His lips twitched. ‘The idea of wearing you out is rather exciting.’
‘Be serious. Think! You do not see yourself, after marriage, spending any amount of time in your wife’s company.’
‘Ah, but the Armitage girls are already legends. Your sisters’ husbands barely stray from home.’
‘My sisters are so very beautiful,’ said Diana wistfully.
‘You are fishing for compliments. I have already said that I find you beautiful.’
‘Lord Dantrey, compliments roll so easily from your tongue that I can only come to the conclusion you have had a great deal of practice.’
‘Oh, yes.’
Diana’s face fell ludicrously.
‘On the other hand, I meant what I said to you.’ He put his hand on his heart and leaned towards her. ‘I would that you would gaze at me as fixedly as you are gazing at your plate.’
She raised her eyes to his. She felt dizzy with the amount of wine she had drunk. In fact, she must have had too much to drink since his intent green and gold gaze was the only fixed point in a spinning room.
‘Diana,’ he said with a slight break in his voice. ‘You …’
‘Lord Dantrey!’ Mrs Carter stood behind them. ‘I am delighted to see you grace our little country affair.’
He rose to his feet. ‘May I present Miss Diana Armitage. Mrs Carter, Miss Armitage, Miss Armitage, Mrs Ca—’
‘We have met,’ said Mrs Carter, flashing a wintry smile at Diana. ‘I am surprised to notice that your recent sad loss does not prevent you from dancing, Miss Armitage. You are young and have no one to guide you, so I suppose it is understandable that you do not realize one must observe the conventions in the country as much as in town.’
‘I obtained permission to ask Miss Armitage to dance,’ said Lord Dantrey, ‘from the Master of Ceremonies. Many of the local people wish Miss Armitage well and are happy to see her enjoying herself.’
Mrs Carter bit her lip in vexation. She had found that the ladies of the county’s initial jealousy of Diana’s seeming capture of Lord Dantrey had been quickly replaced by admiration. The local belles merely shrugged and said good-naturedly that no one had ever been a match for the Armitage girls.
She contented herself with a little bow by way of response and then turned back to Lord Dantrey, all flashing eyes and teeth. ‘My little Ann enjoyed her drive with you t’other day prodigiously.’
‘The pleasure was all mine, I assure you, Mrs Carter.’
‘I must send you a card. I have quite a little salon. We have cards and music.’
‘Unfortunately, my duties keep me at home, Mrs Carter.’
‘Ah, we will see if Ann cannot persuade you otherwise.’ Mrs Carter made an urgent beckoning motion with her hand behind her back and Ann came up on the arm of her officer.
Ann edged in against the table so that she was standing with her back to Diana and facing Lord Dantrey. Lord Dantrey should have noticed this piece of rudeness, should have commented on it, thought Diana, but he was smiling down at Ann with a caressing look in his eyes. People were going back into the ballroom and the supper room was nearly empty. Diana saw Mr Emberton standing at the end of the room, watching her.
She slid out of her seat and went up to him, not aware that Lord Dantrey had stiffened, not aware that gentleman was watching her every move over the top of Ann’s golden head.
Mr Emberton decided the best policy was to avoid all mention of Lord Dantrey’s name. He now realized he had little hope of attracting Ann Carter, not with Lord Dantrey and her ambitious mother around. He knew Ann was already regretting spending so much time with him. So back to plan one – Diana Armitage.
‘You are in looks tonight, Miss Diana,’ he said with that cheerful manner of his which never failed to put her at ease. ‘Now that I have you to myself, may I beg the next dance?’
Diana smiled at him brilliantly. What a contrast he was to Lord Dantrey! And who cared about Lord Dantrey anyway? Let him flirt and flatter silly misses like Ann Carter. She was welcome to him.
But somehow Diana found she could not dance with Mr Emberton. That magic which had guided her steps through the waltz had mysteriously disappeared and her old clumsiness had returned.
‘I am a dreadful dancer, Mr Emberton,’ she said ruefully. ‘Pray let us sit down for a little. I would like something to drink. I am so very thirsty. A glass of lemonade would be very welcome.’
‘Lemonade it is,’ said Mr Emberton cheerfully. ‘Now sit there, Miss Diana, until I return. I shall not be gone long for I do not wish to battle with any of your suitors when I return.’
He decided to get Diana a little something stronger to drink. He poured out a glass of lemonade and added a large measure of arak to it.
‘It’s a sort of liquorice-flavoured lemonade,’ he said on his return. ‘Very refreshing.’
Diana took a large gulp and choked. ‘It tastes very odd.’
‘But very cooling,’ he said. ‘Was that your father’s carriage I saw as I arrived? The old-fashioned thing with the great yellow wheels?’
‘That is our travelling carriage,’ smiled Diana. ‘I fear it is very antiquated. Papa’s racing curricle, on the other hand, is bang up to the mark.’
Mr Emberton was turning a plot over in his head. He was beginning to think out a way to turn this so far unsuccessful evening to his advantage.
He realized she was asking him about that wretched elopement and why he had fled without even speaking to her.
He did not want to confess himself afraid of Dantrey so he said seriously, ‘I regretted my rash act, Miss Diana. All at once I thought of all the shame and disgrace into which you would be falling by eloping with me. I could not go on with it.
‘When I found you were not to be married, I felt such relief. Now I can court the lady as befits her station, that is what I thought. Of course, had you been pressed into an unsuitable marriage, I would have snatched you away from the altar if necessary! But then, there was the sad loss of your mother. I wanted to comfort you, to at least write, but I was afraid I had lost you. My behaviour seems so clumsy now. Please forgive me.’
But he was unable to hear whether Diana forgave him or not for the officer who had been dancing with Ann came up to beg Diana’s hand for the next dance. Feeling a surge of confidence because of the effects of the arak in her lemonade and being urged to accept by Mr Emberton who had plans of his own for the next few minutes, Diana rose confidently to her feet and found that this time she was able to dance with ease and even pretend to be enjoying the officer’s company, particularly when she danced anywhere near Lord Dantrey.
Lord Dantrey watched Mr Emberton leaving the ballroom and wondered idly where he was going. He decided to take his own leave. He was suddenly weary of the noise and the heat of the ballroom, and if Diana Armitage was hell-bent on throwing herself away on a card sharp, then who was he to stop her?
EIGHT
Very few guests ever left an assembly at the Cock and Feathers until after the very last dance and so the stable staff were all taking their ease in the tap.
Lord Dantrey wondered whether to summon the landlord to find an ostler for him and then decided to walk to the stables and fetch his carriage himself. He had driven himself to the ball and had not even taken a groom, the roads of Berham county being safe from highwaymen and footpads. It was then he saw Mr Emberton gliding stealthily into the darkness of the stables. Lord Dantrey quietly followed him, wondering what he was up to.
A glow of light flickered as Mr Emberton lit an oil lamp and hung it on the stable wall. Lord Dantrey drew back into the shadows.
He saw with amazement that Mr Emberton was proceeding to loosen one of the bolts on the front nearside wheel of what he recognized to be the vicarage carriage. It had been pointed out to him earlier by one of the ostlers. He could not plan to kill Diana and her father, thought Lord Dantrey. They would take a nasty tumble when the wheel fell off, unless they were very lucky.
While Mr Embe
rton bent to his work, Lord Dantrey thought hard. He himself was driving his phaeton, and he thought Mr Emberton was probably the owner of that dreadful phaeton with the great red wheels over there. A phaeton only allowed room for one driver and two slim passengers.
Did Mr Emberton plan to offer to drive Diana home? Did he plan to point out the loose wheel before they found out for themselves?
It was possible.
Lord Dantrey waited, concealed. He did not have very long to wait. Mr Emberton’s sabotage was quickly done. He went across the stable and checked the red-wheeled phaeton, confirming Lord Dantrey’s guess that it was his own.
When he had left, Lord Dantrey moved into the stables. After a few minutes’ hard work he had successfully loosened the front offside wheel on Mr Emberton’s carriage.
‘We’ll see what he makes of that,’ thought Lord Dantrey. After some thought, he assumed that Emberton meant the vicar and his daughter to take a spill, then come rushing forward in the fuss and offer to take Diana home. He decided to return to the ballroom. He flirted a great deal with Ann Carter, watching Diana the whole time out of the corner of his eye to see if she showed the slightest sign of interest. But Diana, now very happy and elated, was surrounded by a court of admirers and enjoying her first social success to the full.
The dance wore on into the small hours. At last Lord Dantrey saw the vicar and the squire preparing to leave. Mr Emberton followed them out. Lord Dantrey followed as well.
When he reached the outside of the inn, it was to find the ostlers telling the enraged vicar that one of the wheels had fallen off his carriage when they were harnessing it up. The heavy carriage had keeled right over and the axle had broken. John Summer said gloomily that some idiot must have done it deliberate.
‘Then you should ha’ been in the stables where you belong,’ said the vicar nastily. ‘Not in the tap.’
‘At least I can drive Miss Diana home while you wait for repairs,’ said Mr Emberton. ‘Miss Diana is much fatigued and it is not good for her to wait in the night air.’
‘Ah, so that is the plan,’ thought Lord Dantrey.
‘Mr Emberton’s carriage do be broke as well,’ said John Summer with a shrug. ‘Same thing. Swung over and crashed into the inn wall. Shivered like matchwood, it did.’
‘Fetch the parish constable,’ snapped the vicar. ‘Was ever a man so plagued! Some lunatic has been loose in the stables.’
Mr Emberton stood and ground his teeth in fury.
The squire shivered in the cold. Lord Dantrey walked up. ‘I would be glad to escort Miss Diana home, Mr Armitage. Squire Radford would be glad to be home in bed, I think, and he will act as chaperone, should you have any worries on that head.’
‘Course I got worries,’ grumbled the vicar. He was about to say more, but the squire, anxious to get home, whispered to him that all would be well.
‘But I don’t want to stay here, waiting about till dawn until blacksmith gets out o’ bed,’ moaned the vicar. ‘I don’t …’
His voice trailed away. One of the inn’s chambermaids, Joan, a buxom middle-aged woman, was hanging out of a side window of the inn that overlooked the stables. Her generous breasts bulged over the sill and, as the vicar looked up, she gave him a broad wink.
‘As I was sayin’,’ said the vicar hurriedly, ‘all I want is to get you home, Jimmy – and Diana too, o’ course. Won’t do me no harm to rack up here for the night,’ he added, raising his voice.
Jack Emberton was fuming. He did not like spending money, and he was already counting the expense of this evening from his new suit of clothes to his ruined carriage. Added to that, he would now have to pay for a room for the night.
‘Perhaps we could share a room, sir,’ he said to the vicar in the hope that Mr Armitage would pay his shot.
‘No, won’t do,’ said the vicar crossly, casting a glance up at the chambermaid. ‘I snore. Can’t bear to sleep with a man in the room.’
Lord Dantrey had turned away to talk to the squire. Mr Emberton said to Diana in a low voice, ‘May I call on you tomorrow?’
‘Of course,’ said Diana. ‘We will be most happy to see you.’
Soon Diana found herself seated in Lord Dantrey’s high perch phaeton. The little squire sat between her and Lord Dantrey. They were well wrapped up in carriage rugs and with hot bricks at their feet. Lord Dantrey was content to drive slowly, talking to the squire about his estates and the improvements he hoped to make. Diana was left alone to think about Mr Emberton. He was such a comfortable man, but somehow, when she was not with him, she no longer longed to see him again. But surely he would make the ideal husband. Lord Dantrey would most certainly not be a good choice for a husband. He would always be off flirting with some silly girl. He made one feel hot and uncomfortable.
And yet … he had great charm. Even the normally shrewd squire had obviously fallen victim to it and was chatting away animatedly, his earlier fatigue obviously forgotten.
A red sun was peeping over the horizon as the village of Hopeworth appeared at the end of the road. The whole world was bathed in a fiery red glow. The frost on the hedges and on the long shaggy winter grasses at the side of the road blazed like rubies.
The squire seemed to have forgotten he was supposed to be chaperoning Diana. He offered Lord Dantrey refreshment when they arrived at his cottage ornée but Lord Dantrey refused, saying he was anxious to see Miss Diana safely home.
The effects of all she had drunk combined with the fresh air were beginning to make Diana fell sleepy. It was only such a little way to the vicarage. Nothing embarrassing could happen to her. And Lord Dantrey had said he had no intention of repeating any familiarities.
The horses clop-clopped steadily around the village pond which burned like a sheet of flame under the rising sun.
Lord Dantrey had fallen silent. Diana yawned and pulled the fur carriage rug more tightly about her shoulders.
All at once, the sleepy feeling left her and she felt tension invading her body.
The air about her seemed to crackle. His hands holding the reins were relaxed but there was a feeling emanating from him, restless and excited.
The vicarage gates were standing open and he turned the phaeton neatly in through the gate posts.
They came to a stop outside the vicarage. He jumped lightly down and held up his arms to assist Diana from the high perch seat of the phaeton.
She took his hands and leapt down. He held her hands very tightly, looking down into her face. Then he released them only to wind his arms about her and hold her very close.
He had a strange expression on his face, puzzled and anxious. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her very much indeed, but was held back from doing so by the memory of the look of disgust she had had on her face the last time he had done so.
‘Please,’ she said, her voice a little above a whisper. ‘Please don’t.’
Why couldn’t he leave her alone? Because she excited his senses, because she made him drunk. And he still could not bear to think the immense longing and excitement were all on his side.
He took her face gently between his long fingers and bent his mouth to hers.
Diana did not know why it happened, but this time it was very different. Her whole body surrendered to him. His lips moved from her mouth to kiss her closed eyelids and her cold cheeks and then returned to her mouth in a seeking, searching, yearning kiss, bending her body back in his arms and arching over her. Diana wanted that kiss to go on for ever, blotting out space and time.
When he raised his lips again for a moment, a sudden alarm bell went off in her head, faint at first but beginning to clamour loudly as he searched for her mouth again.
He had not said a word. He had not murmured one word of love. She was rapidly melting away to nothing in his arms. Her will was being taken away from her and her independence. If she did not escape then soon she would turn into a weak, pitiful, doting creature, waiting for the sound of his step, longing for a kind look, for the pressur
e of his hand.
She freed her mouth. ‘Let me go,’ she said in a high, pleading voice. ‘Oh, do let me go.’
His hands dropped to his sides. Her wild, wide eyes looked up at him. Then she burst into tears, avoiding his grasp as he would have held her, running away into the house and slamming the door.
‘Emberton,’ thought Lord Dantrey savagely. ‘Always Emberton.’
He turned the problem of Diana Armitage over and over in his mind until he thought he had found a solution.
As his sleepy butler helped him out of his topcoat and took his hat and gloves, Lord Dantrey asked him, ‘Chalmers, what is the name of the biggest gossip in Berham county?’
Upset as she was, Diana firmly dried her eyes when she reached the sanctuary of her room and sat down to write to Frederica. She wrote quickly, the quill scratching across the paper. Frederica would read about a very different assembly from the one Diana had just attended. There was very little mention of Lord Dantrey except that she had been obliged to let him drive her home since the wheel of the carriage had come off. She praised Mr Emberton’s dancing, charm and looks, as if by writing it all down she could blot out the ever-haunting face of Lord Dantrey. She forced herself to describe the gowns of the ladies and the dress of the gentlemen and all the things that had been served at supper.
At last she sanded the letter and undressed, climbing wearily into bed, putting the aching of her body down to fatigue, for it could have nothing to do with longing. She had drunk too much. She did not love Lord Dantrey. In fact, she was absolutely determined not to. And with that thought, she tumbled headlong into sleep.
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