Sally James (12 page)

As the girl turned slightly away to reply to a remark by Richard, Lord Chalford looked quizzically down at Susannah.

‘Remember, I will wait on you tomorrow morning,’ he said softly and before she could reply drew his companion away, saying that the final act was about to begin and they ought to return to their places.

Susannah sat through the last act in as great a turmoil as she had the first and had very little knowledge of the plot, or the resolution of the difficulties the various characters had found themselves in. She was consequently silent on the way home, causing the usually placid Aunt Sarah to hope she had not the headache from so many late nights.

Susannah seized gratefully on this excuse and escaped to bed once she was home, begging Amanda, who would have accompanied her to her room solicitously, to leave her alone and postpone any discussion until the following morning.

Chapter Seven

Susannah was tempted to avoid Lord Chalford by inventing an excuse to leave the house, but she decided she had not to behave in such a cowardly fashion and the interview had to be endured some time. After listening to Amanda’s speculations and exclamations about the affair, when she alternately wondered what had occurred on the previous day when Julian had gone to Grosvenor Square and whether Lord Chalford possessed any more of the jewels, Susannah was glad to escape to her room on the pretext of writing a long overdue letter to her father. She also hoped to avoid the inevitable questions from her cousin should Lord Chalford appear and request a private interview with her. In this way she might be apprised of his arrival without Amanda’s being aware of it and could hope to elude the need for explanations.

She had slept little during the night, thanks to the turmoil of her emotions. Recalling Lord Chalford’s kisses and his tantalizing smile, she had admitted that in other circumstances she would have welcomed an offer from him. But there was that doubt. Even if he himself were innocent of the theft of the jewels, if his father had been responsible it was possible he knew of it. Until some other explanation was forthcoming she had to suspect him, if only because of the jewels that had appeared in his possession. And while this doubt lay between them she could not accept any offer from him. Neither could she face him with her suspicions, for if he were guilty he would deny it and be forewarned of any action Julian might wish to take.

It was therefore with a heart beating rather faster than normal that Susannah bade Morton, her aunt’s butler, enter the room when he tapped on the door half an hour after she had retired there.

‘Yes, Morton, what is it?’ she asked in a somewhat strained voice.

‘This package was delivered for you, Miss Susannah,’ the butler replied and she relaxed, conscious of a reprieve.

Morton handed her the package, a small, flattish, square parcel, and smiled paternally as she took it. Susannah was puzzled, wondering what it could be, and as soon as he had left the room she tore open the wrappings. It was a small jewellery case and she opened it with trembling fingers, unsure of what she would find. When she saw the contents she gasped in dismay. An emerald comb, matching the set of necklace and earrings her grandmother had given her, nestled in the velvet lining of the box.

Almost as though she had thought it might disintegrate at her touch, Susannah carefully picked up the ornament and examined it closely. Yes, it was the same fern-like effect, gold stems scattered with the winking emeralds. As she turned it slowly about in her hands, she gradually realized that the box in which it had come was a new one, totally different from the rather battered one which held the rest of the set. She picked it up and saw the name of Asprey’s, the Bond Street jeweller, modestly inscribed.

Belatedly Susannah wondered whether there was a note enclosed and retrieved the wrappings to search impatiently through them. Yes, there was a folded sheet of stiff paper and with trembling hands she unfolded it. The message was brief.

‘I have, to my intense annoyance, been forced to travel to Monkswood this morning, and must postpone my visit to you. In the meanwhile, pray honour me by accepting this trifle, which I found the other day and bought for you, certain it matches the emerald set that becomes you so well.’

The note was signed merely with a flourishing ‘C’.

Susannah’s senses reeled. Was this yet another of Julian’s lost jewels which Lord Chalford possessed? How dare he give it to her? On seeing her necklace he must have realized there was some connection, and surely a sensible man would have hidden the comb rather than flaunted it. Only if he was aware of some guilty secret concerning it, one part of her brain told her. Yet he had said it had been bought, and the new case bore that out. Might he have been trying to deflect suspicion by putting it in a new case? It would have been an easy task to obtain such a box.

Bewildered and, although she did not confess it to herself, somewhat chagrined at Lord Chalford’s failure to appear, she impetuously decided she had to calm her turbulent thoughts by action and so she sought out Amanda and suggested they drive in the Park. Her cousin, afraid she might have offended Susannah by disclosing her visit to Lord Chalford’s home to Julian, readily agreed and they were soon bowling along, smiling and waving to their acquaintances.

The Park was crowded this morning, for it was a particularly fine day, and they had to halt several times when the traffic became congested. It was during one of these enforced waits that Sir William, with Augusta seated beside him in a sporting curricle, drew alongside.

‘Miss Rendlesham, Miss Grant, well met,’ he hailed them jovially and they perforce had to smile in greeting.

Augusta glanced up at them and smiled in a rather strained manner, then looked back at her father before speaking.

‘I do so envy you, Miss Rendlesham, with your own carriage,’ she said stiffly. ‘Papa cannot be induced to purchase one for me, try as I do to convince him it is all the crack to drive one’s own curricle.’

‘Well, my dear, I might be persuaded in certain circumstances,’ Sir William responded with heavy good humour. ‘But you know, my love, even were I to agree I should be at a stand for you never express a preference between a curricle and a phaeton and I will not buy both!’

Augusta laughed dutifully.

‘I should not expect it, indeed. I wonder, Miss Rendlesham, would you be so kind as to take me for a turn in your phaeton and give me your opinion of them? Papa so prefers the curricle I have little opportunity for comparing them.’

‘I will do so, willingly,’ Susannah replied reluctantly, knowing Amanda would be forced to exchange places with Augusta. ‘I must warn you, though, I do not permit anyone else to drive my horses.’

‘Oh, I would not dream of asking for that,’ Augusta answered and looked at Amanda. ‘Would you mind, Miss Grant, if I took your place for a short while?’

‘Of course she would not, for I will entertain Miss Grant by tooling her around the Park while you do,’ Sir William replied and there was nothing Amanda could do but accede to the arrangement with apparent pleasure.

Once the two carriages drew apart and Susannah drove into a less frequented part of the Park, it did not seem to her that Augusta was very interested in the relative merits of curricles and phaetons. She did ask several questions, but appeared to take little heed of Susannah’s answers. Susannah was not really surprised, having known from the outset this was a ruse on Sir William’s part to obtain Amanda’s company alone for a short while. She was a little puzzled to find Augusta, who until now had appeared to view her father’s efforts at fixing Amanda’s interest with sublime indifference, co-operating in such tactics, but after a few curious glances at the girl concluded she could not know what the relationship of father and daughter was like in private. He might be a stern parent, little though he gave that impression.

Once the questions on the vehicles were done with, Augusta seemed unusually subdued, incapable of maintaining the meaningless trivial conversation she had previously demonstrated an ability for, causing Susannah to wonder, while she inwardly giggled at the thought, whether she would be capable of any other sort of conversation with the husband she was determined to ensnare. It was with some relief that Susannah came up with Sir William and sweetly told him, when he suggested they take another turn, she was afraid she and Amanda had to return to Brook Street for an appointment with their dressmaker.

‘Why didn’t we think of that before?’ Amanda demanded almost before they were out of earshot of the others.

‘I’m sorry, love. Was it too dreadful?’ Susannah queried apologetically.

‘The same as usual, I suppose. He makes me cringe whenever I am forced to dance with him and when he pays me compliments I want to cover my ears. He offered for me again and when I refused him he said that I did not appear to have formed an attachment to anyone else and therefore he could not understand my reluctance!’

‘Do you like anyone else?’ Susannah asked, still hopeful her cousin might have outgrown her adolescent admiration of Julian, but Amanda vehemently shook her head.

‘There is no one but Julian,’ she said simply. ‘That dreadful man had the impertinence to suggest my father had encouraged him to offer again for me and implied I would be forced to agree in the end.’

‘Uncle Timothy would not be averse to the idea, but he would never compel you,’ Susannah declared. ‘He wants you to be happy, even if he will not consent to Julian’s offer yet.’

Amanda sighed.

‘Will he ever consent?’ she asked forlornly. ‘Do you not think, Susannah, that Julian has reformed? He does not go to these gaming clubs nearly so frequently as he used to.’

‘That is not enough,’ Susannah reminded her. ‘Until he can find those jewels there is little hope of your father relenting.’

‘Those wretched jewels!’

She was still furiously angry when they arrived in Brook Street and on finding Julian there, waiting for them, poured out to him her fears and disgust at Sir William’s importunity.

‘I will never agree, so why does he not accept it?’ she demanded.

‘I heard he’s on his last legs,’ Julian remarked. ‘Some fellow I met at Watier’s said the rumour was that he’d lost heavily for months now and everyone expected the final crash at any time. In fact, the puzzle is why it has not come before. He must be firmly in the hands of the Jews.’

‘Waiting for my portion and expectations to fetch him about!’ Amanda exclaimed, her eyes glittering dangerously. ‘Why does father not see what he is?’

‘He puts on a good front. But I did hear he’s arranged a match for Augusta.’

‘Augusta? Who? Surely no one rich enough to rescue Sir William?’ Amanda asked.

‘She gave no hint of it this morning, although she did appear subdued,’ Susannah said slowly.

Julian gave an unsympathetic crack of laughter.

‘No wonder! She’ll not boast of this conquest, I’ll be bound. From all I hear she’s accepted a Cit.’

‘Augusta? Never!’ Amanda declared. ‘Why, she’s as proud as a duchess!’

‘Fact, according to Ted Willoughby, and he’s always first with any news. Some merchant, willing to pay a fortune to marry into the ton. Not that he’ll be accepted by the high sticklers, poor devil, but no doubt Sir William has bamboozled him into thinking he will be. But you can bet if Augusta is come to that Sir William must be in dire straits!’

For a while they almost forgot the reason Julian had called and then Susannah asked what had occurred when he went to Grosvenor Square on the previous day.

‘I trust you did not give everything away?’ she asked sternly.

‘No, no,’ her brother assured her airily. ‘Everard didn’t suspect a thing. Just made some excuse for calling, you know.’

‘Then what exactly did you think you could accomplish?’ Susannah asked, somewhat irrationally. ‘If he had imprisoned me, what could you have done? How would you even have known?’

‘Oh, I would have done, but there was nothing unusual in his manner, you know, and he must have shown it if there had been any trouble.’

‘I suppose you had no notion he had just discovered me in his bedroom, in the very act of inspecting his jewels?’ Susannah asked sarcastically and reflected that her brother’s powers of divination must have been very low, or Lord Chalford’s skill at deception very high, if Julian had failed to detect anything unusual about a man who had just come from discovering a female unexpectedly in his bedroom, inspecting his valuables, and, ignoring her purpose in being there, made her an offer of marriage.

Julian exclaimed, demanding to be told all, and Susannah, feeling all could not easily be explained, told him what she considered it necessary for him to know. She was about to inform him of the gift of the comb that morning when the difficulty of explaining what a man was about in sending her such a gift occurred to her. It was no trifle such as any admirer might with perfect propriety send. Only a girl honourably betrothed might accept so valuable a gift from her lover. She also told herself that before making any accusations she ought to make an attempt to discover if Lord Chalford had bought the comb from Asprey’s.

‘He might have inherited the jewels quite innocently from his father,’ she suggested. `Do you know who was at that party? Who were the guests?’

‘I have never had a complete list,’ Julian admitted. ‘I have heard there were several neighbours, so Everard’s father might easily have been there. There were also some of father’s gambling cronies. They were spending the time hunting and shooting, and no doubt gaming in the evenings. Mother was visiting her family and there were no women there. It was almost the last day when the accident happened. They’d all gone out shooting and father didn’t return. When they went to look for him, it appeared that his gun had gone off by accident. The rest of them had all been scattered, so one of them could have killed him, but it was so incredible no one really investigated that. There had been no quarrels and father had been winning quite handsomely for once, so he could not have killed himself, an idea which was for a time considered. They had been careless, for they had been out of sight of one another, so it could have been a stray shot. The only other explanation, apart from father’s own gun going off, was that a poacher did it, for he was known to be hard on them.’