Lady Polly Part 39

"Where to start?" Henry said thoughtfully.

"I suppose the beginning is in London, with the arrest of Chapman at the gunsmith's and his subsequent escape. As you know, he is a dangerous malcontent and one of the most wanted men in the country. He has undoubted gifts of oratory and can stir up the populace to riot and revolt. He uses other men's discontent for his own ends, for he has no real interest in improving the lot of the common man. He has planned and executed more robberies with violence than I could tell of, and I have been hunting him down ever since he escaped."

Polly stopped and drew in a sharp breath.

"Then you mean that you... You must work for the authorities--for the government?"

There was an atmosphere of intrigue conjured up by the intimate darkness and the watchful stillness of the warm night. They started to walk again, very slowly, neither of them paying much attention to their surroundings.

"Yes, I have worked for the government for the last five years, under many names and in many guises." Henry sounded very matter of fact, as though such an admission was commonplace.

"You mean that you are a spy?" Polly kept her voice level, finding it difficult to match his practical tone. She was astonished. Her images and perceptions of him had been plunged into a complete whirl.

"I suppose you could call me that." There was an element of amus.e.m.e.nt now in Henry's voice, although he did not smile.

"I do not care for the word.

It is too. melodramatic. I have done all kinds of work--whatever is required. In the recent wars I spent some time abroad, in both France and elsewhere. I also collected. " he hesitated 'information from sources along the south coast."

Polly knew what he meant. The smugglers who brought in contraband goods might also have very useful intelligence from the continent, but the business was dirty and dangerous. She remembered the times when Henry had vanished completely from Society, how the gossips and tattle-merchants always had him conducting some scandalous love affair, or wasting his patrimony on gambling.

He had covered his tracks well. And yet the strength and integrity she had seen in him, the contradiction with his superficial lifestyle had always puzzled her. Now it took on new meaning.

"I thought..." she said hesitantly, 'we all thought that you were simply.

amusing yourself. " "Hardly surprising, since that was precisely the impression I wished to give." Henry shrugged.

"What better way to convince people that I was interested in little beyond women, gambling and the set of my neck cloth?

Very few people know the truth of it, and only those I can trust completely.

" Polly registered the implied compliment with a little glow of pleasure.

"Then, all through the Season you were intent on finding Chapman?"

"Yes, indeed, at Hamp stead Wells and during the riot and even at the the Royal Humane Society! A fine dance he has led me!

And all the time, you were basely suspecting me of being the criminal!

" Polly blushed.

"The riot... I see now why you were carrying the pistols!

But you put your search aside to rescue us, which surely you should not have done--' There was a harsh note in Henry's voice.

"Do you think I could possibly have left you there unaided? Why do you think I intervened?"

Polly did not answer. She could feel the tension between them now and turned aside from the question. It felt too soon to consider it.

"But Chapman is not taken yet and you are here in Wood bridge..." Her eyes widened at the implication. "No, it cannot be that he is he reV She cast a swift look through the gla.s.s door to where the couples still swirled around the dance floor, as if expecting the felon to declare himself.

Henry took her arm in a comforting grasp.

"No, he is not here, not tonight. But your deduction is as faultless as ever. Lady Polly! Chapman is close by and others I seek are closer still.

You will do well to be vigilant until the matter is finally resolved! "

"I suppose your midnight foray at the House of Tides is all a piece with this," Polly said a little dazedly. She sat down on the cushioned bench by the ornamental pool and watched the candlelight reflected in the cool water.

"The turret door in my bedroom at the House of Tides led down to the cellars and no doubt to the sea..."

"Yes." Henry shifted slightly on the bench beside her.

"There are indeed compensations to my work, ma'am!"

"Outrageous! It mattered not one whit that I was asleep in there, I suppose!"

"It certainly made the business more enjoyable!"

Polly refused to let her attention be diverted by this.

"Why have you told me all this?" she asked.

Henry's amus.e.m.e.nt faded. He looked at her. There was such a clear, innocent look in her eyes. He knew he should lie to her, but he could not.

This was important.

"For lots of reasons," he said, as lightly as he could. "Maybe I did not wish you to have such a low opinion of me any more! You suspected much already, but I wanted you to know the truth. It mattered to me."

Polly could tell that he was utterly sincere. There was none of the teasing mockery that had been present a moment before. She could sense the tension latent in him as he sat, not touching her, but very close.

His face was still in shadow.

Polly got up and moved across to the window, looking out across the silent gardens to the lake shimmering in the silver moonlight. His honesty had prompted her to say something herself, something that she had always wanted to tell him but had always held back.

"When you said to me--that night at Lady Phillips's rid otto--that I had played my part in making you what you had become, then I thought--'

She broke off.

"I had not really thought of it that way before, but I suppose my rejection of your suit five years ago must have had its effect on your actions. I am sorry, so very sorry, that I ever refused you. Matters could have been so very different--' Her voice broke on a sob.

"It was very wrong of me to attribute any blame to you," Henry said swiftly. He had moved until she could sense he was very close behind her.

"I must take the responsibility for my own behaviour. I did not choose this path simply because you refused my proposal of marriage five years ago.

There were many factors that influenced that decision, of which only one was seeing the reversal of my hopes of a life with you."

Polly studied his reflection in the gla.s.s behind her. He was so close that she could feel the warmth emanating from his body, a contrast to the cold draught from the window and the emotion which was making her shiver a little.

"When you asked me to run away with you I was too immature to cope with the situation," she said slowly.

"I did not really understand what love meant. Oh--' she made a slight gesture '--I thought I loved you and it was all very girlish and romantic, but the depth of feeling that would have given me the strength to go with you was lacking. I have thought about it so often... About what might have been had I had the courage to accept...