“Then what shall I do when we reach London?” Jerry enquired.
“You and Charlie will go straight to Berkeley Square where my second valet will fit you out with any clothes you require,” the Marquis replied. “We are about the same size and I daresay you will not object at this particular moment to wearing a second hand wardrobe.”
Intent though she was on listening to what the Marquis was saying, Aspasia could not help a glance at Jerry, which revealed the glint in his eye that she knew was one of excitement.
He had always longed to wear expensive and well-cut clothes as most of his friends did and she knew that, tense and apprehensive though they were, Jerry would not have missed seeing that the Marquis was the epitome of elegance and it would be impossible for any man to look better dressed.
“You will spend as little time as possible in Berkeley Square,” the Marquis was saying, “and with a change of horses you will set off immediately for Dover.”
“Dover!” Charlie exclaimed. “But by that time it will be growing dark.”
“There is a moon tonight,” the Marquis replied, “and if you feel tired you will have plenty of time to rest when you are aboard my yacht.”
Charlie gave a laugh.
“Mervyn, I congratulate you! As usual you have come up with a plan which will certainly take the enemy by surprise.”
“That is what I hope. A courier will, of course, be ahead of you and the moment you are aboard the Captain will be ready to sail.”
“And where are we to go? Have you also decided that?”
“Of course!” the Marquis answered. “You will sail down the South Coast of England. To every Port of call, Newhaven, Portsmouth, Exmouth, Plymouth, I will send you news of what is happening and let you know if it is safe for you to return.”
“And if it is not?”
“Then you can take a trip to the Mediterranean or any other place that takes your fancy.”
“I can only say that I am thrilled, my Lord,” Jerry exclaimed. “If there is one thing I have always wanted to do, it is to go to sea in a private yacht!”
“All you have to do is to get safely to Dover,” the Marquis said. “I suggest now that you go and change. My valet will have the right clothes waiting for you.”
Jerry rose to his feet.
“I just don’t know how to thank you, my Lord.”
“You can thank me by keeping alive,” the Marquis said, “until I have proved your claim in the House of Lords.”
Aspasia made a little sound of delight.
Jerry looked at her and then with an obvious but unspoken question at the Marquis.
“You can leave your sister with me,” the Marquis assured him. “I will see that she comes to no harm and will take the same precautions where she is concerned that I have taken for you.”
He would not listen to Jerry’s grateful thanks, but hurried him up the stairs and along a passage into a room at the end of it.
A short while later when the Marquis escorted Aspasia there she found that her brother was almost unrecognisable.
He was wearing tight-fitting white breeches, a green coat with yellow collar and cuffs and crested silver buttons, which she recognised as the Marquis’s livery.
On Jerry’s head was a white wig, tied at the back of the neck with a black bow and over it was a black velvet peaked cap.
“Oh, Jerry, you look fantastic!” Aspasia exclaimed.
“It’s rather a tight fit, miss,” the valet remarked.
“You can change back into your own clothes when you are well away from Newmarket,” the Marquis said, “but don’t waste time. For all we know the Duchess may already have sent some of her assassins to London. If they ride-cross country, they will be quicker than you are by road.”
“I will not waste a second more than is necessary, my Lord,” Jerry promised. “Goodbye, Aspasia.”
She put her arms around her brother’s neck and kissed him.
“I shall be praying that you will be – all right,” she sighed, “and I have a feeling that now that the Marquis is helping us everything in the future is going to be – very very different.”
“I am sure of it,” Jerry said confidently, “and thank you again, my Lord.”
They shook hands and, as Jenkins took him away, the Marquis turned to Aspasia,
“If anybody is watching my friend leave, they will not expect you to notice the servants who accompany him.”
“No, of course not,” Aspasia agreed.
They went downstairs and found Charlie already in the hall and the Marquis talked to him in front of the footmen as if he was just leaving in the ordinary way.
“I will join you tomorrow, Charlie,” he said. “Then we will decide about going to Thame, but I am afraid that His Royal Highness will expect us to be in attendance on him for a day or so at any rate.”
“I am sure he will,” Charlie grinned.
The door was open and they saw a phaeton outside, drawn by a perfectly matched team of superlative horseflesh.
“Be careful how you handle them,” the Marquis warned, “and if you break my record I shall be annoyed!”
“I shall certainly do my best,” Charlie laughed. “Goodbye, Mervyn, I have enjoyed my visit and look forward to seeing you tomorrow.”
“I will let you know what time to expect me,” the Marquis replied.
Charlie held out his hand to Aspasia.
“Goodbye, Miss Stanton. It has been a great pleasure to meet you.”
As she curtseyed, he said in a low voice that only she could hear,
“Don’t worry, I will look after him for you.”
Aspasia gave him a little smile that he thought to himself was very lovely.
Then he climbed into the phaeton and, as he drove off, the four outriders who had been waiting a little way behind moved forward to ride on the grass verge protectively, two on each side of the vehicle.
Aspasia watched until her brother was out of sight and sent a little prayer after him.
The Marquis walked away as if he was not particularly interested in the departing cavalcade and was anxious to return to the comfort of his sitting room.
She joined him feeling shy because they were alone and he indicated a chair as he said,
“Now I want to hear your story from the beginning.”
“Yes – of course,” Aspasia replied.
She had taken off her bonnet and her hair seemed like a flaming halo around her head as she said,
“It seems strange to be able to talk about – my father after all these – years.”
“I don’t at all understand why it had to be kept a secret,” the Marquis remarked.
“When my grandfather died – ” Aspasia began.
“What was his name?” the Marquis interrupted.
“General Sir Alexander Stanton. He was knighted when he commanded the Coldstream Guards.”
“A very fine Regiment,” the Marquis commented.
“My grandfather had three children,” Aspasia went on, “his eldest son also served in the Brigade and was killed in the War. His second son was Uncle Theophilus and he had always wanted to go into the Church. I think it was because it gave him a chance to go to Oxford University as a Scholar – which was really the only thing that interested him.”
Aspasia paused and the Marquis said as if he were prompting her,
“And your mother?”
“My mother was much younger than Uncle Theophilus and when she grew up she spent three years of her life nursing my grandfather until he died. When he did – she came to the Vicarage at Little Medlock.”
“Where I presume she met your father?” the Marquis questioned.
“They met almost as soon as she arrived,” Aspasia answered. “His wife had just died after a very long illness and during the last year she had been in a coma and so was unable to recognise anybody.”
“What year was this?” the Marquis enquired.
“The end of 1799 and it was Christmas. Ma
ma was decorating the Church when the Duke came to see Uncle Theophilus about a plaque he wished to erect in memory of his wife.”
“So they met in Church,” the Marquis said with a smile.
“Mama said that she fell in love with the Duke the moment he walked down the aisle and he told her later that she was – so beautiful that he thought she was an angel and not a human being.”
“What happened?” the Marquis asked.
“The Duke asked Mama to marry him and told her that he could not possibly wait for the year of mourning that was expected of a widower and especially of somebody in his position. That is why Uncle Theophilus married them secretly. Then the Duke took Mama away to a house he owned in Cornwall.”
“The Duke must have been much older than your mother.”
“Very much older, but Mama always said, ‘love is ageless’.”
Aspasia gave a little sigh.
“Mama told me that they were so happy that it was like being in Heaven and whatever happened afterwards – she had that to remember all her life.”
“What did happen?” the Marquis asked.
“Although the Duke was much older than Mama, she always said that he seemed like a young man and because they were so happy he behaved like one. They rode together, they swam in the sea – and he never seemed tired.”
The Marquis had calculated that the Duke must have been about sixty-five at the time, but Aspasia’s description of him fitted with what he had already heard about him.
“They were idyllically happy,” Aspasia went on, “and Mama said that every day they grew more and more in love. Then came – tragedy.”
“What happened?” the Marquis asked.
“They were sitting by the sea when they saw a young man struggling in the water. There were undercurrents that were dangerous and he was obviously not a strong swimmer. He was shouting for help and, of course, the Duke went to his assistance.”
“He saved him?”
“He saved him, but for no reason Mama could understand, except that they had only just had luncheon, the Duke got cramp as he was guiding the man into safer waters and – he was drowned.”
“That was certainly a tragedy,” the Marquis agreed.
“It was terrible for Mama. She had to watch the Duke being swept away – and there was nothing she could do to help him.”
“Why did she not announce that they were married?” the Marquis asked.
“Because Mama thought that, as the Duke was so important, people would criticise him for having married secretly so soon after his wife’s death. So she decided to say nothing and – came back to the Vicarage alone.”
“But surely the servants must have known?”
“The Duke had taken with them to Cornwall only those he could trust. They would never without his permission have betrayed the fact that he had remarried.”
“So his daughter had no idea of what had happened.”
“None at all. After her mother died she had gone to Scotland to stay with some friends in Edinburgh. She returned only just in time for her father’s funeral. His body was recovered from the sea and he was taken home to lie in state as was usual when a Duke of Grimstone died.”
Aspasia paused for a moment and then she said,
“It was only when the funeral was over and the Duchess had taken charge of everything that Mama found – that she was going to have a baby.”
“But still she kept her secret?”
“She was desperately unhappy and she was also still thinking of the Duke’s reputation, so she decided to say nothing until later. Then it was – too late.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Mama was ill for some time after we were born, I think because we were twins and also because she was – so unhappy.”
“I can understand that.”
“Then when she was stronger and she thought that for Jerry’s sake she should announce that the Duke had a son, she was frightened.”
“By the Duchess?”
“From the moment her father was no longer there the Duchess began to behave in a very autocratic manner to the people on the estate and her agent, Bollard, did the most cruel and wicked things in her name.”
“Did you mean it when you said that he actually tortured people?”
“Yes, and he also when it suited him, turned families out of their cottages and trumped up charges against anybody he disliked to the Magistrates. Two men were transported on what Mama was sure was ‘false evidence’.”
Aspasia lowered her voice as if she was still frightened as she added,
“One man who refused to leave the cottage that he had lived in for years had his doors and windows boarded up. He was inside – and he died of – starvation.”
“I can hardly believe that such things could actually happen!” the Marquis exclaimed.
“You can understand that Mama was frightened for us. We had nobody to protect us – and very little money.”
“The Duke had not given her any?”
“He had intended to settle a lot of money on herm – but he naturally had no idea that he was going to die so soon after they were married and, when he did die, all she had was the money he had given her to buy a trousseau.”
Aspasia gave a little sigh before she continued,
“Mama had some lovely jewels that the Duke had bought her before they had married, but she sold these to pay for Jerry’s school fees.”
Aspasia clasped her hands together as she said,
“That money has nearly all – gone, so you can understand now why it is so terribly – important for Uncle Theophilus not to have to leave the Parish and lose his stipend.”
“There is no need for you to worry about that,” the Marquis said. “I have already told you that I will look after your uncle and, of course, you and Jerry until he can claim his inheritance.”
“Do you really – think he will be – able to do so?”
“I am certain of it,” the Marquis smiled. “And now let us open this precious box.”
“Yes – of course – but it terrifies me to think how – nearly we lost it!”
“But fortunately it is in our hands,” the Marquis said reassuringly, “and I only hope that we will find everything inside exactly as you described.”
He began to break the seals on the box.
“Mama always believed and prayed that one day Jerry would become the Duke,” Aspasia said, “but you can understand that as the years went by things became worse instead of better as the reputation of the Duchess became more notorious and Bollard had more and more power.”
The Marquis thought that she was confirming everything that Jackson had told him about the situation on the Grimstone estate. Even so he found it hard to believe such outrage could happen and nobody be prepared to do anything about it.
However, he supposed that the Duchess had her own methods of keeping the Chief Constable, the High Sheriff and anybody else of local importance from interfering.
As he saw the Marriage Certificate and the Church Register and read the letters that the Duke had written to Elizabeth Stanton, it was obvious that Jerry would have no difficulty in proving his claim.
At the same time he told himself that it would be a great mistake to underestimate the efforts that the Duchess would make to prevent this from happening.
He did not, however, wish to frighten Aspasia and, as he put the papers back into the box, he said,
“I am going to place this in a safe for the night, not the main safe, which is in a part of the house which could be broken into, but one that is in my bedroom and known only to myself and my valet.”
“You don’t think that – anybody would come here – tonight to try to steal it?” Aspasia asked and there was a distinctly nervous tremor in her voice.
“I think it very unlikely that the Duchess would do anything foolhardy,” the Marquis observed. “She will know when her emissary returns from the Bank that we have the box but her main concern for the mo
ment will be Jerry. After all the box would be quite useless if he was dead.”
Aspasia gave a little cry of horror.
Then she said,
“Perhaps it would be – wisest to promise once and for all that we will continue to keep silence. It will be no use Jerry being a Duke if he is always to be – afraid of being killed in some – way or another. We have been very happy – just as we are.”
“I am sure you have,” the Marquis smiled.
He thought that most women in Aspasia’s place would risk almost anything for her brother to be a Duke.
But he could understand looking at Aspasia that her mother had been no less sensitive than she was, for only a very sensitive woman could have kept such an important marriage secret solely to protect her husband’s reputation.
“Did you not mind when you knew that your mother was prepared to remain in obscurity?” he asked. “You must have found your life in Little Medlock extremely restricted.”
“We were very very happy when Mama was alive,” Aspasia answered, “and I am happy when I am with Jerry. After all we are twins.”
“I think that both you and Jerry deserve much more than to live under a cloud for the rest of your lives.”
“At least we are – alive and it would be no use being – grand if we had always to be – afraid.”
The Marquis knew that she was thinking of how afraid she had been last night and so he said,
“You must somehow contrive to forget what happened.”
“Do you think – Jerry and your friend will – reach London safely?” Aspasia asked.
“I am sure of it,” the Marquis said firmly. “Three of my best men are with them, all of whom can use a pistol very efficiently. They are used to coping with highwaymen who I assure you can be very tiresome on the roads that are frequented by rich racegoers.”
“Jerry is – a good shot as well.”
“He has a pistol with him,” the Marquis replied, “so stop worrying, Aspasia, and let me show you some of my pictures. I know you would like to see them.”
He saw her eyes light up.
“Can we – really?”
“I will take you on a tour of inspection,” he answered, “starting in this room.”
In the Arms of Love Page 10
