They protested vehemently when Mary said that was enough for one day, but submitted to being lifted off when Luke pointed out that the ponies might be tired, and promised a proper lesson, with saddles and bridles, on the following day. He produced some wrinkled apples and showed the children how to hold them so that the ponies did not try to eat their fingers as well, a suggestion which had Tommy giggling, and Amelia looking apprehensive.
Then Barbara took them off, saying she would introduce them to her mother's dog, which was as tall as the ponies. Mary went with them to the other side of the house, where the dog was housed in a kennel yard.
'You have saddles too?' Damaris asked. 'You are well prepared.'
'I did get them, though I was always told it was better to start to learn without a saddle,' he said as he and Damaris watched the ponies. 'It teaches better balance. Will you ride with me later, when we have had a nuncheon?'
'I would love to explore this country. But my lord, did you acquire the ponies specially for the children?'
'It seemed like a good idea. One of my farm tenants breeds horses, and these are a new venture for him. But come and see my other horses. As you have sent your own mare back to Yorkshire, you may have the choice of my stables.'
Some of his horses were out in paddocks, and came over to the fences to seek the carrots and apples they were clearly used to getting. Damaris was attracted to an Arab roan mare, but also looked longingly at a tall black stallion in a separate paddock.
'Do you prefer black horses?' she asked when Luke mentioned Jet was his favourite ride.
Then she flushed, recalling their first meeting when he had been riding a black horse.
He grinned at her, clearly reading her mind.
'Not always. But he is not a lady's mount. He objects strongly to side saddles.'
'I could wear breeches,' Damaris said, almost to herself. 'I would love to ride him.'
He laughed.
'I refuse to allow it. I won't risk your neck. I don't think he has ever had a female on his back. Barbara tried once, a few years ago, before she was married to Alex, and was deposited on a muck heap a deal faster than she had climbed up. She was fortunate not to land on the cobbles. You can have the roan.'
*
Humphrey, weary from the long journey, spent an hour in his office, and then, armed with all the papers he needed, went to confront Mr Blenkinsop and demand payment for the work he had done.
'I should have asked for a deposit, or part payment,' he growled as he and Mr Lloyd walked up the hill to Mr Blenkinsop's house. 'I thought, as he was a new customer, and might bring in more business, to give him favourable treatment. And see how he repays me! But he won't get away with it.'
To his fury he discovered Mr Blenkinsop was away from home, and the maid who answered the door said she did not think he would be back for at least two weeks. Mrs Blenkinsop was away too, and she was very sorry, but there was no one who could talk with Mr Lee. She did not know where they were, but thought they might have gone to London to visit a daughter. And no, she did not have a direction. But she would inform Mr Blenkinsop as soon as he returned that Mr Lee was anxious to speak with him.
Next Humphrey called on the bank manager and after a great deal of argument convinced him that if he extended the loan by another month he would certainly be paid by then.
So he was not in the best of moods, on returning to his office, to find Clarence Frayne waiting there for him. Clarence was standing gazing out of the window which overlooked the shipyard, but when Humphrey stormed into the room he jumped nervously, and crossed towards him, holding out his hand.
'What the devil do you want?' Humphrey almost snarled, throwing his papers down on the desk and himself into a chair behind it.
Clarence, in preparation for this meeting, which he had expected to be difficult, had been fortifying himself at the nearest inn, and Humphrey could smell the brandy fumes a yard away.
'I came to ask what you mean to do about my sister,' the younger man said, somewhat thickly, and leaned against the other side of the desk, dislodging some papers as he did so.
'I don't mean to do anything about her. And watch what you're doing, don't mess those papers about.'
Clarence jumped back, but the cuff of his greatcoat caught the papers and a pile was pushed onto the floor.
'Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to knock them over,' Clarence said, diving after them.
'For the lord's sake leave them and get up!' Humphrey snapped. 'Say what you've come to say, then get out. I have a good deal to do.'
Clarence, his face red from embarrassment, got to his feet.
'Jennifer! She spent a whole night with you, and the whole of the ton knows about it.'
'D'you think I wanted to spend a night in her company? We were tricked, locked into that damned room, and left without even a candle. Tell that to your precious ton.'
'Her reputation is utterly ruined, and it is your duty as a gentleman to save it for her.'
'Don't sound so damned pompous! And who told you I was a gentleman?'
'You must be! I – I'll make you! Marry her, that is. You have to marry her, it's the only honourable thing you can do.'
'You mean to carry me into church, and force me to make my vows, do you? Just how do you think you can manage that? Puppy! Now get out before I throw you out!'
Clarence tried to regain some dignity. He drew himself up to his full height and stared down his nose.
'Your reputation will be mud, sir. You won't dare to set foot in London again, ever.'
'Since I have no desire to do so, that won't bother me.'
'Then all I can do is challenge you,' Clarence said, and taking a deep breath he pulled a glove from his pocket, leaned across the desk, and tried to hit Humphrey in the face.
Humphrey laughed, and rose slowly to his feet. He was not so tall as Clarence, but he was far heavier, and he backed Clarence into a corner before seizing his coat by the lapels. Shrugging off Clarence's attempts to punch him he swung the younger man round, pushed him across to the door, let go of one lapel while he opened the door, then threw him out onto the cobbles of the yard, where Clarence fell against the wheel of a wagon loaded with long logs of wood.
Glaring contemptuously at him, Humphrey turned on his heel and stalked back into the office. After a brief struggle with himself he decided it would be discreet rather than cowardly, and turned the key in the door. He had too much else to think about without arguing with an impertinent youth barely out of leading strings.
*
During the following week Damaris explored the countryside around Beechwood Manor in the Earl's company. It was so very different from her Yorkshire moors, softer and gentler, but she came to love the hidden, narrow valleys, often with streams burbling along the bottom, and the hillsides with the dense beechwoods, where they sometimes disturbed deer and pheasants. One day they rode to the edge of the steep escarpment, from where, as it was a brilliantly clear day, they could see the spires of Oxford in the far distance.
The third chess match was not mentioned, but Damaris was conscious it would have to take place soon. Sir Thomas had written that he would be back in England in less than a week, and once he came Mary might decide to go to Weymouth. It was after the middle of June, so Damaris had reluctantly decided she did not have time to go with them, and would go back to Frayne, to oversee the preparations for her birthday celebrations.
The children, revelling in the freedom, and especially thrilled to be riding the Shetland ponies, seemed to have been restored to full health, and Damaris herself felt fitter than since before she had come to London.
It was on Midsummer's day that she spoke about it, as they rode back towards the Manor.
'My lord, ought we not to conclude our contest? I shall have to leave very soon, we do not have many days left.'
He smiled down at her.
'I suppose we must. I confess I have been enjoying myself too much to be concerned about it.'
D
id he mean he enjoyed being with her? Or was he simply being a polite and charming host? Damaris wished she knew. She also wished she knew what her own feelings towards him were. Somehow he seemed a different person than the arrogant man who had made her an offer so long ago.
'Mary will be leaving soon, and your sister mentioned she intends to go to Brighton in July.'
'Yes, she does. The children will miss their ponies.'
'They will have other interests beside the sea, and Mary said she intends to buy some ponies for them as soon as she gets home. She has spoken to your farmer who told her about a man who breeds them in Yorkshire.'
'Good. Now, for the chess, shall we make our final match at the end of this week? Barbara and Alex, as well as Mama, have been invited to spend the day with an old friend in Wycombe. We could set aside the afternoon and would not be disturbed. I assume Lady Gordon will play chaperone again?'
'Yes, of course she will. That would be a good time.'
They did not speak of it again, and Damaris was becoming more and more nervous. She did not want to lose Frayne Castle. She had been utterly mad to have started this gamble. The Earl was a far better player than she had anticipated, and she really ought to have made sure of his ability before issuing her challenge. A good general would have investigated his enemy before a battle. But he was not her enemy. She felt thoroughly confused. And after her defeat in the second game she had lost some of her confidence, which she knew could be fatal.
Then on the day before the planned match, the Earl was summoned to London to visit Mr Willett, who had been badly injured in an accident when a wheel had come off his curricle and he had been thrown under the wheels of another carriage.
'I must go, he is my oldest friend, and if he can travel, I will bring him here to recuperate. His own family have gone back to Cumbria. Please remain here until I return. I don't think I will be away more than a couple of nights. Then we can rearrange the game.'
*
The Earl had left, the Countess and Barbara had departed to visit their friends, and Damaris sat with Mary in the drawing room. It was raining, so she was unable to ride. The children, deprived of their own riding, were in the nursery playing with an old dolls' house which had once belonged to Barbara.
'I wonder when Thomas will be here,' Mary sighed. 'Are you sure you cannot come to Weymouth with us, if only for a few days?'
'I have to return to Frayne. I intended to leave tomorrow, after the last chess game, but now I must wait until his lordship returns from London. That will give me very little time to supervise the celebrations.'
'Won't your servants be doing that?'
'Of course, and they would do it very well, but I suspect I will need to deter the villagers from organizing pageants depicting me as Britannia, or the Virgin Queen. As a somewhat unruly child I was called many very less complimentary names by my tenants, when they discovered me in some mischief, so a sudden transformation would, I'm afraid, make me laugh.'
Mary laughed.
'Surely it will not be so bad.'
Damaris shrugged, and looked thoughtful.
'I may also need to be making plans for handing over the Castle to Lord Frayne.'
'You will win the next match. You must not be thinking of defeat before you start.'
'I try not to, but how will I bear it if I lose? Mary, I lost my wits when I suggested this contest.'
'Perhaps you should have accepted his offer, then you could both have it.'
Damaris shook her head.
'It would have been a disaster, a business arrangement in which I lost everything – my fortune, my liberty, and what my grandfather had trusted me with. Why, when the Castle belongs to me, or will do in a few weeks' time, should I freely give it to a husband?'
'You would if you loved him.'
'As you do Thomas. I'm well aware most marriages are not based on romantic love, but I have always dreamed mine would be, if I ever found a man I could love. I have never before confessed that to anyone. It seems mawkish and even childish, and I am somewhat ashamed of the very notion.'
Mary nodded, but said nothing. She glanced out of the window.
'I believe it has stopped raining. Shall we take a turn on the terrace? Facing into the trees it's comparatively sheltered from the wind. I would enjoy a breath of fresh air.'
They fetched light pelisses, for the rain had cooled the air, and were about to step out of the door at the rear of the hall, which led to the terrace running along the entire back of the house, when there was a thunderous knocking at the front door. They turned, wondering who could be in such haste to be admitted, and watched the butler make his stately way from the kitchen quarters and across the hall. The knocking was resumed, even more frantic, but the butler did not change his measured step.
He reached the door and pulled it open. Clarence, raising his hand towards the knocker again, almost fell into the hall.
*
'Is he here?' he gasped.
Damaris and Mary looked at one another in astonishment and moved back into the hall.
'Mr Frayne, what on earth is the matter? What brings you to the Manor in such a state? What has happened' Mary asked.
'Is it Luke, his lordship? Has anything happened to him?' Damaris asked, suddenly sure that only the Earl's death or serious injury could have brought Clarence here, mud-stained and almost incoherent with some kind of distress.
'Luke? What should have happened to him. I must see him at once.'
Then he suddenly seemed to take in what she had been saying.
'Isn't he here? Where is he? I need him!'
'He's gone to London,' Mary said calmly. 'Why do you not change from your muddy clothes and come and eat something, while you tell us all about it?'
'I didn't bring any clean clothes with me, dammit! It's too important to fuss over such things.'
'May I suggest I could find some clothing for Mr Frayne, and arrange for a nuncheon to be brought to the morning room?' the butler said.
Mary turned to him gratefully.
'Yes, please do that.'
Clarence protested he didn't have time, he must set off at once back to London, but Mary, adopting the tone she used with her children, overrode his complaints.
'Your horse will be weary, and you need refreshment if you have ridden all the way from town. An hour's rest will enable you to ride back more quickly when you do set out.'
Still complaining, Clarence permitted himself to be led away. He was soon back in the morning room, a pleasant parlour which was being lit by faint sunlight now appearing from behind the rainclouds. The coat and breeches that had been found for him, which belonged to the Earl, hung loosely on his slender frame. He had pulled on stockings which were also loose, and wore velvet slippers. Sitting down, he helped himself to several slices of ham and cold beef and drank deeply from a tankard of ale. The butler discreetly withdrew.
'I must speak to Frayne,' Clarence said through a mouthful of ham.
'What is so urgent?'
'Where is everyone? Where is my aunt? Have Alex and Barbara gone to Brighton?'
'They are all visiting friends in Wycombe. And his lordship has gone to London where Mr Willett has been injured. Cannot we help?'
Clarence looked at Mary and shook his head. Then he turned to Damaris and shook his knife at her before scooping up more ham.
'It's all your damned cousin's fault! I went to demand he marries Jennifer, restores her reputation, but the fellow had the impertinence to refuse! Why, he even refused to meet me! He's a coward and a scoundrel!'
'M – meet you?' Damaris asked. 'You are saying you challenged Humphrey to a duel?'
She was trying hard to suppress her mirth. The very notion of Humphrey repairing to Paddington Green, or some other recognized venue for a duel, early one morning, and standing facing his adversary armed with a pistol, or even more ludicrously, holding a sword, threatened to send her into whoops of laughter. She dared not look at Mary.
Clarence nodde
d.
'He's white-livered! I even slapped his face with my glove, but all he did was throw me out of his office and then the blighter locked the door, and I had to come away.'
Damaris lost her battle at this vision, and burst into laughter.
'Oh dear, I am so sorry,' she gasped, snatching up a napkin and burying her face in it. 'It's just the very thought of my very proper cousin having to engage in a duel,' she explained, avoiding Clarence's offended look. 'He – he would look so very ridiculous.'
Mary was trying not to laugh too.
'Mr Frayne, were you not aware that your sister has declared nothing would induce her to marry Mr Lee? She and your mother have returned to Norfolk, and Miss Frayne has insisted she never wishes to come to London again.'
'What? They've run away when I've posted all the way to Yorkshire just to try and arrange it for her? And I might have been killed if the wretched fellow had accepted my challenge.'
Damaris had another struggle not to laugh.
'Then it is perhaps as well Humphrey refused,' she managed.
'Well, if Mama and Jennifer stay in Norfolk, and really mean it when they say they won't come to London again, that will be all the better for me. I won't have them jawing at me all the time about escorting them to stupid balls and tedious musical evenings.'
He swallowed more ale, then stood up.
'I may as well go back to London.'
With no word of thanks, he stalked from the room, and the two ladies, daring now to look at one another, broke into helpless laughter.
***
Chapter 17
It was two days later when the Earl returned, bringing Mr Willett and Sir Thomas. They travelled in a coach, and Mr Willett, carried into the house by his own valet and a solicitous footman, was deposited on a sopha in the drawing room, having refused to be put straight to bed.
'I have a broken leg and arm,' he said. 'I am bored, and need to be entertained by some charming ladies.'
The Countess, who knew him of old, told him not to behave like a schoolboy, and he was to do as he was told if he wished to get better quickly. She asked about the treatment he had received, nodded and said it had been the best, but with fresh air and her care he would soon be hobbling about on crutches.
Marriage Gamble Page 19
