“That is because he spends every penny on his fashion. The trouble is that his means are limited. He has a small fortune of his own, left to him by his grandmother. His father supplements it with an allowance. He is going to have to marry an heiress I fancy.”
Bettina was silent, hoping that Katherine had not become too attached to Win.
It was a reminder to her that he and the Earl came from a different world to hers.
“Anyway, I consider the incident closed,” she said.
“Then you will not feel it necessary to confide in your fiancé?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.
“I shall confide in nobody because I do not wish to make a scandal.”
“That is kind of you.”
“No it isn’t. I am not being kind – not to you, anyway.”
“To whom then?”
“The people of this neighbourhood. Your arrival here means so much to them – work and prosperity. They are good, kind folk and you can give them so much that they need.”
He turned his head slightly to look at her.
“And it was for them that you repaid my rudeness with kindness last night? They must mean a great deal to you.”
“This place means everything to me. People here are not conniving and spiteful as they are in other places.”
“It seems to me that there was plenty of spite and conniving last night,” he observed mildly.
“You mean Lady Lancing? Well, you saved me from her. Besides, she is not what I meant. She is a Ladyship.”
“You mean you expect the worst from anyone with a title? Well, I suppose I can understand that.”
“Will you take the next turning onto the Carwick road, please?” Bettina asked, refusing to be drawn on this subject again.
“I don’t believe I have ever been there,” he mused. “I may have passed through when I was younger, but I do not remember.”
“It is a small town, but there are a few good shops.” Bettina added determinedly, “I am going to return the cloak and necklace that I hired for last night.”
“They suited you admirably. I thought how splendid you looked when you walked into the castle. I simply did not recognise you as the girl I had met earlier. And then when I did – what a shock you gave me!”
He began to laugh and after a moment she joined in.
“You could not have been more horrified than I was,” she said.
When they reached the shop, she begged him to remain outside while she walked in. She did not feel she could bear having him watch her hand everything back. She was quite sure that the London Society ladies he knew would never need to do such a thing.
When she emerged from the shop she discovered that the Earl had vanished. A street urchin was holding the head of the horse.
“The gentleman said he’d be back soon and you was to wait for him over there,” the urchin declared, pointing to a tea shop that stood on the corner.
The tea shop was as dainty as a lace handkerchief. Bettina found a seat in the window, from where she could watch the street. She ordered some tea and sat waiting for the Earl wondering what had delayed him.
When he finally entered she thought how incongruously vital and masculine he looked in these surroundings. It was an effort not to smile at him in sheer joy at his presence.
“Forgive me,” he said, seating himself. “I should not have run off like that, but an idea came to me and I wanted to surprise you.”
He broke off to order more tea from a little waitress in a snow-white lacy apron.
“Surprise me?” Bettina asked.
“I still haven’t thanked you properly for the help you gave me last night.”
“There is no need – ”
“I think there is. Please, Miss Newton, allow me to finish.”
“I beg your pardon, sir.”
“Then will you please accept this with my thanks.”
He handed a small packet across the table to her. It was neatly wrapped in gold paper and tied with satin ribbon.
Slowly she opened it and discovered inside an exquisite locket on a fine chain.
Lifting it carefully she realised at once that it was solid gold and very valuable, although its value was nothing beside its beauty. She had never seen anything so lovely in her life.
But loveliest of all was the fact that he had given it to her.
And that was exactly why she could not accept it.
For a moment all her good resolutions tottered. She had vowed to be strong, not to admit, even to herself, that she was falling in love with him. But could she not accept this one gift, to treasure in the years to come?
The waitress arrived with the fresh tea. As she fussed about the table, Michael tried to keep his eyes on Bettina’s face.
If only this interruption had happened later, he thought. It was somehow important to watch Bettina and try to read her thoughts.
He thought he saw a flicker of pleasure in her eyes, but it was gone in a moment and a sadness seemed to settle over her.
At last the waitress left them. Bettina’s face, he was dismayed to see, was still sad.
“Don’t you like it?” he asked gently. “I can change it for something else.”
“No, it is so beautiful,” she said quickly. “I love it but – I cannot accept it.”
“Why not?”
“Surely I do not have to explain? I could never accept such a gift, so valuable – it would not be – proper.”
“But may I not thank you for your kindness.”
“Not with something like this. I could never wear anything so fine. You should give this to some great lady. I am just an ordinary country girl.”
“I do not think you are ordinary at all,” he responded gravely.
She blushed and shook her head.
Michael was again overwhelmed by the same feeling that had made him kiss her by the river. If they had been alone he might have yielded to it, but in this place all he could do was watch her wistfully.
“Please,” he said, “will you not reconsider?”
“I could not accept it. How could I ever explain it to anyone?”
“You mean to your fiancé? He would object?”
“Of course he would,” she declared, clutching at straws. “He would be scandalised. He might even call you out.”
“I see. In that case, I will not try to change your mind. Please believe that I did not intend anything improper.”
“I know you didn’t. You meant only to be kind, but you see how it is in this place, how much resentment there was when you singled me out to be your hostess. Everyone knew that it was not right.”
“That is for me to say,” Michael declared with a touch of arrogance. “If I choose you to head my table, it is nobody else’s business.”
Her wry smile brought him back to his senses.
“I am sorry,” he said. “My poor girl, it was you who paid the price, wasn’t it?”
“Well, you did take care of me very well. But you should really have asked Lady Lancing!”
“That dreadful woman!”
Bettina’s lips twitched.
“She is, isn’t she?” she asked longingly. “Oh, I know it’s uncharitable to say it – ”
“It’s not uncharitable at all. It is a plain statement of fact. A more appalling creature I never met.”
“Surely you must have met worse in London?” Bettina asked innocently.
“I don’t think I have met worse in the entire world,” he confided.
They laughed together.
This was better, Bettina thought. She might allow herself to enjoy these moments of camaraderie and keep them to look back on.
Gently she pushed the box with the pendant back across the table.
“Please,” she said.
Without a word he put the box into his pocket.
“I ought to be going home,” Bettina said. “I have a lot of work to do.”
Michael thought of her as he had seen her last night in
all her magnificence. And he thought of her kneeling by the river, cutting reeds, so fresh and simple. And he could not decide which picture he liked more.
But it displeased him to think of her having to do rough work.
When they left the tea shop he said to Bettina,
“I have a small errand to run. Please wait for me by the gig.”
She did so and saw him return a few minutes later, his arms filled with flowers.
“You cannot refuse to let me give you these,” he said.
“No, I will not refuse them,” she replied gladly.
When she was settled into the gig he piled all the flowers into her arms. The heady scent of them was intoxicating and she sensed that she would remember this moment as long as she lived.
Michael tossed a coin to the urchin who grinned at the amount and fled.
A few minutes driving brought them back into the country, where the elderly pony trotted at an easy pace on the road that led back to Hedgeworth.
“I am so delighted you have accepted something from me,” Michael said. “And you will not need to explain these to your fiancé, because they will be dead before you see him again. Unless, of course, he arrives tomorrow.”
“No, he won’t do that,” Bettina said quickly.
“Perhaps he is in some profession that keeps him away? The Army? No, of course not. Your father would hardly disapprove of a man in his own walk of life.”
“I did not say my father disapproved of him.”
“Then why the secrecy?”
“Please – ”
“Forgive me. It is none of my concern. But I hope he is worthy of you, Miss Newton. If he is, he must be a very fine man indeed.”
“You are too kind to say so,” she replied in a voice so low that he had to strain to hear her.
Nothing more was said on the journey home, both of them being occupied with their own thoughts.
Neither of them had remembered that it was the custom, after a dinner party, to call upon the hostess with thanks.
Since the host and hostess lived apart, it was unanimously decided by the guests, that the Earl should receive the visit. After all, it had been his party and nobody was going to resist the chance to pay another visit to an Earl.
The result was that the ladies who had been present the night before, led by Lady Lancing, attended the castle in strength and were informed by Brooks that his Lordship was out but would return soon. If they would care to wait –
They were delighted to wait and to look around while they did so. They examined every piece of furniture, every carpet, every window.
And that was how, looking down the steep road that led to the village, they saw the gig arrive at the Major’s house.
They saw the Earl driving, with Bettina beside him, her arms full of flowers. They saw him jump to the ground and unhitch his own horse from behind the gig.
They saw him mount and then reach out to take her hand and carry it respectfully to his lips, before galloping away.
They saw Bettina sit gazing after him, with an expression on her face that they were too far away to see and could therefore speculate pleasurably and endlessly about her.
What they could be sure of was that she sat there, quite still, for a long time, before turning the gig in at the gate.
“Well!” exclaimed Lady Lancing.
*
It was Lady Lancing who insisted that, as Bettina had been the hostess, she too must receive a call. But not from everyone. Only from herself.
Accordingly, she arrived in state at the Major’s house that same afternoon. With huge formality she paid ‘her respects’, while Bettina listened, wondering what her visitor had really come to say.
She was soon left in no doubt.
“I greatly admired your spirit, Miss Newton, in taking on a role to which you are hardly accustomed. In the circumstances I think I may say that you acquitted yourself creditably.”
“Your Ladyship is too kind,” Bettina murmured, with an irony that she knew would pass unnoticed.
“It is good of you to say so. I believe I am known for the generosity of my nature. And therefore I feel it will not come amiss if I venture to put you on your guard.”
At this, Bettina’s eyes flashed a warning, but her guest was too absorbed in herself to notice.
“Of course I know that it is hardly necessary with you, Miss Newton. Your behaviour is always so proper, your manners so delicate.”
“In that case – ”
“But Lord Danesbury is so affable, is he not, so generally pleasing? And he always knows, does he not, how to make the perfect gesture?”
As she spoke she indicated the flowers, which by now Bettina had arranged in two vases.
Bettina hesitated, unsure what to say, but Lady Lancing was charging on.
“You must not deny it, you know,” she said roguishly. “It is only natural that his Lordship should wish to take you for a drive and give you flowers, since you stood in for the lady who would normally have been his hostess. I wonder exactly what her name is.”
This was a shot in the dark. Lady Lancing had no knowledge of any lady, but she had deduced the likelihood of such a person and was too clever to overstate her case.
She waited to see if Bettina would respond, but, being disappointed, she continued,
“Well, no matter. She is sure to be somebody wealthy, beautiful and titled. Naturally he does not wish to show her the castle while it is still in some disarray, so he makes do with whoever is available.”
Bettina ground her nails into her palm, but refused to be outwardly provoked.
“Such a lovely evening for you,” Lady Lancing resumed, refusing to be beaten by Bettina’s silence. “And of course you are far too sensible to read into it more than his Lordship intended. I know I need only drop you a hint.
“Goodness, is that the time? I really must be hurrying away. My husband has so many really important events to attend in the County, for which he needs my assistance.”
Bettina rose stiffly and accompanied her to the door, watching until her enemy was out of sight.
Now she could allow herself to relax. She felt as though she were aching all over from the effort of holding herself in, refusing to respond to spite.
It had all been needless. She had always known that the Earl would never look at her, except casually.
This was not the first time that she had endured Lady Lancing’s barbs, but last night had been different. Last night the Earl had been there to protect her, as he never would be again.
She felt as if she was suffocating.
Slowly she made her way back into the house, to where the Earl’s flowers glowed, a riot of beautiful colour in a world suddenly become dreary.
She buried her face against the red roses and when she withdrew, they were wet with her tears.
*
The next three weeks were exciting for the whole neighbourhood.
No one could speak of anything but the restoration of the castle and gardens.
The Earl made several visits to the Major’s home to discuss the plans or just to enjoy his new friendship. But, by some strange chance, Bettina was always on the point of leaving the house when he arrived.
Once the Major invited Michael and Win to dinner. Bettina played her part of the hostess to perfection, leaving the three men to their port and sitting in solitary state until they joined her. This they did, very quickly.
She then devoted all her attention to Win, even persuading him to play the piano while she listened, apparently too enraptured to turn her gaze on Michael, who glanced at her frequently.
Nor did she remain until the end of the evening, but retired early, pleading a headache.
In the quietness of her room she burrowed under the pillows, repeating to herself,
“I am not in love with him. I am not. And even if I was, I would die rather than allow anyone to suspect.”
The following morning her father reproved her gently for deserting thei
r guests, but was silenced by the pale, wan face she turned on him.
Yet it was rare for her to appear sad. Most of the time she concealed her feelings so successfully that he was able to forget everything but the work that he loved.
“I think I am dreaming,” the Major said one evening after he had been at the castle all day. “Everything I have suggested to the Earl, he has agreed to and he places no restrictions on how much I can spend.”
He laughed.
“People in the village say he must be getting married and he is preparing a home for his intended.”
“Do you think so?” Bettina asked, speaking a touch more sharply than she meant to.
“Of course not. If he had a fiancée she would have been his hostess at the dinner party, not you. And she would have been down here by this time, to look the place over and tell him he had better do things her way.”
“Yes,” Bettina agreed, not looking at her father. “I am sure you are right.”
When he had left she stood gazing out into the sunlit garden with eyes that saw nothing.
Instead she was looking at a picture she always carried in her head – herself in her magnificent evening dress, the look in the Earl’s eyes when he had seen her and then another look as he remembered what had happened between them.
The thought was very sweet and almost as sweet was the memory of how she had spent the evening by his side. She still clung to that memory, even while she told herself that she should put it well aside.
Lady Lancing had first introduced the hideous possibility that there might be another woman in London with the right to claim him. Now her father had mentioned it too and it had cast a chill over her heart.
But, as he had said, if there was any such woman, she would have been present on that night.
She tried to believe that that was the end of it.
But in her heart she knew that one day it would happen, and she would see herself as she really was – a raw country girl who had briefly walked beside him, but recognised that he was not for her.
CHAPTER SIX
Michael was enjoying himself more than at any time in his entire life.
The rooms in the castle were being restored to their old beauty. The windows were being painted and the broken and dirty panes of glass were being removed.
Royalty Defeated by Love Page 7
