Punished with Love Read online

  “You mean that you will eventually be the Duchess of Hampton?” Latonia asked.

  “I mean just that,” Toni agreed, “and I shall take great pleasure, Latonia, in inviting all the people to Hampton Towers who have been excluded by that stuck-up autocratic couple of snobs all these years.”

  “Toni, you must not speak about your future in-laws like that!”

  “Why not?” Toni enquired. “I am not marrying them. I am marrying darling Ivan and he is a very different sort of person. He is warm and loving and he worships me – he does really, Latonia.”

  “I am not surprised,” Latonia said, thinking that she had never before seen her cousin looking so pretty and attractive.

  “We are going to be so happy and I will tell you something that will amuse you, Ivan will find my fortune very useful.”

  Latonia raised her eyebrows.

  “Are you telling me that the Duke is not as rich as we thought he was?”

  “That is the truth,” Toni answered. “Ivan thinks that his father may have mismanaged things and has also overspent with his grandiose ideas, wishing to appear more important than anybody else. Ivan tells me that there are always twelve footmen on duty at Hampton Towers.”

  “Twelve!” Latonia exclaimed.

  “And the Duke travels with six outriders instead of four.”

  There was silence for a moment and then Latonia asked,

  “Has His Grace already picked out the Princess he wishes his son to marry?”

  “Of course he has!” Toni replied. “And Ivan says that he has the choice of not one but several, mostly from German Principalities but nevertheless of Royal blood.”

  Latonia was silent.

  She was thinking that while the Branscombes were an old and respected family and the new Lord Branscombe was the fourth Baron, they did not compare with the Duke of Hampton, whose ancestors included many members of different European Royal families.

  Toni looked at her and laughed.

  “I know what you are thinking,” she said, “but you need not waste your time worrying about me. Ivan loves me and I love him and not all the Dukes or a whole cavalcade of blue-blooded Royal Princesses are going to stop us from marrying each other!”

  “Oh, I am glad, dearest!” Latonia said warmly. “Not because you will be a Duchess but because you will be happy as Papa and Mama were. Nothing mattered to them except each other and their love and that is what I have always prayed both you and I will find one day.”

  “As I have found already. When you meet Ivan you will understand why he is the only man I have ever met who makes my heart beat quicker and with whom I feel I want to spend the rest of my life.”

  Riding now towards The Castle, Latonia wondered a little apprehensively if Toni’s impetuous summons had anything to do with the Marquis.

  ‘Surely,’ she wondered, ‘nothing can have gone wrong?’

  She had not yet met him, although there was no doubt from the notes that arrived every day, as well as flowers and other presents, that he was as infatuated with Toni as she was with him.

  They also managed to meet regularly but secretly, so that their interest in each other was not repeated to the Duke.

  As the Hampton and Branscombe estates marched with each other, there were plenty of woods just on the boundary on each side, where two people on horseback could disappear amongst the trees and when they rode home in different directions, no one would have the slightest idea that they had been together.

  “Does not your Head Groom think it rather strange that you ride alone?” Latonia asked.

  “It is something I have always done, as you know, except when I am riding with you,” Toni answered, “so he is used to it. Once or twice I have told him that I was meeting you.”

  Latonia gave a little cry.

  “Oh, do be careful not to tell lies in which you might be caught out!” she said. “He may know I have no decent horses of my own at the moment.”

  “Why did you not tell me?” Toni asked. “I will send you over two immediately.”

  Latonia looked embarrassed.

  “I did not mean that.”

  “Well, you should have. We share everything as we always have and, as soon as possible, I want you to move here and be with me.”

  “I am longing to do that,” Latonia answered, “but Miss Waddesdon has been so sweet in coming to live with me after you went to London that I cannot send her away.”

  “I will tell you what we will do,” Toni said. “As soon as that tiresome woman whom Cousin Alice chose is no longer here to chaperone me – and she drives me crazy with her eternal chatter – both you and Miss Waddesdon can come to The Castle.”

  “That would be lovely!” Latonia said.

  “It will make it a lot easier,” Toni said with satisfaction, “and with any luck you will be able to move in next week or the beginning of the week after.”

  Latonia had been looking forward to it so much because she loved being with Toni and she thought now that it would be very disappointing if Toni’s urgent summons meant that their plan had to be changed.

  As she rode down the drive and saw The Castle ahead of her, she thought it would be fun to be back in the great house that she had found so intriguing as a child.

  There had been so many places in which to play hide-and-seek, while the nurseries, which had seemed as big as the whole manor house, had held every type of toy, game and doll that any two small girls could have wished for.

  Then, as she drew nearer, it suddenly struck Latonia for the first time that The Castle in the future would belong not to Toni but to her uncle.

  As it was the family house of the Branscombes, Kenrick Combe would live there when he returned from India and, as Latonia had never met him, she thought perhaps she would no longer be the welcome guest that she was now.

  Ever since she could remember she had either been staying at The Castle or else running in and out as if she had as much right to be there as Toni herself.

  Now almost like a shadow across the sunshine she realised that when Toni married and the new Lord Branscombe was in residence, she would be a stranger, expected to ring the bell and wait for the door to be opened to her.

  As if she was determined to enjoy the privilege of being welcome as long as she could, she dismounted at the front door, handed her horse over to a groom and ran up the steps.

  There was only one footman on duty in the hall and he was busy at the far end of it, tidying some papers that had been blown about in the wind.

  “Good morning, Henry!” Latonia said as she passed him.

  He looked round at her and grinned.

  “Morning, Miss Latonia.”

  “Where is Miss Toni?”

  “Upstairs in ’er room. She said I were to send you straight up to ’er soon as you arrived.”

  He made no effort to show her the way, since, of course, it was unnecessary and Latonia was already halfway up the stairs before he had finished speaking.

  She ran along the broad landing at the top of them and hurried towards one of the main bedrooms that Toni had occupied since she had grown up.

  Before that Toni, and Latonia when she was with her, had slept on the second floor.

  Latonia reached her cousin’s door and without knocking opened it and walked in.

  Toni, who was sitting staring out the window onto the garden, gave a little cry and sprang to her feet.

  “You are here! Oh, Latonia, thank God you are here!”

  She ran across the room as she spoke and flung her arms round her cousin. She clung to her as she had done when they were children, when if something was wrong they could find consolation only in each other’s arms.

  “I came as soon as I received your note,” Latonia said. “What has happened?”

  “I can hardly bear to tell you,” Toni answered.

  To Latonia’s surprise, her voice sounded hoarse and at the same time frightened.

  “You are upset – really upset,” Latonia said i
n surprise. “What can have occurred? It is not – the Marquis?”

  “No, no, of course not,” Toni answered quickly.

  Latonia felt relief sweep over her.

  “I was afraid – desperately afraid that something had gone wrong and the Marquis had found that he could not – marry you after all.”

  “No, it is nothing like that and Ivan knows nothing about this.”

  “Then what is it?” Latonia enquired.

  There was silence for a moment.

  Then Toni said in what seemed an almost strangled voice,

  “It is – Uncle Kenrick! He is back in – England – and he has – sent for me.”

  Latonia loosened her arms from round Toni so that she could stare at her.

  “I-I don’t – understand! Why should that – upset you?”

  Toni gave a little sigh.

  “I will tell you,” she said. “Let’s sit in the window seat.”

  The two girls moved to the wide window seat and, with the sun on Toni’s face, Latonia could see that her eyes were dark and strangely perturbed.

  She put out her hand towards her cousin.

  “What is it, dearest? What has upset you?” she asked. “I can see it is something serious.”

  “That is what I am afraid it may be,” Toni replied.

  “Tell me,” Latonia begged her.

  Toni sighed again and said,

  “It happened about four months ago.”

  “What happened?”

  “A young man I met in London fell in love with me and made rather a nuisance of himself.”

  “Who was he?”

  “His name is Andrew Luddington and he was home on leave from India.”

  It struck Latonia as she listened that India was closely connected with Toni’s uncle, but she did not speak and Toni went on,

  “He is fairly good-looking and he dances well and at first I found him amusing.”

  “What you are saying,” Latonia interrupted, “is that you flirted with him!”

  “Of course I did!” Toni said defiantly. “I flirt with everybody, but that does not mean I was in love with him or anything like that.”

  “N-no – of course not.”

  “He became more and more persistent. In fact, as I said, he made a nuisance of himself. Wherever I went he would follow me. He wrote to me three or four times a day and, when I was with him, he proposed in a wild and somewhat uncontrolled fashion which, after a time, I found embarrassing.”

  Latonia did not say anything, but she knew that her cousin had this effect on quite a number of men.

  They seemed to lose their self-control in her presence and in the past there had been a number of small incidents, which had shown all too clearly that Toni’s attractions made men unbalanced and sometimes unrestrained.

  “Go on,” she said aloud.

  “He grew worse and worse,” Toni continued, “until finally I told him that I had no wish to see him again.”

  There was silence and, because Latonia sensed that this was not the end of the story, she asked,

  “What did he do?”

  “He tried to kill himself!”

  Latonia drew in her breath before she asked,

  “H-how?”

  “He used his Service revolver, but he failed, perhaps because he was so agitated or perhaps because he was in such a state of emotion that he did not shoot actually himself through the heart, as he had intended – anyway, he survived.”

  “What did you do?” Latonia asked.

  “What could I do?” Toni replied. “I was sorry – very sorry – but it was not really my fault.”

  Again there was silence until Latonia asked,

  “If this happened all those months ago, why does it concern you now?”

  “Because Andrew’s mother has complained to Uncle Kenrick.”

  “And he is angry?”

  “I imagine – very angry!”

  “So he has asked to see you?”

  Toni, as if she could restrain herself no longer, burst out,

  “He says he is taking me back to India with him! That I have behaved disgracefully and that obviously my chaperone has no control over me!”

  “But you must explain to him – ” Latonia began quickly.

  “Do you suppose he would listen?” Toni asked

  “No! He is not prepared even to hear my side of the story. I have just received my orders!”

  She picked up a letter that was lying on the window seat and handed it to Latonia.

  Before her cousin could read it, she cried out,

  “Save me, Latonia! You have to save me! I cannot go to India with Uncle Kenrick at this particular moment! If I do, I shall lose Ivan.”

  The way she spoke told Latonia what in fact she had suspected, although she had not dared to put it into words even to herself.

  The Marquis, far from being completely intent on marrying Toni, was still slightly elusive, still at the stage where, should the marriage upset his father, he would cry off.

  There was nothing that Toni had actually said that made her think this.

  It was just an impression Latonia had, just a slight tension she was conscious of and which, because she knew her cousin so well and they were so much like twins, she had sensed perceptively.

  Now she was sure that Toni was speaking the truth when she said that she could not leave the Marquis at this very crucial time in their relationship.

  Slowly, because she was trying to think clearly, she smoothed out the pages of the letter, which she thought Toni must have crumpled up in her despair and read them,

  “My dear niece,

  I am extremely disturbed by a letter that reached me from Lady Luddington about her son Andrew and also by some other reports that I have received from friends and acquaintances regarding your behaviour in London.

  It appears to me that your Cousin Alice has not chaperoned you as competently or indeed as strictly as your father would have wished and expected.

  I therefore intend, when I return to India in four days’ time, to take you back with me, where I think it will be to our mutual advantage to get to know each other better than we do at the moment.

  Unfortunately, it is impossible for me to come to The Castle as I had intended, and I must therefore ask you to join me here at the family house in Curzon Street at the very latest by next Thursday.

  We shall leave for Tilbury the following morning. I have already booked your passage with mine on the P. & O. ship Odessa.

  I have on your behalf expressed my deepest regrets to Lady Luddington and told her that it is with the utmost relief that I learn that her son is alive and improving in health.

  I consider it extremely fortunate that this regrettable affair, which reflects on our family honour, has not become pubic nor been reported in the newspapers.

  Kindly let me know at what time you will be arriving at King’s Cross Station, and I will send a carriage to meet you.

  I remain,

  Yours most sincerely,

  Branscombe.

  P.S. In case it has not been explained to you, I am now, since your father’s death, your sole Guardian.”

  Latonia read through the letter and then raised her eyes.

  “Oh, Toni, you have to go, dearest,” she said. “As he says, and I thought it as I was arriving here, he is your Guardian.”

  “I will not go! I refuse!” Toni cried in the defiant manner that Latonia knew of old.

  “You have no alternative,” she answered. “After all, he controls your money. He can, if he wishes, refuse to allow you any if you disobey him!”

  “I hate Uncle Kenrick!” Toni said. “I have always hated what I have heard of him. And I thought secretly that Papa in a way was rather frightened of him.”

  “How could he be?” Latonia enquired.

  “Uncle Kenrick was so clever that he made Papa feel that he was stupid, which no one else did. And as everybody eulogised about him, it was obvious that Papa felt it unfair that
his younger brother should be treated with so much prominence.”

  Latonia remembered that Lord Branscombe had been very conscious of his own consequence and in a way she could understand that it must have been annoying for him to see so much attention paid to his brother when by right it should have been paid to him.

  “When you meet, you will be able to charm him,” she said consolingly. “You have always had your own way with men, Toni, and I don’t expect that your uncle will be different from any of the rest.”

  “Of course he will be different!” Toni replied. “Uncle Kenrick is not a man, he is a relation and relations are always obnoxious! You know that!”

  “With the exception of us,” Latonia added with a smile.

  “That is different,” Toni answered. “You are not a relation, you are part of me just as I am part of you.”

  She paused for a moment and then said,

  “You are lucky. You have no Branscombe relations, only Mama’s sweet charming family, who were all like your mother.”

  She rose from the window seat to walk across the room.

  “I am not going to India! I am not! I am not! And nothing you can do will make me!”

  “I have not said anything yet,” Latonia answered, “except that you have to obey your uncle.”

  “If I go to India I will lose Ivan – I know it in my bones! His father and mother will get at him and tell him how unsuitable I am to be his wife and because he has always listened to them he will find himself up the aisle with some horrible German Princess before he realises what is happening.”

  “Surely he is not as weak as that?”

  “He is,” Toni contradicted, “not that he realises it, but because ever since he was a baby he has been brought up to believe that the only thing that matters is pomp and circumstance and all that bowing and curtseying.”

  She made a little gesture with her hands before she went on,

  “I have taught him that life can be much more fun. We laugh and enjoy ourselves just because we are people and not puppets to be pulled about on strings.”

  “And you think when you are not here he will forget how much he loves you?”