‘You shall meet her,’ said Lord Dantrey. ‘I promised to take you along to one of her mother’s dreadful salons. I accepted on our behalf yesterday.’
‘There you are then. That will take your mind off things. And you did promise me some sport.’
‘Forgive me. I am a very bad host. You have just arrived and I have not even allowed you time to wash and change. Miss Armitage is a silly girl and all I will do is make a fool of myself if I become embroiled in her troubles.’
A week later, Mr Emberton had the honour of driving his bride-to-be, Miss Diana Armitage, to Mrs Carter’s salon in her father’s racing curricle, his own carriage having proved to be beyond repair.
It was the first time since the night of their engagement that they had been alone together. Diana was wearing the pale green carriage dress she had worn in London when she had gone driving with him, only this time she wore a magnificent sable-lined mantle over it, a present from Minerva. She wore a black hat with a narrow brim. Black silk ribbon was wound around the crown and fell in two streamers down her back. Long emerald earrings swung against her cheeks. ‘At least I can pawn her clothes if I need to marry the jade,’ thought Mr Emberton bitterly. He was still furious over being trapped. Most of all he was furious at Diana’s reaction to his embrace. How dare she act so virginal when she had already given Dantrey her favours.
He had seriously thought of escape and had gone so far as to ask the Wentwater servants to look out his trunks. But they had reported that fact immediately to the vicarage and the vicar had promptly turned up, flanked by John Summer and Ram, demanding to know why he was leaving.
He had laughed it off, saying that he was looking out his old clothes to parcel them up and give them away. The vicar had cheerfully said he would take the clothes for the Poor Fund and so he had had to part with some of his clothes to give support to the lie.
The feeling that he had been well and truly gulled persisted and grew and rankled as Miss Diana sat bolt upright beside him, saying never a word.
It was then that he realized he could try to make her cry off. Why should he be saddled with Haymarket ware? Dantrey had said nothing since the announcement of the engagement. He was probably laughing his head off at the idea of some other man having to take his used goods.
He could accuse Diana of sleeping with Dantrey and during the surely blazing row that would ensue she would tell him she did not want to marry him. But of course she wanted to marry him. What man in his right mind would want her now?
But apart from myself, Dantrey and her family, no one else knows, he thought. He turned to Diana to say something nasty but the cold severity of her profile gave him pause. But wait a bit. He had something. There was light at the end of the tunnel. For the first time he saw a way to extricate himself from the trap he was in.
But before he did that, why not try to sample some of the goods that had been given so freely to Dantrey? He stopped his team and turned to Diana.
‘Alone at last,’ he said with a wide smile.
Diana drew her fur mantle closely about her. ‘Please drive on, Mr Emberton,’ she said in a tight little voice. ‘You should not leave my father’s horses standing in this weather.’
He dropped the reins and seized her in his arms, forcing his mouth down on hers and thrusting his tongue between her teeth. Then he let out a muffled scream as she bit down hard on his tongue. The horses plunged and reared. He cursed and raised his hand to strike her but then he heard the sound of another carriage coming along the road behind him, and so he set the horses in motion, muttering, ‘You will not dare behave thus after we are married.’
‘How horrible he has turned out to be,’ thought Diana, feeling tears pricking behind her eyelids. ‘How disgusting! I can’t marry him. Papa is now so proud of his generosity and magnanimity that he will not want the engagement to end. All he cares about at the moment is Sarah. How could any girl …? A man old enough to be her father. My father, dear God. Is there something up with me? Does everyone else roll around like mating animals?’
Mrs Carter’s house was the very latest in modern building design. It boasted delicate balconies, verandahs, cupolas and classical mouldings, bow fronts, hooded windows, and generous doorways. The stucco was however painted an ice cream pink so that instead of merging tastefully with the landscape it stood out like a pimple.
Everything inside was new and glittering. There were walls with striped flocked paper and backless sofas upholstered in striped silk. Huge ornate marble candelabra on marble stands dotted the room, the candles lit because of the darkness of the day. Vast looking glasses reflected the company several times. Mrs Carter was very fond of fat cherubs. They sported over the moulding on the fireplace and hung from the cornices. They leaned down from the painted ceiling with pouting ruby lips and two kneeling ones held up a centre table of malachite. The colour scheme was pink and white. Ann too was in pink and white, a ravishingly pretty gown of near transparent muslin. She tripped forward to greet Diana with both hands held out in welcome. The welcome was genuine. Ann felt that Lord Dantrey would now propose to her with Diana safely engaged to another man. Mrs Carter had not wanted to invite Mr Emberton but was afraid not to since no one else in the county had even considered snubbing him. A secretive card sharp was one thing, a self-confessed one set on reform and engaged to one of the Armitage girls was another.
Diana left Mr Emberton’s side and went to speak to the Chumleys, accepting their congratulations on her engagement.
Then there were more congratulations to accept. She numbly thanked everyone with a forced smile while all the while she became more determined to tell Mr Emberton she could not marry him.
Mrs Carter’s salon, as she liked to call it, was held between the front and back drawing rooms on the ground floor, with a room being set aside for cards. A small orchestra was playing tinny Elizabethan tunes and servants circulated with glasses of punch. The punch was Mrs Carter’s own invention. Mr Emberton took one sip and then raised his eyebrows. It had a kick like a mule although it tasted very sweet and innocuous.
After several glasses of the stuff, he began to relax. He would find a way out of this mess. Lord Dantrey’s tall figure walked into the room, followed by Mr Fane. He proceeded to introduce his friend all round to everyone in the company with notable exceptions of Diana and Mr Emberton. Mr Emberton had several more glasses of punch and his feeling of euphoria slowly gave way to one of anger. Who did Dantrey think he was? He should have been slapping him on the back and wishing him well. The room tilted a little and then righted itself. Through an alcoholic haze Mr Emberton saw Lord Dantrey walk up to Diana, who had been standing alone by the window.
He found Ann Carter standing at his elbow. ‘It is disgusting,’ he said to her fiercely, ‘at least I thought they would have the decency to keep apart.’
‘Who? Lord Dantrey and Diana?’ asked Ann, round-eyed.
Mr Emberton finally saw a way out of his predicament and decided to seize it with both hands. ‘I must talk to someone,’ he said sorrowfully. ‘I have been most shamefully duped.’
‘You can tell me,’ said Ann, scenting a scandal. Although she was fully aware of her mother’s beady eye on her, she pulled Mr Emberton a little away from the other guests. ‘Now tell me,’ she said eagerly.
‘I found out after I had proposed to Diana,’ said Mr Emberton, ‘that she had spent a week with Lord Dantrey in town, dressed as a man!’
‘No!’
‘Yes, and worse than that, she even spent a night at his house at Osbadiston Hall.’
‘But how did you find out all this?’
‘She told me,’ said Mr Emberton. ‘She threw it in my face. Now I must marry her for Dantrey will not.’
‘Oooh! But no one can make you marry her.’
‘Mr Armitage has threatened to have me killed an I do not. That is why he spread that malicious slander about me being a card sharp so that should a hint of any of the scandal come out, people would think a low type s
uch as I must have known of it and that I must have been paid to marry the girl.’
Ann drew a deep breath. She did not want this scandal to get about. If Mrs Carter found out that Lord Dantrey had spent a week in London with Diana Armitage then she would not let her, Ann, marry him. And Ann wanted very much to marry Lord Dantrey. She liked his looks, his title, and his fortune. She was not in the slightest shocked that he had spent the night with a woman. All men were like that. Mama had told her so and Mama was never wrong.
She began to edge away from Mr Emberton. He caught her arm. ‘What am I to do, Miss Carter?’
Mrs Carter strode up, glaring. ‘Mama,’ bleated Ann, ‘I think that Mr Emberton is a trifle foxed.’ Her mother drew her away.
Jack Emberton stood clenching and unclenching his fists. He had another glass of punch. What was Dantrey saying to Diana?
‘I am not going to congratulate you on your marriage,’ he was saying. ‘What made you do such a thing?’
‘Oh, why does one usually accept a proposal of marriage?’
‘To teach me a lesson?’
‘You are vain. I did not think of you.’
‘You did not think of me,’ he mimicked. ‘You! My dear girl, you responded to my embrace like a woman in love.’
Diana’s face flamed. ‘I respond to Mr Emberton’s embrace like a woman in love,’ she lied.
Lord Dantrey suddenly had a picture of Diana locked in Emberton’s arms and a red mist rose before his eyes.
‘Slut!’ he said.
Diana drew her hand to slap his face but he snatched it and drew her close until they were standing close together, glaring at each other.
‘Aye, well you may stare,’ shouted Jack Emberton, his voice loud and harsh and ugly.
Silence fell on the room.
‘Look at the love birds,’ jeered Mr Emberton. Lord Dantrey dropped Diana’s hand and strode towards him. Mr Fane caught Lord Dantrey and held him back.
‘I have to take your leavings,’ howled Mr Emberton. ‘She,’ he said, pointing to Diana, ‘she taunted me with the fact she had dressed as a man and spent the night with Dantrey and then she went off with him to London. They stayed at Limmer’s together. Now the vicar is forcing me to marry her.’
Lord Dantrey shrugged off Mr Fane’s grip and smashed his fist hard into Emberton’s jeering face. Mr Emberton flew back, sending furniture and glasses crashing about him. Ladies screamed and fainted. The gentlemen crowded round, delighted to have this boring day enlivened by a first class mill.
Lord Dantrey bent down and seized Mr Emberton by the cravat and pulled him to his feet. ‘You would not hit a wounded man,’ screamed Mr Emberton, blood flowing from his nose. Lord Dantrey drew back his fist and delivered a straight right to Mr Emberton’s chin. Mr Emberton fell backwards and stretched his length unconscious on the floor.
Mrs Carter was screaming and screaming. Diana took one horrified look about the room and then ran from the house. She took the first horse she could find in the stables and rode off as hard as she could, her skirts hitched up around her legs. Her one thought was to get home, find some money and escape. This was too big a scandal to ever live down.
She dismounted before she reached the vicarage and led the horse gently to the stables, so as not to rouse anyone in the house.
Then she saddled up her mare, Blarney, before going into the house and creeping quietly up the stairs. There was a clatter of dishes and the sound of laughter from the kitchens. She went to the twins’ room and selected a suit of clothes, thankful that her two brothers had reached that dandified stage of life when they had more clothes than any two young men could possibly need. She packed a saddle bag with clean linen and found the money she had saved, nearly intact, since she had spent little on her last escapade.
Once again, she savagely cropped her hair and threw the tresses into the fire. Then she took a length of linen and bound her breasts as flat as possible.
All this seemed to take ages but in fact it had only taken her under half an hour. Before she left, she crept quietly into her mother’s room and took a little painted miniature of her from the wall.
Once safely outside the house she swung herself up into the saddle and rode off, never once turning around.
NINE
When Frederica was summoned to the principal’s office in the seminary for young ladies her first thought was that she was in trouble. Had they found the candle she had carefully hidden under her pillow so that she could read at night?
School had not turned out to be so very bad after all. She had made friends with a cheerful bouncing girl of her own age called Bessie Bradshaw. Bessie was as outgoing as Frederica was introverted and the one complemented the other.
By the time Frederica pushed open the door of the office she decided it must be the candle and wondered whether to tell the truth or to lie and say she did not know how it got there.
The principal was a fussy faded lady. She was not alone in the room. A young man stood looking out of the window, his back towards Frederica.
‘Ah, Frederica,’ said the principal. ‘I have told your brother it is customary to let us know in advance when any of the girls are expecting visitors. You may use my room for ten minutes.’
The young man at the window turned and Frederica gave a gasp of surprise.
‘Is anything the matter?’ demanded the principal.
‘N-no, ma’am,’ faltered Frederica. ‘My brother has grown so tall, I hardly recognized him.’
‘Very well,’ said the principal. ‘Ten minutes and no more.’
Frederica waited until the door had closed.
‘Diana!’ she exclaimed. ‘Why are you dressed like that?’
‘Oh, Freddie,’ sighed Diana, ‘I have brought distress on our family. I am in such a mess.’
‘Tell me,’ urged Frederica, ‘and I will see what I can do.’
‘I don’t know if I can manage to tell you all in ten minutes,’ said Diana, ‘but I will try.’ She proceeded to tell her amazed sister everything that had happened.
When she had finished Frederica clasped her hands and said, ‘Only tell me what to do to help you.’
‘There is nothing you can do, Freddie,’ sighed Diana. ‘I am come to say goodbye. I think I will go to London and call on Lady Godolphin and ask her to help me find some work. She will not be shocked, you know. It is no use going to Minerva or Annabelle or any of the others. They would only tell Father and I would have to return to Hopeworth and I couldn’t bear to face anyone after all the scandal.’
‘But I think you love this Lord Dantrey,’ said Frederica.
‘That does not matter. One thing is very clear, Freddie, and that is that he does not love me. Oh, dear, I hear that woman returning.’
‘At least write to me,’ begged Frederica, hanging on to her sleeve.
Diana gave her sister a fierce hug. ‘I will write, Freddie,’ she whispered.
She made her bow to the principal who had just entered the room, and then left.
Frederica ran upstairs and looked out of the landing window on to the courtyard below. Diana sat on her mare, Blarney, her head bowed. Tears were running down her face when she finally raised her head and set off down the drive at a canter.
Frederica turned from the window and found herself staring at her own reflection in the glass. Her dark hair hung in distressed wisps from under her cap and her large no-colour eyes stared wistfully back at her. She had a picture of Diana when she was happy, vital, beautiful and very much alive. Diana was made to fall in love and live happily ever after, an enviable state to which Frederica was convinced she herself could never aspire. Better that her own lovers remained between the covers of her books where they could not condemn or find fault with this one Armitage failure, this one daughter who had inherited neither looks, nor charm, nor grace. She gave a little sigh and thought of Diana, vulnerable and alone in the world.
‘It’s just not fair,’ muttered Frederica. ‘Something must be done to sto
p her.’ She sat down on the stairs and thought hard. Then she ran down to the deserted school library and found a pen and some paper.
She took a deep breath, pulled the paper towards her and began to write. ‘Dear Lord Dantrey …’
Two days later Lady Godolphin was awakened by the sound of one of her servants scratching at the door. She groaned and cursed. Why this morning of all mornings had one of her normally discreet staff decided to behave badly?
‘Grrmph,’ said a sleepy voice from the other pillow.
‘Go to sleep, Arthur,’ said Lady Godolphin to Colonel Brian. ‘’Tis only some stupid servant.’
The scratching persisted.
Lady Godolphin adjusted her scarlet wig and tied the ribbons and her nightcap more securely under her chin, swung her legs out of bed and waddled to the door.
She opened the door a crack and glared at Mice, her butler.
‘What are you about, you great lummox, waking me at dawn?’ she demanded.
‘It is one o’clock in the afternoon,’ said Mice in injured tones.
‘That’s dawn, you fool.’
‘Mr David Armitage has been waiting downstairs for the past four hours, my lady. He said not to wake you but the young man seems in some distress …’
‘Oh, lor’,’ groaned Lady Godolphin. ‘Very well.’
‘What was all that about?’ mumbled Colonel Brian from the bed.
‘Never mind,’ said Lady Godolphin, her voice muffled as she pulled a petticoat over her head without undoing the tapes. ‘We’re cross lovers, that’s what we are, Arthur.’
‘My love, how could I ever be cross with you?’
‘Well, that’s what the poet said. Pair o’ cross lovers. ’Course they was foreigners, although one lot belonged to the Montagus and they’re as English as roast beef. Not feeling any pangs of remorse, are you, my duck?’
‘No, my angel, my fall from grace was a marvellous thing. Let us be married as quickly as possible.’
Diana the Huntress Page 17