‘If that is true, you really are nothing like your father.’
‘I devoutly hope not.’
A fourth person suddenly joined the conversation, making Rafe and Sophie start at the unexpected interruption. ‘Time to go, Nate,’ said a deep, calm voice from close by. ‘Don’t want to be hanging around here too long today. Might be seen by someone as shouldn’t.’
‘I know, Fred,’ Mr Smith responded. ‘Just a moment longer. Fetch me the jewels, Sophie. Let me worry about whether you’re watched or not. Bring them tomorrow – not here, but to the Gothic Tower. It is such a striking landmark, up there on its hill in all its peculiar glory, that we cannot possibly miss each other. You can be sure I’ll be waiting.’
‘We’llbe waiting,’ Fred amended. He stepped out of the shadows of the overhanging trees, and Sophie smiled at him. She’d always liked the ex-prizefighter, who was a much gentler man (except when violence was most definitely required) than his menacing appearance and huge stature would lead one to imagine. She should have realised that where Nate was, he wouldn’t be far away.
Nate smiled, the first sign of amusement he’d shown throughout this tense interview. ‘Of course.Wewill be waiting.’
‘I don’t like any part of it,’ Rafe said. ‘If Sophie and I walk out of the house carrying a heavy bag, you can’t possibly guarantee that we won’t be stopped. The watchers can’t be utter fools.They’ll see us and drag us to Lord Wyverne before we get fifty paces from the door.’
‘We? You mean to go so far as actually to assist in this?’ asked Nate incredulously.
‘Of course,’ Rafe replied. ‘You don’t suppose, after all I’ve said, that I will allow Sophie to put herself at such risk alone? You show a touching confidence that we will achieve the thing unmolested, Mr Smith, but then, you won’t be the one risking your neck. I doubt we’ll get anywhere near the Gothic Tower to meet you.’
‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that,’ rumbled Fred. ‘If it came to a mill, I’d wager you could give a decent account of yourself. Well known at Jackson’s Saloon, you are, my lord. Seen you there on more than once occasion myself, and I must say you do peel to remarkable advantage. Wouldn’t mind at all seeing how you display in a proper bust-up.’
‘I dare say,’ Lord Drake said with a touch of impatience. ‘I believe I saw you fight Jem Belcher in ’03, which would be a fine subject for cosy reminiscences in other circumstances, but we’re not in the prize ring now. Those men of Wyverne’s may have pistols, and if they don’t I can assure you that he does. Sophie, I know I’ve said that I admire the fact that you’re not frightened of him, but on this occasion I assure you, you should be. He’d put a bullet in you without blinking, or order it done without so much as breaking sweat.’
‘Leave that to me,’ said Nate with superb assurance. ‘Nobody will be shot. Nobody will punch anybody, unless you really feel you must, Fred. Do you trust me, Sophie?’
‘I do,’ she said steadily. ‘Having come so far and done so much, I must. I’ll bring the jewels out to you – reserving only the Stella Rosa for myself, of course, as we agreed. What time would suit you best, Nate?’
‘Dammit, Sophie, we’re not arranging to take tea here!’ Drake objected. ‘This is a life and death matter!’
‘If Nate says all will go smoothly, I believe it will,’ she said serenely. And nothing he could say would weaken her resolve, so that at length, much against his will, he was obliged to agree to all that was proposed. They parted from their companions then, after having arranged to meet them by the Gothic Tower at eleven in the forenoon of the next day. The die was cast.
Sophie and Rafe thought it wise to continue with their walk, as if nothing of any particular significance had happened, rather than turning back immediately and lending importance to the meeting to anyone who might be watching. ‘We must suppose that Nate has somehow suborned some of Lord Wyverne’s men,’ Sophie mused as they strolled up the avenue of trees, ‘but we can’t assume it’s all of them.’
Lord Drake seemed lost in a brown study. At length he said tersely, ‘And what of you, Sophie? Once your purpose is achieved tomorrow, if indeed it is, will you go?’
‘I hadn’t thought past smuggling out the jewels,’ she confessed with studied lightness. ‘If we manage that without attracting any attention, it will be a great weight off my mind. I’ll be safe then – Lord Wyverne will have no reason to suspect me, and no reason to think that anything has changed. Indeed, he may never know what’s happened to his jewels, and always live in doubt and uncertainty for the rest of his life. I like that thought.’
Rafe did not seem to share her apparent optimism. ‘You’ll still have the Stella. If he found that, you’d be very far from safe.’
‘That’s easy enough to hide,’ she dismissed. ‘I can sew it in my bonnet, or conceal it in any of a dozen places.’
‘Very well. What then? I know you haven’t thought about it, and I understand why, but think about it now, if you please. What will you do?’
She was silent for a moment in turn. Then she said with a little effort, ‘I can’t stay here. You must know that. These past few days have been… magical. A moment out of time, for both of us. But we don’t inhabit a world where magic can last, Rafe. You have your life, and I have mine, and they’re very far apart.’ She saw that he was about to speak, and shook her head. ‘Perhaps you’re going to suggest that you carry out the plan you mentioned a few days ago and set me up in a house somewhere as your mistress. As you did before. But I don’t want to exist like that, as a dirty secret, a kept woman, always waiting for someone who can’t truly share himself with me. I need a life of my own, whatever it may turn out to be. And I don’t think you want that sort of clandestine existence either. Not really. You deserve better, even if I don’t any more.’
‘You’re so far right,’ he said heavily, ‘that I don’t have the slightest desire to live in that manner. And as to what you deserve, my God… You are fair and far off in your supposition, Sophie.’
She swung round and looked at him incredulously. What she saw in his face made tears spring to her eyes, but she dashed them away angrily. ‘No!’ she exclaimed. ‘No! Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear it.’
‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry before,’ he said rather unsteadily. ‘And I haven’t even said what I meant to say. Will you not hear me out, my love?’
‘I won’t!’ she said fiercely, tears streaming down her cheeks unregarded now. ‘You’re deluding yourself. And don’t call me that. I can’t bear it. What you think you want is impossible. It’s nothing but a fantasy. It’s cruel! I know how hard you have struggled all your life to be different from your father – to prove it to yourself as much as to others. I know what the future of your family means to you. So how could you and I ever have any kind of life together? You must know in your heart that we cannot!’
And, picking up her skirts, she ran from him, back towards the house, and though he could easily have overtaken her, could have forced a further scene, Lord Drake did not do so, but followed her more slowly, his face sombre, his manner dejected.
33
The rest of the day dragged by. Lord Drake did not attempt to reopen the conversation that Sophie had so emphatically refused to engage in, and there was inevitably a certain amount of constraint between them. They sat together in the library as night fell, and she tried to pretend that everything was as it had been before, though it was not. Eventually he said rather sadly, ‘I will not say what you don’t wish me to say, my dear. The last thing in the world I want is to make you unhappy, and yet I have done that, and I regret it bitterly. Let’s go to bed, and hold each other, and take comfort from that if we can. We must get past tomorrow. I can’t believe matters will go as smoothly as you seem to think. I have all sorts of fears that I can’t put into words. Anything might happen. We should not be at odds, then, tonight of all nights, in case it is our last.’
She did not answer him in words, but rose and put her hand in his, and went up the stairs with him in silence, through the big, quiet house. They caressed each other with a sort of fierce desperation that was new to them, and their pleasure was intense and mutual, but afterwards when he held her and felt her cold tears trickling down her face onto his bare chest hewhispered, ‘You have the right to refuse to hear me, and I respect that, as I must, but one thing you cannot ask of me.’
