Джорджетт Хейер - Devil’s Cub

“Not yet,” he said. “Sit down, my child.”

She looked at him for a moment, and after some slight hesitation, obeyed, lightly clasping her hands in the lap of her grey gown.

The stranger regarded her over the brim of his wineglass. “May I ask why you find yourself unable to proffer the true explanation?”

She seemed to ponder her reply for a while. “There are several reasons, sir. The truth is so very nearly as strange as Mr. Walpole’s famous romance that perhaps I fear to be disbelieved.”

He tilted his glass, observing the reflection of the candlelight in the deep red wine. “But did you not say, Miss Challoner, that you would not lie to me?” he inquired softly.

Her eyes narrowed. “You are very acute, sir.”

“I have that reputation,” he agreed.

His words touched a chord of memory in her brain, but she was unable to catch the fleeting remembrance. She said: “You are quite right, sir: that is not my reason. The truth is there is someone else involved in my story.”

“I had supposed that there might be,” he replied. “Am I to understand that your lips are sealed out of consideration for this other person?”

“Not entirely, sir, but in part, yes.”

“Your sentiments are most elevating, Miss Challoner. But this punctiliousness is quite needless, believe me. Lord Vidal’s exploits have never been attended by any secrecy.”

She jumped, and her eyes flew to his face in a look of startled interrogation. He smiled. “I had the felicity of meeting your esteemed grandparent at Newmarket not many days since,” he said. “Upon hearing that I was bound for France he requested me to inquire for you on my way through Paris.”

“He knew?” she said blankly.

“Without doubt he knew.”

She covered her face with her hands. “My mother must have told him,” she said almost inaudibly. “It is worse, then, than I thought.”

He put his wineglass down, and pushed his chair a little way back from the table. “I beg you will not distress yourself, Miss Challoner. The role of confidant is certainly new to me, but I trust I know the rules.”

She got up and went over to the fire, trying to collect her thoughts, and to compose her natural agitation. The gentleman at the table took snuff, and waited for her to return. She did so in a minute or two, with a certain brisk determination that characterized her. She was rather pale, but completely mistress of herself. “If you know that I — left England with Lord Vidal, sir, I am more than ever grateful for your hospitality to-night, and an explanation is beyond doubt due to you,” she said. “I do not know how much you have learned of me, but since no one in England knows the whole truth, I fear you may have been quite misinformed on several points.”

“It is more than likely,” agreed her host. “May I suggest that you tell me the whole story? I have every intention of helping you out of your somewhat difficult situation, but I desire to know exactly why you left England with Lord Vidal, and why I find you to-day, apparently alone and friendless.”

She leaned towards him, her face eager. “Will you help me, sir? Will you help me to obtain a post as governess in some French family, so that I need not go back to England, but can maintain myself abroad?”

“Is that what you want?” he inquired incredulously.

“Yes, sir, indeed it is.”

“Dear me!” he remarked. “You seem to be a female of great resource. Pray begin your story.”

“In doing so, sir, I am forced to betray the — folly — of my sister. I dare say I need not ask you to — to forget that part of the tale.”

“My memory is most adaptable, Miss Challoner.”

“Thank you, sir. You must know then that I have a sister who is very young, foolish as girls are sometimes, and very, very lovely. Her path was crossed, not so long ago, by the Marquis of Vidal.”

“Naturally,” murmured her host.

“Naturally, sir?”

“Oh, I think so,” he said, with a faintly satirical smile. “If she is — very, very lovely — I feel sure that the Marquis of Vidal would cross her path. But continue, I beg of you!”

She inclined her head. “Very well, sir. This part of the story is very hard to tell, for I do not wish to give you to understand that the Marquis — forced his attentions upon an unwilling female. My sister encouraged him, and led him to suppose that she was — that she — ”

“I comprehend perfectly, Miss Challoner.”

She threw him a grateful look. “Yes, sir. Well, the end of it was that the Marquis induced my sister to consent to fly with him. I discovered their assignation, which was for eleven o’clock one evening. I should explain that the billet his lordship sent my sister, appointing the hour, fell into my hands, and not hers. There were reasons, sir, into which I shall not drag you, which prevented me from informing my mother of this dreadful elopement. I need not tell you, sir, that his lordship did not contemplate marriage. It seemed to me that I must contrive not only to stop the actual flight, but to put an end to an affair that would only mean Sophia’s ruin. When I look back I marvel at my own simplicity. I conceived the notion of taking Sophia’s place in the coach, and when he discovered the imposture it was my intention to make him believe that Sophia and I had planned it between us, for a jest. I thought that nothing would more surely disgust him.” She paused, and added dryly: “I was quite right.”

The gentleman twisted the emerald ring on his finger. “Do I understand that you carried out this remarkable plan?” he inquired.

“Oh, yes, sir. But it went sadly awry.”

“That was to have been expected,” he said gently.

“I suppose so,” she sighed. “It was a silly plan. Lord Vidal did not discover the cheat until next morning, when we reached Newhaven. To find myself by the sea was a shock to me. I had not guessed that his lordship intended to leave England. I entered the inn on the quay in his company, and in the private room he had engaged I discovered myself to him.” She stopped.

“I can well imagine that Lord Vidal’s emotions baffle description,” said the gentleman.

She was looking straight in front of her. She nodded, and said slowly: “In what followed, sir, I do not wish to lay any blame on Lord Vidal. I played my part too well, not dreaming of the revenge he would take. I must have appeared to him — I did appear to him — a vulgar, loose female.” She turned her head towards him. “Are you acquainted with Lord Vidal, sir?”

“I am, Miss Challoner.”

“Then you will know, sir, that his lordship’s temper is extremely fiery and uncontrolled. I had provoked it, and it — it was disastrous. Lord Vidal forced me to go on board his yacht, and carried me to Dieppe.”

The gentleman felt for his quizzing-glass, and raised it. Through it he surveyed Miss Challoner. “May I ask what were his lordship’s tactics?” he inquired. “I feel an almost overwhelming interest in the methods of daylight abduction employed by the modern youth.”

“Well, it was not very romantic,” confessed Miss Challoner. “He threatened to pour the contents of his flask down my throat, thereby rendering me too drunk to resist.” She saw a frown in his eyes, and said: “I fear I shock you, sir, but remember that his lordship was enraged.”

“I am not shocked, Miss Challoner, but I infinitely deplore such a lack of finesse. Did his lordship carry out this ingenious plan?”

“No, for I submitted. To be made drunk seemed to me a horrid fate. I said I would go with him. It was very early, and there was no one on the quay, so that I could not call for help, even had I dared. And since his lordship threatened to strangle me if I made the least outcry, I am sure I should not have dared. I went on board the yacht, and as our passage was rough, I was most vilely unwell.”