Leonora1 - Daughters of War
Page 25
When the door closed behind him she got up and went to the mirror over the fireplace. Her eyes and her lips were red and swollen. She took out her handkerchief and rubbed at them, and tidied her hair as best she could. Then, unable to face Adriana’s sympathy, she went out into the hall, where a footman stood ready to open the front door. In a moment she was in the street.
At breakfast the next morning she said, ‘Ralph, I have decided I should like to go home.’
‘Why?’ he asked. ‘I thought you were enjoying yourself here.’
‘I was, but now I am tired and I think I need a little peace and quiet.’
He shook his head. ‘You can’t possibly go home all alone. If you’re tired, just don’t accept any more invitations.’
‘You know it isn’t as easy as that. Anyway, why can’t I go home? I wouldn’t be alone. The house is still there, presumably, and the staff.’
‘I let some of them go. But Beavis is there, and Mrs Sanders and one or two of the others.’
‘Then I can go to them. I don’t need a nursemaid.’
He looked at her, chewing his lip as he did at moments of indecision. ‘Leo, I don’t want you in London, where I can’t keep an eye on you.’
‘Oh, for goodness sake! What do you think I am going to do?’
‘Who knows? You will probably chum up with that Langford woman, for a start, and those FANYs. God knows what sort of mad scheme you might get yourself involved in. I’m sorry, Leo, but I just don’t trust you to be sensible.’
Leo glared at him. She had cried herself to sleep the previous night and had no more tears to shed but in her extremity she felt she could hurl the cups and saucers and the cutlery at his head. Instead, she forced herself to be calm and to employ the last stratagem at her disposal.
‘Would it make any difference if I were engaged to Tom?’
He looked stunned. ‘Engaged? You mean you have finally come to your senses?’
‘I believe so, yes.’
‘And what makes you think Tom will still have you, after the way you have treated him?’
‘The only one of us who has ill-treated Tom is you. He has never blamed me for what happened, or if he did he has forgiven me. I think he would be prepared to give me his name.’
Ralph’s face cleared. ‘You know nothing would please me more than to see you two married. If Tom is willing to go ahead with the engagement I see no reason why you shouldn’t go back to London together.’
Three weeks later the London Gazette published the following paragraph:
‘The engagement is announced of Miss Leonora Malham Brown, of 31 Sussex Gardens, London, to Mr Thomas Andrew Devenish, only son of Sir William Devenish, Bart., of Denham Manor, Hertfordshire.’
The following day, the Bulgarian General Savov launched a surprise attack on Serbian forces in Macedonia. The two former allies were at war.
Back in England Leo took refuge from the congratulations of friends and acquaintances and the inevitable invitations to attend social functions with her new fiancé by retreating to Bramwell, the family estate in Cheshire. Here, under the care of James and Annie Bartlett, the estate manager and housekeeper who had always treated her like one of their own children, she had time to reflect and recover. It was clearly understood between her and Tom that their engagement was simply a matter of expediency and was not to lead to marriage. The question she had to answer now was how she intended to use the rest of her life. She could not imagine finding a new love, and the idea of marrying for convenience, to secure her place in society, was abhorrent to her. Her grandmother’s will, together with her father’s legacy, had left her well provided for financially so she had no worries on that score but she urgently needed to find some purpose powerful enough to distract her mind from the contemplation of her loss. The newspapers were full of increasingly hysterical assertions of German aggressive intention and war seemed inevitable. Leo’s one consolation was the thought that she had shown that she could be of use on the field of conflict and it seemed likely that before long she would be called on to prove her courage and ability again.
Table of Contents
Recent Titles by Hilary Green
Daughters of War
Copyright
About the Book
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One