“You broke your promise to me when you discovered I had nothing. Well, now I am paying you back in your own coin, as they say.
“You will now know what it feels like to have to go among your acquaintances—the one who was turned out, refused, jilted. “Caroline Tressidor.”
I sent off the letter at once and I gave myself up to the pleasure of contemplating his reception of it.
A few days passed. I was surprised when he arrived in person.
He came in the early evening. I had been with Livia, seeing her into bed, reading a story to her; and had just gone to my room when one of the maids knocked on the door.
She began: “Miss Tressidor, Mr. Brandon …”
He must have been immediately behind her because before she got any further he burst into the room.
“Caroline!” he cried.
The maid shut the door. I wondered if she were listening outside. “Well,” I said. “This is unexpected. Did you not get my letter?”
He said: “I don’t believe it.”
“Just a moment,” I said. I went to the door. The maid sprang back a few paces.
“There is nothing I need from you, Jane,” I said.
“No, Miss Tressidor,” she said, flushing and hurrying away.
I shut the door and leaned against it.
He repeated: “I don’t believe it.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I thought I had made it perfectly clear to you.”
“Do you mean you were playing games … with me?”
“I was following a certain course of action, if that is what you mean.”
“But you implied …”
“It was you who implied. You implied that I was a complete idiot, that I couldn’t see through you. You must have thought I was the biggest fool imaginable. Oh come, Jeremy, you really did put up a very poor show. Not nearly as good as you did all those years ago. You were quite credible then. Of course you didn’t have your past to live down.”
“You … you …”
“Say it,” I urged. “Don’t be afraid. You have nothing to lose now. You have already lost. I doubt your feelings for me are one half as contemptuous as mine for you.”
“You … scheming harridan.”
I laughed. “Spoken from the heart,” I said. “And I will retaliate by telling you that you are a blatant fortune hunter.”
“So this is revenge … because I refused to marry you.”
“Look upon it as a little lesson. When you go out on your next treasure hunt, I should try to be a little less blatant. You should have shown a little discretion. Olivia is scarcely cold in her grave.”
He was looking at me as though he could not believe what he saw and heard. He had been so conceited, so completely sure of himself, he had thought he only had to beckon and I would willingly follow. It was a hard and bitter lesson for him.
I was ashamed of my feelings, but I was almost sorry for him.
I said rather gently: “You couldn’t really have thought I was such a fool, could you, Jeremy? Did you really think I would sell my estate … my inheritance … to provide you with the money you needed for the gaming tables and entertaining your friends there? I daresay the ladies of the gaming clubs thought you were a very fine fellow.”
“You don’t know what you are talking about.”
“I know more than you give me credit for. Have you replaced Miss Flora Carnaby or does she still reign supreme?”
He turned pale and then flushed hotly. “Have you set spies on me?”
“Nothing of the sort. The information leaked out. It is amazing how these little facts come to light. Olivia knew. That’s what I can’t forgive. Olivia thought you were wonderful until you impoverished her to indulge your weakness for gambling and the Flora Carnabys of your superficial world.”
“Olivia …”
“Yes. You made the last months of her life unhappy. She knew and she was completely disillusioned. That was why she wanted me to take Livia. She was afraid to leave her with you. Now you know. I see no reason why you should be shielded from the truth.”
“You wanted to have your revenge on me because of what I did to you.”
“How right you are! I wanted that … among other things. Now you must tell your friends … and possibly your creditors … that the rich marriage is off. The lady knew all the time what her prospective bridegroom was after and she has told him in no uncertain terms to get out.”
“You’re a virago.”
“Is that an improvement on a harridan? Yes, I am one, and I am revelling in your discomfiture. I shall laugh when I think of you confessing to your cronies, and to my Aunt Imogen, that the marriage will not take place. You’ll make a good story of it, I don’t doubt. You’ll wonder at the wisdom of marrying your late wife’s sister. Whatever you say, it makes no difference. This is the fortune which will not fall into your lap.”
“Your forget you have my daughter here.”
“I’m sorry she has such a father.”
“I shall not allow you to keep her.”
I felt a sudden fear in the pit of my stomach. What could he do? He was, after all, her father.
As usual when I was afraid I was immediately on the defensive.
“If you attempted to take her from me I should probe into your financial affairs. I should discover the details of your liaison with Flora Carnaby—and doubtless others. I should provoke such a scandal which would kill off all your future chances of securing an heiress. You would be finished, Jeremy Brandon. I have the money to make sure of that— and I should not hesitate to use it.”
He was white and trembling and I saw that he was frightened.
“I will give you a word of advice although you don’t deserve it,” I went on. “Go away … and never let me hear of you again. I don’t know how much of Olivia’s money you have left. I should salvage what you can. You’ll probably lose it all at one stroke at the gaming tables. But who knows, you might be lucky. Whether you rise out of the ashes or are ruined, I don’t want to know. All I ask is that you go away from here and I never see you again.”
He stood looking at me—lost and beaten.
I saw him differently, shorn of his bravado. I imagined his coming onto the London scene, a younger son with very little money but outstanding good looks and an undoubted grace and charm. I could imagine his dreams, his ambitions.
Now he had been utterly humiliated and I had done this.
I couldn’t help feeling the tiniest glimmer of remorse, which I suppressed immediately.
This was my triumph and I was going to savour it to the full.
He left me.
He must have stayed the night at an inn and gone back to London the next day.
The news spread rapidly. How did they learn such things? How much of my scene with Jeremy had been overheard, how much guessed at?
Paul was waiting for me next morning when I rode out to visit one of the farms where there was a little trouble over some land. There was no mistaking his relief.
“So it is over!” he cried.
“How did you know?”
“Heaven knows. Gwennie talks of nothing else.”
“I expect she got it from one of your servants who got it from one of ours.”
“Where is unimportant. All that matters is that it is over.”
“You couldn’t have thought seriously for a moment …”
“You let me believe.”
“Because you knew me so little as to imagine it could possibly be true.”
“And all the time …”
“All the time I intended to do just what I did.”