It was so surprising that the Marquis could hardly ask himself why she should do such a thing, before they had passed the winning post amidst roars of applause and he was aware that he and Thunderer had won the steeplechase by a head.
He rode on a little way until he could draw Thunderer in and Indira did the same.
As the horses slowed down to a walk, he turned to her and said,
“I can hardly believe that any woman could complete such a course and I should be very angry with you for risking your neck.”
“You – should be – congratulating – Meteor,” Indira said breathlessly. “He flew over the – fences and never put a – foot wrong.”
“All the same, it was a risk you should not have taken,” the Marquis asserted severely.
She smiled at him and he knew that she was as excited as any other rider would have been.
Then, as Charles and Jimmy came galloping towards them, followed by Lord Neville and several other riders, he said quietly,
“I want an explanation as to why you pulled in Meteor on the run-in, for I am well aware that you could have beaten me.”
He saw the colour come into her face, but before she was forced to reply, Charles had joined them.
“How can – you have done – anything so – crazy?” he asked, his breath coming in gasps between his lips.
“His Lordship was just asking the same question,” Indira replied.
“You were wonderful!” Jimmy cried as he joined them. “I would never have believed that any woman could ride like that.”
“And no woman shall again,” the Marquis said sharply. “I will not allow them to compete another year.”
“That is not fair!” Indira cried. “And it would make me miserable to think that I had excluded others from this wonderful race.”
“We know only too well what you think about women, Ardsley,” Charles said with a laugh, “but you must admit that Indira has confounded you and upset all your theories.”
The Marquis was saved from answering by Lord Neville and several other riders who came up, all conveying to Indira their astonishment that she had finished the course.
Then, as she blushed and looked a little embarrassed, they reached the crowds of spectators and there were loud cheers and men waving their hands.
At the winning post itself, Indira saw the other women competitors grouped behind it and Lady Sinclair was looking at her with an expression of undisguised fury on her face.
Instinctively she tightened her hands on the reins and, as Meteor slowed down so that the horsemen riding beside her moved ahead, she looked away from Lady Sinclair, wondering what she should say and if she should apologise to the Marquis for embarrassing him.
Then she saw another face and gave a little gasp of sheer horror.
Standing in the crowd watching her approach was Mr. Jacobson!
For a moment Indira felt as if she could not think and her head was filled with cotton wool.
Then, as if it was the only action open to her, she turned Meteor and before anybody, including Charles, who was beside her, realised what she was about to do, she rode off the course and behind the coaches onto the open meadowland.
There she touched Meteor with her whip and, without looking back, she galloped straight for the house.
When she arrived, Indira dismounted at the front door and a groom came running to Meteor’s head.
“’Ow did you get on, miss?” he asked.
“Meteor came in second,” Indira replied.
The groom looked dejected.
“I lost me money! I was certain you’d be first.”
Because he sounded so disappointed, Indira said,
“I came second in the main race to his Lordship and Thunderer!”
The man gaped at her as she walked away and up the steps into the hall.
She went to her bedroom and, when the maids came to help her, she took off her habit and changed into an afternoon gown.
At the same time she was wondering what she should do.
Mr. Jacobson had found her and she was thankful that Charles and Jimmy were there to protect her. But she was quite sure that he would make trouble, although what form that would take, she had no idea.
He could not forcibly drag her to London to marry Lord Bredon if they objected. However, she really had no claim on them, although she was sure they would do everything to protect her.
‘You must help me, Papa,’ she said to her father as she stared in the mirror without seeing her reflection or even being aware that the maid was arranging her hair.
In her mind she spoke to her father, as she had spoken to him last night without fear.
Instead she felt a calmness that she had not known before and the terror that Mr. Jacobson had invoked in her when he had first revealed his plan of marrying her to the fortune-hunter had gone.
She knew it was because, in some strange unaccountable way, the Marquis had dispelled her terror and unhappiness and had given her a confidence that she had lost from the moment her father had died so suddenly and tragically.
Now Indira was certain that he was guiding and protecting her and nothing terrible could happen that she would not be able to cope with once he told her what to do.
Because she was sure that the Marquis’s guests would all be coming back to the house to celebrate his victory, she did not go downstairs.
When the maids had left her, she sat in her bedroom, thinking of her father and sending out her thoughts towards him, so that she could somehow link herself with him.
She had been extremely interested in thought transference when she was in India, but it was something that she had never needed to practise because her father had always been with her.
Now she felt as if the vibrations within herself were seeking his. At the same time, although she found it hard to understand, she felt as if she also vibrated towards the Marquis and, because he was in the same world as she was, he would be aware of it.
‘I am being ridiculous,’ she told herself. ‘He will only be thinking of Lady Sinclair, not of me. But because he – understood as no one else except Papa has ever done – I know that I – need him.’
She must have been in her bedroom for nearly an hour when there was a knock on the door and when she opened it there was a footman outside.
“Excuse me, my Lady, but Lord Frodham wants to speak to you, if it’s convenient.”
“Yes, of course,” Indira replied. “Where is his Lordship?”
“His Lordship told me to tell you, my Lady, he’d be in the study.”
“Thank you,” Indira said.
She thought that if Charles wanted to speak to her secretly, it was certainly astute of him to realise that the Marquis would not allow crowds of guests to invade a room which, she was aware, as Charles was, was essentially his own.
She hurried down the stairs, wondering if Charles had seen Mr. Jacobson as she had and what he and Jimmy would feel about it.
It was impossible to speculate on what they would say or what they would do, but she was not as terror struck as she knew she would have been yesterday.
A footman opened the door of the study and she went inside to find both Charles and Jimmy.
She thought they were looking very serious, but ,as she walked across the room towards them, Jimmy said,
“You were magnificent! There is no other word for it! You had everybody who came to watch the race absolutely astounded!”
Indira smiled at him a little shyly before Charles said,
“There is something much more important to talk about at the moment.”
“Mr. Jacobson!” Indira said in a low voice.
“Exactly,” Charles answered, “I suspected you had seen him and that was why you rode away.”
“I thought it was the – best thing to – do.”
“You were right!” Jimmy exclaimed. “And you missed Lady Sinclair throwing a tantrum and screaming at the Marquis.”
“What about?”
“She made a fool of herself,” Charles said briefly, “but we have to tell Indira what has happened.”
“What is it?”
Charles drew some papers out of the pocket of his riding coat.
“Jacobson handed me these,” he said, “and quite frankly I don’t know what I am going to do about them.”
“What are they?” Indira asked.
“One is a writ which orders me to go in front of the Magistrates to explain why I abducted a minor,” Charles replied, “and the other accuses Jimmy and me of inflicting grievous bodily harm upon a Solicitor who was merely carrying out his orders.”
For a moment Indira stared at him as if she could not credit what he had said.
Then she gave a cry of horror before she exclaimed,
“Can he really bring these charges against you? And if he does, what will – happen?”
Chapter 6
There was silence, as both young men considered the question.
Then Jimmy said,
“I think, frankly, he is trying to blackmail us. He knows that we will not want a scandal and thinks we will pay to keep him quiet.”
“If he brings charges,” Charles replied harshly, “he will put a noose round his own neck. After all, there is Indira’s evidence that he was trying to force her into marriage so that he could get hold of her money.”
Even as he spoke, he knew that the publicity such a case would create might destroy Jacobson, but it would also damage Indira’s reputation so that no hostess in any strata of Society would accept her as a guest.
Indira clasped her hands together.
“I am sorry – so terribly sorry,” she said, “that I have – involved you in – this.”
“You could not help it,” Charles replied, “and somehow we will give that cheating devil his just dues. I only wish I had hit him harder!”
“It was hard enough for him to bring a charge against you,” Jimmy remarked.
Charles gave a sharp laugh.
“You don’t suppose that would stand up in Court?”
Jimmy knew that was true.
Charles was a Nobleman and it would be acknowledged that he was absolutely justified in dealing as he had with a man like Jacobson, considering that he had been physically menacing a woman.
At the same time this once again involved Indira and both Charles and Jimmy knew that somehow they had to keep her out of the mess.
“I refuse to buy him off,” Charles said suddenly and violently, “and before we return to London on Monday we have to think of a way making that clear to him.”
“It might be a good idea to go and see the Lord Chief Justice,” Jimmy suggested. “He is a friend of my father’s, although I have never met him personally.”
“Whatever we do, we have to think it out very carefully,” Charles replied, “in order to save Indira from being involved.”
“But I am involved,” Indira said, “and it is very sweet of you to think of me. But I am only a – stranger and have no – right to – impose upon you.”
Charles looked at her and wondered what she would say if he told her she meant very much more to him than any stranger would.
Then he told himself it was far too soon to say anything like that and in any case how could he ask her to marry him, seeing what his family would say about it and how unhappy they would undoubtedly make her?
With an effort he said calmly,
“This is no time for us to make decisions and we can talk tomorrow when it will be easier than it is now.”
He glanced at the door as he spoke, almost as if he expected the Marquis to come in.
“You are right,” Jimmy said, “the house is full of people celebrating our host’s victory and there is to be a large dinner party which the Marquis always gives after the steeplechase.”
“If there is to be a dinner party to celebrate his victory and, if Lady Sinclair is a winner too,” Indira said, “I think it would be wise for me to stay upstairs.”
As she spoke, she thought that Charles was about to protest, and she added quickly,
“As a matter of fact, I do feel rather tired.”
“It’s not surprising,” Jimmy said. “I am tired too and I never believed any woman could complete that very difficult course as splendidly as you did.”
“You really have to thank Meteor for that,” Indira said with a smile. “At the same time it would be a mistake for people to – praise me when Lady Sinclair is – there.”
Both men knew that she was nervous as to what Lady Sinclair might say to her or how she would behave.
Seeing the way that her Ladyship had raged at the Marquis and shocked quite a number of his friends, neither Charles nor Jimmy wished for her to be so rude and aggressive to Indira.
“You are quite sure that is what you want to do?” Jimmy asked.
“I am quite sure!” Indira said firmly. “I will send a message to his Lordship to say that I have retired to bed and hope he will excuse me.”
Charles nodded as if he thought that was right.
Then he added,
“I think you should disappear now, otherwise if the Marquis knows that you are downstairs, he might suspect you have reasons other than tiredness for not appearing at dinner.”
“Yes, of course,” Indira agreed. “And I will go up to my room by a side staircase. Goodnight, Charles.”
She would have left, but Charles took her hand in his and said,
“I cannot let you go without telling you how wonderful you were! I was terrified when I first realised that you were jumping the higher fences with us. Then I just prayed you would complete the course and confound them all.”
“Especially Lady Sinclair!” Jimmy added. “I have never seen a more disgraceful exhibition than she made of herself. It was worthy of a Billingsgate fishwife!”
Charles did not appear to hear him. He was just looking at Indira, until he said in a deep voice,
“We will talk about it all tomorrow. Goodnight, Indira, and don’t worry. Jimmy and I will look after you.”
“Thank you – very much.”
He hesitated, but did not release her hand.
Then, as she looked at him enquiringly, he raised it a little awkwardly to his lips.
“The Marquis should give you a special prize for bravery,” he said, “and I would like to do the same.”
Indira did not blush or seem embarrassed. She merely took her hand from his, smiled at him, then at Jimmy and slipped out of the room.
Charles glanced at the door after she had left, almost as if he considered following her.
“No one could be more sensible,” Jimmy said. “It would have been disastrous for her to come down to dinner and have Lady Sinclair making snide remarks all the evening, if not being openly rude.”
“One thing is quite certain,” Charles said, “Lady Sinclair has cooked her goose where the Marquis is concerned. I was watching his face when she was raging at him and he looked not only more contemptuous than usual but positively disgusted!”
“I was disgusted too,” Jimmy added, “and if that is the way in which women with ‘blue blood’ behave, then all I can say is give me a tradesman’s daughter every time.”
“I agree with you, “Charles answered. “Equally, I cannot believe most tradesmen’s daughters are like Indira.”
“I can still hardly believe that she was within an inch of beating the Marquis,” Jimmy enthused.
“Well, she was and what we have to decide now,” Charles said, “is what we are going to do about Jacobson.”
“If we had had any sense,” Jimmy replied, “we should have drowned him when we had the chance!”
*
Indira reached her bedroom without seeing anybody and crossed the room for a moment to look out at the sun sinking behind the oak trees in the Park. It turned n
ot only the sky but also the lake to crimson and gold.
It was so lovely that she felt as if her whole being reached out to the beauty of it, but she knew that she had to say goodbye.
‘Help me, Papa, help me!’ she prayed in her heart. ‘I cannot let these two young men who have been so kind get into trouble because of me. I need all your cleverness and power of organisation to help me at this moment.”
Almost as if her prayer had brought her an answer, she walked across the room to tug at the bell-pull which was a strip of exquisitely embroidered satin hanging down from the ceiling.
She went back to the window and waited until there was a knock at the door and the maid who usually attended her came in.
“You rang, my Lady?”
“Yes, Emily. I wonder if you would be so kind as to ask the housekeeper to come here as soon as she can.
“I’ll fetch Mrs. Baker right away, my Lady. She’s not far away.”
The maid left the room and Indira waited only a few minutes before Mrs. Baker, an elderly woman with white hair and dressed in rustling black silk with a silver chatelaine at her waist, came into the room.
“You wished to see me, my Lady?” she asked, closing the door behind her.
“Yes, Mrs. Baker, “ Indira replied. “I need your help.”
“Of course, my Lady, I’ll do anything I can.”
“When I returned from the steeplechase,” Indira began, “I received a message to say that somebody very close and dear to me had died. “
‘I’m sorry to hear that, my Lady.”
“You will understand, Mrs. Baker, that I have to leave immediately for London, but I have no wish to upset or cast an atmosphere of gloom over his Lordship’s victory party.”
“I can understand that, my Lady.”
“That is why I need your assistance,” Indira went on, “and only with your help can I leave immediately without anybody being aware of it.”
“Immediately, my Lady?”
Indira nodded.
“I am needed in London as quickly as I can get there. But it is not going to be easy, because I was brought here by Lord Frodham and Sir James Overton, who had agreed to take me on Monday to some relatives who live about fifteen miles away.”
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