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  “I am not saying he goes alone,” Ajanta said provocatively. “I only said that he is not accompanied by his wife.”

  She knew as she spoke that she had surprised the Marquis. Then the expression on his face changed and his eyes twinkled.

  “You have certainly convinced me that my script will have to be re-written,” he said ruefully.

  It was what Ajanta had hoped to make him feel and she touched her horse lightly with her whip to make him move quicker so that she would not have to say any more.

  It was one of her teachers who had first told her about the Social world, having been, before she retired, a Governess to several noble families.

  She made Ajanta work hard at the subjects her mother wished her to study.

  But there was nothing the old woman enjoyed more than a gossip and, when the lesson was over, she would chat away for as long as Ajanta could stay about the old days and the things that took place in the big houses where she had taught.

  Ajanta had learnt a great deal not only about the behaviour of the older members of Society, who had been Miss Caruthers’s employers, but also about the young married couples who came to stay in the house and the raffish parties that took place when the eldest son entertained his friends.

  She had found it all fascinating and a world which she thought she would never know and which to her was like listening to one of Sir Walter Scott’s novels being read aloud and in it an intersection of Jane Austen’s heroes and heroines.

  Because Ajanta was in a hurry to reach The Hall, she rode so quickly that it was hard for the Marquis and Charis to keep up with her.

  Then, as she reached the flight of stone steps, she saw somebody standing at the top of them and she knew it was Lyle.

  Pulling her horse to a standstill she called out his name excitedly.

  “Lyle! Lyle!”

  “Hello, Ajanta!”

  He ran down the steps to lift her down and she kissed his cheek affectionately.

  But his eyes were on the horse she had been riding.

  “What a beauty!” he exclaimed. “I cannot wait to see the Marquis’s stable!”

  “I have not seen it yet,” Ajanta answered, “but I am sure there will be plenty of horses for you to admire and to ride.”

  Lyle turned his handsome face from contemplation of the horse he was caressing to ask,

  “Is it really true that you are to marry him?”

  Just for a moment Ajanta contemplated telling her brother the truth.

  Then reluctantly, because she knew she must not break her word, she murmured,

  “Yes – we are engaged.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  When Ajanta woke the following morning, she laid thinking of the happiness of the previous evening.

  Despite the fact that she was well aware that the Marquis’s relations were looking her over as if she was a horse and taking note of her good points, she felt gay and relaxed.

  That was because Lyle was there and he was in high spirits.

  He had been able to ride one of the Marquis’s superb stallions in the afternoon and had taken him over the abbreviated steeplechase course, which the Marquis had erected in the Park.

  “I was right in guessing you were all superlative riders,” the Marquis said to Ajanta as Lyle took a very high fence in a manner which made her want to applaud.

  “None of us are as good as Lyle.”

  “I can see he is a hero in your eyes,” the Marquis replied, she thought a little sarcastically.

  “I love him!” Ajanta said simply, “and he is such an exceptional person that I feel I have to look after him in the same way as I look after my father.”

  The Marquis looked at her for a long moment before he asked,

  “Do you never think of yourself? After all, I have learnt that you are twenty and it is time that you were thinking of getting married.”

  “To whom?” Ajanta asked lightly. “One of the cabbages you are so rude about?”

  “It might be better than remaining an old maid.” Ajanta did not reply for a moment because she was watching Lyle. Then she said,

  “I suppose I have been – hoping that like Mama I would fall in love at first sight – but I know that is – something you don’t – believe in.”

  “Perhaps it would be truer to say it has never happened to me,” the Marquis replied.

  As he spoke, he knew that was only true of what the words ‘falling in love’ meant to Ajanta.

  Of course it had often happened when he walked into a room and saw a beautiful woman that he was aware he desired her and knew it was only a question of time before she became his.

  Because invariably such beauties were like Leone, already married, it was not the same kind of love that he was discussing with Ajanta.

  “But would it be so very different?” he asked himself.

  He remembered that inevitably after a few months the flames of passion would die down and he found himself bored by the woman he had at first thought so desirable.

  Because he was silent, Ajanta turned to look at him.

  “You will have to get married sometime,” she said, “if only to please your relatives who I saw at luncheon. They were enthralled and excited that at last you had taken the plunge.”

  “I cannot think why they don’t leave me alone,” the Marquis said crossly.

  “You are Head of the Family, my Lord, and I gather from your aunt that your heir presumptive is an exceedingly unpleasant character, who has only managed to produce five very plain daughters.”

  “A fate that might happen to me!” the Marquis replied lightly.

  “I doubt that – ” Ajanta spoke softly as she was looking at Lyle.

  The Marquis heard her.

  “Why should you doubt that possibility?”

  “Not that you should have daughters. But, if when you marry you are in love, your sons will all be handsome and your daughters very beautiful.”

  The Marquis looked intrigued.

  “Explain to me exactly what you are suggesting.” Ajanta was smiling, as once again she turned her head to look at him.

  “Mama always believed that we were beautiful – that sounds rather conceited, but it is something you said yourself – because she and Papa were so much in love with each other.”

  She paused as if he would argue with her, then continued,

  “She told me this when I was quite young and I have watched other families and I certainly have found it true that where two people are very happily married and in love, their children are always beautiful and healthy.”

  The Marquis did not say so aloud, but it flashed through his mind that ‘love children’ were always, if history was to be believed, just as Ajanta had described.

  Then he thought of Lady Sarah and was sure that the Duke’s marriage to the Duchess had been arranged because their two families thought it an appropriate match.

  “What you have said certainly makes me worry about my future,” he said, speaking a little mockingly.

  “I would like you to be happy,” Ajanta replied, “because you are so kind and generous. I think that, when you do decide to be married, you should hope that Fate or the Gods, whichever you believe in, will send you somebody who will capture your heart and then you will live happily ever afterwards.”

  Because she was speaking seriously, the Marquis did not laugh. Instead he said,

  “Thank you, Ajanta. I shall remember what you said.” There was no time for them to talk any more.

  Lyle, flushed and excited, came riding back to them and the Marquis and Ajanta mounted their own horses and galloped away over the Park.

  *

  More relatives came to dinner and again everything was far easier than Ajanta had anticipated.

  There was one elderly cousin, who had been a great traveller and he and the Vicar had so much to say to each other that it was difficult to gouge them apart.

  The ladies, far from being condescending, as Ajanta had expected, were charmin
g to her.

  A young cousin, who had come unexpectedly with his father and mother, monopolised Charis, who by the end of the evening, was starry-eyed and undoubtedly, Ajanta thought, falling in love again.

  “You are very clever, dearest,” Lyle said to Ajanta as he kissed her goodnight. “I cannot imagine how living in the wilds of nowhere you could find anybody so attractive, so generous and such a fine sportsman as the Marquis.”

  “You must thank Charis for that,” Ajanta replied.

  “Charis!” Lyle exclaimed. “We will have to do something about that young woman, Ajanta. She was making eyes at young Storrington in a way that made me feel quite embarrassed.”

  “She is at a romantic age.”

  Lyle smiled. Then he said,

  “I think the truth is that because of Mama and Papa we all are romantics. As a matter of fact, I think I am falling in love myself!”

  “Oh, no, Lyle, no!” Ajanta exclaimed.

  “Why not?” Lyle asked. “She is the prettiest girl I have ever seen and the only difficulty up until now has been that I could never afford to ask her out even for tea. Now all that will be changed.”

  He smiled as he finished,

  “You have told me that I can have some decent clothes and an allowance which will at least permit me to take a girl out occasionally. So, Ajanta, I am dancing in the sky!”

  Ajanta wanted to add a word of warning that, as the Marquis had said, such affluence would not last forever.

  Once again she was worried because their way of life had changed so dramatically, but she could not tell Lyle it had a limited existence.

  Anyway, it was difficult to think of anything but how thrilling it was to have her whole family with her to enjoy the Marquis’s good food, the Marquis’s house and, of course, the Marquis’s horses.

  ‘We had better make hay while the sun shines,’ she thought before she fell asleep.

  *

  When she awoke, she could hear the birds singing and thought that their song was echoed in her heart.

  Then, as she was listening to them, the door opened quietly and a maid came in to draw back the curtains and place a pot of fragrant China tea beside her bed.

  When Ajanta sat up to drink it, she saw that there was a note propped against the teapot.

  She wondered who it was from, opened it and read what was written in astonishment.

  “If you care for the person to whom you are engaged, if you value his happiness and want to save him from disgrace, you will meet me not later than seven o’clock at the edge of the wood that borders the North of the Park. This is very very urgent!”

  There was no heading to the letter and no signature. Ajanta read it again thinking it must be some sort of a joke.

  She made a note of the time she had to meet this stranger and, as she looked at the clock over the mantelpiece, the maid, who was tidying the room, said,

  “I called you early, miss, because the person who left the note said it was imperative that you should receive it at once.”

  “What is the correct time?” Ajanta asked, thinking that the clock must be wrong.

  “Just after six o’clock, miss. I hope I did right in bringing you the note immediately.”

  “Yes, of course,” Ajanta said thoughtfully.

  She read what was written again and, still bemused as to what it could mean, she decided there was nothing she could do but meet the person in question. If in fact, as was insinuated, some danger threatened the Marquis, she would be very remiss if she refused to help him.

  She got out of bed.

  “Give me my riding habit, please.”

  It did not take her long to dress and, when she was ready, she wondered if she ought to tell the Marquis where she was going.

  Then she decided it would be embarrassing and might also delay her from reaching the wood in time.

  Instead she went down a back staircase, which the maid told her would lead to the stables and found the groom who had taken Darice riding the day before.

  He touched his forelock.

  “Mornin’, miss!”

  “Will you please saddle me a horse?” Ajanta said. “I wish to ride alone. I will not be long.”

  The groom looked surprised, but he was too well trained to question any order he was given.

  Five minutes later Ajanta set off leaving the stable not by the front of the house, as she was afraid the Marquis might see her, but out by another way that led past the paddock where the young horses were kept.

  Entering the Park behind a small copse of trees, she touched the horse she was riding with her whip and galloped as quickly as she could towards the wood that she knew was on the North side.

  She found a ride through the trees and, as she was forced to go slower, she began to worry in case this was a trap of some sort.

  Supposing some enemies of the Marquis wanted to kidnap her? In that case she would look very foolish to have come here without an escort.

  Then she told herself that such things only happened in novels, not in real life, but she had to admit that everything that concerned the Marquis did seem stranger than fiction.

  The ride took her to the other side of the wood, where waiting in the field beyond she saw a horse and riding it a woman.

  Somehow she had expected her correspondent to be a man, but not only was it a woman wearing an exquisitely cut and very attractive riding habit, but she was also very beautiful.

  When she saw Ajanta, her eyes seemed to light up and there was a surprising expression of pleasure on her beautiful face.

  As Ajanta drew up her horse beside the woman’s, she cried,

  “You have come! I was so afraid you would either refuse to do so or else you did not exist at all!”

  Ajanta looked puzzled and the lady said,

  “That is what my husband believes and that is why I had to warn you.”

  “I am afraid I don’t – understand.”

  The lady sighed.

  “The Marquis has not told you about me?”

  “No, and I have no idea who you are.”

  There was a little silence. Then the lady said,

  “I somehow thought he would have explained to you why your engagement was necessary.”

  “He asked me to help him,” Ajanta answered, “and I understood he was in some sort of trouble.”

  “Very great trouble indeed! But I am hoping and praying that you can save him.”

  She looked so beautiful as she spoke that Ajanta could only stare at her before she managed to ask,

  “Would you tell me who you are?”

  “Yes, of course,” the lady replied. “I am Lady Burnham and my husband is – threatening to – divorce me – citing the – Marquis!”

  She obviously found it hard to say the words and the expression of pain on her face was very revealing.

  “Divorce you?” Ajanta exclaimed. “But how – terrible!”

  She was aware that divorce was considered scandalous and something so outrageous and degrading that no lady with any idea of decency could bear to be involved in one.

  “We had no idea,” Lady Burnham said with a little sob in her voice, “that my husband was – having us – watched and he is determined, yes – determined to have his revenge on the – Marquis because – he hates him!”

  “How can he do anything so horrible, so cruel to – you?” Ajanta asked.

  She thought it was even more horrifying because Lady Burnham was so beautiful, while the way she spoke and the tears that misted her eyes made her seem so pathetic that she wanted to comfort her.

  “The main reason,” Lady Burnham answered, “why my husband has always – hated the Marquis is that the Marquis’s horses are – better than his own.”

  “Then why did you – ?” Ajanta began, then realised it would be an impertinent question and stopped speaking.

  “I fell in love,” Lady Burnham admitted. “How could I help it when Quintus is so handsome – so attractive and so incredibly – persuas
ive?”

  Her voice broke for a moment, but she went on bravely, “But I did not – realise that loving him could both – damage him and – destroy me!”

  Ajanta thought for a moment. Then she said,

  “I think, if I am not mistaken, that the Marquis hoped that by getting engaged so quickly he could prevent your husband from carrying out his intention.”

  It was all still a little vague in her mind, but she was sure now that this was why the Marquis had proposed their pretend engagement and offered her so much money to agree.

  “Yes, of course – and it was a very – clever idea,” Lady Burnham said. “But because – forgive me if this sounds rude – you are somebody – unknown – George thinks that you do not – exist.”

  “But, I do!” Ajanta said.

  “That is why I felt I had to warn Quintus,” Lady Burnham said, “or rather – make you – warn him. I dare not – see him – myself.”

  She looked over her shoulder as she spoke and added,

  “Perhaps I am being watched at this very moment! I don’t know and it’s too dangerous to write him a letter. So the only chance I had of – letting him know the – truth was to – speak to – you.”

  As if she felt this needed further explanation, she went on,

  “I pretended to my husband when your engagement was announced that I had met you and had advised Quintus to marry you because you were so charming. But because he has never heard your name he is quite – certain that he is being – tricked in some way.”

  ‘Which is the truth!’ Ajanta thought, but aloud she asked,

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “I want you to be ready for my husband to – appear sometime during this – afternoon. He is going to challenge Quintus to produce you or admit that his engagement is just a lie.”

  “I cannot understand why he should think that,” Ajanta said.

  “My husband has got it into his head that to prevent my being divorced the Marquis is just pretending that he is to be married to a respectable young girl.”

  She sighed and continued,

  “He is convinced Quintus has either invented someone who does not exist or has paid some play-actress to act the part until the danger is over.”