn’t come in till morning. Can I be giving him a message?’

She smiled somewhat wanly.

‘Yes, if you please. Ask him immediately he does come in to send me word in Brook Street and appoint an hour when we can meet.’

She remounted and turned towards Green Street, explaining to the groom she had one more call to make. Outside Sir William’s house she paused, wondering how best to start making enquiries, then straightened her shoulders and rapped sharply with the knocker. The butler, his coat not completely buttoned up, opened the door, a startled expression on his face to see a caller so early in the morning.

‘I know it is unusually early,’ Susannah began, ‘but I have to see Sir William on a most urgent matter as soon as it is convenient for him. Would you inform him Miss Rendlesham is here.’

The butler shook his head slightly.

‘I’m sorry, Miss, but he’s not in town.’

Susannah stared in amazement.

‘He was in town last night,’ she replied sharply. ‘It is not going to deter me if you deny him, for it is most urgent that I see him. I think if you take him my name he will agree to see me.’

‘Beg pardon, Miss, but he really has gone. He went late last night.’

‘Late at night? But he was at the ball!’

‘Yes, Miss, and he came home early, before anyone expected him. Changed out of his ball dress and left, before midnight, it must have been, saying he had received an urgent message. The young gentleman must have brought it.’

‘What young gentleman?’ Susannah demanded, suddenly cold.

‘That I couldn’t say, Miss, as I was off duty myself. John, the footman, admitted him, but apparently he didn’t give his name and from what John said Sir William came home soon afterwards and ordered the chaise straight away and they both left in it.’

‘Do you know where they have gone?’

‘Oh, yes, Miss, to West Place, Sir William’s home in the country.’

Susannah gave a sigh of relief to have discovered this much, disturbing though the news was. At least Julian had been alive when they had left London and might be able to extricate himself from the tangle he had fallen into.

‘Thank you. No, no message,’ she said to the butler and turned away. She mounted her horse, but sat still for several minutes, staring straight in front of her. Then she turned and rode back the way she had come.

‘I must return to Brook Street. I have forgotten something,’ she explained to Sanders and he shrugged resignedly.

When they were home she dismounted, telling Sanders to walk the horses, for she would be back shortly. Inside the house she ran quickly up to her room, praying she would meet no one who would question her, and scribbled a note to Amanda. She propped it up on her dressing table, knowing that when Jane brought her morning chocolate she would see it and take it to Amanda straight away. Then she opened the small rosewood desk near the window and extracted what remained of her quarter’s allowance, fortunately a considerable sum. Thrusting the netted purse into the pocket of her habit, she ran back out of the house and set off once more in the direction of the Park.

She rode swiftly across its broad expanse and emerged on the turnpike to Kensington. Her groom, bewildered by this fresh start, ventured to enquire if she planned to visit her grandmother, pointing out that it was still extremely early. Susannah smiled reassuringly at him.