The Loving Spirit Read online

  ‘Dare I hope that you have sent him away to clear the way for me?’

  ‘You flatter yourself.’

  Leon’s eyes gleamed. ‘I see. Setting a distance between him and me, eh? Very clever, Kate. But useless. Sooner or later he must return. And when he does I shall offer for Charmaine and be accepted. How delightful it will be when you and I belong to the same family, such visits we shall enjoy...such opportunities.’

  ‘Don’t overrate your charms, My Lord. At Charmaine’s age a girl’s fancies alter by the hour.’

  He burst out laughing loud enough to make heads turn. ‘And you think I can’t hold Charmaine’s fancy? Look at her now, scowling because we waltz together. But what really upsets her is that you made me laugh. On the way home she’ll ask you what we were discussing; I wonder what you’ll tell her.’

  There was no way around his devilish skill. And on the way home Charmaine did indeed question her petulantly until at last Kate was goaded into retorting,

  ‘I said nothing to amuse him, Charmaine. He laughed to make you jealous. That’s the kind of man he is. If you’re wise you’ll have nothing further to do with him.’

  Charmaine burst into noisy tears and Millicent immediately gathered her in her arms. ‘There, there, my love. Take no notice.’ To Kate she hissed, ‘That is exactly the kind of vulgar invention I would have expected from you.’

  ‘Why would I invent such a thing?’ Kate asked wearily.

  ‘Because the jealousy is yours. Charmaine is a decent young girl making an honourable marriage to a man who seems to have taken your attention. How like you to make trouble.’

  ‘Certainly he has taken my attention,’ Kate retorted, refusing to be provoked. ‘If he might marry Charmaine I want to know what kind of man he is. Yes, I do spend time in his company: I dance with him; I talk with him; I watch his behaviour and I’m not impressed. Charmaine, why does it have to be him? You’re such a success. So many young men, equally eligible, are eager to court you? Why not choose somebody closer to your own age?’

  ‘Because I love Leon and he loves me,’ the girl wept.

  ‘And the supply of unmarried earls is limited,’ Millicent added drily.

  ‘Is a great title really so necessary?’

  ‘I will leave the answer to that to your own conscience,’ Millicent said with a cat-like smile.

  Another burst of weeping from the girl made it unnecessary for Kate to answer this, and in a few minutes they were home.

  She knew now that there was no escape from Leon. He called when Charmaine and Millicent were out and suavely requested her to go driving with him in the park. She assented, having no choice, and uttered only a faint protest when he dismissed his tiger so that they were completely alone.

  ‘I’m really rather annoyed with you, Kate,’ he said conversationally, as they tooled through Hyde Park. ‘You’ve been holding out on me. You should have told me about my son.’

  She couldn’t restrain her gasp. It was too late then to deny it.

  ‘How...did you...?’

  ‘Charmaine was chattering and for once I was listening. She told me all about Tom, and from his age I deduce that he was born nine months after our little assignation. You know, I did wonder...not that it made any odds at the time. There was nothing I could do about it. I look forward to meeting him.’

  ‘He’s in Spain,’ she said, glad for the first time that this was so.

  ‘Well, it can wait. Now there’s something else I want to talk about. I’ve been very patient, my lovely, but my patience is running out. I want you, and quickly. You’ll have to find an excuse to come to my rooms.’

  ‘Are you mad?’

  ‘I’ve set Friday as the day. My servants will be away; we’ll be quite alone.’

  ‘And suppose my husband has returned by then?’

  ‘He won’t. He’s at Delmer’s shooting party, and 1 have it on good authority that that won’t break up until the end of next week. Friday. Don’t fail me.’

  She thought she would go mad trying to plan an escape from this. She was saved by Justin, who returned two days later, joining his wife’s party at Lady Jersey’s ball when the evening was half over.

  `I couldn’t stay away from you,’ he murmured in Kate’s ear. ‘Come, waltz with me. I can’t wait to have you in my arms again.’

  Leon was waltzing with Charmaine, and Kate was able to see the chagrin on his face as they danced by him and he realized that Justin had returned.

  Another time,’ he murmured as they encountered each other briefly after the dance. ‘I can wait...but not too long.’

  ‘Don’t you like Danby?’ Justin asked, as they travelled home together in his carriage. Charmaine and Millicent followed on behind.

  ‘What makes you ask that?’

  ‘You scowl at him.’

  ‘Well, I don’t like him. It’s easy to see that he doesn’t care a button for Charmaine. He wants her because she’ll be ‘suitable’.’

  Justin grimaced. ‘I’m afraid that’s how it’s done in the marriage mart. I don’t care for his company myself, but Millicent and my grandmother consider him an excellent match and I bow to their superior wisdom in these matters. Her fortune isn’t large, and even I know that from a worldly point of view she’d be lucky to catch him.’

  ‘And do you judge things from a worldly point of view?’ she asked.

  ‘Everyone isn’t like us, Kate. I don’t like the match but I wouldn’t feel justified in banning it simply because it doesn’t suit my own ideas. He’s no worse than a hundred others, I’m sorry to say. Now let us forget him, and her, and all the world...’

  *

  The descent of Leon’s grandmother, the Dowager Countess of Danby, on London was a notable occasion. She was also the mother of his recently deceased uncle, and the grandmother of the cousin who had died with him. Since then the old lady had shut herself away with her grief. Now she ventured to make the journey to London, drawn, so the gossips said, by the rumours that Leon was about to contract an alliance. Her approval would set the seal on the match.

  Charmaine was in a fever of expectation when the invitations arrived for herself, Lady Thorpe, and Lord and Lady Farringdon. She spent hours poring over fashion plates to choose her gown for the evening, having all her choices rejected by Millicent.

  ‘You must be demure and modest, my love, both in your attire and your behaviour.’

  She chose for Charmaine a dress of white satin, ornamented with embroidered roses, with puff sleeves and cut slightly higher over the bosom than was usual for an evening dress. As she’d intended, the effect was to make Charmaine appear young and demure.

  Kate’s gown was also cut modestly high over the bosom which, thought Millicent, only went to show what a scheming, conniving creature she was to make such a parade of virtue. The gown was of amber silk with Chinese trimming down the front and around the bosom. On her head she wore a turban, also of amber silk, decorated with pearls.

  Danby House was in Brook Street, a large, imposing edifice, magnificently furnished in the style of an earlier age. The previous Lord Danby had been a man of quiet tastes who lived with the minimum of servants. But for the dowager only splendour would do. For this evening Leon had hired extra footmen who stood straight, uniformed and wigged, slightly ostentatious in their profusion.

  Leon was a devil that night. At dinner he brought the conversation round to Kate, praising her kindness to him, and mentioning Tom.

  ‘A soldier I gather? You must have been proud to see him follow in his father’s footsteps, ma’am?’

  She said something. She didn’t know what. She was on hot coals, and she guessed that was just how Leon wanted her.

  As far as the business of the night was concerned, matters went well. Charmaine was on her best behaviour. Lady Danby looked her up and down and pronounced her a pretty behaved female. Kate could not like the old woman, who reminded her unpleasantly of Millicent in her haughty worldliness. The two women got on famously.
r />   When the meal was over they went apart, talking together, knowing that it was they who were making this match. Lady Danby showed her over the great mansion, a chilly place but furnished in the first style of elegance, which was all that Millicent considered mattered.

  ‘These are our predecessors,’ the old woman said, showing her into a portrait gallery, hung with Danbys of previous generations. Row on row of them, all with the same expressions of pride. Millicent uttered suitable words of admiration.

  At last she stopped before a small portrait, showing a lad of about seventeen, with unusually large, dark, brilliant eyes, and a long, straight nose. Something about that face held her transfixed.

  ‘Is this a member of your family?’ she enquired of Lady Danby.

  ‘That was my husband in his youth. Many people have admired it.’

  A striking face,’ Millicent mused. ‘Nobody, having seen that face...’ she paused thoughtfully, ‘could ever forget it.’

  On the journey home Charmaine bubbled over. The evening had gone splendidly. Had they heard how Lady Danby had praised her? Leon had been delighted. Kate sat with her head back against the squabs, her eyes closed, a little frown between them. Justin held her hand quietly and said little. Millicent also said little, but on her face was a smile of cat-like satisfaction.

  Chapter Eleven

  The very next day Lord Danby formally offered for Charmaine’s hand and was accepted. The wedding was to take place in January and, under Millicent’s supervision, would be a very grand affair.

  ‘Now I have you,’ Leon observed softly to Kate at the party to celebrate the betrothal. ‘You’ve held me off very successfully until now, but soon we’ll be connected by more than a son. Do you know, I think your husband might he persuaded to invite me to Farringdon Park for Christmas.’

  Her last hope was gone. The future stretched before her, a nightmare of blackmail and torture if she yielded to Leon, with the inevitable result that Justin would one day discover everything in the worst possible way.

  Now she came to a desperate resolution. It would tear her heart out to do it, but she must tell Justin everything. It was the only way to stop Charmaine falling into Leon’s clutches, and force him to cease his persecution of herself. When she thought of Justin’s pain her courage nearly failed her. But perhaps she could make him understand? She had been so young, so stupid and innocent. Surely his love for her was great enough to survive?

  While she was still trying to screw up her courage Justin announced that he was leaving again for a few days’ hunting in Leicestershire.

  ‘I’ve done my duty and now I’m getting out of this hot-house before I wilt,’ he told Kate with a grin. ‘As for you, my darling, I give you my full permission to talk to Lord Hampton as much as you choose.’

  There was no chance to telling him anything now. Kate kissed him goodbye with a heavy heart.

  These days Millicent seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood, which Kate put down to having achieved her ambition. She smiled on everyone, and cheerfully busied herself with preparations for the party. Nor did she make any barbed remarks about Kate.

  Leon troubled her less, but that brought her no relief as she understood that he was merely biding his time. The pleasure of tormenting her up to now was as nothing compared to the pleasure of torturing her in the future.

  With her betrothal, Charmaine seemed to have thrown aside all restraint. At parties or at Almack’s she felt free to romp and laugh loudly, and several respectable matrons began to cast chilly eyes on her. After returning from one particularly boisterous evening, Kate felt moved to remonstrate. Having discarded her own finery and put on her dressing-gown she confronted Millicent in her room.

  ‘Can’t you make that child behave with more decorum?’ she demanded. ‘She does herself no good with these hoydenish ways.’

  ‘I think you can rely on me to be the judge of Charmaine’s behaviour,’ Millicent said sweetly.

  ‘That’s just what I can’t do. If you cared for her reputation you wouldn’t let her expose herself so. I saw the way Mrs Aylton was looking at her tonight, with disgust.’

  ‘With jealousy. Mrs Aylton aimed to marry a viscount but only managed to secure an ‘Honourable’. And she tried to catch Lord Danby for that bracket faced daughter of hers. Charmaine has secured a coup.’

  ‘And you think she can throw her reputation over the windmill? How if her ‘coup’ fails her?’

  ‘Charmaine is going to marry Lord Danby. The marriage has been announced in The Gazette, and there is an end of the matter.’

  ‘Suppose it isn’t? How will she find another husband with half society’s doors shut in her face?’

  ‘So that’s it,’ Millicent said in a tone of nasty satisfaction. ‘You’ve been determined to break them up from the start, haven’t you?’ Suddenly cold rage possessed her, and it was as if all the repressed spite of the past year came rioting to the surface. ‘A low-born little vulgarian, flaunting yourself in jewels you have no right to, taking precedence of me. A greedy, jealous creature who must keep everything for herself...even her old lovers.’

  Kate turned white. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I’ve known there was something strange about you two ever since the night of the ball. You knew him before, didn’t you? He’s the father of your son.’

  ‘My...son...is the son of George...Hendricks...‘ she struggled to say.

  ‘Spare me your lies,’ Millicent mocked. ‘I knew Tom was a Danby the moment I saw a certain portrait in Danby House. The likeness is too great to be coincidence. You wallowed in the mire with Leon Danby when you were a girl, and now your sins have come home to you. After I saw that portrait I wrote to a cousin in the Horse Guards. The army has no record of a George Hendricks. He was as much a lie as your marriage.’

  ‘Oblige me by keeping your voice down, Millicent,’ said a cold voice from the door.

  And all Kate’s worst nightmares came true as she turned to see Justin standing just inside the room. Millicent gave a sharp intake of breath. Kate was beyond any sound or movement.

  ‘I returned a little early,’ Justin said, approaching them, unable to stay away from you, my dear, as always.’ He gave a nod in Kate’s direction but turned again to Millicent. ‘What is this fantasy, if you please?’

  Millicent looked anything but pleased. Whatever she might have chosen to tell Justin it wouldn’t have been like this. But she fought to overcome her disadvantage.

  ‘My heart bleeds for you, Cousin,’ she said sweetly. ‘Tricked by a scheming woman, no better than a harlot.’

  ‘Be careful what you say of my wife,’ Justin said in a deadly voice.

  Millicent promptly lost all control and common sense.

  ‘Don’t you understand that she’s been lying to you?’ she snapped. ‘She was never married. George Hendricks never existed, and Tom is Lord Danby’s bastard. He was her lover then and he’s her lover now.’

  ‘You are mistaken Millicent,’ Justin told her. ‘George Hendricks did exist. I was acquainted with him years ago.’

  Millicent gasped. ‘But that’s impossible...’

  ‘Perhaps you would like to accuse me of telling lies?’

  ‘No...no...but I...’

  ‘My wife is the soul of honour and all your accusations are untrue. If I hear a word to the contrary, you will leave my house. Now my dear,’ he offered his arm to Kate, ‘Shall we go?’

  As soon as she took his arm Kate knew that her relief had been misplaced. It was as cold and hard as iron, and he never once looked at her as he escorted her to their apartments.

  When they were inside he withdrew from her, tossing his cloak aside, and turning to Kate.

  ‘Is it true?’ he asked.

  ‘Justin, please let me...’

  ‘Is it true?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said hopelessly.

  He regarded her out of eyes as cold as a snowdrift. They were the eyes of an enemy.

  ‘I will have no scandal,’ he
said in a dead voice. ‘And therefore to Millicent I defended you. I pretended to know this husband of yours, but in fact there never was such a man. That is correct, My Lady?’

  She flinched at that ‘My Lady’. ‘Yes,’ she admitted. ‘It is correct.’

  ‘You were unmarried when your child was born?’

  ‘Yes,’ she whispered.

  ‘And his father?’

  ‘Lord Danby.’

  ‘I could almost laugh at myself for the fool I’ve been, putting you on a pedestal and worshipping your truth and honour.’ His voice became bitterly ironic. ‘But I must say, in my own defence, that you did it very well.’

  ‘Justin, I beg you, don’t judge me until you know what happened.’

  ‘But I do know what happened. You did what no decent woman would do and bore a bastard child, whom you palmed off on the world as the son of a man who didn’t exist. You played your part admirably. Even I...’ He closed his eyes for a moment and a shudder went through him.’

  ‘Justin...’

  ‘Keep away?’ He flinched away from her as though from an evil thing. ‘You will not come near me or my children again. Never, do you hear? Good God, do you think I want them enduring what I...?’ He drew a sharp breath.

  ‘What your mother made you suffer,’ Kate finished. ‘But not all women are like her.’

  ‘No, I knew one who wasn’t. I married her, but she died and left me to fall into the clutches of a vulgar deceiver. I think Amelia must have been the only honest woman in the world. You fooled her and you fooled me, but that’s over.’

  ‘I never deceived Amelia,’ she said hotly. ‘She knew everything about me. Everything.’

  He turned on her, and there was something in his face that made her take an instinctive step back.

  ‘Are you daring to say that she knew you were a harlot when she brought you into my house?’

  She winced at the word ‘harlot’ as though he’d struck her in the face.

  ‘She never saw me as a harlot,’ she managed to say. ‘She knew me when it happened...a child of fifteen who didn’t understand anything. She pitied me from the greatness of her heart.’