The Devil on Horseback (3 page)

“You came at your pleasure,” he reminded me, ‘and I think it only courteous that you should leave at mine. “

“As we are concerned with courtesy you will not detain me against my will.”

“But we are discussing the courtesy you owe me. I owe you none, remember. You are the intruder. Oh, Mademoiselle, to peep into my bedchamber! To pry so! Shame on you!”

His eyes were sparkling. I remembered Margot’s talk of his unpredictability. At the moment he was amused, hi a short time he might not be.

I jerked my hair out of his hand and stood up.

“I apologize for my curiosity,” I said.

“It was most ill-mannered of me. You must do what you think fit about the matter. If you wish to tell Sir John …”
I thank you for your permission,” he said. He was beside me, and to my horror he put his arms about me and held me against him.

Then his finger was under my chin lifting my face.

“When we transgress,” he went on, ‘we must pay for our sins. This is the payment I ask. ” He took my face in his hands and kissed me on the lips not once but many times.

I was horrified. I had never been kissed in such a way before. I wrenched myself free and ran.

The thought uppermost in my mind was that he had treated me as a serving girl. I was horrified. Moreover, it was my own fault.

I stumbled out of the room. I found the spiral staircase and as I started up it I heard a movement behind me. For a moment I thought it was the Comte in pursuit and I felt numb with terror.

Margot said: “What are you doing down here, Minelle?”

I turned. She was flushed and her eyes were dancing.

“Where have you been?” I demanded.

“Where have youT She put her fingers to her lips.

“Come on. Upstairs.”

We went up the staircase. At the top, she turned to me and laughed. We went into the solarium together.

Maria and Sybil were already there.

“Minelle found me,” said Margot.

“Where?” demanded Sybil.

“Do you think I’m telling?” retorted Margot.

“I might decide to hide there again.”

That was the beginning. He had become aware of me and I was, certainly not going to forget him in a hurry. During the rest of the afternoon I could not get him out of my mind. As we sat in the solarium and played a guessing game I was expecting him all the time to come to denounce me. More likely, I thought, he had told Sir John. I was most uncomfortable thinking of the way he had kissed me. What interpretation had he put on that?

I knew that it was my mother’s constant concern that I should remain virtuous and make a good marriage. She wanted the best possible for me. A doctor would be suitable, she had once said, but the only doctor we knew had remained un married for fifty-five years and was hardly likely to take a wife now; and even if he had decided to and offered to bestow the honour on me, I should have declined.

“We are midway between two worlds,” said my mother, meaning that the villagers were far beneath us and the occupants of the Big House far above us. It was for this reason that she was so eager to leave me a flourishing school. Though I must say the thought of spending the rest of my life teaching the offspring of the nobility who were to visit Derringham Manor in the years to come held no great charm for me.

It was the Comte who had set my thoughts in this direction. I realized angrily that he would not have dared kiss a young lady of good family in this way. But would he? Of course he would. He would do whatever his inclination moved him to. Of course, he might have been very angry. He might have told Sir John that I had come peeping into his bedchamber. Instead of which he had treated me like a . like a what?

How could I know. All I did know was that if my mother was aware of it she would be horrified.

She was eagerly waiting for me when I returned.

“You look flushed,” she scolded tenderly, and a little reproachfully.

She would have preferred me to look cool as though taking tea at Derringham Manor was an everyday occurrence in my life.

“Did you enjoy it? What happened?”

I told her what we had had for tea and what the girls were wearing.

“Sybil presided,” I said, ‘and afterwards we played games. “

“What games?” she wanted to know.

“Oh, just a childish sort of hide and seek and then guessing towns and rivers.”

She nodded. Then she frowned. My dress was decidedly grubby.

“I should like to get you a new dress,” she said.

“Something pretty. Velvet perhaps.”

“But, Mama, when should I wear it?”

“Who knows? You might be asked again.”

I doubt it. Once in a lifetime is enough for such an honour. “

I must have sounded bitter for she looked sad and I was sorry. I went to her and put my arm about her.

“Don’t worry, Mama,” I said.

“We’re happy here, are we not? And the school does very well.” I remembered then what I had forgotten until that moment.

“Oh, Mama, when I was going in I met Joel Derringham.”

Her eyes lit up. She said: “You didn’t tell me.”

“I forgot.”

“Forgot … meeting Joel Derringham! He’ll be Sir Joel on day.

Everything will be his. How did you meet him? “

I told her, repeating word for word.

“He sounds charming, she said.

“He is-and so like Sir John. It’s amusing, really. Yoi could say:

That’s Sir John . thirty years ago. “

“He was certainly very pleasant to you.”

“He could not have been more so.”

I could see plans forming in her mind.

It was two days later when Sir John came to the schoolhous and a Sunday so there was no school that day. My mother and I had just dined and we had sat over the table as we oftei did on Sundays until nearly three o’clock discussing the nex week’s lessons.

Although my mother was normally the most prosaic o women, where her heart was involved she could dream a romantically as any young girl. I knew that she had made u] her mind that I was to have many invitations to the Manor am there I should meet someone perhaps he might not be o too exalted a rank but at least he. would be able to offer mi more than I could reasonably hope for if I spent my days ii a schoolhouse.

Previously she had decided that I must havi the best possible education to provide for my future as i schoolmistress. Now her thoughts had escaped to wilde dreams of fantasy, and because she was a woman accustomed to succeed, they knew no bounds.

Through the window of our little dining-room she saw Si:

John tethering his horse to the iron bar which had been pu there for that purpose. I felt myself turn cold. It immediateli occurred to me that the malicious Count had decided ti complain against me. I had left him abruptly and shown bin quite clearly that I deplored his conduct. This might be hi revenge.

“Why, it’s Sir John,” said my mother.

“I wonder …”

I heard myself say “Perhaps a new pupil…”

He was ushered into our sitting-room and I was relieved to see that he was smiling as benignly as ever.

“Good day to you, Mrs. Maddox … and MineUa. Lad:

Derringham has a request to make. We are short of a guest for the soiree and supper which is to take place this evening. The Comtesse Fontaine Delibes is confined to her room and without her we shall be thirteen. There is, as you know, a superstition that thirteen is unlucky and some of our guests might be uneasy. I was wondering if I could persuade you to allow your daughter to join us. “

It was so like one of the dreams my mother had been conjuring up during the last two days that she accepted it calmly as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

“But of course she will join you,” she said.

“But, Mama,” I protested, “I have no suitable dress.”

Sir John laughed.

“That had occurred to Lady Derringham when the matter was suggested. One of the girls can lend you something. That is a simple matter.” He turned to me.

“Come to the Manor this afternoon.

You can then choose the gown and the seamstress can do any necessary alterations. It is good of you, Mrs. Maddox, to lend us your daughter. “

He smiled at me.

“I shall see you later.”

When he had gone my mother seized me in her arms and hugged me.

“I willed it to happen,” she cried.

“Your father always used to say that when I made up my mind I’d get what I wanted because I believed in it so firmly I just created it.”

“I shan’t much care about parading in borrowed plumes.”

“Nonsense. No one will know.”

“Sybil and Maria will and Maria will take the first opportunity to remind me that I am there as a standin.”

“As long as she does not remind anyone else that does not matter.”

“Mama, why are you so excited’ ” It’s what I always hoped for. “

“Did you ill-wish the Comtesse?”

“Perhaps.”

“So that your daughter could go to the ball!”

“It’s not a ball!” she cried, aghast.

“You would have to have a proper ball gown for that.”

“I was speaking metaphorically.”

“How right I was to educate you thoroughly. You will be as musically knowledgeable as any of them there. I think your hair should be piled high on your head. It shows off its colour that way.” I heard a cynical voice murmuring: “Like corn in August.”

“Your hair is your best feature, my dear. We musf make the most of it.

I hope the dress will be blue because that brings out the colour of your eyes. That cornflower-blue is rather rare . as deep as yours, I mean. ” ^ ” You are making a princess out of your budding schools mistress.

Mama. ” | ” Why shouldn’t a budding schoolmistress be as beautiful and charming as any lady in the land? “

“Certainly she should be if she is your daughter.”

“You must curb your tongue tonight, Minella. You always did say the first thing that came into your head.” ;

“I shall have to be myself and if that does not suit .. They might not ask you again.” j “Why should they ask me again? Are you not attaching tooi much importance to this? I am asked because they need another guest. It is not the first time someone has been asked to be the fourteenth. If the fourteenth decided to come after all, I should politely be assured that my presence was no longer j necessary.” | The fact was that my mind was as busy as my mother’s. Why had this summons (which was how I thought of it)| followed so closely on my visit to the Manor? Who had’i prompted it? And was it not something of a coincidence that] it should be the Comte’s wife who was indisposed?

Could it| possibly be that he had suggested that I should fill the gap? | What an extraordinary idea! Why? Because he wanted to| meet me again? He had not reported my ill manners, after all. | I remembered what he had said of my hair as he tugged it| cares singly and then . those kisses. It was insulting. Was] he saying: “Bring the girl to the Manor.” That was how men | such as he was behaved in their own world. There was some1 thing called the droit de seigneur which meant that when a| girl was going to be married, the lord of the manor, if he | liked the look of her, took her to his bed for a night-j more than one night if she proved satisfactory and then| she was passed on to her bridegroom. If the lord was generous there was a present of some sort. I could well imagine this’ Comte exerting such a right.

;

What was I thinking? I was no bride and Sir John would never permit such conduct on his estate. I was ashamed of myself for harbouring such thoughts. That interview with the Comte had had a deeper effect on me than I had imagined.

My mother kept talking about Joel Derringham. I had to repeat what he had said to me. She was thinking romantic thoughts again. Oh, it was too foolish. She was telling herself that the indisposition was a myth and that as Joel had wished to make my further acquaintance, he had prevailed on his parents to ask me for the evening. Oh Mama, I thought, dear Mama, foolish only where her daughter was concerned. If she could see me satisfactorily settled she would die happily.

But she did indulge in the most preposterous dreams.

Margot came to the schoolhouse to see me. She was excited.

“What fun!” she cried.

“So you are coming tonight. My dear Minelle, Marie has found a dress for you, but I won’t have it. You are to have one of mine … straight from a couturiere of Paris. Blue for your eyes. Marie’s dress was brown. So ugly. I say: No. No. No. Not for Minelle, for if you are not exactly beautiful-as I am-you have something distinguished. Yes, you have, and I shall insist that you wear my dress.”

“Oh Margot,” I said, you realty do want me to come! “

“But of course. It will be fun. Maman will spend the evening in her room. She was crying this afternoon. It was my father again. Oh, he is wicked, but I suppose she loves him. Women do love him. I wonder why?”

“Your mother is not really ill, is she?”

Margot lifted her shoulders.

“It is the vapours. That is what Le Diable calls it. There might have been a quarrel. Not that she would dare quarrel with him. He does the quarrelling. If she weeps he gets more angry than ever. He hates women who weep.”

“And does she weep often?”

“I don’t know. I expect so. After all, she is married to him.”

“Margot, what a dreadful thing to say of your father!”

“If you don’t want the truth …”

“I do. But I can’t see how you can really know. Does she always shut herself away? Is it the same in your own home?”

“I suppose so.”

“But you must know.”

I don’t see much of her, if that’s what you mean. NouNou guards her and I hear she is not to be disturbed. But why do we talk about the mi I’m so glad you are coming, Minelle. I think you’ll enjoy it. You liked visiting us for tea, didn’t you? “

“Yes, it was fun.”

“What were you doing on the staircase? You had been exploring.

Confess. ”
” What were you doing, Margot? “p>

She narrowed her eyes and laughed at me.

“Come, tell me,” I insisted.

“If I tell you, will you tell me what you were doing? Ah, but that is not fair exchange. You were just looking at the house.”