Moonflower Madness (29 page)

There was now no way in which she could leave it to Zachary to break the news of their marriage. Numbly she shook her head and then she withdrew her hands from his, saying unsteadily,

‘I'm sorry Serena so misunderstood my motives for joining you and Zachary. I told her what my real reason was. I told her that I wanted to travel to Kansu to find blue Moonflowers.'

His happy smile of expectation grew uncertain. ‘I don't understand,' he said, his eyes anxious. ‘You do love me, don't you? You do want to marry me?'

‘I love you as a friend,' she said gently, trying to save his pride, ‘not as a prospective husband.' She lifted her left hand and held it out towards him. ‘I already have a husband,' she said, unable to keep the happiness out of her voice. ‘I married Zachary yesterday.'

Charles stared at her as if he had been pole-axed. When at last he could speak, he said hoarsely, ‘You did
what?
When? Where?'

‘I married Zachary yesterday, in the mission church at Peng.'

Charles ran his hands through his hair, struggling for understanding. ‘You mean it was
Zac
you fell in love with when we dined at the Residency?
Zac
was the reason you followed us from Chung King?'

‘No.'
Gianetta's voice was sharp with irritation. ‘Why will no-one believe me when I tell them the truth? I followed you because I wanted to go to Kansu; because I wanted to find blue Moonflowers; because if I hadn't done so I would have been obliged to return to England and live alone in a mausoleum of a house in the middle of the Lincolnshire fens!'

‘But I still don't understand,' Charles said, staring at her incredulously. ‘If you didn't follow Zac because you had fallen in love with him, why did you marry him? And why didn't Zac tell me he had married you? Why all the secrecy?'

Gianetta turned and began to walk back towards the camp-fire. As he fell into step beside her she said delicately, avoiding his eyes, ‘I think the reason he didn't tell you was because he didn't want to embarrass you.'

‘Embarrass me?' he said, his bewilderment increasing. ‘Why on earth should it have …' He stopped short, his face flushing. ‘Good God! You mean last night was your wedding night? Is
that
why the bearers were in Peng?'

She nodded, laughter rising in her throat at the unwitting farcicality of it all.

Their eyes met, and as Charles saw the laughter in her eyes, his hurt and incomprehension died. If she was not embarrassed, there was no reason why he should be. He began to grin. Maybe it was for the best after all. They were loving friends and they would remain loving friends. If they had married, the friendship between them might very soon have become a thing of the past, as he had seen happen so often in his friends'marriages.

‘You have all my best wishes and congratulations,' he said with sincerity, salvaging his pride and gallantly overcoming his disappointment, ‘but there's one thing I shall be a long time forgiving Zac for.'

‘And what is that?' she asked, glad that their relationship was once again on its old happy footing.

‘Marrying, without having me as his best man.'

They were both laughing when they returned to the campfire. As they did so, Zachary rode out of the woods towards them and Gianetta felt her stomach muscles tighten. What was his reaction going to be when he found out that Charles knew of their marriage? Was he going to be annoyed? Was she going to have to tell him why she had made the disclosure and if she did, would Charles mind?

There was no time in which to ask Charles. Bucephalus was galloping down on them and with deepening apprehension she saw that Zachary's face was forbiddingly grim.

Charles, too, was experiencing a flash of deep unease. He now understood his friend's ill humour of the previous evening, but the tension visible in every line of Zac's body was indicative of a far deeper and more sinister emotion. Trying to ignore it, he grinned welcomingly.

‘Did you get a good haul?' he called out as Zachary reined in and slid from Bucephalus's back.

‘A few.'

There was no sign of a collecting-tin bulging in his breeches pocket, and Charles was sure that he was lying.

He walked over to him, clapping him on the back, saying affectionately, ‘Congratulations. Gianetta's told me of your marriage. I know it's something you wanted to tell me yourself but believe me, the circumstances were such that she had no option.'

For the first time since Charles had joined them, Zachary's eyes held Gianetta's steadily. It was then she knew she had been living in a dream-world, and that something was deeply and profoundly wrong.

‘Where Gianetta is concerned, circumstances often leave one with no option,' he said tightly, his eyes glittering. ‘When she told you of our marriage, did she also tell you of the circumstances which occasioned it?'

Even Charles could no longer pretend that everything was as it should be. Bewilderedly he turned towards Gianetta, hoping for some clue as to the cause of Zac's barely controlled fury. Shock rocked him on his heels. Seconds ago her eyes had been dancing with laughter and she had been radiant and vibrant. Now she looked like a ghost.

He swung back towards Zac. ‘What the devil is going on here?' he demanded, anger on Gianetta's behalf surging through him. ‘Why all the doom and gloom? I'm sorry that I rode in on your wedding night in the way that I did, but there's no reason why it should spoil the rest of your honeymoon. Obviously I'll return to Peng for a few days and if you think it would be better if I didn't travel with you to Kansu, I'll return to Chung King and be on my way back to England.'

Zac broke eye contact with Gianetta, striding across to the far side of the camp-fire and picking up his saddle-bag.

‘A return to Chung King would be your best option,' he said, his voice a whiplash as he slung the saddle-bag over his shoulder and once more faced them. ‘And Gianetta will accompany you.'

From the moment he had dismounted from Bucephalus and met her eyes, Gianetta had known that her happiness and joy was at an end, but she hadn't known why and she still didn't. Now, her eyes dark with pain and incomprehension, she moved swiftly towards Zachary.

‘Why?'
she demanded passionately. ‘For God's sake, Zachary,
why?
'

He looked down at her, his face a tightly controlled mask. ‘Hasn't Charles made his intentions clear? I gave him enough privacy this morning for him to be able to do so.'

She felt as if she were in quicksand, floundering deeper and deeper.

‘Yes,' she said, knowing that Charles must have told him the previous evening that he was going to ask her to marry him. ‘But what has that got to do with anything? What has it got to do with
us?
'

‘I would have thought that was obvious,' he said smoothly, only the pulse throbbing at his jawline betraying his inner emotions. ‘Charles was your first choice of a husband. It was because of Charles that you left Chung King. Our marriage was nothing but a marriage of convenience and, as it has not been consummated, I imagine it can quite easily be annulled. When it is, you and Charles can marry and live happily ever after.'

Dimly she was aware of how stupid she must look, staring at him wide-eyed, her mouth gaping in disbelief.

‘But I don't
want
to marry Charles,' she said at last when she was able to speak. ‘I never
have
wanted to marry Charles!'

Suddenly she felt all her fears receding. The reasons behind his change of attitude towards her were so ludicrous as to be hysterically funny. He thought she didn't love him. That she loved Charles. That she had only married him in order not to have to return to England under her uncle's guardianship. Lovingly she took hold of his hand, certain that within seconds he would be laughing at his idiocy.

‘The only person I have ever wanted to marry is
you
,' she said, smiling up at him, willing him to meet her eyes, knowing he would see the truth of her words in them when he did so.

He neither looked at her or spoke to her. Instead he removed his hand from hers and began to walk towards Bucephalus, the saddle-bag still over his shoulder.

‘We were married because Britain's consul in Chung King demanded that we be married,' he said to Charles as if she had not spoken, as if she were not there. ‘If I hadn't complied, he was going to shoot Ben and ship Gianetta to England.'

He slung the saddle-bag across Bucephalus's broad back. ‘As he felt that Gianetta needed close supervision, he wanted her to be boarded in a convent until either he and Lady Hollis returned to England or until she came of age. Rather than allow him to exercise such petty tyranny over her, I agreed to marry her.'

He began to secure the saddle-bag and Bucephalus whinnied, eager to be off.

‘And as Gianetta had no desire to return to England under the conditions her uncle was specifying, she agreed to marry me.'

With the saddle-bag secure he turned to face them both. ‘That, I think, sums up the circumstances surrounding our marriage pretty succinctly. As you can see, Charles, love played no part. When Gianetta returns with you to England she will be able to secure an annulment and she will then be free to marry you.'

He turned away again, swinging himself up into the saddle.

‘You both have, of course, my very best wishes for your future.'

Gianetta was ice-cold. It was as if small, frozen fingers were squeezing her heart. He had never loved her. He had never even come close to loving her. He had married her because he felt sorry for her. Doubtless, if Charles hadn't arrived when he had, he would have consummated their marriage and taken what sexual comfort from it he could, but he had never
wanted
to marry her. And now he was off-loading the responsibility he had felt for her onto Charles.

For several disbelieving seconds Charles had been rendered equally dumb and immobile. Now he sprang forward, seizing hold of Bucephalus's reins, his fury at Gianetta's obvious hurt nearly unhinging him.

‘You're a madman! Gianetta wouldn't have married you unless she were in love with you! And you love her! You must do! No man in his right senses could help but love her!'

The corner of Zac's mouth crooked into a mirthless smile. ‘There was a time when I would have been in full agreement with your sentiments, Charles. Fortunately for me, you disabused me of them last night.'

Charles felt the blood drain from his face. Through all the insanity of the last few minutes it had never occurred to him that he was anything but an unwilling voyeur. Certainly it had not occurred to him that he was in any way responsible for what was being said.

Now, as Bucephalus attempted to prance away, he held onto the reins with difficulty.

‘You're being bloody stupid, Zac,' he said hoarsely. ‘Not everything I said last night was the literal truth. Gianetta never told me herself that she wanted to marry me, and Serena was wrong when she said that Gianetta was in love with me. She wasn't. She told me she wasn't this morning …'

‘I rather think Gianetta was trying to avoid complications,' Zachary said brutally.

He had determined that he wouldn't torture himself further by looking at her again, but as he wrenched the reins from Charles's grasp he could no more help doing so than he could have stopped from breathing.

Her face was as pale as a carved cameo and as expressionless, her eyes so dark it was impossible to tell iris from pupil.

‘Leave Ben with my bearers,' he said, wheeling Bucephalus around. ‘He can serve as an extra pack-mule. I promise I won't over-burden him.'

She felt as if she were in a nightmare from which she would never wake. He wasn't leaving camp to go on a short plant-hunting expedition. He was leaving it for good. His sleeping-bag lay tightly rolled behind his saddle. His mug was tied to the strap of his saddle-bag.

She had told him she loved him and it had made not the slightest difference. He didn't love her and now that Charles had arrived he saw no reason for accepting responsibility for her. He was going to do as he wanted, just as he had always done. He was going to travel to Kansu and search for blue Moonflowers and he wasn't going to take either her, or Charles, with him.

The only thing she could save from the ashes of her dreams was her dignity. Tears and further protestations were useless. He was going away from her and she might never see him again.

‘Thank you for offering to look after Ben,' she said through lips so dry they felt as if they were cracked.

He knew if he made a response his voice would break. Instead he looked towards Charles, saying tersely, ‘I've put two letters in your saddle-bag. One is to my solicitor, instructing him to begin proceedings for an annulment, the other is to my bank giving instructions that, until such time as you are able to marry, a suitable allowance be made to Gianetta and that she is to have the keys to my London house,' and without waiting for Charles to respond, without looking again in her direction, he dug his spurs into Bucephalus's flanks.

‘No!' Charles shouted, appalled. ‘Come back, Zac! Listen to me, for God's sake!'

He began to run after the galloping horse, but Zachary made no attempt to rein in and Charles staggered breathlessly to a stop, almost crying with frustration.

Gianetta remained frozen. The enormity of what had happened was too terrible for her to come to terms with. With a speed she could scarcely comprehend, her life had once more been turned completely upside-down; her sense of loss was total.

A hundred yards or so away from her, Charles shook his head in despair, then turned and began to make his way wearily back towards her.

Beyond him, in the distance, Zachary and Bucephalus grew smaller and smaller.

It was finally over. She knew now that she would never go to Kansu, never find a blue Moonflower. And she knew that neither of those dreams had ever been really important. Only her relationship with Zachary had truly mattered.