171. The Marquis Wins (The Eternal Collection) Read online

  It was very differently furnished, comfortable but masculine, with sporting pictures which he would have liked to own himself.

  Before he climbed into the comfortable bed that was waiting for him he washed away the cloying seductive perfume that lingered on his body from his contact with Cora.

  As he did so, he told himself again that it was time he went home to England.

  *

  Although she was very tired, Daniela found it hard to sleep.

  She kept thinking of the Marquis, knowing that, while he had promised to help her, it was not going to be easy.

  When they reached the Stephanie Hotel, she had gone at once to her bedroom, thinking that her stepmother would want to be alone with the Comte.

  But she followed her to say again how furious she was at her slipping away from the gambling rooms and going into the garden by herself.

  “Will you get it into your stupid head that you have to obey me?” she stormed. “If you behave like this another time, I will lock you in your room and make you stay here alone until I return.”

  Daniela thought of saying that she would not mind that and would rather be alone than with the Comte.

  Then she thought that it would cause a scene and the wisest thing she could do was to be apologetic.

  “I am sorry if I upset you, Stepmama,” she said.

  “Well, you can show your sorrow by writing me a cheque,” Esmé replied. “I want some money and, although you may not be aware of it, we cannot live here without it.”

  “But I gave you one thousand pounds when we arrived,” Daniela protested, “and I have already spent most of my year’s allowance in this last month.”

  “You know as well as I do,” her stepmother snapped, “that your Solicitors, who call themselves Trustees, will give you anything you ask for.”

  She hesitated for a moment before continuing,

  “They would hardly allow you to be sued by your creditors. Write me a cheque for one thousand pounds now and I will cash it at the Bank tomorrow.”

  There was nothing Daniela could do but take out her cheque book and do what her stepmother told her.

  She thought despairingly that, if this went on, her father’s fortune would soon be thrown away on needless extravagances.

  Then she remembered the Marquis and told herself that once she could get home she would somehow be able to prevent her stepmother from draining away every penny she possessed.

  When she had signed the cheque, she held it out to her stepmother who looked at it to make sure that there were no mistakes and then walked towards the door.

  “Now go to bed,” she ordered, “and you had better behave tomorrow or you will be sorry. That means you obey me, do you understand? You obey me in everything I tell you to do.”

  “I-I understand,” Daniela murmured.

  At the same time she was frightened.

  When her stepmother left the room, Maria came in to help her undress and take away her gown.

  She left her nothing but a very thin nightgown to sleep in as there was not even a wrap or a negligée in the empty wardrobe.

  As Daniela climbed into bed, she wondered whether, if she wrapped herself in a blanket, there would be any chance of escaping.

  The outside door was locked when Maria left her and she had no wish to go into the sitting room as she had done last night.

  She knew that, as her stepmother left through the communicating door, the Comte was waiting.

  He had not said ‘goodnight’ to her downstairs.

  She tried not to think of them making love.

  All she wanted to think about was how she could reach the Marquis if she was suddenly ordered to go to the Church.

  ‘Help me, Papa, help me – again,’ she prayed. ‘I am sure it was through – you that I was able– to talk to him tonight, but it may not be – so easy another time.’

  Finally she fell asleep and was dreaming that she was a child again when Maria came into the room to pull back the curtains.

  Daniela did not open her eyes and said drowsily to Maria,

  “Surely – it is – very early?”

  “It’s ten o’clock,” Maria answered, “and Madame says you’re to be up and dressed in your best gown by noon and I am to bring you a bath.”

  Daniela drew in her breath.

  She knew that this meant danger.

  Because she was English she was always asking for a bath and there was inevitably a great commotion about it.

  Could it be possible, she asked herself, that she was to be married today?

  Quite suddenly she was panic-stricken.

  For a moment she could think of nothing but that she should run away through the door that was now unlocked.

  She would run down the stairs and escape while she had the chance.

  Then she knew that it was impossible wearing nothing but her nightgown and she listened to Maria chatting to the femme de chambre about her bath.

  The maid had a great deal to say about it and finally the two of them came into the room with a circular bath, which they set down on the hearthrug.

  They put a bathmat beside it and a large Turkish towel was laid ready on one of the chairs.

  When the maids left the room, Daniela knew that they were waiting for the men to bring up the hot water and cold water in large cans.

  It was then that she had an idea.

  Jumping out of bed she went to the writing desk where there was a blotter filled with writing paper headed with the name of the hotel and a supply of envelopes.

  Quickly she scribbled one short line,

  “I think I am being married at noon, please – please – save me!

  Daniela.”

  She had to write it quickly while Maria was outside the room.

  She put what she had written into an envelope and addressed it to the Marquis of Crowle at the Villa d’Horizon.

  Then she went to the dressing table and, opening her jewel box, took out a small diamond and pearl brooch that had belonged to her mother.

  Her stepmother had made certain that she had no money of her own, saying that it was quite unnecessary.

  Although it hurt her to part with anything that had been her mother’s, she knew that at the moment any sacrifice was worthwhile.

  She got back into bed holding the note and the brooch under the sheet and watched the maids bringing in the water for her bath.

  It was quite a laborious task.

  First one maid came in with a pan of hot water that she had been handed outside by one of the manservants who had carried it up the stairs and poured it into the bath.

  Then the other maid who was younger and rather more attractive came in with a can of cold water.

  Maria was still talking to the men outside who were obviously asking her how many more cans would be required by the fastidious English M’mselle.

  She was sure she was replying that the French habit of washing completely in a basin was far more reasonable.

  The door was ajar and, as they were very intent on their conversation, Daniela slipped out of bed.

  She went up to the young maid who was pouring water rather slowly into the bath in case she made it too cold.

  Speaking in a low voice that only she could hear she said,

  “If you would take this note to the gentleman it is addressed to, I will give you this diamond and pearl brooch. It is real and very valuable.”

  The maid’s eyes looked down at it with astonishment and stopped pouring the water.

  “Help me – please – help me!” Daniela urged her. “It is very important – and I know the gentleman, if you ask him, will also give you some money.”

  “Shall I take it tonight, m’mselle?” the maid enquired.

  “No, no!” Daniela said quickly. “Now! At once!”

  She was afraid that Maria might come back.

  As she spoke, she slipped the envelope and the brooch into the pocket of the apron the maid was wearing.

  “Hurry
! Please – hurry!” she begged. “It means – everything in the world to me.”

  As she spoke, Maria came back into the room and Daniela bent forward to put her hand into the bathwater as if she was testing it.

  “I think that is the right temperature now,” she said in an ordinary voice.

  “You can have some more water if you want it,” Maria replied, “but I don’t think it’s necessary.”

  “No, it is all right,” Daniela agreed.

  The young maid was watching her.

  “If that’s all right, m’mselle” she said, “I’ll take the can away.”

  She walked to the door.

  When she reached it, she looked back and gave Daniela a glance, who thought, although she was not completely confident, that the maid would do as she had asked.

  She was convinced as Maria shut the door behind her that if she did not do so then she was doomed.

  She took as long as she could to have her bath and was only half-dressed when her stepmother came into the room.

  “Are you not ready yet?” she asked disagreeably. “I want Maria to do your hair and she should have finished with you by now.”

  “I am sorry, Stepmama,” Daniela replied, “but I did not know that there was any particular hurry.”

  “We have an appointment,” Lady Seabrooke declared.

  “An appointment?” Daniela repeated. “Where and with whom?”

  “There is no time to answer a lot of questions! Get dressed and I will send Maria back later with the gown you are to wear.”

  Daniela did not reply, but, as if she had sensed that she was perturbed, her stepmother said to Maria,

  “Lock the outside door and come to my bedroom.”

  She went into the sitting room as she spoke and Daniela heard the Comte’s voice.

  She knew then that he must have spent the night with her stepmother, finding it cheaper than staying elsewhere in the town.

  In a way she could understand that because he was desperate he could not reject her stepmother’s plan to make him rich by marrying the girl whose fortune would become his the moment she was his wife.

  She thought how degrading it would be to return to England with a husband whom she knew her relatives would disapprove of the minute they met him.

  Her stepmother, she was quite certain, would have shocked them already.

  It was an agony to think of Esmé Blanc who, she realised now was exactly like the women in the casino, living in the house that had been her father’s and mother’s home.

  She knew that what her stepmother admired and wanted would be very different in every way.

  Even her choice of flowers would be different from those her mother had surrounded herself with and which had always seemed a part of her beauty – lilies, roses, the violets and primroses of spring, the daffodils that made a golden carpet under the trees in the Park.

  Esmé only liked orchids because they were expensive.

  She wore them on her gowns in the daytime or carried them in the evening. Green or purple they always seemed to Daniela to symbolise greed.

  She looked at herself in the mirror and saw that she was ready except for her gown, which had not yet been brought to her.

  The,n as she was putting the finishing touches to her hair, Maria came back into the room.

  She was carrying a white gown that looked to Daniela more like a dress for the evening than for the daytime.

  “What is that?” she asked turning round from the dressing table.

  “What do you think it is?” Maria asked unpleasantly. “You’re ever so lucky Madame could find you a Wedding gown in Baden-Baden!”

  “A Wedding gown?” Daniela exclaimed.

  She had suspected that was what it was, but somehow it was still a shock to be told so in words.

  “You are going to be married, ” Maria told her, “and if you ask me, it’s a mistake doing it in so much of a hurry!”

  “I will not be married!” Daniela cried. “I refuse!”

  As she spoke, her stepmother, dressed in one of her more fantastic gowns and wearing a hat covered in feathers, came into the room.

  “Now we don’t want a scene,” she said sharply. “And if you start screaming, I’ll give you something to drink that will prevent you from saying anything more!”

  “You mean you will drug me, as you drugged Papa,” Daniela retorted.

  She thought that her stepmother might be surprised, but instead she merely laughed.

  “That’s right and he knew nothing until he woke up the next morning.”

  She paused before continuing,

  “So you can take your choice. You can walk up the aisle on your own two feet and marry André in a dignified manner or we can drug you!”

  “I do not believe that any Clergyman would marry a bride who cannot speak up for herself,” Daniela said defensively.

  “You will speak all right,” her stepmother replied grimly, “but you’ll not remember a thing!”

  She paused for a moment before she said in a jeering tone,

  “Every woman wants to remember her Wedding Day and, if you’re sensible, you’ll remember yours, unlike your father who had not the slightest idea what had happened to him until he found himself in bed with me.”

  The way she spoke was so incredible that Daniela could only close her eyes.

  She felt that her stepmother’s jeering voice was not real but part of some scurrilous lampoon.

  “Come on, what’s it to be?” she asked. “I’m giving you a choice, but whichever way you choose, the end’ll be the same.

  That was the answer, Daniela thought, but there was just a chance, a slender one, that the Marquis would save her.

  “I will be married quietly,” she murmured.

  “I thought you would,” her stepmother replied. “Now hurry up and get yourself ready. No man likes to be kept waiting.”

  She flounced from the room as she finished speaking and Maria lifted the Wedding gown and put it over Daniela’s head.

  Then she produced a lace veil that she had carried over her arm and a wreath of orange blossom.

  She arranged it on Daniela’s hair fixing it in place with large hairpins.

  As she did so, Daniela looked at herself in the mirror and thought that it could not be true that she was to be married against her will to her stepmother’s lover.

  She could not imagine that anything could be more humiliating.

  Because she was frightened she could only pray that the femme de chambre had done as she had asked of her and by this time the Marquis had received her message.

  *

  In the Villa d’Horizon the Marquis had risen later than usual because it had been six o’clock in the morning before he was finally in bed.

  Before he fell asleep he thought of Daniela and decided that he would make more enquiries today about the Comte.

  It might be possible to frighten him away from the girl or perhaps to bribe him to leave Baden-Baden and return to Paris.

  In the meantime, he told himself, it could be quite some time before Esmé Seabrooke found another bridegroom.

  That would give him time to be in touch with Daniela’s family.

  Thinking that he had found one solution that might work he slept peacefully until his valet called him.

  He usually rode before breakfast in the Black Forest which he found very beautiful and there were plenty of pieces of uncultivated ground where he could gallop.

  It was now, however, he decided, too late to ride before going to the races.

  He therefore went down to breakfast.

  He was thinking about not only Daniela’s problem but also whether or not he should return, as he had intended, to England the next morning.

  He had actually told his valet yesterday that was what he intended to do.

  In consequence he knew that most of his clothes had been packed by Bowles who had been with him for some years.

  He was therefore used to his Master’s sudden a
lteration of plans and his quick decisions. And he would be ready whenever he wished to go.

  As the Marquis ate an excellent breakfast, he told himself that it was impossible that things could be as bad as Daniela had described them last night.

  The girl in fact must have been exaggerating.

  Bowles had managed to obtain for him English newspapers that were only three days old.

  When breakfast was finished, the Marquis went into the very comfortable study and sat in front of an open window with The Times newspaper when one of the servants came to the door to say,

  “There’s a young woman wishing to see you, monsieur. She comes from the Stephanie Hotel and says it’s ever so urgent.”

  The Marquis was instantly alert.

  “Show her in.”

  The maid who came into the room had a woollen shawl over her head.

  The Marquis saw at a glance that she was wearing a linen apron over a cotton dress that told him she was a femme de chambre.

  “Good morning, ” he said in German. “You wanted to see me?”

  “Yes, mein herr. A young lady told me to bring you this letter and said you would pay me for doing so. I also, as she said it was urgent, hired a carriage.”

  “You were quite right,” the Marquis said.

  He took Daniela’s letter, opened it and read what it contained.

  He took three gold louis from his pocket and gave them to the maid who was almost speechless with delight.

  “Thank you, mein herr, thank you,” she managed to say at last, curtseying as she did so.

  She would have gone from the room, but, as she turned round, the Marquis stopped her.

  “Listen,” he said, “I want you to go back to the hotel and pack all Mademoiselle’s clothes as quickly as you can.”

  “Some of them are already packed, mein herr, and I think perhaps she’s going away.”

  “Pack what is left and see that all her luggage is taken downstairs,” the Marquis said.

  He paused before continuing,

  “If you will do exactly as I tell you without letting anybody know, you will be amply rewarded for your trouble. ”

  “Thank you, mein herr, thank you,” the maid said again.

  Then, as she left the room, the Marquis sent for Bowles and started giving him orders.