The Unknown Ajax (33 page)

Hugo chuckled. “Ay, but happen you’ll grow accustomed to me, for you need someone to manage for you, other than your bailiff.” He got up, and stood for a moment or two, looking down with a lurking twinkle at his lordship’s brooding countenance. “You sent for me to lick me into shape, sir, because you couldn’t stomach the thought that a regular rum ’

un would step into your shoes, if naught was done to teach him how to support the character of a gentleman. Well, it may be that I’m not quite such a Jack Pudding as I let you think. I own, it was a ramshackle thing to do, but when I saw how there wasn’t one amongst you that didn’t believe I’d been reared in a hovel I could no more resist trying how much I could make you swallow than I could stop drawing breath! But by what road you thought I came by a commission in such a regiment as mine, if I’d been an unlettered rustic, the lord only knows! I was no more bookish than Richmond, but I got my schooling at Harrow, sir! However, when it comes to the management of large estates, I’m no better than a raw recruit—and that’s what I’m hoping you mean to teach me.”

A gleam shone in his lordship’s eyes. “At the end of which time you’ll be ruling the roast, I collect!”

“Nay, if I’m here at all I’ll be legshackled, and no spirit left in me!” replied the Major. “Never you fear, sir! A terrible shrew she is, the lass I’ve set my heart on!”

Chapter 16

The first person to learn the news was Vincent, entering the library not ten minutes after Hugo had left it. His mood was far from sunny; and when his grandfather told him bluntly that so far from being a penniless weaver’s brat his cousin was the grandson of a wealthy mill owner, and plump enough in the pocket to be able to buy an Abbey, he stared at him for a full minute, his eyes glittering, and his mouth thin with bitterness. When he at last spoke, it was with his usual languor, but in a voice that had a cutting edge to it. “So!” he said. He drew out his snuff-box, and took a pinch. “I felicitate you, sir!”

Lord Darracott gave a sardonic grunt, but said: “So you may! He’s prepared to drop his blunt to bring the place about”

Vincent flicked a grain of snuff from his sleeve. “Handsome of him! Does he happen to have the smallest notion how much blunt he will be obliged to drop to restore the Darracott fortune, I wonder?”

“He seems to have a good many more notions than I knew!” replied his lordship harshly. “He may or he may not have that one, and he’s not likely to care: he won’t easily break his back! He’s worth half a million at the least computation.”

“Half a million—!” Vincent ejaculated. His mouth smiled unpleasantly. “That mongrel cur, Ajax!”

His lordship laughed shortly. “Ironic, ain’t it? Damn his effrontery! He as good as told me I’d rendered myself open to an action at law!”

“You do not surprise me at all, sir: I always thought you were over-sanguine in believing he could be brought up to the rig.” “Oh, he was within his rights!” said his lordship unexpectedly. “It put me out of temper, but I’m sure I don’t like him the better for showing fight. He needn’t think he’s going to rule the roast, however!”

“I devoutly trust you may be able to hold your own, sir, but I must confess that I find it difficult to perceive how, if he pays for it, he is to be prevented from ruling the roast.” “You’ll perceive how soon enough, if I have any inching attempts made to unsaddle me!” said his lordship tartly. “To do him justice, he told me he’d no such intention. Said he’d prefer to be my junior partner, if you please!”

“Timeo Danaos!” Vincent murmured.

“Don’t be a fool! He may have hoaxed us all, impudent dog! but he’s no shuffler. It’s a pity he was ever born, but I’ll say this for him: he’s the only one amongst you that ain’t a blood-sucker!” He added, on a note of satisfaction: “He means to marry Anthea, too, so that takes her off my hands.”

“Yes, that has been very obvious,” answered Vincent. “I must certainly be the first to congratulate her on her good fortune!”

Since he encountered her in the hall, on her return from a carriage-drive with Mrs. Darracott, he was not only the first to congratulate her on her good fortune, but the first to inform her of it. She lifted her brows, asking him what he meant. He replied, with exaggerated surprise: “But, my dearest cousin, what could I possibly mean? How could you think I should be backward in offering you my felicitations on your forthcoming marriage?” Her smile was quite as satirical as his. “Am I about to be married? I did not know it.” “Then I have been not backward but premature, which is much worse—quite unworthy of me, indeed! Between such old friends as we are, however, the convenances need not be too strictly regarded. Dear Anthea, don’t, I do most earnestly counsel you, let such a prize slip through your fingers! Believe me, once he shows his front in town there will be girls past counting on the catch for him! I would not, on any account, play fast and loose, though I feel sure you do it charmingly. One does not—if one is a Darracott!—play fast and loose with a fortune!”

She began to look genuinely amused. “Ah, I understand you now! When do you mean to stop allowing Hugo to hoax you? I was used to think you the most knowing one in the family, too!”

“Did you, my sweet? That comforts me, for I was used to think so myself, until I discovered that I must yield priority to you.”

“Vincent, what are you talking about?” she asked patiently. “Why, Hugo’s fortune, of course!” he said, opening his eyes at her. She burst out laughing. “He hasn’t got a fortune! Vincent, you goose!” “What a day of surprises this is!” he remarked. “Do you know, I never dreamed you were possessed of such large ideas? For myself, I should be content with a quarter of a million pounds!”

“I should think you might indeed be! You don’t imagine, surely, that Hugo has a quarter of a million pounds?”

“No, no, nothing so paltry! Haifa million at the least!”

She was still amused, but a puzzled frown gathered on her brow. “I hope you mean to tell me why you are trying to gammon me!” she said. “In genera], I understand you pretty well, but this fling is quite beyond me. If Hugo told you he had a huge fortune—” “I shouldn’t have believed him, of course,” he interrupted. “The news, dear Anthea, came from my father, and I can’t feel that he was gammoning us. It would be quite unlike him, you know.”

The smile had vanished from her lips; she stared incredulously, growing a little pale. “It’s not true!”

“Oh, weren’t you aware of it? I am disappointed: I was thinking you the only provident member of the family! Yes: half a million, in the Funds. Quite a genteel fortune! Then there is his share in the mill—not, perhaps so genteel, but I daresay you won’t despise it.” “I don’t believe it!” she exclaimed impetuously. “My uncle must have been mistaken—or you are trying to roast me?”

He looked at her, his brows raised. “Do you know, I begin to think you really were unaware of your good fortune?” he said.

She returned no answer, but stood perfectly still, an expression of shocked dismay in her eyes. He laughed, and sauntered away; and for a full minute she remained at the foot of the staircase, one gloved hand tightly gripping the carved baluster. Recovering slightly from her stupor, she set her foot on the first stair, and then, on—a sudden impulse, turned back, determined to find the Major immediately, and to confront him with what she still suspected to be a hoax.

She ran him presently to earth in one of the smaller saloons, engaged in writing a soothing reply to his partner’s letter. “So here you are!” she exclaimed. “I have been searching all over for you! You will please explain to me, at once, how Vincent came by this—this cock-and-bull story he has just told me!”

He looked round, his pen in hand, and said admiringly: “Eh, you do look pretty, love!” Since the flower-trimmed silk bonnet tied under her chin with a broad satin ribbon was of her own making, this tribute would, at any other time, have been very acceptable. At the present moment, however, she had no thought to spare for such frivolities, and retorted with asperity. “Never mind how I look! Vincent says—Hugo, it isn’t true, is it? You haven’t a large fortune, have you?”

“Nay, lass!” he said, in a tone of pained remonstrance. “I told you I had!” She gazed at him, flushed and horrified. “I thought you were funning! I never dreamed—! Oh, how could you?” she said passionately.

He laid the pen down, and got up, and went towards her. “Oh, it was none of my doing!” he assured her. “Granddad addled it, and, having no other chick or child, he just left it to me.” “Half a million pounds?” she said, in tones of revulsion.

“Something like that,” he nodded.

“Oh, how—how horrible!” she uttered, putting out her hands to thrust him away. “Nay, love, I thought you’d be pleased!” he expostulated.

“Pleased?”

“Of course I did! Why, you told me yourself you meant to marry a man of large fortune! Mind, I was a trifle shocked, to find you were so mercenary, but—”

“You knew very well I was joking you! I would never have said such a thing if I’d had the least notion—Oh, how abominable you are!” she said indignantly.

“Now, how was I to know that? The way you stood there, telling me only a house in the best part of town would do for you, and saying I was sneck-drawn to be thinking of hiring one instead of buying it—well, I was fairly taken-aback!” he said, shaking his head. “Then I marvel at it that you still wished to offer for me!” she said, quite unable to refrain from retort.

“Well,” he confessed, looking sheepish, “I’d gone so far I couldn’t for the life of me see how to hedge off.”

After a moment’s severe struggle with herself, Miss Darracott said bitterly: “I should have known better! I might have guessed you were only waiting for the chance to say something outrageous! Well, you can hedge off now, sir!

“It’s too late, lass,” he said, with a heavy sigh. “I’d have everyone saying I’d conducted myself reet shabbily.”

“That needn’t trouble you! I will engage to make it very plain to all that I refused your obliging offer! As for people saying you had behaved shabbily, what, pray, do you think they would say of me, if I married you? Cream-pot love is what they’d say! Vincent is doing so already? He—he thinks I knew the truth from the start, and—and set my cap at you, just because I wished to be wealthy! And I don’t!” declared Miss Darracott, much agitated. Perceiving that she was having great difficulty in finding her handkerchief in the recesses of her reticule, the Major very kindly gave her his own. She took it, casting a wet but darkling glance at him, angrily dried her eyes, and informed him, in a slightly husky voice, that she never cried but when she was enraged.

“If ever I met such a naggy lass!” observed the Major, recovering his handkerchief, and contriving, at the same time, to put his arms round her. “Now, don’t cry, love! We can soon set things to rights! How much money would you like to have?”

“Don’t be absurd!” begged Anthea, making a half-hearted effort to push him away. “What I should like is of no consequence whatsoever!”

“Ay, but it is. It won’t do for me to get rid of my fortune without knowing how much of it you want me to keep,” he said reasonably.

“Get rid of it?” She lifted her head to stare at him. “Would you—if I asked you to?” He smiled down at her. “Well, it wouldn’t be a particle of use to me if you didn’t marry me. The only thing that fatches me a trifle is that I’ve promised my grandfather to let him have what’s needed to set this place in order. Of course, I could make him a present of it, to play at ducks and drakes with, which I don’t doubt he would: but setting aside that it would drive me daft to see him doing it, if I’ve to step into his shoes one day it’ll be just as well if I’m able to stand the nonsense. Besides, I’ll have to support an establishment of my own—and it’s no use asking me to set you up in a weaver’s cottage, love, because there’s reason in all things, and I won’t do it! It would be well enough if I were a small man, but to be obliged to duck my head every time I went through the doorway wouldn’t suit me at all. What’s more,” he added thoughtfully, “I’d be bound to fill the place up more than you’d like.” “Are you never serious?” asked Anthea despairingly.

“I was trying to hit on a way out of the difficulty,” he explained, injured. “You were trying to make me laugh—and don’t waste your breath denying it!” “I wouldn’t call it a laugh exactly,” said the Major diffidently. “It’s more of a gurgle, if you know what I mean. Yes, that’s it!”

“Any female who was so idiotish as to marry you would be driven to madness within one week!” declared Anthea.

“I know she would,” he agreed. “That’s why I’ll not live in a cottage with you, love.” “Hugo, this is no laughing matter!” she said. “I feel quite dreadfully about it!” “I can see you do, but why you should has me in a puzzle. If you’re nattered by what Vincent says—”

“What Vincent says is what everyone else will say, or, at any rate, think!” she interrupted. “I daresay I should myself. They’ll say I caught you before you’d had time to meet other, and far more eligible females! Indeed, I shouldn’t wonder at it if they said you had been entrapped into marrying me—which is perfectly true, because Grandpapa sent for you with that end in view! Hugo, you might marry anyone! I think you should go to town, and—and look about you! At least no one could say then that you were allowed no opportunity to make your own choice.”

“Nay, I can’t do that!” he said hastily. “It would be downright foolhardy, and that’s something we Light Bobs don’t hold with. I’m not going next or nigh London till I’m safely wed.” “Now what are you going to say?” asked Anthea, in a resigned tone. “I see I’ll have to make a clean breast of it,” said the Major, with every sign of shamefaced reluctance. “The thing is, love, that my grandfather tells me that the instant I show my front in town I’ll have all the matchmaking mothers hunting me down. I wouldn’t know what to do, for I’m not accustomed to that sort of thing, never having had lures cast out to me before, besides being a bashful kind of a man. It wouldn’t be cousinly of you to abandon me. In fact,” he added, rapidly developing a strong sense of ill usage, “it would be reet cruel, seeing how I put myself in your hands, just as I was bid.”