The Prisoner of Love, page 10
“And if they are interested in your horses you can understand that there are a number of people who are – interested in – you too.”
“Were you?”
The question surprised her and she answered truthfully,
“Not as a man, but as the winner of the Gold Cup at Ascot and the Oaks.”
The Earl put back his head and laughed and this time it was a sound of genuine amusement.
“That is the truth straight from the shoulder,” he said, “and I know of no other woman who would have been so frank.”
“I am sorry if it – was – rude.”
“No, no, not in the least,” he said quickly. “I think that, if we are going to build a marriage on any sort of sound foundation, frankness is essential.”
“I agree. At the same time you may not always – like what I say or – do!”
“Then I will be frank and tell you so.”
“That will make everything – easier and brings me to another – question.”
“What is that?”
“How much – money can I – spend?”
The Earl looked at her in surprise and she explained,
“I have two gowns at the moment which belonged to my mother, the one you saw at our wedding and the other I am wearing now. I imagine as your wife that would be a somewhat restricted wardrobe!”
“Of course,” the Earl said, “spend what you like and I have a feeling you will not bankrupt me.”
“I believe I have a little money of my – own,” Sorilda began.
“Forget it!” the Earl said. “Your uncle did say something about it this morning, but I told him to communicate with my Solicitors. It is not of any importance, unless you wish to be independent.”
“Not as far as money is concerned,” Sorilda replied, “But I know that I have not enough for what I wish to – spend.”
Again the Earl laughed.
“You are beginning to frighten me.”
“I have no wish to do that, but I hope I will – embellish my position as the – Countess of Winsford.”
The Earl looked at her and then he said slowly,
“I am quite certain you will, but at the same time, I am not sure that it will always be to my advantage!”
Chapter Five
Sorilda was just about to reply when suddenly the door seemed to burst open.
As the butler announced in a somewhat shaken voice, “Lady Alison Fane, my Lady!” a woman passed him, rushing into the room in a manner that made Sorilda stare at her incredulously.
She ran towards the Earl, who had risen to his feet and as she did so Sorilda saw that the visitor was extremely attractive with fair hair, not so gold as the Duchess’s, but still unmistakably fair and with wide blue eyes that at the moment seemed to be dark with anger.
“Sholto!” she cried before she reached the Earl’s side. “It’s not true! Say it’s not true!”
Her voice seemed to ring out so shrilly that Sorilda expected the crystal chandeliers to tinkle with the force of it. Then, as the Earl did not seem to find words to reply to her, Lady Alison turned her head to look at Sorilda.
“Is this her? Could you possibly have been so treacherous, so cruel, so underhand?”
Now she no longer shrieked and there was an unmistakable sob behind the words.
At last the Earl found his voice.
“I regret to find you so upset, Alison,” he said. “I had, in fact, intended to call upon you tomorrow morning.”
“To tell me you are married?” Lady Alison asked and now again she was furious. “When I was informed a few minutes ago at Lady Shrewsbury’s ball what had happened, I did not believe it!”
“How did Lady Shrewsbury know?” the Earl asked curiously.
“Apparently one of your servants told her butler,” Lady Alison replied, “but I should have thought, had you any sensibility, that I would have been the first to be informed of your intention to marry!”
Sorilda knew that the Earl was finding it difficult to explain.
Before he could do so, Lady Alison went on,
“After all we have meant to each other, after all the love I have given you, the happiness we have found in each other, how could this happen, how could it? If you had decided to marry, why not marry me?”
“It’s not exactly like that, Alison,” the Earl began tentatively, but Lady Alison had not finished speaking.
Once again she was looking at Sorilda.
“What can this woman give you that I have not given you? By what means has she tricked you into marriage when you have always sworn that you would remain a bachelor?”
She gave a sudden shriek and flung up her hands dramatically.
“How could you have done this to me! How could you make me suffer in such a way? I love you, Sholto. Yes, I love you with my whole heart and now I shall not only suffer the agonies of being forsaken but also be a laughing stock to all my friends!”
Lady Alison almost spat the words at him as she walked from the Earl to stand over Sorilda.
“I loathe you,” she cried, “and, if I can hurt or injure you in any way, you may be quite certain I will do so! If you think you can keep the most elusive man in London in your clutches, you are very much mistaken. He will betray you as he has betrayed every other woman who has been foolish enough to lay her heart at his feet!”
She spoke so violently that for one moment Sorilda thought that she was going to hit her and drew back apprehensively.
As if the Earl thought the same thing, he put a restraining hand on Lady Alison’s arm, saying,
“I am sorry you should have heard of my marriage without warning, Alison. Tomorrow I will call on you and we will talk of what has happened.”
“And will your new wife permit you to associate with your old loves?” Lady Alison asked spitefully. “Perhaps you have already explained that you flit from flower to flower, taking everything a woman can give and leaving her broken-hearted as undoubtedly you will leave your wife!”
“That is quite enough,” the Earl said sternly. “Let me take you to your carriage, as I am sure that you wish now to go home.”
“You can hardly expect me to return to the ball,” Lady Alison replied bitterly, “with everyone laughing at me, realising that I have joined the long queue of your discarded loves!”
Now once again her voice broke on the words.
She turned from the Earl to walk away towards the door.
He hurried after her and Sorilda could hear their voices in the hall.
Several minutes passed before she could force herself to rise to her feet, knowing that she felt shaken and upset by what had occurred.
She had never before seen a woman lose her self-control so completely as Lady Alison had done or speak with a wildness and anger that made her seem somehow common and vulgar like a woman of the streets.
She realised her heart was beating uncomfortably and she told herself that, if this was the sort of situation she would have to face in the future, she had no idea how she would cope with it.
Then, as she drew a deep breath, she told herself that it was the Earl’s fault.
How could he pursue and make love to so many women? Lady Alison, her step-aunt and perhaps a great number more, making them so infatuated with him that they could behave in a manner which was so reprehensible and degrading.
‘If that is love,’ Sorilda thought, ‘I can only pray that I shall never experience it.’
Then she remembered how much her mother had loved her father and how very difficult it had been. The happiness and radiance between them was so close that they almost seemed to share the same thoughts.
She puzzled over the difference and came to the conclusion that what her step-aunt and this other woman felt for the Earl was a love that had nothing spiritual about it. It was just a physical desire for possession.
Sorilda was very innocent, she did not understand what happened when the Earl made love to a woman such as her step-aunt and they went to bed together.
All she knew was that to even think about it made her shrink inside as if from something unclean and unpleasant.
In that moment she knew that she would never be the Earl’s wife in anything but name.
‘If he wants us to be more intimate,’ she told herself, ‘when he wishes me to give him the heir he spoke of, then I shall go away!’
She had no idea when or how she would contrive it, but she told herself that meanwhile she had the chance of living here in the Earl’s house until she could see a little more clearly what lay ahead.
She thought Lady Alison must by now have left and she could retire to bed before the Earl returned, but even as she decided to do so, he came in through the door closing it behind him.
“I can only apologise, Sorilda,” he said, “for that very unnecessary and over-dramatic scene. Lady Alison forced her way into the house or it would not have happened.”
Sorilda looked at him coldly.
“I presume she would have still suffered whether she had seen you or not.”
“Are you feeling sorry for her?” the Earl questioned.
There was something in the way he asked the question, the supercilious tone of his voice and the expression in his eyes that made Sorilda feel angry.
“Without creating any more dramatics,” she said in an icy voice, “I can only say with all sincerity that I am extremely sorry for any woman you are associated with!”
Without waiting for his reply, she walked away from him and opening the door let herself out into the hall.
Then, frightened he might follow her, she hurried up the stairs to her own room.
When she reached it, she locked the door into the corridor and another, which she suspected communicated with the Earl’s bedroom.
Then she sat down on the chair to wait for the tumultuous beat of her heart to subside before ringing for a maid.
*
Sorilda came into the hall followed by two footmen carrying a number of dress-boxes. She had now been in London for over a week and had spent every moment of the time shopping.
She had never known before the joy of buying the exquisitely elegant gowns, which gave her a new confidence as well as being a frame for a beauty she had not realised that she possessed.
The compliments of the dressmakers and later of the Earl’s friends whom she met every night were an excitement that acted like champagne.
As if the Earl had no desire to be alone with her, he invited a succession of guests to dinner, many of whom came, Sorilda knew, out of curiosity to see what she was like.
She had luncheon alone, learning from the secretary, Mr. Burnham, who came to see her every morning that his Lordship was either engaged with Prince Albert or in attendance at the House of Lords.
If Sorilda had not been so busy disliking the Earl, she would have been fascinated to learn how many committees he was on, a number of which concerned projects close to her heart.
But it was difficult, because she felt so incensed with him, not to feel a kind of tightening within her breasts when his name was mentioned and there was an icy coldness in her voice when she spoke to him, although she was studiously polite as she realised he was trying to be.
At the same time, when she saw him at the head of the dining room table with an attractive woman on either side of him, she could not help appreciating how handsome he was and how it was hard to find any other man in the room to compare with his elegance or his air of consequence.
‘One can admire a horse,’ Sorilda told herself, ‘and still find him a difficult unpredictable animal!’
The Earl had undoubtedly both those characteristics and the conversations she overheard between his most staid and respectable friends left her in no doubt that the whole of London Society was astonished by the fact that he should have married anyone, least of all a woman who was unknown to them and so young.
Piecing bits of information together until like a puzzle they made a complete picture, Sorilda realised that the Earl’s love affairs had always been conducted with women who were married, like her step-aunt or widowed, like Lady Alison.
She could not help telling herself scornfully that he was, in fact, a Casanova in his conquests and the women whom he had induced to love him would soon be too numerous for him to count!
She would hear snatches of conversation when she entered a room or moved from one group to another, which told her a great deal about her husband.
“Charlotte is broken-hearted – ”
“Adelaide was certain that he would marry no one and is extremely piqued – ”
“Georgina says she will not entertain the new Countess – whatever anyone may”
As those who spoke realised that Sorilda was listening, their voices would break off in midair.
But she had heard enough and her lips would curl disdainfully and she could look at the Earl with what she hoped he would recognise as contempt in her eyes.
After the first night he behaved in a polished and exemplary manner, so she actually had no complaints and there were no more scenes such as Lady Alison had made.
But Sorilda was aware that at every ball or reception they attended there were lovely women who looked at her balefully and who could, she was quite certain, had they obeyed their impulses, have stuck a dagger in her!
She had the satisfaction of realising after the first two or three balls that she was more of a success than she had dared to hope.
She realised that her new gowns had a great deal to do with it and also the fact that Mr. Burnham had told her on the Earl’s instructions that the Winsford family jewels were at her disposal.
Never had Sorilda imagined that, except in some mythical Aladdin’s Cave, there could be such a magnificent selection of gems from which she could choose.
There were sets of almost every conceivable precious stone, ranging from tiaras down to buckles for the shoes and there were also ropes of pearls of every size as well as jewelled vanity cases, jewelled handles for sunshades and jewelled clasps to be attached to handbags to match the gown she was wearing.
She began to feel as if she was a child who had been let loose in a sweet shop and she would visit Mr. Burnham’s office where the safe was kept and discuss with him which tiara would complement her gown and which jewels she would wear to dazzle the dinner party or the ball they were proceeding to that evening.
It was such an unbelievable change from the drab misery of The Castle that sometimes she was afraid that she would wake up and find herself dressed in one of her hideous fawn gowns and being nagged by the Duchess onto the verge of tears.
Now she was not in the least tearful, but ready to fight the Earl if necessary to get everything she wanted.
It was in a way slightly deflating to find that she never had the chance to exchange any words with him that were not overheard.
Sometimes, because she wished to talk to him alone, even if disagreeably, she would wait in the dining room at the time she knew he had to return to the house to change for dinner.
Inevitably he either came back so late that she could wait no longer, but was forced to go upstairs to have her bath or else when he arrived it would be with one of his special friends like Peter Lansdown.
Sorilda suspected that Peter Lansdown was the only one of the Earl’s friends he had told the truth to and today having tidied herself and washed her hands for luncheon, she went down to the dining room to find to her surprise that he was there.
“Mr. Lansdown!” she exclaimed and there was no mistaking the astonishment in her voice.
“Did Sholto not tell you to expect me?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Sholto and I are having luncheon here today,” Peter Lansdown explained, “because we have to be at the Crystal Palace at two o’clock. It is more convenient and nearer than lunching at White’s.”
“Of course, I understand,” Sorilda said with a smile. “I am delighted to see you.”
She liked Peter Lansdown and she knew, without his telling her so, that he admired her and there was no mistaking the expression in his eyes now as he looked at her new gown.
It was pale gold, the colour of daffodils, and Sorilda had thought it was one of the prettiest day gowns she had ever seen.
She had also had a larger crinoline than she had ever worn before. The dressmaker, in fact, had told her that they were getting bigger and bigger in Paris, so that Ladies of Fashion would soon require a whole carriage to themselves!
“You are very smart,” Peter Lansdown said, “and may I add, without sounding impertinent, very beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Sorilda smiled.
Compliments no longer made her feel shy as they had at first, but instead evoked a little glow in her heart because she had been so long without them.
“I have a feeling,” Peter Lansdown went on, “that when you appear at the inauguration of The Great Exhibition, looking as you do, you will outshine everyone present and even the Queen will be jealous.”
“I hope not,” Sorilda said. “I admire the Queen and I am so delighted that the Palace is nearly finished and so far has not fallen down!”
Peter Lansdown laughed.
“Despite all the gloomy prophecies! I can assure you that Prince Albert is extremely grateful to everyone who, like Sholto, has supported him through thick and thin, which at times have been unpleasantly thick.”
Sorilda had read the newspapers and she knew that the protests about the Crystal Palace had not died down, but rather accentuated during these last weeks.
The fact that the Great Exhibition was an advertisement for Free Trade infuriated the Protectionists, ‘Fashionables’ and fox-hunters from the shires led by Colonel Sibthorp, who called down curses from Heaven upon this new Tower of Babel.
The foreign exhibitors were being denounced as a source of plague, political agitation and crime.
Sorilda had heard someone say at dinner, when they thought the Earl was not listening, that England was now ‘inviting vipers into her bosom’.
She had also learnt that the British Ambassador in Russia had reported to the Prime Minister that the Czar had refused passports to the Russian Nobility for fear of ‘contamination’ in London.
