The butler opened the door and announced them in a voice that seemed to ring out around the large room and reach the four people at the other end of it.
The Marquis came towards them and as he did so Charles thought however infuriating he might be, there was no doubt that their host was an extremely handsome man and had, when he chose to use it, an undeniable charm.
“How nice to see you, Frodham,” he said, holding out his hand. “I was growing worried that you might have had an unpleasant journey owing to the thunderstorm.”
“It certainly delayed us,” Charles admitted, “but there is another reason why we are later than we intended.”
The Marquis was already holding out his hand to Jimmy, saying,
“It is a pleasure to see you, Overton.”
And now he was looking at Indira questioningly.
“May I introduce the Marquis of Ardsley?” Charles asked her and then said to the Marquis, “this is Lady Mary Combe, whom Jimmy and I have just rescued from an appalling experience with some highwaymen who not only stole her money but also her horses.”
“Highwaymen!” the Marquis exclaimed. “What a terrible thing to happen!”
Indira gave him a little curtsey and put her hand in his. The Marquis, holding it firmly, was aware as he did so that her fingers trembled.
“You are suffering from shock,” he said, “and it is not surprising. Come and sit down. Let me bring you a glass of champagne.”
“Thank you,” Indira murmured. “It was – very frightening.”
Without relinquishing her hand, the Marquis drew her towards the fireplace, where he introduced her to his other guests, two men and a lady, all of whom exclaimed in horror and consternation at what she must have been through.
“The highwaymen are becoming a perfect pest on the roads,” said one of the gentlemen, whose name she had not heard. “Something ought to be done about them and I intend to raise the question in the House of Commons.”
“I wish you would do that, Edmund,” the Marquis said. “What we need is a local Police force to keep a watch on the main highways. As it is, when they are sent for, the Military always arrive too late.”
“That is true,” Jimmy said. “My father always complained that in our County it is impossible to catch a highwayman, who has in every case several hours’ start on his pursuers.”
The Marquis had fetched a glass of champagne, which he handed to Indira before he offered any to Charles and Jimmy.
Then he sat down beside her on the sofa and said,
“I am sure you do not want to talk about your experience and, because I know how frightening it must have been, I suggest we talk of other things. Let me say first how delighted I am to be able to offer you my hospitality tonight. I hope that wherever you are going we can persuade you to stay and watch the steeplechase.”
“That is very – kind of – you, my Lord” Indira said in a small voice.
Charles turned to Indira.
“I told you we were right to bring you here and that his Lordship would welcome you.”
Indira smiled in a manner which he thought looked shy and reserved and he explained to the Marquis,
“At first Jimmy and I thought we should take her on to where she was going. But it is at least fifteen miles in the opposite direction and there was every likelihood of it starting to rain again, so we thought it best to come straight here.”
“I think it very sensible of you,” the Marquis approved, “but surely Lady Mary was not travelling alone?”
“I was unaccompanied after a long chapter of accidents,” Indira said before Charles could reply. “I have just – arrived from – India.”
“From India!” the Marquis exclaimed.
“Yes. My father – died – on the voyage.”
There was a little pause before she went on,
“We were supposed to be met by a courier and, I believed, several relatives, but when the ship docked there was nobody!”
“Blame the post!” Jimmy interposed. “It’s getting ridiculous how bad the overseas mail is, despite the fact that the Government boasts about its efficiency.”
“I agree with you,” one of the Marquis’s other guests affirmed. “My father is in Egypt at the moment and I have not heard one single word from him since he left, although he always writes to me at least twice a week.”
“It is a scandal,” the Marquis agreed. “But tell us, Lady Mary, what happened.”
“I thought the best thing I could do would be to hire a carriage and drive to the house of my father’s friends, where I was to stay. I had quite a pleasant journey until – the highwaymen – held me up.”
Her voice faltered and both Charles and Jimmy thought she was acting her part admirably.
“You must have been very frightened,” the Marquis’s lady guest added. “I know I should have fallen into a swoon or screamed for help. “
“There was no point in my doing either of those things,” Indira said, “because I was in an empty lane and, although the coachman and the footman on the box tried to defend me, the highwaymen knocked them to the ground, then stole the horses. That was what they were really interested in.”
“But they took your money too.”
“Fortunately, I did not carry a large amount in my bag and, because Lord Frodham and Sir James appeared, the highwaymen did not have time to rifle my trunks.”
“You poor, poor thing!” the lady exclaimed. “My heart bleeds for you. How lucky that these two charming gentlemen came to help you.”
“I am very – very – grateful to them for – saving me and driving the men away, who were very – frightening,” Indira stammered.
“I am sure that what you would like to do now,” the lady suggested, “is to have a little rest before dinner. Shall I take her upstairs, Seldon?”
“Yes, of course, Rosie,” he replied.
As he spoke her Christian name, Charles and Jimmy gave each other a knowing look.
As Charles had said in White’s, Lady Sinclair, who was described as a ‘Rose of England’, had captured the attention of the elusive, fastidious and at the same time discriminating Marquis of Ardsley.
Now both young men were thinking to themselves somewhat dismally that, because Lady Sinclair was at Ardsley Hall, it was unlikely that the Marquis would be ‘bowled over’, as they had put it, by their protégée.
At the same time there was no doubt that Indira was the more spectacular of the two.
Lady Sinclair, while very lovely in the conventional English pink, white and gold manner, paled a little, in their estimation at any rate, in comparison with Indira’s flaming red hair.
Her white skin, which they had not appreciated until now, was, in the light of the candles that had been lit in the salon, like the petals of a magnolia.
“Thank you very much,” Indira was saying to Lady Sinclair. “I would like to go upstairs and, as you suggest – lie down.”
She rose to her feet before she said to the Marquis,
“It is very kind of you, my Lord, to have me here as an unexpected and uninvited guest. I hope I shall not prove a bother for tonight and I think perhaps it would be – best if I would – leave tomorrow.”
“I am quite certain,” the Marquis replied, “that we can persuade you to stay and watch your two rescuers, Lord Frodham and Sir James, competing in my steeplechase. They are very experienced riders and I may tell you they are up against some stiff competition.”
“Especially where it concerns our host,” Charles added. “We were thinking, my Lord, that it would be a sporting gesture, since you have the best horses and know the course better than we do, if you were severely handicapped.”
“It is an idea, but it is certainly one I would not agree to with any enthusiasm,” the Marquis said.
“I was afraid of that,” Charles replied, “in which case, Lady Mary, you will see your host receive the Steeplechase Cup which he himself has provided and which, however hard we compete for it and for
how ever many years, is likely to remain at Ardsley Hall.”
Everybody laughed and the Marquis threw up his hands in dismay.
“What can I say but suggest that we abandon the whole idea of a steeplechase and instead make it merely a show with a prize for the most beautiful woman on horseback!”
As the Marquis spoke, Charles noticed that Lady Sinclair gave a self-conscious little laugh, as if she was quite certain who would win the prize.
At the same time he did not miss the fact that the Marquis was looking at Indira and her eyes in the light of the candles seemed even more mysterious than they had in the parlour when he had first noticed them.
Too, he had the feeling that, as Lady Sinclair linked her arm with Indira’s and drew her towards the door, she was glad to take her out of the Marquis’s orbit.
‘So far, so good!’ he thought to himself and knew that Jimmy was thinking the same.
*
As they walked up the stairs, Lady Sinclair said to Indira,
“You must be feeling very shaken and distressed. I am sure if you would rather retire to bed and have a light meal sent up to your room, our host would understand. Everything in this house is done to make the guest feel happy and at home and perhaps, after your traumatic experience, it would be wiser to take things very easy.”
“Thank you for your concern,” Indira replied, “but perhaps after I have rested I shall be able to decide what is best for me to do.”
“That’s very sensible,” Lady Sinclair agreed, “but you must not take any risks with yourself. Shock often has a delayed action, as I know to my own cost.”
She went into a rather incoherent tale of what had happened after she had once had a shock from being involved in a fire.
When she had finished it, they had reached the room where Indira was to be sleeping and where two maids were already unpacking her trunks.
“I will leave you now,” Lady Sinclair said, “and don’t hesitate to stay in bed, if you feel it is an effort to rise again.”
“Thank you for being so kind, my Lady,” Indira replied.
However, she was astute enough to realise that Lady Sinclair’s kindness was not entirely concern for her health.
As the maids unpacked her things, she thought with satisfaction that her gowns, which came from Paris, would certainly not look out of place at Ardsley Hall, magnificent as it was.
The maids helped her to undress and she climbed into bed and, when they had left her and she was alone, she lay thinking of how lucky it was that she had been able to escape with the help of Lord Frodham and Sir James from that horrible Mr. Jacobson.
‘How could I have known that he was a crook?’ she asked herself. ‘If Papa was alive, he would be furious at his behaviour!’
She had been so close to her father and he had discussed so many things with her that she thought that the wise thing for her to do would be to go to Coutts Bank and explain to the Manager what had happened.
She would ask him to find her a new firm of Solicitors who would take over her business affairs and whom the bank would vouch for as being both reliable and honest.
Even as she reasoned it out calmly, she found herself afraid of being without her father, who had meant everything in her life since her mother had died.
She had loved him and he had loved her and, because they were constantly travelling about, she had been truthful when she told Charles and Jimmy that she was not certain how she could find her relations in England or indeed who they were.
It was over ten years since she had last been in her own country and, as she had been only eight years old at the time, she could hardly remember anything about it.
Her father’s interests were in the East and, while England was at war with France, he had thought it not only a waste of time but dangerous to attempt the long sea voyage home.
But, because her father was determined that she should be properly educated, her Governesses and Tutors travelled with them as they moved from one Eastern country to another.
As he was so rich and of such importance in his own world, a large entourage of those he employed always accompanied them.
Since they were never intrusive when her father wished to be alone with her and she with him, it was quite easy to forget the company of paid employees whose special charge they were.
Now suddenly her father had died and she was completely alone.
Because the majority of those they had employed over the years were foreigners, they had set out to return to England with only a lady’s maid for herself and a secretary and a valet for her father.
The former had succumbed to the same fever as had killed him and the valet, whom Indira had never particularly liked, had left at Cape Town.
Her lady’s maid was French and, when the ship stopped at Marseilles, she had begged Indira that she might go to Paris and see her mother before she rejoined her in London.
Indira was perceptive enough to realise that once she had arrived home she would never see the woman again.
She did not think it would matter much, being sure that it would be a mistake after the long years of war, for her to arrive in England with a French servant.
She had thought there would be the usual crowd of attendants waiting for her at Southampton and she knew that her father had instructed his Solicitors to arrange everything for their convenience.
It was therefore a shock and a very unpleasant one when there was only Mr. Jacobson, who abruptly and rudely told her that she was to be married to Lord Bredon, so that she could come into her father’s money three years before she would possess it otherwise.
At first she could hardly believe she had to listen to such an outrageous idea, but, when he became unpleasantly threatening, she told him that she wished to retire to her bedroom, feeling exhausted after her father’s death and the long voyage.
Mr. Jacobson had agreed and, when she was alone, Indira had made up her mind to escape.
She fortunately had a lot of money with her because her father never travelled without considerable sums of ready cash.
The difficulty was, what could she do?
It was then that she thought with horror of the trouble she had had on the voyage, when she was alone without her father’s protection, when men of all ages pursued her relentlessly and whether it was because of her looks or her money was immaterial.
She then decided that the only possible way she could escape them and Mr. Jacobson was to go into a Convent.
With the same efficiency that had characterised her father’s dealings, she had put her plan into operation.
She was relieved when she drove away from the hotel at dawn the next morning before Mr. Jacobson could make enquiries as to what time she would be ready to leave with him for London.
It was only because the carriage provided for her was not of the quality that she was sure would have been obtained by her father that she did not get as far on her journey as she had hoped.
In another hour and a half, she reckoned, she would have reached the Convent the nun had told her about, but Mr. Jacobson had appeared and she had been rescued only at what seemed to her to be the very last moment.
Now by some strange quirk of fate for which she was very grateful, she was lying in an extremely comfortable bed in a magnificent room with a painted ceiling in the type of house that her father had often described to her as being very much a part of England.
‘If only Papa was here,’ Indira said to herself,‘it would be so exciting to see it all with him and hear him tell me about these people. He would not be as much impressed with them as they are with themselves!’
She knew as soon as she had met the Marquis that the way Lord Frodham and Sir James had described him was very true, if a little unkind.
He was very much aware of his own consequence and she compared him with the men she had seen in India, who governed it with pomp and circumstance besides a pride that made the Indians very conscious that they must bow to their conquerors.
<
br /> ‘At least it will be interesting to stay here for a day or so,’ Indira told herself, ‘and it will give me time to think of what I can do and where I can go.’
She realised that Lord Frodham was prepared to make plans for her future, but she was not certain if she wanted a future that depended on the kindness or the patronage of any man.
“I want to be independent of them all,” she stated aloud.
She thought that however kind Charles and Jimmy might seem, they were still men and she unfortunately was a woman.
Chapter 3
As the ladies left the dining room, Indira was aware that Lady Sinclair was regarding her with undisguised hostility.
Before dinner the Marquis had introduced other members of the house party who had arrived, then said,
“I think I must honour our unexpected guest tonight, to assure her not only how delighted we are to have her here at Ardsley Hall, but also to apologise for the unpleasant treatment she received on her arrival in England instead of the welcome she might have expected.”
The story of Indira’s treatment at the hands of highwaymen had lost nothing in the telling.
One after another the guests had come up to her before dinner to say how intolerable the situation had become in the country and that theft, robbery and violence were becoming so habitual that something would have to be done about it.
“Of course,” one Peer said, “if these felons are caught, they are hanged, but that is no deterrent to a man who finds it impossible to get employment of any sort and must either starve or steal.”
The argument grew quite heated and naturally the Government was blamed for being weak in providing proper protection for its citizens and worst of all for pursuing a policy of low wages and the import of foreign goods.
Indira listened to everything that was said and Charles and Jimmy thought approvingly that she was acting the part they required of her with an expertise that could not be equalled.
To begin with, not only did she look lovely, but her gown was obviously the envy of the lady guests, outshining theirs beyond dispute and making them, Charles thought with satisfaction, look quite dowdy in comparison.
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