Part 5 (1/2)

He thought it a bore to have women at a dinner where the wine and food were the first objects of interest.

And he told himself that the sooner Beryl understood that if he wished to have a bachelor party she must make other arrangements for herself, the better.

As he thought of his intended, he realised how disappointed his mother had been in his choice of a wife.

He had known that was inevitable as he drove North to break the news of his impending marriage, but he found himself remembering the sadness in the Dowager Marchioness's eyes and the wistful note in her voice.

'She will be happy enough once I am married,' he told himself optimistically, 'and when we have children she will both love and spoil them.'

It occurred to him for the first time that the life Beryl had lived up to now was hardly conducive to contented motherhood.

She was, as he had described her, the life and soul of every party. She was also always surrounded by a crowd of admiring swains who laughed at everything she said and extolled her as being wittier than she in fact was.

As if he wished to rea.s.sure himself, the Marquis thought, 'We like the same sort of things, we lead the same sort of life.'

That, he was sure, was the right foundation on which to build a commendable marriage.

It was growing late in the afternoon but there was still a little way to go before he reached The George and Dragon where he intended to stay.

As he drove his horses round the corner of a narrow hedge-bordered road, he saw a commotion ahead.

The Marquis, who was travelling fast, pulled in his team.

”An accident!” he remarked briefly.

”It's the stagecoach, my Lord,” Jim replied.

They drew nearer.

The stagecoach, which was lying at a drunken angle on the left-hand side of the road, had obviously just come into collision with a chaise drawn by two horses, which were plunging about out of control.

The stagecoach had been prevented by the hedgerow from turning over completely and the luggage piled on top had fallen into the road. A number of white chickens, which had been contained in a coop, were fluttering about squawking loudly.

Their cries were augmented by the bleat of a sheep sewn into a sack, which was lying upside down on the gra.s.s verge. There were feminine screams and masculine oaths, while the owner of the chaise, a middle-aged and furious gentleman was hurling abuse at the driver of the stagecoach.

The latter, ably supported by the guard, was shouting back at him.

The Marquis looked at the turmoil with amus.e.m.e.nt.

Then, as it was impossible to pa.s.s and it seemed unlikely that anyone intended to clear up the mess, he handed his reins to his groom.

Without haste he stepped down onto the road and walked up to the combatants, his voice clear and authoritative cutting across their furious interchange.

”Go to the heads of your horses, you fools!”

Both the gentleman who owned the chaise and the coachman turned to stare at him in astonishment.

”Your horses!” the Marquis called out again and surprisingly they obeyed him.

He then turned to the men who had been scrambling down from the roof of the coach and pointed to those who had their heads out of the windows being unable to alight owing to the angle at which it lay.

”Get everyone out!” the Marquis ordered. ”Then you can right this vehicle, unless you intend to stay here for the rest of the night.”

There was a sharpness in his tone that galvanised the men into activity.

A fat farmer's wife was helped out first, crying as she did so, ”Me chickens a me poor little chickens a they be all crushed!”

She insisted on her rescuers taking from her first a basket in which remained a few of the day old chicks she was doubtless taking to market.

As she reached the ground, she declared stridently, ”'Tis a disgrace the way these coachmen drive! Sommat should be done about it a that it should!”

”I agree with you, ma'am,” the Marquis said.

Then, as the woman went on worrying about her chickens, he turned his attention to an elderly gentleman who, quivering with anger as he was a.s.sisted from the coach, was swearing that every bone in his body was broken.

He was followed by three more men, then last of all the Marquis saw a little oval face with two large frightened eyes framed by a somewhat battered bonnet.

Torilla stepped out so lightly that she hardly touched the hands of the two men who were only too anxious to help her. Then, as she reached the road, she looked up and saw the Marquis.

Her eyes widened and the colour rose in her pale cheeks as he swept his high-crowned hat from his head, saying, ”We meet again, Miss Clifford!”

It seemed as if she had no words to answer him and after looking at her beneath lazy eyelids he returned to the task of sorting out the accident.

The horses in the chaise were now under control and in a somewhat peremptory manner he told the middle-aged owner of them to be on his way.

”I intend to sue the company for the damage that has been done to my vehicle,” the gentleman grunted angrily.

”I doubt if you will receive any compensation,” the Marquis replied. ”But you can always try.”

”The driver is drunk a that is perfectly obvious,” the gentleman averred.

”They invariably are,” the Marquis answered and walked away, obviously bored with the subject.

Now that one side of the road was clear, the Marquis could proceed on his way. But first he set the men who had been on the coach to work pus.h.i.+ng and pulling the unwieldy vehicle back onto the highway.

”Drive more carefully in future,” the Marquis ordered the coachman.

The man was crimson in the face and there was some truth in the accusation that, even if he was not drunk, he had certainly imbibed more freely than was wise.

To mitigate the severity of his words, the Marquis gave the driver a guinea and he was instantly all smiles and pleasantries.

The coach was righted, most of the chickens had been collected and returned to their coop, the sheep still bleating plaintively was placed the right way up on the roof and the pa.s.sengers began to take their places.

The Marquis walked to where Torilla was standing a little apart from the others.

”Do you know where you are staying tonight?” he asked.

”At an inn called The George and Dragon,” she replied.

”Then I will take you there, for it is where I am bound myself,” the Marquis offered.