The Triumph of Love Read online

  The girl showed them to their rooms and swore she was ready to do anything to ensure their comfort. Selina noticed that, as she said this, she made eyes at the Marquis.

  At least, she thought so. It was hard to be sure as the girl had a pronounced squint.

  It might have been expected that a Marquis would greet these overtures with a lofty disdain, but instead, he thanked her politely and gave her a charming smile, which made her ogle him even more.

  Of course, Selina quietly reasoned, the Marquis was the most courteous man in the world.

  But courtesy could be taken too far.

  Selina took a lot of trouble over her appearance that night. The previous night she had chosen a dress that was pretty but simple.

  Tonight she chose one of her most elegant gowns, a creation of honey-coloured silk, cut slightly low in the front and with it she wore a necklace of garnets.

  “Shall I do your hair properly tonight, my Lady?” asked Martha, who had been most offended the previous evening when Selina had refused to allow her to dress her hair elegantly.

  “Yes, please Martha,” Selina consented decidedly.

  They were both pleased with the result.

  Selina’s lovely fair hair was amassed on her head in a riot of delicate curls, except for the odd stray tresses that were allowed to fall elegantly down her long neck and onto her shoulder.

  As she descended the stairs, the Marquis’s eyes told her that she was indeed beautiful.

  He was stylishly dressed as well with a cravat that must have taken all Simpkins’s skill to make perfect.

  “You are quite right,” he said, as he handed her to her chair. “It is too easy to let standards slip when we are travelling, but you and I will not fall into that trap.”

  “No, I do agree,” she replied. “Not even when we are on your yacht, which I hope will be very soon.”

  “The night we left I had sent a rider on ahead with a letter to my Captain telling him to be prepared for us. He should be well ahead of us by now and with luck we will arrive to find him ready to cast off as soon as we’re aboard.

  “So, all is being done as speedily as possible, but, I will concur, it would be nice to move faster.”

  “If only we could go by train,” sighed Selina.

  The Marquis grinned.

  “What do you know about trains?”

  “Just what everyone knows, the first passenger service was opened three years ago between Manchester and Liverpool and it has been such a success that railways are being built all over the country as fast as possible.”

  “What a very well informed young lady you are.”

  “Well, you can thank my stepfather,” she admitted. “He never stops talking about trains and what a scandal it is that they do not run as far as Portsmouth yet. He thinks it would improve his business.”

  “So he discusses such matters with you?”

  “Not at all. He just makes speeches. He does not care who’s listening, just so long as he is not actually talking to himself. Even I will do, if he cannot find anyone better.”

  “So, one way and another you have learned quite a lot about railways?”

  “I think they are really exciting.”

  “They are the future. Just think of being able to make a journey in just a few hours, instead of a few days. Never mind. We will do the best we can.

  “Everything should be ready the moment we arrive at the quay and we will head straight for Gibraltar, then the Mediterranean. Apart from that, we have not yet decided on where to go. Do you have any wishes?”

  “Only to be away safely.”

  “That’s what I wish too, but it’s not a destination. After Gibraltar – where? Spain? Italy?”

  “Have you been to those countries?”

  “I have travelled a little.”

  “Tell me about them, please, Ian.”

  He began to talk, creating bright exotic pictures.

  Selina listened, entranced.

  Now there was time to consider him and appreciate what a very attractive man he really was. Until now he had been mainly just her rescuer.

  It was true that she had noticed his other attributes, such as his quiet deep voice and the charming gentleness of his manners.

  It was delightful to have leisure to appreciate him.

  This was a man who would inspire interest from so many women, not just chambermaids. In fact, she thought, any female would be flattered to be sitting here with him, knowing that his whole attention was devoted to her.

  And enjoying every moment of it.

  To finish the meal he ordered champagne.

  “To celebrate the start of our great adventure,” he proposed. “May it bring us both all we want in life!”

  “That is so delightful,” sighed Selina. “But I only know what I want now. I don’t think I know everything I want in life. Do you?”

  “Oh yes,” he responded to her quietly. “I know.”

  He finished his champagne.

  “It’s time for bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day.”

  He looked round the room, which was now empty, but for themselves.

  “Where’s Martha?”

  “She and Simpkins have probably gone outside to squabble in peace,” suggested Selina.

  “Again? Oh well, if it keeps them happy.”

  “Happy?”

  “Yes, I don’t think they really take it seriously. It’s more of a way of passing the time. Let’s go and see if we can keep them from each other’s throats!”

  They strolled out into the garden and immediately became aware of a commotion.

  A crowd had gathered to watch something that was causing everyone to laugh and cheer. After working their way to the front, Selina and the Marquis saw what it was.

  From somewhere Simpkins had found a huge carthorse and was riding him bareback round the yard, urging the beast to jump benches. As he rode he yelped “tallyho!” He was clearly not sober.

  “What the devil does he think he’s playing at?” the Marquis demanded, astounded.

  “Oh, my Lord, please stop him!”

  This wail came from Martha who was alternately watching the performance and burying her face in a large handkerchief.

  “What is the matter with him, Martha?”

  “Strong drink,” Martha asserted in high dudgeon. “Drink is the cause, my Lord. He was plied with alcoholic beverages by a hussy.”

  “Another hussy? There must be a lot of us about,” Selina murmured in the Marquis’s ear and he chuckled.

  Under his kindly questioning Martha told a tale of passion and betrayal, which roughly translated as Simpkins accepting powerful liquor from the barmaid, who had been driven beyond reason by his manly charms.

  Her attempts to seduce him had been thwarted by Martha’s intercession, which had led to yet another of their arguments, even livelier than usual.

  The landlord had taken a hand, resulting in a four-way exchange of pleasantries.

  Quite how this had finished with Simpkins riding a carthorse around the yard nobody could quite explain. But it had certainly done so.

  “Simpkins,” called the Marquis. “Stop acting the fool and come back here.”

  “Later, my Lord,” he yelled in tipsy defiance. “I’ll show that fat barrel of lard who’s a yellow-bellied – ”

  The end of the insult would never to be known, for at that moment Simpkins found himself facing a fence and made the mistake of trying to urge the horse over it. The animal sensibly refused, but it was too late for Simpkins to stop and he went sailing over the beast’s head and then the fence to land on a pile of logs on the far side.

  Martha screamed.

  Everyone else ran forward to enjoy the spectacle. Somebody took charge of the horse that stood breathing heavily, but otherwise content to have had his fun.

  The Marquis leapt over the fence to find Simpkins groaning on the ground.

  “Help me bring him inside,” he called.

  Between them they ca
rried the wounded Simpkins up the stairs to his room. Selina followed with Martha now weeping loudly.

  “Oh Eddie,” she cried, “Eddie – my Eddie – ”

  “Your Eddie?” asked Selina, mystified.

  “Yes, my Lady. Oh, I know that he’s a miserable, good-for-nothing layabout without any brains, but he’s still mine. And I won’t have some scruffy barmaid thinking she can push me out – saying he gave her the eye – poof! ”

  “I am sure he didn’t,” said Selina soothingly.

  “Of course he didn’t,” Martha declared indignantly. “What sort of a man do you take my Eddie for?”

  “Well, I don’t know him very well.”

  “He’s a fine man – ”

  “Except for being a miserable and good-for-nothing layabout?” Selina could not resist adding.

  “That has nothing to do with it, my Lady. We have been true to each other these many years.”

  “But why didn’t you marry?”

  “I could never have ever put anyone before the late Marchioness.”

  “But after she died?”

  “Eddie had all his duties,” Martha asserted vaguely. “We drifted apart.”

  She began to sob loudly.

  “Oh Eddie, don’t die.”

  “I don’t think he is in any danger of dying, Martha, judging by the curses he was uttering as they carried him to his bed!”

  Selina was correct.

  The doctor was swiftly summoned and pronounced that Simpkins’ leg was indeed broken, but he had sustained no further hurt.

  “Which does leave us in a pickle,” the Marquis told her. “Obviously he cannot continue on the journey and he ought to remain here until he is well enough to be moved back home. But the landlord isn’t very happy about it.”

  “Is he the ‘fat barrel of lard’ who called Simpkins a ‘yellow-bellied’ – ?”

  “Yes, that’s him. His name is Brendan and I gather he’s jealous about the fair Gladys.”

  “And who is Gladys?”

  “The barmaid.”

  “But she’s got a squint.”

  “I know, but, if you disregard it, she also has ample charms, which I would not describe to a lady.”

  “Most wise,” she agreed, beginning to understand how Martha felt.

  “In addition Brendan has his eye firmly on Gladys and refuses to allow her to nurse Simpkins ‘in his bed’ as he puts it. I am not sure where else she could nurse him, but Brendan is determined that she is not going to. I doubt too if she has any nursing skills nor does there seem to be a good local woman I can hire.”

  A cold hand clutched Selina’s stomach.

  “We cannot simply abandon him here?”

  “I know. It is not immediately clear to me what we are going to do, but it won’t be that.”

  Even as he spoke there was a squawk from above and Simpkins’ door opened and the lusty Gladys emerged so quickly that it was clear some powerful force had propelled her from behind.

  The force turned out to be not Brendan but Martha.

  “Get out of here, you trollop,” she yelled.

  “I was only – ”

  “I know what you were only doing and if I catch you again, I’ll make you squint on the other side too!”

  “Martha?” the Marquis questioned, puzzled.

  In a whisper Selina gave him a hasty description of her conversation with Martha.

  “You were right, Ian, they are not really enemies at all. She is just cross because she cannot pin him down to a date.”

  “But I never imagined anything like that.”

  “What on earth can be a-goin’ on ’ere?” called out Brendan, entering the fray.

  “Keep her out,” shouted Martha. “Nobody comes in here but me.”

  “Suits me,” growled Brendan.

  He pushed past them to climb the stairs and storm into Simpkins’s room.

  “The sooner you’re out of ’ere the better,” he raged.

  “Well, he isn’t going anywhere,” screamed Martha, “he’s not fit to be moved and if you try it, you’ll have me to reckon with.”

  “You?” sneered Brendan. “And who are you?”

  “She is his fiancée,” piped up Selina.

  Of all her listeners it would be hard to say who was the most startled.

  Brendan looked at everyone with equal suspicion.

  Martha stared at Selina with a light dawning in her eyes.

  The Marquis also stared at her, but the light in his eyes was admiration and he seemed to be seeing her for the first time.

  Simpkins merely opened and closed his mouth.

  “Is this true?” Brendan demanded.

  “Oh, yes,” Selina assured him. “They have been true to each other for years.”

  “Then why aren’t they wed?”

  “Martha had her duties with the late Marchioness,” Selina recited, “and Simpkins is devoted to his Lordship.”

  She indicated the Marquis, who was admirably swift to take up the cue.

  “An excellent valet,” he responded solemnly. “But, Simpkins, duty and devotion can only be taken so far.”

  “My Lord – ”

  “You have sacrificed yourself enough. So I hereby free you to marry the woman you love. I shall, of course, provide your bride with a dowry and the two of you shall have a cottage on the estate.”

  Simpkins opened his mouth again to speak and then he met Martha’s eye.

  The Marquis turned to Brendan.

  “Surely we could come to some arrangement?” he asked, charmingly.

  “If they’re a-gettin’ wed, that’s different. Then she can be responsible for ’im, but I don’t want to see his face ’ere again.”

  After that things moved fast. The local parson was summoned and agreed that in the special circumstances he could perform the wedding here and now.

  Any trouble with a Special License was taken care of by a generous donation to the Church fund.

  The wedding was conducted early next morning in Simpkins’s room at the inn. The Marquis was the best man and Selina the only bridesmaid.

  After the Service the Marquis handed Martha a roll of banknotes amounting to two hundred pounds, which was to be her dowry.

  Simpkins, lying in bed, now began to feel that there might be something to be said for matrimony after all.

  “But you are to keep it,” the Marquis told Martha with a wink. “Don’t let this fellow get his hands on it.”

  “Don’t you worry, my Lord, I wasn’t planning to.”

  “And here is money for your expenses. Take good care of Simpkins and have him well for my return.”

  “You can safely leave everything to me, my Lord.”

  “But who’s going to look after you now, my Lord?” Simpkins wailed. “And you, my Lady?”

  “We shall just have to manage,” replied Selina.

  But although she spoke with assurance, she did not feel at all easy in her mind. A thought was troubling her.

  The same thought had occurred to the Marquis and as soon as they had left the room, he voiced it.

  “The problem is,” he admitted, “that this leaves the two of us travelling alone together. Which is just what we wanted to avoid. I hope I do not need to assure you that I should in all circumstances behave like a gentleman – ”

  “I have no doubt of that,” she hurried to say.

  “Thank you. That relieves my mind. Nonetheless, it’s a censorious world. ”

  “But we cannot turn back now,” she added quickly. “When you were talking to Martha, you spoke as though it was settled.”

  “I know, but the more I think of it, the more I can see how damaging it might be for you to travel with me without a chaperone. Your reputation would be ruined.”

  “I cannot go back, I just simply cannot. Anything is preferable to marrying some man forced on me by my stepfather. Even a ruined reputation.”

  “My dear girl, you know very little of the world if you think that. I assure you,
you would not like it at all.”

  “I won’t go back,” she cried fiercely. “There must be a way. There must be. We will just have to find it.”

  There was a silence.

  The Marquis was sunk in thought.

  From time to time he looked at Selina cautiously, as if wondering whether he dared say what was on his mind.

  At last he took a deep breath.

  “Selina, you said a moment ago that you would do anything rather than go back. Did you really mean it?”

  “Yes, I did, absolutely anything.”

  But although the words were resolute, there was a certain vagueness about her manner.

  “Then I have a suggestion to make that I hope you will not find disagreeable.”

  He paused, waiting for Selina to ask him what his suggestion was.

  Now it came to the point he found himself being afraid in case she was offended. A question would have been a kind of encouragement.

  But she was frowning in a distant way, as though her thoughts occupied her and he was not entirely sure that she had heard him.

  “Selina,” he tried again, “you must do whatever is best for you and I would hate to think – that is, I would hate you to think – that I had in any way taken advantage of your position. You must tell me that you understand or I cannot say more.”

  “Oh yes, yes,” she murmured. “I do understand.”

  “Because there is only one way in which we can travel alone together – ”

  “Yes!” she agreed, suddenly alive with excitement. “Of course there is. It’s been staring us in the face all this time.”

  “That’s what I thought. I am so glad that the idea doesn’t horrify you.”

  “Of course it doesn’t. I know it’s unconventional.”

  “But why should we care?” he asked, smiling with happiness.

  “Why indeed? And besides, nobody will know.”

  The light died from his face.

  “What did you say?”

  “Nobody will know.”

  “But of course people will know if we’re going to be mar- ”

  “Not if we don’t tell anyone,” Selina interrupted eagerly. “And, naturally, we won’t. Who is to say that you didn’t suddenly hire a new valet? I’ll need some male clothes and I think they’ll have to be new, because I’m not sure that Simpkins’s clothes would fit me.”