“And not before time!” Lais answered. “I saw a great deal of him in London, much more than I have seen here can tell you that!”
“Perhaps we had better go – tomorrow,” Mena suggested in a small voice.
Then she realised that if Lais agreed she would not be able to see Lindon again.
She felt her heart contract rapidly at the idea.
“Of course you cannot do that,” Lais said sharply. “People would think it strange. I felt sure that William would pay me some attention tonight, but he has not even asked me to dance!”
“I-I am sorry,” Mena said.
“Actually I have had a proposal,” Lais went on.
“You have?” Mena asked. “From somebody exciting?”
“I suppose most people would think he is,” Lais said. “He is the Earl of Elderfield and, as it happens, extremely good-looking.”
“How old is he?” Mena enquired.
Lais looked surprised.
“I do not see what that has to do with it, but I suppose he is about twenty-nine or thirty and very rich!”
There was silence before Mena said,
“You don’t – think, Lais – that you would be happier – with someone nearer your age? And if the Earl is rich, you could have – everything you ever wanted.”
“I can buy that now,” Lais said, ‘but as I have already told you, Mena, I want the Duke!”
She spoke with a finality in her voice and Mena knew of old that it meant she intended to get her own way.
Then, because she thought that it was the right thing to do, she made one more effort.
“Listen, Lais,” she said, “we are sisters and I have admired you ever since I was a little girl. You must have realised how happy Papa and Mama were and everything that happened to them, even being hard up, was magical because they were in love and so happy with each other all of the time.”
She paused hoping that Lais was listening and went on,
“Surely that is what everyone wants. A title, however grand, would not make up for being bored and perhaps even – disliking one’s husband.”
There was silence before Lais said,
“The trouble with you, Mena, is that your head is in the clouds and you have no practical common sense. A Duchess is a Duchess and I would have a position in Society that will make everybody envy me and treat me with the utmost respect.”
“But supposing you are – unhappy with the Duke?” Mena asked.
There was a pause before Lais laughed and it was not a very pretty sound.
“I shall have my strawberry leaves to console me,” she said, “and I daresay a lot of other men as well.”
Mena knew that she was defeated.
She was shocked to think that Lais should consider consoling herself by attracting other men once she was married to her Duke.
Lais then rose from the dressing table.
“I am going back to the ballroom,” she said, “and if Mama is still with the Duke I will take him away and send her up to bed. It is too late for old people to be up anyway!”
She went from the room as she spoke, looking exceedingly lovely and very spectacular in her flame-coloured gown.
As the last feather disappeared through the doorway behind her, Mena sat down again in the chair.
She felt in her heart as if her sister had brought something ugly into the evening.
Up to now everything had been beautiful and enchanted from the first moment that Lindon had lifted her onto the horse.
‘I love him – I love – him!’ she was saying to herself over and over again.
The ecstasy he had made her feel was back again in her heart.
The love she had felt in his tiny house enveloped her.
CHAPTER FIVE
The ballroom was beautifully decorated with copious flowers and Elizabeth Mansforde looked at them with delight.
She had enjoyed the dinner party enormously. Practically every man who was staying in The Castle had paid her a compliment.
The lines had gone from her face and she looked young and very attractive as the Duke came up to ask her to dance.
It was a soft romantic waltz and they moved slowly round the room.
Most of the guests were middle-aged, but there were, however, quite enough young married and unmarried women to gaze enviously at Lais, who was as usual surrounded by men.
Her flame-coloured gown and her flashing diamonds made her undoubtedly the belle of the ball. But there was in fact very little competition.
As the waltz finished the Duke suggested,
“I have something to show you.”
Elizabeth Mansforde looked up at him and asked,
“More treasures? I find everything here so unusual, in fact unique, that I have run out of words to express what I feel.”
“What I am going to show you now is something that I know you will appreciate,” he answered.
They walked from the ballroom along a passage that led them eventually to the Orangery.
It had been added to The Castle at a later date, but was no less impressive for that. The orange trees were just coming into blossom and at the end there was a charming extension that had been added by the Duke’s father.
He opened the door and Elizabeth gave a little cry of delight.
It was an Orchid Room and was very much hotter than the Orangery.
“I thought you showed me your orchids this morning!” she exclaimed.
“These are very special,” the Duke replied, “and I was told while I was dressing for dinner that one which has been here for a year and which I had almost despaired of ever seeing in flower has produced a blossom tonight, just in time for me to show it to you.”
“How exciting!” Elizabeth exclaimed.
The Orchid Room was actually quite small and she noticed that there was a comfortable seat with soft cushions on it on one of the walls so that anyone who wished to could sit there and admire the flowers.
The Duke took her first to where in the very centre of the other orchids was one plant isolated on its own.
She looked at it and gave a little cry of admiration because it was so beautiful.
“It is called Laellocattleya,” the Duke told her, “and it is very rare. In fact I doubt if any other collection in this country will have acquired one yet.”
Elizabeth realised at once that it was unique.
The blossoms were small, pale mauve in colour, and each one exquisite in itself.
“It is lovely – perfectly lovely!” she said. “Thank you for showing it to me, Your Grace.”
The Duke drew her to the seat and they sat down side by side looking at the orchids.
“I am thinking,” he said quietly, “how beautiful it would look in your hair.”
“But, of course, you cannot pick it!” Elizabeth said quickly. “It is far too valuable and you must just admire it as it is now and be very, very grateful for the privilege of seeing anything so perfect.”
“It is what I thought I must do when I met you,” the Duke said.
Elizabeth felt shy and kept her eyes on the orchid.
“What I am going to do,” he added, “is take you away from here to my house in Devonshire where I have been living.”
“In Devonshire?” Elizabeth murmured in surprise.
“The house there is not as old as The Castle, but very picturesque and, I believe, very comfortable. For quite some time now I have been planning out the gardens, which I hope will become one of the most spectacular sights in the whole of England!”
Elizabeth drew in her breath, but she did not speak and so the Duke went on,
“There is a great deal more to be done because I am creating not only an English garden but also a Japanese one, which will be unusual, and my collection of orchids there is also very extensive.”
“It sounds too wonderful!” Elizabeth cried.
“As well I am planning a Herb Garden,” the Duke continued, “and I desperately need your help.”
“Of course I would – like to help – you,” Elizabeth stammered, “but – I do not – see how.
The Duke took her hand in his.
“I am asking you,” he said quietly, “if you will marry me!”
He felt Elizabeth’s fingers tighten on his from the shock.
Then she turned her face to look at him, her eyes very wide and astonished.
“D-did you – ask me to – marry you?” she murmured.
“I fell in love with you the moment I saw you,” the Duke said. “I had intended to wait, but I felt tonight when the Laellocattleya orchid came into bloom that it was an omen that perhaps you liked me a little.”
“Of course I – like you!” Elizabeth replied, “and I have been so – happy ever since I – came to the Castle – but – ”
She looked away from him and he felt her hand tremble in his.
He waited and after a long pause she said,
“I-I came here because – Lais thought you – were going to ask her to be your – wife.”
The Duke smiled.
“A lot of young women have thought the same thing, but I am wise enough to know that while they want to be a Duchess they are not particularly interested in me as a man.”
“I cannot – believe that – is true,” Elizabeth said.
The Duke’s fingers tightened on hers.
“I think, my darling,” he said, “that you love me a little, even though you do not want to admit it.”
He felt the little quiver that went through her.
“I was – just so – happy to be – with you.”
“Then that is all that matters,” the Duke said. “I am not interested in the Social world and we can work on our garden together and make it so outstanding and so beautiful that it will, in its own way, be a contribution to the glory of England.”
He knew that what he said moved her and her eyes were shining as she looked up at him.
Then she looked away and said quickly,
“N-no – of course not – I could not – hurt Lais and she would be – very angry with me.”
“I have a solution to that problem,” the Duke said. “Elderfield was telling me tonight that he is wildly in love with Lais and he would indeed make a very suitable husband for her.”
“Do you mean – the Earl? I thought he was a very charming young man,” Elizabeth remarked.
“That is the right description of him,” the Duke said. “A young man and you know, Elizabeth, that I am old enough to be Lais’s father.”
“But – I am sure she – is in – love with you,” Elizabeth said miserably.
The Duke shook his head.
“She is dazzled by the idea of being the Duchess of Kernthorpe, of being persona grata at Court and, of course, being the envy of her contemporaries.”
Elizabeth knew that this was true and she found it impossible to deny what the Duke was saying.
At the same time she asked herself how she could possibly accept the man her daughter wanted.
“What I am going to suggest,” the Duke said, “is that you leave everything to me.”
Elizabeth was just about to answer him and then she gave a little cry.
“I was thinking of Lais, but I had forgotten something else that is terribly important and – means that however much – I love you I must – not marry you.”
“Why not!” the Duke asked.
“Because the Duke of Kernthorpe must have an heir!”
As she spoke, she thought that she was deliberately destroying her one chance of future happiness.
Even so she was sure that she was doing the right thing.
“I thought you might think that,” the Duke replied, “but I will tell you, Elizabeth, something I have never told anybody else. I mean the reason why I had no intention of ever marrying again.”
Elizabeth looked at him and he saw the worried expression in her eyes.
He put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him.
She did not resist and he knew, as he had known before he spoke of marriage, that she already loved him, even though she was not yet aware of it.
“My father married my mother when she was eighteen,” he began. “It was an arranged marriage, but they fell in love with each other and their honeymoon was a very happy one.”
He knew as he went on that Elizabeth was listening intently to every word he was saying.
“Shortly after they returned to live in The Castle my mother knew that she was having a child. She told me later that she was very excited by the idea. But, perhaps because she was so young, she felt very ill and found it frustrating not to be able to do all the things with my father that she wanted to do.”
He paused before he went on,
“When I was born she had a very difficult time and, although she was so young, it took her a long time to recover.”
“I was the same age when I had Lais,” Elizabeth admitted, “so I know exactly what your mother must have felt.”
“Two years later,” the Duke went on, “my mother started another child. It was several years later that I began to realise that my father was frantic to have several sons just in case there was any difficulty about the succession. In point of fact, he became obsessed by the idea.”
Elizabeth remembered how bitterly disappointed her husband had been when, after Philomena was born. she was told that she could bear no more children.
He would therefore never have a son to inherit the Elizabethan house that he was so proud of.
“My mother had nine more children before finally my younger brother was born,” the Duke was saying.
Now his voice sounded harsh.
“My mother grew weaker and suffered more with each child that was born. There were eight daughters, two of whom died at birth and three within a year of birth. The remaining three are married and, I think, moderately happy with their husbands.”
Elizabeth could tell from the way he was speaking how much it had hurt him when he was old enough to be aware of his mother’s suffering.
“It was only after my brother was born,” he said finally, “that my father accepted what he had been told previously by the doctors that my mother must have no more children. But the damage had been done. She was never very strong and was easily exhausted.”
“You must have loved her very much,” Elizabeth said softly.
“I adored her,” the Duke said. “And I would have done anything in my power to help her if it had been at all possible.”
“It does – not happen to every woman,” Elizabeth murmured.
“I was married when I was twenty-four,” the Duke said as if she had not spoken, “simply because my father was determined that I should provide an heir to the Dukedom. He chose my wife for me. Irene herself was the daughter of a Duke and therefore completely eligible as regards the Family Tree.”
There was silence before he went on,
“We saw very little of each other before the actual Wedding, so it was not until we were on our honeymoon that we discovered we had nothing in common.”
Elizabeth whispered sympathetically and instinctively moved a little closer to him.
The Duke’s arms tightened as he went on,
“By the time the honeymoon was over and we came here Irene was expecting a child, but being very disagreeable about it.”
He sighed as if he could remember all too vividly what had happened.
“She was determined that nothing should prevent her from doing what she wanted to do,” he said, “and that meant riding. She was an outstanding horsewoman, but, I always thought, hard on her horses.”
“You were – beginning to be – unhappy.”
“I was unhappy because she defied me and insisted on going hunting, even though I thought that in her condition it was a great mistake to take high jumps and to ride horses that even I found difficult to handle.”
Elizabeth looked up at him and he said,
“I expect you know the rest of the story. There was
a great to-do about it at the time. She took a jump that was far too high for any woman and killed herself and our unborn child!”
“No – I had not – heard that,” Elizabeth said. “I am so – so sorry. It must have – been a terrible blow – for you.”
“It was a blow indeed,” the Duke said, “and it made me determined that I would not marry again.”
“But they tried to persuade you?”
“They did,” the Duke agreed, “but I defied my father and, when that made him furious with me, I went abroad.”
“Did that make you feel any – happier?”
“I found it extremely interesting and it made me determined that never again would I be subservient to anybody or do anything that was against my own instincts.”
“So you never – married again,” Elizabeth said softly.
“I was determined not to and I also, you will understand, hated The Castle and preferred to live in any of my other houses rather than here.”
“So that is why I never met you,” Elizabeth remarked.
“If I had met you and found that you were already married,” the Duke said, “it would have broken my heart! But now, my lovely one, I am asking you to make up to me for all the years when I have had nobody to love as I love you.”
“Do you – really mean – that?” Elizabeth asked.
“You know I mean it,” he replied.
His arms tightened again and he bent his head and very gently kissed her lips.
He knew as he did so that he loved her as he had never loved anyone in his whole life. She was everything he wanted in his wife.
She was feminine, sweet and gentle, compassionate and sympathetic.
He thought if they could be together among the flowers in his garden it would be all he would ask of life.
He had left Devonshire thinking that he should pay his respects to Queen Victoria.
He made an effort to take his place among his peers and carry out his duties, but he found it all extremely boring.
It had amused him to find that because he was a ‘matrimonial catch’ he was pursued by all the ambitious mothers of debutantes.
They paraded their daughters in front of him as if they were yearlings in a Spring Sale.
He was also amused by the invitations in the eyes of the Society beauties who found him attractive. And they wished to add him to their list of lovers.
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