The Rape of Venice (10 page)

As he came out into the hall, he saw Malderini being helped
up the stairs by his valet. They were about a third of the way up the flight and, their backs being towards him, neither of them caught sight of him. But the Princess, who was following them, had reached only the bottom stair. As he emerged from the dining-room, she turned and her dark eyes held his for a moment.

He had very little doubt that her husband had forced her to play the part she had in the deception; so he felt deeply sorry for her. With a view to expressing his sympathy, he made her a much deeper bow than he would have normally. As he raised his head, he expected her to incline hers, then pass on up the stairs; but she did neither. Instead, she remained poised on the bottom stair, her glance searching his face intently.

It seemed pointless to address her, as he could not expect her to understand him; so he simply stood there returning her solemn gaze. For a few moments neither of them moved, then she looked away from him and up the stairs. Malderini and Pietro had just reached the landing; so they were now out of earshot. Her big almond shaped eyes switched back to Roger.

Suddenly she spoke in a deep low voice. And she spoke in heavily accented, but perfectly clear, English. ‘You will fight him. You must kill him. He is evil; utterly evil. Have care not to look in his eyes. But kill him! Kill him!'

Before Roger could reply, she had turned away and was running up the stairs as swiftly as her sari would permit. His expression of astonishment gave way to a cynical little smile. Since she spoke English he had no doubt now that she also spoke Italian, French and German. As he had thought possible in the afternoon demonstration, when Malderini had appeared to be reading out the questions, he had actually been giving her their answers. His sending Clarissa to sleep by a few passes proved him to be a competent hypnotist, but all the miracles he claimed to work were fakes.

From their recent encounter, Roger judged that Malderini's wife was his unwilling tool, and did as she was ordered only through acute fear of him or, perhaps, because she lived for the greater part of the time subject to his hypnotic domination. If the latter were the case, the inference was that his semi-collapse had enabled her temporarily to escape from it. After a moment's thought he decided to refrain, for the time being, from disclosing that she had spoken to him. Then he crossed the hall and entered the long drawing-room.

It was still early and Georgina, in a determined attempt to restore a normal atmosphere, had endeavoured to organise a round game. But Droopy and Sheridan had both asked to be excused and her father had gone up to his own rooms; so she had had to make the best of sitting down to a game of ombre with Beckford, Esther and Clarissa.

The first hand was being dealt as Roger came in and, giving only a glance at the group seated round the card table, he joined Droopy and Sheridan, who were talking in low voices in a corner.

‘He'll fight,' Sheridan was saying, as Roger came up. ‘He
must; he has no alternative.'

‘But is he in a fit state to do so?' Roger asked. ‘I saw him a few minutes back being half carried up the staircase by his man.'

Sheridan shrugged. ‘He is suffering only from a temporary indisposition. I've seen him in a similar state on two previous occasions, and on both he has re-appeared looking as strong as a horse in the morning.'

‘Then, if his health permits, he must give me satisfaction,' Roger declared firmly.

‘We'll give him half-an-hour to recover himself; then I will go up and see him,' Sheridan volunteered. ‘The odds are that he'll ask me to be his second. If so, in the circumstances, I can hardly refuse.'

‘In that case it will be for you and me to make the arrangements,' said Droopy. ‘Mr. Brook has already asked me to act for him.'

Sheridan bowed. ‘Charmed, m'Lord. I can think of no one with whom I should be happier to settle the formalities. And now, gentlemen, I suggest we leave this painful subject and kill time by taking a glass of wine together,'

The three men walked quietly through to the dining-room, collected a decanter of wine and glasses, and took them to the library. For a good half-hour they sat there talking mainly about Sheridan's theatrical activities; then he left them to go upstairs.

He was away for about twenty minutes and, when he rejoined them, said at once, ‘Malderini is already quite recovered, and he says that if you insist upon it he will fight.'

‘I do,' Roger replied, standing up. ‘And I'll withdraw now so that you can discuss details. The Colonel never seeks his bed before midnight, so I'll go up to his room. You'll find me there, Ned, when you're in a position to tell me what has been settled.'

Colonel Thursby's private sitting-room held many indications of the way in which he had made his considerable fortune. There were models of machines that he had either invented or improved, and maps of the great canal system that he had aided the Duke of Bridgewater to plan, and most of the books on his shelves were works on engineering. There was also, beside the mantel, a rack holding a row of long-stemmed clay pipes, and the Colonel was puffing quietly at one.

Roger was not an addict of the weed, but he enjoyed an occasional pipe with Georgina's father; so, while he told him
how things were moving, he took down the churchwarden that had his initials on it and began to fill it from the Colonel's tobacco jar.

The Colonel nodded. ‘So Dick Sheridan and Lord Edward are arranging a meeting. Well, we can only hope that no harm comes to you from it.'

‘As I am the challenger, the choice of weapons lies with him,' Roger replied. ‘But either way, I don't think you need be greatly concerned about me. If it be swords I have little to fear. He must be at least fifteen years older than myself, and he is anything but an agile man; so I doubt not I'd make rings round him. With pistols, too, the odds should be in my favour. Unless he's an expert marksman, I'd wing him before he gets a bead on me.'

‘I hope that he choose swords. A duel with pistols is always a chancy matter. Even a man who has never fired one in his life may score a lucky hit; and if you were seriously injured, I should be distressed beyond measure. The more so as it was my act in exposing his trickery, and then you protecting me from his assault, which have led to this.'

‘I pray you don't give that another thought, Sir. You had every right to unmask the rogue, and no one could have foreseen that he would knock me down.' Roger drew the flame from a taper onto the tobacco in his pipe, then added, ‘Frankly, though, I'd give a lot for this imbroglio to have taken some other turn, so that I'd not been forced to challenge him.'

‘Since he struck you in the face, you had no option.'

‘That's just the rub; and why, though I doubt his doing so, I hope he will choose swords. As I told you at breakfast, Georgina asked him here at my request, that I might have a prospect of winning him over to Mr. Pitt's interest. Were I still saddled with that I'd be in an unholy mess. But by a stroke of good fortune, later in the morning I received a despatch from Downing Street relieving me of further responsibility in the matter. Even so, should I chance to lay him low for some weeks with a pistol bullet, that would sadly prejudice the negotiations he is about to open with the Foreign Office. If, on the other hand, we fight with swords, I'll almost certainly be able to disarm him, or, at worst, give him a slight jab in the sword arm. Then there'd be no fear of regrettable repercussions afterwards.'

For some half-hour they talked on, but in a lighter vein, then Droopy Ned joined them. Peering with his short-sighted eyes at Roger, he said:

‘'Tis to be at six o'clock tomorrow morning by the little temple on the far side of the lake. I fear, though, you may be somewhat disconcerted by his choice of weapons. He has chosen pikes.'

‘Strap me!' exclaimed Roger. ‘You can't be serious, Ned.'

Droopy nodded. ‘I am. Sheridan did his utmost to persuade him to accept more orthodox weapons, but he said that, being a studious and peaceable man by nature, he had never used a sword, and that an astigmatism of the eyes prevents him from shooting straight. He can hardly be blamed for selecting a weapon which will make the chances between you more even, and I did not feel that I had sound grounds for standing out against it.'

‘No ... no; I suppose not. But pikes, Ned! Where will we get them?'

There are a score or more to choose from among the arms that decorate the walls of the billiards room.'

‘So be it, then. What about a doctor?'

‘Knowing Dr. Chudleigh to be the household leech here, I've sent a note down to the village requesting him to attend upon us. Beckford refused to act with Sheridan as the Venetian's other second; so the groom who is carrying my note to Dr. Chudleigh also bears one from Sheridan to Major Rawton at the Red House. I gather the Major is a fire-eater of the first water, so the odds on him refusing Sheridan's request are negligible. It remains only for you to provide yourself with another second.'

Roger turned to the Colonel. ‘If you would honour me, Sir?'

‘Certainly, my dear boy,' came the prompt response. ‘Did I have to wait here to learn the outcome of this meeting, I'd be consumed with anxiety; now at least I'll learn it the moment it becomes apparent.'

They talked on till the clock chimed twelve, then the Colonel's two visitors wished him ‘good-night'. Droopy told Roger that he had arranged for his man to call them both at five o'clock and, after agreeing to meet down in the hall at a quarter-to-six, they separated to go to their rooms.

While undressing, Roger's thoughts were no longer on the duel, but on Georgina. As he was to be called at five o'clock there was no way in which he could conceal from her that it was to take place, and he knew that she would be greatly distressed about it. Resigning himself to a prospect of expostulations
and argument, he put on his flowered silk chamber-robe, and went through to her.

She was sitting up in bed and had a book open on her lap, but she was not reading. He had hardly closed the door of the boudoir, before she asked impatiently, ‘Well! Have you made an end of this wretched affair?'

‘Not quite,' he gave a disarming smile. ‘But I hope to have before you wake in the morning.'

She stiffened. ‘You mean that ...'

‘I mean, my love, that, through this pestiferous fellow, I am forced to suffer another and greater injury. On his account I'll be able to spend no more than an hour with you tonight; for I must get a few hours' sleep and am to be called at five o'clock.'

‘You insisted on fighting, then?'

‘'Twas not my wish; but I had no alternative.'

‘Oh God! What fools you men are!' Georgina burst out. ‘You call such meetings seeking satisfaction, yet only too often it's the offended party who gets skewered for his pains. There's neither justice nor fairness in it; for, right or wrong, the victor is he who's had most experience with weapons, and many an honest father of a family has met his death at the hands of an impudent young blackguard, because he felt in honour bound to call him out.'

‘In this case the blackguard is the older party, and I'd be much surprised, if, by this time tomorrow, Susan finds herself an orphan.'

‘Lud man! I'm not scared for you. At least, no more than any woman would be for her lover when he's about to expose himself to some chance injury. Pitted against a man so formidable with arms as you, the poor wretch will be lucky if he gets off with a month in bed nursing a slashed face or a punctured lung.'

‘Nay; I've no intention of causing him grevious harm. I mean to disarm him if I can.'

She gave him a puzzled look. ‘If you will be so easily satisfied, it makes this meeting even more senseless. Surely you would have done better when you got up from the floor to return him blow for blow. He'd not have hit you a second time, I'll be bound; and you could have left it at that.'

‘Had we been in Russia, that is just what I would have done. The nobility there indulge in fisticuffs at the least provocation, and even use their canes upon one another. Like yourself, and I admit with some reason, they maintain that duelling settles
nothing, and that the men of the western nations who resort to it are crazy. But ...'

‘Then I vow these Muscovites, whom we look on as barbarians, are more civilised than ourselves.'

‘Maybe, m'dear. But, as I was about to say, our customs are different. And when in Rome ...'

‘Oh! Roger, I know the stupid conventions that form the code of so-called men of honour well enough. Yet only the weak follow convention slavishly; and, in this instance, the blow was intended not for you but for Papa. Surely it was a case in which you could have composed the quarrel, instead of deliberately flouting my request that it should not lead to a duel?'

He sighed. ‘I'm sorry; truly sorry. Had the circumstances been slightly different I would gladly have acceded to your wish. The kernel of the matter was Sheridan being present. The others we could have bound to secrecy with a reasonable hope that they would hold their tongues, at least to the extent of making no mention of the fact that Malderini knocked me down. But you know Richard Brinsley even better than myself. It's not in his nature to refrain from telling a good story; so every detail of this affair will be all over London by Monday afternoon. Within a week, I'd have been forced to resign from my Clubs had I not insisted on the Venetian giving me satisfaction.'

‘I had not thought of that,' Georgina murmured. Then her lovely face was lit once more by her warm smile and she said, ‘You are excused, Sir; but not from having kept me talking for a part of our precious hour.' As she spoke she held out her arms.

Punctually at a quarter-to-six, Roger joined Droopy Ned and Colonel Thursby down in the main hall. They had there three types of pike for him to choose from. Having handled all three weapons, he chose the heaviest, on the assumption that, being stronger than Malderini, it would more easily enable him to beat down the Venetian's guard. Droopy took the two rejected weapons back to the billiards room and returned with the pair to the one Roger had selected. Then they set off for the rendezvous.