Pimpernel and Rosemary · Chapter 20 (2/2)

She said this, but Rosemary herself was quite unconscious that she had spoken. She had dreamed and dreamed, and seen a motorcar speeding along the dusty road. But through it all, she had approved, approved of the plan. It was so feasible, and so simple. She only wondered why Peter disapproved.

“What does Peter Blakeney say to all that?” she asked presently.

“Peter?”

Elza asked wide-eyed.

“Yes. You told him about your plan, didn’t you?”

“No! No!” Elza asserted firmly. “We have told no one but you. Peter is going away. Why should we tell Peter?”

“I thought⁠—” Rosemary murmured.

“It will be time enough to tell him,” Anna put in gaily, “when Philip and I turn up at the hotel at Hódmezö. Won’t he be surprised when he sees us?”

How strange it all was! Peter knew, since he spoke of a mad plan in Elza’s head, and begged Rosemary to dissuade her from it. Peter knew, though no one had told him. Another mystery added to all those which had of late filled Rosemary with such a torturing sense of foreboding. Another mystery that seemed to surround Peter’s changed personality, that seemed a part of this new personality of his, flippant and indifferent, so unlike the Peter she had known.

Now she longed passionately for Jasper⁠—dear, kind Jasper, around whom there hung no mystery⁠—the strong hand that would guide her through this maze of intrigue which bewildered as much as it terrified her. Fortunately her promise to Jasper had been kept. With this new mystery about Peter that she vaguely dreaded, she would have been racked with anxiety if she had confided in him. And yet, how disloyal was this thought, this fear! Fear of Peter! Mistrust of Peter! A very little while ago she would have staked her soul that Peter was true, loyal, the soul of honour, an English gentleman, an English sportsman! A Blakeney! A Scarlet Pimpernel of today! What was there in the atmosphere of this unfortunate country groaning under a foreign, hated yoke to taint his simple soul with the foul breath of intrigue?