Faro's Daughter (31 page)

‘Why shouldn’t I want to?’ he replied, looking up from the letter he was reading.

‘Well, I don’t know,’ said Arabella cautiously. ‘Whenever Aunt Selina invites me to drive out with her, in that stuffy barouche, it is always because she wants to read me a lecture.’

He laughed. ‘Belle, when have I ever done such a thing?’

‘There is no saying when you might take it into your head to do so,’ she answered, dimpling.

‘It won’t be today. Do you mean to come with me, or not?’

‘Well, I had meant to walk in the Park, with my maid, but if you would like me to come with you I will do so,’ said Miss Ravenscar handsomely.

He looked at her with a sardonic gleam of comprehension in his eye. ‘An assignation, Belle?’

Miss Ravenscar said airily: ‘Oh dear me, no!’

‘Little liar,’ said Ravenscar, without heat.

She seemed flattered by this, and gave a gurgle.

Ravenscar had had his perch-phaeton brought round to the door, with a showy pair of chestnuts harnessed to it. His sister was delighted to find that she was to drive out in this sporting vehicle and skipped up into it, begging Ravenscar to waste no time in starting, since if her Mama were to look out of the window she would be bound to say that it was too dangerous, and forbid her to go, for fear she might be overturned. Ravenscar took this aspersion on his driving with equanimity, and they drove off in the direction of the Park. As soon as they were within the gates, Miss Ravenscar demanded to be allowed to take the ribbons. Since he had taught her to drive himself; her brother raised no objection to this, and handed them over. Perfect harmony being thus established between them, he felt it safe to ask her whether her affections were irrevocably set on Mr Grantham, of the 14th Foot. Arabella said, in accents of considerable surprise: ‘Kit Grantham? Good gracious, Max, no! That was a long time ago!’

‘So it was,’ he agreed. ‘At least ten days. I met the young gentleman the other night. I am glad you don’t mean to marry him. He would not do for you at all.’

‘No, he is far too young,’ said Arabella. ‘I do not think I like very young men nearly as much as older ones. Not too old, of course.’

Mr Ravenscar cast rapidly round in his mind, but was unable to think of any male between the ages of thirty and forty with whom Arabella might have come into contact. He waited hoping for a further clue.

‘I like men who have been about the world a little,’ said Arabella reflectively. ‘They are more exciting, if you know what I mean, Max.’

Mr Ravenscar thought gloomily that he knew very well what she meant. ‘True, but such men do not make good husbands for very young women,’ he said.

Arabella turned her innocent eyes upon him. ‘Why don’t they, Max?’

‘Well, they grow old too fast,’ he explained. ‘Think! Before you well knew where you were you would find your husband a martyr to gout, no longer ready to go out to parties, but wanting always to sit at home over the fire.’

Miss Ravenscar looked much struck by this view of the matter. ‘All of them?’ she asked anxiously.

‘All of them,’ said her brother, with great firmness.

‘Oh!’ Miss Ravenscar drove on in silence, evidently digesting this dictum. A barouche ahead of her, drawn by two sluggish brown horses, attracted her attention. She said, pouting a little: ‘Aunt Selina! Shall I go past, and pretend we did not see her?’

‘Better not,’ he said. ‘Go past, and draw up by the trees.’

She looped a rein, as he had taught her, and shot past the barouche in a very dashing style, to the evident admiration of a gentleman driving a phaeton towards them.

‘I did that well, did I not?’ she asked, with naive pleasure in her own skill.

‘Very well.’

She drew up by a clump of trees, and waited for the barouche to come alongside. Lady Mablethorpe, impressive in a lavender bonnet, with upstanding plumes, leaned forward to exclaim: ‘My dear, surely that is a very dangerous carriage for you to be driving! I wonder you will let her, Max!’

‘She will come to no harm,’ he replied carelessly.

‘I suppose you thought the same about Adrian, when you took him racing with you yesterday!’ said her ladyship tartly.

His rare smile lighted his eyes suddenly. ‘Why, yes, ma’am, I did!’

‘I think it was abominable of you! He might have been killed! I know what these curricle-races are! Next we shall have him wanting to drive in one himself!’

‘I should not be at all surprised. You cannot keep him on leading-strings all his life, you know.’

She sighed. ‘No, but—Well, it does not signify! I must tell you, Max, that I am in hopes that a certain affair is waning.’

‘Indeed! I am very glad to hear it, but what leads you to think so?’

‘He has gone off to Tom Waring’s place in Berkshire for some shooting. He was in spirits too; I could see he was glad to be going. You may guess how thankful I feel!’

‘He said nothing to me about this when he was with me yesterday,’ remarked Ravenscar, looking rather surprised.

‘It was settled only this morning. I collect that he met Tom at White’s, or some such place, and Tom asked him then.’

‘I had no idea Waring was in town. In fact, I thought he was fixed in Berkshire until next month.’

‘I dare say he was obliged to come up to attend to some business. I do not see what concern it is of ours. The main thing is that Adrian has been persuaded-to go out of town for a few days. I regard it as a most encouraging sign!’

‘I hope it may be found so,’ Ravenscar said. ‘Arabella, we must not keep Aunt Selina!’

‘No, indeed!’ said Arabella promptly.

‘You mean you do not wish to keep your horses standing,’ said Lady Mablethorpe dryly. ‘Drive on, then, but pray take care of that child, Max!’

‘As though I had never handled the ribbons before!’ said Arabella, as they moved forward. ‘Max, was she talking about Adrian’s engagement to Miss Grantham?’

‘I am not aware of any engagement.’

‘Oh, don’t be stuffy, Max! Adrian told me of it himself! Is my aunt still set against it?’

‘Certainly she is.’

‘Because she behaved so oddly at Vauxhall?’

‘That, and other reasons.’

‘Well, I will tell you something,’ said Arabella resolutely.

‘I like her.’

He turned his head to look at her. ‘Indeed! I should not have thought that you had had time to make up your mind in the short while you were in her company.’

‘As a matter of fact,’ confided Miss Ravenscar, ‘I met her on another occasion. Don’t be cross!’

‘I am not cross. Where did you meet her?’

She cast him a look, half-mischievous, half-deprecating. ‘I wanted to see her for myself. So I went to visit her at her home.’

‘The devil you did!’ he said. ‘And you decided that you liked her?’

‘Yes, for she was not in the least vulgar! And it is just as I told you at Vauxhall: she has the most laughing eyes!’

‘They do laugh sometimes,’ admitted Mr Ravenscar. ‘May I ask if you are in the habit of visiting her?’

‘No, because she said I must not while you and my aunt disliked her so amazingly.’

‘Oh, she said that, did she?’

‘Yes, but I told her I should come often to see her when she was married to Adrian, and she said I might.’

‘She is not going to marry Adrian.’

‘I do not see why she should not. I think you are silly, and fusty, and full of prejudice!’

‘I dare say you do.’

‘And I may as well tell you at once, Max, that nothing would induce me to marry Adrian!’

‘I never supposed that you would marry him.’

‘You did not?’ she exclaimed. ‘I quite thought that you expected it! Mama and Aunt Selina do.’

‘Very likely. If you take my advice, you will not marry anyone for a year or two yet.’

She wrinkled her brow. ‘But I shall be almost on the shelf! Besides, I think I should like to be married.’

‘When you think that you would like to be married to the same man for more than a month, Belle, tell me!’ he said, smiling.

She shook her head. ‘It is a very awkward circumstance, my falling in love so often, Max. However, I am much wiser now than I used to be, and I dare say I shall very soon settle down.’

He said nothing for several minutes, but when they reached the gates of the Park again, he took the reins from her. ‘You know, Belle,’ he said, ‘you will have a considerable fortune when you come of age.’

‘I know I shall. I shall enjoy that,’ replied Miss Ravenscar. ‘Certainly. But take care you do not marry a man who wants to enjoy it too.’

Miss Ravenscar thought this over. ‘That’s horrid, Max.’

‘It is unfortunately the way of a great part of the world.’

‘Do you mean—do you mean that all the men who have wanted me to marry them only wanted my fortune?’

‘I am afraid I do, Belle.’

Miss Ravenscar swallowed. ‘It is a very lowering thought,’ she said, in a small voice.

‘It would be if there were not plenty of men to whom your fortune will not matter a jot.’

‘Rich men?’

‘Not necessarily.’

‘Oh!’ Miss Ravenscar sounded more hopeful. ‘But how shall I know, Max?’

‘Well, there might be several ways of knowing, but I can give you one certain way. If you should meet any man who would like to persuade you to elope with him, you may depend upon it that he is after your money, and nothing else. An honest man will rather ask permission to call in Grosvenor Square.’

‘But, Max, they are all afraid of you!’ objected Arabella. ‘Depend upon it, you will one day meet a man who is not in the least afraid of me.’

‘Yes, but—it is all so respectable, Max, and not exciting, or romantic! Besides, they have not all wanted to elope with me!’

‘I should hope not indeed! Listen, Belle! I am asking no questions, and I don’t mean to spy on you, but I fancy you meet more men than your Mama or I know of. Before you decide to lose your absurd heart to one of them, consider whether you would care to present him to me, or to Adrian.’

‘And if I would not, will he be the wrong sort of man?’

‘Well, I’ll do that,’ promised Miss Ravenscar, brightening. ‘It will be a very good kind of a game!’

Her brother drove her home, feeling that the morning had not been wasted.

He dined at Brooks’s that evening, and played faro afterwards, at the fifty-guinea table. When he rose from it, shortly after midnight, he saw that Ormskirk had walked into the cardroom, and was standing watching the fall of the dice at the hazard-table. Ormskirk looked up quickly as Ravenscar put back his chair, and moved across the room towards him.

‘I thought you visited Brooks’s as seldom as I visit White’s,’ remarked Ravenscar.

‘Quite true,’ Ormskirk drawled. ‘You, I fancy, came to White’s the other evening merely to find me.’

Ravenscar lifted an eyebrow.

‘I,’ said Ormskirk, flicking a speck of snuff from his sleeve, ‘came to Brooks’s in the hopes of finding you, my dear Ravenscar.’

‘Ought I to be flattered?’

‘Well, I must own that it is not my intention to flatter you,’ replied his lordship, his thin lips curling into an unpleasant smile.

Ravenscar looked at him, slightly frowning. ‘How am I to take that, my lord?’

‘I hope you may take it to heart. Let me tell you that I cannot congratulate you on the use you made of certain bills which I sold you. I must confess I am disappointed in you, my dear Ravenscar.’

‘May I know how you are aware of what use I made of them?’

His lordship shrugged. ‘Inference, just inference!’ he said sweetly.

‘I suppose I must be extremely dull-witted, but I am still far from understanding what you mean. May I suggest that we step into the next room?’

‘By all means,’ bowed Ormskirk. ‘I can appreciate the delicacy of feeling which prompts you to shrink from discussing your cousin’s wife in such a public spot.’

Ravenscar strode over to the door that led into a small writing-room, and held it open. ‘I should certainly be loath to do so,’ he replied. ‘My cousin, however, is not married nor is he likely to be.’

‘You think not?’ smiled Ormskirk.

Ravenscar shut the door. ‘I am quite sure of it.’

Ormskirk took out his snuff-box, and helped himself to a delicate pinch. ‘My dear Ravenscar, I am afraid you have been duped,’ he said.

Ravenscar stood still by the door, stiffening a little. ‘In what way have I been duped?’

Ormskirk shut his snuff—box. ‘I must suppose that you have not encountered Stillingfleet, my dear sir.’

‘I did not know that he was in town.’

‘He arrived this morning. He has been staying at Hertford.’

‘Well?’

‘He drove to town by way of the Great North Road,’ remarked Ormskirk pensively.

‘So I should suppose. I do not yet perceive how his movements concern me.’

‘But you will, my dear Ravenscar, you will! Stillingfleet, you must know, changed horses at the Green Man at Barnet. When he pulled out from the yard, he was in time to obtain art excellent view of a post-chaise-and-four, which was passing up the street at that moment. Ah, heading north, you understand!’