Just Deserts (26 page)

‘
If I am obliged to be conciliating to the wench, I suppose
it is mine, too.’

Chiddingly gave a short laugh. ‘Certainly, if you don’t
wish to have your eyes scratched out, you had better make it
so.’

So Mrs Harraton perforce went to pay her respects to her
prospective sister-in-law.

‘
My dear, dear Miss Winsford,’ she uttered in patronising
tones which at once set up Persephone’s back as that young lady
entered the saloon. ‘Or may I call you Persephone?’

Persephone shook her hand briefly. ‘I cannot think why you
should wish to.’

‘
Surely you know that I am Christopher’s sister?’

‘
You mean Chiddingly? Is that his name? Not very
apt.’

‘
He is not very saintly, I agree,’ Mrs Harraton said with a
thin smile.

‘
Saintly? A hellion, more like.’

‘
I beg your pardon? You are speaking of my brother,
ma’am.’

‘
Then you ought to know what he is. And if you are
indeed to become my sister-in-law, it will be as well for you to
know the truth. There is no hypocrisy in
my
family, and I
scorn to pretend with you, either.’

Cordelia hesitated, undecided whether to march out in a
dudgeon or stay and explore this odd girl’s attitude. Curiosity
won. She produced her grinning smile.

‘
Do not let us quarrel. I hope you will not take it amiss if
I put you a little on your guard, however.’

‘
In what respect?’ Persephone asked. Then, remembering her
duty as hostess, she invited the visitor to be seated.

‘
You would do well to take care how you expose yourself, my
dear,’ Cordelia said, sinking into a chair. ‘You will certainly set
people in a bustle if you mean to reveal the lack of sympathy and
understanding between yourself and your husband.’

‘
He is not yet my husband,’ Persephone said through her
teeth. ‘And I care nothing for what anyone may say or
think.’

Shocked, Cordelia stared at her. ‘I declare, you are so
brazen, I could almost believe Christopher innocent, after
all.’

She came under instant fire from Persephone’s
grey eyes. ‘
Innocent
? Of what, may
I ask?’

Mrs Harraton tittered. ‘Why, of seduction, my dear.’ There
was a spark of malice in her glance. ‘He told me he engineered the
whole thing. Just for the fortune, you know.’

She had the satisfaction
of seeing the grey eyes widen.

‘
He said that?’ Persephone asked, her tone
hushed.

Cordelia shrugged. ‘Unless I misunderstood him.’

She took her leave soon after, but Persephone remained in
the drawing-room for quite some time, staring bleakly into space.
The despondency she had been unable to shake off since coming home
seemed to weigh more heavily than ever. She might have taunted
Chiddingly with being a fortune-hunter, but she had believed that
his offer sprang from chivalry. To learn that he had seized the
chance to make sure of her cut her to the quick.

Until now she had believed that regrettable incident to be
the outcome of an urgent and mutual attraction. To think now that
he had been merely using her made her burn with shame and
humiliation. Worse, it pained her beyond anything she had thought
possible. That Chid should prove a liar and a cheat was somehow
unbearable. Much as she hated him, she had insensibly grown to
respect him.

The overmastering hurt that consumed her found expression,
naturally enough, in a deep rage that chased away her erstwhile
gloom and smouldered steadily in her breast. It was fuelled by the
intelligence, brought to her next day by Penelope, that the word
had spread all over town. Everyone believed her to have been
entrapped by Chiddingly’s machinations, and there was apparently no
doubt in anyone’s mind that she had succumbed to his seduction.
Persephone’s fury knew no bounds and was, had she but known it,
matched by Chiddingly’s own.

‘
I cannot for
the life of me guess how such a tale has got about,’ Fitz told him
over the bottle of claret they were sharing in Padiham’s cosy
parlour.

‘
I should not
be at all surprised to find that Persephone herself had set it
about,’ Chiddingly said.

‘
Gammon. To what purpose?’

‘
So that she
may have some excuse for breaking the engagement.’

‘
Hang you, Chid, you are not thinking. She cannot break the
engagement. Her reputation would be smirched beyond
recovery.’

‘
And I suppose this morsel of gossip redounds
to
my
credit?’

‘
Of course it does not redound to your credit. But neither
does it lend any countenance to poor Seph.’

‘
That
would
not weigh with her, I assure you,’ Chiddingly told him forcefully.
‘Depend upon it, she has done this to make me out a villain and
curry sympathy as the injured party.’

‘
My dear Chid,’ Fitz sighed in an exasperated way,
‘the female is
always
the injured party.’

‘
Not in this instance. Fiend seize it, but if there were any
justice I should be able to call her out and shoot her!’

‘
Well, if it will bring you to your senses, you had better
call upon her and fight it out.’

By some freak of fortune, both parties chose to ride early
in the park next morning, hoping to shake off their separate mental
disturbances. On catching sight of one another, they rode together
as if of one mind, and clashed instantly.

‘
You little cat, what in Hades do you mean by it?’
Chiddingly demanded in wrathful tones.

‘
Don’t
dare
ring a peal over
me, you unmitigated scoundrel,’ Persephone returned hotly. ‘Have
you not done enough?’

‘
By God, I had not believed you capable of such a
paltry revenge,’ he continued, riding over her response as if he
had not heard it. ‘So I
seduced
you, did I?
Damn it, I don’t mean to sound like a coxcomb, Persephone, but I
rate my attractions a little higher than that.’

Persephone looked at him, her own fury arrested.
‘What the
devil
are you talking
of?’

‘
If I had wanted your damned fortune, woman, I would have
wooed you in form, not played a cheap trick to force your consent.
What in Hades possessed you to set such a tale about?’

The cheeks of his prospective bride flew colour
and fire leapt from her eyes. ‘Do you
dare
to suggest that I
am responsible for these abominable rumours, you—you—?’ Words
failed her.

‘
Wait one moment,’ Chiddingly begged, frankly puzzled in his
turn.

He might have spared his breath. Persephone launched into a
hectic tirade.

‘
Never in my life have I been so insulted! That I
should be accused of stooping to so
vulgar
a level.
You
are the author of this outrage, not I. Did not your sister
Harraton herself tell me that you said you had deliberately
compromised me?’

Shock washed over Chiddingly like a douche of
cold water. ‘Oh my
God,’
he said heavily.
‘But that was because—’

He stopped, recalling how he had led his sister to believe
that stupid piece of foolishness rather than let her hold a base
opinion of Persephone. He had said it in defence of her, and now it
had bounced back upon him. His harridan of a sister had no doubt
confided in her friend Alice Chumleigh. From one female to another,
and thence to the world, was an inevitable step.

‘
Seph,’ he said, ‘I owe you an apology. I can explain
everything, but this is not the time or the place.’

‘
It never will be the time, nor the place. I want to hear no
more of your lies,’ she cried on an angry sob. ‘I thought you a man
of honour, at least, and now—’

‘
Will you be still a moment?’ he begged irritably. ‘Come, we
will settle this now. Dismount and let us discuss it
calmly.’

‘
I don’t want to dismount and there is nothing to
discuss.’

‘
Oh? Are you afraid?’ he taunted, swinging himself out of
the saddle.

‘
I am never afraid,’ she snapped. ‘Oh, very well,
very
well.’

She shifted her weight and loosened her foot from the
stirrup, but as Chiddingly left his horse quietly standing and came
to assist her, she waved him away.

‘
I can manage perfectly, I thank you.’

He ignored this, and, reaching up, lifted her bodily from
the saddle and set her down in the road. He then led both horses to
the trees and tethered them.

Persephone stood in the road, beating her whip rhythmically
against the skirt of her habit. Returning, Chiddingly reached out
and relieved her of the whip.

‘
I will take that, I thank you. I have no mind to receive
yet another of your vicious punishments.’

‘
Well?’ Persephone demanded. ‘I am waiting.’

Chiddingly threw both whips aside and grasped her
shoulders. ‘Seph, you cannot think I offered for you to get at your
father’s fortune.’

‘
Oh, can I not? Am I expected to believe it was ardour that
led you to offer for Pen?’

He let her go. ‘No—no, I did seek it on that occasion, I
admit. But I was under a misapprehension. I thought the
sum—’

He broke off, realising how infelicitous were these words,
and how little they must help him.

‘
Not enough for you?’ Persephone sneered. ‘What changed your
mind, I wonder? Indigo’s indisposition, perhaps?’

‘
I did not change my mind,’ he snapped. ‘At least,
I did, but not about
your
fortune. I never
wanted to marry you.’

‘
I am well aware of that,’ she flashed. ‘The feeling is
mutual.’

‘
Then I am scarce likely to have used that regrettable
incident to tie myself up to you on purpose, am I?’

‘
For all I know, you had been lying all along.’

‘
God preserve me, is
this
a lie?’ he
demanded, and, seizing her roughly in his arms, he fastened his
lips to hers.

Persephone jerked her head away, and lifting her foot,
kicked him a punishing blow on the shin. Chiddingly winced and
cried out, but he did not loosen his hold. His eyes blazed and he
shook her a little.

‘
You damned little shrew!’

Balling her fist, Persephone dealt him a punch in the
centre of the chest that deprived him of breath and made him
stagger back. By the time he had recovered, she had retrieved her
whip and, lifting her skirts, was vaulting unaided into her saddle.
Once up, she paused to move her leg to the correct position to ride
side-saddle, which gave Chiddingly an opportunity to run up and
seize her bridle at the bit, holding her horse steady.

‘
Let go!’

‘
Not until I have said my say!’

‘
I don’t want to hear it!’

‘
By God, woman, I am of a mind to tell the world the truth,’
he exclaimed. ‘It was your folly that began this intolerable
situation. Had it not been for you chasing after me that day with
your foolish suspicions of Bolsover, none of this would have
happened. You have no one but yourself to blame, for you have
fallen into a pit of your own digging.’

Then he released her rein and stalked away to fling himself
into his own saddle. Next moment, he had ridden off, leaving
Persephone to stare after him with tears gathering in her
eyes.

Chapter Ten

Everything
in Persephone wanted to cry out to him, to call him back.
But Chiddingly hated her, that much was plain. As much, if not
more, than she hated him. She ought to be gratified but, oddly,
instead the thought made hot tears course down her cheeks. She
lifted a hand to dash them away, resolving never to sue for his
forgiveness. But even as she decided so, her lips opened and her
eyes pierced after him.

‘
Chiddingly,’
she cried out brokenly, ‘I have
wronged
you!’

But the baron was already too far away to hear.

Well, he was right, she thought, lashing herself mentally.
The situation was intolerable. She might have dug her own grave,
but had she asked him to leap into it with her? But he had, and the
best thing she could do now was to ride to the devil and break her
neck. Doubtless that would make the brutish fiend happy again. And
she, tormented soul that she was, might rest in peace. Oh, God, but
she wanted to die. Anything was preferable to marrying a man who
held her in such contempt.

‘
Oh, Chid,’ she uttered involuntarily, and, digging in her
spurs, she urged her horse to follow him with all speed. But
although she galloped like a demented runaway, the baron was long
gone. There was nothing for her to do but return to Hanover
Square.