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He went down on his knees by her chair, grasping her hands. ‘I cannot tell you. I do not know. It was not I who made away with him. Perhaps he is not dead; if you will marry me we will –’
‘Marry you!’ she cried. ‘I shall never marry you!’
He rose and walked away from her to the window. With his back to her he said: ‘You must marry me.’
She stared at him. ‘Are you mad?’
He shook his head. ‘Not mad. Desperate.’
She said nothing. She was looking about her as though she had just realised the significance of this cottage, lost in the Weald. After a moment he said in a quieter tone: ‘I must try to make you understand.’
‘I do understand,’ she said. The fingers of her right hand clenched and unclenched. ‘I understand why I was not to leave a message for Mrs Scattergood, why you would not change horses on the road. The woman who lives in this place – is she in your pay?’
‘Yes,’ he replied curtly.
‘I hope you pay her handsomely,’ she said.
‘Judith, you hate me for this, but you have nothing to fear from me, I promise you!’
‘You are mistaken; I do not fear you.’
‘You have no need. I want you to be my wife –’
‘Would you want me to be your wife if I were not possessed of a fortune?’ she said scathingly.
‘Yes! Oh, I shan’t deny I need your fortune, but my love for you is real! Too real to allow of my doing anything now that could set you more against me! I am aware how much I have injured my own cause by this step I have taken. It is for me to show you in what respect I hold you. I shall not presume even to touch you without your leave, even though I must keep you here until I have your promise to marry me!’
‘You will not get it, I assure you.’
‘Ah, you do not understand. You have not considered! That I should be obliged to point out to you – But it must be done! Judith, do you know that a fortnight – a week – spent in my company, hidden away from your friends, must make it impossible for you to refuse? Your reputation would be so damaged that even Worth himself must counsel you to marry me! In plain words, cousin –’
A voice from the other end of the room interposed coolly: ‘You need not speak any more plain words, Mr Taverner. You have said quite enough to compromise yourself.’
Judith gave a cry and turned. The Earl of Worth was seated astride the window-sill at the back of the room. He was wearing riding-dress, and he carried his gloves and his whip in his hand. As Judith started up from her chair he swung his other leg over the sill and stepped quickly into the room, tossing his gloves and whip on to the table.
‘You!’ The word burst from Bernard Taverner’s pale lips. He had spun round at the sound of the Earl’s voice, and stood swaying on the balls of his feet, glaring across the room, for one moment before he sprang.
Miss Taverner uttered a shriek of terror, but before it had died on her lips it was all over. At one moment the Earl seemed in danger of being murdered by her cousin, at the next Bernard Taverner had gone down before a crashing blow to the jaw, and was lying on the floor with an overturned chair beside him, and the Earl standing over him with his fists clenched, and a look on his face that made Miss Taverner run forward and clasp her hands about his arm. ‘Oh no!’ she gasped.‘You must not! Lord Worth, I beg of you –’
He looked down at her, and the expression that had frightened her died out of his eyes. ‘I beg your pardon, Clorinda,’ he said. ‘I was rather forgetting your presence. You may get up, Mr Taverner. We will finish this when Miss Taverner is not by.’
Bernard Taverner had struggled on to one elbow. He dragged himself to his feet, and stood leaning heavily against the wall, trying to regain full possession of his senses. The Earl picked up the fallen chair and handed Miss Taverner to it. ‘I owe you an apology,’ he said. ‘You have had an uncomfortable sort of a morning, and I am afraid that was my doing.’
She said: ‘Peregrine – he said it was you who kidnapped Peregrine!’
‘That,’ said the Earl, ‘is probably the only correct information he has given you.’
She turned very white. ‘Correct!’
‘Perfectly correct,’ he said, his gaze resting mockingly on Taverner’s face.
‘I don’t understand! Oh, you could not have done so!’
‘Thank you, Clorinda,’ he said, with a faint smile. ‘But the fact remains that I did.’
She glanced towards her cousin, and saw that he was staring at Worth with a mixture of horror and incredulity in his eyes. She got up.‘Oh, what are you saying? Where is Perry? For God’s sake, tell me, one of you!’
‘By this time,’ said the Earl, ‘Peregrine is probably in Marine Parade. Don’t look so surprised, Mr Taverner: you cannot seriously have imagined that I should permit you to ship my ward off to the West Indies.’
