The Marquis Is Trapped (14 page)

“The whole story, Celina, is absolutely appalling and I can only say that I am extremely shocked that any woman could possibly behave in such a disgusting way.”

He thought it made it worse because Celina was so small and fragile – she seemed almost lost in the big bed.

The tears running down her cheeks made her look pitiful and he was aware that her long golden hair falling over her shoulders made her very lovely.

Celina clasped her hands together.

“Please – don’t be angry – with me, my Lord,” she pleaded.  “I know how horrible it is for you to hear all this – and when Stepmama told me tonight that I had to come in here and stay with you – I wanted to throw myself into the sea!”

She paused before she added brokenly,

“Perhaps – that is what I ought – to have done.”

“It would have been extremely wicked of you,” the Marquis scolded her, “and also very stupid.  What we have to do, Celina, and it is going to be very difficult, is to save ourselves.”

“How can we do so?”

“I am just thinking of a plan.  Now tell me first how long are we meant be here before it is discovered you are sleeping in my bed?”

“I don’t know exactly.  But Stepmama said that I was to do anything – you wanted me to do and if I made a fuss, she would beat me again.”

The Marquis pursed his lips together.

He realised what the Countess expected to happen after she had made him drunk with her ‘night cap’ and the more he learnt about her, the more wicked he believed her to be.

Aloud he said quietly,

“Well, we have some time and we must be certain we are not interrupted before we can escape and I am going to lock the door now.”

He rose from the bed as he spoke and he was aware that Celina shrank back as if she thought he was going to touch her.

He walked over to the door and turned the key in the lock and then, without hurrying, he returned to the bed.

“I am thinking of what we can do – ”

“It is going to be very difficult for you not to marry me,” Celina said slowly.  “I know Stepmama will make out to Papa that – you have taken advantage of me, although I am not at all certain – what that means.  She would make things extremely difficult for you if you refuse to save my reputation.”

She gave a sob before she added,

“She might even write – to the Prince of Wales.”

“I am not concerned about the Prince of Wales or anyone else.  I am worried about
you
, Celina.  You do not want to get married to a man you do not love, just as I will not marry until I am much older and in love with someone who I believe will make me a perfect wife.”

“I was sure that you would think like that, but I am afraid there is nothing you can do about it – now you are in here and Stepmama – will pretend to be very angry at what has happened.”

“I understand exactly what she is planning.  Only a woman who is so utterly despicable could think out such a dastardly plot.”

He recognised as he spoke that the Countess was in fact wreaking her revenge on him.

He had refused what she had offered him all those years ago and there is no fury like a woman scorned.

He walked over to the window and pulled back the curtains.

He could see the moonlight had turned the garden into a Fairyland and in the distance he could see the lights on
The Neptune
as it was moored at the end of the jetty.

He stood gazing at his yacht.

Almost as if a message suddenly came to him, he knew what he must do.

He turned back.

“Now listen to me carefully, Celina, I want you to tell me what relatives you have on your mother’s side of the family and if there is any way we can get in touch with them.”

Celina looked surprised for a moment and then she replied,

“My grandmother is alive and she has written many times to say she would love to see me.  She lives near Bath because she likes to take the waters.  But Papa says it is too far for him to travel with me.”

“Any other relatives?”

“I have an aunt who never married and she too lives near Bath with Grandmama.”

“Very well,” said the Marquis.  “That is where I am going to take you.

“But how can you do so, my Lord?”

“My yacht is down below at the jetty and somehow we both have to go aboard without your stepmother being aware of it.”

Celina’s eyes opened wide.

There was a look of excitement in them that had not been there before.

“Do you mean it?  Do you
really
mean it?”

“Of course, I mean it, Celina.  You don’t suppose we are going to stay here and let your stepmother catch us by a wicked trick, and force us to marry when neither of us has any wish to do so.”

Celina sat up even further in the bed.

“Just tell me what we are to do,” she asked him in a breathless voice.

The Marquis looked at the clock.

It was now after midnight.

“Where is your stepmother’s room located?  Is it on this side of the Castle?”

Celina nodded.

“Yes, her room and Papa’s are on the other side of the stairs.  They overlook the garden and the bay – ”

She saw the expression on the Marquis’s face and added quickly,

“But she takes two sleeping draughts every night, because she says that Papa snores.”

The Marquis smiled.

“That is exactly what I wanted to hear.  Now listen, Celina, we must not make any mistakes.”

“No – of course not, my Lord.”

“What I want you to do is creep back to your room quietly and collect whatever clothes you need to take with you.  Sensible things, because you will be at sea.”

“You are taking me – on your yacht?”

“We have to reach it first.  So do exactly what I tell you.  Go to your room that I know is not far from here and I think it would be best if you packed everything into a sheet rather than a box.  My valet, Gilbert, will carry it for you, so you can take quite a lot of clothes.  Once we are away from here we can always stop and buy anything you may have forgotten.”

“Do you really believe – we can do it?”

“I don’t intend to be beaten by your stepmother or to be forced into a marriage neither of us wants.”

“I will go to my room at once,” said Celina.  “I am sure that Stepmama will not hear me in the passage.”

She jumped out of the bed.

The Marquis noticed how exquisite her slim body was against the light of the candles and her nightgown was somewhat transparent.

He wondered, although he did not mention it, why her stepmother had forbidden her to bring a dressing gown with her.  Nor did she have any slippers.

She walked towards the door and the Marquis saw that her golden hair hung down to her waist.

‘She is very lovely and innocent,’ he mused, ‘and one day she will find and marry a man she loves and be really happy.  I will
not
allow this cruel woman to ruin her precious life.’

Celina reached the door and he hurried to turn the key for her.

As he opened the door, he whispered,

“Dress yourself.  Put everything you want to take with you on a sheet on the floor.  Then I will send Gilbert to collect it in about ten minutes.”

“I will be ready and thank you, thank you for being so wonderful.  I never thought for a single moment – that you would save me – as if you were the Archangel Gabriel.”

The Marquis opened the door and she slipped through it.

He smiled as he saw her hurrying in the direction of her bedroom.

He had been compared to many heroes in his life, but this was the first time a woman had thought of him as the Archangel Gabriel!

He waited until Celina was out of sight and then he crossed the passage to where he knew Gilbert’s room was.

It was a blessing, he thought, that he did not have to climb up to the attics to find him.

He opened the door and almost immediately Gilbert called out from the bed,

“Who is it?”

The Marquis went a little nearer to him.

“I am in trouble, Gilbert, and you have to help me to escape.”

Gilbert sat up.

“What’s happened, my Lord?”

“They are trying to make me marry Lady Celina.  So we are going to sail away in
The Neptune
before anyone finds out what we are doing.”

“I’ll be with your Lordship in a few minutes.”

The Marquis left the room and went back into his own bedroom and, as he did so, he thought of one thing with a fair amount of satisfaction.

If he took Celina away as he intended to do, no one could say she was not properly chaperoned as Mrs. Gordon was on board.

Even as the idea came to him, he sat down at the writing desk that stood by the window.

Moving the candles onto it, so that he could see, he hastily scribbled a note to the Earl.

He pondered that there was nothing his wife would be able to do, but accept that she had been defeated – her appalling plot had ended in failure.

He wrote,

“
My Lord,

I deeply regret to tell you that I have had an urgent
message from my yacht to inform me that one of my close
relatives is dangerously ill and asking to see me.

It’s, of course, a plea that I cannot refuse and you
must therefore forgive me for leaving immediately without
saying goodbye.

Your daughter, Celina, has told me that she is very
anxious to see her grandmother and this is an opportunity
for her to go to London, where I will arrange for someone
responsible to take her to Bath.

On my yacht she will be adequately chaperoned by
Mrs. Gordon, the Captain’s wife, who is travelling with me
as a guest.  You met her the other day when I showed you
round.

Thank you many times for a few excellent days on
the river.  I only wish I could stay longer.

Yours affectionately,

Oliver.
”

He thought the Earl would find nothing suspicious in that – only the Countess would understand exactly what had happened.

He had just finished the note and was putting it into an envelope when Gilbert rushed in.  He was carrying his own case and the one for his Master’s clothes.

Without speaking, as if he knew it was important for them to be as quiet as possible, he started taking items out of the chest of drawers and the wardrobe.

The Marquis was ready to help, but Gilbert was so experienced there was really no need.

The Marquis glanced at the clock.

He thought that by now Celina would have laid out all she needed and she should have changed into something more substantial than what she had been wearing.

Gilbert closed the case.

“I told Lady Celina to put everything in a sheet, as I thought it might be difficult for her to find a trunk at this time of night.  And I will carry what you cannot manage.”

Gilbert nodded and without speaking slipped out of the room.

The Marquis looked round to see that nothing was left behind and then he put the note he had just written on his bed.

When he did not appear at breakfast time, doubtless a servant would be sent up to see what had happened to him.

It was only a matter of minutes before Gilbert came back, carrying a sheet full of clothes with Celina following him, holding a light bag.

The Marquis suspected she had put her hairbrushes in it and everything she needed from her dressing table.

She was dressed very sensibly in a dark gown with a shawl round her shoulders.

He guessed that she wanted to be as unobtrusive as possible – yet even in the candlelight he could see her eyes were shining like stars.

She was clearly wildly excited by their adventure.

She did not speak and the Marquis ordered Gilbert in a whisper,

“Take us downstairs where no one will see us and, of course, avoid the night-footman if he is in the hall.”

“Follow me, my Lord.”

Gilbert strode ahead.

The Marquis indicated for Celina to follow him and he picked up Gilbert’s case, which was smaller and lighter than his own.

Gilbert led them down the servants’ backstairs, then through the kitchen, where there was no one to be seen, but for a couple of cats sleeping in front of the stove.

They hurried out through the kitchen door and into the garden.