The Demon Lover (11 page)

“Would he do that?”

“But of course.”

“I am overwhelmed by all this kindness.”

“When the Baron takes action he is a rather overwhelming man. What do you propose to wear for the occasion?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t many clothes with me … and nothing in any case which would match up to these smart French society women. I suppose my green velvet will have to do.”

“Your green velvet is very becoming. Would you let my maid come along and do your hair.”

“That is kind. I know mine is invariably untidy.”

“You have beautiful hair and it is worth a little attention.”

She smiled at me serenely. I could not help liking Nicole. I should have loved to talk to her and ask her how she felt about this extraordinary situation. Here she was, like the mistress of the house, and accepted as such, when all the time her lover was making no secret of the fact that he was soon to be married to someone else.

The great day came. I was very excited and so was my father. Nicole’s maid came to dress my hair and it was amazing what she did to me. She brought me a comb with green stones in it, the colour of my dress, and when it was fixed in my hair, I thought I looked like a different

person LOVER

not unworthy to mix with the soignee guests below. But perhaps that feeling would change when I moved among them as it used to even at the Farringdon Manor gatherings;

one’s appearance seemed to be able to undergo a great change between the bedroom mirror and the eyes of the other guests.

However, I had little time to think of my appearance. Everyone was admiring the miniature and calling attention to its excellence as they discovered something fresh which appealed to them.

The Baron took my hand and led me up to a dais. We mounted the few steps and I stood there with him on one side of me, my father on the other.

He then explained briefly my father’s affliction and the fact that I had painted the miniature. They seemed to have no doubt that I was a great artist. There I was . so young and talented. He was certain that before the end of my life I was going to be the greatest Collison of them all.

People came up to congratulate me. I had to promise on the spot that as soon as I was free I would go to the house of Madame Dupont to paint her two daughters. It was a definite commission. A Monsieur Villefranche made me promise to come and paint his wife.

It was triumph such as my father and I had never dreamed of.

The Baron was smiling with a faintly proprietorial air. He was obviously delighted with the reaction of his guests.

When the musicians began to play a waltz he seized me and swept me off my feet “Do you dance as well as you paint, Mademoiselle Collison?” he asked.

He was smiling. Here was a new aspect of him. He was really quite pleased by my success. I had not thought him capable of feeling pleasure for other people, but I supposed that as a lover of art he was so delighted with the miniature and there was also a good deal of gratification because he had been aware of the deception from the beginning.

I tried to keep up with him but his dancing was a trifle erratic. He had a trick of lifting me off my feet so that I felt as though I were flying through the air.

“A successful evening, eh?” he said.

“The start of a great career. My blessings on you.”

“I have to thank you,” I said.

“We are friends at last. Is that not charming?”

I said it was.

The dance came to an end. He released me and a short time after I saw him dancing with Nicole.

Many people sought my company that night. It was my time of triumph, and I was young and inexperienced enough to enjoy every moment of it.

For me it was over all too soon.

The following day could not be anything else but an anticlimax. My father and I were to leave Centeville on the day after. My father would go home. The Baron had insisted that one of his men should accompany him. I was to be taken to the home of the Princesse where I should begin on my miniature. After that I could decide when I wished to execute the several commissions which had been offered to me, and I could plan my life from there.

I spent the morning packing and then took a walk round the grounds. I was joined by Bertrand who said that the Baron was out riding with Nicole and he thought he would be away until evening. On his return he wished to have an interview with Bertrand.

“It is coming now,” he said.

“I am to be given my orders. I think he probably waited until the miniature was completed before giving them to me.”

“Perhaps he merely wants to say goodbye. You will be leaving soon, won’t you?”

“I plan to travel to Paris with you and your father.”

“That will be very pleasant for us.”

“I understand someone will be accompanying your father to England.”

“That is that I have been told.”

“Then you will have nothing to worry about. How do you feel about going to the Princesse?”

“Do you mean, do I feel nervous? The answer is no… not after what happened. The Baron has really done a great deal for me.”

Bertrand nodded.

“We will meet when you are in Paris.”

“That will be very nice.”

“You didn’t think I would let you slip away, did you?” He looked at me earnestly.

“Kate, when you have finished this commission you must come and stay with my mother. She wants to meet you.”

“I should like that very much. I’ll look forward to it.”

“Kate …” He hesitated.

“Yes?”

“There is something I have to say to you.”

“Well, I’m listening.”

“I… er …” He paused.

“I think I hear sounds of arrival. It may be Rollo is coming back already. He’ll probably be wanting to see me.

He must have changed his plans . I wonder what my orders will be.

Perhaps we can talk it over later. “

“All right then … later.”

“Au revoir, Kate.”

He was smiling at me in a rather bemused way. I guessed what he had intended asking me. It must surely be that he wanted to marry me. I felt a certain pleasure at the prospect. I was not really sure. I had been living in circumstances alien to everything I had known before.

It was understandable that I should be affected by them and to such an extent as not to be able to make a sound judgement, I had known Bertrand such a short time, yet I should feel desolate if I

should have to say goodbye to him and never see him again. And yet. I was so uncertain. I was rather glad that the Baron had decided to return early and so had put off the moment of decision even for a little while.

It must have been an hour later when Bertrand came to my room. He seemed like a different man from the one I had known. His face was blotched and his eyes slightly bloodshot. His mouth twitched with uncontrollable rage.

“Bertrand,” I cried.

“What on earth has happened?”

He stepped into the room and shut the door.

“I am leaving the castle at once.”

When? Why? “

“Now. Immediately. I just came to tell you. I will not stay here a minute longer than I need.”

“You have quarrelled with the Baron?”

“Quarrelled?” he cried.

“I will never speak to him again. He’s a devil… He’s worse than I believed him to be… and God knows that was bad enough. He’s a demon. I hate him. And he hates me too. Can you guess what he wants me to do?”

“No!” I cried, bewildered.

He spat out: “Marry! Marry Nicole.”

“What?”

“He wants her settled comfortably … and he has ordered me to make an honest woman other.”

“No!”

“But yes. That is what he has just told me.”

“How could he suggest such a thing!”

“He just did.”

“And Nicole?”

“I doubt she knows anything about the transaction. That’s how it is with him. He makes the laws and other people carry them out.”

“But how could he suggest such a thing. What did he say?”

“He said that now he was marrying he wanted to find a husband for Nicole and he thought that I would fit the book very well. He would make her an allowance and one for me and I should be considerably richer than I am now. I just let him run on and then I shouted at him.

I told him I would never marry his castoff mistress. “

“He must accept that.”

“He didn’t. He said I was a young fool. I was turning down a good offer. He wanted me to marry Nicole and that was the best reason in the world for my doing so. He was going to put all sorts of opportunities in my way. He would be my generous patron … I kept shouting at him that I would not marry a mistress he no longer wanted.

I said I had my own plans for marriage. “

“You … said that?”

“I did. He didn’t believe me. Then I said: ” I’m fond of Kate, and I think she is of me. “

“What did he say to that?”

“He was stunned for a few seconds. Then he laughed at me. He said:

“Nonsense. She’d never have you. In any case I should consider such a match most unsuitable.” I lost my temper. I remembered all those times when we. my family . had had to do what he wanted. This was the last straw. I went on shouting about his throwing his castoff mistresses at me and that I would never marry any of them. Then I went to my room and started getting my things together . “

“Oughtn’t you to wait until tomorrow?”

“Stay under this roof! Never! There is an inn not far from here. I will go there for the night and then tomorrow morning I’ll be waiting for you and we’ll travel to Paris together.”

“Oh Bertrand,” I said.

“I am so sorry.”

“I had to make a stand some time. There comes a time when it is simply not possible to take any more. You gave me courage. He can do me no harm. He might endeavour to make us poorer … never mind that now.

I can get by without him. Oh Kate, in a way I feel wonderfully relieved. I feel free. Do you think I was right to act as I did? “

“Absolutely right.”

“And don’t you think it was a horrible thing to suggest?”

“Despicable.”

He took my hands and kissed them.

“Kate,” he said, ‘will you marry me . when we’ve had time to work things out? “

“Yes,” I replied.

“I will.”

Finally he released me.

“I shall be out of this castle in a quarter of an hour,” he said.

“I will see you on the train to Paris.”

Then he had gone.

I was appalled by what Bertrand had told me, and I reproached myself for having felt I liked the Baron a little because of what he had done for me. He was ruthless, cynical and a man of no principles.

At dinner one or two people asked where Bertrand was and the Baron said that he had been called unexpectedly to Paris.

The next day my father and I left Centeville in the company of one of the Baron’s upper servants.

I felt completely bewildered by everything that had happened. In a short time I had not only been accepted as an artist of repute but had become engaged to be married. I wished that I did not feel so uneasy.

Had I perhaps been hurried into accepting Bertrand’s proposal because of the Baron’s despicable conduct? Poor Bertrand had been so distressed. I had felt I had to comfort him as best I could. It seemed to me that the Baron was changing the course of my life even if unwittingly, merely by being there a malignant presence.

I was fond of Bertrand. Of course I was. I liked what I knew of him, but how well did I know him?

I wished I had not been so impulsive. I was of course pleased that our relationship had not ended, but was I rushing ahead too fast.

I wished I could stop thinking about the Baron. It seemed so strange that a man who had done so much for me could have behaved as he had towards Bertrand.

It was fortunate that I was leaving the castle. When I had driven the Baron from my mind I would begin to see that life was offering me a wonderful future.

I must take it with both hands and be grateful for it.

The Streets of Paris tAXA”^” I loved Paris from the moment I entered the city, and I promised myself that I would see as much of it as I possibly could during my stay there.

First we saw my father off at the Gare du Nord and then Bertrand, who had accompanied us on the train to Paris, said he would take me to the house in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore which was the Paris home of the Princesse de Crespigny and where I was to paint the miniature.

I was received by a dignified manservant who begged me to come in, so I said goodbye to Bertrand, who promised to see me within a few days, while the manservant summoned a maid and told her to take me to the room which had been prepared for me.

It was a magnificent house, and I was impressed by the wonderful staircase which wound upwards from the reception area. It was indeed a small palace and from the moment I entered it I was struck by the rather subdued but what, in my opinion, seemed the faultless taste of the decor. There was a great deal of white-the faintest touch of red and a certain amount of gold. It gave an impression of unobtrusive richness.

We went quite a long way up and I had an opportunity of examining the intricate ironwork of the staircase.

“Madame la Princesse will see you tomorrow,” I was told.

“We have instructions to make you comfortable and supply what you need. Madame la Gouvernante will see you later. She thought you would wish to settle in after the journey.”

R

It was as well that I had improved my French lately for she spoke in an accent of the south which was not easy to follow.

We came to a landing and a door was opened. I was in a rather large, pleasant room. The double bed had white lacy curtains about it held back by gold-coloured bands. The oriental carpets were subdued in colour pinks, blues and pastel shades; there were several pieces of furniture in the Louis Quatorze or Quinze period highly polished and extremely elegant.

The maid asked if I would like hot water with which to wash and I said gratefully that I would While I was waiting I went round the room examining its contents. How different from the castle at Centeville! I wondered if this elegant house reflected the personality of the Princesse as the castle certainly did that of its owner. Even at this moment my thoughts went back to him. What impudence to attempt to pass off his discarded mistress to Bertrand. I was glad Bertrand had stood up to him so fiercely. It had just taken that to turn me impulsively towards him.