The Countess smiled.
“I think, dearest, you are comparing him with yourself and no one can make such brilliant and witty speeches as you manage to do, even on the dullest subjects.”
“Now you are flattering me,” the Earl started to protest. “But I have to admit that we do have quite a number of extremely prosaic subjects on which it is difficult to be anything but dull!”
Odela laughed.
“I am sure you are being modest, Papa, and all the members of the House of Lords must wish that they could speak like you do.”
“Well, John More is a very intelligent young man,” the Countess insisted, “and I am sure that he dances well, so I must ask him to some of the dinner parties we give before a ball.”
“Oh, please,” Odela said, “don’t plan too many too quickly. I am sure that it will be some time before my new gowns are ready.”
As she spoke, she had the feeling that she was being rushed and pushed into doing something that would turn out to be overwhelming.
It was almost like swimming in a rough sea in which she could not breathe.
“Now don’t be nervous, dearest child,” her stepmother said, “you know that I will look after you, you will be a huge success and your father will be very proud of you.”
Once again Odela had a strong feeling that everything her stepmother said had a special meaning behind it that was not apparent.
‘I must be imagining things,’ she told herself, as she went upstairs to put on her hat and coat.
But she was becoming more and more sure that there was something in the atmosphere that was definitely menacing.
As she ran down the stairs, she had the feeling that she and her father were escaping.
She could almost see a growing darkness creeping towards them.
‘I am being foolish,’ Odela chided herself yet again.
But, as her father settled down in the carriage beside her, she slipped her hand into his.
“This is like old times, Papa, to be driving with you,” she enthused, “but I wish that we were in the woods in an open chaise.”
“We will do it again,” the Earl promised. “It’s just that this is a bad time of the year for me with Queen Victoria demanding more of my presence than usual and a great number of important bills coming up to the House of Lords from the House of Commons.”
“I understand,” Odela said, “and this afternoon you are playing truant, so let’s enjoy it!”
Her fingers tightened on his as she then asked,
“Tell me about Dragonfly. Have you been riding him since I have been away? Is he jumping as well as he did?”
Her father answered all her questions in detail.
He was an exceptionally good rider and all the horses in his stables were of the finest bloodstock.
By the time they reached the Solicitors Odela was more determined than ever that she would ride with him before breakfast.
After that, she knew, his work for the day began.
At the Solicitors they were greeted respectfully with much bowing and scraping.
She and her father were shown into the rather grand office of the Senior Partner of the Firm and Odela could not help thinking that he was more obsequious to her than he was to her father.
She wondered whether it was because she was so rich.
‘That is the sort of thought I should not have!’ she told herself severely.
Nevertheless two hours later she realised that she had not been mistaken.
As they drove back to Grosvenor Square, it was difficult for Odela to know what to say.
Never had she imagined in her wildest dreams that she would possess so much money and there was a strong probability of there being a great deal more.
Mr. Hallett, the Senior Partner, had explained to her quite simply about the shares.
When they had been left to her grandmother by her American Godfather, they had been practically worthless.
The Company in which the money had been invested was drilling for oil and the process was proving to be very expensive. And none had been found on their concessions for over a year.
“There was therefore,” Mr. Hallett declared, “a possibility that they would go into liquidation and shut down and the documents that your grandmother received from America were just left in the Bank and, I think, forgotten.”
Because it sounded such an exciting story, Odela asked him eagerly,
“Then what happened?”
“Nothing until your grandmother died,” Mr. Hallett responded, “then the shares were counted among her assets before they were passed on to your mother.”
“Mama never mentioned them to me,” Odela stated.
She looked at her father as she spoke and he smiled as he said,
“Quite frankly I believed that they were worthless and suspected that the Company had in fact gone into liquidation.”
“Then after your mother’s death,” Mr. Hallett went on, “in assessing her assets the shares were remembered and we made enquiries.”
He looked at the Earl as he added,
“In fact, my Lord, on your instructions, you may well recall, we wrote to America to find out what the situation was.”
“I admit,” the Earl said, “that I thought that it was really a waste of time and postage!”
Mr. Hallett smiled.
“Then when we received a reply after some delay, it was a shock to us and a considerable one to your Lordship.”
“I was astounded,” the Earl agreed.
He looked at Odela as he said,
“You had already left for Florence, my dear, and there was no reason to tell you what we had discovered while you were so far away.”
“I don’t think I would have believed you,” Odela replied. “It all sounds too fantastic to be true!”
“That is what my Partner and I thought,” Mr. Hallett said, “and, as your Lordship now realises, in the last year the shares have doubled in price and there is every likelihood of them doing so again and yet again.”
He looked down at some papers in front of him and suggested,
“I think, my Lady, you should see exactly what your holding in this company is worth at this particular moment.”
He passed the papers across the desk to Odela, who just stared at the figures thinking that they made no sense.
Now in the carriage she said to her father in a voice that was rather frightened,
“What can we do with so much money, Papa?”
“The first thing,” the Earl replied, “is to keep quiet about it. The fewer people who know how rich you are the better.”
“That is what I would want, but people will always gossip.”
She was thinking of her stepmother.
The Countess would want to tell her special friends and they would tell their friends and there would be no chance then of anybody not being aware that she was a considerable heiress.
Impulsively she turned to her father.
“Please, Papa, make Stepmama promise that she will tell no one about all this money and how rich I am.”
“I have already told Esme that it must be kept a secret,” the Earl replied.
He did not, however, speak very positively and Odela had the feeling that he was well aware that his wife would talk.
She would also wish to have the pleasure of producing a girl who her friends would pay special attention to.
They drove on and, after what seemed a long silence, Odela said,
“It’s a great responsibility, Papa, and you will have to help me.”
“You know I will,” her father answered, “and don’t let it worry you, my dearest. You have only just come home.”
He paused a moment and then went on,
“When you are more settled, we will talk about spending it in some of the ways that would have pleased your mother.”
“If I can do that, I will not be so frightened of it,” Odela murmured.
“You are a very sensible child
,” the Earl said approvingly.
They were nearing Grosvenor Square and he looked at his watch.
“I am already late for the House of Lords,” he said. “Now what I would like you to do, my dearest, is to take these papers up to my bedroom and put them in the top drawer of my dressing table.”
Odela knew that it was the chest of drawers on the top of which he placed his ivory hairbrushes and above it hung a very fine George III mirror.
“I would like you to do that,” the Earl went on, “because I don’t want anybody in the house, including my secretary, to see them. When I return I will put them all in my safe.”
He had a private safe in his bedroom where he kept his money and the family jewels.
“I will do that, Papa,” Odela agreed, “but please don’t let anyone see them.”
She was thinking of her stepmother as she spoke and, as if he understood, the Earl said,
“I promise you that they shall be kept from all prying eyes.”
As he spoke, the horses drew up outside Shalford House and Odela kissed him.
“Thank you, Papa,” she sighed, “and please come back early if you can.”
“I will do my best,” the Earl promised, “but unfortunately some of my fellow Peers are very long winded!”
Odela laughed and, as the footman opened the carriage door, she stepped out.
She stood on the pavement and waved until her father had driven away.
Then carrying the papers in her hand she walked into the house.
She was afraid that she might encounter her stepmother who would insist on seeing what she was carrying.
She therefore ran quickly up the stairs and along the passage to her father’s bedroom.
It was large and impressive and like most of the best bedrooms it overlooked the gardens in the square.
There was no valet on duty there at this time of the day and Odela carefully closed the door behind her before she crossed the room to her father’s dressing table.
She pulled open the drawer.
It contained quite a number of other papers, some loose sovereigns and a few pieces of silver. There were a number of jewel boxes as well and she knew that they contained his cufflinks, his evening waistcoat buttons and the pearl studs he wore in his dress shirt.
She put the papers at the back of the drawer just in case his valet should disturb them.
Then she closed it and walked to the fireplace to look up at the portrait that hung over it.
It was a very beautiful portrait of her mother, which had been painted the year that she was married.
Odela thought it looked very much as she did now.
The Countess had been eighteen when she married and nineteen when Odela was born.
She had fair hair and a pink-and-white skin and her large eyes were the soft grey of a pigeon’s breast and were exceedingly beautiful.
She also looked ethereal and, as her father had said, Odela could feel her spirituality.
“If only you were here, Mama,” she said aloud, looking up at the portrait. “It would be such fun doing things with you. Now you could build your hospital, open your schools and help so many people as you always wanted to do.”
As Odela finished speaking, she felt that her mother was telling her that was what she must do.
“I will – try, Mama – I will really try,” Odela promised, “but – you will have to – help me.”
She felt the tears come into her eyes again and almost impatiently she turned away from the picture.
She had cried for so long and so bitterly when her mother had died and it was Nanny who had said to her firmly,
“Now, dearie, you stop upsettin’ your mother as you’re doin’ right now.”
Odela had stared at her as Nanny went on,
“Of course you’re upsettin’ her! And what do you expect when you cry like that and don’t eat. You’re makin’ everybody else miserable as well!”
“Do you – really think – Mama can – see me?” Odela asked.
“Of course she can see you,” Nanny replied, “and if you asks me, she’s ashamed of you when you should be helpin’ your poor father!”
Nanny had spoken in a scolding voice, but Odela felt that she had brought a light into the darkness that surrounded her.
She had stopped crying.
When her father came home, looking far older than he actually was, she had done everything she could to interest and amuse him.
In some respects she had succeeded.
It gave her a warm feeling in her heart to think that her mother was pleased with her.
She was sure that Nanny was right in saying that her mother could see and hear the people she most loved – her husband and her daughter.
‘I will – not cry,’ Odela vowed to herself, ‘but I miss Mama more than I ever have done before.’
She was just about to leave the room when to her surprise she heard voices and for a moment she could not imagine where they came from.
Then she was aware that the sound came from the communicating door that led into what had been her mother’s boudoir.
The main bedrooms in the house all had communicating doors into an adjacent dressing room. These were used by a husband if his wife was sleeping in the bedroom.
But in the Master suite her father’s room was at the end of the passage.
Next to it was the boudoir and beyond that there was her mother’s bedroom also with a connecting door.
Odela remembered now that her stepmother had changed the boudoir into a sitting room.
The connecting door must have been left ajar and Odela thought that she ought to close it as it might be a mistake for her father’s valet to overhear what was being said,
She went to the door and was just about to push it when she heard her stepmother saying,
“She is already a millionairess and the money is increasing day by day, if not hour by hour!”
Odela drew in her breath.
As she had earlier suspected, her stepmother was already talking about her fortune.
Then a man’s voice replied,
“I am not interested, Esme, in your stepdaughter, as you well know, but in you!”
“That is very sweet of you to say so,” the Countess answered, “and, of course, it is what I want you to feel. At the same time, Johnny darling, you must realise that this is an opportunity you cannot miss!”
Odela stood as if transfixed.
She knew now who her stepmother was talking to.
It was the Viscount More she had spoken about at luncheontime.
“Why, oh, why,” the Viscount now exclaimed, “did I not meet you before you married Shalford!”
“You were in India being a brave soldier,” the Countess replied, “and before that I was married to Herbert.”
“You were a widow for a whole year,” the Viscount groaned, “before Fate brought us together.”
“Fate is sometimes very cruel,” the Countess said with what sounded like a little sob in her voice. “Equally you know as well as I do that you could not afford a wife then, any more than you can now.”
“Things will be different when my father dies,” the Viscount remarked.
“Very little,” the Countess said. “If you are honest, my dearest, you know that your father is not a wealthy man by any means and your house needs thousands of pounds spent on it.”
“That is true,” the Viscount admitted, “but I want you, Esme! I want you unbearably!”
“As I want you,” the Countess replied softly. “That is why you have to listen to what I have to say.”
“All I want is to be near you, to talk to you and to make love to you.”
“And all that will be possible,” the Countess whispered softly, “if you marry Odela.”
“What do I want with an unfledged girl of eighteen?” the Viscount asked roughly. “I want you as I have never wanted any woman before.”
There was a silence during which Odela was sure that t
he Viscount was kissing her stepmother.
She was aware that she was eavesdropping on them and it was something that she knew she should not stoop to do.
At the same time she had to hear clearly what her stepmother was planning.
It seemed a long time before the Countess said in a voice that was a little unsteady,
“Oh, darling, you know I adore you, but we have to be practical and we also have to be very very careful.”
“I know that,” the Viscount said, “but all I want to do is to carry you away to some desert island where we can be alone and not be afraid of every eye that looks at us and every ear that hears what we are saying.”
“It would be wonderful, absolutely wonderful, to be anywhere with you,” the Countess said almost in a whisper.
Then in a different tone of voice she added,
“And we can be together, if you will do as I say.”
“You mean – marry your stepdaughter!”
“I mean that because it will open the way for us to be together without anyone being able to question it.”
The Viscount .did not speak and the Countess went on,
“You will, Johnny darling, have unlimited money at your disposal. The first thing will be to buy a house in London as near to this one as possible. Odela will wish to be near her father and you and I will be able to see each other all the time.”
“With your husband and my wife watching us?” the Viscount asked.
“If we are clever, why should they have the slightest suspicion that I love you?” the Countess asked.
“As I love you,” the Viscount murmured.
“Also,” the Countess resumed, “until you come into your own ancestral home, I will persuade Arthur to lend you the Dower House.”
She gave a little laugh before she said,
“Odela prefers the country and she will be quite happy to spend a great deal of time there. Then with her money you can buy anything in the world you want.”
The Countess’s voice rose a little as she added,
“Think of it, Johnny, a yacht that we can all journey in to foreign parts. Racehorses that will take us to all the smartest Meetings!”
She paused before she said, almost as an aside,
“Arthur hates racing and I don’t think that Odela cares for it either.”
Still the Viscount was silent until she said,
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