Then they were aware of Anthony watching them, his eyes narrow and spiteful, and they both turned away.
Afterwards Anthony had taken her aside and said,
“You see I have kept my word. He is free. I have kept my side of the bargain, now you must keep yours.”
“And I will,” she told him.
“You know what will happen if you don’t – ”
He meant that all the charges could be reinstated. Once she was married to him, Anthony could have Michael arrested again and she would have no bargaining card to rescue him.
She could only hope he realised the danger and vanished as soon as the ceremony was over.
She could not see him to warn him, but she did the next best thing by sending a footman in secret to Belmont Park, begging Michael to escape as the bridal party left the Church.
Even so the trick was fraught with danger and she knew no peace until the footman returned to report that the message was delivered and Michael had given his promise.
Now she thought of her wedding only a few hours away.
Michael would be the best man, presenting a picture of family unity to the world.
Then he would walk away and she would never see him again.
Verna lay down her head on her arms while many tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Goodbye, Michael, my dear love,” she whispered. “Goodbye forever – goodbye – goodbye – ”
*
Michael too felt as though he was living in some ghastly nightmare as he made the journey to the Church at Anthony’s side.
His brother was giving a sickening performance of a happy bridegroom, burbling in a way that made Michael want to strike him.
He kept it up during the drive, as they walked into the Church and made their way to the altar.
From the West door came a hum of activity signalling that the bride had arrived. The organ began to play.
Michael braced himself for the moment when he knew he must turn and look at Verna in her bridal gown.
“My bride is here,” Anthony whispered gleefully. “Look at her. Isn’t she ravishing? Did you ever see such a beautiful woman?”
Michael flung his brother a look of loathing. But at last he forced himself to turn his head and watch Verna approaching on her father’s arm.
She was, as Anthony had implied, the very picture of beauty – tall and elegant, her slim body attired in white satin, a long veil streaming down to the floor behind her.
With anguish he recalled how he had once dreamed of this very scene, how he would stand here, watching her walk down the aisle towards him.
But in his dreams it had been their own wedding. He was the groom and not Anthony. Now here they were, going through the same motions, but how different the outcome.
How horribly different!
The pain was unbearable.
“Have you got the ring?” Anthony demanded.
“Of course I have it.”
“Good. I don’t want anything to go wrong. That would be disrespectful to Verna. She is a very particular young woman, likes everything to be ‘just so’. And I aim to please her in every respect – not that I think she’ll have any complaints.”
He said the last words with a lascivious leer that made Michael want to kill him – the thought of his darling helpless in the hands of this swine was more than he could bear.
Watching Michael as she neared him, Verna saw everything – his pain, his defiance, his bewilderment that their love had come to this.
She had no doubt that the years ahead would be wretched. Anthony claimed to love her, but in truth he felt only desire and a kind of hate that she had resisted him.
He had been so certain that she would fall into his arms once Michael had gone and when she did not, he had become hostile.
He would force her to become his wife and then he would crush her.
Nearer and nearer she trod, her intense gaze fixed on Michael’s face, her eyes full of the message that must remain forever silent.
‘I love you – I love you – in all my life there will be no one but you – I love you – ’
Michael saw and understood all that she could not put into words. He knew that her heart cried out to him in the moment of final parting and his cried out in return.
Now she was here.
With an insufferably smug expression on his face Anthony reached for her, planted a kiss on her cheek and drew her forward to stand beside him.
The Vicar appeared ready to conduct the wedding. He smiled at the bride and groom.
But before he could say a single word, the peace of the Church was shattered by a bellow of pain and rage.
“There you are, damn you! I’ve got you at last.”
Shocked, everyone looked around for the source of the noise.
A young man was advancing down the aisle.
He was in his early twenties with a rough shabby appearance and several days’ growth of beard.
But what held everyone frozen with horror was the gun in his hands.
Some of the guests began to step forward, meaning to stop him, but the sight of the gun made them pause, then fall back.
“You!”
The man stopped in front of Anthony.
“You thought you could get away from me. I’ve seen you slithering and sliding away, desperate not to let me see you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Anthony responded in a voice with a slightly hysterical edge. “Who are you, fellow? I don’t know you.”
“Oh, you know me all right! You’ve been running away from me for weeks, ever since I found out what you did to my poor Maria. Or are you going to pretend you’ve never heard of her too?”
Anthony made one further attempt at lofty scorn.
“I really cannot be expected to recall the name of every servant girl – ”
He stopped as the man came closer and waved the gun in his face.
“Every servant girl you’ve seduced?”
“I – I – ”
“Let’s see if I can refresh your memory – I’m Frank Buller that used to work in your stables. Maria was my promised bride till you set eyes on her. After that she was lost. Do you think I don’t know all you did to dazzle the poor sweet girl until you’d lured her into your bed?”
There was a low murmur of consternation from the congregation.
Anthony’s face became puce.
“This is all a perverse wicked lie,” he blustered. “I know nothing of this woman – ”
“You left her with child,” Buller screamed. “And then you disowned her. She begged you for help, but you abandoned her so that she ran away to hide her shame.
“I searched for her high and low, and at last I found her alone, starving, about to give birth. She bore your child, but it was dead and an hour later she too died in my arms.
“I promised her I would find the bastard who did this to her and make him pay for all his wickedness. And that’s what I’m here to do!”
He advanced on Anthony who had gone very pale.
“You must be mad,” he choked, “thinking you can turn up here on my wedding day – ”
“Your wedding day,” snarled Buller. “You should have made an honest woman of my Maria – ”
Anthony was rash enough to let a sneer overtake his face.
Buller saw it and started forward.
“You killed her,” he shrieked madly. “You tricked her into your bed with false promises and threw her away when you had no further use for her!”
“She was m-mad,” Anthony stammered. “Thinking a gentleman in my p-position could m-marry her. She was out of her mind to imagine it.”
“Oh, poor soul,” whispered Verna, burying her face in her hands. “Poor soul. Was there nobody to help her?”
“She was well paid,” Anthony yelped. “She should have known her place. You cannot blame me.”
“She loved you!” shrieked Buller. “She died loving you and I held her body in my arm
s and vowed to avenge her. And that’s what I’m going to do!”
He cried aloud to the Heavens.
“I do this for you, Maria.”
At that moment life returned to Michael’s limbs.
Until then he had stood frozen with horror barely able to take in what was happening.
But, when he saw the gun aimed at Anthony, every thought left him except that this was his brother.
Barely knowing what he did, he launched himself forward, knocking Anthony to the ground and out of the way of the shot.
There were screams from the congregation as a shot rang out, but he barely heard them.
A sword of fire pierced his shoulder, torturing him with pain and making him groan.
He could now feel Anthony moving beneath him, shoving him brutally aside so that more pain savaged him.
From somewhere came Buller’s cry,
“Don’t think you can escape me – ”
Then another blast split the air and there was more screaming as Anthony’s body crashed to earth beside him.
Verna dropped to her knees, sobbing,
“Oh, my love – my love – ” reaching out to the man who lay there bleeding.
A murmur of horror ran around the Church.
Most of the congregation thought how terrible for her that Verna should witness her groom lying beside her covered in blood.
But the more observant amongst them noticed that the man she was cradling in her arms was not her groom, but his brother.
*
Michael’s shoulder pounded with agony.
The doctor’s words were reassuring,
“Only a flesh wound – no permanent damage.”
But the pain hammered on and on, until eventually a large dose of morphine took effect and he could sleep.
When he woke many hours later, he could only just make out Verna leaning over him.
She had changed from her wedding dress and into a sober gown of grey and her face was terribly pale.
But she was still beautiful, he thought hazily.
“Thank God you are now awake,” she murmured ardently. “I’ve been so afraid you would die – ”
“He isn’t going to die,” came the doctor’s voice. “I keep promising you that. I’ll call again tomorrow.”
He left the room and Verna and Michael looked at each other.
“Anthony?” he groaned.
“Anthony is dead. Buller fired again – and it went straight through his heart.”
They were silent, holding hands.
“You tried to save him,” she whispered.
“He is my brother.”
“And you are the most generous man in the world,” she sighed in a wondering voice. “After everything he did to you – ”
“I know. But I couldn’t just stand aside and let him die.”
He slept for a while and when he woke up, his sister Jane was sitting on his bed.
“Ask Verna to come and see me,” he murmured.
“She isn’t here, Michael. She’s returned to her own home, but she says she will be back later.”
“Her home? But isn’t this –? No – wait.”
“Everything was prepared for her to become the Mistress of this house,” Jane answered, “but Anthony died before the wedding could take place.”
She was looking at him significantly, but his brain was still cloudy and he could not be sure what she meant.
*
Verna looked up as a middle-aged man with a tired look entered the drawing room of Challoner Abbey.
“Mr. Tanway,” she said, smiling as she recognised the family lawyer. “Have you come to see my father?”
“No, I need to speak to you,” he replied in his reedy voice. “I am afraid I have bad news for you.”
Her heart sank into her boots, but she maintained a calm appearance as she led him into the drawing room.
“Please tell me the worst, Mr. Tanway. What has happened?”
“The worst news is that you were very nearly a rich widow. Anthony’s death was a tragedy, of course – ” he did not sound as if he considered it at all sad, “but if only he had died a few minutes later, you would have been his wife and inherited his considerable wealth.
“As it is, the Reverend Elvan is adamant that the marriage ceremony had not even begun, which means that Mr. Belmont died a bachelor and his wealth will be now inherited by that no-good brother of his.”
“Do you mean Michael – Lord Belmont?” Verna asked in a strangled voice.
“That’s him. All the good work I did, negotiating a will that would have left you very rich, all came to nothing because he died too soon. You were not married and he was not due to sign his new will until after the ceremony.”
“Are you certain that Michael is his heir?”
“Oh, yes,” he sighed. “Anthony never made a previous will, and, as his elder brother, Lord Belmont is his next of kin. He gets everything.”
He gave a melancholy lawyerly sigh.
Verna could tell that Mr. Tanway had completely misunderstood her. He thought she was pining for the loss of money, whereas she was ecstatic that Michael would at last inherit what was rightfully his.
And in some secret place, deep within herself, she was full of joy that the marriage had never taken place.
A man could not marry his brother’s widow – that was against the law. And if she had been Anthony’s wife, she could never be Michael’s.
Now that shadow was lifted from her.
Lord Challoner came in a few minutes later to find Verna ready to leave.
“I’m going, Papa,” she said. “I’ll stay with Michael while he is ill, then I will marry him, if he will have me. Please don’t oppose me as I shall not obey you.”
But her father had no intention of opposing her. He too had spoken to the lawyer and knew that Michael was now an extremely rich man as well as the Earl.
His attitude had adjusted to the changed situation.
“I’ll drive you there myself, my dear,” he beamed.
Winifred insisted on coming too, sitting in the back like a protective dragon, as she had so often done before.
But this time the dragon was firmly on Michael’s side. Just let anyone try to come between him and Verna. They would have Winifred to deal with!
At Belmont Park Michael’s sisters were crowded at the front door to welcome Verna.
“We were so afraid you wouldn’t come back,” cried Jane. “You won’t go away again, will you?”
“No, I have come to stay,” Verna replied firmly. “This time I am not risking anything going wrong. Will you take me to him?”
Michael heard the sound of voices coming up the stairs and struggled up in his bed.
‘Verna,’ he muttered, ‘I must see her.’
The next moment his bedroom door burst open and Verna ran in, arms open wide to embrace him. He reached for her and they fell back on the bed together.
“Is it you?” he whispered. “Are you really here?”
“Yes, my dear beloved. I am here and I am going to stay here with you forever and ever. We are going to be married and nothing is going to stand in our way.”
“Is Anthony really dead or did I dream it?”
“Yes, Buller killed him and then he killed himself. It’s all over now.”
“Ratby – ” Michael queried suddenly.
“Nobody has seen him. He must have run away.”
“Very wise of him.”
“The lawyer says that you are now Anthony’s heir,” Verna told him, “and as I was never his wife, there can be no impediment to my becoming yours.”
He stared at her in horror, as he finally understood the danger they had narrowly escaped.
“A few minutes later and we would not have been able to marry – ever,” he mumbled.
“Yes. But now we can. Oh, Michael, I am so glad you have your rightful inheritance, but I would marry you without a penny. I care nothing for money, only for you.”
&nb
sp; “I should have married you all those months ago, Verna, when you were so brave and strong. You were so right and I should have listened.”
“Yes, you should. And in future I’m going to make sure that you always listen to me!”
He gave a faint smile.
“Am I going to live under the cat’s paw?”
“Under all four of them. Your wife will bully you, and order you around and remind you constantly that she knows best!”
“And will she kiss me and love me?”
“All the time!”
“That’s all right then. She can bully me as much as she likes as long as she is there holding me all night.”
“Oh, my love, I am a shameless creature,” Verna exclaimed, half laughing, half weeping. “Look at me lying here with you. I am so compromised, but I don’t care if it means you have to marry me.”
“Nothing will stop me,” he vowed. “Must we wait a decent interval?”
She shook her head.
“No, we will take no chances. Nothing matters but to be together. If people want to gossip, let them gossip, as long as you are mine and I am yours.”
“You are right,” he muttered, closing his eyes and resting his head against her.
“You are mine and I am yours. And thank God for His boundless goodness in bringing us together at last. It is love, Michael, love Eternal for ever and ever.”
*
Anthony was buried during the following week and the wedding took place a month later.
The Church was crammed with their relatives and friends. And there in a place of honour was Henry and his family, thrilled at the marriage of ‘their’ Michael.
For the newly rich Earl had no wish to sever his ties with Liverpool. On the contrary, he had invested generously in the business, enabling Henry to branch out with a fourth store.
Henry nearly burst with pride.
Business partner to an Earl! Just wait until his rivals heard about it!
But although all eyes were fixed on them, the bride and groom had no eyes for anyone but each other.
As they came together at the altar, the world around them vanished.
Only their love mattered, the undying love that had sustained them through so many trials and tribulations.
And would continue to strengthen them and bring them endless joy through the years ahead.
It Is Love Page 14