The Great Court Scandal Part 27

These were the vague thoughts constantly in her mind during those warm days which pa.s.sed so quietly and pleasantly before the summer sea.

Ignatia was often very inquisitive. She asked her mother why they were there, and begged that Allen might come back. From Leucha she was learning to speak English, but with that c.o.c.kney tw.a.n.g which was amusing, for the child, of course, imitated the maid's intonation and expression.

One calm evening, when Ignatia had gone to bed and they were sitting together in the twilight upon a seat before the softly-lapping waves up at the west end of the town, Leucha said,--

"To-day I heard from father. He is in Stockholm, and apparently in funds. He arrived in Sweden from Hamburg on the day of writing, and says he hopes in a few days to visit us here."

Claire guessed by what means Roddy Redmayne had replenished his funds, but made no remark save to express pleasure at his forthcoming visit.

From Stockholm to Worthing was a rather far cry, but with Roddy distance was no object. He had crossed the Atlantic a dozen times, and was, indeed, ever on the move up and down Europe.

"Guy has also left London," "the Ladybird" said. "He is in Brighton, and would like to run over and call--if Madame will permit it."

"To call on you--eh, Leucha?" her royal mistress suggested, with a kindly smile. "Now tell me quite truthfully. You love him, do you not?"

The girl flushed deeply.

"I--I love him!" she faltered. "Whatever made you suspect that?"

"Well, you know, Leucha, when one loves one cannot conceal it, however careful one may be. There is an indescribable look which always betrays both man and woman. Therefore you may as well confess the truth to me."

She was silent for a few moments.

"I do confess it," she faltered at last, with downcast eyes. "We love each other very fondly; but, alas, ours is a dream that can never be realised! Marriage and happiness are not for such as we," she added, with a bitter sigh.

"Because you have not the means by which to live honestly?" Claire replied, in a voice of deep, heartfelt sympathy, for she had become much attached to the girl.

"That is exactly the difficulty, madame," was the lady's maid's reply.

"Both Guy and myself hate this life of constant scheming and of perpetual fear of discovery and arrest. He is a thief by compulsion, and I an a.s.sistant because I--well, I suppose I was trained to it so early that espionage and investigation come to me almost as second nature."

"And yet you can work--and work extremely well," remarked her royal mistress, with a woman's tenderness of heart. "I have had many maids from time to time, in Vienna and at Treysa, but I tell you quite openly that you are the handiest and neatest of them all. It is a pity--a thousand pities--that you lead the life of an adventuress, for some day, sooner or later, you must fall into the hands of the police, and after that--ruin."

"I know," sighed the girl; "I know--only too well. Yet what can I do?

Both Guy and I are forced to lead this life because we are without means. And again, I am very unworthy of him," she added, in a low, despondent tone. "Guy is, after all, a gentleman by birth; while I, `the Ladybird' as they call me, am merely the daughter of a thief."

"And yet, Leucha, you are strangely unlike other women who are adventuresses. You love this man both honestly and well, and he is a.s.suredly one worthy a woman's love, and would, under other circ.u.mstances, make you a most excellent husband."

"If we were not outlaws of society," she said. "But as matters are it is quite hopeless. When one becomes a criminal, one must, unfortunately, remain a criminal to the end. Guy would willingly cut himself away from my father and the others if it were at all possible.

Yet it is not. How can a man live and keep up appearances when utterly without means?"

"Remain patient, Leucha," Claire said rea.s.suringly. "One day you may be able to extricate yourselves--both of you. Who knows?"

But the girl with the dark eyes shook her head sadly, and spoke but little on their walk back to the house.

"Ah, Leucha," sighed the pale, thoughtful woman whom the world so misjudged, "we all of us have our sorrows, some more bitter than others.

You are unhappy because you are an outlaw, while I am unhappy because I am a queen! Our stations are widely different; and yet, after all, our burden of sorrow is the same."

"I know all that you suffer, madame, though you are silent," exclaimed the girl, with quick sympathy. "I have never referred to it, because you might think my interference impertinent. Yet I a.s.sure you that I reflect upon your position daily, hourly, and wonder what we can do to help you."

"You have done all that can be done," was the calm, kind response.

"Without you I should have been quite lost here in England. Rest a.s.sured that I shall never forget the kindnesses shown by all of you, even though you are what you are."

She longed to see the pair man and wife, and honest; yet how could she a.s.sist them?

Next evening, Guy Bourne, well-dressed in a grey flannel suit and straw hat, and presenting the appearance of a well-to-do City man on holiday, called upon her, and was shown up by the servant.

The welcome he received from both mistress and maid was a warm one, and as soon as the door was closed he explained,--

"I managed to get away from London, even though I saw a detective I knew on the platform at London Bridge. Very fortunately he didn't recognise me. I've found a safe hiding-place in Brighton, in a small public-house at the top of North Street, where lodgers of our peculiar cla.s.s are taken in. Roddy is due to arrive at Hull to-day. With Harry and two others, he appears to have made a fine haul in Hamburg, and we are all in funds again, for which we should be truly thankful."

"To whom did the stuff belong?" Leucha inquired.

"To that German Baroness in whose service you were about eight months ago--Ackermann, wasn't the name? You recollect, you went over to Hamburg with her and took observation."

"Yes, I remember," answered "the Ladybird" mechanically; and her head dropped in shame.

Little Ignatia came forward, and in her sweet, childish way made friends with the visitor, and later, leaving Leucha to put the child to bed, "Madame Bernard" invited Guy to stroll with her along the promenade.

She wished to speak with him alone.

The night was bright, balmy, and starlit, the coloured lights on the pier giving a pretty effect to the picture, and there were a good many promenaders.

At first she spoke to him about Roddy and about his own dull, cheerless life now that he was in such close hiding. Then, presently, when they gained the seat where she had sat with "the Ladybird" on the previous evening, she suddenly turned to him, saying,--

"Mr. Bourne, Leucha has told me the truth--that you love each other.

Now I fully recognise the tragedy of it all, and the more so because I know it is the earnest desire of both of you to lead an honest, upright life. The world misjudges most of us. You are an outlaw and yet still a gentleman, while she, though born of criminal parents, yet has a heart of gold."

"Yes, that she has," he a.s.serted quickly. "I love her very deeply. To you I do not deny it--indeed, why should I? I know that we both possess your Majesty's sympathy." And he looked into her splendid eyes in deep earnestness.

"You do. And more. I urge you not to be despondent, either of you.

Endeavour always to cheer her up. One day a means will surely be opened for you both to break these hateful trammels that bind you to this unsafe life of fraud and deception, and unite in happiness as man and wife. Remember, I owe you both a deep debt of grat.i.tude; and one day, I hope, I may be in a position to repay it, so that at least two loving hearts may be united." Though crushed herself, her great, generous heart caused her to seek to a.s.sist others.

"Ah, your Majesty!" he cried, his voice trembling with emotion as, springing up, he took her hand, raising it reverently to his lips. "How can I thank you sufficiently for those kind, generous words--for that promise?"

"Ah!" she sighed, "I myself, though my position may be different to your own, nevertheless know what it is to love, and, alas! know the acute bitterness of the want of love."

Then a silence fell between them. He had reseated himself, his manly heart too full for words. He knew well that this woman, whose unhappiness was even tenfold greater than his own, was his firm and n.o.ble friend. The world spoke ill of her, and yet she was so upright, so sweet, so true.

And while they sat there--he, a thief, still holding the soft white hand that he had kissed with such reverence--a pair of shrewdly evil eyes were watching them out of the darkness and observing everything.

At midnight, when he returned to Brighton, the secret watcher, a hard-faced, thin-nosed woman, slight, narrow-waisted, rather elegantly dressed in deep mourning, travelled by the same train, and watched him to his hiding-place; and having done so, she strolled leisurely down to the King's Road, where, upon the deserted promenade, she met a bent, wizened-faced, little old man, who was awaiting her.

With him she walked up and down until nearly one o'clock in the morning, engaged in earnest conversation, sometimes accompanied by quick gesticulation.

And they both laughed quietly together, the old man now and then shrugging his shoulders.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

SHOWS HINCKELDEYM'S TACTICS.