Chapter 27

27

Sophie could not help herself; in reaction to the most unexpected news, she began to laugh, and after a moment Lord Drake joined her. After a while he sobered a little and said, ‘You have been an artist’s model, I assume. I do not know why I should be surprised.’

He didn’t seem to be angry – or not at her, at any rate. Anger with Lord Wyverne was always simmering just beneath the surface. She would have thought less of Rafe if she’d felt he was judging her, since, thanks to his father, she had not had the luxury of living a respectable life. But she didn’t see any judgement in his face, just interest. And if there were things she’d done that she regretted, and there were, her time with Bart was not one of them. ‘I did pose for an artist several times a few years ago,’ she said. ‘He was my lover.’

‘No longer?’

‘No.’

A little silence grew and stretched between them. He said abruptly, ‘I didn’t have Marchand bring you here in order that I could take advantage of your situation. I hope you know that. It was simply the only solution that presented itself as soon as Kemp came to me. I have a great deal of respect for your ingenuity, but I feared that once you had fallen into Wyverne’s grasp there would be no getting you out.’

‘I would have brazened it out – said yes, that was me, but I am guilty only of trying to earn a living. But you know him far better than I. You think he would have seized on me as the culprit regardless of anything I said?’

‘He is not a man who cares for being made to look foolish or ignorant, and his love for his collection amounts almost to a mania. Once he had decided that you were not a respectable female, I fear he would have no compunction whatsoever in his dealings with you.’

‘I can see that. I fear I have now confirmed his suspicions by running away, though.’

‘Perhaps so, but anything is better than being in his power, as you would have been. There must be a way out of this coil, which we can devise together. And now you are safe here for a little time – once the initial search does not find you, he’ll think you’ve run out of the house, and will waste time searching for you and berating his men for incompetence. I have not had speech with him – it seemed unwise – but there is currently a great deal of shouting and blustering going on downstairs. Your composure astonishes me – you’re not frightened?’

She sank back into the chair, looking up at him. It suddenly seemed important to try to make him understand. ‘Fear does no good, I have learned. It merely paralyses. I’ve been powerless and frightened, and I hated it. I have resolved that I will always struggle against what seems like fate. I’ve come so far – I’m a long way from being defeated, and I will not cower before him, of all people. He doesn’t know who I am, you say, and he can have no idea of where I have concealed the jewels. That is a great deal, I think.’

‘I do admire you,’ he said quietly, sitting on the bed and leaning forward to regard her intently, hands on his knees. ‘I have never met anyone so indomitable.’

‘I find that hard to believe, since for my part I have made your grandmother’s acquaintance.’

He smiled. ‘That’s true. But even she finds it impossible to deal with Wyverne on occasion.’ And then he made a palpable effort to change the subject, and said, ‘I’m sorry for the disorder of my chamber. I wasn’t expecting a visitor, or I would have tidied it.’

‘Books do not count as disorder, in my opinion. It is excessively cosy, I think. Was it your room as a child?’

‘When I was very small I slept in the nursery, of course, but as soon as I was able to I spent hours exploring, and claimed this place for my own, furnishing it slowly with things I found neglected about the house. I particularly loved the wallpaper and made up all sorts of stories about the people in it to entertain myself. I was… a rather solitary child, and my half-siblings are much younger, so we scarcely played together. And once my stepmother died and the children were taken away by their uncle, I found I needed the refuge even more. It’s not clear to me if Wyverne knows about this place. I make sure never to leave anything particularly precious here, so that if he should find it and destroy it I should be sorry, but there would be no great harm done. I’ve removed the miniatures of my mother, my grandmother and the children, for example, to keep them safe.’

‘Why would he do such a thing?’

He shrugged and said, ‘I don’t claim fully to understand what drives him. Perhaps I do him an injustice and he is entirely indifferent to me; I cannot say. But I can imagine Rosanna finding my refuge and deciding to wreck it out of malice. I don’t think for a second that he would stop her – he’d merely laugh.’

‘She hates you that much?’

‘She does. She cannot endure that I rejected her. And that is why, I suppose, she spread the vicious rumour that she was my mistress, which all the world now believes.’

‘Lord Wyverne at least must know that it is untrue.’

‘He has good reason to know that much. Shall I tell you what happened? I have shared this story with very few people.’

‘Only if you want to.’

He leaned back against the pillows and said with an unconscious sigh, ‘I’d like to. You have seen so much of how things are here – you at least will not be shocked or disbelieve me.’ Thinking of the night of Lord Wyverne’s Roman orgy, she could only nod her agreement and understanding. He continued in a level tone, ‘I was fifteen or sixteen when he married her. She’d been his mistress for a while, I suppose, but he hadn’t brought her here, or if he had done so I had been at school and had not been aware of it. She was – even now she still is – very beautiful, and she can be amusing; have you seen any sign of that?’

Sophie thought of Rosanna when she’d first met her, and how she had described the Dowager’s previous companions. ‘Yes, I have,’ she said. ‘Just briefly, but yes. She has a clever turn of phrase; she made me smile.’

‘She was wittier then, before the years of marriage had worn her down. I was a little shocked that my… that Wyverne had married her so quickly after my stepmother’s death, but after all, that wasn’t her fault but his. She set out to charm me, and I was happy enough to be charmed, until one day… She’d summoned me to her sitting room and asked me to fetch her some trinket or other – as I passed it innocently to her, she put her hands on me and pulled my face down for a kiss. Not at all the sort of kiss a stepmother should give a boy of sixteen, I need hardly add. I froze for a moment in shock and then pushed her away from me, and as I stood some instinct made me look into the mirror. In it I saw Lord Wyverne watching me from the half-open door to the next chamber. No emotion in his face, just observing us very intently. He saw that I had seen him, I make no doubt. And then I fled, as far from them both as I could contrive. I’ve never been alone with her since, and avoid him as much as I am able.’

She digested this slowly. ‘You believe she knew he was there.’

‘More than that, I believe he set her to seduce me. I’m sure the whole thing was planned out between them. What I don’t know, and I’m not sure I ever will know, is whether she is as wicked as he, and glories in it, or simply accedes to his demands – all his demands, you’ve seen just how far they extend – as part of the devil’s bargain she entered into when she became his wife. It is no small thing, for a woman who came from poverty, to be a marchioness, I suppose. And I hardly need tell you how cruel he can be when he is crossed. She may be numbered among his victims too, rather than as an accomplice; even after so many years, I can’t say.’

‘It would almost be easier to think her wicked. Otherwise she must be terribly unhappy, even perhaps terrified of him. Consider the other night, too, and the horror of what she did so publicly, if she did not do it entirely of her own free will.’

‘It does not bear thinking of. But whatever the truth of the matter, I do not believe she would welcome any intervention from me. My friend Simon – he is the rector here, I believe I may have mentioned him to you before – tells me that I have a constant desire to rescue people, to make amends somehow for Wyverne’s behaviour. But rescuing Rosanna, even if I could be sure she needs it, is a task far beyond my power.’

‘You’ve been trying to rescue me,’ she said with a smile. ‘So perhaps your friend is right.’

He sighed. ‘I know you want nothing more than to leave this place, and I cannot find it in my heart to blame you. All you said the other day was true, of course it was. We should not be together. It is madness to think otherwise. And yet…’

And yet…

She didn’t make any reply, but stood, crossing to the bed, as he moved aside to make room for her to lie by him. He reached out and pulled her close, and said, his big hands warm on her back as he held her, ‘Normally when I contemplate Wyverne a great black cloud sinks over me and depresses all my thoughts and feelings. But somehow with you it’s different. The effect you have on me is far too powerful to be suppressed. I didn’t know such a thing was possible. Even though it would be the height of folly on my part to think it could last, I’m glad you’re here with me, no matter how it’s come about.’

‘So am I,’ she said, and kissed him.