If he damaged her reputation, which this escapade would undoubtedly do, she would feel obliged to marry him.
The Earl squared his chin and he could only think of how terrified Devona would be at what was happening.
A more sophisticated girl might just be able to cope with Sir Erwell and to refuse his advances and prevent herself in some way from being forcibly married to him.
But Devona was so young and helpless and far too ignorant of the world to be able to stand up to Sir Erwell.
‘I will kill him for this,’ the Earl thought harshly as he pushed the horses into travelling faster than they were already.
“I forgets ’cos you moved so quick,” Tom said after a while. “I were told to tell you ’e were just a-takin’ the lady to the luncheon at the big ’ouse oop the other road.”
The Earl supposed that was what Lady Olga would have said too and it would give Sir Erwell plenty of time to do what he intended without any interference.
“I have already said, Tom, that I will give you the five pounds if we overtake Sir Erwell. But, because you have been so helpful, I will double that and, if you need a job, I am short of a groom in London.”
Tom drew in his breath.
“Thank you, my Lord. You be real kind. And if I works for you I’ll do me best. I’ll swear I will.”
“I believe you,” the Earl said, “and I am not wrong in thinking you have been in the Army.”
“Fought at Waterloo, my Lord, without a scratch,” Tom answered. “When I gets ’ome, me job’s gone and me wife’s gone orf with another fella.”
The Earl said nothing.
He knew it was the story of a great number of men who had fought so bravely for their country. They were, in consequence, suffering even more than the enemy.
The roads luckily were almost empty as there were not many people living in this part of the County.
The Earl concentrated on travelling as fast as he could and he only slowed down a little when Tom warned him that there was a sharp turn at the end of the road.
Once again they would be in the narrow lanes that could be dangerous.
*
Devona actually had been grateful for them.
Sir Erwell had travelled so fast on the wider road and whipped his horses all the way. She had been swayed from side to side in the phaeton.
Only by holding tightly onto the arm of the seat was she able to prevent herself from being thrown out.
“You are going too fast,” she managed to say with difficulty. “And you have no right to – carry me away like this.”
“I have every right,” Sir Erwell retorted. “If I don’t marry you at once, you might marry someone else and I would lose you.”
“I will not marry you,” Devona asserted, “and the Earl will be very angry when he finds out that – you have taken me away in this disgraceful manner.”
Sir Erwell gave a little chuckle.
“I planned everything very cleverly. Lady Olga will tell the Earl that we have just gone on ahead and be waiting with the Lord Lieutenant for them to join us.”
Devona did not answer him.
She only felt more petrified than she was already.
Just how could Sir Erwell behave in this dreadful manner?
Could he really be serious when he said that he was going to marry her?
‘He cannot make me marry him if I say ‘no’,’ she thought, ‘and the Priest, if there is one, would not perform the Marriage Ceremony with a bride who refused to make the responses.’
At the same time she was growing more and more concerned.
If the Earl believed what he was told, it would take him half-an-hour to drive to the Lord Lieutenant’s house and when he arrived there he would be surprised not to find her waiting for him.
And then he might perhaps have luncheon before he started to search for her.
Sir Erwell drove on and on down the lanes still beating his horses to go faster.
Devona felt herself becoming so afraid that only by clutching her fingers together did she prevent herself from screaming.
She had vaguely heard it mentioned the previous evening about Sir Erwell having a house in the County not far away and she was quite certain that the Earl had no idea where it was.
If the servants heard Lady Olga say that she and Sir Erwell had gone ahead of them to the Lord Lieutenant’s house, there would be no one to contradict her.
‘What on earth shall I do?’ she wondered.
The rate they had travelled and the wind, now she had lost her bonnet, had blown her hair across her face.
She pushed her curls to one side before she said,
“Please Sir Erwell, do be sensible. I have no wish to marry you and so – we cannot be married. Let’s go and dine with the Lord Lieutenant – as was arranged.”
Sir Erwell laughed and it was not a pretty sound.
“Do you really think, my beautiful one,” he said, “I have been to all this trouble and will give up just as I have reached the winning post. No, now you are mine, all mine, and I promise I will make you very happy.”
“How can I possibly be happy with you when I do not love you,” Devona said, “and I have no wish to marry you?”
“I will teach you to love me and then we will enjoy ourselves spending your money and having the best horses and plenty of servants to look after us.”
It was then Devona thought that she had been very stupid. Of course all Sir Erwell wanted was her money.
The Earl had said that he was a fortune-hunter and that was why he had spirited her away in this disgraceful manner.
“If all you want is money,” she said, “I can give you some and willingly, if you will take me back to The Hall now.”
“I expect that however much you promise me,” he replied, “his Lordship would somehow contrive to prevent me having it or at least very little. No, my dear, I want you just as you are and I find you very desirable. When we are married, I will manage your fortune for you and do so very cleverly.”
“But I have already said – I am not going to marry you,” Devona persisted.
“You will find that is something you will have to do,” Sir Erwell answered. “And I will explain why when we arrive.”
There was something in the tone of his voice that frightened Devona more than she was already.
‘What can he do,’ she asked herself, ‘to make me willing to marry him?’
He could starve her but she had been starved before and had survived that ordeal.
He might hit her or whip her, but, before he could harm her very much, the Earl would come in search of her.
She wanted to question him further, but before she could do so, they turned unexpectedly through some rather dilapidated gates and were going down what was obviously a short drive.
At the end of it Devona could see a small rather ugly house.
“Is this your home?” she asked.
“It was my father’s and my grandfather’s before him,” Sir Erwell replied. “I always felt it was a bit small and unimportant. But with your fortune, my dear, we will buy a house that will be worthy of us and our children.”
“I have told you that I am not going to marry you,” Devona insisted desperately.
“We will talk about that a little later,” Sir Erwell said. “Now, unless you want me to carry you, we will go into the house. Let me tell you that there will be no point in making a sound because the only person here is my old housekeeper who is deaf.”
Sir Erwell spoke with what Devona thought was almost a snarl in his voice.
Then, as they pulled up outside the front door, he yelled at the top of his voice,
“Hunter! Hunter!”
From behind the house an elderly man appeared walking slowly.
He was obviously a groom and Sir Erwell threw the reins at him and jumped down from the phaeton.
He walked round to the other side and held out his arms to Devona.
For a moment she hesitated.
/>
Then she knew that there would be little point in trying to stay in the phaeton and, if she did not get down of her own free will, he would only pull her out.
As he touched her, she felt herself shiver.
She turned her face away from him and was aware as she did so that he was smiling evilly at her.
‘I hate him! I hate him!’ she thought. ‘But how can I escape?’
As they walked up the steps that wanted cleaning into the house, she was praying fervently that somehow by a miracle the Earl would be aware of what had happened and come in search of her.
But she was certain that if he wanted to Lady Olga would try to stop him.
At any rate it would be far easier for him to believe what they told him when they said that she and Sir Erwell had gone ahead.
The inside of the house was dark and rather dingy.
There were no pictures on the walls and she thought that perhaps if there had been any Sir Erwell had probably been forced to sell them.
When he put his tall hat down on the chair, Devona thought that he would lead her into a sitting room.
Instead he said,
“We are going upstairs.”
She thought it rather strange.
Surely there must be some rooms downstairs where they could talk and she supposed have some sort of a meal.
But he took her by the arm and there was nothing she could do but climb up the staircase step by step.
When they reached the top of the stairs, there was a passage with doors on each side of it.
Sir Erwell passed three doors and then opened one which was almost at the end of the passage and Devona saw that it was a bedroom with a large four-poster bed.
“Why are we going – in here?” she asked.
Sir Erwell pushed the door to behind him.
“To make sure my lovely one,” he said “that you are mine completely before I send for the Parson.”
Devona did not understand.
Then, as she looked at him, he took off his coat and threw it down on a chair.
He came towards her with a smirk on his lips.
Suddenly, as if struck by lightning, she understood what was expected and gave a scream of terror.
*
Guided by Tom the Earl was now coming down the drive at a sharp pace.
They came in sight of the house.
As they did so, he saw the horses of the phaeton being led slowly away towards their stables.
“You have won what I promised you, Tom,” the Earl said. “Will the door be locked?”
“I don’t think so, my Lord. It never be till night and if there be burglars there’s nothin’ left to steal!”
The Earl thought it was likely that in Sir Erwell’s efforts to look smart and live in London, he would have sold everything that was saleable.
The Earl drew the horses to a standstill.
“You stay here,” he said to Tom, “and look after them, I might wish to leave hurriedly.”
He handed Tom the reins and jumped down.
He ran up the steps and found that the front door was actually ajar.
He pushed his way into the house and then stood for a moment in the hall.
Should he search the rooms on the ground floor or go upstairs?
Even as he hesitated, he heard Devona scream.
He leapt up the stairs two at a time.
He ran instinctively towards the Master suite which would be at the end of the passage.
Then he heard her scream again.
“No! No!” she was crying.
He pulled open the door.
He saw that Devona was fighting and struggling against Sir Erwell.
He was pulling at her gown in an effort to undress her.
In one stride the Earl reached them.
Even before Sir Erwell realised that he was there, he turned him round.
He hit him on the chin with all the strength of an experienced pugilist and the blow lifted Sir Erwell almost off the ground.
The Earl punched him again and again and he fell on the floor and he was, for the moment, unconscious.
The Earl did not give him a second glance.
Devona was holding out her arms towards him.
He picked her up.
“You have come – you have come,” she was trying to say incoherently.
The Earl carried her out of the bedroom, along the passage and down the stairs.
She was very light from all the years she had been starved and it was easier to carry her than to let her walk.
He took her out of the front door, which was still open as he had left it.
He set her down on the back seat of the carriage.
When he had done so, he reached up to take his hat from where he had left it on the box seat.
”Drive us home, Tom,” he ordered. “And don’t be too rough on the horses.”
Tom grinned.
“Aye, aye, sir,” he said and slipped into the driving seat.
The Earl climbed in behind and pulled Devona into his arms.
He had been aware when he carried her downstairs that her whole body was trembling.
Now she lifted up her hands to touch him as if to be sure that he was really there.
He knew that she was no longer so petrified.
At the same time there were tears in her eyes as she sighed,
“How can you be – so wonderful? How could you know – what he was doing?”
“I wanted to catch up with you before you reached the house,” the Earl said.
Devona suddenly hid her face against his shoulder.
“Did you – guess,” she asked, “what he intended – to do?”
She was so innocent, but the Earl knew that, when she had realised what Sir Erwell intended, it had been a terrible shock.
“Forget him!” the Earl said quietly. “I told you he was a fortune-hunter.”
“I offered him my money – but he was determined to – marry me.”
Her voice broke on the last words, then she said,
“I had no idea that any man could think of anything – so wrong and so wicked.”
“It will never happen again,” he said consolingly, “if you are properly looked after and chaperoned.”
“I did not know that any man – who pretended to be a gentleman – would think of anything so diabolical.”
“I told you to forget it!” the Earl said firmly. “Sir Erwell is not a gentleman. He is a cad and a swine and I will make sure that he is turned out of every decent Club he belongs to.”
“But if you had not found me – I should have had – to marry him,” Devona quavered in a small voice.
The Earl held her a little closer.
“Don’t think about him anymore,” he said. “Just think instead of all the things we have to do and I do think that from now on we shall be too busy to entertain or be entertained.”
“People will come to see you – whether you try to stop them or not,” Devona said, “and perhaps there will be other men – like Sir Erwell.”
The Earl knew from the way she was speaking that the shock of what she had just encountered was something that she could not easily forget.
They were now moving at a comfortable pace and with the sun glinting on Devona’s hair, she looked very lovely.
It was cascading onto her shoulders and her pretty dress was torn as Sir Erwell had tried to pull it off her.
Because the Earl was silent, Devona looked at him questioningly.
“Am I being silly – and hysterical?” she asked.
“No, of course not!” the Earl answered. “I was just wondering whether I should tell you now or when we reach The Hall how you need not be frightened of Sir Erwell or any other man in the future.”
Devona’s eyes widened.
“Tell me now. Tell me now so that I need not be so afraid,” she begged.
As the Earl did not speak, she continued,
“You are not going to send me away somewhe
re – as you think it is safer to do so.”
It flashed through her mind that this had made the Earl feel that she was an encumbrance and he would send her to one of his relatives.
Perhaps it would be one who lived miles away and she would never see him again.
“What I want to ask you,” the Earl said slowly, “is what, Devona, do you feel about me?”
Her eyes widened.
“I think you are wonderful!” she said. “You have been so kind and so marvellous. When I was so frightened, you saved me as if you were the Archangel Gabriel or even a Knight killing a dragon which I read about when I was small.”
There was a rapt note in her voice as she spoke as if the words came from her heart.
“That is what I wanted you to say,” the Earl sighed.
Then bending forward, he kissed her.
It was a very gentle kiss because he had no wish to alarm her.
For a second Devona was absolutely still.
The next moment he felt a rapture course through her, which he felt too.
It was a rapture that was different to anything he had ever felt before.
Almost instinctively he drew her closer and his lips became more possessive.
It was a long, long kiss.
A kiss in which the rapture in them both enveloped them.
It seemed somehow to join with the sunshine.
The Earl raised his head and Devona murmured,
“I love you. I love you. How could I help but love you when you are so marvellous?”
“And I love you, my darling one,” the Earl said. “I have been fighting against it. But I knew, when that devil spirited you away and insulted you, that I could not live without you. Now you are mine, completely mine and I will kill any man who touches you.”
He saw an expression of sublime ecstasy transform Devona’s face.
It was just impossible for any woman to look more beautiful.
At the same time she was not a woman.
Her love had given her a spirituality that made her an angel.
For a moment they gazed into each other’s eyes.
Then the Earl said,
“We will be married in the Chapel and then my precious darling you will never be afraid again.”
To his surprise Devona’s eyes fell and the rapture seemed to fade from her face.
“I cannot – marry you,” she whispered.
The Earl was astonished.
A Golden Lie Page 13