Uncle Paul seemed quite without suspicion. And they met no one on their way to the stables and no one there except a few grooms. Frederick had been holding his breath.Dan sometimes rode early, he knew, and anyone else mighttake it into his head to do so too on this of all mornings.
“Poor Stella,” Julia said as the carriage pulled out of the stableyard and made its way onto the driveway. “She isgoing to be in a very cross mood unless the walk and themorning air have revived her spirits. It is a good thing it isLes who is with her. He is so very good-natured.”
“Yes,” Frederick said, looking rather tensely from the windows, hoping for the final part of the miracle. “Leswon’t mind.” He was wondering how Julia was going toreact when she found that there was no one to be picked upin the village.
She reacted predictably. She peered out of the windows as the carriage entered the village and exclaimed in surpriseat the fact that they were nowhere in sight.
“They must have grown tired of waiting,” Frederick said, “and walked home a different way.”
“Don’t be foolish, Freddie,” she said. “And why is your coachman not slowing down? Tell him to slow down.”
“I already told him not to, Jule,” he said quietly, the end of the village street having been reached and all the housesleft behind.
“You told him—?” She looked around at him with sudden suspicion, but with no fear in her face. Good old Jule.
“What is this, Freddie? Stop this carriage instantly. I am going home.”
“No, Jule,” he said. “We will go alone together. It will be easier that way.”
“They were never coming with us, were they?” she said. “It was all lies. Freddie, I hate you. And I won’t do this. I know I do some ramshackle things, but I won’t do this. I’ll not be alone with you all day. I would be ashamed to show my face at Primrose Park again.” She got to her feet andbanged the side of her fists against the front panel.
His coachman did not slow the carriage.
“Jule,” he said, “sit down.” He did not believe he had ever felt so wretched in his life.
She turned to look at him again, her eyes wide, her cheeks flushed. “We are not going to Mr. Prudholm’s, arewe?” she said, surprise in her voice.. “You are kidnappingme. Aren’t you? I am your prisoner. You are going to try toforce me to marry you. Oh, Freddie, they must be hugedebts.”
“I’ll make you happy, Jule,” he said. “I’ll make you fall in love with me. It will be better than your uncle in thenorth of England.”
“Goddamned bloody hell it will be better!” she said, causing him almost to laugh for a moment. But he did notbelieve he could laugh to save his life. “I’ll not marry you,Freddie, if we ride about the countryside for a wholemonth. I still have to say yes, and I will never say yes. Youmight as well save yourself the trouble of being shut upwith my temper for a long spell. I’ll never marry you.”
“You will have no choice, Jule,” he said, trying to possess himself of her hand. But she snatched it back and then cracked it painfully across his cheek.
“You are not only going to compromise me, are you?” she said, her voice shaking—more with rage than with fear,he thought. “You are going to rape me. Aren’t you?”
“I would far prefer it to be just a compromising, Jule,” he said unhappily. “And it would not have to be rape. I canmake you want me.”
She looked at him long and hard before settling back in her seat and folding her hands in her lap, apparently calm.
“It will be rape, Freddie,” she said. “I will not give you the comfort of thinking that it may be something else. Itwill not. Will it be tonight? In Gloucester?”
“Yes,” he said.
“I may still not marry you, you know,” she said. “Only if you get me with child. I suppose you could keep me longenough to make sure that that does happen, but it will notbe soon enough, Freddie. I have to be betrothed to youwithin the next two weeks and a few days. I’ll not consentbefore that time. You may have me if you are capable ofbegetting children, but you will not get Primrose Park. Youmight as well take me back, you know.”
He said nothing and made no move to change his orders to his coachman. She would marry him, and she wouldagree to it before the deadline. Once he had taken hervirtue—Lord God, was that what he was planning to do toher? Once he had done that, she would see that she had nochoice. Besides, he would make her fall in love with him.He would use all the charm and expertise of years on herand she would not be able to resist him.
But it would be rape nonetheless, a part of his brain that he would just as soon have ignored told him over and overagain during the silent hours that followed.
16
Nobody really missed them at first. It was true that Aunt Millie commented on the fact that dear Juliawas not at breakfast, but Uncle Paul, who had eaten earlierbut came back to the breakfast table anyway in order toenjoy the company, explained that she had gone riding withFreddie. It seemed a fairly unremarkable fact except thatshe had no business riding alone with Freddie or any otherman. But the earl frowned only briefly. He would thinkabout it later, he decided. There were other things to takehis mind this morning.
Like the unexpected offer for his sister he had had from Malcolm late the previous night and her even more unexpected happiness. If only he had opened up the eyes in hishead, the earl had decided, he would surely have seen inwhich direction the wind was blowing. Camilla had alwaysbeen fond of Malcolm and it had been very obvious sincespring that she was over the death of Captain Styne andready for love again. And she had spent more time withMalcolm in the past week or so than with anyone else.
The earl was delighted. So was his mother as soon as she remembered that Malcolm would be a baron someday.Though that was a little unfair to her. She wanted both herchildren to marry well, but first and foremost she wantedtheir happiness. She happened to believe that happinesswas more likely to result from a good marriage than froman unequal one. And Camilla was now, after all, the sisterof the Earl of Beaconswood.
So the betrothal, and its announcement at breakfast of all places because in a family it would be impossible to hold such a fact secret until a more appropriate time for an announcement, took most of the earl’s attention. He had determinedly put out of his mind all the turmoil of his own emotional life.
