Parfit Knight (15 page)

Rosalind froze
and then, as naturally as she could, slipped from his grip to turn
away as a rapid flush stained her skin. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Exactly what I
say,’ replied Philip grimly as he unfastened his cloak and tossed
it over a chair. ‘You needn’t sound so surprised. I know perfectly
well that he was here – and for a whole week.’

‘Yes. He left
four days ago.’
Only
four days, she thought ironically. It
didn’t sound much unless you’d had to live through it. ‘Who told
you? Oh – let me guess. Someone wrote to you? Emily Warriston?’

‘Who else?’

Rosalind’s
mouth curled sardonically. ‘I’ll wager she couldn’t wait. Lord
Amberley snubbed her beautifully – and Letty too. You would have
enjoyed it.’

‘Very likely –
but that’s not what I travelled from London to hear.’

‘Oh?’ She sat
gracefully on a sofa. ‘What then?’

‘Don’t play
games, Rose. I’m devilish out of temper and not in the mood for
them. It’s been a difficult sort of a day.’ His lordship poured two
glasses of wine and handed one to his sister and, as he did so, his
eye lit upon a huge bowl of exotic hot-house blooms. His brow
darkened with suspicion. ‘Where did those flowers come from? We
don’t grow anything like that.’

‘No. The
Marquis sent them from Amberley,’ replied Rosalind with evident
pleasure. ‘Wasn’t it kind of him?’

Philip stared
at the arrangement critically. ‘Mm … they’re a bit too gaudy, if
you ask me.’

‘Well, I don’t
suppose he chose them for colour. All I know is that they’re
beautifully scented.’

Feeling himself
justly reproved, Philip sat down and said abruptly, ‘Yes. I’m
sorry. I think you’d better tell me all about my lord Marquis.’

‘I fully intend
to – so there isn’t the least need for you to be so disagreeable.
It’s simply that, since it’s quite a long story, I thought you
might prefer not to be bombarded with it the instant you walked
through the door,’ said Rosalind patiently. ‘However, Lord Amberley
came here because he’d been held up on the road and his coachman
had been shot. So – ‘

‘I know all
that,’ her brother interrupted. ‘What I want you to tell me is how
he conducted himself towards you. That Warriston cat says that the
two of you were intimate but -- ‘

‘She
would.’

‘-- but
he
says he behaved with perfect propriety,’ continued his
single-minded lordship. ‘And though I don’t suppose --‘

‘
He
?’
cut in Rosalind incredulously. ‘Lord Amberley? You’ve
seen
him?’

‘Yes. Why
should I not? Or did you think he wouldn’t wish to face me?’

Very carefully,
she set her glass down. ‘When and where?’

Lord Philip
eyed her irritably. ‘This morning. He called on me in Jermyn
Street.’

‘Why?’

‘Why do you
think?’

‘If I knew, I
wouldn’t be asking. He left here for Amberley and he expected to be
there for at least a week. If he cut short his stay to call on you
in London, then it must have been for a reason. What did he
say?’

‘A damned sight
too much!’ replied Philip feelingly. ‘He is without doubt the most
annoying, arrogant, meddlesome fellow it’s ever been my misfortune
to meet.’

A spark of
anger glowed in the violet eyes. ‘That’s nonsense. But it’s no more
than I should have expected for he said that you didn’t like
him.’

‘Oh
did
he? Well, he’s right – I don’t. And for good reason – though I
don’t suppose he told you that part.’

‘No he didn’t –
and I don’t want to hear it from you,’ returned Rosalind tartly.
‘When I hear the full story, I’d like it to be the full story – not
the biased view which is all I’ll get from you!’

‘Ha!’ scoffed
Philip. ‘I’ll bet he told you it was all some tragic
misunderstanding.’

‘Well, if you
think that, he’d have spoken no more than the truth because you
must have a sadly inaccurate idea of his character. There’s nothing
tragic about Lord Amberley and if you’ll take a word of advice, you
won’t accept him at face value. He has an … unusual … sense of
humour.’

‘Warped is the
word I’d have used.’

‘Quite probably
– but you’re just naturally hasty.’ She smiled suddenly and said
coaxingly, ‘Try not to be prejudiced, Phil – as least until you
know him a little better.’

‘As well as you
do, you mean?’ There was a measure of disapproval in the sapphire
gaze. ‘He appears to stand high in your estimation.’

‘Yes. He does.’
She paused and then added simply, ‘I’ve never met anyone like him
before.’

An appalling
prospect suddenly occurred to Lord Philip and it was with dire
foreboding that he asked, ‘Did he flirt with you?’

Rosalind looked
blank. ‘Did he what?’

‘Flirt with you
– treat you with familiarity, pay you a lot of silly compliments
and so on.’

She began to
laugh. ‘Well, he
did
say that even though I can’t see my
face I must have been told how beautiful it is – but that was less
a compliment than a challenge. As for ‘so on’, I’m not at all sure.
But I shouldn’t think that he can have done or I expect I’d have
noticed. And the only time he was what you might describe as
familiar was when he taught me to dance. But that was unavoidable
and he did apologise for it.’

‘When he
what
?’ snapped Philip, thoroughly startled.

‘Taught me to
dance. I thought you’d be surprised. And to tell the truth,’ she
said reflectively, ‘I was rather surprised myself – not because he
offered to teach me but because I didn’t think it was possible. In
fact, there seem to be a number of things I’ve been mistaken
about.’

‘Such as?’

‘Oh – walking
in the snow and throwing snowballs. Silly things like that.’

Totally unable
to picture the elegant Marquis playing in the snow like a
schoolboy, Philip drew a long breath and said, ‘He’s beginning to
sound like two different people. Either that, or one of us is a
fool. And since you’re undoubtedly going to say that it’s me, you’d
better start convincing me.’

‘Well, I’ll
try.’ The dimple peeped and was gone. ‘But you mustn’t
interrupt.’

‘Who – me?’ he
asked, grinning reluctantly back at her. ‘Go on.’

So Rosalind
talked and Philip made the rather surprising discovery that he had
no desire to interrupt for, though the picture she drew of the
Marquis was a wholly astonishing one, there could be no doubt that
Amberley had achieved more for her in a week then Philip himself
had done in twelve years. It was an uncomfortable thought.

‘It’s difficult
for you to understand, perhaps,’ she concluded, faintly wistful,
‘but he treated me as a person. Everyone else puts my blindness
first; he never did. And when
I
was inclined to do so, he
wouldn’t let me. Do you see?’

Philip frowned
down at his hands and his mouth was grim.

‘I think I’m
beginning to. Tell me, Rose – he said you were in a cage. Has it
seemed like that to you?’

She flushed a
little. ‘Sometimes.’

‘And now?’

‘Now more than
ever.’ She said it coolly, for how did you explain that, now the
long tolerance was over, you had gone back to the beginning again
and were living with your sightlessness in helpless, frustrating
rage? ‘But it’s no one’s fault, Phil – so there’s no need for you
to feel guilty.’

‘Amberley
wasn’t so generous,’ he replied slowly. ‘And though I’ll not deny
that he made me blazingly angry at the time, it’s starting to look
as if he was right. It doesn’t absolve him of – of other things –
and I doubt that I’ll ever actually like the man, but I suppose I
must be grateful that he’s opened my eyes to what he described as
my ‘insensitivity’.’ He paused for a moment and looked steadily
across at her. ‘His lordship is of the opinion that you’d be
happier in Jermyn Street with me. Would you?’

Rosalind’s
breath drained slowly away and she was suddenly very pale. The idea
dazzled, beckoned and terrified all at the same time – but fright
seemed to have the upper hand; only, just as she opened her mouth
to say ‘
I can’t’
, it was as if the Marquis stood at her
side, replying with laughter in his voice, ‘
Can’t? Why not
?’
… and the words died in her throat. Instead, she said weakly, ‘I
don’t know. I’d like to … but I’m afraid. It – it’s a big step to
take.’

Philip nodded.
‘I know – and so I told Amberley. But he behaved as though it were
no more than a walk around the garden. He doesn’t seem to have any
understanding of the difficulties it would present to you.’

‘Actually, he
does,’ said Rosalind quietly. ‘He understands very well indeed –
which is why he pretends he doesn’t. It’s a clever and extremely
effective technique.’ And then she fell silent as two important
implications began to dawn on her.

Lord Amberley,
it seemed, wanted her to go to London; and, if she went, she could
hope to meet him again, just as he had promised. And was it not
perhaps a sort of test? A question of whether she had enough
courage to leave her safe haven for the strange world outside?
Rosalind began, suddenly, to feel very peculiar indeed and she drew
a deep, bracing breath.

‘I shall
probably make an utter fool of myself,’ she said shakily, ‘but if I
don’t try, I shall never know. And that would be a pity.’

With his
new-born insight, Philip recognised the effort she was making and,
like any soldier, gallantry was a thing he could appreciate.

‘Do I,’ he
asked smiling, ‘take that as an acceptance?’

‘Yes – I think
so. In fact, I’m sure of it. Later on I may even be glad as well.’
She achieved a wry smile. ‘But how Broody’s going to take it, I
just can’t think.’

*

As it turned
out, Broody took it rather well – largely because, since no one in
the household felt equal to the task of caring for him in
Rosalind’s absence, he made the journey with them. Oakleigh waved
him off with active enthusiasm whilst indulging in the optimistic
hope that he wouldn’t come back; and Broody set out on his travels
in an unusually amicable frame of mind occasioned by the inborn
certainty that this was what parrots were made for.

He liked the
chaise and its motion excited him. Swaying rhythmically on his
perch, he peered coyly through the bars of his cage at Lord Philip
and then spat an experimental seed. Philip cast him a withering
glance and brushed the seed from his cravat.

‘Wark!’
screeched Broody happily and walked sideways along the perch with
his head on one side. ‘Damn the Captain – sod the mate!’ And,
carefully selecting another seed, spat again.

‘Did we
have
to travel with this wretched bird?’ asked his lordship,
picking the seed out of his hair.

Rosalind
grinned. ‘Yes. He behaves very badly when I’m not there and it
wouldn’t be fair to inflict him on Nancy and your valet.’

‘Lawks!’ said
Broody, scoring a bull’s-eye on his lordship’s nose. ‘Clear for
action?’

‘He’s behaving
very badly now,’ observed Philip irritably. ‘He keeps spitting
seeds at me.’ And watched without apparent pleasure as his sister
succumbed to helpless laughter. ‘It isn’t funny.’

‘Y-yes it is,’
said Rosalind unsteadily. ‘I should have t-told you about that.
It’s a game.’

‘A game? Oh
wonderful! And what am I supposed to do – spit back?’

‘Yes.’ Rosalind
dissolved afresh.

‘And who,’
asked Philip ominously, ‘was responsible for teaching him this
little habit? Or no – don’t tell me.’ He leaned back in his corner,
chin on chest. ‘I have a feeling it’s going to be a very long
journey. And when it’s over, I’ve a mind to send my lord Amberley a
small present.’

‘Oh?’ quivered
his sister appreciatively.

‘Yes.’ Philip
fixed Broody with a stare of pleasurable anticipation. ‘I’ll give
him a parrot.’

*

Rosalind’s
first day in London was spent in a determined attempt to become
familiar with the geography of her brother’s house and so well did
she succeed that, by evening, she could confidently travel between
her bedchamber and the parlour and negotiate the stairs without
help. Returning home to dine, Philip found her ensconced before the
fire in his favourite chair, still clad in an afternoon gown of
blue dimity. With diabolical cunning, he asked if she intended
changing for dinner only to be told that, having already climbed
more stairs that day than a bell-ringer, she had no wish to add to
her score unnecessarily. ‘So I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with
me as I am,’ she told him cheerfully.

Philip subsided
on to a sofa he’d never liked and wondered gloomily if this sort of
thing was why some men preferred not to marry.

The following
morning brought Rosalind her first two visitors and, since Lord
Philip had already retired to his club, she was forced to receive
them unassisted. Surprisingly, she found it a good deal easier than
she had expected and even enjoyed it. Mistress Isabel proved to be
much as Philip had described her but with an air of gentle warmth,
while her mama was an irresistible blend of placid good-humour and
outspoken vagueness.

Neither lady
paid any undue attention to their hostess’s blindness and when Lady
Linton rose to go, she smiled absently upon her and said, ‘Dear
child – I shall so enjoy chaperoning you! For with so much beauty –
and not to mention the money – you are
bound
to be a
success. I don’t suppose,’ she asked hopefully, ‘that you would
like to marry Robert?’ And then, without waiting for Rosalind to
reply, ‘But of course you wouldn’t. I am quite sure you have too
much sense – and Lord Philip too, I expect. No one with sense would
take Robert. I wouldn’t myself. Now … what was I going to say? Ah
yes! We have an engagement for tomorrow evening and hoped that you
might be persuaded to join us. I can’t quite remember what it is
but Isabel will no doubt tell you and I must leave her to do so for
I shall be late for my fitting with Phanie. And that would
never
do, for her gowns are quite ravishing and she is
perfectly aware that I can’t pay for them.’ And, on this obscure
utterance, her ladyship drifted away into the hall, entirely
forgetting to make her goodbyes.