"Myra!" gasped Lady Fermanagh in horrified amazement. "Married to the
brigand! You--you don't mean actually married?"
"I don't believe it could have been a proper marriage, although
Don--er--Cojuelo swore the man who performed the service was an
ordained priest," said Myra, avoiding her aunt's eyes. "I don't
suppose it matters much now whether I am Cojuelo's wife--or only his
mistress."
"His mistress!" Lady Fermanagh was white to the lips as she repeated
the words. "You mean that he----?"
The hot colour stained Myra's pale face as she met her aunt's eyes, and
nodded her red-gold head in shamed assent.
"Myra, you are ruined!" Lady Fermanagh almost wailed, wringing her
be-ringed hands. "What madness possessed you to offer to marry the
brigand?"
"He taunted me--and Tony failed me," Myra answered, oddly reluctant to
explain everything. "I wish I were dead."
"Does Don Carlos know?" asked her aunt, and again Myra flushed as she
nodded assent.
"Yes, he alone knows, Aunt," she said, "and he alone knows whether the
marriage service was a mockery or not."
Lady Fermanagh, still wringing her hands, rose and paced agitatedly up
and down the room, her nimble brain busy trying to think of some way of
saving the situation.
"I will see Don Carlos, Myra, beg him to keep your secret, beg him to
assert that the so-called marriage was a farce and a mockery," she
announced suddenly, after a long pause. "He is a chivalrous gentleman,
and I know he will lie if necessary, to save your honour.... Why do
you sneer, child? ... Don't you realise that everything depends on Don
Carlos, and how you behave towards Tony?"
"I have nothing but contempt for Tony now. I despise him."
"Don't be a little fool," snapped Lady Fermanagh. "Your only hope of
saving yourself is to forgive Tony for his cowardice and marry him. He
will be grateful to you all his life. Don Carlos can tell him that the
marriage ceremony was only a farce, and that he arranged with the
bandit for your liberation immediately afterwards, or else explain that
he helped you to escape. How did you escape, by the way? You have not
told me. Did Don Carlos help?"
"Don Carlos showed me the way to open the secret door," answered Myra.
"Aunt Clarissa, nothing will induce me to marry Tony Standish now."
"But you must, you must!" insisted her aunt passionately. "It is the
only way of saving yourself. Think how you are placed, and what a
ghastly tragedy it would be if it became known that you had surrendered
yourself to a brigand. I will see Don Carlos at once, beg him, for
your sake----"