A Battle for Love Read online

  “Mama and Papa were married at the first Church they came to. When my grandfather cut Mama off without a penny and said that her name was never to be mentioned again, they found a delightful thatched cottage. It was two hundred years old and in a quiet part of the County where no one worried about the scandal they had left behind.”

  “But they had no money?”

  “Mama fortunately had a little money that had been left her by her mother when she died. And Papa was very clever at drawing animals. He soon won such a reputation for drawing a horse or a dog that everyone in the County wanted one of his portraits.”

  Serla gave a little laugh as she carried on,

  “I suppose we were really very poor. But Mama and Papa were so happy and the cottage was always filled with love and ever since I can remember we were always laughing.”

  “Then what happened?” the Marquis persisted.

  “A year ago there was a terrible thunderstorm. The lightning struck our cottage and the thatch was set on fire. Papa rescued me but when he was trying to bring Mama to safety – the whole roof caved in and killed – them both.”

  There was a sob in Serla’s voice and she had some difficulty in saying the last two words.

  The Marquis drove on a little further before he said,

  “So you are an orphan and I would suppose that is why you had to come and live with your uncle.”

  “The story of what had happened was into the local newspaper and because Mama had a title it was copied by The Morning Post. That was how Uncle Edward heard about it and I think too the Lord Lieutenant, who had three of Papa’s pictures of his horses, wrote to him as did several other people in the County.”

  “So your uncle took you to live at Langwarde?”

  Serla nodded.

  “I suppose he meant to be kind,” she said, “but, as he was ashamed of me as his father had been, I was always kept away from any of the important guests and made to help in the house rather than behave as if I was a member of the family.”

  “Is that why you are running away?”

  “Oh no, I did not really mind doing that. There was nowhere else for me to go and I love the garden and riding in the woods if I ever have the chance.”

  “So what has happened to drive you away now?” the Marquis asked.

  “Three days ago when Charlotte was trying to make up her mind whether she would marry you or the Duke, Uncle Edward called me into his study. He told me that Sir Hubert Kirwin wanted to marry me.”

  “Who is he?”

  “An old man, very old, he must be well over forty and he lives ten miles away from Langwarde. He came to see Uncle Edward about some land he wanted to rent and I was introduced to him. He talked to me at luncheon.”

  She made a sound like a little cry.

  “I never imagined for one moment that a man like that would want to marry me.”

  “And what did you say to your uncle?”

  “I told Uncle Edward I would not marry Sir Hubert and I thought him repulsive. But he would not listen. He kept saying how lucky I was to have any man willing to make me his wife, especially one who had a title.”

  The Marquis felt that it was what he might have expected from such a snob.

  “So you decided to run away,” he suggested aloud.

  “I would rather die than have a man like that touch me and I felt sure from the way he looked at me that if we were alone – he would try to kiss me.”

  The tone of her voice was very moving.

  The Marquis knew that she had no idea that Sir Hubert would want a great deal more than just to kiss her.

  “So you decided to go to London,” he said after he had not spoken for nearly a minute.

  “I tried to think of how I could earn enough money to live by myself. Mama had, of course, left me her money, but Uncle Edward keeps it until I was twenty-one.”

  “So do you really believe that you could look after yourself in London?” he asked. “With nothing in your pocket and no friends you could stay with?”

  “The only thing I could think of that I could do would be to be a Cyprian and dance,” Serla said.

  “I have already told you it is quite impossible,” the Marquis replied. “So we must think of something else.”

  “But what and where can I possibly go whilst we are thinking about it?” Serla enquired.

  The Marquis drove on a little way further and then suddenly had an idea.

  As he had been listening to Serla, he had forgotten for a moment his anger at the way Charlotte had behaved.

  He well knew that his friends in White’s had been aware that he was thinking of marrying her.

  When he had told them that he was going to the country today, they had laughed knowingly and had wished him good luck.

  When they had learnt that Charlotte had preferred a beardless young Duke to him and made a fool of him, they would not be very sympathetic. In fact many would snigger with some pleasure behind his back.

  He certainly recognised that a great number of men were slightly jealous of him. Not only because of his title and his position in Society, but they envied his record in the War which had made him a hero.

  He had twice received the Gold Medal for Bravery, which Wellington had given to only a few of his Officers.

  The Prince Regent as well had gone out of his way to congratulate him and he had even made him the Guest of Honour at one of his parties at Carlton House.

  Those who had not been honoured by such a great privilege would be only too willing to jeer now that he had been stood up by a woman.

  He had always been noted for his bright ideas and for the ingenious ways that he had extricated himself from uncomfortable positions where other men would have died.

  The Marquis thought now of a way that would save not only himself but also this childish girl beside him. She had no idea of what might happen to her if she wandered around London alone.

  He turned the idea over mind and then said aloud,

  “I have just thought of something, Serla, that would help me as well as you, if you will agree to it.”

  “But, of course, my Lord, I will agree to anything – you suggest,” Serla replied.

  Now there was almost a rapt note in her voice and the Marquis said slowly,

  “It will be most humiliating for me, as I am sure you understand, when your cousin Charlotte announces her engagement to the Duke, when everyone thought that she would marry me.”

  “I can see it will be embarrassing for you,” Serla said after a moment.

  “I can most effectively turn the tables on her,” the Marquis said, “if you will now allow me to anticipate her and announce immediately that you and I are engaged to be married.”

  Serla give a little gasp and he went on quickly,

  “It will, of course, only be a pretence and neither of us will be tied to the other except for perhaps a month or two. After that you will say, as is a woman’s privilege, that you feel we are not suited and we will both be free.”

  Serla thought for a moment and then she said,

  “I understand that – you will be punishing Charlotte by announcing your engagement before she announces hers.”

  “That is exactly what I want to do.”

  “Do you think,” Serla asked, “that anyone would believe that you really wanted to marry me when I am so insignificant and of no importance?”

  “What I intend to do,” the Marquis said, “is to take you to my grandmother. She is a very wonderful person, whom I love more than anyone else in my family. It will amuse her to see that you are very beautifully dressed and appear to the Beau Monde to be exactly the sort of wife that I should choose to be the Chatelaine of Darincourt.”

  He paused for a moment before he added,

  “You will then have to act out the part exactly as Grandmama tells you and I am certain, because you are indeed very pretty, that no one will be at all surprised that I have asked you to be my wife.”

  Serla clasped her hands
together.

  “It’s the most exciting thing I have ever heard!” she cried. “And I really do act fairly well. We used to have Nativity plays every year in the village, which my Mama arranged for the schoolchildren. Everyone was always very complimentary about the part I played.”

  “Well, here is a very big part for you to play. You have to learn it very quickly, as I intend to announce our engagement the day after tomorrow, which I hope will be before Charlotte announces hers.”

  “Oh, it will be,” Serla said. “The Duke has gone to his Castle in Nottingham to tell his family that he is to be married. Of course they will have to know before the announcement appears in the newspapers.”

  “Then I think the day after tomorrow will be early enough,” the Marquis said, “but it means, Serla, that you and Grandmama will have to work very rapidly.”

  Serla did not answer him at first and then in a small voice that he could hardly hear she said,

  “Suppose I fail you and you are angry with me – ”

  “I am quite certain that you will not fail me,” the Marquise asserted. “You will just have to be yourself and, of course, dress up for the part and no longer be afraid of being ordered to do the things no one else wants to do.”

  Serla gave a laugh.

  “That will be wonderful, my Lord, and please don’t be too upset at losing Charlotte. I don’t think that she would have made you very happy.”

  The Marquis was surprised.

  “Why should you say that?” he asked her.

  “She is very difficult to live with and she is always finding fault. When she hit me this morning – ”

  “Hit you!” the Marquis interrupted. “What with?”

  “Her hairbrush. Because she said – I had not done her hair as she wanted it done.”

  Serla paused before she added,

  “I think actually she was rather nervous about what to say to you. But when she hits me – it always hurts.”

  An idea flashed through the Marquis’s mind.

  If a woman hit anything so small and defenceless as the girl beside him, she would doubtless hit her children when she had any.

  Because he was curious, he quizzed her,

  “Why else do you think that I would not have been happy with your cousin?”

  “I think, as you are so important and have been so brave in the war, she would have been jealous of you.”

  “Jealous? Do you mean where other women might be concerned?”

  “No, no! Jealous because people would admire you and you would be dominant in your own house rather than her. It is difficult to explain, but one of the reasons I was kept out of sight and made to be nothing but a servant in the house was that Charlotte was jealous of me. Although I cannot think why.”

  He understood exactly what she was saying.

  He was beginning to think now that he had had a lucky escape.

  At the same time it annoyed him as he had always considered that he could judge men and women in a more perceptive manner than most people.

  He had known in the war instinctively if a soldier was lying to him and whether he was good or bad.

  He had always used his instincts against the enemy and in doing so he had saved himself and his men from innumerable death-traps.

  He thought that what he felt with his brain would apply in the case of women as well and therefore he would not be easily deceived.

  Now if Serla was truthful, which he felt she was, he would after marrying Charlotte have found her intolerable.

  Equally he felt that he would never forgive her for the way she had encouraged him and she had made him walk straight into the trap of matrimony.

  He had not been aware that it was a danger, not so much to his body as to his heart and happiness.

  ‘I will not be laughed at and made a figure of fun over a woman like that,’ he told himself sharply.

  They were now nearing London and he drew from his waistcoat pocket the engagement ring he had brought for Charlotte.

  “I want you to put this ring on, Serla,” he said, “and from this moment we are engaged to be married. No one, I repeat no one, must ever know that it is a charade. We are acting a drama which will deceive everyone who sees it.”

  “You make it sound very exciting,” Serla enthused.

  She took the ring and gave a cry of delight.

  “This is absolutely beautiful. I will be very careful of it until I can give it back.”

  She put it on her engagement finger and looked at it with delight.

  Then she said suddenly,

  “Even if our engagement only lasts for a very short time, it will still be the most wonderful and exciting thing that has ever happened to me!”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Serla grew very quiet as they drove on into London and the Marquis knew at once that she was feeling nervous.

  He was silent as well because he had been planning what he should do as soon as they arrived.

  He drove through the traffic round Paddington and then turned towards Berkeley Square.

  His house was the largest and most impressive in the Square. It was in fact very beautiful and its frontage extended over the whole of the South side of the Square and a garden at the back joined that of Devonshire House.

  The house itself had been built for his great-great-grandfather and had been added to over the years.

  The Marquis was particularly proud of his pictures. They had been much admired by the Prince Regent and he was determined that once he settled down into ordinary life he would go on collecting.

  As he drew up outside his front door, two grooms came hurrying to his horses’ heads.

  “This is where I live, Serla. I want you to come in and I am sure that you would like a cup of tea.”

  “Thank you,” Serla said in a low voice.

  The Marquis knew what she had been thinking as they drove through the crowded streets. She would have been very frightened and lost had she come alone as she had planned.

  He thought now that, whatever happened, he must look after her. She was much too pretty to be wandering about alone even in respectable Berkeley Square.

  He helped her alight from the phaeton and then they walked up the red carpet and in through the front door.

  He said to the butler, who was bowing to him,

  “Good evening, Baxter. Is her Ladyship upstairs?”

  “She’s in the drawing room, my Lord.”

  “As I now want to see her alone, please take Miss Ashton into the morning room and bring her a cup of tea. I will have a cup myself when I come down again.”

  “Very good, my Lord.”

  The Marquis walked quickly up the staircase.

  When he reached the top, he looked down to see Serla disappearing in the direction of the morning room.

  Her small bundle, which contained everything that she had brought with her, was placed on a chair in the hall.

  The Marquis opened the door into a very luxurious and beautiful drawing room.

  His grandmother was seated near the fireplace and she was looking, although she was getting on for seventy, very lovely. She had been one of the most famous beauties of her day.

  Her white hair was smartly arranged and her cheeks owed their colour to rouge and powder. Her eyelashes were slightly darkened and she was glittering with jewels.

  She might have been waiting to welcome a large party of friends or to be received at Carlton House.

  As the Marquis entered the room, she gave a little cry of delight and held out both her hands.

  “Clive! You are back and I am waiting to hear your good news.”

  The Marquis walked across to her and kissed her on both cheeks.

  “I am back, Grandmama, and I need your help.”

  “My help, dearest boy? But, of course, I am always ready to help you.”

  The Marquis paused for a moment before he said,

  “I am announcing my engagement to Serla Ashton the day after tomorrow.”

&n
bsp; The Dowager stared at him.

  “Serla Ashton?” she repeated as if she could not have heard right. “I don’t understand.”

  The Marquis sat down beside her.

  “What I am going to tell you, Grandmama, is the truth and the whole truth. But no one, I repeat no one, else must ever know it.”

  She held out her hand and he took it in his.

  “I am going to bring off,” he began slowly, “a very clever coup, but I cannot do it without you.”

  “You know I will do anything you ask of me,” the Dowager replied, “but you told me that you were going to ask Charlotte Warde to be your wife.”

  “Charlotte is going to marry Nottingham!”

  The Dowager looked bewildered.

  “The Duke of Nottingham, but he is only a boy.”

  “He is just twenty-one and Charlotte has accepted him because he is a Duke.”

  “Oh, my dearest, I am so very sorry!” the Dowager exclaimed. “I know what you must be feeling. I felt so sure that she would make you the wife you wanted.”

  “But she does not want me and you know as well as I do, Grandmama, how delighted my enemies will be and how my friends will laugh at me behind my back.”

  She did not answer, but she knew that he was right. As he had been so successful in the War and, because he was of such social standing, he had enemies and many who were jealous of him.

  “You said just now,” the Dowager murmured, “that you are to marry Serla Ashton.”

  “I intend that our engagement will be announced in The Gazette before Charlotte has time to meet her future husband’s family and have her engagement announced.”

  He knew as he spoke that his Grandmother was far too quick-witted not to understand exactly what that meant.

  People would think that they had been deliberately deceived into thinking that he was to marry Charlotte when actually he was proposing to someone else.

  “Who is this woman?” she asked a little tentatively.

  The Marquis then explained to her exactly what had happened after he had left Charlotte and how Serla had stopped him in the drive and climbed into his phaeton.

  “She is running away,” he explained, “because her uncle, who she says never liked her, is forcing her to marry Sir Hubert Kirwin.”

  The Dowager gave a little cry.