Charles Rex Part 43

Toby gulped down some obstruction in the throat. "I must. I've got to ask you something. You're so awfully decent. I can't--I won't--do things you don't like."

"What do you want to know?" said Jake.

Her other hand came up and fastened tightly upon his arm. "I don't know how to tell you," she said. "I--I had a rotten night last night. That's why I went out alone this morning. And I took Knuckle-Duster because the devil tempted me."

"I see," said Jake. His red-brown eyes were very kindly in their directness. "What did you have a bad night about?"

Her hold upon him tightened. Something of entreaty made itself felt in her grasp. There was fear in the wide blue eyes so resolutely lifted to his.

"I don't know how to tell you," she said again.

"Maybe I can guess," said Jake.

"Ah!" she said, and laid her face down quickly on his sleeve.

He laid his free hand on her head. "It's Bunny, is it?" he said.

She answered him quiveringly. "Yes, it's--it's Bunny."

"Well?" said Jake gently.

She spoke with her face still hidden. "You don't want me to marry him, do you? I won't do it either--without your permission."

"Mine!" said Jake.

"Yes." Her words came rapidly. "You love Bunny. You know what's best for him. You want him to have the best."

Jake's hand caressed her bent head. "Well," he said, after a moment. "I guess that's so. But--I've come to love you in the same way. I'd like you to have the best too."

She lifted her head and looked at him. "You'd like me to have Bunny? Do you mean that?"

"If it's going to make you both happy," said Jake.

"Ah!" she caught her breath sharply. "But no one can be sure of that, can they? I mean, marriage is such a speculation, isn't it? I expect Bunny will soon get tired of me."

"Why do you say that?" said Jake.

A little quiver went through her. "I don't know. Men are like that, aren't they? Not men like you of course, but you're the big exception to almost every rule."

Jake was frowning a little. "I guess I'm as human as the rest of 'em," he said. "But what makes you think Bunny isn't a stayer?"

"He's so young," said Toby.

"That all?" said Jake, beginning to smile.

She looked at him rather wistfully. "Yes, but it counts, Jake. He'll be a man some day, but he isn't yet--at least only in streaks."

"Well, there's no hurry, is there?" said Jake. "People shouldn't marry in haste."

Toby's eyes flashed sudden accusation. "You did!"

"I!" Jake looked momentarily disconcerted. "Well, I had some excuse. What do you know about it anyway?"

"I know what Bunny told me. Maud didn't love you when she married you. It didn't come on till afterwards. She loved Lord Saltash, and he loved her." Toby spoke with a certain hardness, as if challenging contradiction. "She'd have married him--but for you."

Jake met the challenge squarely. "Quite possibly she would. Think she'd have been any happier?"

Toby shook her head. "No. I think you were always meant to be her man.

But it--it was rather hard on him." Her voice trembled a little. "Bunny says that was why he never married."

"He's not the marrying sort," said Jake. "I don't mind your marrying Bunny, but nothing on this earth would persuade me to let you marry him."

An odd little smile twitched the corners of Toby's mouth. "No? Well, I shouldn't consult you about that," she said. "Sure you don't mind my marrying Bunny?"

Jake looked at her. "Not if you're sure you want to," he said.

Her eyes grew bright and baffling. She drew away from him, but in a moment with a boyish gesture, she held out her hand to him. "Thank you, Jake. You're a brick. Whatever I do, I'll do it--straight, and you'll stand by?"

"Sure!" said Jake, and gave her a close grip.

CHAPTER VI

THE SACRED FIRE

The party that gathered on the quay at Fairharbour on the hot July day when Saltash's new yacht, _The Blue Moon_ lay awaiting her christening was of a very gay description. The yacht herself was decked with flags, and the hotel facing the quay, The Anchor, was also decorated with bunting. All the visitors in the town were congregated about the sh.o.r.e, or were rowing in pleasure boats near the centre of attraction.

The yacht lay moored to the quay on which by Saltash's orders a long strip of red carpet had been laid leading to the gangway which was decorated with trails of flowers. The day was glorious and cloudless, the sea of that intense blue that melts to the horizon without any dividing line--like the blue of a smoked pearl.

Saltash's idea was to take his guests for a cruise across the bay after the ceremony, and he planned to complete the celebrations with a _fete_ on the water at night. Everything was in readiness, and by two o'clock he was already receiving his guests.

Maud and Jake stood with him, and little Eileen, very intent and serious, held Toby's hand and looked on from the background. Captain Larpent was on the bridge, looking very forbidding, even contemptuous. He had never had any liking for the gay crowds with which it was Saltash's pleasure to surround himself. He had the air of a magnificent Viking, above the frivolities with which he was surrounded. There was nothing of the ornamental about his rugged exterior, but his very aloofness made him imposing. He looked straight over the heads of the buzzing throng that poured on to the deck.

General Melrose and his daughter were among the last to arrive, and with them came Bunny, very merry and handsome, his dark eyes singling out Toby in a flash as she stood with her small charge. She had just lifted the child to stand on a ledge where she might overlook the proceedings when he joined them.

"Hullo!" he said eagerly. "I'm later than I meant to be. I've been lunching with General Melrose. Ye G.o.ds, what a crush! Where do they all come from? Well, sweetheart!" He bent to the child. "Enjoying your precious little self?"

The soft violet eyes met his with a deep contentment as she lifted her face for his kiss. "I think it's lovely," she said earnestly.

He stood up and looked again with swift appreciation at Toby. The girl was dressed very simply in white, her vivid face shadowed by a broad straw hat. She met his look with a grimace of boyish dissatisfaction.

"Bunny! What a ghastly gathering! For goodness' sake, don't look at me like that! I feel like a painted marionette!"

"Are you painted?" said Bunny. "You don't look it."

She made a vehement gesture of disgust. "As soon as this show it over, I shall get into riding things and go like the--like the--"