Miss Winbolt and the Fortune Hunter
‘He doesn’t matter, Will,’ she whispered. ‘Nothing else matters at the moment.’ She smiled at him dreamily, ‘Will,’ she said. ‘Will.’ And she pulled his head down to hers again. This time the kiss was passionate from the start. He held her so closely that she felt every part of his strong, muscular body, and delighted in it. He smoothed her hair again and kissed her brow, her eyes, and then returned to part her lips with his. Emily’s heart was racing once more, this time with a feverish excitement. She had been kissed before by a man she had been about to marry, but never like this. Never before had she been so aware of her blood running through her veins with such singing delight. Her skin tingled wherever he touched her. She realised now how bloodless, how meaningless those other kisses had been. Nothing in her experience had prepared her for this. She felt overwhelmed by a need to be held by this man, caressed by him. He was no stranger to her—she belonged to him. Nothing existed except the two of them, and the hollow where they lay hidden from the rest of the world in an enchanted, magical world of their own. His lips found her throat, her shoulders, her breasts…
A sound of whistling broke into their idyll. Will Darby on his way home! She stiffened and firm hands gripped her. ‘Lie still,’ he whispered. ‘He won’t see us if you lie quite still.’
The magic vanished into the air, as reality broke in on Emily’s dream. She lay rigid and silent until the footsteps died away in the distance, then, overcome with shame, she struggled to be free of him. ‘It’s Will Darby,’ she said, as she scrambled to her feet and straightened her dress. Avoiding his eye, she stammered, ‘They’ll be wondering where I am. I must go.’
He got up, and when she turned away from him put his arms round her waist. ‘I’ll come with you,’ he murmured against her neck.
‘You can’t,’ she cried in panic, pushing him from her. ‘I have to go alone. You mustn’t come with me.’
‘I don’t believe it!’ he said, half-laughing, half-serious. ‘That’s too much the cruel enchantress. You can’t appear out of nowhere, bewitch me, and then just…disappear! I won’t let you.’
Emily, torn between shame and a treacherous desire to stay, said desperately. ‘Please, you must let me go. I…I cannot stay any longer. Don’t look at me like that! I…I don’t…don’t know what came over me…’ She couldn’t finish the sentence. With a little sob she turned and stumbled down the slope to the footpath, picked up her skirts and ran for dear life towards Shearings. When she threw a hunted glance back, she saw to her relief he was making no attempt to follow her, but stood where she had left him, ruefully shaking his head.
After she had disappeared round a bend in the footpath the stranger stood for a while, then shrugged and went to pick up his coat. The village where he had left his horse and pack couldn’t be more than a few minutes walk away. It was too late now to see Charlwood again tonight. He would put up at a local inn or camp out in some hedgerow or other. The thought didn’t disturb him—the night would be warm, and he had done it often enough in the past. And as he walked he shook his head over what had just happened. It was altogether something new in his experience! Such passion, followed by such an abrupt departure! Why had she gone? Was the other Will her lover, or even her husband, perhaps? He rather thought he would never know. He shrugged again and went on his way, deciding to dismiss the episode from his mind. Unless Charlwood proved to be more suitable than he had thought at first sight, he wouldn’t be in the area for long. It was most unlikely their paths would ever cross a second time. At this thought he felt a fleeting regret. There had been something about her that had attracted him as he had not been attracted for many years. Not her looks—he could hardly remember anything about the way she looked, except for a pair of silver-grey eyes. Her legs and ankles had been good, too. He grinned as he remembered his first sight of her, those long slender legs dangling from the tree… But there was something else… Something about her had appealed to him at a deeper level. She had been such a strange mixture of abandonment and innocence…
He shook his head, and stepped out more briskly. No, she was just a passionate little flirt. She was probably a consummate tease, too. Life was too short to spend a second thought on her. But, by heaven, she knew how to stir a man’s blood!
Chapter Two
By the time Emily reached Shearings she was exhausted. The bruises and scratches she had forgotten a short while before had returned to plague her, and she limped painfully through the garden room door in the direction of the back stairs. But, though she went as quietly as she could, she was not quiet enough. Rosa had obviously been listening for her.
‘Emily! Dearest! Thank goodness you’re back! We were worried about you, after the carriage returned without you. But why have you come in this way—?’ She stopped short and regarded her sister-in-law with astonishment. ‘Heavens! What on earth have you done to yourself? No, don’t waste time on that now—you can tell me later. We must get you upstairs to your room first.’
Emily was helped through the hall and up to her room at the top of the main staircase, and was soon sitting in a chair being ministered to by Rosa herself and by Mrs Hopkins, the housekeeper. Mrs Hopkins had been with the Winbolt family for many years, and had known Emily since childhood. She gently removed her torn clothes, exclaiming as she did so at the state of her hands and legs. Rosa meanwhile fetched salves and lotions from her own room, then disappeared again to return with a glass of Philip’s best brandy. After a short while Emily was lying on her bed, propped up by pillows, her hands bandaged and the scratches on her legs bathed and soothed with ointment. Rosa sat beside her on the bed and held the brandy to her lips.
‘Drink it all,’ she said with a reassuring smile. ‘Every drop. You’ll feel better.’
When Emily hesitated, Mrs Hopkins nodded her head. ‘There’s nothing like a drop of brandy, Miss Emily,’ she said firmly. ‘You do as Mrs Winbolt says.’ They waited until Emily had finished the brandy, then the housekeeper said, ‘If you don’t need me any more, ma’am, I’ll go about my business. The master will be back soon, I dare say.’
After she had gone out Rosa said, ‘She thinks you’ll feel able to talk more freely in her absence, but she could have stayed. Mrs Hopkins wouldn’t dream of gossiping with the other servants. She is the soul of discretion.’ She paused, then said hesitantly, ‘I’m very anxious to know what happened, Emily. If you feel well enough to tell me, I’d like to hear about it.’
Emily took a breath. Discretion was a good word to use. She would have to use a good deal of it herself.
‘You know that I visited Mrs Gosworth this afternoon…’ she began. She paused.
‘I did warn you,’ said Rosa. ‘She is one of the unkindest people I know. Oh, Emily, I should have gone with you. Did she upset you?’
‘She tried,’ said Emily with a small grimace. ‘But I’m afraid she was disappointed. I was angry rather than upset, but I managed not to show it. I even thanked her for a delightful visit!’
Rosa clapped her hands and laughed. ‘Wonderful! She must have been furious. How long did you stay?’
‘Not a second more than the correct time, believe me. But you can’t imagine what I did afterwards. I must have been mad.’
Rosa raised an eyebrow. ‘You? But you are the soul of good sense!’
‘Not today. After talking to that woman I was so very angry that I didn’t want to be driven home. I needed to work my temper off. I needed exercise and air, so I walked home across the fields. And…and I forgot all about Pritchard’s bull and came through Three Acre field.’
‘Thr-Through’ Rosa looked at her aghast. ‘I don’t believe you! You can’t have forgotten. Weren’t you listening when Will Darby told us he’d been moved there?’
‘Yes. But it had gone right out of my mind. I didn’t think of the bull until I was halfway across the field and saw his eyes on me.’
Rosa was shocked. She got off the bed and walked about the room in agitation. ‘Good God, Emily, when I think what could have happened… What has already happened to others…’ She turned and looked at Emily in bewilderment. ‘How can you have been so foolish? It’s so unlike you! That bull…’ She came back and took her sister-in-law in her arms. ‘We could have lost you.’
Emily laughed shakily. ‘There were a few moments when I thought you had. But I ran faster than I’ve run in my life before and reached a tree by the hedge just before the bull caught up with me.’
Rosa gently took Emily’s bandaged hands in hers. ‘I suppose that’s when these got so damaged. What happened then?’
‘I found I was stranded and waited for a while to see…to see if anyone would come to rescue me.’
Emily was not used to lying, especially with Rosa’s clear blue eyes, wide with sympathy, looking at her. She took a deep breath and went on, ‘But…but no one did. So…so I jumped down.’
‘Emily! That was so dangerous!’
‘Yes. Yes, it was. The branch broke, and I…and I rolled down the slope. It was steeper than I had thought.’
‘You could have been killed! I shall certainly have something to say to Philip when he comes back. I asked him to go when the carriage arrived back without you, but he said you’d be perfectly safe walking home. He really should have gone to look for you,’
Emily gave a weak smile and tried not to show how profoundly grateful she was that her brother had refused. What he would have said, or done, if he had discovered her in that hollow, lying in the arms of a perfect stranger in an intimate embrace, was too awful to imagine.
‘But where was Will?’
‘Who?’
Rosa looked puzzled. ‘Will Darby.’
Emily, who had been thinking of quite a different Will, tried to speak naturally as she responded, ‘Will Darby… Oh, yes, of course.’
‘He must have been on his way home about that time. Didn’t you see him?’
‘’Er…no. I didn’t,’ said Emily, avoiding her sister-in-law’s eye. She could feel her cheeks getting hot.
There was a slight pause, after which Rosa said, ‘You must be tired. I think you should have a rest now. Are you hungry? I’ll have some soup or something easy to eat sent up.’ Bending over to kiss Emily goodnight, she said softly, ‘A night’s sleep will work miracles. We’ll see you in the morning.’
Emily lay awake for some time after Rosa and the maid had gone. She was still bewildered by what had happened that afternoon. Will—Will the stranger—had called her an enchantress, but judging by the effect he had had on her, it was far more likely that he was the sorcerer. She grew warm as she remembered how she had behaved. Wantonly. Shamelessly. Other words came to mind to torment her. But when she finally fell asleep, her last thoughts were oddly comforting—a stranger’s arms protecting her as they rolled down the slope, a strong body holding her so close, laughter in a man’s eyes as he held her and kissed…her…so… sweetly… And her dreams that night were surprisingly pleasant.
The next morning Emily got up, determined to put her encounter with the stranger and her own inexplicable reactions behind her. She nodded reassuringly when Rosa raised her brows in a silent question as she entered the breakfast room, and held up hands now free of bandages. Philip had apparently been told an edited version of her arrival the night before. He asked about her injuries and she assured him they were all purely superficial. He frowned when she told him of her visit to Mrs Gosworth, then said, ‘I can’t understand what possessed you to go through that field.’
‘Philip, I can’t tell you. I don’t know! I agree it was madness, and that I was luckier than I deserved.’
‘Perhaps I should have a word with Pritchard.’
‘Please don’t. I’m sure the field is perfectly secure. No one else in the village would be so stupid!’
They talked of other things for a while, but then Philip asked, ‘By the way, did you happen to see any strangers on your way back? They were saying down in the stables that some fellow or other was wandering about round here yesterday. From what they told me, he arrived halfway through the morning, left his horse at the inn in the village and went for a walk. Odd sort of thing to do, wouldn’t you say? Did you catch sight of him, Emmy?’
Emily’s cheeks grew warm, and were even warmer as she felt Rosa’s eyes on her. She replied with commendable calm, ‘No, I don’t think I did. Did he…did he go back to the inn?’
‘Yes, but quite late. He claimed to have lost his way. But he must have come back along the stream about the time you were there.’
‘Is he…is he still at the inn?’
‘I don’t know! I haven’t seen Will Darby this morning. Why are you asking? There’s no reason to be afraid. They all thought he looked like a gentleman. I don’t think he’s dangerous.’
Now that is entirely a matter of opinion! thought Emily with a wry smile, hastily straightening her face when she saw Rosa looking at her again.
Philip went on to talk of other matters, and the stranger was not mentioned again. Emily hoped he was forgotten. But afterwards Rosa looked Emily in the eye and said firmly, ‘It’s a lovely morning. Do you feel well enough for a walk in the garden? Or shall we sit in the small parlour? There are just the two of us here this morning. Philip has to go over to Temperley.’
Philip said, surprised, ‘Aren’t you coming with me to see your father?’
‘Not this morning, my love. It’s a business call, and you’ll do much better without me. No, Emily and I are going to have a comfortable chat in the garden. Aren’t we, dear?’
‘I thought I might go…’
‘You mustn’t disappoint me, Emily,’ said Rosa, with smiling determination.
Rosa was the sweetest, gentlest girl imaginable, thought Emily, except when she’s looking as she does at the moment. She gave up. ‘No. I see that I mustn’t. Very well. The garden it is. I should like a walk.’
‘And a talk, I hope,’ said Rosa with another charming smile.
It was a beautifully sunny day and the two ladies, wearing wide brimmed hats and carrying parasols, went out into the garden. They walked for a while, and then sat down in the shade. Emily looked around her. She had helped Philip so much here when he had first inherited Shearings. Their Great-Uncle Joseph’s chief interest had been in new methods of farming, and Shearings’s gardens had lain neglected. She and Philip had worked so hard that first year to create this haven of flower beds and shaded walks, arbours and fountains. Emily sighed. She was genuinely happy that Philip had found Rosa. They were ideally suited. But it was sometimes difficult not to be nostalgic about the past.
Rosa snapped her parasol shut and turned to Emily, who saw the militant look in her sister-in-law’s eye and braced herself.
‘Now!’ she said. ‘Now you can tell me just what happened yesterday, if you please.’
‘I…I’ve told you.’
‘So you did. And I believed you. But that was before I heard about a stranger. A gentlemanly stranger.’
‘What…what has he to do with me?’
‘That is what you are going to tell me, Emily dear. I know you. You’re a bad liar. And I have a strong suspicion that you not only saw this “gentlemanly stranger” yesterday, but probably talked to him, too. Is that what made you so late?’ She stopped and looked closely at Emily. ‘Dear heaven, I hadn’t thought… He didn’t attack you, did he? Is he the cause of those bruises and scratches? Tell me, Emily, don’t be afraid.’
‘No, no! You’re quite wrong. I told you the truth about those. I got them when I climbed the tree. Most of them.’
‘And the rest?’ Rosa’s lovely face was unusually stern.
Emily heard the determination and realised that she was not going to get away with less than the truth.
‘You see too much, Rosa. I should have known you’d guess. Very well. I climbed up the tree as I told you and saw that I couldn’t get down. That was true. But you’re quite right. I didn’t tell you everything.’
‘Which was…?’
‘It seemed like hours before I saw someone coming, and when I did I took it to be Will Darby. I knew he would pass by on his way home so I called out to him and he came over. But…but it wasn’t Will Darby, after all.’
‘I knew it! It was this stranger,’ Rosa said.
Emily nodded. ‘He agreed to catch me if I jumped, but the branch broke, and we fell and rolled down the slope. That was when I got the rest of the scratches.’
‘Was he hurt?’
‘I…I don’t think so. He didn’t seem to be. He…he’s very strong.’
Rosa watched, fascinated, as Emily’s lips curved up in a small, reminiscent smile. ‘What…what happened then?’ she asked carefully.
‘I was dazed, of course. He waited until I felt better, then…’ Emily glanced briefly at Rosa and said, ‘Then I left him and came home.’
‘Alone? He didn’t offer to see you home safely? What a strange man he must be to leave you to find your own way after such a fall! He can’t have been much of a gentleman.’
‘No! No, you mustn’t think… He…he wanted to bring me home. I wouldn’t let him.’
‘Why ever not?’
‘He…he…he kissed me.’
‘Against your will? The heartless wretch!’
‘No… It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t at all like that!’
Emily got up and walked away. Her voice was muffled as she said, still not turning round, ‘I let him kiss me. Willingly.’
This surprised Rosa so much that for a moment she couldn’t say anything. Then she stammered, ‘I can’t believe it!’
‘Neither can I! Not now.’ Emily stood a moment with her back towards Rosa. When she turned round, she had a look of desperation on her face. ‘I don’t know what came over me, Rosa!’ she said in a stifled voice. ‘I’m not normally so…so idiotic. Perhaps it had all been too much for me—Mrs Gosworth, the bull, then falling from the tree…I don’t know! But, whatever the reason, I behaved like a…like a wanton. I must have been mad. How will I ever forget it?’
‘Of course you can. You were dazed, in shock. Don’t get upset, Emily! It was probably more difficult than you think to refuse him.’
‘But afterwards…I should have been angry, should have fought to get away from him as quickly as I could. But I didn’t.’ She fell silent and her face softened into a smile of remembrance. For a moment she looked…vulnerable. ‘I enjoyed it. He was so kind… so gentle… I felt so…so safe with him…so cherished… I didn’t push him away. I wanted him to kiss me again. And he did.’ She shook her head in a gesture of repudiation. ‘I’m still…so ashamed.’
Rosa got up and said softly, ‘Dearest Emily, you mustn’t be. I think it quite likely that the shock of the fall affected your behaviour yesterday. You were grateful to him, as well as dazed. I shouldn’t worry about the state of your morals! But there’s more to it than that.’ She thought for a moment. ‘Let’s go for a walk.’
As they walked through an avenue of trees planted by Philip’s great-grandfather nearly a hundred years before, Rosa said, ‘Mrs Gosworth can be very cruel indeed. I suffered at her hands quite badly. My first marriage, as you know, was an unhappy one. Stephen, my husband, was involved with some very disreputable people… Mrs Gosworth somehow or other heard about Stephen and when I visited her shortly after our marriage she hinted that I had ruined Philip’s life by marrying him, that the Winbolts’ reputation was irreparably damaged by associating with me. Philip had to work hard to reassure me afterwards that it was all nonsense—she can be very convincing.’
She stopped and looked at Emily. ‘You are one of the most level-headed people I know, Emily, but yesterday you were so angry with Mrs Gosworth that you forgot about a very dangerous bull and could have been killed. And afterwards, when you were telling me about the stranger, you said you had felt “cherished”. That’s a very unusual word for you. You are much more likely to insist on your independence. You must have felt the need of comfort quite badly. Tell me, Emily—what did Mrs Gosworth say to upset you so?’ When Emily said nothing she went on, ‘Was it about me? Did she suggest that your reputation had suffered because of your relationship to me? I must say, I thought Philip had put a stop to such talk when he saw her earlier this year.’
‘No, it was nothing like that.’
‘Perhaps she tried to suggest that you were unlikely to find a husband? That’s a favourite ploy of hers to any girl over the age of twenty.’
Emily said bitterly, ‘On the contrary. She suggested that I ought to marry as soon as possible. It shouldn’t be too difficult, she said, to find a husband for someone with a fortune like mine, even if they have little else to recommend them.’
Rosa was as angry as Emily had ever seen her. She said something under her breath, walked on a few paces, then exclaimed, ‘That woman is poisonous. She should have been chased out of the neighbourhood years ago! Little wonder that her own family refuses to go near her. Why the county continues to receive her I do not know! Emily, she is not worth a second thought.’
Emily did not reply for a minute. Then she said quietly, ‘But it’s true, isn’t? I learned that before I was twenty from the man I had been about to marry. I had thought we loved each other, but he only loved my fortune. I heard him say it. “Of course I’m not in love with her, Caroline,” he said. “You know I love you. But I need her money. Good lord, why else would a man tie himself to a cool fish like Emily Winbolt? I’d sooner go to bed with a block of ice.” It was quite a shock.’ Emily gave a bitter little smile and went on, ‘He was furious when I called the engagement off.’
Rosa put her hands on Emily’s shoulders and shook her. ‘I didn’t know the young man, it was before I knew you, but you were well rid of him. He could never have made you happy. Emily, you are an intelligent, caring person with a delightful sense of humour. The sort of man you could love would have to be someone special. And he would be proud to have you as a wife.’
‘Where will he be found? I’ve met many men since, but never one I wanted for a husband. Most of them found my fortune more important than I was. I’ve never fallen in love again, never felt the least stirring of desire for any one of them. Half the time they didn’t understand what I was talking about. Even if they had cared. And very few men appreciate what you call my “delightful sense of humour”.’
‘Very few men see it. You are always too guarded.’
‘I’ve learned to be wary. To tell the truth, I doubt now that I shall ever marry.’ She looked at Rosa with the beginning of a smile. ‘And do you know? This will probably shock you, but I have to confess it. I didn’t feel like a cool fish yesterday. That stranger’s kisses were far more exciting than any I’ve known before. They stirred me more than Harry Colesworth’s ever did. Isn’t that scandalous?’ She laughed. ‘Don’t look so worried, Rosa dear. I know I couldn’t marry the man—he was little more than a vagabond. Certainly no one a respectable spinster like me could ever consider as a husband! No, I don’t think I shall marry, whatever Mrs Gosworth says.’ She paused, and then said hesitantly, ‘In fact, I have a different plan for the future. You could help me with it, if you would.’
‘Of course I will,’ said Rosa. ‘But what is it?’
‘If Philip agreed, I should like most of all to set up house on my own. Near at hand, of course. You could help me to persuade him.’
Rosa was deeply shocked. She turned on Emily. ‘What a dreadful idea! I won’t do anything of the sort. I wouldn’t be at all happy with such an arrangement and neither would Philip. This is your home, Emily, and the only good reason for you to leave it would be with a man who loves you and wants to marry you.’ She stopped short, and continued more slowly, her voice revealing how hurt she was, ‘What have we done that you should prefer to live alone, however near at hand? I thought you loved us.’
Emily sighed inwardly and wished she had said nothing. It was just as she had foreseen. And Philip’s reaction would be just the same. How could she explain to two of the people she loved best in the world that she often felt lonely in their company, often felt like an outsider, a hanger-on, however kindly they treated her? She loved them, enjoyed their company, and would always want to spend time with them. But she would never be really content until she was mistress of her own establishment, creating a garden again, planning improvements. In that way she would feel independent enough to spend as much time as she wanted with them, without feeling she was intruding on their idyll. They were so happy together. She sighed again. They would never understand. It was an impossible dream.