Chapter Eleven

 

Left alone, Clementina stood panting, glaring at the unresponsive door. In a minute or two her temper began to cool, and she gazed in consternation at the fragments of china scattered all over the carpet. With a sense of shock she realised what she had done. Worse, she recalled what she had said.

‘Dear Lord, I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it, Jake.’

Shaking, she moved to a chair and sat down, feeling ashamed. He had said a terrible thing, but, God help her, it was true. She had responded to his lovemaking in a most unseemly manner, squirming and writhing in ecstasy, with no idea of there being anything wrong. But a moment’s thought was enough to make her realise that, at the time, Jake had not thought it wrong, regardless of that intolerable insult. He had enjoyed her as much as she had revelled in his passion.

She put up her hands to cover her face, aware that more than anything else she wanted that passion again, with Jake’s arms about her, his lips on hers, his hands moving over her limbs, lighting the flame that only he could quench.

When the knocking came on the front door she jumped as if she had been shot. Then, with a glad cry, she rose quickly and darted out of the room to fling wide the front door.

‘Jake?’

Clementina stopped short, her heart jarring to a stop. Her cousin stood on the doorstep.

‘Jeremy! What are you doing here? How did you come? And so late!’

Her cousin blinked at the hail of words, his mouth opening and shutting uselessly as he strove to make sense of them. Clementina saw his confusion, and pulled herself together.

‘You had better come in, Jeremy.’

As he made no move, she reached out and caught his coat-sleeve, pulling him through the door and shutting it behind him.

‘Now, Jeremy, why have you come? How did you find me?’

‘Hackney,’ the youth responded, removing his hat. ‘Came in a hackney cab.’

Impatience seized her. ‘Yes, very well, but why?’

His mouth quivered. ‘Don’t be angry, Clemmy.’

With some difficulty Clementina swallowed her natural agitation and spoke with forced calm, infusing warmth into her voice. ‘I’m not angry, Jeremy.’

She took his hand and drew him gently into the pink parlour, where they might converse without waking the household, although she doubted that Lady Staplegrove was as yet asleep.

‘What is it, Jeremy? Tell me.’

‘You help me, Clemmy?’

‘Of course I will help you,’ she assured him, pushing him into a chair. ‘Only sit quietly and tell me what has happened.’

He twisted his hat in his hands, and his eyes were troubled. ‘Don’t know, don’t understand. Mama said there’s no money for me. Said you help me.’

Suspicion crept into Clementina’s bosom. ‘Did your mama send you here?’

He shook his head vigorously. ‘Not Mama.’

‘Your papa, then?’

‘Not Papa. Papa said Dunhythe is mine. Said he’ll look after Dunhythe when he comes back. You look after me.’

‘But I can’t,’ Clementina said unguardedly. ‘Not now.’

His eyes gazed sadly upon her. ‘You can’t help me?’

She sighed. ‘Yes, I can help you. At least, I think so. I can’t look after you, though. Your mama will do that.’ She saw the hurt and doubt in his face, and stroked his hair, much as she might stroke an injured puppy. ‘Don’t worry, Jeremy, you’ll be all right. I’ll help you. The money will be sorted out.’

She moved away from him to the fireplace, thinking. Now that she was married she did not know precisely how her affairs stood. In the normal way, all financial arrangements would have been settled between her family lawyer and that of her prospective husband. But as things were there had been no preliminary negotiations, and she had no idea what rights, if any, she might have over her inheritance, or what part of it had passed directly into Sothern’s hands.

She must consult with Cullen. Jake, too, perhaps. At present, however, there could be no discussion with her husband. Well, there was nothing to prevent her seeing Cullen first. She turned back to Jeremy.

‘Where are you staying, Jeremy? At a hotel?’

‘Coaching-house,’ he told her briefly.

‘Good. Then you must go back there now.’

She began painstakingly to explain what she wanted him to do, too preoccupied to wonder how her aunt could have been so careless and imprudent as to allow him to come to London apparently quite alone.

‘You will come back here in the morning, Jeremy. Do you understand?’

‘Back here in the morning,’ he repeated, nodding slowly.

‘Together we will go to Mr Cullen and find out how I can help you.’

He looked somewhat bemused, but grasped gratefully at the last words. ‘You help me, Clemmy?’

‘Yes, I will help you. Tomorrow. Come here at ten-o’clock. Ten o’clock, mind.’

He repeated the time to show that he had understood, and made no protest as she ushered him out into the night.

Clementina went slowly up the stairs, compassion for her cousin causing her to feel some guilt that in her own turmoil she had not given a thought to his sorry situation. There was Margery to be thought of, too. Really, she had been abominably selfish, as well as stupid. For here she was in a situation as fortunate as it was unexpected, and all she could think about was her own misery. She ought to be content. She was a countess now: Lady Sothern. With a house in town, an estate in the country, and goodness knew what besides; all the elegancies of life that wealth and position might afford. And yet she dared to bewail her lot. How many wives of her class had the good fortune to be loved by their husbands? Was she asking too much?

‘Clementina!’

The harshly whispered syllables interrupted her thoughts, and she jumped. She looked up quickly to see Lady Staplegrove in her peacock-decorated dressing-gown standing at the head of the stairs. Clementina hurried up to her.

‘Dear ma’am, you should be in bed. What can you be thinking of, standing out here in the cold?’

‘Don’t fuss, child,’ the dowager said testily. ‘How do you imagine I could sleep with you and Sothern spitting at each other down there? Has he but just gone?’

‘He left some time ago. It was my cousin Jeremy who just left.’

‘What, the simpleton? What in the world was he doing here?’

As Clementina explained she inexorably but gently eased Lady Staplegrove back into her bedchamber and tucked her into bed.

‘Will you stop mothering me, you foolish child?’ the old lady protested. ‘Don’t think you can flummery me into forgetting my purpose. What passed between you two? Tell me at once.’

Clementina sighed, and sat down on the edge of the bed. She knew Lady Staplegrove was not speaking of Jeremy’s visit.

‘We quarrelled, of course, ma’am. What else?’

‘Lord above, I know that. Do you take me for a nincompoop?’

‘Far from it, ma’am,’ Clementina said, smiling.

‘Then answer me, girl, do.’

‘What can I say? He offered me an apology, which I accepted. Then he offered me an insult, and I lost my temper. I’m afraid I have broken several of your china ornaments,’ she confessed.

Lady Staplegrove’s eyes twinkled. ‘As long as they found their mark, I don’t mind in the least.’

Clementina gave a reluctant chuckle. ‘They did not, ma’am. I have a poor aim.’

‘A pity.’

Silence fell. After a moment the dowager reached out and covered the girl’s hand with her own. ‘A penny for them, child.’

‘I have been thinking how silly I have been, dear ma’am. Jake has offered—indeed, given—me so much. What right have I to ask for the impossible?’

‘Ah.’ Her ladyship leaned back against her pillows and regarded Clementina steadily, her expression unreadable. ‘So you feel you are baying for the moon?’

‘Well, ma’am, you know Jake. And there is Lady Matilda.’

‘That woman! Don’t speak of her to me, for I can’t abide the wench.’ She regarded Clementina smoulderingly. ‘So you mean to let her have him—without a fight?’

Clementina stiffened. ‘I will not sue for Jake’s attentions. Nor enter into competition with—with a woman of her kind; or any woman. If I can’t have him to myself, then I don’t want him at all.’

‘Bravo!’ applauded the dowager. ‘And thank the Lord. I was beginning to think you had lost that spirit I so much admire.’ She patted Clementina’s hand. ‘But now to business. This matter of your cousin’s finances had better be left to Jake and Cullen, you know. I am sure between them they will settle all satisfactorily.’

‘No doubt, but I prefer to deal with it myself. I may be married to your grandson, ma’am, but I do not admit of his right to order my affairs as he sees fit. I shall speak to Cullen myself.’

With which, Clementina bade Lady Staplegrove good night, and left the room with head held high, leaving the dowager in some glee at her own adroit manipulation of her young protégée’s emotions. Apathy was of no use to anyone, she felt, and it had taken little to sting the girl into defiance.

How good it was to be old. What fun to be wise for the young, unable to be wise for themselves! That darling child! Her grandson was a fortunate man.

On this satisfactory thought the dowager drifted into sleep.

* * *

 

It was a good while before Clementina realised that the hackney cab was taking an uncommonly long time to arrive at their destination. She had given Mr Cullen’s direction to the coachman, and then occupied the time with explaining her position to Jeremy.

It proved difficult to instil into his head any idea of the complication that had arisen in their mutual affairs as a result of her change of status. Apart from his inability to grasp what she was trying to tell him, he seemed unusually agitated. Clementina was just about to enquire into his state of mind when she suddenly noticed that they were crossing over water.

‘What in the world—?’

She leaned forward to peer from the window. Over the walled edges of a bridge her startled eyes took in the silvery sheen of the Thames with its heavy traffic: barges laden with goods, likely unloaded from ships in the port of London and beginning their long journey inland; a longboat pulled by a dozen oarsmen in naval uniform; watermen ferrying passengers afoot from one bank to the other; and a number of rowboats carrying their human cargo on God knew what legitimate business.

Clementina turned an incredulous gaze on her cousin. ‘Jeremy, what is happening? Where are we going?’

He gaped at her unhappily. ‘Cullen. Going to see Cullen.’

‘But Mr Cullen’s place of business is in the City,’ she protested. ‘Why must we cross the river? We are going south.’

Jeremy’s jaw rose and fell in that vacant way he had when nonplussed. Clementina frowned as a tingle of apprehension ran down her spine.

‘The coachman cannot have mistaken the way, can he?’ she murmured, half to herself, trying to find some legitimate reason for the error in order to quell her growing disquiet.

She looked again at her cousin, and read discomfiture mingled with his usual air of confusion.

‘Jeremy!’ she said sternly, and he quailed. ‘Where are we going?’

Miserably he shook his head. ‘Don’t know.’

‘But you knew we were not going to Cullen.’

‘Going to Cullen with you, Clemmy,’ he uttered, nodding furiously.

‘You meant all the time to take me elsewhere. You will tell me this instant. Where are we going?’

He cowered away before her fury. ‘Don’t know. He said—he said—’

Jeremy collapsed into frightened whimpering. Belatedly it came to Clementina that it was highly unlikely that he would have been allowed to come to London, and to stay at an inn alone. Who was with him, then? If not his mama or papa...

At this moment the carriage began to slow down. Clementina looked out of the window, a lively fear making her breath short. She noticed at once the hoardings outside a large building they were passing to her right, on which colourful posters advertised Astley’s Amphitheatre. Then it must have been Westminster Bridge, she decided, recalling that the equestrian circus was situated in Lambeth.

As she realised this the hackney turned off the road and came to rest in the yard of a small inn. From the doorway a familiar figure stepped out and moved towards the coach. Clementina gasped and shrank back.

The hackney door was wrenched open. The grimly smiling features of Ellis Henlow looked in at her.

‘Well met, dear cousin. Step down, if you please.’

‘I don’t please,’ Clementina said in a shaking voice, adding with returning spirit, ‘and I am not your cousin, I thank God.’

Ellis’s tone hardened. ‘Step down at once!’ He leaned into the coach, raising a clenched fist as though he would strike her.

Clementina looked wildly round, seeking some means of assistance. Jeremy still cowered away in his corner of the coach, his frightened eyes glued on his half-brother in a look compound of fear and bewilderment. There was no help there, she knew, realising in the same instant how Ellis must have terrorised her cousin into tricking her. She thought fleetingly of Jake, and a wave of hopeless misery shook her.

Blindly she pushed at Ellis Henlow’s upraised fist, and moved forward to descend from the carriage into the inn yard. There was a light chaise standing ready, a team of horses harnessed to it. Henlow grasped her arm in an ungentle grip and forced her towards this equipage.

She thought how like him it was to waste money on four horses where two would suffice. For who was to pursue them to wherever it was he meant to take her? Lady Staplegrove might worry when she did not reappear. And Jake—Jake would assume that she had run away again.

Ellis pushed her into the chaise and shut the door on her. For a moment she thought perhaps he was not coming with her. That would make it easier to escape. Then she saw the hackney carriage moving off, and realised that he had gone to get rid of his brother.

He was returning with swift steps to the chaise, his caped overcoat swinging about his legs. She gathered her failing spirits together. She must not be weak now. He was a dangerous man, a violent man. All her dependence lay in her own wits. The first essential was to keep his temper even.

Ellis jumped lightly into the chaise, and took his place beside her. The carriage began to move.

‘Where are you taking me?’ Clementina asked, an audible quaver in her voice that was not entirely feigned.

‘Portsmouth, for the moment.’

‘Portsmouth?’ she repeated, stunned.

She could not take it in to begin with. Then thoughts began to jostle one another in her head. Portsmouth must be all of sixty or seventy miles away. They would be travelling all day. Was he mad? How could she get word to Jake? She must escape. What would her kind benefactress think of this latest exploit? At least this time no blame attached to her. But why Portsmouth?

All the while, from the plate-glass window before her, her absent gaze was fixed on the yellow-liveried back of the post-boy bobbing up and down on the lead horse—‘for all the world like a bouncing wave’.

The thought floated into the incoherent jumble of her brain, and she sat bolt upright as understanding flashed.

‘Portsmouth! Then you mean to take me abroad?’

‘If all else fails, yes,’ he agreed curtly.

She stared at him, bewildered, as the gathering fear knotted her stomach. Then she looked out of the window, glancing feverishly about, hardly knowing that she did so.

The buildings were thinning out as they left London behind. Green fields with peacefully grazing cattle and sheep met her eyes, interspersed here and there with a clutch of village houses or the spire of a church, now and again a glimpse of some large country mansion through the trees. They passed a drover with a gaggle of geese on their way to market and a slow, lumbering covered wagon.

The post-boy’s horn blasted, startling Clementina into full awareness as the chaise slowed up for the Robin Hood gate. She watched the pike-keeper pull the gate wide, and a sense of hopelessness began to invade her as the carriage passed through.

She looked piteously at her captor, almost unconsciously assuming an even more downcast mien than her true feelings warranted, knowing this would serve her best with this man. Defiance would only anger him.

‘In God’s name, Ellis, why are you doing this?’

He deigned no reply, keeping his eyes on the road ahead, but a muscle twitched in his cheek, and she saw his hands in their York Tan gloves clench a little.

‘I don’t understand,’ she uttered, exaggerating the plaintive note. ‘How can this kidnap avail you? I am Sothern’s wife. What hope can you have of gaining command of my inheritance?’

He turned to her, his handsome face marred by a sneer. ‘Do you take me for a fool? Of course I know that.’

‘Then why? Revenge? Do you hate me so much?’

‘Hate?’ He gave a scornful laugh. ‘I don’t feel anything at all for you, my lady.’ He laid ironic stress on the last word.

‘Jake, then,’ Clementina said at once. ‘You are doing it to revenge yourself on Jake?’

‘There is an element of that, yes. He spoiled my schemes, and I don’t care for that.’

‘Then—then if it is not all revenge, what do you hope to gain? What can you possibly gain?’ Clementina paused, watching the fine profile beside her. Ellis was smiling, an unpleasant smile. The thought struck her so forcibly that she forgot her pose.

‘Ransom! You mean to hold me to ransom.’ A brittle laugh escaped her. ‘Dear Lord, Ellis, I had thought you had more sense than to engage in criminal activity. You may well get money out of Sothern to recover me safe and sound, but what of the aftermath? Have you thought of that? You can’t believe that the earl will not use the full panoply of the law against you?’

Ellis appeared unmoved, showing all his teeth in a smug grin. ‘Oh, he won’t do that.’

‘You must be mad to think so,’ Clementina told him fiercely. ‘The Earl of Sothern allow himself to be bled and the culprit go unpunished? You will be hanged for an abductor and kidnapper, Ellis Henlow.’

‘And what will the Earl of Sothern do about the scandal surrounding his wife?’

Shock froze her. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, dear Lady Sothern,’ said Ellis, supremely confident, ‘that Sothern will not be so foolish as to make public such a scandal. Once he goes to the law the business becomes known. And once it is known that her ladyship spent the night in the same room as her abductor...’ He stopped, spreading his hands in a gesture of fatalism.

Clementina felt sick. True or not, such a story would ruin her in Society’s eyes. A lady might survive an indiscretion conducted strictly within the ranks of the upper echelon of the fashionable world. But the shame and embarrassment of a publicly acknowledged abduction would close all doors to her. Sothern might even be forced to divorce her, or at the least, arrange a separation. On that thought a pang of such acute anguish shot through her that it was a moment or two before she remembered the one ray of light in all this deepening gloom. Insensibly it strengthened her, and her voice was rock steady when she spoke.

‘You have miscalculated, Ellis. No one knows yet of our marriage. You will be laid by the heels before ever anyone in Society hears of it. You had better let me go at once and save yourself a good deal of trouble.’

‘Had I now?’ His eyes gleamed as he looked at her. ‘You must think me improvident. I regret, Clementina, that you are the unfortunate under a misapprehension. My fault, for I forgot to mention it. By now the Hyde Park saunterers will be enjoying the very latest titbit of gossip, hot from the lips of the one person who is thought bound to know the truth.’