The Elusive Heiress (20 page)

Kate, who’d noticed that Lady Edgeworth had also consumed several glasses of wine, hid a smile.

They went indoors again and Randal asked if they would like to resume their tour.

‘Would you mind very much if I cried off, dear boy?’ Alicia enquired, cutting across Kate’s swift acceptance. ‘Only I am feeling a little tired and I think I shall take a short nap.’

‘I’m sure his lordship would be happy to postpone—’ Kate began dutifully, but Lady Edgeworth interrupted her.

‘No, don’t let me spoil your afternoon, Kitty,’ she said firmly. ‘I know you are keen to view the Curio Room, but as I have already seen the items it contains there is no need to delay on my behalf.’ Turning to Randal she gave him an apologetic little smile.

Randal reassured her in a calm voice that hid his sudden elation at the prospect of having his elusive heiress all to himself.

After they parted company with Alicia they made their way up to the top of the house and Kate was very conscious of the last time they had been alone together. Her nerves stretched taut and much as she wished to ignore the butterflies dancing in her stomach she couldn’t summon any light-hearted chatter.

They reached the Gallery where the exposed timbering revealed the complicated ancient structure of the house in all its glory and, to her relief, Randal broke the silence.

‘Take care, the roof gets lower from here,’ he warned as they walked past the spot where they had ended their earlier exploration. ‘I always bang my head whenever I forget to duck.’

‘Luckily, I lack your inches,’ Kate answered with a grin, some of her tension dissolving as she followed him up a narrow and steep staircase to find herself on a small landing with several doors going off.

Randal pointed to the nearest one and said, ‘that’s the Confessional. Would you like to see the escape hatch before you view the curios?’

Kate nodded. Over their nuncheon, in response to her interest, Randal had told her something of the history of the Hall and she knew that, until Sir Joseph Crawford had followed King James II into exile, the Crawfords had been a devout Catholic family and the Hall had possessed its own Chapel. This place of worship had been turned into an elegant music room by his eventual successor, a more pragmatic cousin who decided to reject the Jacobite Cause in 1715. Rewarded by King George with a barony, the new Lord Redesmere had also diplomatically abandoned the Old Faith.

‘The Chapel had to be erased, but since the Oratory and Confessional were only small rooms tucked away at the top of the house I dare say my canny ancestor couldn’t be bothered with the expense of further alterations,’ Randal had commented with wicked accuracy.

The Confessional was completely empty. Dust motes danced in the sunlight as they crossed the bare floorboards.

‘Don’t you ever use this room?’ Kate asked.

A slight smile curved her host’s well-cut mouth. ‘I believe there was talk of turning it into servants’ quarters once upon a time, but no one would sleep here.’

‘Because of the ghost, I presume?’ Kate suddenly remembered Alicia’s comment.

‘Of course.’ Randal’s smile broadened into a grin of amusement at her sceptical tone. ‘It is said that during Elizabeth Tudor’s reign a priest came in secret to the house to hear confessions and say Mass. Someone betrayed his presence and, caught while trying to escape, the poor man was dragged off to London where he was duly tortured and executed in the usual grisly manner.’

Kate shuddered.

‘Whether or not the story is true, it is certain that this whole floor eventually became disused,’ Randal continued. ‘It wasn’t until my father decided to house the treasures he had brought back from his Grand Tour up here that anything was done to restore the neglect.’

‘Now watch.’ Randal directed his guest’s attention to a point on one of the timber crossbeams. He pressed the spot firmly.

Immediately a section of seemingly-normal white-washed wall slid open, exposing the concealed exit.

‘You say this leads all the way down to the cellars?’ Kate enquired in awe, staring into the dark hole.

Randal nodded, his expression wry. ‘I climbed down there once myself as a lad. It’s as black as the Devil’s cooking pot when the panel is shut and the stairs are so small and twisting that, even with the aid of a candle, I nearly broke my neck several times. I thought it a great adventure, but the danger would have been all too real in Elizabethan England. I’ll wager that at least one poor soul was forced to scurry down there in terror of his life!’

Kate’s active imagination ignited at his description and she had to suppress a shiver. She wasn’t sure she believed in ghosts, but, somehow, she felt she could detect a faint lingering sadness in this small bare room.

‘Are you all right? You’ve turned quite pale.’ Randal stared at her anxiously. He had never experienced anything untoward in this room, but Emma disliked it.

‘It’s nothing.’ Kate gave a little shrug and forced herself to smile at him cheerfully.

There was nothing to fear. Her mind was playing tricks on her, translating her own anxieties into a false sensation of past sorrows.

All the same, she felt decidedly better when Randal closed the escape hatch.

‘Let’s get out of here.’ He put his arm around her shoulders and ushered her quickly from the room.

On the landing he withdrew his arm and asked if she wanted to go back downstairs. ‘Perhaps you would like to rest for a while?’

Randal cursed himself for a fool. He was wasting a splendid opportunity to put his plan to test her into action, but he couldn’t seem to resist the wave of protective tenderness which had swept over him at the sight of her brave attempt to ignore her obvious distress.

Kate, her unease now vanished as rapidly had it had appeared, shook her dark head firmly. ‘I appreciate your concern, but there’s no need to worry. I’m feeling perfectly all right and I very much want to carry on with our tour.’

Seeing he still looked uncertain, she gave him a saucy grin. ‘It isn’t very polite, you know, to imply I need a nap like Lady Alicia!’

‘I beg your pardon, ma’am!’ he replied with a mock solemnity belied by the laughter in his eyes. Crossing the landing in a few swift strides, he flung open the door of the Curio Room with a flourish. ‘Let us continue at once!’

Chapter Eight

‘Oh how lovely!’ Kate halted in surprise on the threshold.

She had been expecting another small and dark room, but this enormous chamber must run virtually the entire length of the south wing and it was filled with sunlight streaming in through the diamond lights of a vast five-sided bay window.

‘Now I see why your father conceived the odd notion of housing his collection up here,’ she said with her usual frankness.

Randal was amused. He couldn’t remember anyone else making such a comment, although he was sure all of the servants and most of the visitors who had toiled up the endless stairs must have shared the same thought.

‘Actually, I think he chose it as much for its privacy as for the space and good light. You see, he was a man who valued solitude.’ Randal let out an abrupt chuckle. ‘Fortunately, he was not in the habit of collecting large pieces!’

‘I thought you said he brought some statues back from Italy?’ Kate moved forward, enticed by the objects she could see on display. The room was immaculately clean, she noticed, but very hot.

‘Indeed he did. There is a particularly fine Renaissance marble of Apollo in the Knot Garden, which I can show you later if you are interested, but most of his collection, like mine, consists of smaller items.’

He pointed to a red-figured vase placed upon a low granite plinth in the centre of the room. ‘This was his most cherished acquisition. He came across it in Athens and paid a small fortune to bring it home.’

Kate moved closer and marvelled at the skill of the ancient artist. Upon the black surface of the amphora he had depicted a dance of youths and maidens with lively vigour.

‘They have just been rescued from the Minotaur by Theseus,’ Randal explained.

‘You can recognise their joy,’ Kate agreed, but nervously declined his offer to handle the vase for herself.

‘I should be terrified of dropping it,’ she admitted frankly.

Randal chuckled. ‘Well, how about this instead?’ he suggested, indicating a bronze helmet, which Kate guessed correctly to be Roman.

They wandered round the room and, completely fascinated, Kate forgot both her earlier strange unease and the oppressive heat.

‘These are lovely.’ Some jewellery arranged in a glass case caught her eye. ‘Are they very old?’

‘Fourteenth-century French.’ Randal opened the case and took out a ring which he handed to her. The broad silver band was engraved with lettering, each word separated from the next by a carved heart in which was set a glowing garnet.

‘It’s beautiful,’ Kate exclaimed. ‘May I try it on?’

It fitted perfectly. Reluctantly, she took it off again and examined the wording more closely.
A Vila Mon Coeur Gardi Li Mo
. ‘What does it mean?’

‘Here is my heart, guard it well,’ he replied in a voice that wasn’t quite level. ‘The garnet signifies constancy.’

Her pulse beating too fast, Kate put the ring back and said hastily, ‘Where are the Egyptian curios you mentioned?’

‘Over there.’ Randal indicated the souvenirs of his own travels, which had been arranged at the other end of the room, which was lit by another large window.

Kate was particularly taken with a tiny blue-glazed hippo and a remarkably life-like little polished stone cat complete with a gold nose ring and earrings.

‘Did you inherit your love of collecting from your father?’ she asked, gently stroking the smooth curve of the cat’s back.

‘I suppose I must have done. Certainly, it was one of the very few interests we shared.’

There was a hard edge to his voice and Kate glanced up at him in surprise.

His blue eyes held a hint of bitterness, but as soon as he noticed her regard his sombre expression vanished and he began to tell her an amusing story of how, longing to learn more of Egypt’s strange past, he’d persuaded one of the local peasants to show him a tomb belonging to the ancients.

‘He thought I was mad, of course. However, it was well-known amongst his people that some of these crazy foreign soldiers were interested in old things so, naturally, he demanded a ridiculous fee.’

Randal grinned at the memory. ‘I should have haggled harder over the price! Once inside the entrance to the tomb we had to squeeze through narrow passages clogged by sand and boulders, half-choking on the fine dust that rose with our every movement. In some places there was barely enough room to crawl through on our stomachs.’

‘It doesn’t sound very dignified,’ Kate teased.

‘It wasn’t! I still have the scars from all those sharp pointy stones which dug into me as I wriggled along like a particularly inept worm,’ Randal joked. ‘In fact, when I finally returned to camp covered in dust and bloody scratches my comrades derived a great deal of amusement from pretending I must have been in a battle! They couldn’t believe I had gone to all that trouble just to look inside an empty tomb, for of course it had been robbed of all its contents, though whether in ancient times or more recently I couldn’t tell them.’

‘But you still thought it worthwhile,’ Kate commented, not fooled by his self-mocking laughter.

‘Very much so.’ All at once his handsome face was serious. ‘The want of air for our candles made the light very faint, but there was enough to see the paintings on the walls when we reached the inner chamber. Paintings which must have been created long before Caesar ruled the world.’

Kate’s eyes widened at the thought. ‘It must have felt strange to look upon something so old!’

Randal smiled at her suddenly. ‘Old they may have been, but I shall never forget the brilliant colours or the sheer charm of those painted scenes!’

‘Describe what you saw! Please!’

Kate listened eagerly and then exclaimed impulsively, ‘I wish I could have seen them!’

Randal stared down into her animated face. ‘Do you know, I do believe you would have appreciated their beauty,’ he said slowly. ‘And that makes you a very unusual girl.’

There was a note of unguarded admiration in his deep voice and Kate blushed, feeling strangely flustered.

This last hour she had been able to forget all about Kitty and be herself as they laughed and joked, examining all these fascinating objects. Now that sense of shared intimacy was swept away and her former nervousness came rushing back as she remembered how he had kissed her in Godwin’s garden. Was he going to make improper advances towards her again?

Her heart thumping too fast from a queer mixture of hope and trepidation, Kate gave a little gasp of alarm which she tried to turn into a cough when his hand moved to cover hers where it rested against the smooth stone cat.

‘I’ve never met anyone quite like you before, Katharine.’ Randal’s clear features softened in a warm smile. ‘You have the intelligence and courage to go your own way and that is very rare.’

Kate dropped her gaze, her mouth drying nervously. He sounded sincere! Perhaps he had finally dismissed his earlier misgivings about her character?

Delight warred with shame as she struggled to master her emotions. ‘You mustn’t pay me such extravagant compliments,’ she whispered at last, still avoiding his gaze.

‘Why not?’ Randal lifted her hand away from the statuette and held it firmly in his own. ‘It is the truth.’

He raised her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against the soft skin of her inner wrist. ‘It’s also true I find you very attractive, but I think you already know that.’

Kate swallowed hard, her pulse hammering. She forced herself to look him squarely in the eyes. ‘Flirting is a pleasant game, my lord, but I thought we were friends.’

Randal quirked one eyebrow. ‘I hope we are,’ he murmured, refusing to be rebuffed by her severe tone.

‘Then I hope you will agree not to overstep the bounds of propriety,’ Kate declared with more conviction than she felt. ‘You know you ought not to do so.’