“Bobby has agreed, has he?”
“Bobby always agrees.”
“I can see why the marriage is so successful.”
“Now don’t be acerbic. Is that the right word? You would know, you old sober sides.
I never thought you’d get married.
But now there is this nice Roland. Celeste says he is very charming and suitable. He comes from Yorkshire, doesn’t he? Does that mean you’ll live in Yorkshire? I hope not. It’s much too far away.”
“Roland is mostly in London and he and his sister have a little pied-à-terre. He doesn’t have to go to Yorkshire so very often. So I expect we shall be round about here most of the time.”
“A house in London, I suppose, and Manor Grange as the country residence. Well, it’s yours anyway. Lucky old Roland, to marry an heiress.”
That remark upset me a little. I was sure Roland hadn’t thought of me as an heiress. He knew little of my affairs and had never asked. All the same... Belinda had planted an uneasy thought in my mind. Trust Belinda to introduce an unpleasant note! “Are you going to have a grand wedding?” she asked.
“No. A quiet one.”
Belinda grimaced.
“I should have thought that... with all your money... you would have wanted something really grand.”
“We are not all as ostentatious as you like to be,” I reminded her. She laughed. “I recommend Venice for the honeymoon. Ours was wonderful. But I expect you would prefer Florence. Dante and Beatrice and all that. It was all there, wasn’t it?”
“We have not decided yet.”
“Well, you should. It’s such fun planning. I am wondering what to wear for this wedding.”
“That should keep you occupied for a while.”
She laughed and gave me an affectionate push. “Honestly, Lucie. I never really thought you’d make it. You never set out to attract men and they do like to be chased, you know.”
“I thought they were supposed to do the chasing.”
“That shows how little you know of the world.”
It was amusing talking to her as always, and I was glad she would be there. It was unfortunate that Jean Pascal had come back with her.
Celeste told me that he had asked all sorts of questions about Roland.
“It is not his affair,” I protested.
“He says he feels a certain responsibility for you ... as he does for Belinda.”
“Well, there is no need.”
I hoped he would not approach me, but he did. He caught me when I was alone.
“So,” he said, “you are going to be married!”
“Yes.”
“I feel considerably jealous of my successful rival.”
“It was never a matter of rivalry.”
“You made that clear to me. I should be very hurt with you. But I do really care for you, Lucie, and I want to assure myself that all is well.”
“Then I can assure you that all is well.”
“This man... your fiancé ... he seems to have come out of the blue, as it were.
He was on the Channel ferry; he was in France. Is that all you know of his background?”
“I know what I wish to know,” I replied. “Really you must not concern yourself.”
“But I do. You see, you are Celeste’s stepdaughter and that makes some sort of relationship between us, doesn’t it? Who is going to look after you if I don’t? Rebecca’s husband? Well, he is far away in Cornwall.”
“Why do you think I need a masculine protector?”
“Most women have one. If your father were alive ...”
“But he is not, and I assure you that I do not need your protection.”
He bowed his head and then lifted his shoulders.
“In fact,” I went on, “I would prefer it if you did not attempt to ... as you say... protect me.”
“I must accept your decision, of course,” he said. “But you must remember that you are not exactly penniless. There might... with some people... be a certain temptation....”
I looked at him coldly, and said pointedly, “I feel sure there may well be some....”
He smiled at me, cynically, taking my meaning. He did not look in the least offended and I felt that my suspicions that my newly inherited wealth was the main reason for his offer of marriage were not without foundation. I felt disgusted with him. I compared him with Roland who was so different and who, I was sure, had no ideas of the size of my fortune. I felt very happy and secure then.
Every day I was thinking more and more of how good life would be when I was Roland’s wife.
It was, to Belinda’s disgust, a very quiet wedding. We had decided that it should be at Manorleigh which would ensure that the press was not so likely to get wind of it. I could not fancy walking out of the London house over that spot where my father had been struck down. Not on my wedding day! It was Celeste who had suggested Manor Grange. She had been staying there for a week before the wedding, planning everything.
Rebecca had come, too, with Pedrek and the children. This was a very special occasion, she said; and we had decided that Alvina should be a bridesmaid and Jake a page. Pedrek would “give me away” and Jean Pascal had offered to be Roland’s best man. “Roland doesn’t have anyone else here,” explained Celeste, “and Jean Pascal offered himself, half in fun, and was accepted.”
It seemed ironical that a man who, a short time ago, had asked me to marry him, should take that role; but I believed it was a situation which would appeal to Jean Pascal’s type of humor.
Belinda and Robert were staying at Manorleigh, too. We had invited very few other guests.
“It is really just our immediate circle,” said Celeste.
Mrs. Emery had prepared for us what she insisted on calling the Bridal Suite. It was on the floor above my old room-one of the largest in the house, with a dressing room attached. It had big windows which looked down on the oak tree and the haunted seat. In fact the view was exactly the same as mine below.
Fresh curtains had been hung and the carpet cleaned. In the room was a large four-poster bed... the one which had been used by Sir Ronald Flamstead and his young wife... that Lady Flamstead who, it was said, had come back from the dead to be with the child whose birth had killed her.
After the ceremony we were to spend one night before leaving the following day for our honeymoon, which, after a certain amount of debate, we had decided should be spent at Amalfi.
We were to leave early on the morning following the wedding; and Phillida would stay on at Manor Grange with Celeste. They had become very good friends, although they were so different-Celeste so quiet and restrained, and Phillida so ebullient. I was surprised at the friendship which had sprung up between them, but of course delighted. I mentioned it to Roland. “Oh, Phillida is determined to be friends with everyone,” he said. “She is so happy... about us ... and she has made up her mind to love everyone connected with you.”
“What a wonderful nature she has! Life must be easy for her.” He looked at me tenderly and said, “Since the death of our parents she has not had to face tragedy. It is my earnest wish that she will never again have to. And that is how I want it to be for you, my dearest Lucie, and I am going to do all in my power to make it so.”
I thought then: yes, I was right. This was the way for me. The wedding was over. I was Mrs. Roland Fitzgerald; there was a gold ring on the third finger of my left hand to prove it.
It was the first step away from all that unhappiness. Of course I would be reminded of it from time to time. Such momentous happenings cannot be dismissed so easily... but I was moving away from them. I was going to start a new life. I was a little afraid of the inevitably intimate nature of my relationship with Roland.
I felt so ignorant. I thought of Jean Pascal. Suppose I had married him! I should have been terrified of a man like that. But of course I would never have married Jean Pascal, and my husband was Roland ... dear, kindly Roland, whose only concern was to comfort me and make me happy. I need not have feared. Roland was tender and understanding, as I had known he would be. He realized my uneasiness and respected my innocence. When I looked at the big four-poster bed I wished that we had had another room. I kept thinking of the beautiful young Lady Flamstead and I did not want ghosts on my wedding night.