That Would Be a Fairy Tale (17 page)

She saw the blank look of astonishment on his face. Misunderstanding his expression, and thinking that he was astonished at the fact she had accused an Honourable gentleman of being a thief, instead of realizing that he was astonished that she knew the thief’s identity, she went on to explain.

‘A few years ago, I had a Season in
London
, thanks to the generosity of one of my aunts. I went to stay with her, and we attended many balls and soirées. At one of the soirées a valuable brooch was stolen. It was never recovered. But just before it disappeared I had seen the Honourable Goss bump into the lady who owned it. The next second it had vanished.’

‘The next second, you say?’

‘Yes. You see, I had just been looking at the brooch, and admiring it from a distance. Then Mr Goss bumped into the lady, and when he had excused himself her brooch was no longer there.’

‘And you think he took it?’

‘I am certain of it.’

‘And so am I.’

Briefly, he explained about the theft that had occurred whilst Katie had been in service, and the conclusion of the painful episode.

‘I see.’ Cicely let out a long sigh. ‘So that is why you dislike the landed gentry. Because they treated your sister unfairly, and cast her off without any means of support. No wonder you were so hostile when you came here.’

‘I was wrong to be so. I was judging you on something you had had no part in.’  He gave a wry smile. ‘My only consolation is that you also judged me.’

She said ruefully, ‘You’re right. I did.’

‘Is it really so terrible?’ he asked, suddenly serious. ‘My being a cit?’ His eyes scanned her face, as though he would find the answer written there.

She swallowed. ‘It isn’t terrible at all.’

A wave of relief washed over his face. To break the tension that was rapidly gathering he said with a smile,  ‘But you didn’t like me. Admit it. You were as prejudiced against me to begin with as I was against you.’

Cicely shook her head. ‘No. I wasn’t prejudiced. Or, at least, it wasn’t entirely prejudice. It’s true I didn’t have a high opinion of cits - they have no idea of how to behave in the countryside, and they have no sensitivity - but my dislike of you wasn’t based on something someone else had done. I disliked you because of what you yourself had done - or rather, not done.’

He looked at her enquiringly.

‘I disliked you because you didn’t come to look at the Manor. Everyone else came to look. They commented on its grandeur, and its picturesqueness, and its lovely views. But none of them bought it. Then you did. But you purchased it as though it were something of no consequence. You didn’t even bother to come to look at it yourself, and that hurt me. You sent your agent to look at it instead. You didn’t value the Manor as I wanted you to. And so I thought you were a man without heart or soul.’

He let out a long sigh. ‘What you say is true, up to a point - but only up to a point. The reason I didn’t come to look at the Manor was because I never meant to settle here. I simply needed a grand house in which to set the stage for another robbery to take place. That being the case, one house was as good as another.’

Her spirits lifted as she realized he was not the insensitive person she had supposed. But then they quickly sank again as she took in the full implication of his words. ‘Then you don’t intend to settle here?’ she asked. Her voice sounded hollow to her own ears. ‘You will be going back to
London
once you have caught the thief?’

And why did that thought make her stomach clench? she wondered.

But before Alex could answer her, the door opened and Roddy entered the room.

Cicely stepped away from Alex, immediately brought back to her senses. She was in a small room far from the main body of the company with a gentleman. If word of it got out, it would give rise to gossip of a malicious kind, and although she was too well liked in the neighbourhood for it to do her any real harm, still it was something she would rather avoid.

‘I must go,’ she said.

She suited her actions to her words and slipped out of the room.

‘Sorry,’ said Roddy sheepishly.

‘Your timing is atrocious,’ said Alex, trying to make the remark humorous, but with an edge of tension in his voice.

‘It’s just that your guests seem about ready to leave.’

Alex nodded. ‘I’ll join you in a minute,’ he said.

Roddy left, and after straightening his bow tie Alex followed him out of the room.

Only to bump into Lord Chuffington.

‘I say,’ said Chuff Chuff, ‘have you seen my fiancée anywhere?’

‘I didn’t know you had a fiancée,’ remarked Alex.

‘Good lord, yes. Had one for ever.’

‘Congratulations,’ said Alex, keen to make up for his earlier unjustified resentment against all of the landed classes by being particularly affable to Lord Chuffington. ‘And when is the wedding to be?’

‘Oh, soon,’ said Chuff Chuff amiably, ‘Not easy - funerals and what not - but all that’s over with now. Dare say it will be any time now.’

‘I wish you every happiness,’ said Alex. ‘As to having seen your fiancée, I won’t know whether I’ve seen her or not until you tell me who she is.’

‘What? Oh, yes, it’s Cicely. Cicely Haringay.’

Alex felt every limb grow still. ‘Cicely Haringay?’ he repeated.

‘Yes. You know. Used to own the Manor. Lives down at the Lodge. Moving to Parmiston soon, though, of course. Wouldn’t want to live at the Lodge for ever.’

‘No.’ Alex’s voice was faint. ‘I don’t suppose she would.’

‘Used to better things,’ said Chuff Chuff.

Alex forced the words out. ‘As you say. She’s used to better things.’ Then, rousing himself, he said, ‘No. I’m sorry, Chuffington, I don’t know where she is.’

‘Oh, well. Better cut along then.’

And so saying he ambled off in search of Cicely.

Leaving Alex feeling as though Chuffington had struck him a body blow. Chuffington? Engaged to Cicely? It couldn’t be.

But why couldn’t it be? They were two of a kind. Both from the landed classes and both from the same neighbourhood, it was just the sort of marriage that was taking place all the time.

Cursing himself for having thought . . . but never mind what he’d thought. He’d been a fool. Cicely was engaged to Chuffington. He refused to recognise the hollow emptiness that swept over him, or acknowledge what it meant. Cicely was to marry Lord Chuffington. And that was the end of it.

‘We failed.’

Eugenie sounded as tired as Alex felt. He had just said farewell to the last of the guests who had spent the evening at the Manor for the ball, whilst his house guests had retired upstairs to bed. Now Eugenie and Alex, together with Roddy, were sitting in the drawing-room discussing their failed attempt to catch Goss.

‘I know.’

‘It was my fault. I should have checked to see that Gladys hadn’t come back into the room before I raised the alarm,’ she said.

‘That wasn’t your job,’ said Roddy morosely. ‘It was my job to make sure there were no maids present, so that Goss couldn’t frame another innocent young girl, and then give you a sign so that you could cry thief. And that’s what you did.’

‘It was no one’s fault,’ said Alex. ‘We couldn’t have foreseen that Gladys would slip back into the room at such a critical moment.’

‘Why
did
she return?’ asked Roddy curiously. ‘Have you asked her?’

Alex nodded. ‘It was because she found Mrs Godiver’s handkerchief. Mrs Godiver had dropped it in the hallway and Gladys recognised it, so she was going to return it.’

‘Unluckily for us,’ said Eugenie. ‘Because Goss took advantage of the situation and put the necklace in her apron pocket. He’s an even more accomplished thief than we thought.’

‘I wish we could have caught him,’ sighed Roddy.

‘But we didn’t,’ said Eugenie despondently.

‘We will,’ said Alex. ‘We’ll just have to come up with a better plan - one in which he will have no opportunity to slip the stolen article into the pocket of an innocent maid.’

‘It’s no good,’ said Roddy, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets and scowling at the carpet. ‘He won’t come here again.’

‘Cheer up.’ Alex did his best to sound confident, although he was far from feeling it. ‘We’ll think of something. But we’ll do it better after a good night’s sleep.’

‘You’re right,’ said Eugenie, standing up. ‘There is one good thing. We might not have caught Goss, but at least we didn’t lose the necklace. It would have been the last straw if he’d managed to evade capture and get away with the jewels as well.’

‘Although — ‘ Although then we would have had a chance of catching him when he tried to dispose of them, Alex had been about to say. But he thought better of it. Eugenie’s remark had lifted both hers and Roddy’s spirits, and Alex did not want to cast them down again.

Roddy looked at him enquiringly.

Alex shook his head. ‘Oh, nothing,’ he said. ‘It’s late. We’re all tired. I suggest we leave any further discussion until the morning.’

Eugenie and Roddy, worn out from the night’s events, agreed.

‘Time for bed,’ said Eugenie, yawning. She stood up. ‘Good night, Alex.’

Alex bade her and Roddy goodnight, but when they went upstairs he did not go with them. Instead, he lingered in the drawing-room. It was no use him going to bed, he knew he would not sleep, because Cicely was engaged to Lord Chuffington. Try as he might to get it out of his head he couldn’t do it. It was on his mind the whole time. Despite all rational thoughts to the contrary, he still could not believe it. But why not? As Chuffington said, she was used to living in a manor house. No more living in a Lodge. No more faulty ranges. And no more having to work as a secretary in order to make ends meet.

But it seemed so unlike Cicely.

Fool! he told himself angrily as he strode over to the fireplace and stood looking down into the empty grate. You’re doing it again. Investing her with qualities she doesn’t have. First you convinced yourself she was an upper-class termagant who would have dismissed Katie for something she didn’t do, which was completely wide of the mark. Now you’re trying to convince yourself she wouldn’t marry for a position in society, and again you’re completely wrong.

What was it about Cicely that provoked such strong reactions in him? Why should he care if she married? Or who she married? He had never been interested in young women before - in a casual way, yes, or in a brotherly way, like with Katie, or a friendly way, like with Eugenie, but never in this distracted way, seeing things that simply weren’t there. If she wanted to marry Chuffington, why should it bother him? And not just bother him, cut him into little pieces?

He strode across the room and stood looking out over the lawns. What Cicely did with her life was up to her. There was nothing between them but an electric physical attraction - and yet in all honesty he had to acknowledge that for him it was more than that. The feelings which had been churning round in him for some time now were becoming clearer . . . but he must get over them. Cicely had made her choice. So all he had to do now was forget her.

Yes. That was all . . .

The door opened, breaking in on his thoughts. He looked round, and there was Cicely. Standing in the doorway, with the gas light from the hallway casting a golden halo round her, she looked more lovely than he had ever seen her. Her dark hair was soft and inviting, her slight curves appealing in her fashionably low-cut gown. Her skin was golden, and her eyes were full of beauty.

‘You can’t do it,’ he said.

He shouldn’t have said it, but he couldn’t let her throw herself away on Chuffington.

Her lips parted in surprise.

He couldn’t take his eyes away from them. She had the most kissable lips he had ever seen. And how he longed to kiss them again.

She seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. ‘It will work,’ she said.

It will work
. Could she really believe that? he asked himself.

‘But how did you know?’ she queried.

His voice was tight. He made an effort to make it sound normal. ‘It was Chuffington. He told me.’

She looked perplexed. ‘But Chuff Chuff doesn’t know. I haven’t told him about my plan.’

‘Plan?’ Alex frowned. How could marriage be a plan? Unless they were at cross purposes. ‘What plan?’ he asked cautiously.

‘My plan for catching Mr Goss.’

Her words stunned him. Her plan for catching Mr Goss?

And then he was out of the strange state that had gripped him when he had seen her enter the room, and back in the real world. He gave a sigh, though whether it was of frustration or relief he didn’t know. He had been about to tell her that she couldn’t marry Chuffington; to sweep her into his arms and prove it to her with hot words and impassioned kisses; but her unexpected words had brought him back down to earth.

‘I can’t be sure, of course,’ she said. ‘Perhaps I should have said, I
think
it will work.’

‘Come in. Have a seat. I was surprised to see you,’ he said by way of explanation of his strange behaviour. ‘I thought all the houseguests had gone to bed.’