A Night of Gaiety (17 page)

Wearing her smart new habit, Davita could not help wishing that the Marquis could see her and they could ride together.

Then she told herself that wishing things was just a waste of time, and he would doubtless think her a very poor horsewoman beside those he rode with in Rotten Row or in his estate in Hertfordshire.

The Countess had told her how fine it was.

“
You would certainly approve of my great-nephew’s
house. It was restored in the middle of the Eighteenth Century and a great part of it is much older than that.”

“I know I would not love it as much as I love this house,” Davita had replied loyally.

“Nevertheless, get him to tell you about it,” the Countess said. “He is very proud of his ancestry. I have told him for years that it is time he was married and had a family.”

D
avita was surprised at the strange feeling the Countess’s words gave her. It was almost like a physical pain.

T
hen she thought wistfully how fortunate the Marquis’s wife would be, not because she would have a fine house and a grand estate but because she would be able to talk to him and learn from him so much that was interesting.

‘If only he would stay here a week,’ she thought wistfully. ‘I would be very much wiser and better informed by the time he left.’

She assumed that tomorrow, perhaps early in the morning, he would go back to London and, though she tried not to put it into words, the house would seem empty without him.

There was still tonight, and she wished she had another dress to wear.

‘Not that he would notice me if I were dressed up like the Queen of Sheba,’ she thought mockingly.

The hours of the day seemed to pass slowly, and when the Countess went to rest, Davita went out into the sunshine.

Instead of going down to the lake as she always did, she went to the stables.

“Have you room for the horses His Lordship may bring back with him from the sale?” she asked Yates, the Head Groom.

“There’s places for a dozen more ’orses, Miss,” he replied. “But I don’t think ’is Lordship’ll bring more than two or three.”

“I am sure they will be very fine animals,” Davita remarked.

“They will,” Yates agreed. “ ’Is Lordship be a first-class judge of ’orseflesh.”

Davita fed the horses as she always did with carrots and apples, and made a fuss of each one.

Then she walked from the stables into the courtyard outside the front door, and down the first part of the drive towards the bridge which spanned the lake.

She stood for a long time, leaning on the greystone to look into the water below and watch the fish flashing over the gravel bottom.

She walked under the shadow of the great oak trees, a little way up the drive, and although she would not admit it to herself, she half-hoped she might meet the Marquis returning from the sale.

She was almost halfway to the lodges when she saw a carriage turn in at them. Her heart leapt; the Marquis was returning, and far sooner than she had expected.

She stood still, watching the horses approach, but as they drew near she was aware that it was not the open curricle that was coming towards her which the Marquis had been driving when he had left that morning.

Instead it was a closed brougham, and she thought with a feeling of disappointment that it must be someone coming to call on the Countess.

Quickly, because the horses were drawing near, she turned and walked away from the drive into the Park.

She heard the horses pass, and deliberately did not look round but went on walking to where she could see a cluster of spotted deer in the shade of one of the larger trees.

She was wondering how near she could get to them without their being afraid, when her instinct, or perhaps her sixth sense, made her aware that someone was behind her.

She had heard no sound because of the thick grass. She turned round apprehensively, then was frozen to the spot on which she was standing.

Striding towards her, florid and flamboyant, was Lord Mundesley!

Chapter Seven

D
avita was frozen
into immobility as she stared at Lord Mundesley,
thinking he could not be real.

But there was no mistaking his swaggering walk, his top-hat set at a jaunty angle, and the carnation in his button-hole.

Only when he reached her side did she think of running away, but then it was too late.

“So here you are!” he said in a tone of satisfaction. “It has taken me a long time to find you; but now I am successful, as I always am.”

“What do you want
...
what are you
...
doing?” Davita managed to say, feeling almost as if she had choked on the words.

“I want you,” Lord Mundesley replied, “as I always have. If you thought I had forgotten what you look like, you are very much mistaken.”

“Leave me
...
alone!” Davita cried. “You have no
...
right here. I have no wish to see
...
you or Violet ever
...
again.”

Lord Mundesley smiled unpleasantly, and his eyes, looking at her in a way that always made her feel shy, were now somehow menacing.

Then as if her face, which was very pale, her red hair, and her green eyes moved him irresistibly, there was a note of passion in his voice as he said:

“I want you, Davita! I have wanted you since I first saw you, and I mean to have you!”

She gave a little startled cry, and he went on:

“
You do not suppose the Countess of Sherburn, who is a very respectable old lady, would keep you as her Companion if I tell her of your behaviour in London or that you are very closely connected with the Gaiety.”

“You are
...
blackmailing
...
me!”

She meant to speak angrily and accusingly because Lord Mundesley frightened her as he always had, but her voice sounded weak, and he could see that she was trembling.

“I have spent a lot of money on detectives who have finally tracked you down,” he said. “Now that I have found you, I suggest you behave like a sensible girl and come back with me to London. I will look after you as I always intended to do.”

Now Davita gave a small scream, like an animal that had been trapped, and turned to run away. It was too late!

Lord Mundesley reached out, caught hold of her wrists when she was in the very act of moving, and as she struggled to be free, he pulled her relentlessly into his arms.

“Let me go
...
let me go!” she cried.

She knew even as she fought against him that her resistance excited him, and he was also very strong.

“I will teach you to obey me,” he said, “and to love me.”

“I hate you ... I hate you!” she tried to say.

But the words were strangled in her throat, because she was aware that his face was very near to hers and he was about to kiss her.

It was then that she screamed again, fighting with every ounce of her strength, but knowing it must be ineffective.

Suddenly a furious voice shouted:

“What the devil do you think you are doing!”

Then she knew that at the very last moment—the eleventh hour—she was saved.

Lord Mundesley’s arms holding her slackened, and she managed to twist herself free of him. But because she was breathless and weak from fear, she stumbled and collapsed to the ground.

As she did so, she heard the Marquis say:

“It is time you were taught a lesson, Mundesley, and this time I will see that you have it.”

As he spoke he struck out at Lord Mundesley, who stepped backwards to protect himself, while his hat fell off his head.

As he put up his fists to defend himself, the Marquis struck him again. This time he staggered but did not fall.

“Damn you, Vange!” he exclaimed. “If you want to fight, do so, but in a gentlemanly fashion—with pistols.”

“You are no gentleman,” the Marquis retorted. “And you do not behave like one.”

He advanced on Lord Mundesley again, who attempted to fend him off.

But the Marquis slipped under his guard, caught him on the point of the chin, and he crashed to the ground.

For a moment he was stunned, and then as he opened his eyes the Marquis standing over him said:

“Get out of here or I swear you will be carried out on a stretcher!”

Lord Mundesley let out a foul oath.

The Marquis continued:

“I am letting you off lightly because of your age, but if you ever approach Davita again I will thrash you within an inch of your life. Is that clear?”

Lord Mundesley swore again, but the Marquis did not wait to listen to it. He turned to Davita, who was still sitting on the ground with a stricken look in her eyes.

T
he Marquis pulled her to her feet, and as she swayed weakly against him, he picked her up in his arms and carried her back through the trees to the drive. She was trembling as he did so, but at the same time
his arms were the most comforting thing she had ever known.

D
rawn up behind Lord Mundesley’s brougham was the Marquis’s chaise.

He put Davita down gently in the seat, got in beside her, and, taking the reins from the groom who had been holding the horses, said:

“Walk home, Jim.”

“Very good, M’Lord.”

The Marquis drove his horses away down the drive without even glancing in the direction of where he had left Lord Mundesley.

As he approached the lake he did not cross the bridge which led to the house, but instead drove along a grass track which led to the end of the lake where there was a wood.

When they were out of sight of the house, the Marquis drew the horses to a standstill, fixed the reins to the dashboard, and turned to look at Davita.

She was sitting in the corner of the chaise where he had placed her, her fingers clenched together, and there was still a stricken expression in her eyes.

At the same time, she was not trembling so violently.

“It is all right,” the Marquis said quietly. “You are safe!”

It was then that Davita gave a little cry and burst into tears.

“He will ... take his ... revenge,” she sobbed. “He will ... tell the Countess about ... me, and I shall ... have to go ... away. He will ... never let me ... go.”

Her words were almost incoherent, but the Marquis heard them. Very gently, as if he was afraid he would frighten her, he put his arms round her and drew her close to him.

She was so distressed she hardly realised what he was doing, and went on crying against his shoulder.

“I told you it was all right,” he said quietly.
Mundesley will do none of those things. I will not let him.”

“
How
...
can you
...
stop him? He had
...
detectives looking for me. Everywhere I
...
hide, they will
...
find me.”

T
here was a note of despair in her voice, and as she spoke Davita had pictures of herself running
...
running with Lord Mundesley pursuing her as if she were a fox.

“S
top crying,” the Marquis said. “I want to talk to you.”

I
t struck Davita that perhaps this was the last time she would ever be able to talk to him.

W
ith what was almost a superhuman effort, she attempted to control her tears, and groped in her waistband for her handkerchief.

T
he Marquis took one from the breast-pocket of his coat and placed it in her hands.

B
ecause it smelt of eau-de-Cologne, and because it was his, it made her want to cry again.

S
he wiped the tears from her cheeks and though they were still swimming in her eyes and her eye-lashes were wet, she looked at him, feeling she should move from the shelter of his arms, but making no effort to do so. He looked down at her and said gently:

“
You look as if you are very much in need of someone to look after you.”

D
avita shuddered, and he knew she was thinking it might be Lord Mundesley.

“
How could I have anticipated that this would happen to you?” the Marquis asked. “And yet I came home early because I had an idea I was needed.”

“
I needed you desperately,” Davita whispered, “and somehow I
...
thought you might be
...
earlier than was
...
expected.”

“
Was that why you were walking on the drive?” the Marquis asked.

B
ecause he might think it forward of her, she looked down shyly, and could not answer him.

“
I came in time,” the Marquis said, as if he was following his own train of thought. “And now, as I have said, Lord Mundesley will not trouble you again.”

H
is words brought the fear back, and Davita cried: “But he will
...
and how can you
...
prevent him when you have
...
gone away?”

“
By taking you with me,” the Marquis said very quietly.

S
he thought she could not have heard him aright.

A
s her eyes looked up at him enquiringly, he said:

“
It is too soon—I did not mean to tell you about it yet, Davita, but ever since I first saw you I have been unable to forget you, and I think perhaps you know already that we mean something very special to each other.”

F
or the moment Davita thought she must be dreaming, but then as the Marquis seemed to be enveloped with a dazzling light, she thought that perhaps he was making her the same proposal as Lord Mundesley had.

W
ith an inarticulate little sound she turned her face away from him.

A
s if he knew without words what she was thinking, he said:

“
I am suggesting that the only way you can be completely safe for the rest of your life is to marry me.”

F
or a moment Davita could only hold her breath. Then she said in a voice that did not sound like her own:

“
Did you
...
ask me to
...
marry you?”

“
I will keep you safe,” the Marquis replied, “not only from Mundesley but from anyone like him, and I promise, my darling, one thing I will never allow you to do is to go behind the stage at the Gaiety or have supper at Romano’s.”

H
e was smiling at her as he spoke, with a look in his eyes which made him appear no longer cynical or contemptuous but very different.

“
It can
...
not be
...
true!”

D
avita was trembling, and her eyes were shining as if the same light she had seen envelop the Marquis was radiating from her.

“
I will have to make you believe it,” he said, “but first I want to know what you feel about me.”

“
You cannot
...
marry me,” she murmured. “You are so
...
magnificent, as I thought the first time I
...
saw you, and when I thought more about you I knew you were
...
everything a
...
man should
...
be.”