The Colonel’s mask of geniality vanished and his face was contorted with anger.
“Now, you look here, my fine lady! Who do you think you are to speak to me like that?”
“I am someone over whom you have no authority,” Shona said flatly.
“Now there you are mistaken. Until you become of age – ”
“Until I am of age you can prevent my marriage, but neither you nor all the Queen’s horses and all the Queen’s men can force me to marry a despicable oaf like Harrington.”
“Harrington is my friend.”
“So I would have supposed,” she riposted contemptuously.
He understood her meaning and raised his hand to strike her. His temper, always nasty, had grown even more unmanageable of late.
Shona stood her ground, her cool, determined eyes meeting his blazing look.
Just in time something stopped him. He lowered his hand, but his expression was still enraged.
“I will talk to you later tonight,” he snapped.
Shona made an instant decision.
“I am afraid I shall not be joining you for dinner. I have arrived to find an invitation from the Duke and Duchess of Gresham – for tonight.”
He was silent, uneasy, and she knew why. He was awed by the Greshams’ ducal title, and the fact that they had invited Shona to their house. But they would never invite the Colonel, whom they despised.
He hated her for being invited and for going without him, but he was too much of a snob to try to prevent her dining with a Duke.
“Well, well,” he said at last, trying to sound jovial. “You must not disappoint such good friends. Unfortunately I am otherwise engaged, otherwise I would escort you there.”
“That would be most unwise,” Shona said quietly.
There was sheer hatred in the look he shot at her, but for the moment she had gained the upper hand.
She walked away without giving him a backward glance. Her manner was still defiant, but inwardly her heart was racing.
‘I must escape,’ she thought wildly. ‘He almost lost control of himself. What lengths will he go to in order to force me?’
In her room she wrote a hurried note to the Duchess, hoping it was not too late to accept her kind invitation and despatched it by a footman.
The answer arrived within the hour. The Duchess would be delighted to welcome her. Shona breathed a sigh of relief and settled down to the serious business of deciding what to wear.
With Effie’s help she settled on an evening gown of magnolia satin, embroidered with rose coloured beads. Around her neck she wore a pearl necklace, a gift from her grandfather.
Such independence as she could maintain came from the fact that the Earl of Larness, her mother’s father, had left half his fortune to her directly, and only half to his daughter.
Shona was sure that her step-father had thought her mother vastly wealthy, and been infuriated to discover that he could get his hands on very little.
The money of both women was in the hands of trustees, who allowed Colonel Lockwood the bare minimum of his wife’s money and none at all of Shona’s.
She knew, because the trustees had told her, that he had made repeated efforts to dip into her fortune and was furious at being rebuffed.
‘And he thinks he will get my money when he’s married me to his drinking crony,’ she thought now, as she dressed.
Her opinion was confirmed when Effie said, “I’ve been talking to the other servants since we arrived back, miss, and they reckon the Colonel has borrowed money from that man.”
There was no need to ask who ‘that man’ was. Effie hated him too. He was, according to her, “a sight too free with his hands.”
“Is it safe to leave you alone here tonight?” Shona asked worriedly.
“Don’t you worry, miss. I’ll be slipping out to meet my young man,” Effie replied, adding darkly, “he’s a policeman, although he picks up a bit of extra money as a prize fighter.”
“You mean one of those men who punch each other senseless for money?” Shona asked.
“Yes, miss. But Jimmy always wins.”
“Good. Then I feel happier about you. You can wear my pink dress if you like.”
It was a relief to get into the carriage and drive away. Shona could not resist looking back at the house. As she had expected, she could just make out the Colonel, furtively looking out of an upstairs window.
She spent a pleasant evening having dinner with the Greshams. She knew most of the guests and they were glad to see her, asking about her visit to the country. The Colonel was never mentioned.
Shona was seated next to Viscount Melton, a young bachelor of easy manners, who seemed slightly on edge tonight.
In the past they had flirted merrily enough, but tonight, when he had spoken to her briefly, she sensed that he was glad to turn away to the elderly lady on his other side.
When dinner was over and the ladies had retired, leaving the gentlemen to their port, Shona spent some time talking to the Dowager Duchess of Gresham, a very old lady with sharp eyes and a sharp tongue.
She was a formidable woman who seldom left her home, but somehow knew all the gossip and all the scandal. People often came to her for advice.
She had a reputation for being able to solve any problem no matter how difficult it might be.
Then the gentlemen entered and everyone mingled again. Shona chatted for a few moments with her host, before wandering away to find a sofa.
As she sat there, sipping her tea, she heard a voice behind her, and turned.
But immediately behind the sofa was a curtain. Evidently the voice was coming from the other side. She was about to move when she realised that the voice belonged to Viscount Melton.
“I do hope you will be able to help me, Duchess. I am in bad trouble.”
Then came the Dowager Duchess of Gresham’s voice, “I know. You are being hounded to marry the Larksworth girl, aren’t you. You should have been more cautious.”
“I only danced with her – ” the Viscount began to protest.
“Three times in one evening. You should never dance with the same girl more than twice. Haven’t you learned that by now? Three dances can put ideas into the minds of ambitious parents.”
“It certainly did this time,” he groaned. “Sir Roger Larksworth has been dropping some very strong hints.”
“Then the best thing you can do is to slip abroad for a few weeks,” the Duchess told him. “By the time you return everyone will be talking about someone else and this will be forgotten. Just stay out of trouble in future.”
“That is easier said than done. He is not the only ambitious father out there. That Lockwood fellow is too much to take.”
“Don’t tell me he is trying to marry off his stepdaughter?” the Duchess asked.
“He has given me the odd look. I like Shona a lot, and if her father had still been alive – well, it might have been different. But ally myself with that fellow – no, thank you!”
“Poor Shona!” the Duchess reflected.
Shona, sitting very still on the other side of the curtain, felt her cheeks burn. So this was what the Colonel had brought her to. No decent man wanted her.
“I will leave tomorrow,” the Viscount declared, “and thank you for being so helpful and kind to me.”
“I have known you since you were born,” the Duchess told him, “and of course I am always ready to help you if I can.”
“Just as you have helped everyone,” he replied. “We are very fortunate to have you here to sort out our romantic problems.”
The Duchess laughed again.
“I enjoy helping people,” she said. “It gives me a very interesting life. And not all the problems are romantic. Only the other day the Marquis of Chilworth asked me to find a secretary who could speak fluent French, Spanish, Italian and, if possible, Greek.”
“Surely he could do that himself,” the Viscount said.
“I doubt if anyone could do it. Where
is such a paragon to be found? The English are very bad at speaking any language except their own. And often they don’t even speak that correctly.”
“If anyone can rise to the challenge, you can,” the Viscount said. “And your reputation will be enhanced.
Goodnight, dear Duchess, and thank you again.”
Then the Duchess said something that struck Shona forcefully.
“Don’t thank me until eventually you find someone you really love. Then you will be truly grateful that I have managed to save you.”
As she sat in the carriage going home, the Duchess’s words came back to Shona. If she allowed the Colonel to get his way she would never know the joy of marrying a man she truly loved.
And that must not be allowed to happen.
She found her room in darkness and no sign of Effie, but the maid arrived five minutes later.
“I’m so sorry, miss,” she said in alarm. “I should have been here to wait for you.”
“It’s all right, Effie. Did you have a nice evening with your young man?”
Effie’s eyes were shining.
“Oh, yes, miss. Jimmy and me are going to get married just as soon as we can.”
“I hope you will be very happy,” Shona said warmly.
Effie had found true love, she thought with a touch of envy.
“What about your evening miss?”
Shona told her everything, including the conversation she had overheard.
“This Duchess sounds like a sort of Fairy Godmother,” Effie observed as she brushed Shona’s hair.
“Yes, but the kind who does very mundane miracles. The Marquis of Chilworth wants her to find him a secretary who speaks plenty of languages.”
“Like you, miss?”
“Me?”
“Your Papa taught you all those languages.”
“Why yes, but – he probably meant a male secretary.”
“But suppose he can’t get one, miss?” Shona stared at herself in the mirror, wondering why she had never thought of this before. It could be her chance of escape.
‘If only I dared,’ she thought.
“Hey – ” Effie was suddenly excited, “I’ve heard of this Marquis. He’s the one they call ‘the Monster’.”
“Monster?” Shona echoed.
“They say nobody’s seen him for years, ever since His Great Tragedy.”
She was clearly speaking in capital letters.
“What great tragedy?”
“They say he was madly in love with a girl, but she was Betrothed To Another,” Effie said, speaking in capitals again.
“What happened?”
“They ran away, but her fiancé caught them and Shot Her Through The Heart,” Effie said with a visible shudder of excitement.
“Since then, nobody sees him. He either shuts himself up in his house or Roams the Seven Seas on his Yacht, which he had specially built.”
“It sounds like the sort of melodrama you would see on the stage,” Shona said sceptically.
“They said he went white-haired in a night.”
“How long ago is this supposed to have happened?”
Shona asked.
“Supposed, miss? It really did happen. True as I’m standing here. I had it from my second cousin who knew a girl who was married to someone who once worked for the Marquis.”
But if she had hoped to freeze her listener’s blood she was disappointed. Shona Winterton was a rational female, with a practical turn of mind.
“It all sounds very unlikely to me,” she said firmly. “If this story was true, all society would know about it.”
“How can they when he Hides From The World?” Effie asked with unanswerable logic. “Oh, miss, maybe you shouldn’t go near him. Suppose he spirits you away.”
“Why should he do that?” Shona asked.
“For Dark Purposes,” Effie said dramatically.
“What dark purposes?”
“Who knows?”
Shona’s lips twitched.
“That doesn’t seem to get us very far,” she said. “If the Marquis of Chilworth is such a recluse then he might be just what I need.”
“But suppose he wants to Sail The Seven Seas with you?”
“Oh, Effie, do stop talking like a character in a novelette,” Shona chuckled. “Besides, sailing the seven seas would get me away from Step-Papa. I must definitely go and meet the Marquis of Chilworth.”
Effie gave a little shriek.
“Oh, miss, suppose it isn’t safe.”
“If it isn’t safe I will just come back home again.”
“But suppose he spirits you away – ”
“For dark purposes, yes I know. I’ll take the risk.”
Her eyes gleamed with determination.
“You never know,” she said mischievously, “I might have some dark purposes myself.”
CHAPTER TWO
Next morning Shona rose early. Effie brought her breakfast to her room so that she need not risk encountering the Colonel.
“Not that he’ll be up so soon,” Shona observed. “I expect he got home late.”
“Three in the morning, according to his valet,” Effie said wisely. “And smelling of drink.”
“Then it will be noon before he has slept it off. Good. I have time to plan.”
“What shall I lay out for you, miss?”
“I am not sure. I have got try to look very plain, and older than I am. Can you do my hair so that it looks very severe?”
Effie raided the kitchen for some flour to brush into her hair. If it did not make Shona look middle-aged, at least it took the gloss off her hair and gave it a slightly pepper and salt effect.
By trial and error they finally managed to settle on the right style. Shona’s hair was brushed back firmly against her head, covering her ears and fixed into a bun at the back.
“And I need some spectacles,” she reflected. “But where can I find them?”
“Higgins,” Effie exclaimed triumphantly.
Higgins had been an under butler who had departed the previous month, leaving behind his spare pince nez.
Luckily Effie knew where to find them and when they were settled on Shona’s nose they gave her an air of buttoned-up sternness that was quite at variance with her normal self.
“But what shall I wear?” she mused. “All my clothes are too fine for the woman I am supposed to be.”
“Exactly who are you supposed to be, miss?”
“Someone mature and dignified. Not a green girl. I am a severe, no-nonsense sort of person. In fact, I think I had better be a widow.”
“But you don’t have a wedding ring.”
“I will wear my mother’s.”
When Lady Helen had married her second husband, she had removed her first wedding ring and given it to her daughter. Now Shona took the precious ring from her jewel box and looked at it wistfully.
Inside the heavy gold band was engraved, May our love last forever.
Her father had given it to her mother on their wedding day, she reflected. How happy they must have been! And then he had died and her mother had married a man who was quite unworthy of her.
‘But I will not let that man defeat me,’ she thought, slipping the ring onto her finger.
“Now I just need to find something suitable to wear,” she said. “But what do I have that’s plain enough?”
“What about one of my dresses, miss?” Effie suggested.
“That is a wonderful idea.”
Effie produced the dress she wore for church, which was very simple and not at all what Shona would ordinarily have worn.
When she looked at herself in the mirror, she thought that she bore no resemblance to her normal self.
“I look like a battle-axe,” she said. “And that’s good.”
“Shall I tell them to bring round the carriage, miss?”
“No, it isn’t far. I am going to walk. That way, nobody will know where I have gone.”
“Then I am coming with
you,” Effie said firmly. “I will wait outside the house, but you are not walking there alone.”
“You think I will be spirited away for ‘dark purposes’?” Shona asked with a chuckle.
“You might be. Besides, I don’t want to be here when the master wakes up.”
“You are right. Let us be going.”
Once outside they walked for two streets and were then able to hail a hansom cab. From there it was a fifteen minute journey.
At last they drew up outside Chilworth House in the Belgravia area of London. It was huge and very impressive, but Shona noticed that the house had a strange dead look.
Many of the windows were shuttered. It certainly looked like the home of a man who had turned his back on the world.
For the first time she began seriously to wonder what sort of man the Marquis of Chilworth might be.
She dismissed the idea that he could be the monster of Effie’s fevered fantasies. But, equally obviously, he was not like other men.
Shona had never met him in society, and had seldom heard his name spoken.
“I don’t like the look of it, miss,” Effie said when they had sent the cab away, and they were standing outside the massive front door. “I am coming in with you after all.”
She had spoken in the manner of one preparing to enter the lion’s den. Shona’s lips twitched, but she was touched by her maid’s loyalty.
“All right,” she said. “Then if he wants to spirit me away, he will know that he has you to deal with as well.”
“That’s right, miss. I’ll put up a good fight.”
“Effie, I was joking.”
“I wasn’t,” her henchwoman said grimly.
Shona rang the bell, hoping and praying that the position was not already taken.
The butler opened the door.
When he looked at her questioningly, she said, “Will you please inform Lord Chilworth that I have been sent to see him by the Dowager Duchess of Gresham?”
The butler smiled.
“ Please come in, madam,” he said. “His Lordship has just finished breakfast.”
“Oh dear, I hope I am not too early for him.”
“His Lordship is always up early,” the butler told her. “As I expect you might know he is leaving the country very soon.”
“No, I – I did not know,” she replied, startled.
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