Marigold Chain (38 page)

The two parties
joined and turned back in the direction of the palace, laughing and
talking as they went. With an ease born of long practice, the King
dropped back to seek out Chloë and detach her from the other ladies
for a moment.

‘
It seems
that Alex has rendered his country a signal service,’ he said
easily. ‘Although my lord Arlington is of the opinion that it would
have been significantly greater had the gentleman in question
perished.’

Chloë looked
back uncompromisingly.

‘
If Your
Majesty will forgive me saying so, it’s all very well for his
lordship to think that – but quite unreasonable to expect Mr
Deveril to do the deed. He’s not an assassin.’

Charles was
amused. ‘My dear, I entirely agree with you. When he returns, you
must send him to me so that I can express my gratitude.’ He gave
her a sleepy smile. ‘When a knight has achieved his endeavour, it’s
customary for his liege to offer some reward – though it cannot, I
fear, be one of money. I wonder what little thing Alex would most
like me to give him?’

‘
I really
can’t imagine,’ replied Mr Deveril’s titular wife. And wished, very
much, that it was not a lie.

*

Chloë did not
tell Mr Lewis of Sir Graham Marsden’s death. It wasn’t that she
didn’t want him to know; he was sure to hear of it elsewhere
anyway. But she preferred not to contemplate its possible
consequences or allow Lady Sarah’s golden image to invade her
thoughts – for both seemed to give her a headache. So she
resolutely banished them from her mind and was glad that she had
plenty to occupy her.

Monday the
twenty-seventh passed quietly and without incident save for a
rumour that the Dutch had put to sea again. On Tuesday morning, she
decided to set Alex’s bedchamber in order in case Wednesday should
see him home again and was just crossing the hall in search of a
duster when the pealing of the bell summoned her to the front door.
She opened it and then froze as she identified her visitor.

Ethereally fair
beneath a floating black veil, Sarah Marsden looked back at her
mockingly.

‘
My poor
child – don’t you even have someone to answer the door?’

‘
No,’
said Chloë sardonically. ‘I do it myself in between scrubbing the
floor and scouring the cooking-pots. If you came to see Alex, he’s
not here.’

The delicate
brows lifted.

‘
I know.
He rarely is, is he?’ responded Sarah sweetly. ‘No. It’s you I came
to see. Are you going to let me in?’

Chloë stepped
back, holding wide the door. ‘By all means.’

Lady Sarah
drifted into the parlour, trailing widow’s weeds and the scent of
cassia and, putting back her veil, examined the room critically.
Then, quite unhurriedly, she turned to face Chloë and eyed her in
much the same manner, while the beautiful mouth curved in a pitying
smile.

‘
He’s
never touched you, has he?’ she asked, her tone liquid with
sympathy. ‘Not once in all these months. But you mustn’t blame
yourself, you know. It isn’t that you’re unattractive – although
not at all Alex’s style. It’s simply that he only kept you to annoy
me. He hoped to make me jealous and might have managed it if he’d
taken you to his bed. You’ve no idea what a spectacular lover he
is.’ She sighed languorously. Then with a tiny ripple of laughter,
‘But of course you haven’t. How could you? And that’s the point.
Alex should have known I’d never be jealous unless I thought he’d
made love to you – and one only has to look at you to know that he
hasn’t.’

‘
Is there
a point to all this?’ asked Chloë. ‘Only I’m rather
busy.’

‘
The
point is that I’m sorry for you. It’s very naughty of him to keep
you tied to him when he knows he’ll never want you.’

Chloë’s eyes
remained completely without expression. Folding her arms and
keeping tight control over her voice, she said, ‘Let’s dispense
with the trimmings and cut straight to the crux of the matter,
shall we? You’ve come to tell me that now you are available again,
Alex will want to take advantage of the fact. There are two very
large assumptions there; first that Alex and I are not truly man
and wife - and second, that he’s still in love with you. You might
take a moment to think about that. You might also try to remember
that Alex likes to make his own decisions.’

‘
Well, of
course, you silly girl. That’s what I’m telling you.’

‘
No.
You’re talking as if it’s a
fait
accompli
. Perhaps you’re assuming that I’ll make
everything easy by vanishing nobly into a fog of
obscurity?’

‘
It’s a
matter of complete indifference to me what you do,’ replied Sarah
carelessly. ‘Go or stay – you won’t change anything. I merely came
to warn you.’

‘
Thank
you,’ said Chloë politely. ‘And do you plan to marry him this time?
Because, if you do, then he’ll need to divorce me
first.’

Lady Sarah
laughed again. ‘Not divorce – annul. I don’t foresee any
difficulty.’

Somewhere deep
inside Chloë a spark of anger flared into being.

‘
Don’t
you?’ she asked dulcetly. ‘I can think of several – quite apart
from the obvious one which you are so determined to believe doesn’t
exist. And even supposing you’re right and our marriage hasn’t been
consummated – what then? Are you so sure that Alex will be willing
to say so? It would make him appear rather foolish, wouldn’t it?
And then, of course, there’s me.’ She paused and smiled
dangerously. ‘Perhaps
I’m
not
willing to say so.’

The cornflower
eyes widened in astonishment.

‘
But why
ever not? Surely you can’t have imagined that you could keep him?
The most you can do is to make it hard for him to re-marry – which
is rather petty, don’t you think? For married or not, he’ll still
be mine.’

Never in
her life before had Chloë encountered an ego to match Lady Sarah’s
and for a moment she stared at her speechlessly while trying to
force down a gust of pure temper. Finally, as calmly as she was
able, she said, ‘You talk of him as if he were a lapdog. I don’t
believe you’ve the remotest idea of what he really thinks or feels
or wants. All you know is what
you
want – and at the moment, you want Alex. But want is the
word. You don’t love him. You can’t. You’re too busy worshipping
yourself.’

A faint flush
stained her ladyship’s cheeks.

‘
That is
ridiculous – but one sees why you’d wish to think so,’ she said
scornfully. ‘After all, who is ever going to worship you? Not Alex,
certainly. Why, you stupid creature – if, after eight months of
living in the same house, you’ve failed to share his bed, what do
you think you can possibly have to offer him?’

Chloë was
rather white but she looked back stubbornly. ‘Understanding,
perhaps.’

Sarah
laughed. ‘You understand him?
You?
You don’t know the first thing about him! He only married you
because he was too drunk to care. Had he been sober, he’d never
have given you a second glance. Look in the mirror, my dear. You
don’t seriously suppose yourself my rival, do you?’

‘
No,’
said Chloë with bitter honesty. ‘But this isn’t about that. What
you don’t seem able to grasp is that he needs more than a body – no
matter how beautiful. If he loves you, he’ll want your heart. And I
don’t believe you have one.’

‘
I
think,’ said Lady Sarah smugly, ‘that I’m rather better placed to
know what Alex wants than you are.’

‘
Well,
you should be,’ retorted Chloë with grim pleasure. ‘You’ve quite a
lead in the realms of age and experience, after all. But I wouldn’t
have thought it was necessarily an advantage. “
At twenty-five in women’s eyes, Beauty fades – at thirty
dies
”, you know.’

For the first
time an expression crossed Sarah’s face that was neither becoming
nor confident. Then she let down her veil and walked to the
door.

‘
You are
impertinent and very stupid. Are you telling me you’ll refuse to
release Alex?’

‘
I’m not
telling you anything,’ said Chloë, ‘except that I’d like you to
go.’

Sarah cast her
a glance of venomous dislike and swept past into the hall. At the
door she paused and, producing a sealed billet from her reticule,
placed it defiantly on the table.

‘
I’m
leaving this for Alex. If you open it or destroy it, you’ll simply
appear childishly jealous – which, of course, you are.’ She smiled
maliciously. ‘I really wouldn’t stand in his way , if I were you.
When he is crossed, Alex can be quite unpleasant.’ And she flung
open the door and went out.

Very calmly,
Chloë closed the door behind her and then marched resolutely away
to get rid of her breakfast. Aside from the obvious, hurtful
question of Alex, the whole conversation had been made worse by the
knowledge that Graham Marsden had been dead for only five days.
Just five days and already his widow had forgotten his existence
and was planning to replace him. It was incredible to Chloë that
anyone could be so ruthlessly self-absorbed. Lady Sarah was utterly
beautiful – and rotten to the core.

The Queen found
Mistress Deveril pale and absent-minded that afternoon and finally
insisted that she go home to rest. Chloë went without protest but
she did not sleep. Instead, she lay flat on her bed in wordless
communication with the embroidered tester and thought of all the
things she’d tried so hard to suppress.

Soon, tomorrow
even, Alex would return and the pattern of all their lives could be
changed in a single hour; or it could be if she let it. Long ago
she had offered Alex an annulment. It had not been offered lightly
but in reparation for her mistake in marrying him. She had promised
to set him free because she’d owed him that much - and still did.
And though he had seemed indifferent, she had always known that the
day would come when he would cease to be so and that she would go
then to the King and ask him to cut the knot. Or so she had thought
until today when Lady Sarah had cast her into a limbo of doubt.

‘
It isn’t
that I want to hold him,’ she told herself, ‘or at least, I do –
but not like this. If it were a question of freeing him for his own
sake, I wouldn’t mind … or not so much. But I can’t – I don’t think
I can free him to marry that woman.’

Driven to a
point where stillness was intolerable, she got up and walked
restlessly about the room. She caught sight of her reflection in
the glass and stopped, examining critically.

‘
Well,
she was right about one thing anyway,’ she thought wryly.
‘He’d
have
to be drunk to
prefer me. But that’s not the issue. The point is what I’m going to
do if I find he wants Sarah and whether I’ve the right to interfere
in the only way that would work. Because if he wants to go, he
will. All I can do is stop him marrying her right away in the hope
he’ll see her for what she is.’ Her stomach coiled like a snake.
‘He’d never forgive me, though – and I’m not sure I have the
courage to look him in the eye and say I’m going to tell the one
lie that would make an annulment impossible. He’d be furious – and
have every right to be. Because no matter what the circumstances, a
promise is a promise. And the truth is that I can’t even be sure
I’m not still hoping for a miracle.’

And that, of
course, was the most painful thought of all.

*

The following
day Chloë resumed her duties at Whitehall with all the outward
appearance of her usual calm good sense. She did not, however,
attend to the matter of her merchandise and the bolts of cloth lay
undisturbed in the Vintry while her prospective buyers sought an
appointment with her and Mr Lewis began to worry.

Wednesday
passed without any sign of Mr Deveril and Thursday gave every
indication of doing the same. Chloë completed her spell of
attendance and went out into the darkness where, at the Queen’s
order, a carriage always waited to take her home. She climbed
inside it and found herself facing Mr Beckwith.

‘
Hello,’
he said simply. ‘I couldn’t get near you at the palace so I thought
perhaps you’d allow me to escort you home.’

‘
Of
course. I’m glad to see you – it’s a long time since I last did.
You don’t visit us any more.’

‘
No. I’ve
been busy.’ It sounded lame and he knew it.

‘
Yes. You
must be glad it’s all over.’ She smiled politely. ‘Was there
something particular you wanted to say to me?’

‘
Yes,’
replied Giles. And, to himself, ‘
I love
you. I always have. Leave Alex and come with
me and I’ll spend my life trying to make you
happy
.’ But he could not say those things – would
never be able to say them. He tried to remember what he had planned
to say to her and then, in the flare of a torch, caught sight of
her face and promptly uttered the words that had been ringing in
his mind all evening. ‘My dear, what’s wrong?’

It was his tone
that succeeded in piercing Chloë’s detachment and lump rose and
hardened in her throat.

‘
Don’t,
Giles,’ she said, with an effort that could be heard. ‘Don’t be
kind. I can’t cope with it right now.’

He did not
reply immediately but finally said, ‘It’s Sarah, isn’t it?’

Her mouth
twisted wryly. ‘Am I so transparent?’