Now he saw that her whole face was dominated by her eyes, which were not the pale blue of a doll but the grey of a troubled sea and they gave her a more serious and certainly more striking look than he had expected.
She was dressed in a gown of spring green silk that threw into prominence the whiteness of her skin.
He noticed too that the ghastly experience that she had passed through and the resulting exhaustion had left shadowy lines under her eyes and she appeared somewhat fragile.
She stood for a moment just inside the doorway as the two men rose to their feet.
Then Nelda stammered,
“I-I was told to come down – here to – see you.”
“I hoped you were going to do so,” Waldo replied. “As you were asleep when we first saw you, we must introduce ourselves. I’m Waldo Altman Junior and this is my father’s house where you’re staying.”
“That is what – I was told,” Nelda said, “and it is very kind of you – to have me here.”
She spoke in a low and surprisingly musical voice and Lord Harleston thought with relief that at least, while she had been living in this country, she had not acquired an American accent.
“And this,” Waldo went on with a gesture of his hand, “is your relative, Lord Harleston.”
As Nelda turned her head to look at him, he saw her grey eyes widen in surprise.
Then she asked,
“Did you say – Lord Harleston?”
“Yes, that is my name,” he replied, “and, as I understand your father was Harold Harle, you are a relative of mine.”
There was a sudden light in her eyes as she exclaimed,
“Papa often talked – of your father. You must now be Head of the Family.”
Lord Harleston inclined his head to acknowledge this and Waldo suggested eagerly,
“Come and sit down and tell us about yourself. Have you had breakfast?”
“Yes, thank you,” Nelda replied. “It was brought to me in my room and I must also thank you – for the clothes I am wearing. I am afraid mine are – in rags.”
She sat down in the chair that Waldo held for her. Then he and Lord Harleston sat too, while Lord Harleston, crossing his legs and leaning back in the chair, scrutinised Nelda and tried to make up his mind what she was like.
“I’m afraid you’ve had a terrible time,” Waldo said sympathetically. “I don’t expect you want to talk about it?”
There was a little pause before Nelda replied with an obvious effort at self-control,
“It – it was horrible – ghastly – and if I had not climbed over the rocks in search of water – they would have k-killed me too.”
“You had a lucky escape. The Indians on the plains have been quiet lately and there’s been no trouble, so I am sure that your father did not anticipate that it would be dangerous to drive here unaccompanied.”
There was a little pause before Nelda responded,
“Somebody did suggest to Papa that he should wait – until there were some other people travelling to Denver – but he wanted to get Mama to a doctor urgently.”
“Your mother was ill?”
“Very ill,” Nelda answered, “and, although we could perhaps have travelled in a train for half the journey – the railway has not yet reached Leadville. But Mama seemed comfortable and – everything had gone so well that Papa thought it best to drive on and not – waste time.”
She spoke with a helpless little note in her voice that Lord Harleston did not miss.
Then, because he was curious, he asked her,
“What was wrong with your mother?”
“I am not quite certain,” Nelda replied. “She had grown weaker and weaker during the – winter and a doctor who was travelling through the town, but who I did not think was very skilled, said that the only thing he could suggest was to take her away from Leadville as soon as possible.”
“I cannot imagine that a mining town is at all a suitable place for anyone who is sick,” Lord Harleston observed.
“No, it was cold and dirty,” Nelda approved, “but Papa was making money there and we – needed it – badly.”
“I presume your father was making money at the card tables.”
Now there was no disguising the condemnation in Lord Harleston’s voice and he saw a flush come into Nelda’s cheeks.
As if he too felt embarrassed, Waldo asked,
“Surely I can offer you something? What about a cup of coffee?”
Nelda shook her head.
“No, thank you. I was very hungry and thirsty yesterday before the cowboys found me – but now I think it wise not to eat too much all at once.”
“I am sure that is very sensible,” Waldo agreed.
He was talking to Nelda in an admiring tone that told Lord Harleston that he thought her attractive.
It flashed through his mind that perhaps his disreputable cousin had found his daughter useful in luring rich men into playing cards with him.
He had not missed the blush that rose to her face and he thought it might be because she was ashamed of her life with her father.
He told himself that it was his business to find out exactly what she was like and what she had done in the past before he made plans for her future.
She was exceedingly pretty or rather ‘lovely’ was the right word. It was not really surprising when one remembered that no one ever spoke of her father without saying how handsome he was.
Also it went without saying that he would not have run away with Elizabeth Marlowe if she had not been particularly attractive.
Prejudiced though he was initially against Nelda, he could not help admitting that as well as being beautiful she looked ladylike and spoke good English in a cultured manner that he could find no fault with.
“We will have a talk when you are feeling stronger,” he proposed. “But if you think you are strong enough for the journey, Mr. Altman and I wish to drive to the Ranch where I am to meet his father and mother.”
There was silence before Nelda asked,
“Does that – mean we are to travel over the – Plains – again?”
“I am afraid it does,” Waldo replied, “but I promise you will be quite safe with us. My father has ordered a number of items to be taken out to the Ranch and, as you’ve had trouble with the Arapahos, we’ll take not only the wagons but several men on horseback with us.”
“I-I will – try not to be – frightened,” Nelda said in a brave little voice.
“I’ll look after you,” Waldo offered impulsively.
Then, as if he felt that he had been too familiar, he looked at Lord Harleston and said,
“And, of course, you and I will carry pistols.”
“I am glad you reminded me,” Lord Harleston replied. “I have one in my trunk, but I did not expect to need it in Denver.”
“The Arapaho and the Cheyenne, who are the Indians of the Plains,” Waldo explained, “have been quiet for a long time, but I expect they’ve heard of the trouble with the Utes on the other side of the Rockies and it’s very likely to upset them.”
“How can they know about it?” Lord Harleston asked. “I cannot believe that the tribes write to each other!”
Waldo laughed.
“Nothing as civilised as that. The Indians communicate either by drums or by smoke or else, as my mother always says, by thought.”
Lord Harleston looked sceptical and he added,
“If you live in this country long enough, you will find that news travels on the wind and the Indians, the Africans and the Chinese always know what’s going on long before the white man gets to hear of it!”
“That is true,” Nelda agreed, “and I cannot help thinking that if – we could have afforded to take our servant with us – he might have – warned Papa before the – Indians appeared.”
Now there was a tremor in her voice and something suspiciously like a sob.
Lord Harleston pushed back his chair.
“I think, if we are leaving soon,”
he suggested, “it would be a good idea if somebody bought you some of the things you will require.”
Nelda glanced at him for a moment in surprise.
Then she said shyly,
“I-I am – afraid I have – no money.”
“I am aware of that,” Lord Harleston answered, “and, as your Guardian, which is what I am at this moment, I am prepared to pay for anything you need. Here is some money to start with. Come to me if you need any more.”
He took some green dollar notes from his pocket and put them down on the table in front of her.
She looked at them and he had a strange feeling that she did not wish to touch them.
Then she picked them up, rose to her feet and said,
“Thank you – thank you very – much, my Lord. I cannot promise to – repay you, although it is what I would like to do.”
“There is no need for that. When we have more time, we will talk about your future, but for the moment just leave everything to me.”
“Thank – you,” Nelda murmured again and quickly went from the room.
Waldo lingered behind for a moment to say to Lord Harleston,
“As I told you last night, my Lord, you’re on a winning streak.”
He grinned as he spoke, but Lord Harleston did not smile back.
Instead, still in a bad mood, he went upstairs to find Portman and tell him of their plans to visit the Ranch.
There was no point in taking all his clothes, especially those he wore in New York, to a Ranch in the middle of the Prairies when with Nelda on his hands he would have to return to Denver before he could go anywhere else.
Anyway he had no intention of staying very long.
‘Once she is on her way to England,’ he thought, ‘I can then decide what other parts of America I would like to visit.’
He had immediately decided that he had no intention of travelling with a young girl, knowing that because she was pretty it might cause uncomfortable gossip. In any case he had no inclination of being cluttered with a woman, any woman, at this particular moment in his life.
He thought that perhaps Mrs. Altman would be able to advise him how to find a suitable chaperone. And then he decided that the most suitable person would be Mrs. Vanderbilt herself.
But he was reluctant to use her services knowing that, once he was back in New York, she would try to lionise him as she had done before he left for Denver.
‘Damn the girl, she is a nuisance already!’ he mused.
Because he was so eager to be rid of Nelda, he instructed Portman to take only the minimum amount of his luggage to the Ranch, thinking that two nights there would be quite sufficient.
Then he would return to New York, put Nelda on a ship to England and start off on his travels a free man.
Having given Portman his orders, he changed again into his breeches and riding boots, which he thought looked more suitable for a Ranch, and then hurried down the stairs in search of Waldo.
Instead he found Nelda waiting for him in one of the large over-furnished sitting rooms that appeared to be a cross between a Museum and Jennie Rogers’s parlour.
Nelda was now wearing a light cape over her green gown and a pretty bonnet trimmed with ribbons of the same colour that tied under her chin.
She rose from the chair where she had been sitting as Lord Harleston entered the room and he saw that she had a book in her hand.
“Are you a reader?” he asked as he glanced at it.
“There are so many books here,” she said in a rapt voice. “I wish I could stay longer – so that I could read them all.”
“You sound as if books are a treat for you,” Lord Harleston remarked.
“Mama and I used to scour for books wherever we were staying,” Nelda answered simply, “but as you can imagine – they are hard to find in mining towns and places like that.”
Lord Harleston felt inclined to say, ‘places where you should not have gone’, but he thought that it would be unnecessarily rude and so he merely nodded his head.
“Of course we always travelled with a – great number of books of our own,” Nelda went on, “all our favourites which we read over and over again. But when I see shelves and shelves of books like these here, I feel like a starving man – who suddenly sees an enormous meal in front of him.”
She gave a little smile as she spoke and Lord Harleston noticed that she had two dimples, one on each side of her mouth.
He had the idea, although he was too polite to say so, that the Altmans had bought the books that furnished the walls in this particular room more because they were decorative than because they had any literary value.
He glanced at the book that Nelda held in her hand and asked,
“What are you reading?”
“It is Le Prince by Balzac,” she replied.
To Lord Harleston’s surprise he saw that it was in French.
“Can you read French?” he asked her.
“Yes, of course. Mama was very insistent that I should speak languages fluently and strangely enough I have found it very useful in some of the places we have stayed.”
She saw that Lord Harleston looked puzzled and she explained,
“In a gold rush men of every nation catch the fever, but some of them find it almost impossible to make the Americans understand what they need.”
Lord Harleston stiffened.
“Are you telling me that your father actually allowed you to go to the Casinos and Clubs where he played cards? It’s unbelievable!”
As he spoke, he thought that it was only what he had expected. But he was appalled at learning the truth, knowing how her respectable relatives in England would be shocked to the core at the very idea.
To his surprise Nelda drew herself up so that she seemed even taller than she actually was and her grey eyes looked at him with what he thought was a spark of anger in them.
She did not speak for a moment and then she said,
“Papa always told me that his relatives disapproved of him and – I fear, my Lord, you are thinking about my father in a way that is most unkind and would distress Mama very much if – she was – here.”
This was a reaction that Lord Harleston had not expected and, because he felt that her loyalty in defence of her father was somehow rather touching, he said quickly,
“Forgive me. It is not something that we need discuss at the moment, especially when you have been through such a terrible experience in the last few days.”
He thought from the expression on Nelda’s face that she did not accept his apology and he was about to say something further when at that moment Waldo came into the room to exclaim,
“Everything is arranged, so we can go, if you are ready.”
“We are ready,” Lord Harleston confirmed.
But Waldo was looking at Nelda.
“You are quite certain it’ll not be too much for you?” he asked her. “If it is, we can quite easily wait another day.”
“No, no. I have no wish to be a – nuisance when you have been so kind to me already.”
She spoke to Waldo, Lord Harleston noticed, in a very different voice from the one she had used to him and he reflected that he had been somewhat tactless in letting her know so soon how much he disapproved of her father.
“Come on then,” Waldo urged them, “everything is out in the yard behind the house.”
He led the way and Lord Harleston saw that in the large yard there were congregated three huge covered wagons that were obviously loaded with goods.
They were drawn by four horses each and there was also a comfortable closed carriage on top of which was a pile of luggage.
It was obvious that Waldo was not thinking only of Lord Harleston.
“I thought you would find it rather confined to travel in a closed carriage, so I ordered it for Nelda in case she was tired and wished to sleep. But I thought that to start with she can drive with you and see some of the country.”
This was certainly what Lord Harleston want
ed and he saw with pleasure that there was a very smart trap with four spirited-looking horses between the shafts.
“These are the best we can offer you,” Waldo said, watching his face as he inspected them, “and you will find that they will carry you at a good pace.”
Lord Harleston looked at the trap and noted that it had only two comfortable cushioned seats in front and, as if Waldo could read his thoughts, he explained,
“I am going to ride, but I’ll change places with you if you become tired of driving.”
“Thank you,” Lord Harleston smiled. “You think of everything.”
“I try to,” Waldo replied. “Now, if you’re ready, we can start.”
He gave the order to one of the men riding a horse who shouted for the wagons to start rolling.
Then Waldo helped Nelda up into the front seat of the trap and Lord Harleston took the reins and followed.
He enjoyed driving the four-in-hand and found that, as the trap was very light and the horses fresh, they proceeded at an excellent speed and on Waldo’s instructions quickly moved ahead of the wagons so as to be aay of their dust.
By the time they were out of the City and in open country, Waldo with two other riders as escort and Lord Harleston and Nelda in the trap, were well ahead of the rest of the cavalcade.
The Plains were just as Lord Harleston had expected them to be with grass stretching away into a misty horizon and with clumps of trees and low shrubs scattered to break up the landscape.
As the day was bright and sunny, they now had a splendid view of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains on the other side of the City.
But Lord Harleston was concentrating on his driving, thinking that this was the most interesting thing he had done since he had left England.
Since Nelda did not speak, he wondered if she was still angry with him for criticising her father and then decided that she was.
He glanced at her as she sat beside him and could not help realising that her profile with its straight little nose, perfectly curved lips and small pointed chin silhouetted against the vivid blue of the sky was extraordinarily beautiful.
He told himself sourly that beautiful women were always a nuisance and caused trouble wherever they went.
At the same time it was traditional in the Harle family that there should be beautiful womenfolk, as well as handsome men, and Nelda would certainly not let their name down in that particular.
Lucky in Love Page 7
