“The Policeman from the village says that he don’t think there’ll be much fuss about it,” Newman answered. “After all, he hit his Lordship first and the doctor will give evidence it were a real nasty blow.”
He shook his head before he continued,
“If you hadn’t killed the intruder, he might have had another shot at his Lordship and succeeded in killin’ him too.”
Iona looked horrified.
“Thank God we avoided that and thank you, thank you yet again, for being so kind as to take the blame.”
“I’m not sure I’ll be a hero,” Newman said, “then you’ll be sorry you’re not in your rightful place.”
Iona thought that, if the Inspector came down from London, he might easily have heard of her.
It would be ghastly if it was in the newspapers that the cook to the Earl was a millionairess who had captivated Mayfair with her beauty and her wealth.
She paused for a moment and then said,
“I was thinking just now before you came that if we were wise we would take the pictures out of the Gallery and hide them somewhere where they cannot be seen.”
“Why should we do that?” Newman asked.
“Because, when it is known throughout the County that dastardly burglars have tried to break into The Court, undoubtedly there will be many visitors anxious to see the paintings they were trying to steal.”
“I sees your point, miss, and it’s very clever of you. Of course we’ll move the pictures and all they’ll see will be an empty room. That’ll teach ’em not to go pryin’.”
Iona laughed.
“I doubt if it will teach them as much as that, but it will be a wise thing to do and I will help take them down.”
“I’ll get the gardener to do that. You can trust the old ’un not to talk because he’s been here for years. He knows only too well how curious people can be. That’s the way he lost some of his best chickens.”
“Then I am sure he will help you to keep the nosey parkers away as his Lordship will dislike them intensely.”
“What you’re cookin’ up looks delicious,” Newman said. “I’ll go and see if there’s any chance of his Lordship havin’ any of it.”
He left before Iona could say anymore and she gave a sigh of relief.
She wanted the Earl to find the treasure for himself and it would be a terrible mistake to have people prying round in case they found it first.
As she went on with her cooking, she knew that she would have to go away.
She had no wish to leave, but with the Inspector coming down, what had happened would undoubtedly be in the London newspapers.
It would only need one person cleverer than the rest to realise that the cook was far too pretty to be there just to do the cooking.
‘I must leave here very soon,’ she told herself.
At the same time she wanted to stay on as she had never wanted anything in her life so much.
Newman spent the afternoon with the gardener and the groom moving the pictures.
They put them all into a small room near the linen cupboard which no one would think of any interest.
Then Iona locked the door firmly.
“No one’ll be interested in that room even if they do go spyin’ round the house,” Newman told her.
The Picture Gallery now looked most dilapidated indeed.
There were dirty marks on the walls where all the pictures had been, the inevitable dust and a certain amount of rubbish on the floor.
‘No one will stop for a moment to look at it,’ Iona thought.
Then, as there seemed to be nothing more to do in the house, she went into the garden.
Like everywhere else it looked neglected, but, as the sun was shining and so many flowers were blooming in the flower beds, it was very beautiful.
‘I have been so happy here,’ she told herself. ‘I cannot think why I have to leave.’
Common sense was the answer.
When she took her turn at the Earl’s bedside later that evening, she thought that she would be here tonight and perhaps tomorrow night.
Then it would only remain a memory in her mind.
Newman was delighted because he had managed to make the Earl swallow a little warm milk that morning.
He had wanted something stronger, but Iona said it would be a mistake.
“The doctor says he were real pleased with him when he came in this afternoon,” Newman remarked. “He says the wound ain’t as bad as he thought it were at first.”
“I am sure that his Lordship will be back on his feet much quicker than we expected,” Iona said. “He is not the sort of man who will want to lie in bed doing nothing.”
“That be true,” Newman agreed. “He were always on the go even though he did lose his temper when things disappointed him and he found nothin’.”
Iona was just longing to tell him that his Lordship would now find all that he was seeking.
But she knew it had to be a secret until he could really enjoy the overwhelming excitement of it at last.
As Newman left her, he said,
“Now you take it easy, miss. If you have a little shut-eye yourself, no one’ll blame you.”
Iona smiled at him.
“You should go to bed,” she told Newman. “You have been on duty all day and must be very tired. Sleep like his Lordship is sleeping as I expect you will have a lot to do on Monday.”
“The Policeman in the village says there won’t be no trouble about it, because the burglar struck his Lordship first and they has the doctor’s report on it.”
“As you have said yourself,” Iona replied, “I think they should give you a medal as the burglar was obviously dangerous and would doubtless have killed us all if I had not interfered.”
“I doubt if I’m as good a shot as you are,” Newman replied. “You would win a prize in any competition.”
“It’s not a competition I would wish to excel in,” Iona answered. “But thank you again for your kindness to me which I will never forget.”
“Now don’t you worry about anythin’,” Newman said. “I knows what’s right and what’s wrong and so does the Police. After Monday I doubt if we will hear any more about it.”
Iona wished that this was true and she was still so afraid of the newspapers thinking it a good story, after all any attack on an Earl was worth a front page picture.
When Newman left her, she had one candle burning and was settling herself in a comfortable chair from where she could see the Earl, when unexpectedly he spoke.
“Where – am I?” he asked shakily.
She moved quickly to the bed and, bending down, she said soothingly,
“You are at home and quite safe, my Lord. Go to sleep again and don’t worry about anything.”
“I am in bed?” he asked. “How did I get – to bed?”
“You have been in bed for some time,” she replied, “because you were badly wounded in your shoulder. But it is clearing up and you will soon be on your feet again.”
She spoke in a soft quiet voice as she would have spoken to a child.
Then the Earl said,
“Who are – you? Why are you in my – bedroom?”
“You must remember me, my Lord, I am your cook and you are very pleased with the lovely French dishes I prepare for you.”
“French dishes? Why – French.”
“Because the French have the very best food in the world and that is what you enjoy eating.”
There was silence.
Then the Earl opened his eyes as if he was forcing himself to look at her again.
“You are pretty – very pretty,” he said and closed his eyes again.
Iona still hovered over him wondering if she should give him anything to drink or whether it would be best to leave him to go back to sleep.
Then she thought that sleep would be for the best and to help him sleep she did what she had done before and massaged the centre of his forehead very very gently.
&n
bsp; It had been the one remedy that had helped her mother when she had found it difficult to sleep.
As she touched the softness of his skin and looked down at his hands and face, she realised suddenly that she was in love!
It was a feeling that was different from anything she had ever felt before.
She only knew that she wanted to protect and save the Earl from any pain or stress that troubled him.
Just to be so close to him and to touch him was a wonder that she had never known in her life.
She could not explain it to herself.
But it was something she had never felt for any other man, not even for John, the one she had promised to marry.
Then, as if the very sky opened to her to learn the truth, she realised that this was the love that she had always sought and always wished to find.
The love that was so Holy and there were no words to express it.
Her fingers moved slowly in a circle on the Earl’s forehead and she saw that he was now fast asleep.
It was then that she bent forward very gently and touched his cheek with her lips.
“I love you,” she whispered. “When I leave here tomorrow, I will never see you again.”
She sat near him on the bed all through the hours when previously she had rested in the chair.
She knew that tomorrow night he might be aware of her, in which case she would behave as he expected and not as she wished.
“I love you. I love you!” she wanted to cry out aloud over and over again.
As she knew that she had to go away, she could not prevent the tears from coming into her eyes.
She thought it all out very carefully.
She knew that, when the Earl found the immense fortune he had been seeking, he would feel beholden, as she was to Newman, to give her some of it.
It would be difficult to explain, but, rich though he was, she was very likely richer.
It would be even worse if, when the Inspector came to take a statement from everyone in the house, that anyone here should guess she was not who she pretended to be.
She could imagine all too clearly what a story the newspapers would make of the debutante of last Season, one of the richest girls in the country and who had been at every party when she made her debut, was involved in this strange attempt at stealing famous paintings.
They belonged to an Earl who could only afford to have three servants in his vast house and one of them was the beauty of the Season.
‘I have to go away,’ she thought to herself again as she wiped away the tears running down her cheeks.
She then decided that she would stay with the Earl for the last time on Sunday evening.
*
But on Sunday morning when the doctor arrived to examine him, he announced that the danger was over and all that his Lordship had to do now was to live quietly, eat well and replace the blood he had lost after he was struck down.
“You have done an excellent job,” the doctor said to Newman, who on Iona’s instructions did not say that he should share the congratulations with the cook.
What he did say, however, before he left was that his Lordship was to eat as much as he could manage and a little light wine would do him no harm.
“It’s the best news we’ve ever had, miss,” Newman enthused, when he related the doctor’s words to his wife and Iona, who had been waiting in the kitchen.
He looked at Iona as he added,
“I wanted to tell him that I did not deserve all the credit. But I did as you tells me and kept my mouth shut.”
“That is just what I wanted you to do,” Iona said. “You have been absolutely marvellous and deserve every word of credit the doctor can give you.”
“As I said, miss, and I’ll tell his Lordship when he’s well enough to listen, that you’ve helped, I thinks, much more than I have.”
He took a deep breath before he continued,
“He says to me this mornin’ when I were washin’ and shavin’ him, ‘tell Miss Lang I want to see her. I am lookin’ forward to having somethin’ substantial to eat.’ I tells him he’ll get that all right!”
He paused before he went on,
“Then he says, ‘I expect that you’ve been stuffin’ yourself, in fact, you are a great deal fatter than when I last saw you’.”
“That was not an insult,” Mrs. Newman said, “it be the truth. We’ve never had such wonderful dishes to eat as we have since you’ve been here, miss.”
Iona could only smile and then she replied,
“As his Lordship will soon be getting up, I think it would be very nice if we cleaned at least part of the house to celebrate his recovery. Fetch four or five good women from the village to clean some of the rooms and I will pay them whatever you say are the right wages.”
“Are you sure you can afford it?” Newman asked.
“Quite sure. I have not forgotten what you have done for me.”
He did not ask Iona any further questions.
But later that afternoon, when the women from the village were brushing out the main passages and doing the same to the dining room and to the study where Newman said his Lordship always sat, she went to her own room.
She wrote a short note to the Earl saying,
“The Gods have listened to your prayers and, if you look into the fireplace in the Picture Gallery, you will find behind it all that you have been seeking and, just as good surely comes out of evil, the best thing that could ever have happened was that the robbers should have tried to get in through that window.
I wish you great happiness in the future and in turn I know that you will make a great number of other people happy.
Thank you for your kindness to me which I will always remember.
Ida.”
She then wrote another letter to Newman thanking him profusely for all his kindness in taking her place and being resolute enough to persuade the Police that he pulled the trigger and not her.
“I enclose a sum of money,” she wrote, “which can never express my real gratitude for what you have done for me. It will, however, make you and Mrs. Newman most comfortable for the coming year.
I promise it is something that you will receive every year until you are no longer on this earth.
I know you will stay to look after the Earl because he needs you and he would be miserable without you.
But I think it a mistake for you to tell him of my gift to you. I would like it to remain a secret between me, your wife and yourself.
Ida.”
She then signed the letter and put in five hundred pounds which she knew would seem an absolute fortune to the Newmans.
She would have given more, but she was frightened of being short of cash herself.
She had already spent quite a lot of what she had brought with her and had no wish to have to go to the bank to draw out any more in case they communicated with her relations.
It did not really matter, but she did not want to take any risks.
When it was time to change places with Newman, she went to the Earl’s room, having made preparations for her departure in the morning.
Newman told her in a whisper that he had talked about getting up in a day or so and had eaten an excellent dinner.
“His Lordship’s asleep now,” he said, “but if he wakes up, there’s some hot milk beside his bed and, if he asks for anythin’ to eat, I feels sure you’ll be able to find him a bite.”
He gave a little laugh before he added,
“He ate a big dinner so I thinks he won’t be hungry until breakfast.”
“I am sure he will not,” Iona agreed.
“Are you certain you are not too tired to stay with him?” Newman asked her.
“I can sleep here in the chair,” Iona replied. “So you go to bed. You have had a long day and I don’t want to have to nurse you as well as his Lordship.”
Newman chuckled.
“That’ll be the day and I look forward to it!”
“Well, you spend the
rest of the night fast asleep,” Iona answered, “and God bless you.”
Newman smiled at her.
“I think He blessed us all when you came here,” he replied. “You made everythin’ different and I’ve a feelin’ things are goin’ to be good for the future.”
“I feel the same,” Iona murmured.
He went out, closing the door quietly behind him.
She walked over to the bed and looked down at the sleeping Earl.
‘I love you! I love you!’ she said in her head. ‘If I never see you again, I will never forget you.’
Then, because she wanted his happiness more than anything, she knelt down at the side of the bed.
She prayed that, when he found the money in the Picture Gallery, he would then find the world a very much happier place than it had ever been before.
He would be content because the house could be put back to how it had been in the past and he could fill it with amusing and interesting people without having to then worry about the cost.
As Iona rose from her knees, she realised that the tears were back in her eyes.
Wiping them away almost fiercely, she sat down in the chair that faced the Earl.
Because she wanted to touch him and kiss him, she closed her eyes so that she could no longer look at him.
She told herself that this was a moment she had to forget and she must not now spoil what had been the most thrilling adventure she had ever known.
It was just after five o’clock in the morning and the Earl was sleeping peacefully as Iona crept out of his room.
She left behind on the chair the two letters she had written, one to him and one to Newman.
Then she went up to her room and, collecting the things she had left ready earlier in the day, she carried her cases, with some difficulty because they were heavy, down the backstairs where there was no one to hear her if she tripped or dropped one of them by mistake.
She reached the door at the side of the house that led directly to the stables.
There was only Jeb fast asleep on the straw, where he slept every night.
She crept past him and went to where her ponies were housed, which was some distance from him.
She took them out of their stalls.
She thought that they seemed pleased to see her and guessed that their solitary confinement was over and that they were going home.
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