Garlands of Gold (26 page)

He smiled slowly at her. ‘Because I know you better than you realize. You have the same ruthlessly ambitious streak in your nature as I have in mine and when you have set your mind on a goal nothing will deter you. Admittedly you failed to win Grinling, but that matter was entirely out of your province. So, since my terms suit you, I think we shall do very well together.’

‘You can be very cruel at times,’ she said, wincing at what she saw as a taunt.

‘It is not my intention,’ he said, holding out his hand for hers, not to put it to his lips as she would have expected, but to clasp it firmly as if she were a man with whom he had reached a satisfactory business arrangement. ‘I want us to share an agreeable partnership.’

‘I have one stipulation,’ she said. ‘We shall not be married in Aldgate Church.’

‘You have another that you prefer? It is of no consequence to me.’

‘No. It is just that I could not in all conscience stand before a holy altar in any church and make false promises to love, honour and obey you till the end of my days. I want a Fleet wedding.’

He stared at her in astonishment. The notorious Fleet prison had become a place where those in haste to be married could be wed at short notice without a licence or banns being read as well as no awkward questions asked. The reasons for such marriages might be an unexpected pregnancy, men departing overseas with the armed services sooner than expected, elopements when couples needed to escape parental wrath, and sometimes simply to avoid the cost involved through the festivities that accompanied a church marriage. The reason why it had become quick and easy to arrange a wedding ceremony within the prison’s dank walls was that among the many prisoners there was always a small number of clergymen incarcerated for various crimes, some of them defrocked, and all thankful to earn a little money to help towards their debts that had put them behind bars or to purchase ale and other comforts to ease their grim circumstances.

‘Do you really want to be married in that notorious, fever-ridden place?’ Robert questioned on a note of total disbelief.

‘Yes, I do. Find a defrocked clergyman in there. One who is no longer ordained and without authority to perform marriages or anything else. He will be only too eager to carry out the charade for good payment and any words spoken by us will have no more meaning than if we were actors in a play.’

He regarded her steadily. ‘Did you keep awake all night thinking this out?’

She nodded. ‘Yes, and the other nights too. In fact, I have not stopped considering every aspect very seriously ever since you put your proposition to me. I know as you do that the alternative would be very bleak for me. You said yourself that my previous success with well-to-do clients was only because I was a novelty, and I know that none would ever buy from me again if I sold at a common market stall.’

‘You can be sure of it,’ he agreed. He could see that although she wanted no part of his life, she was also too level-headed to take the grim alternative. It pleased him that she lacked foolish sentiment and had so much common sense.

‘If you delay your departure just by a few hours,’ she continued, ‘we could get the whole business of a sham marriage over and done with completely today. People will think that we were swept away by love and wished to marry before you had to return to Yorkshire.’ Then she smiled wryly. ‘I believe that should convince Master Wren that you have finally mended your ways and settled down.’

He gave a quiet laugh on a triumphant note. ‘It should indeed.’ Then he reached into his pocket and drew out a small box. Opening it, he presented a very fine emerald and pearl betrothal ring set in gold for her inspection and with it was a gold wedding ring.

‘Allow me to put this ring on your finger now that we are betrothed,’ he said courteously, but with no more emotion than if he was wanting her to pour him a cup of tea.

She held out her hand once again and this time, after slipping on the ring, he did raise her fingers to his lips with a formal bow.

‘It’s a beautiful ring,’ she said quietly.

‘I chose it to match your eyes,’ he replied, his fierce dark gaze holding hers as he pocketed the wedding ring. ‘Now is there anything more we have to discuss?’

‘No. I think we have settled everything.’

‘Then I’ll delay my departure until this afternoon and go to the Fleet prison now to make the necessary arrangements.’

It was just before noon when Saskia arrived with Robert at the great grey stone building that was the Fleet prison. There was to be a hanging of a highwayman that day and people were already gathering around the scaffold outside the prison walls.

Inside the prison the stench from the cells wafted around the wedding couple as they were led along a wide hall into a side room. They had been offered the use of the chapel for their marriage, but Saskia had been swift to refuse. The clergyman, who awaited them, had creases at the corner of his eyes as if he had once enjoyed laughter and jovial company in the past, but judging by his oversized cassock and desperate expression he must have lost a deal of weight as well as his
joie de vivre
since coming into prison through gambling debts. He introduced himself as the Reverend William Walburton. Two of the wardens, who had followed Saskia and Robert into the room, were to be witnesses.

It was all over very quickly. The marriage certificate was signed and handed to Saskia. Robert gave a purse of money to each of the witnesses and a heavier one to the clergyman, who clutched it to his chest, closing his eyes in thankfulness for the jingle of gold.

They returned to the house where Robert discussed the financial arrangements he had made for her with his banker before he had made the wedding appointment, putting no limit on whatever she wished to spend.

‘There is no equipage for you to use in my absence,’ he said, ‘except a little carriage for two in the coach-house, which was here when I bought this property. Get some advice from Grinling and buy a pony for it. Then you can use it to go visiting.’

Now it was time for him to leave and his coach stood waiting. As he and Saskia stood facing each other in the hall by the open front door she spoke very seriously.

‘You said you wanted me to let our marriage be known.’

‘Yes, of course. The sooner the better.’

‘Yet I shall wait until I receive word from you, because if you and Jane should decide to elope I would never breathe a word to anyone of what has taken place here today. You would be free to make a marriage of love.’

He eyed her cynically, taking her chin between his finger and thumb to tilt her face upwards. ‘An elopement would cost me all my ambitions for this life. I know of nothing that could cause me to jeopardize my ultimate aim, least of all the scandal that such an action would create.’

Then he lowered his lips on to hers into what became a deeply passionate kiss, holding her locked in his arms as they swayed together. Then gently he released her, aware that she was flushed and breathless.

‘That was to seal our bargain,’ he said drily. ‘Nothing more than that. It will not happen again.’

She stood at the door to watch him depart, but when seated in the coach he did not glance back or raise his hand in a wave as he was borne away. As she shut the door again she was left wondering just how deep his feelings were for Jane Montgomery since he would not risk endangering his future through an elopement to win her.

Upstairs she gazed into her looking-glass, expecting to see her lips swollen by such a kiss. It had been an experience she would not easily forget. In fact it seemed to have inflamed her whole being in a way she had never known before. Remembering what Elizabeth had said about his male magnetism she supposed that briefly she had fallen victim to it.

In the coach Robert congratulated himself on his restraint. It had not been easy, but he would keep his word. At least Saskia could never marry anyone else now, which had removed his fear of losing her. If she had already gained a husband during his absence from London he would have probably made Jane his wife. She was beautiful, well educated, intelligent and also passionate, which he knew from the occasions when he had been alone with her. If he had given her the slightest encouragement she would have told her father that she had changed her mind and no longer wished to marry her betrothed. She would not have been denied, for she was the apple of her father’s doting eye. Yet Robert knew that her chief attraction for him had been in a faint resemblance to Saskia, who was as firmly entrenched in his heart as Grinling was in hers.

Later that same day Saskia went to see Elizabeth, who immediately started chattering away about wedding gowns and dishes for banquets before Saskia could break her news.

‘Robert and I were married today at noon.’

Elizabeth looked at her incredulously. ‘You can’t be! You have not had any banns read in church!’

‘There was no need. We had a Fleet marriage.’

Elizabeth looked aghast, throwing up her hands in dismay. ‘That dreadful place! Why?’

‘Robert and I decided between us that we should be wed before he left for the city of York today.’

Immediately Elizabeth’s expression changed and she became quite dewy-eyed. ‘He could wait no longer to make you his wife! I wish you both all the joys of marriage, but,’ she added mischievously, ‘I’m sure that Robert initiated you into some of its pleasures before he went away.’

Saskia ignored the comment. ‘He is sending his staff back to London from Yorkshire to take care of the house, and so I shall have plenty of time on my hands. I have a project that I have planned. I’m going to try to replace all the little pots and flasks that were lost in the fire. If my mother was able to put a collection together of such lovely old ones in Paris I’m sure I could do the same in London.’

‘But you could buy new ones.’

Saskia nodded. ‘Maybe if I find any worthy to be added to the only one I have from the original collection. My mother had added two or three little Delft jars to it that were new, but I’m hoping that each one I buy will be antique enough to have its own little history, even though I shall never know the origins of any of them.’

‘What a fascinating task you have given yourself! May I be allowed to start off your new collection?’ Elizabeth sprang up from her chair and went into her bedchamber to return with a tiny glass pot, its colour a rich blue.

‘It’s lovely!’ Saskia exclaimed as it was handed to her.

‘It’s from Venice. It is one of the souvenirs that Grinling brought home from his trip, but I know he will be pleased for you to have it.’

‘Together with the one sole surviving pot from the cottage fire it makes a wonderful commencement of my task. I thank you so much.’

‘Have you selected a room in the house where you can make your products?’ Elizabeth asked.

‘Yes, there’s one above the kitchen with a view over the herb garden. As soon as I leave here I’m calling in a carpenter to equip the room for me with a work bench, shelves and all else that I’ll need. It will be the kind of working area that I have always wanted. Somewhere in the house I shall have a glass-fronted cupboard from floor to ceiling where I can place all the little treasures that I’m hoping to find. It will probably be in the music room.’

‘That is an excellent idea! But at the present time you should also be thinking about clothes. Robert is very sociable and when he returns to London you’ll be invited with him to all kinds of events.’

‘I’m engaging the same dressmaker as you had. I have contacted her and she is coming tomorrow afternoon.’

‘Excellent! May I come and help you choose as you did with me?’

Saskia laughed. ‘Yes, indeed.’

After drinking tea with Elizabeth and before leaving the inn Saskia went to see the landlord. After paying him up to date for renting Acorn she then made an offer to buy her, knowing from Joe what the mare was worth. The offer was accepted and the following day Saskia sent a message to Joe, asking him to bring Acorn to her, for there was stabling for eight horses beside the coach-house.

When Joe arrived with his charge Saskia met him with a gold coin and gave Acorn a juicy apple. She could see from Acorn’s condition how well the lad had cared for the mare.

‘Mistress,’ Joe began tentatively after Saskia had given him food and drink in the kitchen and it was time for him to leave again, ‘do you think you might have a place for another stable lad when the staff come back from Yorkshire? Acorn has become used to me and she won’t like anyone else grooming her.’

She realized how strong the bond had become between him and the mare. ‘What of the farm, Joe?’

‘My brother won’t even notice I’ve gone and the farm will be his one day, never mine.’

‘But your parents?’

‘Ma thinks it would be good for me to get out in the world and she has already talked my Pa into agreeing.’ Then he added eagerly, ‘I looked at the accommodation in the stable loft. There would be plenty of room for me.’

She smiled. ‘In that case you’d better go home and collect your belongings.’

He gave a yelp of jubilation and then coloured beneath his freckles. ‘Your pardon, mistress. I’ll be back here this evening!’

After he had gone she went upstairs to transfer her clothes and other items into the closets and chests of the bedchamber and its adjoining dressing room that were next to Robert’s. Since they would now appear to be husband and wife it was right that she should occupy the rooms of the mistress of the house. The communicating double doors had the key on her side and were securely locked.