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‘No French spies to notice,’ he answered in the same tone. ‘How are you? Have you seen a doctor?’
‘Yes, I saw a very good one, I think, but not since I got to London. My aunt has no idea what has happened, just that I have been ill since Gibraltar and that the same thing overtook me on the journey here.’ She paused, looking down at his hands, lightly clasped on the edge of the daybed beside her. ‘I feel much better, I will soon be well.’
‘But sad?’ he asked gently.
‘Yes, sad. Are you sad?’
‘I thought I only cared that you were well, but I find I care about the baby as well. More than I would have thought possible in the circumstances.’
Hebe wondered what would happen if she gave in to her feelings and just turned into his arms and clung to him. Instead she swallowed hard and said, ‘There was no need for you to come.’ It came out sounding harsher than she intended and he withdrew his hands from the bed and stood up.
‘I think there was every need, beside my concern for your health. What did you mean by saying in the letter that all your previous plans had come to nothing
?’
‘Why, that there was no need for us to marry, of course. I did not want to say anything more specific in case anyone else saw the letter.’ Hebe watched him as he stood turning her brushes over and over on the dressing table, apparently engrossed in the play of sunlight on the silver backs.
‘And why is that?’ He was not looking at her. From the severe, priestlike profile she could read nothing.
‘Because, without the baby, there is no necessity.’
At that Alex turned slowly on his booted heel and walked back until he was standing over her, looking down. ‘There is every necessity. I have ruined you, I will marry you.’
‘Nonsense,’ Hebe retorted with more confidence than she was feeling. ‘I do not feel in any way ruined. Society might consider me so—I feel perfectly normal and ordinary and I will not be forced into a—’
‘Loveless marriage. You would rather have a loveless spinsterhood?’
‘I…well, I would have my independence.’
‘And no money to enjoy it.’
‘I could become involved with charitable work, that would be worthwhile.’
‘Why not do so from a position of power and influence and do some real good?’
‘There are other things than charitable works.’ Hebe was beginning to feel trapped. ‘I want to stretch my mind…’
‘Then stretch it with a large estate to look after, and a big house to be mistress of. Collect books—’ he gestured at the pile that had fallen across the end of the daybed ‘—collect works of art. Do what you will, I can afford to indulge you.’
‘I do not want to be indulged,’ Hebe snapped, now thoroughly on the defensive. The thought of marriage to Alex, of Alex indulging her, was painfully seductive.
‘Hebe, I warn you, I will not be gainsaid on this. It touches my honour. I will marry you.’
‘I do not see why I should marry you because of your sensitive honour,’ she protested. ‘And I will not. It is not right.’
Alex suddenly hunkered down beside her, his face on a level with hers. ‘Then I will do what I have to do to ensure that you do as I say.’
‘What can you do? This is not the Middle Ages. Do you intend to ride off with me over your saddle bow?’
‘No, nothing so melodramatic. I shall wait here until your aunt and uncle return and then I shall tell them, in detail, exactly why you have to marry me.’
‘They cannot make me, I shall refuse.’
‘Then I shall write to Sir Richard and to your mother, and tell them. Can you imagine how that will make them feel, to know what has happened to you when they are too far away to be with you?’
‘That is blackmail!’ Hebe protested hotly. ‘How could you do that to Mama?’
‘Yes, it is blackmail, and I have no intention of doing anything to cause your mama distress unless you force me to. And ask yourself, what she would prefer to happen now.’
