Ivana stiffened but she did not speak.
“You mean – prison!”
“You must be aware that anyone who steals above the value of one shilling is liable to be hanged?”
Ivana did not move or speak. Only her eyes widened until they seemed to fill her whole face.
“Is that what you – intend shall – happen to me?” she whispered after a moment’s silence.
The Marquis did not reply and she said proudly,
“I have no defence. All I can ask is that if I die you will – exonerate Marky from his part in what I have done and look after my old nurse – because she too has – spent her – life-savings.”
“Can you think of any reason why I should?” the Marquis asked, “after the way you have treated me?”
“Does it mean nothing to you that you have been instrumental in saving the lives of at least fifty men who would otherwise have died and preventing a much larger number of others from turning to a life of crime?”
“You are very plausible in your own defence.”
“I have already told you that I am not thinking of myself,” Ivana retorted. “But if you will save Marky I will do anything – anything you ask of me.”
“Anything?” the Marquis enquired with a twist of his lips.
“1 swear to you that is true by – everything I hold – sacred.”
“Very well – ” the Marquis began.
He would have said more, but at that moment the door of the library opened and Anthony came into the room.
“Look out, Justin!” he said in a low warning voice.
Then, as the Marquis looked at him with astonishment, behind him came a vision in the shape of Lady Rose.
She was wearing one of the new muslins that ladies of fashion dampened so that it clung to their figures and made it appear as if they were partially naked.
As if to compensate for her body being so lightly clad, Lady Rose wore on her head a bonnet with a large turned-up brim and a high crown that was massed with pink ostrich feathers. Round her throat was a necklace of turquoises and diamonds while the same stones glittered beneath her fair hair in her shell-like ears.
She looked sensational and breathtakingly beautiful.
She stood for a moment in the doorway as if to give the Marquis the chance of admiring her. Then with a little cry of joy she ran towards him.
“Justin, dearest! I have found you!” she exclaimed. “How could you leave in that unkind and cruel fashion? I have been distraught, absolutely distraught, wondering where you could be, then – ”
“I told her where you could be hiding”, a deep plummy voice announced and following her into the room came the Prince Regent!
He was obviously in one of his merry good humours.
Ivana, who had never seen him before, stared with undisguised interest at his laughing eyes and pouting lips.
He was tall but over-fat, his clothes fitted him like a glove and around his throat was a huge white cravat with many folds out of which she thought his chin seemed almost to be struggling to emerge.
The whole impression he gave was one of stylish elegance and he had an unmistakable presence that told her that even in a crowd she would have known that he was of Royal blood.
The Marquis, who had risen automatically to his feet as Lady Rose spoke to him, now moved forward hastily to bow and take the hand the Prince held out to him.
“This is a great surprise, Sire!”
“I thought it would be,” the Prince said with a chuckle. “But when Lady Rose cried on my shoulder and complained that she could not find you, I guessed where you had run to earth.”
“You were right, Sire,” the Marquis said.
“And Justin,” Lady Rose cried, as if determined to keep herself in the picture, “I have told His Royal Highness our little secret.”
The Marquis stiffened.
“Secret?” he enquired.
“Of course, dearest. I knew you would wish to tell him yourself, but it just slipped out when I was so unhappy.”
“I must congratulate you, Justin,” the Prince said, “congratulate you most sincerely. You will have the loveliest wife in England, just as you have the finest horses.”
For a moment the Marquis seemed stunned. Then he knew with a sudden fury that seemed to rise up inside him like an explosive bomb, that he had been tricked.
Rose had won! Rose had him exactly where she wanted him and there was nothing he could do about it.
He thought despairingly that he was cornered, caught, captured and snared by a woman who had been cleverer than he was.
Then a movement behind him made him remember Ivana.
He realised that she was tactfully backing away towards the window, obviously intending to leave as she had arrived.
It was then an idea came to him, an idea that seemed to follow naturally on the last words she had spoken when she had sworn a sacred oath that she would do anything – anything he asked of her.
There was a note in his voice that Anthony thought sounded like one of triumph as he said,
“One minute! I fear there has been some mistake and I cannot imagine quite how it has occurred.”
“Mistake?” Lady Rose asked.
Now there was a wary look in her eyes, which told the Marquis, if he had not known it before, that all her effusiveness had been well planned so that he should be aware that he was trapped and that there was no escape.
“Yes, indeed,” the Marquis said.
He walked towards Ivana and took her by the hand, pulling her forward so that they stood side by side in front of the Prince.
“May I, Sire,” he asked, “present my wife who was the daughter of Captain Wadebridge who died a hero’s death at the Battle of the Nile.”
As the Marquis spoke, he tightened his fingers on Ivana’s hand, telling her without words what he asked of her.
Just for a moment it seemed as if everybody in the room was frozen into immobility. Then the Prince Regent with a laugh exclaimed,
“You always manage to surprise me, Justin! It is one of the things I most enjoy about you. I never guessed, I never anticipated for one moment that you might spring a secret marriage on me! But, of course, I congratulate you and wish your bride every possible happiness.”
He took Ivana’s hand as she rose from a deep curtsey and, as he looked at her, he said,
“Now I see you, I understand how the elusive Marquis has been persuaded to relinquish his heart into your keeping.”
The Prince Regent, with a grace and charm that had always proved irresistible, raised Ivana’s hand to his lips.
As he did so, Lady Rose seemed to break the inertia that had held her spellbound.
“I don’t believe it! It’s impossible!” she said to the Marquis. “How can you have married in such a short time without anybody being aware of it?”
“My best friend was with me,” the Marquis said, a smile on his lips as he indicated Anthony.
As he spoke, he saw that Lady Rose was looking searchingly at Ivana’s hand.
She saw the wedding ring and drew in her breath with what was almost a hiss.
“I will never forgive you for this, Justin!” she snarled. “Never! And one day I will get even with you!”
As if Anthony realised he must do something, he moved to her side.
“Come into the garden, Rose,” he suggested. “I want to talk to you.”
He drew her firmly towards the window as he spoke and she went with him reluctantly. Then they heard her voice, high and fretful, as Anthony escorted her from the terrace onto the lawn.
“May I offer you some refreshment, Sire?” the Marquis asked.
“I could certainly do with a glass of champagne after all these dramatics,” the Prince Regent replied. “At least, Justin, things are never monotonous when you are about!”
Before the Marquis could ring the bell for Travers, he appeared to be anticipating what would be required with trays containing glasses and other wines should
they be preferred.
In an extremely genial mood, the Prince Regent seated himself on the sofa and insisted on Ivana sitting beside him.
“Now tell me all about yourself, my dear,” he said, “for Mrs. Fitzherbert will want to know everything about your marriage to one of my dearest friends.”
“It is such a privilege to meet Your Royal Highness,” Ivana replied, “that I find it difficult to think of anything else.”
The Prince Regent was delighted, for if there was one thing he really enjoyed it was being flattered by a pretty woman.
“We cannot have met before otherwise I know I should have remembered you,” he said.
“I have heard so much about you, Sire, because I have always lived so near to Brighton,” Ivana replied, “and I know how much you have done to make the town fashionable and how everyone talks of the wonder and beauty of the Royal Pavilion.”
“Not everyone is as pleased with it as I am myself,” the Prince Regent said, “but make Justin bring you to see it as soon as you have finished your honeymoon.”
“That is extremely kind of you, Sire,” the Marquis said, “but I think we would be wise to wait until Lady Rose has left Brighton.” The Prince threw back his head and laughed.
“You certainly gave her a shock. It was my fault for telling her where you could be hiding.”
He chuckled before he added,
“To tell the truth, Justin, it was only after I had been indiscreet enough to reveal that you had a house here, that it occurred to me that the one person you did not wish to find you was Rose Caterham.”
“That was very perceptive of you, Sire,” the Marquis replied dryly.
“She was so insistent that you were engaged,” the Prince Regent went on as if he wished to excuse himself, “and now I am not looking forward to the journey back.”
“I am sorry, Sire, but if it had been possible I would have taken you into my confidence.”
“That is what I would have wished you to do.”
“I feel, Sire, that with your usual tact and diplomacy, which are unequalled,” the Marquis said, “you will be able to smooth things over one way or another and I can tell you in all truth, that I never had any intention whatever of marrying Lady Rose.”
The Prince Regent always enjoyed being taken into anyone’s confidence, especially when it was somebody like the Marquis who he always considered was rather tight-lipped where his love affairs were concerned.
“Leave it to me, dear fellow,” he promised. “I will make everything right for you.”
“I knew I could rely on you, Sire,” the Marquis said in a heartfelt tone which sounded so sincere that it would have made Anthony smile if he had been present.
The Prince Regent accepted another glass of champagne and then rose to his feet.
“I must be getting back,” he said. “Mrs. Fitzherbert will be waiting for me. As you know, there is only room in my phaeton for two.”
That was certainly true of anybody as fat as His Royal Highness.
The Marquis, glad to be rid of them, hurried to the terrace to beckon to Anthony, who was listening to a long monologue from an infuriated Lady Rose.
They came back quickly onto the terrace and Lady Rose walked past the Marquis with her head high and without speaking.
They joined the Prince Regent in the library, who was already on his feet admiring one of the ship pictures on the wall with Ivana beside him.
“Your wife has been explaining to me one of the battles her ancestors took part in,” the Prince Regent said to the Marquis. “It is very interesting, very interesting indeed. I am anxious to show her some of the Naval trophies I have at the Royal Pavilion.”
“It will be an honour, Sire,” the Marquis said.
“And I hope you will invite me over here again,” the Prince Regent remarked, “perhaps one day next week or the week after, I could bring Mrs. Fitzherbert with me?”
“We should be delighted to receive Your Royal Highness!” the Marquis declared.
The Prince Regent put out his hand to Ivana.
“My very best wishes for your future happiness,” he said, “and make no mistake, you are the prettiest Marchioness of the Veryans. Your husband must decide who would be the best artist to paint you, so that your portrait will hang in the picture gallery amongst his ancestors.”
He kissed Ivana’s hand and the Marquis said,
“I was going to ask Your Royal Highness’s advice on that very subject just as soon as I had the opportunity.”
Lady Rose had already stalked out of the library.
Now the Prince Regent followed with the Marquis beside him, discussing as he went, the merits of the different portrait painters on whom he was an acknowledged expert.
Anthony stayed behind for a second to say to Ivana in a low voice, ‘well done!’ before he followed the Prince Regent and the Marquis into the hall.
She stood for a moment staring after them and then she put her hands up to her face.
It seemed almost incredible that so much had happened in such a very short space of time, she had confronted the Marquis, he had threatened her with being hanged for the theft of his possessions, then with the arrival of the most fantastically beautiful woman she had ever seen in her life, she had apparently saved him from an unwelcome engagement.
It seemed extraordinary to Ivana that anyone could not wish to marry a woman as beautiful as Lady Rose.
At the same time she did not miss the spiteful manner in which she had spoken to the Marquis or the way she had ignored him when she left.
He had extricated himself from a very difficult situation only by lying and she wondered what he intended to do in the future, when he would be required to produce a wife who did not, in fact, exist.
She thought the best thing she could do would be to go back to Flagstaff Manor.
She was still desperately afraid that he might dismiss Mr. Markham as he had said he would. Then she told herself that, however incensed he might be with her, she had at least done Marky a good turn.
She could not believe in the circumstances they were in at the moment, he would be so unjust as to dismiss his agent before discussing it with her further.
‘But we cannot go on arguing about it now,’ she thought in a sudden panic.
Thinking she heard voices returning to the library, she ran through the open window back towards the stables, where she had left the pony trap in which she had journeyed to Heathcliffe.
*
The Marquis was not, as it happened, very surprised when he came back into the library to find Ivana gone. He had anticipated that she would run away.
He walked to where the drinks had been put down on a side table and poured himself a glass of champagne.
Anthony followed him into the room and closed the door behind him.
“What the devil is all this about?” he asked. “I realise that you have saved yourself at Ivana’s expense, but what was she doing here in the first place?”
“She came to explain to me what had been going on,” the Marquis said, a note of satisfaction in his voice, “and I now know the whole story! It might be a melodrama straight from Drury Lane.”
Anthony helped himself to a glass of champagne.
“If you had listened to the way Rose was ranting, you would be wary of every dark corner for fear of a dagger in your back!” he said.
“I thought that I was extremely clever to escape the trap she set for me,” the Marquis replied. “For one moment I thought I was doomed!”
“I thought the same thing,” Anthony admitted. “But what is Ivana going to say? It must have been more than a surprise to her!”
“She had sworn to do anything I asked of her,” the Marquis replied, “to save Markham from being dismissed.”
“You are not telling me that I owe you fifty pounds?” Anthony enquired.
“I certainly am,” the Marquis replied. “She was the highwayman and she had stolen the snuffboxes long before the night we arrive
d and only held us up to ransom so that she could save Markham from the dire consequences of his collaboration with her.”
“If you think I understand a word of all that,” Anthony said, “you can start again from the beginning.”
The Marquis sat down, his glass in his hand, and told Anthony exactly what Ivana had told him.
As he finished, Anthony exclaimed,
“It is the finest and most magnificent thing I have ever heard in my life! She ought to get a medal for what she has done and it certainly ought to show up the Government for the criminal manner they are treating our wounded.”
“That is all very well,” the Marquis remarked, “but the person who has paid for all this generosity is me!”
“You can well afford it! Heavens – what a woman she is! Can you imagine Rose or Lucy or any of the other frivolous idiots we know caring a damn for men starving on the doorstep or bleeding from a gunshot wound?”
He laughed as he added,
“If they so much as prick a finger they swoon at the sight of blood! I hope, Justin, you told Ivana how much you admired her.”
“I told her I was considering whether I would have her hanged!”
“What did you say?” Anthony exclaimed. Then he added, “I know you are joking!”
“No. That is what I actually said.”
“Why?”
“I thought it would do her no harm to be a little frightened of the consequences of her actions.”
“Do you mean to tell me that you let her go home thinking you might have her strung from a gibbet or taken to Tyburn Hill?”
“We had not really finished our conversation.”
“Then the sooner you go to Flagstaff Manor and do so, the better!”
“Wait a minute!” The Marquis said. “You are moving too fast. We have both been made to look stupid fools by women, especially by Ivana. Does that mean nothing to you?”
“It’s not a story I would wish to regale the Prince Regent with or tell at White’s,” Anthony replied. “All I can say is that Wadebridge is fortunate enough to have a wife in a million.”
There was silence and then the Marquis burst out,
“Of course – Wadebridge! I had forgotten about him!”
CHAPTER SIX
65 A Heart Is Stolen Page 11