‘That is what I’m afraid of, butcouldanyone be so infamously cruel?’
‘Oh, lord, yes! This vixen, I daresay, would not, in cold blood, but I told you before, my innocent, that you are unacquainted with her sort. Women of unbridled passions arecapable de tout! Let them but lose their tempers and they will say, and afterwards find excuse for, what, on another’s lips, they would condemn with sincere loathing!’ He paused, scanning her face with eyes grown suddenly hard and frowning. ‘What else has she said to you?’ he demanded abruptly. ‘You had much better tell me, you know!’
‘Well, so I would, but surely you can’t wish me to repeat to you a list of maliciousnothings?’
‘No: spare me! That fling at Aubrey was all?’
‘It was enough! Damerel, if you knew what tortures ofself-hatredhave been endured – never mentioned, only to be guessed at! – the shrinking from strangers, the dread of pity or such revulsion as Charlotte tries to hide –’
He broke in on her agitation, saying: ‘I do know. I think it unlikely that this woman would sink so low, unless offered extraordinary provocation, but the boy is abnormally sensitive. Shall I take him off your hands? I’ve told him already that he may remove to the Priory whenever he chooses. His reply was inelegant, but certainly did him credit. He was much inclinedto snap my nose off: demanded if I was in all seriousness inviting himto run sly, leaving you tostand the shock! It seemed scarcely the moment to suggest to him that the shock would be less if hedidrun sly, but I can still do so, and will, if you tell me to. The only difficulty will be to conceal from him the real cause, and I expect I could overcome that.’
She put out her hand, almost unconsciously, saying playfully, to hide her deeper feeling: ‘What agoodfriend you are, Wicked Baron! Whereshouldwe be in this pass without you? I know I might, if the worst came to the worst, send Aubrey to you.Thatthought, I promise you, saved me from distraction! In emergency I shouldn’t hesitate – were you ever before so scandalously imposed on? – but there’s no emergency yet – may never be, if Aubrey will but shut his ears to the things that are said merely to vex and sting. I don’t mean to impose on you unless I must!’
His hand had closed on hers, and he was still holding it, but in a clasp that struck her as being curiously rigid. She glanced enquiringly at him, and saw a strange look in his eyes, and about his mouth the bitter sneer that mocked himself. She must have betrayed bewilderment in her face, for the sneer vanished, he smiled, and said lightly, as he released her hand: ‘I defy anyone to impose on me! I should be glad to have Aubrey at the Priory. I like the boy, and certainly don’t consider him a charge, if that’s what’s in your mind. No one could accuse him of being a difficult guest to entertain! Let him come to me when you choose, and remain for as long as may suit you both!’
‘Thus positively conferring a favour on you!’ she said, laughing. ‘Thank you! It would not, I think, be for very long. Lady Denny tells me that Sir John has heard from Mr Appersett that he means to return to us before the middle of next month. I suspect his cousin – who was so obliging as to offer to exchange with him after his illness – has no great fancy to spendthe winter in Yorkshire! Mr Appersett told me years ago that if ever I should wish to go away for a time he would readily give Aubrey house-room.’
‘Then, Aubrey’s affairs being satisfactorily arranged, we will turn to your own,Admir’d Venetia! Are you serious when you talk of setting up your own establishment?’
‘Yes, of course I am!’
‘Then it is time someone took order to you!’ he said grimly. ‘Leave nursery-dreams, and come to earth, my dear! It is not possible!’
‘But it is perfectly possible! Don’t you know that I’m mistress of what Mr Mytchett – he is our lawyer, and one of my trustees – calls a considerable independence?’
‘I still tell you that it is not possible!’
‘Good God, Damerel,youdon’t mean to talk propriety to me, do you?’ she exclaimed. ‘I warn you, you won’t easily convince me that the least impropriety attaches to a woman of my years choosing rather to live in her own house than in her brother’s! If I were a girl –’
‘You are not only a girl, but a green girl!’
‘Green I’ll allow, girl I will not! I’m five-and-twenty, my friend. I know it would be thought improper if I were to live alone, and though I think it nonsensical I don’t mean to outrage the conventions, I promise you. While Aubrey is at Cambridge I shall engage a chaperon. When he has taken his degree – well, I don’t know yet, of course, but I expect he will next become a Fellow, and remain fixed in Cambridge, in which event the likeliest chance is that I shall keep house for him there, for I shouldn’t think he would marry, should you?’
‘God give me patience!’ he ejaculated, springing up, and taking a hasty turn about the room. ‘Venetia, will youstoptalking like a sapskull? Engage a chaperon! Keep house for Aubrey! Don’t forget to buy a stock of caps suitable for a dowager, or an ageingspinster, I do beg of you! Listen to me, you beautiful idiot! you’ve wasted six – seven – years of your life: don’t waste any more! What, for heaven’s sake, do you imagine would be the advantage in this house of yours?Whois to be your chaperon?’
‘I don’t know: how should I? I had supposed that it must be possible to hire, as one would a governess, some lady in impoverished circumstances – a widow, perhaps – who would answer the purpose.’
‘Then suppose it no longer! You might hire a score of widows, but not one to answer the purpose. I can picture this establishment! Where is it to be? In Kensington, I think, genteel and retired! Or perhaps in the wilds of Upper Grosvenor Place: just on the fringe of fashion! You will be dismally bored, my dear, I assure you!’
She looked a little amused. ‘Then I shall travel. I have always wanted to do that.’
‘What, with an impoverished widow for escort, no acquaintance anywhere but in Yorkshire, and rather less knowledge of the world than a chit out of boarding-school? My poor innocent, when I think of the only friendships you would be likely to form under such circumstances I promise you my blood runs cold! It won’t do: believe me, I know what I’m talking about! To carry off such an existence as you propose you must needs be fabulously wealthy, and eccentric into the bargain! Wealth, my dear delight, would excuse your eccentricity, and open most doors to you. You might hire a mansion in the best part of town, furnish it with oriental magnificence, force yourself on the notice of thetonby indulging in expensive freaks, boldly send out invitation cards – you would meet with some rebuffs, and not a few cuts-direct, but –’
‘Be quiet, you absurd creature!’ she interrupted, laughing. ‘That’s not the life I want! How could you think I should?’
‘I don’t think it. Are you going to tell me that you want thelife you would most certainly lead under your own scheme? You will be more bored and more lonely than ever in your life, for I assure you, Venetia, without acquaintance, without the correct background, you had as well live on a desert island as in London!’
‘Oh, dear! Then whatamI to do?’
‘Go to your Aunt Hendred!’ he replied.
‘I mean to do so – but not to stay. I shouldn’t like that – or she either, I fear. Nor would her house do for Aubrey.’
‘Aubrey, Aubrey! Think for once ofyourself!’
‘Well, and so I do! You know, Damerel, I never thought I could bear to stay at Undershaw with another woman as its mistress, and now I’ve discovered that it would fret me very much to live under such conditions anywhere! And to live with my aunt and uncle, submitting to their decrees, as I should be obliged to do, recognising their authority, would be unendurable, like finding myself back again in the nursery! I’ve been my own mistress for too long, dear friend.’
He looked at her across the room, a wry smile on his lips. ‘You would not have to endure it for very long,’ he said.
