Parfit Knight Read Online Free Page B

know you fancy the exquisite
Fanny to have been a victim of my rank, my wealth and my
Machiavellian wiles designed to thwart your happiness - but it
isn’t so. And while I make full allowance for your natural
disappointment at the time, you should by now have contrived to
master it.’
    ‘You don’t
understand!’ It was the resentful cry of youth. ‘She loved me before you came along and turned her head!’
    ‘I assure you
that I understand only too well,’ came the calm reply. ‘And though
I doubt you will believe it, she was by no means the blushing
little flower of virtue you apparently believed her to be – and
quite shockingly expensive.’ Amberley surveyed Robert’s expression
of implacable but frustrated fury and then gave a tiny shrug. ‘All
this is beside the point. You think I called you here to pay me. I
didn’t. I leave town this afternoon and I wished, before I left, to
inform you that the only use I have for your vowels is to light the
fire with them.’ He opened a drawer in his desk and then tossed a
small packet into the younger man’s lap. ‘Here – take them.’
    For a second
Robert was dumbstruck and then he lifted his eyes from the bundle
of paper to look suspiciously at the Marquis.
    ‘Why?’ he
asked. ‘What do you want of me?’
    A look of mild
contempt darkened the grey-green eyes. ‘I don’t want anything of
you. It would, of course, be pleasant if you refrained from making
the same mistake again but I imagine that’s too much to hope for –
at least until you exhaust the good-nature of your friends.’
    Robert flushed,
suddenly conscious of Lord Philip’s bills nestling comfortably in
his pocket.
    ‘As for why,’
Amberley went on scathingly, ‘it is a matter of honour. And for the
sake of some future young idiot, as yet still in the nursery, I can
only hope that you’ll come to understand that for yourself in
time.’
    ‘All you care
about is what will be said of you,’ accused Robert.
    The Marquis
wished that Mr Ingram had been privileged to hear that remark and
his laugh held real amusement. ‘Hardly – though you would naturally
think so.’
    The brown eyes
narrowed. ‘You mean you don’t intend to tell everyone?’
    ‘No. You really
shouldn’t judge everyone by your own standards, you know.’
    Robert ignored
this. An idea was taking shape and the simplicity of it stopped his
breath. Two birds with one stone – and all he needed to do was to
keep his mouth shut and trust Amberley to do the same. He subdued
an impulse to smile, the first he had known in two days, and got
up, cramming the vowels into his pocket.
    ‘Very well – I
accept your word,’ he said ungraciously. ‘So if there’s nothing
else you wish to say to me, I’ll take my leave.’
    ‘I can think of
several things but I’m quite sure it would be a waste of breath,’
said his lordship dryly as he pulled the tasselled cord that would
summon his butler. Then, thoughtfully, ‘I take it that your
military friend is new to town?’
    ‘My military
friend?’ echoed Robert blankly. ‘Oh – yes. He’s to marry my sister
– though I can’t conceive why it should interest you.’
    Amberley smiled
slowly. ‘It doesn’t. But it explains a lot.’
    *
    Walking away
from Hanover Square in the direction of Pall Mall and the Cocoa
Tree Club, it never once occurred to Mr Dacre that he had neither
contemplated refusing Lord Amberley’s generous offer nor made even
a token gesture of gratitude.
    It occurred to
the Marquis – but being precisely what he had expected, he did not
allow it more than a passing thought. Indeed, he considered the
episode both trivial and finished … and would have been very
surprised had he known then how much trouble was still to come from
it.
    *
    By two o’clock
the Marquis’s elegant travelling-chaise was bowling north towards
Ware and at a half after four, it halted at the Green Man in
Waltham Cross for a change of horses. After one glance at the
rapidly darkening