‘You danced with Simon,’ Jane said thoughtfully. ‘I saw the two of you. You looked very happy.’
Thérèse evaded her eyes. ‘I was enjoying myself. It was like a fairytale and the deception added spice to it all! Just for once…’ She shook her head. ‘Oh, I cannot say that I was mingling with my equals, in a place I was meant to be, for fate has decreed otherwise! But it was lovely. Then that toad of a man tried to importune me and your brother came to my aid…’ Her voice trailed away.
‘You like Simon, don’t you?’ Jane said perceptively. ‘Regardless of what you have said, I do believe…’
Thérèse looked away. She was silent for a moment. ‘Perhaps if things had been different…Yes-’ suddenly she pushed the dress away from her and stood up ‘-when I met him I thought-there is a man…’ there was a smile in her eyes ‘…and truly, I was tempted for the first time ever, but…’
‘But Simon does not want you to be his mistress!’ Jane objected. ‘He would never insult you so! He wants to marry you!’
‘Even worse!’ Thérèse said briskly. ‘Can you imagine people asking your mother about her daughter-in-law and she being obliged to say that it is the girl who made her dresses?’
‘Our family does not care about such things!’ Jane said staunchly.
Thérèse suddenly looked very tired. ‘Everybody cares about such things, Jane! But there is worse! You have seen Samways-can you imagine him coming to Portman Square and blackmailing me with threats to tell the ton how I paid him to stay out of his whorehouses…What a delicious scandal that would be! Now, would you like to share my luncheon? It is only bread and cheese, but the cheese is French!’
Chapter Fourteen
The afternoon dragged by. Shortly after lunch, a man brought some medicines for the Vicomtesse de Beaurain, and she roused herself sufficiently to take a spoonful at Thérèse’s coaxing.
‘What is the matter with her?’ Jane whispered softly, as Thérèse returned to the sewing-table. She did not wish to pry, but there was something unbearably touching about the patient devotion with which the daughter nursed her sick mother.
‘She has a weak chest and is forever suffering inflammation of the lungs,’ Thérèse said. ‘She needs to go to a hot climate, or to a spa, perhaps, to cure her.’ For a moment the tears shone in her eyes, then she blinked them back. ‘Now come! I need to finish this dress so that I may pay Samways!’
They talked some more. Thérèse spoke about her experiences as a governess and Jane told Thérèse about her childhood at Ambergate, managing to talk quite a lot about Simon in the process.
‘It sounds a delightful place to live,’ Thérèse said dreamily, when Jane had finished describing the rolling Wiltshire hills and lush fields. ‘But I suppose that all young ladies must come to London to make a suitable match. Are you betrothed yet, Jane? It would seem very likely!’
Jane blushed. She had managed to avoid speaking of Alex and even succeeded in not thinking about him for at least five minutes at a time.
‘No! Yes, that is, I suppose I am, in a manner of speaking…’
‘Tiens!’ Thérèse said, amused. ‘Are you or are you not, Jane? You do not seem certain!’
‘Well…’ suddenly Jane felt like confiding. ‘There is a gentleman who made an arrangement with my father that I should become betrothed to his brother.’
Thérèse nodded. ‘That I can understand. That also is the way of the world! And then?’
‘I did not wish to marry the brother,’ Jane said, ‘and then he fell in love with my dearest friend.’
‘And what happened about the arranged match?’
Jane blushed again. ‘Well, the gentleman-he is a Duke-wishes me to marry him now instead of his brother, in order to preserve the family alliance. It was not a good enough reason to persuade me. Unfortunately yesterday we became…in short, I appear to be compromised and will have to agree.’
It sounded quite extraordinary when described in those bald terms and indeed Thérèse was staring at her in the greatest astonishment.
‘Mon Dieu, Jane, do not tell me half the story! Who is this Duke, and what is he like, and how on earth did so innocent a girl as you become compromised?’
Jane could feel herself blushing all the more. ‘The gentleman is the Duke of Delahaye. He is-oh, how can I describe him? He is accustomed to people falling in with his plans and was not at all pleased when I opposed them! He is handsome but seems a little grave until one gets to know him, and he has a reputation as a recluse, which some consider to be most odd! But I think-’
Jane broke off, aware that she was smiling and that she had given herself away entirely.
‘So you are in love with him,’ Thérèse said shrewdly, ‘in which case why did you refuse his proposal?’
Jane hesitated. ‘Why do you refuse to see Simon?’ she countered. ‘The reasons are not always simple, are they, Thérèse?’
Their eyes held for a moment, then the older girl smiled and shrugged a little. ‘I like you, Jane Verey! I should not, but I do! Mon Dieu, why must the Vereys make things so much more difficult for me?’
Jane was glad to turn the subject away from herself. She knew that she had given herself away too easily. It did not matter that Thérèse suspected that she was in love with Alex, but at all costs she had to guard against him finding out the truth. It would be too demeaning, when his affections still lay with his dead wife. With a little pang of apprehension, Jane realised that she would have to face Alex at some point and explain why she had disregarded his warnings to avoid Spitalfields. It was a nerve-racking thought.
‘We saw you with Samways at Vauxhall Gardens,’ Jane said suddenly, her thoughts of Alex bringing her back to the man who had threatened him there. ‘Surely you did not go there with him, Thérèse?’
Thérèse laughed. ‘No Jane, you may acquit me of complaisance in Samways’s dirty schemes! I had gone to Vauxhall on my own-I was playing truant again, I confess! Samways caught up with me there and tried to persuade me to join him in a spot of enterprise. He was engaged in lifting plump purses from unsuspecting victims and wished to pass them on to me for safe-keeping! I gave him the rightabout and saw no more of him!’
Jane hesitated on the edge of telling Thérèse about Samways’s attack on Alex, but held her peace. For all the older girl’s worldliness and air of cynicism, Jane suspected that she would be shocked. It was not comforting, however, to think that she was in the power of a man who was so ruthless. Jane hoped profoundly that Simon would pay what was demanded and that she would be home within a few hours.
They chatted a little more, then Thérèse made some broth for their supper and managed to persuade her mother to take a little. A soft conversation in French followed, then Thérèse called Jane over.
‘Miss Verey, may I make you known to my mother, the Vicomtesse de Beaurain? Mama, this is Miss Jane Verey.’
The Vicomtesse had the waxy pallor of the very ill. Her slight body made barely a dent under the thin covers. Her eyes, a faded blue that had no doubt once been as vivid as Thérèse’s own, were sunk deep and shadowed with pain. Nevertheless, they rested on Jane with interest and warmth. She took Jane’s hand in her own.
‘Enchantée, mam’zelle…’
‘I am sorry that you are so unwell, ma’am,’ Jane said sincerely. ‘It must be horrid for you. If I can do anything to help-’
The Vicomtesse opened her blue eyes very wide. ‘You can help, Miss Verey. You can persuade my foolish daughter to give your brother a hearing. She is pining for him, yet absurd notions of rank and pride keep her silent-’
‘Maman!’ Jane was amused to see that Thérèse had blushed bright red. ‘You should not give me away!’
‘Pshaw!’ The Vicomtesse made a vague gesture, lying back and closing her eyes. ‘I want what is best for my daughter, Miss Verey, and I recognise love when I see it. Seven times your brother has come here to speak to Thérèse and each time she has sent him away. Yet afterwards, she cries…’
> ‘Maman,’ Thérèse said again, beseechingly, ‘it is not so simple-’
‘Nonsense! It is as simple or as complicated as you wish to make it! That’s French practicality!’ The Vicomtesse smiled faintly. ‘Now let me rest, child, and think on what I have said!’
The candle had burned down. Thérèse started to tidy the room and folded up the sewing with neat, practical movements. ‘It is very late,’ she said. ‘Perhaps Samways will not be back tonight. You should try and rest…’
She dragged out a pallet from under the Viscomtesse’s bed and gestured towards it, but Jane was shaking her head.
‘I should not sleep,’ she said with truth. ‘I will doze in the chair-’
The door opened and Jane’s heart leaped in her throat. Samways came in, grinning at Thérèse as she looked down her nose at him.
‘Good evening, Princess! Well, now, it seems I have a tastier bait than I had thought at first!’ He swung round on Jane, who instinctively drew back. ‘It seems,’ Samways said gloatingly, ‘that this little lady is the betrothed of the Duke of Delahaye!’
Jane caught her breath as he came towards her and raised one calloused hand to run it down her cheek. She flinched away. ‘I have a grudge against that man,’ Samways continued. ‘At first I wondered whether it would suffice to send you back to him after an instructive night in one of my clubs…It’s a sweet notion!’ His shoulders shook at Jane’s look of disgusted horror. ‘But then I thought not-I’m not a vindictive man-I’ll just use you to bait the trap! He will come to save you, will he not?’
‘Let us hope he thinks it worth it!’ Jane said, with more cold composure than she was feeling. ‘I was telling Mademoiselle de Beaurain earlier that it is an arranged match. I pray that his Grace will put himself to the trouble!’
For a moment Samways hesitated, then showed his teeth in a yellow grin. ‘You had better pray so, miss! Now, you will stay here whilst I send to his Grace of Delahaye, telling him to meet me here to negotiate the terms of your freedom…’
With a sick flash of memory, Jane saw again that night at Vauxhall, the moonlight glinting on the knife blade. She knew what would await Alex when he came to keep the meeting. Thérèse stepped closer, as though she were afraid that Jane would faint, and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
‘It will be all right, chérie…’
Jane swallowed hard. ‘What is your quarrel with Alex Delahaye, sir? If you intend to use me in your revenge I believe I have a right to know!’
For a moment she thought that Samways would refuse, but then he smiled again. ‘The man robbed me of fortune, that it what I hold against him!’
‘Robbed you?’ Jane sounded as amazed as she felt. She had not expected this.
‘Aye.’ Samways passed his handkerchief across his florid face. ‘There was a time when I was a gentleman, set fair to marry one of his Grace’s relatives! Rich she was-a rich widow ripe for the picking, and sweet enough on me to make the business easy! That was before the Duke saw fit to put an end to it and lose me a fortune into the bargain!’
‘A rich widow-’ Jane was almost whispering.
‘Aye, Lady Eleanor Fane!’ The hatred in his voice was almost tangible now. ‘That oh-so-respectable society lady was willing to throw her bonnet over the windmill for me-until Delahaye turned me off! All that fortune that would have been mine-none of this scraping and scratching a living…’
Jane sat down rather quickly, her thoughts whirling. It was an extraordinary story. The thought of the severe Lady Eleanor being thwarted from making a runaway match with an unsuitable man at least ten years her junior made the imagination boggle. Yet Samways had said that he had been a gentleman once and his hatred of Alex was all too real…
Dimly she registered that Samways was leaving and instructing one of his men to stay with the girls. Thérèse was objecting at this invasion of her home but was being overruled. The door slammed behind and the man settled himself in the armchair, fingering his knife and grinning wolfishly at Jane. Thérèse, who appeared to have accepted the situation with sudden and suspicious equanimity, was offering him a drink of wine. Jane watched as she moved across to pour it and, behind the man’s back, added some of her mother’s medicine. Jane stared, then, obedient to a fierce glare from Thérèse, looked away.
They settled down, Jane taking the pallet that Thérèse had indicated and Thérèse herself lighting another candle and sitting at the workbench as though prepared to sit out the night. The presence of Samway’s henchman prevented any kind of discussion. On the bed, the Vicomtesse sighed a little in her sleep.
For what seemed like hours, Jane lay rigid on the hard pallet, her thoughts going round and around in her head. It was bad enough to have put herself in a position where Simon could be asked for money for her safe return, but to have brought Alex into danger was an entirely different matter. She wondered whether Samways had contacted him yet, what he would do, whether he could escape the threat and if so, what would happen to her…She knew her thoughts were quite profitless but she could not escape them. A couple of tears squeezed from beneath her eyelids.
‘Jane!’ Thérèse was shaking her by the shoulder and Jane opened her eyes, dazzled for a moment by the candle flame. ‘Come quickly! He is asleep!’
‘What-?’
‘The poppy juice!’ Thérèse said impatiently. ‘I thought it would never work!’ She stood aside so that Jane could see the slumped figure of the guard, sound asleep and snoring loudly. ‘Now, listen. You must get out of that window and climb along the ledge to the end of the building. There is a staircase there that leads down to the street. Samways’s men will be about, but in the dark you may be able to slip past. If not, there is a family in the end tenement who will hide you! I would come too, only I cannot leave Maman here! I pray you will not be too late!’
‘But when he comes back…’ Jane was struggling with the stiff catch on the window. ‘What will you say, Thérèse?’
‘Oh, that I fell asleep and when I awoke you were gone! If it comes to it, Jane, I will do everything I can to help your Duke of Delahaye, but I hope-I imagine-that he is a man who can look after himself! Now, good luck and godspeed!’ She gave Jane a brief, hard hug.
Just climbing out of the window was frightful enough for Jane. She had never been afraid of heights, but in the dark she felt frighteningly exposed and alone. The ledge was wide enough to edge along very carefully but when her dress caught on a nail and pulled her back she almost lost her balance, and had to bite her lip hard to prevent herself from crying out. She found that she no longer cared if all of Samways’s men were thronging the street below as long as she could get back on to solid ground.
She reached the end of the building at last and stepped carefully down into the dark stairwell, pausing for her frightened breathing to still. There was no sound or movement close by and she began to hope that she had been undetected. The stairs were unlit and she started to creep down, feeling her way down one wall, each step a venture into the unknown.
When she got to the bottom she paused again, before peering gingerly around the corner and out into the street. It appeared to be deserted, which was odd since Samways’s men had been swarming everywhere earlier. Jane started to slip along the edge of the building, keeping in the shadows, intent only on reaching the main street and trying to find someone who could help her. She tried to blot out of her mind the dangers of wandering around London at night, the perils that might befall her, the fact that Alex might even now be walking into a trap…
She reached the end of the buildings and there was a pool of darkness before her, blacker than the surrounding night. Jane darted across, almost tripping over a kerb stone and putting out a hand blindly to break her fall. And then she was caught and held in a merciless grip, strong arms sweeping her up and away from the darkness, but she did not cry out or struggle, for as soon as he had touched her she had recognised who he was.
There was light and warmth, and someone was forcing strong spiri
t down her throat.
‘What the hell do we do now, Alex?’ Jane heard a voice say.
Jane coughed and opened her eyes. She was still in Alex’s arms, sitting on his knee and held close, which struck her as somewhat improper given that the other occupants of the room were Harry Marchnight and her own brother. She struggled to be free, but Alex held her tightly.
‘Jane? Has he hurt you? Are you all right?’
‘No, I am not hurt,’ Jane said crossly, ‘but for you squeezing me half to death!’
She saw Simon’s tense face ease into a smile as he exchanged a rueful look with Alex. ‘She’s quite herself,’ he observed.
Alex stood up, placing her gently in the chair opposite his.
‘We haven’t much time,’ he said. ‘You really are unhurt, Jane? Tell me the truth!’
‘Yes, truly!’ Jane was shaken and a little awed by what she saw in Alex’s face. ‘And Thérèse is quite safe, though we must not be gone long! She drugged the man who was sent to guard us, but how long he will remain unconscious is another matter-’
‘That was when you escaped?’ Henry questioned swiftly. ‘And there was only one man left in the room with you?’
Jane nodded. ‘Thérèse would not come with me because she would not leave her mother, but she should not be left to face Samways alone! He said his men were everywhere, but-’
‘We’ve taken out all of those who were guarding the street,’ Alex said. ‘We were intending to ambush the ones in the house with you, though of course we had no way of knowing how many there were. But you say there is only one, and he has been dealt with by Mademoiselle de Beaurain.’ He flashed Simon a grin. ‘The next time we consider mounting a rescue we will remember that the two of you are well able to take care of yourselves! What did you have in mind for Samways? Hitting him over the head with a saucepan, perhaps?’
Miss Verey’s Proposal Page 22