during which those who could not keep up with the musicians’ increasingly rapid tempo stood back to admire Lacey and Jack’s performance which had become more and more inventive. Both of them were separately whirling and twirling before coming back to face one another again, slapping their knees and bending their legs in a rhythm which was almost professional.
The moment that the music ended the spectators gave them an ovation. They had been so involved with each other and the dance, that, as in the slow foxtrot, they had forgotten that the rest of the world existed. When the clapping broke out, they stopped, stared at one another, and Jack asked Lacey, ‘Good God! Never say that was for us?’
‘Afraid it was,’ she said, her campaign to unfreeze Jack having succeeded even beyond her wildest dreams. She was not sure how he was going to take it, and was tremendously relieved when he began to laugh.
‘Minx,’ he choked at her, taking her hand and piloting her off the floor.
He was amused to hear someone whose face he vaguely remembered call out to him as they made for the supper room and a much needed drink, ‘So Fighting Jack rides again, good for you, old chap.’
‘I told you that I should make a spectacle of myself and never live it down.’
‘Aren’t you pleased you did?’ Lacey responded pertly. ‘Now, be a good fellow and bring me a drink, a long cool one, no alcohol, I’m tight enough already without having the excuse of drinking very much to account for it.’
‘Excitement,’ said Jack soothingly. ‘Sure you don’t want a gin and it—or some champagne?’
‘Quite sure. Lemonade and lots of it.’
He reached the bar to find Rupert there on his own, Darcey having discovered another flapper to squire.
‘My word, you were going the pace, old fellow, weren’t you? Took what I suggested to you earlier seriously, did you?’
Jack, who had forgotten Rupert’s advice about Lacey’s fortune, ordered her lemonade and a glass of champagne for himself, before saying, ‘What was that, then?’
‘Don’t say you’ve forgotten that she’s an heiress? The one I recommended you to go for.’
‘Oh, damn that,’ said Jack cheerfully. In his present mood the cloud which had hung over him for so long seemed to have disappeared and it had been Lacey Chancellor who had dispersed it. ‘She’s a jolly good sort—and would be with, or without, a fortune. Haven’t enjoyed myself so much for years.’
‘So I saw,’ returned Rupert glumly, his own evening not having been much of a success. ‘And while you’re feeling so happy, could I touch you for a couple of hundred? I’m a bit short at the minute and you can probably stand it.’
‘Not really,’ replied Jack, frowning. ‘Besides that, I don’t lend money to either friends or relatives, it’s the best way to lose them in my experience.’
‘But I really am most awfully strapped, old chap.’
Jack sighed. ‘Let me be honest with you. I’m just about keeping the whole boiling back home from falling into instant bankruptcy. Apart from my reservations about lending money at all, I simply don’t have that much ready cash to spare. I’m surprised to learn that you are having trouble given that you have a well-paid position at Coutts Bank.’
Rupert made a face. ‘It’s the gee-gees, I’m afraid. I made a few horrid bets lately. Lost a packet on the Grand National to make matters worse, and I’m no longer at Coutts.’
Jack refrained from advising Rupert not to gamble and particularly not to bet on the horses. He thought it would be a waste of time. Instead he said, as gently as he could, ‘I’m sorry, but I have Will to think of and young Robbie, Max’s boy, as well as the estate. We’re even more strapped for cash than you are, I’m afraid. I try to put a brave face on things and you ought to have asked yourself why I’m staying in a cheap lodging house. The flat in town went long ago.’
‘Oh, God, Jack!’ Rupert’s face crumpled as though he were about to cry. ‘Everything’s gone since the war, hasn’t it? Nothing is ever going to be the same.’
‘That’s true enough,’ Jack said, ‘but we have to keep a stiff upper lip and do what we can. Now, I must take Lacey her lemonade. I’m sorry to have to let you down, but there it is.’
If Lacey wondered why Jack had taken so long to fetch her drink, she didn’t say so. Instead she told him more about her half-brother’s decision to move to Sussex.
‘I’ve just found out that Richard’s new country home, Ashdown, is not far from yours,’ she said.
‘Why did he sell Liscombe?’ Jack asked. ‘It’s a handsome house, and its Arabian stud was famous.’
‘Richard isn’t interested in horses so he sold the house and the business to a trainer. He wanted somewhere nearer to London, and the London-to-Brighton train is so fast and frequent now that it makes it easier for him to leave town for the country. Liscombe was somewhat out of the way.’
‘Well, when you are finally ensconced at Ashdown you must be sure to visit us. Will, my brother, will want to meet you. You must both come to tea, lunch or dinner, whichever you fancy. I have to repay your niece for teaching me the Charleston, don’t I, Miss Hoyt? And you for allowing her to do so.’
‘I suppose,’ almost sniffed Aunt Sue, which had Lacey wondering all over again whatever could be the matter with her. It was not like her to be discourteous or short, particularly with someone like Fighting Jack, whose understated charm was beginning to overwhelm her. Something which she would not previously have thought possible.
After that, Jack had to follow the conventions which said that he must not monopolise one of the early season’s successes. He bowed his way away, to allow other young men to fill her dance programme, and hoped that Miss Lacey’s eager acceptance of his offer of entertainment at Compton Place was truly meant. Not only that, he had promised to look out for her at his cousin Lady Lynch’s reception and ball, which was taking place in the following week, and dance the Charleston with her again.
It would mean that he would have to stay in London longer than he had intended, but never mind that. He had had few opportunities to enjoy himself since he had left the army, and the pull of Miss Lacey Chancellor was so strong and profound that he could not ignore it.
No woman had ever attracted him so powerfully before.
‘Now, Aunt,’ said Lacey once they had reached home again, ‘why was it that you were so cool to Jack Compton? He seemed to me exactly the sort of young man of whom you would most approve.’
Her aunt shook her head and said grimly, ‘But you hadn’t overheard him talking with that flighty cousin of his, Rupert Compton. If you had you wouldn’t be defending him. They were, in the most cold-blooded fashion, talking about having a go at you because you are an heiress worth winning. Particularly since it seems that Jack Compton, as well as Rupert, is on his uppers. Jack actually described you as being “as hard as nails”. They were his exact words, I fear.’
The colour drained from Lacey’s face. ‘Are you sure, Aunt? Couldn’t you have been mistaken?’
‘Indeed I wasn’t. I was in the best
