Green Girl (9 page)

She sighed, wondering why he felt he had to humour her like a child.

“
Well?
”

The bitch, Delsa, got up and pushed her muzzle under his hand, jealous for his attention, and Harriet found herself wondering with slightly shocking irrelevance what he would be like as a lover. Her thoughts travelled back instinctively to the face in the portrait, and she said on impulse:

“
Your wife was very lovely, wasn
’
t she?
”

“
Lovely?
”
he repeated, frowning no doubt at the apparent inconsequence of the question.
“
Well, very pretty, certainly, but loveliness is a little more than that, I think. Why do you ask?
”

“
Oh, just a natural curiosity, I suppose,
”
she replied hastily, remembering that he had caught her prying, and might well resent uninvited intrusion in his private affairs, but his answer puzzled her. Nobody, she thought, could have failed to find beauty in that dark, provocative face.

“
You haven
’
t answered my first question,
”
he said,
“
I asked you if it was my ugly face that made you hesitate, but perhaps you were only thinking that I might make sad comparisons with the past, and were sorry for me.
”

Jimsy
’
s appearance with a telegram for Duff was a welcome interruption, allowing her a brief respite for further reflection, for the drab prospect of the unknown homes and identical streets of places like Clapham was
beg
inning t
o weigh on Harriet as the more impossible alternative of the two.

The crisp crackle of paper as Duff, having read his telegram, crumpled it into a ball, brought her back from her thoughts.

“
Well,
”
he said with the clipped harshness remembered from their first meeting,
“
it
’
s too late for repentance, or indeed, for very much choice. They won
’
t have you back.
”

She stared back at him
without real comprehension.
“
Was that from Matron? But
I
thought you said—
”

“
That I
’
d already heard? So I had, but the first wire was one requesting further information.
”

“
Then what did you reply?
”

“
That you
’
d eloped with me, of course.
”

“
What
!”
She sat up so suddenly that pain shot up her injured ankle, making her screw her eyes shut in momentary anguish. When she opened them again she saw him grinning at her and said indignantly:
“
You didn
’
t say anything of the kind!
”

“
Well, perhaps I didn
’
t, but however I worded the message, the result
’
s the same, so you haven
’
t much choice now, have you, Miss Jones?
”

She looked tired and rather plain with the freckles standing out on her white face.
“
No, I haven
’
t much choice, I suppose, if you won
’
t help me,
”
she said.
“
I can
’
t even get away from here if it means walking. I
’
m your prisoner. Do you have dungeons?
”

“
You don
’
t sound quite as regretful as you should; I suspect you
’
re weakening. We don
’
t run to dungeons, I
’
m afraid.
”

His voice had become cajoling and surprisingly gentle, though his eyes told her he was not prepared to stand any more nonsense, and quite suddenly she was weeping, whether with relief that the authorities had taken matters out of her hands, or in the desire for comfort that a child feels when it has at last given in, she hardly knew, for it no longer seemed important. She was aware of Duff getting to his feet with an abrupt exclamation, and expected a fresh rebuke for that irritating predilection to tears, but he merely came and sat beside her on the sofa and silently proffered his handkerchief, then quite unexpectedly pulled her into his arms and told her to cry it out and be done with it.

“
Listen, you ridiculous child!
”
he said above her head,
“
you didn
’
t really imagine anyone could force you into marriage these days, did you? I must confess that I still think you
’
d be better off with the protection of my name and all that goes with it than struggling for existence in a world for which you seem woefully unfitted, but I
’
m not going to knock you over the head to convince you, so the choice is yours, my dear. Don
’
t cry so bitterly, Harriet, I won
’
t badger you any more.
”

He spoke with a rough tenderness as if compassion did not come easily to him, but he could not have chosen a surer way to break down her defences if he had planned it deliberately, for he seemed to Harriet in that moment, the strange embodiment of all her adolescent dreams; father-figure, protector, even the benevolent trustee who would one day adopt her, conjured up by her invention. The fact that he would also be her husband had no more significance than would the discovery of some unknown relative whom she would claim as her own.

“
You won
’
t need to b-badger me, Mr. Lonnegan,
”
she said at last, smiling up at him through her tears.
“
As the choice is mine, after all, I—I
’
ll say yes, and th-thank you.
”

“
So you
’
ve decided to bum your boats once again, have you?
”
he said.
“
I have to warn you, young lady, that it will be for the last time.
”

“
You don
’
t need to warn me, but you—you will be burning yours, too,
”
she replied, feeling that in his case the burning of boats might have more serious repercussions that in her own.

“
Mine were burnt long ago, so don
’
t let
’
s have any doubts on that score,
”
he said rather curtly.
“
No regrets, no comparisons, the slate wiped clean like the past, and the future—well, the future could hold surprises for us both. Now, for the last time, you
’
re sure, Harriet—because there
’
ll be no going back after today?
”

“
Yes, I
’
m sure. I—I hope I
’
ll make a satisfactory wife, Mr. Lonnegan.
”

“
I hope so too, and hadn
’
t you better get used to using my Christian name? Perhaps, incidentally, you would like to know what your, good lady at Ogilvy Manor really said?
”

His smile was a little mocking as he suddenly tossed the crumpled telegram into her lap and she smoothed it out wonderingly.
Return Jones on next boat immediately,
she read, and her eyes seemed to grow as large as saucers;
boat
will
be met and fare reimbursed. Regret inconvenience.

“
What
!”
exclaimed Harriet, her cheeks scarlet with outrage.
“
I wouldn
’
t have
believed
it of you! Of all the dirty, low-down tricks, letting me think—Return Jones on next boat, indeed—a
s
if I was a lost parcel!
”

“
But I needn
’
t have shown it to you,
”
he pointed out mildly, watching with interest the conflicting struggle in her face, then she suddenly gave him a most unexpected grin which momentarily lent her rather solemn little face the look of a mischievous urchin and caused him much surprise. Her teeth, he noticed, though small and white, had an engaging irregularity.

“
Yes, that
’
s true,
”
she conceded fairly, after serious consideration, then a trace of the grin returned.
“
Well, at least I
’
ll get my own back when Matron duns me for a subscription at Chr
i
stmas—she will, you know, once she knows I
’
m married to a Castle.
Jones,
indeed!
”

His quick smile was sympathetic, but his expression was a little rueful as he got up and went back to his chair. He had got what he wanted, with possibly more trust and compliance than he deserved, but it would, in different circumstances, he reflected wryly, have been far more sensible to adopt her.

CHAPTER FOUR

THEY were to be married by special licence at the parish church in Knockferry, the nearest market town, and the few days which elapsed before the ceremony seemed to be filled with visits from lawyers and clergymen and nameless officials on unspecified business and even doctors.

Harriet did not, however, understand the necessity for such speed in hurrying on the marriage until Jimsy enlightened her.

“
It wouldn
’
t be dacent to stop at the Castle whilst they called the banns, young miss,
”
he told her reprovingly.
“
An
’
where else could you go, an
’
yourself cast up out of the fog like a piece of flotsam?
”

Harriet had not altogether cared to be likened to a piece of flotsam, but she was grateful that the servants showed such little surprise at these hurried nuptials, and appeared to accept her without resentment. Agnes of the uncertain temper, it was true, had looked her over with a belligerent eye and made it plain that she would brook no interference in the kitchen, and the untrained Molly, learning that the Castle guest she had thought a little queer in the head was to become the new mistress, gave way to shrieks of hysterical mirth and had to be banished to the scullery with sharp words from Jimsy; the land workers, whose wives supplied the casual labour in the house, stared at her incuriously and went away, scratching their heads.

“
Och! There
’
s no accountin
’
for the tastes of the quality, an
’
they not troubled with choosin
’
a woman for wurrk,
”
was one remark overheard.
“
But wouldn
’
t you think, now, Mick, he
’
d
’
ve gone for one of the Miss Ryans if it
’
s heirs he
’
s after, an
’
they with the strong hocks under thim, an
’
the grand quarters of brood mares?
”

The question of heirs, thought Harriet ruefully, was no doubt sufficient reason for the most unlikely of unions in the eyes of a community accustomed to the seriousness of stock breeding and the misfortune of no male heir for Castle Clooney, but by the terms of his proposition, it was evidently not the matter uppermost in Duff Lonnegan
’
s
mind. Since to Harriet the main object for his marriage still seemed to be concern for his daughter
’
s welfare, she tried to learn something about the child from Jimsy, but he would only say that the little miss had lacked too long for the right company and would be the better for some learning in the proper way to behave.

“
Has she no manners, then?
”
Harriet asked, feeling a little daunted by the prospect of an undisciplined Irish ho
o
ligan.

“
Och! Manners in children is onnatura
l
entoirely. She was
born
ould, that wan.
”

There seemed, thought Harriet, to be little place for Nonie, for Duff seldom mentioned her except with that suggestion of rough regret at nature
’
s perverse trick in endowing the child with his own looks and not her lovely mother
’
s. Harriet revisited Kitty
’
s room to steal another look at her portrait and try to discover some likeness in the child, but she found that both portrait and easel had been removed, together with the books bearing Sam
’
s signature and the discarded clutter of girlish mementoes which had filled the drawers of the little chest.