“Ferdinand!” he exclaimed in a startled tone. “What does this mean? How in Heaven’s name have you come here? Where have you come from?” and suppressing the hundred and one questions which rose to his lips, he regarded his step-brother in bewildered astonishment, whilst Zillah Lorm advanced, an eager glow in her eyes.
Ferdinand assisted his sweetheart to rise, and bowed to Miss Lorm.
“I will tell you everything presently, Lionel—when we are alone,” he answered complacently. “I should not like to tire the ladies with an account of my adventures.”
Zillah swept past Raie and held out her hand.
“I congratulate you on your return, Sir Ferdinand,” she said, with stress on the title, and a curious smile on her face.
“Frank Merryweather” had risen considerably in her estimation during the last ten minutes. No matter what crime he had committed, he was a baronet, and evidently not in captivity. She was determined to enter the lists with Raie.
CHAPTER XIV
IN THE LIGHT OF THE MOON
To Raie the recognition of Ferdinand was the best thing that could have happened, and a load was thereby lifted from her mind. The task he had set her to perform had been most repugnant to her taste, and she was thankful in the extreme that the difficulty had been obviated in a more open-handed way. As it happened, the necessary documents were not in the safe at all, but in a private bureau in Montella’s bedroom; so that all her trouble and heart-burning would have been in vain. Lionel readily forgave the intended ruse, and produced the papers without delay. His greatest desire was to help his step-brother to regain his honour and good name.
But Lady Montella was not so easily won. The circumstances of the forgery had been very black against Ferdinand, even if he had been, as was supposed, the mere tool of another and older man. She knew that her husband until his dying day had believed him guilty, had wrested him from his affection, had deprived him of all his privileges of sonship to bestow them on her own—the younger—son. If, therefore, Ferdinand had been wrongfully accused, he was a much-injured man; but his personality did not impress her in that way. At least, he bore no malice towards any of his accusers, and seemed to desire to forget the actors in the unpleasant drama of the past. But, on the other hand, he appeared anxious to claim his title—valueless though it was in Palestine—to reinstate himself as a member of his fathers House, and to win back his reputation as an honourable man. Until his innocence had been established, therefore, she preferred to remain on neutral terms. But she allowed him to come to the Government House as often as he pleased, even though she would not yet receive him as a son.
He informed her of his desire to marry Raie on the very first evening of his reconciliation; and begged that if Mrs. Emanuel gave her consent she would not withhold hers. Lady Montella knew not whether to be displeased or glad, and held her answer in abeyance until Ferdinand should have paid his intended visit to England; but she sent for Raie’s mother in order to discuss the affair.