The Night of the Absentee Agent
Chapter 13
The Incident
Artie was fairly groggy when he woke up the next morning. He half-opened his eyes as part of a two-stage strategy to acquaint himself with the new day. After a few seconds he could make out that he was back in his old room at Stonehurst, and the light coming through the window showed that the day had already started. He then became aware of a weight on his right arm. He opened his eyes fully and turned onto his side, propping his body up on one elbow, to take a look at what was weighing down his arm.
Suddenly he was wide awake, when he saw Cat lying next to him, her hand on his arm. The sheet was pulled down to her waist and she was dressed in a pink silk garment, decorated around the neck with small rosebuds. At this point he became aware that he, to the contrary, was dressed in absolutely nothing at all. This realisation was interrupted by the door opening as Marsh sailed into the room.
"Wake up sleepy-head," he said. "It's nine..." He broke off at the sight of his friend in bed with his host's daughter. "Er sorry..." Marsh averted his gaze. "Didn't mean to intrude, old man." There was a grin on his face as he backed out and shut the door behind him.
To Artie, it was worse than any accusation; that Marsh would think he would act that way toward a young woman, under her own father's roof. On the other hand, Marsh may have assumed the two of them were deeply in love and unable to resist the opportunity to express their desire for each other. He was about to leap out of bed, and run after Marsh, but changed his mind when he recalled that he was naked. He checked under the covers just to make sure. Yep, I'm buck-naked, he thought, and I don't remember taking my clothes off. He spotted them hanging on a chair a few feet away, just too far way for him to reach them from the bed.
"Sorry Cat," he said, whisking the sheet away from her to wrap it around his torso, as he went to retrieve his trousers. He couldn't help but notice that her nightdress had hitched up, revealing her shapely legs and feet. In another life he might have been interested in her in a sexual way, but he had a lot of unresolved issues in his life at the moment and she was part of the foreign country he found himself in, a world apart from the women he knew.
He had only just pulled on his trousers and begun to button his shirt, when Cat woke up. She stretched languorously before opening her eyes. The movement caused the nightdress to rise up even further and her breasts to swell against the rosebuds. Artie pointedly looked somewhere else.
Cat eventually opened her eyes, to the sight of Artie, hair attractively dishevelled and bare foot, his gaze locked on the rug. He looked up when he heard her groan.
"It's not what you think," he said, picking the sheet up from the chair, where he had left it, and throwing it over her.
"How do you know what I'm thinking?" she said, her cheeks pinker than usual. "I'm sure that, when I went to bed last night, I was in my own room. If I sleepwalked, a highly unlikely thing for me to have done, and imposed myself on you during the night, then I don't blame you for whatever may have transpired. If, though, as I suspect, I did not sleepwalk, what on earth am I doing in your bed?"
Artie opened his mouth to deny any knowledge on the subject when the door opened again and Mr Oakley said, "Cat, what are you doing in this man's bedroom?"
Both Artie and Cat stared at him open-mouthed, neither of them knowing the answer to that question.
"Cat, go to your room," Oakley ordered. "I want a word with you, Mr Gordon."
"But, Father, you don't..."
"Now!"
Cat left the room in disorder, the sheet wrapped around her. She turned once to look at Artie and her eyes were troubled.
When they were alone, Mr Oakley focused on Artie. "Get dressed," he said, "I will see you in my study in ten minutes."
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Artie tried to remember that he was a grown man in his forties as he entered Mr Oakley's study, at the appointed time. He felt ill-at-ease due to being wrong-footed by the man in front of him. He had no defence for what Oakley had seen because he simply didn't remember how he and Cat had come to be in bed together, and it seemed that neither did she.
He swallowed before saying, "I would like to explain about the scene you witnessed this morning."
He was confused when Mr Oakley smiled at him and told him to be seated. "I've had time to think things over, Mr Gordon, and I find that I may have overreacted a little this morning. Cat is not an innocent child and you are a man of the world. I cannot deny that I think it out of place for you to have acted in such a fashion under my roof, but I'm willing to overlook that aspect of your behaviour, for the sake of my daughter's happiness."
Rather stunned, Artie tried to pick the bones out of this speech and realised that Oakley was under the impression that he and Cat had been unable to control their desire to the extent of Artie committing an act not worthy of a gentleman. The act was not what he and Cat had done but the fact that Artie had allowed it to happen underneath her father's roof.
"I think there has been a misunderstanding," Artie said. "Your daughter and I were unaware of each other's presence until we awoke this morning. We had no intention of spending the night together. Rather than being in love with each other, we are just friends."
"I do hope you are not trying to wriggle out of your responsibilities," Oakley said, with a scowl.
"What responsibilities?"
"Why to marry Cat, of course. You have had the pleasure of bedding her, now you must pay the price."
"I can assure you, Mr Oakley, that Cat and I did not..."
Oakley interrupted him. "Can you swear positively that you and she did not indulge in the pleasures of the flesh?" he said.
Artie began to reply in the negative and then he remembered his own naked state when he awoke that morning. He tried to recall any memory he might have of the previous night but it was a complete blank. He, however, knew his own body and was sure that nothing had happened but he couldn't swear to it in front of this man; there was always that one chance in a million that he could be wrong.
"I shall expect you to call on my daughter this afternoon at half past two. When you leave I expect to hear that you have asked for her hand and been accepted."
Artie nodded and left the house, still reeling.
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Artie presented himself at Stonehurst a little early and was taken to the sitting room to await Mrs Masters. Oakley was nowhere to be seen, which suited Artie.
"Artemus," Cat said, entering the room and running into his arms. "I'm so sorry about all this."
"It's not your fault," Artie said, putting her away from him, to look into her face. He could see that she had been crying.
"Father is being a complete bore over the whole incident. I've argued with him for hours and he just won't budge an inch."
"I can hardly blame him when I think of what he saw this morning and how shocked he must have been."
"Yes, but what did he see? Do you have any idea how I ended up in your bed?"
Artie ran his hand through his hair, tousling it in the process. "I remember your father helping me up to bed and then nothing. I was so tired I could hardly stand up."
"I felt exactly the same," Cat said. "Do you think that sounds normal, both of us being so tired?"
"Now you mention it, no. But we should be discussing our future," Artie said. "Your father was adamant that we should settle our engagement by the time I leave here."
"I wouldn't dream of it," she said, turning her back on him.
Artie approached her and placed his hands on her shoulders. He placed his lips close to her ear. "Would it be so bad, being married to me?" he asked.
"Oh you don't understand," she said, turning to face him. "I've been married once already to a man picked out for me by my father. I vowed I would never marry again unless it was because I found a man I couldn't live without and who loved me as madly as I loved him. I don't mean as in a fairytale but a man who treated me as an equal, willing to share all his joys and disappointments."
"If you marry me I would certainly treat you as an equal but I can't say I'm madly in love with you and I don't believe you feel that way about me. Maybe that would come later, who knows?"
"Artie, you're very sweet, especially after the way my father has forced your hand in this despicable way. But I won't let you make that kind of sacrifice and I can't see why I should either."
"I tell you what, why don't we just tell your father we're engaged to be married and then we'll worry later about what happens next. It's not like we'll be getting married next week. I understand that these things take quite a bit of arranging."
"Would you mind that?" Cat asked, smiling for the first time. "It would certainly restore peace between my father and me."
"Then let's consider it done. I'm afraid I don't have a ring for you. I'll have to sort something out."
"That's the least of our problems," Cat said. "If you don't mind, I'll go and tell my father now. At least it will make him happy."
"I'll meet you tomorrow morning, for our usual ride. We can make plans then."
"Thank you, Artie."
Artie kissed Cat on the forehead and took his leave of her, before Mr Oakley could collar him. He wasn't in the mood to deal with that gentleman at present, not least for the way he was trying to push his daughter into a loveless marriage.
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