Virginia Henley (35 page)

The following morning when Charles Wentworth was summoned to Queen Square, he was mildly surprised. Prudence Davenport had hated him on sight and did not want him treating Lady Diana. Richard Davenport must have overruled her. Though it wasn’t apparent, Davenport must have the upper hand in the marriage.

When he arrived, Dr. Wentworth was greeted by Richard and it was obvious that Prudence, sitting quietly in the drawing room, had been told to mind her manners.

“Thank you for coming, Dr. Wentworth. We need to understand more fully what happened to Diana and learn if she is to recover.”

“Well, it’s a rather baffling case, of course. Your niece disappeared for months. Only she knows where she was, but she has suppressed this knowledge. Lady Diana believes she was transported back in time to when the Romans occupied Britain. It’s a form of amnesia. The mind has a blank space that is terrifying in itself, and so it substitutes a plausible story.”

“Plausible?” Prudence could apparently hold her tongue no longer.

“Plausible to Diana. All the answers lie hidden. If she is allowed to talk about it openly, I believe she will get it all out of her system and the truth will surface.”

“You have no guarantee of this, Dr. Wentworth. Is it possible she will always be delusionary?” Richard asked quietly.

“I wish I could tell you otherwise, but as you say, there are no guarantees. However, she functions normally in
every other way and most of us have eccentricities. May I see my patient?”

“I’m sorry, Doctor, she hasn’t returned from Hardwick Hall yet,” Richard replied. “I just wanted to clear up a few things before she arrives.”

“Dr. Wentworth, I would appreciate it if none of this went any further,” Prudence said stiffly.

“Mrs. Davenport, I assure you I wouldn’t dream of discussing my patient with anyone. Only the fact that you are her legal guardians allows me to even discuss the matter with you.”

As Richard closed the front door, Prudence opened the door that led from the drawing room into the dining room. A barrel-chested man stepped across the threshold.

“Were you able to hear everything, Doctor?”

“Indeed I was, madam. It appears you have every reason to be alarmed.”

As Richard joined them, he was most gratified to receive a look of admiration from Prudence. The idea had come to him out of the blue, not when Diana began rambling about Romans, but when Richard realized she was going to refuse to marry Peter Hardwick. Why share her fortune when they could have it all?

He could pay the right doctor to have her certified insane and institutionalized. He would manage her legal affairs and her estate once she was declared incompetent.

“Why Richard, dear, you are brilliant,” Prudence declared when he explained his plan. “Our consciences will be perfectly clear because Diana is truly deranged. She needs to be put where she will be guarded twenty-four hours a day. For her own protection she must not be allowed to wander off again.”

“We cannot have a doctor from Bath or even the County of Somerset. The earl has far too much influence here.”

“Surely in all your dealings with the law you know of a doctor who could be persuaded?”

Suddenly Richard thought of the perfect man for their plan. No wonder the scheme had come to him so readily. Two years before he’d been involved in a similar situation. A prominent family had the heir who inherited declared incompetent, and Dr. Clayton Bognor of Wiltshire had signed the papers to have him committed. Chippenham, Wiltshire, was only twenty miles away and Davenport had no difficulty persuading the honorable doctor to return with him to Bath.

Richard looked up at the tall man gravely. “I’m sure when you see and hear the patient for yourself, Dr. Bognor, you will agree with my wife and I that our niece is unlikely to recover.”

As Prudence put on her fashionable bonnet and firmly anchored it with a jet hatpin, she cautioned, “We may meet with resistance when we try to remove her from Hardwick Hall, Doctor.”

“Have no fear, dear lady, I anticipate no difficulty. The law is completely on our side.”

At that moment the doorknocker rapped loudly and Prudence looked out the front window to see who the unwanted caller was. “It’s Diana,” she hissed at Richard.

“How very convenient,” he replied.

“Perhaps I should go back into the dining room for the time being. She’ll be much more forthcoming if she finds the two of you alone,” Clayton Bognor suggested.

When Richard opened the door, Diana swept in with great authority.

“No servants? I’m amazed, especially since I’m paying for all this. Prudence, you usually can’t manage without half-a-dozen lackeys at your beck and call.”

Prudence flushed darkly. “You will speak to me with respect, young lady!”

“Respect has to be earned, Prudence. All you and Richard have earned is my suspicion, my anger, and my contempt!”

“You are not in your right mind, Diana,” Richard said. “You have turned into another person.”

“One not quite so gullible and naive. Peter Hardwick returned last night, and when I informed him that the wedding was off, he disclosed the secret financial agreement he had with you.”

“We have no secret agreement with Peter Hardwick. He is lying!”

For one brief moment she wanted to believe her uncle. But in her heart she knew it was true. The blindfold had been removed from her eyes and she saw clearly what a scheming pair they made.

“Then you won’t have any objection to an investigation
of how you have administered my finances,” she declared triumphantly.

“None whatsoever,” he said grandly. “In two months time when you come of age, I will turn everything over to you and you can investigate to your heart’s content. I shall be glad to be shut of the whole responsibility.”

Prudence knew she must bring her back on track. “Diana, have you remembered where you have been all these months or are you still insisting you were swept back to Roman times?”

Diana swung around from her uncle to face Prudence. “For such a respectable woman, you have decidedly obscene thoughts. You are simply panting for me to confirm that a lover got me with child and I hid away for nine months. But that simply isn’t true, Prudence. I went back in time to when the Romans occupied Aquae Sulis. The general who enslaved me, Marcus Magnus, was Mark Hardwick, the Earl of Bath. And yes, Prudence, we were lovers!”

Richard pushed open the door into the dining room. “Have you heard enough, Doctor?”

The burly man stepped through the doorway. “She is completely delusional. I’ll sign the papers.”

“Who the hell is this?” Diana demanded, furious that they were deceitful enough to conceal someone so that their conversation could be overheard.

“This is Dr. Clayton Bognor. He has agreed to take over your case.”

“I’m under the care of Charles Wentworth. Do you seriously believe I’d accept a doctor of your choosing?”

“You have no say in the matter. You are a minor.”

“Step aside!” Diana was almost choking with fury.

Her uncle did not step aside. He and the doctor closed in on her and held her firmly by the arms.

Diana struggled fiercely. “Take your hands from me, you scheming swines!”

Dr. Bognor clamped a cloth to her face. Diana gasped,
breathed in heavy, noxious fumes, and slumped into her uncle’s arms.

Diana felt herself being lifted. She opened heavy eyes and realized she was being carried into a large building that looked like a stately home, except it had bars on the windows. The two men who carried her were Dr. Bognor and her uncle Richard. Dear God, it was another nightmare that was not a nightmare. Was she losing her mind?

No, it was really happening. She could feel the fingers of the doctor digging cruelly into her soft flesh as he carried her, and her head ached vilely from the substance he had used to render her unconscious. Prudence was nowhere in sight, but Diana knew she must have approved this abduction.

When they took her inside, anger momentarily overrode fear. As they set her feet to the floor, she shook off Richard’s hold on her. “Where am I?” she demanded.

“You are in a hospital,” he replied soothingly, as if dealing with a hysterical child.

“I’m not staying! There’s nothing the matter with me!” She tried to shake off the doctor’s hold, but he held her in a viselike grip.

“Of course you’re not staying; as soon as you are well, you may come home,” Richard promised.

Fear was slowly gaining the upper hand. Diana knew what they were doing. They were going to confine her here indefinitely, so they could control her money. Panic choked her. She must escape! She saw Bognor’s hand gripping her arm and in a flash she sank her teeth into his flesh and bit down hard.

He cried out in pain and released her immediately. Richard made a grab for her, but she darted away to stand behind a huge mahogany desk between them. The matron who had been sitting at the desk jumped up in alarm. Diana picked up the chair the matron had been sitting on and
hurled it at Dr. Bognor. It missed him and crashed into the wall, making an ugly hole in the plaster.

Diana snatched up an oil lamp. “If you don’t let me out of here, I’ll take this bloody place apart, stone by stone!” She had been imprisoned before; this time she wasn’t going meekly.

“She’s insane, call for attendants!” Dr. Bognor ordered the matron.

Diana smashed the lamp and threw it onto the papers stacked on the desk. It blazed up immediately, and the three people in the room fell back. Diana immediately made a rush for the door, but to her utter dismay she found it locked.

Two large, athletic-looking women in striped uniforms came forward. With a shiver, Diana thought of the bath slaves in Aquae Sulis.

“We have no alternative,” Bognor said, beating out the flames with his coat. “Put her in a straitjacket.”

“Nooo,
” Diana wailed as the females easily subdued her frantic struggles.

They took her upstairs to a small room that had no furniture. A window, set high in the wall, had bars across it. Diana breathed deeply trying to hang on to her sanity. She knew she must escape from this place, but no plan suggested itself. She could not do it with physical strength; therefore, she would have to use her wits.

The women began to undress her. She eyed the canvass jacket with its straps and buckles and began to tremble. “Please don’t put that thing on me, please. I’ll behave myself. I won’t give you any more trouble.” Diana might as well have been talking to the walls for all the effect her pleas had on the hospital attendants.

Within minutes she was naked, save for the gold half-coin about her neck. In a flash she covered it with her hand and backed away from them. She knew she hadn’t a hope in hell of keeping it, but a desperate idea came to her.

“Listen to me, both of you. This half-coin is solid
gold. It is a priceless antique. It’s Julius Caesar from Roman times. Don’t give it to the doctor. Nobody knows I have it!”

The women looked at each other with meaning. Diana could see they were tempted to keep it for themselves. “If you pawn it, they’ll give you a few pounds; if you sell it to an antique shop in Bath, they’ll give you maybe a hundred guineas. But its value is absolutely priceless. The Earl of Bath once offered me half a million pounds for it.”

The women exchanged a look of disbelief that said they knew they were dealing with a lunatic. Diana’s heart sank. She’d priced it too high. They couldn’t comprehend that kind of money. One of the women forced open her hand and took her most beloved possession from her. Each of them looked at it without saying a word, then one of them slipped it into her pocket.

The women then forced her arms into the canvass sleeves, crossed them about her body, and buckled the straps at the back. Another strap went between her legs and fastened at the back onto the others.

Diana talked quickly, trying not to babble. “How much money do they pay you here? A pound a week, two? If you sold that gold coin to the Earl of Bath, you’d never have to work again!”

They went out and locked the door. There was no bed to lie on, no chair even to sit upon. Diana slid down the wall until she touched the floor. Why hadn’t she gone to London with Mark? Why had she allowed herself to become a victim again? It was because once she was back in her own Georgian times, she thought she was safe. But evil was the same in any age. Evil was timeless. Since the world began, there were certain people who would do anything for gain.

She closed her eyes to try to prevent the tears from rolling down her cheeks.
Don
V
give up hope, or they have won.
Love, too, was timeless. “Mark,” she whispered, “find me … help me.” Diana was terrified to escape
into sleep, for sleep might bring worse nightmares.
Mark will come.
The thought was the only thing she had to sustain her and help her hang on to her sanity.

The Earl of Bath made the rounds of every fashionable gentlemen’s club in London, buying back his brother’s markers. After only one day he realized he did not wish to be there. Without Diana, London held no appeal for him.

It was the early hours of the morning before he sought his bed, yet still he could not sleep. Memory of her filled his senses. He felt almost bereft without her. His bed was too empty, as was his heart. It was brought home to him that for the first time in his life he needed someone. Another thought nagged at him relentlessly. What if she needed him? If Diana had a nightmare during the long, dark hours, she would not be able to seek the sanctuary of his arms.

Mark arose early. Dawn had not completely dispelled his vague apprehension about Diana. He decided to return to Bath immediately, and to that end paid a visit to the chambers of his barristers, Chesterton and Barlow. He instructed them to pay off his brother’s debts and asked them to start an inquiry into Lady Diana Davenport’s inheritance from her late father.

“Your lordship, this is a delicate matter. For the record, our hands are tied while the lady in question is still a minor. Off the record, we can begin an investigation on the QT,” Johnathon Barlow explained.

“She comes of age in less than two months,” Mark Hardwick provided.

“Good. What we need is a deposition, signed by the complainant, and also one signed by you as a witness. We’ll do the preliminary investigation so that the day she comes of age we can legally proceed.”

Armed with the proper papers for a deposition, Mark was on his way home by midmorning, and rather than stop
at a posting inn, he decided to drive straight through. He knew he could not possibly arrive before midnight, but the anticipation of surprising Diana and rousing her from sleep spurred him on mile after mile.

When he turned into the long driveway of Hardwick Hall, he saw that the lights were still blazing and he sensed immediately that something was wrong. He drove directly to the stables, left explicit instructions regarding his lathered team of horses, then raced to the house.

Mr. Burke had not yet retired. “Lord Bath, I’ve been consumed with worry and didn’t quite know how to proceed.”

“It’s Diana, isn’t it?” Mark demanded, throwing off his greatcoat and heading for the stairs.

“Lady Diana isn’t here, sir.” “Where is she, Mr. Burke?”

“That’s just it, sir. We have no idea. The coachman drove her into town, ostensibly to do some shopping. She told him to wait for her at the Abbey, but she never returned to the carriage.”

“Did Peter come back?” Mark demanded suspiciously.

“No, sir. I haven’t seen hide or hair of him.”

“Her aunt and uncle are staying here in Bath. In all likelihood that’s where she will be.” Mark cursed himself for leaving her behind.

“I took the liberty of calling round to Queen Square this morning, my lord. There was no answer.”

A cold suspicion took hold of him. Diana had left Hardwick Hall for propriety’s sake. He took the stairs three at a time. His bedchamber was immaculate. The red lace corset was no longer on the carpet where she had dropped it. He was about to curse again when his eye fell on her earrings, which she had left on his bedside table. He picked them up and slipped them into his pocket.

Next he went down the hall to the peach-colored chamber. He was relieved when he opened the wardrobe and saw
her dresses hanging there. She hadn’t packed and left him after all. His relief was short-lived. Obviously she’d had every intention of returning. A woman did not leave her clothes and her earrings behind unless she intended to return.

He ran his hand over her pillow. Tucked beneath it was her nightgown. He lifted it to his cheek absently, and her unique scent stole to him. All his senses told him that Diana was as attracted to him as he was to her. She would not remain apart from him voluntarily. Prudence and Richard must have forbidden her to return to Hardwick Hall. His mouth curved grimly. Diana was willful as ten strong men. What Prudence forbade would have little effect on her.
They must be constraining her forcefully!

“Mr. Burke, get me a dry coat,” he called as he came running down the staircase. “I’m going to Queen Square. After all, I am a justice of Bath; if necessary I’ll swear out a search warrant.”

Mr. Burke knew it was useless to point out to the earl that it was three in the morning. Mark Hardwick was a man who made his own rules.

The coach barreled across Pulteney Bridge and along Bridge Street. As it turned onto Barton, the coach driver was stopped by the watch. The watchman lifted his lantern to peer at the driver. “No carriages allowed in this part of town. What’s your business at this hour of the night, anyway?”