“Yes, sir,” he continued. “There is a brother on the Peverill side, and the husband is still alive. The conclusion one is forcedto is that Mrs Peverill is at the spa for her health, for she is not by any means in plump currant, but —” He stopped, wondering all at once why he had begun this at all.
Bevis Chaceley’s expression was blank. There was nothing here to shed any light on Verena’s mystery.Oh, deuce take it, Verena!Still in his thoughts?
He would have abandoned the matter then. Turned it off, and rushed away to busy himself so hard that the image playing about his inner vision must fade. But Bevis did not seem to be in a mind to let the matter drop. He raised his brows in a compelling question.
“But?”
Denzell gave an inward sigh, and shrugged. “Sir, I hardly know how to answer you. Except to say that from my experience of Miss Chaceley — which was not, I grant you, very much — it seems clear that there is some point of contention. I don’t know what. But there is in Miss Chaceley…” There was a tightening in his chest as it all came back to him. With a roughening of his tone, he resumed, “There is both fear and distress. That is all I can tell you, sir.” He paused, and then, as if compelled, he asked again, “Are you sure she is no relation?”
To his sudden, intense disappointment, Bevis Chaceley laughed in a way that left no room for doubt. He knew nothing. Or at least, that was how he wished it to appear.
“My dear boy,” he said, “how could I tell? There are innumerable Chaceleys in the world, as I mentioned before.”
Kenrick nodded. “Hordes of them. I should think even my grandfather does not know them all.”
Denzell eyed them both, wondering if he should pursue it. But to what end? The matter was resolved for him. A servant arrived with precisely the sort of distraction he needed. Teresa had gone to change her dress and his mother wished to speak to him.
By the time he had run the particular errand requested of him by Lady Hawkeridge, the encounter with the Chaceleys had temporarily faded from his mind. It was recalled at a moment when he was gathered with his cronies as they were taking their leave of the bridegroom, with much ribald comment amid their good wishes for his future.
“Mark my words, Freddy,” warned Osmond, “your troubles are just beginning. Only wait until the children arrive.”
“This from a man who, by all accounts, dotes on his offspring,” scoffed Aldous Congleton.
“Dotes? He is besotted,” said Cyril Bedale.
“Exactly,” Denzell put in. “Pay no attention, Freddy. You should have heard him eulogising over his new daughter.”
But Freddy was blushing. “It is early days to be thinking of children. I just want to enjoy — I mean,weonly wish —”
“Softly, dear boy, softly,” Denzell said over the sniggers of the other two. “We perfectly understand you. Only, as your brother-in-law, I feel compelled to warn you to begin as you mean to go on, and insist on having the mastery in your own home. Otherwise, dear boy, you will assuredly live under the cat’s foot.”
“Yes, don’t show her you’re besotted,” advised Cyril.
“No, no,” protested Freddy loyally. “What I mean is, Teresa is devoted to me.”
“She may be as devoted as you please,” said Denzell, “but that will not prevent her from wishing to rule the roost.”
“Lookee, Freddy,” broke in Congleton. “Take a lesson from Ossie here. Everyone knows he is under his wife’s thumb.”
This was so nonsensical an idea that everyone roared, and Freddy himself took heart. Denzell, assuring him that he was jesting, slapped his brother-in-law on the back and wished him well, and young Lord Rowner was sent on his way with the goodwill of his friends ringing in his ears.
“Now then,” said Cyril Bedale, as soon as the bridegroom was gone. “I had forgot with all this attention on Freddy, but now is the moment to seize opportunity. You must satisfy our curiosity, Ossie. Tell us all about Hawk’s snow maiden.”
Denzell’s heart lurched.
“Snow maiden?” repeated Osmond blankly.
“This girl you wrote of,” explained Congleton.
“They mean Verena,” Denzell put in, conscious of a frenzy in his own pulse. For it had come to him belatedly that Ossie had come up from the very place where Verena Chaceley was living. Or was she?Chaste stars, let her not have removed from there!
But Osmond had turned on the name, seizing his friend’s shoulder. “If I had not forgot. Hawk, I had meant to give you an account of it. You would not believe what a warm heart beats under that icy front. Oh, she is on the highest pedestal in our establishment, I promise you.”
Denzell became aware of a drumming within his chest and his mind blanked. With difficulty, he asked, “What do you mean, Ossie?”
“I am talking of Verena. She came to us that night, when Unice was brought to bed. At least, I went to fetch her, for she and Unice had become friends. I swear to you, if she had not been there — she and that maid of hers — I don’t know what we would have done. She was kindness itself — and her gentleness with Unice, with the boys…” He shook his head in wonder.
“Snow maiden, eh?” said Congleton, in a teasing tone. “Sits well on her, it seems — eh, Hawk?”
