The Angel and the Rake Read online

  Sadie said ‘goodbye’ to Angela without leaving the carriage.

  Then she said ‘goodbye’ to Trevor, but Angela could not help overhearing her saying in a whisper,

  “You will not be long?”

  “I will come back, my darling, as soon as I have taken care of Angela,” Trevor answered.

  As they drove off alone, Angela looked at her brother and he said,

  “You must have guessed by now that I am very much in love.”

  “Oh, Trevor, how exciting,” Angela exclaimed, “and she is so sweet.”

  “She is the most adorable girl I have ever met in my life and I would marry her if she had not a penny to her name.”

  Angela drew in her breath.

  “Marry her? Do you really mean to say that you are going to marry Sadie Vandebilt?”

  “As soon as we possibly can,” Trevor confirmed. “She has first to tell her father and, as soon as I know that everything is all right, I will be going to America with her.”

  “Oh, Trevor, I do hope you will be very very happy!” Angela smiled.

  “I shall be,” he answered. “You realise, Angela, that this will solve all our problems?”

  Angela looked at him and he went on,

  “I know that everyone will assume that I am marrying Sadie because she is rich but when I suggested that it was embarrassing that she had so much and I have so little she said, ‘what does money matter, I have far too much of it anyway’.”

  Angela chuckled.

  “That is just what I would feel.”

  “She will be thrilled by The Priory,” Trevor said, “and, of course, we can make it look just as it used to.”

  It was difficult for Angela to realise how everything had turned topsy-turvy when she had least expected it.

  When they went to Trevor’s lodgings, she asked,

  “What about my clothes?”

  “I will take them back to The Gaiety for you,” he said. “The important thing now is that you should go home. And remember you are to vanish and no one must ever know that you were part of the party that the Marquis gave for his men-friends.”

  Angela did not speak and he went on,

  “In a way it would not be so bad if it was known that Sadie was there too, but she is not English. The gossips who would criticise me for using my sister in such a way would think that she did not count because she is American.”

  Angela sensed that the situation was worrying him and she therefore replied,

  “No one need ever know what happened and it is so unlikely that I shall ever again meet anyone who was there.”

  “I hope not, but anyway, they will have forgotten about it by the time I am married to Sadie and have had a long honeymoon. When we come back to England, we will cope with The Priory.”

  Trevor spoke as if he was planning it all out and added,

  “What you might do, Angela, is to have the roof repaired. We have money in the Bank now, which will go a long way towards keeping out the rain.”

  “I will do that,” Angela answered.

  As soon as they arrived, he sent Atkins to the livery stable to hire a post chaise with two horses.

  Angela was about to expostulate at the expense.

  And then she remembered that in the future money would no longer be important to them in their lives.

  “You will be quite safe on your own,” Trevor said as if he was reassuring himself more than her.

  “Of course I shall,” Angela answered.

  She had sat down at her brother’s desk while he was giving his orders to Atkins and had written a note to the Marquis.

  Now she gave it to Trevor, saying,

  “Will you give this note to the Marquis? It is just to thank him for my visit and to explain that regrettably I cannot come to dinner tomorrow evening as I have to go to the country.”

  “That is sensible of you, old girl,” Trevor said with satisfaction. “I will leave your letter at the house when I go back to be with Sadie.”

  There was only one thing that Angela had to do now.

  That was to change out of the gown she had been wearing, which belonged to The Gaiety Theatre. Then she put on one of her own from the trunk that she had left at Trevor’s lodgings.

  Back in her old clothes she felt that she was really Cinderella in her rags.

  It was a simple cheap little gown that made her, she thought, look very different.

  By the time she was ready, Atkins had returned, saying that the post chaise was outside.

  Trevor inspected it and noted that the horses were fresh and young.

  It should not take them more than an hour-and-a-half, he thought, to get Angela back to The Priory.

  She kissed him affectionately, saying,

  “I am so, so happy ‒ that you have found Sadie.”

  “We fell in love the moment we saw each other. I always thought it was something that happened only in novels but it certainly did to us.”

  “I will look after everything,” Angela promised, “and please – try to come and see me before you leave for America.”

  “Of course I will,” Trevor nodded.

  She thought, however, that he spoke rather too quickly and there was every likelihood that he would be unable to do so.

  She got into the post chaise and waved to Trevor until he was out of sight.

  Then, as she settled down for the journey, she realised that her future was very bleak.

  She would be able to stay at The Priory until Trevor came to live there with his rich and beautiful bride.

  But they would certainly not want her and the question was now where was she to go?

  It was a depressing thought that she could not think about at the moment.

  *

  As the horses carried Angela up the drive, she saw The Priory lying just ahead of her.

  She thought despairingly that this was the house that she had loved and lived in all her life.

  Now it was no longer the place that she could call her home.

  ‘Where shall I go? Where – can I go?’ she asked herself.

  There was some satisfaction in knowing that the Higginses could now buy what food they wanted. Also that the local builders could come to restore the leaking roof.

  At the same time, as she walked about The Priory, she could not help thinking of Vaux.

  She thought of Saracen and how much she had enjoyed riding the majestic stallion.

  However much she might try not to think of the Marquis, he was always there in her thoughts.

  When she went to bed, it was impossible not to lie awake, thinking of the rapture she had known when he had kissed her.

  She could feel again that strange sensation in her breast.

  ‘I love – him!’ she told herself over and over again.

  She knew that her love for him was as foolish as wishing that she could fly into the sky or dive down into the depths of the ocean.

  She wondered if he would mind, when he arrived in London, that she was unable to dine with him.

  He might find it an uncomfortable meal with Sadie and Trevor absorbed in each other.

  But, as he had hundreds of friends, there was no reason why he should not take a dinner partner.

  Angela found it very difficult to sleep that night.

  All she could do was to lie awake, thinking of the Marquis.

  She kept remembering how handsome he was, how smart and how exciting it had been to be rescued by him.

  He had put his arm around her in the coach.

  ‘I love – him! I love – him!’ she told the stars as she gazed out of her window.

  They made her think of the stars shining over the garden at Vaux.

  She pulled the curtains to so as to shut them out.

  *

  The next day the builders arrived early and Angela explained to them exactly what was wanted for The Priory.

  They shook their heads and told her that it was a long job and an expensive one.

  Ho
wever, she persuaded them to set to work straight away and they promised to come back the next day.

  When they had left, The Priory was once again very quiet.

  She moved around it, feeling as if it already no longer belonged to her.

  The rooms where she had played as a child and grown up had already slipped from her grasp.

  She must leave them behind her for good when she finally went down the drive to some unknown destination.

  She looked up at her father’s portrait over the study mantelpiece.

  ‘Help me, Papa’ she begged him in her heart.

  She felt that there would be no answer for her.

  She walked along the wide corridor, as the Monks had once done, to the Great Hall.

  The door was open and the rays of the sun were streaming through it.

  As she reached the hall, she felt as if the Monks were still there, welcoming travellers and anyone else who needed their help and sustenance.

  Now it was she who needed their help.

  She was just about to ask them for their Blessing when suddenly she realised with a start that she was not alone.

  She looked around and saw a man standing in front of the huge Medieval fireplace.

  For a moment she thought that she must be dreaming or else imagining what she saw.

  But, as her eyes met the Marquis’s, she just knew that it was him.

  For a second she could only stare at him and neither of them moved.

  Then he asked in a strange voice,

  “How could you go away without telling me where you were going?”

  “Why – why are you – here?” Angela asked.

  A sudden thought struck her and she stammered,

  “Mary? She – is all – right?”

  “Mary is safe,” the Marquis answered. “But I am very hurt. I was extremely upset last night to learn that I could not get in touch with you.”

  There was a note of reproach in his voice that made Angela look away from him.

  Then she asked,

  “I-I am sure that – Trevor did not tell you – where to find me.”

  “No. He said very convincingly that he had no idea where you were.”

  “B-but – you are – here?”

  The Marquis smiled.

  “I used my brain, as I am sure you would have expected me to.”

  “H-how did you – do that?”

  “I went to Trevor’s lodgings to try to persuade him to be more helpful than he had been last night. He was not there, but his manservant, Atkins, told me what I wanted to know.”

  “Atkins? But – he does not – know – ” Angela stuttered.

  “ – That Trevor is your brother!” the Marquis finished for her.

  “You know that?”

  “I guessed it when I learnt where you had gone and that is why I came here.”

  Angela realised that Atkins would have told the Marquis where the post chaise had been ordered to go.

  But she had never imagined in her wildest dreams that the Marquis would follow her.

  “I think now you have a great deal of explaining to do,” the Marquis insisted firmly.

  Angela clasped her hands together.

  “Oh, please – please,” she begged, “you must never tell – anyone that I – came to your – party and pretended to be a sort of – Gaiety Girl but I did it to – help Trevor to save – The Priory.”

  “Save The Priory?” the Marquis questioned.

  “W-we have no – money,” Angela replied simply. “The ceilings are falling in, the roof needs repairing and – we could not – afford to – pay for the – food we were eating.”

  She looked up at him piteously.

  “If it became – well known that Trevor had – taken his sister to such a party – everyone would be very – shocked and it would hurt him.”

  “After all you have done for me, I would never do anything that would ever hurt or upset you,” the Marquis assured her. “And that also applies to your brother.”

  “You will – keep it a secret?” Angela said. “Oh, thank you – thank you. He was so – afraid that we – would be found out.”

  “And now that I have found you out,” the Marquis asked her, “what are you going to do about me?”

  She looked at him not understanding what he was saying.

  Then there was an expression in his eyes that made her heart start beating frantically.

  “I think,” he said quietly, “you will have to make sure that I will not betray you and the best way to do that is to be with me as I want you to be.”

  “I-I still don’t – understand,” Angela whispered.

  He went nearer to her.

  “I am asking you to marry me, my darling,” he said. “Mary has begged me to bring you back to Vaux and that is what I intend to do.”

  He put his arm round her and pulled her close to him.

  He could feel her trembling as he said,

  “I think you love me a little and it will be very exciting, my beautiful Angela, to teach you about love.”

  His lips touched hers and Angela felt as if he carried her up into the sky.

  She had no idea that anything could be as wonderful as the feelings that he evoked in her.

  He kissed her and went on kissing her, at first gently and then passionately.

  She felt as if her body melted into his as his lips became more and more demanding and more and more passionate.

  To Angela it was everything that she had ever dreamt of, everything that she had never expected to find in her life.

  It was so perfect and so wonderful, that all she could think of was that she had left the Earth and had reached Heaven.

  As if the Marquis felt the same, he raised his head and said,

  ‘How can you make me feel like this, my precious little angel? I have been searching for you all my life, but did not believe you really existed.”

  “I – love you. I – love you!” Angela whispered. “But – I never for one moment thought that you would – love me.”

  “But I do love you,” the Marquis sighed. “I knew it when you acted so brilliantly in my play. Then, when you saved Mary, I knew that you were everything that mattered in my life and I would not want to go on living without you.”

  “You – really want me to marry you?” Angela asked.

  There was just a little hesitation before the Marquis responded,

  “I was afraid when you were deceiving me that it was something I would not be able to do because it would have shocked my family and friends. But now, my darling, there are no obstacles and no difficulties, and I think we should both be very grateful for that if nothing else.”

  “It is – so wonderful that you – love me,” Angela murmured.

  He knew as she spoke that she did not understand the agonies that he had been through.

  He had thought that she belonged to Trevor.

  Now he knew that the Brooke family was as old and revered as his own.

  While The Priory was a perfect background for the bride that he would take with him to Vaux.

  He pulled Angela suddenly closer against him as if he was afraid that at the last moment she might somehow be lost to him.

  “I love you with all my heart and all my soul, which I did not know that I possessed until now,” the Marquis said. “You are an angel from Heaven and I know that my whole life has been changed because you are with me.”

  “You know – I have nothing to give you – but my love,” Angela said. “We were so very, very poor until George Edwardes gave Trevor one thousand pounds for finding an angel to take Lucy’s part. It seemed to us like – a fortune.”

  The Marquis laughed.

  “I suppose Edwardes paid so much because he was afraid I would refuse to finance his show if he let me down over my play. It was something I intended to do anyway. And now, because it has brought you to me, I will double what I was going to give him!”

  “It seems a fortune,” Angela said, “
but now that Trevor is going to marry Sadie, I was – wondering what was to – become of me – when I found – you in the hall.”

  “What is going to happen,” the Marquis said, “is that you will marry me immediately. I cannot wait for you, Angela, and there are so many things we have to do together to make our lives as perfect as I intend them to be.”

  His lips moved over the softness of her skin as he added,

  “There has always been something missing in my life, but I was not certain what it was. Then, when I saw your perfect, exquisite little face, I knew in some strange way that Heaven had sent you to help me.”

  “Oh, darling – you know I will – help you,” Angela said, “but you will have to help me to do the right things. We have been so poor since Mama died and so I have never been to London, attended balls or been presented at Court. You must – help me not to – make any silly mistakes.”

  She thought that the sudden radiance in the Marquis’s face was very moving.

  “You are what I have always wanted in my life,” he said softly. “Someone completely unspoilt, someone who really is an angel, not because of her looks, but for all that is in her heart. My precious, I love you and adore you.”

  He kissed her until they were both breathless.

  Then he said,

  “I am taking you with me now immediately to London.”

  “To – London?” Angela questioned.

  “You will stay with my grandmother for two nights,” the Marquis said, “while I buy you a Wedding gown and anything else you need. We will be married in the Private Chapel at Vaux and then we will go on our honeymoon.”

  “I just don’t believe – this is true,” Angela sighed. “I am – dreaming and when I – wake up I shall find that you have – disappeared.”

  “That is something that will never ever happen,” the Marquis answered. “We will start our honeymoon by going to Paris, where I can buy you a trousseau. You are going to look, my precious one, exactly as you should. Not as a Gaiety Girl, not even an angel, but mine from the top of your exquisite head to the toes of your tiny feet.”

  He swept her into his arms and kissed her.

  As he did so, she thought that to dress her and make her look beautiful was something that would fascinate him.