Charles Rex, Ethel May Dell [find a book to read txt] 📗

her own way all the same. So you've got a boy at last! Hope it's a good one!"
"He'd better be, hadn't he, Jake?" struck in Bunny. "The imp is six months old now and goes for a canter on The Hundredth Chance every day when I'm at home. You actually haven't seen him yet, Charlie? What a rotter you were to be away all the winter!"
"Well, I'm home now anyway," said Saltash, with a comical glance at Jake. "Am I to be allowed to call and view the latest acquisition?"
Jake was looking straight at him. "Are you--alone at the Castle, my lord?" he asked after a moment.
Saltash began to laugh. "Of course I'm alone! What did you expect? Ah, I see!" His glance flashed to Bunny. "Yes, I am quite alone--most conspicuously and virtuously unaccompanied. Come and see for yourself! Search the Castle from turret-chamber to dungeon! You will find nothing but the most monastic emptiness. I've turned into a hermit. Haven't they made that discovery yet? My recent deliverance from what I must admit was a decidedly awkward predicament in the Channel has sobered me to such an extent that on my life I begin to doubt if I shall ever be anything but a dull dog again. Yes, that's the truth, Jake. You can take it or leave it. But I'm coming to see Maud in any case. When is my presence least likely to cause you inconvenience?"
"Oh, damn it, Jake!" broke in Bunny with sudden heat. "You know Maud said you were to ask him to dine if he turned up."
"You shut up, my son!" commanded Jake with absolute serenity. "It's not any business of yours anyway. We'll send you to bed before dinner if you aren't mighty careful."
Bunny laughed at the threat, but his sallow boyish face coloured sensitively notwithstanding.
Saltash laughed also. "Oh, you needn't do that, Jake. I'm as harmless as any sucking dove, I assure you. You'll have to put up with me now. When shall I come?"
"Come tonight!" said Jake with quiet decision. "Eight o'clock if that suits you. Afraid I must go now. Bunny, take his lordship to see Prince Charlie!"
He lifted a hand in salute and turned away--a man of no pretensions either social or intellectual, yet who knew how to hold his own with high and low alike.
"Keeps you in order still, does he?" gibed Saltash, as he watched him go. "You're getting too old to be on a leading-string, _mon cher_."
Bunny frowned at the careless words. "You don't know him. He's not that sort of ass. We're pals, Jake and I, and I'm proud of it."
"Of course you are!" said Saltash comfortably. "Didn't I tell you long ago that he was a gentleman? It's the way he's made. Hewn out of raw material, but the real thing and no mistake. You must never quarrel with him on my account, Bunny, my lad. It would be very poor economy on your part."
"I shan't do that," said Bunny. "But he's got to do you justice. Maud says the same."
Saltash laughed aloud. "But, my dear chap, nobody ever does that! I don't myself!"
Bunny looked at him with affection. "You always have tried to make yourself out a worse rotter than you really are, haven't you, Charlie? I always tell Jake so."
"No, it's not my doing," said Saltash lightly. "That's the rest of the world, _mon ami_. They like their pictures highly coloured. So--_pourquoi pas_?"
He snapped his fingers and laughed, and they passed on together with careless jesting and friendly chaff. Saltash had always been kind to young Bernard Brian. The boy had been a helpless cripple in his childhood, and he had developed a keen appreciation for all kindness during those days which nothing could now efface. Whatever Saltash's morals, he was a friend, and as such Bunny never failed to treat him. They spent the rest of the afternoon together in and out of the enclosure, and when amidst wild enthusiasm Prince Charlie won his maiden race, the two were waiting side by side to congratulate Jake as he led the victor in. Saltash departed soon afterwards and motored back to Burchester Castle to dress. And then Bunny, half-laughing, half-apologetic, turned to his brother-in-law.
"I can't help being decent to Charlie, Jake. I don't care a damn what they say."
Jake gave him a straight look from under his rough red brows. "I'm not blaming you," he said.


CHAPTER II
MAUD BOLTON

Someone was singing a baby lullaby very softly in the beautiful room with the bay window that looked straight over the rolling down. It was a very sweet voice that sang, and sometimes the low notes were a little tremulous as though some tender emotion thrilled through the song. The singer was lying back in a rocking-chair close to the bay-window with her baby in her arms.
Beyond the long, undulating slope there stretched a silver line of sea that gleamed with a still radiance in the light of the dying day. And Maud Bolton, who once had been that proud and desolate girl Maud Brian, gazed out upon it with happy, dreaming eyes. It had been a hot spring day and she was tired, but it was a pleasant weariness, and the little body that nestled on her breast brought sheer rapture to her woman's heart. It was the baby boy for whom for years she had longed in vain.
There came a slight sound at an open door behind her that led to another room. She turned her head with a quick smile.
"Jake!"
He came, treading softly, and stood beside her. The failing light on his rugged face showed it strangely softened, almost transformed.
He stooped after a moment and kissed her. "Why isn't the little 'un in bed?" he said, with his eyes on the sleeping baby-face.
The smile still lingered about her lips. "I thought he and I would both of us have a little treat tonight. Do you know he is six months old today?"
Jake's square fingers caressed the baby's placid forehead. "Yes, I know," he said.
Maud uttered a faint sigh. "And so--according to the law of the Medes and Persians--he is not going to sleep with his mother any longer. He is to be banished to the nursery. But I thought I would put him to sleep first."
Jake's look came to her face. "There's no law that I know of," he said in his slow way. "Keep him in here if you want to!"
She lifted her eyes to his--beautiful eyes, deeply violet. "Thank you, Jake. But it's all settled, and he won't mind."
"He doesn't matter so much," said Jake.
She smiled and laid her cheek against his arm. "No, it's all right. Nurse understands him. I won't have him again unless he's ill. I should have to then."
"Of course," said Jake. He bent down. "Let me have him! I'll take him to the nursery."
"Ah, don't wake him!" she said.
Jake's arms encompassed the little bundle and lifted it from her. The baby made a small noise that sounded like a protest, but he did not open his eyes.
"Don't you come!" said Jake. "I'll fix him."
And with light tread he bore his son away. Maud looked after him with a touch of wistfulness, but she did not move, and in a few minutes he came back to her, knelt beside her, and gathered her strongly into his arms.
"My girl!" he said softly. "My own girl!"
She clasped him round the neck, laying her head against him without words.
"Tired?" he said.
"No--no--not really! Too happy to complain anyway." She spoke in a whisper as if unwilling to break her silence.
"You want more help," he said.
She lifted her face and kissed his neck. "No, Jake dear. I don't want the children taken out of my hands entirely. Whatever should I do without them?"
"Look after me for a change," suggested Jake.
She laughed a muffled laugh with her lips raised to his. "Do I neglect you, Jake?"
"No," he said. "You're the best wife a man ever had. I believe I'm first with you--even now."
"Always--always first," she whispered against the lips that pressed her own.
He held her very closely to him for a space in silence. He had loved her with a fiery worship from the first moment of their meeting, but the wealth of her answering love still filled his soul with wonder. Over and over again he would tell himself that he was not her sort, but when he held her thus throbbing against his heart, he knew beyond all questioning that they were one.
"You haven't told me a single thing about today's meeting," she murmured presently.
Jake began to smile. "On my soul I had forgotten all about it. Prince Charlie has gained his first laurels. He won by two and a half lengths."
"Oh, Jake, how splendid! How proud you must be! I'm tremendously glad. And what about Charlie? Was he there to see his namesake carry all before him?"
"Saltash, do you mean? Yes, he was there." Jake's tone was somewhat dry.
Maud drew back a little to look at him. "I hope you asked him to dine," she said.
"Oh yes," said Jake, with a touch of grimness. "Bunny saw to that on your behalf. He considers--and with reason--that you have a right to ask whoever you like to your own house."
"Jake!" Maud suddenly sat upright, her eyes burning like stars. "If Bunny said that--"
"He didn't," said Jake.
"Or hinted it even--it was perfectly hateful of him! I shall go and tell him so!"
Maud made as if she would release herself from his hold, but he restrained her.
"No--no, my girl! You keep calm! I can hold my own with Bunny, and he didn't mean any harm. I asked Saltash all right, and he's coming."
"Against your will," said Maud.
"No. Against my judgment, maybe. Not against my will. I've no objection to entertaining him if you wish it. You and I don't quarrel over trifles like Saltash."
Jake's tone was humorously tender. He patted her flushed cheek in a conciliatory fashion. She turned very swiftly and kissed his hand.
"Thank you, Jake--darling. But--you are master in this house, remember. No one enters it without your consent."
"Not even Saltash?" smiled Jake.
"Not even--Bunny!" said Maud, still breathing resentment.
He took her gently by the shoulder. "Look here, my girl! I won't have you say a word to the boy about this, see? I didn't know you'd flare up like that or I shouldn't have spoken. He didn't mean it that way. If he had, I'd have punched his head. And after all," his eyes smiled suddenly into hers, "I do live on my wife's bounty, don't I? Wouldn't I be driving cows on the other side of the Atlantic without it?"
"No," Maud said. "You'd be owning your own ranch by this time, and--and--and generally licking creation, Jake, as only you know how."
"Oh, shucks!" said Jake softly, and kissed her again upon the lips. "I'd sooner be here anyway. Well, Saltash is coming, so we've got to make the best of it. I shouldn't care a cuss if it weren't for young Bunny. But he's always been keener on his lordship's company than I've thought advisable."
"Oh, Jake," she said, colouring a little, "I don't believe Charlie would do him any harm."
"Not intentionally perhaps," said Jake. "I've no ill feeling for him, heaven knows, but I can't say I think his society likely to have a very improving effect upon anyone."
"I don't think you quite understand him," Maud said thoughtfully.
Whereat Jake laughed so suddenly that she looked at him with raised brows. He got to his feet, still laughing.
"Very likely not. We've had