Lord Ravensden's Marriage Read online

  LORD RAVENSDEN'S MARRIAGE

  Anne Herries

  The Steepwood Scandal – Book 1

  A YOUNG WOMAN DISAPPEARS. A HUSBAND IS SUSPECTED OF MURDER. STIRRING

  TIMES FOR ALL THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.

  When the debauched Marquis of Sywell won Steepwood Abbey years ago at cards, it led to the

  death of the then Earl of Yardley. Now he's caused scandal again by marrying a girl out of his

  class -- and young enough to be his granddaughter! After being married only a short time, the

  marchioness has disappeared, leaving no trace of her whereabouts. There is every expectation that

  yet more scandals will emerge, though no one yet knows just how shocking they will be.

  Chapter One

  October, 1811

  Courage, Beatrice! Are you to be daunted by tales of dragons and witches? No, certainly not,' she

  answered herself, unconsciously speaking the words aloud. 'This is nonsense, sheer nonsense!

  Papa would be ashamed of you.'

  Beatrice shivered, pulling her cloak more tightly about her body as the mischievous wind tried to

  tug it from her. She was approaching the gates of Steepwood Abbey from the eastern side, having

  just come from the village of Steep Abbot, which clustered outside the Abbey's crumbling walls at

  the point where the river entered its grounds.

  In the village behind her lay the peaceful beauty of gracious trees, their bluish-green fronds

  brushing the edges of an idyllic pool in the river's course. Ahead of her in the gathering dusk was

  the great, squat, brooding shape of the ancient Abbey, its grounds almost a wasteland these days. It

  was not a pleasant place at the best of times, but at dusk it took on a menacing atmosphere that was

  as much a product of superstitious minds as of fact.

  'There is not the least need to be nervous,' she told herself as she peered into the shadowy

  grounds. 'What was it Master Shakespeare said? Ah yes! Our fears do make us traitors. Do not

  be a traitor to your own convictions, Beatrice. It is all careless talk and superstition...'

  But there were so many tales told about this place, and all of them calculated to make the blood

  run cold.

  The land had been granted to the monks in the thirteenth century, and the Abbey had been built in a

  beautiful wooded area bordering the River Steep. Its origins were mystical, and it was held in

  popular belief that there had once, long centuries past, been a Roman temple somewhere in the

  grounds. Some of the stories told about the goings on at the Abbey, were enough to make strong

  men turn pale.

  So perhaps it was not just the chill of autumn air that made Beatrice shiver and turn cold as she

  paused to take her bearings.

  'Foolish woman! This is autumn,' Beatrice scolded herself, 'and you ought to have remembered the

  nights were pulling in. You should have left half an hour sooner!'

  It was now the fourth week of October, in the year of Our Lord 1811, and the nights had begun to

  pull in more quickly than she had imagined possible. She ought in all conscience to have set out on

  her journey home to the small village of Abbot Giles at least half an hour sooner.

  Most sensible females who lived in one of the four villages that lay to the north, south, east and

  west of the Abbey would not have considered crossing the Abbey's land after dusk, or—since the

  Marquis of Sywell had taken up residence some eighteen years earlier—during the day for that

  matter!

  Beatrice Roade, however, was made of sterner stuff. At the age of twenty-three she was of course

  a confirmed spinster, the first flush of her youth behind her (though not forgotten!), all hope of ever

  marrying denied her. She was tall, well-formed, with an easy way of walking that proclaimed her

  the healthy, no-nonsense woman she was. Attractive, her features strong, classical, with rather

  haunting green eyes and hair the colour of burnished chestnuts, she was thought slightly daunting

  by the local squires, who did not care for her cleverness—or her humour, which was oft-times

  baffling.

  'Miss Roade,' they were wont to say of her as she was seen walking between the four villages,

  'bookish, you know. And as for looks—not the patch of her sister Miss Olivia. Now she is a

  beauty!' And this from men who could hardly have caught more than a fleeting glimpse of Miss

  Olivia for the past fifteen years! But Miss Olivia took after her mother, and she had been

  beautiful. Miss Roade was like her father's family no doubt, and known to be sensible.

  So what was the very sensible Beatrice doing poised at the gate to Steepwood's boundary walls, a

  gate which lay drunkenly open and rusting, useless these many years? Could she really be

  contemplating taking a short cut?

  If they entered the grounds at all, most local folk stayed well away from the Abbey itself, taking

  either the path which led past the Little Steep river and the lake, or skirting Giles Wood—though

  only the braver amongst the villagers went near the woods.

  There were odd goings on in the woods! Nan had told her that people were talking about it. Lights

  had been seen there at night again recently, and the gossips were saying that the Marquis was up to

  his old tricks—for it was firmly believed that when he had first come to the Abbey, Sywell and

  his friends had cavorted naked with their whores amongst the trees— and they had worn animal

  masks on their heads!

  'Scandalous! That a nobleman of England should behave in such a manner,' Nan had said only that

  morning as she polished the sofa table in the parlour until the beautiful wood gleamed so that she

  could see her reflection. 'I dread to think what may be going on there.'

  'Nan, you intrigue me,' Beatrice had teased. 'Just what dire things do you imagine are happening up

  there?'

  'Nothing that you or I should want to know about,' her aunt had told her with a look of mock

  severity.

  Really, the Marquis's behaviour was too disgusting to mention—except that life was sometimes a

  little slow in the villages, and it did. make such a delightful tale to whisper of to one's friends.

  Ghislaine and Beatrice had laughed together that very afternoon, though Ghislaine had been

  inclined to dismiss the rumours.

  'The Marquis of Sywell is too old for such games,' she said, her eyes dancing with mischief.

  'Surely it cannot be true, Beatrice?'

  'I would not have thought so—though there must be something going on. The lights have been seen

  by several villagers.'

  'Well, I imagine there will be some simple explanation,' Ghislaine had said, and Beatrice nodded.

  'I dare say the lights are but lanthorns carried by some person with business on the estate.'

  'Yes, I am sure you must be right—but the gossips invent so many stories. It is amusing, is it not?'

  Amusing then, but not quite so funny when Beatrice was faced with a walk through the wasteland

  that was now the Abbey grounds.

  Some might whisper of devil-worship and the black arts, but others spoke of pagan rites that were

  firmly rooted in the history of ancient Britons. It was said that in the old days virgins had been

  sacrificed on a stone b
y the lake, and their blood used to bring fertility to the land. Naturally

  Beatrice was too intelligent to let such tales weigh with her. Really, what did go on in the minds

  of some people!

  Besides, the Abbey had long been the home of an old and respected family—it was only since it

  had fallen into the hands of the Marquis of Sywell that it had become a place of abomination to the

  people of the four villages.

  Beatrice took heart from the sensible view of her friend. Strange goings on there might be, but they

  were unlikely to be anything that could bring harm to her.

  'It is foolish to be frightened just because it is becoming dark,' Beatrice murmured to herself. 'If I

  but walk quickly I shall be home in less than half an hour.'

  Beatrice glanced up at the sky. Storm clouds were gathering. If she took the longer route, she might

  be caught and drenched by the rain that was certainly coming. She was not to be frightened by

  rumour and superstition. She would take the shorter route that crossed the Marquis's grounds close

  to the Abbey itself. It was a risk, of course, because she would have to pass close to that part of

  the building which was now used as a private home.

  'Nothing ventured, nothing gained.' Beatrice murmured one of her beloved father's maxims,

  conveniently forgetting that he had so often been proved wrong in the past. For it was Mr Bertram

  Roade's tendency to plunge into the unknown that had led to his losing the small but adequate

  competence which had been settled on him by his maternal grandfather— Lord Borrowdale. 'What

  can he do to me after all?'

  The he she was thinking of was, of course, the wicked Marquis himself, of whom the tales were

  so many and so lurid that Beatrice found them amusing rather than frightening—at least at home

  and in daylight.

  'Be sensible,' Beatrice told herself fiercely as she began to cross the gravel drive which would

  take her past the Abbey—and the dark, haunting ruins of the Chapter House, which had been

  destroyed at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries and never restored. 'He couldn't

  possibly have done everything they say, otherwise he would have died of the pox or some similar

  foul disease long ago.' She smiled at the inelegance of her own words. 'Oh, Beatrice! What would

  dear Mrs Guarding say if she knew what you were thinking now?'

  It was because she had spent the afternoon at Mrs Guarding's excellent school for young ladies

  that she was having to risk venturing right to the heart of the Abbey grounds now.

  It had been so pleasant for the time of year earlier that afternoon. Beatrice had visited her friend

  Mademoiselle Ghislaine de Champlain, who was the French mistress at Mrs Guarding's school,

  and had stopped to drink tea with her.

  Beatrice had been fortunate enough to spend one precious year as a teacher/pupil at the school,

  where she had studied with Ghislaine to improve her knowledge and pronunciation of French, in

  return for helping the younger pupils with their English—the happiest year of her life.

  It was, of course, the only way she could afford to attend the exclusive school, her education

  having been undertaken by her father at home, which might account for some of the very odd things

  she had been taught.

  She had been twenty during that precious year spent at the exclusive establishment. Beatrice had

  hoped to make a niche for herself at the school, because she very much admired the principles of

  the moral but advanced-thinking woman who ran it. However, family duties had forced her to

  return to her home.

  Thinking about the illness and subsequent death of her dearest mother occupied Beatrice's thoughts

  as she walked, banishing all lingering echoes of orgies and dire goings on at the Abbey. Mrs

  Roade had been an acknowledged beauty in her day, and, as the only sister of the wealthy Lord

  Burton, had been expected to marry well. Her decision to accept Bertram Roade had been a

  disappointment to her family.

  Beatrice's musings were brought to an abrupt end as she heard the scream. It was the most

  bloodcurdling, terrifying sound she had ever heard in her life, and she whirled round, looking for

  its source.

  It had seemed to come from the Abbey itself. Perhaps the chapel or the cloisters...but she could not

  be certain. It might have come from somewhere in the grounds. Yes, surely, it must have been the

  grounds—an animal caught in a trap perhaps? So thought the sensible Miss Roade.

  For an instant, Beatrice considered the possibility of a dreadful crime...possibly murder or rape.

  Vague memories flitted through her mind; there was a tale of a girl caught inside the grounds one

  night when the monks still lived there: it was said that the girl had been found dead in the morning!

  Beatrice shivered and increased her pace, her nerves tingling. All the stories of the Marquis's

  atrocities came rushing back to fill her mind with vague fears of herself being attacked by...what?

  Long dead monks? Ridiculous! What then? Hardly the Marquis? Surely she was not truly afraid of

  him? He was after all married at last, to a rather beautiful, young—and if the little anyone knew of

  her was anything to go by, mysterious girl. All Beatrice knew of her was that her name was

  Louise, and that she had been adopted as a baby by the Marquis's bailiff, John Hanslope. It was

  whispered that she was his bastard, but no one knew the truth of the affair.

  The scandal of the nobleman's marriage to his own bailiff's ward had both shocked and delighted

  the people of the four villages. Despite his terrible reputation, it was still unthinkable that a man

  of his background should marry a girl who was after all little more than a servant. 'Quite beyond

  the pale, my dear!'

  Beatrice's own sympathies lay with the unfortunate girl who had married him, for surely she must

  have been desperate to do such a thing?

  A sudden thought struck Beatrice—could it have been the Marquis's wife who had screamed? She

  glanced at the brooding, menacing shape of the Abbey and crossed herself superstitiously. What

  could he have been doing to her to make her scream like that?

  'No, no,' she whispered. 'It could not have been her—nor any woman. It was an animal, only an

  animal.'

  He was said to be in love...after years of wickedness and debauchery!

  Even a man of the Marquis's calibre could not be capable of hurting the woman he loved—or

  could he?

  Beatrice tucked her head down against the wind and began to run. Perhaps it was her anxiety to

  leave the grounds of the Abbey that made her careless? It was certain that she did not see or hear

  the pounding hooves of the great horse until it came rushing at her out of the darkness. She was

  directly in its path and had to throw herself aside to avoid being knocked over.

  Her action led to her stumbling and, having the breath knocked from her body by the force of her

  fall, she could only continue to lie where she was as the rider galloped by, seemingly unaware or

  uncaring of the fact that he had almost ridden her down.

  Beatrice caught only a glimpse of him as he passed, but she knew it was the wicked Marquis

  himself, riding as if the devil were after him. He was a big man, wrapped about by a black cloak,

  his iron-grey hair straggling and unkempt about his shoulders. An ugly creature by all accounts, his

  features thickened and coar
sened by his excesses—though she herself had never caught more than

  a fleeting glimpse of him. He was a bruising rider, and she had sometimes seen him in the distance

  on her walks—but they were not acquainted. The Roade family did not move in his circles, nor he

  in theirs.

  'That was not well done of you, sir,' Beatrice murmured as he and his horse disappeared into the

  darkness.

  She rose to her feet a little unsteadily, her usual composure seriously disturbed by what had

  happened that night. It was certain that the Marquis was in a black mood, perhaps drunk, as the

  gossips said he often was. Beatrice shuddered as she thought of the young woman who had

  married him the previous year. How terrible to be trapped in marriage with such a monster!

  What could have possessed her to do such a thing?

  Beatrice had never met the young Marchioness, or even seen her out walking. As far as Beatrice

  knew, no one had seen much of her since the wedding. People said she hardly left the Abbey—

  some said she was too ashamed, some murmured of her being kept a prisoner by her wicked

  husband, others that she was ill...and there was little to wonder at in that, married to such a brute!'

  She could only have married him for his money. Everyone said it, and Beatrice was sure it must

  be the truth—but had the Marquis been the richest man in England, she would not have married

  such a monster!

  Beatrice had stopped shaking. She resumed her walk at a more sensible pace, keeping her head up

  so that she was aware of what was in front of her. There was little to be heard but the howl of the

  wind, which was eerie and unpleasant.

  She would be glad to be home!

  'You're soaked to the skin, my love,' Nan said, fussing over her the moment she entered her father's

  house. 'We have been on the look for you this past hour or more. Whatever do you mean by

  worrying your poor father so?'

  They progressed to the parlour, Beatrice having left her sodden cloak in the hall. She moved

  closer to the fire, holding her hands to the flames until she had stopped shivering, then went over

  to the large oak and upholstered Knole settee, carefully moving her aunt's embroidery before

  sitting down.

  'Have I worried Papa?' Beatrice thought it improbable. Her father would most likely be in his