He met her stare with all the frost his blue eyes possessed. “You think I could do that?”
She smiled but amusement was no part of it. “I know you are supposed to have a sensual nature. Your wife has indicated that she wouldn’t be insulted if you took such a step. By the way, is it true?”
“Is what true?”
“Are you in the family way?”
I knew it couldn’t last forever. “It’s early days.”
“Then you won’t be…available for a while,” Julia said. “You might like to watch. I know Steven does.” She turned a look of such melting fondness on her husband, I knew it had to be false. Did he enjoy watching his wife with other men? I wouldn’t call it making love—nothing could be further from it. The physical act went by many names but not always making love.
Steven returned her look but didn’t smile. I knew Richard had glanced at me, to see if I minded, if I wanted to leave but I wasn’t so easily scared away. I had recovered my composure and turned a blank stare on them. Julia, in her favourite blue, showed some heat for the first time. Steven merely looked pleased.
“Something occurs to me.” They both turned to look at Richard, although he hadn’t raised his voice. “If you’re indulging in these activities, what happens when you”—he indicated Julia—“get into the family way? Who has paternity?”
“Why, Steven does,” she said. “Besides, there are ways of arranging these things.”
“So there are but none of them are certain.”
He was caught by something in Julia’s gaze, something of enquiry and he lifted one eyebrow but said nothing. “I’d always heard you had a sensual nature,” she confessed. “It was one of the reasons I accepted your offer but I never saw anything of it.”
This was the first time I had heard it from her side, that the betrothal period had been as cold as Richard had always described it. I wondered why. Julia was attractive, it was obvious she wasn’t as frigid as Richard had always claimed and he had given up his other women for her. As he and I had discovered, to make love during the betrothal period wasn’t considered a particularly venal sin and since we’d found such joy with each other, what could have put him off Julia before he met me?
All he would say was, “You shouldn’t believe everything you read.”
“I have heard you talked about by women who would know,” she persisted.
I remembered that night on our honeymoon when we had both been bettered by drink and desire, when love and tenderness had temporarily left us. The passion and excitement of that raw evening had helped me to understand what it would have been like to be his mistress. It would still be worth having.
“Perhaps, Julia, it was something in you,” he said then, chillingly. “I can’t recall receiving any complaints elsewhere.”
Steven glanced at me. I smiled at him, as I would a friend across the room at a public gathering. I pretended to disregard him but I knew I must be careful.
The door opened and refreshments were served. I could busy myself pouring tea, so the moment was lost, although I knew without looking that Steven still held me under close scrutiny, his gaze burning and steady. Bolstered by Richard’s presence, I had nothing to fear.
“Julia,” Richard said, attracting her attention again, “you confuse having a sensual nature with having a perverse one. I tried many pastimes and I discarded most of them years ago. I have no interest in putting myself under your jurisdiction in any way. This new activity is just another method of control for you. I don’t think you care about it one way or the other.”
Julia put down her tea-dish with a sharp click and I made a mental note to bespeak another one from the shop before they ran out of stock. “I was introduced to certain things by my dear husband. Things you’re probably not capable of. We are as one in that respect.” I didn’t believe her. It was the control, the power she wanted, I was sure of it. “We thought you were of a similar mind but it seems not.”
“Mind seems to have little to do with it,” Richard said dryly.
Julia shrugged. “Perhaps that is the appeal. Certainly, we can number many eminent people amongst our number.”
I fought to control my distress. “And you think that gives you power?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Steven put his hand over Julia’s to prevent her reply. It was the first time he had touched her. “We don’t do it for that reason. If you’re not interested in our concerns, there seems to be no more to say about it but the purpose of our visit remains.” He turned back to us and his voice hardened, becoming more demanding. “Where is the girl?”
Richard, who had been so still he might have been emulating a statue, finally moved, sitting down in a chair by the window. From there, he could look at me without turning his head and still keep the Drurys in view.
Since Steven was looking at me, I said, “How should I know?”
“You know because you took her.”
I was ready for that. “Why should I do that?”
He shrugged, a far less elegant gesture Richard made of it. “Who knows? Chivalry probably. But she wants to, so you’re saving her from nothing.”
“There is the other reason,” Julia said. We all looked at her with different thoughts in our hearts. She faced Richard. “You know, I’m not sure you do,” she went on, turning to stare at me. There was a silence while I waited for her to speak. I would not make the grave mistake of saying something about Susan’s parentage and perhaps provide the Drurys with information they did not possess.
Eventually, when it was obvious that the Drurys were waiting for me, I said, “Tell me.”
Julia smiled again then, a smile of pure triumph. “I thought you were close to your husband.” She didn’t take her pale gaze from mine for a second, savouring her moment. “Susan Jackson should really be Susan Kerre. She’s the daughter of your husband, Richard Kerre.”
I met her gaze calmly.
Her husband sprang to his feet in shock, or perhaps consternation. “You don’t mean it.” He stared down at his wife. His mouth was open, his eyes wide with amazement.
She met his gaze calmly. “Lucy Forder told me. She worked at Eyton when she was a girl and once she’d been seduced, they sent her away.”
I saw a movement from the corner of my eye. Richard, hit again by the injustice done for his benefit, moved his hand towards his face, then stopped and moved it slowly back down again. Julia saw his reaction and while her husband was absorbing the enormity of the information he had just received, she turned her attention to my husband. “You told her?”
“We have no secrets. It’s why your suggestion was more than repellent to us. Now that I know you knew, it is doubly vile.”
“Or doubly intriguing?” She leaned back in her chair, fully in control of her emotions. Her husband was dumbfounded; her ex-betrothed as overcome as she’d ever seen him. I chose to appear cowed. I knew it was important to let her have her head—people are most forthcoming when they think they are in control—so I remained silent. If Richard needed me, I was there but I would let him lead.
“Don’t you think it would be a delicious piquancy to see a virgin deflowered in public by her own father?” She fixed her pale eyes on Richard. “Especially when everyone but the girl knows it?”
Richard held himself together with bands of mental steel. “How do you think that would make the girl feel? Would it improve her in any way, do you think?” He leaned back and crossed one leg over the other, seemingly at ease.
“She wouldn’t mind what she did after that. To be honest, I was hoping you’d take her into keeping.”
“Do you think I would? Do you really think that little of me, Julia, that you would drag me down to your level?”
She studied him in silence. “Or up? Why should there be any limit to what we can experience?”
“Incest is against the law,” Richard replied. “And against most of the instincts of man.”
Steven sat with a thump, still staring at Julia, who was stil
l ignoring him. He was peripheral to this discussion, as was I. “And I was to keep Rose busy while you oversaw all this?”
“Yes.” She didn’t look at him.
“And you didn’t trust me enough to tell me?”
“It wasn’t my secret,” she replied. “Lucy made me promise not to tell anyone but she thought, since I was betrothed to him once, I should know. She didn’t make me promise not to use the knowledge.”
Steven shook his head and regarded me. “I didn’t know.” He looked bleak, as well he might.
“So you would have gone through with it without knowing that final piece?” I answered him. “Isn’t the whole sordid affair bad enough without knowing Susan’s identity?”
Steven shrugged. “Julia opened the door for me.”
Richard drew everyone’s attention when he spoke. “And pushed you through it.” For the first time, I began to see Steven’s side of the story and felt sorry for him, despite his vicious proclivities. After all, he’d managed to control them until he came into Julia’s orbit. “You’re a manipulator, Julia, a user. Are you a murderer? Did you decide Lucy was in the way, that she had to go? We have good reason to assume you’re capable of it, at least of ordering it, so did you do it?” He stood again, so he could look down on her.
She lifted up her face, flower-like in its purity. “She didn’t know I planned this. She knew about the club; she appeared there once or twice herself.” She paused, waiting but Richard didn’t respond. “She didn’t want Susan to appear there, she had higher ambitions for her but she could have been brought around, I’m sure of it.” Julia sighed. “Actually, I wanted her to see you at the last minute, to see you having her daughter, not knowing. That would have been exquisite.”
Richard let his contempt show. “Exquisite isn’t the word I would use.” He looked down at her and the silence was tangible. “So you think you had Lucy under control?” Without warning, he turned his icy blue stare to Steven. “How about you?”
He blinked, looked away. “I didn’t know any of this. I’ve been following my desires, my needs for the last year.”
“Then we’ll leave you to wallow in your own filth. Did you kill her?”
“Of course not. I was fond of Lucy.” He would say no more, staring down at his clasped hands, the knuckles white.
There was a pause that no one rushed to fill, although eventually Richard did. “Your wife needs controlling. If I were you, I would assert my authority. From what I’ve heard—and seen—you should enjoy that.” Steven didn’t look up.
Richard turned his attention back to Julia, who was smiling sweetly. “Besides, there was a meeting of our club that night. It went on until the morning and no one was alone until late on the next day. Most of the members paired off, none with the partner they had arrived with. I can produce witnesses, of course and there are the minutes.”
“Minutes?” Richard echoed. Where Julia’s evil designs had seemingly left him unmoved, the thought of detailed accounts was incredulous.
“I keep them and they’re approved before the next meeting. It is a club, after all. Everyone has a code name but I can put identities to them all.” Julia’s face held that look of calm serenity seen on paintings of saints in ecstasy.
Richard stared at her in silence for several minutes. “I shall ask you to leave now. Needless to say, any but the most remote social contacts between us will cease from today. I will not have you polluting my wife’s presence, or disturbing her any further. Attempts to exact any kind of revenge will be met with stronger reprisals than before. If you accept my terms, we’ll leave you alone and you can continue with your activities—within limits. However, if you try to entrap anyone in this way again, we will work against you.” He lifted his gaze to Steven. “And if I hear of you forcing an unwilling woman, you will hear from me. Count on it.”
Julia’s beatific smile had slipped to a sneer but Steven stared down at his hands. He wasn’t a stupid man and I felt sure he would curtail his wife, or attempt to, now that he was aware of the full extent of the workings of her mind.
Her triumph would have been to see my husband deflower his own daughter in front of witnesses, to give her a hold over him with which she could threaten him for years to come. I didn’t think she would stop. I had thought her motive was revenge but it was more than that; she actually enjoyed using other people and it seemed that the more perverted the use was, the more she enjoyed it. Her own sacrifice on the altar would have been a small price for her to pay.
Chapter Twenty-Six
THEY TOOK THEIR LEAVE. Richard saw them to the door of the room, then came back to me. When the front door slammed, he took my hand and smiled reassuringly. “All right? I’m sorry you had to hear such filth. If I’d known, I would have seen them alone.”
I shook my head. All the emotion he’d held back was there for me to see. Shock, disgust and overriding it all, love and concern. “I want to share your life, Richard, not be a pet for you.”
He raised my hand to his lips. “Brave, wonderful woman. My sweet love, my instincts are to look after you, to shelter you. It seems I’ll have to curb my more protective instincts, won’t I?”
I smiled. “No, just be aware that if you try to shut me out, I’ll push my way back in. Where you’re concerned, I have no pride.”
He touched my face, moved a gentle thumb over my cheekbone. “I don’t deserve you. But I thank God you didn’t fall into Drury’s clutches.”
“Thank God indeed.”
LATER A NEATLY WRITTEN copy of the minutes of the Cytherean Society was delivered by hand. It was brought to us and left outside our room, since I had returned to bed and Richard had decided to join me. One thing had led to another and we were now nicely sated, naked and warm.
The note was brought in with the light meal Richard had ordered. “To keep up my strength,” he’d said.
Richard glanced at the note, then tossed it aside. “It seems there were some eminent people present that night and Julia was doing the honours. They would both have been in clear sight.”
“So they couldn’t have killed Lucy?”
He sighed. “It seems not. It doesn’t prove they couldn’t have had her killed but that’s unlikely. Lucy was under their control and they think they could have brought her around. They had no need to kill her.”
I nodded. “We have to concentrate on the Greenes. It will be a relief, a breath of fresh air after the Drurys.”
He took my hand. “Much as you are, my sweet, after the rigours of society.” Then he took much more, with my willing co-operation.
THE NEXT DAY WE WENT together to Aunt Godolphin’s to see the maid. I’d sent my aunt a note, briefly requesting an interview with the girl and she had replied in the affirmative by the same messenger.
When we arrived in Harley Street, Aunt Godolphin and the maid were waiting in the parlour on the ground floor. My aunt kissed me, curtseyed to Richard a little shyly and poured us all some tea. Richard sat next to me on my aunt’s sofa, near the friendly fire. I’d been in a lot of these parlours recently and this was one of my favourites. It seemed like a real home, with prints and family pictures on the walls and signs of wear on the comfortable furniture.
I had a distinct fondness for tea these days and when I mentioned it, my aunt smiled indulgently. “Women in your condition often get fancies. I myself couldn’t abide tea but I couldn’t get enough toast.”
“Toast?” I smiled, amused by her words.
“Yes and I don’t care for it in the usual run of things more than anything else.” She smiled back. “But when I was in a similar condition, I had it with every meal.” She motioned to the girl, Greene, who was standing quietly by her chair. “Will you need her for long? She has duties she should be attending to.”
“Not long, ma’am.” Richard looked at the girl and she looked at the floor. “I have a disinclination to look at the top of your head.” The maid lifted her head and, blinking, stared straight at him. She wasn’t as young as I
’d thought but small and scared looking. Her grey eyes were wide with apprehension and the corners of her mouth shook a little.
“You’re the sister of the man who left after Forder’s death?” Richard asked.
She bowed her head. “Yes, my lord.”
“Then you’ll be glad to know that we have him safe and sound.”
She didn’t look glad, she looked apprehensive. “Yes, my lord.”
His hands lay relaxed on the arms of his chair and he looked at his ease. “Did you know where he had gone?”
“He left in too much of a hurry, my lord, he had no time to tell me.” Her voice grew stronger.
“And we caught up with him before he could let you know. I understand.” Richard was careful to talk in quiet, measured tones so as not to upset her any further.
I saw little resemblance between this girl and her brother. Where he was painfully thin and tall, she was short and comfortably upholstered. Her hair was mostly hidden beneath her large, carefully laundered, white housemaid’s cap but it looked darker than her brother’s. Because she was plumper than he, her face was rounder and I thought she would look pleasing when she smiled. She wasn’t smiling.
“Could you tell him I’ll do what I can for him, my lord?”
“Of course. You care for him then?”
“Oh yes.” Animation crossed her features for the first time but it took the form of worry. She must have been fretting, waiting to hear from him. “We’ve always cared for each other. At least, until—”
“Until?” Richard prompted, looking at her enquiringly.
She gazed at him, all emotion gone again. “Until Lucy.” She swallowed, then realising she must say more, she continued, “He truly loved her and when he found out what she was doing with—”
“We know. We’ve been told.” He didn’t say who had told us. He kept his voice steady, soothing. He curled the fingers of his left hand around the arm of his chair. Aunt Godolphin glanced at him but he took no notice. There was no need for her to know.
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