White Lilac

by Barbara Cartland

  “I’ll see Mister John deals with ’em when he comes back,” the old man said.

  “What is more to the point,” the Duke said softly, “we want you to tell us how to get out of this house without anybody seeing us.”

  “Where be you a-goin’?” the old man enquired.

  “To the stables,” the Duke replied. “My horses are there. Then this young lady and I can ride away before they try to stop us.”

  “Be you careful!” the old man worried. “I don’t know what Mister John’ll say, havin’ people like them usin’ his house and sellin’ his coal mine what ain’t got no coal in it!”

  He looked at Ilitta as he spoke and gave a little laugh, which turned as before into a cough.

  “We must hurry,” the Duke said. “So will you please tell us how we can reach the stables?”

  “Go down the stairs – ” the old man began.

  He then described quite clearly the way they must go until they came to a door that led into the garden.

  “No one’ll see you there,” he added, “if you keep in them bushes and the stables be to the front of you.”

  “Thank you very much,” the Duke said, “and when your Master returns I will write and tell him how well you have looked after us.”

  “That be right kind of you, sir. I wouldn’t want him thinkin’ as I’d failed in my duty, lettin’ them crooks in when he were away.”

  “You could not have stopped them, so just keep out of sight until they have gone.”

  The Duke put two sovereigns into the old man’s hand and, while he was staring at them incredulously, Ilitta bent forward to cover his hands with hers and said,

  “Thank you – thank you very much! I am sure your wife wherever she is, is thinking of you and still loving you.”

  She saw the tears come into the old man’s eyes.

  Then before he could reply, she and the Duke had slipped out of the room, closing the door very quietly behind them.

  Hand in hand they went down the next flight of stairs and followed the old man’s directions until, just as he had told them, they found a door that led into the garden.

  The Duke drew back the bolts taking great care to make no noise.

  Then the cold air was on their faces as they moved quickly through the shrubs until just in front of them they saw the opening into the stable yard.

  Now they paused and Ilitta’s fingers tightened on the Duke’s because she was afraid that Captain Daltry’s groom would be up and hanging about and would see them.

  The Duke moved ahead, entering the stable by the first door he came to.

  There was a long row of stalls and Ilitta, with a leap of her heart, saw the Duke’s team and only one other horse, which was obviously not well bred and rather rough, which she supposed belonged to Captain Daltry.

  To her surprise the Duke was looking in all the empty stalls until he stopped and opened one of them.

  As he did so she saw Hanson sleeping on a pile of hay.

  The Duke moved to his side and, putting a hand over his mouth before he woke him, asked in a whisper,

  “Where is Daltry’s groom?”

  “He be up in the attic, sir,” Hanson replied. “I stayed here to be near the horses.”

  “Quite right!” the Duke approved. “Now we have to get away quickly and the best thing to do is to ride.”

  Hanson started to his feet and, as the Duke gave his instructions, Ilitta was sure that Hanson had been in a tight corner with his Master before.

  He was obviously not surprised at anything that happened, but was ready to adjust himself to any circumstances however unexpected.

  The Duke certainly wasted no time.

  They found saddles hanging on the walls and by a piece of good fortune there was a lady’s side saddle which was placed on the back of one of the Duke’s horses for Ilitta.

  She understood without being told that they would all ride, leaving the phaeton behind which could be collected later. She and the Duke would each ride a horse, Hanson riding the third and leading the fourth.

  All the time they were bridling, saddling and tightening girths on the horses, they were listening to hear if there was any movement from the groom overhead.

  “He had a lot of ale afore he went to bed,” Hanson whispered. “It’ll take him some time to sleep it off!”

  He grinned as if he enjoyed outwitting the man who Ilitta thought had doubtless been told to keep an eye on him.

  When the horse the Duke was saddling was ready, he went out to explore how they should leave the stable.

  On one side the yard was not far from the house and led directly onto the drive.

  To ride that way would mean they could be seen from any window and again, without the Duke saying anything, Ilitta thought he was afraid that Captain Daltry might, if he saw his prey escaping, fire at them.

  Instead the Duke discovered at the back of the stable that there was a door leading into a paddock.

  He pointed it out to Hanson to show him that that was the better way to go.

  Moving as quietly as they could, the Duke went ahead leading his horse, followed by Ilitta with Hanson bringing up the rear.

  Outside in the paddock the Duke lifted Ilitta onto the saddle and only as she smiled down at him when he had done so did she realise that she had not brought her bonnet with her.

  She wondered if he thought she looked very untidy with her hair flowing over her shoulders.

  Actually, he was thinking that she looked so lovely with the first rays of dawn rising up the sky behind her that she might have been the ‘Spirit of the Morning’.

  Then he told himself severely that the quicker they were away the safer they would be and, swinging into the saddle, he led the way across the paddock.

  He saw a gate at the far end and thought that he should open it for Ilitta.

  As if she knew that was what he intended, she pushed her horse ahead and leapt over the two-barred fence that surrounded the paddock with a grace that made him smile as he hurriedly followed her.

  Hanson, however, with two horses to control was more cautious and, when Ilitta and the Duke looked back, they saw him quite a long way behind them, but by now they were all out of sight of the house.

  It was then that Ilitta spoke for the first time since they had left the old man.

  “We have done it!”

  “I know,” the Duke agreed, “and I have never felt so delighted since I won the Gold Cup at Ascot!”

  She laughed and he continued,

  “I only wish I could see Daltry’s face when they open our bedrooms to see if cold and hunger have had the effect he expected and find us gone!”

  “It was clever of you to find the trapdoor.”

  “And very clever of you to find that nice old man who told us the way out,” the Duke replied.

  “You will not forget to write to his Master as you said you would?”

  “You are insulting me! I always keep my word!”

  “Of course! I would not expect anything else.”

  They smiled at each other.

  Then, as the sun rose, they were galloping over the fields with an elation that they felt not only because they had triumphed over the enemy but also because they were together.

  They had gone several miles before the Duke said,

  “I think my host might be surprised to see me so early in the day and, as I am in fact extremely hungry, I suggest we stop somewhere for breakfast.”

  Since they were in what appeared to Ilitta to be an uninhabited part of the country, she asked,

  “How do you suggest we do that, unless, as you suggested before, we eat grass?”

  “I have a far better idea than that,” the Duke said. “I am going to find a farmhouse and beg them to be hospitable to three very hungry travellers.”

  “It sounds to me as if that is something you have done before!”

  “Not always in this country,” the Duke replied, “but Arabs are very generous to strangers an
d Monasteries in Tibet never turn anyone away.”

  Ilitta gave a little cry of delight.

  “Now you are beginning to tell me about your travels,” she said, “and that is something you promised me you would do.”

  “At the moment I would rather talk about food,” the Duke said, “or better still – eat it!”

  He spurred his horse as he spoke and they galloped on until in about half a mile they saw in front of them an attractive black and white farmhouse.

  Black and white buildings were relics of Tudor times and were characteristic both of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

  The Duke thought as he approached the farm that it looked prosperous and he was sure that it would be a very hard-hearted farmer’s wife who would not refuse his request for breakfast.

  *

  A little later the Duke and Ilitta were seated in a comfortable parlour with a fire blazing away in the grate.

  As the farmer’s daughter, a buxom young woman, was laying on the table a cottage loaf of newly baked bread, a huge pat of Jersey butter and a comb of honey, Ilitta said with a little laugh,

  “If you tell anybody what has happened to us since breakfast yesterday morning, they will not believe you!”

  “That is why we must be careful what we do say,” the Duke replied.

  She looked at him quickly before she asked,

  “Are you going to keep it a secret?”

  “I am just considering what would be best.”

  He was sitting back in an armchair with a skilfully crocheted antimacassar behind his head, while Ilitta, having discarded her cloak, was seated on the fur hearth rug enjoying the warmth of the fire on her face.

  She looked at him for a moment before she said,

  “I may be wrong, but I have a feeling you will not wish your friends to know how you were deceived and threatened by a man like Daltry?”

  “That is the truth,” the Duke agreed. “It’s the sort of story that would go round the Clubs like wildfire and be exaggerated and contorted out of all proportion. And, of course, they will make the most of the fact that I was accompanied by a very beautiful young woman!”

  “But you made it quite clear that I was your ‘sister’?”

  “Of course,” the Duke answered, “but in a way that makes it worse, since I should never have allowed my sister to have become involved with a man like Daltry.”

  “But he thought I was a child.”

  “You are not as young as all that,” the Duke replied, “and being a responsible brother I am very particular about whom my sister meets.”

  Ilitta thought over what he had said before she asked,

  “What story will you tell Lord d’Arcy Armitage?”

  “I think it would be best to say that we were held up not only by the fog but also because we had a slight accident with the phaeton,” the Duke answered after a moment. “We therefore were forced to leave it behind and ride the horses.”

  Ilitta clapped her hands.

  “That is very astute of you!”

  “Fog is always unpredictable at this time of the year,” he went on, “and it is, in fact, very easy to have an accident when caught in one.”

  “And where will you tell them we stayed last night?”

  “At the place where I first met you,” the Duke replied. “We just forget the very unpleasant episode at Mr. Newall’s house and, as doubtless Lord d’Arcy Armitage will have heard of him or may even know him, it would be a mistake for us to embroil him in this particular drama.”

  “You had better tell your man Hanson what you have decided.”

  “Of course,” the Duke said, “and, as I just now heard him coming into the yard with the horses, I will go and speak to him and see that he has some breakfast.”

  He went from the room and Ilitta looked into the fire thinking what fun it all was.

  ‘How could I have known – how could I have guessed,’ she reflected, ‘that so many exciting things would happen to me in the space of a few hours?’

  At the same time she remembered how frightened she had been when the man had approached her in the posting inn and had then broken down the latch of her door.

  ‘There cannot be many men like Sir Ervan in the world,’ she thought to herself. ‘How very very lucky I was that he was there!’

  As she thought of him, her eyes softened.

  She had never imagined a man could be so handsome in a way she could not explain, so authoritative and competent and so gentle and considerate as well.

  She was not tired because she had slept so peacefully in his arms.

  Now she thought it seemed shocking and reprehensible to have spent the night so close to a man who was, in fact, a stranger.

  But it was, as he had said at the time, the sensible thing to do.

  If she had been in the stables, she would certainly have snuggled up to her horse for warmth.

  The Duke came back into the room and she felt her heart give a leap because he looked so attractive and was smiling at her.

  “You have told Hanson?” she asked.

  “I have told him,” the Duke replied, sitting down again in the armchair.

  “He will make no mistakes when we arrive at Lord d’Arcy Armitage’s house?”

  The Duke shook his head.

  “Hanson has been with me for many years and, although I have not taken him on my more extensive travels abroad, he had always been prepared, as he says himself, for emergencies and actually enjoys one. So, although in principal I hate telling untruths, this time he realises what is called for and I trust him to do it.”

  The Duke did not add that he had said to Hanson outside in the yard,

  “And don’t forget, Hanson, that the young lady with me is my sister, Lady Georgina. It would be a great mistake for his Lordship to think she is anyone else.”

  There was a knowing look in Hanson’s eyes, which the Duke thought was slightly impertinent, but there was nothing he could do about it.

  He added,

  “Inform the servants in the brake that we met Lady Georgina in the fog and she also had to take shelter at the inn.”

  He did not wait for Hanson to reply, but walked away, eager to return to Ilitta.

  As he did so, he thought that no woman he had ever known could look so beautiful first thing in the morning and at the same time be completely unconcerned about her looks.

  It also amused him how, when the farmer’s daughter came in with a huge plate of eggs, ham and sausages, Ilitta’s face lit up with delight as she exclaimed how hungry she was.

  It had become fashionable amongst the sophisticated women, with whom the Duke spent so much of his time, to be very careful what they ate in case it should increase the circumference of their tiny waists.

  He was used to seeing them pick at their food, while looking wistfully at the exotic dishes his chef had provided and maybe permitting themselves to enjoy a mouthful or two.

  Ilitta, while she looked, the Duke thought, like a nymph who had just emerged from the mist, managed to eat two eggs, several sausages and three slices of ham.

  She had then munched a crust of warm bread having spread it thickly with butter and honey.

  “I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a meal more!” she exclaimed.

  “I must commend you,” the Duke replied, “for not complaining.”

  “What about?”

  “The discomforts of last night and the fact that our jailers did not allow us even a drop of cold water to drink.”

  Ilitta gave a little chuckle before she said,

  “Do you think they would really have kept us locked up until we were starved into submission?”

  “I am quite certain of it! Daltry must have spent a lot of money, which I imagine he can ill afford, on the luncheon he provided us with yesterday, the set-up outside the mine, the carriages which took us there and, of course, the travelling expenses for himself and his companions from London.”

  “No wonder he will be furious when he finds u
s gone!” Ilitta cried.

  “You can draw me a picture of their discomfort,” the Duke said, “and I am sure Daltry will severely punish the Baboon for letting us slip through his fingers.”

  Ilitta had a vision of the wrestler’s huge hands and the bulging muscles of his arms and shuddered.

  “But we should forget about it. Except that it will be a wonderful story one day to tell our children and our grandchildren.”

  “Of course!” Ilitta exclaimed. “I will make it into a book and illustrate it for them!”

  The Duke knew as he spoke that he had been thinking of children of his of whom Ilitta was the mother, but it had never crossed her mind that there was anything personal in his remark.

  They did not hurry over their breakfast and only when Ilitta commented that she could not eat another mouthful did the Duke say reluctantly,

  “I suppose we ought to be on our way.”

  She looked at him and then she said,

  “Perhaps now – as you no longer have any need of my services – I should – leave you.”

  It was a question that the Duke thought he should have expected and he replied hastily,

  “No, I cannot allow you to do that. Besides, as you have been so helpful and saved me from such an ignominious situation, I feel so responsible for you that if you still wish to go to London, I will take you there.”

  She stared at him for a moment, incredulous.

  Then she asked,

  “Do you really – mean that?”

  “Of course! I can hardly allow you to travel on a stagecoach and risk being accosted by some other swine of a man, as you were the night we met, or worse still encounter Captain Daltry and his friends also returning to London.”

  He thought, as he spoke, the latter was a rather clever point to make.

  Ilitta gave a little cry.

  “I never thought of that! Of course it would be a great mistake to go to London at the moment unless I was with you.”

  “I tell you what we will do,” the Duke said. “We will stay the night with Lord d’Arcy Armistice. I know he has never seen my sister and will therefore accept our story exactly as we tell it. Then tomorrow we will make plans if you wish to go to London or stay with another friend of mine.”