Page 64

‘In her studio. She’s finishing a portrait of some dandy. Some vain fool, but he’s paying her a vast fee.’

‘Would she mind my interrupting her?’

‘I think she’d be glad of the diversion.’ Alick smiled, more than willing to share with his friends his own good fortune in having such a wife.

Raven Purfoy knocked on the studio door and hearing Corinna’s voice, entered. The room was lit with a hazy light filtered through the great copper beech tree in the garden. On her easel was a three-quarter length portrait of a smug young man. She looked up, paint on her apron and a smudge across her nose. ‘Oh Rav! I’m so pleased to see you. I’m struggling with his hands. Can you come and stand just there.’ She pointed to a place on the other side of the north-facing window. ‘Now splay your right hand fingers on your left arm. Perfect.’

Raven stood there with this unnatural pose as she squinted at his hands and dabbed paint on the canvas. ‘I need your advice, Cory.’ He was surprised that he had said the words.

‘Of course. Just let me get this finger right first. Yours are much more elegant than his, but perhaps he’ll be pleased to have your beautiful hands rather than his bunches of sausages.’ She laughed as she added the last brush-stroke of paint. ‘Right, the hand’s done. You can now relax and talk.’

Lord Purfoy subsided into the chair and crossed his legs, staring towards the window in abstracted thought. Corinna was watching him with an amused expression. ‘You know, Rav, you really are almost indecently handsome. If only you’d smile a little. It so elevates the mood.’

He turned his eyes to meet hers and smiled. ‘My dear Cory, if I were married to you, I’d be smiling all the time.’

Corinna took off her paint-spattered apron and in exasperation, threw it on the floor. ‘You know, Rav, you have to stop this fantasy of what might have been. I think it’s been an excuse too long for your not committing yourself to another.’ She walked over to her second easel and whisked away the cloth covering the painting. Illuminated in the sparkling morning light was her portrait of Eliza Gray, beautiful, mysterious, full of emotion. Caught unawares, Lord Purfoy could hardly breathe. He was mesmerised once again by those eyes, seeming almost alive in their vivid soulfulness.

‘Corinna! I didn’t know it was still here. Can I have it?’ He was shocked to hear himself asking for such a memento.

‘Yes, until Miss Gray has a home for it.’

He had approached to stand before the portrait, meeting Eliza’s gaze, and for a moment he was overcome.

Corinna said very quietly, ‘You lost me to Alick through procrastination and nicety of feeling, don’t lose Eliza Gray to Zadoc Flynn in the same way.’

This electrified him. He whirled round. ‘What? What on earth makes you say that?’

‘Well, he’s asked her to marry him and intends to take her back to America with him. And you’ll never see her again.’

Lord Purfoy was pacing to relieve his feelings. ‘How dare he! He’s nowhere near good enough for her.’

‘That may well be, Rav, but what’s the saying, Faint heart ne’er won fair lady?’

Colour flared into his pale cheeks and he looked dangerous as his eyes blazed. ‘My heart is far from faint!’ He was almost shouting. ‘It’s burning like a furnace over which I have lost control.’

Corinna was placidly cleaning her brushes and wrapping them in paper. ‘Well, give up control then. What’s your family’s famous motto?’

He turned to face her and said, ‘Audaci Venus ut Fortuna favet.’

‘Remind me of the translation, my lord,’ she said sweetly.

‘Venus, like Fortune, favours the bold,’ he answered through gritted teeth.

‘Well, it strikes me the Purfoys knew a thing or two.’ And she laughed.

‘Where is she now?’ He flung out the question as if it were a challenge.

‘She’s back working as a rider at the circus.’

Again Lord Purfoy was overwhelmed with unaccustomed emotion and burst out, ‘What? Why? What made her return to that? I thought she was with her sister.’

‘She’s a proud woman and did not want to live on charity, having to ask family and friends for funds even to buy herself toiletries or haberdashery to refurbish her clothes. Alick and I offered her a home with us, as did her sister, Miss Fairley. But she said she was not fit to be a lady of leisure and was only trained for one thing.’

Corinna watched his lordship’s face change from outrage to sorrow to confusion and horror when she added, ‘Mr Flynn returns from Ireland in two days and she may well decide to accept his offer. Her friend at the circus, Rose Bowman, that pretty circus rider Mr Flynn brought to Lady Bassett’s ball, well, she’s already said she’ll travel with him to work in his father’s fur export business. So Miss Gray won’t be alone.’

‘That is a most consoling thought, thank you,’ Lord Purfoy said sarcastically. He was back to pacing the room.

‘Why do you hesitate? You evidently love the girl. We all do. It seems quite straightforward to me.’