by Sara Craven
Without making a scene, there seemed little she could do. Biting her lip, she accompanied him to where the Jacksons were standing, talking to a blonde woman in pale blue.
As they approached, she turned, smiling, holding out her hand.
‘Chloe,’ she said. ‘How lovely to see you again.’
Chloe heard her voice, small and husky, reply, ‘Penny—Mrs Maynard. Good evening.’
And made herself touch the proffered fingers in a parody of goodwill.
The moment she’d dreaded had come, and it was worse than she could ever have imagined. Because the taut, thin figure she remembered was now beguilingly rounded, the proud swell of her abdomen under the gentle drape of her soft silk crepe dress proclaiming her pregnancy. The face had softened too, the happy curve of Penny’s mouth suggesting that she smiled a lot these days and her eyes were shining.
She’d always been striking, but now she looked beautiful, thought Chloe with sudden anguish. Fulfilled.
Penny was turning to Darius, her glance tinged with laughing complicity. ‘You’re just in time, my pet. Your father’s been getting restive. He wants to make the announcement.’
‘Then I’d better go to him.’ He paused. ‘Are you feeling up to it? Because I know he wants you to come too.’
‘Yes,’ she said, her fingers resting briefly and protectively on her stomach. ‘Of course.’ Her smile swept the Jacksons, encompassing Chloe in its warmth. ‘You’ll excuse me for a few minutes? There’ll be plenty of time to talk later while everyone’s still recovering from the shock.’
Her glance rested on Chloe. ‘And especially as we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other in future, I hope.’
Chloe watched her go at Darius’s side, her hand on his arm, then said in a low voice, ‘Aunt Libby—how could you? Why did you let him do this to me? Bring me here?’
‘Because I didn’t really have much choice.’ There was a note of tartness in the response. ‘I think I’ve always underestimated that young man’s determination to get his own way. Clearly we all have,’ she added with a faint snort.
At the end of the room, Sir Gregory was being helped onto the small platform. He stood at the microphone with Darius standing on one side of him and Penny seated on the other, and Chloe could see the glances and hear the whispers, a ripple of anticipation sweeping through the room like a wind blowing across barley.
She thought, I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to listen to what’s going to be said, and have to smile and applaud with the rest of them. I can’t bear it.
But to make an exit now would attract too much attention, because the band leader was giving the signal for a short drum roll asking for silence.
Sir Gregory began slowly, leaning on his silver-topped cane. ‘It is a great pleasure to see so many friends and neighbours here in this house tonight, for what will be the last ever Birthday Ball.’
He waited for the astonished murmurs to die away, then went on, ‘My recent illness gave me a lot of time to reflect, on the past as well as the future. It made me see that my view of family continuity here at the Hall for the coming generations was not necessarily the right one.
‘For one thing, there are increasingly difficult economic facts to be faced in maintaining a house of this size with its land.
‘But, far more important, I also realised that my remaining son, now my heir, has built his own very different life elsewhere, and established business and personal commitments in Europe and other parts of the world. I cannot, in conscience, expect him to abandon any of these for another career, and other responsibilities that he never expected or desired.’
He paused. ‘I have therefore decided to sell the Hall and the greater part of the estate to the Hatherstone Group to become part of their spa-hotel chain, and the deal will soon be finalised. They intend to recruit staff locally, so the sale will bring jobs to the area, and, I hope, be a whole new beginning for Willowford.’
This time, the gasp was audible.
‘I have, however, retained the plantation at Warne Cross,’ Sir Gregory went on. ‘And will be living there in the former Keeper’s Cottage, which has been refurbished and extended for me, with my good Mrs Vernon to look after me still and Mrs Denver to cook, so I expect to enjoy a very happy and stress-free existence for the time I have left. And I trust you will all come and see me from time to time.’
He added, ‘Needless to say, I shall also look forward to seeing my grandchildren, when my son and the lady who is soon to be his wife bring them to visit.’
He looked slowly round the room. ‘And now, I have little more to say but—goodbye and God bless you all. Oh—and on with the dance!’
‘Well I’m damned,’ said Uncle Hal as an excited hubbub broke out around them. ‘It seems we’re not the only ones downsizing, Libby, my dear.’ He shook his head. ‘But it certainly wasn’t the announcement I expected to hear.’
‘No.’ His wife’s tone was thoughtful, her eyes resting shrewdly on her niece’s pale face. ‘But perhaps that’s another deal still to be finalised.’
Chloe wasn’t listening. She stood, staring ahead of her, unable to comprehend what she’d just heard. The Maynards, she thought incredulously, giving up the Hall after more than three centuries? No, it wasn’t—it couldn’t—be possible.
Yet that was what Sir Gregory had said, therefore it had to be believed.
So I don’t have to worry about watching Darius presiding at the Hall with Penny beside him, she thought, because he has a life elsewhere, and other commitments. How ironic is that?
Or did Sir Gregory feel that installing Penny once again as lady of the manor, after all that had happened, would be just too much for the locals to accept, for all their loyalty to the Maynards?
She felt a sob rising in her throat and hastily turned it into a cough.
She said, ‘It’s very stuffy in here. I think I’ll get some air.’
‘That might be wise,’ Aunt Libby said gently, and paused. ‘I can see all this has come as something of a blow, darling. Did you really have no idea?’
She shook her head. ‘None at all.’ Especially about Darius becoming a father …
She forced a smile. ‘But I’m sure it’s all for the best.’
Because what it really means, she whispered silently, is that once I leave here, I’ll never see him again. Or his wife. Or his coming baby. And ‘out of sight equals out of mind’—isn’t that what they say? I can only pray that it’s true.
‘That’s right, my dear,’ Uncle Hal said awkwardly. ‘It’s been a day of shocks altogether, but you’re putting a brave face on them, and we’re both proud of you. Very proud indeed. And you look a picture,’ he added.
Chloe smiled again, shook her head, and made for the French doors leading to the terrace, moving with swift determination as if she didn’t see any of the people eager to detain her and talk over recent events.
And as if she hadn’t noticed Darius gently helping Penny down from the platform and guiding her to the chairs at the side of the room.
With a small, bitter sigh, she went out into the darkness.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SHE stood for a moment, drawing deep breaths of the cool garden-scented air. Then, when she felt calmer, she walked down the steps leading down to the gardens, and descended them, carefully lifting her skirt above her ankles.
There was a stone bench just below the terrace, and she sank down onto it, listening to the wafts of music coming from the ballroom, and staring up at the starlit sky, wondering where her next view of it would come from. Not that it really mattered, she thought. All she asked was for it to be a very long way away from here. And with a lot of work to fill her days and make her too tired to stay awake at night. Or dream.
Her reverie was suddenly interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the flagstones above, and Darius’s voice saying sharply, ‘Chloe—where are you? I know you’re out here.’
She froze incredulously, holding her breath. He’d follow
ed her? But how was that possible—in these circumstances?
It’s as if I’m being punished, she thought, goading herself into anger. But what have I done—except try and make a life for myself without him? And what blame is there in that, when he made me fall in love with him, then left me? When he’s flaunting Penny in front of us all?
She waited on tenterhooks while long minutes passed, as aware of his silent presence a few yards away as if he had laid a hand on her bare shoulder. Trying hard not to shiver. Then—eventually—she heard him move away, his footsteps receding. Back to the ballroom, she thought bleakly, and to his duties as host, to his father, and to the woman carrying his child.
But she couldn’t follow. Couldn’t pretend any more, because she had to get away. She had money in the evening purse she was clutching like a lifeline, and there was a phone in the stables, so she could call the local taxi company and leave. Go home and pack. And tomorrow begin her next journey and find some sort of freedom.
All she had to do was cut across the gardens.
She took a deep breath then rose, shaking out her skirts, and started off across the lawn.
Only to hear his voice from behind her saying softly, triumphantly, ‘At last.’
She realised in that instant that he’d gone nowhere, but simply remained where he was on the terrace, biding his time until she moved.
She tried to run but stumbled as the heel of her sandal sank into the soft turf. She wrenched herself free of it and carried on, limping clumsily and ridiculously on one bare foot.
He caught her easily within a few yards, her sandal dangling from his hand.
He said, ‘When I called you Cinderella earlier, my sweet, it was meant as a joke.’
‘Then perhaps I’m suffering a sense of humour failure.’ She faced him defiantly, her heart hammering unevenly inside the boned confines of her bodice. ‘But for me, midnight struck a long time ago, and I want to get out of here.’
‘My own feelings entirely.’ He sounded rueful. ‘But I can’t leave yet for obvious reasons, so why don’t we wait a little longer and go together tomorrow?’
She was trembling almost violently. She said huskily, ‘Because that isn’t possible. It never was. So, please, please don’t say things like that. Can’t you show me a little mercy?’
‘I already did that,’ he said, slowly. ‘Seven years ago when I gave you your freedom. When I began to make love to you and suddenly realised that if I took you, I would never let you go, and that you were much too young to be tied into the serious relationship that I longed for. You had your university course—your dreams of a career—your whole future waiting.’
He took a swift, harsh breath. ‘I told myself that I couldn’t rob you of your chance to discover who you were and what you wanted from life. That it would be cruel and unfair to ask you to give it up and come away with me, just as my mother had once warned me.
‘She loved my father, but she knew how difficult it was to adjust to a life you weren’t altogether ready for. And I knew I had to accept that and remove myself from temptation by going back to France the next day without you, even if it meant tearing out my heart.’
The lean face was taut, his mouth compressed.
‘However, I had every intention of keeping in touch. I reasoned if I wrote to you from wherever—saw you regularly in London—that you might one day realise that what you really wanted was me. That all I had to do was wait.’
He added, ‘But as we both know it didn’t work out like that.’
There were tears, raw and thick in her throat. ‘But you left me—for her.’ The words she’d sworn she would never say out in the open at last.
‘No,’ he said steadily. ‘I left with her. A very different situation, and forced on me when, by pure mischance, Andrew found us together in my bedroom.’ He paused. ‘All hell broke loose, of course. Andrew was like a crazy man, shouting accusations, calling us both every foul name he could think of, and the row brought my father down on us too.
‘I knew Andrew was on the edge of violence, and my father was angrier than I’d ever seen him, and refused to listen to any kind of explanation.’
He sighed abruptly. ‘I was already packed and ready to go, even before he ordered me out of the house for ever. But I felt I couldn’t risk leaving Penny there alone. Therefore I took her with me to London.’
Her voice shook. ‘How could you possibly explain all that—to anyone?’
‘Quite easily now,’ he said. He glanced around him. ‘But not here. For this, we need privacy.’
Before she could stop him, he’d swept her up into his arms and carried her back across the grass to the gravel walk and round the corner of the house.
As they reached the side door and Chloe realised where she was being taken, she began to struggle.
Her voice was a gasp. ‘No—I won’t …’
Darius bent his head, stifling her protest swiftly and passionately with his mouth as he carried her into the house and up the stairs to his bedroom.
When, at last, he set her on her feet, she was breathless and her lips felt swollen, but she faced him stormily.
‘How dare you bring me here—where you had sex with her? Where you’ll no doubt spend tonight with her. Am I supposed to accept this—as if it didn’t matter?’
‘No,’ Darius said. ‘Because you’re wrong on both counts. Penny and I are not and never have been lovers in this room or anywhere else. As for tonight, I imagine her husband will expect her in their bed as usual. She would have introduced him to you earlier but he was upstairs, checking on their little boy.’
There was a silence, then she said in a voice she hardly recognised as hers, ‘Penny—married?’
‘Very much so,’ he said. ‘To Jean Pierre, the friend who manages my vineyard in the Dordogne. They met a few years back when he came to London on a sales trip and were married a couple of months later.’
‘But you were the one she wanted first.’
He shook his head. ‘She came to me because she was desperate to leave Andrew. That was all.’
‘But why—if it wasn’t for you?’
Darius took her hand, leading her to the bed and sitting beside her. He said, his tone quiet, almost flat, ‘Andrew and I were never particularly close, when we were children or later. He led a blameless life. I didn’t. Also he was something of a loner and very conscious of being Dad’s heir. He didn’t seem to have many close friends, and, although he dated girls occasionally, there didn’t appear to be anyone special.
‘So his engagement to Penny came as something of a surprise—to me, at least. I’d no idea they were involved. But I was pleased for him. She was a stunner and fairly lively too, and I thought she might be just what he needed.
‘I was away a good deal, but when I was at home I soon realised that all wasn’t well between them. Andrew seemed more of an introvert than ever, and Penny was a shadow of what she’d been before the marriage. I tried once to talk to him—ask a few tactful questions—but he froze me off as usual.
‘But when I came back for the Birthday Ball, I could see things had gone from bad to worse. This time I spoke to my father about it, but he glared at me and said that Andrew was a model husband, coping with a difficult and neurotic girl, and as my own private life was an open disgrace, I should kindly refrain from comment or interference.’
He took Chloe’s hand, stroking her fingers gently, and the breath caught in her throat as she responded to the promise of his skin against hers.
‘What he didn’t know, because I’d only just found out myself, was that my life had changed for ever, dating from the moment I went to the Willow Pond for a swim and found a dark-haired siren sitting on a rock, waiting for me to fall in love with her.’
She bent her head, letting her hair fall around her flushed face, the turmoil within her changing to a different kind of excitement.
‘Because fall I did,’ he went on. ‘Between one breath and the next.’ He gave an unsteady laugh. ‘I�
��d never been so happy, knowing for the first time I had someone to work for—to plan a future beside. But I couldn’t ignore what was going on around me, especially when Penny started seeking me out, telling me she needed to talk.
‘I was pretty sure Andrew had noticed this too, so I was careful to keep my distance, which, in retrospect, was a mistake, because I failed to realise how near the edge she really was.
‘The ball finished earlier than usual that year, and I was thankful, because I’d found having to go on being civil was almost impossible when I was feeling so raw over you. When I came up here, I could still smell your perfume on my pillow, remember how glorious you’d looked, and how your eyes had smiled into mine.’
He took a sharp breath. ‘I told myself that I’d been a fool to let you go. That it wasn’t too late to drive over to the Grange and say, “I will love you for the rest of my life. Come away with me now and we’ll be married as soon as I can get a licence”.’
‘You wanted to tell me that?’ Her voice shook. ‘Oh, why didn’t you?’
‘For all the excellent reasons already stated,’ Darius said ruefully. ‘Plus I was terrified you might say no. It seemed best to stick to my plan for a lengthy and patient wooing.’
He sighed. ‘Just as well I didn’t know exactly how long, or that when we met again you’d claim to love someone else. I fell asleep that night thinking about you, wanting you, and when someone touched my shoulder and said my name, I suppose I hoped it was you. That by some miracle you’d come back to me and our life together could begin.’
He paused. ‘Instead, I found Penny standing by my bed in her dressing gown. She said, “When you leave tomorrow, you have to take me with you. I can’t bear any more. My cousin Helen in Kensington will let me stay there until I sort myself out. I’m just going to take my clothes—not my car or anything else Andrew has given me. That wouldn’t be right”.’
‘I thought at first she’d been drinking, and wondered how I could get her back to her own room when the house was still full of people clearing up after the ball. But I couldn’t get out of bed either, because I always sleep naked, so I was stuck both ways.
