"Not one--not to keep you from spreading your slander from end to end of England! Do your worst!--you cannot make me more wretched than I am.
And go, or I will call for help, and see whether my husband has not courage to keep his word."
"You will not give me the rings?"
"Not to save your life! Hark! some one is coming! Now you will see which of us is afraid of the other!"
He stood looking at her, a dangerous gleam in his black eyes.
"Very well!" he said; "so be it! Don"t trouble yourself to call your hero of a husband--I"m going. You"re a plucky little thing after all, Ethel. I don"t know but that I rather admire your spirit. Adieu, my dear, until we meet again."
He swung round, and vanished among the trees. He was actually singing as he went,
"To-day for me.
To-morrow for thee-- But will that to-morrow ever be?"
The last rustle of the laurels died away; all was still; the twilight was closing darkness, and, with a shudder, Ethel turned to go.
"But will that to-morrow ever be?"--the refrain of the doggerel rung in her ears. "Am I never to be free from this brother and sister?" she cried to herself, desperately, as she advanced to the house. "Am I never to be free from this bondage?"
As the last flutter of her white dress disappeared, Sir Victor Catheron emerged from the shadow of the trees, and the face, on which the rising moon shone, was white as the face of death.
CHAPTER VI.
IN THE MOONLIGHT.
He had not overheard a word, he had not tried to overhear; but he had seen them together--that was enough. He had reached the spot only a moment before their parting, and had stood confounded at sight of his wife alone here in the dusk with Juan Catheron.
He saw them part--saw him dash through the woodland, singing as he went--saw her turn away and walk rapidly to the house. She had come here to meet him, then, her former lover. He had not left Chesholm; he was lurking in the neighborhood of the Royals, and she knew it. She knew it. How many times had they met before--his wife and the man he abhorred--the man who claimed her as his wife. What if she _were_ his wife? What if that plight pledged in the Scotch kirk were binding?
She had loved Juan Catheron then. What if she loved him still? She had hidden it from him, until it could be hidden no longer--she had deceived him in the past, she was deceiving him in the present. So fair and so false, so innocent to all outward seeming. Yet so lost to all truth and honor.
He turned sick and giddy; he leaned against a tree, feeling as though he could never look upon her false face again. Yet the next moment he started pa.s.sionately up.
"I will go to her," he thought; "I will hear what she has to say. If she voluntarily tells me, I must, I will believe her. If she is silent, I will take it as proof of her guilt."
He strode away to the house. As he entered, his man Edwards met him, and presented him a note.
"Brought by a groom from Powyss Place, Sir Victor," he said. "Squire Powyss has had a stroke."
The baronet tore it open--it was an impetuous summons from Lady Helena.
"The squire has had an attack of apoplexy. For Heaven"s sake come at once."
He crushed it in his hand, and went into the dining-room. His wife was not there. He turned to the nursery; he was pretty sure of always finding her _there_.
She was there, bending over her baby, looking fair and sweet as the babe itself. Fair and sweet surely. Yet why, if innocent, that nervous start at sight of him--that frightened look in the blue eyes. The nurse stood at a distance, but he did not heed her.
"A summons from Powyss Place," he said; "the poor old squire has had a fit of apoplexy. This is the second within the year, and may prove fatal. I must go at once. It is not likely I shall return to-night."
She looked at him, startled by his deadly paleness; but then, perhaps, the summons accounted for that. She murmured her regrets, then bent again over her baby.
"You have nothing to say to me, Ethel, before I go?" he said, looking at her steadily.
She half-lifted her head, the words half-rose to her lips. She glanced at the distant nurse, who was still busy in the room, glanced at her husband"s pale set face, and they died away again. Why detain him now in his haste and trouble? Why rouse his rage against Juan Catheron at this inopportune time? No, she would wait until to-morrow--nothing could be done now; then she would reveal that intrusion in the grounds.
"I have nothing to say, except good-by. I hope poor Mr. Powyss may not be so ill as you fear."
He turned away--a tumult of jealous rage within him. A deliberate lie he thought it; there could be no doubt of her guilt now. And yet, insanely inconsistent as it seems, he had never loved her more pa.s.sionately than in that hour.
He turned to go without a word. He had reached the door. All at once he turned back, caught her in his arms almost fiercely, and kissed her again and again.
"Good-by," he said, "my wife, my love--good-by."
His vehemence frightened her. She released herself and looked at him, her heart fluttering. A second time he walked to the door--a second time he paused. Something seemed to stay his feet on the threshold.
"You will think me foolish, Ethel," he said, with a forced laugh; "but I seem afraid to leave you to-night. Nervous folly, I suppose; but take care of yourself, my darling, until I return. I shall be back at the earliest possible moment."
Then he was gone.
She crossed over to the low French window, standing wide open, and looked after him wistfully.
"Dear Victor," she thought, "how fond he is of me, after all."
The moon was shining brightly now, though the day still lingered. She stood and watched him out of sight. Once, as he rode away, he turned back--she kissed and waved her hand to him with a smile.
"Poor Victor!" she thought again, "he loves me so dearly that I ought to forgive him everything. How happy we might be here together, if it were not for that horrible brother and sister. I wish--I wish he would send her away."
She lingered by the window, fascinated by the brilliancy of the rising September moon. As she stood there, the nursery door opened, and Miss Catheron entered.
"You here," she said, coolly; "I didn"t know it. I wanted Victor. I thought I heard his voice. And how is the heir of Catheron Royals?"
She bent, with her usual slight, chill smile over the crib of that young gentleman, and regarded him in his sleep. The nurse, listening in the dusk, she did not perceive.
"By the bye, I wonder if he _is_ the heir of Catheron Royals though?
I am reading up the Scottish Law of Marriage, and really I have my doubts. If you are Juan"s wife, you can"t be Sir Victor"s, consequently the legitimacy of his son may yet be--"
She never finished the sentence. It was the last drop in the br.i.m.m.i.n.g cup--the straw that broke the camel"s back--the one insult of all others not to be borne. With eyes afire in the dusk, Sir Victor"s wife confronted her.
"You have uttered your last affront, Inez Catheron," she exclaimed.
"You will never utter another beneath this roof. To-morrow you leave it! I am Sir Victor Catheron"s wife, the mistress of Catheron Royals, and this is the last night it shall ever shelter you. Go!" She threw open the nursery door. "When my husband returns either you or I leave this house forever!"
The nurse was absolutely forgotten. For a second even Inez Catheron quailed before the storm she had raised; then black eyes met blue, with defiant scorn.
"Not all the soap-boiler"s daughters in London or England shall send me from Catheron Royals! Not all the Miss Dobbs that ever bore that distinguished appellation shall drive me forth. _You_ may go to-morrow if you will. I shall not."