65 A Heart Is Stolen (13 page)

“Why?”

“Because, as you know, sailors were made redundant in their hundreds. I think it was worse on other parts of the coast, but there were too many here for me to cope with.”

“What do you mean by that?” the Marquis asked.

“Most of the men had homes to go to or at least could return to their own towns where there was a chance of local assistance. But the trouble was, they had no money to get there.”

“Are you telling me you supplied them with money for that purpose?”

“You can imagine what happened when they first came ashore,” Ivana said. “There were harpies, crooks and pickpockets all waiting to take from them any wages they might have saved. After two nights on land, most of them were completely penniless.”

“Surely that was their own fault?” the Marquis suggested.

Ivana just looked at him and he had a sudden vision of Lady Rose’s face when he awoke after having too much to drink and found her beside him.

“Continue with what you were telling me,” he said sharply.

“Travers sorted out for me the men who were really worth helping,” Ivana said, “and we gave them enough money to go home and to buy food on the way. The ones that were scroungers he turned away, which I should never have been able to do on my own.”

“So Travers was really your servant.”

“Yes,” Ivana admitted, “but, when we heard that you were returning, I sent him quickly to Heathcliffe, taking with him as footmen the four most able men we could find at a moment’s notice.”

The Marquis thought of the four clumsy lackeys in the ill-fitting livery and how Travers had seemed to do all the serving.

“I presume Travers was on your brother’s ship,” he said after a moment.

“He was the Admiral’s personal servant.”

‘I might have guessed it!’ the Marquis thought.

Aloud he said,

“Actually I was suspicious, even before I arrived, that something was happening here. One of my guests at Veryan had a snuffbox that I was quite certain had been in my father’s collection. It depicted a battleship on an emerald sea.”

“I was afraid you might mind losing that when I sold it.”

“Again I suppose I should be grateful that you even thought of me,” the Marquis remarked, “and let me add that when I arrived and saw that the cabinet was nearly empty, I was aware that a number of snuffboxes were missing.”

“I was hoping you would not notice that until after I had robbed you!”

The Marquis looked at her in astonishment.

“Good God!” he exclaimed. “So
you
were the highwayman!”

Ivana nodded.

“It was the only way I thought I could prevent you from realising that the snuffboxes were not there.”

“Then they were all that are left?” the Marquis enquired. “I thought perhaps some of them might have been put in the safe.”

“I anticipated you might think that too,” Ivana replied. “That is why I made one of the men come through the pantry door.”

“You certainly seem to think of everything. I could hardly believe that you could play the part of a man so well, although I did half suspect it after I heard you say you were a mimic.”

“That was another mistake to call the parakeets,” Ivana said with a sigh, “but you kept asking about the barn and I was so afraid that you might insist on looking inside.”

“What would I have seen?” the Marquis asked.

“There are only five wounded men left,” Ivana replied, “but that night there were ten others staying whom we were sending home to different parts of England the next day.”

“You are certainly organising things on a grand scale with my money,” the Marquis remarked.

“I am – sorry, but I can give you back the snuffboxes that are left and, of course, your watch and the gold ship.”

“Why, as a matter of interest, did you take that?”

“Because I thought you would think it strange if a highwayman left anything so valuable behind on the table. But I promise you I would never have sold it. It belongs particularly to Heathcliffe as perhaps nothing else does.”

“That sounds very convincing, Mrs. Wadebridge,” the Marquis said sneeringly. “I am just wondering whether, if I had not returned now, there would soon have been any of my possessions left. What about the pictures and the furniture?”

“It’s no use my trying to excuse myself,” Ivana answered. “I am aware how angry this must make you, but I felt what I was doing was right and just.”

“Just – for who?”

“For England!”

“I think your notions of justice are somewhat muddled, I might even say twisted,” the Marquis said. “Or do you fancy yourself as a latter-day Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor?”

He spoke so contemptuously that Ivana felt her anger rising.

“Perhaps it is a good comparison, my Lord,” she replied, “but to be truthful, it was stealing from the very very rich for the men who were prepared to die so that his possessions should not be taken from him by the French.”

The Marquis thought that she had scored a point, but he countered,

“You can hardly expect me to approve of your methods however well you doll them up with pretty words.”

“I have no wish to do that,” Ivana said. “All I want is that you should understand that everything that has happened here was my fault and my fault entirely.”

“Markham is my agent and as such his loyalty should have been to me as his employer.”

“Is that all that matters to you?” Ivana asked. “He had a deep affection for my father and, although he connived at giving the sailors the money, you were paying for servants who were doing nothing, he did not know for a long time that I was stealing from you.”

“And when he did?” the Marquis enquired.

“He was shocked – very shocked, but when he saw the suffering of the men I was trying to help, he knew that without extra money for medicines and the food they required they would soon join those we – had buried in the – churchyard.”

There was a quiver in Ivana’s voice as she added,

“Four died last year and three the year before. Nanny and I did everything we could, but it was hopeless – they were – all so – badly hurt.”

The Marquis looked down at the ledger.

“You have made out a good case for yourself, Mrs. Wadebridge,” he said, “but I am certainly not happy about the way Markham has behaved in this whole matter.”

“I have explained to you – ”

“I know,” the Marquis interrupted, “but, as I have said, Markham is my agent. I trusted him and he has abused that trust, which is something I will not tolerate.”

Ivana gave a little cry and moved nearer the desk.

“You cannot mean – ?” she said. “You cannot – intend to – dismiss him?”

“I see no other course of action.”

“But you must not do that! He has been here all these years. It is his life. He loves Heathcliffe. He would die for – the house and – your family.”

“All I ask is that he should live honestly while he is working for me.”

“You cannot be so – cruel – so hard,” Ivana said. “It would – kill him to go – away. Besides – where would he go? He has no – money saved.”

“I suppose you spent that too.”

“I tried to prevent him from being so generous, but he insisted and would often give the men – something behind my – back.”

“That was his decision,” the Marquis asserted.

Ivana looked at him and thought that his expression was merciless.

“How can I plead with you?” she asked. “What can I say to make you – understand that Marky must not – suffer for this?”

Her hands were on the desk now as she said,

“Listen to me – my Lord. Please – listen.”

The Marquis’s eyes were on her face as she went on,

“I will do – anything you tell me to do. You can – punish me in any – way you wish – even send me to prison – and I will not – complain. But don’t make Marky – suffer for –
my
sins.”

“Your sins are a very different matter, Mrs. Wadebridge,” the Marquis said, “and, as you have said yourself, the punishment for your crime is very obvious.”

Ivana stiffened but she did not speak.

“You mean – prison!”

“You must be aware that anyone who steals above the value of one shilling is liable to be hanged?”

Ivana did not move or speak. Only her eyes widened until they seemed to fill her whole face.

“Is that what you – intend shall – happen to me?” she whispered after a moment’s silence.

The Marquis did not reply and she said proudly,

“I have no defence. All I can ask is that if I die you will – exonerate Marky from his part in what I have done and look after my old nurse – because she too has – spent her – life-savings.”

“Can you think of any reason why I should?” the Marquis asked, “after the way you have treated me?”

“Does it mean nothing to you that you have been instrumental in saving the lives of at least fifty men who would otherwise have died and preventing a much larger number of others from turning to a life of crime?”

“You are very plausible in your own defence.”

“I have already told you that I am not thinking of myself,” Ivana retorted. “But if you will save Marky I will do anything – anything you ask of me.”

“Anything?” the Marquis enquired with a twist of his lips.

“1 swear to you that is true by – everything I hold – sacred.”

“Very well – ” the Marquis began.

He would have said more, but at that moment the door of the library opened and Anthony came into the room.

“Look out, Justin!” he said in a low warning voice.

Then, as the Marquis looked at him with astonishment, behind him came a vision in the shape of Lady Rose.

She was wearing one of the new muslins that ladies of fashion dampened so that it clung to their figures and made it appear as if they were partially naked.

As if to compensate for her body being so lightly clad, Lady Rose wore on her head a bonnet with a large turned-up brim and a high crown that was massed with pink ostrich feathers. Round her throat was a necklace of turquoises and diamonds while the same stones glittered beneath her fair hair in her shell-like ears.

She looked sensational and breathtakingly beautiful.

She stood for a moment in the doorway as if to give the Marquis the chance of admiring her. Then with a little cry of joy she ran towards him.

“Justin, dearest! I have found you!” she exclaimed. “How could you leave in that unkind and cruel fashion? I have been distraught, absolutely distraught, wondering where you could be, then – ”

“I told her where you could be hiding”, a deep plummy voice announced and following her into the room came the Prince Regent!

He was obviously in one of his merry good humours.

Ivana, who had never seen him before, stared with undisguised interest at his laughing eyes and pouting lips.

He was tall but over-fat, his clothes fitted him like a glove and around his throat was a huge white cravat with many folds out of which she thought his chin seemed almost to be struggling to emerge.

The whole impression he gave was one of stylish elegance and he had an unmistakable presence that told her that even in a crowd she would have known that he was of Royal blood.

The Marquis, who had risen automatically to his feet as Lady Rose spoke to him, now moved forward hastily to bow and take the hand the Prince held out to him.

“This is a great surprise, Sire!”

“I thought it would be,” the Prince said with a chuckle. “But when Lady Rose cried on my shoulder and complained that she could not find you, I guessed where you had run to earth.”

“You were right, Sire,” the Marquis said.

“And Justin,” Lady Rose cried, as if determined to keep herself in the picture, “I have told His Royal Highness our little secret.”

The Marquis stiffened.

“Secret?” he enquired.

“Of course, dearest. I knew you would wish to tell him yourself, but it just slipped out when I was so unhappy.”

“I must congratulate you, Justin,” the Prince said, “congratulate you most sincerely. You will have the loveliest wife in England, just as you have the finest horses.”

For a moment the Marquis seemed stunned. Then he knew with a sudden fury that seemed to rise up inside him like an explosive bomb, that he had been tricked.

Rose had won! Rose had him exactly where she wanted him and there was nothing he could do about it.

He thought despairingly that he was cornered, caught, captured and snared by a woman who had been cleverer than he was.

Then a movement behind him made him remember Ivana.

He realised that she was tactfully backing away towards the window, obviously intending to leave as she had arrived.

It was then an idea came to him, an idea that seemed to follow naturally on the last words she had spoken when she had sworn a sacred oath that she would do anything – anything he asked of her.

There was a note in his voice that Anthony thought sounded like one of triumph as he said,

“One minute! I fear there has been some mistake and I cannot imagine quite how it has occurred.”

“Mistake?” Lady Rose asked.

Now there was a wary look in her eyes, which told the Marquis, if he had not known it before, that all her effusiveness had been well planned so that he should be aware that he was trapped and that there was no escape.

“Yes, indeed,” the Marquis said.

He walked towards Ivana and took her by the hand, pulling her forward so that they stood side by side in front of the Prince.

“May I, Sire,” he asked, “present my wife who was the daughter of Captain Wadebridge who died a hero’s death at the Battle of the Nile.”

As the Marquis spoke, he tightened his fingers on Ivana’s hand, telling her without words what he asked of her.

Just for a moment it seemed as if everybody in the room was frozen into immobility. Then the Prince Regent with a laugh exclaimed,

“You always manage to surprise me, Justin! It is one of the things I most enjoy about you. I never guessed, I never anticipated for one moment that you might spring a secret marriage on me! But, of course, I congratulate you and wish your bride every possible happiness.”

He took Ivana’s hand as she rose from a deep curtsey and, as he looked at her, he said,