The House at Bell Orchard (19 page)

Piers lifted her hand to his lips. “You must not be,” he said gently, “but there is a memory which shames
me,
and that is the readiness with which I believed Miles’s lies about you. Did Dorothy tell you of that also?”

Charmian nodded, and a shadow darkened her eyes again. “He was very clever,” she said in a low voice, “and very ruthless. There was nothing in the world that mattered to him, except himself.”

“He was always so, even as a boy,” Piers agreed quietly. “If I had remembered that, you would have been spared so much. It will be long before I forgive myself for my blindness.” He paused, regarding her with a troubled frown. “I wish that your rescue could have been more prosaically accomplished. Whatever we do, there is bound to be a deal of talk.”

“More gossip!” Charmian said with a sigh. “First in London, and now here!” She looked wistfully up at him. “What ought I to do?”

“I have been thinking about that,” he replied. “Mr. and Mrs. Brownhill are on their way here, and I believe that, when you are stronger, it will be best if you return with them to Richmond. By the time you are out of mourning, all this will be forgotten.”

A week before, a return to Richmond had been Charmian’s dearest wish, but now the prospect had lost much of its appeal. She had hoped for something other than practical and common-sense advice, and to her dismay she felt tears of weakness and disappointment rising to her eyes. Hoping desperately that he would not see them, she turned her head away, and said in as steady a voice as she could command.

“Yes, no doubt that
will
be best. My continued presence in this neighbourhood could only be an embarrassment to—to everybody.”

“It would be nothing of the kind,” Piers said calmly, “but you suffered a terrifying ordeal at Bell Orchard, and that will fade more quickly from your memory when your surroundings no longer remind you of it.” He paused, smiling a little as he studied her averted face. “I would not let you go, you know, without good reason, and I shall continue to use every endeavour to persuade you to return.” He leaned forward, resting one hand on the back of the couch, while with the other he turned her face towards him, adding gently: “Will you, Charmian? I wish so very much to marry you.”

The tears were still in her eyes, but now they were tears of happiness. She blinked them away, and shyly lifted her hand to touch his cheek.

“I believe I fell in love with you that night in London,” Piers went on, “though the possibility of such a thing was so far from my mind that it was weeks before I knew what ailed me. When I did realize it, I was afraid to tell you, thinking it too soon after your father’s death. Perhaps, even now, the time to speak of it has not come, but, truth to tell, I can keep silent no longer. Once already I have come too near to losing you!”

She smiled, looking at him with shining eyes. “Must I find words to tell you what is in my heart?” she whispered. “Oh, Piers, dear love, do you not know?”

He kissed her then, and Charmian, enfolded in his arms, knew with quiet certainty that the horror of the past few days would slowly fade. One day she would even be able to look with untroubled eyes upon the house at Bell Orchard, though for the rest of her life the worst nightmare which could afflict her would concern an ancient, evil cottage, a rope in the chimney corner, and the uncanny screech of rusty hinges as the door was thrust open. But that would be the dream, the dying echo of terror and despair, and with Piers beside her she would not be afraid. Dreams passed, and were forgotten, but this was the awakening to glad reality.