“I’ll ride, thank you,” he decided. “Then I can get Satan back before it gets dark.”
“You’re surely not going to ride that brute of a horse all the way back to High Tor?” someone said from the edge of the group of riders who were waiting to accompany Marion to Fother Gill. “He’s about the most vicious specimen I’ve ever clapped eyes on!”
“There’s a way of handling vicious specimens,” Adam smiled. “You learn it from experience, Guy.”
“On your own head be it!” the other man replied as he vaulted into the saddle. “And rather you than me, old man!”
“Please, Adam,” Jane said beneath her breath, “couldn’t you go back in the car?”
He smiled one-sidedly.
“Not even to please you!” he told her. “It’s odd, but people do these things up here. A horse—or a woman—must never be allowed to get the upper hand.”
“I have something to say to you,” she confessed as Marion mounted Thunderer to follow the other riders through the field gate. “I thought we could have talked it over on the way home.”
She should have said “on the way back to High Tor,” but the word “home” had slipped out naturally. It was how she had come to think about High Tor, mainly because Helen Drummond had made her feel so welcome there. Helen could not have been more pleased or more loving if Jane had, indeed, been Adam’s promised wife. But Helen did not know about Penny and the deception they had practised while she lay so ill.
“Is what you want to say important?” Adam asked.
“Yes—it’s rather urgent.”
The words died on her lips. How could she tell him? What was she going to say? What excuse could she possibly make for leaving High Tor when Adam had so little time for excuses?
“We’ll talk about it later,” he said, vaulting into the saddle as Satan was led up. “There’s plenty of time.”
Tears were so near her eyes that she had to turn hastily away, seeking out Nigel’s red sports car after a bit and getting in to wait for him with a cold, blank feeling in her heart, as if the end of the world had come.
Nigel saw the Dalesman safely into his box, which was to be taken back to High Tor independently, and they were almost last to leave the field. Only the stewards and the caterers were left to clear up the debris. The whole course had a deserted, chilly look which found its reflection in Jane’s aching heart.
“I’ll have to put my foot down,” Nigel announced. “Otherwise we’re going to miss the presentation, and that might look bad. Marion’s completely cock-a-hoop, isn’t she? But then, after all, she’s got everything she wanted.”
Fother Gill Hall was a lovely old mansion set against a back-cloth of trees and hills, with a long view down the entire dale. It was not as old as the Priory and it boasted every amenity that money could produce. Its bachelor owner was easily the richest and undoubtedly the idlest young man for miles around, but he was also a splendid host.
Nothing had been spared in making the present party an event to be remembered. Drink flowed as generously as the adjacent Aise and there was a groaning buffet, presided over by Roger’s valet-butler and several maids. The noise and laughter echoed to the rafters and it was some moments before even Roger could be heard. He climbed unceremoniously on to a lovely old table, his riding boots leaving their damp imprint on its shining surface as he thumped energetically on the salver which he was waiting to present.
There was a momentary silence in which he reminded them that they all knew Marion and would be delighted to see “the most intrepid horsewoman in the dale” carrying the trophy home for the third and last time.
The word “home” struck at Jane for the second time that afternoon. Marion would take the salver back with her to High Tor. That was her home now.
Marion went to take the salver with the utmost confidence, making a perfect little speech afterwards. Her eyes were fastened on the back of the crowd and Jane knew that Adam must be there.
When she looked he was standing a little way apart from the others with a tall, elderly man who had been one of the stewards during the afternoon, but when she moved away from the crowd he came toward her.
“I’m pushing off now,” he said, “but you may want to wait and have something to eat. Point-to-points are hungry affairs.” He gave her a sharp, almost intent look. “I’ve told Nigel to see that you get back in reasonable time and also in one piece,” he added lightly.
He had made her practically responsible for Nigel’s return to High Tor before midnight. She remembered his dislike of Roger Malchatt, seeing it now as distrust.
“I’ll promise to be back before midnight,” she agreed.
He still did not look completely satisfied, but the crowd around Marion had broken up and they were no longer alone. Jane could not make any further promise, nor could she remind him that she had asked to see him before the day was over so that they might discuss the future.
“Nigel,” Jane said an hour later, “it’s seven o’clock. Don’t you think we ought to be getting home?”
“In a minute.” He sounded almost impatient. “Try to relax, Jane, and forget about Adam.”
But Jane could not forget the promise she had given and Nigel had already had quite enough to drink.
“What about next week, old boy?” Roger Malchatt asked, coming up with a champagne glass in either hand. “Are you free?”
“Next Tuesday, do you mean?” There was a peculiar excited glow in Nigel’s eyes for a moment before he said guardedly: “I’m not sure. I’d have to let you know later on. I may not be able to—arrange things.”
“He’s afraid of Adam,” Olga Pressley laughed foolishly, coming up to link her arm in Roger’s. “It really does beat cock-fighting!”
The words fell into an electric silence. An offhand, casual enough phrase seemed to have everyone on their guard.
“Shut up, Olga!” someone admonished from the back of the room. “You are a fool!”
Roger Malchatt, who was still standing beside Jane, had not spoken. He looked amused by the swift passage of arms, but nothing more.
It was well after nine o’clock before Nigel declared himself ready to go and nearer ten before they set out for High Tor.
“See you Tuesday, old chap!” Roger Malchatt mentioned as they drove away.
Jane sat silently in the bucket seat beside Nigel. He was obviously preoccupied and not quite sure whether he had committed himself or not.
“If it’s something you really don’t want to do, Nigel,” she suggested, “why do it?”
He gazed out through the windshield in silence, no doubt resentful of her interference.
“It’s nothing,” he said at last. “So don’t go worrying yourself about it, will you? I’d take you along, but it’s a sport you wouldn’t really enjoy. To be quite honest,” he added, “I don’t exactly enjoy it myself, but it’s the thing to do.”
“Does Adam go?” Jane could not help asking.
“Good gracious, no! Adam would have a fit if he knew!”
“Then—why go?”
She saw his jaw tighten at the question and knew that this was a way he had found of defying authority. Adam had to be challenged one way or another.
“Nigel,” she appealed, “is it worth it? If Adam thinks this is something that isn’t going to do you a lot of good—”
“Adam has too much say in everything!” he retorted before she had finished the sentence. “It’s generally the final say, but I’m not going to have him tell me what I should do with my spare time.” The remark was obviously meant to silence her and it had the desired effect. They drove without a word and at a rapidly increasing pace until they reached the moor, vitally conscious of one another and the fact that they would never see eye to eye about Adam’s authority.
Marion had reached the farm before them. She had changed out of her riding habit and put on a velvet dinner dress, no doubt sharing a solitary meal with Adam while they had danced at Fother Gill. Jane wondered if she had
told Adam that she knew the truth about Penny or if she was still determined that Jane should make her own excuse to go.
Unhappily Jane made her way to Helen Drummond’s room, knocking gently on the door before she went in in case Helen was asleep.
To her surprise she found Adam standing by the window. He had his back to the room, and one glance at the bed told Jane that Helen was already asleep.
“She waited till ten o’clock,” he said when he heard the door close behind her. “Then I gave her something to make her sleep.”
“I’m sorry,” Jane said. She always seemed to be apologizing to Adam. “We came away as soon as we reasonably could.”
“Yes,” he said. “Thank you. I heard the car.”
He did not move from the window immediately. There was peace in that quiet room, Jane felt, and the suggestion of understanding, yet they could not stay there and talk, as they must talk.
“If you’re free for a minute, Adam,” she suggested, “before you go to bed...”
He turned immediately.
“I’m free now,” he said, “if it won’t keep till the morning.”
He stooped to open the door for her and it seemed to Jane as if she were about to leave a beloved sanctuary to which, after tonight, she would have no right to return.
“Nigel and Marion are in the hall,” she said. “I have to speak to you alone, Adam.”
He moved away from the brightly lit hall along the stone passageway which led to the business room. It was his own particular sanctuary and he was rarely if ever disturbed there.
When he had switched on the light he turned to face her.
“This appears to be all highly secretive,” he observed. “What has gone wrong?”
Her lips had gone dry and she had to moisten them before she said:
“I want you to release me from our bargain. I want to go back to London.”
Her request vibrated against a lengthy silence before he said with the utmost deliberation:
“You’ll have to give me a better reason than that for breaking your promise. A much better reason, Jane.”
She looked at him, fighting back the tears.
“Why should I give you a reason?” she cried. “There’s only one. I have to go.”
He strode across the room, taking her by the shoulders in a grip she could feel even through the thick jacket she still wore.
“I’ve got to be satisfied that you want to go,” he said with ruthless calm. “You don’t strike me as the sort of person who makes a promise without the very firm intention to keep it. Or am I completely mistaken?” he demanded more harshly when she did not answer him. “Am I being a fool, trusting a woman for the second time?”
“I wanted to keep my promise,” she said. “Please believe that, Adam. It’s only that—that I must go back to London at once. We must make some excuse to your mother. It’s quite reasonable that I should have to go.”
“But, all the same, you’re still searching for an excuse!” he reminded her grimly. “And I’m determined to know why. When you came here you told me that you would have stayed in the Lake District for at least a month, and now you find that you must be in London tomorrow. It just doesn’t make sense—unless you can tell me why you have to go to London.”
Forced into a corner, she could not think of any adequate reason. “I can’t stay here, Adam,” was all she could say. “I have to go away.”
He still held her.
“You’re fond of my mother,” he said.
She could only nod dumbly. The tears were too close against her throat for speech.
“And I have hardly made it difficult for you.”
“No,” she said. “It isn’t that.”
He swung her round to face the light, its harsh glare fully revealing her trembling lips and wavering eyes.
“All right,” he said. “I know how to deal with this. It’s Marion isn’t it? She’s ferreted out the truth.” His mouth was so hard as to be almost cruel.
“Quite possibly it was my fault,” she said. “I couldn’t stand up to her.”
He laughed abruptly.
“Of course you couldn’t stand up to Marion!” he said. “No woman could.” His eyes were suddenly coldly remote. “I’ll deal with this. I’ll settle it in my own way.”
“I think Nigel ought to know, too,” Jane said for no obvious reason except that now that their deception had been discovered she would rather that Nigel heard it from his brother than from Marion.
“Nigel?” He set her free, but he stopped to look at her as they reached the door. “What can Nigel possibly have to do with it?” he demanded.
“He’s one of the family,” Jane said loyally. “And I think you ought to trust him, Adam.”
A slow color ran up under his tan and for a moment he looked almost disconcerted.
“We’ll have to decide when we can tell my mother,” he said abruptly. “That’s the main issue.”
And then, Jane knew, she would be free to go.
She preceded Adam along the stone passage with her heart feeling like a dead thing in her breast, but when they reached the hall it was empty. Marion and Nigel had grown tired of waiting for them and gone to their own rooms.
She need not leave High Tor in the morning, Jane thought, as she climbed the wide, uncarpeted staircase, but this was no more than the briefest of respites. When Adam could safely tell Helen about his broken engagement, he would send her away. Indeed, he must surely be longing for that day to come.
CHAPTER FOUR
In the morning Marion found Adam in the hall standing on the hearthrug, gazing up at her trophy with a calculating look in his eyes.
“Í thought that was the right place for it,” she began before he turned and she could see his face fully for the first time. “What’s the matter?” she demanded. “Don’t you agree?”
“I’m not exactly worried about the salver,” he said slowly, “although I don’t think I particularly appreciate the gesture, Marion. What I am worried about is your attitude to, Jane. She is, after all, a guest in my house.”
“A guest,” she repeated, her pale eyes fully on his, “but not your fiancée, Adam. It does seem a strange thing to me that you took, it upon yourself to deceive us.”
“I had my reasons for that,” he answered coldly. “My mother would never have survived the shock of hearing that my engagement had been broken off. She had set her heart on seeing me settled.”
The color had drained out of Marion’s face, but her eyes did not waver.
“And the other twin came to your rescue?” she conjectured. “I can hardly imagine you in the role of supplicant, Adam. How did you bring yourself to ask this girl to High Tor?”
“That’s quite beside the point,” he told her stiffly. “Jane helped me out. That’s all I think you need to know, Marion. That and the fact that the result has proved worth the gamble as far as; my mother is concerned. When she is a little stronger, we will tell her the truth.”
Marion clenched her teeth.
“The whole situation is utterly impossible!” she declared. “Do you think your mother is going to appreciate it when she knows?”
“I hope I shall be able to make her understand.”
“And in the meantime?”
“Jane will stay here.”
His decision was final. Marion knew that. Nothing she could say now would change it.
“I think you’re wrong, of course,” she suggested. “She’s an utterly unsettling influence, as a matter of fact. I suppose you know that she’s been playing fast and loose with Nigel ever since she came? That won’t matter so much,” she added with a forced smile, “now that we know she never was your fiancée.”
He turned on his heel and left her without saying what he thought, but Marion had seen the telltale pulse throbbing in his bronzed cheek and the hard, compressed lips which spoke so plainly of his anger. She knew Adam so well, and she thought that she had gained a point, if not exactly the ultimate victor
y.
She was still in the hall when Jane came down to breakfast.
“I’m afraid Adam is rather wild with me,” she remarked, examining the tips of her fingernails with meticulous care. “I do rather take the bull by the horns on occasion, but we understand each other. We think you ought to stay for a day or two until we can tell Mrs. Drummond the truth.” She raised her eyes to survey Jane with an insolent sort of detachment. “I can’t quite imagine why you did this,” she said. “You couldn’t have had any idea about Adam—what he was really like.”
“I think if I had known I should never have come,” Jane admitted.
Marion laughed outright.
“Yet you have enjoyed your little adventure,” Marion suggested. “Which is more than can be said for Adam. I’ve known how tensed he’s been for the past three weeks and I was sure there was something wrong, but I could never have thought this up in my wildest dreams! Adam’s not going to be really at ease, of course, till his mother is told and you can go.”
“I realize that,” Jane said unhappily, “and I’m only too willing to go when it’s safe to tell Mrs. Drummond.”
“I, personally, still don’t see that you need wait so long,” Marion returned, “but, of course, Adam has the final say. If he feels it’s necessary to safeguard his mother’s complete recovery he’ll bear with the situation as long as he must. It would be tactful, though, on your part, to keep out of his way as much as possible.”
It was not Jane, however, who seemed bent on keeping distance between herself and Adam. She did not see him again all that day and for the greater part of the Sunday when, normally, he was more often about the house. Nigel told her that he had gone to Selkirk to arrange about the sale of some sheep. He also said that he knew about Penny.
“I thought there was a rabbit off somewhere, Jane!” was how he put it. “Adam isn’t exactly the demonstrative sort, I know, but you never seemed to be—easy in his company. I thought you’d had a lover’s tiff at first and then it looked as if it might be more serious than that. I had some idea about you and Adam keeping up appearances for Mother’s sake, and by jove! I was right!”
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