The Quiet Gentleman

The Earl shook his head. “Thank you, no! I have something else for you to do. I fancy nothing will be attempted against me while I am confined to my bed, with Turvey in the dressing-room.”

“Him!” said Chard scornfully. “He might wake if you was to sound a trumpet outside his door — there’s no saying!”

“He would wake if I called to him. But I have a better answer for a would-be assassin than Turvey. Open the top right-hand drawer of that chest, if you please! You will find my pistol there: bring it to me! Be careful! it is loaded and primed. Thank you!” The Earl took the pistol, and laid it on the table beside his bed. “Now light a candle!” He waited until Chard had obeyed him, and then said: “Don’t mount guard outside Mr. Martin’s room!”

“Me lord!” Chard said explosively. “Mr. Martin was caught by me the best part of the way to King’s Lynn this day!”

“Yes. I know.”

“Very good, me lord, but p’raps you don’t know what sort of a Canterbury tale he saw fit to tell me!”

“I have heard it. But I do not wish him to know that he is watched. In the house, I think I stand in no danger. But in a day or two I shall be out of this bed, and when that happens, then I want you to watch Mr. Martin, once he is outside these walls. You will not always find it possible to follow him, but discover where he goes, and if he takes a gun out, follow him as close as you may.” He paused. “And if I too am outside these walls, Chard, don’t let him out of your sight!” he said deliberately.

Chapter 18

Martin’s return to Stanyon brought about two changes in the existing arrangements at the Castle: the Dowager emerged from the seclusion of her own apartments, and Lord Ulverston postponed his departure for London. No one was much surprised at this, and although the Earl murmured that Lucy’s presence was unlikely to preserve him from harm he raised no demur to it, events having largely banished from Martin’s mind other and less immediately important issues. Indeed, it was doubtful if Martin would now have offered for Marianne, had her affections been disengaged, for when she drove over to Stanyon with her parents, to enquire after the progress of its owner, her shocked gaze informed him tolerably clearly what were her sentiments upon the occasion. That the story he had told should have met with disbelief, first, and palpably, from his half-brother, and then from the lady whom he had intended to wed, struck Martin with stunning effect, and in some measure prepared him for his reception at Mr. Warboys’s hands.

“Doing it rather too brown, Martin!” Mr. Warboys said bluntly. “Always said that nasty temper of yours would land you in a fix one of these days!” He added, with considerable courage: “Lesson to you! Have to live it down, old boy!”

Instead of issuing the challenge which Mr. Warboys would have had no hesitation in declining, Martin had turned on his heel, and walked off without another word spoken.

The Dowager, resuming her place in the household at Stanyon, soon realized that Martin’s return had not, as she had felt sure it must, allayed all suspicion against him. Nothing in her well-ordered existence had prepared her for such a situation as now confronted her. Her egotism happily preserved her from self-blame, but her agitation was, nevertheless, acute, and prompted her to pay her stepson a visit. Miss Morville was powerless to resist this incursion; she could only hope that the Earl’s constitution was strong enough to support him through the ordeal. She discovered, as others had done before her, that his apparent fragility and his gentleness were alike deceptive. He received his stepmother with equanimity, and although her visit wearied him it did not, as Miss Morville had feared it must, agitate his pulse. The Dowager harangued him for half an hour, ringing all the changes between scolding, dictating, and pleading. He heard her with patience, and answered her with such kindness that she left his room much tranquillized, and only realized some hours later that her intervention had achieved nothing. He did not banish Martin from Stanyon, but he would not again admit him to his bedchamber; he told her that he should adhere to his story of the man in homespuns, but he gave her no assurance that he believed Martin to be innocent of the attempt upon his life. It was not until Martin questioned her upon these points that the Earl’s omissions occurred to her. She had seldom suffered so severe a setback, and its effect upon her was such that Miss Morville felt herself obliged to accede to her almost tearful request to her young friend not to leave her while her nerves were so much overset.