He was silent for a moment before saying,
“Are you angry with me because I said I wish you to decorate my house?”
“Not – not angry exactly – ”
“I will tell you something else. When I was building this yacht, I was thinking of you.”
There was a fervour in his voice that increased her embarrassment.
Then before she could answer, Harriet came rushing into the cabin.
“There’s a terrible commotion going on outside,” she gasped. “There’s a man on the quay yelling your name and trying to make them lower the gangplank again. Of course the Captain refused and the man is now threatening to throw himself into the sea and everyone is shouting and – ”
“I had better go and look,” Hugh said in alarm.
He raced out of the cabin and up to the top deck with Martina and Harriet hurrying after him.
As Harriet had described a young man was dancing with agitation on the quay below them.
Martina thought he looked familiar but for the moment she could not place him.
“Hugh!” the young man shouted. “For pity’s sake, let me on board.”
“Good Heavens!” Hugh exclaimed. “It’s Robin.”
“Hugh! Let me come on board or I swear I’ll dive in and swim after you!”
“Let the gangway down, Captain,” Sir Hugh ordered. He was laughing. “Robin, you young devil! What are you doing here?”
“What do you think? What is always the matter when I come flying to you? Let me on board and I will tell you.”
The gangway was being lowered. The young man raced up it, carrying a bag, and two sailors ran down to thequay to collect two more bags that he had left on the dock.
Now Martina recognised him as someone she had seen talking to Hugh at Lady Bellingham’s ball.
The young man wrung Hugh’s hand.
“Thank goodness I caught you before you left. Please, please say you are delighted to see me and that I can come with you.”
“But you don’t know where I am going,” Hugh objected. “It might be somewhere you don’t care for.”
“Is it out of England?”
“Yes.”
“Then it will suit me wonderfully well!”
“But whatever has happened to bring you here?”
“I arrived at your house just after you had left. They told me where you were going and I caught the next train. It was a close run thing. When I saw your gangplank going up, I thought I was finished.”
“You make it sound so desperate,” Hugh commented, laughing. “But the story can wait. Miss Shepton, Miss Lawson, allow me to present my friend Robin, Lord Brompton. So far he may have done little to recommend himself, but I assure you he is the best of good fellows.”
“Your servant, ladies,” Lord Brompton said, bowing smartly.
The two ladies inclined their heads politely.
“Robin is a very old and dear friend,” Hugh continued. “And, as is the way with old friends, he always turns to me when he finds himself in difficulty. From the manner of his arrival I would guess that he is in more than usually large trouble!”
Robin laughed.
“You are so right, I am in a terrible mess.”
“Well, my other passengers might say the same thing,” Hugh observed. “But from you, I am more accustomed to it.”
“But who would expect to find two such beautiful angels, who have obviously just dropped down from Heaven?” Robin sighed.
The girls laughed, delighted with his good looks, his charm and his air of merriment.
“That is a really nice compliment,” Martina said. “There are many names we have been called but we prefer being angels to anything else.”
“Trust Hugh to find something new and unexpected,” Robin answered.
“And we are eternally grateful to him,” Harriet broke in fervently.
She spoke as if the words came from the very depths of her heart and Robin gave her a wondering look.
As if Hugh was aware they were walking on dangerous ground, he suggested,
“Now come along! Let us cheer as we move away from the coast.”
“Will we be departing soon?” Robin asked anxiously.
“Immediately, my dear fellow.”
The gangway had been raised again. The engines were thrumming and after a moment the great white ship began to leave the quay behind. The ribbon of water between them grew wider and wider, something which everyone regarded with satisfaction.
“Now we have escaped,” Hugh announced calmly.
He had meant the remark for the girls, but it was Robinwho piped up,
“Thank goodness for that!”
Hugh looked at him keenly, but said nothing for the moment.
For the next hour everyone was occupied looking over the rail as the ship moved out to sea.
“Let us hope and pray,” Hugh said, “that this trip will make everyone of us happier than we have ever been.”
His eyes met Martina’s, making her want to look away, but she found that she could not do so. She felt as if he was drawing her closer and closer to him. But this was not what she had intended when she planned the escapade.
Then she wondered exactly what it was she had intended. She was usually so confident and independent, but now she was becoming confused.
“It will soon be time for dinner,” Hugh proposed. “Ladies, why don’t you return to your cabins to change and I will see you in the dining room in an hour.”
Harriet and Martina clambered below excitedly to their cabins where they found that the maid had finished unpacking Harriet’s bags and had started on Martina’s.
They found that she was called Kitty. She was in her late twenties and before going to work at Faversham Place had been employed as a lady’s maid.
“But my old Mistress died,” she informed them, “and I had to leave. There are no ladies at Faversham Place, so I’ve been doing general work. But I’ve always wanted to look after ladies again. It’s what I’m good at.”
They soon realised that she spoke no more than the truth, handling their clothes with the air of an expert. Kitty had already decided which dresses they should wear for dinner that night and which jewellery would be the most suitable.
Contented, they placed themselves in her hands.
*
“Now,” said Hugh when the two men were alone on deck. “Let us have a talk. Since you set out this morning expecting to find me at home, I imagine you don’t have your passport with you.”
“My dear fellow, you do me an injustice!” Robin replied in an injured tone. “I always carry my passport with me.”
“The better to make a quick and sudden escape,” Hugh observed. “Of course, I should have guessed.”
“Well, I think you should. You know me better than anyone and you have helped me make a few escapes. You’re not angry with me, are you? It’s too late to turn me away now.”
“Not unless I throw you into the sea,” Hugh agreed, looking down at the foaming waves below. “I am still trying to decide.”
Robin leaned against the rail, grinning and raising his champagne glass in salute. All his life his looks and charm had won him acceptance and he recognised that he was in no danger now.
“As a matter of fact,” Hugh admitted. “I am delighted that you have joined us. Although I didn’t think of it at the time, having an extra man is exactly what I wanted.”
“There now, you see, I knew you needed me and hastened to be of service.”
“What are you running away from now??
“I don’t see any need for you to say now in that particular tone, as though I was always – ” he saw his friend’s cynical eye on him and coloured. “The fact is I have got myself into a very unpleasant mess.”
“Good Heavens! What a surprise!”
“All right, have your laugh.”
“I intend to. How has this happened again? I told you the last time you came to me in trouble that you would have to b
e more careful.”
“Yes, indeed you did,” Robin responded. “But you know how hopeless it is with me. I suddenly found myself being forced into marriage with a girl who has been pursuing me for the last three or four months simply because I have a title.”
“You don’t know that,” Hugh observed thoughtfully. “She might love you for yourself alone.”
Robin considered for a moment. “Do you think that is at all likely?”
“Not really,” Hugh said with a grin. “Not unless she is a lady of unusual forbearance, tolerance, patience – ”
“All right, I get your drift. I didn’t think so either. Although she did once tell me that I had a wonderful mind.”
“That you had a – are you sure you understood her properly?”
“Quite sure.”
“Then you were quite right to flee her. She was plainly laying a trap, flattering you with lies.”
Robin gave a choke of laughter.
“That’s what I thought too. You have always saved me in the past, so naturally I hurried off to find you.”
“But why has this suddenly become a major problem? You told me about her only the other night, at the Bellinghams’ ball – ”
“I never mentioned her.”
“I am sure you said that Lady Laura Vanwick – ”
“Oh, good grief, not her! This is another girl.”
“Another girl, who has been pursuing you at the same time as – well, I will not mention the lady’s name again. I suppose I shouldn’t have mentioned it the first time.”
“You know, that’s another thing that’s always puzzled me,” Robin confided. “The convention about not mentioning a lady’s name. I mean, if you don’t say her name, how the devil do you both know who you are talking about?”
“And particularly so in your case,” Hugh remarked dryly. “Any discussion about you getting into hot water with a pretty young lady could apply to half the female population!”
“That’s very true,” said his friend, much struck.
“The trouble with you,” Hugh told him severely, “is that you are attracted by every woman you meet.”
“Well, the girl is very pretty and I danced with her and it was actually she who suggested we might spend a few days at the sea.”
“You and she went together?” Hugh demanded, aghast.
“Not exactly. She has an aunt who lives at Weymouth, so she went to stay with her and I sort of – turned up. It was all perfectly respectable.”
“Until – ?”
“Her father arrived. She wanted to marry me and he thought it was an excellent idea. In fact he sent me a note to say that he was coming to see me ‘to discuss the future’. Well, I knew what that meant, so I fled. To you, as always.
“I remember the time when my father was going to punish me for eating some apples he was going to show at the County Fair, you saved me from a beating and you have been saving me ever since.”
Hugh laughed.
“That is true,” he agreed. “I have never known anyone get into more trouble than you have managed to do.”
“Well, I admit I do find girls very attractive,” Robin sighed. “Unfortunately, they always have parents who are on the hunt for titles. Which rather spoils what could otherwise be a beautiful relationship.
“Thank goodness for you, Hugh! Otherwise I would have been married half-a-dozen times by now. At least, I don’t mean that exactly, since it isn’t possible to be married to more than one woman at a time – did you say something?”
“Not at all,” Hugh replied, choking slightly. “Do go on with your story.”
Luckily Robin was too preoccupied with his own sentiments to notice any oddness in his host’s manner.
“Mind you, the last one was a real beauty,” he mused.
“The last one? You mean the one with the aunt?”
“No, the last one before her and Laura – Angelica. I almost – but no! I heard that she managed to marry an American millionaire, but they quarrelled so violently on the ship out to New York, that by the time they arrived they were both asking for a divorce.
“But I have learnt my lesson,” Robin continued. “In the future I am going to be very, very careful. When I do marry it will be for ever and you will be the Godfather to my children.”
“Don’t hurry,” Hugh advised. “Once you are married you are tied down and there is no chance of having an affaire-de-coeur.”
Robin nodded.
“That is just what puts me off the thought of marriage, it is so very limiting. But I must say I think your two ladies are very lovely. But two of them! You lucky dog!”
“Behave yourself,” Hugh adjured him mildly. “I want you to be kind and considerate to my guests and not fly away leaving them in tears with broken hearts.”
Robin held up both hands.
“I promise, I promise,” he insisted. “It only happened once and you must admit that she was very pretty. But I had no idea until she was with me what a terrible bore she could be.”
Hugh regarded his young friend wryly. He was fond of Robin, but he was certainly not blind to his feckless ways. He flitted from girl to girl, falling in and out of love easily, assuming that they would recover as quickly as he did himself.
It would have been too much to call him heartless, but he was certainly thoughtless. Hugh sometimes thought it would do him good to fall seriously in love and experience the pain of loss.
But he did not say any of this. It would have been useless. Only experience would teach him, so he contented himself with remarking,
“When you do marry, for Heaven’s sake let me approve of your bride, or I will doubtless have her crying on my shoulder or else threatening to kill you and having to take the gun from her hand.
“Or maybe even,” he added reflectively, “failing to take the gun from her hand. Now, why don’t we dress for dinner and join the ladies?”
*
As the weather was warm dinner was served on deck.
The ladies emerged from below, Harriet wearing a soft yellow dress of tulle and satin with a pearl necklace about her throat.
Martina was dressed more strikingly in deep blue adorned with sapphires. Hugh took her by the hand and led her to the table, leaving Robin to attend to Harriet.
The meal was as delicious as could be found in any London restaurant. Hugh’s chef had been warned that only the best would do on this journey and he had outdone himself.
“And now, do tell us where we are going,” Martina enquired.
“Tonight we shall put in at Cherbourg. My chef needs to buy some French cheeses, so I think we might have a day ashore.”
“But after that,” she begged.
“After that is a secret.”
“All the best journeys are a secret,” Robin intervened enthusiastically. “Here’s to the unknown!”
He raised his glass and Harriet did the same so that they clinked.
While the table was being cleared for the next course, Martina wandered to the rail and stood gazing out over the water where the sun had already set and darkness was gathering. After a moment Hugh came and joined her.
“You always said that you would like to take me to sea,” she said. “Can’t you tell me now where we are going?”
“No, if I don’t tell you, you cannot refuse to go.”
“Of course I will not refuse. How could I when you have been so kind?
“Praise indeed!” he said. “But you have always looked down your nose at me in the past and run away when I have tried to tell you what I wanted. You cannot run away from me now.”
That was true, Martina reflected. And again she had the feeling that this Hugh was a man she did not know.
“I think I ran away because you frightened me,” she replied. “Now I may have to jump into the sea and swim home.”
“I think you would find that very difficult,” Hugh parried. “But I have always found you get what you want, regardless of who tries to stop you.”
&n
bsp; “That sounds horrid,” Martina protested. “If I have wanted something, it is because I have wanted to help someone and not because I wanted it for myself.”
There was silence for a moment.
Then Hugh said,
“I think you are wonderful. The more I see of you, the more I want to see. The more I talk to you the more, I want to hear what you have to tell me. Now one of my dreams has come true. You are actually here with me in the middle of the ocean.”
“And one of my dreams too,” she sighed, “since I have always longed to travel.”
There was another long silence.
Then Hugh asked her,
“Am I in your dreams?”
Martina turned to look at him and her eyes twinkled.
“Perhaps.”
“That is the kindest word you have ever said to me. For the rest, I shall have to bear my soul in patience.”
“Time for a toast,” Robin called, coming up behind them with Harriet.
They carried champagne glasses and each held one out to the others. When they all held a glass Robin proposed,
“Here’s to travelling into unknown waters and finding adventure wherever we arrive.
“Amen to that!” exclaimed Hugh.
“And so say I,” Martina added.
“And I,” Harriet echoed.
“And I as well,” Robin finished.
Then they were all laughing. Laughing until it seemed to Martina as if the sea itself was laughing with them.
CHAPTER SIX
Soon they could see the lights of Cherbourg and an hour later they were gliding into port.
Leaning over the rail eagerly watching the sailors at work, Harriet gave a huge yawn and was immediately horrified at herself.
“I am so sorry!” she apologised.
“We were up very early this morning,” Martina reminded her. “I am quite sleepy myself. But I simply must have a glimpse of Cherbourg first.”
She walked to the rail but almost at once she too was yawning.
“Go to bed, both of you,” Hugh commanded. “We will spend the night here and tomorrow we can explore Cherbourg for three hours. My chef says it will take him at least that time to buy all he needs in the market. I suggest we all retire.”
Later, safe in her cabin, Harriet knelt down to say her prayers, thanking God for saving her from the horrors which had been waiting for her at home.
Journey to Happiness Page 7
