He was so happy with what he was doing that he managed to banish London right out of his mind.
Until one day, when he was working high up on the tower, he looked down and noticed a very smart carriage drawn by four horses driving through the village.
Then as the carriage reached the gates to his drive, he drew in his breath.
He knew, almost as if a shot had been fired from a gun, whose carriage it was and who would be inside.
Alice had come searching for him.
He stepped back sharply from the edge.
For a mad moment he was tempted to send someone down with a message saying that he was not at home, sending her away.
Then he realised that he could not insult her in such a fashion.
‘Dammit!’ he muttered.
He left the roof of the castle and rushed to his chamber to strip off his workmen’s clothes, wash and don the kind of elegant attire Alice would expect to see him wearing.
He had barely finished when Brooks came to announce Lady Alice’s arrival.
As he expected, she had been shown into the drawing room which was already looking very different from the way it had been when Michael first arrived.
Already new curtains had been put up at the windows, the whole room had been cleaned and there were plenty of flowers sent by the Major.
When Michael entered the room, Alice was standing by the window looking out into the garden. She had taken off her hat which she was holding in one hand.
He thought she looked exceedingly pretty and any other man would probably fall at her feet. Unfortunately, he was the one she wanted.
As he shut the door she ran towards him, smiling, her arms outstretched.
“Michael! Michael your castle is magnificent. I did not realise how large it is. I understand now why you disappeared, but I thought I would never see you again.”
She flung herself against him so that he was obliged to put his arms round her to hold her steady.
“I had no idea where you had gone,” she simpered. “How could you be so cruel as to vanish completely?”
She was clinging to him as she spoke and her lips were obviously waiting for his lips.
Taking her firmly by the arms, Michael held her away from him and said,
“You had no right to come here until I invited you. I wanted the place to be completed before you or anyone else saw it.”
The next moment he realised his mistake for a smile lit up her face and she burst out,
“So you are doing all this for me!”
“No,” he said with a touch of desperation. Not for you or anyone but myself. I simply do not want anyone to see my castle until it has become a home I can be proud of. Until then, I hoped no one would know where I was.”
“But darling, I am different from anyone else,” Alice murmured. “I was almost distracted when I found you had disappeared from London without telling me and without leaving an address.”
“How did you know where I had gone?”
Her reply was a teasing little giggle that set his teeth on edge.
“I am not going to tell you that, because you will be angry with the person who disobeyed your orders. I will only say that it took a lot of coaxing before I learnt you had come here.”
So she had bribed one of his footmen, he thought grimly.
“Oh, darling, this place is so wonderful,” she breathed. “I never imagined your ancestral halls would be so huge. So please take me round and show me everything. I think you are you are very, very clever.”
Something possessive in her voice and in her eyes froze his blood.
He had fled London to get away from her, but suddenly he was as trapped as ever.
“You must forgive me if I decline,” he said, wondering if it was possible for any refusal to make an impact on her. “It is far too soon for anyone to tour the castle.”
“Oh, but darling, you must let me help you. This is something we must do together.”
She smiled shyly as she added,
“I have brought some clothes so that I can stay for awhile.”
She gave him an arch look, which told him, even better than words, how determined she was.
“I am afraid that is impossible,” he said frantically. “You have no chaperone and it would ruin your reputation.”
“Let me worry about that,” Alice giggled. “Nobody knew you were here, so they will not know if I am here too.”
Michael drew in a sharp breath.
He needed to get her out of here fast. If she stayed for even a few hours he would be lost.
Quite suddenly he knew the answer.
“Just wait here,” he told Alice. “I have one or two orders I must give before I can talk to you.”
He walked across the room as he spoke and opened the door, moving so quickly that it was impossible for Alice to stop him or to accompany him.
In a moment he was in the garden, running towards the place where he knew the Major would be working today. When the Major saw him he rose quickly to his feet.
“Good grief, Danesbury, whatever has happened? Is the castle on fire?”
“Worse than that,” Michael fervently. “Women!”
“Oh, them!”
“It’s all very well for you to say ‘Oh, them!’ You are not threatened with disaster.”
“Would disaster have arrived in the form of the lady whose carriage drove up half an hour ago?”
“It certainly would. That is Lady Alice Randall, who – who – “
“Has designs on you?”
“At the risk of sounding like a conceited popinjay, yes.
She was not supposed to know I was here. Anyway, she has now turned up and shows every sign of digging in.”
“How can I help?”
“Allow me to bring her to your house for lunch.”
“Of course, but we do not keep the sort of larder that can provide for such a guest.”
“Not to worry. Alfonso can do the cooking and I will send Brooks down with provisions. I do not wish to put you or Bettina to any of that kind of trouble. All I need is the protection of your roof.”
“Then it’s yours. But will the lady not think it strange?”
“She can think what she likes,” Michael growled, “as long as I can escape this intrusion still a bachelor!”
“I was only thinking that I should go into town for supplies this afternoon, so we really need to have a talk before I go. That is why you are having lunch with me and it cannot be postponed.”
“Good man!” Michael exclaimed in relief.
He ran back to the castle and stopped first in the kitchen to give Alfonso and Mr. and Mrs. Brooks their instructions. Then he rejoined Alice.
She glowered at him in a way that made her displeasure plain. But he pretended not to notice.
“We are having lunch with Major Newton and his daughter,” he declared with a cheerfulness that he hoped did not sound too forced.
“But I want to be alone with you,” Alice pouted. “I have so much to tell you and so much to hear.”
“I am afraid I cannot delay this lunch,” Michael said, inwardly giving thanks for Major Newton’s fertile mind. “The Major is reorganising the garden, and we had planned a conference over lunch that simply cannot be postponed.”
“Oh, but I am sure it could.”
“No, because he is going to buy more supplies this afternoon and we have details to discuss first.”
“Nonsense! What does it matter when your gardener buys things?”
Michael’s eyes hardened with annoyance.
“He is not ‘my gardener’, but a learned and cultivated man, who I am proud to call my friend. He is a gentleman and his daughter is a lady.”
Wisely she read the warning in his face and said no more, following him meekly out to her carriage. But when she had climbed in and he was beside her, she showed that she was not defeated by slipping her hand into his.
“How could you go away without telling me wher
e you were going?” she asked again. “Everyone was astonished when you just vanished.”
“I don’t suppose anyone missed me,” Michael intoned.
“I missed you,” Alice replied in a soft voice. “I missed you terribly. I could not understand what had happened. But now, of course, I understand why you came here.”
She obviously wanted Michael to ask what she meant. Instead, he called to the driver,
“Turn right and then left and it’s the last house at the end of the lane.”
The Major’s house came into sight. As the carriage pulled up outside, Michael looked frantically for any sign of Bettina, but he could see no sign of anyone.
When he knocked on the door Mrs. Gates opened it.
“Miss Bettina, my Lord?” she said when he had asked her, “she is working in the garden.”
“Perhaps I could bring my guest inside.”
“Certainly, my Lord. Shall I fetch Miss Bettina.”
“No, thank you,” he said hurriedly. “I will find her myself.”
There was a disdainful look on Alice’s face as Michael handed her down and led her inside. This modest dwelling was not at all her idea of how ladies and gentlemen should live.
Mrs. Gates showed them into the drawing room and hurried away to make tea.
“I must leave you for a moment,” Michael said hurriedly. “I shall be back directly.”
He rushed away before Alice could protest and ran out into the garden in urgent search of Bettina.
He saw her almost at once, coming towards him through the flower beds.
She was carrying flowers and was surrounded by beautiful blooms. Most of them were white and her dress was also white.
He could not help thinking she looked exactly like an angel who had dropped down from Heaven.
Her fair hair shone in the sunshine and appeared to be like gold.
He had never seen her so lovely.
She stopped when she noticed him and he saw, with a sinking heart, that she was reluctant to speak to him.
He had observed how she had avoided him recently and had wondered if she did so out of loyalty to her fiancé.
But at the same time, he was not quite sure that her fiancé really existed.
She had mentioned the man in anger, but afterwards had seemed a little vague about him. Michael had come to hope that she would trust him enough to admit that there was indeed no such fiancé.
Now he hastened to reach her before she could leave.
“Miss Newton,” he said urgently, “I realise that you would rather meet any man but me, but I beg you not to turn away from me. I need your help desperately.”
A strange expression passed over her face, but she replied calmly,
“How can I help you, my Lord?”
“It is a question of – a lady.”
Bettina grew still. This was it – of course there was a lady. She had been warned but tried to pretend it was not true.
“Yes?” she questioned quietly.
“Her name is Lady Alice Randall,” Michael said. “She is the daughter of Earl Randall.”
An Earl’s daughter. Lady Lancing had warned her.
“Lord Randall is an influential man,” Michael continued, hesitating because he was beginning to realise that his story would be a hard one to tell.
How did you ask one woman to protect you from another without dying of embarrassment?
“He is not really as influential as he thinks he is,” he blurted out. “But he is known at Court and has the Queen’s ear.”
‘And of course the Earl would be a courtier, needing to stand well with the Queen,’ Bettina thought.
A pain was growing in her heart and it was not entirely connected with knowing that he was to marry another woman.
She realised what Michael was trying to say. Lady Alice Randall was his chosen bride. He could not afford to offend her, or her influential family, or the Queen.
So none of them must know about his dalliance with herself. He wanted her to promise to keep silent.
Anger flared in her. So he was a little man after all, so much less than she had believed. He had amused himself and now he was scuttling for cover under her protection.
She was aware of a new feeling for him, something that was perilously close to contempt.
“There is no need to say more, my Lord,” she told him.
“I understand perfectly.”
“You do?”
Michael stared, noticing the hint of scorn in her face and at a loss to understand it.
“When is your engagement to Lady Alice to be announced, or – ” her lips curled slightly, “has it already been announced?”
For a moment he stared at her in thunderstruck silence.
Then he bellowed,
“Oh, Heavens! Not you too?”
This explosive retort took Bettina by surprise.
“What do you mean?” she faltered.
“It seems as though the whole world is conspiring to force me to marry that woman,” he cried distractedly.
Bettina began to see that she had been mistaken. The tone in which he said, ‘that woman’ eased her heart.
“But not you,” Michael resumed. “I thought you were the one person I might rely on to help me, but when I come to you for help, you see me as her property as well. I cannot bear this. I will lose my mind, I know I will!”
“But what kind of help do you need?” Bettina asked, half laughing in her relief. The world was becoming a good place again, because he was a good man. That was all she asked.
Impulsively she seized his hands.
“I will do anything you want to help you. But you must tell me what I can do.”
“Alice is determined to marry me. It is unchivalrous to say so, I know. But it’s true. She constantly tries to back me into corners from which there is no escape. So I fled to the country, but now she has discovered where I am and has pursued me. She plans to stay the night at the castle, unless I can prevent her.”
“What?” Bettina cried out, aghast. “But how can a woman simply move in on a man like that? What about her reputation?”
“I have pointed out the dangers, but she insists on speaking as though we are engaged.”
Bettina stood back and regarded him wryly.
“And we are not engaged,” he asserted firmly, answering the expression in her eyes. “Why would I run from here if we were? I have managed to move her out of the castle by bringing her to this house.
“I have told her that I have arranged a vital luncheon meeting with your father, who has agreed to back me up, but it is your support that I really need.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know you are still angry with me, but I beg you not to let her see it. I need for us to appear the best of friends. I will not impose on your kindness or expect you to speak to me afterwards if you do not want to. But for pity’s sake help me to discourage Alice.”
Bettina was silent for a long time and he frowned, puzzled.
“You will not help me?” he asked her at last.
“I will but – I need to know exactly what I am doing. Why does this young woman feel so sure that she is engaged to you? Have you not given her some reason or hint?”
“Never knowingly or intentionally. It is all in her head and due to her parents’ machinations.”
“You have never proposed to her?”
“Never.”
“Will you give me your word that you are not playing her false?”
For a moment Michael was angry. Who was this girl to question his honour?
Then his anger died. He should have expected this, knowing how she disapproved of him.
“I swear to you that my honour is not involved with this lady,” he said. “I am not betraying her, and I have no obligations to her. It is all in her mind, but she will trap me if you do not give me your support.”
To his surprise Bettina became very pale.
“Very well, my Lord. I will do whateve
r you wish.”
“Then come into the house with me now.”
“Yes indeed, I have a lunch to prepare.”
“No, the food is coming from the castle. Just keep close by me and do not leave me alone with her. Your father will be back soon.”
“And then he can take over ‘guard duty’?” she added with a little smile.
“Something like that,” he agreed.
As they spoke they had been walking back to the house and entered through the main door, going straight into the dining room.
Alice was standing by the window looking at the flowers and Michael could tell at once that she was annoyed at being kept waiting.
“I wondered what was keeping you,” she said sharply as they came through the door.
“I went to find our hostess. Lady Alice, please let me introduce Miss Bettina Newton. She and her father have become my good friends since I have been at the castle.”
Alice managed a strained smile and her eyes flickered over Bettina. But, after one moment’s automatic suspicion, she showed no alarm.
‘She is not worried by me,’ Bettina thought. ‘In her eyes I am probably little more than a servant. And in his eyes too, I dare say, even though he needs me now. I must not allow myself to forget that.’
Michael began to talk determinedly about the castle garden and the Major’s prowess and everything the Major was doing for him.
“He has promised me the finest garden in the County,” he declared, “so you will understand how important it is for us to talk together and how deeply we are both involved in the works.”
“Everyone in the neighbourhood is so thrilled that Lord Danesbury is now amongst us,” Bettina intervened gamely. “It will be wonderful for the castle to be restored to its former glory. We all thought it would never happen and now it is like a dream come true. Sometimes we need to pinch ourselves to believe it.”
Michael smiled.
“I promise you, you can believe it. But there is a great deal to do and never enough time.”
Bettina gave a laugh which she tried to make natural.
“So we can count on you not to run away in the middle of your works?” she asked the Earl pointedly.
“I promise not to do that,” he replied.
Alice could endure no more. She broke in sharply,
“You may be making everyone down here in the depths of the country delighted with what you are doing, but you are neglecting your friends in London, including me.”
Royalty Defeated by Love Page 8
