Jacoba made a little murmur, but she did not speak and after a minute he continued,
“I have arranged to reimburse you for your services. I think you will find I have acted generously in the matter and I have also included your fare back to London.”
His voice was hard and unyielding.
As he finished speaking, he turned round to look at the fireplace as if he could not bear the sight of her.
Suddenly something seemed to snap in Jacoba.
She made a sound like an animal caught in a trap.
Without thinking, as if driven by some force within her, she ran from the room, down the stairs and out through the front door.
She ran up the drive and, crossing the road, she took a twisting footpath that she had seen before and which led up to the moors.
She did not stop to think where she was going or what she was doing.
She only knew that the Earl was sending her away from everything that mattered to her, everything that was now a part of her life and she could not bear it.
On and on she went.
She saw only the twisting path at her feet because the sea mist obscured the moors and the valley that led down to the sea.
She climbed and climbed until she was too exhausted to go any further.
It was then she stumbled over a rock she had not seen and fell headlong into the heather.
She did not get up, but merely started to cry despairingly and hopelessly.
There was nothing left but a world she had no place in.
It was a world she could not see, a world that enveloped her obscurely and she wanted only to die.
Even as she cried she knew that she was crying not only for herself.
Nor for the hopeless position she was in.
But because she loved the Earl.
*
When Jacoba had rushed so abruptly from the study, the Earl stood staring into the fire without turning.
The door was half ajar and he did not move even when he heard somebody come into the room.
There was a pause before Doctor Faulkner exclaimed,
“You are up, my Lord! That is good news! How are you feeling?”
“I am all right,” the Earl replied curtly as if he disliked answering questions about his health.
Doctor Faulkner walked towards the fireplace.
“I am damp and cold,” he said. “If there is one thing I really dislike, it’s a sea mist.”
The Earl did not answer and the doctor continued,
“I hope Miss Ford has not gone out in this weather. If it catches her throat, I shall have another invalid on my hands!”
Still the Earl did not say anything and after a moment the doctor enquired,
“Where is Miss Ford, by the way?”
“She ran out of the room and I heard her going down the stairs, I presume to go into the garden.”
Doctor Faulkner stared at the Earl.
“Why did she run out of the room? Have you upset her?”
“I told her that she had to leave,” the Earl explained. “I have written out an extremely large cheque to pay for her services and included the price of her ticket to London.”
The doctor was silent for a moment.
Then he said,
“Then it was Jacoba I saw running across the road and up the path towards the moor. I thought I must be mistaken.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” the Earl enquired.
“She should not be going up onto the moor in this mist,” the doctor said, “but I suppose, as you have sent her away, she has gone somewhere to cry unobserved.”
“To cry?” the Earl asked. “Why should she want to do that?”
“Oh, for God’s sake, man!” the doctor raised his voice impatiently. “The girl has been with you ever since you became conscious. You cannot be so stupid as not to realise that she is in love with you!”
The Earl stared at him.
“In love with – me? Why should you think that?”
“I have eyes in my head,” the doctor replied, sounding even more exasperated. “And I had hoped, although, of course, it was extremely foolish of me, that perhaps, as she is such an exceptional person and so beautiful, she might turn you into a human being!”
There was a defeated note in his voice as he added,
“But I was mistaken and God knows what will happen to her now if she gets lost on the moor!”
As he was speaking, he was aware that the Earl was staring at him in a strange manner.
Without speaking he went rapidly from the room.
The doctor heard his footsteps running down the stairs.
*
Jacoba was aware that the mist that covered her was damp and cold, but somehow it did not seem to matter.
Her hands were still covering her face as she cried, but no longer as convulsively as she had before.
Now she cried tears of despair, the tears of someone who has lost all hope.
The world was lost and she was abandoned in a ‘no-man’s-land’.
She thought if she died here that no one would find her.
The Earl would merely be glad that she had gone and he need no longer be troubled by her.
It was then she became aware of something nuzzling against her.
As she started, suddenly frightened, she realised that it was one of the Earl’s spaniels.
The dog began to bark and the other spaniel, which must have been just behind him, came running up also barking.
Jacoba put out a shaking hand towards them.
As she did so, she became aware that somebody large and dark was looming up through the swirling mist.
Even as she looked up, the Earl knelt down beside her and put his arms around her.
Jacoba gave a little gasp as he pulled her against him saying,
“How could you run away like that? How could you do anything so foolish as to climb the moors alone in the mist?”
She thought he was angry.
At the same time she felt her heart turn a somersault because he was there and his arms were around her.
She hid her face against his shoulder.
“How could you leave me?” he asked. “Supposing I had not been able to find you?”
Jacoba thought that she must be dreaming.
Yet there was a note in his voice she had not heard before.
“Y-you – told me to – go away,” she said in a voice that was little above a whisper.
“That was because I thought after the way I treated you when you first arrived that you must hate me!”
He put his hand under her chin to turn her face up to his.
They could only just see each other through the mist and yet she was vividly aware of him and how close he was to her.
“What do you feel about me?” he asked. “Tell me, tell me the truth, for I could not bear anything else.”
Because it did not seem real, Jacoba could only answer,
“I-I love you – I love you – I cannot help it – and – if I have to – go away – I would – r-rather – die!”
The Earl’s arms tightened until it was difficult for her to breathe.
Then he was kissing her.
Kissing her not gently but fiercely, demandingly, as if he was afraid of losing her and was fighting the world to keep her with him.
Jacoba could not believe it was happening.
Yet, as his lips took possession of hers, she felt as if a shaft of lightning flashed through her.
It was a rapture and half a pain.
It was so intense, so different from anything she had ever known before, that she could hardly believe it was real and not part of a dream.
The Earl was kissing her, but now he was gentler.
Yet still demanding and possessive and she loved him with her whole being.
It was true that, if she could not stay with him, she would rather die.
Only when a long time later he raised his head did she say incoherently,
“You will stay with me for ever!” the Earl said.
“Are – are you – sure?”
“I love you, Jacoba! I love you as I have never loved anyone before! But I was so desperately afraid that you must hate me that I had to send you away.”
He did not wait for her to answer him, but kissed her again.
He kissed her until she felt that she must have died and had somehow reached Heaven.
An even longer time later, but it could have been a hundred years, the Earl said,
“Come, I must take you back, my darling. It’s dangerous to be out here in this mist.”
Jacoba looked up at him and gave a little laugh.
“The mist has – lifted!”
The Earl raised his head and saw that she was right.
While he had been kissing her, crouched in the heather with the two dogs lying beside them, the mist had dispersed.
The sky had lightened and now there was just a glimmer of sunlight.
Looking back, they could see the towers of The Castle, but there was still some mist hovering over the woods and the garden, but that too was gradually disappearing.
The Earl rose to his feet and pulled Jacoba to hers.
With his arms round her he said,
“How can you be so beautiful! Do you really love me?”
“I – love you – and I am – so happy that I am sure I am – dreaming!” Jacoba replied.
The Earl kissed her eyes as if he would kiss away the tears that had made her lashes wet.
Then he said,
“I am taking you home and you must have a hot bath immediately in case you catch a chill.”
Jacoba gave a little cry.
“That is something you too must avoid when you have been so ill!”
She put out her hands to touch him.
“How could – you have come – out into – that dreadful mist to – find me?”
“Because otherwise I might have lost you,” the Earl said. “Now come along, my darling, let’s talk about it when we get home.”
He took her by the hand and they walked down the twisting path.
It was so steep that Jacoba wondered how she had managed to climb so high when she could see nothing beyond where she put her feet.
The spaniels raced ahead of them. They were wagging their tails as if they knew that everything was all right.
As The Castle came into view, Jacoba said,
“I am soaking wet and I am – sure I look – awful! I do not want anyone to see – me like – this.”
The Earl smiled.
“You look lovely to me, but I know what you mean. We will go in by a side door.”
They went in through one that opened onto the garden and up a different staircase from the main one at the front of The Castle.
The Earl took her to her room and as he opened the door he suggested,
“Hurry, because I want to talk to you. I will be in my study.”
He would have gone away, but Jacoba said,
“You must get out of those clothes. You too are wet!”
“Are you still looking after me?” he asked.
“I am still – your nurse – and therefore – you must obey me!”
He laughed before he said,
“I will obey you and you will obey me. I will tell the servants to bring you up a bath of hot water.”
“You are to have one too!” Jacoba answered. “I would not want you to be ill again.”
There was so much love in her voice that the Earl took a step towards her.
Then, as if he knew that she was right in thinking they must both take off their wet clothes, he went to his own room.
Jacoba took off all her clothes, which were very wet.
Then she climbed into bed aware that she was starving.
At the same time her heart was surging with happiness.
The bath was brought into her bedroom and the hot water arrived surprisingly quickly.
She bathed, dressed and was in such a hurry to go back to the Earl that she hardly looked in the mirror.
She ran along the passage and found, as he had said, that he was in his study.
She opened the door and for a moment they just looked at each other.
Then the Earl held out his arms and she ran towards him.
He held her close and, as she looked up at him, he declared,
“I love you, my darling! We are going to be married tomorrow, or at the very latest, the day after.”
“M-married?” Jacoba stammered.
“I intend to tie you to me by every vow and law that exists,” the Earl stipulated.
Jacoba gave what was almost a little sob and hid her face against him.
“I-I am not – grand enough to be your – wife,” she whispered. “And suppose – after we are married you are – disappointed?”
The Earl laughed and it was a very tender sound.
“You are everything I have ever wanted, Jacoba, and nobody will stop me from having you with me every day, every hour and every second for the rest of our lives!”
Then he was kissing her again.
Kissing her so demandingly that she knew he intended, whatever the difficulties, to have his own way.
Her eyes were shining and he only released her to say,
“I am being selfish! I should have given you something to drink as soon as we came back to The Castle. To make quite sure, my lovely one, that you don’t catch cold, I want you to drink a little brandy.”
He walked to the table in the corner as he spoke and brought back a glass he had already prepared for her.
She wrinkled her nose and took a little sip.
“I know it’s – very strong – and I don’t – like it.”
“But you will drink it, to please me,” the Earl said.
She looked up at him.
“You know I want to – please you and I will do – anything you say.”
She drank a little of the brandy as she spoke and looked at him questioningly.
“A little more!” he insisted.
She could feel the strong liquid seeping through her and it swept away the last vestiges of the wet and chilling mist.
He took the glass from her and put it down on a table.
When he came back, she was holding out her hands to the fire and the flames were leaping up the big chimney.
“There is so much I want to say to you,” he said, “but when I look at you all I want to do is to kiss you and ask you again and again if you love me.”
“If I tell you – how much perhaps – you will grow – tired of hearing it.”
He pulled her against him, but, as his lips sought hers, the door opened.
Ross seemed to burst into the room as the Earl and Jacoba both looked round.
“My Lord! My Lord!” Ross exclaimed. “There’s trouble, I’m afraid.”
“Trouble?” the Earl enquired.
“It’s the women, my Lord. They’re at the front door demandin’ to see you. My ain wife’s among them and I’m not able to stop her.”
“I cannot imagine what this is all about,” the Earl asked.
“I think you should come at once, my Lord,” Ross suggested.
The Earl walked from the study and because she was curious and also a little apprehensive Jacoba followed him.
He went down the stairs and she could see in the hall that there were two footmen barring the way to the women outside.
It was growing late.
Dusk had come and there was still a light mist over the garden and the lower part of The Castle.
Keeping in the background as the Earl walked towards the door, Jacoba could see through the window that there was a large crowd of women outside.
Behind them there were a number of men looking, she thought, a little shamefaced and upset by what was occurring.
The two footmen moved to one side and the Earl walked outsi
de to stand at the top of the steps looking down at the women.
“You wanted to see me?” he asked in a clear voice.
One of the women moved forward and Jacoba recognised her as the one who had questioned as to why a Sassenach should be so interested in Scotland.
She stood facing the Earl and piped up fearlessly,
“Aye, we’ve come to tell you we’ve had enough of your curses. Mrs. McAllister’s lost her wee son this very mornin’ and Ferguson’s found his best ewe dead in the road.”
She drew in her breath. There was a little murmur of agreement among the other women before their spokeswoman went on,
“’Tis you, my Lord, who’s brought all this trouble upon us and noo we hear you’ve sent awa yon lassie who nursed you back to health. She’s one of us and ’tis you who should be leavin’ – not her!”
She paused before she went on,
“We’ve come to tell you noo that we’ll choose another Chieftain, and either you go, or we’ll burn doon The Castle, and with it your curses!”
She seemed almost to spit the words at the Earl.
Now the other women lifted up their arms and shouted,
“Get oot! Go! Awa with you! And leave us in peace!”
They sounded so truculent and savage that for one frightening moment Jacoba thought that they might rush at the Earl and injure him.
Instinctively she moved forward to stand at his side.
As she appeared, there was a gasp.
She knew that the women believed she had gone or perhaps the rumour had spread that she was lost on the moors.
She slipped her hand into the Earl’s.
She sensed that he was feeling for words and trying to think of how he could answer the angry women who faced him.
Before he could say anything, Jacoba spoke up,
“You have it all wrong. Everything has changed – and, if there have been curses put on you, they have now been – swept away by something much stronger than evil and that is – love!”
She blushed a little as she finished speaking and then she looked up at the Earl.
His fingers tightened on hers as he said and his voice seemed to ring out,
“That is true, and I know you will congratulate me when you hear that I have asked Jacoba Ford to be my wife. I now invite you all to our wedding, which will take place the day after tomorrow!”
74. Love Lifts The Curse Page 11