Both parties muttered what might have been agreement, though Marjorie’s flushed countenance told Alex she was by no means acquiescent.
“Jackson, you will remain by the door in case I need you.”
The unfortunate minion, already a good deal mauled by the look of him, took up his stance in a manner rather resigned than eager, and remained there, stolid before the door.
“You, and you! On the bench there.”
Such was the power of the magistrate’s eye that Walter, pulling his recalcitrant sister along with him, retired to the short bench at one side of the room, from where they were perfectly well able, Alex surmised, to observe both himself and Apple as well as Justice Armitage.
Inwardly cursing, he whispered to Apple to sit down again and retook his own seat as the magistrate once again came around the desk. Before reseating himself, he directed a final glare at the interlopers.
“You will remain silent unless I ask you a question.”
Walter nodded, but a returning glare was the only response Marjorie made. Ignoring this, the magistrate sat down with an air of finality and turned his gaze upon Apple once again. “You were saying?”
Apple blinked at him. “Yes, but I don’t think I was.”
Suspecting the fellow was trying to appear more in control than he actually was, and in fact had no recollection himself of where they had got to in the previous discussion, Alex cut in swiftly. “You were going to tell Justice Armitage how Mr Vergette came to see you after Christmas.”
She was not about to do any such thing, but the introduction of Vergette’s name had been productive of a satisfactory effect the last time. Besides which, with an audience consisting of the Greenaways, it was likely the best ploy. To his relief, Apple seized the notion.
“Yes, that’s right, he did.”
“Why?”
Damnation! Alex began to see why this man was employed in the capacity of magistrate. Apple threw him a look, and on impulse he opted for the truth.
“Came to see me, if you must have it, sir. Had something to tell me. But Miss Greenaway saw him in my stead.”
Justice Armitage looked from him to Apple and back again. “I have a strong feeling that you are keeping something from me, my lord. Both of you.”
Warmth rose into Alex’s cheeks, and he shot a brief look across to the bench where Walter was looking puzzled. Marjorie’s suspicious eyes went from one to the other, and Alex thought it would not be long before she broke out again. A quick look at Apple found her tight-lipped and white of face. Alex gathered his forces.
“The intelligence conveyed to Miss Greenaway by Vergette is confidential, sir. Nothing to do, moreover, with this trumped up charge these persons have brought against me.”
The magistrate inclined his head. “Very well, I will accept that for the time being. However, there is still the matter of your refusing to allow Mr Greenaway to remove his ward from your custody.”
“Ha! What have you to say to that?”
Justice Armitage turned his head. “I will not tell you again, Mr Greenaway.”
Walter pouted, muttering. But it was obvious to Alex that Marjorie was bursting to speak and would not maintain silence for long. He was about to answer when he was forestalled.
“Custody? You call it that?” Apple’s fury was palpable. “Alex was protecting me! He knew I didn’t wish to marry Mr Cumberledge and that they would force me to do so if he let them drag me away.”
For the first time, the magistrate looked bewildered. “Cumberledge? Who the deuce is Mr Cumberledge?”
“He is Walter’s partner, and they want me to marry him so that they may get at my trust. That’s why I wanted to see Mr Vergette, to beg for his support against them. But the truth is that my trust has nothing whatsoever to do with the winery, only they refuse to believe it.”
It was plain that all this was new to the magistrate, for he cast a deeply reproachful glance at the couple on the bench. Walter looked a trifle confounded, but Marjorie, once more red in the face, was clearly raging.
“It seems to me,” the magistrate said heavily, “there is a great deal more to this matter than I have been privileged to understand.” To Alex’s chagrin, he turned back again and fixed him with a beady eye. “However, none of this alters the facts, Lord Dymond. You do not deny, whether for reasons of chivalry or otherwise, that you held Miss Greenaway against her guardian’s expressed wish?”
“Of course I don’t deny it. Obvious that I did so, ain’t it?”
“But not against my will, which is the point, isn’t it? And he didn’t steal me or abduct me or kidnap me!”
With difficulty, Alex refrained from putting out a restraining hand, so inimical was the glare Apple directed at her guardians. To his mind, the whole affair began to assume the aspect of a Drury Lane farce. If he wasn’t so incensed on Apple’s behalf, he’d be convulsed.
