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“That is eleven pence ha’pe
“One and six with the matching bracelet,” the woman said, still looking at Richard. “Two shillings for the necklace and three bracelets. You won’t get a better bargain this side of China, you won’t, guv.”
“Richard,” Nora said in sudden alarm, though she was still laughing, “don’t.”
But he did. Just because suddenly he wanted to.
He took the long rope of garish royal-blue beads from the vendor’s hand after paying for them and slipped them over Nora’s bo
He expected her to look embarrassed and a
“Everyone will see me coming from a mile away,” she said. “How silly you are, Richard.”
“And how ravishing you look,” he said, making her a mock bow.
“You look like a duchess wearing the crown jewels, mum,” the vendor said before turning to bargain with another customer, who was admiring a pair of priceless diamond earbobs.
Nora tipped her head slightly to one side-the familiarity of the gesture smote him.
“You really must not keep doing this, Richard,” she said, her eyes still bright though the laughter had faded from them. “You are spending a great deal of money.”
“I think perhaps all of five shillings so far,” he said.
“Five shillings can be a fortune when one does not have it,” she said, and then turned sharply away as if she had revealed too much.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
She sighed. “No.”
He inhaled the savory aroma that was coming from a food stall. “That smells delicious,” he said. “And it is a few hours since we had breakfast.”
“Richard,” she said, “I am not-”
“But I am,” he said. “And I would rather not eat alone.”
He gave her the rolled-up drawing to hold and went to buy them a meat pasty each. And he led the way to an empty plot of grass on the green, where a number of people were sitting, either eating or simply relaxing in the sunshine.
They sat side by side, eating in silence except when one family group nodded affably at them and called across to ask about their health and the state of the curricle. Nora had her legs curled up beside her. Her back was straight, her neck arched over her food. His pasty finished, Richard reclined on one side, propped on one elbow so that he could watch all the festive activity going on around them.
“Have you worked all these years, Nora?” he asked at last and then wished he had not. He did not really want to know about the missing years. He did not need to know.
“Not all of them,” she said. “I stayed with Papa for two years until he died. He always believed his fortunes would come about again. I suppose I did, too. I did not understand how deeply…Well, never mind.”
She had been a sheltered and privileged girl when he had known her, daughter of a gentleman of vast wealth and political influence-or so it had seemed. Richard had been his secretary, yet even he had not suspected that Ryder’s properties were all mortgaged to the hilt, his debts astronomical, his penchant for gambling out of control. Ryder had managed to pay his wage on time most months.
“After his death I lived with Jeremy for a year,” she said-Jeremy Ryder was her brother. “But I would not do that indefinitely especially after he married. I have had employment since then.”
He opened his mouth to ask a question, closed it again, and then asked anyway.
“You did not consider marriage?” he asked her.
She did not answer for a while. She was looking toward the juggler, who had just provoked a loud cheer from the people in his vicinity.
“No,” she said.
“Because no one would have you?” he asked her.
“Because I would have no one,” she said.
“Because you were already married?”
He was not sure she had heard. He had spoken quietly, and there was a great deal of noise and merriment going on about them.
“I was not,” she said just as quietly after a few moments. “I have chosen not to marry because I do not wish to do so. Why have you not married?” And then she turned her head to look at him. “But perhaps you have.”
“No,” he said. He had thought of marrying. Apart from the emotional need he had sometimes felt for one woman-a whole string of mistresses and casual amours had never satisfied that need-there was the duty of begetting an heir. But he had never been able to persuade himself that he would not be committing bigamy by marrying. Yet he had never checked, had never consulted an expert.
They had eloped to Scotland and had married there. They had returned to their i
The man who had married them and the i
Did that mean they were not married?
He had never known for sure. He still did not.
But for perhaps an hour and a half of their lives, he and Nora had been man and wife. Happily-ever-after had lasted that long.
What would have happened, he wondered, if he had inherited his title and fortune six months sooner than he had? But the answer was obvious. When he had inherited-quite unexpectedly-he had suddenly found himself being warmly congratulated and aggressively courted by the very man who had pursued him to Scotland and beaten him within an inch of his life when he had been nothing but a secretary without prospects. Suddenly he had become a very desirable son-in-law indeed. By that time Ryder had been so close to the brink of disaster that his ruin had become common knowledge and creditors were pressing him from all sides. A wealthy son-in-law would have been a godsend-just as it would have been six months earlier when Ryder had been trying to marry his daughter to old Potts, who, true to his name, was very wealthy indeed.
“What I have done with my life in the last ten years is nothing to do with you, Richard,” Nora said now, turning to him as she rubbed the last of the crumbs from her hands onto the grass. “Just as what you have done is nothing to do with me. Let us leave it at that, shall we? If you intend to remain out here, I shall return to the i
If her father had not pursued her, driven on, no doubt, by the deep fear that he would lose his daughter to an impoverished man and thus not be able to use her to lure a wealthy husband to help pay his debts-had he not pursued her, or had he behaved with greater honor after he had, then they would have been married for ten years now, he and Nora. They would be long familiar with each other. They would probably have children. They-
A few men, all smiling and jovial, were shooing everyone off the grass. Fiddlers and pipers were tuning their instruments on the far side of the green. Two young girls were straightening out the ribbons about the maypole. The dancing was about to begin.
“Stay,” he said, getting to his feet and reaching out a hand to help her to hers. “Let’s watch the dancing together, Nora. One gets a chance to watch maypole dancing only once a year, after all.”