106. Love's Dream in Peril (4 page)

Digby leant across the table.

“I hope you will not think me forward, Miss May, but I should so like to show you the gardens again. They are particularly lovely at this time of year. Would you like to take a stroll with me?”

Adella gave a gasp and her cheeks turned pink.

“I don’t know if I should – ”

Her face was glowing in a way that Jane had never seen before and her eyes shone with excitement.

“Miss May – ” Lord Ranulph tried to interrupt as Digby continued,

“The gardens will be full of ladies. I have taken my sisters there on their visits to Oxford. What do you say?”

“Jane, do you think there would be any harm in it if I went just for half-an-hour?” Adella asked.

Jane thought that she had never seen her friend look so lovely.

“Do, please!” Digby urged. “You have been bold enough to invite us to take tea with you and why should you not be even bolder and take a stroll on this your last day in Oxford? Let your last memories be happy ones!”

Lord Ranulph was almost choking, as he suggested,

“Why do we not all go?”

Quick as a flash, Digby replied,

“Miss Hartley has not quite finished her tea. Will you not stay with her while she does so?”

It was true that Jane had not even begun to eat or drink anything. But there was still a half-eaten strawberry tart on Adella’s plate.

The fair-haired young man was already on his feet.

“Come,” he said. “Let’s go and catch the best of the day when the roses are releasing their perfume into the air and the flowers are basking in the sunshine. Miss May?”

And he held out his arm for Adella.

*

Adella’s heart was in turmoil as she walked through the sunny streets beside Digby. She should not be doing this, strolling along beside a young man she had never met before, a student Mrs. Mottram had warned her against.

And yet she had never felt quite so happy in all her life. Her feet skimmed the pavement as if she was walking on air and her grey skirts floated around her feet like silk.

Digby was so bold in whisking her away from the teashop. And his arm felt strong and warm against hers and when his blue eyes looked into hers she felt a warm glow of happiness run through her.

There was indeed something about his young man that made her feel absolutely safe and perfectly at home.

“Shall we go in?” he asked her, as they arrived at the archway that led into the Botanical Gardens.

Adella stopped for a moment and looked up at the carved stonework of the entrance.

“I didn’t really notice the archway when we came before,” she said, “but how remarkable it is. I feel – ”

“What?” Digby squeezed her arm. “You are not regretting your decision to walk with me, I hope?”

“Not at all! It’s just that I suddenly feel as if I was stepping into another world altogether.”

As Adella said these words, she felt her heart give a little flutter.

Digby looked down at her.

“You are with me,” he said. “I will look after you, don’t worry.” And then he grinned. “I will keep you safe from all the weird things we shall encounter in this new world. The bromeliads and the lotus flowers and the giant pines and all the other strange and wonderful inhabitants of the Botanical Gardens.”

He made such a comical face as he said this that Adella had to laugh and the strange feeling was gone, so that she stepped with him happily under the archway and into the wonderland of the Botanical Gardens.

They strolled along, shaded by the rare trees that had been brought to the Gardens from distant parts of the globe and Adella felt as if she had stepped out of time and into a golden haze of beauty and magic.

Outside the Gardens the world she had left behind was still there and she could see, peeping above the tree tops, the tall stone tower of Magdalen College.

And the cries of playing children and the anxious calls of their mothers and nannies reached her ears.

But it all seemed far away and a little faint, as if only she and Digby and the golden delight that surrounded them were real.

“What would you like to see?” he asked. “There’s a very fine glasshouse with water lilies and pineapples.”

“Pineapples? I don’t think I have ever seen one.”

“Follow me,” Digby suggested.

The Lily House was shaped like a big glass bubble and Adella had never seen anything quite like it.

Inside under the glass dome the white and pink and golden blooms of the water lilies were opening in the warm sweet-scented air like a constellation of bright stars over the dark water of the lily pond.

“Oh, it’s so beautiful!” she whispered.

“Isn’t it?” he said. “I knew you would like it.”

And then he showed her something very different. A huge plant with dark-green spiked leaves like swords and a large fruit with more leaves sticking up on top of it.

“There, Miss May. Your first pineapple!”

Adella stared at the oddly-shaped fruit. She knew that pineapples were rare and highly-prized, yet this one did not look at all inviting.

“It’s like pine cones,” she said. “I cannot imagine that it would taste very good!”

Digby grinned at her.

“And that is why it’s called a pineapple and I can assure you that the fruit is quite delicious.”

“What does it taste of? Is it like an apple?”

“I could not quite describe the flavour, although it is wonderful. The Earl of Manningham, Lord Ranulph’s father grows pineapples in his hothouses and I have eaten them many times.”

“Oh!” Adella gave a little start, as she heard Lord Ranulph’s name, remembering that she had left Jane with him in the teashop.

“What is it?”

The air seemed oppressively warm now and Adella felt a pang of something like fear run through her.

What had she done, walking away from her dearest friend and the familiar world of the Oxford streets to come away with this handsome bold stranger?

“I think I should like to go outside,” she asked.

“Of course.”

Digby released her arm and they left the glass dome of the Lily House.

Outside in the fresh air, Adella forgot her moment of fear. The sun was so bright and Digby’s smile so kind.

He led her to a grassy bank under the trunk of an old fir tree and spread out his handkerchief for her to sit on.

“Shall we rest a while?” he suggested.

Adella was about to sit down, when she heard, from over the garden wall, one of the College clocks chiming half-past the hour.

“What time is it?” she asked.

Digby consulted his pocket watch.

“Only half-past four,” he said.

Adella felt a chill run through her. Had she not promised to be back at school at five o’clock?

“I must go,” she said, although her feet felt heavy and she longed to sit down on the warm grass and let the dream-like atmosphere of the gardens wash over her.

“It’s early yet.”

Digby took her hand in his and she felt his fingers press on her gloved ones. His touch was gentle and warm.

“I cannot stay.”

But Adella had never felt anything quite like the glow that was now spreading through her whole body and pulling her towards the young man who stood beside her.

In another moment she would be in his arms and everything would be forgotten.

Digby let go of her hand.

“I am sorry,” he said.

Adella knew that she must hurry, that there was still a little way to walk to the teashop and then the long road back out of town to Mottram’s, but she could not.

The golden spell of the Botanical Gardens did not want to let her go and her steps were slow and heavy as she walked beside Digby to the entrance.

As they stood beside the great stone archway, he drew her to him.

“We must leave this other world we have stepped into,” he sighed, “but before we do – ”

Adella felt all her breath leave her body as his lips touched hers.

It was the sweetest sensation, as if all the sunshine, the heavenly scents of the gardens, every blissful moment of the magical time she had spent with him, was caught up in his kiss.

Then he released her.

“There,” he said, his eyes a deep blue as he gazed at her. “Remember this, when you are far away in London.”

And then he led her under the archway and out into the street and suddenly everything was just as it had always been.

Adella’s heart started beating again and her feet came back to life and were rushing along the pavement back to the teashop.

Jane had never been alone with a young man before let alone a member of the aristocracy and she was finding it difficult to overcome her shyness.

Lord Ranulph was so handsome with his black hair, his strong lean face and his smouldering dark eyes.

There was no mistaking his ancestry, she thought, as he looked at her like a proud thoroughbred that had just found itself in the company of a moorland pony.

‘I must not allow my lack of confidence to get the better of me,’ she mused. ‘And, since his Lordship seems to have nothing to say, it’s up to me to break the silence!’

“Lord Ranulph, would you care for another cup of tea?” she asked.

“Thank you, Miss –?”

He frowned, as if he had no idea how he had found himself sitting opposite her.

“Hartley. Miss Hartley, sir.”

Jane was so nervous that her right hand shook as she lifted the heavy teapot and she had to hold it steady with her left hand.

Lord Ranulph did not drink his tea. He cleared his throat and glanced over his shoulder, as if he was trying to catch a glimpse of Digby and Adella in the street outside.

“These are very good,” Jane offered him the plate of strawberry tarts.

Lord Ranulph stared at the tarts as if he had never seen such objects before and she suddenly realised that it was very possible that he might be feeling just as ill at ease in her company as she felt in his.

She put the plate back on the table as he murmured,

“I have no appetite.”

He looked at the tablecloth and Jane felt greatly relieved that he had said something at last. And now he was saying more,

“You will now be returning to your family home, I would suppose. Where might that be?”

What should she say? Jane felt her cheeks grow warm with embarrassment.

“I have – no family.”

“How is that?”

“My parents – passed away many years ago.”

His Lordship frowned, as if he thought that she had been very careless to lose both her parents.

“Have you no brothers or sisters, uncles or aunts?”

Jane shook her head.

“That is very unfortunate,” Lord Ranulph sighed.

He stared out at the street again and seemed to have forgotten all about her, for he asked her no more questions about her family.

Jane realised that he must be watching out for his friend Digby and for Adella, who must still be walking in the Botanical Gardens.

“I am sure they will return soon,” she piped up.

“They had better,” Lord Ranulph muttered, looking distinctly annoyed.

Jane felt a pang of anxiety.

“Is something wrong?” she asked him.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I am just angry with that rascal Digby.”

Jane’s anxiety grew. A rascal? And just why was he speaking like this about the dashing young man who had snatched Adella away?

“What do you mean, sir?” she asked, feeling her cheeks growing warmer. “I thought that your friend was a gentleman of excellent character. Otherwise I should never have allowed Adella to go for a walk with him.”

Lord Ranulph gave a short laugh.

“Did you not notice what happened?
I
was about to invite Adella to walk with
me
– when he butted in and stole her from under my nose. And all so that he could win our wager.”

“I don’t understand. What are you saying?”

Lord Ranulph’s sighed.

“We had a bet as to which of us might win her company for a stroll in the Gardens. You must have seen how he allowed me no chance to speak to her, but leapt right in before I could utter a word?”

“A bet?”

Jane felt angry now. The two gentlemen had just been trifling with them, playing with them for the sake of a wager!

Adella had no idea of Digby’s motive for taking her to the Botanical Gardens. She would be very upset if she knew the truth!

And what else might a man, who behaved like this, making a bet about a respectable young girl, be capable of?

Jane rose to her feet.

“I must go and find Adella.”

Lord Ranulph rose from his chair too.

“Miss Hartley – ”

“I should never have let her go off with him.”

Jane pressed the back of her hand against her face to catch a tear that had suddenly welled up.

“You are upset?”

“I have to find her.”

Jane moved towards the door.

He reached out and caught her hand in his.

“Wait!”

The strong grasp of his fingers around hers was like nothing she had experienced before.

The electricity of his touch ran through her whole body, as he held her there, standing by the little table in the teashop and her limbs felt so weak she could not move.

“Miss Hartley, please, do sit down. You must not distress yourself.”

Jane could not argue with him. She sat back down onto her chair.

He let go of her hand, but her fingers still felt warm where he had touched her.

“Adella is my best friend and if anything happened to her – I should not have let her go off like that.”

Lord Ranulph was looking closely at her as if he had seen her for the first time and a shiver struck her as his dark eyes bore into hers.

No one had ever looked at her in quite that way, as if to peer into her soul and discover all her secret thoughts.

“You are very fond of Miss May,” he suggested.

“Yes. She is the very best, the kindest friend that anyone could wish for. I cannot bear to think of the way your friend has tricked her and I am worried about her.”

Lord Ranulph held her gaze.

“Please, allow me to assure you that she will be quite safe. Digby is used to the company of young ladies. He has a bevy of younger sisters he loves very much. He may behave towards me, his friend, in a rascally manner, but he will take good care of Adella, I am certain.”