Listening to him Della was conscious from his tone that he was extremely worried and she found herself wishing, even before he had finished his story, that Lendi would be able to help him.
“Alice is now nearly eighteen,” the Marquis went on, “and she made her curtsy last month to the Queen at Windsor Castle. She is now undoubtedly the prettiest debutante of the season, but unfortunately she is also the richest.”
“Be mistake,” came in Lendi, “make her unhappy.”
“It does not make her unhappy at the moment,” replied the Marquis, “but me.”
Della wondered why and almost as if she had asked the question he said,
“It was inevitable that Alice should be pestered by fortune–hunters, but although I warned her constantly, it was impossible to keep them away.”
“Fortune–hunters,” repeated Lendi. “They clever – and unscrupulous.”
“And very determined to get hold of her money,” added the Marquis.
His voice was harsh.
“There one in particular – who worry you?”
“I knew you would understand. Yes, there is one and unfortunately Alice finds him attractive. It is not surprising because he is indeed a handsome young man, very glib and he pays her compliments which another man might find embarrassing.”
“Your Lordship think niece – want marry him?”
“Of course that is what she wants,” answered the Marquis. “That is why I feel, Lendi, you are the only person who can prevent it.”
“How my Lord suggest I do that?”
“Alice is looking forward to having her fortune told and what girl is not? I have been waiting to throw a party at which you will tell the fortunes of everyone present.”
He made a gesture with his hands.
“You must be careful not to make it too obvious why you have been asked as the man pursuing Alice is no fool.”
“You think he feel – you have no reason inviting me to your beautiful house, my Lord.”
“He would certainly think so, if you came just for Alice. That is why I must organise a party for perhaps ten or fifteen young people.”
He paused for a moment and continued,
“Those who want their fortune told will be able to go into a special room after dinner, where you will be able to tell them all the wonderful things which are going to happen to them in the future.”
“If they really wanting to know – ”
“Exactly!” agreed the Marquis. “And I know without my telling you that you will realise if Alice is married entirely for her money, she will be disillusioned and miserable, as only a sensitive young woman could be in the circumstances.”
“I understand. I understand. But my Lord, I am a sick woman. Cannot leave bed. As you say be too obvious – Lady Alice come to me and I tell her – she in danger.”
The Marquis put his hand up to his forehead.
“I was relying on you. What else can I do?”
“I have idea.” Lendi held up one finger. “Someone take my place, do it cleverly. She here – listening to you. She understands – Lady Alice must be saved.”
As she spoke she pointed at Della.
As the Marquis looked at her, Della gasped, then as she met the Marquis’s eyes the words she was about to say died on her lips.
For some reason she could not comprehend she knew she must help him.
It might be difficult it might be almost impossible, yet it was what she must do.
CHAPTER FIVE
As the Marquis left, again thanking Lendi for helping him, he raised her hand to his lips.
Della thought it was very kind of him and she realised how much Lendi appreciated the gesture.
When he had finally departed Della asked,
“How can you say I can go in your place? I am sure Mireli would be far better.”
Lendi shook her head.
“No, Lady, you live in big houses – know important people. Mireli has yet to learn about them. Very different telling fortunes of – villagers.”
Della could see the sense in what she was saying, but equally she was frightened.
“But how can I possibly tell fortunes as you do?”
“Read their thoughts,” said Lendi quietly.
Della was silent.
She knew that she was able at times to read other people’s thoughts, but it would be very different with strangers.
As if Lendi could divine what she was thinking, she told her,
“Young people – all want love. They look into crystal. You find easy to know – what they think.”
“I will do my best,” sighed Della.
She wanted to refuse outright, but doing so she knew would be most unkind to Lendi and it would be very ungrateful to the gypsies who had allowed her to run away with them without a word of protest.
How could she possibly refuse to do the one favour they asked of her?
Clasping her hands together she knelt in front of Lendi and pleaded,
“Give me a lesson, teach me, please, please!”
“I will,” promised Lendi. “There no hurry. Moon help – better than me.”
Della wanted to argue, but decided there was no point. All she could do was to attempt to learn from Lendi in two days, everything she had learned in a lifetime.
She was, however, thrilled when a little later she climbed out of the caravan to find Piramus waiting for her.
“Lordship when he left say if wish you ride in woods,” he informed her happily.
“He said that!” exclaimed Della in astonishment. “But why?”
“He saw Apollo. Looks different to our horses. Lordship ask where I got him.”
“I tell him Apollo yours. Now you have ride in woods and over fields.”
“I cannot believe it,” enthused Della, “but I am going to ride at once just in case his Lordship changes his mind.”
“Lord not do that,” smiled Piramus.
Because she was so excited at the idea of riding over the estate, Della did not change her clothes. She quickly saddled up Apollo and rode into the large wood to the right side of where they were camped.
It was, she thought, as wonderful in its way as the Duke’s woods, which she always thought of as hers. There were rabbits moving about in the undergrowth and squirrels climbing up the trees.
When she had ridden for quite a long time she found a pool just like the one she visited so often when she was at home.
It was actually larger and surrounded by trees which made it appear mysterious but, as the irises and the kingcups were in flower, very beautiful.
She could imagine nymphs swimming in its cool depths and emerging from the water to seek the sunshine. She stood for a long time entranced by the pool.
It was only on her way back to the gypsy camp that she realised she was seeing the Marquis’s house for the first time.
It was not very far away on raised ground, which is why she had not noticed it at first. It was a large house, but not as enormous as the Duke’s and although it seemed wrong to think so, it was much more attractive.
She guessed it had been built about 1750 and must have been designed by the Adam brothers.
The Marquis’s standard was flying from the top of the main building. Between the house and the wood she realised there was a long stretch of water, which she thought could be an artificial lake. She could just see that in the centre of it was a fountain throwing jets up towards the sun.
The spray glittered in the distance just like a myriad of precious gems.
‘I would love to see the fountain much closer,’ she mused. ‘Perhaps I will have the opportunity when I go to the house to tell fortunes.’
She thought how much she would love to see the inside of the house as well, she felt certain it would contain unique treasures of the same antiquity as in Wood Hall.
She returned to the gypsy encampment and unsaddled Apollo with the help of one of the gypsy men. Then she went straight to Lendi’s caravan.
&nb
sp; “Lady had good ride?” asked Lendi.
“It was unbelievably lovely,” answered Della.
“Message come – while you away. Party be on Thursday, day after tomorrow.”
“His Lordship is obviously in a hurry.”
“He need be,” said Lendi simply.
Della felt sure she had heard the Marquis’s name mentioned before, but could not remember where.
That evening after they had finished supper they sat round the fire while one of the gypsies produced a violin and played a lilting melody.
The stars filled the sky. The light of the moon was growing stronger and the trees in the woods looked dark and mysterious.
‘Nothing could be more romantic,’ pondered Della.
Everything was so beautiful that she was afraid it was only a fantasy in one of her dreams and it all might vanish without any explanation.
*
Yet the glorious dream was still embedded in her consciousness the next morning and when she looked out of the window of her caravan, she realised that the one thing she wanted to do now was to ride Apollo again and because she intended to go a long way, she dressed in her riding habit.
Wearing only a pretty muslin blouse ornamented with lace and no hat she rode away from the camp.
She had noted that there were fresh eggs for breakfast and she was told they had been sent to the gypsies with the Marquis’s compliments.
There was also fruit from his greenhouses and fresh strawberries and vegetables from his walled garden
“His Lordship is very kind to you,” she said to Piramus.
“Like Lordship – your uncle. We very grateful. When we leave, Lendi blesses those who – so kind. We – sure afore we come again they find happiness.”
Della hoped he was right, but she could see no happiness for herself if she was forced into marriage with Jason.
She deliberately did not tell Lendi how frightened she was feeling. She did not want to talk about it and was afraid to look into her own future. Perhaps Lendi would see that it was her fate to marry Jason even though she hated and despised him.
‘I will not hurry,’ Della told herself for the thousandth time. ‘I must have plenty of time to think.’
She was desperately trying to find some way of escape and yet as she was so scared she did not want at the moment even to think of Jason.
She rode off.
There was no question of any of the gypsies suggesting that one of them should accompany her as they appreciated that she wanted to be alone.
If she had been with friends of her uncle’s they would have questioned her relentlessly and they would have been insatiably curious as to what she was going to do.
‘The gypsies understand,’ she told herself, ‘as if they could read my thoughts without hearing them spoken aloud.’
Perhaps not only Lendi but also every gypsy had the gift and could tell her exactly what was going to happen to her.
She was so frightened she did not want to know.
She just wanted for the moment to be happy with the nymphs and with all the other mysterious creatures she believed lived in the woods.
She realised that the gypsies believed firmly in fairies too and they even thought that some of them took human form while remaining immortal.
The wood seemed even more entrancing today than it had yesterday.
She walked Apollo along the mossy paths until they reached the pool and as she drew nearer the sunshine came streaming through the leaves of the trees. It made the water glitter as if there was hidden treasure in its depths.
Because the scene in front of Della was so lovely, she dismounted and tied Apollo’s reins together so that he could wander.
She stood amongst the irises looking down into the cool water and it was then that she unexpectedly heard the sound of a horse approaching. It was coming from the path on the other side of the pool.
Two seconds later the Marquis appeared from between the trees.
He looked at Della.
Then just as she had done he dismounted and tied his reins leaving his horse free to join Apollo.
“I somehow thought,” he began as he walked towards her, “that I should find you here.”
“Why should you have thought that, my Lord?”
“Because I was quite certain it was where you belong and you would wish to see, as I do, the nymphs swimming in the bottom of the pool.”
Della looked at him in astonishment.
“I think you must – be reading my – thoughts.”
The Marquis smiled.
“I realise that is your prerogative, but I saw you standing here and thought for a moment you were one of the nymphs.”
Della laughed.
“Now you are flattering me, my Lord. It is just what I would like to be! I would swim right to the bottom of this lovely pool and stay there.”
“And if you did so, what would happen to all your admirers? You would leave them heartbroken.”
Della laughed again.
“As they do not exist there is no need for me to worry about them.”
“Do you really expect me to believe that?” asked the Marquis.
Della shrugged her shoulders.
“It happens to be the truth and if I need a companion, my Lord, I am perfectly content with Apollo.”
“I suppose that is Apollo I see over there. Strangely enough he is most appropriately talking to Juno.”
“Is he really?”
“He is indeed and like you I would rather be with Juno than any other woman I have ever met.”
“You cannot expect me to believe that.”
“Why not?” questioned the Marquis.
She moved from amongst the irises to where, beside the pool, there was a fallen tree that made a comfortable seat.
Without really thinking what she was doing she sat down and the Marquis joined her saying as he did,
“I can assure you I am very careful not to ask Lendi to tell my fortune. I am quite certain she would find me a suitable bride and I have a feeling her predictions would be even more pushy than those of my relations!”
Della chuckled.
“I can understand when you own anything as beautiful as this wood and your lovely house, my Lord, that your family wish you to marry and settle down. To have someone special to share it with.”
She was thinking as she spoke that this was exactly what the Duke wanted for Jason, although when he had married it had been a disaster.
Because even the thought of Jason upset her, she gave a little shudder and the Marquis asked,
“What is frightening you?”
“How do you – know I am – frightened?” Della looked startled.
“I cannot give you a direct answer,” he replied, “but I know I am right. Although you look like one of the nymphs from the pool and should be happy and carefree, I can sense you are, in fact, very afraid of something.”
“You are – right,” Della admitted, “but I do not want to talk – about it.”
She thought as she was speaking how extraordinary it was that this stranger should be so knowledgeable about her. It was almost as though he could see into her thoughts.
And then she realised as she looked over at the Marquis, sitting next to her, that he was extremely good–looking.
She suspected that his relatives were all determined he should marry as soon as possible so that he wasn’t left all alone with only his possessions for company, however marvellous they might be.
“You are quite right,” said the Marquis, reading her thoughts again, “but I am determined to enjoy life in my own way. You as a gypsy, who has always ignored convention, will understand my feelings as no one else.”
“Of course I – understand,” agreed Della. “You must never marry anyone unless as Lendi would say – you follow your heart and then it is inevitable.”
The Marquis smiled.
“That is exactly what I intend to do. I therefore make it clear that anyone who insists
on talking about my future will not be invited to Clare Court a second time!”
“Instead they will just talk about it behind your back.”
“I am quite certain they will,” the Marquis replied, “and of course young women will continue to be paraded in front of me like horses at a spring sale.”
He spoke almost angrily, but Della found herself laughing.
“I can see it all happening and of course you are an irresistible prize, my Lord, for any ambitious debutante.”
Only as she spoke did she catch herself, thinking this was not something a gypsy would have said, so quickly before the Marquis could reply she added,
“But I must not keep your Lordship talking if you have an appointment.”
“My only appointment is with my woods, madam, and I am delighted that you should want ride in them.”
It struck Della that having said what she planned to do perhaps he had deliberately come in search of her. It was, however, something she could not ask him.
Instead she said most sincerely,
“I cannot tell you how grateful I am, my Lord. As you are already aware woods mean a great deal to me and I always turn to them whenever I am happy or in trouble.”
“At the moment you are worried?”
She felt it was no use protesting any further.
“Yes I am, but I do not wish to admit it.”
“I think what you desire,” the Marquis told her, “is to be alone with the fairies and the goblins. Alternatively you might like to look at my horses.”
Della’s eyes lit up.
“Do you mean it?” she enthused, her eyes sparkling in the sunlight with excitement. “Is it really an invitation?”
“If it would interest you.”
“Of course it would, my Lord.”
“Then come and look at them,” suggested the Marquis. “I can tell by looking at how well groomed Apollo is, and how you speak of him, that like most gypsies your horse is more important to you than almost anything else.”
“I can only say, my Lord, that I would be very honoured to see the horses in your Lordship’s stables.”
She tried to speak in a manner she thought a gypsy would have done.
The Marquis rose and they walked to where the horses were looking for grass beneath the trees.
When Della gave a little whistle, Apollo came ambling towards her.
Follow Your Heart Page 8
