Her voice shook. The words tumbled over each other. Her hand wrenched itself free.
"My dear girl!" said Wentworth. "Don"t be so melodramatic! No man is guilty until he is proved so. And--thanks to the kindly offices of your good husband--I did not suffer the final catastrophe."
"But--but--but--" Her utterance seemed suddenly choked. She rose, feeling blindly for the door.
"It"s locked," said Wentworth, and there was a ring of malice in his voice. "I say, don"t be unreasonable! You shouldn"t ask unnecessary questions, you know. Other people don"t. For Heaven"s sake, let"s enjoy what we"ve got and leave the past alone!"
"Open the door!" gasped Violet in a whisper.
He rose without haste. Her white dress made her conspicuous in the dimness. Her cloak had fallen from her, and she seemed unaware of it.
He reached out as if to open the door, and then very suddenly his intention changed. He caught her to him.
"By Heaven," he said, and laughed savagely, "I"ll have my turn first!"
She turned in his hold, turned like a trapped creature in the first wild moment of capture, struggling so fiercely that she broke through his grip before he had made it secure.
He stumbled against the boat, but she sprang from him, sprang for the open moonlight and the lapping water, and the next instant she was gone from his sight.
CHAPTER VII
The water was barely up to her knees, but she stumbled among slippery stones as she fled round the corner of the boat-house, and twice she nearly fell. There were reeds growing by the bank; she struggled through them, frantically fighting her way.
She was drenched nearly to the waist when at last she climbed up the gra.s.sy slope. She heard the seekers laughing down among the ruins some distance away as she did so, and for a few seconds she thought she might escape to the house un.o.bserved. She turned in that direction, her wet skirts clinging round her. And then, simultaneously, two things happened.
The key ground in the lock of the boat-house, and, ere Wentworth could emerge, a man walked out from the shadow of some trees and met her on the path. She stopped short in the moonlight, standing as one transfixed. It was her husband.
He came to her, moving more quickly than was his won"t. "My dear child!"
he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.
Feverishly she sought to make explanation. "I--I was hiding--down on the bank. I slipped into the lake. It was very foolish of me.
But--but--really I couldn"t help it."
Her teeth were chattering. He took her by the arm.
"Come up to the house at once!" he said.
She looked towards the boat-house. The door was ajar, but Wentworth had not shown himself. With a gasp of relief she yielded to Field"s insistent hand.
Her knees were shaking under her, but she made a valiant effort to control them. He did not speak further, and something in his silence dismayed her. She trembled more and more as she walked. Her wet clothes impeded her. She remembered with consternation that she had left her cloak in the boat-house. In her horror at this discovery she stopped.
As she did so a sudden tumult behind them told her that Wentworth had been sighted by his pursuers.
In the same moment Field very quietly turned and lifted her in his arms.
She gave a gasp of astonishment.
"I think we shall get on quicker this way," he said. "Put your arm over my shoulder, won"t you?"
He spoke as gently as if she had been a child, and instinctively she obeyed. He bore her very steadily straight to the house.
CHAPTER VIII
In the safe haven of her own room Violet recovered somewhat. Field left her in the charge of her maid, but the latter she very quickly dismissed.
She sat before the fire clad in a wrapper, still shivering spasmodically, but growing gradually calmer.
"I believe there is a letter on the writing-table," she said to the maid as she was about to go out. "Take it with you and put it in the box downstairs!"
The girl returned and took up the letter that Field had written that evening. "It isn"t stamped my lady," she began; and then in a tone of surprise: "Why, it is addressed to your ladyship!"
Violet started. "Give it to me!" she commanded "That will do. I shall not be wanting you again to-night."
The girl withdrew, and she crouched lower over the fire, the letter in her hand.
Yes, it was addressed to her in her husband"s clear, strong writing--addressed to her and written in her presence!
Her hands were trembling very much as she tore open the envelope. A baffling mist danced before her eyes. For a few seconds she could see nothing. Then with a great effort she commanded herself, and read:
"My own Beloved Wife,
"If I have made your life a misery, may I be forgiven! I meant otherwise. I saw you on the ramparts this evening. That is why I want you to leave this place to-morrow. But if you do not wish to share my life any longer, I will let you go. Only in Heaven"s name choose some worthier means than this!
"I am yours to take or leave. P.F."
Hers--to take--or leave! She felt again the steady hold upon her arm, the equally steady release. That was what he had meant. That!
She sat bowed like an old woman. He had seen! And instead of being angry on his own account, he was concerned only on hers. She was his own beloved wife. He was--hers to take or leave!
Suddenly a great sob broke from her. She laid her face down upon the note she held....
There came a low knock at the door that divided her room from the one adjoining. She started swiftly up as one caught in a guilty act.
"Can I come in?" Field said.
She made some murmured response, and he opened the dividing door. A moment he stood on the threshold; then he came quietly forward. He carried her cloak upon his arm.
He deposited it upon the back of a chair, and came to her. "I hoped you would be in bed," he said.
"I am trying--to get warm," she muttered almost inarticulately.