Revenge of the Heart Read online

  Warren started.

  “Staying at Buckwood? Why should she do that?”

  “She moved in with an elderly cousin whom she calls her chaperone after Raymond’s accident. She appeared then – to be overcome with sorrow. But your uncle’s secretary, Mr. Grayshott, tells me she asked him searching questions about you and made it very clear that she wanted to get in touch with you.”

  “She has not come here, Mama?”

  “Not since I refused to see her after you had left England.”

  “She tried to see you then?”

  “I think after she learned you had gone away she was curious enough to want to know what had happened. Anyway, she called here and asked to see me and I sent a message to say I was not well enough to receive strangers!”

  Warren thought that his mother, when it suited her, could put down very cleverly somebody who was pretentious or pushing, but aloud he said,

  “You will understand, Mama, that I have no wish to see Magnolia again. Although I had no chance of talking to you about it, the reason why I left England was that she told me she intended to marry Raymond.”

  “I knew that,” his mother replied.

  “How did you know it?” Warren asked curiously.

  “Oh, my dear, I am not so stupid as not to be able to put two and two together! Moreover, although it is very regrettable, servants talk and nothing one can do will stop them!”

  Warren drew in his breath.

  “Do you mean to say that the servants at Buckwood realised that Magnolia was trying to capture Raymond while she was secretly engaged to me?”

  “That is so, dear, and I can understand it makes you feel bitter about her. Personally, if you want the truth, I never liked Magnolia, nor did I trust her!”

  “Then you were far more astute than I was!”

  “Of course!” his mother agreed. “Women always find it very hard to deceive other women, and although, darling boy, so many women have loved you for yourself, I was always suspicious that where Magnolia was concerned, she put your background first and you second!”

  Warren sighed.

  “You make me feel very foolish, Mama, and in a way ashamed of myself.”

  “There is no need for you to be that,” his mother said. “But I am thanking God that you have found somebody whom you can love and who will be marrying you, rather than your Family Tree!”

  Warren laughed and it was quite a natural sound.

  “Nadia assures me,” he said, “that ours is quite a young sapling compared with her father’s.”

  “I would not be at all surprised,” his mother replied, “for the Hungarians are a very proud people. Anyway, my dearest, I wish you every happiness which I have the unmistakable feeling is what you have found this time.”

  Only when he was in bed did Warren wonder if it was very reprehensible of him to start his new life by acting out a lie and deceiving somebody who trusted him as his mother did.

  Then he told himself that at least Nadia provided him with an excuse for immediately turning Magnolia out of Buckwood and it would give him great pleasure to do so.

  “Damn her!” he muttered. “How does she dare to come here, forcing herself upon the family as if she was Raymond’s wife and at the same time writing to me as she did?”

  He knew, as he asked himself the question, that it would be a mistake to underrate Magnolia. She would fight desperately and in the most underhand and devious manner possible to get her own way.

  ‘There is no reason why I should be afraid to take her on,’ Warren told himself.

  At the same time he was not sure.

  Chapter Four

  Warren was having breakfast at seven-thirty the next morning when Mr. Greyshott came into the room.

  He had been his uncle’s chief secretary ever since Warren could remember and was a grey-haired man of over fifty.

  He was exceedingly efficient and had the character to exercise an authority that nobody disputed.

  He had been at the station last night to meet Warren, who now looked up with a smile to say,

  “Good morning, Greyshott! Despite the late hour at which I got to bed I am ready for all the burdens with which you no doubt propose to confront me!”

  Mr. Greyshott laughed and replied.

  “I hope they will not be too overwhelming, my Lord.”

  “Sit down and tell me about the arrangements for tomorrow,” Warren said in a different tone.

  Mr. Greyshott sat down at the table and waved away the suggestion of coffee the butler offered him.

  Then, as the servants left the room, Warren said,

  “First I would like to know who is staying in the house and how many more you are expecting tonight.”

  “I thought your Lordship would ask that,” Mr. Greyshott answered, “and I am afraid it is a very long list. I had no idea until your cousin’s funeral that so many Woods existed!”

  “I have always known ours was a very large family,” Warren replied, “but a great number of them did not concern me until now.”

  Mr. Greyshott handed him the list on which he saw the names of great-uncles, great-aunts, uncles, aunts, and innumerable cousins, besides close friends who had already arrived to be present at the Marquis’s funeral.

  “I should think if they all stay with us the house will burst at the seams!” Warren remarked.

  “We can manage,” Mr. Greyshott replied reassuringly, “and I think, if you will permit me to say so, they will expect your Lordship to move into the Master suite tonight.”

  Warren accepted this because it was traditional and merely commented,

  “That is what I will do.”

  He was still reading the list as he spoke. Then at the bottom of it he found the names he was looking for.

  Miss Magnolia Keane and Mrs. Douglas Keane

  He looked up and chose his words with care as he said,

  “I see no reason for Miss Keane to be staying in the house and I suggest that, if she wishes to attend the funeral, which we cannot prevent her from doing, she should move to a hotel or to friends in the neighbourhood!”

  His voice sharpened as he spoke and, as Mr. Greyshott did not reply, he went on,

  “As I expect you are aware, I have brought my fiancée with me, intending to announce my engagement formally. As things are, we shall have to wait a little while, but I would like you, Greyshott, to make it clear to the family why she is here.”

  He thought Mr. Greyshott looked at him in surprise and he added,

  “It will be a little difficult for me in the circumstances, and it would be better if it came from you.”

  “Very well, if that is what you wish,” Mr. Greyshott agreed, “but I think, if you will forgive my saying so, my Lord, that it would be a mistake to turn out Miss Keane.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she would certainly resent it and she is receiving a great deal of sympathy because, although it was supposed to be a secret, everybody knew at your cousin’s funeral that they were engaged.”

  Warren’s lips tightened.

  Then he asked curiously,

  “I cannot understand why their engagement had not been announced. After all, it would have been quite correct to have done so in March or April.”

  “That was what she wanted,” Mr. Greyshott replied, “but your uncle insisted that there should be no formal announcement until Christmas.”

  Now Warren was surprised and raising his eyebrows asked,

  “Why did he insist on that?”

  Mr. Greyshott hesitated and then Warren demanded sharply,

  “Tell me the truth, Greyshott. I want to know!”

  “I think his Lordship did not like Miss Keane and was aware that when you brought her to stay with your mother that you intended to marry her.”

  Warren was astonished.

  “How could Uncle Arthur know that?”

  “No one can stop servants talking,” Mr. Greyshott said quietly, “and your uncle was very fond of you. In fa
ct I think it would be true to say that he often wished you were his son rather than his nephew.”

  “In consequence he disliked Magnolia!” Warren said beneath his breath.

  “I know that she pleaded with him and so did Raymond over the announcement of their engagement, but your uncle was adamant. He told them that if they were both of the same mind at Christmas or perhaps at the time of the Hunt Ball at the beginning of December, their engagement could be announced then.”

  Warren knew that his uncle could be very dictatorial when it suited him and he could understand Magnolia’s frustration.

  Then, when Raymond was killed, she had realised all too clearly that she had lost the substance for the shadow.

  There was a hard look in his eyes and a cynical twist to his lips as he said,

  “All the same she has no part in Buckwood now and the sooner you get rid of her the better!”

  He knew by the expression on Mr. Greyshott’s face that it was not going to be easy and he asked sharply,

  “Raymond did not make a will in her favour or anything like that?”

  “I understand she asked him to do so,” Mr. Greyshott answered, “but your uncle heard about it from the family Solicitors and forbade Raymond to do anything of the sort.”

  Because he disliked everything he had heard, Warren rose from the desk and declared,

  “I have no wish to see her, Greyshott. Tell her that I am here with my fiancée and will need the rooms she and Mrs. Keane are occupying.”

  “I will do so, my Lord,” Mr. Greyshott agreed.

  At the same time, Warren knew he felt anxious.

  There was a horse waiting for him at the door and Warren rode across the fields to the big house.

  As he saw it looking magnificent in the distance, with the Marquis’s standard flying at half-mast, he thought it must be a dream that it now belonged to him.

  The sunshine turned the hundreds of windows to gold and glittered on the lake and it seemed to Warren as if it had stepped out of a fairy story.

  He loved Buckwood, as it had always been so much a part of his childhood and the memories of his father. He knew that now he had come home he must devote himself to serving the house and the family traditions as his ancestors had done before him.

  As he reached the front door, he found there were several carriages outside.

  He knew that the moment he entered the huge marble hall, with its statues of Gods and Goddesses and the flags commemorating battles in which members of the family had fought valiantly, there would be the chatter of voices.

  Whatever happened either in joy or sorrow, the Woods always made Buckwood a meeting place, where they could get together and talk about themselves.

  He was not mistaken.

  He could hear their voices in the drawing room as he entered the hall and saw the row of top hats laid out on the table beneath the staircase.

  Then, with a faint smile because it was all so familiar, he opened the door and joined them.

  It was nearly an hour later when he extricated himself from the clinging arms of his female relations who had always been eager to kiss him because he was so handsome, and the hearty handshakes of the male representatives of the family.

  It warmed his heart to realise that they were all genuinely glad that he should take his uncle’s place as Head of the family.

  They had loved his father, for nobody ever managed to quarrel with Lord John, and in consequence they had adored and spoiled Warren ever since his birth.

  It was only as he moved towards the study where his uncle had always dealt with any business that affected the estate that he realised they had not yet learnt of his engagement and wondered what they would think of Nadia.

  He had made it clear to the servants at his mother’s house that she was to be allowed to sleep until she woke.

  He decided that she should not attend the funeral, although she would be expected to have luncheon and to dine with the family today when she would be introduced to them as his future wife.

  He thought it would undoubtedly surprise them, but not so much as it would surprise Magnolia.

  Mr. Greyshott was waiting for him in the study.

  He put down in front of Warren the arrangements for the funeral, a copy of the service, which had already been printed with a wide black band on the outside cover and a list of the guests at luncheon.

  “The rest of the family will be arriving this afternoon,” Mr. Greyshott explained, “and I will let you have the seating for dinner later on.”

  “Have you spoken to Miss Keane?”

  “Yes, I have,” he replied, “but she refuses to leave until she has seen you.”

  “I have no wish – ” Warren began.

  At that moment the door opened and Magnolia came into the study.

  A quick glance told Warren that she was even more beautiful than when he had last seen her.

  He knew, however, as she moved towards him with a sensuous grace that somehow made the plain black gown she was wearing seem almost immorally seductive, that his only feeling for her was one of hatred.

  With a murmured apology Mr. Greyshott moved quickly from the room.

  As the door closed behind him Magnolia said in the soft caressing voice that Warren remembered so well,

  “You are back! Oh, darling, it seems an eternity since I last saw you!”

  He had risen to his feet when she appeared, but he had remained behind his desk and he replied coldly,

  “I am surprised to find you here!”

  “If I had left immediately after Raymond’s funeral, I might have missed you. Did you not receive my letter in Paris?”

  “I received your letter, which arrived three days before I did!”

  He knew as he spoke this was something she had not expected he would know and her long eyelashes flickered.

  At the same time she was quick-witted enough to say after just a faint pause,

  “I wrote it soon after you left, but there was no point in sending it until I knew you were on your way home.”

  “Which, most conveniently, was after Raymond had his accident!”

  Magnolia made a little gesture with her hands which was very expressive.

  Then she asked,

  “Why are you talking to me like this? I told you I loved you, Warren, and I have always loved you. Surely you can forgive me a moment’s madness?”

  She gave a deep sigh.

  “When I saw this house I thought it was so beautiful that I could think of nothing except living in it and feeling as if I belonged – ”

  She spoke very softly and as if, Warren thought, she was trying to weave a spell around him from which he would find it hard to extricate himself.

  Then in a hard voice he interrupted her to say,

  “It is no use, Magnolia! I am not prepared to stand here and listen to your lies! I told Mr. Greyshott to ask you to leave and that is what you have to do.”

  “He also told me you had brought your fiancée with you,” Magnolia said. “Is that true?”

  “Greyshott invariably tells the truth, as I do!”

  “And you really intend to marry somebody other than – me?”

  She asked the question mockingly and there was a laughing note in her voice.

  Then deliberately, so that she took him by surprise, she moved round the desk and was standing close beside him.

  She threw back her head to look up at him in a way he had always found irresistible and her lips were near to his as she whispered,

  “Warren! Warren! I love you, as you love me. How could either of us forget the wonder and the glory we found when you kissed me?”

  Then before Warren could move she pulled his head down to hers and her lips were on his.

  He could feel the passion on them, could feel too the softness of her body against him and smell the seductive fragrance of her perfume that had something exotic about it.

  But, as she kissed him, her lips moving sensuously against his, he knew that
her power over him had disappeared.

  This contact with her dismissed the last lingering doubt in his mind as to whether she still had some hold over him.

  His fingers closed over her wrists and he removed her arms from his neck.

  “It’s no use, Magnolia.”

  As she realised he was completely unmoved by her, he saw an expression first of incredulity in her dark eyes, then it was replaced by one of frustration and anger.

  For a moment there was only silence, as if she found it hard to believe what he had said.

  Then she asked,

  “Are you really sending me away?”

  “I insist upon your leaving my house! While you are here it is only an embarrassment and, as your engagement to Raymond was not announced, you have no official standing.”

  He released her wrists as he spoke and she rubbed one of them with her other hand as if he had hurt her.

  “I believed that you – loved me.”

  “I did love you,” Warren answered. “I loved you completely and whole-heartedly until I learnt that you were merely using me to serve your Social ambitions and you were not interested in me as a man!”

  “That’s not true!” Magnolia cried. “And I love you now as I have never loved you before!”

  “Only because you have lost me!” Warren replied cynically. “And you don’t like being a loser.”

  “Have I really lost you?”

  Now her voice was very soft and beguiling and he knew she was making one last desperate effort.

  “As you already know, I am engaged to be married to somebody I love, a woman I can trust!”

  Again his voice was sharp.

  Then he added,

  “Goodbye, Magnolia. As you will understand, I have a great deal of work to do, so I hope you will excuse me if I don’t come to see you off.”

  He spoke with a formal politeness that was more shattering than if he had raged at her.

  Magnolia walked slowly to the door and, only as she reached it, did she turn back to say,

  “You will be sorry, Warren, that you treated me like this! And don’t think that you can forget me so easily or find another woman who will excite you as I was always able to do!”

  She paused before she went on in a voice that seemed to vibrate towards him,