Pedro sounded impatient. 'I have not been able to secure it yet. It is dangerous and I must take care, but I promise you shall have it next time we meet.'
Richard laughed again, but this time there was no amusement in it.
'A present for a good boy!' he sneered. 'The truth is you dare not give it to me until you are safely out of the country, for fear of the consequences. Do not be afraid, I will not fail, and there will be nought to implicate you.'
'You dare not fail!' Pedro said scornfully. 'It is as I have said, I have not been able to obtain it yet. But I know where I may get it tonight, and I will have it the next time you come.'
'Then I must be off. I will return as soon as there is news.'
* * * *
He was gone and Yasmin waited, crouched down out of sight, not daring to raise her head to watch him leave in case he caught sight of her. Soon she heard Pedro whistling softly, and as it grew fainter judged he too had moved away. After a few more minutes she cautiously peeped over the rise in the ground, and saw Pedro was almost out of sight. Breathing a deep sigh of relief she waited some time still, and then, taking care to return by a different way to the one Pedro had taken, made her way slowly and thoughtfully back to the cottage.
Yasmin could not make any sense of what she had heard. Why was Richard receiving money from Pedro, and, possibly a more intriguing question, why did he allow Pedro, a gypsy, to insult him? Had Pedro some hold over him? It was obvious Richard was short of money, but Maria had implied that, and it could be no secret. Was Richard involved in some shady undertaking with Pedro? Yasmin was prepared to believe the worst of Pedro, but she was not entirely sure about Richard. Sometimes she distrusted him, yet when he was pleasant to Leon and courteous to her she wondered whether she was wrong to do so, and had simply imagined the menace in the admiring glances he often gave her.
She puzzled over the news they were so concerned about. What was it, and why should Pedro be so anxious to ride off as soon as he had it? How could he hear the news, where would Pedro take it, and why? How was Richard concerned? And what was the powder he had asked for? Why was it dangerous for Pedro to obtain it? Was it poison, and if so, what for? It was a simple enough matter to obtain poison if it was for a proper purpose.
The questions were unanswerable, and Yasmin reached the cottage without finding a solution to the mystery. Afterwards she often chided herself she had not seen the truth, for all the strands were there.
She had them all in her possession, and thought she ought to have been capable of weaving them into a coherent pattern. Yet she did not realise how wicked people could be, even a man like Pedro whose behaviour towards her should have been warning enough.
She had been wondering whether to tell Leon of her adventure, and whether it was necessary to warn him Pedro was nearby, at the grotto. She did not think he could yet walk so far, and therefore there was little likelihood of a chance meeting. On the other hand, if Leon knew Pedro was there, he might be tempted into some foolish gesture, and Yasmin did not consider his chances would be very strong if it came to a fight with Pedro, for his leg was still very stiff and hampered his movements a great deal. Yet there was also Richard involved, and Leon ought to be warned against trusting him too far until the mystery was solved. At last Yasmin determined to tell him, but he was not there when she reached the cottage, and so she had to wait. She set about cooking dinner, and looked up expecting to see Leon walk in when a shadow fell across the doorway. To her dismay it was Richard.
* * * *
'All alone?' he asked, coming in and tossing his whip into a corner.
A sudden recollection of her grandmother's mysterious warning about not trusting a man who appeared to be pleasant came to Yasmin. At the time it had been made when her grandmother had been near death, and she had thought little about it, rarely remembering the words since. Now for a moment she went back to the time the gypsies had been in their winter camp, trying to recall her grandmother's exact words. As she closed her eyes the better to concentrate on the memory, she saw another picture from that time. This was of Pedro talking with the gentleman that day in the town. Could that man have been Richard?
She looked at him consideringly, trying to see whether it was the same man, but shook her head slightly, for she could not remember well enough.
'Where is Leon?' Richard asked, breaking in on her thoughts, and walking towards her, a friendly smile on his face.
'I expect him back at any moment,' Yasmin answered hastily, backing so that the table was kept between them.
Richard did not appear to notice anything amiss in her manner, but sat down easily on the settle beside the fire.
'I did not know you knew Pedro,' Yasmin said nervously, saying the first thing that came into her head in an effort to maintain a conversation, and immediately berating herself as a henwitted fool.
He looked surprised. 'Pedro? The gypsy? How do you know I do?' he asked, a faint edge of sharpness creeping into his voice.
Yasmin thought quickly. 'I was in the woods by the lake, and I saw you both on the further side. It was Pedro, wasn't it? I could not be certain, you were so far away. You remember Pedro, I have told you of him, one of the men in the Romany tribe. The one who was chasing us the night Leon was hurt.'
'I did not recall his name,' Richard said carelessly.
'What were you talking of? You were together a long time,' she ventured, her first lie having been accepted. She would be able to discover something, she thought, if only whether Richard told her lies in return.
'I asked him to tell my fortune,' Richard said with a laugh.
'But the men do not do that,' she said quickly.
'So I discovered. Then I tried to guide my fortune a little. I begged for a love potion.'
Yasmin stared at him in disbelief. She knew many people believed in these potions, but very much doubted whether a man such as Richard did. But, she recalled, he had talked about a powder. Was it possible? Then she thought of Pedro offering to provide one and almost smiled in scorn. He would never deign to do this, not even to impose on the gullible
gaujos
and earn money.
Richard saw her sceptical look and laughed again. 'I am desperate,' he said flippantly. 'Maria is enamoured of another, and the only chance I have is to employ magic! If it does not work, my dear, shall I turn to you? Shall I marry you and provide the protection you said you needed before you would become an entertainer in London? Shall I let you make my fortune for me? I truly believe I could forget Maria in your arms!'
'You are ridiculous!' Yasmin snapped, and he laughed.
'Seriously, I came to see whether Leon had any more carvings ready for me to take back.'
'Ned – Sir Edward took them two days since,' she told him, surprised, for even after his accident Sir Edward had insisted on carrying away the carvings Leon had made.
'Ned?' Richard now asked, grinning at her confusion. 'Has he been down here?'
'I thought you would have known.'
'No. We do not live in each other's pockets in town. I had no idea he intended to come to the Hall. Did he say why?'
'Estate business, I imagine,' she replied coldly.
'Or – something else? Foolish of me not to have guessed! He seemed unduly taken with you at the fair,' he said lazily. 'Charlotte will have to look to her interests! It is Ned now, is it?'
Yasmin was hot with embarrassment. 'Since that is the only name I ever hear him called by, is it surprising I think of him so?' she demanded, more furious than the occasion warranted. Richard must have thought so too, for he simply raised his eyebrows cynically in reply. 'You are wrong to imply anything else,' she stormed, but he decided to cease tormenting her.
'If I am too late for the carvings, then, I will be off,' he said, rising and going to the door. 'Wish me good fortune, and I will wish the same to you.'
* * * *
She did not reply, and he was gone. Yasmin sighed with intense relief, for she had begun to be seriously afraid of Richard. She thought she had discovered little about his dealings with Pedro, but was chagrined he had discovered something about her which he might be able to use to her disadvantage if he wished.
It was some time later when Leon came in, and Yasmin had recovered her poise. She told him of what she had seen and heard at the grotto, and what Richard had said about his encounter with Pedro. To her relief Leon agreed with her view that it would be best to avoid the possibility of a meeting with Pedro.
'We will lie low for a time, and wait until he is gone. After a few days I can set Joey to watch from a safe distance and see whether Pedro is still there.'
Yasmin was thankful he had decided this, but during the next two weeks often puzzled over the conversation she had heard. She could still make no sense of it. Joey then came to report that the man who had been camping in the grotto had disappeared some time on the previous day, and she became aware she was tense, expecting another visit from Richard.
It was not Richard but Maria who came. She rode to the cottage early one morning and came running inside, calling for Yasmin.
'Yasmin! Oh, it has seemed an age since I saw you, and so much has happened. Where is Leon? Is he better? Ned said he was walking quite well now.'
'Maria! What are you doing here? I did not expect you back for weeks yet!'
'Where is Leon? Is he out?' she asked, looking round.
'Yes, he goes out walking as much as possible, to strengthen his leg. But tell me why you are back.'
'I caught a husband,' she said in a small voice.
'What? Oh, tell me. You were so scornful of the idea a few weeks ago!'
'Yes, I know, but I had not met Frederick then, you see.'
'Frederick?'
A faraway look came into her eyes. 'Yasmin, I cannot explain how it is! I met him at almost the first ball we went to, and for both of us there was no one else from that moment. I knew at once, and he told me later it was exactly the same for him. Can you understand the incredible wonder of it?'
Yasmin could, for the same thing had happened to her when she had first seen Sir Edward. But she could not imagine the bliss that would have been hers if he had returned her love. That was something she would not experience, she thought sadly, as she tried to enter into Maria's joy, and asked to be told more about this paragon.
'He is rather older than I, almost thirty. He knew Ned at Harrow, though as he is a couple of years older they did not have much to do with one another. If they had, I might have met him earlier. I could wish I had!'
She sat lost in a dream, and Yasmin remarked acidly that even if she had fallen in love with him ten years ago, he would scarcely have noticed a child in the nursery.
At that Maria giggled, and agreed. 'So it had to be now. But I shudder at the many women he has known and might have married before I was grown up and met him. There must have been hundreds longing for him!'
Privately Yasmin doubted it, and then she thought of Sir Edward. Did not she feel that every woman who saw him must fall in love with him at once, for he was so attractive? Why then should Maria not think the same about her Frederick?
'When are you to be married?' she asked.
'In October. That is why we have come home earlier than we at first intended. I cannot say I am sorry, for I did not like London greatly. We decided there was no reason to wait, and mama and I came home to begin preparations. We intend to have the wedding here, for we do not care for an elaborate society wedding. It is for us, not our acquaintances. Frederick would like to take me to Italy then, for the winter, but with this wretched war, and the blockade, one can go nowhere. We shall go to his main estate, which is in Devon. And Yasmin, I want you to come and visit me there. Do say you will!'
Yasmin looked doubtful. Their friendship was an unconventional one, a young society lady and a gypsy, and she did not think Maria's new husband would approve of his wife having such a friend. Although Yasmin's mother had been of good birth, and she had been educated as a lady, her circumstances were decidedly odd. Maria treated her as an equal and she felt so with her, though infinitely grateful to her for her attitude, but Yasmin knew well enough most people would regard her as Charlotte did, a jumped up interloper.
Maria misunderstood her hesitation.
'Is it Leon?' she asked softly. 'Would he disapprove?'
Yasmin shook her head, and tried to explain a little of what she felt, but Maria laughed at her fears.
'Why should anyone know if that is what you are afraid of? For myself, I consider your story excessively romantic, but I know some people are so odiously top-lofty they might be horrid. You will be introduced as my friend from home! And you need not fear charity!' she said, forestalling Yasmin's next objection. 'Leon is earning a great deal with his carvings, and you can afford to buy gowns, you need not accept my cast offs!'
Yasmin loved her for her kindness, but still she shook her head.
'Leon would not understand,' she said slowly. It was true, for he had previously viewed her growing friendship with Maria a little disdainfully. She felt it would hurt him unbearably if she rejected him in favour of friends he could never be at ease with. But she was planning to leave him permanently and take a position as a companion, she reminded herself. Yet was she? Without her having consciously considered it, she knew her distaste for that sort of life had been growing during the past few weeks, and she detested the thought of a mundane lonely existence. Leon loved her, and offered what might be a more acceptable alternative. Yasmin acknowledged the fact that she had refused him so far because she was so bemused by Sir Edward, but the news of Maria's betrothal had brought home to her the total impossibility of anything ever coming of that. There was no hope for her, for although he treated her kindly, he had never shown her any special favours or attention, and she had probably misread some of his words that seemed kind, and misunderstood his attitude at the fair where they had first met. She had weighted them too heavily because of what she wanted to believe, she decided, and he was simply being polite. She sighed, but had to push the gloomy thoughts away, for Maria was speaking again.