“There is a mirror in the next room,” Lord Westbridge said. “Allow me to escort you and show you how magnificent you look.”
He grasped her wrist and drew her towards the door. Louisa had no choice but to go with him.
When they were alone in the small ante-room, the girl in the mirror looked back at her from haunted eyes. Behind her stood Lord Westbridge, smiling a nasty little smile to himself.
“Thank you,” Louisa said. “Now I think we should return to the others.”
“Not so fast. I have lavished a fortune on you. Surely you can give me a few minutes of your time? I only want to show you some more of my house.”
He drew her arm through his and led her out of the room by the far door.
“Did you know this used to be a monastery before it became a private house?” he asked.
“Yes,” she whispered, half fainting.
“Of course the place is infested with tiny nooks and crannies, hiding places and secret stairs. There is even a ghost, which my valet swears he has seen.”
“I – I have heard about the ghost,” Louisa remarked. “It is supposed to be a headless monk.”
“Headless maybe, but remarkably talkative, for all that. They say if he calls your name you go mad with fear. Just through here is the place where he is supposed to walk.”
“Please I – I don’t want to go any further.”
“We are nearly there,” he said, ignoring her.
He urged her through another door which he closed. He turned the key and leaned back against the door.
“Now we can have a little talk,” he said.
“No, I want to return to my parents.”
“You will leave when I say so. Nobody will be surprised that we have slipped away. Naturally a betrothed couple will want to be alone.”
“But we are not betrothed,” she cried.
“We will be when I have kept you here long enough, unless you want a scandal that you will never live down.”
Louisa backed away from him. He was repellent.
She looked around wildly for a way of escape. But there was only one door and he was blocking it.
“No!” she screamed.
Lord Westbridge began to move towards her.
Horrified, Louisa saw the trap she had walked into. Why, oh, why had she let Lord Westbridge trick her into going alone with him? Now she was alone with him, ensnared. If he could keep her here long enough she would be forced to marry him.
“You did this on purpose,” she screamed at him indignantly. “To compromise me.”
“Let us say rather that I don’t like wasting time. I am not going to be kept dangling by a chit of a girl. We both know what your answer has to be in the end.”
“No! You cannot force me.”
Louisa was backing away from him as she spoke. He advanced on her, grinning cruelly.
“I like a spirited filly,” he snarled. “The more you fight, the more we will both enjoy the end.”
“How can you want to marry me when you know I loathe you?” she cried.
“But my dear, stupid little girl, that is the best part. I knew you held me in aversion the first time we met. You tried to be polite, but it stood out on you like a halo.” He laughed. “That was when I decided to have you.”
“You – want me because I dislike you?” she stammered, scarcely ready to believe such perversity.
“Of course. Willing women are dead bores. Now you – you will never bore me because you will never be willing, but by God you will be submissive, madam, I promise you.
“You loathe me, but you won’t be able to escape me. You may fight and struggle, but in the end, you will yield. You belong to me. You have belonged to me from the moment I decided to take you.”
“I do not belong to you,” she retorted with as much emphasis as she could manage. “And I never will!”
“Wonderful, wonderful! That’s just what I like.”
“You must be insane!”
His grin was horrible. “Let us just say I enjoy unusual tastes – which you can gratify like no other woman I have met. Now, we have talked long enough.”
He reached for her. Louisa raised her arm to fend him off. He laughed and seized her wrist. Driven by fear, she performed the first unladylike action of her life.
Lord Westbridge yelled with pain as her teeth sank into his hand.
She took advantage of the distraction to dart past him, unlocking the door and fleeing through it. His bellow of rage only made her run faster.
She ran down a corridor, through a pair of double doors, then another and another. She had lost all sense of direction. She did not know where she was in the house or where she was heading. She only knew that she must escape from Lord Westbridge.
At last she stopped in a long, empty gallery. She listened intently for the sound of her tormentor following her, but all she could hear was the faint sound of music.
The gallery stood at right angles to the ballroom. Through the windows Louisa could see the couples whirling in each other’s arms and the orchestra playing vigorously. If only she could return to that brightly lit place, instead of here, alone and lost.
“Louisa!”
She almost screamed as she heard her name whispered from the darkness. She could see nobody, but again the sound came floating out from nowhere.
She remembered the story of the headless monk who whispered people’s names, sending them mad with fear.
“Louisa,” came the voice again.
“Who are you?” she cried. “Where are you? Oh, Heaven help me!”
“Hush, it’s only me,” whispered Roderick, appearing from the shadows. “Don’t be frightened.”
“Oh, Roderick!” she sobbed, flinging her arms around him. “Roderick, Roderick!”
He held her tightly.
“I slipped into the house by a side door and watched the ball from a gallery. When he took you aside I contrived to follow.”
He laid his cheek against her bright hair.
“I promised you I would always be there, even when you couldn’t see me,” he said. “Did you think I had deserted you?”
“I don’t think you will ever desert me,” Louisa sighed.
But then she heard a sound that terrified her.
“He’s coming,” she murmured.
Roderick drew her far back into the shadows and they stood very still in each other’s arms.
The door at the far end of the gallery was flung open and Lord Westbridge stood on the threshold. He was furiously angry.
“You cannot get away from me,” he shouted. “Stop this nonsense at once.”
Roderick’s arms tightened around Louisa. She held her breath, feeling the beating of his heart against her own.
Lord Westbridge strode further into the gallery. For a terrible moment Louisa thought he would search the shadows. But at last he seemed to be convinced that she was not here.
“So you took the other way,” he muttered. “Very well. I will find you there, then. And when I do, it will be the worse for you!”
He strode out the way he had entered, slamming the door behind him.
“You are safe now,” Roderick said. “He thinks you have gone into the West wing. There is a maze of corridors there. He will be searching for a long time.”
“He was trying to compromise me.”
“I know. Give him time to move away and then you can slip back into the ballroom.”
“People will have noticed that I was missing. They will think that he and I – oh, it’s too horrible to think about!”
“Don’t worry. I am going to take care of that.”
“To think you were here in the gallery all the time, watching over me.”
“I never took my eyes from you. You were the most beautiful woman in the room and you danced so gracefully.”
“I didn’t care for any of the men I danced with. I should have liked –” Louisa hesitated, before saying softly, “I should have liked to dance with you.”
“I would have liked that too,” Roderick admitted. “Every time a man put his arm about your waist I wished it was me – although I had no right even to think it.”
Somehow his hand had crept about her waist. The sound of a languorous waltz reached them from below. The next moment Louisa was swaying in his arms.
How had a groom learned to waltz so elegantly? His steps fitted perfectly with hers. He knew how to guide her gently but firmly. As they glided around the room together, Louisa felt as though she were dancing among the stars. She never wanted this beautiful moment to end.
Dancing with Roderick felt so right, as though he was the partner Heaven had ordained for her.
At last the dance came to an end.
“I will take you back now,” he said dreamily.
“No,” she begged. “One more dance. Just one more.”
The music began again. Roderick held her close as they swayed together. Louisa never took her eyes from his face. She felt as if the walls and ceiling had dissolved. There was no reality but this moment and each other.
“Roderick,” she whispered.
“I am here, my dearest. Never fear.”
Her heart echoed the words, ‘my dearest’.
He too, was her dearest. Here was the love she had longed for. There could never be another man for her but Roderick.
The music slowed and stopped. They never heard it. They were clasped in each other’s arms.
Gently Roderick lowered his head and touched her lips with his. Louisa knew that this moment was what she had been waiting for all her life. The touch on her mouth was as light as a feather, yet it sent fierce, uncontrollable joy through her, as though every part of her heart, soul and spirit were coming alive for the first time.
All about her the world seemed to have stopped turning. Time and distance were nothing. There was only the beating of her heart. Only this man. This perfect love.
“We must leave here,” he muttered unsteadily. “He must not find us together.”
“I don’t care if he does,” Louisa exclaimed recklessly.
“My dearest love, I would not harm you with a scandal for anything in the world. Hurry now.”
“But how can I return to the ballroom without him seeing me?”
“There are secret passages in this house he will know nothing about.”
“But how do you – ? Oh, yes, you used to work here.”
Roderick smiled.
“I know this house better than he ever will.”
He drew her back into the shadows and lit a candle that stood on a low table. By its light Louisa saw him feel along the oak panelling until at last there was a click and a concealed door swung open.
She took his hand and he led her into the corridor.
It seemed they walked for ever. Roderick held the candle up to light the way, but all the passages looked the same to Louisa.
At last they found themselves facing another door. Roderick gently inched it open and looked out.
“This will bring you out near the ballroom. Go quickly while there’s nobody about,” he urged. “Try to join the crowd without being noticed.”
“But what about Lord Westbridge.”
Roderick grinned. In the flickering candlelight, it made his face look as mischievous as a schoolboy’s.
“Leave that devil to me,” he said. “I am going to teach him a lesson he will never forget.”
As he had said, there was nobody about as she slipped out into the corridor. A large pair of double doors led to the ballroom. Louisa kept to one side and crept in, unnoticed by anyone.
She made her way to where her mother was sitting on a sofa by the wall with the other chaperones.
“There you are, my darling,” Lady Hatton said. “But where is Lord Westbridge?”
“I do not know, Mama,” Louisa replied with perfect truth. “I am afraid we became separated.”
“But how could that happen?”
“This is a very large, confusing house.”
A young man appeared and begged her for a dance.
“I think this dance was reserved for Lord Westbridge,” Lady Hatton intervened quickly.
“But he isn’t here, Mama.”
Louisa took to the floor with her partner. The more people who saw her dancing the better. Then nobody could think that she was with Lord Westbridge in a scandalous tête-à-tête.
So after this partner she danced with another, and then another. Time passed and still there was no sign of Lord Westbridge.
What had Roderick meant when he spoke of teaching him a lesson he would never forget?
The guests began to express consternation that their host was absent for so long.
“Something terrible must have happened to him,” said Lady Hatton. “He would not just go away and leave his own party.”
Louisa was watching the powdered footman standing just inside the door. Another footman approached him from outside and muttered something in his ear. The men exchanged looks of concern.
“What has happened?” Lord Hatton demanded.
One of the footmen bowed.
“Somebody has heard a fearful noise upstairs,” he said, “as though a man was trapped.”
“We had better go and investigate,” suggested Lord Hatton.
By now the other guests had realised that something was happening and they all thronged after the footman as they climbed the broad staircase.
Higher and higher they climbed, to the upper reaches of the house, where rebuilding was still continuing.
Now they could all hear the sound of hammering and shouting. It seemed to be coming from just inside a panelled wall.
“Hello !” called the footman.
“Get me out!” came a muffled cry.
“But where are you, my Lord. I can see no door.”
“Get me out of here, you fool!” Lord Westbridge screamed.
It took some time to release him, because the footman could not find the catch, and Lord Westbridge was too hysterical with rage to instruct him clearly.
But at last the secret door swung open and he emerged into the light of the room.
Now Louisa understood what Roderick had meant by a punishment he would never forget. Lord Westbridge was covered in dirt and cobwebs. Dust had ruined his magnificent clothes and fell from his hair into his eyes. When he tried to brush it away, he left streaks on his face.
All around him his guests were covering their mouths with their hands. Even so, some titters were clearly audible.
Lord Westbridge looked ready to do murder.
“My Lord,” the footman gasped.
“Get out of my way, blockhead! What did you bring this crowd for?”
Lord Westbridge’s cast his eyes over his guests until he came to Louisa, trying not to laugh. But he recognised that she had seen him looking ridiculous.
She thought that she had never seen so much concentrated hatred in one human face.
“It is getting late,” Lady Hatton declared. “And time for us to be leaving.”
She addressed Lord Westbridge graciously.
“Thank you so much for a delightful party.”
The others found their tongues and uttered words of conventional civility, while their host stood there, looking like a chimney sweep and hating the lot of them.
Lady Hatton’s good breeding sustained her until she was outside. Then she leaned heavily on her husband’s arm.
“Such a terrible thing to have happened,” she moaned. “Just when everything was going so well.”
Roderick paused in the act of handing her into the coach.
“I trust your Ladyship is not feeling ill?” he asked.
“My Mama is suffering from strain,” Louisa explained. “Poor Lord Westbridge was accidentally trapped in a secret cubby-hole.”
Roderick’s face was wooden.
“I grieve to hear it,” he said. “I do hope his Lordship was not injured.”
“Not at all. Just very dirty.” Louisa met his eyes
. “It was shocking!”
“As you say, miss.”
All the way home Louisa and Arabelle tended to Lady Hatton.
“How could such an awful thing have happened?” she whined. “The poor man. So undignified!”
“It was, wasn’t it?” Louisa agreed. “And the whole County there to see it. Use my smelling salts, Mama.”
Lord Hatton was more robust.
“By Jove, he looked a sight! Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
“Frederick!” Lady Hatton snapped. “You are forgetting!”
“What? Eh? Oh, yes! “Well, my love. No harm done. After all, it wasn’t Louisa’s fault.”
Louisa stayed with her mother until she reached her room and could be safely left in the hands of her maid. But as soon as she could, she slipped out of the house and ran to the stables.
“Oh, Roderick, how clever you are!” she cried. “However did you manage it?”
“It was easy. I threw my jacket over his head so that he could not recognise me and thrust him into that secret cupboard. I chose one at the top of the house, where it would be dirty and nobody would hear him.
“I left him there for an hour, then muttered something to a footman and slipped away. It serves him right for frightening you, my darling. I will never forgive him for that.”
His voice grew quiet as he became entranced at the sight of her. She was standing in the lamplight, looking up at him, her eyes filled with love.
Louisa felt her whole soul reach out to him. She loved him. She did not care about the disparity of rank and fortune. There were no problems when love was strong and true.
“I have nothing to offer you,” he murmured.
“Oh, Roderick, my dearest. Can you offer me your heart?”
“All of it. Forever.”
“Then I want nothing else.”
“But you don’t know what you are saying. How can you live as the wife of a poor man?”
“Poor in money. Rich in love,” she said recklessly. “My darling, I was brought up to be vain and foolish, like other girls. I thought I would marry a rich man with a title, because it was expected of me.
“I needed to discover love to know how little those baubles mean. If I have your love I have everything.”
He stroked her face. His eyes shone into hers.
“We will be so happy in our cottage,” she said eagerly. “I will learn to cook and do everything for you. Won’t it be wonderful?”
A Heart in Heaven Page 8