Léonie glanced from her niece’s hot face to Mr. Comyn’s intent one, and drew her own conclusions. “Juliana shall not marry anyone at all if she doesn’t want to, and no one will make a scandal because I am here, and so it is quite convenable,” she said. “Go and order dinner, Rupert. Me, I must at once find Dominique before he does anything dreadful.”
She pushed his lordship, protesting, out of the room, and looked back to say with her roguish smile: “M. Comyn, I think it would be a very good thing if you gave this foolish Juliana a big shake, and then perhaps she will not be foolish any more. Au revoir, mes enfants.” She whisked herself out of the room, but before she had time to shut the door she heard Mr. Comyn say in a low voice: “Miss Marling — Juliana — I implore you, listen to me!”
Léonie took Rupert’s arm confidingly. “That goes very well, I think. We are doing a great deal, you and I, n’est-ce pas?” She gave a gurgle of laughter. “We have made Juliana a mésalliance, which will enrage poor Fanny, and perhaps Monseigneur too, and now perhaps we shall keep Dominique away from that girl, and that will please Monseigneur, and he will forgive us. Let us find Dominique.”
Lord Rupert professed himself to be utterly without desire to find his nephew, and went off to the kitchens to order and inspect his dinner. Léonie heard her son’s voice raised in the courtyard at the back of the house, and looked through a window to see him giving instructions to his groom. She promptly hurried out to him, and demanded to know what he was doing.
He looked at her with a trace of impatience in his face. He was rather pale, she thought, and there was a frown in his eyes. “Madame, Mary has run from me to hide herself in France with naught but an odd guinea or two in her pocket. I must find her. It touches my honour, not my heart alone.”
“Do you know where she has gone?” Léonie asked. “I do not want any girl to be ruined by you, but — ” She stopped, and sighed.
“I don’t know. She was not seen to leave the inn, unless by one of the abigails, who, curse the wench, is gone off to visit her mother. She can’t be far.”
“It seems to me,” Léonie said slowly, “that this Mary Challoner does not at all wish to marry you, mon enfant. What I do not know is why she does not wish it. If it is because she loves you, then I understand very well, and I am infinitely sorry for her, and I think I will help you — unless I do not like her. But perhaps she does not love you, Dominique, which is not incomprehensible if you have been unkind. And if that is so, then I say you shall not marry her, but I will arrange something. You see?”
“Good God, madame, what arrangement is possible now? In the eyes of the world I’ve ruined her, though I swear to you I did not seduce her. What can I do but give her my name?”
“It is very difficult,” admitted the Duchess. “But you cannot force her to marry you, Dominique.”