The Cross of Love (7 page)

"Perhaps. I can just imagine him not bothering to tell her. Once he'd made his plans, he's just the sort of man to dispense with other people's feelings as an unnecessary extra.

"He simply can't imagine that there are things his money can't buy him."

Rena gave a sigh.

"I am afraid there are a great many people like that in the world," she said. "Papa used to say that although we were poor, we should always appreciate the beautiful things in life."

"What were they?" the Earl asked as if the way she had spoken made him curious.

Rena smiled. "The sun, the moon, the stars," she replied. "And so many other things, too many to mention."

"That's just the sort of thing you would say," he told her. "I am beginning to think you aren't real, but a part of the magic cross you showed me in the woods. Also the sunshine, which, although you may not know it, is turning your hair to gold."

"Don't let Mr. Wyngate hear you saying things like that," she reproved. "I understand that it means nothing, but he won't."

John looked as if he wanted to say something, but stopped himself. Then he took a sharp breath.

"Why, that's it! I'll say that you're my wife!"

"John, do be sensible."

"Wouldn't you like to be my wife?" he sounded hurt.

"If you don't take care you'll find yourself engaged to me, and then I'll bring an action for breach of promise, and you'll really be in a pickle."

"Only if I tried to get out of it. I might insist on marrying you. What would you do then?"

"Don't make me laugh when I'm beating eggs," she begged. "It's dangerous."

"Yes, you just flipped some on my nose. Anyway, you couldn't sue me for breach of promise." His eyes were twinkling.

"Indeed, sir? And do you often ask girls if they would 'like to be your wife'?"

"Every day," he assured her. "But I always make sure there are no witnesses. Then there's nothing they can do when I behave like a cad, and vanish."

She was speechless.

He grinned at the sight of her indignant face.

"I learned that from one of my shipmates," he said. "He had a considerable career of that kind. In fact I think he joined the Navy one jump ahead of an outraged father."

"I think you're quite disgraceful. And so was he."

"Yes, he was. Of course it isn't funny if it's real, but I would never actually behave in such a way. I hope you know that."

"What I know or don't know is neither here nor there," she said, concentrating on the eggs. Something in his tone as he spoke the last words had made the air sing about her ears.

"It isn't me you have to impress," she added.

"Well I wouldn't like you to think badly of me, Rena. For any reason."

She regarded him quizzically. "My Lord, since we've met you have set me to work in a beetle infested oven, struck me down and rolled me around on a dusty carpet. Why on earth would I think badly of you?"

He began to shake with laughter, which grew and grew until he put his head down on his arms on the table, and rocked with mirth. Rena stood there, regarding him with delight.

At last he raised his head and mopped his streaming eyes. Then he got to his feet and came round the table, took the bowl from her hand and engulfed her in an enormous bear hug, swinging her round and round the kitchen, while his laughter went on.

"John," she protested, laughing too now, because she couldn't help it. This delightful madman had overwhelmed her with his riotous love of life and her head was spinning, joyfully.

"Rena, you are wonderful," he cried. "Wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL!"

"John - "

"There isn't another woman in the world who would put up with me as you do. Maybe I ought to marry you after all."

"Stop your nonsense," she said, trying to speak clearly through the thumping of her heart. "You need an heiress."

"Curses! So I do." He released her reluctantly. "What a bore!"

Rena turned away and got on with her work, hoping that he couldn't see that she was flustered.

It meant nothing, she told herself. It was just his way.

And she wasn't used to great-hearted, exuberant men who seized her vigorously in their arms.

"So, you be careful," she said, for something to say. "Or I shall make myself difficult."

"I'm not afraid of you. I'll just set Mr. Wyngate on you. My, that would be a battle of the titans. I think I'd back you against him. All right, all right, don't look at me like that. I was only joking."

She pointed a ladle at him. "That kind of joke can land you in complications," she said, with an unconvincing attempt at severity, "and you have enough of those."

"Well at least I can make a joke with you, without worrying that you'll have hysterics."

"Has it occurred to you that you may be imagining the whole thing? He may not want you at all."

"In our previous acquaintance he kept asking me if I knew any aristocrats that I could introduce him to, because Matilda would grace a coronet. Then the minute he discovers my Earldom he descends on me. How does that strike you?"

"Sinister," she agreed.

"Once he's set his heart on something he never gives up. I suppose that's how he became a millionaire. I feel almost afraid that before I know it I'll find myself walking up the aisle with Matilda on my arm."

"Then perhaps you will," said Rena, almost brusquely. "Perhaps it's your destiny to do what will bring prosperity to the village, no matter what the cost to yourself. Now, would you mind going away? I have a lot of work to do before this afternoon."

This conversation was proving a strain on her.

* For the visit Rena changed into her severest clothes, and put a cap on her head that hid some of her shining hair.

John was outraged.

"What did you do that for? You look like a servant."

"A housekeeper is a servant."

"Not you. Take this thing off your head."

"Hey, let go." He was pulling pins out. "Give that back at once."

"I will not."

"You will." She stamped her foot. "Right now."

He grinned at her, and the sun came out. "For a servant you're very good at giving me orders."

"John, will you try to be sensible?" She had already fallen into the habit of scolding him like a sister. "While we're sharing the house alone, the plainer I look the better. And Mr. Wyngate will notice."

"Well, if he thinks you're my - well, you know - he won't want me to marry his daughter, will he?"

"Nonsense, of course he will. Where's he going to find another coronet? And what about my reputation in the village? Have you thought of that? "I didn't even mean to be sleeping here. I was going to stay respectably in the vicarage before a crowd of strangers turned up, throwing me out, making fun of my mother's clothes and trying to steal my chicken - " her voice wobbled.

"Rena, Rena, I'm sorry." His manner changed at once, becoming the gentle, kindly one that touched her heart. He took hold of her shoulders. "I'm a selfish beast. I forgot how much you've had to put up with. My poor, dear girl, are you crying?"

"No," she said into her handkerchief.

"Well, nobody could blame you. Come here."

He drew her against him and wrapped his arms about her, holding her in a warm, brotherly hug. It was the second time that day he had held her close to him, and it threw her into a state of confusion.

"You've been a tower of strength and I don't know what I would have done without you," he said tenderly. "And all I do is make your life difficult. I ought to be shot for my appalling behaviour, oughtn't I?"

"Yes," she mumbled.

He chuckled. "That's my girl. Never mince matters. Heaven help me if I ever get on your wrong side." He tightened his arms so that she was held hard against a broad, comforting chest. He was taller by several inches, and she had a faint awareness of a soft thunder where his heart was.

Then there was another feeling, almost incredible, on the top of her head, as though he had planted a light kiss on her hair. But he released her straight after, so she might have imagined it.

"How do I put this back?" he asked, holding up the cap and pins.

"I'll do it. You go and - I don't know. Practise looking like an Earl."

He grinned. "Do you think I'll pass muster?"

He looked splendidly handsome in a dark suit. But it was his height that was impressive, plus his broad shoulders and long legs.

His face was good looking, but it was more than that, she decided, giving the matter her full attention. It was his proud carriage, the way he carried himself with an air. And then there was the indefinable something in his blue eyes, the gleam of humour and lust for life that was never far away.

It was hard to see how Miss Wyngate would not fall in love with him. In fact, she was probably the one behind this, and her father was acting at her wishes.

Rena had a sense of alarm, as though she could see some terrible danger rushing towards John, and she might pluck him from its path.

But then she realised that she was powerless to do any such thing. They might find more coins, but were unlikely to find enough to help.

She returned to work with a heavy heart.

An hour later there was a sound of wheels outside the front door. They were here at last. She and John had talked so much about them that they had come to feel strangely unreal.

But now they were very real, standing outside, demanding admittance. She felt herself become breathless and a little afraid.

She pulled herself together and tried to assume the demeanour of a servant.

After all, she had wanted to be an actress. This was her chance.

The front door bell rang.

Eyes cast down she crossed the great hall and opened the door.

Outside stood a man in his fifties who, despite his lack of inches, managed to be extremely impressive. He was not particularly attractive, but there was something about him that she had never seen before, an aura of wealth, and power.

It was not only the fact that his heavy Astrakhan coat and gleaming top hat were obviously new and expensive. Nor that his diamond tie-pin was sparkling in the sunshine or that the ring on his finger was also a diamond. It was something more.

She felt it come at her like a blast of air from the furnace of hell. Sheer brute determination to have his own way in all things. Callousness, cruelty, the hardness of rock. She sensed all these things.

Sinister. She had used the word to John almost without thinking, but now that she was faced with the reality she recognised it at once. He was sinister. He was frightening.

And he was something far worse. Rena was a parson's daughter, subtly attuned to the vibrations of another world, and now the hairs stood up on the back of her neck as she recognised evil.

She had never met it before. It had been a theory, a biblical abstraction. Now, at this moment she knew, unmistakeably, that she was in its presence.

Standing beside him was his daughter. She was exquisitely dressed in what Rena assumed must be the very latest fashion. Her clothes were trimmed with fur, her brooch was pearl and her ear-rings were diamonds. Somebody was bent on announcing to the world that she was the daughter of a rich man.

And that same somebody had more money than taste, since Rena's mother, who had belonged to the gentry in her youth, had once told her that no lady ever wore diamonds before six in the evening, and then never with pearls.

"Good afternoon, ma'am."

"My name is Wyngate. Lansdale is expecting me."

His voice was unpleasant and grating, and the way he said "Lansdale" made it clear that he already felt able to command here.

She murmured something respectful and stood back to let them pass. Mr. Wyngate shrugged off his coat and tossed it to her without a second glance. His silver topped stick followed.

Now that he was divested of his top coat Rena could see that there was something strange about his body. He was not a tall man, but his shoulders were very broad and his arms very long. His head, too, was slightly too large for his body. In fact he reminded her of a picture of an ape that she had once seen in a picture book at home.

Then John was there, striding across the hall on his long legs, looking, Rena thought, more handsome than any man had the right to. And it seemed absurd to think that Miss Matilda Wyngate would not fall in love with him.

"Good to see you again Lansdale," Wyngate grated. "You remember my daughter." It was a statement, not a question.

"I remember Miss Wyngate with great pleasure," John said politely.

Matilda smiled up at him in a way that reminded Rena of John's words. "She's very quiet, and some men might find that charming."

It was true. Matilda was no beauty but neither was she plain. Her oval face was pale, her demeanour was shy, and she did have charm.

"I remember Your Lordship very well," she said softly.

"None of that," her father said curtly. "You don't have to 'lordship' him. We're Lansdale's equals any day."

"Indeed you are," John said. "And you are both very welcome to my house. Rena - " he turned to her unexpectedly, "please come and meet our guests."

The idea of a man introducing his housekeeper was outrageous, and plainly Mr. Wyngate thought so too, for he turned cold eyes on Rena.

"This is my cousin, Mrs. Colwell," John continued, apparently oblivious to their astonishment. "She is visiting me to help me look after the house."

There was a twinkle in his eyes as he added: "She will tell you she has found it even worse than she had expected. Rena, my dear, these are my friends. Mr. Wyngate who has been very kind to me and his charming daughter, Matilda who has come with him to see the ruins which have so shocked us."

Rena shook hands with them both, her head whirling.

It was all very well trying her hand at being an actress, but she had not expected the role to change without warning.

Then she realised that John had forgotten one essential stage 'prop'.

A wedding ring.

Where could she find a wedding ring at a moment's notice? Did men ever think of anything? To conceal the bareness of her left hand she thrust it into the pocket of her dress. And there, to her surprise she found a broken ring which had fallen from one of the pictures. She had taken it down because it was dangerous.