Davina sank back into the sofa, her mind reeling.
No wonder the young woman in the portrait looked so mournful. Her husband was much older and subject to fits, and had built a house in which she felt herself to be a virtual prisoner.
There was just one piece of the puzzle that Davina could not place.
All these events had taken place some thirty years before.
So who was it that, only yesterday, had placed a bunch of fresh flowers on Evelyn Felk’s grave?
CHAPTER THREE
Lord Shelford arrived late afternoon. He was somewhat concerned to find Davina with a chill and desired her to retire to bed, but she was anxious to take tea with him by the fire. She wanted to hear all about London and her sister’s wedding plans.
“Regine is determined to marry from our London house,” said Lord Shelford. “She also wants to throw a big engagement party there next Spring.”
Davina clapped her hands. “You will have to let me return to London then, Papa!”
Lord Shelford glanced at his daughter. He wondered when it would be politic to inform her of Felix Boyer’s engagement. Davina caught his look and guessed what lay behind it.
“And did you see anything of Mr Boyer?” she asked with an air of innocence.
“I can’t say I did,” replied her father, leaning forward to take up his cup. “He was – er – otherwise engaged.”
“Yes,” cried Davina mischievously. “To the daughter of a Duke!”
Lord Shelford almost spilled his tea. “What! You know?”
“I read it in your newspaper,” laughed Davina. “And Papa –I don’t care a bit. So you have no need to worry about me.”
“What a puzzling little monkey you are!” he exclaimed.
“No, Papa,” replied Davina gravely. “What is puzzling is that I should ever have imagined that I cared for him in the first place. I must be very – shallow, I think.”
“Nonsense. You are young and impressionable, that’s all. And Mr Boyer is a – is a–”
“An eager fly?” prompted Davina.
“An eager fly?” repeated Lord Shelford in astonishment. “From whom did you learn such a phrase?”
“Jess,” admitted Davina.
He frowned and put down his cup. “And what else has your maid been so kind as to reveal to you?”
“Oh, nothing,” said Davina airily, mindful of her promise to Jess. “But Papa – I had such an adventure yesterday.”
“It wouldn’t be this adventure that caused your chill, I suppose?” asked her father gravely.
“Probably, Papa.”
“You had better tell me all about it, then.”
Davina proceeded to relate the events of the day before. She confessed to having found the grave in the wood and noticed the immediate concern on her father’s face. He soon forgot about the grave, however, when she carried on to describe her rescue by Lord Delverton.
“A knight in shining armour, eh?” he mused.
“Yes indeed Papa.”
Lord Shelford wondered if this knight was responsible for his daughter’s equanimity on hearing the news of Felix Boyer’s engagement. “Well, I shall have to call on him to thank him. And you must come along too.”
“Oh, yes, Papa!”
Lord Shelford regarded Davina with mock severity.
“So you had better take yourself off to bed and get rid of that chill, young lady.”
“I will instantly, Papa.” Davina rose and kissed the top of her father’s head. “I will be as good as new tomorrow, you see if I’m not!”
*
When Charles returned to Lark House after his visit to Davina, he was furious to discover from Aunt Sarah that Howard had taken advantage of his brother’s absence to slip away to London.
Opening the lid of the black box on his desk, he frowned. “Howard helped himself to funds, too, aunt. How am I ever going to turn around the fortunes of this estate if he works against me in this fashion?”
Aunt Sarah looked troubled. “But he said he would turn our fortunes around – in London.”
“Did he travel alone or with Jed Barker?” asked Charles wryly. Aunt Sarah picked at a stray thread on one of her mittens. “He – he went with Jed.”
“Then it’s the roulette wheel that will be turning, aunt, not our fortunes.”
“Oh, dear,” replied Aunt Sarah. “I do hope not. He said he hoped to find himself an heiress.”
“He won’t be the only hunter in London in that respect,” said Charles sardonically.
“Howard said you were going to visit Priory Park this morning?” she asked.
“And so I did,” said Charles.
Aunt Sarah was delighted. Knowing nothing of Charles’s rescue of Davina the day before, she assumed her nephew had at last decided to follow the normal practice of paying one’s respect to neighbours.
“And did you meet the young lady?” she enquired.
“I did. Lord Shelford himself was absent.”
Aunt Sarah gazed hopefully at Charles. “And is she as – pretty as they say she is, this Davina Shelford?”
In response, Charles found his mind flooded with a vision of Davina’s upturned face as she stood with him under the portico yesterday. He saw again her flushed cheeks and the golden curls escaping from her bonnet.
Following on came another vision of her eyes that morning, as bright as diamonds and yet as violet-hued as the African sky at dusk.
These images proved so vivid and so pleasing that Charles was unexpectedly shaken. He put a hand out to steady himself and found the edge of the carved mantelpiece.
What strange twist of the heart was this? He had convinced himself that his visit to Priory Park was made out of pure courtesy. Now he had to wonder.
“Charles?” pouted Aunt Sarah.
Charles straightened. “Yes, aunt?”
“Is she pretty?”
“Yes, aunt. She is.”
“And – are you visiting her again soon?”
Charles turned sharply away. “No, aunt, I am not.”
Aunt Sarah was puzzled and disappointed. Why would her nephew not do the sensible thing and court a pretty young heiress? She did not understand that Charles would as easily rip all images of Davina from his heart as offend his own sense of pride. He was firmly resolved to offer his attentions to no lady whose fortunes were in any way greater than his own.
Aunt Sarah was so exasperated with her nephew that she determined to cut short her visit to Lark House and return home the very next day.
Her mind was changed, however, when early the next morning she saw an unfamiliar carriage rolling up to the house.
The diminutive under-maid answered the ring of the bell and stared open-mouthed up at Reeper, Lord Shelford’s footman.
“Lord Shelford and Miss Davina Shelford wish pay to their respects to Lord Delverton,” Reeper announced haughtily above the under-maid’s head.
Aunt Sarah, listening at the drawing room door, was thrown into confusion. She was thrilled, of course, that Lord Shelford and Davina had called, but at the same time she could not but be aware of the fact that there was no longer a butler or even a doorman at Lark House. So far have the family fortunes declined, she thought in despair, as she went forth to greet the visitors.
She did not miss Lord Shelford’s acute appraisal of his surroundings, even as he gave Aunt Sarah a polite bow.
Lord Shelford had guessed, from Davina’s excited chatter on the way to Lark House, that Lord Delverton had indeed somewhat replaced Felix Boyer in his daughter’s affections.
He was therefore keen to take the measure of Lord Delverton’s general situation.
He had not failed to notice, once his carriage drove through the Lark House gates that the estate was run-down and somewhat neglected. Fences needed repairing, trees needed pruning.
Now, in the house, his eyes roved over the faded tapestries, the worn covers on the chairs, the general air of shabbiness.
Watching him, Aunt
Sarah reddened. For the first time she appreciated the reasons why Charles might not wish to invite the neighbourhood gentry into his house.
She did not realise that Lord Shelford, though quickly cognisant of the financial state of the Delverton affairs, was nonetheless impressed by the family’s aristocratic lineage. His own title had been recently acquired and he secretly felt that he could not hold a candle to a real Lord.
This feeling was reinforced by his first sight of Lord Delverton.
Charles rose in surprise from his desk as Lord Shelford and Davina were admitted to his presence.
Lord Shelford was most favourably struck by the young man’s carriage and demeanour.
‘There’s true blue blood for you,’ he told himself with satisfaction.
Aunt Sarah motioned Davina to the sofa. Lord Shelford refused a seat and stood with his back to the fire, arms under his tailcoat.
“Fine old house you have here,” he remarked cheerily.
“Thank you,” said Charles. “It has been in the family for over two centuries.”
Davina had sat down quietly with her eyes lowered. At the sound of Charles’s voice, she raised her head. Aunt Sarah drew in her breath at the sight of those violet eyes.
What a little beauty, she thought. Why on earth is Charles so resolutely not looking her way?
Davina was similarly disappointed that Charles had accorded her the barest of acknowledgements. He seemed more interested in her father than in herself. He and Lord Shelford stood at the fireside discussing the recent outbreak of robberies in the area.
“I considered it remote around here,” said Lord Shelford. “That is why I liked it so much. But I didn’t expect such a degree of lawlessness. I have heard tell that the perpetrators of these outrages may be gypsies?”
“A band has set up camp recently, about ten miles from here,” Charles conceded. “But that proves nothing.”
“Hmmph,” grunted Lord Shelford. “A co-incidence, all the same. It’s a worry, I can tell you. I instructed my gatekeeper to keep the gates locked while I was away recently. Concerned about my little monkey here.”
“Indeed,” said Charles stiffly.
Davina coloured, both at being alluded to as a little monkey and then being barely glanced at by Lord Delverton.
“I understand, sir, that you were kind enough to rescue her from the storm yesterday,” continued Lord Shelford.
“I was glad to be of assistance,” he murmured. Still he did not look at Davina.
Aunt Sarah frowned at her nephew and turned toward Lord Shelford.
“May we offer you some tea?” she asked sweetly.
Lord Shelford shook his head. “Thank you, madam, but we won’t stop. I came to convey my gratitude to Lord Delverton and to ask whether he would be so gracious as to join us at Priory Park on Saturday for supper. Needless to say the invitation is extended, madam, to your good self.”
“We shall be delighted to accept,” Aunt Sarah said swiftly, before her nephew could reply.
There was a pause and then Charles gave a small bow.
“Certainly and thank you,” he said. “At what hour shall you expect us?”
“Oh, say seven o’clock,” replied Lord Shelford. “There will be light enough to show you something of our renovations, if you are interested.”
Not until she was about to pass through into the hallway did Davina turn to glance back at Charles.
With a shock, her eyes met his where they followed her departure in the mirror above the fireplace. For just a second their mutual glance held.
Then Charles looked away and Davina walked on.
All the way home to Lark House she puzzled over the expression she had glimpsed on Lord Delverton’s face.
His gaze had been on her, no doubt, and that surely betokened interest. Yet his jaw had been clenched and in his eyes had flared an emotion she could never have imagined she might inspire.
That emotion was anguish and it had so struck at Davina’s heart that she felt from this moment on her life was changed.
If she could not marry Lord Delverton of Lark House then she did not care who in the world she married.
*
Two days after Lord Shelford’s visit, Charles glanced up from his desk and was astonished to see through the window his brother Howard and Jed Barker riding up the driveway to Lark House. He hastened outside to greet them.
“I thought you were away for the entire season?” he remarked drily as Howard dismounted.
“I – didn’t do too well, brother,” admitted Howard rather sheepishly.
Charles cast a look at Jed, who still sat astride his horse. Jed stared back insolently and then caught up the reins of Howard’s gelding.
“I’ll be off to the stable,” he said. Charles watched him go and then turned to Howard.
“So how much did you lose?” he asked.
Howard grimaced. “The lot, brother.”
“And no bride?” enquired Charles sarcastically.
Howard groaned. “Don’t berate me, Charles, there’s a good fellow. I thought I was doing the right thing.”
Howard looked so woebegone that Charles said no more.
He sent a note to Lord Shelford informing him of the unexpected return of his brother. He rather hoped this news might prompt Lord Shelford to postpone the supper at Priory Park. Charles disliked the struggle that arose in his breast whenever he laid eyes on Davina.
Lord Shelford was not easily dissuaded, however. He simply invited Howard to accompany Charles and Aunt Sarah on Saturday evening.
Howard and Aunt Sarah drove to Priory Park in the family coach.
Charles followed on his own horse. He was sunk in his own thoughts all the way.
The sophisticated society women he had met before his travels had never appealed to him. The daughters of hunters and missionaries he met in Africa had appealed even less. They were admirable but unimaginative ladies, toughened by climate and experience.
Not that it would have made any difference had a single one of them touched his heart. Since his failure on that searing continent to improve the family fortune – a fortune depleted by the poor judgement of his father and the profligacy of his brother – he had steeled himself for a long bachelor-hood.
Saving what was left of the Lark House estate would consume all his energies and as such he had considered himself impervious to romance.
Now Davina Shelford, this guileless and delicate creature, had somehow penetrated his defences. He was almost angry with himself for allowing it.
These thoughts so dominated his mind that when he arrived at Priory Park and Davina presented her hand in eager greeting, his eyes were hooded and cold.
Davina’s hand was trembling as she drew it away from his lips.
This same man who had clasped her tight against his breast in the storm, who had lifted her so gently from the saddle to set her on her feet, who had straightened her bonnet on her head as she stood blushing before him – this same man now looked at her as if he wished she was not there.
His brother Howard, by contrast, made his appreciation of Davina clear from the moment he was introduced.
“How enchanting you look!” he murmured, as he took her hand. “I do hope you will allow me to lead you in to supper.”
Davina was pitifully grateful for Howard’s attentions. She had spent hours preparing for this evening’s supper, shaking her head as Jess lay dress after dress out for her inspection.
“That one is too dull – that makes my skin look green – that makes me look ancient,” she flustered. In the end she had chosen a pale pink voile with a hem of embroidered roses. Jess had arranged two pink roses in her hair and told her she looked “like a princess in a fairy-tale, miss.”
All to no avail. Lord Delverton had barely acknowledged her. She might as well have been a – a wooden umbrella stand!
To hide her distress, she responded to Howard with an almost incandescent gaiety as the evening wore on. She laughed brightly a
t his jokes, lowered her eyes before his searching gaze, blushed at his endless compliments.
Aunt Sarah, watching the two of them at supper, could barely contain her excitement.
If Howard was not in the process of winning that young lady’s heart, she would eat her silk mittens!
She glanced at Charles with almost cruel satisfaction. Her elder nephew’s eyes were dark and unreadable, but she had not failed to notice how increasingly often they strayed towards the figures of Howard and Davina.
‘Serves him right if he should regret not winning her interest,’ she thought. ‘He should have made a move sooner.’
Davina herself, although appearing to concentrate on Howard, watched Charles longingly from under her eyebrows.
When he glanced her way, his eyes were almost black with emotion and a muscle flinched in his jaw. ‘It is almost as though he – resents me,’ she thought. Only then did an alternative interpretation strike her and her heart began to flutter hopefully. ‘Could Lord Delverton possibly be jealous?’ she wondered.
Oh, how wonderful if he was!
She almost immediately reprimanded herself. Who was she to imagine she might prove alluring to a man like Lord Delverton? He found her trivial and irritating, that was why he looked her way so darkly.
As the butler cleared the plates away, Lord Shelford once again alluded to the recent spate of robberies in the neighbourhood.
“They are indeed on the increase,” Charles acknowledged. “I take the precaution now of carrying a gun with me wherever I go.”
“I hear the parson was attacked on the way back from a visit to a parishioner,” said Lord Shelford. “They knocked the poor fellow about a bit. Quite uncalled for! But what can you expect? These gypsies have no respect for a man of the cloth!”
For the first time, Howard’s attention was drawn away from Davina.
“Who says it is the gypsies?” he asked. “I don’t know why they always get the blame. They are not all devils, you know.”
“I wouldn’t know if they are devils or not,” responded Lord Shelford hotly. “I have never had the occasion to meet or converse with any of them. But their reputation goes before them. They are loose of tongue and light of finger.”
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