Charles shuffled his feet, his face flaming with anger and embarrassment. For a moment Juliet thought he was going to deny the whole thing, but then he burst out savagely, ‘I’m sick of not having enough money.’ Like a petulant boy, he kicked a small footstool, so that it shot off and hit the skirting board.
Juliet stood her ground, her beautiful face filled with disgust. ‘I’m warning you, Charles, I’ll tell the whole family what you did, unless you apologize to Rosie. Have you any idea how unhappy she is? You’re making her life hell.’
‘It’s not my fault we’ve got no money,’ he said angrily.
‘It’s your fault my parents gave their consent. You misled them by giving the impression you had enough to support her,’ Juliet said tartly. ‘But, as you obviously hadn’t, you thought you’d marry money instead, didn’t you?’
There was raw hatred in his eyes as he looked at her. ‘It’s easy for you to talk,’ he slammed back. ‘Your father’s rich and so is your husband. Now get out of my house, Juliet, and stay away. You make Rosie discontented, coming here in your expensive clothes, driving a Rolls coupé, having everything you want.’
‘Not everything,’ she replied evenly, thinking of Cameron. ‘But I’m working at it,’ she added, remembering Daniel.
‘I’d give anything not to have to go back,’ Juliet confessed, ‘but I’ve had both Cameron and my mother-in-law on the telephone, practically demanding my return; I have been away for three weeks, you know.’
She was lying with Daniel in her art deco silver bed, with its parma violet velvet hangings and silk sheets. A pale misty dawn filtered through the window, revealing the plane trees in Hyde Park, their trunks dappled, their green leaves strongly veined.
‘I don’t think I can bear to let you go,’ Daniel said, his face buried in her neck. ‘You’re never going to find this bliss with Cameron.’
‘I know,’ she said sadly. ‘But I’m married to him, so what can I do?’
‘He’s expecting you to give him an heir, isn’t he?’
She put her hands behind her head, and gazed up at the canopy of the bed.
‘I believe that’s the only reason he married me.’
Daniel sat up, his bronzed chest broad and bare. He looked down at her. ‘Juliet,’ he said seriously. ‘I want you to make me a promise.’
Her pale blue eyes shifted their gaze to his face; a face that was now as familiar to her as her own. His full mouth was set in a serious line.
‘What is it, Daniel?’
‘I want to be the one to give you a baby. I want it to be my seed, growing inside you. My baby you will hold in your arms. No one else’s.’
Her eyes widened, startled at first, and then filled with wonder, as the strongest sensation of desire she’d ever felt in her life swept through her.
‘Your baby?’ she said huskily, reaching for him. ‘Oh, Daniel, could we really?’
‘Why not? I can’t bear to think of you having Cameron’s child. Have my baby, darling. Let me love you and give you a child.’ he added, his voice thick with emotion. ‘I’m in your blood, Juliet. I’m a part of you now, and for ever.’
‘When will I see you again?’ he asked later, as he got dressed, ready to slip out of the house before the servants were up and about.
She slid out of the bed and pulled on her black chiffon negligee. ‘I’ll try and get away as soon as I can,’ she promised.
He gave her a last kiss. ‘You’ll be careful not to get pregnant by Cameron, won’t you?’ he urged.
‘I’ll make sure of that,’ Juliet whispered, giving him a last kiss, ‘as I have, ever since we got married.’
Juliet looked at herself in the mirror as she got ready to leave for Euston. This would never do, she decided. Her face glowed and her eyes shone with happiness. She looked exactly what she’d become; a woman in love, who was having a sublime and fulfilling sex life.
The old witch would spot the change in her immediately, she thought, even if Cameron didn’t. Although she’d booked a first-class sleeper for the overnight journey to Inverness, she decided to stay awake, reading and drinking coffee. This, coupled with a lack of make-up, would assure her looking wan and exhausted on arrival. A perfect excuse, too, for going straight to bed, thereby avoiding any questions about her stay in London.
‘Where’s Cameron?’ Juliet asked her mother-in-law as she pulled off her gloves and hat, and threw them down on the oak chest in the baronial hall.
Iona looked nervous, clutching her plaid shawl around her narrow shoulders with her bony hands. ‘He had to go out,’ she said quickly. ‘You looked tired, Juliet.’
‘I am. I think I’ll go up for a rest. Can you tell Cameron I’m back?’
‘Yes.’ Iona Kincardine’s face was very pale, and her dark eyes flickered anxiously towards the front door, as if she was expecting someone.
‘Is everything all right?’
‘Perfectly all right,’ Iona replied firmly.
The chauffeur appeared, carrying Juliet’s overnight case. He put it down, and turned to the dowager. ‘Your Grace, shall I go back to Inverness? To fetch His Grace? Do you think he’ll be ready by now?’
‘Go back …?’ Juliet queried. ‘Why? Is my husband in Inverness? Why didn’t we bring him with us?’
Iona and the chauffeur exchanged nervous glances.
‘What’s going on?’ Juliet demanded.
‘Cameron …’ Iona began hesitatingly, ‘Cameron’s had a slight accident. Nothing to worry about, Juliet. He had to go the hospital yesterday, but he’ll be home today.’ She turned back to the chauffeur. ‘I’ll telephone the hospital. I’ll let you know when it’s time to fetch him.’
‘What sort of accident?’ Juliet persisted, when she and Iona were alone again.
Iona fixed her with her beady eyes and spoke harshly. ‘Oh, you know what it’s like. It’s no one’s fault, and we want to be very discreet about this. We don’t want to get anyone into trouble, so please do not talk about it. Not to anyone.’
Juliet frowned. ‘What are you talking about? I don’t understand.’
The old dowager came closer. She stank of moth balls, as if she’d been shut away in a cupboard for months. Her whispered breath was fetid. ‘There was a shooting accident yesterday. One of the … one of the people on the estate. He tripped, and his gun went off. A bullet accidentally caught Cameron on the thigh. Only a flesh wound. Nothing more. Nothing to worry about. But we want to keep it quiet, because it was an accident, you understand. Nothing more.’
Bemused, Juliet stared at her mother-in-law. ‘Is Cameron all right?’
‘He’s fine.’ Iona laid her hand on Juliet’s arm. ‘Remember. Not a word. Don’t even ask Cameron about it, because he’s … well, he’s upset.’
Juliet nodded silently, and then turned to go up to her quarters. Something was wrong. For a moment her mind wrestled with some shadowy doubt, trying to catch hold of it and face it, but it kept slipping elusively away.
Then she remembered; after years of Nanny’s coaching about the dos and don’ts, how could she have forgotten?
It was May, May 8th, to be exact. The shooting season didn’t start until August 12th. If someone had been shooting, it certainly wasn’t after wildlife.
PART THREE
As Darkness Closes In
1939
Eight
‘When are you coming to London again?’ Daniel asked in desperation. It was six weeks since Juliet’s last visit, but they spoke on the telephone as often as they could.
‘I’m a virtual prisoner here,’ Juliet whispered back, in case Iona, given to lurking around corners, should overhear her.
Since Juliet had got back from her trip to town, Cameron and Iona had put heavy pressure on her to remain at Glenmally.
‘Why do you want to keep running off to London?’ they both asked, whenever she suggested she might like to pop down to see her family again. If she said she had shopping to do, Cameron said airily that if she made a list, he�
��d get Harrods or the Army & Navy Stores to send her what she wanted. Even when she said she wanted to be with Rosie, who was having a baby any moment, Cameron tut-tutted, and became very bad-tempered, saying if she didn’t like Scotland, she shouldn’t have married him in the first place.
‘I miss you so much,’ she told Daniel repeatedly. ‘I daren’t even write to you because we have to leave our letters for posting on the hall table, for the butler to post.’
‘Oh, God … why don’t you invent a reason for getting away they can’t oppose?’ Daniel suggested. ‘I’m going crazy … not seeing you, not being with you.’
‘Me too,’ Juliet whispered. ‘I’ll think of something.’
‘Don’t take too long.’
‘I’ll let you know as soon as I can get away,’ she promised.
The answer was so obvious she couldn’t think why she hadn’t thought of it before.
‘I’ve got to have a check-up with my doctor,’ she announced at breakfast, the next morning, ‘so tomorrow I’m catching the overnight train to London.’
‘Are you ill?’ asked the dowager hopefully.
Juliet hesitated long enough to get both Cameron and Iona interested. ‘Not exactly.’ She smiled sweetly. ‘But I want to make sure everything’s all right,’ she added, giving Cameron an intimate look.
His expression brightened and his relief was marked. He’d taken his mother’s advice, and since he’d recovered from his injury, he’d been to Juliet’s room every night. It seemed now he was to be rewarded for his efforts.
‘Oh, I see,’ he said. ‘Right then. How long will you be away?’
‘Not long,’ she assured him, ‘unless, of course, I have to have tests or something.’
The dowager looked from one to the other, not wanting to be left out. ‘What sort of tests?’
Juliet shrugged and looked enigmatic. ‘We’ll have to wait and see.’
Daniel was waiting at Euston station when she arrived, and they went straight to a flat in Belgrave Square, which he’d borrowed from a friend.
‘I’ve been counting the hours,’ she told him excitedly, as he tore off her clothes. They made love all afternoon, and it was nearly six o’clock when Juliet said, ‘I must go to the house now. Cameron will have been phoning to ask if I’ve arrived safely. I’ll have to say I’ve been in Harley Street all afternoon.’
‘I’ll pick you up at eight o’clock, then. We’ll dine at a discreet little restaurant I know in Soho.’
‘I’ll tell the servants not to wait up for me,’ she murmured, giving him a last kiss.
Over a dinner of foie gras, lemon sole, and a tender fillet of beef, Daniel pointed out she couldn’t use the excuse of a visit to the doctor very frequently.
‘If Cameron begins to think there’s something really wrong with you, he’ll start bringing in his own doctors. I know I would, if I was married to you.’
Juliet closed her eyes for a moment, to savour the thought. Married to him. God, she’d give everything – her way of life, her money, her jewels and furs, everything – if she could only marry Daniel.
‘What shall I say, then?’ she asked.
‘Why don’t you get involved in charity work, down here?’
Startled, she raised her eyebrows. ‘That doesn’t sound like me. I’ve never done charity work in my life.’
‘I’m not suggesting you take blankets and baskets of food to the slums in the East End.’ He grinned. ‘With your title, there are charitable organizations that would give anything just to have your name on their headed paper. All you’d have to do is attend the occasional meeting, and maybe take tickets for charity balls or concerts: that wouldn’t be difficult, would it? And what a perfect excuse to come down to London.’
A glow of delight spread across Juliet’s face. ‘It’s a brilliant idea.’
‘Be sure to tell your husband –’ Daniel could never bring himself to call Cameron by name – ‘that he’ll be highly thought of if his name is involved in supporting various good causes.’
‘You’re right. He needs to be seen to lead a normal life, he’s far too reclusive. I think that’s one of the reasons he married me. That and his desperate need for an heir.’
‘So he married someone who wanted a title?’ Daniel asked slyly.
Juliet flushed. ‘Don’t,’ she begged, miserably. ‘It was the worst mistake of my life. If I could have married you, I would have …’
‘I know.’ There was a flicker of guilt in Daniel’s eyes. ‘I should never have pursued you. I should never have fallen in love with you. It was unfair of me …’
‘I’m glad you did.’
He held her gaze. ‘So am I.’
There were two letters for Juliet on the breakfast table, a week after she’d returned from London.
‘Your family keeping in touch with you, are they?’ the dowager remarked, nearly screwing her head off to see what the postmarks were.
Juliet opened the first with caution. It was from the Red Cross asking her if she would become a patron of their fundraising committee, the first event being a ball at the Dorchester in October. The second was a similar letter from the Family in Need charity, which provided accomodation for widows with children, asking if she’d be president of their fundraising committee.
Flushing with pleasure, knowing Daniel was behind this, Juliet handed the letters to Cameron. ‘Isn’t this nice? What an honour! They obviously think a lot of you, to have invited me.’
‘Charities?’ snapped Iona, seeing the letterheads. ‘They’re only after your money. All that flannel about it being an honour to have you is pure flattery.’
A wash of anxiety swept away some of Juliet’s hopes that she’d found the perfect way to take frequent trips to London.
‘Times have changed, though,’ she said hurriedly. ‘I think people like Cameron and I, a rich and very privileged couple, should be seen to be helping those less fortunate, don’t you, Cameron?’
After re-reading the letters, and studying them, Cameron spoke. ‘Isn’t it rather strange that you suddenly get invited by two charities on the same day?’
Juliet smiled sweetly. ‘Not really. When I was in London I was lunching with Hermione Ridsdale. Do you remember her? She’s the wife of the Conservative MP, Lansdowne Ridsdale. She asked me if I’d help her with her charity work. I couldn’t very well say no, so I suppose she’s put my name forward.’
The ease with which she could lie amazed Juliet. And only Cameron would be so gullible as to believe her, she reflected. His mother was another matter. She’d have to be careful. It was obvious Iona didn’t like her, and probably wouldn’t care what happened to her once she’d produced a son; in the meantime, she must somehow allay her suspicions.
Juliet continued, ‘It would be so nice, Cameron, if you could come down to London with me when there’s a big fundraising do, like this ball,’ she suggested, smiling at him across the breakfast table.
‘Cameron hasn’t said whether you can go gallivanting off to London in the first place,’ Iona said with poisonous venom. ‘It’s time you started a family. Like your sister.’
‘Of course it’s up to Cameron,’ Juliet replied smoothly.
Cameron spoke. ‘These are highly regarded charities, but Mother’s right. It is time we started a family. On the other hand, it would look churlish to turn down their requests.’ He paused, reaching for a piece of toast. The only sound in the dining room was the ticking of a hideous purple marble clock on the mantelpiece, while he ponderously made up his mind. ‘Tell them you accept, Juliet,’ he said eventually. ‘But don’t take on any more. Two charities is quite enough,’ he added firmly.
‘I agree,’ she said brightly.
In spite of Cameron’s caution and Iona’s downright misgivings, it was the start of a new pattern in Juliet’s life.
Travelling on the overnight sleeper from Inverness every couple of weeks, sometimes for only forty-eight hours, she managed to fit in a couple of genuine fundraising committe
e meetings, have lunch or tea with her mother, for the sake of an alibi, and spend the rest of the time with Daniel, usually in someone’s borrowed flat and occasionally on the houseboat, which held such romantic memories.
‘I live for the time we can be together,’ Juliet told him, as they lay in bed together, wrapped in each other’s arms. ‘I wish it could always be like this.’
‘You could always leave Cameron.’
‘And would you leave your wife?’
There was a long pause before he spoke. ‘There are the children. I can’t upset their lives.’
Juliet never knew how much time he spent with his family in Kent. Never knew where he stayed in London when she wasn’t with him. Never knew how he managed for money, but presumed he was a man of independent means. And as long as she could go on seeing him, she didn’t want to know. But nothing assuaged the pain when they had to part. Something inside her seemed to die when they said goodbye, never sure when they’d see each other again. And she knew she’d never get used to the agony of separation.
‘I can’t bear this,’ Juliet said one morning, sitting up in bed. They’d spent the night on the houseboat, but now she had to slip back to Park Lane, so as to be found in her bed when her breakfast tray was brought up to her. She sat gazing at the river through the large windows. Daylight was beginning to break up the night sky with pale streaks of yellow, and there was a stillness at this hour of the morning she found deeply melancholic.
‘It gets harder every time,’ she admitted, a tear rolling down her cheek and plopping on to her naked breasts. ‘What are we going to do, darling?’
‘I’ll have a surprise for you, next time you’re down,’ he said, watching her get out of bed, her legs long and lean, her stomach perfectly flat as she reached for her discarded evening clothes.
The Granville Sisters Page 23
