I hardly know,” said Seecombe; but as he went from the room I noticed him glance at me in doubt, as if I already sickened for the smallpox.
“This brandy,” said Rainaldi, “should have been kept for at least another thirty years.
It will be drinkable when young Philip’s children come of age.
Do you remember, Rachel, that evening at the villa when you and Cosimo entertained the whole of Florence, or so it seemed, and he insisted that all of us should be in dominoes and masks, like a Venetian carnival?
And your dear lamented mother behaved so badly with prince someone-or-other, I think it was Lorenzo Ammanati, wasn’t it?”
“It could have been with anyone,” said Rachel, “but it was not Lorenzo, he was too busy running after me.”
“What nights of folly,” mused Rainaldi.
“We were all of us absurdly young, and entirely irresponsible.
Far better to be staid and peaceful as we are today.
I think they never give such parties here in England?
The climate, of course, would be against it.
But for that, young Philip here might find it amusing to dress himself up in mask and domino and search about the bushes for Miss Kendall.”
“I am sure Louise would ask for nothing better,” answered Rachel, and I saw her eye upon me and her mouth twitch.
I went out of the room and left them, and almost at once I heard them break into Italian, his voice interrogatory, and hers laughing in answer to his question, and I knew they were discussing me, and possibly Louise also, and the whole damned story of the rumors that were supposed to go about the countryside concerning some future betrothal between the pair of us.
God!
How much longer was he going to stay?
How many more days and nights of this must I endure?
Eventually, on the last evening of his visit, my godfather, with Louise, came to dine.
The evening passed off well, or so it seemed.
I saw Rainaldi putting himself to infinite trouble to be courteous to my godfather, and the three of them, he, Rainaldi, and Rachel, somehow formed themselves into a group for conversation, leaving Louise and me to entertain ourselves.
Now and again I noticed Rainaldi look towards us, smiling with a sort of amiable indulgence, and once I even heard him say, sotto voce, to my godfather,
“All my compliments upon your daughter and your godson.
They make a very charming couple.”
Louise heard it too.
The poor girl flushed crimson. And at once I began asking her when she was next due to visit London, which I hoped would ease her feelings, but for all I know it may have made it worse.
After dinner the subject of London came up once again, and Rachel said,
“I hope to visit London myself before very long.
If we are there at the same time”—this to Louise—“you must show me all the sights, because I have never been there.”
My godfather pricked up his ears at her remark.
“So you are thinking of leaving the country?” he said.
“Well, you have certainly endured the rigors of a winter visit to us in Cornwall very well.
You will find London more amusing.”
He turned to Rainaldi.
“You will still be there?”
“I have business there for some weeks yet,” replied Rainaldi, “but if Rachel decides to come up I shall very naturally put myself at her disposal.
I am no stranger to your capital. I know it very well.
I hope that you and your daughter will give us the pleasure of dining with us, when you are there.”
“We shall be very happy to,” said my godfather.
“London in the spring can be delightful.”
I could have hit the whole bunch of heads together for the calm assumption of their meeting, but Rainaldi’s use of the word “us” maddened me the most.
I could see his plan.
Lure her to London, entertain her there while he conducted his other business, and then prevail upon her to return to Italy.
And my godfather, for his own reasons, would further such a plan.
They little knew I had a plot to fox them all.
So the evening passed, with much expression of goodwill on every side, and with Rainaldi even drawing my godfather apart for the last twenty minutes or more, to drop more venom of some sort or other, I well imagined.
I did not return to the drawing room, after the Kendalls had gone.
I went up to bed, leaving my door ajar so that I could hear Rachel and Rainaldi as they came upstairs.
They were long in doing so.
Midnight struck, and they were still below.
I went and stood out on the landing, listening.