Jilted (20 page)

Morrison took due note of Ilam’s powerful frame. The viscount topped him by several inches and was broader than he. After one fulminating glance around the group, he made a bow which was commendably dignified under the circumstances. ‘I shall go and make my farewells,’ he said. ‘I’ll instruct my servants to remove to an inn in the next village.’

‘That will be far enough – for tonight,’ Ilam replied, with an ominous smile that did not reach his eyes.

‘Evangeline, would you like to sit here with me for a while?’ Eustacia asked the other girl after Morrison had left them.

Now that the drama was all over, Evangeline looked much younger and rather forlorn. ‘No thank you,’ she answered, with more dignity than Eustacia would have expected from the spoiled young woman that she knew her to be. ‘I think I will go to the ladies’ room for a while to compose myself, until I am sure he has gone.’

‘Would
you
like to remain here?’ Gabriel asked Eustacia after Evangeline had left them. ‘I’m sure that you have no more desire than Miss Granby to see that fellow again. Did it distress you very much to see him?’

Eustacia sat down again. ‘No it didn’t distress me, precisely,’ she told him. ‘I was shocked to see him, of course.’ For a time they sat in silence.

Eventually Gabriel exclaimed, rather unwisely, as if the comment had been torn from his lips, ‘I can’t imagine what possessed you to go apart with him. Had you taken leave of your senses?’

Eustacia took a deep breath, reminding herself the while that this was the man who had just sent Morrison packing. ‘Lord Ilam, I am grateful for your intervention, but—’

‘Gabriel,’ he corrected.

‘Gabriel, then, I am grateful for what you did, but who I do or do not choose to go apart with is surely no concern of yours,’ Eustacia replied with dignity.

‘It most certainly is,’ he replied. ‘My aunt is your godmother. That makes me in some sense your older cousin.’

‘Oh pooh,’ Eustacia replied. ‘If you had been as close as that, you’d have been at the wedding.’

‘I gather you really were jilted,’ Gabriel observed. ‘I thought it must have been something that my aunt made up.’

‘No, it wasn’t made up; well, the bit about my bridegroom being a clergyman was.’

Looking down, Eustacia saw Ilam’s fist clench on his powerful thigh. ‘If I had been there, I would have gone after him and knocked his teeth down his throat,’ he said.

‘You could have done it and welcome,’ she replied frankly. ‘The difficulty would have been that nobody knew where he had gone.’ She paused. ‘To be honest with you, I would have released him, had he asked. I cannot think of anything worse than being married to a man who had changed his mind.’

‘The blackguard really allowed you to go to the church and receive the news there?’

‘He actually allowed me to get right to the altar,’ Eustacia admitted.

‘Then blackguard is too good a word for him,’ said Ilam in disgusted tones.

‘I suppose it had its funny side when you come to think about it,’ she reflected. She began an account of the day, leaving nothing out, from the note brought by the small boy to her mother
fainting
followed by her own escape out of the vestry door.

‘Fancy sending a small boy to do his dirty work,’ Gabriel exclaimed.

‘Yes, he did,’ Eustacia assured him. ‘It was the absurdest thing.
This child came clattering down the aisle in a pair of working clogs and stood there holding out a piece of paper and asking which one of us was the bride.’

The laughter which she had felt welling up inside her on the day and to which she had never given voice, suddenly came back as she was finishing her account. Laughter is very infectious, and in the end, they were both overcome by quite uncontrollable mirth.

When at last they began to regain control of themselves, they found that they were looking into each other’s eyes. Without unlocking his gaze from hers, he edged closer, took hold of her hand and raised it to his lips. Then moving closer still, he pulled her into his arms, and lowered his lips to meet hers.

Whilst she had been engaged, Morrison had kissed her on more than one occasion. She had found it pleasant, but no more
preferable
to any other agreeable occupation such as drinking tea or reading a good book. By way of contrast, Ilam’s kiss was a
revelation
. She had kissed him once before, but that had been half in anger, to prove a point. Now, held firmly in his embrace with his mouth covering hers, his tongue gently but insistently probing between her lips in order to explore inside, she could not imagine anything that she would rather be doing. She began to do a little experimenting of her own, caressing the hair which grew at the nape of his neck just beneath his queue. She loved the feel of it, and the appreciative growl that he made deep in his throat
indicated
that he enjoyed the sensation of having her hands caress him in that way.

It was the sound of a gasp that caused them to spring apart. They looked up and saw Anna, a stricken expression on her face, her hands to her mouth. Moments later, she whirled round and turned to go down the stairs.

‘Anna!’ Ilam called out. ‘Wait!’ He stood up and made as if to follow her.

‘Gabriel, no,’ said Eustacia urgently, as she also rose to her feet and caught hold of his arm.

‘Someone must go after her,’ he insisted.

‘Yes, but it must not be you after what she has just seen,’ she told
him. ‘Her feelings for you are still too raw. Send her brother after her.’

He hesitated. ‘Yes, you are right,’ he agreed. ‘I’ll find him.’

‘I’ll go and see if Evangeline is all right.’ Before she could turn away, he caught hold of her hand and raised it to his lips. Then he straightened his cuffs, smoothed his hair and headed for the
ballroom
.

His actions reminded Eustacia that she, too, might be looking a little untidy after their recent embrace. Even if she had not decided to speak to Evangeline, she would have needed to go to the ladies’ room on her own account. No doubt any interested observer of her actions would conclude that she was spending an inordinate amount of time there.

She found Evangeline perched on a little fireside chair, her handkerchief in her hand. ‘Are you feeling any better?’ Eustacia asked her.

‘A little,’ replied the other wanly. Eustacia pulled up another chair and they sat together in silence for a short time. ‘Did he really jilt you?’ Evangeline asked her, all unconsciously repeating the thought if not the exact words of Lord Ilam just a few minutes before.

‘Yes, he really did,’ Eustacia replied. She took Evangeline’s hand. ‘Did you like him so very much?’

‘I hadn’t known him for long,’ Evangeline admitted. ‘But he is very handsome, isn’t he?’

‘Yes, he is,’ Eustacia agreed. ‘How did you meet him?’

‘It was not at a ball, or anything like that. Perhaps that’s why he seemed to stand out from the rest. My maid had accompanied me to Bond Street to visit the modiste’s. When we came out, our carriage had had to pull a little way down the road, so Millie and I walked to where it was. There were too many packages for Millie to carry so I had three, and I dropped one. The next thing I knew, this handsome young man came running up, and presented it to me. Suddenly it came on to rain, and as Millie was with me, I offered to take him up in the carriage, and it went on from there.’

So it was very much as Eustacia had concluded. Frightened by
what he had done, he had run away to London to hide. ‘Did he say anything about having been engaged or about his home or anything?’

Evangeline shook her head. ‘He said nothing about an
engagement
, although he did talk a little about his home and his parents. He mentioned something about a little awkwardness – strained relations with a neighbour or something – that meant that he felt it advisable to get away for a while.’

‘Strained relations!’ exclaimed Eustacia indignantly. ‘I should say so! Why, my father was ripe for murder after what he did.’

‘So I should think! I wonder whether I should send Papa after him to challenge him.’

‘Do you think he would go?’ Eustacia asked her.

‘Oh yes, he would go if he thought that I wanted him to,’ responded Evangeline. ‘He would do anything for his little angel, you know.’

‘Perhaps he would get hurt,’ Eustacia suggested. ‘Remember that Morrison is much younger than he is, and he is fit. You
wouldn’t
like that would you?’

‘No,’ Evangeline agreed regretfully. ‘But I certainly don’t want to stay here. Those two cats, Miss Wing and Miss Barclay will be crowing all over me. I shall insist that Mama and Papa take me away somewhere – perhaps to the seaside.’

‘Do you think they will do so?’

‘Oh yes. I have only to threaten a tantrum and they will do whatever I ask.’

Soon after this, they left the room in order to rejoin the company. Eustacia wondered whether Ilam might be waiting for them, but she was not really surprised when the passage was empty. He was not the sort of man to be caught loitering outside the ladies’ room.

It was not necessary to pass through the ballroom in order to go down to supper, since they were in a central corridor which ran between the ballroom on one side and a number of bedchambers on the other. The corridor itself had stairs at either end, one flight leading down into the entrance and the other leading to the
dining-room. They did go via the ballroom, in case anyone should be there waiting for them. It was almost deserted but Ilam was there, talking urgently to David Crossley and Miss August, the village schoolmistress, a sensible lady in her forties.

Ilam had his back to the door, but upon hearing them come in, he turned towards them, his face hard and anxious. ‘Anna’s gone,’ he said bluntly. He looked at Eustacia with what seemed to her to be accusing eyes. ‘I was going to go after her but you stopped me. Now, thanks to …’ He had half said the word ‘you’ when he corrected himself. ‘Thanks to that circumstance, no one knows where she is.’

Ilam knew he had spoken unfairly as soon as the words were out of his mouth, but Eustacia had turned away before he could take them back. David Crossley put his hand on the viscount’s arm. ‘No need for that, my lord,’ said the young man. ‘It’s no one’s fault but her own. She’s been fancying herself as her ladyship for a while now.’

‘Yes, and I, fool that I am, did not realize it,’ Ilam interrupted bitterly.

‘Even if you had done so, I doubt anything you could have said would have made a difference,’ David assured him. ‘The main thing now is to find her.’

‘I will go to the supper room and see if any of her friends have left,’ said Evangeline.

‘That’s a good thought,’ said Ilam. ‘You go too, David.’ When the young man seemed about to protest, Ilam added, ‘Miss Granby has been away in London, remember. There might be people that your sister knows that Miss Granby may have forgotten about.’

‘Miss Hope and I could make discreet enquiries of the landlady,’ said Miss August. ‘Perhaps one of the servants might have seen her.’

‘Perhaps,’ Ilam agreed. ‘In the meantime, I’ll go outside and take a look around. We’ll meet back here in, say, a quarter of an hour?’

Miss August took the lead in questioning Mrs Venables, whilst Eustacia stood by and tried to give her full attention to what was happening. Gabriel’s accusations had been unfair, but she knew that he had spoken out of anxiety. After all, they had both been
taken aback by Anna’s sudden appearance. She still believed that Ilam would have been quite the wrong person to go after Anna at that moment. Nevertheless, it would have been much better for the wrong person to pursue her and catch her than for her to disappear in this way. If anything had happened to the girl, then she would find it hard to forgive herself for holding Ilam back.

Even whilst Eustacia was racking her conscience, Ilam was going through the same kind of exercise. He knew that he could easily have ignored Eustacia’s advice and run down the stairs after Anna. The fact was that he had not wanted to leave the woman who had been in his arms so recently, and whose kisses had had such a powerful effect upon him. He, who had prided himself on being cast in a different mould to his father, had allowed his desire for a woman to cloud his judgement!

Determinedly, he turned his mind to the matter in hand. The night was fine, and the moon was full. It was, in short, the perfect night for driving, riding, or even for walking, were one in the kind of mood to do such a thing. He made a sweep of the area around the front and the back of the inn, but found no one. Two grooms were about and he engaged them in casual conversation, trying to discover whether either of them knew anything. Neither of them did. He went back to the rendezvous anxious about Anna, but still feeling guilty about the way that he had spoken to Eustacia.

None of them had anything useful to contribute. Mrs Venables had not noticed anyone leaving in a hurry. She was not able to speak to all of the servants straight away, but promised to send anyone to the ballroom if she discovered anything.

On looking carefully at those consuming supper, Evangeline and David had come to the conclusion that all of Anna’s friends were still present. None of them looked anxious or preoccupied.

After Ilam had disclosed his own lack of success, they stood for a while wondering what to do. ‘Some of us, at least, ought to go down to supper,’ said Miss August. ‘The absence of such a large group will be bound to cause the kind of gossip that we are surely most anxious to avoid.’

‘I’d like to take a look outside myself,’ said David anxiously.
‘She’s only a child, after all.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ said Ilam. ‘The ladies should all go
downstairs
, I think.’

Eustacia was very reluctant to go, but could not think of a way of suggesting that she should help search outside without it
sounding
as if she wanted to sneak into a dark corner with Gabriel. Miss August and Evangeline made their way towards the supper room, but she hesitated. Before she could follow them, one of the servants came upstairs from the tap room. ‘Begging your pardon, my lord,’ he said, ‘but missus said to remind you that a young man that came with Mr and Mrs Granby left sudden a little while ago.’

‘Morrison!’ exclaimed Ilam, his expression hardening. ‘By God, if he’s harmed her!’

Eustacia hurried back to his side. ‘Morrison would not harm her,’ she said positively.

‘He did
you
enough damage,’ he retorted.

‘Yes, but that was through thoughtlessness. He would not
deliberately
harm a young girl in any way. Truly, he would not.’

Gabriel stared at her incredulously. ‘I’m amazed that you can defend him after what he has done,’ he said.

‘I’ve known him for over half my life,’ she replied simply.

‘Never mind that,’ interrupted David Crossley. ‘You told him to go to the next village, my lord. If Anna found out where he was going she might have begged a ride. Remember that my older sister is married to the doctor who lives there.’

‘I’d forgotten that,’ said Ilam, his expression lightening. ‘I’ll wager that’s where she’s gone. Come. With any chance we’ll be back here with her even before we’re missed.’

They strode to the door. Gabriel turned in the doorway, looked back towards Eustacia, hesitated, then in response to David’s urgent summons, he was gone.

Eustacia stood in the centre of the deserted ballroom, lost in thought. The two men might think that Anna had gone to her sister, but she did not believe it to be the case. Anna’s chief emotion would be grief from what she believed was a broken heart. Coming a close second to that, however, would be a strong
feeling of humiliation and shame. She had obviously been boasting to her friends about how she would be marrying Ilam. Now that she had seen him kissing someone else, the last thing that she would want would be company. She would want to lick her wounds in private. Furthermore, she was certain that no young woman brought up by Mrs Crossley would get into a carriage with a young man whom she had never met before, however upset she might be.

Where would she go? A sudden inspiration caused Eustacia to look discreetly into the other chambers on the same floor in case Anna had hidden in any of those. This search unfortunately yielded no results.

Where else might the girl have gone? All at once she
remembered
how Anna and Gabriel had sat together in the arbour at the garden party. She was sure in her mind that it had been on that occasion that Ilam had attempted to tell Anna that he was not for her and the girl had completely failed to understand his meaning. If he had been very tactful indeed – and from her experience of him, Eustacia found this very hard to imagine – she might even thought that he was hinting that he was just waiting for her to grow up so that he could propose. Would Anna have gone there to sob her heart out? Eustacia felt that it might be possible.

At that moment, she heard the sound of people coming back up the stairs after their supper. Quickly, before she could be turned from her course, she snatched up her shawl, which she had placed on the back of a chair, and hurried down the stairs and out of the front door. As she stepped outside, she heard the sound of horses clattering down the street. That must be Ilam and Crossley
leaving
, she decided. On an impulse, she went back inside the inn and sought out the landlady.

‘I have an idea that the young lady may have gone to the arbour in the grounds of Illingham Hall,’ she said. ‘Will you please tell his lordship where I have gone when he returns?’

Thankful that it was such a bright night, she walked briskly up the main street to Illingham Hall. The main gates were closed and she did not try them, choosing instead to enter by a smaller one to
the side. Thankfully, like everything else at Illingham Hall, it was well maintained and did not creak. It was only once she was well inside the grounds that it occurred to her to wonder whether there might be any dogs roaming free, in order to deter housebreakers. She stood quite still, listening, but no sound of barking or
pounding
paws disturbed the night. The only dog-like creature she saw was a fox, but he was about his own concerns. After a long
unwinking
stare at her, he slunk off on his way.

She was not sure how easily she would find the arbour at night, but as she stepped onto the lawn, the few clouds which had briefly obscured the moon drifted away, leaving the scene almost as brightly lit as it had been a few days ago when the company had danced by torchlight during the evening. Suddenly aware that she might be observed by some servant up late, she hurried to the edge of the grass and worked her way around so that she could approach the arbour from the side. As she came near, she could hear the murmur of a human voice. At first Eustacia thought that it must simply be Anna crying. As she drew closer, however, she realized that the voice was that of a man speaking. Who could it be, she wondered? Was he with Anna, or was some other couple enjoying a tryst in the moonlight?

Her question was answered when she heard Anna’s voice. ‘I can’t go home, I just can’t! Everybody will laugh at me!’ She sounded as if she was crying.

‘I doubt that very much, my dear,’ a second voice answered. It was a male voice, cultured and slightly familiar in its intonation.

‘But I have made such a fool of myself! I didn’t realize how big a fool until I saw—’ She broke off. Eustacia raised her hands to her cheeks in the darkness. She could well imagine what it was that Anna had seen that had so discomposed her.

‘You saw…?’ prompted the male voice.

‘I saw Gabriel and … and…. They were embracing!’

‘Indeed?’

‘It just isn’t fair!’ Anna declared. ‘I love Gabriel, and if she hadn’t come along, he would have been mine!’ She burst into noisy sobs.

‘Come come, my dear,’ said the man, his voice full of
compassion
. There was a short period during which the only sound was Anna’s muffled sobs, as if she might be crying into her
companion’s
shoulder. Then, as the sobs subsided, he said, ‘Here, take this.’ Eustacia guessed that he had handed her a handkerchief.

Eventually, the man said ‘You’ve known Ilam for a very long time, remember.’

‘All my life,’ Anna agreed. ‘Please don’t tell me that I cannot possibly love him for that reason. People do marry when they have known one another all their lives. Look at my mother and father.’

‘Yes, they do,’ her companion agreed. ‘Your mother and father were childhood sweethearts. There is a difference between them and yourself and Ilam, however.’

‘You’re going to say that I’m just a farmer’s daughter and he’s the heir of an earl, aren’t you?’

‘I wouldn’t dream of saying anything so blindingly obvious,’ the gentleman replied. ‘The fact is that your parents married, having known one another all their lives, never having been anywhere else or ever having had any intention of doing so. Ilam, on the other hand, has experienced a far wider selection of people than you have encountered.’

‘Other people do come here sometimes,’ Anna countered swiftly. ‘Miss Hope did.’

‘Precisely. She, like Ilam, has had the advantage of a wider
society
. It is not surprising that they should have been drawn together.’

‘But if she had not come—’

‘It pains me to be brutal, my dear, but if she had not come, I do not think that he would have turned to you.’

‘I was so sure that he loved me!’ Anna’s voice broke on a sob.

‘Why, so he does,’ said the man.

‘But as a sister, not as a wife. It’s so unfair.’

‘There’s love for you,’ replied her companion. ‘If you’ve found that out, you’ve learned a valuable lesson. I don’t suppose it’s much consolation to you at the moment, but it does work the other way, you know. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that there were several young men sighing over you this evening and
wishing that you would look their way, even whilst
you
were
sighing
over Ilam.’

‘Do you really think so?’ Anna asked, sounding a little more cheerful.

‘Undoubtedly. You’re a very pretty girl, you know. Why don’t you permit me to escort you back to the ball? You might still be in time to have a dance or two. I might even dance with you myself. Now wouldn’t that be a coup?’

Anna gave a watery chuckle, then there was a rustling sound, as if the two were getting up. They moved out into the moonlight. Eustacia stepped back, hesitating. She would have liked to reveal her presence and walk back with them, but she was not sure how her appearance would be received by Anna. The girl seemed to have come round to a more reasonable way of thinking, but Eustacia feared that she might decide to flee again if she thought that she had been overheard by her rival.

‘I must look a mess,’ said Anna anxiously, as the couple began to walk away from the arbour, with Eustacia following at a short distance, still in the shadows.

‘Not at all,’ replied the man, who was now revealed to be tall, probably as tall as Ilam. Eustacia still did not recognize him. ‘The walk to the Olde Oak will enable your complexion to recover. However, I would advise a visit to the ladies retiring room. Your hair rather gives the impression that you have been abroad in a high wind.’

Anna chuckled again as the man gently tucked a strand behind her ear. It was at this unfortunate moment that Ilam came striding towards them across the grass. In the bright moonlight, he must have seen exactly what the man had been doing.

‘Get your hands off her, you depraved lecher,’ he said in
threatening
tones.

‘And good evening to you too, Ilam,’ said Anna’s companion suavely. ‘I see that your manners are much as they have ever been.’

‘Damn you to hell, Ashbourne,’ uttered Ilam, in the same murderous tone as he came ever closer. So this was Lord Ashbourne, Eustacia thought. She ought to have guessed. She
became conscious of another figure running across the grass in their direction and surmised that it must be David Crossley. Dear heaven, she thought, there will be murder done if nothing happens to prevent it! Lord Ashbourne might be all that he was said to be and worse, but on this occasion he had behaved like a true
gentleman
, and she was a witness to the fact. She prepared to emerge from the shadows, but even as she did so, Anna took a step forward.