The Cross of Love (11 page)

She met his eyes, refusing to back down.

"I have been your enemy since the moment I saw you," she said with calm deliberation, "and I shall be your enemy until the moment of my death."

"Which may be sooner than you think, if you continue to be so unwise."

"Don't try to frighten me -" she began.

And then she screamed.

For she had seen two of him.

Another Wyngate had appeared behind him, standing quietly, watching them.

In her overwrought state the sight terrified her as nothing else could have done.

"Shut up, damn you!" Wyngate raged.

For answer she pointed over his shoulder, screaming again and again. Wyngate turned to follow her finger, and then he grew very still, and his grasp on her relaxed enough for her to escape.

She ran for her life. The terrible sight seemed to have drained all the strength from her body, so that each step was an effort, but she kept going.

A turn in the road gave her the chance to look back, and what she saw increased her horror.

The two Wyngates were walking towards each other.

She knew now what was going to happen. When these demons met they would merge into one. And if she saw it happen she would be damned.

She turned away and ran on, desperately, stumbling, falling, gasping, sobbing, desperate to reach the safety of the house, and John.

"John," she cried. "John!"

And then, as though by some blessed miracle, he appeared through the French windows.

"Rena, what on earth - ? My poor girl, what is it?"

It was a blessed mercy to feel his strong, human arms about her, hear his down to earth voice that seemed to have the power to drive out that other, fearful world that had seemed to threaten her.

"Wyngate," she gasped, "he was here."

"He dared to come back?"

"Yes - he was in the grounds - he talked to me - such terrible things - but then - John, there were two of him."

"I don't understand."

"He was there twice. I was talking to him and then he appeared again behind himself."

"Rena -"

"No, no, I'm not mad. I saw it. There were two of him, and I screamed so hard that he let me go, and I ran away. And when I looked back they were walking towards each other."

"Where was this?"

"Just past the bridge. You can see them from here."

He looked over her head, and a slight frown came over his face. Then he walked forward to a place where he could get a better view, showing the land sweeping down to the stream, and beyond it the trees.

Rena came to stand beside him, and then she felt the hairs begin to stand up on the back of her neck.

There was nobody there.

"Are you sure you haven't been raiding the wine cellar?" John asked solicitously, as they went back inside. "You're very welcome, but it may not be doing you much good - no, no of course not," he amended hastily, meeting her fulminating eye.

"John, I know what I saw."

"You saw two copies of Wyngate, who merged into each other, and then vanished into thin air."

"I didn't actually see them merge. I just knew they were going to."

He looked at her.

"All right, I know what I sound like."

"You sound like someone who's been under too much strain, and needs to have somebody else cook breakfast for her," he said, shepherding her into the kitchen. "Now sit down. Clara has outdone herself this morning. Two beautiful eggs. What are you doing?" She was moving towards the kettle.

"It's my job to make the breakfast."

"And I've said I'm doing it, so sit down."

"But - "

"Sit!" he finished sternly, standing over her and wagging an admonitory finger. "Yes John," she said meekly.

How dear this practical man was, and how easily he could drive her fears away with his kindly common sense.

And oh, how much she loved him! It had been there, waiting to spring out and surprise her all the time. Then Wyngate had thrust it brutally into the light, forcing her to face what otherwise she might have tried not to see.

For how could she love him? What future could they have, when he didn't love her, and knew his duty to his neighbours? Those neighbours had always been her friends, kindly people who trusted her to do her best for them, as they had trusted her father. They had nursed her when she was ill, given to her out of their own poverty and refused to take a penny in return.

Now they needed something back from her.

It mustn't be Wyngate's daughter. She was more resolved on that than ever. But there were other heiresses. An Earl would have no trouble attracting them, especially if he was young and handsome with laughing eyes, a sweet temper and a kind heart. And in one of them he would find the woman he could truly love. That was as it should be.

"Here you are, my lady," he said, serving up. While she had been lost in her dream he had made breakfast.

She smiled at him, discovering that it was possible to be happy and sad at the same time. The sadness was for the impossibility of making a life with him, but greater, far greater, was the happiness that swamped her as she contemplated him.

She had only known for a few minutes that she loved him, but already he looked different, more vivid, more intense. How could she ever have thought of him as a brother? She had discovered the greatest joy known to a woman, that of knowing that she had given her love to a man who was in every way worthy of love.

"Now tell me what happened out there," he said, pouring her tea.

The tea was delicious, and so was the egg that he had boiled her. Forget the bleak future. It was enough just to be here with him.

"I stepped out for a breath of fresh air, and went down to the bridge. And he just appeared beside me."

"You mean he sprang up out of nowhere?" John asked, his eyes twinkling.

"No, he must have walked across the grass, but I didn't see him."

"He was invisible?"

Her lips twitched. "No, I was looking down into the water."

"How long?"

"I don't know. I was thinking."

"So he had time to walk across the grass?"

She sighed. "Yes, he must have."

"But where did he come from? I thought they went back to London."

"No, they put up at a hotel nearby. He hasn't given up. And this means, of course, that I did see him in the wood last night. He must have come back to spy, and seen the lamp."

"Why didn't you bring him into the house?"

"It wasn't you he wanted to see. He had something to say to me."

"What?"

"He offered me a bribe. He's convinced that if I shut up and got out he could get you into his trap. So he tried to buy me for five thousand pounds."

"The devil he did!" He was eyeing her, fascinated.

"What did you say to him?"

"I pushed him up to ten thousand."

"You what? Rena, you don't mean you - ?"

"Of course not. Don't be absurd. I'd hardly be sitting here telling you about it if I was going to take his money. No, I just wanted to see how high I could push him - just for curiosity."

"And how much is your compliance worth to him?"

"Ten thousand. I can't tell you how delightful it felt to turn him down. I don't think anyone's done that for years. Oh, my goodness!"

She straightened up suddenly, her hands over her mouth as a shattering thought occurred to her.

"Rena, what is it?"

"I shouldn't have turned him down. I should have taken the ten thousand and given it to you. Oh, how could I be so stupid?"

"Cheat him, you mean?" John asked, grinning.

"After all the people he must have cheated by now, it's about time somebody did it to him."

Sweet heaven! Papa would have a fit.

With his uncanny ability to read her mind, John asked, "Is this the kind of thinking you learned at the parsonage?"

"No, I invented it myself," she said defiantly. "Papa would be shocked."

"And very surprised I should think."

"No, not surprised. He always said the tone of my mind left room for improvement."

"I think the tone of your mind is perfect. It's very sweet of you to want to do this for me, but don't blame yourself for not thinking of it in time. I doubt you could really have fooled him. He wouldn't have given you a penny until you were well away from here and it was too late."

Rena nodded. "You're right. He's just the sort of mean, suspicious character who'd do that."

"So what happened when you'd turned him down? How did he react to your refusal."

She shrugged, unwilling to tell him more.

"Rena, what is it? Did he dare to attack you?"

"No, of course not."

"Then what? Please don't keep things from me. Rena! For pity's sake, you're scaring me."

"He wanted to buy me in another way," she said, not looking at him.

"You mean he - ?"

She shrugged and said as lightly as she could, "He offered to set me up in a fine house in Park Lane, clothes, jewels, everything I could want."

"He did what?" The words came from him in a violent whisper.

"I turned that down too and he became very angry."

"He dared say such a thing to you?" John asked quietly. "He dared to besmirch you, even in his thoughts?" He got abruptly to his feet.

"John, where are you going?"

"To find him and throttle him."

There was a black look on his face that she had never seen before. Suddenly the amiable joker she knew had vanished, replaced by a man in a bitter rage.

"No." She jumped to her feet and followed him out of the kitchen. "You mustn't do that."

"You expect me to do nothing, when he insults you?" He started up the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

"To get my pistol."

She began to run after him up the stairs, struggling to keep up. He had reached his room before she caught him.

"John, listen to me, there's nothing that you can do."

"I can make him sorry he was born. I can bring him here and make him grovel to you - "

"And how much reputation would I have left then?" She took hold of his arms and gave him a little shake. She could feel him trembling with rage.

"Then I'll blow his miserable brains out," he shouted. "Yes, that's the thing to do. Then the filthy thoughts that he dared to have of you will be blown to smithereens, and nobody will ever know that he insulted the sweetest, most perfect woman alive. Rena, Rena, do you expect me to endure that?"

She didn't know how to answer such words, but she didn't have to because the next moment he had pulled her into his arms and was kissing her fiercely again and again, murmuring incoherently between kisses.

"You're mine - do you understand? I won't tolerate that man even looking at you, much less thinking - Dear God! Kiss me, my darling - kiss me -tell me that it isn't all in my mind - say that you love me too - "

"Oh yes - yes - I love you, so much."

She had promised herself that she would never tell him of her love, for his sake. And yet the words burst from her, called forth by the intensity of his own emotion. He loved her. He had said so. And nothing in heaven or on earth could have prevented her from confessing her own love in return.

"I love you," he said, holding her away from him so that he could see her face. "I love you in every way that a man can love a woman. You are mine, and I am yours. That is how it has to be. It was meant. It's our destiny. I couldn't fight it if I wanted to. But I don't. I want to love you and rejoice in you all the days of my life. And if you don't feel the same I have nothing to live for."

"But I do," she cried. "I do. Oh John - my love - "

"Kiss me," he said again, and this time it was a command.

She obeyed it gladly. The future might contain a bitter parting, but in this moment she would enjoy her love to the full. The bliss of being chosen by the one her own heart had chosen was too sweet to be denied.

"Tell me again that you love me," he said. "Let me hear you say it."

"I love you, I love you," she murmured. "I didn't think love could happen this fast - I never knew - "

"It can happen in a moment," he said fervently. "I loved you the first day. Didn't you feel then that our hearts instinctively understood each other?"

"Oh yes, yes. I felt that too, even though we were strangers."

"We were never strangers," he told her tenderly. "We have known each other for ever, and we shall be each other's until the last moment of our lives."

"Until the last moment of our lives," she agreed solemnly.

She didn't voice her fears for their future. Besides, it was true. Even though life might separate them, she would always belong to him. After this, there could be no other man.

"How could I marry any woman but you?" he asked lovingly.

"John - "

She was saved from having to answer by the sound of the doorbell, echoing up from below.

"If that's Wyngate - " he said in a tight voice.

"No, John, please. You must pretend to know nothing, for my sake."

"We'll see," was all he would agree to.

Together they went downstairs to open the front door.

But the man standing there wasn't Wyngate. Neither of them had seen him before. He was tall and thin, dressed in clerical black, with a severe face and stern eyes.

"Miss Colwell?" he asked at once.

"Yes."

He spoke ponderously. "I am the Reverend Steven Daykers. I imagine you have been expecting me."

It would have been impolite to say otherwise, so Rena murmured something about being honoured to meet him. She hastened to introduce the Earl, but instead of being pleased the Reverend Daykers fixed him with a frosty stare, and gave him the briefest of greetings.

"Miss Colwell, a word with you alone." It was a command.

John looked at her, frowning. Maintaining an air of calm dignity Rena said, "If I may have a few moments from my duties, sir?"

He caught the cue she had tossed him. "Very well Miss Colwell, I suggest you use the drawing room. But please try not to be too long."

"What I have to say to Miss Colwell will not take a moment," the pastor said with a touch of grimness.