Richard shrugged. “None at all, except my word. And the word of the men you’ve known for many years, Sir George here and Lord Hareton. Our bargain applies to this run only, you understand.”

“Of course,” Sir George agreed. I thought he could have used a glass of the wine, he looked so worried and upset. My heart went out to him in his distress, forgetting my own concerns in compassion.

“One more thing.” Richard looked Terry directly in the eye. “Understand, this is between you and me, Terry, and no one else. If my property is damaged in any way, I shall take advantage of the kind offer your daughter is proposing to me. Lady Hareton has been hard put to it to keep her out of the house this last two days, but apart from one interesting exchange, she has prevailed.” I heard Gervase’s sharp intake of breath. “Pale, stupid maidens never appealed to me. I prefer the dazzlers. So your daughter will not even have the bliss she tells me she’ll achieve in my arms. However, everyone will think I have obliged her. After the stories begin to circulate, no one will touch her again, I promise you, and any social pretensions she might have will be ruined forever.” The fashionable exquisite had gone, to be replaced by a man only two people in that room had seen before. And one hidden spectator. “I know she’s panting to get me into her bed. I can’t turn around without the damned chit drooling over me. When I spread the stories about her lascivious behaviour with me—entirely fabricated, of course—then no one will receive her again.”

“If you take advantage of my daughter,” said Terry urbanely, “you will marry her.”

“No I won’t.” Richard met his stare. “I will marry Rose Golightly. She is mine, my property, I have bought and paid for her and she brings me advantages Eustacia can’t hope to better.” His cold demeanour fooled everyone but me, Gervase and Carier. Even Sir George stared at him in horror. “I’m the son of one of the wealthiest and most influential peers in the country. You can never aspire to our power. I’m also a rake, a libertine, or didn’t you know that? It won’t affect my reputation in the least, it will be just another of Strang’s cynical conquests but it will harm poor Eustacia.”

After a moment, Terry lowered his gaze. “You sir,” he said to his desk, “are a scoundrel.”

Richard laughed, but shortly, without any real amusement. “Worse than that, as you may have cause to know before too long. We have concluded our business here. We’ll see you at the cliff tops tomorrow night. What time would be convenient to you?”

“Nine o’clock.”

“We’ll be there.” Richard glanced at Gervase, who shook his head slightly. They went out of the room, and left Terry in his chair, sunk in thought.

I felt bereft. It was one of the worst things I had ever done, not to cry out, when every fibre of my being was longing to do just that.

The man Terry had called Peter kept his guns on our head until we heard the slam of the front door, and the trot of horses’ hooves up the drive. Then, without a word, he released our hands from the confining straps and left the room. We heard the outer bolts driven home.

Tom and I moved away, and sat in the centre of the room, holding each other for comfort. I shook. My recent ordeal and then seeing Richard so close and not being able to call out to him undermined any self-control I had left. Tom was still recovering from the beating he’d received, so we sat, cuddling each other like children for at least half an hour. We might have wept a little.

At last Tom spoke. “I’m sorry, Rose. I should have gone away when Strang told me to.”

“Once you’d thought it over, you would have, but they didn’t give you a chance.” I straightened up.

With the extra light from the peephole I saw him more clearly—the marks on his face, the rope burns on his wrists. I lifted my arms and examined at my own wrists, similarly marked. “They won’t have gone by next Thursday,” I said, trying for some levity. It worked to a small extent.

“You’ll have to look for some extra lace ruffles,” Tom replied. “And I know how much you hate shopping.” I grinned. He knew nothing of the kind.

“Don’t you think,” Tom said reflectively, “that Strang may be walking into a trap tomorrow night? Do you really think Terry will let us go that easily, before he’s rid himself of the contraband?”

I remembered a fact that didn’t come out in that little conversation downstairs, and it gave me comfort. “I don’t think he has any such intention. But Richard knows it.” I lowered my voice, and moved closer to him. “There’s something I can’t tell you now, Tom, not because I don’t trust you, but because I don’t know who’s listening, but we’ll be quite safe once we get to that cliff top.” I leaned back and Tom nodded, showing me he understood. “Promise me you won’t try anything before then. We’ll come off all right.”

Tom nodded. “Though it goes against the grain to do it. What he did to you, and what he’s done to my father, and God knows how my mother and Georgie are—” He broke off, his hand to his forehead. I went to get a drink and let him be.

Chapter Twenty

They left us alone until the following evening, as the daylight