She spoke bravely, but she also looked over her shoulder.
"It's all so exciting," Rena said, "but I am afraid your dreams may never come true."
"I'm determined to make them come true," Matilda retorted. "But we have to wait a little while. If I elope now Papa would cut me off without a penny."
"Is that ever going to change?"
"No, but we are saving money. I'm getting as much as I can from Papa without him being suspicious. Then when we can afford it, we'll get married and hide until he's forgiven us, which he'll have to do in the end."
"Unless he writes you off, takes another wife and has more children," Rena pointed out.
"Good heavens, you're right. I must make him double my allowance without delay."
Rena was torn between admiration of the girl's courage and a slight feeling of unease at the ruthlessness with which she extracted her father's cash in order to defy him.
"You're shocked, aren't you?" Matilda said, reading her face. "But I'm his daughter and I can be as determined as he is. And how else can I defend myself from him?"
"You can't," Rena agreed. "When the danger is great, you must use whatever defence will succeed. And if I can help you in any way, perhaps hide you, or prevent your father from guessing what you are doing, then you can trust me."
"I knew that when I first saw you," Matilda said eagerly. "I haven't had anyone to talk to for such a long time, and I was sure as soon as I came into the house that the Earl wasn't the least in love with me, no matter what Papa said."
She gave Rena an impish smile. "In fact, I think he'd rather marry you."
Rena stared, her heart pounding. Suddenly she was short of breath. Then she pulled herself together. "You are forgetting that I'm a married woman."
"Oh, nonsense, of course you're not. That story will do very well for Papa, but not for me. Don't worry. You keep my secret, and I will keep yours."
"In any case, I'm sure you're mistaken," Rena said hurriedly. "His Lordship is not interested in me - in that way?"
"Do you call him 'Your Lordship' when you're alone together?" Matilda asked mischievously.
"I really don't see - in any case you've only seen us together for about five minutes - "
"And for all that five minutes his eyes followed you about. I know how he feels about you, but how do you feel about him? Hasn't he ever clasped you in his arms and held you against him? Wasn't it thrilling?"
Rena recalled the hug John had given her earlier that day. It had been kind and brotherly, no more. But then she remembered that other time, when they had fallen on the carpet together, because he had thought she was the ghost. She couldn't banish from her consciousness the feeling of John's hard body against hers, the power she had sensed in him. Matilda was right. It had been thrilling.
But that had been an accident, nothing to do with love. And yet…..
"I hope you find a way to be with the man you love," she said, meaning it.
For a moment Matilda's brave mood seemed to fall away and she sighed. "If he ever knew I was in love with Cecil or that Cecil loved me, he would find some way of either getting him out of the country or perhaps even killing him. Papa has always got what he wanted, and sometimes I think he always will."
"I can imagine. You will have to be very, very clever."
The impish smile returned to Matilda's face. "But of course I'm clever. I'm not Jeremiah Wyngate's daughter for nothing."
* "Now listen here, Lansdale, if you refuse my suggestion you'll regret it for the rest of your life. You've got to learn to seize your chances, and take what you want in life.
It's insane to turn down a good offer when it is made to you."
"You are very kind, but - "
"Never mind all that. I'm offering you an excellent bargain. You'll get your house restored to perfect order, everything that money can buy. What more could you want?"
"A wife I loved, and who loved me?" the Earl suggested lightly.
"Sentimental nonsense! Besides, my daughter has always found you very attractive. She confided as much to me after your last meeting."
"As I recall I talked mostly about my ship. I think she was thoroughly bored."
"Well, of course she didn't show her feelings. Girls don't. But I knew. Now it's time for action."
"You're going much too fast," John said. "Even if I can believe that your daughter had any feelings for me at that ball, it was some time back. She may have other ideas now. Women like to choose their own husbands, not to have them chosen for them!"
"My daughter is different," Mr. Wyngate replied. "She does what I want and she knows which side her bread is buttered!"
The Earl winced at the brutality of this utterance.
"You won't know this place when my men have finished with it," Wyngate said.
"Your men?"
"The men I shall employ to bring it back to its best. Architects, craftsmen, the best that money can buy. The expense will be no object to me."
"But that might not be the ideal way to restore this place."
"What the devil do you mean by that? Of course it's the ideal way. Spending money is always the way. There isn't another."
"That depends on what you're trying to achieve," the Earl said quietly.
"But we've already agreed what we're trying to achieve," Wyngate said impatiently. "To put the Earl of Lansdale in the setting he ought to have, the setting his ancestors had. Fine lands, a fine house. You'll need a town house as well but that can come later."
"Excuse me," the Earl interrupted him, "that may be your object, but it isn't mine. I can't just think about myself. If this estate can be made to flourish it can bring prosperity to the neighbourhood, give employment to the local craftsmen and traders."
"Good grief, man! What do you want to worry about them for? A man must think about himself."
"But not only himself," the Earl said quietly.
There was a sudden firmness in his voice that alerted Wyngate to the fact that his tactics were at fault. He wasn't a sensitive or subtle man but he was a shrewd one where his own wishes were concerned, and the Earl's words had shed a new light across his path.
"Of course not," he barked now. "A man should share his good fortune with others less fortunate. Noblesse oblige! Very proper. Of course you know your duty to the neighbourhood. But your people will benefit from what I propose. My men will come in and decide what needs to be done, and then employ the locals to do it.
"They'll need to buy provisions from local shops. Some of them will stay at the nearest hotel. They'll spend money, and that's what it's all about after all. Well, that's settled. I'm glad we understand each other."
"You're rushing ahead of me - "
"When you've had a good idea, get to work without delay. That's my motto."
Two shadows darkened the French windows, and Rena came in, followed by Matilda.
"So there you both are," Wyngate cried with a ghastly attempt at geniality that set everyone's teeth on edge. "We were just making our plans. My people will start work on this house next week."
There was a stunned silence from the others. It was broken by the last sound anybody was expecting.
A titter.
A stupid, bird-brained, idiotic titter.
It had come from Rena.
The Earl stared at her. The sheer inanity of the sound, coming from her, took him aback.
"Oh, dear me," she said, covering her mouth with her fingers, and tittering again. "Oh My Lord, how honoured I am to be the first to hear your delightful news. My goodness me, such a proud day for the family."
"Honoured?" he stared at her.
"To be the first to hear of your nuptials. Oh, I declare! Oh my, oh my!"
He wondered if she had taken leave of her senses.
"You are mistaken, Mrs. Colwell," the Earl said formally. "It is far too early to speak of nuptials. Miss Wyngate and I - " he bowed in Matilda's direction, "are merely going to get to know each other."
"Naturally
that will happen before any announcement," Rena giggled, contriving to sound totally witless. "But there can be no doubt that there will be an announcement."
"Indeed?" John said frostily.
"Why yes, indeed. If a gentleman like Mr. Wyngate intends to start work which - forgive me - he knows you cannot pay for - then he is certainly doing so for his daughter's husband. Who else would he be doing it for? "What I mean is that should the wedding - by some accident - not take place, he could send you a bill for the whole cost of the repairs, could he not? Or perhaps a suit for breach of promise of marriage?"
Her eyes were wide and suspiciously innocent, fixed on his face.
"And so you see, once the workmen have arrived, it's all settled, isn't it?" she asked, tittering again. "I mean, there would be no going back. Even if you wanted to. Which of course, you wouldn't. But if you did - you couldn't - because of the witnesses, d'you see? Oh dear, I'm expressing myself very badly - "
"On the contrary," said the Earl. "You have expressed yourself perfectly."
Mr. Wyngate looked murderous.
"Get rid of this silly woman," he snapped.
"You're perfectly right," the Earl said. "Mrs. Colwell, you have leapt to a false conclusion. No nuptials are planned, and no workmen will be coming to this house, next week or at any other time."
"In my opinion it would be better if they start immediately," Wyngate grated.
"And in my opinion it would be better if they did not," the Earl said flatly.
Wyngate changed tack.
"Now, Lansdale, you don't want to listen to these female fantasies. You can't imagine that I would - "
"I don't know what you would do," the Earl said. "But the arrival of your men would place me in an equivocal position. My cousin is certainly right about that, and I would hate to attach any scandal to the family name, just as I am sure you would dislike any misunderstandings."
"Misunderstandings can be sorted out," Wyngate snapped.
"But how much better if they don't occur in the first place!" the Earl said smoothly. "Now, shall we have some tea?"
"Don't bother," Wyngate said. "It's time we were going. I told that coachman to wait in the grounds, so I suppose he's still there."
"I'll summon him," Rena said.
"I would have liked some tea," Matilda said mildly.
"Shut up!" her father told her.
In no time the carriage was at the front door waiting for them. The coachman pulled down the step and opened the door. Matilda stepped in, followed by her father.
But before he entered the coach Wyngate turned back to face Rena and the Earl, standing on the step.
"I've never set my heart on anything I didn't get," he grated. "I'll be seeing you again very shortly."
Then he looked directly at Rena. It was a malevolent look, like a blast of icy wind. It told her that he wasn't fooled. He knew exactly what she had done, and how she had done it. And she would be made to pay for it.
All this was in the silent, deadly gaze that he turned on her.
Then he got into the carriage and slammed the door.
CHAPTER SIX
"Thank goodness for you," John said somberly as they turned back into the house. "If you hadn't come in when you did -" He shuddered. "Rena I hardly recognised you, talking in that half witted fashion."
"But you understood what I was saying?"
"Yes. I would have been trapped. I can see it now, but then everything was strangely foggy. I don't understand it."
"He was weaving wicked spells around you," said Rena.
"That was exactly how it felt. All the time he was talking I knew there was something wrong, but I couldn't see what it was because my mind seemed to be full of cobwebs. It was as though he had mesmerised me. But then you came in and blew the cobwebs away."
He grinned. "You were brilliant. You sounded like the silliest woman in the world, not at all like my Rena."
She smiled. "Sometimes it's easier to say things if people think you're too stupid to be taken seriously. I didn't want to denounce him openly as a scoundrel in case you wanted to go along with his plan."
"You think I'd do that?"
"You need money."
"And you expect me to marry for it?"
"I expect you to remember that the village is relying on you," she said quietly. "But I'm glad you're not turning to Wyngate. He's evil."
"Yes, I felt that force in him too. But good vanquished evil." He gave her a tender look.
"For the moment," she said in a brooding voice. "But he will come back. He isn't going to give up."
She would have liked to tell him that Matilda had another lover, and would fight the marriage as strongly as they. But she had given Matilda her word not to speak of Cecil, so she contented herself with saying, "Matilda may give him a shock. She isn't as docile as he thinks. She's very much his daughter. She told me that twice, and it's true."
"Did she tell you anything else?"
"Nothing that I can repeat. But we're on the same side. Let's go and have some tea."
In the kitchen they ate the cakes she had prepared and she said, "Whatever possessed you to invent that story about my being your married cousin?"
"I was trying to be helpful," he said, aggrieved. "You were so worried about your reputation."
"But everyone knows me in this village. They know my name's Colwell because of my father, not my non-existent husband. Matilda didn't believe a word of it. And neither did he, I shouldn't think."
"Hang him and what he thinks! I'm sorry. That's just not the sort of thing I'm very good at."
"You're more of a man of action," she said, smiling and forgiving him.
"Definitely. When it comes to words I just tie myself in knots."
"You know," she said thoughtfully, "I think we should go out tonight, looking for coins. There's going to be a full moon, and you need to know your exact position. You might be a millionaire without knowing it. John?"
He was staring into space, but he came back with a start. "Sorry, yes we'll go out tonight." "You were in a dream world. Wyngate didn't really mesmerise you, did he?" "No, but I was trying to think where I've seen him before." "In India." "No, before that. He reminds me of someone." "Probably a picture of the devil," Rena said tartly. "No, it's a real person - if only I could think who it is."
"Don't dwell on it," she advised. "The worst thing you can do is brood about that man. Don't let him into your mind, because once he's in there, you'll never get him out."
"I've never heard you speak like that before," John said. "It's as though you were looking into another world."
"I suppose I am. I'm looking into hell, and I see him there. He belongs there, and he'll take us all with him if we give him the chance."
"Then we won't," John assured her fervently. "Now stop work and go and take some rest, for we have a busy night ahead."
* As Rena had said there was a full moon that night, but by eleven o'clock the sky was full of storm clouds and a sharp wind was getting up. "Would you rather leave it until tomorrow?" John asked. "I don't think that would be safe. And who needs a moon? We'll take a lamp."
Armed with the lamp and pulling their cloaks about them they left the house and made their way through the windy garden. Moving cautiously, they crossed the old bridge over the stream, and slipped into the woods.
The wind seemed to grow fiercer every moment, and it was a relief to get among the trees, which offered some protection. At the same time the howling through the leaves and branches created an eerie effect.
"I shall be glad to get back," said John. "This is too much like a storm at sea for my liking."
As if in agreement there was a flash of lightning, soon followed by a distant roar of thunder.
"Let's get this finished quickly before the rain comes," John said.
Hand in hand they made their way between the swaying trees, until at last they saw the cross, monumental and impressive in the gloom. At that moment there was another flash of ligh
tning, illuminating the cross that reared up before them, seeming to tower high into the sky. Then it was plunged back into darkness.
John had brought a large knife, and while Rena held the lamp, he used this to dig into the ground. When he'd loosened some earth he plunged his hands in, feeling frantically about, then pulling the loose earth aside. She brought the lamp closer, while they both desperately sought the gleam of gold.
But no yellow shone through the gloom.
John groaned aloud and plunged his hands back into the earth.
"There has to be something," he said. "There has to be - what's this?" "Have you found anything?" "Yes, but I don't think it's anything much." He brought out his hand and raised it to the lamp, so that she could see a small, leather purse. Opening it, he showed her another coin.
And I think there's another one in there," he said. "But that's all."
They searched a little longer, but found nothing else.
"Well, at least you gained something," she said, trying to cheer him. "It was worth trying."
"What did you say?" he shouted, getting to his feet and trying to make himself heard over the wind.
She raised her voice and repeated the words, also shouting over the wind.
"Let's go home," he yelled.
"Yes, let's."
In that moment the lightning split the sky again, seeming to streak down to earth, and there, in a narrow space between the trees, she saw Wyngate.
She caught her breath at the sight of that wicked, brooding presence, standing so terribly still. Then there was darkness again, followed by a clap of thunder so monstrous that it was as though the earth had split in two.
"What is it?" John asked when he could speak.
"Nothing, I - I thought I saw him - over there."
Another flash of lightning lit up the space.
It was empty.
"Rena, you're getting him on the brain. You were the one who said we shouldn't do that."
"Yes It must have been my imagination," she said, dazed. "Of course."
"Come along."
He grasped her arm and guided her firmly away. In a few minutes they were out of the wood, battling across the open space to the sanctuary of the house.
Never had the kitchen seemed so welcoming. They slammed the door behind them, drew the curtains and huddled over the range, which still had some warmth.
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