Her eyes were large and blue and above them she had a pair of fierce eyebrows, of a slightly darker colour than her hair. It made her face striking and full of character.
Nor was it only the beauty of her eyes that made him gaze at them. There was a sparkling fire within their depths. As she spoke it glowed with warmth and light, and there seemed to flow a blazing energy from her that made everything she said significant.
Of one thing he was increasingly certain.
A man might love Gina Wilton or hate her. But he would never be able to overlook her, especially when, as now, she was determined not to be overlooked.
Clearly she had set her sights on persuading him to do her bidding and he felt an increasing certainty that he was going to do it.
"Yes?" Gina asked.
"What?" he asked dreamily.
"You said I should listen to you."
"Did I?"
"Yes. Which means you have something to say."
"Have I?"
"Well surely you know whether you have or not?" she asked severely.
"Yes, yes, of course I have?"
"Well?"
"Well."
"What have you got to say to me?"
He struggled to pull himself together. He didn't want to. He wanted to stay in the glorious haze that was enveloping him, but clearly this imperious female was not going to allow it.
"I was only going to say that I cannot find the enormous amount of money which needs to be spent on the castle. Who is going to give me the fortune I need?"
He spoke in desperation and after his voice died away there was silence, except for the sound of the horses cantering along the roads.
Then Gina began to speak in a low voice which had a positive note to it,
"I am sure you can do it. I am sure you can. Where other people have run away or said it was hopeless, you will succeed."
She spoke so softly that for a moment John thought he must be thinking rather than hearing what she was saying. As he turned to look at her, he saw an expression in her eyes which he had never seen in any woman's eyes.
"Why do you say that?" he managed to gasp.
"Because I feel that I know you and I know what you are capable of," Gina answered very softly. "And I know you can do it. There is no doubt in my heart and mind that you will be successful."
John wondered at himself for listening to her. What could this girl know of the problems that faced him? And yet there was a force emanating from her that seemed to overwhelm him.
"We spoke of miracles a moment ago," he said. "Can you produce one, because that's what it will need?"
Gina who had been looking at him turned her head away. Then, in a quiet voice that he could hardly hear, she said,
"There are many ways, but perhaps the easiest for you would be if you married a great heiress."
For a moment there was silence. John was simply too thunderstruck to speak. Then he gave an awkward laugh.
"I suppose that is a practical idea, but heiresses are not easily found. I am not so conceited as to think that if I found one she would fall at my feet."
"You have a great title and I believe that rich girls always desire a title. In fact, the titled men I have met were always being run after by girls who were longing to marry an Earl, or even better a Duke. And you are a Duke, so you should be much in demand."
John stared, hardly able to believe his ears.
"You talk about me, madam, as though I am a piece of cheese that you are taking to market," he said indignantly.
"Oh, but a piece of very rare cheese," she retorted cheerfully.
"Thank you. Well, you may think me old-fashioned, but I would only marry a woman who loved me for myself and not because I have a title or a castle."
"Of course you feel that way," Gina said quickly, "and it is just what I expected you to say. But the two things go together. You may fall in love with someone who returns your feelings. Her fortune is only a wedding present and not really important to your love for each other."
"On the contrary," John replied. "I should very much dislike having to ask my wife for every penny I want to spend. To restore the castle I will need a fortune, a very large fortune, and I can assure you that no one as rich as that would want to marry a man, however important he might be, whose home was in ruins."
There was silence for a moment. Then Gina laughed.
"That is a challenge," she said. "I will find you a millionairess –"
"That is very kind of you but –"
"There is no need to be grateful because I won't just be doing it for you, but for England."
"I assure you, madam –"
"I was brought up to be very proud of being English and I cannot bear that anything so important to the country should be lost, especially as Her Majesty the Queen has made all the world very envious of us, because she has saved the Balkan principalities and arranges many marriages in Europe."
"Are you suggesting that I ask the Queen to save me?" he asked tartly, "or am I to try to save myself?"
"Oh, I know that you are laughing at me, but I am speaking seriously when I say, if you allow your wonderful castle to slip into ruins and if you don't exert yourself to save it, it is something you will regret when you are old."
She took a deep breath before adding fervently,
"You will be ashamed of having been a failure."
John stared at her, not sure that he could be hearing correctly. After what seemed a long silence he said,
"Very well, Miss Wilton. Listen to me seriously. Tomorrow I will take you round the castle, so that you will see for yourself how bad the problem is."
"Oh, I would love to see the castle. Yes, please take me round it."
"I will take great pleasure in doing so," John answered, rather grimly. "I hope it will make you stop and think, because I don't want you to go away thinking I am a coward or a fool, when actually I am being practical and sensible."
"How can you be sensible?" Gina asked. "This isn't a time for sense. It is a time for courage. Your family has fought and died for the castle. Surely you cannot be so foolish as to pass by on the other side? Are you a Chester or aren't you?"
"Are you really saying this to me?" John demanded.
"Oh, you think I am being impertinent."
"How very astute of you!"
"But something tells me it is what you need to hear. I think you were sent to save the castle. It is your destiny. And maybe my destiny was to be the person who revealed it to you.
"Somehow, by the help of prayer, you will find the money and the power within yourself to rescue your heritage. Not only for yourself, but for the children who will come after you."
She spoke softly yet with so much feeling that John could only stare at her. Then as she turned away, as if she was shy of what she had said, he saw tears in her blue eyes.
He could hardly believe this was really happening. That a girl he had never met before should speak to him in such a manner was beyond belief. Yet he sensed that her words came from the very depths of her heart.
For a moment he thought he must be dreaming or perhaps she was not real.
Then, almost as if someone was forcing him to answer her, the words came from his lips.
"I will try to do what you have asked of me," he said. "But I will need help. You must promise to help me, because I cannot do it alone."
He wondered at himself, making promises to this young woman who had no right to ask for them. Yet she clearly felt that she had. And perhaps she had. Perhaps anyone who felt so passionately about something had the right to speak.
"Of course I will help you," she said. "And I have a suggestion to make which you may think is ridiculous –"
To his surprise, she seemed nervous. After her fervent confidence he had not expected it.
"You may laugh at me being so foolish," she continued, "but I wonder if my idea has come to me because perhaps Heaven itself has been listening."
John wanted to say that Heav
en had better things to do than to listen to their problems. But, because he did not wish to be disagreeable, he said,
"Tell me anything you want to."
"The castle does, in some way, belong to everyone who lives around it. You and your family may live in it, but the – the idea of the castle belongs to our County. We have known it, loved it and admired it, ever since we were born. So we too have an interest in keeping it alive.
"I think you should summon everyone to the castle and let them see what a bad state it is in. Then ask for their help to restore it to its former glory."
"You mean – let strangers swarm all over my home?"
"But if they love it they won't be strangers. If they realise how much it means, not only to the County but to them personally, they would, each in their own way, offer their help."
As she finished speaking she was aware that John was staring at her in sheer astonishment.
At last he said,
"It sounds outrageous – incredible – and yet – and yet – it might work."
Gina gave a cry which seemed to ring out.
"You understand! You really understand," she exclaimed. "If they paint it and make it habitable, they could compete with each other and each room would be as beautiful and as comfortable as they could make it."
"But what would they gain from that?"
"Their names would be attached to the rooms they had restored, so that anybody visiting the castle in the future could read about them and know what they had done."
John stared at her.
Then he said cautiously,
"It is a brilliant idea. But are you quite certain people will not sneer at me? They might just laugh and say it is your responsibility and walk away."
"I don't think they will," she replied, "not if you talk to them in the right way."
And she would know all about talking to people in the right way, he thought ironically.
"It's their heritage too," she resumed, "and they know it. They would all feel sad if it disappeared into ruins. It could never be built again and all we would have to remember it would be the pictures that people have painted of it over the years."
John was silent.
Gina could tell he was thinking it over seriously and she closed her eyes, hoping and praying.
'He must do what I want,' she thought. 'He must.'
John covered his eyes with one hand.
"I can't think," he said at last. "My head is spinning. At one moment your idea seems wonderful, the next moment it seems impossible."
"But you will let me come and see the castle, won't you?" she asked anxiously. "Then I will have some more ideas."
"More?" he asked in alarm.
"Oh, yes, when I see the inside I am bound to think of lots of things to do."
"You worry me more by the minute."
"My Lord Duke –"
"I think you had better call me John, and I will, if I may, call you Gina. Since we seem to have become conspirators, formality is surely inappropriate."
"But my father is a builder," she admitted, horrified.
"I am not quite sure what you mean."
"A builder's daughter cannot call a Duke by his first name."
"Nonsense, of course she can, if he wishes her to."
"But it spoils everything," she said. "You cannot be really grand if anyone can address you in a familiar manner?"
"Not anyone. Just you. And must I be grand?"
"Of course. Otherwise what becomes of your Ducal authority?"
"Do I have any?" he asked ironically. "Where has my Ducal authority been for the last hour? Crushed under your heel, that's where."
"That was only a minor aberration. I think you should resume your authority now."
"Thank you, madam. What a relief to have your permission."
"My Lord, I only meant –"
"Gina, you will address me as John or I will put you out of the carriage," he said firmly. "I am not sure I should not do so anyway."
"You wouldn't!"
"Wouldn't I?"
"John!"
"That's better."
"But –"
"Silence!"
She was quiet at once. Encouraged by the effects of his first display of Ducal authority, he added,
"This is a Duke speaking, so heed him and obey."
She giggled.
While they had been talking, the time had passed swiftly and John became aware that they had entered the County and that in a mile or so they would see the castle or what was left of it, silhouetted against the darkening sky.
"Look!" she cried. "Oh, look at it! Isn't it wonderful?"
He had never thought so, but inspired by her enthusiasm he found himself saying,
"Yes, it is."
Now the horses seemed to move a little faster, almost as if they knew their journey was at an end, John turned towards Gina.
"We are nearly there. Give me your address and I will send a conveyance for you in the morning."
She scribbled it down and gave it to him.
"I will leave this carriage at the castle," he said, "and you will carry on to your home. I will, of course, pay the reckoning for the whole journey."
"You will not," she parried at once. "I pay my own reckoning."
"Gina –"
"If you argue, I will call you 'My Lord Duke'."
That silenced him.
Now the castle was in sight. Suddenly she clasped his arm and exclaimed,
"We will win. Whisper it to yourself, every time you feel worried, that you will win the battle however hard it may be. I am sure, absolutely sure, in my heart and my mind that you will win!"
John took her hand in his and raised it to his lips.
"How can I fail with you to help me?"
As he spoke the carriage came to a halt at the side door of the castle.
John kissed Gina's hand once again. Then he stepped out as one of the men climbed down from the front of the carriage and started to lift his cases out of the back.
John rang the bell.
The door was answered by a familiar face. Tennison, the butler, had been with the family for nearly twenty years.
"Good afternoon, Your Grace," he said, showing no surprise at the new Duke turning up out of the blue. Your mother is waiting for you in the drawing room."
"I will be with her directly."
He returned to the carriage door and spoke to Gina in a low voice,
"Thank you, thank you for everything you have said to me. I know that, with your help, we will win."
He kissed her hand again. Then, before she could say anything he turned and walked into the castle.
CHAPTER THREE
He was followed by the servants carrying his luggage and then the man driving the carriage turned it round for the rest of the journey.
As they drove away, Gina looked back to see if there was any sign of John and his family. But there was only the butler closing the front door.
John ran straight up the staircase to the drawing room to see his mother.
Although he had seen little of her since going on his travels, he was actually extremely fond of her.
Before her marriage she had been Lady Evelyn Gower, daughter of an Earl, and was widely held to have come down in the world, since she had secured only the younger son of a Duke. But the young Lady Evelyn had fallen in love with the Duke's younger brother and had been determined to have her way.
In her youth she had been a great beauty, reputedly with half the men in Society at her feet. It was rumoured that the Prince of Wales himself had sent her desperate love letters. Now, in her fifties, traces of that beauty still lingered in her delicate face and slim, elegant deportment.
She was a woman of eccentric ways but a lot of shrewdness. Those who thought her scatterbrained eventually learned their mistake.
John found her sitting by the fire knitting. When he walked in she gave a cry of delight and held out her arms.
"You are back!" she excla
imed. "Oh, dear boy, we missed you so much."
"I didn't get the telegram for six weeks," John replied. "But I came the moment I received it. I was so sorry, dearest Mama, that I was not here to help you with Uncle Rupert's burial."
"It was very moving," his mother said. "But he had been ill for some time after his accident, so it was a relief that he did not have to suffer any more."
"But you moved in here as I expected you to do. Are you comfortable?"
"Not at all," she replied robustly. "The castle needs a great deal doing to it." She added gloomily, "it'll probably collapse soon."
John drew in his breath, but said nothing. This was not the moment to tell his mother about Gina or what they were planning.
"Did you enjoy your time abroad?" she asked. "I thought of you so often, my darling, and was sure you were finding exciting places in foreign countries. It was so nice that you managed to send us back some money, especially when your dear Papa died."
Lord James Chester had died suddenly about a year ago, following a bad fall from a horse. But for that, he would have become the Duke, but John had always known that his father had cared little for his heritage.
He was quite content to live in a house on his brother's estate for which he paid no rent. He had no ambition or ideas as to what he should do if he became the Duke and inherited the castle.
John was sure that it had never crossed his mind for a moment that he was leaving his son with the problems that should have been his.
Lord James had been comfortably off but he had left a widow and three children younger than John. The boys went to an expensive school and the girl was at a school in London where the debutantes of the Season were not only instructed how to speak, sing and dance, but also how to expect the smartest and most expensive clothes to be theirs when they made their debut.
The family income could just about manage these expenses, but not the greater demands that the castle would put on it.
John looked forward with dread to the arrival of his sister, Drusilla, and his two younger brothers.
But for the moment he was determined simply to enjoy the reunion with his mother.
"I have a lot to tell you," he said to her, "but first I want to see which bedroom I am in."
Lady Evelyn smiled.
Love Finds the Way Page 3
