The Lorimer Legacy (42 page)

‘Let me tell you,' he said, ‘the story of Lady Constance Lytton and Miss Jane Warton. For I have a suggestion to make.'

Throughout the centuries the story-teller has had the power to calm and control an audience. Lord Glanville could see that Alexa was startled by what must have seemed to be a complete change of subject; no doubt it was curiosity that helped her to accept it.

‘I've never heard of Jane Warton,' she said. ‘Lady Constance's name is familiar, of course. I know that she sympathizes with the militant movement. But I've always understood that her health was too uncertain for her to take any active part in it.'

‘Sit down and let me tell you what happened while you were in Russia,' said Lord Glanville. ‘Jane Warton was arrested in Liverpool for throwing stones. As a matter of strict fact, she was so anxious not to hurt anyone that she wrapped the stones in paper and merely dropped them over the hedge belonging to the prison governor, but that was enough to earn her a prison sentence. Like the rest of the women arrested, she went on hunger strike, and was forcibly fed on eight occasions in exactly the horrific manner you have just described. She has a weak heart, and it's feared by her brother that permanent damage may have been done to it. That's half the story.'

‘Where does Lady Constance Lytton come into it?' asked Alexa.

‘Some weeks before Jane Warton's imprisonment, Lady Constance was arrested in the same way, in Newcastle. Like Miss Warton later, she went on hunger strike. The authorities were highly embarrassed to discover that they had in their charge the sister of an earl. No attempt was made to feed her forcibly. Instead, she was released from prison. The point of the story is that Lady Constance Lytton and Miss Jane Warton are the same person.'

It was easy to see that Alexa was still puzzled. ‘I see the point, but not the relevance,' she said. ‘Has this anything to do with me?'

‘I told you that I had a suggestion to make, and it's this. You're proposing to go to Westminster Abbey disguised as a peeress, dressed in robes you are not entitled to wear and using an invitation not addressed to you. But there's another way. You could go genuinely as a peeress, wearing your own robes and entitled to your own seat. There would be no charge of impersonation or unauthorized entry. You would still undoubtedly be arrested for causing a disturbance; you might well be imprisoned. But no prison officer would dare to assault you in the way which forcible feeding entails. Not only because of the publicity the case would arouse, but because the Home Secretary would be well aware what the effect on his own political career might be. I may not be a member of the government, but my voice is not without influence in the House of Lords. He would think twice before he offended me in such an unsympathetic cause.'

Slowly Alexa rose to her feet again. ‘What are you saying, Piers?' she asked incredulously; although she must have known the answer.

‘Once before I offered you everything I had to give -my name, my fortune, myself. They were of no interest to you then. Now I'm making the offer again, because
you could find that my name at least might serve a useful purpose.'

Was it his imagination, or did he see a flash of pleasure in her eyes? He held his breath as he waited for an answer. The silence continued for a long time, encouraging his hopes to rise. Last time he had asked her to marry him, she had hardly seemed to listen, flinging a brusque refusal from the depth of some private unhappiness which her vivacious manner earlier in the evening had given him no chance to anticipate. But today there was a warmth and softness in her expression which must surely be to his advantage. It came as all the more of a shock when at last she shook her head.

‘Do you expect me to take your name only to degrade it? Piers, you are kind and generous – yes, and ingenious too – but you haven't allowed yourself time to think what you're saying. Your name might protect me, but in return for your kindness you would hear it read out in court, attached to a criminal charge.'

Disappointment silenced him briefly, but he could not prevent his hopes from feeding on what was surely a trace of regret in her voice. Perhaps all she wanted was to be convinced that she would not do him too much harm by accepting his proposal. Lord Glanville applied himself to reasonable argument.

‘I don't agree, as you know, with the methods of the militant campaign.' He spoke calmly, as though it were the most natural thing in the world to discuss the political situation when his heart was pounding with anxiety. ‘I wish that I could persuade you to join me and support the constitutionalist approach. This is another point you might consider. If you were to marry me, even your most fervent friends might accept the necessity for you to conform, publicly at least, to your husband's known
views. There would be no shame in using marriage as an excuse for withdrawing from your undertaking.'

‘My own views are as well known as yours!' Alexa exclaimed. ‘I see no reason why a woman should alter her opinions to conform with those of her husband.'

‘You interrupted me too soon.' Lord Glanville recognized that he had made a mistake and hurried to correct it. ‘I said that I didn't approve of the militant methods. But obviously I agree with the eventual aims. What I was trying to indicate was that it would cause me no embarrassment to hear my wife's name linked with those aims, even in court. Marry me, Alexa.'

For a second time she shook her head. ‘I'm sorry, Piers, but it's out of proportion. Marriage is too important to be traded for such a small thing as a temporary humiliation. I know already that I shan't be able to face the forcible feeding. But no doubt I shall be able to invent some diplomatic illness at the last minute. I shall be ashamed for the rest of my life, but it will be no more than I deserve for being so impetuous. I'm truly sorry, but I can't accept your offer.'

It was a moment of complete humiliation. To hear Alexa reject his love would have been bad enough. But when he could offer her an arrangement entirely to her advantage and found that she still regarded marriage to him as too high a price to pay, he was bound to feel a bitter sense of rejection.

Except for that mistaken moment during the ball at Blaize, Lord Glanville had never deceived himself into believing that Alexa loved him. Her attitude now only confirmed what he had always accepted, but it was enough to make him desperate. This might be his last chance to hold her to his side, for it seemed all too likely that his proposal had already bruised the fragile friendship with which he had been forced to content himself during the
past few years. If the damage had been done, there could be no harm in testing whether a higher offer would be more successful.

‘If you need a more positive inducement, I can offer that,' he said.

‘What do you mean?'

‘An opera house of your own. I know you've always wanted one, however small. We were talking of it earlier today. If you marry me, I'll give you that for a wedding present – the tithe barn, converted to your own specifications. And however much money you need to run it.'

‘Really, Piers! What do you take me for?' Alexa exclaimed, and the fierceness of her anger startled and dismayed him. Obviously he had misjudged her mood, but he could not understand how. Half an hour earlier she had been frightened and depressed, drained of all her usual vitality as though, for the first time since she became an adult, life had grown too much for her to manage alone. Five minutes earlier she had seemed warm and affectionate, tempting him to take the initiative in what had immediately been revealed as a bad mistake. Now the colour flooded back into her cheeks and her eyes flashed with their familiar fire as she attacked him.

‘I was anxious when I came here, yes, and tired; glad of your friendship and company,' she said, with what seemed a disproportionate indignation. ‘But comfort was all I asked for. You're treating me as though all I want is to grab whatever anyone will give me. Do you see me only as someone who can be bought if the bribe is big enough? Am I so selfish that you believe I'd marry you just because you have so much to offer? I won't allow you to think of me like that. How could I possibly accept such an arrangement?'

‘If you think I regard you as selfish, it's because you're looking at what I suggest from a purely selfish point of
view.' With nothing any longer to lose, he allowed his unhappiness full rein. Only once before, in Heidelberg, had he lost his temper with her as he did now. On that occasion she had responded with understanding and sympathy. Now she looked at first startled and then resentful. It was difficult, no doubt, for her to recognize that part of his anger was with himself for his inability to find the right approach to her heart.

‘How can you say such a thing,' she protested, ‘when I decline an offer which would have so many advantages for myself just because it would bring no good to you?'

‘I can call you selfish because you're rejecting my proposal without even considering what you might have to offer me. You're thinking only of what I suggest you might take, and not of what you might give.'

‘That's not fair, Piers.' Her flush had deepened at the criticism, but she made no attempt to retreat from the argument. ‘
You
are the one who is emphasizing what I would gain from being your wife. And what
could
I give you? You have so much already. Wealth, property, a title, the respect of everyone who knows you. What could I add to all that?'

‘When I die, the respect of which you speak may earn me a kind obituary notice. And all the rest – the title, the money, the land – will be inherited by my brother Duncan, a man whom I dislike and despise; and so, I think, do you. I have more sense than to say that you could give me your love if you tried, because I know that love can't be forced. But you could give me an heir, Alexa. No one else can.'

‘Why not?'

‘You know the answer to that. Because I can't look at any other woman while you're dazzling my eyes. I love you, Alexa. I want you, and I want a son. Your son and mine.'

He had surprised himself enough by losing his temper a moment earlier, but that was nothing to the shock of realizing that he was no longer able to maintain the polite restraint of a gentleman. As he pulled Alexa into his arms for the second time that evening, he was aware that the tight grip of his fingers must be bruising her arms, that the rough pressure of his kiss was forcing her head back until she could hardly breathe. Because he was hurting her, she fought against him, but her struggles only spurred him to imprison her more tightly than before. When at last he released her, he expected her to slap his face or leave the room in anger, but she made no attempt to move away. Instead, as she faced him, she seemed to be panting with the same effort and excitement that he felt himself.

‘I ought to apologize,' he said when he had brought his feelings under control. ‘But I won't. Even if you're going to tell me now that you never want to see me again, it was right for you to know how I feel. You seemed to think that all I was offering was some kind of cold contract.'

‘And so you were,' she said. ‘You've always been so calm, so cool, so protective. You've never told me before that you loved me.'

‘But you must have known.'

‘Perhaps,' she admitted. ‘All the same, I needed to be told. It's easier to accept a gift of love than an opera house. You've done so much for me, Piers. My whole career has been built on your generosity. From the first moment I met you I've been carrying a burden of obligation that I've never had any chance of repaying. Well, it hasn't seemed like a burden until now. But when you tried to pile more and more on top – if I'd married you on those terms, how could I have ever made you believe that I felt anything more for you than gratitude?'

‘I'm sorry,' he said. He felt emptied now, exhausted by the draining of his emotions. ‘If I seemed to be bribing you – and I have to admit that I was – it was because I couldn't think of any other way to approach you.' He sighed at the hopelessness of his position. ‘But I had no right to be angry. Nor to ask so much of you. You couldn't be expected to give up a brilliant career, even if it was only for a few years, just to have a baby.'

‘Couldn't I?' said Alexa. ‘Why don't you ask me? You were quite right, as a matter of fact, in thinking that I could be bribed. You chose the wrong bribe, that's all.'

‘Then what's the right one?'

‘You've found it already. I needed something to give you. Now you've told me what you want. And I'm ashamed that I didn't think of it for myself long ago.'

‘I don't understand,' he said. That was not quite true. He understood enough to feel an excitement which came near to joy, but it was necessary to restrain it. He had misjudged Alexa's moods too often and too recently to be sure now that his hopes would prove to be justified.

‘When I was young,' she said, ‘ – younger even than when you first met me – there was a time when I believed that the most important thing in life was to love and be loved. I wasn't always hard and flighty. I would have given my love and loyalty for a lifetime if I could have found anyone to accept it. But first of all –' She hesitated, apparently changing her mind about what she was on the point of saying. ‘Caversham couldn't afford it. He had to marry an heiress who would shoulder the burden of his estate. And in San Francisco – I would have stayed, you know, even after Frisca's father was killed, if his family had wanted me. But they didn't. One grows to expect disappointment. When I sing on the stage I can give the whole of myself to the audience and feel them accepting me, loving me. That's why I find my work so exciting. In
private life it's never seemed so easy. The best defence against rejection is never to offer anything important.'

‘There was never any possibility that I would have rejected anything you had to offer me. We could have discussed this a long time ago, at the ball.'