“Yes, it went well, didn’t it?”
Selina nodded.
“He was really taken aback when you forced him to apologise to me.”
“Of course,” he muttered, his face suddenly dark. “How dare he!”
“Don’t be cross,” she begged. “I have never been called a hussy before – it’s the first time!”
He grinned unwillingly.
“It’s good of you to take it so well. I had no right to expose you to insult. Thank goodness it’s all over.”
Her laughter died.
“I’m not sure that it is. I saw the malevolence in his eyes. He is not going to leave matters there.”
That checked him.
“You are right, of course.”
“Ian, I think you’d be wise to do what I have done.”
The Marquis stared at her.
“Are you suggesting that I should run away?”
“Why not?” Selina questioned. “The world is a big place and if you were away just a short time, he can shout and scream all he likes. People will forget and talk about something else.”
“You are right. But you must come with me.”
“What are you saying?”
“We’ll have to stay together for a month or two at least. Otherwise he’ll guess the truth and go to the Queen.”
“You must not let him do so. You are right, Ian, we will both fight this together and stand ‘shoulder to shoulder against the advancing foe’.”
Impulsively he seized her hands in his.
“It must have been my guardian angel who sent me out last night to find you.”
“And my guardian angel too,” she agreed. “They were working as a team.”
“And we too must work as a team,” he mused. “I have it. My yacht is at Portsmouth. We should now go abroad, perhaps for a month or two. As you say, after a while they will find something else to talk about.”
“Yes, but that something else will be us.”
“How do you mean?”
“You and I, sailing away together on your yacht, will be the biggest scandal of the age.”
He stopped.
“Of course. I was too distracted to think carefully. You must take a chaperone with us. Martha would be the best person, I think.”
“Who is Martha?”
“She was my mother’s lady’s maid. Since Mama died Martha has felt a bit lost. She has worked for both my sisters, but it wasn’t a success, chiefly due to her habit of quarrelling with everyone. She left both their houses in a state of high dudgeon and came back here.
“Now she has set herself to looking after me, which means she is always quarrelling with my valet, Simpkins. They will probably enliven our journey with a feud, but it cannot be helped.”
A thought struck him.
“Did you bring your passport?”
“I did indeed. I had no idea where my flight might take me.”
“Then the sooner we leave the better – preferably today. If we stay three nights on the way to Portsmouth, we will arrive about midday and catch the evening tide.”
*
Selina met Martha early the next morning while she was drinking the tea that the maid had brought her.
Martha was in her mid-fifties with a stern face and lofty manner. The late Marchioness of Castleton had been a lady of elegance and since her death Martha had suffered from a feeling of not being appreciated.
She looked Selina up and down balefully and then grunted approval.
“Later on I will review your Ladyship’s clothes and see what must be done,” she observed loftily.
She then sailed out leaving Selina wondering if she ought to curtsy.
The Marquis chuckled when she told him.
“She really terrifies me. She is deeply displeased at having to travel with Simpkins. She does concede that he knows his job, but she considers his behaviour to me is too free and easy. We shall have to try very hard to measure up to her standards.”
They ate breakfast quickly and then it was time to leave. Outside Selina found a smart curricle drawn by two perfectly matched black horses.
“The fastest in my stables,” the Marquis promised her. “We will need frequent changes of horses along the way, so that we reach Portsmouth as quickly as possible.”
Behind the curricle came a post chaise for Martha and Simpkins. The luggage would follow in a wagon.
“You don’t think that we might attract unwelcome attention travelling in such style?” she enquired.
“We are bound to, I am afraid. But when we reach the posting inns, Simpkins will inform anyone who cares to listen that I am a certain Mr. Pearson travelling with his sister. Anyone pursuing us will hear that story.”
“Will they believe it?”
“Even if they don’t, it would sow confusion which will be useful.”
They both turned to look at the stately procession that emerged from the front door.
First came Martha, her nose in the air.
When she reached the chaise, she stopped while a powdered footman opened the door and let down the steps. Behind her came Simpkins, a thin sharp-faced little man, several inches shorter than Martha.
Before following her into the chaise, he turned to the Marquis and gave an eloquent shrug, rolling his eyes to Heaven. Then the chaise swallowed him up.
“Madam,” now invited the Marquis with an elegant flourish, indicating the curricle.
“Sir, you are too kind.”
In another moment she was high up in the curricle, gazing out over the brown shiny backs of the horses. The Marquis joined her, gave his coachman a signal to start and they were on their way.
For the first hour Selina concentrated on enjoying herself. The wind was blowing in her face, the sun was shining and above all she was free.
She kept looking anxiously over her shoulder, but, as no one seemed to be following them, she began to relax.
“You ought to write a book about our adventures,” she told the Marquis. “It will be so incredible that it will certainly be a best-seller – and pay for all the expenses we are incurring.”
“I am incurring,” the Marquis corrected her. “Let me make it clear from the beginning that you come as my guest and you don’t spend your own money on this strange and rather wild adventure.”
“Oh, but I cannot allow you to buy everything for me,” protested Selina. “I have money of my own.”
“You keep your money. You may need it in the future. I don’t allow my guests to spend their money on me and, as I am exceedingly grateful to you for saving me from a life of boredom, any money I spend is worth it for the new experience.”
“You are so kind, Ian, I really don’t know what to say.”
“Well, whatever it is to be, make it amusing,” he suggested. “I want to laugh on this journey. Too little of my life has been spent in laughter.
“Then, yesterday, you appeared, and since then I seem to be laughing all the time. That’s how I want it to be. I am afraid that I have become rather a dull fellow.”
“Don’t say that about yourself. You are not a dull fellow and besides, I expect you laughed more when you were younger.”
The Marquis winced a little at this suggestion that she regarded him as a greybeard, but only replied mildly,
“I don’t think I did. Except when I was with my brother, Jack. His antics were a constant entertainment, but I was frequently required to put on what Jack called my ‘clerical face’ to help him out of some scrape or other. I was very good at explaining him to my father.”
“Accurately?”
“Good Heavens, no! If I had explained it all to him accurately he would have been in even worse trouble. No, I contrived to put a gloss on things.
“Once my father asked, ‘why doesn’t your brother face me himself?’ But then he commented, ‘of course, he doesn’t have the gift of the gab, like you.’ He was right.
“And then poor Jack died and there was no more laughter for any of us. I thi
nk I had forgotten how to laugh until you came along to remind me.”
“What a really nice thing to say,” blushed Selina. “Perhaps you could put that comment in the book?”
“No,” answered the Marquis after a while. “I don’t think I would like anyone else to read it.” He sounded a little apologetic. “I am afraid you will think it very poor spirited of me.”
“Oh no,” Selina responded kindly. “We cannot put in everything or it will sound too fantastic.”
“I think what is happening to me is fantastic. But I am very willing to allow it to happen,” he murmured, but so quietly that Selina did not hear him.
“We don’t want people to think it is an invention from the beginning to the end,” she pointed out.
“Wait just a moment!” he exclaimed. “We haven’t reached the end yet. It might be marvellous, as we both hope or it might be disastrous.”
“I am quite sure it will be marvellous both for you and for me.”
“I sincerely hope it will be marvellous for you,” he said fervently. “In fact, I really hope you have everything you want in your life.”
There was an intense note in his voice she had not heard before and which left her floundering for an answer.
While she was still thinking, he turned his attention back to the horses and seemed to forget all about her.
Just before six o’clock they reached the small town of Eppingham.
“I have heard there’s a good posting inn here,” said the Marquis. “The Belfry. There it is.”
They drove into the yard. An ostler came bustling out, rubbing his hands at the prospect of so many horses staying the night.
“I promise you, sir, they’ll be very comfortable,” he called. “As the inn has recently been refurbished, you’ll be comfortable too.”
The Marquis helped Selina out of the carriage and they walked into the inn, which was indeed well furnished and agreeable looking.
The Marquis strode up to the desk and introduced himself as Mr. Pearson, travelling with his sister, Miss Pearson.
He required a single room for himself, a double for his sister and her companion, and something for Simpkins and the two drivers.
An elderly woman took them upstairs and showed them two bedrooms close to each other, looking out over the garden at the back of the inn.
“I can promise you, sir, it’s nice and quiet ’ere.”
“Then we are so lucky to find this inn,” the Marquis answered, “and the rooms look very comfortable. Well, my dear sister, I’ll leave you to get ready for dinner.”
With Martha’s help Selina changed from her riding habit into a gown that was pretty but simple and not costly enough to attract attention.
Eventually the Marquis came to knock on her door and they went down to a small elegant dining room.
They sat together at a table for two, while at some way off Martha, Simpkins and the drivers dined together.
Feeling in a festive mood the Marquis invited them to join his table, but the four servants were shocked at this breach of protocol.
They thanked him and then declined so loftily that he was made aware that he had offended against decorum.
“That has put me in my place,” he observed wryly. “I’m afraid I’ve now lost their good opinion entirely. Whatever shall I do?”
Selina giggled.
“It’s probably just as well. Martha and Simpkins are working up to another argument.”
They glanced over to the other table where Martha and Simpkins were talking to each other in airs of haughty politeness, while the two drivers looked on as if it was all too much to bear.
It was an excellent meal and the Marquis very soon proposed an early night.
“Then we can be away quickly in the morning.”
He escorted Selina and Martha to the door of their room.
“If you are frightened or if anything upsets you in the night, you know you have only to call for me.”
“Thank you, Ian. That is so reassuring.”
“Her Ladyship will be perfectly all right with me,” Martha insisted repressively.
“I am sure she will be,” the Marquis agreed with a meekness that made Selina give a little choke of laughter.
He looked at her with appreciation.
“Goodnight, Selina.”
“Goodnight, Ian.”
Once in bed she said her prayers and thanked God for helping her to find someone so kind and helpful as the Marquis.
‘I like him very, very much,’ she told herself. ‘And he is far too nice to be forced into marriage with someone he does not love.’
She prayed that he would be happy and then fell asleep still thinking about him.
CHAPTER FIVE
Selina was up early next morning.
After all the exertions of yesterday, she was feeling hungry and enjoyed the eggs and bacon and ripe fruit that were waiting for them.
“I just cannot wait to see your yacht,” she remarked breezily.
“I promise you, it is very up-to-date,” the Marquis told her. “Everyone who has travelled in it admires it and most of them try to rename it.”
He laughed as he added,
“It is called The Mermaid, but I think we will have to change the name to The Selina.”
She considered this idea and then shook her head.
“That doesn’t sound at all like a yacht. I think you should call it the name of your wife, when you find her.”
“I didn’t think of that,” he replied. “I wonder if it would really be a sensible thing to do.”
Selina laughed.
“It depends on you. If you’re going to change your wife so often, it will be a serious nuisance having to paint out one name and putting on another!”
The Marquis grinned.
“And just how would I go about changing my wife very often?”
She shrugged airily.
“Bluebeard managed it!”
“Bluebeard didn’t live in England.”
“It wouldn’t have made any difference if he had,” she replied, refusing to admit defeat. “He would have done just what he liked anywhere.”
“And you suggest I follow his example?”
“Not at all, I think you should avoid his example. Otherwise, you will always be renaming your yacht!”
He shouted out with laughter, so that everyone else in the breakfast room stared at them.
“Just when I believe I know you,” he chortled, “you manage to come out with something totally unexpected,”
“I am glad, because if you thought I was repeating myself too often, you might put me off at the first country we come to and I would have to find my way back home by swimming!”
“A fine opinion you have of me, ma’am! Do you really think I could do such a thing?”
“No, I think that you are just much too kind and understanding of other’s feelings. The reason you are here is because you were sorry for someone and listened to her troubles for too long.”
He nodded wryly.
“I am being punished for being a fool and there is no other word for it.”
“No, you are not a fool, just a very kind man.”
“Thank you, but sometimes I wonder if there is any difference.”
“Of course there is. I hope you never give up being kind, but I don’t believe you will, because that is the man you are.”
He gave his delightful smile.
“Does that mean I will have to spend the rest of my life running away in a curricle?”
“I suppose it might,” she replied in a teasing voice.
“Well, I don’t mind as long as you are with me.”
Before she could answer, he added hastily,
“Now, if you have finished, we should be going.”
Once the Marquis had paid the inn’s bill and tipped everyone generously, they went outside to where Martha and Simpkins were waiting to board the chaise.
They had stopped quarrelling and were pointedly ig
noring each other.
The Marquis grinned.
“Let them sort it out their own way.”
He helped her aboard the curricle, Lovall got into the driver’s seat and Wilkins mounted the wagon.
At a signal from the Marquis, they all set off.
“So far, so good,” he said as they passed out of the narrow lanes and onto the main road.
“Cross your fingers, Ian, I won’t feel really happy until I am at sea.”
She looked up at the sunny sky and breathed a sigh of pleasure.
“What a lovely day! I even feel as though I might miss England. I know when I went to Finishing School in France, it took me a week or so to stop thinking about the dogs and horses I had left behind me and begin to enjoy the French with all their wit, all their jokes and above all their compliments.”
“Which you have in abundance, Selina.”
“Not all that many but I do have some. Englishmen seldom say really nice things in case you either laugh at them or take them too seriously.”
“That is so true,” agreed the Marquis. “I remember Jack saying he would never dare praise a girl’s looks too extravagantly in case she thought he was proposing.”
“And now you have just found the same, except that you didn’t even have to pay a compliment!”
“Indeed.”
“But you need not worry,” she said impishly. “You can pay me any number of compliments and I promise not to sue you for breach of promise!”
He chuckled.
“That does relieve my mind, ma’am.”
“I thought it would,” she added demurely.
It was an energetic day for the Marquis kept up a swift pace. Several times they stopped at post houses for a change of horses and once they lingered for a long lunch. But then they were off again.
Wherever they stopped, Selina would scan the road behind them, but there was never anything to alarm her.
At seven o’clock that evening they pulled into The Three Bells at Picthaven, a small but prosperous town.
The inn was considerably more luxurious than their previous accommodation, but there was a tense atmosphere, which was soon traced to the landlord.
He was a young man built like a bull with a face that could have been handsome if he was not so sullen.
Selina guessed that he was a favourite with young women, but he had eyes only for one. This was a young woman of luscious appearance who seemed about to burst out of her dress. Martha sniffed when she saw her.
The Triumph of Love Page 6
