Mesalliance (40 page)

Inwardly
cursing himself for letting it get this far, the Duke said softly,
‘You have overlooked one small thing. I can deprive your drama of
point by refusing to listen.’ And, turning his back on her, he
started to walk away.

‘Go, then!’ she
jeered shrilly. And, with a bright, sweeping glance, ‘There’s
audience enough to suit my purposes – and they say, don’t they,
that the husband is always the last to know? So go, your Grace.
Then you can be the last to find out that your slut of a wife’s a
bastard!’

Rockliffe
stopped as if turned to stone. Then, very slowly, he turned round.
Throughout the whole of the Duchess of Queensberry’s vast,
magnificent ballroom the silence was so acute that he could hear
the whispering wind-song of the great crystal chandeliers. His gaze
took in Althea, clinging to Jack’s arm and looking ready to faint …
Harry, half-baffled and half-murderous … Lady Miriam, belatedly
moving like a sleep-walker towards her ungovernable child. And,
finally, Adeline … standing at the far end of the room beside
Isabel Vernon, her face paper-white and her wide, horrified eyes
staring straight into his.

‘Well?’
demanded Diana. ‘Are you deaf – or is it that, just for once,
you’ve nothing to say?’

‘I say that it
is a damnable lie,’ replied Rockliffe, in a tone calculated to cut
to the bone. ‘My wife is as well-born as you are – and a hundred
times better bred.’

‘Diana!’ Lady
Miriam had arrived at last. ‘You are quite hysterical and making a
complete exhibition of yourself. Now stop this foolishness at once
and come -- ’

‘
Foolishness
?’ The force with which the girl threw off her
mother’s restraining hand sent her ladyship staggering backwards.
‘You ought to have told him. If you’d told him, he wouldn’t have
married her. I’ll never forgive you for that – never!’

Despite all his
months of care, Rockliffe could see the ground opening up in front
of him and, in a final bid to avert catastrophe, he said curtly,
‘Lady Miriam – take your daughter home. Now.’

‘What do you
think I’m trying to do?’ Her voice shook and she looked ill.
‘Richard … I need my brother, Richard.’

‘Oh yes. Don’t
we all?’ Diana laughed harshly. ‘Or no – I was forgetting. Adeline
doesn’t, does she?’ She paused, looking round again. ‘But where is
she? Where
is
my poor fatherless cousin? I’d hate for her to
miss all the fun.’

‘I’m here.’
Sheathed in a curious frozen detachment, Adeline stepped forward
into no-man’s land. ‘Say what you have to say and let us be done
with it.’

‘
Dominic
!’ The word cracked like a pistol shot and
Rockliffe’s eyes flew to command those of his friend. ‘For God’s
sake --’

‘Yes.’ The
Marquis was already on the move.

‘No.’ It was
Adeline who spoke. ‘No. It’s too late, don’t you see? She’s said
too much already and, short of physical restraint, she’s going to
finish it. So it’s only fair that I hear it.’

‘Of course it
is,’ nodded Diana. ‘And you’ll want to see his face, won’t you? The
noble Duke who only married you because you appeared compromised.
You were clever there, Adeline … and he fell for it, didn’t he? He
fell neatly into your little trap and married you. So now you want
to know how he’ll look when he finds out that his mama-in-law – my
late lamented Aunt Joanna – isn’t really dead at all … but actually
living in some cosy love-nest with her paramour!’

If the hush had
been deathly before, it was now positively electric. Rockliffe let
it seep into every sinew and fibre and then, without taking his
eyes from Adeline, said calmly, ‘But I knew that. I could even tell
you where the … love-nest … is.’

He saw the
uncontrollable shudder that ripped through her and his soul wept.
In every other respect, however, the effect of his words was
exactly what he’d hoped. A collective murmur of shock echoed around
the room and Diana’s jaw dropped.

He had never
felt less like smiling but he did it anyway and said smoothly, ‘I’m
sorry if I have disappointed you. But if you have engineered this
unpleasantly vulgar scene for no better purpose than to exhume a
scandal that is already more than twenty years old, you have wasted
your time. For, as anyone who knows me could have told you, I am
rarely left in the dark – about anything.’

This time there
was a ripple of uncertain laughter. He was winning – but it was
small consolation when Adeline was staring at him out of stark,
lightless eyes as though she had never seen him before. He tried to
communicate courage to her and held out his hand, inviting her to
cross the floor to his side … but then, swift as a hawk, Diana
struck again.

‘So you know.
But you didn’t find out from
her
, did you?’

‘Does it
matter?’ A spasm of utter distaste crossed the Duke’s face. ‘I
think you’ve edified us enough.’

‘More than
enough.’ Leaving Althea leaning on Cassie Delahaye, Jack stepped
into the fray. ‘And if no one else is willing to put a stop to
this,
I
will!’

‘Ah!’ Eyes
blazing, Diana wheeled round to face him. ‘You want to prevent me
telling them all you’re Adeline’s lover!’

A gasp ran
round the room and Jack halted mid-stride, looking decidedly sick.
He said, ‘That is both untrue and completely ridiculous. I’m
betrothed to your sister.’

‘So you are.
Poor, simple Thea. She’s not hard to deceive, is she? But
I
know better. And if Adeline’s
not
your mistress, how come
she tells you things she won’t tell her husband? Why,’ she
finished, on a rising crescendo of triumph, ‘did she send
you
to pay off my uncle?’

The heavy lids
flew wide and Rockliffe impaled Diana on a hard, dark stare.

‘
What did
you say
?’

‘You heard. She
sent Jack to buy my uncle off. I heard it all.’

Seconds ticked
by in silence and then the whispering started. Rockliffe and
Adeline remained remote as statues, their eyes locked together;
Althea began to cry; and Mr Ingram, with murder in his face,
resumed his advance on Diana.

‘No, Jack.’ His
Grace turned at last and, though his voice was smooth as ever, the
pure rage in his eyes sufficed to kill the whispers and make Mr
Ingram halt in his tracks. ‘We have arrived – albeit somewhat
laboriously – at the point where Mistress Diana finally begins to
interest me. Indeed, I sense that it may well prove to be the crux
of the matter.’ He paused to sweep the room with a glance of
stinging mockery. ‘And when our friends have borne with us so
patiently, it would be uncharitable to deny them the climax, don’t
you think?’

Jack, who
understood only too well that he was being punished, compressed his
lips and said nothing.

‘Just so,’
agreed Rockliffe, sardonically. The dark eyes drifted inimically to
Adeline, dragging her painfully from her frail carapace of ice and
driving her to cover her mouth with one shaking hand before
stumbling blindly from the room. Dispassionately, he watched her go
– followed quickly by Isabel and Rosalind; and then, seemingly
satisfied, he strolled urbanely into the centre of the stage.

‘Very well,
Mistress. You have our undivided attention. But first I think we
should complete the cast of our little comedy. Where, I wonder, is
your uncle?’

‘Skulking by
the card-room door,’ volunteered Harry Caversham grimly. ‘And about
to make a run for it.’

Rather pale
beneath his paint, Richard Horton hesitated and found his arm being
drawn in an iron grip through that of the Marquis of Amberley, who
said cordially, ‘You mustn’t think of leaving us now. The
performance might founder completely.’

Without quite
knowing how it happened, Mr Horton found himself effectively
marooned in the magic circle inhabited by his niece and the Duke.
He stared at Diana, willing her to hold her tongue and then
recognised, sickeningly, that she was completely beyond reason.
Beginning to sweat, he looked at Rockliffe – and wished he hadn’t.
All around were silent, watching eyes, none of them friendly. He
tugged at his cravat and said chokingly, ‘She – she’s mad! My niece
is mad – you must see that!’

‘Yes,’ agreed
Rockliffe expressionlessly. ‘I do see it. Indeed, I think the whole
room does. However … let us hear what else she has to say.’ He
turned a cold, inviting smile on Diana. ‘We had reached the point
where you were telling us that my wife sent Mr Ingram to buy your
uncle off. Why was that?’

Diana’s chin
lifted and she held out her blue silk skirts as if to curtsy. Then,
with a slow secret smile, she said, ‘Because he threatened to tell
everybody she was a bastard. She wouldn’t have wanted you to know
that, would she? So she paid him to keep quiet. Oh - and Uncle
Richard had a letter from her mother. She wanted it back. But she
must have got tired of paying him … so Jack came and gave him a
thousand guineas for the letter and on condition that he kept quiet
and didn’t ask for more money.’

There was a
long airless pause. Then, ‘I see,’ said the Duke. ‘Jack?’

‘Yes.’ Mr
Ingram spoke curtly. ‘It’s true.’

‘And do you
know when this piece of gutter-debris started blackmailing
Adeline?’

‘Not exactly.
It – I think it began when you went away that first time.’

‘Thank you.
That’s all I need to know. For the moment.’ Eyes glinting with
incipient danger but his step as languid as ever, Rockliffe
advanced on Mr Horton. ‘Your sister, Joanna, described you as sly,
sadistic and weak. To that we can add that you are a vicious,
cheating liar of the kind any decent person would spit on.’ He
paused and then added coldly, ‘Although you are not aware of it,
you have caused me a considerable amount of trouble … but it’s
possible I could have supported that. What I will
not
tolerate, however, is that you have gone out of your way to
frighten and distress my wife with your threats and completely
unfounded allegations.’

‘Here it
comes,’ murmured Harry cheerfully in Nell’s ear. ‘He’s going to
challenge him.’

Mr Horton
thought so too.

‘I won’t
fight!’ he said wildly. ‘You’d kill me – I know you would. So say
what you like – but I won’t fight, I tell you!’

A slow,
unpleasant smile bracketed his Grace’s mouth.

‘You won’t be
given the opportunity. A duel is an affair of honour between
gentlemen,’ he said, deliberately unlocking each lethal syllable.
‘Neither of those qualities apply to you. And, rather than have it
touch filth of your sort, I would as soon drop my sword in a
midden.’

Upon which,
Tracy Giles Wynstanton, fourth Duke of Rockliffe, astounded the
noble company and delighted his friends by doing the unthinkable.
Without any warning whatsoever, he smashed his fist into Horton’s
face.

The crack of
bone sounded loud in the silence and Horton went down as if
pole-axed, sliding across the polished floor, spewing blood and
teeth. And the room erupted into a buzz of shocked chatter over
which rose the eldritch descant of Diana’s wild, hysterical
laughter.

Seeing the Duke
advancing on him, Mr Horton tried to drag himself away only to be
stopped by the Marquis of Amberley’s foot. Dropping on one knee,
Rockliffe gripped the man’s throat in one long-fingered hand and
squeezed hard enough for him to cough up more blood. Then, so
softly that only Amberley and his quarry could hear, he said, ‘If
you come near Adeline again, I promise that it will be the last
thing you ever do. And now I suggest you take your hell-born niece,
get out of my sight – and, if you’re wise,
stay
out of
it.’

Leaving Mr
Horton to his own devices, Rockliffe ripped the blood-stained
ruffles from his wrists and said, ‘Dominic … I doubt there’s
anything that can make this any better – but do what you can. I
have to go.’ And tossing the contaminated lace down with a gesture
of complete disgust, he walked the length of the ballroom, its
guests falling back to create a path for him … and then was
gone.

Driven from the
ballroom by Rockliffe’s hostile eyes, Adeline had succumbed,
finally, to panic.

It was plain
that he had known for some weeks about her mother – but not that
she had known too and been paying Richard Horton so keep it from
him. What that was likely to mean to him, she was as yet too
emotionally battered to evaluate. All she was aware of was that she
couldn’t face him yet … not until she’d had time to think.

She had reached
the hall before she realised that Isabel and Rosalind were with
her.

She said
raggedly, ‘I can’t go home … I have to get away.’

‘You can’t,’
objected Isabel, shocked.

‘Yes she can.
It might be for the best,’ said Rosalind decisively. ‘She needs
time and – after whatever’s going on in there is over – so will
Rock.’ Concentration creased her brow and then she went on rapidly,
‘She’ll need a head start in case he follows. Isabel – let her take
your carriage so she needn’t go back to St James’ Square. I’ll take
you home to Jermyn Street as soon as she’s on her way. Adeline – I
don’t want to know where you’re going but you should tell Isabel.
Rock will come to me first and, apart from the fact that I don’t
want
to lie to him, he’ll know if I do. Once he gets to you,
Isabel, it won’t matter and you can tell him the truth. I’ll wait
here for you. Now go –
go
!’

Somehow,
Adeline found herself outside, stripping off her necklace and
bracelets with stiff, clumsy fingers while the carriage was brought
round. Then, thanking Isabel with a swift kiss whilst piling the
Wynstanton diamonds into her hands, she told the coachman to take
her to Sittingbourne.