Moonflower Madness

by Margaret Pemberton

  Chapter Twelve

  When she woke the sun had already risen and the sky was the colour of pale apricots. She lay for a moment, listening to the familiar sounds of the Kialing surging, southwards, of the early morning fire crackling and spitting. A deep smile of happiness curved her lips. This was the first day of her life as Mrs Zachary Cartwright. She pushed herself up on one arm, looking towards Zachary’s sleeping-bag, hoping that they could perhaps exchange a few whispered words together before Charles awoke.

  His sleeping-bag was empty and there was no sign of him. It was Charles who looked across at her.

  ‘Good-morning, sleepy-head,’ he said with a grin. ‘I thought you were never going to wake up. Would you like some coffee?’

  She nodded, trying not to be too disappointed that it was he, and not Zachary, who was greeting her.

  ‘Zachary’s doing some early morning woodland plant-hunting,’ Charles said as he poured coffee into her mug. ‘He didn’t say so, but I get the feeling he hasn’t been bagging quite as many specimens as he would like. He was extraordinarily uncommunicative about his catch last night and said barely two words to me this morning.’

  Gianetta’s disappointment deepened. She had been hoping Zachary had spoken to Charles about their marriage. That he hadn’t yet done so was going to make her own conversation with Charles exceedingly difficult.

  ‘I don’t think he’s disappointed at the way things are going,’ she said, accepting the mug from him. ‘We saw some wonderful irises the other day. Zachary said they were completely new to him. They were very small with grey-green leaves and with crowns of soft blue and sulphur yellow and falls of the most splendid deep purple.’

  ‘That’s interesting,’ Charles said, sitting down near the fire again, his arms hugging his knees. ‘I would have thought it a bit late in the year for them. I saw some marvellous peonies from the deck of the boat and there were cascades of blush-tinted Stellera almost everywhere I looked.’

  He paused a little awkwardly and then said, ‘When you’ve finished your coffee, could we go for our walk? I don’t know when Zachary plans on returning, but there is something I would like to say to you before he does.’

  Without being unmannerly, Gianetta didn’t see how she could possibly refuse. No doubt he was wanting to know whether she thought Zachary was pleased at his rejoining them or whether his uncommunicativeness was because, bearing in mind Charles’injury and the way it would impede their progress, he wasn’t pleased.

  ‘Yes,’ she said, sipping at her coffee. ‘Just give me a minute or two to brush my hair and find my boots.’

  As she walked barefoot to the narrow arc of shingle, she wished fervently that Zachary would return. The longer she and Charles were together, with Charles ignorant of her marriage, the more deceitful she was beginning to feel.

  Her boots were easily found and she brushed the shingle from them and pulled them on. Presumably Zachary had refrained from telling Charles earlier because she was still asleep and he wanted her to be with him when he broke the news. Wishing that he hadn’t been so thoughtful, wishing that, knowing of their marriage, Charles had made the decision to return to Chung King, she walked back towards him.

  ‘Can you feel the difference in the air now that we are further north?’ he said to her. ‘It’s wonderful. I can almost smell the cleanness of snow in it.’

  His good humour was infectious and she said with a grin, ‘I shall have to acquire some far warmer clothes if I’m going to be faced with snow.’

  ‘And not only snow,’ he said, as they began to walk away from the camp-fire. ‘I’ve read that the autumn winds in Kansu can be horrendous. They blow in straight from Tibet with only the Min-Shan range offering protection from them.’

  ‘If you are trying to put me off, you are failing,’ she said in amusement. ‘We shall be in Kansu and have left it behind long before autumn approaches.’

  A slight flush of colour touched his handsome, good-natured face and she realised with a stab of shock that she had guessed his motives exactly. He was trying to dissuade her from travelling further north.

  They had reached the banks of the Kialing and he stopped walking, saying awkwardly, ‘I had a long talk with Serena while I was at the Residency, having my arm patched up.’

  ‘Yes?’ She felt a slight frisson of apprehension. He had told her the previous night that he had talked with Serena but he had given no indication then that it might be best if she gave up her dream of travelling to Kansu. ‘What’s the matter, Charles? Have you something to tell me that couldn’t be said in front of Zachary?’

  He turned towards her, his wide-set eyes and curly hair reminding her of a picture she had seen of a Medici princeling. Like Zachary, he was a man more given to action than small talk, and he was obviously finding what he was about to say very difficult.

  ‘She told me your true reason for riding after Zachary and myself.’

  As she stared at him, bewildered, he took hold of her hands, drawing her towards him.

  ‘There’s no need to feel embarrassed or shy, Gianetta,’ he said tenderly. ‘You were quite right in assuming that I had fallen in love with you. The only problem was, you realised it long before I did. When we parted and when I travelled on to Chung King alone, I knew almost instantly that I had made the biggest mistake of my life …’

  Her bewilderment deepened into horror. ‘Charles … Please … You hadn’t made a mistake,’ she said, desperately trying to interrupt him. ‘I …’

  ‘I should have known I was ruining all my chances with you when I mentioned that I was engaged, but …’

  ‘Your engagement had nothing to do with what was said between us before we parted,’ she said urgently. ‘Please believe me, Charles, I …’

  He was smiling down at her lovingly, her hands still clasped in his. ‘I’m not engaged any longer, Gianetta, and I don’t want you feeling any guilt over my breaking off my engagement. Not to have done so would have been grossly dishonourable. It’s you I love, Gianetta. It’s you I want to marry.’

  As he looked down at her, sincerity darkening his eyes, her horror was total.

  ‘Will you marry me, Gianetta?’ he asked, confident of her reply. ‘Will you marry me in Chung King?’

  There was now no way in which she could leave it to Zachary to break the news of their marriage. Numbly she shook her head and then she withdrew her hands from his, saying unsteadily,

  ‘I’m sorry Serena so misunderstood my motives for joining you and Zachary. I told her what my real reason was. I told her that I wanted to travel to Kansu to find blue Moonflowers.’

  His happy smile of expectation grew uncertain. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said, his eyes anxious. ‘You do love me, don’t you? You do want to marry me?’

  ‘I love you as a friend,’ she said gently, trying to save his pride, ‘not as a prospective husband.’ She lifted her left hand and held it out towards him. ‘I already have a husband,’ she said, unable to keep the happiness out of her voice. ‘I married Zachary yesterday.’

  Charles stared at her as if he had been pole-axed. When at last he could speak, he said hoarsely, ‘You did what? When? Where?’

  ‘I married Zachary yesterday, in the mission church at Peng.’

  Charles ran his hands through his hair, struggling for understanding. ‘You mean it was Zac you fell in love with when we dined at the Residency? Zac was the reason you followed us from Chung King?’

  ‘No.’ Gianetta’s voice was sharp with irritation. ‘Why will no-one believe me when I tell them the truth? I followed you because I wanted to go to Kansu; because I wanted to find blue Moonflowers; because if I hadn’t done so I would have been obliged to return to England and live alone in a mausoleum of a house in the middle of the Lincolnshire fens!’

  ‘But I still don’t understand,’ Charles said, staring at her incredulously. ‘If you didn’t follow Zac because you had fallen in love with him, why did you marry him? And why didn’t Zac tell me he had marrie
d you? Why all the secrecy?’

  Gianetta turned and began to walk back towards the camp-fire. As he fell into step beside her she said delicately, avoiding his eyes, ‘I think the reason he didn’t tell you was because he didn’t want to embarrass you.’

  ‘Embarrass me?’ he said, his bewilderment increasing. ‘Why on earth should it have …’ He stopped short, his face flushing. ‘Good God! You mean last night was your wedding night? Is that why the bearers were in Peng?’

  She nodded, laughter rising in her throat at the unwitting farcicality of it all.

  Their eyes met, and as Charles saw the laughter in her eyes, his hurt and incomprehension died. If she was not embarrassed, there was no reason why he should be. He began to grin. Maybe it was for the best after all. They were loving friends and they would remain loving friends. If they had married, the friendship between them might very soon have become a thing of the past, as he had seen happen so often in his friends’marriages.

  ‘You have all my best wishes and congratulations,’ he said with sincerity, salvaging his pride and gallantly overcoming his disappointment, ‘but there’s one thing I shall be a long time forgiving Zac for.’

  ‘And what is that?’ she asked, glad that their relationship was once again on its old happy footing.

  ‘Marrying, without having me as his best man.’

  They were both laughing when they returned to the campfire. As they did so, Zachary rode out of the woods towards them and Gianetta felt her stomach muscles tighten. What was his reaction going to be when he found out that Charles knew of their marriage? Was he going to be annoyed? Was she going to have to tell him why she had made the disclosure and if she did, would Charles mind?

  There was no time in which to ask Charles. Bucephalus was galloping down on them and with deepening apprehension she saw that Zachary’s face was forbiddingly grim.

  Charles, too, was experiencing a flash of deep unease. He now understood his friend’s ill humour of the previous evening, but the tension visible in every line of Zac’s body was indicative of a far deeper and more sinister emotion. Trying to ignore it, he grinned welcomingly.

  ‘Did you get a good haul?’ he called out as Zachary reined in and slid from Bucephalus’s back.

  ‘A few.’

  There was no sign of a collecting-tin bulging in his breeches pocket, and Charles was sure that he was lying.

  He walked over to him, clapping him on the back, saying affectionately, ‘Congratulations. Gianetta’s told me of your marriage. I know it’s something you wanted to tell me yourself but believe me, the circumstances were such that she had no option.’

  For the first time since Charles had joined them, Zachary’s eyes held Gianetta’s steadily. It was then she knew she had been living in a dream-world, and that something was deeply and profoundly wrong.

  ‘Where Gianetta is concerned, circumstances often leave one with no option,’ he said tightly, his eyes glittering. ‘When she told you of our marriage, did she also tell you of the circumstances which occasioned it?’

  Even Charles could no longer pretend that everything was as it should be. Bewilderedly he turned towards Gianetta, hoping for some clue as to the cause of Zac’s barely controlled fury. Shock rocked him on his heels. Seconds ago her eyes had been dancing with laughter and she had been radiant and vibrant. Now she looked like a ghost.

  He swung back towards Zac. ‘What the devil is going on here?’ he demanded, anger on Gianetta’s behalf surging through him. ‘Why all the doom and gloom? I’m sorry that I rode in on your wedding night in the way that I did, but there’s no reason why it should spoil the rest of your honeymoon. Obviously I’ll return to Peng for a few days and if you think it would be better if I didn’t travel with you to Kansu, I’ll return to Chung King and be on my way back to England.’

  Zac broke eye contact with Gianetta, striding across to the far side of the camp-fire and picking up his saddle-bag.

  ‘A return to Chung King would be your best option,’ he said, his voice a whiplash as he slung the saddle-bag over his shoulder and once more faced them. ‘And Gianetta will accompany you.’

  From the moment he had dismounted from Bucephalus and met her eyes, Gianetta had known that her happiness and joy was at an end, but she hadn’t known why and she still didn’t. Now, her eyes dark with pain and incomprehension, she moved swiftly towards Zachary.

  ‘Why?’ she demanded passionately. ‘For God’s sake, Zachary, why?’

  He looked down at her, his face a tightly controlled mask. ‘Hasn’t Charles made his intentions clear? I gave him enough privacy this morning for him to be able to do so.’

  She felt as if she were in quicksand, floundering deeper and deeper.

  ‘Yes,’ she said, knowing that Charles must have told him the previous evening that he was going to ask her to marry him. ‘But what has that got to do with anything? What has it got to do with us?’

  ‘I would have thought that was obvious,’ he said smoothly, only the pulse throbbing at his jawline betraying his inner emotions. ‘Charles was your first choice of a husband. It was because of Charles that you left Chung King. Our marriage was nothing but a marriage of convenience and, as it has not been consummated, I imagine it can quite easily be annulled. When it is, you and Charles can marry and live happily ever after.’

  Dimly she was aware of how stupid she must look, staring at him wide-eyed, her mouth gaping in disbelief.

  ‘But I don’t want to marry Charles,’ she said at last when she was able to speak. ‘I never have wanted to marry Charles!’

  Suddenly she felt all her fears receding. The reasons behind his change of attitude towards her were so ludicrous as to be hysterically funny. He thought she didn’t love him. That she loved Charles. That she had only married him in order not to have to return to England under her uncle’s guardianship. Lovingly she took hold of his hand, certain that within seconds he would be laughing at his idiocy.

  ‘The only person I have ever wanted to marry is you,’ she said, smiling up at him, willing him to meet her eyes, knowing he would see the truth of her words in them when he did so.

  He neither looked at her or spoke to her. Instead he removed his hand from hers and began to walk towards Bucephalus, the saddle-bag still over his shoulder.

  ‘We were married because Britain’s consul in Chung King demanded that we be married,’ he said to Charles as if she had not spoken, as if she were not there. ‘If I hadn’t complied, he was going to shoot Ben and ship Gianetta to England.’

  He slung the saddle-bag across Bucephalus’s broad back. ‘As he felt that Gianetta needed close supervision, he wanted her to be boarded in a convent until either he and Lady Hollis returned to England or until she came of age. Rather than allow him to exercise such petty tyranny over her, I agreed to marry her.’

  He began to secure the saddle-bag and Bucephalus whinnied, eager to be off.

  ‘And as Gianetta had no desire to return to England under the conditions her uncle was specifying, she agreed to marry me.’

  With the saddle-bag secure he turned to face them both. ‘That, I think, sums up the circumstances surrounding our marriage pretty succinctly. As you can see, Charles, love played no part. When Gianetta returns with you to England she will be able to secure an annulment and she will then be free to marry you.’

  He turned away again, swinging himself up into the saddle.

  ‘You both have, of course, my very best wishes for your future.’

  Gianetta was ice-cold. It was as if small, frozen fingers were squeezing her heart. He had never loved her. He had never even come close to loving her. He had married her because he felt sorry for her. Doubtless, if Charles hadn’t arrived when he had, he would have consummated their marriage and taken what sexual comfort from it he could, but he had never wanted to marry her. And now he was off-loading the responsibility he had felt for her onto Charles.

  For several disbelieving seconds Charles had been rendered equally dumb and immob
ile. Now he sprang forward, seizing hold of Bucephalus’s reins, his fury at Gianetta’s obvious hurt nearly unhinging him.

  ‘You’re a madman! Gianetta wouldn’t have married you unless she were in love with you! And you love her! You must do! No man in his right senses could help but love her!’

  The corner of Zac’s mouth crooked into a mirthless smile. ‘There was a time when I would have been in full agreement with your sentiments, Charles. Fortunately for me, you disabused me of them last night.’

  Charles felt the blood drain from his face. Through all the insanity of the last few minutes it had never occurred to him that he was anything but an unwilling voyeur. Certainly it had not occurred to him that he was in any way responsible for what was being said.

  Now, as Bucephalus attempted to prance away, he held onto the reins with difficulty.

  ‘You’re being bloody stupid, Zac,’ he said hoarsely. ‘Not everything I said last night was the literal truth. Gianetta never told me herself that she wanted to marry me, and Serena was wrong when she said that Gianetta was in love with me. She wasn’t. She told me she wasn’t this morning …’

  ‘I rather think Gianetta was trying to avoid complications,’ Zachary said brutally.

  He had determined that he wouldn’t torture himself further by looking at her again, but as he wrenched the reins from Charles’s grasp he could no more help doing so than he could have stopped from breathing.

  Her face was as pale as a carved cameo and as expressionless, her eyes so dark it was impossible to tell iris from pupil.

  ‘Leave Ben with my bearers,’ he said, wheeling Bucephalus around. ‘He can serve as an extra pack-mule. I promise I won’t over-burden him.’

  She felt as if she were in a nightmare from which she would never wake. He wasn’t leaving camp to go on a short plant-hunting expedition. He was leaving it for good. His sleeping-bag lay tightly rolled behind his saddle. His mug was tied to the strap of his saddle-bag.