The Love Child

“My dear young lady, you are reckless. If these things are done, then it is natural that they should be, but to speak of them, that is a crime.”

“Please be serious. This is very important to me … to us …”

“Of course. Of course.” He spoke soothingly. “Your father would meet the worst possible fate. He is just the sort my friend dislikes. Given a chance…”

“Please… we will do anything.”

“Will you?”

“We will do anything,” I repeated.

“It will rest with you.”

“What?” I said faintly.

I knew, of course. I saw those eyes, sly, lascivious, assessing me.

“I admired you from the moment I saw you,” he said. “It was a great regret to me that we did not become better acquainted in Venice. It is my urgent desire that we should repair that unfortunate state of affairs.”

“Will you please say clearly what you mean.”

“I should have thought it was clear.”

I stood up.

“Don’t be hasty,” he warned. “You will regret it all your life if you are. Think of your father. Think of your mother.”

I closed my eyes. I was thinking: I shall have to save him. I shall have to save them both. I must. And this man knows it. Oh, Leigh, where are you?

Yet what could Leigh do to save my father?

“Come,” he said, “be reasonable. Sit down. Listen.”

I sat. I felt hypnotized by those cruel golden eyes with the long, almost feminine lashes and the beautifully marked golden brows.

“You cheated me …in Venice,” he went on. “That brute came and snatched you from me. If you had only come to me then I should have so delighted you that we should have been happy together. But I lost you, and ever since I have thought of you. Then I saw you today and I knew your father was here. I can save him. I can bring many favours to people who seek them. My family is an influential one. I will save your father. I promise you … but I need my reward.”

“And your reward is …”

“You.” He leaned forward and spoke almost breathlessly. “I will send a carriage for you at sundown. You will be brought to my house. You will stay with me until the dawn. During that time you will be my beloved little slave. You will be mine entirely, denying me nothing, wishing only to serve me.”

“I think you are despicable. You are in a position-so you say-to save a man’s life, and you ask payment for that!”

“Oh, come, you are a young woman who would be too proud to accept charity. You would want to pay your debts, would you not?”

“I hate you.”

“That may be, but it is not a question of your emotions, but of mine. I am the one who has to be paid.”

“It… is not possible,” I said.

He shrugged his shoulders. “So you will let your father die?”

I looked at him wretchedly. “Is there nothing else? … We could pay.”

“I need money. I always need money. They say I am rather extravagant. But in this case there is something I want more, and I am afraid it is the price for this particular service.”

“How could it be brought about … my father’s release, I mean?”

“I would see that he walked into the inn on the day that followed.”

“Can you be sure?”

He nodded.

“But how can be sure?”

“It would be a gamble,” he said.

“Then I shall have to find some other means.”

“How? What will you do?”

“I will find some way.”

“There is not much time. Do you propose to seek out the judge and say, ‘Fair sir, I offer you this … or that … for my father’s life?’ I warn you his price might be the same as mine.”

I felt dizzy. I kept thinking of my father and imagined him, swinging on a rope … or worse still. I thought of my mother and I realized how dear they both were to me-he no less than she was-and that I had wanted my father’s love all my life. I had longed to shine in his eyes; I had wanted him to be proud of me and his indifference to me had not really changed my feelings towards him. Perhaps it had made me more eager for his approval.

“What if you do not keep your part of the bargain?” I asked.

“I give you my word that I shall. I can and I will do it.”

“How can I trust you?”

“You can’t be sure, can you? You will have to take that chance. I am not, as you may have guessed, noted for my virtue, but I have a deserved reputation for paying my gambling debts. When I give a promise to pay I consider it a point of honour to do so.”

“Honour. You talk of honour?”

“Honour of a sort. We all have our standards, you know. Well, What is it to be?”

I was silent. I could not bear to look at him. But even while I hesitated I knew I had to save my father.

“I will send a carriage for you at dusk,” he said. “It will bring you back the following morning. The next day you will be able to return with your parents.”

I felt numb. I had prayed for a solution, and here it was offered to me, but at what a price!

He was regarding me with glittering eyes. I thought of the first time I had seen him hi St. Mark’s Square and how this had really grown out of my love for Jocelyn and had begun when I discovered him in the haunted flower garden.

I turned and hurried from the room.

My mother’s fever had not abated and the doctor came again.

“How ill is she?” I asked. “Is there not something that can be done?”