A Virgin Bride (10 page)

“
Your engagement
! But, dearest, you never told me! I have been so busy the last few days, I have not read the newspapers.”

“I thought perhaps you might have seen it reported before I arrived, but now I am glad I can tell you myself.”

“Oh, tell me, do tell me. Oh, Rock, I have prayed you would find someone you wanted to marry and would be as happy as I was with your father. Who is she and why did you not bring her with you?”

Drawing in his breath and speaking very slowly and quietly, Rock told his mother the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

“No one else must know except you, Mama, and of course the Duke of Lynbrook, that I have never met his daughter Venetia. As I have been friends with him for so long, everyone will expect me to have known his daughter from childhood.”

There was silence for a moment and then she slowly said,

“I can understand you did the only thing possible in such difficult circumstances. And, dearest, I am delighted that you should marry the daughter of a man I have always liked and who was a good friend of your father's. I can only pray that this girl you have never met will make you happy – and that you will make her happy too.”

“I will do my best, Mama. As you know, I have always wanted to have a happy marriage, but this was the only way that I could save the family from a scandal that would have affected us all. I know too that it would have made you very unhappy, which would have saddened me.”

“Very unhappy indeed. Naturally, my darling son, I am worried about you. I did so hope that you would fall in love as I fell in love with your father and he with me. As you know we were blissfully happy.”

“I remember Papa coming home and shouting your name the moment he passed through the front door. If he was separated from you for only a short while, he always wanted you, and that, Mama, is exactly what I want to feel about my wife.”

She put out her hand and laid it on his.

“I was very fond of Elizabeth Lynbrook. She was very beautiful and a sweet person. I cannot believe that her daughter will not be like her.”

“I am sure she is pretty,” Rock muttered. “At the same time she is so much younger than me. I cannot help wondering what we will talk about.”

His mother smiled at him.

“You can talk about horses and I expect she will enjoy Scotland. When her parents stayed here soon after we were married, I remember Elizabeth saying that it was the most enchanting castle she had seen and she found it most romantic.”

“Well let's hope, Mama, that her daughter will say the same.”

After a poignant pause she added,

“I am not pretending I am not glad you are to be married, as I was always afraid you might get into trouble of some sort. You are much too handsome to be let loose amongst all these women without endless restrictions on what you can and cannot do!”

Rock chuckled.

“I suppose, having sown my wild oats, I now have to pay the price for them!”

Again there was silence before his mother sighed,

“I do so want you to be happy, Rock.”

“Perhaps I will be, Mama, but I must not expect too much. After all I have had a wonderful time. I have seen parts of the world I never expected to see. I have improved Rockinston Hall in many ways I know you will like.”

Before she could reply he blurted out,

“I suppose there is no chance of your coming to my wedding?”

She shook her head.

“I would love to be at your wedding more than anything else, but I get so tired and the doctor suggests I rest as
much as I possibly can. What I would like when you
have been married a little while and have grown used to
your wife is that you bring her here. You know what I am
saying. I hope you will come here in August.”

“Of course I will. I always do come at that time.”

“Then I will be arranging to move out to the Dower
House, which your father arranged many years ago should
be mine.”

Rock gave a cry.

“No Mama! How can you think of leaving me? I do
not want to be alone here with a strange young woman! You have always made it really happy and comfortable here
for me and my friends year after year.”

“I know, Rock. But your wife must be Mistress of
The Castle, just as she will be Mistress of Rockinston Hall.”

“That I suppose must happen eventually, but for the
moment, Mama, I want you to promise me that you will be
here to help me when we arrive. You can hardly expect a
young girl to organise all the shooting parties, luncheon on
the hill and the huge amount of extra work there will be for
everyone once we arrive.”

“I understand what you are saying, Rock, but I must
make it clear that I am certainly not one of those mothers
who resents giving up the main house to the new wife.”

“You are moving too fast, Mama. I want you here
and I want everything to be perfect for my friends when we
fish and shoot. No one can organise that as well as you. If
nothing else – you will show her how to do it.”

“I can see your point,” she agreed. “Now, dear boy, you must tell me what I am to say to the family who will all be having hysterics, having read of your engagement in
The
Gazette
before we told them that you had decided at last to settle down.”

“I wonder how often I have heard the words ‘settle down'? I only hope, Mama, that when we meet my bride, we are not all disappointed.”

“If I have to keep your secret and pretend that you have met her and fallen in love, then we will have to work out what we say and make sure everyone believes us!”

Rock laughed and kissed his mother.

“I knew you would understand, Mama. The whole situation is almost absurdly complicated, but entirely my fault. Yet I think under the circumstances there is nothing else I could have done.”

“I do see, and I think it is very very clever of you. I suppose the Duke has also agreed that the reason for this unseemly haste is not to be spoken about to anyone.”

Rock hesitated.

“I suppose if I am honest, Mama, many people in London will have guessed the reason for my engagement being announced just at the time the Earl has declared he will shoot me on sight or wring my neck!”

She gave a little cry, so he continued quickly,

“Most people will know that the Duke of Lynbrook has been a friend of mine ever since I started racing. They will then assume that I have known Venetia for years.”

“And why have you not met her?”

“I suppose when I first visited the Duke's house she was still in the nursery. For almost the last three years she has been at school in France.”

“Now I understand why I have not read about her or seen her picture in
The Lady's Magazine
. I thought it strange there was nothing about her in the Social columns Miss Sunderland reads to me so attentively.”

“Be very careful what you say to Miss Sunderland. After all people here will undoubtedly question her as to what you think about my marriage and the least she says the better.”

“She cannot say what she does not know. I think you yourself must tell the members of the clan that your engagement has been announced in London. I should not be surprised if it's in
The Scotsman
already.”

“I will say as little as possible, and, Mama, I am looking to you to write to the family. No one but you could explain that I was on my way to Scotland to tell you before anyone else, but it took longer than expected. That is why they were not informed as they will undoubtedly think that they should have been.”

“You can be sure of that! Dearest boy, in one way I am thrilled and delighted you are to be married. In another way I am deeply concerned about your future happiness – ”

Rock kissed her on both cheeks.

“I love you, Mama, and no one but you could have taken it all so calmly without telling me I was a fool, which I surely was.”

“Men will be men whatever women may say. And, as I expect you know or have guessed, your father got into all sorts of troubles before he met me and we fell in love.”

“I never thought of that,” Rock murmured.

“Your Papa was even more handsome than you are. Everyone told me when I married him that he would be bored with me in a few weeks and I would be left weeping, as had happened to so many other women.”

“I had no idea of this! Because you were so happy together I could never think of Papa in any other way.”

“Of course not, that is how I wanted you to think, but because he was in love with me and I was in love with him no one else existed – except you.”

“I am glad I was
not
forgotten. You were so lucky, Mama, just as Papa was lucky too. But I cannot expect a miracle to happen to every member of the family, even though we pray it will.”

“All I want, my dearest Rock, is your happiness, and I do have a feeling a miracle will happen and you will be as blissful as your father and I were.”

“I only hope it will come true, Mama.”

But he did not sound all that confident and there was a look of anxiety in her eyes as she watched her son walk across to the window.

He was looking out to sea and she thought as she gazed at his strong profile that no man had ever been quite so fascinatingly good-looking except for his father.

‘We produced not just a handsome son,' she mused, ‘but one who is intelligent and bright, but unfortunately, irresistible to women. What can I say? How can I help him at this moment?'

She had not spoken aloud, but almost as if her son felt her calling out to him, Rock turned round.

“Whatever happens in the future, Mama,” he said, “I have had a good run for my money so far, and must not expect too much. All the same I hope it will not be quite as difficult and boring as I anticipate.”

His mother drew in her breath.

“You must remember, Rock, your father used to say, ‘
to receive love, you have to give love
,' and that is what I have found in my life to be the undeniable truth.”

She was speaking seriously, but her son laughed.

“Everyone has always loved you, Mama, including me. But having such a marvellous example of happiness in front of me, I cannot be greedy and expect too much.”

The door then opened and the butler announced,

“There is a crowd outside, Your Grace, that's come from the village and the Clan. They've heard you're to be wed. It's in the newspapers that arrived this morn. They want to offer congratulations if Your Grace'll see them.”

Rock smiled.

“Here we go, Mama. I knew it must happen sooner or later.”

He turned to the butler,

“Tell them I will come to meet them and bring my mother. Have the wheelchair ready so she can be pushed into the Chieftain's room and we will receive them there.”

The butler was obviously delighted.

“I'll tell them that at once, Your Grace, and shall I give them a wee dram to drink your health?”

“Of course, Douglas. How could we do anything else? Although I doubt if it will be just
one
wee dram!”

It was rather rough when
The Thistle
started off on the return voyage South.

Rock then realised that he was cutting things fine.

If they were delayed, he would not arrive until late in the evening before his wedding.

It was his mother who tidied everything up.

“Tell me, my darling, where are you spending your honeymoon?” she had asked him the day before.

Rock had looked blank.

“I haven't really thought about it – ”

His mother gave a cry.

“But the poor girl has to pack her trousseau and she will not know if you are going out in the desert, walking on the moors or being smart in some Continental City.”

Rock thought for a moment and then, as he expected his honeymoon to be extremely boring, he declared,

“Then we shall go to Paris. After all there is always music at the
Opéra
and the
Folies Bergères
on the stage.

His mother had laughed.

“I am sure your wife will find that most edifying. But don't forget we have a house in Paris.”

“I often do forget, Mama. The last time I was in Paris I stayed with my good friend, the Vicomte Légros. He insisted I did so and I enjoyed it very much.”

“You could hardly stay with the Vicomte for your honeymoon, so I suggest you send a telegram immediately to our house on the
Champs Elysées
and tell them the day you will be arriving.”

“I think I had better send a telegram to the Duke as well, telling him where we are going for our honeymoon, but we will not go further the first night than Rockinston House in Park Lane.”

“Exactly, Rock, the poor girl will be tired after the excitement of her wedding day. You can be sure that if the Duke of Lynbrook is arranging it, you will have hundreds of hands to shake before you are allowed to leave.”

Rock had groaned.

“I rather anticipated that, Mama, but I will get away as quickly as I can. I think the best idea would be for me to sail to France in
The Thistle
.”

“Good thinking,” she had agreed. “Then you can take a train from the coast to Paris.”

“I will ask the Duke to arrange that as well,” Rock suggested. “After all I have so much to do here and he is only arranging the wedding!”

“I think you are behaving rather badly, my dear – ”

The telegrams were sent off as Rock tried to forget that in a very short time he would be a married man.

He caught two salmon, walked on the moors to see how the grouse were hatching and then most reluctantly bade his mother farewell.

“I will bring my wife to see you as soon as I can,” he promised. “Take care of yourself, Mama, you are the only one who really loves me despite everything.”