Royalty Defeated by Love Read online

  “I have to travel six miles to his house,” the Major complained to Bettina over breakfast. “Then spend two hours talking a lot of nonsense about nothing.”

  “It is only once a month,” Bettina said. “And you have to attend because you are so important.”

  “Fiddlesticks!” the Major retorted sharply. “I have to go so that the old fool can feel important. Plus, of course, that dreadful woman he married. It was bad enough having her gatecrash our lunch yesterday without having to listen to her again today.”

  “She will probably fire off a few barbed remarks about me,” Bettina observed.

  “Why should she?”

  “My first crime was Lord Danesbury asking me to be hostess. My second was – well, just about everything that happened yesterday.”

  “Pooh! Load of nonsense! Why do women make so much of nothing?”

  “I cannot imagine,” Bettina replied in a voice that gave nothing away.

  “I should really spend today working on our garden,” the Major remarked, apparently oblivious to the cloud that seemed to have settled over his daughter. “After you and the Earl took Lady Alice clodhopping all over it!”

  Bettina managed a smile.

  “Papa, Lady Alice is a Society lady. She does not clodhop!”

  “They do when they are stupid and ignorant and don’t know a flower from a weed. What were the two of you thinking about to allow her to stamp all over everything?”

  “Well, if you will plant your flowers so close to each other, it’s very difficult not to stand on them. Another cup of tea, Papa?”

  He held out his cup, not seeming to notice how quickly she had changed the subject.

  In fact, she thought sadly, he never noticed how she was feeling these days. He had always been a most affectionate father, but now his concern for the castle gardens seemed to have overtaken him so completely that he had no attention to spare for her.

  When at last Bettina waved her father off, she stood wondering whether to go back inside and continue with her work, or to wander through the garden.

  At last she turned her steps towards the garden.

  Here she could be alone and indulge her thoughts. But she had been indulging them ever since the party broke up the day before, and she was no nearer knowing what she truly thought and felt.

  Bettina had been angry with Michael for kissing her, and yet in her heart she had known that there was something about his kiss that could not make her angry, but made her feel something very different from anger.

  It had been so different from that other kiss on the first day. Then he had stolen his pleasure almost casually. She could have been anyone and she had felt insulted.

  But the second kiss had been gentle and tender, with a passion and sweetness that she would remember all her life.

  For a moment she could have sworn that he was thinking of nothing but her.

  It was she who had broken the spell by losing her temper, assuming that he was merely making use of her.

  But suppose he had not been doing so? Suppose he had really meant it?

  She chided herself for her foolishness.

  Of course it could come to nothing. Between an Earl and an Army Major’s daughter there could never be any thought of marriage.

  Her anger of the day before had melted away. Now she acquitted him of trifling with her. He had been overpowered by the magic of the moment – just as she had.

  She could never marry him, but she would always love him and cherish his kiss in her heart forever.

  At that moment, to her surprise, she detected the clatter of horse’s hooves coming down the road.

  At first she did not believe that she was really seeing Michael. It seemed as though she must have conjured him up from her thoughts and from her heart.

  He saw her and turned his horse into the garden, trotting right up to her before he dismounted.

  The sight of him made her want to smile with joy, although she tried not to let him see. The feeling for him that had grown within her must be hidden – from him most of all.

  “Good morning,” she said, trying to sound cheerful and normal. “If you want to see Papa, I am afraid he has just left and will not return until this evening.”

  “Actually,” Michael replied, “I came to see you on a rather important matter. Can we go inside and talk privately?”

  “Of course,” she agreed, puzzled by his manner.

  He tied his horse to a tree and followed her into the drawing room. It was a delightful room at the side of the house overlooking the river.

  The sunshine was making the flowers in the garden almost too vivid to be real. Beyond the river shone as it passed swiftly along in front of the trees on the other side.

  “The view from here is marvellous,” he started, going to the window.

  Bettina thought that this was a strange remark to make. He had said he wanted to speak to her on an important matter, but now he was making idle comments about the view.

  It did not occur to her that he was playing for time, trying to gather courage to say what was really on his mind.

  “I feel so too. But of course, until Papa arrived, it was rather barren and uninteresting. He made it marvellous just as he will do with your garden.”

  “If he is lucky enough to have the time to complete it,” Michael said.

  “What are you saying? You sound as if something has gone wrong.”

  “Yes, something has gone wrong,” he replied. “So I have come here to ask you to help me. No, don’t speak!”

  He held up his hand to forestall anything she might say. Bettina noticed how pale he was.

  “I know what you are going to say,” he added desperately.

  “Do you?”

  “I begged for your help yesterday and then abused your hospitality. My behaviour was atrocious, unforgivable. And yet I am asking you to forgive me, because nobody in the world can save me except you.”

  Something in his manner, a new gravity that she had not seen before, made her pause and stare at him. Now she realised that he was full of tension.

  Impulsively she stretched out her hand.

  “Nothing is as bad as it seems at first,” she said. “If anything has gone wrong, you know we will do our best to help you.”

  “We?”

  “Papa and me.”

  “No, just you. Nobody else can do anything for me.”

  It had occurred to Bettina that perhaps he was running out of money, but then he would not be speaking to her. He must know that she had no money.

  Gathering her courage she took both his hands and drew him towards the sofa. They sat down together.

  “Tell me everything,” she coaxed.

  His silence was frightening her. What could be so bad that he could not speak?

  Eventually he said,

  “I can only tell you the truth and beg you on my knees to help me. Otherwise, if you will not do so, my only alternative is to leave England immediately.”

  “Leave England!” Bettina exclaimed. “I don’t understand, what has happened?”

  To her surprise he looked away from her, as though in confusion.

  Impulsively Bettina moved a little nearer to him on the sofa.

  “Tell me,” she urged.

  Instead of speaking, he took the letter out of his pocket and showed it to her. As Bettina read Sir Peter’s words, Michael saw a puzzled look spread over her face.

  Of course, he thought, she had never encountered this kind of calculated scheming and barely understood the implications when she met it now.

  It was just one more quality that made her so enchanting.

  Bettina read the letter through twice. Her heart was beating hard.

  “I told you about Alice yesterday,” Michael began. “I liked her well enough at the start, although I was never in love with her. We danced together often at parties. Then one day she said people were talking about us. They had noted how often we danced and that we talked too long in the garden. S
o, according to her, I had compromised her and therefore we must marry.”

  Bettina gave an exclamation of surprise.

  “Why should you marry her just because you have danced with her?” she asked.

  “There is no reason, of course, except her father’s ambition.”

  “I do not understand that kind of ambition,” Bettina replied simply. “Surely what matters is that you marry someone you love?”

  “Exactly,” he agreed. “That is what I desire and I certainly do not wish to marry Alice who, in any case, will never love the castle as I do. She will view it as a beautiful backdrop for herself and then want to return to London as soon as possible.”

  “And she will care nothing for the people here, who need you so much,” Bettina admitted. “But surely, after what happened yesterday, she must understand that you will never propose to her.”

  “I think she does understand it. That is why she is resorting to coercion,” Michael added bitterly. “I told you yesterday that her father has the Queen’s ear.”

  “Yes, but I could hardly believe that you could actually be commanded to marry her by the Queen – it’s incredible – can that sort of thing really happen?”

  “It has happened several times in the last few months and now it’s happening to me. My only alternative is to go abroad.”

  “Oh, no, you must not,” she said quickly. “You are so needed here. All the good work will be undone if you leave.”

  “That is what I think too,” Michael told her. “My only hope is to say I am engaged or, better still, already married.”

  He spoke so quietly it was hard for her to hear his words.

  Bettina, staring at him, did not understand.

  At last she asked, cautiously,

  “How is that possible?”

  There was silence for a moment before Michael answered,

  “That, my dear Bettina, is what I am asking you.”

  He realised as he spoke, how outrageous she would think his idea was when she had heard it.

  He saw the astonishment in her eyes.

  Then she said in a strange voice,

  “What are you saying? I – do not understand.”

  “When the Queen’s Messenger arrives, I must be able to tell him that I am already married.”

  Bettina stared at him. Suddenly the air seemed to be singing about her ears.

  “Do you mean – that you want me to – ?”

  “To pretend to be my wife,” Michael said. “Now I think of it, an engagement will not be enough to make them give up. They must think I am actually married and thus beyond their reach.”

  “But will it work? Can it actually be that simple? Will they demand details?”

  “We might have to say where we were married and who performed the ceremony, but I think if you were kind enough to play the part, we could say that we were married in the North of England where I have some relatives.”

  Bettina was gazing at him as he resumed,

  “We will have to invent some reason for our marriage to be kept a secret for the moment. You might have a relative who has died recently and you would therefore be in mourning for at least six months.”

  “That might be one way,” she agreed slowly. “Or perhaps I could conjure up a relative of my own in the North of England where they are not likely to make enquiries. In fact it might have to be as far away as Scotland.”

  He gripped her hands.

  “I know I am asking a great deal of you, but my dear Bettina, I am desperate.”

  Bettina’s head shot up. Her eyes were flashing with determination.

  “You must not leave,” she repeated. “Anything would be better. The locals need you so much. You are their only hope.”

  “And you are my only hope,” he said fervently. “Without your help I must go abroad. I absolutely refuse to be forced into marriage against my will!”

  He spoke so violently that Bettina could only sympathise with him.

  In a soft voice she said,

  “I will do whatever you want me to do.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  For a moment, after Bettina had spoken, there was complete silence.

  Then Michael asked, in a voice which did not sound like his own,

  “Do you really mean that?”

  “Of course I mean it,” Bettina replied sincerely. “How could I not do anything you ask, when you are being so good to us all?”

  “All?”

  “You have given us all such hope. Believe me, any one of us would do anything for you.”

  “But I am not asking any of the others,” he said quietly. “Only you.”

  “And I will help you, of course I will,” she responded in a voice whose soft fervour seemed to touch his heart.

  Michael stared at her. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask her why she was doing this? Was it only for the sake of the people of the neighbourhood?

  Did she care so much for them and nothing for him?

  The question danced through his head and out again before he could catch it.

  “Tell me how you wish me to behave,” Bettina said.

  “Perhaps I should not be asking you,” he blurted out suddenly. “I have no right to ask you.”

  “But of course you have. We must not allow you to be trapped in such a wicked way. You must not marry her. What does she care for the castle or the people here?”

  “Nothing. You are right. Thank you, but – ”

  “But?”

  “There is one great drawback from your point of view.

  You have not yet mentioned him, but I know he must be in your thoughts.”

  “You mean my father?”

  “I mean your fiancé.”

  He caught the briefest flash of bewilderment in her face before she recovered herself. Now he was almost certain that the man did not exist. If only she would admit as much.

  He was not quite sure why it was important, but suddenly it was.

  He wanted to hear Bettina say with her own lips that she cared for no other man.

  “I have already imposed greatly on an engaged woman,” he persisted. “Perhaps I ask too much. Surely even the most understanding fiancé in the world would not tolerate this?”

  Bettina regarded him with a faint, wry smile.

  “My Lord, do you wish me to do this for you or do you not?”

  “Of course I do,” he declared, determined to press her to an admission, “but if – ”

  “You need not worry about it.”

  “I just do not want to harm you with your future husband.”

  “You may safely leave him to me,” she informed him.

  Her eyes met his, challenging, daring him to contradict her.

  What a woman!

  Emboldened, he tried again.

  “Do you know, you have never told me his name?”

  “How can his name possibly concern you?”

  “Never mind,” he said cheerfully. “I will find out when he arrives to marry you.”

  They looked at each other, each understanding the other perfectly and neither willing to admit it.

  “One more word,” she threatened, “and I will push you out of that door!”

  “With your left hook?”

  “Right,” she said firmly.

  “Right. How could I have forgotten, after having felt it?”

  “My Lord, I give you fair warning – ”

  “Not another word, I promise you. I would not offend you for the world. You are my saviour, and – and I will never forget your kindness.”

  Michael spoke the last words slowly, holding her hands.

  There was a silence which for the moment neither of them could break. At the same time they both seemed to become aware that their hands were still clasped – and hastily separated.

  “We need to be prepared for anything,” Michael said. “If you agree, I think we should now go back to the castle and wait there to see who arrives.”

  “But surely, they won’t be
in such a hurry?”

  “The Queen’s command is the Queen’s command,” he answered, “and anything she orders needs to be carried out immediately.”

  He looked up at the clock on the mantelpiece and said,

  “It is now almost ten o’clock. If anyone is coming today, he will arrive just before luncheon and expect to be given a good meal. Then he will leave congratulating not me, but himself on having carried out the Queen’s orders.”

  Michael spoke bitterly.

  Bettina guessed at how much all this had upset him.

  He was not only embarrassed at what he had asked of her, but felt ashamed to find himself in such an intolerable predicament.

  She rose and said,

  “I will go upstairs and dress in my best clothes, if – if you will wait for me.”

  The words seemed to come from her lips rather jerkily.

  Michael too felt awkward.

  There was so much happening that neither of them could articulate.

  He almost forced himself to say,

  “Thank you. You know I find it difficult to tell you how grateful I am.”

  “Do not talk about it,” Bettina replied quickly. “I will change quickly and we can be on our way to the castle.”

  “This is madness,” he cried suddenly. “It cannot possibly work.”

  “It must work,” Bettina asserted. “We cannot lose you.”

  “We – again?” Michael could not resist asking.

  Bettina coloured a little.

  “I am not just doing this for you, but for everyone. If I didn’t help you I would feel that I was letting my friends and neighbours down.”

  “Of course I understand that,” he said quietly.

  Without waiting for him to reply, she disappeared.

  Michael was left staring at the door, wishing he knew what was really going through her mind.

  ‘A lot of women,’ he thought, ‘would find the plan degrading. She can rise above it for the sake of others. But what does she want for herself?’

  He gave a deep sigh, closing his eyes as he realised that the tension was lifting from his shoulders. Suddenly he was so full of relief that he wanted to shout with joy.

  Bettina was on his side. Bettina would be fighting for him. With such an ally, he could not possibly lose.

  He tried to calm himself by fetching his horse from the garden, bringing the gig from the stables, and tying his horse behind it. Then he walked back into the house to wait for Bettina.