Dennis Wheatley - The Rape Of Venice

'So be it then,' she laughed. 'We will enquire into his affairs, and find out how much he can afford without crippling his business.'

Roger remained silent for a moment, then he said. 'I only hope we'll be given an opportunity to do so. He has declared war against us, and I'll not disguise from you, my pet, that our situation at the moment is uncommon black.'

'Why so, my love?'

'Our trouble springs from the false relationship I thrust upon you on our first morning at sea in the Minerva. At the time it went a long way to establishing the respectability of our association; but now, it has recoiled upon us in a most dangerous manner. Our travelling companions in the Minerva will all be prepared to swear that we are uncle and niece; yet here we are living as husband and wife. That our union has not yet actually been blessed makes no difference in such a case. It is the fact that we are cohabiting. All who know us in this city will regard us as guilty of incest. Tis a crime for which there are most grievous penalties, and Winters intends to charge us with it.'

Clarissa's face showed her alarm, and she slipped from Roger's knees. 'Surely,' she said after a moment, 'there is some way in which we can prove that we are only cousins by marriage.'

'I know of none,' he replied gloomily, 'save having sworn affidavits regarding ourselves sent out from England. To write home and receive a reply would take nine months at the least, and it is what is to befall us in the meantime that worries me. Were we in Europe we'd be to horse in the next half hour and be over a frontier before a charge could be preferred against us; but that's not possible here. I'm at my. wits' end what to do.'

'Could we not bribe Winters into taking no action by offering to forgo the settlement?'

'Unfortunately that could prove only a temporary expedient. Shutting his mouth would not shut those of others. As two additional survivors from the Minerva, the news of our arrival must by now be all over the city, and with it the news that you are now living with me as Mrs. Brook. 'Twill be matter for righteous condemnation of us in every salon, and either the Church or the Law will feel called on to see that such sinners are made an example of.'

'What can they do to us? Tell me the worst, Roger. I pray you hide nothing from me.'

'I hardly know, my love. I think it unlikely that a court would condemn us in the face of our oath that the charge is brought under a misapprehension; so it would have to postpone a verdict until evidence of our true relationship could be procured from home. But the court would certainly order that during the interim we must not live together. It might even prohibit us from meeting, under pain of being sent to prison should we be caught doing so.'

'What say you? Oh, Roger, no! For us not to be able even to see one another for the best part of a year would be utterly intolerable.'

Chapter 15

The Golden Age in Bengal

It was as Clarissa gave this anguished cry, and tears sprang to her blue eyes, that the Bengali servant again appeared at the door, salaamed and addressed Roger:

'More people to see you, Sahib. The Sir Curtis Beaumont, Sahib, and his Lady. They request receiving.'

At the unexpected news that these good friends too had been rescued, Roger and Clarissa's faces lit up with joy; but after a second, Clarissa's fell, and she exclaimed in consternation:

'Oh, Roger! How can we now receive them? They cannot yet know… but, oh, I'll sink through the floor from shame.'

To her amazement he was still smiling. Suddenly he leapt to his feet, seized her round the waist, threw her up in the air, caught her in a bear like hug as she came down and cried, Praise be to God! We're saved! Saved, saved, saved, my dearest dear!' Then, turning to the servant, 'Show them in. No one was ever more welcome.'

Before the Beaumont’s were half through the doorway, Roger had Sir Curtis by the hand and was wringing it like a pump handle. Lady Beaumont gave Clarissa a somewhat uncertain look; but Clarissa's face showed no trace of embarrassment, only transparent joy, as she ran towards the older woman, and next moment they were kissing one another most affectionately.

Drawing Sir Curtis into the room, Roger exclaimed: 'Sir. your arrival could not be more opportune. No one could be more delighted than Clarissa and myself to learn that you and your lady survived the Minerva disaster, but we'll talk of that anon. At the very moment of your being announced we were in the depths of despair about a matter that concerns us most closely. Should your memory not have deteriorated since we last met, you have it in your power to relieve us of all anxiety. Do you recall the conversation you and I had the morning after Clarissa became engaged to Sidney Winters?'

'Why, yes,' the judge smiled. 'You were greatly opposed to the match, and consulted me on the feasibility of applying to the Court when we reached Cape Town for an injunction restraining the marriage on the grounds that she was not yet twenty-​one.'

'And your reply, Sir; your reply?'

'It was to the effect that you lacked the legal status necessary to make such an application, because you were not her guardian; or, as you had led us to suppose, her uncle, but only a cousin of hers by marriage.'

'That's right!' Roger exclaimed joyfully. 'That's right! Thank God, Sir, that your memory is clear upon the point, for we are like to be charged with having committed incest.'

Lady Beaumont's face showed how shocked she was, and she said with swift disapproval,' Tis true, then, that you are living together? I could not believe it. Had I done so I would never have come here.'

'Oh, please, please!' Clarissa seized her hands. 'You don't understand. Roger had to pretend I was his wife to save me from an Arab who would have taken me for his harem, and…'

'And we were later married by a Protestant Missionary in Goa,' put in Roger swiftly.

'Yes… yes!' Clarissa endorsed the lie. Then, her face radiant, she cried, 'And it was the happiest day of my life; because I've been desperately in love with Roger for years.'

'Tut, tut!' murmured Sir Curtis. 'That's a strange statement, young lady, seeing that barely three months back, without the least pressure from anyone, you married Mr. Winters.'

Clarissa blushed scarlet as she recalled her real reason for marrying Winters, but covered her confusion with a bold white lie. 'I became engaged to him, Sir, with the intent of making Roger jealous. I hoped up to the last moment to bring him up to scratch. Then, in despair and finding myself so deeply committed, I felt that I must go through with it.'

'The fault was mine,' Roger declared, putting an arm round her waist. 'I knew she loved me, and I loved her; but most selfishly I had set my mind against marrying again. It is I who am to blame for all our troubles from the very beginning.'

Sir Curtis gave him a quizzical look. 'Are we to take it, then that Miss Marsham's presence in the Minerva was not due to any headstrong determination to see the gorgeous East, but that she smuggled herself aboard in pursuit of you?'

'Yes,' laughed Clarissa. ' 'Twas a monstrously unmaidenly act. But I confess it; you have hit upon the truth.'

'We owe you both a deep apology,' Roger added, 'for the deception we practised upon you; but at the time it seemed the only way in which I could preserve Clarissa's reputation.'

Lady Beaumont was smiling now, and said, 'For that I would be the last to blame you; and it seems that I am to be called on to save her reputation yet again.'

'Oh, dear Lady Beaumont!' Clarissa cried, throwing her arms round her ex-​chaperone. 'You are, indeed, our Fairy Godmother. It needs only that you and Sir Curtis should clear us of this terrible imputation for us to reach the seventh heaven; for I vow that Roger has already made me the happiest woman in the world.'