There were green lawns sloping down to a huge lake and, as they crossed the bridge that spanned it, Odela could see several swans moving on its silvery surface accompanied by their baby cygnets.
The gardens were filled with flowers and the lilac trees were in full blossom.
Beyond the garden there was an orchard where the fruit trees, pink and white with blossom, transformed it into a magical Wonderland.
Then she remembered that she was supposed to be in hiding and she and Robinson went round the back to the kitchen door.
Robinson knocked.
Odela quickly dismounted saying in case he made a mistake to the kitchenmaid who opened it,
“I have come to visit – Miss West.”
“She be upstairs in the nursery,” the kitchenmaid answered.
“Would you be very kind and show me the way?” Odela asked her.
She had already arranged that while she was doing this, Robinson would ask the grooms to stable Dragonfly.
“Say I am a relative of Miss West’s,” she had said to him, “and don’t forget that I am called ‘Miss West’ as well.”
“I’ll do that, my Lady,” Robinson replied.
The kitchenmaid then took Odela up the backstairs to the second floor of the house.
She knocked on a door and, as she opened it, called out,
“Someone to see you, Nanny.”
Odela walked in.
Nanny was sitting at a table in the centre of the room sewing and on the floor beside her was a small child playing with some coloured bricks.
For a moment Nanny just stared at her.
Then with a murmur of delight she rose to her feet.
Odela ran forward and flung her arms around her neck.
“Nanny! Oh, Nanny! I am here! Say you are pleased to see me.”
“I was hopin’ you’d come,” Nanny said, “but I thought you’d give me warnin’.”
“There was no time for that and I have come, Nanny, because I am – in terrible trouble!”
“Now how can you be in anything like that?” Nanny asked. “Sit down and let me look at you.”
Odela sat down as she had been told and then pulled off her riding hat.
“You’re as lovely as your mother!” Nanny exclaimed, “and I can’t say fairer than that.”
“Unfortunately it’s not what I look like – but what I possess,” Odela told her. “Oh, Nanny, you have – to help me.”
“What’s wrong?” Nanny asked, “I thought perhaps you’d find it difficult comin’ back with her Ladyship there, but how have you got here so quickly?”
“I have – run away!”
“Alone?” Nanny asked in a horrified voice.
“No. I have brought Gatesy with me. She was the only person I knew in the whole house who I could ask – to accompany me.”
She paused a moment and then added firmly,
“Now I have come here to you, I am not going back.”
“What are you sayin’?” Nanny enquired rather nervously.
“I am saying, Nanny, that I have to stay here with you, at least until they find me. Then I will have to run away – somewhere else!”
Nanny sat down at the table again.
“What is all this about?” she asked, looking puzzled, “and what I’ve heard so far I don’t like!”
“I know, Nanny, but you don’t understand – what has happened to me.”
Nanny’s lips tightened.
“It’s her Ladyship, I suppose!”
“Yes, it’s her Ladyship,” Odela agreed. “She has decided because Mama has left me a great deal of money that I am to marry the Viscount More!”
Nanny stared at her.
“I don’t believe it!” she exclaimed.
“It’s true, Nanny. I overheard them planning it through the communicating door when I was in Papa’s bedroom and you know what Stepmama is like once she makes up her mind about something.”
“I do indeed,” Nanny muttered almost beneath her breath.
“So I knew I had to come – to you. You are the only person who can help me and if I stayed in London I would be married almost before I realised what was happening.”
“So havin’ heard what her Ladyship was plannin’,” Nanny said as if she was trying to make the story clear in her own mind, “you ran away.”
“I left with Gatesy yesterday morning and caught the six-thirty train to Oxford. I stayed last night at home and persuaded Robinson to bring me here to – you. He has sworn he will tell no one – where I am.”
“You can trust Mr. Robinson,” Nanny nodded.
“Yes, I know, and he has all my clothes in the horses’ saddlebags.”
“Well, we’d better get them upstairs at any rate,” Nanny said, “and is that all?”
“I told Robinson that, when he was stabling Dragonfly, he was to say that I was a relative of yours – a ‘Miss West’.”
“If, lookin’ as you do, people believe that,” Nanny pronounced with a snort, “they’ll believe anythin’.”
“They have to believe it!” Odela cried. “Oh, Nanny, you must help me. How can I marry a man – who is in love with my stepmother?”
Nanny did not speak and Odela knew that she was aware of the relationship between her stepmother and the Viscount.
“You never mentioned anything about it in your letters,” she said accusingly.
“It’s not proper for you to know of such things,” Nanny countered severely, “and it’s a rank insult to your dear mother’s memory.”
“Of course it is,” Odela agreed, “but I could not tell Papa, could I?”
“I should hope not, dearie, and it’s somethin’ you should not know about either.”
“I overheard Stepmama telling the Viscount that once we were married he would control my fortune and Papa – because he and the Viscount’s father are friends, would not think of him as a fortune-hunter.”
“What fortune?” Nanny asked.
Odela realised that that gossip at any rate had not yet reached Coombe Court.
She told Nanny what her mother had left her and how she intended to do all the things that her mother had always wanted.
That was unless the husband she married prevented her from doing so.
“Why should I marry anyone?” Odela asked Nanny, “especially a man – who is in love with Stepmama.”
“In love indeed!” Nanny squawked. “That’s not love and don’t you think of it like that.”
Odela looked at her and she went on,
“Love’s what your dear mother had for your father and comes from God Himself.”
She snorted before she added,
“Anything that comes from that woman is the work of the Devil!”
Odela had never heard Nanny speak so fiercely or so fervently.
Then she said,
“You are right, Nanny, and I just knew that there was something wrong as soon as I entered the house, but I think in her own way, as long as he never finds her out, she makes Papa happy.”
Nanny snorted again, but she did not speak and Odela said in a low voice,
“I think you – ought to have warned me,”
“I thought of it,” Nanny admitted, “but it wasn’t my business and naturally I had no idea that it would become yours.”
“But it is mine,” Odela said, “and please, Nanny, let me stay – with you.”
“You can stay, of course, you can stay,” Nanny agreed, “but for how long? You can’t spend the rest of your life here and anyway it wouldn’t be right.”
“What do you mean by – that?” Odela asked her.
“His Lordship’s a bachelor,” Nanny replied, “and, if it was known that you were under his roof without a chaperone, you could get a bad name. And that’s somethin’ that your mother would never have approved of!”
“But – where can I go, Nanny?”
Odela suddenly felt like a child asking questions that only Nanny would know the answer for.
&nbs
p; “We’ll have to think about it,” Nanny replied briskly. “But you can stay for the moment, because his Lordship’s away and, if the rest of the staff are told you’re a relative of mine, there should be no difficulties.”
She paused before she added,
“Not that I can’t see at least a hundred problems loomin’ up in the future!”
Odela laughed because it was so like Nanny.
“Nothing matters,” she said, “except that I can be with you, Nanny. It was what I wanted – all the time I was away.”
Nanny’s eyes softened.
“I’ve missed you too, dearie, more than I can say, but I’m comfortable enough here and little Betty’s as good as gold.”
As she spoke, she bent down and picked up the little girl in her arms.
“Aren’t you, my pet?” she asked.
Odela could see Betty was a pretty child, but she looked very fragile.
As if she had asked the question, Nanny remarked,
“She wasn’t strong enough for her Ladyship to take along when they were travellin’ from one place to another.”
She smiled at the child as she went on,
“His Lordship’s on a special mission to India, Singapore and Heaven knows how many other places. They’ll be away for nearly a year.”
“Well, Betty is very lucky to have you, Nanny.”
“That’s what her Ladyship said and she remembered your mother and you when you were a little girl.”
“I cannot remember her,” Odela admitted.
“Why should you?” Nanny asked. “She was married when you were very small and her first husband was killed out huntin’.”
“She had no children?” Odela asked.
“Not until she married for the second time,” Nanny answered, “then she had Betty and she’s hopin’ her next one will be a son.”
There was a little silence before Odela asked,
“If I marry, Nanny, or even if I was – living at home – you promised to come to me?”
“If you marry, I wouldn’t go anywhere else,” Nanny responded, “not if they offered me a million pounds! But I’ll not go to any house where her Ladyship is, not after the way she turned me out as if I was dirt beneath her feet.”
There was so much indignation in Nanny’s voice that instinctively Odela stood up and put her arms around her.
“What we both have to do,” she said, “is to keep out of sight of her Ladyship. You do understand, Nanny, that I cannot go back and – find myself in her clutches?”
“Of course you can’t, dearie,” Nanny agreed, “and it’s over my dead body she’ll marry you to that ‘fancy man’ of hers!”
Odela kissed her cheek.
“That is all I wanted you to say, Nanny, and now I am no longer frightened – so can we please send to the stables for my clothes?”
She reached out as she spoke and took Betty from Nanny’s arms.
“I will look after Betty,” she said, “and I will tell her that she is the luckiest little girl in the world because she has you as her Nanny.”
“Now get along with you,” Nanny replied, “and let me make it quite clear, I don’t approve of what you’re doin’. At the same time I can’t for the life of me think what else you can do.”
Odela laughed.
“Oh, Nanny, I love you. Now I know I am really home and back in the nursery!”
Chapter Four
Riding back to Coombe Court, Odela thought that she had spent the happiest few days she could ever remember.
It was so wonderful to be with Nanny again and to be able to read new and unusual books, but most of all to be able to ride Dragonfly.
Never had she imagined that any library could be as marvellous as the one she had found at Coombe Court. What made it even better was that the Curator had gone away on holiday.
There was therefore no one to interfere as she browsed among the bookshelves.
There had been a library at the Convent School in Florence and her father had a library at home, but the one at Coombe Court was different.
To begin with it had been built and filled with books at the same time as the house by the first Marquis of Trancombe.
A portrait of him hung over the mantelpiece and every successive Marquis had added to the library as well as all the house’s fabulous treasures.
There were not only history books but those written by the authors of the time, politicians, Statesmen, engineers and finally novelists.
All the Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott were there for her to read and enjoyed.
She could also, if she wished, read a first edition of The Canterbury Tales.
As soon as she had finished tea in the nursery and Nanny was getting Betty ready for her bath, Odela would go down to the library.
Whenever she went there, she felt that she must thank the Marquis who had built it.
She would stand in front of the mantelpiece looking up at his portrait and telling him how clever he had been.
It was actually a very handsome and intriguing face that she looked at.
He had been painted by Sir Anthony Van Dyck and Odela calculated because her father had told her about the famous painter that it must have been on his first visit to England in 1621 during the reign of King James I.
When he had come to England for the second time he had painted wonderful portraits of King Charles I besides a great number of the most famous people of the country.
Whichever visit it had been, he had certainly painted a remarkable and very striking portrait of the first Marquis of Trancombe.
He had outstanding features and was, Odela thought, the most handsome man she had ever seen.
The portrait was only a small one ending at the waist, but it showed the Marquis’s long fingers and sensitive hands.
Hands exquisitely formed were a characteristic of Van Dyck and, of course, to Odela the Marquis’s hands were exceptional.
‘How could you have thought of anything so magnificent as this library?’ Odela asked him silently.
She imagined that there was a twinkle in his eyes because he enjoyed her enthusiasm.
Now as she rode Dragonfly over the flat fields towards the stables, she told herself that she had been extremely lucky.
It would be difficult for her stepmother, if she was in fact looking for her, ever to be able to find her.
“I’ve told a lot of lies on your behalf,” Nanny commented tartly, “and I’ll doubtless suffer for them in the next world.”
“What have you – said?” Odela asked her nervously.
“I told them downstairs you’re my niece,” Nanny replied, “and that my brother has a livery stable near Oxford. I had to account somehow for that horse of yours.”
Odela had given a cry.
“Nanny, how clever of you!” she exclaimed. “I had forgotten that they would think Dragonfly looked too well bred and therefore – too expensive for a young woman to own.”
“One lie leads to another,” Nanny remarked, “and I only hopes if we’re caught out, I’m not sent packin’ without a reference!”
Odela laughed and put her arms round her.
“If you are ‘sent packing’ as you call it – you will come to me. And as far as I am concerned, Nanny, you can have my whole fortune and live like a Queen.”
“That’s the last thing I want to do,” Nanny said sharply.
At the same time Odela knew that she was pleased at what she had just said.
There was the soft expression in Nanny’s eyes that she had known ever since she was a baby.
‘If only I could stay here for ever,’ she thought now as she neared the beautiful house and thought that it opened its arms to welcome her.
She dismounted in the yard and put Dragonfly into his stall.
One of the stable lads hurriedly appeared when she had already taken off his saddle.
“I’ll ’ang it up, Miss West,” he said, taking the saddle from her, “but there be a real flapdoodle goin’ on as
’is Lordship’s just arrived.”
Odela was suddenly still.
“His – Lordship?” she repeated.
“Aye, ’e just come with a party and never a word of warnin’.”
He turned away to hang up the saddle.
Odela went rapidly from the stable into the house by the kitchen door and then ran up the stairs.
She burst into the nursery and, as Nanny looked up, she exclaimed,
“I hear the Marquis – has arrived.”
“So I believe,” Nanny replied quietly. “Now sit down and have your tea and don’t fuss yourself. He won’t be takin’ any interest in you.”
“I know that, but I don’t want him – to see me.”
“He’ll not do that neither,” Nanny answered, “as long as you behave yourself and stay up here.”
Odela’s heart sank.
She knew that it would prevent her from riding Dragonfly.
She also loved roaming around the house, as she had been doing for the last three or four days, when she had explored the marvellous salons, each called after different colours.
There was the Silver Salon, the Rose Salon and the Blue Salon.
As well there was a very charming sitting room, which was quite simply called ‘the Cartoon Room’. In it were a number of amusing cartoons and political caricatures that had been collected by the family down the ages.
Some of them were so funny that they made her laugh out loud.
She enjoyed those by Hogarth and the very rude lampoons of the Prince Regent done by Rowlandson and Cruikshank.
There were so many things to see in Coombe Court that she thought it would take her weeks if not months before she had seen half of them.
Now, for as long as the Marquis was in residence, she must be confined to the nursery floor.
“Is it a – big party?” she asked Nanny aloud.
“I’ve no idea,” Nanny replied, “and the less you bother your head about it the better.”
Odela knew from the way she spoke that Nanny was a little nervous, although she would never have admitted it.
She realised that it would be a great mistake for the Marquis to learn of her existence and start asking awkward questions about her.
Odela finished her tea and played with Betty while Nanny made her bath ready.
She was a dear little girl, but very quiet and she was quite content to play by herself or with anybody else who could spare the time.
Princes and Princesses Page 67
