Rupert, being Rupert, did not consider what he would do if Emile St Clair refused his permission.

Chapter 23

Rupert presented himself at Belair at exactly twelve noon and was greeted by Didier, who said, ‘Monsieur St Clair is expecting you, sir,’ took his hat and gloves and escorted him to Emile’s private study.

He knocked and opened the door, announcing, ‘Monsieur Chalfont.’

Emile, who had been standing beside a large flat-topped desk studying the papers spread out upon it, turned and greeted Rupert with a smile and an extended hand.

‘Good day, m’sieur, I trust I see you well.’

‘Very well, thank you, sir,’ Rupert replied.

‘May I offer you a glass of something? Wine? Brandy?’

‘No, I thank you, sir.’

Emile nodded to Didier, who had been hovering in the doorway. ‘That’ll be all, Didier.’

As the door closed behind the butler, Emile took a seat on a chair by the open window and indicated another to Rupert.

Rupert sat down and Emile said, ‘Well, Monsieur Chalfont, how may I help you?’

Rupert had tried out several openings in his room that morning, but now he was sitting opposite Emile, somehow the prepared words deserted him. He stood up again and took a couple of paces across the room before turning back and saying, ‘I know we are only recently acquainted, m’sieur, but I have come to ask if I may pay my addresses to Mademoiselle Hélène.’ There! It was said.

Emile looked startled. ‘Hélène?’ he said. ‘But she’s only a child. Only just out of the schoolroom.’

‘Only just out of the schoolroom,’ agreed Rupert, ‘but surely no longer a child.’

‘Perhaps.’ Emile was getting over his immediate surprise. ‘But she is still very young, scarcely ready for marriage – and I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that, with respect, we know nothing of you or your family. You are a foreigner, an Englishman, unknown to us all.’

‘I admit to all of those things,’ Rupert said, a touch ruefully, ‘but surely they can all be addressed. I can answer any questions you would like to ask. May I tell you straight away that my father, Sir Philip Chalfont, is a baronet. The title is hereditary and one day—’

‘You will inherit it?’ interrupted Emile.

‘No, sir. My brother Justin will inherit; I am the younger by two hours. But one day I shall come into an inheritance on my mother’s side. In the meantime I am well enough supplied to support a wife and an establishment of my own. If your daughter accepted my suit, she would be well provided for.’

Emile looked at Rupert with great suspicion. ‘No doubt somebody has told you that on her marriage Hélène will inherit an annuity from her maternal grandmother. Perhaps it is this that has made you dare to ask for her hand.’

Rupert looked Emile firmly in the eye and said, ‘It has been mentioned to me, and I am sure that it is common knowledge hereabouts, but at present I am not asking for your daughter’s hand. I am only asking your permission to address her, so that we may become properly acquainted, and I hope eventually come to an understanding. Should that happen and we became engaged to be married, I should have no interest in Hélène’s money. I give you my word, it will be hers and hers alone to do with as she wishes.’