must remember how dilapidated the house is already. The villagers thought the roof would fall in last Christmas when we had a great deal of snow. By a miracle, it survived, but I doubt if it will next winter."
He gave her a strange smile.
"Rena, are you urging me to marry for money?"
"No, not exactly, but - are you wise to make a grand gesture, if you might regret it afterwards? This place already means a lot to you. Maybe it will come to mean everything. If you turn down the chance to restore this estate, maybe one day you will regret it."
She found she was holding her breath for his answer. And for some reason it was desperately important.
"The only thing I will regret," he said at last, "is putting money before everything. Rena, I've learned to trust in fortune. I inherited this property after everyone had been quite certain there was no heir to the Earldom. I found you, and you found the hidden glories beneath the ancient cross."
"Yes," she said, glowing with happiness. "Yes!"
He took her hands. "Don't you see, there is more to come. Much more. The future is full of surprises that we can't imagine, but which are waiting for us."
His fervent tone convinced her. This was something he really felt, just as she would feel the same in his position.
"Do I sound like a madman to you?" he asked anxiously.
"Not at all. I know just what you mean?"
"I knew you'd understand. Anyone else would have me put under restraint for such wild talk, but not you. We've only known each other a few hours, and yet already you're the best friend I have. I can tell you things I could tell nobody else. So, keep your hand in mine, my dear friend, and nothing can defeat us."
CHAPTER FOUR
With only time to clean one room they settled on the drawing room. John helped her, and proved more adept than she had feared.
"It's being in the Navy," he said. "A man develops certain domestic skills."
He joined her for tea in the kitchen, while she worked out the refreshments she would serve their guests.
"Tell me more about Mr. Wyngate," she said.
"He's a bit of a mystery man. Nobody knows exactly where he came from, or how he got the money he started with. There's a rumour that his name isn't even Wyngate, but nobody knows the truth about that either. However he started, he made a vast fortune in American railroads."
"You mean he's American?"
"Not necessarily. That's just the first place anybody heard of him. He turned up in America, with money that he invested in railroads, and made a fortune, helped, it is said, by marrying an American lady who had money. She died over there a few years ago.
"Then he came to England and started investing in railways here. He might have been looking for fresh fields to conquer, or he might have been English to start with and returned to his roots, but - "
"Nobody knows," she finished with him.
"Exactly right. He made another fortune here, then took his daughter and went travelling. I met him in India eighteen months ago, when my ship docked at Bombay. He'd taken over the entire Hotel Raj, and was busy competing with the local Maharajah to see who could spend the most money, the most ostentatiously.
"He gave a ball for his daughter Matilda. I did hear that he'd invited the Viceroy as well, but received a polite refusal, which incensed him. In fact it was rather thin of European guests because nobody liked him very much. He made up the numbers by issuing an invitation to the senior officers of my ship, The Achilles, and that's how I came to be there.
"He writes to me as if we'd formed an eternal friendship, but that was my only meeting with him. I've heard a lot about him, but it's the silences that tell the most."
"Silences?"
"If you mention his name people go silent, like birds when a hawk has flown over. He's rich enough to buy anything in the world - or he thinks he is. The trouble is, he's too often right. So many people will sell if the offer is great enough, and now he can't imagine anybody saying