and I demand â â
The Marquis realised that the angry Spaniard was about to challenge him to a duel!
Realising that disaster beckoned the Marquis, thought quickly of how to avoid a challenge. Not because he was frightened of facing the Conté in combat, but because duelling had been strictly forbidden by Queen Victoria.
Duels did take place secretly in Green Park, but if it was discovered, the duellists were forced to go abroad into exile for a year or perhaps two.
And that was something the Marquis did not wish for under any circumstances.
Nor did he relish the scandal of being challenged by the Conté.
He recognised immediately that the drama of two aristocrats from different countries confronting each other in a duel would inevitably reach the newspapers.
He held up his hand and in a voice even louder and more aggressive than the Conté, he called,
âStop! You are making a mistake!â
âI am not making a mistake and you are a liar!â the Conté snapped.
âI have been shopping with this lady,â the Marquis asserted in a firm but quieter tone, âand I think it would be polite if I introduced you â â
He turned towards Lanthia, who was listening with eyes wide with horror.
She was holding under her arm one of the parcels from the dress shop and clutching a letter, which had been waiting for her at the reception desk.
As she had unlocked the door with her right hand she had held both the parcel and the letter in her left.
The Marquis could read the name on the letter and speaking deliberately slowly he intoned,
âPlease allow me to present the Conté de Vallecas, who has clearly mistaken me for someone else and I would like you, Conté, to meet Miss Lanthia Grenville, who has paid me the great honour of graciously promising to be my wife!â
For a moment the Conté, who had been bursting to interrupt him, was stunned into silence.
â Your wife !â he repeated as if he could not believe what he had heard. âHas the elusive Marquis of Rakecliffe been captured at last? I do not believe it for a moment!â
âI can assure you,â said the Marquis, âthat I am the luckiest man in the world. But what I have just told you is a close secret and must not be revealed to anyone because we have not yet informed our relations.â
âIf you really expect me to believe that,â snarled the Conté, âyou are very much mistaken. I demand, as I have every right to do, that you make reparation!â
Again the Marquis held up his hand.
âYou forget yourself, Vallecas. You are now in the presence of a lady. If you really do wish to discuss your allegation, which as I have already said is completely and absolutely untrue, then we should do so when my fiancée is not present.â
The Conté wavered.
He believed the Marquis was lying, but at the same time as an aristocrat he could not degrade himself by being too offensive to someone of his own standing.
âI will make you pay for this insult, Rakecliffe!â he growled.
Then he stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him.
The Marquis drew a deep sigh of relief, knowing that he had been standing on the very edge of disaster and had saved himself by only a hairâs breadth.
He turned towards Lanthia and speaking in his most charming voice, which most women found irresistible, he said,
âPlease forgive me, I would not have subjected you to this unpleasant scene if it was not a question of life or death.â
âHe â intended,â Lanthia murmured anxiously, âto challenge you â to a duel?â
It was the first words she had spoken and her voice trembled.
âYou are quite right,â responded the Marquis, âthat is just what he intended and he is notorious for his success in duels. In fact it is widely rumoured he has already killed two men.â
Lanthia gave a cry of horror.
âThen I am very