103. She Wanted Love

by Barbara Cartland

  “I came with some new horses I want you to see. They are perfectly matched and it’s my fastest time ever.”

  “I have a new horse,” Pepe bubbled, “he is called Silver Star and he is very very fast.”

  “A new horse?” the Marquis asked dramatically.

  Then, as Eleta stepped out of the water and onto the grass, he looked at her with astonishment.

  The soft blue bathing dress she wore revealed the perfection of her figure and he thought that he had never seen anyone quite so perfect or so beautiful.

  “Who is that?” he asked Pepe in a low voice.

  “She is my new Governess. She is very clever and I love her. We have a lot of surprises for you, Daddy.”

  The Marquis thought that the new Governess was certainly a surprise in herself and, as she slipped into the hut, he suggested,

  “You had better finish dressing and then we will go back to the house and you must tell me everything you have learnt since I have been away.”

  Then, as if his memory jolted him, he asked,

  “The last occasion I was here there was an elderly woman who was your Governess. I cannot remember her name, but she told me that she was leaving.”

  “Oh, she left and the one after her left and so did the one after that,” Pepe answered. “They were all horrid, ugly, nasty people and they tried to teach me all the things I did not want to learn.”

  “And when did this one come to you?”

  “She has not been here very long, but you will be very surprised at what I can do. She tells me beautiful, beautiful stories.”

  The Marquis put his daughter down on the ground.

  “Now hurry up and dress,” he urged. “I want to hear everything you have done. It all sounds exciting.”

  “It’s all very exciting, Daddy, and I have a special surprise for you.”

  She was thinking as she ran towards the hut that it was a pity that her father had come back so soon.

  It was, of course, Eleta who had said to her,

  “When your father does return, you must be able to play the piano to him. He will be astonished that you can.”

  Pepe was thinking that if he had come next week or the week after she would be really good, but now she could play a little, which before she had not been able to do at all.

  Inside the hut Eleta was nearly dressed.

  “We thought your father would not be here until this afternoon,” she said.

  “I know and I have told him that we have lots of surprises for him and I kissed him as you told me to do.”

  “I saw you do that and you did it very well. Just remember that your father has no one to make a fuss of him now he is back in his home. All men want a woman to listen to them and to do things with them.”

  Pepe put her head on one side.

  “What sort of things?”

  “Like riding with him and asking his advice and, of course, looking pretty and smiling as you are now.”

  “I will be very very nice to Daddy, I promise.”

  “We must both be. Or he might send me away and say he wants an older and stricter Governess for you.”

  “Oh, he must not say that, he must not!” Pepe cried. “I love you and I don’t want to lose you.”

  “Then you must make him think how happy he is to be with us. Make a very big fuss of him and make him feel important, which of course he is.”

  “I will try, I promise you I will try. I know you are frightened that he might send you away, Eleta, but, if he does, I will come with you.”

  “You must not say that to him. Just make him feel it is fun to be here in the country and that he has a very clever and very loving daughter.”

  Pepe gave a little laugh and, after Eleta had done up her dress at the back, she ran out of the hut.

  Her father was standing where she had left him by the water and she slipped her hand into his and said,

  “I am so glad you have come back, Daddy.”

  “You used to call me ‘Papa’,” he queried,

  “Miss Lawson said ‘Papa’ sounded so very stiff and ‘Daddy’ was a more affectionate word.”

  “I think that Miss Lawson is quite right, although it never occurred to me before.”

  “She always thinks of something new and exciting and please, Daddy, be very kind to her because she is very frightened you might send her away.”

  Pepe’s fingers tightened on his hand as she added,

  “You won’t do that, will you?”

  “No, of course not,” the Marquis replied. “If she is teaching you and you are happy, that is all that matters.”

  “Thank you, Daddy, thank you. I have learnt a lot with Miss Lawson and there is lots more to learn.”

  “Of course there is,” he agreed.

  Eleta came out of the hut and he thought again as she walked towards him that he had never seen anyone quite so lovely.

  Then, as Eleta held out her hand, she said,

  “As I expect Pepe will have told you, my Lord, I am the new Governess and I hope that you will approve of everything we have done.”

  “I am sure I will. My daughter seems to be happy and that is more important than anything else.”

  “I was hoping that was what you would think.”

  “I am very very happy,” Pepe cried, pulling at her father’s arm. “We have so many surprises for you.”

  The Marquis looked at Eleta.

  “Is this some new method of learning I have not heard about?” he enquired.

  “No, I think it is something that comes naturally in a different way to different people,” Eleta replied.

  It was not the answer he expected and he asked,

  “Are you really suggesting that the lessons that are more or less laid down in the books are out of date?”

  “Not exactly out of date, but I think, my Lord, you must realise that we are all made differently and none of us are the same. So what we are taught may be manna from Heaven for one person, while for another it is almost the fires of Hell.”

  The Marquis chuckled.

  “I have not heard that before and you must explain it to me in more detail.”

  “I think you will be able to see the difference for yourself,” Eleta suggested.

  As they were walking into the house, the Marquis thought that she was not only too young to be a Governess but certainly too beautiful.

  Now that her hair was arranged neatly at the back of her head, it made her look very youthful and he thought her features, as he glanced at her, were almost classical.

  It then struck him that she could not be real and she might in fact have dropped down from Olympus.

  As they walked on, Eleta said,

  “I only wish it was true. When I first saw Mount Olympus, I was disappointed. Then I knew that the spirits of the Gods and Goddesses are still there, just as they are all over Greece.”

  The Marquis was astonished.

  “You have read my thoughts!” he exclaimed,

  “I too was surprised that I did,” Eleta replied. “It does just happen sometimes. But let me say, not often.”

  They walked on for a little while and Pepe was still holding her father’s hand and then Eleta said,

  “I have been planning for some time to tell Pepe about Greece and its superb Gods and Goddesses that have altered the thinking of almost every country in the world.”

  “And you think that would be a valuable part of my daughter’s education?”

  “I think it is something we all yearn for and some of us are lucky enough to discover.” Eleta answered.

  The Marquis again thought he must be dreaming. This could not be happening to him in his own home.

  Was it just his imagination?

  Was she actually a Goddess from Mount Olympus walking beside him and teaching his daughter?

  CHAPTER SIX

  Eleta had, when she first arrived, been very careful not to refer too much to religion.

  She had learnt in the Convent that qu
ite a number of the girls were sick of being taken to Church every day and disliked being made to say prayers and being given long and boring lessons on Church history.

  So she had only occasionally mentioned angels and had not enquired whether Pepe said her prayers at night.

  Then they had talked about the angel called ‘Pepe’ who looked after her.

  Eleta began to think that she should suggest they went to Church on Sunday or to pray in the charming little Chapel attached to the house.

  She had discovered it when she was exploring some of the other rooms and she thought that it was one of the prettiest private Chapels she had ever seen.

  It was a joy to see anything quite as beautiful as the Chapel and it had been built at the same time as the house.

  The Adam brothers had indeed excelled themselves in making a Chapel that was really lovely, but also had an atmosphere of holiness which you felt from the moment you walked through the door.

  When Eleta was talking to the Head Gardener about the hut at the lake, she had also asked him if he would send more flowers into the house.

  “I would like as many as you can spare me,” she had said, “for the room we use as a schoolroom. I would also like to see the Chapel decorated as I am sure you do it beautifully.”

  The flattery succeeded and the next day when she peeped into the Chapel she saw there were not only flowers on the altar but on all the windowsills.

  It made the Chapel look even more glorious and she thought that she must take Pepe there more often.

  It would be a mistake to do anything to antagonise Pepe, but Eleta wanted her to feel how useful prayer could be to her and how much it would mean in her future life.

  It had certainly not helped her up to the present and Eleta was certain that the Governesses had very likely told her, as they had Mrs. Hill, that she was a child of the devil.

  After they had walked back from the lake with the Marquis, she said that she was going to go upstairs to tidy herself for luncheon.

  “I will come up in a moment,” Pepe said. “I just want to show Daddy the picture that came back last week from being cleaned and which is in his study.”

  Eleta thought that this was certainly a new step in the relationship between father and daughter and without more ado she disappeared.

  She ran down the corridor that led to the Chapel and when she went in she felt immediately the atmosphere of holiness that to her was very vivid.

  She then knelt down and prayed fervently that the Marquis would accept her and she would not be sent away.

  ‘Please God, please let me stay here,’ she prayed. ‘If I go back, I know I will never be able to find another position as nice as this. If Step-papa finds me, whatever I say, I will still have to marry the Duke.’

  She felt as if her prayers went up to Heaven and, when she opened her eyes and looked at the Cross on the altar, she felt that she was being blessed.

  Then, because she dared not linger, she ran all the way to her new bedroom on the first floor.

  She looked in the mirror and saw that her hair, after being pinned up in such a hurry, was untidy and she then rearranged it making it a little more severe because she thought she would then look more like a proper Governess.

  She had decided to wear, when she first met the Marquis, a dress that was very simple, but, because it had been such a lovely day, she had put on one of her summer frocks that was a pale blue scattered with pink flowers.

  There was no time now to change, so she hurried downstairs, just in case luncheon had been announced.

  She had timed it well because Pepe was still with her father in his study looking at the picture of horses that he had sent to be cleaned and reframed.

  As Eleta was about to enter, Pepe was saying,

  “I am going to ride a horse as big as that one day, Daddy, and then I will be able to race you.”

  “I expect you will win,” the Marquis said, “simply because I will be getting so old I will have to ride slowly.”

  Pepe laughed.

  “You will not be as old as all that.”

  “Judging by the rate you have jumped from a pony to a horse, Pepe, I expect you will be challenging me on the Racecourse in the next year or two.”

  “I hope so and Miss Lawson says I ride very well.”

  Then, as they had no idea that Eleta was standing just inside the door, the Marquis said,

  “Tell me, is your new Governess a good rider? I was surprised to learn that she rides, as none of your other Governesses did.”

  “Oh, they were ghastly old women who would not have been able to ride a donkey.” Pepe said scornfully. “Miss Lawson is very good. The grooms in the stables are astonished at how well she can handle your horses.”

  “She has been riding my horses!”

  “Only because they needed more exercise than they were having,” Eleta remarked from the doorway.

  The Marquis turned round.

  She thought perhaps that he would be irritated and she went forward saying,

  “Please don’t be angry with me for doing so. But there were too many for the older of your grooms and the young ones were too frightened to ride them.”

  For a moment she thought that the Marquis was annoyed and then unexpectedly he smiled.

  “You are certainly a surprise in every possible way, Miss Lawson. I did not know that I had given orders to my secretary for a new groom as well as another Governess!”

  “I am sorry if I have done anything wrong, my Lord, but, when your Head Groom saw me ride, he knew I was used to horses and I took out a different one each day.”

  Before the Marquis could speak, Pepe pushed her hand into his.

  “You must not be angry with Miss Lawson,” she said. “She has tried in every way to make things happy and better for me and I cannot lose her.”

  There was almost a pregnant silence and then the Marquis replied,

  “No, of course not, I must thank her for being so considerate not only to my daughter but to my horses.”

  ”Please,” Eleta begged, “when you are not here, my Lord, may I go on riding them?”

  The words came out before she could control them.

  The Marquis looked at her.

  She had no idea how lovely she looked with the sun coming through the windows turning her head to gold and her blue eyes were looking pleadingly up at him.

  For a moment they just gazed at each other and then something passed between them that Eleta could not put into words.

  Then in the silence Harris announced at the door,

  “Luncheon is served, my Lord.”

  Pepe gave a little skip of joy.

  “I am hungry,” she cried, “and I am sure Monsieur Téyson has something delicious for us.”

  The Marquis looked surprised when she mentioned the chef by name, but he did not question it.

  He and Pepe walked hand in hand towards the door, but Eleta hesitated and said,

  “Maybe you would rather, my Lord, have luncheon alone with Pepe and I can, of course, have mine upstairs.”

  “No, of course not. I want you to have luncheon with me and tell me how you are educating my daughter and I must congratulate you that she can now swim.”

  “I can swim very well,” Pepe boasted. “In fact I can go right across the lake to the other side and then back again almost as quickly as Miss Lawson can.”

  “It is certainly something new,” the Marquis said, “to find that one of the Governesses is bathing. I always suspected that some of them were rather worried at having a bath!”

  He was speaking jokingly, but Pepe piped up,

  “They were horrid women and taught me nothing!”

  Her father looked at her.

  “I thought it was you who refused to learn.”

  “Only because they tried to teach me stupid boring things.”

  “But Miss Lawson is different?”

  “She is very very different and she has taught me lots and lots I did not know befo
re. Tomorrow when you have breakfast I am going to say, ‘bonjour, mon père’.”

  The Marquis looked at her in astonishment.

  “Are you telling me that you are learning French?”

  “I know lots of French words.”

  Listening to this conversation, Eleta could not help praying that Pepe would not forget them.

  When they reached the dining room, the Marquis sat down at the head of the table.

  Pepe sat on his right and Eleta on his left.

  She realised that Monsieur Téyson had certainly done his best where the food was concerned.

  They started off with a prettily decorated dish of smoked salmon and, when the second course arrived, Pepe exclaimed before anyone else could speak,

  “Oh, it is boeuf en croûte! One of my favourite dishes and you will love it, Daddy.”

  The Marquis looked at Eleta and asked,

  “Does she really know any French?”

  “We started where I thought was the right place – at the dining table. Your chef has been most co-operative.”

  The Marquis continued to be surprised when Pepe greeted the pudding with a cry of ‘isles flottantes’.

  When the coffee came in, she exclaimed that the petits fours were new and the chef must have made them especially for her father.

  Pepe chatted away about where she had ridden on her new horse and told her father that one of the mares had a foal and that she and Miss Lawson were now thinking of a good name for it.

  “I think I will have to help you there,” the Marquis suggested, “as I have to look at its pedigree.”

  Pepe laughed.

  “That is exactly what Miss Lawson said to me and I think if all the foals have pedigrees I should have one too.”

  “But you have one,” the Marquis answered.

  “Not with my name on it. Miss Lawson wanted to see the Family Tree – and it ends with you.”

  “That is most remiss of me and I must apologise. Your name will be put on it immediately and I will have a special copy made for the schoolroom.”

  “That will be lovely. Of course I want to be on our Family Tree. One day, Miss Lawson says, you will give me a brother and he, when you eventually die, will be the next Marquis.”

  Eleta thought that this was rather embarrassing, but to her relief the Marquis laughed.