Lord of Misrule

by Sally Wentworth

  Sebastian’s eyes drew into a frown. ‘What happened. Verity? Paula said something about a dog.’ it was Chivers’ dog. It attacked us.’

  He stared at her, appalled. ‘That brute? But Chivers only keeps it as a deterrent to poachers. He never lets it loose, it’s half wild. How on earth could it have got out?’

  ‘You tell mc,’ Verity said harshly, her eyes again on his face.

  His mouth drew into a grim line. ‘You’re right; I’ve often told Chivers we don’t need a dog like that on the estate. I should have insisted that he get rid of it. But he’s usually so careful about keeping it shut away.’

  ‘But he isn’t there, is he?’

  Sebastian’s eyes came swiftly up to meet hers, then were immediately hooded again, but he couldn’t hide the deepening of the lines about his mouth. He hesitated, then said grimly, ‘No, you’re right. So someone else must have let the brute out. One of the village boys, I expect. The little devils are always up to mischief, but they’ve gone too far this time. I’m going in lind out who was responsible and make sure they know darn well what they’ve done.’ But his voice didn’t carry conviction.

  There was the sound of a car outside and Sebastian got up to let the doctor in. ‘Take him up to Paula first,’ she insisted.

  Sebastian gave her a worried look, but did as she asked, then came hurrying back to her. ‘Would you like me to help you up to your room?’

  Verity looked at the blood-soaked towel and said rather faintly, ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to.’

  He helped her to her feet, but then glanced at her Ijftce and quickly picked her up in his arms. Verity leaned against his shoulder, her body suddenly shaking as shock set in. She must have passed out for a moment, because the next thing she knew she was lying on her bed and Sebastian was gently washing her face, his eyes full of angry tenderness. It occurred to her that the village boys were in for the ticking off of their lives—if it had been the village boys. The thought brought a frown of bleakness to her eyes, and Sebastian bent to kiss her forehead and then her lips. ‘Hang in there, my darling/ he said softly. ‘It won’t be long now.’

  Almost on his words the doctor came into the room. Sebastian turned quickly towards him. ‘How is Mrs Layton?’ he asked sharply, his face tense.

  ‘Badly shocked and scared, but apart from a few bruises there’s no physical damage.’

  ‘You’re sure that there’s no chance of her having a miscarriage? She had food poisoning only a few weeks ago, you know,’

  ‘No,’ the doctor assured him. ‘As long as she rests completely for the next few days, I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

  Verity was watching Sebastian closely while the doctor was speaking, and saw his face gradually change, lose the almost expectant tension. But the grim look was still there around his mouth and in his eyes.

  ‘And now let me look at you, young lady.’ The doctor sat on the edge of the bed and unwound the towel. ‘Yes, you have been in the wars, haven’t you? I’m rather afraid you’re going to need some stitches in those/

  The next half-hour wasn’t at all pleasant; the doctor dressed her hands and gave her an antitetanus in—

  jection. He wanted to give her some pain-killers, too, but Verity said fretfully, ‘No, I must go and see how Paula is.’

  ‘Well, you’ll have to wait, I’m afraid; I’ve given her something to make her sleep, although she was as bad as you and didn’t want to take them until after she’d seen you. But I assured her that you’re not badly hurt. You’re young and will heal quickly. But there will be some small scars, I’m afraid.’

  Verity looked down at her bandaged hands; her mind had been too full to think of scars. The doctor went away and Maggie came to help her undress and get into bed. She also brought her a glass of water to help her to swallow the pain-killers, but Verity surreptitiously dropped the pills down between the bedcovers and only pretended to take them. Even though her hands were throbbing horribly, she didn’t want to dull her senses in any way. Not tonight. Looking at the small carriage clock on the bedside table, she saw that it was only seven-thirty. How long would Paula sleep? she wondered, and decided to wait until midnight before going in to her. She lay back on the pillows in the darkened room, the pain in her hands keeping her awake even if the unhappy thoughts in her mind hadn’t done so.

  The clock ticked on, the sound friendly in the darkness, and presently, despite everything, her eyes closed and she fell asleep.

  The hand touching her made her cry out in fear, and she jerked into a sitting position, her skin prickling. ‘Who is it? Who’s there?’ she shouted as she saw a dark figure standing over her.

  ‘It’s all right. It’s me,’ Sebastian’s voice was quick to soothe her.

  Verity reached out to the bedside lamp and fumbled with the switch, but couldn’t turn it on with her bandaged hands. ‘Oh, hell!’

  ‘Here, let me.’ He sat on the edge of the bed to turn on the lamp and she saw that his robe was loosely belted over pyjama trousers.

  ‘Why are you here? What do you want?’ she demanded, her voice raw with fright.

  ‘You were having a nightmare, calling out in your sleep.’

  She stared at him, only now feeling the dampness on her skin. ‘Calling out? What—what was I saying?’

  ‘I think you were reliving that damn dog attacking you. When I came in here you were shouting that you must save Paula.’

  Verity visibly relaxed and Sebastian put his arm round her and drew her to him. ‘My poor little love.’ He brushed the damp hair back from her forehead and kissed it. ‘Do your hands hurt very much?’

  ‘No,’ Verity lied on a low note.

  Leaning her head against his shoulder, he gently stroked his hand down her bare arm. ‘You’re shaking. But it’s all right, you don’t have to be afraid any more; I’ll stay with you till you go to sleep again.’

  Tilting her head, Verity looked searching I y into his grey eyes, but Sebastian mistook her action and bent to kiss her on the lips. It was a tender kiss that only lasted a few seconds, but their eyes still held and almost immediately he kissed her again, his lips drinking deeply of hers this time. Verity gave a long, sobbing sigh against his mouth and closed her eyes, wanting to forget everything but the exquisite sensuality of his kiss, of the havoc that it played with her senses. His hand moved to cup her breast and her

  body quivered. His fingers lightly circled her nipple and it sprang into aching life. He parted the thin material of her nightgown to kiss her burning skin and her body arched as she moaned with pleasure.

  ‘Verity, my darling. My sweet love. We were going to have some time together tonight, do you remember?’ he murmured as he lifted his head. ‘I was going to tell you how much you’ve come to mean to me. I’m crazy about you, but I think you know that.’ He kissed her lips. ‘Verity?’

  Slowly she opened her eyes, a lost bleakness in their green depths. ‘Please—turn off the light.’

  Sebastian’s brows flickered for a moment, but he did as she asked. She sighed, welcoming the dark, wanting to fool herself by believing his words, but not able to do it when she could see his face. Taking his arm from round her, Sebastian laid her back against the pillows, then lay down on the bed beside her. He caressed her again, and made love to her with words, laying softly, ‘You’re so beautiful, so perfect. My darling girl, I love you so.’

  She turned then, and put her bandaged hands on either side of his head to kiss him in sudden fierce passion, taking him by surprise. But it lasted only a moment, and then she dropped back, her eyes pressed tightly shut as she fought to keep from crying.

  ‘Verity!’ There was delight and surprise and fascination in the word. ‘What brought that on? Not that I wasn’t very pleased to be on the receiving end, of course.’ She didn’t answer and he gently stroked her face. ‘Don’t tell me you’re shy, my sweet. Don’t you have anything to say to me? Am I to do all the running?’

  She sighed unhappily and he couldn’t resist putting out h
is hand to cover her breast as it moved beneath its silken cover. His need for an answer was forgotten then as they kissed hungrily, but when he raised his head she said, ‘Sebastian, I’m so tired. What’s the time?’

  ‘Almost two in the morning, I think. I’m sorry, my darling, this isn’t the right time, is it?’ Gently he picked up her hands and kissed each of them. ‘Your poor hands.’ Pulling up the duvet, he covered her shoulders. ‘Try and sleep; I’ll stay here till you do.’

  They lay there in the darkness with, physically, only the thickness of the covers between them, and perhaps to Sebastian that was all that was between them. But to Verity the mental gulf was like an abyss to which she could see no bottom. She stared upwards, her body tense, her heart aching.

  Out of the darkness Sebastian said, ‘I want you.’

  ‘Yes.’

  She could almost feel him raise his eyebrows as he gave a low, amused laugh. ‘Now what are you saying yes to, I wonder?’

  Verity didn’t answer, she tried to make herself relax and closed her eyes, shutting out the wretched thoughts that whirled in her brain. But Sebastian lay awake beside her and it was a long time before he quietly got up from the bed, looked down at her in the faint light of dawn, and then slipped quietly from the room.

  It was only after she’d heard the door latch click closed that Verity opened her eyes and drew a long breath of relief. She turned on her side, stiff from having pretended to be asleep for so long. She would

  give Sebastian an hour, she decided, and then go to lee Paula.

  It was almost full light when Verity went to the next door bedroom. Paula was asleep, but came awake quite quickly, the effects of whatever mild tranquilliser the doctor had given her almost worn off. ‘Verity?’ She sat up in puzzlement. , ‘Don’t turn on the light,’ Verity said urgently, keeping her voice low. ‘Paula, we have to talk.’

  ‘Now?’

  ‘Yes.’ Verity hesitated, not wanting to alarm the Other girl too much, but not seeing how she could do Otherwise. ‘We have to leave here,’ she said bluntly.

  ‘Leave?’ Paula sat up and looked into Verity’s eyes, $eeing such bleak unhappiness there that she immediately said, ‘Yes, all right, we’ll leave if you think we Should, but I think you’d better tell me why. Just in case Maggie should ask me,’ she added wryly.

  Verity’s shoulders sagged. ‘There have been too many so-called accidents for them to really be accidents. I think someone is deliberately trying to make you lose the baby.’

  Paula stared at her in open-mouthed surprise, then gasped, ‘But that’s preposterous! Who on earth would want that?’

  ‘I should have thought that was obvious,’ Verity returned grimly. ‘Who stands to gain?’

  The other girl’s face whitened as she gazed at her. ‘Surely you can’t mean Sebastian? But he…’ Her voice trailed off, appalled.

  ‘I know, it’s a terrible thing to think of anyone,’ Verity admitted, her voice tired. ‘But look at the things that have happened while we’ve been here. If you remember, when you got food poisoning it was Sebastian who brought in the meal that Mrs Chivers had left ready. He was alone in the house before he came to meet us at the station and would have had plenty of opportunity to add some toadstools to the mushrooms.’

  ‘But he had some himself,’ Paula protested.

  ‘And what better alibi than to make himself ill, too? But he made sure he had very little; he gave you mosi of them—because he knew how much you fancied them because you were pregnant,’ Verity finished bitterly.

  ‘Oh, but he couldn’t have. He wouldn’t,’ Paula said in distress. ‘I like him.’

  ‘Do you?’ Verity didn’t say how she felt, instead forcing herself to say, ‘And that night, he—he made sure I was out of the way by taking me outside for a spot of lovemaking. Obviously he didn’t want you to get medical attention too soon.’

  ‘Oh, Verity.’ Paula touched her hand in distress.

  But Verity went doggedly on. ‘And yesterday I saw him in the woods, coming away from the Chivers’ cottage just before the dog attacked us. Surely he must have heard us; we yelled loud enough.’

  ‘But I remember that he came to help us from right over the other side of the grounds.’

  ‘What are you, the devil’s advocate? He was out of breath, remember? He had obviously run through the woods so that he could appear to have been working on the far side as he’d said he was going to.’

  ‘But he ran over to us; he was bound to be out of breath. And what about the accident to you? How could that possibly be an attempt to get rid of my baby?’ Paula said triumphantly.

  ‘Keep your voice down.’ Verity looked at her friend ladly. ‘Sebastian had never seen you before we came here, and he didn’t know that I was definitely coming with you because he’d been away and didn’t go to the house before he drove over to see Chivers on that first day. He saw a woman leaning over the bridge and he thought it was you. That’s why he ran me down.’

  ‘But if that’s so, why did he pull you back up when you were hanging from the bridge? Why didn’t he let you fall?’

  He didn’t straight away,’ Verity reminded her. ‘He stood there watching. But I was wearing tight and a thin sweater; there was no way I could have been nearly six months pregnant. When he saw that and realised that he’d made a mistake, then he me to haul me up.’

  Paula stared at her, her eyes wide and vulnerable.

  ‘Verity, I can’t believe it’s true.’

  ‘I don’t want to believe it,’ Verity said violently. Jut I have to. And we must leave here before he arranges another accident and is luckier this time.’

  Luckier?’ Paula managed a weak laugh and reached out to touch Verity’s face. ‘You really go for him, don’t you?’

  ‘Certainly not!’ Verity answered shortly.

  ‘You always were useless at lying. Do you think Maggie is involved in this?’

  ‘No, but she can hardly help but suspect. Didn’t you see how worried she was tonight?’

  ‘Yes,’ Paula agreed. ‘And when Sebastian carried me up here I heard her say to him, “This is too much.

  has to be stopped,” but Sebastian cut her off.’ They at each other until Paula suddenly put her head

  her hands. ‘No wonder Simon hated this place. Oh, Verity, I’d gladly give it to them, if they want it that badly.’

  ‘You can’t, it isn’t yours. And what about the baby? Are you going to meekly give away his inheritance? Some mother you are!’

  Paula took her hands down and smiled. ‘What would I do without you?’ She sighed, accepting all Verity’s arguments. ‘All right, so what do we do?’

  ‘Get away from here as soon as you feel well enough, as soon as we possibly can. The only thing is….’ Verity held up her hands ‘—I don’t think I’ll be able to drive. Do you think you could drive my car?’

  ‘Yes, but not all the way back to London, if that’s what you have in mind. Don’t forget I haven’t driven in this country for years. And hardly at all when I was in Bahrain; they don’t go much on women drivers in Arab countries.”

  ‘Well—do you think you could drive as far as Melford with me shouting at you if you go wrong?’

  ‘I could try,’ Paula agreed cautiously.

  ‘Great. So here’s what we do. As soon as the coast is clear we’ll sneak down to the garage and get my car, then we’ll drive to the station at Melford and get a train up to London and go to my house. Sebastian doesn’t know the address so you’ll be safe there.’

  ‘What about looking you up in the phone book?’

  ‘No problem, I’m ex-directory.’

  ‘What about our things?’

  ‘We’ll just have to take what we can carry.’

  ‘I am not leaving that new evening dress behind,’ Paula said on a high, unsteady note.

  Verity was about to tell her not to be silly, but in time recognised that Paula needed something normal

  to hold on to in this suddenly mad world, e
ven if it was only her clothes, so instead she smiled and said, M was afraid you’d say that. I’m definitely against iving my things behind, too, but I don’t see any ther way. We can hardly ask Sebastian to carry our ses to the car for us, can we?’ she said with bitter tumour. ‘As it is, I shall have to abandon my car at le station until I can arrange to have it collected.’ Paula reached out to touch her hand. ‘All this for me. I’m sorry, Verity.’ ‘Don’t be silly,’ Verity retorted on a thick, cross 3te that was supposed to hide her feelings. ‘Perhaps could cram as much as we can into one case. Try id think of a way we can sneak it down to the car— I can’t carry it, I’m afraid.’

  ‘All right, I’ll think of something.’ Paula put her lin to work and after a few moments snapped her fingers. ‘I know. In the nursery there’s that toy trolley with wooden bricks in it. We could …‘ Her voice changed swiftly as there was a light knock on the door and Maggie came in. ‘Oh, hello, Maggie, we were just i talking about the nursery.’

  ‘In that case you must both be feeling much better.’

  The older woman smiled at them in relief, but they both noticed the worried frown in her eyes. ‘I expect

  you would like to have your breakfast together in here. I’ll bring it up to you.’

  ‘This isn’t going to be easy,’ Paula said with a sigh as soon as the door closed behind Maggie. I wish we

  could go now, this minute.’

  ‘You need to rest first; the doctor said for a few days,’ Verity said worriedly. ‘But you should be all right while you’re in bed here, as long as you keep door locked. I’ll stay with you as much as I possibly can, of course, but it’s important that we don’t let Sebastian know that we suspect him.’

  ‘In that case you’d better not let him near me because I’m not very good at acting. You’ll just have to keep him occupied.’

  Verity threw her an indignant look. ‘Oh, thanks!’

  ‘But you’re not in any danger from him,’ Paula pointed out. ‘As long as you’re either with him or with me, then I should be safe enough.’