The Lion Triumphant by Philippa Carr Page B

against it! I hate the man. How could I be anything but set against it?”
    “Then we must devise a plan and the best seems for you to leave here and, as Edward said, if they make trouble they must then make it.”
    I did not answer. I had decided against going back to the Abbey. I was not going to let Jake Pennlyon think I had run away. I would stay and face him; I would outwit him in my own way.
    Meanwhile, Edward and Honey were getting deeper into intrigue and I trembled for them.
    That afternoon John Gregory arrived at the house. He was greeted as an old friend by Edward and was given the red bedroom with the big four-poster bed and a window which looked out over the country for miles.
    He walked with a limp and there were scars on his left cheek and on his wrists. He was tall and stooped a little and had a certain haunted expression in his eyes which I could not forget.
    He looked to me like a man who had suffered. A fanatic, I decided, who might well suffer again. Such people made me uncomfortable.
    The servants appeared to accept the explanation of his visit. I watched them carefully to see if there was any suspicion, but I missed Jennet, who was such a chatterer and had often unconsciously let me into the secrets of the servants’ quarters. Luce was efficient but taciturn, and I thought then of reinstating Jennet. She was contrite. I was beginning to doubt my motives, though, and I was not sure whether the sight of her angered me because she had betrayed me or because I couldn’t stop thinking of Jake Pennlyon’s laying his lustful hands on her and wondering, of course, whether he had seduced her already.
    I did, however, take her back with me the day after John Gregory came.
    I lectured her a little. “You will serve me, Jennet,” I reminded her. “If you ever lie to me again I shall have you beaten.”
    “Yes, Mistress,” she said demurely.
    “And you should be warned not to listen to men’s tales. They will get you with child and then what will happen to you, do you think?”
    She blushed scarlet and I said: “Remember it.” I could not bring myself to ask her for details of what had happened between her and Jake Pennlyon because I told myself it was undignified—and yet in a way I did wish to know.
    A day passed. I knew that the return of the Pennlyons could not long be delayed. The period of respite was coming to an end.
    The Pennlyons were back. One became aware of it at once. Even the servants seemed excited and the tension in Trewynd had increased. Since they had returned the presence of John Gregory in the house had become more dangerous.
    It was not long before Jake came riding over. I was expecting him and was prepared. I had told Honey that on no account must she leave us alone together.
    He sat in the hall drinking wine. Edward, Honey and myself watched him intently. He seemed bigger, more overbearing, more arrogant and sure of his ability to get what he wanted than I remembered even. I felt the surging hatred rising in me, bringing with it that wild excitement.
    The betrothal ceremony was taking place in three days’ time, he announced.
    “It’s too soon,” I said.
    “Not soon enough,” he corrected me.
    “I shall need to prepare.”
    “You’ve had all the time I’ve been away to prepare. You’ll have no longer.”
    So he was commanding me already.
    “The wedding takes place two weeks later,” he said with authority. “And I shall sail a month after that.”
    “Where will your voyage take you?” asked Edward politely.
    “We’ll be taking a cargo of cloth out to Guinea and come back we hope with gold and ivory. It won’t be a long voyage if I can help it.” He gave me his lascivious grin. “I shall be missing my wife.”
    Edward said he wished him fair weather; and they talked about the sea for a while. Jake’s eyes glowed; he talked of the sea with the same intensity that he had talked of our marriage. The sea fascinated him because it was often wild and unpredictable;