Odela knew that her stepmother did not want her home, but she merely replied,
“Well, I have finished with that now, and I hope you will be pleased, Papa, at how much I have learnt.”
“You are back home,” he sighed, “and that is all that really matters.”
He sat down on the red leather sofa and, when Odela sat beside him, he put his arm around her.
“I have so much to tell you,” he said.
“What about?” Odela enquired.
She thought with surprise that he was feeling for words, but then he began,
“Do you remember your grandmother?”
“Do you mean Mama’s mother?”
“Yes.”
“Of course I remember her,” Odela replied. “But she died when I was ten.”
“Yes, I know,” her father answered, “and she was particularly fond of you because you resembled your mother so closely.”
“I remember her saying that,” Odela said, “and she had that miniature of me painted which used to hang in Mama’s boudoir.”
As she spoke, she wondered what had happened to the miniature now.
Then her father said, as if she had asked him the question,
“I have it in the drawer of my desk and, when you compare it with that of your mother at about the same age, it is very difficult to tell you apart.”
“It is wonderful to think that I am like Mama,” Odela said with a little sigh.
She wanted to add that she was very thankful not to look like her stepmother.
Her mother had been very fair, but the new Countess had red lights in her brown hair, which Odela suspected were not entirely natural.
At the same time she was very pretty. But there was something superficial about her that there had never been in her mother’s beauty.
“I always thought,” her father said unexpectedly, “that your mother was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. But it was not only her beauty that made me love her.”
Odela was listening intently as he went on,
“She had a spiritual quality about her that you, my darling, have as well. It is something that you cannot learn out of a book or be taught by somebody else, however wise.”
He smiled at her as he carried on,
“It is something that comes from within you.”
Odela put her head against his shoulder,
“Oh, Papa, I would rather you told me that than gave me the most marvellous wonderful present in the whole world!”
“I am speaking the truth,” the Earl replied, “and it is something you will need in the future. You must promise me, Odela, that whatever you do and wherever you go, you will follow your instinct.”
He spoke so seriously that Odela added,
“That is what I already try to do because Mama told me to use my instinct about people as she used hers.”
“Your mother was right and it is advice you must never forget,” her father declared.
“I will never forget anything that Mama said to me,” Odela promised.
Then, as there was silence, she asked,
“Have you any reason for saying this to me, Papa?”
Her father smiled.
“Now you are using your instinct and the answer is a definite ‘yes’!”
“What is it, Papa?” Odela enquired.
Somehow she suddenly felt frightened.
She realised that this must be the reason why she had felt nervous ever since she had arrived.
Her father now seemed to be feeling for words again.
Finally he said,
“Because your grandmother adored your mother, when she died she left her everything she possessed.”
Odela was listening and the Earl continued,
“It was not very much at the time, just a few hundreds of pounds a year. Your mother when she died left everything to you. Now you are unexpectedly a very wealthy young woman!”
“I – I don’t understand,” Odela stammered. “I always imagined that Mama’s family – was rather poor.”
“That was true,” the Earl said, “but before she died your grandmother was given some shares by her Godfather, who was an American.”
“An American!” Odela exclaimed.
“I never remembered my brother-in-law or your mother speaking of him,” her father went on, “but he came from Texas.”
He paused a moment and then continued,
“Unfortunately, as we are rather insular, we were not particularly interested in anyone from across the Atlantic.”
“But he left Grandmama – some money?” Odela said as if she was trying to understand the implications. “Why did Mama not – enjoy it?”
“That is what I have to explain to you,” the Earl smiled.
But once again he seemed to be feeling for words before he went on,
“The shares that your mother received have in the last year increased enormously. They are in oil and oil in Texas means that those who possess shares are rapidly becoming millionaires!”
Odela stared at him.
“And you are saying, Papa, that this money is – now mine?”
“That is what I am telling you, my dearest, and it is, as you must realise, a very big responsibility.”
“Oh, I wish that Mama had known!” Odela cried. “You know how much she longed to build schools in the villages on the estate and also a hospital.”
“That is true,” the Earl nodded, “but it was impossible to find sufficient funds for me to do so.”
“Is this something I can do now?” Odela enquired.
“If you wish to, my dearest, but equally you must remember that you will not live for the rest of your life at The Hall.”
Odela stared at him and he continued,
“You will, of course, be married and, while it will break my heart to lose you again, I want you to be as happy as I was with your mother.”
Odela noticed that he did not say, ‘as I am with Esme’.
“I pray, Papa,” she answered, “that I will find a man I will love and who will love me as you loved Mama, but it is going to be difficult to find someone as marvellous as you.”
“Now you are flattering me,” her father laughed. “Of course you will find somebody, but at the same time you are going to find it difficult to avoid the fortune-hunters!”
“I have read about the fortune-hunters in books – and the girls at school used to laugh about the Italian aristocrats who were always on the lookout for a rich wife!”
“I am afraid there are a number of them in this country who do the same thing,” the Earl said. “Therefore, my precious daughter, I have to do everything in my power to protect you from men who will find your money irresistible.”
Odela sighed.
“I understand, Papa, exactly what you are saying to me and, of course, I shall be very careful.”
She waited a moment and then went on,
“But I think if I use my instinct as Mama did I shall find a man like you and know at once that he loves me for myself.”
“It’s not easy,” the Earl said. “I have seen all too often in my life young women being pursued the moment they appear as a debutante simply because it is known that a fortune goes with them.”
“Then, as soon as I receive a proposal, if I do receive one,” Odela suggested, “you shall use your instinct, Papa, and tell me if he is right or wrong.”
The Earl gave a little laugh.
“It is not as easy as that. Some men have what your mother used to call ‘honeyed tongues’ and girls, however intelligent they are, can be swept off their feet. Quite frankly, my beautiful daughter, I am very worried.”
“Oh, Papa, I don’t want you to be worried about me!” Odela replied. “Let’s go to the country and concentrate on the horses. Forget the young men who prefer glittering gold to a gallop on the flat land!”
The Earl laughed.
“I would love to do that,” he said, “but you know as well as I do that I have
my duties in the House of Lords and, of course, your stepmother has set her heart on introducing you to the Social world.”
Odela’s lips tightened for a moment.
Now she could understood why her stepmother had been making so much fuss of her since she had come home from Florence. There was nothing she would enjoy more than the huge ball they could now afford to give.
Then there were the expensive gowns and the endless parties.
She would be invited to these not as a debutante but as a girl with a golden halo.
Impulsively she now said,
“I suppose, Papa, that there is no chance of my being able to – refuse this money?”
“Refuse it?” the Earl questioned her.
“I don’t want it. You loved Mama not because of what she had or did not have but for herself. There must be a man somewhere – who will love me in the same way.”
“There will be a great number of men who will love you for yourself,” her father replied. “At the same time there will be a larger number who will be attracted to you because, as you well know, the moment you become their wife they have the handling of your fortune and to all intents and purposes it is theirs.”
“I think that is very unfair!” Odela protested.
Her father looked at her in a startled fashion.
“Don’t tell me that you are becoming one of these new women who want to have everything in their own hands and no longer wish to rely on their husbands!”
“I think the answer to that is, it depends on the husband,” Odela replied,
Her father threw up his hands in horror.
“Now you are really frightening me. And I am told that Her Majesty the Queen is horrified at the sentiments expressed by a number of women who resent obeying their husbands or being dependent on them.”
“Even in Florence I have heard about them,” Odela told him, “and I promise you, Papa, I will not join them nor, if it upsets you, express any desire to be independent.”
“Thank Goodness for that!” the Earl said fervently. “But you have to be very careful indeed.”
“Of course I will be,” Odela replied, “but promise me, Papa, you will not try to marry me off too quickly. I want to be with you! I want to be with you!”
She smiled at him as she went on,
“And I want to ride with you. And if it is a question of protection, why should I want anybody else but you?”
The Earl laughed.
“If you made that sort of speech in the House of Lords, I am sure that their Lordships would appreciate it.”
“Nonsense,” Odela parried, “they would be horrified, unless I was disguised as a man!”
The Earl laughed again.
Then he said,
“Now what I have planned, my dearest, is that tomorrow, before you become too bogged down with parties and even more parties, you and I will go to see the Solicitors who are handling your grandmother’s fortune.”
He stopped for a moment and then went on,
“I would expect that they will want you to sign a great number of documents and also I think it right that you should know how much you possess, at the moment.”
He paused before the last three words, which made Odela ask,
“Are you saying, Papa, that it is growing.”
“Almost every day,” her father replied. “In fact to me the whole scenario is nothing less than incredible!”
“It will be interesting to hear about it and then perhaps, Papa, we could build the schools on the estate that Mama wanted as well as a hospital.”
“We will certainly consider both,” the Earl agreed. “But I would not like your future husband, when you have one, to think that I have extracted money from my daughter that should in fact be his.”
“If he thinks like that,” Odela said, “then he will not be my future husband. I promise you, Papa. I am going to very very particular – and bear in mind exactly what you have just said to me.”
She thought as she spoke that it would be very wrong if her grandmother’s fortune, which had come to her mother, should be dissipated on gambling or racing or any of the things in which she knew that a number of Society men had lost their fortunes.
Her father had gone over to his writing desk.
From a drawer he produced the two miniatures that they had talked about previously.
He put them down on the leather blotter, which bore his crest.
Odela thought that both the miniatures were beautifully painted. Her mother’s had faded a little with the years, but it still showed her as a beautiful child.
And without being conceited Odela could say the same about her own.
Then her father took out another miniature that had been painted of her mother soon after he had married her.
It was easier to see the striking resemblance between mother and daughter and Odela said,
“I love that miniature and I would love to be able to admire it every day.”
“Then that is what you must do,” her father said, “so take it, my dearest, and have it with you wherever you go.”
Odela gave a little cry.
“Do you mean that, Papa, do you really mean it?”
“I want you to feel that your mother is always with you, guiding you and helping you to use your instinct.”
“I shall look at this miniature a dozen times a day and pray every night that she will help me,” Odela said.
Her father kissed her.
“When you talk like that, my dearest, I am quite certain that your mother is near to us both,” he commented simply.
The way he spoke made the tears come into Odela’s eyes.
She picked up the miniature of her mother and held it to her breast.
“Thank you – thank you, Papa!” she said, “you could not give me anything that I am more thrilled to have or that means more to me.”
She kissed him again and her father suggested,
“I suppose we should now go and join your stepmother and her friends.”
Odela shook her head.
“I have been travelling for a very long time, Papa, and I am very tired. I am sure that Stepmama will forgive me if I go to bed.”
“Of course she will,” the Earl agreed, “and I will make your apologies.”
He then put the two miniatures of his wife and daughter back into the drawer of his writing desk.
Carrying the other miniature in her hand Odela walked beside him down the passage and up the stairs towards the drawing room.
Everywhere she looked there had been changes.
She felt, because so much of what had been so familiar to her had been stripped away, that she was a stranger in. her own home.
She knew, however, that to say so would upset her father.
She slipped her hand into his.
“I love you, Papa,” she said, “and please let me spend as much time as possible with you. It is rather frightening meeting – so many strangers.”
Her father’s fingers tightened on hers.
“I do understand, my dearest, and I promise I will even neglect my duties at the House of Lords for you.”
“Then – could we ride early in the morning in Hyde Park?” Odela asked him in a low voice.
Her father gave a short laugh.
“I would like that more than anything. But remember you will be late every night dancing until dawn, so I think you must ask me that question in two or three weeks’ time.”
“I shall certainly ask it,” Odela assured him.
“Then if you do, I will agree,” her father promised.
By this time they had reached the door into the drawing room and Odela could hear her stepmother’s voice.
She kissed her father.
“Goodnight, my darling daughter,” he said. “Sleep very well and we will go out together after luncheon tomorrow.”
“I shall be looking forward to it and please make my excuses to Stepmama.”
Her father opened the door and Odela
had a quick glimpse of her stepmother seated on the sofa before she turned away.
She was glittering with diamonds and looking exceedingly pretty.
She was talking to a man who was seated beside her and Odela wondered vaguely what had happened to the third member of her stepmother’s party.
Then because she wanted to escape and be alone she ran to her bedroom.
It was situated at the end of the first floor and was not the room that she had occupied in the past.
That was up another flight of stairs and she wished that she was there, but thought that it would be a mistake to ask for anything special on her first night back.
When she went into the room, she realised that it was a guest room that had been completely refurbished by her stepmother and she wondered if there was any significance in the choice.
Perhaps her stepmother was already planning to be rid of her almost as soon as she arrived,
Then she told herself that she was being unnecessarily suspicious.
The Countess had welcomed her, but she was undoubtedly aware that she had inherited a vast fortune.
‘If she enjoys helping me to spend it, she will not wish me to be married too quickly,’ Odela reasoned to herself.
It suddenly seemed a logical idea.
Yet something within her told her that what she was thinking was wrong.
“But how can it be?” Odela asked out loud.
There was no answer to her question from anywhere.
Chapter Two
“I am sorry that you went to bed early last night,” the Countess was saying.
There was just three of them to luncheon as the Earl and Odela were leaving immediately afterwards.
“I did not wish to seem rude,” Odela replied, “but I was very tired after such a long train journey.”
“Of course I understood,” the Countess said in a cooing voice. “At the same time I would like you to have met the Viscount More who was with me.”
She turned to look at her husband as she went on,
“You know that he is the son of your friend the Earl of Morland, Arthur, and I believe almost as intelligent as his father.”
“I have never thought that Morland was intelligent,” the Earl replied, “and his speeches in the Lords are lamentable!”
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