Part 14 (2/2)

”It would not seem very large to the gentleman who came to your rescue.”

”The a Marquis?” Torilla breathed.

”Exactly a the Marquis! He is always quite prepared to pay for his amus.e.m.e.nts and I think you will find he agrees that I am really being very reasonable in this matter considering that his engagement to the incomparable Lady Beryl was announced the following day.”

There was something very menacing in the way Sir Jocelyn spoke and at the same time it was almost as if he smacked his lips over the fact that he had such excellent cards to play.

Torilla sat astounded.

She could not think of what to say or do and everything seemed to be twirling round in her head in a hopeless confusion.

”My Club is Boodles,” Sir Jocelyn continued. ”If I do not receive a cheque for five thousand pounds there by noon tomorrow I shall expect you, Miss Clifford, at Duke's Hotel at seven o'clock.”

He reached out as he spoke and took one of Torilla's hands from her lap.

”I can honestly say,” he said in a low voice, ”that I am hoping you don't have the courage to ask the Marquis to pay up.”

Before he could kiss her hand, Torilla s.n.a.t.c.hed it from him.

Then, without waiting for him to leave her, she ran across the garden towards the house.

She felt Sir Jocelyn was pursuing her, enveloping her, and she could not escape from him.

The ballroom was on the first floor and there were steps leading from the garden onto the balcony, which ran the whole length of the house.

Hastily Torilla climbed them.

She wanted the safety and security of the crowd, she wanted to get away from Sir Jocelyn and the terror of what he had suggested to her.

Then, as she reached the last step leading up to the balcony, she saw a man standing alone looking out into the garden.

Her heart turned over in her breast.

It was like finding a sudden haven of security in the middle of a tempestuous sea.

Without remembering anything that she had felt about him except that he had saved her before from Sir Jocelyn, Torilla ran towards the Marquis.

She reached his side and put out her hands that were trembling towards him.

”You are a here! You are a back!” she cried incoherently. ”I need you a I need your a help!”

Her voice was tremulous in her desperation and, as the Marquis turned to look down at her, she saw that he raised his eyebrows.

”What has happened?” he asked.

She thought his calm, drawling voice was like a lifeline thrown to a drowning man.

”I must a speak to you. I must a talk to you a alone.”

”But of course,” he answered. ”Shall we go out into the garden?”

”No a no!” Torilla said quickly thinking they might again encounter Sir Jocelyn.

”Then we will find somewhere else?”

He gave her his arm and she put her hand on it feeling that she must hold onto him in case he escaped her.

She was experiencing again all that she had felt when Sir Jocelyn first a.s.saulted her in the bedroom at The Pelican Inn.

Her heart was thumping in her breast, her lips were dry and the constriction in her throat made it hard to speak.

The Marquis avoided the windows opening into the ballroom, which was crowded with dancers, and led Torilla to one at the far end of the house.

Here there was a small sitting room arranged with sofas and shaded lights. It was, however, occupied by several couples and the Marquis pa.s.sed through it to walk across a landing to open a door marked 'Private'.

He seemed to know his way about and Torilla found they were in a part of the house that was not so brilliantly lit and appeared to be deserted.

The Marquis led the way and they entered a room that Torilla saw was decorated in very feminine taste and redolent with the fragrance of flowers.

She had an idea later that it was the private boudoir of their hostess, but for the moment she could think of nothing save that she was alone with the Marquis and could tell him all that had happened.

He indicated a sofa and she sank down on it, her eyes very dark and frightened in her pale face.

Looking at her the Marquis realised he had seen such an expression on her face once before.

”Tell me all about it,” he suggested and he was not drawling.

Torilla clasped her hands together, but, as she opened her lips to speak, she realised how embarra.s.sing it would be to explain to the Marquis what Sir Jocelyn had insinuated about them.

Then she told herself that what she must primarily be concerned with was to prevent Beryl from being told such lies, for since she had never mentioned what had happened on the journey, Beryl might think that there was some truth in them.

She raised her eyes to the Marquis's face and said in a very low voice, ”It is a Sir Jocelyn!”

The Marquis frowned.

”What has that swine done now?” he demanded sharply.

”He a spoke to me just a now in the a garden,” Torilla answered. ”He said terrible a things and I don't a know what to do.”

”What did he say?”

Torilla felt the embarra.s.sment of it made it almost impossible for her to speak.

The Marquis waited and, although she turned her face away and her voice was almost inaudible, the words had to be spoken.

'H a he a threatened to t-tell a Beryl that we were a together at The Pelican Inn!”

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