The Dangerous Lord Darrington(13)

'My dear child, what is the matter with you?' demanded her grandmother,  banging her stick upon the floor. 'I have a good mind to summon Dr  Compton to take a look at you.'

'I am perfectly well, Grandmama,' Beth assured her. 'I am just a little tired, that is all.'

'Tired!' cried Lady Arabella. 'You are looking positively hagged, girl!  Of course your pale skin makes the dark circles look worse than they  are, but even so-! Ring the bell, Beth, and I will tell Kepwith to send  for the doctor.'

'No, no there is no need for that, Grandmama. He will be calling the  day after tomorrow to see Mr Davies, so I will have a word with him  then, if you wish. I am sure Mr Davies is well enough to return to his  own home now, and that of course will mean a lot less work for me. I am  sure I shall be able to rest more once the gentlemen are gone from the  Priory.'

'I do not see how Mr Davies and Lord Darrington have made so much work  for you,' reasoned her grandmother, frowning. 'Davies has his own man to  look after him and the earl is perfectly amiable.'

'He may be amiable, ma'am, but he is none the less a guest, and I would be failing in my duty if I did not look after him.'

Her grandmother stared at her through narrowed eyes.

'Has he tried to make love to you? No need to colour up so, child,  since you and Sophie read to me from the Intelligencer, you know the  earl's reputation as well as I.'



'And we have always agreed that most of it is salacious gossip and  should be ignored,' retorted Beth, aware that her cheeks were glowing.  'And if he did try to flirt with me I am quite capable of giving him a  set-down.'

'Hmmph.' Lady Arabella snorted. 'In my day entertaining a charming  gentleman would not have been considered such an onerous task!'

Beth held her peace. She would have found it easier to entertain the  earl if he had not been quite so charming. He tried hard to put her at  her ease, but all the time she was guarding her tongue against any  unwary utterance.

Beth had hoped after dinner that evening she might slip away to her  room for an hour, leaving Sophie and her grandmother to entertain the  earl until supper, but her plans were foiled when Lord Darrington  expressed a wish to see the ruins of the Priory.

'Davey and I had been visiting Mount Grace on the day of the accident,'  he explained. 'I believe the remains of Malpass Priory extend beyond  the walled garden.'

'You will find traces of the old abbey walls throughout the grounds, if you know where to look,' said Lady Arabella.

'We used to play amongst them when we were younger,' added Sophie. 'We  made up the most outrageous stories of knights and dragons.'

The earl glanced out of the window. 'It is a very fine evening. Perhaps  Mrs Forrester would be my guide.' He smiled. 'I will undertake to  protect her from lurking dragons.'

Despite the tug of attraction she felt at his smile Beth was about to  decline, but a moment's reflection convinced her that if she did not  accompany the earl he would go exploring on his own, and heaven knew  what he might find.

'Very well, my lord, if Grandmama will spare me.'

'Aye, take her away,' declared Lady Arabella, waving her hand at them.  'Mayhap the evening air will put a little colour in her cheeks!'

Thus on a mild September evening Beth found herself wandering through  the Priory grounds with Lord Darrington. She had buttoned her pelisse  against the cool breeze, but had decided against bringing her parasol  for there was little strength in the setting sun.

'The walled garden is in what we believe to have been the cloister,'  she told him as they made their way between the flowerbeds. 'The remains  of the abbey itself are in the wilderness beyond the yew hedge.'                       
       
           



       

'In those woods?' The Earl pointed to a small iron gate set into the  old cloister wall. 'I had looked through there, but the gate is locked.'

Beth reached into her pocket. 'And I have the key!' She pulled out a  large iron key and fitted it into the lock. It turned, giving a  satisfying clunk and with a little push the gate swung open on its  well-oiled hinges.

'Is it necessary to keep it locked?' asked the earl, following her through the gateway.

'Perhaps not now-when we were very young Grandmama insisted upon it,  because the wilderness is bounded on one side by the river and it is  very overgrown, with hidden shafts leading down to underground chambers.  Our mother died when we were very young, you see, and Grandmama was  responsible for us.'

'Yet your sister said you played here.'

She chuckled. 'Once we found out where the key was kept we would come  here whenever we could.' As they emerged from the belt of trees she  spread her hands to take in the view. 'What child would not think this a  fairytale playground?'

Ahead of them lay the ruined walls of the old abbey. The outline of the  nave could clearly be seen and the west wall with its arched window  still stretched towards the sky.

'Most of the stone was taken to build the extension to the present  house. What was not required was left very much as you see it now. Shall  we go in?'

She moved towards what was left of the south transept, picking her way  across the jumble of stones. She took him around the ruins, pointing out  the area of the choir and the presbytery, and a beautifully formed  little doorway that would once have led to the side chapel, but now  looked on to nothing more than a grassy square.

'When we were children this would be our castle,' she told him, her  head full of fond memories. 'Or the deck of a great galleon, or even a  cave in the depths of an enchanted forest. We had such adventures here!'  She sighed. 'What a pity it is that we have to grow up.'

'Do you still hanker, then, for adventure?'

She tilted her head on one side, considering the matter. 'Everything was so easy then-there were happy endings for us all.'

'And now?'

She knew the earl was standing very close behind her. She could feel  his presence. Her heart began to thud almost painfully against her ribs.  Slowly she turned. He was so close she had to raise her head to look at  his face. She tried to speak lightly, as much to herself as to the  earl.

'Now it is time to put away such childish thoughts and do one's duty.'

He reached out and took hold of the single red ringlet hanging down to  her shoulder. 'Doing one's duty sounds very dull work,' he murmured,  winding the curl about his finger.

Beth was finding it difficult to breathe. He was so close she could see  the fine stitching on his coat, smell the tang of cologne that hung  about him and, although she kept her eyes on his face, she was all the  time aware of his fingers playing with her hair.

'I-um-have grown too old for adventures.'

He smiled suddenly and she was taken aback by the force of his charm. He said softly, 'My brother Nick would not agree.'

'Then your brother is a dangerous man.' She kept her eyes locked on his  face, willing herself to keep still, willing him not to look away. The  wrong word, the wrong move and this brittle, beautiful moment would  shatter. Her whole body was tingling. Just standing still, looking up at  this man, she felt more alive than she had ever done before. She wanted  it to go on for ever.

In that same instant she knew she must end it now. She knew his  reputation with women and she was determined he would not seduce her. It  would endanger not only her own happiness, but everything she held  dear. Looking away from him was like tearing her flesh.

'We should go back.' Her throat was dry, the words a mere croak.  Regret, keen as a knife, sliced through her as his hand dropped and the  contact was broken.

'Is there no more to see? Can one reach any of the underground chambers?'

Beth forced herself to concentrate on what he was saying. 'Good heavens, no,' she said. 'They have all collapsed.'

'Not the ones under the house, surely?'

'Oh, no, but they are used only for storage now. There is nothing of  interest there.' She shivered. 'It is growing cold. Let us return to the  house.'

'Very well.'

In silence they walked away from the ruins and back through the trees,  where a slight breeze set the leaves sighing overhead and one or two  fell slowly to the ground, reminding Beth that summer was over.

By the time they reached the cloister garden again a cold chill had  settled over her heart. Something had changed. She had changed. Lord  Darrington held out his arm and Beth took it, her fingers resting  lightly on his sleeve, wondering how it was possible to feel so very  different in such a short space of time.                       
       
           



       

No words had been exchanged, the earl had not kissed her-they had not  even touched, yet Beth knew that in that brief, sunlit moment she had  been unfaithful to Miles Radworth.



Guy noticed that Beth said very little at supper. He frowned. When had  he started to think of her as Beth and not Mrs Forrester?