by Gay, Gloria
"And what is of such importance that you must make such a spectacle of yourself, Mama, by frantically motioning to me," asked Galena.
"I am to return to London, my love, I do not feel well," said the countess, and indeed she looked extremely pale.
"You know I will not return with you, Mama. It’s bothersome of you to interrupt this soiree for me."
"But Lady Daving has been forced to leave this house party, Galena, because Lord Daving has taken ill, I believe with this grippe that has come to us from France. She was keeping an eye on you." Lady Maddington glanced at her spoiled daughter. "You must return to London with me or I shall be forced to stay at the castle, feeling ill as I do. You know that under better circumstances I would not dream of taking you back with me and spoiling your holiday."
"You’re not going to spoil my holiday, Mama, don’t even think it, for I will not return with you. I believe that means that you must stay."
"Galena, can’t you see how ill I am?"
"You can be ill in London as well as here and here you are of service to me, Mama," the girl countered angrily, "What is the difference where you are ill?"
"I can’t believe you can be so cold-hearted and cruel to your mother."
"Mama, leave the tragedies for Drury Lane for I will not listen anymore." And with that, Galena advised her mother to return to her room as she would be more comfortable there than outdoors, where she might get even worse, with the cool breeze.
Galena's attention was only partly on her mother as she surveyed the picnic area, on the lookout for her quarry, the duke.
"You will promise to behave properly, Galena?" asked the countess weakly, as she motioned to her maid.
"Most faithfully, Mama," said Galena absently.
* * *
"But Cade, are you quite certain of this?" Lady de Compte ran a hand over her forehead, smoothing out worry lines.
She had never imagined that Souten would take his obsession with Violet to such lengths.
What he was considering was a criminal act in the eyes of the law. What could she do to extricate herself from his scheming now that it had taken a violent turn? One thing was bringing him bits of information to aid him in his pursuit of Violet but quite another was to become a partner in crime with him, as he had proposed.
Lady de Compte realized she was trembling all over and hoped to God Souten would not notice. She had realized too late that Souten was a dangerous man. Why had she entangled herself with him? The answer was obvious: her debts and her illicit acts such as lifting a few pounds from ladies' reticules when they were in their cups, of which he was aware…
She suppressed the horror she felt and succeeded to at least not reveal it in her eyes as Lord Souten continued to disclose his plan to her. They were under an elm, quite apart from the rest of the picnic guests.
"Yes, I am quite certain of it, Vera. I have had to pull up the date. Violet is falling in love with the duke. I cannot allow that to happen; besides, her mother's illness works quite neatly into my plans. No one will suspect anything, as it will only appear that Lady Kelly got a turn for the worse."
"And that woman assured you the herbs will only make a person sick, not put the person's life in any danger?" Vera suppressed a shudder.
"No danger to speak of. Besides, I have used the herbs myself on others, on occasion."
"Others?" asked Vera faintly.
"A recalcitrant mistress or two who could not accept her conge with grace, Vera. Being often ill in my company soon convinced them that to make an issue of our temporary relationship was a mistake. And each of those times it was completely harmless."
Vera shivered, even so.
"It still seems like a terrible risk," she said in a small voice. "What if by the merest chance it should go wrong? What if Lady Kelly became extremely ill? What would you do then?"
"Stop with the what ifs," said Souten, highly annoyed. "Who exactly would connect me to it? Tell me that? Is there a way that anyone could prove it was I who put the herbs in her tea?"
"Well, no, but what about the servant who is to take the tea? That person would know."
"Not even that maid would know, because she would not realize that I had switched the teas."
"Even so, I still do not understand how you are to take the ailing Lady Kelly out of the castle. How exactly are you to accomplish that?"
"She will be practically in a faint when I take her out," Souten assured Vera, shaking his head in exasperation. "A person in such a state as Lady Kelly will be in will hardly know what's going on. Then, when we have her away from the castle it will be easy for Galena to convince Violet to run to her mother's aid."
"And she will not ask why it is that her mother has left the castle without letting her know she is doing so?"
"Emergencies often make people act in different ways.
“You'll see. I have everything mapped out to the last detail. I spent most of the night planning it. I almost didn't sleep."
"I still believe you are taking terrible risks," insisted Lady de Compte. And involving me in it, she would have added if she didn't fear Souten's reaction to those words.
Vera had gone along with Souten's plans in theory, and had only a hazy idea of what he intended. But now that he had disclosed them to her in detail, she was having a hard time disguising her opposition. Surely if he were caught, and she along with him for aiding him, there would be dire consequences.
"It’s a dangerous scheme, Cade. You must think this over carefully; give it another day or two in which to consider it. Keep in mind that though Violet may have at one time been without protection, she has the protection of her father, Lord Kelly, now, and even the interest of the Duke of Hawkinston."
"The duke will distance himself from her once she becomes notorious, and if she wants to please her father, as we know she does, she will be anxious to agree to the marriage with me, for an elopement is not so out of the ordinary these days," added Souten with self-assurance. "Surely you don’t believe I have not thought of all the ramifications, Vera? I’m not a fool."
He was a fool, thought Vera, if he believed this would not have consequences as far as the Duke of Hawkinston was concerned. Hawkinston was a powerful man and quite smitten with the girl himself. The thousands of violets in honor of Violet and this sojourn itself were proof of it. Was Cade insane? And what was more, was she not insane also if she allowed Cade to entangle her in his scheme?
Up until now helping Cade had been just a matter of gathering bits of information here and there, things for which Vera had a natural talent. But this? What Cade was proposing was a criminal act, something that would have terrible consequences should they be caught.
Vera had a strong sense of self-preservation and she heard loud warnings in her head not to go along with Souten's plans. What was more, she had never participated in anything illegal—other than lifting a few pounds from unsuspecting ladies’ reticules—as this plan surely was.
Souten's obsession with Violet was making him irrational. How did he expect such a harebrained scheme to work? And he expected her absolute compliance in this when it was obvious his obsessive love was making him plan reckless schemes. Yet how was Vera to avoid helping him? She would be in danger herself if he sensed she was backing out of helping him.
She must pretend to go along with everything he did. Whatever she decided had to be made without the menace of him finding out she was not on his side.
"I have believed until now that I have your complete confidence and cooperation, Vera," Souten hissed.
Vera glanced guardedly at his pale menacing eyes and winced.
Vera replaced her hesitation with a smile of compliance. Self-preservation that was innate in her came quickly to her aid and she instantly erased any look from her eyes that might convey dissention to him.
"I must say you cook up brilliant schemes, Cade, and I can only bow to the master. Of course you have my complete trust and compliance. Have you ever doubted it? I was only surprise
d that you had decided on action so soon and so suddenly. That is all. Just give me a few minutes to adjust to the idea."
"I like this attitude much better, my dear. And believe me when I say that your help will be rewarded far beyond what you have obtained from me up until now. I’m very good to those that have my trust."
Knowing how greed was a thing he instantly understood, Vera looked up at him with an expectant look in her eyes. "I can't wait, Cade! Monsieur Neuloff has a pink diamond with rubies necklace I much admire in his jewelry collection."
For the first time in her life, Vera pretended to hanker after jewels she hadn't the least desire to obtain. She had no wish to be paid for aiding in criminal work, but she must appear the complete opposite of what she thought.
"Keep those jewels in mind, Vera, for I will certainly reward your help in this. Believe me when I say that there isn't anything in the world I desire more than Violet. I cannot sleep, I cannot think. She has turned my life into a misery and I will not rest until she is mine."
"Yes, I believe it," said Vera with a smile that hid the shadows that now hovered fearfully in her mind. For the first time in her association with Cade she had felt stark naked fear. She had felt it when he, seeing hesitation in her, had turned and looked at her and through her. Never in her life had Vera feared for her life—clear through to her bones. At all costs Cade must never suspect she feared him. He would turn into her enemy suddenly. She was certain of it.
"And once we have convinced Violet to go after Sadie, to help her mother, how is it that you are going to be alone with her?"
"There will be two carriages," said Souten. The two carriages will become separated during the trip. Violet will be in one carriage with me and she will be spending the night with me in that carriage, a leased carriage that has not my coat of arms, as the other does. In the morning, she will be happy to become Lady Souten. All thought of rejecting me will have fled her mind in her anxiety not to harm either her mother or her father. After all, elopements happen every day and she need not disclose any details of it to anyone."
Vera glanced down the hill at Violet as she conferred with Galena. Another fear enveloped her. She had embroiled the girl into it too. Galena's father, the Earl of Maddington, would not take kindly to it.
She felt a headache coming on, yet she couldn't leave Cade, who had no friends in the crowd other than his mother.
"Lady Deckworth does not seem well this afternoon," she said to Cade. She not only wanted to divert him from further talk of his schemes but she must also find a way to be rid of him for a few minutes. He was suffocating her.
"Perhaps I should go and chat for a few minutes with Mama," said Souten. "She will be offended if I don't. After all, she did go to a lot of trouble to secure our invitations."
"Go on, Cade. I have a headache and I must lie down in my room for a while or I will not be well enough to attend the ball tonight."
"You will attend the ball, Vera, whether or not you are well," he said, again in that low, hissing voice.
"Of course I will attend, Cade. I wouldn't miss it," Vera quickly assured him, "But I do want to be refreshed. I believe I stayed out in this cool air far too long."
She was trembling all over and not from cold.
"I shall see you in a while," said Cade, directing his steps toward the Marchioness of Deckworth, who was sitting by a disapproving Lord Deckworth under an awning.
CHAPTER 16
"Miss Durbin, as I recall, I promised to show you some interesting ruins in the grounds."
Violet had been lost in thought, listening to Lady Bea's droning voice, and the sound of Hawkinston's voice startled her out of her reverie. She looked up in surprise. She had thought that Hawk was with his sister.
It was a pleasant picnic, with the weather complying. Sunshine fell kindly on everyone as groups here and there shifted and re-grouped.
"Yes certainly, your grace, if you will collect a small group for your tour," said Violet, "for I do not intend to go there alone with you.
"How far from here is that place?"
"We will still be within sight of all these good people, Miss Durbin, you need not glance around for a crowd of chaperones." The duke sounded annoyed.
Violet hesitated. She remembered their last encounter in the wood and she was not about to put herself in a vulnerable situation such as that one. She still cringed in remembrance.
"I assure you, Miss Durbin, there is nothing untoward about going for a stroll within sight of so many people."
"Very well, your grace, let us go," said Violet as he offered his arm and they started out over the uneven terrain.
"I will be back shortly, Lady Bea," she said.
"I am looking forward to the ball this evening, Miss Durbin, and to dancing with you," said the duke when they were out of earshot of the crowd.
"I am looking forward to the ball, too, your grace."
"But not to dancing with me?"
"I had not given it a thought."
"Perhaps what drives men wild, Miss Durbin is that you don’t think of them at all."
"It is a poor attraction that grows out of starvation,” said Violet, as she walked alongside the duke. "No lasting relationship can develop over such a false foundation."
"You believe then that if a man becomes attracted to a woman who repeatedly ignores him, that relationship, if it should come to develop, is not true?"
"I believe that a man who is attracted to what is denied him will continue to seek such stimulations throughout his life. He will be attracted to the woman who ignores him because it is a challenge, but once he attains her affection he will go on to other challenges, like a bee flitting from one flower to another, always in search of the better blossom."
"I believe you have just described me as a bee, Miss Durbin. I am sorry you think of me that way."
"I was merely trying to illustrate a point, your grace. I believe you are insistent on my company only because it is a challenge to you. Once it ceases to be a challenge your interest will wane."
"The man you describe is shallow, Miss Durbin, not a man of substance at all. Is that how you view me?"
"Please look into your heart and your past behavior, your grace. I ask that you view it with honesty and tell me if I am wrong. If I am wrong, then I shall humbly apologize."
"I prefer not to view my past too closely, Miss Durbin, lest I be jolted out of my complacency and the perfectly pleasant picture I have of myself be presented to me like a cracked looking glass with no hope of repair.
"You are probably correct in your assumptions of me and an apology would not be in order. But then, is that not true of most men? Is not a challenge more alluring that that which is at ready disposal?"
"Countless marriages have been the prize of the challenge," responded Violet. "If a man and a woman are well suited for each other, is that not rather the gage by which a partner for an entire life should be chosen, instead of the result of a conquest in which only vanity and the search for exciting pleasures comprise the only items in the list?
"You are forgetting, Miss Durbin," said the duke, "that most marriages in society are of convenience. Perhaps in the lower classes such considerations are taken into account, where there is no property to consider. Perhaps marriages in the lower classes are more honest in nature."
"I believe so," she responded, "Because men look among those who are eligible parties and among those find the woman who is the most challenging to pursue. Of course," she added, after a moment's thought, "if the challenge is among those outside the man's class, then the intention of the conquest is not a proposal of marriage, but merely the prize of conquest for the satisfaction of pleasure."
Violet realized they had drifted into a discussion of marriage, something that was not a consideration by the duke in relation to her and she blushed in embarrassment at how she had led the conversation into the very personal one that very much described his pursuit of her.
So she changed the subject, "But w
e drifted from our subject. We were discussing the ball, your grace. You were saying that I should think of the ball only in relation to whom I will be dancing with."
"Let me respond to your reverie, Miss Durbin, for I do believe you mentioned it in order to obtain a response from me and I shall try to provide you with one."
"It’s not necessary in the least, I was speaking generally," Violet assured him. "In fact, I would rather you did not respond to it. I really should concern myself with this pleasant outing and the ball ahead, nothing more."
"I believe those should be your only considerations, Miss Durbin. Balls have become of supreme importance to me since I met you. I had not given a thought to a ball in the ten years before that. Will you honor me with the first six and the last four dances?"
"Certainly not," Violet said, laughing. "Tongues would wag!"
"And you mind them wagging?"
"Yes, I do. I will not behave in any way that will make people discuss me, not consciously, at least."
"I had thought you were above such things."
"I assure you, I am not."
"This is the site. Please, take care not to trip, for this is very uneven terrain," said the duke as they arrived at a clearing.
Violet looked around in wonder.
"This place is enchanted."
"I am glad you approve," said the duke, pleased.
"Such an abundance of lilac grows here," she added. "And just see the tendrils of that ivy almost covering the side of that ruined tower. And jasmine perfumes the air.
"I would not have believed such a place existed except in fairy tales were I not looking at it with my own eyes. Flowers grow here in profusion, and such a wide variety, too, my lord. These wildflowers are from a dreamscape."
"I am glad you appreciate it, Miss Durbin. As a child I often came here to escape the world, and reality."
She looked up and into Hawk's eyes and remembered she was in love with him. She also knew she had to say good-bye.
She had to say good-bye before it became too late.
Yet all farewells should have an embrace. And if she must say good-bye to him for all time, shouldn't she allow herself a kiss good-bye?