Vice and Virtue Read Online Free PDF Page B

you. How else would a penniless man have persuaded you to marry him?”
    The bravado he had summoned in order to make this extraordinary confession had deserted him. In the candlelight the rich colours of his robe contrasted with the pallor of his face. He remained standing for a moment longer, kneading his hands. Then he untied the tasselled cords one by one and let the bed curtains fall. Taking a candle from a side table, he sat on the bed, holdng the candle so that its flame would illuminate his face, and Aurora’s.
    “I know you are astonished,” he said, his voice both tender and urgent, “but I swear before God that what I am about to tell you is the truth.”
    At last, Aurora found words.
    “Sir, no more!” In the small, candlelit space, their shadows thrown weirdly upon the bed curtains, she addressed him as calmly as her thudding heart would allow. “Mr Allcott will be returned with the carriage by now. I will prevail upon him to take me home.” Her throat contracted. She absolutely would not cry but she could not suppress her outrage. “What a good joke it must be for you and Mr Allcott, and his play-acting ‘associates’! A clandestine marriage with a willing girl! Dear God, only a madman or a criminal would perpetrate a falsehood on this scale!”
    “I beg you, Aurora—”
    She held up her palm. “Do not speak to me. I do not know to what end you sought to humiliate me, but you will have no further opportunity to do so.” She pushed aside the blankets, fought her way between the heavy curtains and put her bare feet on the floor. “I must leave this house without more ado.”
    Edward did not speak. His face was stony.
    “We made a bargain,” she reminded him angrily. “Your money for my flesh. Well, sir, no money, no flesh!”
    She had no robe, but her cloak lay upon the window seat. She gathered it into her arms and went towards the dressing-room, where she had left her other clothes. The handle turned, but nothing happened. Her shoulder hit the door. There was no doubt it was locked. She flew to the bedroom door and tried its handle, equally fruitlessly.
    The desire to scream for help fought with the certain knowledge that Mr Allcott had not yet returned, and the impostor servants had already gone. No one else was in the house. Aurora tried to breathe; she tried to think. She was ready to plead, or even fight, but she must escape.
    Edward’s black eyes glowed as he walked towards her. She yelped in fear, but he stopped before he was near enough to touch her. “You are quite correct,” he said steadily, “we did make a bargain, and I am determined to keep my half of it, as I assured you. You may not give me your flesh, but I, God willing, may yet give you my money.”
    Aurora’s breath had shortened so severely that her lungs burned. She could not control her fear. In the face of imprisonment by this man to whom she had promised herself, but who by his own admission was a liar and a deceiver, she could not find courage. “I am frightened,” she gasped.
    “There is no need. But I cannot allow you to leave this room until I have told you the reason for my shameful behaviour. When you have heard me, you will be free to do as you consider best.”
    Aurora put on her cloak, thinking busily. Another bargain had presented itself. “I will hear you, sir, if you will unlock the door.”
    “I cannot do that.”
    “Then I cannot hear you.”
    “You are stubborn.”
    “I am intelligent. You told me so yourself.”
    He contemplated her for a moment, neither smiling nor frowning. Calculating, perhaps. Then he drew a bunch of keys from the pocket of his robe.
    Aurora stood aside while he unlocked the door. He stepped back, the keys still in his hand, his eyes still upon her. But by the time he had drawn breath to speak she had pulled the heavy door a few inches open and slipped through. Her bare feet slapping the flagstones, she ran along the gallery and down the stairs. Her heart pounded; her