Journey to Happiness Read online

  “I wish you would stop talking nonsense,” Martina said crossly, forgetting for the moment that she was here as a supplicant.

  “Nonsense? You come here with the most featherbrained scheme it has ever been my misfortune to hear, and you dare to accuse me of talking nonsense.

  “Upon my soul, Martina, I used to think of you as a woman of intelligence. In fact, I once believed that you had more brains than were suitable in a young lady – ”

  “Oh, did you!” she retorted, incensed.

  “Not any more, however.”

  “Of all the arrogant, thick-skulled, prejudiced men in the world, you are the worst. I just don’t know why I ever bothered to come here.”

  “You came because you knew I was the one man in England who wouldn’t have you put under restraint for such a lunatic idea.”

  “If you had listened to me,” she seethed, “instead of shouting me down whenever I open my mouth, you would have known that all I was asking you to do was act a part, a part that only the most brilliant of men could act convincingly. I thought you were brilliant – ”

  “No, what you thought was that you had me so much under your thumb that I would fall in with any tomfool scheme,” he riposted not mincing matters.

  “I thought I could rely on you when you said that you loved me and would do anything for me,” she said in tearful exasperation. “But I see now that I was mistaken. It was all meaningless talk. You are just like all other men.”

  “What do you mean, all other men?” he demanded. “How many other men have you known?”

  “That need not concern you – ”

  “Well, it does concern me if I am to be asked to make a dashed fool of myself for your sake. I don’t say I will not do it, but I would like a few explanations first.”

  “There is no need for explanations,” Martina declared rising. “You have stated your position, sir, and I need not detain you further.”

  “Stop talking like an actress in a melodrama,” he scolded. “And for pity’s sake, turn off the waterworks. I know they are not for real. You are not a weepy sort of woman.”

  “You know nothing about me,” she sobbed pathetically into her handkerchief.

  “I said stop crying. It doesn’t fool me for a second.”

  She stopped at once. He had been perfectly right.

  “So now, tell me the worst,” he said in a resigned voice.

  “I want you to save Harriet by marrying her. But if we all play our cards cleverly, it will be a marriage which is not real.”

  “And if we don’t play our cards cleverly?” he asked in an ominous voice.

  “Never mind. We will.”

  “I do not understand,” Sir Hugh pleaded.

  “You have been kind enough,” Martina asserted, “to ask me to be your wife on several occasions.”

  She smiled at him as she continued,

  “What I am suggesting is that Harriet plays my part and you marry her with everyone, including the priest, believing that she is me.”

  She saw him looking at her with an appalled expression and added quickly,

  “It is really very simple.”

  “I am glad you think so.”

  “You marry Harriet. She will be dressed in my clothes, wearing rather a heavy wedding veil, so that even her best friend would not realise it was her and not me. It is the perfect way for Harriet to get away from her stepfather.

  “It will be a very hasty wedding because we don’t want anyone to realise anything unusual has taken place.”

  “Not – realise that anything – unusual – ” Sir Hugh echoed in a slow, stunned voice.

  “We will announce that, as you are so anxious to travel abroad on a special mission, the wedding has to take place quietly in your private Chapel.”

  “I think I will have you placed under restraint,” he growled in a hollow voice.

  “Do please be serious. It is really all very simple.”

  “Why do I become more worried every time you say that?”

  “I cannot think. You have absolutely no cause. You will be marrying my friend, but with my name. Then everyone will think I am the bride, but actually Harriet will be. When this is later discovered or we announce it to those who are interested, you will find that your marriage is completely illegal.”

  She smiled as she added,

  “Since you will have married a woman with a false name, you will not be married to her in any sense. In fact, the whole marriage will be null and void.”

  “And in the meantime I will have told a lot of lies that will ruin me.”

  “No one need know that this has happened except the close family,” Martina asserted. “And if you introduce Harriet to some charming man when you are away on your honeymoon, she will eventually be happily married to someone she really loves.”

  “We are going to have a honeymoon?” he asked wildly.

  “Of course. That is how you take her away. Naturally I will come with you. It’s quite the custom for a bride to take a friend on her wedding trip, so the three of us will travel together on your yacht.”

  “Oh, we go abroad, do we? Do the two of you have passports?”

  “We do. Harriet travelled abroad with her parents the year before her father died. And Mama and I planned to take a trip and prepared everything, including obtaining passports, but then she died before we could leave.

  “So you see,” she concluded with an extravagant gesture, “I have thought of everything.”

  “You have thought of nothing that matters,” he informed her gloomily, “including the scandal that you are preparing for us all.”

  “There will be no scandal. We will just enjoy a nice little trip together. If we two girls find it impossible to amuse you, you may throw us off at the first stop your yacht makes and we will be obliged to find our own way home.”

  There was silence.

  Then quite unexpectedly Sir Hugh laughed.

  “I have had many extraordinary ideas suggested to me in my life, but this is the best. I have never heard of anything more ridiculous than that I should pretend to marry you, marry Harriet instead and then take the pair of you on honeymoon!”

  “I will stay at home, if that is what you wish,” Martina replied. “But I do think it will do us all good to leave England behind.”

  “Do you really think we can get away with such an outlandish scheme?”

  “Of course we can, as long as we tell as few people as possible what we are doing. The one person who would really be interested is, of course, the villain of the peace. He will be trying to procure Harriet’s money entirely for himself.”

  Martina smiled as she continued,

  “But you must be very discreet. It is too good a story and some people would tell their best friends, who would tell the world.

  “In fact, the whole County would soon be saying you had done Harriet’s stepfather down and he jolly well deserved it.”

  “And there aren’t any unforeseen complications?” he demanded suspiciously.

  “How could there be?” she responded airily. “If you are married to someone who gives a false name, the marriage is annulled and you will again be as free as you are now.”

  Sir Hugh thought for a moment before suggesting,

  “It would be much easier if I could marry you as I have always wanted to do.”

  “I know,” Martina answered. “But I could never be happy if I thought that Harriet, who has never done anyone any harm, is being made so wretched.”

  “You are right,” Sir Hugh agreed quietly, “of course you have to save the poor girl.”

  “You do understand,” Martina said. “I knew you would. Please say you will do it. If Harriet is free from the terrible threat hanging over her, then perhaps we can all be happy.”

  “Does that include me?” Sir Hugh enquired.

  Martina nodded.

  “Of course it does. You will have not only saved Harriet from killing herself, but me from feeling that if she does, I cou
ld somehow have prevented her. Then we will all be very happy in the future.”

  “How does that include me?” Sir Hugh quizzed her again.

  Martina knew what he was asking. There was a moment’s pause before she said,

  “First things first! We have to save Harriet and I cannot think who else I could go to for help.”

  “Naturally I want you to come to me rather than anyone else,” Sir Hugh told her. “I look forward to our trip on my honeymoon if you are taking part in it – even if it isn’t the way I pictured us honeymooning together.”

  Martina’s eyes twinkled.

  “You always get your own way. You were determined, when you acquired that yacht, to take me away on it and now it’s going to happen.”

  “But I didn’t mean it to be like this, I thought that you and I would be alone on the yacht and I would tell you a thousand times a day how much I love you.

  “Now we will have with us my pretend bride – or are you my pretend bride? Already I’ve lost track – anyway, there will be three of us and that is going to make it very difficult and not as wonderful for me as I had hoped.”

  “Please don’t say any more,” Martina begged him. “Just now I cannot think of anything but saving Harriet.”

  “I understand, my dear, and I think you are very clever to have thought of this mad scheme. But don’t forget that I am not doing this for Harriet. I am agreeing to it because I love you and want you.”

  He spoke very positively and his eyes held hers until she looked away.

  Suddenly Martina was blushing which surprised her. Sir Hugh had never made her blush before.

  Martina rose hastily to her feet.

  “I must return,” she said. “But before I go, promise you will do as I ask. Let me go with an easy mind, I implore you.”

  Sir Hugh did not speak, but stood looking at her with his heart in his eyes.

  “Please,” she begged. “I have nowhere else to turn.”

  “If I do this mad thing, will you definitely promise to come on this ‘honeymoon’ too?”

  “Of course I will. Since you and Harriet hardly know each other, it will be very difficult for you to pretend to be happily married unless I am there to put you at ease with each other.”

  “Will the pretence have to be kept up for long?” Sir Hugh asked.

  “That is up to you – we have to be sure that Harriet is safe before we can tell anyone the truth.”

  “But how will we know when she is safe?”

  “When the dreaded Muncaster has gone back North or married someone else.”

  “At which point Rupert Ingleby will produce another suitor,” Sir Hugh pointed out. “Are we all to live in hiding forever?”

  “Of course not. I will set up my own establishment and she can hide with me. I will think of something.”

  “You have not thought this out properly,” he retorted with an attempt at sternness.

  “Well, I haven’t had very much time,” Martina defended herself. “Besides, the greatest Generals go into battle prepared to improvise. Think of Napoleon. Think of Wellington.”

  “What about them?”

  “Well – think of them.”

  “I am thinking of them and I know that they would both have had too much sense to become involved in an escapade like this. I also know that neither of them ever approached a battle in a spirit of ‘I’ll think of something’.”

  “But we cannot see that far ahead.”

  “I can,” he said gloomily. “I can see myself ending up married to both of you at once. I see bigamy charges and a prison sentence. Why did I ever allow myself to listen to you?”

  “Because you are a good and kind man.”

  “Do not start that,” he begged. “I warn you, don’t talk to me like that. It’s not playing fair.”

  “I promise you that as soon as possible we will bring it all to an end,” Martina soothed him. “And then we can tell everyone who is interested the truth that you are not married and I remain what I am now, your admirer and your friend.”

  “You know as well as I do what I want you to be.”

  “We will talk about it later. For the moment you have to act the part of the blissful bridegroom and earn my eternal gratitude.”

  “If you ask me, I think you are making me a complete and utter fool. How can you really expect me to act the part of a bridegroom to a woman I barely know, and to use your name for the marriage, when I actually want you to be my wife.”

  “It is only acting,” Martina asserted. “I could not marry you or anyone else if I thought Harriet would kill herself in preference to marrying a man she dislikes. She would rather die than let him touch her.”

  Martina spoke so violently that for a moment Sir Hugh stared at her.

  “If I had any sense I would make you promise to marry me in return for helping you.”

  Martina looked at him strangely.

  “No,” she said. “You would never do that. You are too honourable to blackmail me in such an underhand way.”

  Sir Hugh turned away, cursing under his breath.

  “You are right,” he grumbled at last. “Not about me being honourable because I am not. But I would never try to make you marry me by such methods. I want you to marry me because you really want to.”

  “Oh, my dear,” she sighed, “I can only give you the same answer I have given you before. I have no wish to marry anyone at the moment. But if you help me, I will be ready to show my gratitude one way or another.”

  “I need more than that,” Sir Hugh stressed.

  “Dear Hugh, I can make no promises. But once Harriet’s problems have been solved, I can begin to think about myself.”

  There was silence and then Sir Hugh remarked,

  “I suppose I shall have to be content with that.”

  “But I do thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

  “That is indeed what I want,” Sir Hugh enthused, “your heart. Once you have saved Harriet then perhaps you can think of saving me from being so unhappy without you.”

  Martina looked at him and her eyes softened.

  “You are being exactly as I thought you would be,” she told him. “Kindly and understanding.”

  Then Sir Hugh did something she had never known him to do.

  He lost his temper.

  “Dammit, Martina! I am not kindly and understanding. I am a man deeply in love. I don’t want to be kind to you, I want to kiss you. I want to marry you and make love to you and have children with you.

  “Like a fool I will do whatever you ask of me, because it gives me the prospect of your company and I am desperate enough to pick up the crumbs from your table. But I am not being kind.”

  Martina stared at him, astounded by the fierce light burning in his eyes. This was Hugh as she had never seen him, wrought to the point of madness by his love for her.

  “Hugh, please – I didn’t mean – ”

  But she got no further. With a growl of, “oh, the devil!” he reached out and pulled her into his arms. The next moment Martina found herself being fiercely and thoroughly kissed.

  He had never treated her any way but gently before this moment, but there was nothing gentle about the ruthless embrace to which he was subjecting her now.

  Martina made a feeble effort to struggle, but the arms holding her were like steel. Hugh was determined to kiss her and he was ignoring her objections in the most impolite way.

  What dismayed Martina most was the feeling that her pulses had begun to race. Instead of being properly outraged she found herself growing warm and being forced to fight off her desire to press closely against him.

  It was shocking. She must freeze him off at once, dismissing him from her presence with a well-chosen snub.

  But that could be awkward when she had come to seek his help.

  Put like that it became a positive duty to allow him a little freedom. So she permitted him to kiss her for a few moments longer, trying to ignore the fact that her heart was th
umping in a strange way that had never happened to her.

  When at last he lifted his head there was a new light in his eyes. It might almost have been one of triumph she thought. He was breathing hard and raggedly.

  “Do you not want to slap my face?” he asked in a voice that shook.

  “That would be very foolish of me when I need your help,” she replied in a voice that also shook – to her great dismay.

  “Is that the only reason, Martina?”

  She flung him a look of reproach and he immediately backed off.

  “Forget I said it. It was boorish and ungentlemanly. In fact, forget the whole thing ever happened.”

  Now he was being unreasonable she thought crossly. How could she forget such an event when her heart was still pounding?

  “You need have no fear,” he said heavily. “It will not happen again.”

  “Hugh – ”

  “I give you my word, on my honour as a gentleman, not to use your troubles as an excuse to force unwanted attentions on you. You may rely on me.”

  “Thank you,” she replied in a small voice.

  With her nerves still quivering with a perplexing new excitement, she was not quite certain that she wanted to rely on his word, but this was hardly the moment to say so.

  “I shall – leave and start – the preparations,” she stammered.

  “And I shall do whatever is necessary here.”

  He showed her to the waiting dog cart. At the last minute she thought he would raise her hand to his lips, but he only closed the door and walked into the house without a backward look.

  *

  On the way back to Harriet’s home Martina reflected that as it was midday, Rupert Ingleby would very likely be either riding or enjoying himself with some of his friends. So she would have Harriet to herself.

  She hurried straight upstairs to Harriet’s room and closed the door before saying urgently,

  “I bring news that will make you happy!”

  “Nothing could make me happy now,” Harriet responded. “My stepfather came in just now and told me that Mr. Muncaster is coming here this evening. He wants to arrange for the wedding to take place this week.”

  “You are not to worry,” Martina urged firmly. “I have a plan that will save you.”