Chapter 5 The storm

"Colonel Matthews," said Dellis as if with pleasant unexpectedness. "And here we meet, Colonel Dellis. I told you, Vernon, it is madness to withstand this man with such fighters as yours." Matthews was at least with a dozen of well-trained military men. "Hmm, now it's interesting." noticed Dellis and then addressed to his beloved one. "Here is some work. It isn't a place for you. You'd better go." "No!" "Let them dream if I ever leave you." With these words he passed her to her father. The latter dragged her away. "Edward!" she cried. "Remember, dear, I love you!" At once after these words a combat begun but Lord Vernon headed directly to his house dragging his weeping daughter after him. "What are they going to do with him?" She asked panting. "What he deserved," answered he neither stopping nor becoming slower but just continuing his way. I wonder how Brabantio would have acted if he had known about his daughter's secret before her marriage. They came home through the back door. Sir Arthur shouted to the first servant chanced to meet to call the lady. He was very furious but in him was still left some prudence or rather the fear of a scandal, which suggested that it would be better to make the way through the corridors for servants. But like an enormous bulldozer he crushed everyone who was incautious enough not to step away. Meanwhile, thinking that her mistress at that moment had her bliss in Sir Edward's embrace, Jenny tried on her jewels, bonnets, and other elements of toilet and made different faces to the mirror. She could not put on her lady's gloves since they were for very diminutive hands. But she decided to try her luck with very pretty slippers. She made an attempt to pull on one. After some uselessly spent time a very wise thought came to her clear mind that perhaps (most probably) it too didn't fit her. Now she tried to put this Cinderella's shoe off. Wait, what? Oh-oh, oops... Jenny was stuck. She bent over her foot and concentrated all her attention on it, strained the most of her brain and nerve to find out the solution of this problem. This very funny picture was interrupted with a loud bang and a flung open door. Sir Arthur came in all red, wild as a beast and unlike himself at all and young lady Rosamund trailed along behind him crying. He threw her savagely on the bed. Shocked Jenny asked: "What's going on?" Instead of answer the lord shouted to her a very rude bad word, which is better not to give here, and locked her in the bathroom. Of course, then to be there was a very expensive bliss but not for Jenny then. She hit the door, bawled and asked her lady whether she was all right. She got silent and pressed her ear to the door. The maid heard her master telling his daughter off and endless sobs. Lady Vernon came in with the words: "What has happened?" "Look at her, this scarlet woman that we begot!" "What are you saying? I demand, Sir, please, keep your temper and give your explanations." "Look what has been found among things of a contemptible military man." He gave her the portrait. "What!... Rosie, I don't recognise you... Is it possible? Is it true?" "I have seen myself how she has been snuggling with that man Dellis just now in the park!" he snatched out the picture of Lady Vernon's hands and burnt it in flame of one of the candles. "What! Rosie? Is it really you? And I thought that you were not able to surprise me anymore... Well, it is not amazing... Well, he is a very attractive man..." "What!" exploded Sir Arthur. "But I cannot believe that you actually did it. You who always were such a good obedient girl..." "It was he! He seduced her!" "No! It is not true! He would never touch me! I love him with my soul!" yelled Rosie in a voice of not her own for the first time. "I've seen myself! If only, your ladyship, you have heard, what this rascal told me!" "One thing is a word, quite another one is an action." claimed Rosie. Her father came up and grasped her by the chin. "One more word..." He painfully left her. She cried. Her mother sat near her and began calming her. "Mama, I love him..." whispered Rosie. "Poor girl. He totally turned your head..." "It is all your bringing-up! All these books..." Sir Arthur began throwing books one by one on the floor and calling names. "Without expressions I would ask," said Lady Vernon firmly. "Without expressions? But if not Colonel Matthews..." "This Colonel Matthews just envies Edward! He more than once crossed his way." Rosie raised her voice. "Be silent, you silly girl!" Suddenly a knock was heard. "Your lordship, are you hear? Here came Colonel Matthews with men armed to teeth. They are near the back door," said the voice. "We are coming," said Lord Vernon, taking his wife with him. "You sit here." He said this to Rosie and locked the door. She lay weeping. This time a knock from the bathroom was heard. "Hey, my lady! Do you hear me? How are you there?" As an answer Jenny heard only sobs... * Lord and Lady Vernon came to the military men. "What is with him?" asked Sir Arthur with anxiety. "He fled, vanished..." answered Colonel Matthews. "I wounded him!" tried to get everyone's attention one of the soldiers. "And was stunned by him the next moment," said to this another one. "This man is keen like an imp," remarked the third one. "And on top of that," continued Matthews. "Before he escaped, he had promised one thing." "What?" Sir Arthur was shaken by hatred. "To remember us during his first matrimonial night." Lord Vernon sighed very hardly like a bull at corrida. "All the same... All the same I'll get him... I'll kill him, even would he be Devil himself." "Hey, quiet, quiet. We are in the civilized country," said his lady. "We shall find him. You may rely on us." said Matthews. "Thank you, Sir. You are a real friend..." thanked him Vernon. Having said their goodbye and expressing their respect military men went. "Come," Sir Arthur addressed Lady Vernon. "We need to have a talk." ** "It's just unprecedented! Unprecedented!" repeated for the hundredth time Lord Vernon going along his red study, which thus was called for, well, the dominating red colour. Then it was especially reflecting on his face. How funny, here at this desk he got all the important news from Parliament and from the country in whole. And yet he knew about his daughter's affair only that day and he should sit there and think what to do with it. He groaned. Then he was looking really more like some bourgeois than a gentleman. "Enough! I already know that it is unprecedented. Please, show restraint, "ordered firmly Lady Vernon. "He touched her with his filthy paws!" "Should he have read her sermons?" "Oh..." roared Sir Arthur. He had never been in such anger before. "Calm down and think. Rosie is totally obsessed with him." Indeed she was. Lady Vernon found a lot of good qualities in Dellis that her husband didn't have. Yes, he was clever. Yes, he had a great force in him. But for her he was a great womanizer and choosing between authoritative him and quiet, peaceful, obedient Fitzroy as a husband for her dear daughter, she certainly chose the latter. She considered that Rosie would live better with him and in no time get him under her heel. "She needs to be taken away from London," added she. "Yes. I'll send her to my brother." "Are you sure it is secure enough? Would he not get her there?" "What is your proposition then?" "Maybe Marine Hall, that one in Cornwall?" Lord Vernon stared at her admiringly as if at the wisest man in the world. He would never look at her admiringly since her youth. And thinking that women could not have any remarkable thoughts, thus especially he had never looked at her at all. "Good work, woman," was the only thing he could say. "Listen here, we shall send away two carriages. In one will be our daughter, it will take off for Cornwall. In another will be a companion recommended for Cecily (It is a wife of Sir Arthur's brother). She will always wear a veil and attend your sister in law..." "And this Dellis will confuse them! Nobody knows about Cornwall. He would never realise to seek her there. You sometimes can be witty, my dear friend." It was the best compliment he could give a woman about her mind. "I am going to her and you, my dear friend, get busy with the guests." *** Rosie was still weeping when her mother came to her. And by the way, Jenny was still locked in the bathroom. Lady Vernon came up to her daughter, sat beside her and said with a gentle mother voice. "Rosie...? Don't worry, my little kitten, your father was just exaggerating. He was very shocked, which is very understandable, and, besides, me too." "Is he going to kill him?" Rosie's voice was low. She set all her force in motion to squeeze out these words. "You see, your father is really mad about your act. Be calm, I shall make everything not to let him do something bad." "Oh, mother..." Rosie rushed to Lady Vernon's laps and flooded them with her tears. Only under her mother's wing she could find her consolation and caresses. "When did it happen?" asked the elder woman. "At the Victory ball...' "For madness such short time is enough but not for serious things." "I told him this too. Many times..." "And what he?" "He always used to say: "All we don't know for sure what will be tomorrow. We should get from each very day as much as we only can"." "Unsurprisingly, he is a man of war and in a war you can die each moment. It casts them to different lands and indeed their lots are not the easiest. But with it their lifestyle is not the most virtuous one. Lots of them have several families that they abandon in faraway countries. And do you really think that all of them behave like gentlemen with women. Even far not all gentlemen themselves are always gallant. There is always a flip side of a coin." "Edward is not such!" "Do you know for sure?" Rosie was silent. "Did you understand that no good can come out of it? Why didn't you tell me? I am not your father. I only demand from your man to be good, decent and clever enough. Such is Fitzroy." "Mother, you see..." "Yes, my dear." "I really tried to split up with him. That is why I came to that meeting." "In his embrace?" "Mother, I cannot do it. I love him and I can do no good to Sir William..." again waterfall began. "Poor girl... You are too young and na?ve. You don't speak with people much and wrapped up in your little world. I always was afraid that some unworthy man would try his filthy art on you. Alas, good girls often fall in love with bad ones." "Edward is not unworthy..." "Maybe yes but most likely otherwise. You hardly know him." "I know him better than anyone else." "My child, it is normal that when a girl is in love she considers her man the best one in the world. But she cannot appraise him objectively. Trust your mother. I shall never wish and do you wrong. Such things are not done so quickly. What you feel is not love, it is forgetfulness. You should relax a bit. In this society, where you can see him it is impossible. That is why we talked with your father and decided to send you for some time to your grandmother." Rosie's couldn't speak as she was listening to this. She knew not what to tell, what to think. There was a real "Storm" by Vivaldi in her soul. The words about her grandmother astonished her and stop for a little this hurricane of feelings. She wanted to speak but suddenly her father's voice was heard. "You will go to Marine Hall in Cornwall as soon as possible." Sir Arthur burst into the room. "Overhearing is not an activity for gentlemen," said Lady Vernon. "Like meetings with officers for young ladies." "Grandmother? Is she not dead?" Rosie made her question at last. "Not at all," answered her mother. "What does it mean not at all?" "You will see there. Now have some rest. The reception is over." Lady Vernon kissed her daughter and left with her husband. Rosie sat on her bed stupefied. "Hey! Miss Rosie, let me out of here at last! "Jenny cried out from the bathroom. The young lady as if in trance walked to the door and opened it. The maid literally gripped her shoulders. "I've heard everything. They want to hide you away from Mr Dellis but nothing will come out of their attempts. He is clever, he will find you everywhere. I'll inform him where you will be..." Suddenly Rosie's parents returned. "Oh, Jenny, you are here. There are no maids for young ladies in our mansion in Cornwall. We are afraid that she will be left without any human company at all. You will go with her." said Lady Vernon. "What?!" exclaimed Jenny. "And it is beyond questions. By the way, undress your lady," she went to the door but suddenly stopped and turned to her daughter." And, Rosie, remember, your parents wish you only good." Again the noble pair went. "You want to shut my mouth?! You won't succeed in it! Mr Dellis really loves your daughter and nothing will stop and prevent him. He'll find her!" She was so roused with indignation that even put off that legendary slipper. For all this time Rosie's was in her stupor. There was no word from her lips and only void in her eyes. She again lay down and cried. It was all the same what would be with her the next day.