“If my husband were here …” said my mother.

“Is he not? I wished to meet him.”

“It would be an ill day for you if you did.”

“Madam, are you being just? I have come to you to right a wrong. I have come to make honourable amends. I offer your daughter marriage.”

My mother was speechless. She glanced at me but I could not meet her eyes. I kept thinking of marrying him, spending my days and nights with him, and I felt a sudden wild curiosity which was almost desire.

He assumed an air of humility which was quite alien to him and gave him an unexpected charm.

“I am a sinner, Madam,” he said. “I will tell you the truth. I saw your daughter in the inn and as a young hot-blooded man must do, desired her. I behaved badly …” he shrugged his shoulders. “A sort of revenge, if you will, because I knew she was out of my reach. The next day I had the good fortune to rescue her from robbers. I tremble to think what her fate would have been had she been left to them. I rescued her; I searched for you; I could not find you; then I took her to my castle. It was there that the temptation overcame me. I deserve your contempt and hatred. But, Madam, you do not know what it means to be so deep in desire. There is no conscience, there is no thought for anything beyond the satisfying of that desire. Perhaps your husband could understand. I have heard tales of him and I think he would. My better nature was subdued. I behaved as I did because I could not stop myself doing otherwise.”

My mother said: “You behaved as no gentleman would.”

“’Tis true, alas. And having done so, your daughter has not been out of my mind since that day I brought her home to you. I determined to ask for her hand in marriage, to make amends. I knew that there was only one circumstance in which she would have me. What I hoped is now a fact and I have the temerity to offer myself. She shall be cherished all the days of her life; she shall be my honoured wife, the mother of my children; and there shall be no slur on this little one whom she now carries.”

My mother was silent. I could see the speculation in her eyes. It was a solution. He was the father of the child; he wished to marry me; I should not be so far from her if I married him. It would have been the best answer but for the fact that I must take this man for my husband.

She turned to me. “I think my daughter will refuse your offer.”

“Yes,” I said. “I refuse. I never want to see this man again.”

“You will see him in your child,” he reminded me. “And will you deny him his name?”

“We will make arrangements,” said my mother. “We are not without the power to do so.”

“I shall want my child,” he said.

“Since it was begotten in such a manner you have no right to it,” said my mother.

“A father no right to his child! Come, Madam, you are unjust.”

“What a pity you did not think of justice when you had my daughter at your mercy.”

“Your daughter was, alas, so desirable that my conscience was stilled; and you are to blame for that, Madam, for you have brought her up with a spirit and beauty to match your own.”

“Enough of this,” said my mother. “You have caused us great trouble. You can serve us best by going away from here and never crossing our paths again.”

“I have planned it well,” he said. “I will ride over with a priest and he shall marry us quietly. Then I shall let it be known that your daughter and I were so enamoured of each other, so eager for the sweets of union that we could not wait for the grand wedding you would certainly want to give us, so we married quietly in November, kept our marriage secret, and now that you know, you insist on a grand wedding if that is what you wish, Madam.”

I could see that she was thinking of my father. If he were told this story, he would accept it; and although he had hoped with my mother that I would marry Fennimore, I did not think he would be so delighted with him as a son-in-law as my mother would have been.

She was looking at me. Perhaps he reminded her of my father; she knew what her feelings for him were. Was she asking herself if while outwardly I seemed to hate this man he aroused some strange emotions within me? If she was thinking this, she was right.

His size, his blustering manner, the power that exuded from him had a certain magnetism. I could not understand what it was, but when I compared Fennimore with him, Fennimore seemed a little insignificant.

He leaned against the table and regarded the tips of his boots. His expression had grown melancholy. “If she will not accept me, Madam, what a plight she will be in! Your daughter condemned as a girl who grants favours before marriage. Oh, I agree, she was forced to it, but such is the way of the world that even so, a maiden’s plight is held against her. It is wrong, it is cruel; but nevertheless true. I am to blame. I have put her into this condition. I wish to make amends and I swear with all my heart, Madam, that I will do so. Tell me I may come tomorrow with my docile priest. You have a chapel here. We will have a ceremony in secret. I shall be your daughter’s husband. Then if you wish it we can tell our little secret to the world. We will have our grand wedding as soon as is possible and I shall take my bride with me to Castle Paling. She will already be with child but why should she not be when she was secretly married to the husband of her choice as far back as November.”

There was silence in the room. I was aware of the thudding of my heart as it shook my body. He was right. It was a way out. Even those who did not believe that we had been secretly married in November would not dare say so. My child would be born with all honour—the heir of Castle Paling. There would be no bitter subterfuge to darken my life. And I should be his wife. The thought I must admit filled me with terror and yet it was a delicious sort of terror. I was beginning to think it was a terror I must experience.

He was the first to speak. “Tomorrow,” he said, “I shall come here with the priest.”

“We must have time to think of this,” said my mother. “Tomorrow is too soon.”

“There is little time to waste, Madam. Remember our child grows bigger with every day. I will come tomorrow with the priest. By then you will have seen that this is the answer!”

He bowed and went out into the courtyard. I heard him shouting for his horse. My mother and I were silent, listening to the sound of his horse’s hoofs as he rode away.

Then she took my arm. “Come away from here, Linnet,” she said. “We must go somewhere where we can talk in peace.”

All through that day we talked.

“My dearest child,” said my mother, “it is a decision which only you can make. You must not forget that this is for life. Marriage with him would provide an immediate solution, but don’t forget you have to consider the future. If such a marriage were distasteful to you, you must not enter into it. Anything … yes, anything is better than that. What happened was no fault of yours. Everyone will see that.”

“Will people believe it?” I asked. “There will be hints. They will follow me all my life.”

“That is not so. You have the example of Romilly. She gave birth to a child and your own father fathered it. Can you imagine a greater scandal than that? Yet somehow she has continued to live here and she feels no shame.”

“I am not Romilly.”

“Nay indeed. The situation is different. He has wronged you and surprisingly has come to make amends.”

“He has come because he wants the child.”

“He could marry if he wished and have one. Yet he has offered you marriage.”

“Yes, it is true,” I said.

“But, my dearest, you must think clearly. You must not take a solution merely because it seems easy to you. Tell me what is in your mind.”

I raised my bewildered eyes to her face. “I do not know,” I said.