She drew out an evening gown of amber velvet. The low-cut bodice was spangled with amber beads and golden sequins, and the half-sleeves were finished at the elbow with a fall of gold net. Minette smiled. ‘Yes, that will do nicely.’
She did not miss the sudden flash in Rochford’s eye when she appeared in the drawing room in this creation. But, as Franklyn was present, she was not surprised to hear him say in a dry voice, ‘Charming, my dear. Pray, do not consider anything so inconsequential as expense, will you? I daresay the estate can stand the purchase of a dozen more gowns before we are quite ruined.’
Franklyn laughed and, taking Minette’s hand, conducted her to a seat by the fire. ‘What a skinflint you are, Duke. Your Duchess must dress to reflect all this splendour, after all.’ He gestured to the many beautiful artefacts that graced the room.
‘I do not recall asking for your opinion, Clareville,’ answered Rochford acidly.
‘The gown was purchased months ago,’ remarked Minette, unfurling her fan and holding it so as to shade her cheeks from the heat of the fire. ‘But I can return it if you wish.’ She lifted the fan to her other cheek and, from behind its fragile protection, she puckered her lips and blew a kiss to the Duke.
He did not answer, but she knew him now and caught the infinitesimal softening of the harsh mouth and the lurking smile in his grey eye.
‘However much I may deprecate your extravagance, I shall not proceed so far as to insist on the return of your existing purchases. However, in the future, you will oblige me by restraining your spending to the limits I imposed when making you an allowance that you deem paltry and most would consider princely.’
Minette shrugged an impatient shoulder and turned her charming neck in a gesture at once graceful and dismissive. Franklyn leaned over her in the pretence of adjusting a fire screen for her and said with a laugh in his voice, ‘My poor sweet. You thought you had tamed the Beast, did you not? Now I wonder what can have occurred to put you two lovebirds so at outs?’
‘I think you know very well,’ She cast him a glinting look from under her lashes. ‘Did you really think I should not guess that it was you who stole my brooch? You will pay for it, Franklyn, I promise you!’
He laughed and held up his hands. ‘Oh no! What fearful penalty will you exact?’
‘You may say goodbye to any hopes of winning Bella.’
‘Oh no, my dear Eugénie, you are quite mistaken. Bella, I am happy to say, worships the ground I walk upon. She will shortly yield to my lover-like urgings in the most gratifyingly carnal way. And then, of course, Philip will be obliged to allow the marriage. So distressing if Bella should add to the tally of Rochford bastards.’
‘Is that your plan? How distressingly commonplace! Every fortune hunter in history has attempted to get a child on an heiress. I had thought you a man of larger ideas.’
He lifted her hand and kissed it. ‘And you were right. I have not told you all. My father warned me never to trust a secret to a woman. It was the only piece of advice he ever gave me, and I have found it good.’
At that moment, the drawing room door opened, and several more guests entered the room. Conversation became general, and dinner was announced a few minutes later.
Minette had been drifting for the past few days on a cloud of romance and sensual gratification. She had neglected Bella, thinking her safe among the other young people. But now she saw that the child was pale and that, while she laughed and chatted as excitedly as before, she would suddenly withdraw into herself as though an unpleasant recollection had disturbed her. Minette resolved to win back the confidence that she had lost. Whatever the rights and wrongs of her masquerade, this much good could come of it—Bella could be saved. Moreover, when Bella’s eye was turned toward Franklyn, Minette could not detect the worship he had boasted of. To her mind, the girl’s expression was apprehensive, even fearful.
After dinner, while the gentlemen debated over their port, she took her chance. Having set the three older ladies to playing cards and settled her grandmother in a chair by the fire where she dozed in comfort, she invited Arabella to come to her room to inspect some finery she had a mind to bestow upon her.
Arabella’s listless reaction to the promised gift alarmed her, and no sooner had she closed the door behind them that she grasped the younger woman’s hands in a warm clasp and said, ‘My poor love, tell me all about it.’
Bella’s mouth dropped open in surprise. ‘What—how—? What do you mean?’
‘Oh, do not sham it! We are but two women and, remember, I am on your side. Whatever it is, I will help you.’
With a shuddering sob, Bella subsided against Minette’s shoulder and wept with abandon.
Minette stroked the tumbled ringlets and murmured soothingly. ‘That is right. Have a good cry.’
At last she recovered enough to sit with Minette in front of the fire, and her story was drawn from her. Every night since his arrival, Franklyn had pressed her to allow him to come to her room. She knew it was wrong but, when he kissed her and—and—touched her, she could hardly bring herself to repulse him. So, last night, she had agreed and he had come.
‘So you have yielded to him?’ Minette’s voice was carefully devoid of judgement. Who indeed was she to judge?
‘No! No! I would have, but he was drunk and horrible. I told him, if he did not leave, I would ring for my maid and say he forced his way in.’
‘Good for you!’
‘Yes, but then he said something that frightened me very much. He said that soon he would be the master at Camer and I would be glad to come to his bed and do his bidding.’ She stared at Minette with horror in her face. ‘What can he have meant?’
Minette realised that the time had come to lay her cards upon the table. Arabella must be warned lest she unintentionally play the marplot. ‘He meant that he has been scheming all along to murder Philip and, for all we know, hasten poor William’s end, too.’
‘You knew about this?’
‘We guessed. When Philip was shot on Boxing Day, it was not an accident.’
‘Oh! And I let him—kiss—me!’
‘Never mind it. Kisses leave no stain. As long as you are still a virgin, there is no harm done.’
‘Minette!’
‘Well, my love, a great deal of folly is talked about young women. We are neither angels nor saints. One must admit that being made love to is very pleasant, or how would the human race continue? But it must be the right man, and that man should—must—be your husband.’
‘When you tell Philip—need he know about—about me letting Frank come to my room?’
‘Of course not! Do you really think I would betray you? I shall simply say that he was drunk and you spurned his advances. All quite proper.’ She lifted the girl’s hand and patted it. ‘But one thing I must ask of you: Franklyn cannot know that you have told me all. Indeed, it may be, if he was drunk, he does not remember what he let slip. From something he said to me, I believe he thinks you are still in love with him. Contrive not to be alone with him but, if you are, do not show your revulsion. He is a dangerous man. We must not make him desperate.’
Twenty-One
She could not be sure that Philip believed this expurgated version of events, but he was too relieved by the slackening of Franklyn’s hold upon Arabella to inquire too closely into the circumstances. He folded Minette into his arms and laid his cheek against her hair, saying, ‘I have you to thank for this.’
‘No, you have Bella’s good heart and good sense. She had already become disillusioned with him before I interfered.’
He shrugged. ‘If you say so. I cannot say that I had noticed those qualities in her previously.’ He drew her cloak more tightly about her neck. ‘Are you cold?’
She laughed. ‘Not in your arms.’
They had stolen away from their guests to climb the winding staircase that led to the crenelated roof of one of the four towers that marked each corner of the main building. The night was clear, and the moo
nlight reflected upon the snow, making it bright as day. ‘My poor darling. Once this business with Franklyn is over, we can come out of hiding and live as decorous and open a married life as my estimable aunt and her husband. Until then—’
‘I believe you enjoy all this skulking about,’ she said in a scolding tone.
‘It adds a certain piquancy. Did we not agree that forbidden fruit is the sweetest?’
‘Do not remind me of that shocking— What are you doing?’
‘I should have thought that was sufficiently obvious.’
‘Do not. It is cold and late and—stop that!’
‘As you wish.’
‘Well—it is just that your hands are cold.’
‘So are yours, my little love, but do you hear me complaining?’
‘You are quite, quite outrageous,’ she murmured as she sank with him to the freezing tiles, and drew him into her warmth. The snow fell unheeded upon them as Philip covered her with his body and his cloak, fumbling a little in his eagerness to lift her skirt and caress, with fingers no longer icy, the warm, welcoming flesh between her thighs. Their coming together was swift, primitive, and wholly satisfying to both. The unnatural restraint placed upon them by circumstances had resulted in a heightened excitement that required only propinquity to release it. Tenderness and romance would have their place in the future; but now, her hips plunging beneath his, marooned in a frozen world outside of time and space, she did not miss them. However, she did not think it good for Philip to know how completely he had bewitched her, and so she said a little petulantly when it was over, ‘You did not even kiss me.’
He smiled down into her flushed face. ‘If it is kisses you want—’ He captured her lips and kissed her so thoroughly that one thing quickly led to another. ‘My back is numb with cold,’ she complained as he made ready to pleasure her once more.
‘That will not do.’ He shifted onto his back and pulled her on top to straddle him. ‘Is that better?’
‘Much better.’ She wriggled a little, delighting in the groans and muttered oaths her movements elicited. ‘How much I have learned in these past few days,’ she murmured, her lips against his ear.
‘Do not be too conceited. I still have much to teach you.’
She flung back her head and cried exultantly, ‘I cannot imagine anything—better than—this!’
He nipped her neck lovingly and said, laughing, ‘We have only just begun. But we have begun well.’
It was too cold for amorous dawdling. Minette was gently placed upon her feet, and Rochford brushed the snow from her back in a brisk impersonal way, refusing to be distracted by her clinging arms around his neck. She was laughing and teasing, refusing to admit that her amorous hour was at an end when, all at once, she stiffened in his arms, staring down from the tower to the terrace below.
‘Ah, Bon Dieu!’ she whimpered, pointing with a trembling finger. ‘It is Charles!’ Even as she spoke, the still figure melted into the shadow of the great yew hedge that bounded the terrace and disappeared.
‘My love, there is no one there.’ His voice was soothing, like a man reassuring a frightened child.
‘I saw him! I saw him plainly! Oh, Philip, what does it mean?’
He gathered her close. ‘Nothing. Your nerves are overstrained—and no wonder! My poor love, when this is over, I will take you away somewhere warm and bright. You will forget these nightmares.’
She caught his hands between her own. ‘It is a warning! You are in danger!’
‘Well, if that is the phantom’s object, he is after the fair, for we knew that already.’
‘Will you be serious? Why must we wait for Franklyn to make his attempt on you? Have you not Bella’s testimony now?’
He shook his head. ‘Drunken ramblings are not evidence.’ He took her face between his hands and kissed her. ‘Do not fear for me. I am forewarned, and I swear he will not surprise me again.’
‘If anything happens to you, I shall die!’
He stroked her cheek, in smiling wonder. ‘To hear those words from your lips is worth any danger. Never did I think it possible that you could grow to love this repellent countenance of mine.’
‘Repellent? Oh, my darling, when I look at you, I do not see your scars. I see strength, courage, kindness, and—’
‘And—?’
She blushed. ‘I think you know.’
He took her in his arms and, as he kissed her, she forgot the spectre of poor, drowned D’Evremont hovering on the terrace below, waiting.
It was hard to dissemble next morning when she encountered Rochford in the breakfast room and received only a frosty ‘Good morning’ from the man who had made love to her so ardently the night before. Fortunately, William was present and immediately engaged her in conversation regarding that morning’s rehearsal. She assured him that she was looking forward to it and had all her lines learned
‘Now you have made me feel guilty,’ remarked Edmund, who was to play the scene with her. ‘I cannot get it into my head at all. Sorry, old fellow, it is no reflection on the poetry, which is very fine.’
‘You will find it easier to remember when we have worked it and you are able to fit an action to the words,’ responded William eagerly. ‘I have spoken to professional actors who have the same difficulty, but a little business gives them a cue to the next line.’
‘It is a pity you must make do with us amateurs,’ mused Minette. ‘I am sure your masque is worthy to be performed professionally.’
‘I have every hope it will be,’ confided William. ‘When I am in better health.’
She smiled at him. ‘I hope so, too.’
However, it was hard to see, when she and Edmund ran through the scene with William, how even a professional actress could have made a more enchanting Titania. In the scene, she was explaining to Moth, personated by Edmund, how it was she had come to love an ass: ‘My love doth wear his ass’s ears with grace, A motley fine as silken hood and hose. His aspect steals my heart; no other face, Adonis nor Narcissus, has his (pause) NOSE.'
A ripple of laughter broke forth from various guests who had straggled in to watch the performance.
‘Brava!’ cried Lord Gatley, whose digestion was much improved by a week’s sojourn at Camer, and was sternly hushed by his formidable wife.
The next scene brought on the three young girls. Bella, as Mustardseed. Selina as Peaseblossom, and Georgiana as Cobweb. Although it was Peaseblossom who was in love with Moth in William’s script, Minette could not help but notice a certain glow in Mustardseed’s expression as her gaze rested on the handsome young Moth. Edmund, happening to glance in her direction, caught that soft beam, and his shy smile appeared. Well, well, sits the wind in that quarter? Fancy Arabella a clergyman’s wife! I wonder how Philip will like it. She could look much higher for a husband, of course, but if he wants her to be happy—
It was now only one week until Twelfth Night, and rehearsals became intense as, in spite of themselves, the actors grew more enthusiastic about the performance. For Minette, the days passed like a dream. She existed only for those moments when Rochford snatched her away from the crowd and carried her to some secret trysting place. Most often, he took her to the cottage where she was enfolded in every luxury, warm, caressed, surrounded by elegance; but sometimes she might find herself flung down with scant courtesy upon the straw in a tumbledown barn, or laid upon a dusty bed in a damp chamber in the unused wing of the Castle. It made no difference to her. The moment he touched her, she was his to do with as he willed. For what he willed was what she most desired. And, despite his power over her, he was attuned to her response so delicately that no deed of his ever distressed or pained her, or led her further than she was prepared to follow.
Despite her enchantment, however, she did not neglect Arabella. From her she learned that Franklyn was behaving with circumspection, having returned to playing the teasing, indulgent older cousin who had first attracted her.
‘But I am not like to be fooled ag
ain. He knows he went too far, and now he thinks he has but to smirk and be oh so charming to win me back. Well, he will not. But I have let him think it, for I remember what you said about not making him desperate.’ She blushed a little and said shyly, ‘I have been brought to see that someone nearer my own age would suit me much better. Do you not think so?’
‘I do. And if you mean Edmund, as I think you do, I could not be more pleased.’
‘Is he not handsome?’
‘Very handsome.’
‘And even though he is to be a clergyman, he is not in the least stuffy, you know. Or above a good joke.’
‘Of course not.’
‘I think he likes me, too.’
‘How could he not?’
Bella looked very thoughtful for a moment and then said, ‘Do you think I need tell him. I mean, about Frank?’
Minette smiled. ‘No, I do not. What do a few kisses matter?’
‘It was not just kisses you know.’
Minette caught Arabella’s troubled face between her palms and gently forced the younger girl to look at her. ‘Listen to me. Your cousin Franklyn is near twenty years older than you and a practiced seducer of women. It would have been very remarkable if he had not been able to persuade you to—to—go further than a lady should. The wonder is that you resisted him at all. Edmund would see that as clearly as I do or as Rochford does.’
‘He does?’
‘Of course, he does.’ She lifted a finger to stroke Bella’s hot cheek. ‘But why distress Edmund by telling him? What purpose would be served?’
‘None, I suppose.’
‘Then let us wait and see. If it ever becomes necessary that he should know, I am convinced you may trust him to understand. But I cannot foresee that it will ever be necessary.’
To her surprise, Bella caught her hand between her own and kissed it. ‘Dearest Minette! I have been so much happier since you came to the Castle. I do not know how I could bear to live without you now.’
Magical Masquerade: A Regency Masquerade Page 15
