The Marquis Is Trapped (6 page)

“Brilliant idea and if you could do that, sir, it would be extremely kind of you and very helpful.”

“Of course I can do it!  I will send a message now asking Isobel to dinner.  I feel sure that if she knows that you are having luncheon here with me, she will expect you to have been invited too.”

“I am sure she will, sir, and Your Royal Highness thinks of everything and I cannot express to you in words how grateful I am.”

“I am delighted to help you, Oliver, and of course I will make your apologies for not having sufficient time to be in touch with her.  I will say that you only received the message of your relative’s illness whilst you were here at luncheon.”

“Thank you, sir, thank you very much.”

The Prince rang a bell.

When a footman answered it, he instructed him to tell his secretary to send off a messenger at once to Lady Heywood’s house inviting her to dinner tonight.

The footman hurried off and the butler announced that some other guests had arrived and they were with the Princess in the main reception room.

The Prince of Wales turned to the Marquis.

“I think we have settled that problem,” he said with a tone of satisfaction.

“You have settled it for me, sir, and it has saved me a great deal of trouble.  I have been wondering just what I could do about Isobel and I feel sure that you will offer her some consolation tonight when she dines with you.”

“I will do my best, my dear boy, now come along.  I have placed an especially attractive young lady beside you at luncheon today!”

As the Marquis walked behind the Prince towards the reception room, he thought he had been very astute.

He had now dealt in a skilful manner with Isobel.

He had undoubtedly prevented her from asking him the embarrassing question he feared and above all, he had made the Prince of Wales feel responsible for her, and that would soften the blow considerably.

‘By the time I return to London,’ he told himself, ‘she will have found someone to take my place.’

It was an optimistic hope, but at the same time if he stayed away long enough he was certain that Isobel would not remain lonely.

He was not particularly interested in the new beauty that the Prince of Wales introduced to him, but there were a number of amusing and interesting people present.

The Marquis found himself forgetting the tension of last night and the even worse drama of this morning.

*

When he left Marlborough House, he drove straight to where he knew his yacht would be waiting for him.

Mr. Foster and Bolton had done a very good job.

Everything he could possibly require on the voyage was already in its place on board
The Neptune
.

His valet, Gilbert, was waiting for him.

The Marquis was ceremonially piped aboard.

After Captain Gordon had greeted him, he was introduced to his wife.

She was getting on towards middle age, but she still had some of her youthful attractiveness and she had a soft well-educated voice.

She thanked the Marquis profusely for allowing her to accompany her husband on
The Neptune
.

“It has been one of my dreams, my Lord, to travel on a yacht captained by my husband and I can only thank you for the most perfect wedding present ever.”

“I am so delighted to have you here, Mrs. Gordon.  I expect your husband has arranged for the crew to drink your health this evening and then to enjoy the cake that I understand my secretary has managed to procure for you at short notice.”

“It is the biggest wedding cake I have ever seen,” Mrs. Gordon replied enthusiastically.  “It’s so gracious of your Lordship to think of it.”

The Captain said the same and as the engines began to turn,
The Neptune
moved slowly out into the midstream of the river and down towards the sea.

Only then did the Marquis give a sigh of relief.

He had finally escaped and it had certainly been the most dangerous moment that he had ever had to face – yet he had settled it without a row or tears.

A little later he went out on deck.

All the tall towers and spires of the City of London were fast disappearing into the distance and small waves were beginning to splash against the bow of
The Neptune
.

The Marquis felt the exhilaration of being free and untroubled in a way he could not express in words.

‘I am starting off on a new adventure,’ he reflected.  ‘I will therefore not think of the past or what is happening in my absence.  I will concentrate on what lies ahead and that, I feel, as it is all so new, will be an inexpressible joy.’

It was, he thought, when much later he retired to his cabin, a joy in itself to be alone.

Not only just because of the women like Isobel who invariably made relentless demands on him – also because he could not go for long without seeing his horses that were in training at Newmarket.

He always enjoyed being present on a Racecourse when any of them were likely to win.

He was a good polo player and polo had become a fashionable sport, and there were always admirers watching as he distinguished himself in the game.

Apart from his sport there were his many visits to Windsor Castle.

His father had occupied a most influential position at Court and it was only a question of time before Queen Victoria offered him a similar post.

The Marquis knew that she was only waiting until he was older and he had a slight suspicion that she was also waiting until he had married and ‘settled down’.

He disliked that expression intensely.

He could see it would mean spending a great deal of time on his estate.

He would have to listen endlessly to his wife rather than to other women and he was sure that every tomorrow would be a boring repetition of yesterday.

Nothing new, unusual or exciting would be likely to happen to him.

If he went out to a dinner party or met a new face out hunting, that would be his only excitement.

He had very often thought to himself that the most stimulating thing about love affairs was the beginning.

There was something about the moment when he realised that a woman looked a little different from the other females around her.

He felt excitement as he first heard a potential lover’s voice and noticed the sudden widening of her eyes when she realised how attractive he was.

He knew every single movement of the courtship dance, yet each time it happened it seemed new, exciting and even thrilling.

Once he was tied up and married there would be no more of that – not only from his point of view, but also from the women he met.

The unmarried man was certainly fair game and a woman knew exactly how to stalk him.

It would be very different when he was protected, watched over and guarded by a wife and she could make things very unpleasant if she was jealous or suspicious.

When he was lying in bed, he listened to the sound of water lapping against the sides of the yacht.

He knew that by tomorrow he would be many miles away from London, from Isobel and any other woman he had left angry and frustrated because she had lost him.

‘I am
free
,’ he said to himself as he cuddled down against the pillows.  ‘And that is exactly how I intend to remain.’

He then fell into a deep sleep almost before he had finished luxuriating in his glorious escape.

*

Captain Gordon had been told there was no reason to hurry.

So in the morning when the Marquis rose, it was a delight to find he could pay attention to the yacht itself.

He had always wanted his own yacht even when he was a small boy.

He had studied other people’s yachts and one of the first enterprises he had embarked on when he had become a Marquis was to build
The Neptune
.

The first English yacht on record was
The Pearl
of ninety-five tons built in 1820 and another was
The Arrow
, which was built two years later.

The Marquis was determined that his yacht, when it finally appeared, would be larger, swifter and more elegant than any of the others.

He had talked about it with the Prince of Wales, as His Royal Highness had become President of the British Yacht Racing Association that had been founded in 1875.

Like the Marquis, he was extremely interested not only in the racing ability of a yacht, but that it should be as comfortable as a travelling house.

He insisted that if beautiful women were to sail in yachts, they must be as comfortable as in a Palace.

The sailing rules governing the handling of yachts while racing were strictly codified and had been approved by His Royal Highness.

The Marquis was flattered when the Prince asked his opinion as to whether he thought the rules were just and effective.

He decided that as soon as he returned to England after his journey to Scotland, he would invite the Prince of Wales to take a tour of inspection on board
The Neptune
.

He would also enter her in the next available race, provided she had every chance of winning.

‘I must discuss this with the Captain,’ he thought.  ‘It will be certainly something new for me to win a yacht race rather than a horserace!’

Then he laughed at the idea.

He had won so many trophies one way or another – so one extra prize for
The Neptune
would not make much difference.

Yet he could not help thinking at the very back of his mind that it was important he should keep himself well occupied by other interests rather than just women.

That Isobel had virtually proposed marriage to him had been a shock he would not forget in a hurry.

He now remembered a relevant incident –

A friend of his that he had been at Oxford with had been out riding and a girl, who was a near neighbour and whom he had known for many years, joined him.

A violent thunderstorm had suddenly burst and they had sheltered in a small woodcutter’s hut until the worst of the storm had passed.

Because they were both so interested in horses, they had talked about them during the hours they were together.

It had never even occurred to the Marquis’s friend to kiss her.

Finally they returned home very late and the girl’s family were most perturbed as to what had happened.

The following day her father called on the young man’s father and had insisted that her reputation had been damaged.  He stated firmly that the only way a gentleman could behave was to ask for her hand in marriage.

The Marquis’s friend had been in despair.

“I quite like Elizabeth,” he groaned.  “She is a very pleasant girl and I have known her since I was a child, but I have no desire to marry her.  What the hell can I do?”

“Have you explained what you feel to your father?” the Marquis had asked him.

“My father says,” was the reply, “if I don’t do the decent thing, it will besmirch the whole family and I will be branded as a cad for the rest of my life.”

The Marquis had agreed to be his Best Man, as there had been nothing else he could do for him.

He told himself then that if there was a storm when he was out riding, he would much rather be soaked to the skin than shelter from it with a woman!

*

Later that day a big storm blew up, but
The Neptune
proved more than able to cope with it.

The Marquis was never seasick, yet because there was a great deal of pitching and tossing, he learnt later that several of the crew had succumbed.

“I will pull into a harbour this evening, my Lord,” suggested Captain Gordon.  “There is just no point in being uncomfortable and it is in storms like this that one can run into rocks or collide with another ship.”

The Marquis exclaimed in frustration.

“For Heaven’s sake, Captain, must you!  The yacht seems so perfect at present and that is how I want her to remain.”

“So do I, my Lord, and you are not to worry.  
The
Neptune
is sounder and more dependable than any woman!  She will not let us down.”

The Marquis believed this to be true.

He enjoyed an excellent dinner in comfort while the yacht was anchored in a small harbour.

What was more the sea was subsiding and, when he finished his meal, he began reading a most interesting book on India.

Later he read several more chapters in bed before he turned out the lights.