“We must say ‘goodbye’ to our host and tell him what a delightful party it has been.”
“I have not seen him for some time,” one of the men replied, “and it would be a mistake to keep the horses waiting too long at this hour of the night.”
“Oh, very well,” the lady agreed, “I will write to him tomorrow and explain how sorry we were not to say ‘goodnight’.”
They were still talking as they walked down the steps outside.
Lais moved to her room and rang for her lady’s maid and then went to the dressing table to look at her reflection in the mirror.
She thought that her lips were looking a little bruised from the Earl’s roughness.
Then she was aware that her eyes were shining like the diamonds in her tiara.
Even her worst enemy would have to admit that she looked very beautiful.
*
Lais stirred, aware that she had been awoken by her maid pulling back the curtains.
She had been dreaming and it was annoying to realise that it had been about the Earl of Elderfield.
She had gone to sleep telling herself that she hated him.
She could not, however, restrain a little flutter within her breast when she remembered how angry he had been and how violent his kisses.
‘There is no point in thinking about him,’ she told herself. ‘He is of no consequence in my life and when we leave here there is no reason why I should ever see him again.’
She knew, however, that when they went back to London he would not keep away from her. Nor could she refuse to see him.
‘He has gone too far!’ she tried to tell herself.
She was thinking that he had frightened her last week.
“The trouble with you,” he had said the first time he had proposed and she had refused him, “is that you are spoilt.”
Instead of being offended she had smiled at him.
“How can I help it?” she asked.
“That is the trouble,” the Earl answered. “Men pander to you because you are so beautiful, but what you really need is that somebody should give you a good beating and make you behave yourself!”
She laughed at him.
But now her lips were bruised from his kisses and she thought that if she drove him too far his threat might become a reality.
‘He is quite abominable!’ she murmured firmly.
Yet at the same time she knew that she was surprisingly aware of how strong and masculine he was.
How helpless she had been in his arms.
She had ordered her breakfast to be brought to her bedroom as she had no intention of going downstairs after a late night, as some of the older women did.
When her tray had been taken away, her maid brought her bath into the room.
Two housemaids appeared carrying in large brass cans of hot and cold water that the footmen had brought upstairs.
The bath was scented with Oil of Gardenia, which Lais always used.
Her maid rubbed her dry with a Turkish towel and Lais dressed slowly in one of her most becoming gowns.
As she did so, she told herself that things had gone far enough.
She was determined to see the Duke alone today, however difficult it might be to extract him from his guests.
‘He has made enough fuss of Mama to last a lifetime,’ she told herself crossly. ‘Now it is my turn.’
She had been determined not to leave The Castle without having accepted an invitation from the Duke to be his wife. But she had not been able to have a single word alone with him, except when they were on the dance floor.
He could hardly say “will you marry me, darling?” when there were people milling around them, all doubtless curious enough to try to overhear everything they said.
‘I will say outright that I want to talk to him alone,’ she planned.
Her maid was arranging her hair and, when she looked at her reflection, she could see that she was looking very lovely.
She put a simple string of pearls round her neck and it made her look young and not so sophisticated as she had the night before.
She reckoned that the Duke would be impressed.
‘I will tell him wistfully how very lonely I often feel,’ she decided, ‘and how sad it is as a widow to have to go back at night to an empty house.’
A thought then passed through her mind.
If she was married to the Duke, there might be many nights, since he was so much older than her, when they would sit alone at home.
Then she told herself sharply that if he had no wish to go dancing he was not likely to object if she went with a party.
She was so deep in her thoughts that it was with a start that she found that she was now dressed and ready.
Her maid was waiting for her to go downstairs and she walked from the room and along the landing.
She reached the Grand Staircase with its magnificently carved banisters.
She thought that she might be on the stage in a theatre, descending to the enthusiastic applause of a huge audience.
The only people in the hall, however, were two footmen on duty and the butler.
As Lais reached the bottom of the stairs, he came towards her.
She was about to ask him if he knew where the Duke could be found when he said,
“Good morning, my Lady. His Grace asked when your Ladyship came down the stairs if you’d be kind enough to join him in his study.”
Lais felt her heart give a little leap of excitement. He did want to see her! He wished to be alone with her, just as she wished to be alone with him.
The butler said nothing more, but led the way to the study.
He opened the door and, as Lais walked in, he closed it behind her.
The Duke was sitting at his desk and he rose to his feet as Lais appeared, smiled at her and said,
“Good morning, Lais! I hope you slept well after such a late night.”
“I did, thank you,” Lais replied, “and I enjoyed the party very much.”
The Duke then came from behind his desk and Lais seated herself on the sofa near the fireplace.
“I am glad you were able to come,” he said, “as this is the first and the last party I expect to give at The Castle.”
“The last?” Lais exclaimed.
“Yes, the last,” the Duke repeated. “I have never cared for The Castle and I came back here just as an experiment.”
“I don’t understand!” Lais exclaimed.
“It is quite simple. I have decided that I am going to retire and live permanently in a house I own in Devonshire.”
“In Devonshire?” Lais echoed.
She thought as she spoke that she must sound very stupid to keep repeating everything he said.
But she was so astonished that it was hard to believe what he was saying.
He sat down not on the sofa next to her, but on a chair opposite.
“I have not asked you here this morning to talk about myself,” he said, “but about Michael Elderfield.”
“Oh the Earl!” Lais said. “I don’t mind telling you that he was being very tiresome last night!”
“He talked to me after you had gone to bed,” the Duke said, “and told me how very much in love with you he is and how he wants to marry you.”
Lais sat upright.
“He has no right to say such things to you or even think them!” she retorted sharply. “I have told his Lordship I will not marry him, but he seems to be incapable of taking ‘no’ for an answer.”
“I think you are being rather foolish if you mean what you say,” the Duke declared.
“Foolish?” Lais questioned.
“I have the greatest admiration for Elderfield,” the Duke said. “He is very intelligent and a clever young man, in fact I am going to tell you something that is confidential, but I wish you to hear it.”
Despite herself Lais was at once curious.
Although she wanted to tell the Duke that she had no wish to continue to talk about the E
arl, she felt obliged to listen.
“I intend to give up my post at Buckingham Palace, which as you know is a very prestigious one,” the Duke began.
“Give it up?” Lais enquired. “Why on earth should you do that?”
“As I have just said, I wish to retire,” the Duke answered. “I am closing my house in London and, of course, you must not repeat this, I have suggested to Her Majesty that Elderfield should take my place.”
Lais gave a little gasp.
She had made it her business to find out exactly how important the Duke was and she was aware that it was unheard of for anyone to give up such a position lightly.
“But, surely – ?” she began.
“Her Majesty has been gracious enough to try to persuade me to stay on for a little longer,” the Duke interrupted, “but I am getting old and I want to enjoy myself by doing the things I like best.”
As Lais made no comment, he continued,
“I know that Elderfield with his enthusiasm and his intelligence will be exactly what is wanted, both at Windsor Castle and at Buckingham Palace. There is, however, one condition.”
“And what is that?” Lais asked faintly.
“Her Majesty will not, I know,” the Duke replied, “appoint anyone to take my position who is young as well as unmarried.”
There was a poignant pause before he added,
“As you are aware, Elderfield wants to marry you and I cannot imagine that he would find anybody lovelier to help him and make quite certain that his talents are fully appreciated even by the older men who will undoubtedly be a little jealous of him.”
He smiled before he added,
“Just as their wives and their daughters will no doubt be jealous of you!”
Watching Lais, the Duke was aware that she was intelligent enough to understand exactly what he was offering her.
After a moment he added,
“I am quite certain that if Elderfield with your help and your encouragement is a success over the next few years, Her Majesty will then be likely to offer him a Governorship somewhere in the Empire.”
He saw that Lais was listening intently as he went on,
“I was in fact offered a Governorship myself last year, but I refused. It was not what I wanted. But I know, Lais, that you would enjoy the pomp and circumstance that representing Her Majesty entails and being treated as if you were in fact Royalty!”
He gave a short laugh before he said,
“You would certainly look very beautiful when holding Court.”
Lais drew in her breath.
It seemed inconceivable to her that the Duke should be pleading the case of another man.
Yet she could understand perfectly clearly what he was suggesting.
“I am not trying to force you to make up your mind too quickly,” the Duke went on, “but, as you and I both know, there are bound to be a great many candidates eager for the position that I am vacating. If Elderfield does not stake his claim with the promise of being married, there will certainly be somebody else ready to get there first.”
“I realise that,” Lais said slowly. “But I had hoped that – ”
She hesitated.
The Duke realised that she was about to say, ‘you cared for me a little’.
He could read her thoughts, but, before the words came to her lips, he jumped to his feet.
“I do not want to seem inhospitable, Lais,” he said, “but I have a great deal of work to do before the rest of the party who have gone to Church return. So you must forgive me now if I go to talk to my secretary.”
He walked towards the door.
“Incidentally,” he said, “when I return to Devonshire to continue the work I am carrying out in the garden there, I have asked your mother to come and advise me about the Herb Garden. She is very much more knowledgeable about herbs than I am.”
“My – mother?” Lais questioned.
“I can imagine no one who would not only be so expert about it but also who would enjoy it more!”
“And – Mama has accepted to – go with you to – Devonshire?”
“I am very grateful that she has,” the Duke smiled, “and since it would doubtless cause a great deal of gossip if we were there together for any length of time, she has made me very happy by promising to become my wife!”
He saw the astonishment in Lais’s expression.
Then, before she could say anything, he opened the door and left the room.
For a moment Lais did not move. She could only stand gazing at the door.
She could not believe what she had just been told or that the Duke was not joking.
It had never crossed her mind that her mother would marry again, let alone to the man she had actually chosen for herself.
‘It is – not true – it cannot be true!’ she murmured to herself. ‘He must be – joking!’
Then she knew it was not the sort of joke that the Duke would make. Nor did she find it in the least funny.
For a moment she thought that she would scream from sheer fury.
‘How could Mama have taken the Duke away from me?’
Then she was honest enough to remember that he had never been hers in the first place.
‘But Mama – Mama – of all people will be the Duchess of Kernthorpe – the Chatelaine of The Castle and a dozen other houses besides,’ she told herself.
She would wear the Kernthorpe tiara at the Opening of Parliament.
Then Lais remembered her mother would not be in Westminster.
She would be in Devonshire talking to the Duke about his Herb Garden and doubtless thinking of nothing but flowers and more flowers.
Lais had always thought when she had been at home that her mother’s preoccupation with flowers was a bore.
And she could imagine nothing she herself would wish to do less than to be isolated in Devonshire.
As well as being away from London and all the parties that she shone so dazzlingly at.
Even being a Duchess would not compensate for having no one to admire her apart from the garden boys.
At the same time she thought of what the Duke had just said to her about the Earl.
She could repeat it in her mind, word for word.
Of course that was the life she wanted.
To be of importance amongst Courtiers, Statesmen and Politicians and to be respected by the Ambassadors who floated in and out of Windsor Castle day after day like an immense tidal wave.
She would also be present at all the Receptions and State Banquets that took place at Buckingham Palace and she could see herself moving sedately across the Throne Room.
When she curtseyed to the Prince of Wales she would do it far more gracefully than any of the other ladies present.
Later she would be the wife of a Governor and she knew exactly what that involved.
As the Duke had said, a Governor and his wife who represented the Queen in any colony were treated like Royalty and Lais knew that she would be curtsied to when she came into a room.
Michael and she would go into dinner first and again when people were presented they would curtsey and receive the Royal bow.
Suddenly she wondered if after what had happened last night the Earl had taken her decision as final.
Perhaps already he had left The Castle.
She opened the door and ran down the corridor to the hall. The butler was no longer there, but there were two footmen.
“Have you seen the Earl of Elderfield?” she asked.
She had the terrifying feeling she would learn that he had already left The Castle.
Instead one of the footmen pointed through the open door.
“His Lordship be just walkin’ down to the lake, my Lady.”
Lais followed the direction of his finger and she could see the back of a man with square shoulders walking over the smooth green lawn.
She hesitated for a moment and then said to the footman,
“Give me a sunshade.”
He prod
uced one from under the stairs and Lais walked out to the top of the steps.
She opened the sunshade and held it over her head as she moved slowly, but with a smile on her lips, in the direction of the Earl.
By now he had reached the lake.
She would not hurry, she decided, in what she had to say.
First he must apologise for being so rough last night.
At the same time she had it in her power to make him very happy.
That was what she was going to do.
*
The Duke’s eyes were twinkling as he saw from the window of his secretary’s office Lais walking after the Earl.
‘I ought to have been a Diplomat,’ he thought.
He had known it would be impossible for anyone as lovely as Lais to bury herself in the country and he had watched the expression on her face as he told her just what he had planned.
Now he knew that Elizabeth need no longer be afraid of her daughter’s anger.
At the same time he had every intention of doing what he had told Lais he proposed to do, to resign his duties at Court and retire.
He had already dictated a letter to the Prime Minister and he had put forward the Earl’s name as an excellent successor to himself.
He had also written a very humble one to Queen Victoria.
He had expressed his deep distress at having to give up the position that had given him the privilege of being in constant attendance upon her.
The letter continued,
“I hope I may have the honour and the great pleasure, Your Majesty, of coming to Windsor Castle occasionally. My wife-to-be is not strong and, on her doctor’s instructions, she needs to lead a quiet and restful life for quite some time.
I know that Your Majesty, with your warm heart and deep consideration for others, will understand my situation – ”
He continued with a great deal of flattery, which he knew the Queen always enjoyed, especially when it came from handsome men.
Equallyhe made it abundantly clear that it would be impossible for him to change his mind.
He then suggested with the utmost humility that Her Majesty might find an acceptable replacement in the Earl of Elderfield.
“He has,” the Duke continued, “just become engaged to marry my future stepdaughter, the beautiful Lady Barnham.”
He realised it was a letter that would surprise the Queen.
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