Frederica (54 page)

“I did
not
stay at Monk’s Farm, and when I recall the pains I took
not
to compromise you, driving to and from the worst inn I ever put up at, and over an abominable surface, I can only marvel at your ingratitude, Frederica!”

“Oh, never that! never that! So good you were! so—so
kind
!
But you don’t want to marry me, Alverstoke! You know you don’t!”

“Of course I don’t!” he responded, with great cordiality. “But since two of ray sisters, my secretary—damn his impudence!—and at least two of my oldest friends, are apparently convinced, in spite of all my efforts to throw dust in their eyes, that that
is
my ambition, I do beg of you, Frederica, to accept my offer! I cannot—I really
cannot
endure the mortification of being rejected!”

“No, no,
pray
don’t—!” she said imploringly. “You are aware of what my situation is! I have Jessamy and Felix to think of: I
cannot
leave them to Harry’s care! Surely you must know this?”

“I haven’t asked you to leave them to his care. I daresay they will like to spend a part of their holidays with him, but they will naturally make their home with us. Like my estimable nephew, I do feel, my love, that they stand in crying need of a little masculine guidance! I realize, of course, that, as a moral preceptor, I fall a long way short of Buxted. On the other hand, they like me better.”

“But I have not the smallest intention of marrying Lord Buxted!”

“I think that very wise,” he said. “For some reason or another, Jessamy and Felix seem to have taken him in aversion, don’t they? Moreover, I very much doubt whether he would be prepared to extend a welcome to the Baluchistan hound. No, I shouldn’t marry Buxted, if I were you. Or even Darcy, who informed me last night that he did his best to cut me out. He wouldn’t be able to cope with the boys at all.”

Torn between amusement and unusual perturbation, she said: “You speak as though you thought I would marry for
their
sakes! I never should!”

“Oh, I know that! But I also know that you would never marry anyone whom they disliked, or who wasn’t willing to include them in his household. I was only trying to make myself more acceptable to you! I
am
willing, you see: I like them, and they interest me. Furthermore, I have become so much accustomed to figuring as their guardian that I should strongly resist any attempt to remove them from the sphere of my influence.”

She said unsteadily: “You are all goodness—all kindness! I don’t know—I am not sure—why you have made me this offer: whether because you do think you compromised me, or, perhaps—out of compassion, which is quite misplaced, but which I fancy you have sometimes felt, but—”

“Really, Frederica, you should know better than to talk such twaddle!” he expostulated. “Of all the moonshine—! I am neither good nor kind; I did
not
compromise you; and if I thought you an object for compassion I should also think you a dead bore, my girl! But you have never bored me.” He possessed himself of her hands, and held them firmly. “The only woman I have ever known who has never done so, and could never do so! I had not thought that such a woman existed, Frederica.”

She was trembling, her brain in a whirl. “Oh, impossible! You are not—
in love
with me! How
could
you be? Are you trying to—to hoax me into believing that? No, no, don’t!”

“Oh, not in the least!” he assured her cheerfully. “It is merely that I find I cannot live without you, my adorable Frederica!”

Unconsciously, she returned the clasp of his hands. Looking up into his laughing eyes, wonder and doubt in her own, she said shyly: “Is it like
that
?
Being in love? You see, I never was in love, so I don’t know. And I made my mind up years and years ago that I wouldn’t marry anyone unless I was
truly
in love with him. Alverstoke, I don’t think I can be, because I don’t feel at all like Charis, and she
does
know! It has always seemed to me that if one falls in love with any gentleman one becomes instantly blind to his faults. But I am
not
blind to your faults, and I do
not
think that everything you do or say is right! Only—Is it being—not very comfortable—and cross—and not quite
happy,
when you aren’t there?”

“That, my darling,” said his lordship, taking her ruthlessly into his arms, “is
exactly
what it is!”

“Oh—!” Frederica gasped, as she emerged from an embrace which threatened to suffocate her. “Now I know! I
am
in love!”

The youngest Merriville, bursting into the room some time later, found them seated side by side on the sofa. “Buddle said I wasn’t to disturb you, but I knew
that
was fudge!” he said scornfully. “Cousin Alverstoke, there is something I
particularly
wish to ask you!” He broke off, perceiving suddenly, and with disfavour, that his Cousin Alverstoke had an arm round Frederica. Revolted by such a betrayal of unmanliness, he bent a disapproving look upon his idol, and demanded: “Why are you cuddling Frederica, sir?”

“Because we are going to be married,” replied his lordship calmly. “It’s obligatory, you know. One is expected to—er—cuddle the lady one is going to marry.”

“Oh!” said Felix. “Well,
I
won’t ask anyone to marry
me,
if that’s what you have to do! I must say, I never thought that
you,
sir, would have—” Again he broke off, as a thought struck him. “Will that make her a—a
She
-Marquis? Oh, Jessamy, did you hear that? Frederica is going to be a She-Marquis!”

“What you mean is a
Marchioness,
you ignorant little ape!” replied his austere brother, closing the door behind him. “And there’s nothing
funny
about it!” He looked at Frederica, and said simply. “I’m glad.” He added, with a touch of awkwardness: “We shall miss you—but I
am
glad!”

She stretched out her hand to him. “Dear Jessamy! But you won’t miss me—we shall still be together! The only difference is that we shall all of us—you, and Felix, and I—live with Cousin Alverstoke, instead of at Graynard, and you won’t object to that, I know!”

He did not answer her, but turned his eyes upon the Marquis, saying: “Thank you! But—you can’t wish to have us foisted on to you, sir!”

“No, a hideous prospect!” agreed his lordship. “The thing is that I couldn’t get your sister on easier terms.”

One of his rare smiles swept across Jessamy’s face. “You—you
are
the most complete hand, sir!”

“No, he isn’t!” said Felix. “Why shouldn’t he wish to have us? It isn’t as though we should be a
trouble
to him! Cousin Alverstoke, what I
particularly
wanted to ask you is, may I have a workshop at Alver? For experiments? If I promise
faithfully
not to blow the house up? If you
please,
Cousin Alverstoke ... ?”