“Forever,” she declared wildly.
Monsieur Ducros then opened the door, admitting the Officer. He looked very large and very intimidating as he approached Pierre.
“Pierre Ducros?” he demanded in a stern voice.
Pierre stood to attention.
“I am he.”
The Officer pulled something out of his coat.
“Here are all your papers. In the rush you dropped them this morning. I tried to call you back to give them to you, but you went too quickly. I wish you every happiness with this pretty lady. Good day to you all.”
He gave an elegant bow to the ladies and departed.
There was total pandemonium. The sudden relief and happiness sent everyone wild.
Father Bernard now examined Pierre’s passport and nodded. Since the wedding had been arranged in advance, it could take place at once.
“It sounds like an excellent idea,” said the Marquis. “It cannot be soon enough for me.”
A few minutes later they joined the family in the little Church to witness the marriage of Pierre Ducros and Lady Felicity Wendover.
Then they descended on a nearby tavern along with a large crowd of friends and relatives to celebrate at the Marquis’s expense.
There was music and dancing and the high point of the party was when Pierre extended his hand to his bride. Everyone else cleared the floor and they danced alone.
Now Selina saw what the Marquis had meant about Felicity’s dancing. As she dipped and swayed elegantly in Pierre’s arms, it was clear that this was her real talent.
Her thinking might often be brainless, but when she communicated through movement she conveyed thoughts and feelings with great intensity.
When they had finished, there was loud applause.
“We’ll be going on the stage,” Felicity announced when they returned to the table. “We’ll travel around the country performing engagements wherever we can.”
It might sound an outrageous ambition for a girl of her background, but Selina was seeing her anew.
Felicity was wasted as a Duke’s daughter. She was a true artiste and had chosen her path. Her eyes were now shining with joy and fulfilment.
“We’re going to be a great success,” she enthused. “I just know it.”
“And I know it too,” beamed the Marquis. “You’ll be a success because the two of you just cannot fail. When you’ve found the person that you can love more than all the world, then you can face anything together.”
“It will happen for you too,” Felicity told him.
“Perhaps,” he murmured. “I don’t know – but I live in hope.”
He did not look at Selina as he spoke and it seemed to her that he was deliberately avoiding her eyes.
“But surely, you should have a honeymoon first?” he continued. “I suggest that you take my yacht and head off to the Mediterranean for a month or two.”
The merry party descended on the yacht, where the Marquis gave instructions to his Captain and arranged to have his possessions and Selina’s taken ashore.
They stood together on the quayside watching The Mermaid sail away, waving at the newly-weds in the stern waving back to them.
“Well!” sighed Selina. “What now?”
The Marquis turned to the driver of the carriage as he was stowing their bags in the hold.
“Take us to the best hotel in town,” he ordered.
CHAPTER TEN
The Marquis took two suites at The Imperial Hotel.
When an army of servants had carried their bags up, they each retreated to the joys of hot baths before meeting again for a meal in the evening.
That evening Selina took infinite trouble with her appearance, donning an elegant gown and putting her hair up.
Yet he barely seemed to notice. His compliment was almost mechanical.
She found him in a strange mood – almost skittish, she would have said of anyone else. Instead of going over their future plans, as she had hoped, he seemed to shy away from any kind of serious talk.
He would begin to discuss something, then abandon it half way through, so that it was impossible for her mind to take a firm hold on what he was saying – if indeed he was really trying to say anything at all.
“Selina,” he enquired, “have you ever stood at a crossroads to find that each road looked equally inviting, but you knew that one would take you where you wanted to go and one would make a complete mess of everything?
“But you couldn’t tell which one was which and you thought, if only you could foresee the future, except that you can’t because life doesn’t make it that easy – ”
He broke off alarmed by the way she was staring at him.
“I’m gibbering nonsense, aren’t I?”
“Worse. You are beginning to sound like Felicity!”
“Am I? Good Heavens! Then I must stop.”
For the rest of the meal he told her amusing stories and when they retired to bed, she was no nearer seeing into his mind than she had ever been.
But a good sleep restored her spirits and when she rose, she was once more full of hope.
Having dressed, she looked out of the window and breathed in the sea air wondering just where this wonderful adventure would take her next.
Below a carriage was rumbling up to the hotel door. She watched idly as the two occupants climbed out.
Then she froze in horror as she saw who they were.
In a moment she was out of her room and running to the Marquis’s suite, knocking frantically on his door.
He opened it at once.
“Selina, what’s happened? Is the hotel on fire?”
“Much worse,” she gasped loudly. “They are here. The Duke and my stepfather! I’ve just seen them get out of a carriage in front of the hotel.”
“Ah!” he muttered.
“Ah?” she echoed. “Is that all you can say?”
He drew her inside and closed the door.
“We always knew that this moment was bound to come sooner or later. We couldn’t go on running forever. It’ll be rather interesting to see Wendover’s face when he realises that he has lost.”
“Do we have to stay here and see it? Cannot we leave before they find us?”
“I don’t really think that anything can to be gained by that,” he said reflectively. “It would be much better to sort everything out now – once and for all.”
Horrified, it dawned on her what he might mean.
He had grown bored with this adventure and now that he was safe from having to marry Felicity, he had no further interest in helping her.
And yet everything inside her cried out against the accusation. The Marquis, the man she had come to know and love, could never be guilty of such baseness.
But how well did she really know him?
As though he had read her thoughts, he said gently,
“Selina, I have asked you to trust me in the past and you have always said that you do. Can you go on trusting me just a little longer, even if I seem to behave strangely?”
Suddenly she was calm.
She put her hands into his.
“Of course, Ian, I trust you, completely.”
“In everything?”
“With my life and beyond.”
“Then we might manage this venture successfully.”
“Can’t you tell me what you’re going to do?”
“It’s best if you don’t know. But I think – yes, I’m sure – that the time has come for me to be unassertive.”
“Surely you mean assertive?” Selina asked, startled.
A light that might just have been mischief gleamed in his eyes.
“Oh no, my dear, that isn’t what I mean at all. In fact, I sometimes think a man may gain more from being a milksop than he ever would from bawling his head off.”
“A milksop?” she repeated in bewilderment.
“Would you be very ashamed of me, if I acted like a milksop, Selina?”
His voice was apo
logetic, almost meek, but Selina could sense that things were not all they seemed.
Despite his words there seemed a reckless air about him she had not seen before. He looked like a man who was about to chance everything on one throw of the dice.
“You’re planning something, aren’t you? You are no more a milksop than – than I am.”
“I’m very glad you know the truth. But keep the knowledge to yourself for a while or you’ll spoil my effect.”
Before she could say more, they heard the sound of angry bellowing coming from the far end of the corridor.
Selina could detect the brash voice of her stepfather and it made her feel ill.
“They’re coming,” she whispered to the Marquis. “Oh, Heavens, he’ll drag me away.”
“No, he won’t.”
The next moment the door was flung open and the man she had dreaded to see stood on the threshold.
John Gardner’s eyes gleamed at the sight of her.
“So there you are, my girl! Thought you could get away from me, did you? Well, you’ll find out differently. Come here.”
“One moment,” snapped the Duke. “I have business of my own. You sir – ” he pointed at the Marquis. “You have deceived me. You told me you were engaged to this lady, but I am reliably informed that it’s not true. She is already engaged, although she does not act like it.”
“Because I am not –” stated Selina, as firmly as she could manage.
“That is for me to say,” interrupted John Gardner dangerously.
“No, it’s for me to say,” she flashed at him. “And I say it’s not true.”
“Now look here, my girl – ”
“Silence!” roared the Duke, bawling straight into his face. “Keep your petty concerns until I am finished.”
It had been years since anyone had dared to speak to John Gardner like this. But he was a Duke and his awe of ‘the quality’ was so great that he fell silent.
“Now you,” the Duke yelled at the Marquis, “you’ll not play fast and loose with me again. You’ll marry my daughter or, by God, I’ll know the reason why.”
“But I am more than happy to tell you the reason why,” retorted the Marquis plaintively. “I cannot marry your daughter, as she is already married.”
“No more of your tricks – ”
“No tricks, I swear it. She was married yesterday in a Church near here. Lady Selina and I were witnesses and the happy couple left for England on the evening tide.”
The Duke eyed him, his face turning an ugly grey.
“You are bluffing,” he declared. “I demand to see my daughter at once. What have you done with her, sir?”
“What have I done with her?” the Marquis echoed vaguely. “Well, let me see, I put her aboard my yacht, and her husband of course. I wished them both a safe journey and watched them sail away.”
The Duke seemed about to explode.
“And just who is this husband?” he demanded.
“I believe his name is Pierre Ducros.”
“What?” roared the Duke. “That dreadful wastrel, that scoundrel? How dare you help her to marry him?”
“My dear sir, it is no business of mine whom your daughter marries. I can assure you that she did not want to marry me.”
“I just don’t believe it,” blustered the Duke. “It’s a trick to throw me off the scent.”
But his voice had lost its vigour.
“My dearest daughter,” he coughed hoarsely. “My lovely daughter – married to a dancer!”
“But to a man who loves her,” the Marquis pointed out. “Surely that must make you glad?”
The Duke flung him a look of loathing.
“You think you’ve been clever, making a fool of me,” he snapped. “But I’ll have the last laugh. You’ve left yourself exposed, Castleton.”
“Exposed? To what?”
“To him,” he screamed, indicating John Gardner. “I’ve travelled in his company these last few days and a more vulgar, stupid, ignorant blockhead I have yet to meet! You’ll be lucky if you don’t end up with him for a father-in-law.”
Selina tensed in an agony of embarrassment.
What would the Marquis think of her?
But he hardly seemed to register the significance of the words.
“Oh no,” he muttered rather vaguely. “Gardner is selling Lady Selina to pay off his debts.”
Selina’s gasp was audible.
John Gardner blenched.
“You’ll take that back,” he snarled.
“No, I don’t think I will. You do owe Ralph Turner money, don’t you? That’s why he can demand from you whatever he likes. The Captain of my yacht hears all the rumours in Portsmouth and he gave me a pretty good idea of what you owe this man.
“Then it all began to make sense. If you were one-tenth as wealthy as you make out, you would be seeking to achieve your social ambitions in quite another way. A title like mine would be out of your league, of course. No man with a title would look at you for a moment, but I suppose you might have snared a Baronet!”
Never had Selina heard him speak with such lofty discourteous superiority. Was this what he called being unassertive?
But she said nothing. It was clear that he was up to something that she did not understand.
The Marquis sighed.
“Actually your so-called wealth is no more than a sham. One touch would bring you crashing down.”
Having delivered this devastating snub, he yawned.
John Gardner’s face turned to a ghastly colour and Selina could not doubt that the accusation was true.
Everything about him was a fraud.
He had tried to sell her.
And with that thought the last chain seemed to fall from her.
She was free of him.
It was a strange, poverty-stricken kind of freedom, but she would make something of it.
“I think you should leave now,” she told him. “We have nothing more to say to each other.”
“You just don’t understand,” he croaked hoarsely, “if you don’t come back, I am ruined. All right, perhaps I did some things the wrong way, but I’ve always been good to you. You owe me something.”
“I owe you nothing. You were good to yourself.”
“I impoverished myself providing your mother with a comfortable life,” he yelped.
“For your own reasons and your own gain and then you tried to barter me like an animal you owned. After that I have no sense of obligation to you.
“Besides,” she added thoughtfully, “Ralph Turner will not want me when he learns about this journey. He’ll think it most improper. I am sure his money can buy him something better than me.”
“No, no, he must never know about this,” Gardner gibbered.
Selina looked him in the eye.
“I shall personally make sure that he knows about everything.”
The Marquis swung round on her.
“My dear Selina!” he exclaimed, apparently totally horrified. “Everything?”
“Everything,” she asserted firmly.
“Including – ” he muttered, “Cedric Ponsonby?”
“Even him.”
“Who’s he?” Gardner bawled. “How many men have you – ?”
“Does it matter?” asked the Marquis. “Especially after the night at that post house at Picthaven.”
“What?” gasped Gardner.
“It was the inn’s fault,” the Marquis explained. “I reserved two separate rooms, but there was a mix-up. Of course, I would never have mentioned this myself, being a gentleman, but since Lady Selina is determined to reveal all to a censorious world – ”
He gave an elegant shrug.
“She wouldn’t dare!” howled John Gardner
“Why not?” demanded Selina. “What do I have to lose?”
“Your reputation.”
“After this journey, how much reputation do I have left?” she countered lightly.
She was almost enjoyin
g herself. Later there would be huge problems, she realised. The life of a free woman would not be easy, but for the moment, all she could feel was the exhilaration of casting her shackles aside.
John Gardner had not given up.
As he saw ruin facing him, he became more frantic and unreasonable.
“You’ll think better of it when you’ve seen sense,” he spluttered. “You’ll keep quiet and I’ll keep quiet and not a word of this will ever get out – ”
“But, of course, it will,” interrupted the Marquis. “You are just forgetting that Wendover, here, has a grudge against Lady Selina for helping me to thwart him. He’ll ensure that the story of our journey is known everywhere.”
The sneer on the Duke’s face bore him out.
“Then I’m no further use to you,” Selina told John Gardner. “And I’m free of you at last.”
“You think it will be just that easy?” he fumed. “A ruined woman, that’s what you’ll be! See if anyone wants to know you, because he – ” he shot out his right arm at the Marquis who was observing the scene with elaborate lack of concern, “he won’t marry you. You’re not good enough for him. You heard him say so.”
“Actually,” the Marquis retorted, “what I said was that you were not good enough. The lady herself is the equal of any man.”
He smiled as he added,
“It’s just that she is unfortunate in her relatives.”
Having thoroughly insulted Gardner, he turned his back on him.
“Now, you look here! Don’t think you can take this attitude with me.”
“My dear fellow, what is to stop me?” the Marquis mumbled over his shoulder, sounding bored.
“How you can stand there, so free and easy, when you’ve ruined an innocent girl – ?”
“It’s exactly what he did to my daughter,” the Duke observed. “If I couldn’t move him, what chance do you think you’ll have?”
“I’ll complain to the Queen,” Gardner bellowed.
The Marquis turned back.
“And what, exactly, do you plan to say about me?”
“That you’re a scoundrel and a blackguard and you owe it to this girl to make an honest woman of her.”
The Marquis regarded Selina curiously.
“Would it make you happy to marry a scoundrel and a blackguard?” he asked her.
The Triumph of Love Page 13
