‘She’s coming back to England!’she said, looking up, eyes shining.‘She doesn’t say for how long or why, but says she is leaving soon, and asks can she stay.I must write to her immediately and tell her we are here.’
Chips’ face fell.‘Surely she would be more comfortable in town?And we could see her when we are back?I don’t know that I care to have her here at the same time as the ambassador, with her no-doubt exaggerated tales of Berlin.’
‘Nonsense.’Honor ignored him.‘She must come straight here.I will write at once.And I will telephone to Belgrave Square to leave instructions in case she arrives there first.Her letter says she means to set off from Germany almost at once and it was written a week ago.We must send the motorcar back so it is there when she needs it.Will you ask Mrs Meadows to prepare the Scarlet Room?’
‘But I have given that to Fritzi.’
‘He can move.’
‘Very well.’He gave in so easily that she wasn’t surprised when he added, ‘I thought we might stay on and spend some time together once everyone has gone?’
‘I have matters in town.My mother …’
‘Lady Iveagh wouldn’t mind at all.’He came closer.‘If she knew the reason …’
‘What reason?’
‘I thought, while we were here, if we had time alone, well, we might be more … companionable.’He took her hand and traced his thumb in light circles over the back of it.Honor flinched.
‘No, Chips.’
He dropped her hand.‘You think I don’t know about the baron, don’t you?’he said, almost conversationally.
‘What are you talking about?’She moved sharply away from him.
‘The baron, and your little affair.Verylittle … But of course I knew.’
How was he so …glibwas the word that came to her.Why didn’t he care more?‘You never said …’
‘No.I didn’t see the point.’He shrugged.‘These things happen.’
‘Not to everyone, they don’t.My parents—’
‘Naturally!’he conceded gracefully.‘But to so many marriages.And really, there is nothing to make a fuss about.Not when two people wish to stay together.When they have so much to stay together for.As we do.But given your lapse, surely you see that an effort is now required?’
‘Are you trying to blackmail me?’she asked.
‘Hardly!I exert a little pressure, that’s all.Who could blame me?’
Who indeed?Most of the world, their world anyway, would think him perfectly correct.Perhaps he took her silence for acceptance.
‘We do well together, do we not, darling?’he continued, coming closer again.‘And think of Paul, whom we both love so much … You would do anything for him, I know you would.And a brother or sister is what he needs most.’
‘No, Chips.I cannot.’
He looked into her face for a long moment, then narrowed his eyes.‘Are you sure it wasyouthe baron found so attractive?Men of his type don’t usually make a play for you.’
‘Why should it not have been me?’she responded wearily.
‘No reason.No reason.Only that kind of man, well, often it ismoneythey find most irresistible.’
She left the room, even though it was her own bedchamber.Later, when they met before dinner, Chips was at his most charming and attentive, full of concern for her wellbeing – ‘You look tired, may I fetch you anything?’
But Honor couldn’t forget, as she had allowed herself to forget so much else.Which was worse, she wondered – just in the way she might have pressed on a bruised or swollen ankle to see how much it hurt – that her husband found the idea of another man desiring her so ludicrous, or that he should think first of her money when he thought of losing her?She pressed the sore place again.Both, she decided.Both were worse.
Chapter Seventeen
Maureen
