Lord of Misrule

by Sally Wentworth

  Verity looked at him quickly when he mentioned her name, but Sebastian kept his eyes firmly on Paula as he continued, ‘Maxine found out everything that was going on in the house from her mother, of course. On the night when you got food poisoning, she prepared the meal, knowing that Maggie was out and I would be blamed if anyone suspected. Just as I was,’ he added with heavy implication. ‘That’s why she turned the radiophone on, so that Maggie wouldn’t find out it was her and not her mother, if she rang. And it was she who let the dog loose, of course.’

  Paula raised her eyes to meet his. ‘But Verity saw you in the woods near the cottage, hurrying away just before the dog attacked us.’

  ‘Yes, so the police told me. But I’d seen Maxine near the bridge so I went over there and told her to clear out. I was afraid she might try and talk to you, tell you about Simon.’ Again he put his hand on Paula’s shoulder. ‘I didn’t want you to be upset after you’d been so ill. She said she had a right to visit her parents, and was damn rude about it, so I insisted on her going back to the cottage, and went with her to make sure she did. Then I went over to the other side of the grounds to mark the trees.’

  ‘You got there very quickly.’

  He nodded. ‘Yes, I was fuming with anger.’ He gave an exasperated sigh. ‘Just as I was the day you arrived at Layton House. I’d found out from Mother that Maxine was back in the area after I’d expressly told her parents to make sure she stayed away. And I was on my way to tell them that if she made any trouble they would have to leave.’

  ‘No wonder they were so surly,’ Paula commented sadly. She looked at Sebastian. ‘When did you realise that it was her?’

  ‘Not until she let the dog loose, I’m afraid. We believed Mrs Chivers about the mushrooms. But no one but Maxine could have turned the dog loose. And I gather it was whistled off—only she could have done that, too. After that I told Chivers they had to go. Maxine had taken herself off, though, and I hoped we’d seen the last of her, and I wouldn’t have to tell you about Simon.’ He straightened up, his face tightening. ‘But Chivers saw your suitcase in Verity’s car and guessed that you were planning to leave. I can only think he told his wife, who couldn’t resist passing the news on to Maxine by phone. Anyway, Maxine came back and tampered with the brakes of the car. The police found that out when they hauled it out of the river this morning. That’s why it wouldn’t stop when I tried to block you at the gates last night.’

  ‘And why you swerved to avoid us and went into the river,’ Verity said slowly.

  Turning his head to look directly at her, Sebastian said, ‘Quite,’ in a scathingly remote tone.

  ‘She could have killed us,’ Paula said in an appalled voice. She stood up. ‘I’m sorry, Sebastian, but I don’t think I can take any more of this at the moment.’ She took his hand. ‘And I’m so sorry that we ever doubted you,’

  He nodded briefly. ‘I’ll leave you, then, and let you rest.’

  ‘Oh, no, please don’t go. As it’s safe now, I’d very much like to go back to the house.’ She smiled, her hand still in his. ‘I’m afraid we stole your Land Rover, but I really don’t feel up to driving it back. Would you be very kind and drive us home?’

  ‘Yes, of course.’ He looked as if he was going to say something else, but changed his mind when Paula reached up and kissed him.

  ‘That’s for trying so hard to protect poor Simon,’ she said huskily, then turned and went into her room.

  Paula always did know how to make a good exit, Verity thought indulgently. She turned to Sebastian, but he had gone to the window again and stood looking moodily out, his shoulders tense. ‘Sebastian?’ she said tentatively.

  ‘Well?’ he returned shortly, without turning round.

  Her face hardening at his tone, Verity gazed at his back for a moment and then walked over to stand beside him. ‘What a riveting view!” she exclaimed mockingly. ‘I’ve never seen such beautiful roof-tops and railway lines.’ He turned his head to glare at her and she said shortly, ‘Don’t expect me to apologise for suspecting you, Sebastian, because I’m not going to. And I’m not going to beg your forgiveness, either, because I’m not the grovelling type. Under the circumstances I was perfectly justified in trying to get Paula away from you.’

  Sebastian rounded on her angrily. ‘Couldn’t you have come to me, told me of your suspicions?’

  ‘No, of course not,’ Verity returned curtly. ‘How could I?’

  ‘You could have trusted me.’ And there was raw pain in his voice.

  ‘Yes, / could have trusted you—but I didn’t dare trust Paula to you! Can’t you see that? Everything pointed to you. And I hardly knew you; how was I to know that you wouldn’t do anything to get Layton House for yourself? After all, it was your home and Paula was just….‘

  ‘My home?’ Sebastian bit out with a harsh laugh. ‘Didn’t it ever occur to you that my mother and I might resent being used by Simon as his servants, just unpaid caretakers, stuck with that millstone of a house? James Gillis asked Mother to marry him years ago, but she felt that she couldn’t leave Layton House until Simon came home and took it over. But Simon, of course, was always too busy to take on his responsibilities, and just left it all lo us. He always was damn thoughtless!’ he added forcefully.

  ‘No,’ Verity admitted hollowly, ‘that never occurred to me. I thought you must love the place.’

  ‘So you naturally assumed that I would be willing to go to any lengths to get it,’ Sebastian said scathingly. ‘If I’d wanted the damn estate that badly I could always have offered to lease it from Paula, couldn’t I? Or didn’t anything as simple as that occur to you, either? You just naturally believed the worst of me.’ He glared at her, his eyes contemptuous. ‘So much for love!’

  Verity bit her lip, realising how much she had hurt him. She wanted to throw herself in his arms and tell him she was sorry, convince him of how wretched she felt, but she instinctively knew that that wasn’t the way to handle it, so instead her chin came up and she said, ‘I never said that I was in love with you.’

  Sebastian had turned back to the window, but now he swung round, his eyes flying to meet hers, and she saw by the sudden fear in them that he still cared.

  ‘But I am—very much,’ she said softly. ‘In my heart I don’t think I ever believed that you could do anything so dreadful, but I just couldn’t take the chance— not when Paula’s life and that of her child were at stake. I wanted to trust you—so much.’ She paused and said with difficulty, ‘I think the worst moments of my life were when you came down the drive straight at us…’ Her voice had grown very husky and she bit her lip. ‘I thought that if you hit us, then you must be mad and you had done those terrible things. But you swerved and went into the river and nearly drowned.’

  She raised tear-filled eyes to meet his and saw that the tension had gone from his face. Slowly he reached out and put his hands on her arms. ‘So I had to nearly get killed before you believed I was innocent, did I?’

  Verity gave him a misty, tremulous smile. ‘Yes, I’m afraid you did.’

  ‘I don’t remember very much about that, but you were there, weren’t you? I can remember being terribly cold and wet and you pulling and shouting at me.’ He grinned suddenly, his smile tearing at her heart, and his hands tightened. ‘But there is something I do remember, though. You kissed mc. More than once.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ Verity smiled back. ‘I was giving you the kiss of life, that’s all.’

  Sebastian’s eyes darkened. ‘Then would you mind doing it again—for the rest of my life?’

  Verity gasped, not expecting so much, so soon, but then she went joyfully into his arms. ‘Oh, yes! Oh, Sebastian, I love you so much.’

  ‘So my ploy worked.’ Paula’s voice made them reluctantly turn their heads after a long, deeply passionate embrace, although Sebastian kept his arms possessively round Verity as if he never wanted to let

  her go. ‘I knew if I left you two alone together everything would work out,’ Pa
ula went on with satisfaction. ‘But you’ve got to promise not to get married until after the baby is born so that I can be a matron of honour.’

  ‘You were listening,’ Verity said accusingly.

  ‘Of course. You didn’t want me to come in too soon, did you?’ And, when they both burst into laughter, ‘Thank goodness that’s settled. Now can we please have something to eat? I’m starving!’

  Paula’s baby was born on Christmas morning. It was a boy, and she called him Adam.

  ‘So we’re to be godparents,’ Sebastian remarked as he and Verity walked across the mist-laden lawns later that day. They stopped near the hollow where the oak had once stood, and Sebastian dug a hole in which they planted a new sapling, a young tree that would grow with the infant lord of the manor.

  Verity watched him, looking at the frail branches of the tree made into delicate lace by the frost. ‘I hope it grows after such a poor start.’

  ‘It will grow, we’ll see to that,’ Sebastian answered confidently. He straightened up and drew her close against his side, his arm round her waist. ‘We’ll have to try and make up to the child for not having a father.’

  ‘Somehow I don’t think that will be necessary,’ remarked Verity. Sebastian raised his eyebrows, and she added, ‘Paula informed me a few days ago that she had decided to marry Piers in a year or so.’

  ‘Really?’ Sebastian’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘When did all that happen? We’ve hardly seen Piers since he’s been decorating his Arabian palace.’

  “As a matter of fact, I don’t think he knows yet. It’s something that Paula has decided. But it seems that he asked Paula to marry him before ever she met Simon, but she turned him down because she wasn’t in love with him.’

  ‘And she is now?’

  ‘No.’ Verity shook her head, her eyes a little sad. ‘But she feels that she had romance with Simon and now she’s ready to settle for companionship.’

  ‘Piers will teach her to love him, though,’ Sebastian said confidently.

  ‘Yes.’ Verity nodded in satisfaction. ‘Yes, I think he will.’

  They came to the bridge and paused to look down at the cold grey water. Verity shivered. ‘I’m glad we’ll be leaving here soon. This place has so many bad memories.’

  ‘But so many wonderful ones, too,’ Sebastian reminded her. ‘Wasn’t it here, for instance, that we first kissed? Like this.’

  Taking her in his arms, he looked lovingly into her face for a moment, then kissed her with the deep, tender possession of a man very much in love. And as Verity returned his kiss she forgot the dark memories of the past, and thought only of their bright, shining future together.