“And you don’t think there’s the slightest need to hesitate before appending my signature to these papers?”
“Oh, no, none whatsoever.”
“Well, that’s fortunate, because handicapped as I am by an almost complete loss of memory I could very easily be taken advantage of. You, with your obviously shrewd business brain, will realise that. And no doubt that’s why you’ve taken the trouble to go into things with Tom.” She glanced at him for a moment almost uncertainly.
“Er – yes – yes, it is,” she agreed. And then more earnestly: “It has struck me from the first that at the moment you’re terribly vulnerable. You could be taken for a ride by anyone if they were sufficiently unscrupulous. You don’t even remember what your business interests are, and how can you know that you’re doing the right thing by signing documents that could mean you were damaging your own interests? Unless I tell you that it’s perfectly safe for you to do so! ”
“I suppose I have a solicitor somewhere,” Tremarth murmured thoughtfully. “But of course he could be as shady as the rest unless you vet him for me, couldn’t he?”
“Don’t be silly, darling.” She squeezed his arm with her slender fingers, but she sounded suddenly just a little vexed at the same time. “No one is shady… least of all your solicitor, who happens, however, to be abroad at the moment. If you’re anxious to see him I suppose we could cable him to fly back and have a few reassuring words with you… but it seems a little hard when he’s on holiday. He’s the junior partner, and apparently you’ve a great deal of confidence in him.”
“And the other members of the firm?” “They’re very elderly and rather dry-as-dust, and I don’t think you’ve ever had much to do with them. Wouldn’t it be better to wait and see your own solicitor when he gets back?”
“And what about inviting him to the wedding?”
“Don’t be silly, darling,” she said again, laughing patiently. “What would be the point of sending him an invitation when he’s at the opposite side of the world?”
Tremarth smiled suddenly, and appeared to relax.
“No good at all, my pet, and I’m simply being rather silly. It seems that I am in your hands-yours and Tom’s-and I might as well accept it that I’m in very safe hands.”
“Of course, darling.” She patted his sleeve affectionately, and her limpid blue eyes made every effort to reassure him-to convince him that he had not the slightest need to worry about anything. “You couldn’t be in safer hands… I give you my word about that! ”
“How comforting,” Richard remarked. He lifted his eyes to the clear blue of the sky, and as the sunlight poured over his naturally dark skin and the clear-cut outline of his features it seemed to her that they grew rather hard, and in fact the line of his lips grew so thin that the attractive shapeliness of his mouth disappeared for a moment, and there was nothing but a taut, cold line… a bleak and forbidding line.
“What’s wrong, Richard?” she asked, sensing that something was very wrong.
“Quite a lot.” Very deliberately he removed her hand from his arm, and then fastidiously dusted his sleeve with the tips of the fingers of his free hand. “Your reassurances are a trifle hollow, for you appear to have neglected to do your homework. There is no junior partner in my firm of solicitors, only two very senior men, neither of whom is out of the country at the moment. I received a highly concerned letter from one of them a couple of days ago. Tom Armitage, who used to be my partner
– we agreed to dissolve our partnership just before I came down here to Cornwall, and if he has not already vacated his desk and my premises and ceased to meddle in my affairs I shall have to go into the matter without delay – is in no position to send me documents. I’m afraid, if you think he has; then you’ve both been barking up the wrong tree. And as for that marriage settlement you’ve been dwelling upon so fondly… well, I hate to have to tell you this, but there isn’t going to be any marriage settlement, for the very excellent reason that I don’t think you and I are going to marry one another after all! ”
She gasped, and found it impossible to conceal a profound and almost ludicrous feeling of dismay.
“You’ve got your memory back!” she exclaimed.
He turned towards her and his bleak lips smiled coolly.
“I’m thankful to say I have,” he admitted. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been remembering things very nicely for days… ever since you came down here to overwhelm me with your attentiveness. But I wanted to find out how clever you were, and to what extent you were prepared to take advantage of my supposed amnesia. You and I have been quite friendly for some time – that is true. But we were never even on the doorstep of becoming engaged. It was Tom you fancied all along, wasn’t it? And Tom you proposed to marry, when and if you could between you pull off a worthwhile deal that would set me back a few thousands, and provide the two of you with a little nest-egg. I know all about Tom’s schemes, and the advantage that would be his if I was unwise enough to sign one of his precious documents. But I’m an awfully hard-headed man, my dear Claire, even when I’m suffering from amnesia! ”
She stood quite still in the very middle of a handsome slab of Cornish granite, and suddenly stamped her foot in sheer fury and vexation.
“You’re a… I despise you for being quite so despicable! ” she told him, her fair skin mottled with rage. “To pretend that you couldn’t remember anything… and to know so much! ” “Too much for your comfort and convenience?” He smiled at her almost lazily this time.
She bit her lower lip so hard that it bled.
“I’ve devoted a lot of time to you…”
“And spent a lot of money on grapes and things! But I enjoyed them,” he assured her, and showed her his excellent white teeth in a broader smile.
She glared at him for several seconds longer, and then abruptly her expression altered. She began to look vaguely triumphant.
“But we are engaged to be married!” she reminded him.
“You may consider yourself engaged to me, but I have no hesitation in informing you that I never intended to marry you. It was you who made all the running for reasons that seemed quite excellent to you, and I simply agreed to be lured into an engagement for reasons that seemed just as excellent to me.”
“You’re beastly and cold-blooded.”
“But most fortunately free.”
“Oh, no!” She smiled triumphantly. “We announced our engagement publicly, and Miss Woodford and Nurse Cootes are well aware that we plan to be married. Whether or not you were still suffering from amnesia when you agreed to marry me is of little or no importance. The important thing is that you did ask me to marry you! ”
“If my memory serves me correctly it was you who made the suggestion, and I agreed as you said just now.”
“It doesn’t matter… We are officially engaged!”
“Oh, no… Not if I have to take you into court and accuse you and Armitage of conspiracy.” And from the icy coldness of his smile she realised he was capable of doing just that. “And besides…”
Charlotte had just emerged from the house on to the terrace, and he extended a hand to her.
“Charlotte, come here!”
She came-as meekly as if she always did his bidding without a moment of hesitation.
“Charlotte, tell Miss Brown the true situation… tell her about your prior claim, and about that tricky memory of mine! We’ve known one another for years, haven’t we? And it was always agreed that we would marry! Why otherwise was I wasting my time in Cornwall when I might have been making money in Town?”
Although it affected her with extraordinary and conflicting sensations she allowed him to take her hand and hold it tightly, and with her eyes fixed steadily on the charming but distorted countenance of Claire Brown she solemnly echoed that what Richard Tremarth had just said was the truth.