Fated Folly (31 page)

Clare did not know she had spoken aloud until the three swung round to face where she stood now by the edge of the clearing, on the river side.

‘
Be careful, Clare!' Alarm was in Rupert's voice and he started forward. ‘It is—'

‘
Dangerous?' she finished. ‘Yes, I know.' Her eyes sought Ashendon's, and she flew back, crying, ‘Rupert didn't push your father. He
did
fall.'

Rupert was staring at her, arrested by an astonishing thought. Was it possible?

But Ashendon sneered heavily. ‘Of course you would take his part. You are his wife.'

‘
But I know what happened,' Clare told them urgently, her eyes going from one to the other.
‘I was there!'

In the silence that followed, Rupert's mind painted for him the image that had been floating deep down in the recesses of his memory. It fitted itself onto Clare's countenance, and became one.

‘
You were the little girl,' he said wonderingly.

Clare turned to him, her love in her eyes. ‘And you were the man who rescued me.'

He went to her, his eyes fixed on that face—the same face, but grown up now. No wonder! His hands cupped it, tipping it up.

‘
I have known it. All this time, I have known it.'

‘
And so have I, though I have only just recalled the circumstances.' Clare smiled and there was the sparkle in her face that he had not seen now for so long, it seemed. ‘It must have been fate.'

‘
Such a small, helpless little thing,' he said tenderly, ‘that little girl.'

‘
What little girl?' came Ashendon's bewildered voice from behind them.

‘
Girl!' barked his father, pressing forward. ‘The child! I remember the child. Thunder and turf, I've been puzzling my head about the child for years! Rupert, why did you never mention the child?'

‘
I could not, Will.' Rupert turned with Clare's hand firmly tucked into his. ‘The nurse wanted to stay and help, but she was already afraid of dismissal.'

‘
Mrs Voy, yes,' Clare chimed in. ‘Because I had run away from her. The bluebells, you see. I wanted to get the bluebells.'

‘
Afterwards, Will,' Rupert said, ‘I made her take the child away. Pointless for them both to become involved.'

‘
But she must have been your witness, you dunderhead,' protested St Merryn.

‘
At the time, it had not occurred to me that I would need one. When the necessity arose, she was no longer available.'

‘
Of course, yes,' Clare said on a note of excitement. ‘Because we were only passing through—I don't know where we stayed—'

‘
The Crown at Chilton,' Rupert told her.

‘
Was it? I don't recall anything about that. I only know what my brother told me. Not Justin. My elder brother, Esmond. He was the only one who knew about it, and he made me promise not to tell Papa or Mrs Voy would be in trouble.'

‘
Her nurse called to us, Will, as we were walking by,' Rupert said, taking up the tale.

‘
For I had fallen down the bank.'

She turned and ran back towards the edge of the clearing on the river side. But Rupert was quicker, seizing her.

‘
No, Clare!'

‘
But it is there. The bank where I fell. I know it is. And you can see the river.'

‘
Yes, you are right, my love, but it is not safe. We have fenced it off now, but you can never be sure.'

‘
Lord St Merryn,' Clare said, turning back and going to seize Will's hands, ‘it was not Rupert's fault. He climbed down to get me, and when you fell, his arms were too full of me to help. Do you see?'

Rupert turned to see Ashendon's face, ludicrously dashed, all his beliefs clearly shattered by this unexpected discovery.

‘
This is the part I could tell no one, Ashendon. The little girl—Clare—must have been seven or eight, perhaps, though she was very small—'

‘
For my age I was.'

‘
It was an awkward climb back up, especially that last steep section where the bank dips sharply, which is why it is so dangerous. Will leaned to take Clare from me when I had almost reached the top with her. He lost his footing, and—'

‘
Don't remember all that,' interrupted his cousin, but he was grinning as he reiterated, ‘but I remember the child. Skinny little mite. Not much hurt, but her frock in tatters. No bonnet on, hair all tousled curls. Fair, she was. Like you, m'dear—' casting about to seek Clare, as if she was someone other than that selfsame little girl ‘—bonnet must have got dragged off, you see. Had a picture of her all this time, standing down there.' He laughed merrily. ‘Never uttered a word while Rupert was climbing down. But clung to him like a monkey when he picked her up, sobbing her poor little heart out. Tiny item, she was. Oh yes, I remember that.'

‘
A very precious tiny item,' Rupert said, drawing Clare into his arms. And, oblivious of the company, he gave Clare his lips in a full-blooded, passionate kiss that eradicated all the intervening period since the last such kiss they had shared.

When at last he raised his head again, Clare discovered that her husband's smile was free of all shadows.

‘
She's quite as precious, but she's a deal bigger now.'

Breathless, but happy, Clare twinkled up at him. ‘A woman, Sir Rupert?'

‘
No, Lady Wolverley,' he said firmly. ‘A minx.'

He let her go as she giggled, and apparently recalling the presence of other people, thanked his servants for their loyal support and dismissed them all except Ferris, whom he sent back to the Grange to bring home his groom with the curricle.

‘
Her ladyship and I will walk back through the forest,' he said, and turning to Clare, murmured, ‘We have a great deal to talk about.'

‘
What about Ashendon?' Clare asked, and turned to glare at the man. ‘Are you satisfied now?'

‘
Satisfied? Because you have concocted this fairytale between you?'

‘
That'll do,' chimed in his father.

‘
Well, you may ask Mrs Voy if you don't believe it,' Clare told him. ‘I'm sure she will remember Rupert—and your father.'

‘
Don't matter if she do or don't,' snapped the earl. ‘My memory's enough. You'll not trouble Rupert on this matter again, boy, I'll see to that.' He reached about. ‘Where's young Clare?'

She took his hand. ‘Here, sir.'

‘
No fretting and fuming, girl, see? I'll keep him by me from now on. He can take his turn at minding his poor old father.' He uttered a bark of harsh laughter, and added, ‘That will make him keep his clutch on reality. We'll send Kitty off to have her fun, and you and I, m'boy—' turning a grim smile on his son's unseen scowling face ‘—will get acquainted, so I can find out what sort of damn fool cub you really are. You can start by guiding me home. Come along.'

Tightlipped, Ashendon took his father's hand and placed it on his own shoulder. Then with one scorching glance at his cousin, he turned for the Grange, the valet in close attendance in case of need.

Clare watched them go, and then turned to Rupert. ‘Do you think he will obey his father?'

‘
Since Will holds the pursestrings, I don't imagine he will have much choice. Come, let us leave this place.'

Taking her hand, he began to lead her from the Dell. But the recent revelation was too fresh and she was obliged to beg him to halt awhile. Rupert found a fallen log, and she perched beside him, her hand tucked in his.

‘
I feel as if my head is still reeling. The buzzing when I began to remember! So much came flooding back—and I had remembered so many things—I thought my brain would burst. And all that on top of Ash trying to kill you.'

Rupert put an arm about her and gave her a hug. ‘Don't think of that, my sweet—my little sweet.' He went on as Clare gurgled, ‘God, I cannot get over Will's memory, so exact a picture as he had of you. And I had forgotten it myself. At least, I had not, but I did not consciously connect it with you.'

‘
Nor I my pictures with you. Even the way you dressed your hair then, tied at the back, came to me once.'

Rupert caressed her cheek, and she turned up her face at the urging of his hand. ‘Now I understand why making love to you seemed such a violation. That little ghost, tucked away in my mind, kept intruding on the real you, and getting in my path.'

‘
And is your path clear now, Sir Rupert?' demanded Clare, the mischief that had lately deserted her at last rioting in her bosom again.

He grinned. ‘If we were not in a public place, Lady Wolverley—'

‘
That did not seem to worry you when you had your morning head.'

‘
Good God, I could not have forgotten that!'

‘
There was not much to forget,' Clare confessed regretfully. ‘Your dratted head got in your path.'

‘
In that case, remind me that you are in debt to me,' Rupert said, laughing.

Clare twinkled. ‘I will pay you now if you wish.'

‘
That is an outrageous suggestion, Lady Wolverley.'

He kissed her, tenderly at first and then with mounting passion. But as Clare's heartbeat quickened, and the warmth began to invade her body, he pulled back and drew away.

‘
This won't do.'

He got up, dragging her with him.

Acutely disappointed, Clare tugged herself out of his hold. ‘Rupert, you are not going to reject me again, are you?'

‘
Reject you?' Rupert recaptured her. ‘I have never done that.'

‘
But all that torturing yourself—'

‘
Because I wanted you so badly. From the very beginning. And it seemed to me I could not have you—could not love you, as you should be loved.'

Clare's heart trembled on the edge of fear. ‘You will not love me and rue the day?'

‘
No, my darling. That is behind us now, you have my word on it.'

Sighing out a breath, Clare began at last to relax. Her faith in his integrity had never been shaken, and she knew she might believe in his given word. But he was not to be permitted to get off scot free. She eyed him with mock severity.

‘
Then am I a child still, Sir Rupert?'

Instead of answering, his eyes travelled over her countenance and his voice was husky.

‘
Have you no more tender a name for me?'

Clare could not forbear a smile. ‘
Dearest
Sir Rupert.'

‘
Without the title.'

‘
Dearest Rupert,' she said obligingly. But the wretch could not be permitted to ignore her. ‘May I remind you,
darling
Rupert, that you have not answered me?'

Rupert cradled her closer, and his lips came down to rest against hers, as he murmured, ‘What was the question?'

She jerked back. ‘I said, am I a child still? It's important, Rupert!'

A faintly rueful look came into his eyes. ‘My darling, if I am to be truthful, I fear you will ever be something of a child to me, achingly sweet.'

Then his eyes blazed with passion and he brought his lips close to her mouth.

‘
Yet one old enough for
this
.'

His kiss was scorching and Clare closed into him in instant response, fire streaking through her as he mouthed her lips so that she opened to him, all remembrance deserting her of a time when this could not have been.

Rupert groaned, and bringing his kiss to a hasty conclusion, raised his head. ‘We must go home. I can't do what I long to do to you, either sitting on a log or lying in the prickly undergrowth.'

Clare swallowed on a throat gone suddenly dry. ‘What—what is it you want to do to me?'

His lips caressed her face. ‘That you shall learn presently.'

And he kissed her again, with more than a hint of the passion to come. Presently, however, he drew away and tremblingly released her.

‘
We must damp down the furnace, else I shall take you here and now.'

Clare looked at him in mute invitation, her eyes and lips quivering on that tantalising smile that had captured his heart.

‘
God, Clare, don't do that,' he burst out, and dragged her into so ruthless a hug that she squeaked in protest.

‘
You nearly broke my ribs,' she told him laughingly, as he slackened his hold enough for her to breathe again.

‘
It is quite your own fault for making me love you so much,' he said huskily. ‘I cannot believe it. That tiny little ghost—and you. And she's all mine.'

Clare drew a shaky breath. ‘I think I always have been. I thought I had fallen in love with you
that
day, outside your library, such a jolt as I received in my chest. But now I believe it must have happened long ago, when you climbed down to rescue me, and you picked me up. When I met you again, years later, I just—recognised it.'