She changed for dinner and dressed herself with unusual care in one of the prettiest gowns from Madame Bertin in Bond Street.
She hoped that the Duke would admire her in it, knowing that the soft shell-pink of the dress and the tiny roses that trimmed it made her look very young.
‘Will his eyes show even a little admiration for me?’ she asked her reflection in the mirror.
But when she came down to the salon before dinner the Duke was not alone. Giles was with him and also Jasper Royd. They all three had glasses in their hands and as a footman opened the door she heard Giles’s loud laugh ringing out. It sounded a jarring note, which put her instantly on the defensive and a little afraid.
She stood for a moment uncertainly in the doorway.
The Duke saw her first.
“Ah, here you are, Verena, and here are our missing cousins arrived safely from London.”
“Need you have expected anything else?” Giles asked, again for no apparent reason laughing. “The road is in excellent ply and there was no chance of our being delayed by highwaymen or the like.”
“Did you expect any?” the Duke enquired.
As he spoke to her, Verena was aware of a quick glance that passed between the ‘Evil Genius’ and Giles. She recalled that they were neither of them supposed to know that anything untoward had happened to the Duke and herself on their way home last night on Hampstead Heath.
She had not seen the Captain to relate to him what had occurred and the Duke would not have seen his cousin.
Giles had been speaking loosely and, aware that he had made a slip, almost over-hastily he said,
“No, of course. I was but bamming. Highwaymen are a thing of the past!”
“I wish that was true,” the Duke said quietly. “After dinner I will tell you two gentlemen a very strange adventure that befell me when I visited my grandmother last night.”
“An adventure with Grandmama!” Jasper Royd interrupted.
“She most fortunately was not involved. But Verena was and, as she wishes to forget a very unpleasant episode, we will not talk of it now.”
Again Giles’s eyes met with Jasper Royd’s and before anyone could speak further Harry Sheraton joined them, followed immediately by his mother and Lady Bingley.
Dinner was a gay meal and when the ladies withdrew to the drawing room it was twenty minutes before they were joined by the gentlemen.
Verena wondered what had been said, but apparently it had not in any way upset Jasper Royd or made him suspicious.
A footman brought more drinks to the salon and soon, with what Verena thought was considerable dexterity, the Duke had the two elderly ladies, his Cousin Jasper and Giles seated at a table playing whist.
He then insisted that Harry Sheraton should challenge Verena to a game of chess.
“You are a better player than I am, Harry,” the Duke said, “but I will wager my money on Verena. She is an expert!”
“Case of champagne I beat her,” Harry Sheraton replied promptly. “It so ungentlemanly not to permit female to be victor.”
There was a twinkle in his eye, but Verena rose to the bait.
“Don’t dare insult me!” she insisted. “I will beat you in a fair game. That is, if I keep my fingers crossed for luck.”
“I should indeed warn you,” the Duke smiled, “Verena is not only superstitious but almost uncannily clairvoyant. It will not be a fair game, my poor Harry. She will use every magic wile that she knows. A hundred years ago she would have been burnt as a witch!”
“I thought you did not believe in my premonitions.” Verena said, looking up at the Duke.
“I do now,” he answered quietly and she flushed as she knew what he was referring to.
The evening passed swiftly and when she was finally in bed Verena wondered if the dangers and horrors of last night had really happened.
One thing, however, was unquestionable, she loved the Duke more every moment she was with him.
When he looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes, her heart leapt in her breast.
When he touched her hand as they said “goodnight” she had a wild impulse to throw herself into his arms, to confess that she loved him and to warn him that his life was in danger.
Then pride made her determine that he must never know of her love. He must never guess that when he had kissed her fingers she had longed with a hopeless but inexpressible yearning for him to kiss her lips!
She tossed and turned restlessly in bed, one moment quivering with love, the next distraught with terror lest the Duke might die at the hand of the “Evil Genius”.
*
Verena was coming down the stairs the following morning when she saw beneath her in the Great Hall her cousin and Jasper Royd standing close together.
The “Evil Genius” was holding a note in his hand, which had clearly been delivered to him by a footman, who was now walking away with a silver salver in his hand.
Jasper Royd opened the note and read it slowly.
Verena, coming down the stairs, her soft slippers making no sound on the thick carpet, heard Giles say,
“All right?”
“All right,” the “Evil Genius” replied and there was a distinct note of satisfaction in his voice.
He tore the note into several small pieces and very quietly, so that Verena could only just hear the words, he added,
“We will slip away at the first opportunity.”
As he spoke, he walked across the Great Hall to the big fireplace where, although it was summer, a log was glowing on a mound of ashes. He threw the fragments of the note into the fire and as he did so glanced up and saw Verena descending the stairs.
“Good morning, Verena,” he said. “You are early. I did not expect to see you until the world was well-aired.”
“You forget I am a country lass,” Verena replied. “Are we riding this morning?”
“I planned that for this afternoon,” the Duke’s voice from behind her remarked,
She turned around to see him quietly and discreetly dressed in one of his favourite grey whip-cord jackets, his pantaloons the colour of pale champagne and his cravat skilfully tied and without a jewel pin.
Giles on the other hand was as flamboyant as a West Indian parrot and, as they went into the breakfast room, Verena wondered how anyone could be so tasteless, so vulgar and yet be unaware of it.
Giles had expressed a desire to see the Duke’s horses, so once again they visited the stables. Verena could hardly bear to listen to the ignorant remarks he made and how he boasted of his own horseflesh.
The Duke, however, treated her cousin with a courtesy that was all the more shaming as she knew how easily he could have snubbed him.
Jasper Royd, she reckoned, was not listening to their conversation, being intent on mental stocktaking of what he was determined would one day be his!
It was, naturally, the “Evil Genius” who wanted to visit the Estate Office so that they could see the plans and maps of the estate.
On a table in the Office there was a model of The Castle and its surrounding buildings, exquisitely contoured.
Verena was as fascinated by it as a child would have been.
“I always wanted to play with it when I was young,” the Duke told her, “but I was never allowed to. Perhaps it was a good thing because it would probably have been damaged. It was made more than a century ago and every detail is correct to scale.”
Verena looked at the river, painted blue and winding through fields and marshland until it passed in front of The Castle.
“What is this?” she asked, pointing to something marked on a tiny little island in the centre of the river.
“That is a Temple,” the Duke answered, “erected by my grandfather. He brought it back from Greece and had it re-erected here. It is rather incongruous in an English landscape but it is very beautiful.”
“And this?” she asked, pointing to a building a little further along the river and right on the edge of the water.
“That is the old Mill. You see the river is bridged just below it and there is another drive going through the Park and up to the main road. The Mill is no longer in use, but when Jasper and I were boys we used to watch the big wheel going around and the water dripping from it.”
“If this model is to be brought up to date, you will have to enlarge the stables, Theron,” his cousin remarked.
“They look very small,” the Duke answered, moving to another part of the model, “but I believe that our grandfather kept nearly two hundred horses in those buildings.”
“They would not be large enough for him today,” Jasper said, “or for you.”
“No, indeed!”
His Grace turned away, but Verena noticed that his cousin’s eyes followed him and she saw the almost fanatical hatred in them.
‘He is dangerous – dangerous as a wild animal,’ she mused.
She knew then that she would have to tell the Duke the truth.
She could not let him continue in ignorance of the ‘Evil Genius’s intentions. In saving his feelings she might be placing a noose around his neck.
‘Save him, please God, save him!’ she prayed soundlessly.
But even if she never was to see the Duke again she wanted him free of the menace his cousin constituted. Only God could protect him for evil always had an advantage in striking secretly without warning.
“I have ordered the horses for two o’clock,” the Duke said as they went into the dining room for luncheon.
“I have a feeling, ma’am,” he added to Lady Bingley, “that you and Lady Edith might wish to enjoy a quiet siesta after luncheon.”
“Your Grace is most considerate,” she answered, “and indeed I am certain that Lady Edith and I will find it a wise precaution if we are to challenge these experienced gamesters again tonight.”
“You don’t mean to tell me that you played ladies against gentlemen at the card table?” the Duke asked.
“We did indeed,” Lady Bingley answered, “and Lady Edith and I won by only two points, not a huge win you might say, but it was still a famous victory as far as we are concerned.”
“Tonight our luck will certainly change,” Captain Giles prophesied and finished his sentence with a laugh.
Verena went upstairs when luncheon was over to change into her riding habit. It was the one she had bought in Bond Street and was most becoming.
The emerald green velvet was frogged with black braid and had sparkling buttons, which she felt when she chose them were extremely distinctive.
Her fashionable high hat was very different from the old tricorn she had worn for so long and sported a green gauze veil that floated behind her as she rode. Copying the Duke, she wore her hat at an angle, but she was too perturbed to realise that it made her look provocative.
She was waiting in the salon for the rest of the party and the Duke, followed by Giles and Jasper Royd, had just joined her when the butler announced,
“His Excellency the Minister for Hungary and the Princess Zazeli Muzisescu, Your Grace.”
The Duke turned round in astonishment as with a little cry of delight the most entrancing creature Verena had ever seen ran across the room to him.
She had an impression of her dark flashing eyes, of an inviting red mouth, of a sinuous figure barely disguised by a pelisse of crimson silk and a bonnet covered with feathers of the same hue that was so French and so outrageously smart that Verena could only stare.
“Mon brave, you are surprised to see me? I saw the flag flying on The Castle as Viktor as I drove past. ‘He is there!’ I exclaimed. ‘The Duke, that adorable but elusive gentil homme, who leaves his house in London the very moment I arrive!’”
“This is indeed a surprise,” the Duke remarked when he could make himself heard.
Zazeli clung to his arm to look up into his eyes, outrageous as usual in shamelessly displaying her confidence that her partiality for the Duke must be reciprocated by him.
“How are you, Viktor?” the Duke genially asked her husband, who, handsome and diplomatically suave, was watching the encounter between his wife and His Grace with a faint air of amusement.
“Delighted to see you,” he replied. “But forgive our intrusion. Zazeli insisted that you were at home and who can deny Zazeli?”
“Who indeed?” the Duke smiled. “Let me present my friends.”
“But I know Harry,” Zazeli cried impetuously, offering her hand to him, but still retaining her hold on the Duke’s arm.
“What are you about? Wicked enchantress?” Harry asked, kissing the gloved hand she extended to him and looking into her eyes with a quizzing expression in his.
“What am I about? Hélas! How English! What a banal question. I am reminding this bad Duke of yours that his manners are excruciating! His behaviour to someone who loves him is quite disgraceful. If we had time, I would ask Viktor to ‘call him out’. Mais alors we have a Reception in London this evening and must not stay long.”
“You must at least stay long enough for us to drink your health,” the Duke answered. “And now do let me try again, Zazeli, to present Miss Winchcombe, my Cousin Jasper Royd and Captain Giles Winchcombe-Smythe.”
Verena curtseyed, but was well aware that the Hungarian’s beautiful eyes merely fluttered straight over her and a little bow of her head was so perfunctory as to be almost insulting.
The Princess Zazeli was far more effusive to Jasper Royd and Giles received a bewitching smile that obviously cast him into an ecstasy.
Champagne was brought in, but no one needed any further stimulant than Zazeli’s conversation. She then flirted outrageously with the Duke, but still managed to keep the three other men all hanging on her words.
She made them laugh, she made the Duke apologise too for a dozen things he swore he had not done and the whole atmosphere seemed to pulsate with her beguiling exciting personality.
After a little while Verena slipped away.
She was jealous – desperately jealous! And frank enough to admit it. She could not bear to see this exciting creature, as beautiful as a Bird of Paradise, looking up into the Duke’s eyes or to see the expression in his.
Unsophisticated though she was, Verena knew instinctively that the Duke and this lovely woman had been lovers.
Perhaps he still loved her. How could she know? She only knew that the pain within her breast was an agony that she had never known before in her whole life.
She wanted to run away, she wanted to hide, she wanted to cry and yet her eyes felt dry and past tears.
Hardly realising what she was doing she walked out of the salon and into the anteroom.
She stood for a while fighting for self-control and then, as she could not bear even to think about the Duke, she felt that she must go outside.
She must ride Assaye, she must get away from The Castle!
The horses that had been ordered were outside the front door, each with an attendant groom.
Then, as Verena came down the steps, she could see driving across the bridge that spanned the river – a curricle!
There were two men in it and she knew as she saw them go who they were.
When she had left the salon, Jasper Royd and her Cousin Giles must have left immediately afterwards. It was the chance that they had spoken about she thought. The moment that they had been waiting for.
It would have been impossible for the Duke to leave the Minister and his wife and Harry Sheraton would remain with him.
With sudden resolution Verena hurried to Assaye. As usual he gave a little whinny at her appearance, but without stopping to pet him as she usually did, she told the groom to assist her into the saddle.
“Are you waitin’ for the others, miss?” the groom enquired.
“No, I am riding in the Park,” Verena answered.
Then, putting Assaye into a trot, she hurried up the drive, realising as she did so that the curricle was almost out of sight.
But under the shade of the lime trees, Assaye, in a
fast gallop soon began to catch up.
The curricle turned out of the main gates with Verena not so very far behind and, when she reached the main road. it was to see it speeding along in a cloud of dust.
She hesitated for a moment or two wondering, since there was no cover from view on the road, what they would think if they looked back and saw her.
Then she saw the curricle about two hundred yards away turn right and re-enter the Park.
She guessed then where Jasper Royd was going.
He had left the main road and was instead proceeding up the other drive, which had been marked on the plan they had been admiring that morning in the Estate Office, the drive that led to the old Mill.
In that instant her gift of clairvoyance told Verena exactly what had occurred. It told her that that very morning a Bullion coach had been held up on the Dover Road.
The note that the “Evil Genius” had destroyed so carefully had been from Hickson to tell him that the loot had been hidden in a safe place.
And what place safer or more improbable as far as anyone else was concerned than the old Mill on the Selchester Estate?
It would have everything that the “Evil Genius” required, a place for hiding close to the main road, water in the shape of the river, into which the Bullion boxes could be thrown once their contents had been removed and the advantage that no one would ever guess at such a hiding place.
Verena turned Assaye round.
There was no reason for her to go onto the main road and she could keep in the Park in the shelter of the trees and see if she was not right in her supposition.
She rode inside the wall and sure enough as she came to a rise in the ground she could see the curricle speeding down the other drive and in the far distance, out of sight of The Castle, and hidden from it completely by a belt of pine trees, the old Mill.
Moving under the boughs of the great trees, Verena followed. It was only as she saw the curricle crossing the bridge that led to the Mill that she wondered if she should go back to The Castle and tell the Duke what was happening.
Then she knew she could not speak to him while that Hungarian was with him. She could imagine the laughter and innuendoes that exquisite creature would tease him with should she go to the door of the salon and ask to speak to him alone.
The Odious Duke Page 21