The Marquis Is Trapped (9 page)

He turned and the Marquis saw, with his white hair and lined face, that he had aged more than he had expected.

“It is delightful to see you, Oliver, after all these years and I only wish your father was with you.”

“I wish so too,” replied the Marquis.  “But he often told me how spectacular your Castle is, my Lord, and I do realise now I see it that there are not enough words to describe its beauty.”

The Earl looked pleased.

“It is something I am very proud of, Oliver, and I only hope you will enjoy staying with us as much as your father enjoyed it the last time he came.”

“He often spoke of it, telling me how he shot two outstanding stags and caught, I think, over twenty salmon.”

“I believe it was more than that.  Your father was a great fisherman and I do hope that you are as proficient as he was.”

“It is just what I am hoping too, but it is something that can be easily proved one way or the other!”

The Earl laughed.

“That is very true, but we have been lucky lately in having more fish than I can remember for some years and I am also told that the hatching of the grouse this year has been exceptional.”

“You are indeed lucky, my Lord.  Actually I have brought with me not only my own rods but my father’s.”

“Then you cannot fail to land a prize catch which, of course, will go down in the annals of Dardendell Castle for posterity!”

They both laughed and then the Earl suggested,

“Tea is awaiting us in the next room.  My wife had an engagement this afternoon, but she will be back soon.  My daughter, not surprisingly, is fishing.”

They walked across the large room.

It had surprised the Marquis that the walls were all covered in books.

There was a portrait over the mantelpiece of one of the ancient Earls in full Highland regalia and another one of his wife wearing both a tiara and a plaid.

They entered the room next door that also had long windows overlooking the garden and the bay.

The Marquis noted that it was decorated completely differently.  Here there were a number of pictures against the pretty Chinese wallpaper that had obviously been there for years.

The tea table was in front of the fireplace and the Marquis noticed at once that it was laid for four people.

This meant there was no one staying in the Castle except himself.

Although it was not exactly as he had anticipated, he thought it might be to his advantage – as after what had happened in Edinburgh, he might have been in for another surprise!

He sincerely hoped not, as he wanted to concentrate on the sport – also to forget, here in the North of Scotland, all the problems and stress that had beset him in London.

However, because he was who he was, they turned up unexpectedly in other places as well.

“Now do sit down,” the Earl was saying, “and tell me all about your horses.  I often see you mentioned in the newspapers as running winners in the Classic races, and I remember it was a sport your father always enjoyed.”

“I have indeed inherited some excellent racehorses from my father.  We do pride ourselves on having bred the finest horses to be seen anywhere.”

“It does not surprise me, Oliver, your father always wanted the best and I suspect you do too.”

“Of course I do,” answered the Marquis.  “It is only difficult to be certain that one is not being hoaxed.”

He went on to tell the Earl, because he saw he was interested, about the races his horses had won recently and what he was hoping to achieve in the future.

They had been drinking their tea for only a little while when the door opened.

A young girl came running in.

“I have caught six fresh salmon, Papa!” she cried.  “And the largest one is ten pounds.”

The Earl held out his hand.

“That is very splendid, Celina.  Just what our guest wants to hear.”

As if she had been unaware of his presence, the girl turned round.

The Marquis rose and held out his hand.

They both looked at each other in surprise.

The Marquis because he had no idea that the Earl had such a young daughter.

Or that she would be so beautiful!

She was, in fact, very different from any woman he had ever seen before.

There was a distinct touch of gold in her long hair.

Her face he could only admit as being lovelier than any he could ever remember.

For a moment he could not place her looks and then he decided that her features were definitely those he would associate with Classical grace.

Her eyes, which seemed to almost sparkle with the brightness of the sun, were the soft grey of a morning mist.

As she ran into the room, Celina appeared to be no more than a child.

When the Marquis took her hand, he realised that she must be eighteen or nineteen.

“It has been a wonderful day,” she enthused.  “The fish were rising one after another.  At first they would not take, but then after luncheon I seemed to hook one every time I cast!”

“It is just what we all dream about,” remarked the Earl.  “The Marquis is determined to beat every record.  Is that not true, Oliver?”

“I will certainly do my best – ”

He smiled at Celina as he spoke.

Then to his surprise she turned away.

He felt, although he must be wrong, that there was an expression of fear in her eyes.

‘I must be imagining it,’ he told himself.

Yet he was aware that, when Celina sat down at the tea table, her head was bent over and she was no longer enthusing in an excited voice to her father.

As the Earl went on talking, the Marquis noticed that Celina never again looked in his direction.

He could not understand it and considered it very strange – there was no doubt that she was behaving quite differently.

She was no longer the excited child who had come back from the river having caught a large bag of salmon – she was now quiet, restrained and undoubtedly shy of him.

The Earl did not notice the change in his daughter’s demeanour as he had so much to discuss with the Marquis.

He was reminiscing about his father and how their friendship had gone back to when they first went to Eton together.

“It was almost a revolutionary step in those days for me to be sent South to be educated,” he was saying.  “My dear father had the idea that, if we were to beat the English, which, as you well know, we have always tried to do, then we must know them better and defeat them if possible on their own ground!”

The Marquis chuckled.

“That was a difficult ambition for anyone!”

“It was extremely fortunate for me, for as soon as I arrived at Eton, and I don’t mind saying that I was rather nervous of the place, I made friends with your father.  He prevented me from being teased too much over my Scottish accent and being what the English consider a barbarian!”

The Marquis chuckled again.

“They had forgotten all about those idiotic ideas by the time I went there, my Lord.”

“You were lucky, Oliver, I received a great number of kicks and snubs for being Scottish.  But when I became your father’s close friend, everything was different.”

“Because he was supporting you?”

“I actually believe it was because we were both so strong.  The bigger boys might have easily defeated me if I was alone, but, as there were two of us, they gave up being aggressive after we had won several battles against them.”

“I feel sure that must have pleased my father.  He was always fighting for a worthy cause or helping someone weaker right up to the very end of his life.”

The Earl nodded his approval.

“That is true and I do hope you will follow in your father’s footsteps.”

The Marquis could not honestly say he had actually done so – he had merely allowed himself to be swept away by the women who fell into his arms like ripe peaches.

He would not have been human if he had not been amused and at times delighted by the attention they paid him and he wondered what his father would say now that he had run away.

Confronted with the same circumstances his father would have gone into battle, even if he were single-handed.

The Earl was still telling little anecdotes of what he and his kind friend had done together at Eton.

They had both gone on to Oxford University and there they had planned to travel together to many parts of the world when they had finished their education.

It was here the Earl sighed,

“But then your father came into his title earlier than expected and was obliged to remain at home to oversee his many possessions and take his place at Court.”

He paused for a moment before he added,

“You are very lucky, my boy, that Queen Victoria has not gobbled you up already, as she does most young gentlemen with an ancient title and a handsome face.”

The Marquis smiled.

“I think the real reason, my Lord, why she pays me no attention is that she strongly disapproves of my flirting.  Her Majesty is waiting for me to marry before offering me a position at Court. And that, I may say, suits me.  I have no wish to be permanently on parade as my father was.”

“I can well understand.”

The Marquis suddenly became aware that, when he had mentioned the reason Queen Victoria had not offered him a position, Celina had glanced up for a moment.

Once again he could see fear in her lovely eyes.

‘What can be frightening her?’ he asked himself.  ‘I just cannot be as overpowering as all that.  Could she have been told some unpleasant stories about my behaviour?’

It was a question he could not answer.

But it worried him as the Earl went on talking and Celina did not even glance in his direction.

It was then that he heard some sudden noises from outside the room.

A dog was barking and someone was shouting.

The Earl looked up.

“Moira must have returned and I am anxious for you to meet her, Oliver.”

He could hear a woman’s high-pitched voice giving someone instructions, although he could not catch what she was saying.

Then he noticed Celina stiffen and she put down the cake she was eating.

He could not be certain, but he had the oddest idea that her fingers were trembling.

‘I must be imagining things,’ he told himself.

Then the door opened.

The excited barking of a small dog grew louder as a woman entered the room.

“Oh, there you are, my dear,” called the Earl.  “I was beginning to wonder what had happened to you.”

The woman came further forward.

It was then that the Marquis himself stiffened.

She was someone he had never expected to ever see again and yet here she was walking directly towards him.

It was eight years since he had last set eyes on her.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Marquis had been nineteen when he was asked by a friend he had recently met at Oxford if he would come and stay in the country for a cricket match.

He was spoken of as being an outstanding cricketer and had already been awarded his Blue.

Of course, in those far-off days he had yet not come into his father’s title and was known as Viscount Kex.

He accepted the invitation because he loved cricket and enjoyed the attention he received from his admirers.

The friend who had invited him was the son of Sir Gerald Benson who owned a large estate in Hampshire.

The house was enormous and it was big enough to accommodate the whole cricket team as well as quite a few of their friends and relations.

The Marquis found he had a nice bedroom on the first floor with most of the other guests higher up and he guessed that this was due to the fact that he boasted a title.

Sir Gerald Benson was almost seventy years of age.  He had been a widower for several years and was married a second time to a woman much younger than himself.

The house party danced the first night after dinner.  There was rather a shortage of girls and Sir Gerald promised that he would remedy this the following evening.

“We are having a really large party after the cricket match,” he said, “for the simple reason I am quite sure that you will win it.”

“We will be incredibly annoyed, Sir Gerald, if we don’t,” the Captain of the home team had replied.

He looked at the Marquis as he spoke and added,

“It will be up to you, Oliver.”

“Now you are scaring me,” the Marquis responded.  “But I will do my best.”

Owing to the shortage of female partners, he spent some time after dinner politely talking to his host.

“It is a great pleasure for me,” said Sir Gerald, “to host a cricket match here.  Although I know my son has not been chosen for your Oxford eleven, I am hoping you will help him, as it is a game I would like to think he can excel in.”