The Castle of Love (12 page)

*

Jacina was cheered a week later to receive a letter from her father.

Doctor Carlton wrote that he was coming to fetch her home. His friend the professor had recovered and the cholera epidemic was over. He was no longer required in Edinburgh. He would be arriving on Sunday.

 Jacina told Nancy that she was finally going home and Nancy said sadly that everyone in the castle would miss her.

Jacina spent the afternoon sorting out her effects. When she came down to supper that evening, she found the castle in an uproar.

It seemed that the Countess had decided she would set out for Switzerland the very next day.

Maids were packing for the journey. Laundry maids were busy getting under-garments washed and dried. Footmen had been sent to retrieve trunks from the attic.

Jacina heard all about the preparations from Nancy.

"She's taking everything with her," said Nancy. "Cloaks. Gowns. Muffs and fox furs. Satin slippers. All her jewellery. Rubies and emeralds and pearls. Not to mention them Ruven diamonds. You'd think she weren't coming back for years."

Jacina wondered sadly if that was indeed Felice's plan.

The next morning the Great Hall was full of trunks and hatboxes. Footmen hoisted luggage onto the coach that was to carry the Countess to the railway station at Carlisle. She would reach Dover by midnight and sail for France at daybreak.

Jacina stood on the staircase watching the hustle and bustle below.

A maid hurried down the stairs with a travelling bag. The Countess followed, wearing a red fur lined cloak. She paused on the step above Jacina and stood there, drawing on her red gloves.

"So you go tomorrow also," she muttered. "Tsk! How lonely my poor husband will be!" With that she swept on down the stairs.

Jacina stared after her in surprise.

The Earl appeared on the arm of his valet. He had come to say goodbye to his wife. The bandage was still around his brow and low over his eyes. He looked pale.

 The Countess was tall but even she had to stand on tiptoe to kiss her husband goodbye. She put her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.

Jacina found herself looking away.

"A bientôt!" said Felice. She gave a little wave and walked out to the waiting coach.

That night a gale arose. The mournful sound echoed down the chimneys. Trees tossed their heads wildly. Jacina thought about sailing across the channel in weather like this. It would not be pleasant.

*

All the next day she waited for her father, but he did not come. At six o'clock there was a loud banging at the main door. It was a messenger for Jacina. He had ridden all the way from Melrose.

An elm had been uprooted in the gale and had fallen on the inn where her father was lodging for the night on his way home. As Jacina paled, the messenger hastened to add that her father was unharmed, but there were many injured and the doctor felt obliged to remain and help. He thought he would be detained a few days.

Once she was reassured that her father was safe, Jacina felt proud that he should elect to stay behind and help others.

That afternoon she decided to go and return a book to the library. She had already packed all her own books in preparation for going home.

When she entered the library she found to her surprise that the curtains were drawn. Only the glow of the fire alleviated the gloom. She started to open one of the curtains when a voice from behind startled her.

"Leave them closed, please."

 The Earl sat deep in the shadows in a high back chair. He had heard the swish of the curtain on its rail.

Jacina closed the curtain immediately.

"I – I am sorry, my Lord. I came in to return a b-book. I did not know you were here. I will leave this instant."

"No, no! No, Jacina, I am growing weary of my own company. Stay."

Jacina moved to the chair opposite the Earl and sat down.

"Why do you want the curtains drawn, my Lord, when you – "

"When I cannot see?" finished the Earl. He frowned. "My mood is such that I prefer at the moment to think of the library in darkness. There! Does that satisfy your curiosity?"

"I – I think so, my Lord."

"Since you are here, we cannot have you idle. Why not read to me? You will find some Wordsworth on a shelf over there."

Jacina was delighted to obey the Earl. She took down the leather bound book and began to read.

Two verses into the book and there was a knock at the door.

"The deuce!" swore the Earl softly.

Jarrold entered. "A letter, my Lord," he announced.

"Where is it from, Jarrold?" asked the Earl.

"It has a Swiss postmark, my Lord."

The Earl sat up.

"Switzerland! I had not expected her to write so soon. I must know what is in it. Jacina, please read it to me quickly."

Jarrold delivered the letter into Jacina's trembling hands. He bowed and left. The Earl drummed his fingers on the arms of his chair.

 Jacina's pulse raced. She did not want this painful task. Why could the Earl not ask his secretary or even his valet to read the letter to him? Did he not realise what torture he was inflicting on her with this command?

The protest died on her lips as she looked at the Earl and saw his intense anticipation. Of course he did not know what he was asking of her. He had no idea of what she felt for him.

Jacina opened the letter. The words seemed to burn on her tongue as she spoke.

"My dear husband, I have arrived at the Hotel Cronosin St Moritz. Please join me here. I have found a chateau torent. Tomorrow I will go and start preparing it for us. It isbeautifully situated on a lake. There we will be able to putright a marriage that began so badly. It will be a truehoneymoon. No other woman in the w-world can love you asI – do. I long for you."

Jacina's flesh was on fire as she read out these last words. They could have come from her own heart, her own lips. Her voice faltered and she could not go on.

"I – I'm sorry." she whispered. "I – need some – water."

She almost knocked over the decanter on the table beside her. She poured herself a glass and lifted it with trembling hands. She drank in great gulps.

The Earl sat immobile, his eyes seeming to stare into space.

"I did not expect such words," he said eventually.

He rang the bell at his elbow and his valet hurried in. Curtly the Earl told him to start packing. They were travelling tomorrow.

"To – Switzerland?" asked the valet.

 "That's right," said the Earl. "To Switzerland. To be reunited with my wife."

*

The Earl set off early at dawn with his valet. Jacina did not even hear him leave.

Her misery was acute. 'It will be a true honeymoon'. She was only too well aware that now at last the Earl and Felice would have the opportunity to truly become man and wife.

She had not taken a book from the library the day before and so she decided to go and find one today. She had to distract herself somehow until her father arrived.

She found the curtains in the library still drawn. She pulled them open and looked out at the drear November skies. Then she turned and surveyed the room. Her eye immediately alighted on the letter from Felice. It lay crumpled on the side table. She remembered that she had left it there, but she most certainly had not crumpled it up like that!

As she gazed on it a frown started to crease her brow. She walked over and picked up the letter. She stared hard at it, biting her lip.

Then with a sudden exclamation she turned on her heels and raced from the room. Within moments she was in the nursery.

"Sarah, Sarah!"

Sarah had taken a chill and was sitting by the fire, wrapped in a blanket. She blinked at Jacina.

"What is it, my dear?"

"That letter Felice Delisle sent to you – when she was engaged to Crispian – do you still have it?"

Sarah seemed befuddled.

"Why, no. I burned it."

 "You burned it?"

Sarah set her lips. "I didn't want to keep no letter from her any longer. Not after all that happened."

Jacina sank onto a chair in dismay.

A moment ago, in the library, that old letter to Sarah had suddenly flashed into her mind. She had remembered that when she first saw it, she had been struck by its daintyhandwriting.

The writing in the letter she had read to the Earl was completely different – large and looped and not dainty at all.

The Felice who wrote that letter to Sarah and the Felice who wrote yesterday to the Earl, could not possibly bethe same person.

The Earl would not have realised that the handwriting was not the handwriting of the fiancée with whom he had once corresponded because he was blind.

Apart from the Earl, there was no one else left at Castle Ruven who knew what Felice's handwriting should look like. The old Earl was dead and Crispian was dead. Even so, Jacina suddenly thought, Felice and Fronard had taken no chances. Nancy had seen them burn the letters that Crispian had received from his fiancée. No doubt they had also burned any letters to the old Earl or to Hugo when he was in India in case anybody found them.

That was what Fronard was doing all that time he was 'snooping' about the castle. Eliminating any tell tale traces of Felice Delisle. The real Felice Delisle.

They never imagined Felice being kind enough to have written to her fiancé's old Nanny.

Jacina's heart thudded with horror. If the woman who had married the Earl ten days ago was not the real Felice, then who was she? Who was she and who was Fronard and what did they want?

They wanted – they wanted the rubies and the emeralds and the Ruven diamonds that had come to the socalled Felice on her marriage to the Earl! But was that all?

 Why had Felice enticed the Earl to Switzerland when she already had all the jewels in her possession?

Jacina racked her brains. What more did they want, what more?

Suddenly she sat up straight. Of course! Her father had explained it all that day in the library when he was discussing the old Earl's will. The estate was entailed. Felice would never inherit. It would go to either to the Earl's eldest child or, should he die without issue, to a distant male relative. So in recompense the old Earl had settled a 'generous sum' on Felice, which she would receive shouldher husband die before her.

Felice and Fronard wanted that money and they could only get it if Hugo, Earl of Ruven was dead.

They must have plotted to kill him at some point and make it look like an accident.

Jacina felt the blood drain from her face.

No wonder Fronard had accepted the challenge to a duel with such alacrity. No wonder 'Felice' had collapsed in hysterical laughter. The Earl and Jacina had smoothed the way for them. They could get rid of the Earl and no onewould suspect that was what they had planned all along.

It was horrifyingly clear to Jacina. When the Earl was brought back alive to the castle that day, Felice had had to think very quickly. She had acted the part of the devoted wife to perfection and the Earl had forgiven her.

She was now back in his favour and she had confidently left for Switzerland to put the finishing touches to her plan. To find a chateau where she could isolate the Earl and then, with Fronard's help – dispose of him.

If her recent exemplary behaviour had not fully

convinced her husband to follow her, then that last letterwould!

 Jacina was wondering what Felice planned to do with the Earl's valet, when she became aware that Sarah was speaking to her.

"If I'd have known you wanted that letter I'd never have burned it."

"That's alright, Sarah. Don't worry about it."

Sarah coughed and drew her chair nearer the fire.

Jacina moaned softly as she thought of her predicament.

The Earl's life was in danger but who would believe her, who? The one piece of evidence – the letter to Sarah, which could have been compared with the recent letter to the Earl – was gone. Sarah would believe her, but she could not involve Sarah in yet another series of allegations, particularly as the old lady was not well.

Her father would surely listen, but he might not arrive for another day or two. That would be too late! If Fronard had not already met Felice en route, he would surely be waiting for her in Switzerland. The Earl was travelling straight into a trap.

It struck Jacina that Felice had waited to leave until she was sure Doctor Carlton was coming to fetch his daughter home, before she had allowed herself to leave Castle Ruven. Was that because Felice suspected Jacina might yet plant doubts about his wife in the Earl's mind?

Jacina rose to her feet and began to pace the room. There was no time to lose. Someone had to make the journey to Switzerland to warn the Earl. Who could she send?

She stopped before Sarah's dressing table and stared at herself in the mirror. Her eyes looked haunted and her face was white.

Even as she looked, she knew there was only one person who might be able to convince the Earl that his life was in danger. Herself!

 She, who had never left the environs of Ruvensford, must set out alone for Switzerland.

And she must set out that very night!

 The lights of the Hotel Cronos looked warm and inviting from where Jacina stood on the pavement opposite. She had just alighted from the fiacre that had met her carriage from Geneva. The vehicle had been draughty and Jacina had shivered all the way.

She had barely eaten in two days – just some fruit and a brioche snatched at a baker's stall in Paris.

It had been a long, cold journey from England and she hoped she would never make another like it. She had never felt so alone in her whole life.

Only the stable boy, whom she had bribed to drive her to the station in Carlisle, knew she was leaving. She had left a letter to wait for her father. All she had taken with her was the money her father had left her and a small travelling case.

If it were not for the thought of the Earl and the danger he was in, she would have turned back more than once.

She hoped she was not too late. When she had arrived at Carlisle station that night, it was only to discover that there was no train until the following morning. So she was arriving here in St. Moritz a whole day later than the Earl.