He saw her and swept off his hat as he drew his horse to a standstill.
“Good afternoon, Gytha! Have you come to meet me?”
“Yes, I came to tell you before you reached the house that – both my – cousins are there.”
The way she spoke made him ask sharply,
“What has happened?”
“I told them – we were – engaged,” Gytha said with a tremor in her voice. “Then Grandpapa came down – and there was a – terrible row. It – upset Grandpapa so much that he had a kind of seizure and had to be – taken to bed.”
She paused before she added,
“Vincent and Jonathan have threatened that if Grandpapa leaves everything to me – they will contest the will.”
“That is what I might have expected,” Lord Locke exclaimed.
He dismounted and stood beside her.
As he looked down at her, he could see that her face was very pale and her eyes were larger and more frightened than they had been yesterday.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
“Is it too much to ask of you to meet them? I do think, if they see you, they will – realise what I said is – serious and there is – nothing that they can do – about it.”
“I doubt if meeting me will make them change their minds about contesting the will,” Lord Locke said, “but I am perfectly prepared to do anything you want of me.”
“Thank you very much, my Lord.”
They walked slowly down the drive.
Lord Locke led Hercules, until a groom standing outside the house saw them and he hurried to the horse’s head.
Then, as they climbed the steps and entered the house, Lord Locke was aware that Gytha was really frightened.
He thought it outrageous that she should be subjected to such strain when she was so young and alone.
“Surely,” he asked as they walked through the hall, “there is some relative, an older woman, you could ask to come to stay with you?”
“I doubt if anyone would put up with Grandpapa for long,” Gytha answered ruefully, “and he is very difficult about having strangers in the house.”
She opened the door of the drawing room.
As she expected, Vincent and his brother were sitting in front of the fire.
They were obviously discussing what they could do about the new situation.
And she supposed that they were waiting and hoping to see Sir Robert again and would then try to make him change his mind.
Gytha was quite certain that Dobson would not allow anyone near Sir Robert and he would insist on his resting quietly without being disturbed.
Now, although she was afraid, she managed to appear at her ease.
She walked down the room with Lord Locke beside her.
Reluctantly Vincent and Jonathan rose to their feet.
“I thought, Cousin Vincent,” she said, “that you would like to meet my fiancé, Lord Locke.”
In his fury Vincent’s eyebrows seemed almost to meet across the bridge of his nose as he replied,
“I never expected to encounter your Lordship in this house.”
“It is rather a surprise to find myself here,” Lord Locke declared. “But surely we are all intelligent enough to realise that this ridiculous feud should come to an end and what better way to end it than that our two families should be united in marriage?”
He was amused by the fury on Vincent's face as he spoke, while Jonathan looked as if he was going to burst into tears.
“I consider,” Vincent said ponderously, “that you must have taken advantage of my cousin in persuading her to marry you, even if you were not aware that my uncle always intended that she should marry either my brother or me.”
“I can understand your feelings,” Lord Locke said, “but, as Gytha has made it clear that she prefers me, I hope you will both be sporting enough to wish us happiness and show no ill-feeling.”
“Pretty words!” Vincent sneered. “The fact remains that you, or rather Gytha, are deliberately robbing us of our inheritance that we are entitled to as Sullivans.”
“Having met your uncle,” Lord Locke replied, “I am convinced that he is perfectly capable of making up his own mind as to who shall benefit under his will. Gytha has most certainly not influenced him in the way that you are insinuating.”
“I have my own opinion about that,” Vincent replied. “I am convinced that I can find witnesses to prove not only that my uncle is deranged but that he had been illegally persuaded into making a will entirely in his granddaughter’s favour.”
“That, of course, will be for the Courts to decide,” Lord Locke replied. “I shall certainly employ learned Counsel to represent my fiancée and make quite certain that she is not deprived of anything that she is entitled to.”
He turned as he spoke to Gytha, saying as he did so,
“I think, my dear, no good can come of our arguing further with these gentlemen. Just leave all your problems in my hands, as I do not wish you to be troubled by them.”
“Thank – you,” Gytha replied.
The look in her eyes was more expressive than her words.
Lord Locke then drew her from the room.
As they walked down the passage towards the study, she said,
“Thank you – thank you! How can you be so – wonderful? I am sure now that Vincent and Jonathan will think – twice before they – upset Grandpapa again or start any – proceedings against me.”
“They cannot do that anyhow until your grandfather is dead.”
Gytha drew in her breath.
She suddenly realised that once her grandfather was dead, their supposed engagement would come to an end and he would not be there to fight her battles for her and protect her.
Lord Locke did not seem to notice the drab appearance of the study.
He stood in front of the fire, saying,
“Don’t worry yourself. I am quite certain that your cousin Vincent will realise that going to law with a very slim chance of winning a long drawn out case would cost a great deal of money, which I understand he does not possess.”
He paused before he continued,
“In his own interests it would be far better for him to make himself pleasant to you in the hope that you will give him and his brother a small allowance. If your grandfather’s wealth is as great as you suspect, that will be quite easy to do.”
“Yes, of course,” Gytha agreed, “and I would be quite willing to help them. But I think they would want much more than a little – in fact practically everything I possess.”
“That they certainly must not have!” Lord Locke said firmly.
He looked to where she was sitting, small and despondent.
Once again he thought that her golden hair was like the sunshine.
“Surely,” he asked, “as I suggested before, you should have somebody here with you. After all your grandfather is very ill and cannot want you with him every hour of the day. At least you would have somebody to talk to.”
“I would like that, but I know it would annoy Grandpapa very much if I engaged anyone without his permission. In any case I have no idea who I could ask to come here. They would find it very dull.”
“But you are prepared to put up with it?”
Gytha smiled.
“It is impossible for me to go away and anyway I have nowhere to go and no money.”
“I don’t believe that I have ever met anybody with so many difficulties in her life all at once!” Lord Locke smiled. “I suppose it is impossible for me to suggest that you come to stay in my house for a few days?”
He saw Gytha’s eyes light up.
Then she said,
“That is something I would – love to do – but perhaps it would – upset your – friend.”
Lord Locke knew at once which particular friend she was referring to.
Before he could speak she went on,
“Anyway I am sure it would upset Grandpapa. But perhaps you could ask me to lunc
heon or dinner another day. That would be very exciting for me.”
“You will be welcome at any time,” Lord Locke replied, “and, as my house party is leaving tomorrow morning, I suggest that you come over to luncheon and again in the evening.”
“Thank you. It is so kind of you.”
“I must leave you now and don’t allow yourself to be upset by your cousins.”
“I will try not to see them,” Gytha answered. “I had luncheon upstairs today and will stay there as long as they remain. I am hoping that they will leave before dinner.”
“Then I will see you tomorrow for luncheon,” Lord Locke said. “Take care of yourself, Gytha, and, if at any time you need me, send a groom with a message and I will come to you immediately.”
“Thank you – thank you!” Gytha said again.
He knew that her gratitude came from her heart.
She walked with him to the front door.
As he mounted his horse, he swept off his hat and she thought that it was a courtly gesture.
He rode away.
She watched him until he was out of sight.
She would have been flattered if she had known that, as Lord Locke rode across the Park, he was thinking that standing on the top of the steps she looked very small, frail and insecure.
It was almost as if the huge, ugly house was menacing her and she might be crushed by the weight of it.
Then he told himself that he was being absurdly imaginative.
At the same time he was doing the best he could to repay the debt he owed to her father.
Chapter five
Lord Locke had passed a restless night.
To begin with he was aware that Zuleika was determined to have a scene with him sooner or later.
And he had every intention of avoiding it.
It was two o’clock in the morning when the house party finally went up to bed, having gambled for very high stakes at the card tables.
Lord Locke, instead of going to his own room, went into Perry’s.
“What is the situation now, Valiant?” Perry asked him.
He was the only person who Lord Locke had told the truth to about his alleged engagement to Gytha.
After she had been to dinner, Perry had sung her praises loudly and sincerely.
“She is beautiful and she is intelligent,” he said, “and, although she needs dressing up to compete with the beauties of St. James’s, she is, in my opinion, a most exceptional young lady.”
Lord Locke was hardly listening.
Now, as he entered his friend’s room, Perry knew by the expression on his face what was worrying him.
“I suppose there is nothing you can do about Zuleika,” he said cheerily, “except hope that tomorrow comes quickly.”
“She has been trying all day to get me alone,” Lord Locke replied, “and I suspect she reckons that now the hour has come.”
“Lock your door, old man!” Perry teased.
“It goes against the grain to do anything that makes me feel like a young housemaid being pursued by a lecherous Master,” Lord Locke said sharply.
Perry laughed, but Lord Locke went on,
“I suppose I have no alternative, except to listen to what she is longing to say to me.”
“I would advise you not to do that. You know these Eastern people, very long-winded when it comes to a grievance.”
Lord Locke, watching his friend as he took off his well-tied cravat, knew that he was speaking the truth.
“I have a feeling that Zuleika is going to be very difficult,” he said reflectively as if he was talking to himself.
“I will wager that is the understatement of the year!” Perry replied. “I always thought that she was bad news from the first moment you produced her.”
Lord Locke sighed.
“I think she produced herself or rather attached herself to me.”
“And now,” Perry remarked, “she is like a piece of clinging ivy and, if you pull off one piece, another sticks on.”
“You are not being much help,” Lord Locke complained.
“If you are asking for advice,” Perry replied, “the best thing you can do is to sleep in a different room. Heaven knows, you have enough of them!”
“That is the first intelligent thing you have said so far.”
Lord Locke rose as he spoke and walked towards the door.
“Goodnight, Perry. Ride with me before breakfast and then help me speed the parting guests. I have no wish for Zuleika to remain behind.”
“That is your job, old boy, not mine,” Perry responded blithely.
Lord Locke went to his own room, but before he rang for his valet he had an idea.
He took a beautiful arrangement of chrysanthemums out of a vase that stood on one of the chests of drawers.
He pushed the flowers as high as he could up the chimney and then put two fresh logs on the fire.
It was only a few minutes before smoke began to ooze out into the room.
He rang the bell for his valet.
Walters, an athletic little man, who had served with him in his Regiment, came hurrying at the summons.
Having opened the door, he looked with surprise at the smoke.
“The fire’s smokin’, my Lord,” he exclaimed unnecessarily, “and the chimney sweep were ’ere only ten days ago. It’s a disgrace, that’s what it is!”
“I agree with you,” Lord Locke replied, “and, as I have no intention of choking myself, you had better take my nightclothes to the Marlborough Room. I imagine the bed is made up!”
“Of course, my Lord. The rooms on this floor are always ready in case your Lordship ’as some unexpected guests.”
“Very well, that is where I will sleep.”
He walked quickly down the corridor.
He was hoping that Zuleika, whose room was only a few doors away from his, would not be aware that he had moved.
Then, when he was undressed and in bed, he was strangely not thinking of the trouble Zuleika was likely to be.
Instead, he was considering what he should do about Gytha.
He could quite understand her dislike of Vincent, whom he recognised as a fop of the worst description.
And Jonathan, he thought, was equally unpleasant.
‘I shall have to do something about her,’ he decided.
He had, however, no notion for the moment what it could be.
He found it difficult to sleep, tossing and turning.
He was considering the unpleasant possibility of the Sullivan brothers bringing a case against Gytha after her grandfather’s death.
He recognised that, however much he might try to avoid it, he would inevitably be involved.
“Somebody should look after her,” he said into the darkness.
Then he found himself remembering how kind and understanding her father had been.
He was like a father to all the young Officers when they joined the Regiment in France and had their first baptism of fire.
Before he went to sleep, Lord Locke told himself he should have been in touch with Gytha and her mother as soon as the War was over.
He tried to excuse his negligence that first he had been in the Army of Occupation and then in London.
It was when he had come to the country that he remembered the age-old battle of his family with the Sullivans.
If Colonel Sullivan had lived, he would now be Sir Robert’s heir rather than Gytha.
And he well knew what difficulties would beset a young girl who was an heiress. Her fortune was bound to attract the worst type of men.
‘No one, in fact, could be worse,’ he thought, ‘than her two cousins.’
Whatever they were like, he was quite certain that Gytha would be unable to defend herself.
How could she cope with the type of situation that would be inevitable?
She was not only rich but also very lovely.
He was thinking of her beauty as he finally fell asleep.
*
When he awoke in the morning he had the strange feeling that she needed him.
Then he told himself that he was just being imaginative.
After riding as arranged with Perry, he returned to eat a hearty breakfast before any of the other male members of his party appeared.
“I have enjoyed every minute of my visit, Valiant,” one of them enthused a little later. “I hope I have not blotted my copybook and you will ask me again.”
He spoke as if this was unlikely and Lord Locke could only reply,
“Of course. I shall look forward to entertaining you again before Christmas.”
When breakfast was finished, the gentlemen left the dining room.
Next Bates came to Lord Locke’s side to say in a low voice,
“Her Highness wished to see your Lordship immediately.”
“Where?” Lord Locke asked.
“In Her Highness’s boudoir.”
“Inform Her Highness that as I am engaged in seeing off the guests who are leaving early, it is impossible for me to comply with her request.”
He paused before he added,
“Make it clear, Bates, that the carriage that will take her back to London has been ordered for eleven o’clock.”
Bates started to climb the stairs and Lord Locke then walked into the library.
Perry and two of his other friends were inevitably talking about horses.
He joined in their conversation until the door opened.
Zuleika, looking extremely attractive and flamboyant in a bonnet covered with crimson feathers, swept into the room.
As the gentlemen rose to their feet, she said,
“I have to talk to you, Valiant.”
Before Lord Locke could reply she gave Perry and the other two men in the room her most bewitching smile.
“I know you dear men will understand,” she said, “that I have something of great importance to tell our wonderful host. As it is a secret, I must ask you to be kind and understanding enough to leave us alone.”
There was nothing that the three men could do but comply.
Perry gave Lord Locke a meaningful glance as he walked towards the door.
As soon as it had closed behind them, Zuleika ran to Lord Locke, throwing herself against him and asked,
“How can you be so cruel and so unkind to me when I love you? Oh, Valiant, how much I love you!”
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