A Christmas Courtship (6 page)

She reached over to hug him tightly, blinking back the tears. He was going to give his consent, for once he met Antony and saw how great their love was, his objections would cease to matter.

‘No tears now, my dear, for I’m too frail to deal with tears. Here, wipe your eyes.’ He pushed his handkerchief into her hands, watcing as she dabbed her eyes. ‘You realize, don’t you, that Jonathan will be much more difficult to convince?’

‘I know.’

‘He has conceived a deep dislike for your young man.’

‘All over a foolish bowl of mulligatawny soup!’ She rose to her feet. ‘If they hadn’t all been in drink, and therefore
argumentative
. …’

‘Young men will always be the same, my dear. However, like me, your brother isn’t unreasonable, and if I am prepared to give my consent, I promise that I will do my utmost to persuade him around. There is, of course, the matter of his own match. A man who is happy in his new love, will be more disposed to be
tolerant
toward others.’

‘Do you think so?’ She turned hopefully.

‘One can never be certain, but it would be my guess. Your brother appears to be enveloped in such a rosy glow of
adoration
at the moment, that I don’t believe he would be capable of a concerted campaign against your young man. It has to be left in the lap of the gods for the time being, but I think his objections will not be insurmountable – if, that is, I am impressed enough with Master Antony Mortimer to lend my support in the first place.’

‘Yes, Father.’

‘Now, then, after all this talking, I’m beginning to wonder how close dinner is.’

‘I really don’t know, for I have no idea what Hannah is
cooking
today.’

He sniffed a little slyly, and leaned back against the pillows. ‘I happen to know that she has a nice piece of salmon to roast.’

She stared at him. ‘Salmon?
Severn
salmon?’

‘Is there any other?’ he asked blandly.

‘Oh, Father! You haven’t allowed Jake to go out poaching again, have you?’

‘He merely took a stroll to the old fishing house, lingered a while, and then strolled back.’

‘With one of Sir Edmund’s gamefish in his coat! Father, you know how angry Sir Edmund was about that gang of poachers, and how vigilant his keepers have had to be as a consequence, so how could you possibly…?’

‘Oh, stop lecturing me, my dear, for that salmon is as much mine as it is Sir Edmund’s.’

‘It isn’t, and you know it. Nothing in that river or on that estate has been yours for two years now, and you have no right at all to let Jake go out poaching on your behalf!’

He scowled, but then heaved a long, resigned sigh. ‘Oh, I suppose you’re right, damn it, but I find it monstrous hard to accept that I can’t have what’s been my family’s for centuries. Very well, you have my word that I won’t let Jake go out anymore, will that do?’

‘Do you promise?’

‘I’m a gentleman, madam, and you have my word,’ he replied with mock indignation. ‘Plague take it, Blanche, you’ll spoil my enjoyment of dinner if you persist.’

‘It would take more than my grumbling to spoil your
enjoyment
of roast salmon with all the trimmings.’ She smiled,
bending
to kiss his cheek. ‘Are you going to come down to eat?’

‘I believe I will, my dear, for I have a mind to sit in my favorite chair by the fire in the parlor, with a glass of cognac to sharpen my preprandial appetite.’

‘I’ll go and tell Hannah,’ she said, and was just about to leave the room when they both heard a single shout from the street outside.

Puzzled, she went to the window, holding the curtain aside to
look out. For a moment she could only see her own reflection looking back at her, but then her eyes became accustomed to the darkness. A small company of soldiers was riding up the hill, keeping to the grass so that their horses made no sound. There was an officer at the head of the column, his uniform, like those of his men, concealed beneath a heavy winter great-coat. He’d just turned to shout a single order, and it was this call that she and her father had heard.

She remained by the window, watching as the soldiers drew nearer. She expected them to ride past to the gates of Amberley Court, for she could only think that they had some business with Sir Edmund, but to her astonishment the officer halted his men by the cottage.

Becoming suddenly aware of her silhouette in the bedroom window, the officer looked directly up at her. It was too dark to see him clearly, but by his build, manner, and the lieutenant’s badge on his shining black shako, she was sure it was Jonathan. With a gasp of delight, she turned to her father. ‘It’s Jonathan! He’s come home at last!’

Picking up the candlestick and shielding the flames with her hand, she hurried from the room and down the stairs. In her delight, it didn’t occur to her to wonder why, if it was indeed her brother, he’d come home on Christmas furlough at the head of a troop of his men. If she’d paused for a moment to think, she’d have realized that something was very wrong, and in the
ensuing
days she was to remember this as the moment the
conspiracy
began for her. It had already begun for her brother, but as Blanche left the candlestick on the hall table and ran out into the cold night, there was still no hint of the terrible blow that was about to strike the Amberley family.

The Christmas that lay ahead now wouldn’t be a time of happiness, but a time of strain, anxiety, and scandal.

As Blanche reached the gate, her brother’s name on her lips, she realized with a sudden and embarrassing jolt that the lieutenant wasn’t Jonathan. The resemblance she’d seen from the bedroom window was only superficial, for this man wasn’t blond like her brother, but much darker, with full, rather sensuous lips.

He’d turned toward her the moment she ran out calling Jonathan’s name, and the gaze he directed was cold and
disdainful
. ‘Miss Amberley, I presume?’ he said. His voice was an affected drawl.

Her embarrassment was swiftly replaced by surprise that he should know her name, and an instinctive dislike for anyone who could be so cool and contemptuous toward someone he had never met before. She paused by the gate. ‘You have the advantage of me, sir,’ she responded, her tone frosty to match his.

‘Lieutenant Neville, of the King’s West Gloucestershire Regiment,’ he replied, raising a white-gloved hand in a brief, rather discourteous salute.

She stared at him. Lieutenant Neville? Surely this couldn’t be Jonathan’s friend, the fellow officer described as ‘very noble and gracious in defeat’? There was nothing noble or gracious about this disagreeable creature. She shivered a little, for the night was very cold and she only wore her beige woolen gown. ‘Lieutenant
Roderick
Neville?’ she inquired, hoping that she was wrong.

‘I am, madam. Would you kindly inform Lieutenant
Amberley
that we have come for him?’ He controlled his horse, which capered a little as a dog began to bark by one of the nearby cottages.

Blanche was bewildered, and more than a little angered by his manner. ‘Sir, it must surely be obvious to you that if I run out of the house calling my brother’s name, because I erroneously take you for him, then it must follow that he isn’t here.’

‘Miss Amberley, I’m not such a fool as to be taken in by such a feeble ruse. Lieutenant Amberley is here, and it is my duty to arrest him.’

Her heart almost stopped with shock. ‘Arrest my brother?’ she gasped. ‘I-I don’t understand….’

‘Lieutenant Amberley has committed a number of crimes, madam, and is to be arrested to face a court-martial.’

‘There must be some mistake,’ she whispered, thoroughly shaken.

‘No, madam, it isn’t a mistake, for he was caught red-handed.’

She strove to collect herself. ‘Red-handed? Doing what?’

‘Among other things, stealing the regimental silver.’

Her head was spinning with disbelief and amazement, and she had to rest her hands on the closed gate to steady herself. ‘That is a monstrous untruth, sir, for my brother would not commit such an act.’

‘As I said, madam, he was caught red-handed, and now he has added desertion to the list of misdeeds.’

‘I still do not believe it, sir, for my brother is an honest and honorable man.’

He leaned forward in the saddle, his eyes glittering in the darkness. ‘Miss Amberley, your loyalty does you credit, but it is sadly misplaced, for your brother is not only a thief and a deserter, he is also a knave of the highest order, attempting to malign the name of an innocent lady in order to escape justice.’

‘Innocent lady?’

‘My fiancée, Miss Jennings.’

Numbly, she stared at him. ‘
Your
fiancée?’ she breathed, a thousand and one conflicting thoughts milling in her head. ‘
Are
you talking of Miss Deborah Jennings?’

‘I am, madam.’

‘But she is to marry Jonathan.’

He stiffened. ‘It is obvious that he laid his plans well, madam, relaying his lies to you as well as to Colonel Cummings.’

Blanche’s lips trembled, and she was so alarmed that she hardly knew what to say. ‘I’d be obliged, sir, if you told me exactly what is supposed to have happened. You have my word that my brother is not here, and that I am not attempting to gain time for him to escape, if that is what you are thinking.’

He hesitated, glancing toward the cottage door, and then he nodded. ‘Very well, madam, but even though I have your solemn word, it is still my duty to search the premises.’

‘There is nothing I can do to prevent you, sir.’

‘Very well. Lieutenant Amberley deserted his post in order to steal some of the regimental silver, evidently being in desperate need of money in order to fend off the duns. He was
apprehended
in the silver room, where the glass cabinets had been smashed and the silver scattered around. He claimed he was there to keep an assignation with Miss Jennings, whom he accuses of having agreed to marry him, but she denied
everything
, and then it was discovered that a silver cup was missing. He must have somehow stolen it earlier, for it was found in your brother’s quarters, and the colonel ordered his arrest, but the fugitive had already fled. The barracks were searched, but he’d left, and so I have been dispatched here to look for him.’

She looked up into his steady gaze. ‘I do not believe what you say, sir, for my brother would not behave like that. You are supposed to be his friend, so you must know that this is all untrue.’

‘I am ashamed that I was once the friend of such a despicable felon, madam, and I wish I had never been guilty of such a misjudgment. Your brother is a coward, thief, and knave, and soon the name of Amberley will be reviled throughout the county. ‘

‘He is innocent, sir, I am certain of that, just as I am certain that he will still benefit from the promotion that he has so justly earned. He is a fine officer, and a gentleman of the highest order, Lieutenant Neville, and justice will be done.’

‘Oh, justice will indeed be done, madam, for he will be punished, and I will be given that same promotion, for it seems clear now that his lies and conniving extended to his day-to-day activities as well. The promotion should never have gone to him,
as Colonel Cummings is more than prepared to concede.’

Blanche searched his face in the darkness. ‘How very
fortunate
for you that all this has happened,’ she murmured.

‘I resent the implication that I may have in some way conspired….’

‘I did not say that, sir,’ she interrupted quietly.

Even in so little light, she could see the dull color that suddenly suffused his face as he turned sharply to instruct his men to commence a search of the cottage and stables.

She glanced quickly up at her father’s window, and then back at the lieutenant. ‘Sir, may I at least have a moment in which to warn my father about what’s happened? He’s elderly and infirm, and such a shock may….’

‘Go to your father by all means, Miss Amberley, for it is
immaterial
to me whether you inform him or not.’

‘I will not forget your unpleasant conduct tonight, sir, you have my promise in that,’ she said coldly, and then she turned to hasten back into the cottage.

She’d left the door slightly ajar, and the cold air had drawn through the cottage, causing a draft that had led a puzzled Hannah from the kitchen. ‘Miss Blanche? Whatever is it?’ She became suddenly anxious as she saw how upset her young mistress was.

‘Hannah, something terrible has happened. Jonathan has been accused of theft and desertion, and the army has come to search for him!’

The housekeeper stared at her, dumbfounded. ‘That can’t be….’

‘It’s happening, Hannah! Go and tell Jake, while I go to break the news as gently as I can to my father.’

At that moment the door was flung open and Lieutenant Neville came in with some of his men. With a gasp, Blanche snatched up the candlestick again and fled up the stairs. A sob rose in her throat, but she forced it back. She had to stay as calm as possible, and not frighten her father any more than absolutely necessary.

But as she hurried into the bedroom, he sat up sharply in the bed, his eyes alarmed by her pallor and agitation. ‘Blanche? Is
something wrong?’

Putting the candlestick down once more, she sat on the bed, taking his hands. ‘Yes, Father, I fear it is.’

As she told him, his face grew pale and deeply troubled. ‘It can’t be, it simply can’t be,’ he said in a trembling, distraught voice.

But the sounds of the search were already echoing through the cottage, proving that it was indeed happening – Jonathan Amberley was being hunted like a criminal.

Roderick Neville did not stoop to search himself, but remained in the hall while his men carried out the work. Hannah remained in the hall as well, her cold gaze not wavering from him. Her intention was to make him feel uncomfortable, and she was successful. She’d managed to briefly warn Jake, who sat with seeming imperturbability at the kitchen table with his hammer, nails, and last, mending a pair of old boots. A poacher was a natural master of pretense, and there was no way of telling from his manner that he was very disconcerted indeed.

Blanche stayed with her father as at last the soldiers entered the bedroom. It was humiliating to watch them prying
everywhere
, even looking under the bed, but there was nothing for it but to sit there and allow the search to proceed. Blanche kept her eyes lowered. She couldn’t believe that this was happening. The army was accusing her brother of theft and desertion? His
so-called
friend, Lieutenant Roderick Neville, had turned upon him? And the woman he loved and had asked to marry him was denying their love? It was all too much to absorb, a nightmare come true, and she felt utterly helpless.

At last the search was completed, and Blanche went
downstairs
to face Roderick Neville in the hall. ‘I trust, sir, that you are now satisfied that my brother isn’t here?’

‘He isn’t here at present, I agree,’ he replied stiffly, ‘but that doesn’t signify that he won’t come here in a short while, or that he hasn’t been already.’

She went to the door, holding it pointedly open. ‘Good night, sir,’ she said coldly.

He strode angrily past her, and his men followed. She remained by the door, watching as they remounted and then
rode away down through the village, not bothering to be stealthy now by keeping to the grass. Her quick glance moved to the cottage windows, but no curtains twitched, and no doors opened as people watched what was happening. It seemed that Amberley St Mary was unaware of events at Orchard Cottage, at least for the time being. Roderick Neville’s words rang in her head.
Your brother is a coward, thief, and knave, and soon the name of Amberley will be reviled throughout the county.

She turned from the door, closing it softly behind her, and immediately found herself looking into Hannah’s troubled eyes.

‘Miss Blanche, just before the soldiers came, Jake found this pushed under the back door. It’s a note from Master Jonathan.’ The housekeeper held out a grubby, rather crumpled piece of paper.

Blanche took it and read.
‘Blanche. Please meet me at the old
fishing
house as quickly as possible. Don ‘t tell anyone, and bring blankets and food. Keep my whereabouts a secret, or it will be the worse for me. Burn this. J.’

Hannah watched her anxiously. ‘He really is in trouble, isn’t he, Miss Blanche?’

‘Yes, Hannah, I fear he is.’

Hannah’s eyes filled with tears. ‘What’s happened, Miss Blanche? I know Master Jonathan wouldn’t do those things, for he’s an Amberley, and a gentleman through and through.’

‘We have to prove his innocence, Hannah, but I don’t know how. From what the lieutenant said …’ She didn’t finish the sentence, for it seemed at this very moment that the case against her brother was undefendable. Picking up the candlestick yet again, she looked at Hannah. ‘Will you tell Jake to saddle the horses?’

‘He’s already attending to it, Miss Blanche.’

Blanche nodded. ‘I’ll go up to tell my father what’s happened now, then I’ll change into my riding habit. I’ll be as quick as I can.’

‘Miss Blanche…?’

‘Yes?’

‘Bring Master Jonathan home here with you, for he can’t stay where he is in weather like this.’

Blanche didn’t reply, for she knew that Jonathan had purposely chosen the fishing house because it was isolated and deserted, and because he was a fugitive. He felt he had no
alternative
but to hide away like a felon, and he must know that the army would be searching for him, so the last thing he’d be prepared to do would be come home here to Orchard Cottage, where he’d be found in an instant. She felt close to tears as she went slowly up the stairs, but she blinked them back
determinedly
, for she had to be strong, for her father’s sake.

Mr Amberley listened in dismay as she told him about his son’s note, but then he nodded sadly. ‘Go to him right now, my dear, and try to persuade him to come out of hiding, for he does his cause no good at present. Whatever may or may not have happened at Cheltenham barracks – and I do not for a moment believe he is guilty of theft – he appears to be certainly guilty of desertion.’

Blanche stared at him in disheartenment. ‘How can you say that…?’

He took her hand. ‘My dear, be sensible. Jonathan is in hiding, and the army has been here searching for him. He has deserted his post, we have no option but to accept that unpalatable fact, and that is why I wish him to not only come away from the
fishing
house, but also to give himself up to Colonel Cummings. I know that Jonathan is innocent, Blanche, and if that fact can be proved, it is in the colonel’s discretion to waive any charges against him, including desertion. Jonathan has already proved himself to be an excellent and talented young officer, and I am certain that a man of the colonel’s caliber will choose to
remember
those qualities rather than punish for something that was done in the heat of the moment, as I’m sure this matter of
desertion
was. Tell Jonathan what I say, Blanche, and do all you can to persuade him.’

‘I will.’

‘And take care, for Sir Edmund’s keepers are more than a little jumpy at the moment.’

She and Jake rode away from Orchard Cottage a few minutes later, with the blankets and food concealed beneath Jake’s cloak. Like the army search party before them, they kept to the grass of
the village green so that their mounts’ hooves made no sound to attract attention from the cottages. Anyone who looked out and saw Miss Blanche Amberley riding in the darkness with Jake Cutler, would have been very curious indeed.