Moonflower Madness (23 page)

‘You will not do so here,' Lionel Daly said unsteadily, still breathing harshly after his arthritic sprint towards the stables. ‘Your behaviour this morning has been inexcusable, Sir Arthur. Quite unforgivable. I can only imagine that you are ill. Yesterday's heat perhaps … or reaction to distress occasioned on your niece's behalf.'

‘Any distress Sir Arthur has felt or is feeling is purely on his own behalf, not anyone else's,' Zachary said darkly. ‘May I ask what your intentions are now, Sir Arthur?'

Ben was nuzzling Gianetta's hair; Elizabeth Daly was crying softly; Lionel Daly was listening as intently as Gianetta for Sir Arthur's reply.

‘I am returning to Chung King with my niece.'

‘And Ben?' Zachary asked, a winged eyebrow rising queryingly. ‘What future do you intend for him?'

‘His future is none of your affair, Cartwright, nor do I intend to submit to the impudence of this cross-examination any longer.'

He put the pistol back into his jacket pocket and adjusted his jade cuff-links. ‘The boat I have engaged will now be ready to sail,' he said, as if nothing exceptional had taken place. ‘Good-day, Mrs Daly, good-day, Reverend Daly. Your hospitality has been much appreciated.'

He began to walk away and Zachary said in raised tones, ‘Just one moment, Sir Arthur. Before you leave I would like to pursue the question of Ben's future.'

Sir Arthur swung around, his face livid with hatred. ‘Such concern ill becomes you, Cartwright! If my niece hadn't stolen him in order to follow you into the wilds of China, his fate would not now be in question. If anyone is to be held responsible for the decision I have taken, it is you.'

‘Then in that case I must obviously make amends.'

Sir Arthur's eyes narrowed. ‘Exactly what kind of amends did you have in mind?'

‘I'll buy Ben from you.'

Sir Arthur snorted. ‘Buy a mangy pony from me? You call that making amends? The insult you have occasioned my family requires amends of a far higher order, Cartwright. Have you considered what my position will be when Rendlesham returns to London? News of my niece's scandalous liaison with you will be all over town. My family name will be irretrievably besmirched. The only way you can possibly make amends is to marry my niece forthwith.'

Gianetta sucked her breath in between her teeth but before she could make a protest Zachary raised his hand slightly, motioning her to keep silent.

‘And if I don't?' he asked, ‘what other punishment do you intend for her, over and above shooting Ben before her eyes?'

To Sir Arthur's stupefied fury and to her husband's amazement, Elizabeth Daly answered for him.

‘When she returns to England she is to be boarded in an Anglican convent,' she said, sensing that nothing but good could come out of the disclosure.

Zachary looked from Sir Arthur to where Gianetta was standing, one hand curled in Ben's shaggy mane, her hair tumbling wildly around her shoulders, her blouse indecorously open at the throat. A less likely candidate for convent life was hard to imagine.

He sighed heavily, aware that there was only one course of action he could take if her life were not to be made a misery. Fatalistically, he returned his attention to Sir Arthur.

‘If I were to make amends to your niece, there would be a stipulation.'

‘Name it.'

‘You will give Ben to her as a wedding present.'

‘Agreed.'

The last verbal exchange had taken place so quickly that Gianetta was unsure as to whether she had heard aright.

‘I still want to sail to Chung King today,' her uncle was saying to Lionel Daly. ‘Could the wedding take place this morning? Before luncheon?'

‘No, it could not!'
she erupted explosively, under no doubt at all now as to what was being discussed.

All eyes swivelled towards her.

Her eyes were focussed solely on Zachary. ‘How
dare
you assume I am willing to marry you? What gives you the temerity? The utter gall …'

Behind her Ben nuzzled her neck.

‘He does,' Zachary said dryly. ‘If you don't marry me, the instant you reach Chung King your uncle will have him shot.'

She stared into his suntanned, hard-boned face. It was true. And not only would Ben be shot, she would be packed aboard the first available boat for England
en route
to a dismal, claustrophobic existence in Lincolnshire.

The silence was so complete that a pin could have been heard to drop. It was Lionel Daly who broke it.

‘This is a quite insupportable situation. I have not the slightest intention of performing a marriage ceremony under these circumstances. Miss Hollis is being most shamefully coerced …'

‘She is being nothing of the kind,' Sir Arthur interrupted briskly, determined not to be thwarted now that a satisfactory conclusion was so tantalisingly within reach. ‘She has behaved in a manner which ensures she can only feel deep gratitude to Mr Cartwright for his offer …'

Despite the enormity of the subject under discussion, Gianetta felt a flash of amusement at the speed of her uncle's new-found politeness where Zachary was concerned.

‘… and by marrying her to Mr Cartwright, you will be rendering her a very great service.'

‘By marrying her to a man she has no desire to marry I shall be rendering her a very great
dis
service,' Lionel Daly retorted crisply.

Gianetta was still looking towards Zachary. He was wearing the wine-red linen shirt that so enhanced his gypsyish good looks. In the brilliant sunlight his glossy hair was night-black and flecks of gold were clearly discernible in his brandy-dark eyes. She remembered the morning when she had surprised him bathing in the Kialing; the evening at the Viceroy's when she had been sure that he was going to kiss her; the camaraderie of their day-long rides; the excitement she felt just being in his company.

‘Miss Hollis needs to be assured that the pony will not be shot,' Lionel Daly was saying firmly. ‘It would also be helpful if arrangements concerning her future were made in a spirit of love, not vindictiveness. Convents do not exist to be used as places of punishment, Sir Arthur …'

As her eyes continued to hold Zachary's, Gianetta was acutely aware of the quality she found so attractive in him. It was his fearlessness and daring, his unequivocal determination to live life on his own terms. As she wanted to do. Time seemed to waver and halt. As she wanted to do with him.

‘… and so I advise that fresh arrangements are made for Gianetta's future.'

Gianetta looked away from Zachary and towards Lionel Daly.

‘No,' she said, surprised by the steadiness of her voice. ‘I would like to marry Mr Cartwright.'

‘But my dear child! A moment ago you made your objections to such a marriage quite obvious …'

‘I have changed my mind.'

It was impossible for her to explain why she had changed her mind. Zachary would no doubt think his assumptions had been correct all along, and that she had followed him from Chung King with no other intention than marriage. Elizabeth Daly would assume she was agreeing to the marriage in order to save Ben's life, and her uncle and Lionel Daly would think she was agreeing to it in order to save her reputation.

‘That's it then,' her uncle said, highly satisfied. ‘I suggest we all meet in the mission church in half an hour.'

Elizabeth Daly stared at him aghast. ‘Half an hour? But Miss Hollis has no suitable clothing with her!'

‘She can be married in what she is wearing,' her uncle retorted, uncaring of trivialities.

‘I think not,' Zachary said laconically.

All eyes turned towards the groom-to-be.

For a heart-stopping moment Gianetta thought he was going to announce he had been having a joke and that not even for Ben's sake was he prepared to marry her.

‘I would prefer my bride to be married in something a little more suitable than a travel-creased blouse and skirt,' he said, walking over to Bucephalus. ‘I'll be back in about an hour with a wedding-gown.'

He mounted with supple ease and for the first time since she had said that she would marry him, his eyes sought hers.

‘And flowers,' he said to her. ‘I think flowers are essential for a plant-hunter's bride, don't you?'

There was amusement in his eyes and something else as well. Something that sent desire coursing through her.

Her cheeks flushed hotly. ‘Yes,' she said a trifle unsteadily. ‘Wild white roses and yellow jasmine and honeysuckle.'

He nodded and at that moment, as their eyes held, Gianetta was certain there were no longer any misunderstandings between them. Whatever he had once believed as to her reasons for following him from Chung King, he believed no longer. And he wasn't marrying her solely in order to save Ben's life. He was marrying her for the same reason she was marrying him. Because he was irresistibly drawn towards her, because he couldn't envisage life without her.

As he wheeled his pony around and began to gallop away from the mission in the direction of Peng, exhilaration coursed through her. He would teach her all she longed to know about botany, and together they would travel to the most exotic and remote regions of the world, seeking out plants unknown to British gardeners, collecting seeds and cuttings. And he would be more than a husband and a teacher to her, he would also be her lover and her friend.

She would have staked her life on it.

‘If you have any doubts, my dear,' Lionel Daly was saying in deep concern, ‘If you would like to speak to me alone …'

She turned towards him. ‘No,' she said, her radiant face reassuring him more than any words could have done. ‘Is there a stable-boy other than Li Po who could groom Ben for me? I want him to look absolutely splendid for the wedding.'

‘Of course,' he said gently, not querying her stipulation that the task of grooming Ben should not be given to someone who had so recently been on the point of killing him.

‘For goodness sake, let's move away from the stink of these stables,' her uncle said irritably. ‘There are things to do and not much time to do them in.'

He began to march down the pathway fronting the bungalows, wielding his walking-cane vigorously. ‘I must inform the boatman that I will be departing for Chung King later than I had anticipated, hymns must be chosen for the wedding service, notice that the wedding has taken place must be despatched to
The Times
.'

Gianetta walked quickly, keeping up with him with ease, the Dalys following more slowly behind him.

‘Lord Rendlesham must be informed, of course,' he continued, ‘A pity he isn't here to act as best man.'

When they reached the covered walkway, Sir Arthur waited for the Dalys to catch up with them and then said peremptorily,

‘The wedding will take place the instant Mr Cartwright returns. I shall be in my room until then, and would appreciate being informed of his arrival.'

‘It would be much more seemly if there were less haste, Sir Arthur,' Lionel Daly said stubbornly, disliking his guest's highhanded manner. ‘In the ordinary way of things, banns would be called on the three Sundays prior to the wedding. I would prefer it if this were done. Mr Cartwright can reside in Peng for the next three weeks and Miss Hollis can remain here.'

Sir Arthur regarded him with animosity. ‘It is my understanding that the purpose of banns is to proclaim an intended marriage,' he said witheringly, ‘and to allow any persons who have reason to object to the marriage an opportunity of stating their objection. No-one in this remote corner of China is going to be even vaguely interested in my niece's marriage to Mr Cartwright, and there is certainly no-one in the vicinity who can have an objection to it. Banns, therefore, are unnecessary. A speedy marriage, on the other hand, is highly necessary.'

Lionel Daly did not look at all convinced, and Gianetta said quickly, ‘Mr Cartwright is
en route
to Kansu, in search of blue Moonflowers. A delay of three weeks could mean his not reaching Kansu until the flowering season is over, and then his journey would have been in vain.'

‘And if Mr Cartwright decides he cannot wait for the banns to be read and continues his journey without marrying Miss Hollis, it will cause untold distress,' Elizabeth Daly ventured, envisaging Ben's corpse floating down the Kialing.

Her husband misunderstood her. Thinking she was intimating to him that the marriage had perhaps been anticipated and that Gianetta was possibly pregnant, he said reluctantly, ‘Then in that case I shall perform the ceremony as requested. Twelve o'clock would be a suitable time, I think, providing Mr Cartwright has returned from Peng by then.'

‘That's it then. Settled.' Sir Arthur was highly pleased with himself. He had always found his guardianship of Gianetta an inconvenience, and now he would be free of it.

‘I shall give you away, of course,' he said magnanimously to her, adding as an afterthought, ‘What your father would have said about today's arrangements I can't imagine, though as his own wedding was equally unconventional I think we can assume he wouldn't have been overly critical.'

Lionel Daly's mouth tightened. It seemed to him that Sir Arthur was incapable of saying anything that wasn't either insensitive or rudely dictatorial.

‘I think perhaps Gianetta should get ready for her wedding in our room,' he said to his wife, determined to give Sir Arthur no opportunity of pursuing the subject of Gianetta's parents'marriage. ‘It has facilities, such as a hip-bath and mirror, that the bungalows lack.'

Elizabeth didn't hesitate. Sir Arthur's behaviour had been deplorable. The sooner she turned her back on him, the better she would like it.

‘Come along, my dear,' she said to Gianetta. ‘I'm sure Jung-shou will be able to rustle up some hot water.'

As they walked away towards the double doors leading into the mission's drawing-room, she added zestfully, ‘And we must find you something blue to wear, and something old and something new and something borrowed.'