“With —?” asked Isabella, in puzzlement.
“With the old woman who was nurse both to my dead mother and myself,” explained Charles quickly. “But do you feel able to explain the cause of all this commotion? At present, Webster and I are sorely puzzled to know how you and my cousin come to be here; we had thought you safely in Town, and were on our way to reassure you as to your sister’s safety when we chanced upon you just now.”
Haltingly, and with many promptings, Isabella told her story. At the conclusion of it, John’s expression had hardened. “Well for that rogue that he does lie there helpless!” he said grimly. “Otherwise I should kill him for this.”
“The duty would have fallen to me, I believe,” said Charles expressionlessly.
John met his eyes squarely. “Look here, Barsett,” he said purposefully. “You cannot wed Isabella.”
“No?” asked Charles, with the ghost of a smile.
“No!” answered John firmly. “We can settle the matter when and where you will, hereafter, with any weapons you choose: but this much I want understood here and now.”
Charles turned to Isabella.
“And what has the lady to say to this?”
Isabella hung her head. “I — I have acted very wrongly,” she said in a voice only just above a whisper, “and I — deserve your censure, I know but — but — sensible as I am —”
“— of the honour which I have done you,” finished Charles, ironically, “you beg to be excused from marrying me. Is that the gist of what you wished to say?”
Isabella nodded in silence, and shrank against John, the red flaming in her cheeks. He put a protective arm about her, and glared at the other man.
“Really, Webster,” complained Charles gently, “there can be no need to give me such black looks. Miss Twyford, I release you from your promise to me; I am persuaded that we should not suit. I am quite unworthy of so much beauty and virtue — Webster must be far more deserving than I.”
“You — you can give her up so easily?” asked John, amazed.
“She was never mine to renounce, my dear fellow, but yours. The whole affair was a mistaken notion of our parents, and is best forgotten.”
John considered this for a moment in silence. Relief showed on Isabella’s face. “Then you don’t wish me to meet you?” asked John at last.
“I should be sorry,” said Charles, “to make such a poor beginning to what I regard as a promising friendship. May I wish you both all the happiness you so richly deserve?”
He extended a hand. John seized it firmly.
“Egad!” exclaimed John, elation flooding over him. “I always knew that Mandy was mistaken in her judgment of you.”
Charles Barsett shook his head, and the smile vanished from his face.
“No,” he replied austerely. “I fear she was right.”
Chapter XVIII: Amanda Surprises her Family
When they arrived at the ‘Bear’, Roger Thurlston was quickly transferred to a bed. By great good fortune, it happened that there was a doctor of some reputation staying at the inn, and he immediately placed himself at the service of the sufferer. Charles Barsett had bespoken a parlour: here he left Isabella and John together, while he attended the doctor at his cousin’s bedside. Presently he returned with a lighter countenance.
“The medico says that he does not entirely despair of Roger,” he said, entering the room suddenly, and taking its occupants by surprise. They started guiltily apart; Isabella blushed, and John straightened his hopelessly crumpled cravat.
Charles flung them an amused glance before continuing, “There is no danger of his life, it seems, though he has had a severe shock; but his looks will be impaired.”
“One cannot but feel that it is a judgment,” said John sternly. “But what are we to do now, Barsett? Do you suggest we still return to London?”
Charles frowned thoughtfully. “I think it may be wiser to remain here for tonight. Perhaps we might take Miss Isabella to join her sister at Nurse’s cottage — there are beds enough, and they will like to be together, apart from the greater propriety of such a course. My coach will be available for them to return to Town tomorrow, and we could accompany them on horseback. What do you say?”
John agreed to the plan, and Isabella was straightway conducted to Nurse’s home. If the good lady wondered a little at the constant stream of visitors, she controlled herself admirably, merely remarking in an aside to Mr. Charles that he must remember that she had only a limited number of beds in the house.
Isabella and Mandy, after the first surprise, were well content to be together again; each had much to relate to the other, but on her side, Amanda anticipated no joy in the telling of her story. The gentlemen soon returned to the inn, where they had bespoken beds for the night, and Nurse quickly and efficiently installed the sisters in a dainty bedchamber, with instructions to be sure and get a good night’s rest.
There seemed little likelihood of this for some time, for there was too much to be discussed and explained between them. Isabella was the first to tell her story, and give her sister the glad news of her engagement to John. Nothing this time was to come in the way of it; John meant to approach Papa, who had always favoured his suit, and he had strong hopes of gaining Papa’s consent at once. If not, stated Isabella boldly, then they would think of some plan — maybe even elope. This time there would be no mistake.
“And what of Mama?” asked Amanda, wondering a little at this new Isabella.
Her sister’s face clouded a little. “To be sure, that is a difficulty,” she began uncertainly. Then she tilted her chin in a resolute way. “But we must and shall surmount it! Mama will never force me, Mandy, of that I am persuaded and if Papa is on my side —”
“All will be well,” finished her sister with a laugh. “Bella, you know very well that he eats out of Mama’s hand! But I’m confident that you will carry the day, if only you are resolute.”
Her voice changed. “What of — Mr. Barsett, Bella? What has he to say to all this — or haven’t you yet told him?”
“Oh, yes, we have, and he was so understanding, you would scarce credit it. John offered to meet him in a duel, you know —”
“Bella!” said Amanda faintly. “To have a duel fought over you! It is of all things the most romantic.”
“Perhaps, only I’m glad that it isn’t to take place after all,” replied her more practical sister. “For I should not like either of them to get hurt — and especially not John! But there was no need, for Mr. Barsett said that he could see we were not suited, and he made a vastly pretty speech about not deserving me, and then he released me from my promise.”
Amanda received this news in silence.
After a pause, she asked, “What did John have to say?”
“Oh, I think he was glad to be relieved of the necessity of calling Mr. Barsett out. Not for any cowardly reason — you know I could not mean that of John! — but because he has taken a fancy to — to Mr. Barsett. He says that you are mistaken in your opinion of his character. He actually told Mr. Barsett so.”
“You mean that John told him that I — was mistaken in my opinion of him?” asked Amanda.
Isabella nodded.
“And what had Mr. Barsett to say to that?” asked Amanda in a subdued tone.
“He is the strangest person, Mandy. He said that he thought you were right.”
“He — he did?” asked her sister in a strained voice.
Isabella glanced keenly at her, but could make nothing of her expression.
“What happened to you, Mandy?” she asked, having for the moment exhausted the topic of paramount interest to her. “Tell me the whole. Mr. Thurlston — what a rogue he is, after all, and how we have been mistaken in him he said that you and John had gone to this Abbey that you talked so much of. I was half mad with fright for you. Was it one of his dreadful lies, or did you in fact go there?”
Amanda’s face was sober. “Yes,” she admitted reluctantly. “Yes, w
e did go there.”
“How you could bring yourself to do such an improper thing —” began Isabella, then broke off, frowning. “But I suppose you felt that it was for my sake,” she continued, after a pause for reflection. “You always did say that you would never rest until you had proved that Mr. Barsett was not worthy of me.”
Her sister made no reply to this remark.
“What — what kind of place is it?” asked Isabella, doubtfully.
Amanda looked uncomfortable, and shrugged with a show of nonchalance. “Oh, it is all a hum!” she said hurriedly. “They — the gentlemen — have a secret society of some kind there, but — but it is just a lot of mummery.”
“What kind of secret society?” pressed Isabella, her curiosity aroused in proportion to Amanda’s evident reluctance to satisfy it.
“Oh, I do not know the whole! But they dress up in white robes, and — and conduct ceremonies — and the females wear masks —”
“Females? Mandy, are they —?”
“I don’t know,” replied her sister hastily. “Yes, I daresay they may be, only I was not there long enough to find out all that. Mr. Barsett —” she choked a little — “soon discovered me, and brought me away from there to this house, in company with John, of course.”
Isabella considered this for a moment. “John says that it was Mr. Thurlston who made the arrangements for you to go to that place,” said she, frowning. “What a villain he is, Mandy! He planned to injure us both.”
Amanda shook her head. “I have been turning it over in my mind, and I feel convinced that his original plan was to injure his cousin. He meant to smuggle me into the Abbey, and somehow contrive to blame it on to Mr. Barsett. I feel sure that was the real reason why he was unwilling for me to tell John who was helping me in the affair, and also why he said it would be better if John did not accompany me into the grounds. He hoped to implicate his cousin, but I spoilt that by confiding in John.”
“He must have surely realised that you might,” replied her sister. “But only fancy, Mandy! The wretch actually made me a declaration.”
Amanda stared. “Did he? But I’m not surprised, after all. Bella, I recollect now that I once let slip to him that you were possessed of a handsome fortune. You may be sure that he was after it.”
“I had realised that — earlier this evening,” said Isabella, shuddering. “He tried to make me think that you and John had eloped together — and offered me his hand and heart in consolation. He must have got wind somehow of — of my feelings for John.”
She looked inquiringly at Amanda as she said this, and the other girl coloured. “I daresay I may have dropped a hint or two,” she confessed sheepishly. “I was so upset at your persistence in maintaining your engagement to — to Mr. Barsett. I knew all along that it was John you really loved.”
“Oh, well, I forgive you,” replied Isabella magnanimously. “But I must say, Mandy, that you would do better to be more on your guard in future. True, it is not every day that one meets with such a rogue, but it’s as well to be prepared, and you are a deal too free in your manner at times.”
“How did he persuade you to go with him?” asked Amanda, ignoring this homily.
“He finally told me that he believed you had gone off to the Abbey, and he painted a lurid picture of what kind of place it was. It sounded so likely a tale, and I was so wild with concern for you, that I never gave one thought to the impropriety of going off with him alone. Who would, in a like case? Which, of course, was exactly what he had anticipated. I played right into his hands,” concluded Isabella ruefully.
“And then instead he took you to this toll house?”
Isabella shuddered violently. “Don’t let us speak of that any more. I shall never forget it — never!”
At this point in the conversation there was a gentle tap on the door. Amanda opened it, and Nurse came clucking into the room.
“What, not abed yet?” the old lady asked, in pretended horror. “Come, now, my dears, you’ve both had a trying day, and must be astir betimes tomorrow for your journey to London. If we’re to keep the roses in those cheeks, we must get a good night’s rest.”
The two sisters responded automatically to the authority of her kindly voice, and were reminded of similar reproofs delivered when they were much younger than now. Within five minutes of her quitting the room they were safely between the lavender-scented sheets, and the candle was extinguished.
“Mandy,” whispered Isabella, before she turned over to go to sleep.
“Mmm?” was the sleepy answer.
“You did not find this Abbey so very shocking a place, then?”
Amanda, roused by this question, hesitated before replying to it. Not for worlds could she bring herself to confess her real sentiments on the subject, even to Isabella. “It — it is not at all the thing,” she said at last, borrowing a phrase from John. “But I think that the rumours concerning it may be a little exaggerated. All the same, we must not speak of it in company, and so I warn you, Bella!”
“Of course, I realise that,” replied her sister, turning to plump up her pillow.
There was a pause, then Isabella said thoughtfully, “Mr. Barsett behaved towards you in a gentlemanlike way, however, even if he is a member of this odious society.”
“I — I think he is finished with it now,” said Amanda hastily. “He told me that it had amused him to belong to it at one time, but that he had since found it tedious. I remember, too, that the — the others — said that he hadn’t joined in any of their activities on this occasion.”
Her face flamed crimson as she recalled the scene in the grounds of the Abbey; it seemed to her that it would be for ever engraved on her memory. Fortunately the room was dark.
Isabella yawned. “Perhaps he is not so black as he is painted,” she said sleepily. “I’m glad of it, for John appears to like him. He says that it is his intention to ask Mr. Barsett to be chief groomsman at our wedding.”
In spite of herself, Amanda went off into peals of subdued laughter at this information. “Oh, Bella, that will indeed be odd. Why, only yesterday he was to be the groom!”
“Life is full of surprises,” stated Isabella in a drowsy tone. “I wonder whom you will wed, Mandy?”
There was no answer to this. After a moment, Isabella fell fast asleep to dream of John.
At an early hour the next morning the two gentlemen presented themselves at Nurse’s cottage. They brought with them an indifferent account of Mr. Thurlston. He had passed a restless night, and was in some pain.
“However, he has someone to console him,” said John, with a grin. “It appears that Miss Dunster — you will recollect her, Bella, she is the fat, white female who gushes — was staying the night at the ‘Bear’ on her way back to the West Country. She came downstairs this morning all prepared for an early start, together with her travelling companion. No sooner does she learn who it is who is lying injured in the inn than she cancels all her arrangements, and begs the doctor to allow her to assist in the nursing of him. It seems that nursing is her one passion! When we left, she was preparing a soothing posset in the kitchen with her own hands! The landlady and the doctor didn’t like it I can tell you, but she is so rich no one dares to offend her!”
“However, I believe that we will not leave him entirely to her tender ministrations,” said Charles Barsett. “When we reach Town, I shall instantly inform my aunt of his condition. No doubt she will post here at once.”
This was the first time he had spoken, except to murmur a formal word of greeting to the sisters on arrival. Amanda stole a covert glance at his face. It wore a grave expression, and there were dark shadows under his eyes, as though he had not slept. No doubt he was concerned for his cousin. She knew a moment’s sudden anger: why should he worry over one who had always sought to injure him? Not that she cared what he did, she told herself hastily. For her part, he could lie awake worrying over all the cousins in Christendom.
She patently ignored hi
m while preparations were being made for the journey to Town. These were slight enough, as neither sister was equipped with any luggage: Nurse had lent them all that was needful. They both thanked her now sincerely for all her kindness, and said goodbye with real regret.
She retained Amanda’s hand for a moment longer than was necessary. “Look well into your heart, my dear,” she whispered, as that young lady was about to step into the coach. “God bless you.”
Amanda pondered this cryptic utterance, but some impulse prevented her from confiding it to Isabella, who, in any event, found it difficult to talk of anything but her new engagement, and how she was to break the news of it to her parents. After a time, Amanda gave up suggesting ways and means, and relapsed into her own thoughts.
These were confused and unhappy — quite a new thing for Amanda. She found herself hoping that her parents might decide to remove permanently to their home in Berkshire. The prospect of returning to a round of social pleasure held for her no appeal; besides, if she remained in Town, she might possibly encounter Charles Barsett. This was the last thing she wanted. When she thought of him, it was with a strange mental shrinking, as though somewhere in her mind was an open wound which must be protected at all costs.
The journey was uneventful, and shortly after one o’clock the two sisters were deposited safe and sound at their own door. Mr. Barsett took his leave of them immediately, but John entered the house, and sat on with them for a little time. It was decided that he should call on the following day, when my Lord Twyford would have returned to Town, and seek her father’s permission to pay his addresses to Isabella.
“But you have paid them, have you not?” laughed Amanda, diverted by this. “And you have already had your answer!”
“Do not jest, Mandy!” reproved Isabella, with a look of apprehension. “I do not quite know how I am to tell Papa that I have decided to wed another man than the one to whom I am promised. I feel sure you would not care to be in such an awkward fix.”
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