“I have never dreamt of such a thing, but of course, young man, I am delighted, absolutely delighted for you to marry Janeta.”
The Duke inwardly gave a sigh of relief and began to eat his breakfast with relish.
“I have, of course,” Lord Brandon was saying, “hoped that Janeta would make a good marriage, but I never dreamt, it never entered my mind, that she would marry you. As I have said, I have not seen much of her during the last years, but my first wife was a very lovely woman and Janeta resembles her.”
The Duke was finishing his coffee when the door of the dining room opened and to his astonishment Olive came in.
If he was surprised, so was Lord Brandon.
“My dear!” he exclaimed. “You are up very early.”
“I heard you had a visitor,” Olive replied, “which was definitely a surprise.”
The questioning way in which she spoke told the Duke she was suspicious that something was going on behind her back and that she was determined to find out what it was.
His experience of women also told him that she had dressed in a great hurry, for her hair, instead of being arranged in the usual elaborate fashion, was caught back into a bun at the back of her head.
Nevertheless, with her green eyes glinting against her magnolia skin, she looked exceedingly beautiful, but also as dangerous as a cobra.
Now, as if she was determined to get to the point, she said to the Duke,
“What brings Your Grace here so early in the morning?”
“Wynchester has come with good news, Olive,” Lord Brandon interrupted before the Duke could reply. “I know that you will be as surprised as I am, but he tells me he and Janeta wish to be married and he has asked my permission, which, of course, I have given him, to announce their engagement.”
The Duke watched Olive’s reaction to this announcement with some anxiety.
He saw her body grow tense and, as she drew in her breath, he thought for one terrifying moment that she was going to scream out the truth that he was her lover.
Then her eyes narrowed and almost as if he could see her brain working, he knew that she was thinking swiftly of how she could prevent him from marrying her stepdaughter and was utterly and completely determined to do so.
“I knew you would be pleased, my dear,” Lord Brandon was saying. “In fact before I went away you were insistent that Janeta, having returned from abroad, should be married. I thought myself it was too soon, but, of course, Wynchester has changed my mind.”
Olive drew in her breath again and then she said slowly but distinctly so that the words seemed to ring out around the room,
“What a pity! What a terrible pity it is that His Grace is too late!”
“What do you mean, too late?” Lord Brandon asked sharply.
“I was going to tell you, darling,” Olive said, “but there has been no time since your return, that dear little Janeta and Harold Hodgson told me just after you had left for Scotland that they wished to be married and are, of course, very much in love.”
“Hodgson? Who do you mean by Hodgson?” Lord Brandon asked. “Not that chap who lives near us at home?”
“Yes, of course. You know Major Hodgson, such a nice man and completely infatuated with your daughter.”
“But he is old, much too old,” Lord Brandon said, “and besides – ”
“He is younger than you, darling,” Olive said sweetly, “and no one could call you an old man. And I thought that someone a little older than herself would look after Janeta and prevent her from making the mistakes that so many young girls make without a man to guide and protect them.”
“Well, I have told Wynchester that he can marry her and that is that,” Lord Brandon said.
The Duke, who had been holding his breath, felt himself relax.
Then Olive, in a coaxing voice he knew so well, said, leaning towards her husband,
“Oh, but darling, I am afraid in your absence that I gave my permission to Major Hodgson and, of course, to dear Janeta, that they should be engaged.”
“It is for me to do that,” Lord Brandon said gruffly.
“I never dreamt, I never thought for a moment that you would not wish your daughter to be happy,” Olive said, “and they were so insistent that they were in love and you have always trusted me in affairs of the heart.”
“That is all very well – ” Lord Brandon began, but Olive continued,
“It is you, George dear, who taught me that an Englishman’s word is his bond and I cannot believe that you would want Janeta, having given her word that she will marry Harold Hodgson, to go back on it just because she has a better offer. It would seem very dishonourable and not worthy of your name.”
“Well, if you put it like that,” Lord Brandon began.
It was then that the Duke intervened to say,
“I think, my Lord, that Lady Brandon has misunderstood Janeta’s feelings. She told me that, although it had been suggested to her that she should marry this man Hodgson, she was horrified at the idea and in fact contemplated running away rather than have anything to do with him.”
“Is this true?” Lord Brandon asked, only to be interrupted by a shrill laugh from Olive.
“Is that what the naughty little girl told you?” she asked the Duke. “Oh, well, we must forgive her lying, for what woman, young or old, could resist the glamour and allure of becoming a Duchess?”
“I think the best thing,” Lord Brandon said heavily, “is for me to talk to Janeta. By the way where is she? I have not seen her since I came back.”
“I took her away with me,” the Duke said, “and she is at the moment staying with my grandmother in the Dower House at Wynchester.”
He saw the fury in Olive’s eyes as he spoke and then she said,
“I think you have taken a great deal upon yourself, Duke! In fact I am surprised that you did not ask my permission.”
“As a matter of fact, that is exactly what I came here today to do,” the Duke replied blandly.
“Well, I want to see Janeta and talk to her,” Lord Brandon said. “The sooner she comes home the better.”
“You are quite right, darling,” Olive agreed in a cooing voice, “but I know how punctilious you are where affairs of honour are concerned, so I think if we send for Janeta, we should also ask Major Hodgson to visit us.”
As she spoke, she reached across the table and put her hand on her husband’s.
He looked into her green eyes and was lost.
“Of course, if that is what you think is right,” he said.
“I do,” Olive said, “and I knew that you would agree with me.”
She turned towards the Duke and said,
“Would you be kind enough to have my stepdaughter conveyed here as soon as possible, perhaps this afternoon?”
“As it happens,” the Duke said slowly, “I have an engagement this afternoon that is impossible for me to cancel.”
He looked at Olive as he spoke and he knew that she thought he was referring to his promise to call on her at teatime.
“I will, however,” he went on, “bring Janeta back tomorrow morning. Shall we say by noon?”
“Yes, yes,” Lord Brandon agreed. “Noon will be soon enough and I regret, Wynchester, that things are not as plain-sailing as they seemed when you first arrived.”
The Duke rose to his feet.
“I can only hope,” he said, walking around the table to hold out his hand to Lord Brandon, “that you and your wife will sort things out and decide to make me a very happy man.”
“I hope so too,” Lord Brandon answered.
At the same time he gave a sidelong glance at Olive that told the Duke without words that once they were alone she would get her way.
He bowed to her, saying,
“Goodbye, Lady Brandon, I shall look forward to our meeting.”
He knew as he spoke that she was assuming he was again referring to their meeting that afternoon and there was a little smile of triumph on her lips a
s she watched him walk towards the door and let himself out.
The Duke climbed into his carriage, which was waiting outside and gave the coachman directions to where he wanted to go.
Then, as the horses drove off, he told himself that, after he had seen Olive’s behaviour that morning, he would fight to the death rather than have her for his wife.
Chapter four
The Duke did not arrive back at the Dower House until after nine o’clock.
As his grandmother dined very early and usually in her room, he was afraid that Janeta might have gone to bed.
As he stepped down from his phaeton, his highly polished hessian boots slightly dusty, he said to the old butler,
“Is Miss Scott still up?”
“She’s in the drawing room, Your Grace, and we’ve all been worried in case Your Grace’d had an accident.”
The Duke smiled.
“No, Jackson,” he answered, “it was nothing like that and I have arrived home safe and sound.”
“That’s good news, Your Grace,” Jackson said, who had known him since a boy.
He was leading the way across the hall as he spoke, moving very slowly because he suffered from rheumatism.
The Duke followed him until they reached the door of the drawing room and then he walked in without waiting to be announced.
Janeta was seated on the sofa with a book in her hands, but, as he entered, the Duke was aware perceptively that she was not reading it, but staring sightlessly across the room with the frightened expression in her eyes that he now knew so well.
She turned her head as he entered and, when she saw who it was, she jumped up and ran towards him.
“You are back!” she cried. “I have been so – worried – so desperately – worried in case – something had happened.”
The pauses between the words told the Duke what she was thinking and he said quietly,
“I am sorry you have been worried.”
“And your grandmother – was worried too,” Janeta said. “She was sure because you were so late that you must have had an – accident, but I thought that was unlikely, seeing how well you drive.”
It was not really a compliment and the Duke knew that she was wondering feverishly how Olive could have delayed him so much longer than he had intended and, if in fact, he was bringing her bad news.
Her eyes searched his face and he said again in a quiet voice,
“Come and sit down, Janeta, I want to talk to you.”
She obeyed him and he had the feeling that, although she was outwardly composed, she was trembling inside.
The Duke was just about to speak when Jackson came into the room followed by a footman carrying a tray on which there was a bottle of champagne and a plate of sandwiches.
“I thinks Your Grace’d need something after that long drive,” Jackson said, “and I suspect Your Grace hasn’t had any dinner.”
Janeta gave a little cry.
“No dinner? Then you must have something at once.”
“I am not hungry,” the Duke said. “But I see, Jackson, you have thought of me as you did when I was a boy and you used to spoil me with titbits from the dining room table after the guests had finished.”
“You needs something more substantial than a sandwich, Your Grace,” Jackson said firmly. “Chef’ll have something ready in half an hour.”
“Very well,” the Duke said good-humouredly, “if you insist?”
He took a glass of champagne that had been poured out for him and the footman put the plate of sandwiches down on a small table beside him.
Then, as the servants withdrew, he said to Janeta,
“You see I am well looked after in my grandmother’s house.”
“They all love you,” Janeta said with a little throb in her voice. “That is why I know why they could not bear anything – wrong to – happen to you.”
The Duke drank half of his glass of champagne and put it down beside him.
Then he said,
“Because the people in this house feel like this, Janeta, we have to save them from what I know will be to them an utter and complete disaster.”
Her eyes were on his, but she did not interrupt and the Duke went on,
“I will explain what has happened from the beginning and then I hope that you will still want to help me.”
“Of course I will!” Janeta said impulsively and then subsided into silence.
The Duke told her how he had arrived while her father was having breakfast and how Lord Brandon had been delighted when he said that they wished to be married.
“I was just thinking,” he went on, “we were out of the woods, when your stepmother came into the breakfast room.”
Janeta stiffened.
“So early,” she murmured.
“She had heard that I was in the house and was, of course, curious to find out what I wanted.”
“What – did she – say?”
There was no doubt now there was fear again in Janeta’s voice.
“She said,” the Duke began slowly, “that in your father’s absence she had given her consent to your marriage to Major Hodgson because you were both so much in love and it would be impossible for you to behave so dishonourably as to change your mind because you wished to be a Duchess.”
He told Janeta the truth because he thought that it was best for her to know what they were up against and he was not surprised when she gave a cry like that of a small animal in pain.
Then she sprang to her feet, saying,
“I knew Stepmama would not let – me go. The only thing – I can do – is to disappear as I wished to in the – first place. Hide me! Please – hide me where she – cannot find me.”
She stood in front of him and the Duke could see that her whole body was convulsed with fear.
Her eyes went from him towards the window as if she thought that by running out into the night it would be possible for her to escape.
The Duke was silent for what seemed a long time before he said,
“If you do that and even if I helped you to hide where your stepmother could not find you, that would still leave me unprotected and caught in the trap she has set for me.”
The way he spoke made Janeta stare at him and slowly, almost as if she did so against her will, she sat down again on the sofa.
“I have not told you before because I thought it unnecessary,” the Duke said, “but now I want you to listen to the truth. Your stepmother has made up her mind to marry me and she intends to tell your father to divorce her, citing me as the co-respondent.”
He spoke quite unemotionally, but as he expected, Janeta stared at him as if she could hardly believe what she was hearing and then her eyes dropped before his and she said incoherently,
“I – somehow thought – she might be – threatening you, but – not like that.”
She drew in her breath and then went on,
“How can she be – so cruel to Papa – when he loves – her and trusts her?”
The Duke did not speak and after a moment, as if she was working it out for herself, Janeta said,
“Then if Papa – divorces her, does that mean that – you will – marry her?”
“To behave honourably and as a gentleman, I shall be forced to do so,” the Duke said. “But let me say, Janeta, that now I understand what your stepmother is like and I realise that beneath her beautiful face she has the heart and soul of the devil. So I feel like saying that I would rather die than make her my wife!”
“I – understand,” Janeta said, “and, as I feel the same about Major Hodgson, what can – we do? Please tell me what we can do!”
“I have thought it out very carefully,” the Duke replied, “and there is only one way that we can save ourselves, although I am almost afraid to suggest it to you.”
“If I can save you and myself, I will do anything – anything.”
She gave a little shudder, which seemed to shake her whole body, before she added,
“How
could I – marry a man like – Major Hodgson, and not go – mad with the – horror of it? How could you marry Stepmama and hurt all the people who believe in you?”
“Exactly,” the Duke said, “and therefore we have to take what may seem to you a rather drastic step. But, as you have already said, anything is preferable to the fate that your stepmother has planned for you.”
There was a little pause before Janeta said in a very small voice,
“What do – we have – to do?”
“We have to be married at once,” the Duke said quietly.
“Married?”
He knew as she spoke that this was something that had never occurred to her and for a second she could not comprehend that he meant it.
“Why? How?” she faltered and he went on,
“You must see it is the only possible solution and I have made every arrangement. We shall be married first thing tomorrow morning and then leave immediately for Paris, where we will spend our honeymoon.”
He paused before he continued,
“There will be nothing your father can do once the wedding has taken place and by the time we return both he and your stepmother will have to accept the inevitable.”
“But – but,” Janeta murmured, “you – don’t – want to – marry me.”
“I don’t think that either of us wish to be married,” the Duke said, “especially in such unpleasant circumstances, but there is no alternative. I had actually been compelled to arrange with your father and stepmother that I would take you back to Brandon House tomorrow at noon.”
Janeta gave a little gasp and he went on,
“When I left, your stepmother was arranging for Major Hodgson to come as well, so that your father could speak to you both.”
His voice deepened as he went on,
“But I am absolutely convinced that however eloquently you might explain your dislike of him, your stepmother would overrule your father and make him give, as she swore she already had, his blessing to your marriage.”
Janeta closed her eyes before she said,
“She can always – twist Papa into saying and believing – anything she wants.”
The Love Trap Page 6