“But never mind, you are here now,” he went on. “I want you to enjoy yourself and now I’ll have the chance to tell you all the things I had stored up to talk to you about, if you had dined with me when you promised you would.”
“I promised to let you know if I could,” I corrected, “and I did telephone.”
“You didn’t talk to me,” he said with a smile as if he knew I had deliberately given a message to his secretary.
“Do you have boats on the river?” I asked to change the subject.
“I’ll take you out in my motorboat tomorrow,” Lord Rowden replied. “There’s not time now before dinner.”
“No, of course not,” I said quickly.
“You are very beautiful, Samantha!” he said. “Far too beautiful to be wasted on tiresome young men. I want to wrap you in chinchilla, cover you with diamonds and spend my life telling you how much you excite me.”
There was a note in his voice that frightened me and I turned away from him and walked back into the drawing room.
I looked for David but he wasn’t in the room, nor was Lady Bettine.
Lord Rowden had followed me.
“Are you running away from me, Samantha?” he asked, with an amused note in his voice.
“I would like to go upstairs and rest before dinner,” I said.
“Yes, of course,” he answered. “Let me show you your room. It’s one of the nicest in the house.”
I walked towards the hall and he followed me.
“There’s no need for you to come upstairs,” I said. “You should be with your guests.”
“Are you telling me how I should behave in my own house?” he asked.
“No, no, of course not,” I said quickly. “I-I just didn’t wish to be a – nuisance.”
“You could never be that,” he answered.
We went up the big broad staircase side by side and moved across the wide landing. He opened a door and I saw what I realised at once must be one of the best rooms in the house.
It was very large and had a huge canopied bed draped with turquoise blue silk, caught up at the sides with gold angels.
There was a long French window opening on to a balcony with windows on either side of it and the furniture was all inlaid and obviously very valuable.
There were two maids unpacking my suitcases and hanging my dresses up in the wardrobe.
“I think you will be comfortable here,” Lord Rowden said, “and if you want anything you only have to ask.”
“Thank you,” I said, “thank you very much.”
He looked at me with his dissolute eyes and I felt there was a meaning in them that I didn’t understand. I was glad when he went away, closing the door behind him.
“Your bath’s ready, miss,” one of the maids announced and I started to undress.
I suppose if I hadn’t been so worried and unhappy about David I would have been curious, if not excited, that I was staying in such a grand house.
I realised that there must be masses of rooms full of valuable furniture and the family pictures, which, of course, were all of Lord Bray’s ancestors and must be very interesting.
I only wished I knew something about them, but I was as ignorant about art as I was about everything else.
I was glad I had brought my best evening dresses as I realised that there would be plenty of competition from the other women in the party.
I chose a dress of green chiffon. The skirt was made of layer upon layer of petals which shaded from the palest green of the bodice down to quite a deep emerald where the dress almost touched the floor at the back.
There was a long piece of chiffon falling from one shoulder that could be draped across the front and I knew when I went downstairs that it was unlikely that anyone would have a prettier dress than mine.
Lady Bettine, however, was not going to let me get away with being too pleased with myself.
“I always loved that dress,” she said when I appeared. “I had the same model in a different colour last year or was it the year before? Anyway, I remember it was quite a success.”
I realised that the other women were listening to see what I replied to what was obviously a ‘catty’ remark, but I merely smiled and said sweetly,
“I am sure you looked very pretty in it.”
David didn’t appear until just before dinner was announced, so I didn’t get a chance to speak to him. Anyway I had the feeling that he was avoiding me.
He was seated a long way from me in the dining room with Lady Bettine on one side of him and a very pretty girl with fair hair on the other.
‘He has a choice of a brunette or a blonde,’ I thought bitterly and found it difficult to listen to what Lord Rowden was saying to me.
I was on his left, which surprised me because I should have thought that there was someone in the party more important than I to claim that particular place.
But he explained that away as soon as dinner started.
“We are very informal here,” he said. “I try to put everyone where I think they will be most amused. I know that your friend David will enjoy himself with Bettine.”
“Are they old friends?” I asked.
“Shall we say very close friends?” he replied. “But I must not give Durham’s secrets away. He won’t thank me for that.”
I knew quite well what he was inferring and although I tried not to care I felt a painful stab of jealousy.
Lady Bettine was very attractive. She had dark eyes that slanted up at the corners and a very red mouth that seemed somehow provocative when she talked to a man.
I thought that there was a great deal of mystery and allure about her and it was quite obvious that, if David thought me attractive, he would find her very attractive too.
Lord Rowden was saying all sorts of flattering things, but somehow I couldn’t listen to them.
I kept wondering if David was still angry with me and if we would get a chance to ‘kiss and make up’ before we went to bed.
I had always been brought up to believe that you should never let ‘the sun go down on your wrath’, and the last thing I wanted now was to go to bed without saying I was sorry and asking David to forgive me.
I wondered if after what had happened he would stop loving me.
Later there was dancing to the gramophone, but David didn’t ask me to dance although he moved slowly round the floor with Lady Bettine clinging to him like a postage stamp.
I’ve never seen anyone dance so close with her cheek glued against his and I felt it was quite unnecessary.
“Come into the garden,” Lord Rowden suggested, but I was too sensible for that.
“I am very tired,” I said, “I’ve had a hard week. If you won’t think it rude, I should like to go to bed early.”
“But of course,” he said. “I will be very kind and considerate to you tonight, Samantha, and then tomorrow, when you feel rested, there are many things I want to talk to you about.”
I didn’t like the look in his eyes, so I didn’t ask the obvious question. I merely said, “goodnight”, and slipped away upstairs.
It was only half past eleven, but I really was tired.
I locked my door because I remembered Hortense telling me a long story about how someone had walked into her room at a party and given her a fright.
“I suppose it never struck you that you might have locked your door?” Miss Macey had said sarcastically.
“I didn’t think it necessary,” Hortense answered and Miss Macey had looked at her scathingly.
I not only locked the door of my bedroom, but I found that there was another door from the bathroom that led into the passage and I locked that too.
Then I climbed into bed.
I fell asleep instantly and if anyone did try to disturb me I certainly didn’t hear them.
*
The next day was one of the most horrible days I can ever remember.
The sun was shining. My new dress was very pretty and I hurried downstairs lon
ging to talk to David.
He was playing tennis! He played tennis all the morning!
We had a long drawn-out lunch with him right at the other end of the table. Then we went on the river in boats. David went with Lady Bettine and I was left with Lord Rowden.
Fortunately, although he tried to arrange for us to be alone, the woman called Elsie had arrived for lunch and she was as determined to be with him as I was determined not to be, so it worked out quite well.
Elsie’s name was Lady Gradley and to my surprise I found that she has a husband who is quite a well known Peer.
I had somehow imagined that she was a pathetic love-sick girl who had lost her heart to Lord Rowden.
There was no doubt, however, that she was in love with him and she kept trying to attract his attention, take his arm and flirt with him. But he was quite obviously bored with her.
Apparently she had come to lunch with some people who lived nearby and he hadn’t known that she was one of the party until they actually arrived.
I must say I wouldn’t lower myself to behave like that, however fond I was of a man.
I had thought it would be great fun to go up the river and look at all the people bathing and boating, but I kept thinking about David and hoping that he was missing me as much as I was missing him.
I wondered what he was talking about to Lady Bettine and if perhaps he was kissing her.
The idea made me feel so unhappy that when we arrived back at the landing stage at the bottom of the garden I jumped out first, and, seeing a girl who was called Sonia lying on the lawn with a young man, I asked,
“Have you seen David Durham?”
“I expect he is playing tennis or in the swimming pool,” Sonia answered.
Lord Rowden, who had hurried up behind me, must have heard the last word.
“Have you seen the swimming pool, Samantha?” he asked. “Come and look at it. I would like to see you in a bathing suit.”
I made up my mind there and then that unless David was swimming I had no intention of doing so.
When we reached the swimming pool there was no sign of him. Lord Rowden felt the water.
“It’s very warm,” he said. “Shall I send for your bathing suit? I expect you have a pretty one with you.”
“Yes, I have one,” I answered, “but I don’t want to swim.”
“I want you to,” he insisted.
“It’s not as warm as all that,” I countered quickly. “Being so thin I feel the cold.”
“You have a perfect figure,” he answered, “and the most entrancing legs.”
He spoke in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. I didn’t like the way he was looking at me. It was almost as if he saw me without any clothes on.
“I might swim later – I don’t know,” I said coldly.
I walked away to the house and he made no effort to stop me.
When I reached my bedroom, I sat down at the desk and wrote a letter to Daddy. I owed him one anyway and it made me feel calmer and less on edge about David just to write to Daddy and tell him to take care of himself.
Then I lay on the bed until dinner time.
Lord Rowden had told me that there was to be a big dinner party with guests coming in afterwards and we were going to dance not to the gramophone but to a small band.
I kept feeling that it would be rather fun, if only David was nice to me. But I hadn’t spoken to him all day and there was still that heavy lump of ice inside me because he was angry.
I put on one of my prettiest dresses. I knew that Lady Bettine would say it was last year’s model, but it was of white tulle with tiny diamantés sparkling on the skirt like dew-drops and the bodice was embroidered with them.
I felt perhaps that it was rather grand for a party in the country, but the other women were even more elaborately dressed and some of the dresses were cut so low at the back that when the wearer was seated she looked as if she had nothing on at all.
Once again I was next to Lord Rowden. I couldn’t seem to get away from him and after dinner he insisted on dancing with me the moment the men joined the ladies in the drawing room.
“I was very considerate to you last night, Samantha,” he said in my ear, “and now I want you to be a little grateful.”
“In what way?” I asked warily.
“I’ll tell you that later,” he said, “but first I have a present for you. Shall we go and look at it?”
“Ought you not to stay here with your guests?” I asked.
People from other house parties kept arriving, but Lord Rowden didn’t stop dancing. He just waved to them.
“I’ll talk to them later,” he said. “Let me show you what I’ve bought for you.”
He danced me to a door at the far end of the room and, with his arm still round me, drew me into an anteroom and through that we entered another room, which was small and beautifully decorated in the French style.
Lord Rowden shut the door behind him and I felt that we were very alone.
“I’m sure we ought not to leave your party like this,” I said nervously. “People will think it odd.”
“They’ll think it quite natural where you are concerned,” Lord Rowden said, “and all the other men are wishing they were in my shoes.”
He opened the drawer of a table that stood near the fireplace and took out a long leather box.
“I bought this for you, Samantha,” he said. “I hope you will like it.”
“What is it?” I asked.
I thought perhaps it was a fan as the box looked rather the shape, but when I opened it there was a watch-bracelet inside set with diamonds.
I stared at it in astonishment.
“Let me put it on for you, Samantha,” Lord Rowden said with a kind of silky note in his voice.
I shut the box with a little slam.
“It’s very kind of you,” I said, “but I’m afraid I couldn’t accept such an expensive present from someone I hardly know.”
“That’s something that can easily be remedied,” Lord Rowden answered. “I want to know you, Samantha, I want it very much.”
He put out his arms as he spoke and I knew he was going to try to kiss me.
I avoided him rather adroitly and said quickly in a breathless voice,
“It’s very – kind of you – and thank you very much – but it’s much too – grand a present.”
I put the box down as I spoke on a table beside the sofa and then before Lord Rowden could realise what I was doing, I ran across the room, opened the door and slipped out.
As I closed the door behind me, I heard him call my name. Then I ran across the anteroom and back to where everyone was dancing.
I looked around, but there was no sign of David and then I saw to my relief a young Guardsman who had once taken me out to dinner.
“Hello, Samantha!” he called out and was obviously pleased to see me.
“Will you dance with me, Gerry?” I asked.
“Of course,” he answered and we were moving quickly to a foxtrot when I saw Lord Rowden come back into the room.
I thought he might look annoyed, but he didn’t and I hoped that he had understood that I was not the type of girl who took expensive presents from strangers.
‘He must be very rich,’ I thought to myself, ‘to throw diamonds about like that!’
I thought of him trying to kiss me and realised how stupid it had been to go with him into another room even though he had been very persuasive.
I was determined not to make the same mistake twice.
I danced with Gerry and two friends of his who were in the same house party and who had all been in the same Regiment.
They talked very like each other about the same things, made the same jokes and paid me the same compliments, so it was rather hard to remember which one I was with.
Lord Rowden didn’t ask me to dance with him again, as I had somehow expected he would and I was thankful about that.
By one o’clock the guests who had come fro
m other houses began to leave and it was then I thought that I had a chance to slip away unnoticed and go to bed.
It had been a horrid day and an even worse evening because David had not once spoken to me nor asked me to dance.
I realised that he was very angry with me and I wondered if I should write him a note to tell him how sorry I was and ask him if we could go back to London early the next day.
If he agreed, we could have lunch somewhere and, I thought, talk, so perhaps I could persuade him to see my point of view and not be angry anymore.
In my bedroom I undressed. Then I decided I would write to David and sat down at the desk.
I had put on a pretty blue dressing gown with lace trimming, which Miss Macey had bought for me, over my nightgown.
Even so there was a chill little wind blowing in from the river so I got up to close the long French window that opened on to the balcony.
As I did so, I looked out and saw that it was a moonlit night and the gardens seemed very beautiful. The river glimmered like a ribbon of silver. There was something romantic about it, which made me feel even more unhappy because David wasn’t with me.
I kept thinking how wonderful it would be if David and I could go up the river alone in a punt or a canoe and he would kiss me under the overhanging branches of the trees.
We could be very close together, as we had been in the Bentley –
The idea tortured me, so I pulled down the blind over the French window.
I didn’t pull the curtains as the maids had done over the other two windows of my room, but just the blind, so that I wouldn’t see the moonlight outside while I was writing my letter to David.
I began – I wrote about three lines – then I tore it up. I tried again. It was hard to know what to say.
How could I write what was really a love letter to somebody who was angry with me and perhaps didn’t love me any more?
It seemed hopeless. I made half a dozen attempts and they all ended up in the wastepaper basket.
I sat thinking of what I should say next and then, quite unexpectedly, I heard a very soft knock on the door of my room.
For a moment I thought it might be David and then I knew that David would never knock like that.
I don’t know why, but I felt that he would never do anything sort of stealthily and surreptitiously and this knock was both.
Say Yes Samantha Page 9
