Riding to the Moon Read online

Jimmy closed the door behind her.

  “Fate has certainly taken a hand in our affairs,” he said. “I never dreamt that we would be lucky enough to find anybody so attractive and exactly what we need.”

  “I listened very carefully,” Charles said, “and she never mispronounced a word in a manner which might have given her away as being a tradesman’s daughter.”

  “She has obviously been very well educated,” Jimmy said. “But of course no real lady would have travelled alone.”

  “How could she help it when her father died?”

  “I don’t know, but I expect the Captain would have found her a chaperone or someone like that.”

  The two men were silent until Jimmy said,

  “When we have confounded the Marquis with her, we will have to look after her and see that that swine Jacobson does not harass her again.”

  “I have met Bredon,” Charles said reflectively.

  “You have?” Jimmy exclaimed. “What is he like?”

  “Ghastly! He was sacked from Eton and, when he came into the title after his father’s death, he gambled away every penny he possessed in two years.”

  “No wonder he has been looking for an heiress,” Jimmy remarked.

  “The only thing he has left to sell is his title and when I last saw him at some dance hall about six months ago, he looked dissipated and down at heel. He was also very unpleasantly drunk.”

  “Well, we have saved the pretty redhead from him for the moment.”

  “Pretty?” Charles exclaimed. “She is lovely! And I am sure we can find her a decent husband who would be kind to her.”

  “I am even prepared to be kind to her myself,” Jimmy said, “but I think my family would shoot me if I married a tradesman’s daughter.”

  “So would mine,” Charles agreed.

  “Well, I am quite certain that, at the suggestion of any other position in our lives, she would be off to the Convent again!”

  “I am sure she would,” Jimmy said. “Equally it’s the greatest bit of luck that she dislikes men.

  It means she will keep the Marquis at arm’s length and that will surprise him. Apart from anything else, he is quite certain he is irresistible.”

  “He is,” Charles said drily. “We established that a long time ago.”

  He spoke so bitterly that Jimmy decided to change the subject.

  “One thing I will say is that our lady friend is exceedingly sporting. Most women don’t have the guts, as you and I well know, to run away on their own from a blackguard Solicitor or to agree to the extraordinary proposition we have just put to her.”

  “She is exceptional,” Charles agreed. “I am only rather nervous in case the Marquis penetrates her impersonation the moment he sees her.”

  Jimmy gave a cry of horror.

  “Now you are inviting disaster! If you are afraid he may be suspicious, then perhaps he will read your thoughts or, if you are obviously on edge, he may suspect that something is up.”

  “You are right,” Charles conceded. “I remember one of those old bores at the Club, who was always droning on about how he rescued people during the French Revolution saying, ‘the art of disguise is to think oneself into the part’.”

  “Exactly! And we have to believe absolutely in the tale we tell the Marquis and make sure Indira Rowlandson does the same.”

  “The same what?” a voice asked and, as the two gentlemen rose to their feet, Indira came into the parlour.

  She was looking very different from when she had left them and for a moment both Charles and Jimmy stared at her, speechless with admiration.

  She was wearing an exceedingly smart travelling coat of sapphire blue satin edged with braid, which made a pattern round the hem and round the sleeves.

  Her bonnet, which was in the very latest fashion, had a high, pointed brim, which was edged with a row of lace and the high crown was decorated with tightly curled ostrich feathers of the same blue as her coat.

  Her shoes, gloves and bag all matched and it flashed through Charles’s mind that they were in fact being deceived and to be so smartly dressed she must have come straight from London.

  As if she understood his astonishment and could read his thoughts, Indira said,

  “You look surprised, but Papa’s organisation is so splendid that my clothes were made in Paris and sent out to India or wherever we were every six months.”

  “You look magnificent,” Charles said, recovering his voice, “and exactly as we wish you to look.”

  “Thank you, my Lord, but now let’s be on our way. I am so afraid that Mr. Jacobson will reappear and I will have to start running away all over again.”

  “You are not running anywhere except with us,” Jimmy said firmly. “I will see to your trunks being put on the phaeton or perhaps we will be able to hire some sort of vehicle to follow us.”

  “Oh, please,” Indira said quickly, “if possible let’s take my trunks with us. Now that Papa is dead, I feel they are the only things I possess, and I am so afraid of losing them.”

  “Yes, of course,” Charles said soothingly. “I understand exactly what you are feeling.”

  He paused before he added,

  “I don’t want to seem inquisitive, but will you be able to get hold of any of your money without having to contact that reptile who has behaved so badly towards you?”

  “Oh, yes,” Indira answered. “I can go to Papa’s bank in London and I am sure when I identify myself they will let me draw on his account. I know too that they hold some securities that are in my own name.”

  Charles looked at her in admiration, thinking that few young women would be so knowledgeable or so sensible about their finances.

  Then he thought that, as a tradesman’s daughter, she would understand the handling of money, while a debutante in the Social world would never have to bother her pretty head with such mundane matters.

  There was no time for any more conversation, for Jimmy came hurrying back to say that the trunks were being strapped on the back of the phaeton and, although it meant their groom would have to hold Indira’s hat box on his knees, they could take everything.

  “Let’s go at once!” Charles suggested. “It’s a good thing you are slim, Miss Rowlandson, because three is always a squeeze in a phaeton which is made for two.”

  “I would put up with anything to get away from here and be quite certain that Mr. Jacobson will not be able to find me.”

  “I doubt if he will be in a position to find anybody for the next twenty-four hours,” Jimmy said. “Of course, there is also a chance that he may have drowned in the ditch, in which case you will not have to worry about him ever again!”

  “I suppose it is wicked of me to say so, but that would give me a great deal of – pleasure.”

  “Wicked or not, I feel the same,” Charles added.

  She laughed.

  They drove out of the courtyard of the inn with the landlord bowing them goodbye, having been handsomely reimbursed for his hospitality.

  Only when they had driven on for a short while, did Jimmy say,

  “Forgive me for asking you, but what did you do with the nun’s robe you were wearing? It would be a mistake for the maids who will unpack for you at Ardsley Hall to discover it.”

  “I thought of that,” Indira replied, “and because I was aware it might be incriminating evidence if Mr. Jacobson was searching for me, I stuffed it up the chimney!”

  Charles and Jimmy both burst into laughter.

  “You are magnificent!” Charles exclaimed when he could speak. “And I am quite certain I shall win my bet.”

  “I am feeling somewhat apprehensive that you may,” Jimmy replied, “but you have a long way to go yet.”

  “Now, tell me more about the Marquis,” Indira asked.

  “Supposing after all the trouble you have taken in introducing me into the house, he takes no further interest in me and – ”

  “He will take an interest in you,” Jimmy interrupted. “You are t
he most beautiful girl I have ever seen and I think I have met every beauty in London by this time. I know Charles will say the same.”

  “Beauty means different things to different people,” Charles remarked, “but if the Marquis is not bowled over by Miss Rowlandson, then I am a blind man.”

  There was a little pause.

  Then Indira asked,

  “What do you – mean, ‘bowled over’? You are not – expecting that he will fall in love – with me?”

  The way she spoke made Charles and Jimmy aware that she thought it so horrifying that she might now, at the very last moment, refuse to go on with the act.

  “No, no, of course not,” Charles said soothingly.

  “Ardsley has never been in love with anybody. You can be quite certain about that. We just want to make sure that he finds you extremely attractive and believes you to be crème de la crème, which is what, with his infallible instinct, he expects in a woman to whom he offers his – friendship.”

  Charles emphasised the word ‘friendship’ to reassure Indira, but, as Jimmy knew that she was still anxious, he said,

  “Because he will believe you to be a Lady of Quality and unmarried, I can assure you that he would not try to kiss you or anything like that.”

  Indira gave a little cry of horror.

  “Are you sure – quite sure? If he did, I should have to – run away again and – nothing you could say would – persuade me to stay.”

  “I promise you will be quite safe,” Jimmy said, “but it will certainly surprise him if you don’t wish to flirt with him.”

  “Flirt with him!” Indira exclaimed. “I have no wish to flirt with anybody! The men on the ship – after Papa was – dead would – never leave me alone.”

  Because she was sitting between Charles and Jimmy and they were so close together, they were both aware of the shudder that ran through her body as she remembered what had happened.

  “Then,” she went on, “when Mr. Jacobson told me I was to marry a man I had never seen, and would not listen when I told him I would rather die than do so, I was frightened, very, very – frightened that somehow he would – force me to – obey him.”

  “That is what he might have done,” Charles said, “and that is why you must be very careful not to encourage the Marquis or any other man in the house party.”

  “What do you mean – encourage?”

  “You should be polite, somewhat aloof, and don’t laugh too loudly or too frequently at what they are saying, and – ”

  He paused and then added,

  “Oh, go on, Jimmy, you can explain it better than I can.

  “What Charles is trying to say,” Jimmy began, “is that real Ladies of Quality, like this daughter of the Earl you are pretending to be, would be somewhat reserved and would not encourage a man to pay her compliments. If he did, she would seem shy and a little bashful.”

  “In which case,” Indira said in a low voice, “he would not – force himself upon – me?”

  “Not if he was a gentleman,” Charles said sharply, “and certainly not if we are about. What you have to do, Miss Rowlandson, is to think of us as if we were your brothers.”

  Indira gave a little sigh.

  ‘‘I always wished I had a brother and Papa was very very disappointed when I was not a boy.”

  “Well, you have two brothers now,” Jimmy said. “Charles and I will look after you and see that no one insults you in any way or does anything you don’t like. You can be quite certain of one thing, we will keep away any brutes like Jacobson or fortune-hunters like Bredon.”

  “Of course,” Charles agreed, “and there is something else you must remember, you are not rich and you rely entirely on your father for any money you have. He is generous, but you own nothing personally.”

  “I understand, “ Indira said.

  Charles thought that her father had trained her well and felt quite certain that a Society girl would have asked innumerable questions on this particular score alone.

  “I will tell you another thing we have to think of,” Jimmy said. “Where was Lady Mary supposed to be going when she hired the carriage at Southampton?”

  “I have thought of that already,” Charles replied. “About ten miles away from here I have two very boring old cousins. They never do anything or go anywhere. I know they are both alive because my mother had a letter from them about ten days ago.”

  “So Lady Mary was going to stay with them!” Jimmy interposed.

  “Exactly!” Charles agreed. “They were friends of her father’s and actually I believe my cousin Harold was in India about a century ago.”

  “You don’t suppose the Marquis knows them?”

  “I am quite certain that, if he has ever heard of them, he would make every effort to avoid them,” Charles said.

  “I have told you, they are bores, and no one in their right mind would want to entertain them, although they are highly respectable.”

  “What is their name?” Indira asked.

  “Colonel and Mrs. Toddington,” Charles answered, “and I will tell the Marquis that I have sent a message to them to say that you will not be arriving until we can escort you there safely after the steeplechase is over.”

  “Really, Charles, you are a genius at improvisation!” Jimmy exclaimed. “I had no idea you had such imagination! There is almost a magical quality about it!”

  “I think he is very clever,” Indira said. “And now that I know the whole story of my background, I think also that, as I have been through such an unpleasant experience with the highwaymen, I would not want to talk about it.”

  “That is sensible,” Charles approved, “I have always been told that one lie leads to another and the less you say, the less you will become involved.”

  “It is certainly an – adventure that I did not expect,” Indira said in a small voice, “and since I am with you I find I am not really as frightened about meeting the Marquis as I was at the thought of – begging the Convent to take me in.”

  “How did you know about the Convent in the first place?” Charles asked curiously.

  “There was a nun on board ship who was very kind to me after Papa died. She nursed him when he had the fever.”

  “So she told you about it?”

  “Yes, she said if ever I was in trouble I was to go there and mention her name and they would look after me.”

  “The Convent is not the right place for you,” Charles asserted firmly.

  “I am beginning to think that myself,” Indira agreed.

  “But, when Mr. Jacobson met me when I came off the boat and took me to a hotel and told me what he had planned for me, I was absolutely frantic.”

  “So you got hold of a nun’s habit in which to escape from him.”

  “I thought he would not be looking for me dressed as a nun,” Indira said simply. “So I asked the chambermaid to buy me a nun’s robe.”

  “How on earth did she know where to buy one?” Jimmy enquired.

  “She was very clever about that,” Indira answered.

  “She was sure there would not be one in the shops, so she offered one of the Little Sisters of the Poor, who work in the slums round the dockyard at Southampton, five pounds for her robe. I presume she had two and the money was tempting.”

  “I can see you are a born adventuress,” Charles said, “and not only brave but undefeatable.”

  “I hope so,” Indira replied, “but I am very – afraid of the – future without Papa to – look after me.”

  As there was nothing they could say to this, they drove on in silence.

  It was Indira who broke it by saying,

  “You may think it – foolish of me, but I am so nervous that I may forget my own name or not answer when I am addressed as – Mary.”

  Jimmy turned his head to look at her and Charles was listening as she went on,

  “Would it be possible when you got to know me – better to call me Indira? We could say I was Christened ‘Mary Indira’.”r />
  Jimmy did not answer for a moment and she said hastily,

  “Not if you think it would be a mistake. But it would make me feel I was still – close to – Papa.”

  “Of course you can be Indira to us,” Charles said, “and I think it’s a charming and original name.”

  “Thank you – thank you!” Indira cried and gave him such a beguiling smile that jimmy thought no one could be lovelier.

  They drove for another half an hour and the light was fading when Charles exclaimed,

  “There it is – that is Ardsley Hall!”

  There was a gap in the trees that bordered the road and through it, on a high rise, Indira could see a magnificent building of grey stone.

  It was certainly architecturally attractive and at the same time it was large enough to house a Regiment.

  The Marquis’s standard was high above the rooftops and, as they turned in at the imposing wrought-iron gates with lodges on either side constructed to look like small castles, Jimmy thought that no girl who had just come from abroad could fail to be impressed.

  Indira did not say anything, but he was aware that she was tense and, as they reached the end of the drive and the house seemed to loom above them, vast and somehow menacing, he felt that Charles was tense too.

  A large dome rose above the centre of the building and commodious wings extended on each side. A great fight of grey stone steps led up to the front door and, as Charles brought his horses to a standstill, grooms came running to their heads.

  A red carpet was run down the stone steps they were to walk up.

  “Keep your chin high,” Jimmy said in a whisper to Indira as they reached an enormous hall where there were a great number of footmen wearing powdered wigs, white knee-breeches and a resplendent livery in the Ardsley colours.

  A white-haired butler bowed to Charles.

  “Lord Frodham, I believe. His Lordship is expecting you and your – party.”

  It was obvious from the way the butler spoke that his eyes rested on Indira with a slight expression of surprise.

  He went ahead of them with pompous dignity and only when he reached a pair of mahogany doors did he pause to ask,

  “May I have the names of your friends, my Lord?”

  “Lady Mary Combe and Sir James Overton.”