The next morning he was feeling somewhat better, but Amber insisted that he remain in bed as the doctor had said he should, and much against her will she stayed in the room with him. About one o’clock Jemima came in with her two oldest brothers to say that they were going down to watch Lord Carlton’s ships being unloaded.
“Why don’t you go with them, my dear?” Samuel asked Amber. “You’ve been shut up here with me all day.”
Jemima looked at her anxiously, obviously hoping that she would not come, and though for a moment or two Amber insisted that she could not leave him she allowed herself to be persuaded. But the trip was a disappointment. They had not so much as a word alone together and Bruce was so busy he seemed scarcely aware of her presence. Her only consolation was that Jemima was as much disappointed as she was, and did not conceal it so well.
He did, however, make each of them a handsome present. To Jemima he gave a magnificent length of material which looked as though molten gold had been poured over a piece of silk, and a pattern etched in it by sensitive fingers holding a feather; to Amber he gave an elaborate necklace of topaz and gold. Both gifts had been captured from one of the Dutch ships returning from the East Indies.
But early the next morning she slipped out of the house in a black cloak and mask and took a hackney to Almsbury House. They spent half an hour in the nursery with the baby and Emily and Almsbury, and then they went back to his apartments.
“Suppose someone finds out about this,” he said.
Amber was confident. “They won’t. Samuel was asleep and Nan was to say I went to have a gown fitted, so I wouldn’t have to trouble him with women about in the room.” She smiled up at him. “Oh, I’m a marvellously devoted wife, I’ll warrant you.”
“You’re a hard-hearted little bitch,” he said. “I pity the men who love you.”
But she was too happy to get angry about anything, and there was a light in his green eyes as he sat looking at her which would have made her forgive anything. She went over and sat on his lap, putting her arms about his neck and her mouth against his smooth-shaven cheek.
“But you love me, Bruce—and I’ve never hurt you. I don’t think I could if I tried,” she added with a pout.
He gave a lift of one eyebrow and smiled. He had never indulged in the extravagant compliments which were a fashion among the gallants, and she sometimes wondered jealously if he paid them to other women. Jemima, perhaps.
“What do you think of Jemima?” she asked him now.
“Why, she’s very pretty—and naïve as a Maid of Honour her first week at Court.”
“She’s mad in love with you.”
“A hundred thousand pound or so, I’ve discovered, will make a man more attractive than he’d ever suspected himself of being.”
“A hundred thousand! My God, Bruce! What a lot of money! When Samuel dies I’ll have sixty-six thousand. Think what a fortune that would be if we put it together! We’d be the richest people in England!”
“You forget, darling. I won’t be in England.”
“Oh, but you—”
Suddenly he stood up and swung her into his arms; his mouth closed over hers. Amber sailed away dizzily, her arguments effectively stopped. But he had not heard, by any means, the last of it. For now she had contrived to get something which she knew he valued, money, and she hoped to bargain with it. If only he would marry her—if only she could have him forever. There was nothing else she wanted, really. All her other great ambitions would vanish like a piece of ice dropped on a red-hot stove.
She did not go back to Almsbury House the next two mornings, for Bruce had warned her that unless she was very careful she would be found out. “If you’re sailing that ocean under false colours,” he said, “and I suppose you must be—you’d better remember it won’t take much to make them suspicious. And if they ever caught you—your sixty-six thousand might dwindle considerably.” She knew that it was the truth and determined to be cautious.
But when Jemima asked her what she had thought of Lord Carlton the blood shot suddenly to her face and she had to bend over to retie her garter. “Why—he’s mighty handsome, of course.”
“I think he liked me—don’t you?”
“What makes you think so!” Her voice was sharp in spite of herself, but she hastily changed its tone. “You mustn’t be so bold, Jemima. I’m sure everyone thought you were flirting with him—and courtiers are all the same.”
“All the same? In what way?”
Worried and annoyed by what seemed to be Jemima’s stupidity she snapped: “Just remember this—take care he doesn’t do you some harm!”
“Harm, pish!” said Jemima scornfully. “What harm
