The Corinthian Read online

  ‘I know it’s absurd,’ replied Cedric frankly. ‘But you should have thought of that before you started jauntering about the country in this crazy fashion. There’s nothing for it now: you’ll have to be married!’

  ‘I won’t!’ Pen declared. ‘No one need ever know that I am not a boy, except you, and one other, who doesn’t signify.’

  ‘But my dear girl, it won’t do! Take it from me, it won’t do! If you don’t know that, I’ll be bound Ricky does. I daresay you don’t fancy the notion, but he’s a devilish fine catch, you know. Blister it, we were looking to him to bring our family fortunes about, so we were!’ he added, with an irrepressible chuckle.

  ‘I think you are vulgar and detestable!’ said Pen. ‘I have got a great deal of money of my own; in fact, I’m an heiress, and I have a very good mind not to marry anyone!’

  ‘But only think what a waste!’ protested Cedric. ‘If you are an heiress, and you can’t stomach the notion of marrying Ricky, for which I won’t blame you, for the Lord knows he’s no lady’s man! – a hardened case, m’dear: never looked seriously at a female in his life! – I suppose you wouldn’t make shift with your humble servant?’

  ‘Your conversation, my dear Cedric, is always edifying,’ said Sir Richard icily.

  But Pen, instead of being offended, giggled. ‘No, thank you. I shouldn’t like to marry you at all.’

  ‘I was afraid you wouldn’t. You’ll have to take Ricky, then: nothing else for it! But you’re too young for him: no getting away from that! Damme, if I know what maggot got into your heads to set you off on this crazy adventure!’

  ‘You are labouring under a misapprehension, Cedric,’ said Sir Richard. ‘There is nothing I desire more than to marry Pen.’

  ‘Well, of all things!’ gasped Cedric. ‘And here was I thinking you a hopeless case!’

  ‘I am going to bed,’ stated Pen.

  Sir Richard moved across the door to open it for her. ‘Yes my child: go to bed. But pray do not let Cedric’s artless chatter prejudice you! For addle-pated folly I have never met his equal.’ He possessed himself of her hand, as he spoke, and lifted it to his lips. ‘Pleasant dreams, brat,’ he said softly.

  She felt a lump rise in her throat, achieved a tremulous smile, and fled, but not before she had heard Cedric exclaim in tones of the liveliest surprise: ‘Ricky, you ain’t really in love with that chit, are you?’

  ‘I think,’ said Sir Richard, closing the door, ‘that we shall be more usefully employed in discussing the circumstances which brought you here, Cedric.’

  ‘Oh, by all means!’ Cedric said hastily. ‘Beg pardon! No intention of prying into your affairs, dear boy; not the least in the world! Now, don’t get into a miff ! You know how it is with me! Never could keep a discreet tongue in my head!’

  ‘That is what I am afraid of,’ Sir Richard said dryly.

  ‘Mum as an oyster!’ Cedric assured him. ‘But that you of all men, Ricky – ! That’s what beats me! However, no concern of mine! What’s all this you were telling me about Bev?’

  ‘He’s dead. That seems to be the most important thing.’

  ‘Well, it’s no good expecting me to pull a long face over it. He was a bad man, take my word for it! What was he doing in this spinney you talk of ?’

  ‘As a matter of fact, he went there to meet me,’ said Sir Richard.

  Cedric frowned at him. ‘More in this than meets the eye. Why, Ricky?’

  ‘To be plain with you, he had hit upon the notion of extorting money from me by threatening to make known the fact that my supposed cousin was a girl in disguise.’

  ‘Yes, that’s Bev all over,’ nodded Cedric, quite unsurprised. ‘Offered to pay his debts, didn’t you?’

  ‘Oh, I had offered that earlier in the day! Unfortunately Captain Trimble learned of my appointment with Beverley in the spinney, and went there before me. I fancy he had nothing more than robbery in mind. There was a witness to the meeting, who described how a quarrel sprang up, and how Trimble struck Beverley down, searched his pockets, and made off. Possibly he thought he had merely stunned him. When I found him his neck was broken.’

  ‘Jupiter!’ said Cedric, giving a whistle of consternation. ‘It’s worse than I thought, then! The devil! There will be no hushing this up. They don’t suspect you of having a hand in it, do they, Ricky?’

  ‘I am fast acquiring a most unsavoury reputation in this neighbourhood, but so far I have not been arrested for murder. What precise object had you in coming here?’

  ‘Why, to choke the truth out of Bev, of course! Couldn’t get it out of my head he was at the bottom of that robbery. He was badly dipped, y’know. M’father wants my bloodhound called off, too, but I’m damned if I can come up with any trace of him. If you met the fellow on the Bristol road, that would account for my missing him. I went to Bath. Last I heard of Bev was that he was there, with Freddie Fotheringham. Freddie told me Bev had gone off to stay with some people called Luttrell, living at a place near here. So I saw m’mother, got the full story of the robbery out of her, and came on here. Now what’s to do?’

  ‘You had better make the acquaintance of the local magistrate. A man who might well be Trimble was taken up in Bath to-day, but whether the necklace was on him I know not.’

  ‘Must lay my hands on that plaguey necklace!’ frowned Cedric. ‘Won’t do if the truth about that were to come out. But what are you going to do, Ricky? It seems to me you’re in the deuce of a coil too.’

  ‘I shall no doubt be able to answer that question when I have talked the matter over with Pen to-morrow,’ Sir Richard replied.

  But Sir Richard was not destined to have the opportunity of talking over any matter with Miss Creed upon the morrow. Miss Creed, going dejectedly up to bed, sat for a long time at the open window of her room, and gazed blindly out upon the moonlit scene. She had spent, she decided, quite the most miserable day of her life, and the sudden incursion of Cedric Brandon had done nothing to alleviate her heaviness of heart. It was apparent that Cedric considered her adventure only one degree less fantastic than the notion that she was to marry Sir Richard. According to his own words, he had known Sir Richard from the cradle, so that it was fair to assume that he was very well acquainted with him. He gave it as his opinion that she must marry Sir Richard, which was tantamount to saying, she reflected, that she had put Sir Richard into the uncomfortable position of being obliged to offer for her. It was most unjust, Pen thought, for Sir Richard had not been sober when he had insisted on accompanying her into Somerset, and he had, moreover, done it out of sheer solicitude for her safety. It had not occurred to her that a gentleman so many years her senior could be supposed to compromise her, or to engage his own honour so disastrously. She had liked him from the moment of setting eyes on him; she had plunged into terms of intimacy with him in the shortest possible time; and had, indeed, felt as though she had known him all her life. She thought herself more stupid even than Lydia Daubenay not to have realized before ever they had reached Queen Charlton, that she had tumbled headlong in love with him. She had refused to look beyond her meeting with Piers, yet she could not but admit to herself now that she had been by no means anxious to summon Piers to her side when she had arrived at the George. By the time she did come face to face with him, he would have had to have been a paragon indeed to have won her from Sir Richard.

  His conduct had been anything rather than that of a paragon. He had spoiled everything, Pen thought. He had accused her of impropriety, and had forced Sir Richard into making a declaration he had surely not wanted to make.

  ‘Because I don’t suppose he loves me at all,’ Pen argued to herself. ‘He never said so until Piers was so odious: in fact, he treated me just as if he really was a trustee, or an uncle, or somebody years and years older than I am, which I dare say was what made it all seem quite proper to me, and not in the least scanda