It was a relief to her that Mary should arrive then and Christopher rose in his vigorous way to greet her. As the two of them chatted together about the events of the day, Julia gained a little respite to struggle frantically against falling apart. How odd it was that she, who never before had had to hide any thought from him, had now entered a new sphere wherein whatever she said or did must be set against his belonging to someone else. Always he had been her Christopher, her confidant, her love and her future. Maybe that was the very reason why he had had to break free and seek out a more tranquil and less voracious partner than she would ever be. If only she could leave this room and find a hidden corner in which to curl up and weep her heart out! She knew now why animals sought havens in which to die of their wounds.
‘Shall I serve supper now, sir?’ A waiter, hot and harassed through being run off his feet by the unprecedented rush of business in the tavern, had entered the room.
Christopher looked enquiringly at Julia. ‘Should we not wait for Adam?’
‘No, he will be late.’ She wished he would not come at all. He was the last person she wished to see, fearing his alert eyes that never seemed to miss anything.
When the dishes had been set out on the table, Christopher dismissed the waiter and poured the wine himself. No sooner were their glasses filled when Adam arrived, having managed to get away from Whitehall sooner than he had expected. He and Christopher had never met before, although Adam had drawn his own conclusions a while ago as to this man being the one who stood between Julia and him.
‘I’m honoured to meet you, Mr Wren,’ he said with complete honesty, for he had the highest respect for Christopher’s intellect and famed research.
‘Your servant, sir.’ Christopher returned Adam’s bow and then stepped forward hospitably to take him by the arm and bring him to the table. ‘Let us dispense with formality and be on Christian name terms, Adam. I tell you no-one could be more welcome here than you this evening, besides the fact you are the bearer of eagerly awaited news.’
There seemed to be such underlying significance in his words that Adam looked fully at Julia, beside whom he seated himself, hoping for some clue to define the reason. She appeared locked in thought, barely noticing his arrival. Then for a second as she cast a wary side-glance at him, he glimpsed with all the love he felt for her a tortured darkness in the depths of her pupils. Then, like a light giving a false brilliance, she smiled with a show of being immensely pleased to see him.
‘How gallant of you to leave the King’s company early for us!’ She swayed towards him, coquettish and enticing, her fragrance filling his nostrils. ‘Now tell us without delay what message you bring from my brother.’
‘Is Michael well?’ Mary asked anxiously from the opposite side of the table.
‘He will be by now and so there is nothing for anyone to worry about, but a slight stomach disorder afflicted him almost on the eve of his departing to Breda to return with the King. He was already getting better when I saw him.’
‘Was he bedridden?’ Julia was concerned. Fevers took strange forms and often the most innocuous symptoms foretold more dangerous ailments.
‘He had been, but he was sitting out in a chair when I visited him. He sent his fond greetings to you and to Mary and all those good friends who would be waiting to see him back at Sotherleigh.’ Adam smiled, having dispensed with the bad tidings. ‘Now I can give all three of you the news he was most eager I should convey. In a few months’ time, unless the baby conceived is female, there should be an heir for Sotherleigh!’
In the midst of her own personal despair, Julia was gladdened by this announcement. Glasses were raised, Mary unselfishly thankful that Michael should have this consolation to his marriage. It was she who forestalled Julia with her immediate question.
‘Why were you in Paris?’
‘I was on a special mission. The King is completely estranged from his mother now, but it was necessary for some contact to be made with her.’
Supper began and the talk was lively over the oysters and the succulent salmon, the Sussex lobsters, the chicken coulis in its cream sauce, the tender roasted duckling, the asparagus, the salads and the tiny new carrots.
Julia had noticed before that round tables tended to encourage conviviality by the very ease with which conversation could be conducted across them and this one was no exception. The candelabrum, set in the middle of it, made an oasis of golden light that flickered on the faces of all four seated there, creating a kind of charmed circle in which the conversation eddied and flowed. She alone remained quiet, taking no part in anything being discussed, for it was enough effort to smile charmingly at Adam every time he turned to her and she only toyed with a taste of one dish or another. Her normal healthy appetite had deserted her. She hoped that after several glasses of wine she would have gained some false courage with which to offer something towards the conversation.
‘Why so quiet?’ Adam questioned her amiably, topping her glass yet again.
She shrugged, one smooth shoulder almost wholly revealed as the rose satin sleeve slid a little lower, and gazed ravishingly at him, well aware that Christopher was observing her.
‘I’m listening to every word of wisdom being exchanged.’ Playfully she pulled Adam’s lace cuff, ‘I may have much to say to you later.’
His eyes narrowed cynically. He saw through her. Something had happened before his arrival to shatter her confidence. She was hurt and desperate and playing up to him as some kind of salve to her pride. He doubted she had ever before consumed the amount of wine that she had drunk during this supper and, although in all probability she had used these flirtatious ploys with other men, it was the first time she had attempted to gull him with them. Well, he would retaliate in kind and await the outcome.
‘That sounds most promising.’ He trailed a finger along her bare forearm and saw her knuckles clench as she forced herself not to snatch her hand away. Then he knew her play-acting was for Christopher and by it she had unwittingly put herself entirely in his power. There was nothing he could not coax from her all the time she wished Christopher to be convinced there was a new and amorous development between them.
From then on he lost no chance of paying her special attention. He gave her long looks, sought her hand to hold, paid her compliments and even spooned out the pink rose that garnished his chicken coulis to place on her plate and make it the prettiest at the table. She began to feel herself being overpowered by his unwelcome and lover-like solicitude, which was giving more help to her pretence than she needed. In an effort to break from it she drew on the boost the wine had given her to talk for the first time about her ribbon project and how it had come about through Makepeace’s theft of Michael’s fortune. Both Adam and Christopher approved her initiative. Although they understood she felt obligated to repay as large a portion as she could ever manage towards her brother’s loss of funds, neither felt she should hold herself responsible and both said as much. She shook her head as they pointed out she was not to know that her stepfather would steal from Michael.
‘I should have known.’ she insisted, refusing to excuse herself. ‘He was wily enough for anything and that in itself should have forewarned me. Also, it must be remembered that he was convinced everything in Sotherleigh was his property from the day he was given possession of the house and estate.’
She took up her glass, which Adam had refilled again, and took a sip dreamily. It was her aim to go from strength to strength with her ribbons, but for the time being she was keeping that to herself. Mary thought she had gone far enough in having a country workshop and never supposed she was thinking already of getting one in London. But that extension could only come with time. First of all she had to see how her present arrangement worked out, discover how to erase hindrances to production and be certain of eliminating any loop-holes through which time or even orders might be lost. With that experience behind her she should be fit to compete with those who had been in the business much longer
than she had.
She listened to the conversation with half an ear until Christopher asked Adam for his impression of Paris. Then she paid attention, knowing that Christopher wanted to visit that city himself when an opportunity arose, especially after Michael’s descriptions to them when they had met at Oxford. There had been enough snippets about it in his letters as well for her to be equally intrigued.
‘It’s a fine and interesting city,’ Adam told them, ‘much of it still many hundreds of years old, the original foundation being on an island in the middle of the river Seine. However I think you, Christopher, would be chiefly interested in the plans the King is making for the embellishment and enlarging of the royal Palaces. Unusual in a monarch, Louis XIV has great interest and considerable knowledge of building construction and architecture and you can be sure that where he leads, the aristocracy and wealthy bourgeoisie will follow. The King is also opening up wide avenues through the city, which will relieve the congestion in the narrow streets and improve the appearance of the capital.’
Christopher, with some diffidence, then asked Adam why he was now supporting the restoration of the monarchy. Adam told how over several months after the death of Cromwell and through Tumbledown Dick’s well-intentioned blunderings, he had eventually reached the same conclusions as many other erstwhile Parliamentarians in the belief, finally brought into the open by General Monck, that only with the Restoration could the nation settle into a law-abiding existence and strive forward to the full in order and in commerce.
‘I have to admit that figuratively speaking I’ve been detached from politics for a number of years,’ Christopher said, ringing a small handbell to summon a tavern-maid to clear the table for dessert. ‘Such matters have no place among scientists set on common goals, but I have been a Royalist in favour of just reforms since my undergraduate days and it is my belief that we shall soon see them come about.’
The cloth was drawn and the table set with clean plates. The waiter bore in a large bowl full of oranges, apples, purple grapes and early strawberries, which he placed on the table before adding a shallow dish of sugared violets, almonds and sweetmeats. Then he poured the red wine from the first of two extra bottles ordered by Christopher and left the room.
The dark panelled walls muffled the merry shouting and raucous laughter in the tap-rooms and elsewhere in the hostelry, giving a sense of privacy. Discourse became more leisurely, all four of them relaxed by the wine and the good repast that had been completed with the sweet taste of the fruit. It was then that Adam made it clear he had something of importance to say.
‘I think the moment has come for me to tell you all my main purpose in going to see Michael.’ He was totally at ease with himself and what he was saying. ‘With Walker gone from Sotherleigh it was important that every other unhappy association with him should be banished too. I asked the true master of Sotherleigh for his permission to wed his sister without contract, dowry or anything else to link the past with the present.’
Christopher and Mary followed Adam’s gaze as he turned in his chair to look towards Julia. The animated dazzle that she had turned on Adam during supper whenever he had spoken to her had changed to a faint almost disbelieving smile, which to Christopher’s mind suggested she was quite overwhelmed by this gallant speech. There was an opaqueness to her facial bones and a shadowed hollowness to her cheeks, which he took to be a trick of the candlelight, while the pang of this final loss of her went painfully through him. Yet he had done what he had set out to do in liberating her and himself from each other, leaving only the links of their original friendship. It was good to find her already drawn into a new love while he had found a haven in Faith’s patient and deep-rooted devotion.
‘I don’t doubt that Michael gave his permission,’ he said quietly, not to disturb in any way the harmony of this scene.
Adam gave a nod, his gaze on Julia. ‘He said only that the marriage should be from Sotherleigh.’
Helplessly Julia realized she must play up to all Adam was saying or else everything she had declared to Christopher would be revealed as the sham it was, and he would know pityingly that she still blindly and savagely wanted him and no-one else. Later she could always explain a drifting apart from Adam as a mutual decision that their marriage should not go ahead because of differences between them.
‘How thoughtful of my brother,’ she said in an empty voice, unable to imbue it with any warmth. Perhaps that lack would be taken for a deepening of the disappointment that Michael could not be here at the present time. She wished Adam would stop looking at her in that curious, penetrating way as if somehow he could see right into her heart.
He had watched her dilated pupils become pin-points, panic overlying her inner torture, and had read her intention as clearly as if she had spoken it. If he let her go now she would take advantage of her new freedom to escape him for ever and ruin his life and hers. He leaned towards her. ‘I hope for no delay in our betrothal,’ he said softly, ‘even if we should have to wait a few weeks for Michael to return before we wed.’
She swallowed hard. A stillness had fallen over the table at which the four of them sat, their shadows on the walls behind them. An intimate atmosphere had arisen that was almost tangible. It was one of those rare times that bond people together and made any declaration permissible, any confession tolerable. She seemed scarcely able to breathe.
‘Delays are sometimes inevitable,’ she managed to say.
‘There’s no need in this case.’ He used the same soft tone as before, setting his linen napkin down beside his plate on which lay curling ribbons of apple peel, an emerald winking green fire from a ring on his finger. She seemed to be watching in a daze as he pushed back his chair, the legs scraping on the oak floor. The wine she had drunk was creating a golden mist about everything, melting edges and heightening hues as if all four of them in that panelled room had been set into a painted masterpiece. She saw him go down on one knee before her, the plushy velvet of his sleeves rippling from ruby red to crimson in the folds, with a sheen like a cat’s fur taut over his knees.
‘Marry me, Julia.’ His voice reached her from far away. ‘I’ve long wanted you to be my wife. Before these two witnesses I swear to love and cherish you to the end of my days.’
She sprang up so swiftly her satin skirt whipped out and clutching it to her side, she overturned her chair, her only thought being flight, but he was on his feet at once. She gasped out as he crushed her into his arms. His kiss drove into her, sapping her resistance and her hope of any chance of escape. Passion was afire in his mouth and his hand slid down her back to hold her even closer to him. A tear ran from under each of her closed eyelids. What did it matter whom she married since Christopher was lost to her? At least he would never know it was from him she had expected a proposal and such a demonstrative torrent of love.
When eventually Adam raised his lips from hers and looked down searchingly into her eyes, she gave her answer in a strangled whisper. ‘Yes, Adam, I’ll marry you.’
Immediately Mary and Christopher were on their feet as well. He, supposing the tears glinting in her eyes were those of joy, embraced her fondly, kissing her on the cheek.
‘What a night of happiness this is! It has crowned a day we shall all remember for the rest of our lives.’ He then congratulated Adam most heartily.
Mary, guessing that the tears sprang from another cause, took advantage of the men’s diverted attention to give Julia encouraging words. ‘All will be well, I know. This is the boldest and best decision you’ve ever made.’
Once more the glasses were filled with wine. Toasts were drunk by Christopher and Mary to the newly betrothed couple and then by Julia and Adam to each other. They all drank to their friendship and once again to the health of the King. It was then that the first crackle of fireworks was heard and the glitter of silver stars showed through a gap in the curtains.
They went out into the courtyard, joining a host of noisy people who had swarmed out of the host
elry to gaze skywards with the ‘ahs’ and ‘ohs’ that always followed the soaring of rockets and the resulting burst of multi-coloured stars. In the midst of the display Adam, standing close to Julia, cupped his hand to her upturned face and guided her lips round to meet his again. It was a tender kiss this time and she responded as the sky turned pink and green and blue from the fireworks, bathing their faces in the rainbow light. To this man she had committed her life and must now strive for an amicable partnership with him. She had known how it must be in the very moment she had promised to be his wife.
*
Adam did not accompany Julia and Mary back to Sotherleigh, there being too much business on hand in both government and royal matters to allow his return to Sussex. For the time being he would keep the rented rooms he had, but he intended to find more spacious accommodation before the marriage.
‘Shall you mind dividing your time between London and Sussex as the wife of a Member of Parliament?’ he had asked Julia.
‘No, it’s an ideal arrangement for me,’ she had replied. ‘I’ll be able to keep an eye on my ribbon-makers at home and conduct the business side in London.’
Before the coach reached Sotherleigh on its homeward journey, Julia alighted at Briar House in the village to see how work had progressed in her absence. Sarah had managed fairly well, but she was unhappy out of her element and thankful that the last day had come. Julia was pleased with the amount of work that had been produced, but her shrewd glance took in a lack of organization that had nothing to do with Sarah. If she had had more time before going to London she would have settled a routine before leaving, but that could be amended now she was back. She would oversee the workshop herself until her marriage made claims on her time. By then she should have found somebody capable to be in charge.
Circle of Pearls Page 45
