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Authors: Daphne du Maurier
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after breakfast rather than before."
"Why so?" I asked.
He smiled and drew a document from his breast.
"I have sold Killigarth, and also the lands I hold in Tywardreath," he answered.
"Rashleigh gave me a fair price for them. Had you blundered in sooner he might have stayed his hand."
"Will the money pay your debts?" I said.
He laughed derisively. "A drop in the ocean," he said, "but it will suffice for a week or so, until we can borrow elsewhere."
"Why 'we'?" I enquired.
"Well, we shall be together," he answered. "You do not think I am going to permit this ridiculous match with Edward Champernowne?"
He wiped his mouth and pushed aside his plate, as though he had not a care in the world. He held out his arms to me and I went to him.
"Dear love," I said, feeling in sudden very old and very wise, "you have told me often that you must marry an heiress or you could not live."
"I should have no wish to live if you were wedded to another man," he answered.
Some little time was wasted while assuring me of this.
"But, Richard," I said presently, "if I wed you instead of Edward Champernowne my brother may refuse his sanction."
"I'll fight him if he does."
"We shall be penniless," I protested.
"Not if I know it," he said. "I have several relatives as yet unfleeced. Mrs. Abbot, my old aunt Katherine up at Hartland, she has a thousand pounds or so she does not want."
"But we cannot live thus all our lives," I said.
"I have never lived any way else," he answered.
I thought of the formalities and deeds that went with marriage, the lawyers and the documents.
"I am the youngest daughter, Richard," I said, hesitating. "You must bear in mind that my portion will be very small."
At this he shouted with laughter and, lifting me in his arms, carried me from the room.
"It's your person I have designs upon," he said. "Damn your portion."
O wild betrothal, startling and swift, decided on an instant without rhyme or reason, and all objections swept aside like a forest in a fire! My mother helpless before the onslaught, my brothers powerless to obstruct. The Champernownes, offended, withdrew to Radford, and Jo, washing his hands of me, went with them.
His wife would not receive me now, having refused her brother, and I was led to understand that the scandal of my conduct had spread through the whole of Devon.
Bridget's husband come posting down from Holbeton, and John Pollexefen from Maddercombe, and all the West, it seemed, said I had eloped with Richard Grenvile and was to wed him now through dire necessity.
He had shamed me in a room at Plymouth--he had carried me by force to Killigarth--I had lived there as his mistress for three months--all these and other tales were spread abroad, and Richard and I, in the gladness of our hearts, did nought but laugh at them.
He was for taking horse to London and giving me refuge with the Duke of Buckingham, who would, he declared, eat out of his hand and give me a dowery into the bargain, but at this moment of folly came his brother Bevil riding to Lanrest, and with his usual grace and courtesy insisted that I should go to Stowe and be married from the Grenvile home. Bevil brought law and order into chaos; his approval lent some smacking of decency to the whole proceeding, a quality which had been lacking hitherto, and within a few days of his taking charge my mother and I were safely housed at Stowe, where Kit had gone as a bridegroom nearly eight years before. I was too much in love by then to care a whit for anyone, and like someone who has feasted too wisely and too well, I swam through the great rooms at Stowe aglow with confidence, smiling at old Sir Bernard, bowing to all his kinsmen, in no more awe of the grandeur about me than I had been of the familiar dusty corners in Lanrest. I have small recollection now of what I did or whom I saw--save that there were Grenviles everywhere and all of them auburn-haired as Bridget had once told me--but I remember pacing up and down the
"Why so?" I asked.
He smiled and drew a document from his breast.
"I have sold Killigarth, and also the lands I hold in Tywardreath," he answered.
"Rashleigh gave me a fair price for them. Had you blundered in sooner he might have stayed his hand."
"Will the money pay your debts?" I said.
He laughed derisively. "A drop in the ocean," he said, "but it will suffice for a week or so, until we can borrow elsewhere."
"Why 'we'?" I enquired.
"Well, we shall be together," he answered. "You do not think I am going to permit this ridiculous match with Edward Champernowne?"
He wiped his mouth and pushed aside his plate, as though he had not a care in the world. He held out his arms to me and I went to him.
"Dear love," I said, feeling in sudden very old and very wise, "you have told me often that you must marry an heiress or you could not live."
"I should have no wish to live if you were wedded to another man," he answered.
Some little time was wasted while assuring me of this.
"But, Richard," I said presently, "if I wed you instead of Edward Champernowne my brother may refuse his sanction."
"I'll fight him if he does."
"We shall be penniless," I protested.
"Not if I know it," he said. "I have several relatives as yet unfleeced. Mrs. Abbot, my old aunt Katherine up at Hartland, she has a thousand pounds or so she does not want."
"But we cannot live thus all our lives," I said.
"I have never lived any way else," he answered.
I thought of the formalities and deeds that went with marriage, the lawyers and the documents.
"I am the youngest daughter, Richard," I said, hesitating. "You must bear in mind that my portion will be very small."
At this he shouted with laughter and, lifting me in his arms, carried me from the room.
"It's your person I have designs upon," he said. "Damn your portion."
O wild betrothal, startling and swift, decided on an instant without rhyme or reason, and all objections swept aside like a forest in a fire! My mother helpless before the onslaught, my brothers powerless to obstruct. The Champernownes, offended, withdrew to Radford, and Jo, washing his hands of me, went with them.
His wife would not receive me now, having refused her brother, and I was led to understand that the scandal of my conduct had spread through the whole of Devon.
Bridget's husband come posting down from Holbeton, and John Pollexefen from Maddercombe, and all the West, it seemed, said I had eloped with Richard Grenvile and was to wed him now through dire necessity.
He had shamed me in a room at Plymouth--he had carried me by force to Killigarth--I had lived there as his mistress for three months--all these and other tales were spread abroad, and Richard and I, in the gladness of our hearts, did nought but laugh at them.
He was for taking horse to London and giving me refuge with the Duke of Buckingham, who would, he declared, eat out of his hand and give me a dowery into the bargain, but at this moment of folly came his brother Bevil riding to Lanrest, and with his usual grace and courtesy insisted that I should go to Stowe and be married from the Grenvile home. Bevil brought law and order into chaos; his approval lent some smacking of decency to the whole proceeding, a quality which had been lacking hitherto, and within a few days of his taking charge my mother and I were safely housed at Stowe, where Kit had gone as a bridegroom nearly eight years before. I was too much in love by then to care a whit for anyone, and like someone who has feasted too wisely and too well, I swam through the great rooms at Stowe aglow with confidence, smiling at old Sir Bernard, bowing to all his kinsmen, in no more awe of the grandeur about me than I had been of the familiar dusty corners in Lanrest. I have small recollection now of what I did or whom I saw--save that there were Grenviles everywhere and all of them auburn-haired as Bridget had once told me--but I remember pacing up and down the
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