Miss Winbolt and the Fortune Hunter

by Sylvia Andrew

  ‘Yes, well…’ Philip felt he ought to say something to prepare William for Emily’s present state of mind, but once again he stayed silent. Emily had not been herself this morning, and, after what he had just been told, he was sure there must be some mistake in what she had over heard. He hoped there was. He liked William Ashenden and it looked as if this disastrous fire could be something of a blessing in disguise. The necessary postponement of the wedding would give his sister time to avoid taking a step she might regret for the rest of her life. She could be a touch pig-headed, but if she discovered how very unlikely it was that Ashenden was a fortune hunter, she might be persuaded she had made a mistake. But one crucial question remained. ‘When will you tell Emily what you have just told me?’ he asked.

  ‘Very soon. This fire changes everything. She needs to know about the delay in our plans, but perhaps it will cheer her up a little to know that there’s no shortage of funds to put it right. I’ll speak to her as soon as we get back.’

  Philip took a breath and said, ‘Good! But I should tread care fully if I were you, Ashenden. Emily was not…was not herself this morning. And she some times needs to be handled a little diplomatically. She can be…can be…’

  William laughed. ‘What are you trying to tell me? That she’s a woman who knows her own mind? I know that, Winbolt. And I wouldn’t have her any other way.’

  They arrived to find Emily and Rosa playing a game of battledore and shuttle cock with the children in the garden. But the game was abandoned as soon as the children saw their uncle and ran to greet him. Philip shook his head in answer to Rosa’s enquiring glance.

  ‘I’m afraid…’

  ‘There has been a lot of damage, Mrs Winbolt, but nothing that can’t be put right,’ said William. ‘But I’d like a word with Emily, if you don’t mind. Perhaps she and I could take a walk in the garden while your husband tells you about it.’

  ‘I’m not sure…’ Rosa began with a worried look.

  ‘I think that’s an excellent idea,’ said Philip firmly. ‘Sir William has things to say to Emily, Rosa. It will clear the air a little.’ He swept Rosa and the children up in a comprehensive wave of his arm and led them into the house.

  ‘Before you say a word, Sir William, I have to tell you that I have decided I cannot possibly marry you,’ Emily said abruptly.

  William’s reaction astonished her. He even smiled, a touch wryly. ‘We seem to be even more in tune than I had realised, my love. I agree with you completely!’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’

  ‘The Dower House is so severely damaged that we couldn’t possibly move into it for weeks, if not months. I’m relieved to hear that you have already seen that our wedding will have to be postponed.’ He took her hands in his. ‘It’s a blow, I agree, and I’m sorry, Emily. But I do have something more to tell you…’

  She snatched them away. ‘You are mistaken. We are not at all in tune, and you cannot possibly have anything to say that I wish to hear! The wedding will not be postponed. It will not take place at all! The whole affair is can celled, finished. I am not going to marry you, not ever!’ Emily heard her voice rising and stopped. This was not the way she had planned it. She took a breath and said coldly, ‘That is all I have to say.’ She turned away.

  William pulled her back and said, ‘What do you mean, “not ever going to marry me”? Is this a joke? If it is, I’m not sure it’s very amusing.’

  ‘It’s no joke. I meant every syllable.’ Emily looked away from the dark blue eyes gazing so confidently into hers and found it impossible to keep the bitterness out of her voice as she said, ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to charm some other gullible heiress into sharing her fortune with you! You might even be lucky enough to find one who is not so plain. Nor so strong-minded.’

  ‘What the devil are you talking about?’

  She braced herself. She hadn’t seriously imagined that he would let her dismiss him without an explanation. But it had seemed so easy, lying awake the night before, to decide what she would say when she told him. He had never known that she loved him. She would tell him coolly, dispassionately, in a manner quite in keeping with their relationship, that she wished to break off their engagement. But she had loved him, and the hurt was deep. Cracks were appearing in her composure as she went on,

  ‘I must congratulate you! You were very clever. I had learned to watch out for fortune hunters and thought I could see them coming. But you…! I didn’t see you. You almost succeeded. What a pity you failed at what was very nearly the last fence!’

  ‘Emily, what is this all about? Are you ill? I’m no fortune hunter! I have more than enough—’

  Emily wasn’t listening to him. She swept on, ‘They all warned me—Mrs Gosworth, the gossips, even Maria Fenton. She was your other choice, wasn’t she? What happened? Did she turn you down, William? Is that why you decided to make do with plain, strong-minded Emily Winbolt?’ She took a breath which was suspiciously like a sob. ‘But I’m not strong-minded, William. I’m weak-minded. Weak-minded enough to have been gulled by someone I trusted—’

  ‘Will you calm down and listen to me! I never thought of your fortune. I didn’t need to—’

  ‘Stop lying to me, William!’ she cried. ‘I’ve found you out. You were after my fortune from the beginning! I heard you say so Why won’t you admit it?’

  ‘That is enough!’ William’s face was stern. He put his hands on her shoulders and held her so firmly that it hurt. ‘You can’t possibly have heard me say anything of the kind. I have never even thought it. What’s all this about, Emily?’

  ‘Not even to Lady Deardon? I suppose you’ll try to tell me you didn’t say I was plain and strong-minded, either.’

  William frowned. Then his face lit up in relief. ‘My God! You little fool! You must have over heard yesterday’s conversation! That’s something I can easily explain. But what were you doing there? Why didn’t you join us?’

  Emily pulled away from him and started to walk towards the house. ‘Don’t bother to explain anything,’ she said over her shoulder. ‘I wouldn’t listen to you if my life depended on it!’

  William caught up with her and pulled her round to face him. ‘Oh, no, you don’t!’ he said. He kissed her then, hard. ‘If words won’t serve, then this might’, and he kissed her again. At first she struggled to free herself and his hold tightened until their bodies were pressed so close that she could feel every inch of that long lithe figure. For a moment she was swept up in the old magic as he kissed her a third time, so gently, so sweetly…until it was suddenly no longer slow or gentle but urgent, passionate, betraying the deep need they had of each other. William was the first to break the kiss. He took a long breath, then slowly loosened his grasp until he could look at her again, and smiled into her eyes.

  ‘Well?’ he asked.

  Furious that she had allowed herself to be seduced into his arms so easily, Emily tore herself away and cried, ‘No! No! I won’t be made a fool of again! I don’t want your kisses. Keep them for the next heiress!’

  William looked astounded. Shaking his head in disbelief, he said, ‘Emily, what has happened to you? You’re behaving like an idiot. This is all a complete misunderstanding! What if I told you that I have more than enough money for both of us? You could throw your damned fortune away if you wished, it would make no difference to me. I am a very wealthy man, Emily. Don’t do this to us, I beg you!’

  There was conviction in his voice. She stood a few feet from him, still trembling with reaction. ‘Are you?’ She put her hand to her head. ‘How can I tell? How can I tell anything?’ After a moment she shook her head and said, ‘I really don’t know any more what is true and what is a lie. But it doesn’t change the rest. When the Deardons said I was plain and strong-minded, you agreed. Didn’t you?’

  ‘But damn it, they were quoting something I’d said before I even knew you! Before I knew who you were, at least. This is ridiculous. Emily, believe me, as soon as I had linked the Miss Winbolt t
hey talked about, to that wonderful girl on the hill, I have thought you the most intriguing, the most attractive woman I have ever met.’

  She shook her head. ‘That is not what I heard yesterday. This wasn’t months ago. This was yesterday. Yesterday you didn’t argue when they called me plain. “She still is,” you said. I heard you, William. You sounded as if it annoyed you that I was plain, you spoke so…so impatiently. “She still is.”’

  ‘Heaven give me patience! If I sounded impatient, it was because I was annoyed with the Deardons for re minding me how wrong I had been. But aren’t you for get ting what followed?’

  ‘I didn’t stop to listen. I had heard enough.’

  ‘What? You mean all this nonsense is based on those few words? You didn’t stop to listen to the rest!’ William con trolled himself with a visible effort. ‘Well, you should have, Emily Winbolt. It would have spared us both this idiotic melodrama. Why didn’t you come out of your hiding place and confront us? Why didn’t you have faith in me?’

  ‘I don’t think I will ever have faith in anyone again. And…and I’m sorry, but I…don’t wish to discuss it any more. I have made up my mind. I really…cannot…marry…you!’

  Normally a most moderate man, William lost his temper. ‘I can’t believe what I’m hearing, I really can’t! One stupid misunderstanding and suddenly, for no good reason, you’re acting like a tragedy queen, refusing to listen to reason, and ready to abandon everything we’ve planned. So much for your promises! So much for your so-called concern for my children, your declared intention to give them love, a home, to make them happy.’ He glared at her. ‘I make no claims for myself, Emily Winbolt. You seem to have written me off, though I’m not sure why. Or is all this just an excuse? Perhaps when it comes down to it, you really are the cold fish someone once called you. You can’t face the prospect of giving up your independence, of living with a man in marriage and the intimacy that comes with it.’ He shook his head. ‘I wouldn’t have believed it. I thought I had found a warm, living, passionate woman, the very woman for me, one I could grow to love, but now… Well, I suppose I could live with a cold fish if I had to.’ He took her by the shoulders, and for a moment she was afraid when she saw how angry he was. ‘But you! What sort of a woman are you to win the love, yes, the love of two small children, to raise their hopes of hap pi ness, and then to throw it away without a second thought? Tell me how you can live with that?’

  Emily put her hands to her face. ‘Stop it, stop it!’ she cried. ‘Of course I care about the children, of course I don’t want to disappoint them. But how can I marry someone I don’t trust any more?’

  William thrust her from him and walked away. ‘I can’t believe it,’ he said. ‘First the destruction of the Dower House, and now this…the annihilation of all our plans… James and Laura will be devastated.’ He stood with his back to her for a moment in silence, obviously fighting to regain his control. After a minute he said with decision, ‘I can’t let it happen. Not to them.’ He turned round and she saw he was calm again. He gave her a coolly speculative look. ‘Very well. I will accept the situation and make no further claims on you. But in return you will agree to put off telling the children that our relationship is at an end. They must have time to cope with one disaster before we tell them of another. We have a perfectly reasonable excuse for postponing the wedding—the children will under stand that we can’t marry when we haven’t a home to go to. And, by the time the Dower House is fit to live in, I’ll have found an opportunity to break it to them gently.’

  Emily slowly nodded. ‘I’d agree to that,’ she said. ‘And William, I’m sor—’

  ‘Spare me your apologies,’ he said harshly. ‘It would have been better for both of us if I had found a suitable nurse, a governess, a tutor for the children. Anything but this stupid idea of finding a wife.’ He stared at her, and for a moment the anger in his eyes died and was replaced with regret. Then he straightened himself and said brusquely, ‘And now you must excuse me. I have a mountain of things to do, including looking for a place to live. One of the men I thought I could trust, my own employee, took part in setting fire to my house last night. I intend to find the men who were behind him.’ He strode away towards the house.

  Emily watched him go. Her heart was aching, and after a moment she was surprised to realise that it was not for herself, but for William. There was something about his walk, a look of dogged determination, a lack of his usual confident lithe grace, which gave her a pang. For a moment she had a mad impulse to run after him, to say she would take the risk and marry him, whatever he thought of her. But instead she turned and slowly walked away from the house in the direction of the maze. Once inside she sat down, deep in thought. Till now her acute sense of betrayal had blinded her to the wider-reaching consequences of her decision. She had thought about the children, but she had not given a moment’s consideration to the effect it would have on William’s life. During the night she would even have been glad to hear he was suffering.

  But things had changed this morning. He had come back from Charlwood, knowing that the Dower House was lost, deliberately destroyed by an unknown enemy. Far from getting the comfort he could have expected from her, he had been faced instead with a sudden, cruel reversal of the rest of his plans. A lesser man would have been crushed by two such devastating blows. But, hurt and angry though he was, William’s first thought had been to protect the children, and he had gone on from there. Emily wasn’t proud of what she had done. The sharp edge of her initial pain and fury had begun to fade, and, though she was still far from feeling that she could forgive him, she knew she must help him as far as she could with his present dilemma.

  When she entered the house again she found that Rosa was in the salon sewing, Philip was out some where on the estate and the children had been fed and, tired by their early start, were now having a sleep under the watchful eye of Mrs Hopkins. Rosa looked up as Emily came in.

  ‘How are you?’ she asked.

  ‘I’m well enough, thank you.’ Emily said. She looked round.

  ‘William isn’t here,’ Rosa said quietly. ‘He has gone back to Charlwood to see if he can find out anything more. Philip offered to go with him, but he seemed to want his own company. Emily, what have you done?’

  ‘I’ve told him I can’t marry him.’

  ‘I see. Have you told him why?’ Emily nodded and Rosa went on, ‘He looked so weary when he left. I can’t believe he’s the villain you say he is. Nor can Philip.’

  ‘You might be right. At all events he isn’t a fortune hunter. If what he says is true, he’s richer than I am. But I still don’t want to marry him.’

  Rosa snipped a thread with some force. ‘Philip and your grandfather have both told me you were stubborn as a child, and I’m sorry to see that you haven’t changed. You’re a fool, Emily. You have rejected a good man, and hurt him deeply in the process.’ She looked up and waited a moment, then, when Emily stayed silent, she went on, ‘But I don’t believe you’re completely heart less. Tell me what you intend to do about James and Laura? What is to happen to them?’

  Somewhat disconcerted by the note of condemnation in Rosa’s voice, Emily said stiffly, ‘William has asked me not to tell them yet and I have agreed. We both care about the children, Rosa. I care very much about them, and while I was outside I was considering what I could do. They urgently need some where to live. Could they stay here for a while?’

  ‘Of course. As soon as Philip told me about the state of the Dower House, we decided that they should. The east wing will easily ac com mo date all three Ashendens. But now I’m not so sure…’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘That was before we knew that you were persisting with this idiotic idea that William isn’t good enough for you.’

  ‘What difference does that make?’

  ‘How on earth are you to avoid meeting him if he and his children are living here at Shearings? Or do you plan to run away to London, leaving some other woman t
o take your place? I suppose in that case you would expect their guardian to engage a nurse or governess for them?’

  Since this was what Emily had planned during the dark reaches of the night, she rejected it now with surprising force. ‘Of course not! That’s a stupid idea!’

  ‘Or…perhaps it would best for the children if he found someone else to marry. Do you know if he has anyone in mind?’

  ‘Rosa, don’t! Why are you being so hard, so…so unsympathetic? I want what is best for the children, of course I do. But I don’t believe they could switch their affections to someone else as easily or as quickly as you’re suggesting.’

  ‘I am not suggesting anything of the sort! I am quite sure they won’t. James and Laura have given you their unquestioning love. At my father’s yesterday all their talk was of you and the life you would all lead together. Oh, no, Emily, they will not transfer their affections without considerable heart break first. But I assume you took that into account when you made your decision.’

  Emily got up and walked round the room. Rosa and she had always been good friends. She had never known her like this before. She stopped and stared at her sister-in-law. ‘Any one would think I had done wrong,’ she said defensively. ‘Am I supposed to welcome a fortune hunter with open arms, marry him, beg him to make what use he wishes of my money? Am I not to feel hurt when he says I am plain, strong-minded—’

  ‘Emily, listen to yourself! Even you must find it difficult now to believe that William is any kind of fortune hunter! That’s something I could have told you months ago, long before we knew he was almost a millionaire. If you remember, I did warn you not to listen to the gossips. As for the rest, I am certain there is an explanation. I only hope you come to your senses before it is too late. If it isn’t already too late.’

  ‘What…what do you mean?’

  ‘William is very like Philip. They appear to be so easy, so charming in their manner, that those who don’t know them are deceived. But when necessary they can be quite hard. I’m not sure the man who went out of this house a while ago will forgive you very easily.’