“Let’s wait just a little longer,” Heloise pleaded with him when he had discussed it with her. “I love you, you know that I love you, Ingram. But after all you had a great many love affairs before you met me.”
“They meant nothing, absolutely nothing – ” the Earl said firmly, “compared to what I feel about you. And you are more beautiful than any woman I have ever seen.”
Heloise had smiled benignly, taking such praise as her rightful due.
Almost every man she had ever met said the same thing.
She was well aware, because of her red hair and green eyes, that she shone amongst the other girls of her age.
They all looked so extremely English with their fair hair, blue eyes and pink-and-white complexions.
Fortunately Lord Penbrook was well off and so Heloise could afford to dress in a way that accentuated not only her colouring but the movements of her supple body.
No one knew how long she had practised in front of a mirror until she could walk with a Siren-like movement of her slim figure.
She made it quite impossible for any man in the room not to watch her intently.
Every movement of her hands, the way she held her head and the flicker of her eyelashes had been practised to perfection.
The result was most certainly sensational and, where she and the Earl were concerned, naturally people guessed that there was something intimate between them.
It struck the Earl now that it would surely cause a sensation if he did not appear at the Devonshire House Fancy Dress Ball.
If he did, on the other hand, and he was not accompanied every person in the ballroom would be talking avidly avidly about it.
‘What the Devil shall I do?’ he asked himself.
He was intelligent enough to be aware that a large number of men would be delighted to learn that he had been turned down by a beautiful woman
They would consider that it served him right for being too successful, too rich and too good-looking!
Of course they were jealous of him. How could they possibly not be?
Also the mothers who had given up aspirations already for their daughters to become the Countess of Ardwick would then resume the chase with renewed vigour.
‘What am I to do?’ the Earl asked himself yet again.
Deep in his thoughts, he suddenly became aware that his horses had come to a standstill.
He looked out of the window.
They were in a very narrow street and straight ahead of them there had been an accident. It was something that was happening frequently in London these days because of an increase in the population and so many vehicles on the roads.
Many of the streets were too narrow for the amount of traffic now surging through them.
The Earl could now hear men shouting noisily at each other.
As he looked out, he could see that the wheels of two vehicles were interlocked.
He opened the door and jumped out of his carriage.
The vehicles involved were a Post chaise and a Hackney carriage and the drivers were yelling foul oaths at each other.
The Hackney carriage it seemed had partially collapsed onto one side.
The Earl walked along the pavement.
A number of small boys and elderly women had gathered at the scene of the accident. And were clearly enjoying witnessing the unfolding turmoil in front of them.
They moved to let the Earl pass as if recognising that he was someone of authority.
Standing just ahead looking at the carriage were those who had been the occupants of it.
They were, the Earl could see, a young girl and a small boy who was pulling out of the Hackney carriage a spaniel who was obviously frightened by the collision.
The Earl walked up to the girl and asked,
“May I be of any assistance? You seem to be in considerable trouble.”
She was small and slight and she looked up at him as if in surprise that he was speaking to her.
As she did so, he realised that she was exceptionally pretty, in fact ‘lovely’ was the right word to describe her.
She was very young and, he thought, unsophisticated and frightened.
“We – have been – in a – collision,” she said unnecessarily. “I-I don’t quite – know what to d-do.”
“I am afraid,” the Earl remarked with a slight touch of laughter in his voice, “you will not be able to proceed any further in that vehicle.”
“N-no – I suppose – not,” the girl stammered.
The small boy now had the spaniel in his arms.
“Bracken is very afraid, Lupita,” he quavered.
“I think he will be all right if you put him down on the ground, Jerry,” the girl answered, “but keep a tight hold of his lead.”
As she spoke, the two drivers were still shouting furiously at each other and using course and vulgar language and, the Earl thought, most unsuitable for the ears of a young girl.
The street they were in was clearly a poor one.
Apart from the damaged Hackney carriage, the traffic involved consisted mostly of carts and wagons.
“What I suggest,” the Earl said, “is that I give you and your little brother, as I suspect he is, a lift to wherever you are going.”
“That is – very kind of you, sir,” she said, “but – ”
“Have you any luggage?” the Earl interrupted.
“Yes – we have.”
She pointed to a small trunk that was on the box of the Hackney carriage.
The Earl then signalled to his footman, who was standing by the door of his carriage.
The man came running.
“Take that trunk down, James,” he ordered, pointing towards the Hackney carriage, “and put it up behind us.”
“Very good, my Lord.”
He pulled the trunk down, which did not appear to be very heavy.
“Now suppose you climb into my carriage,” the Earl said, “while I attempt to get the two drivers to stop shouting at each other and clear the road so that we can proceed.”
The girl took the hand of the small boy and they followed the footman who was walking ahead with the luggage.
The Earl then stepped out into the road.
In a few well-chosen words he managed to silence the angry drivers.
They well knew authority when they met it.
With sour faces they proceeded to move their horses and the battered vehicles so that the Earl’s team could pass them.
It took a little time, but the Earl supervised the operation until the road was clear.
He returned to his own carriage and jumped in.
The young girl was sitting on the back seat with the small boy and the dog opposite her.
As the Earl sat down, she said,
“It – it is very kind of you – and both my brother and I are – very grateful to you, sir.”
“It is a pleasure,” the Earl replied. “Now where do you want to go?”
His footman stood at the door of the carriage waiting for his instructions.
There was a little pause before she replied,
“I-I wonder – do you know of a – quiet hotel where – we could – stay?”
The Earl looked at her in astonishment.
“A hotel?” he asked. “But surely, if you have come to London you have relatives or friends who you are going to stay with?”
“N-no – I am – afraid not,” the girl answered.
“Jerry and I just want – somewhere very – quiet and respectable – where no one will – f-find us.”
The Earl was intrigued.
There was nothing he liked more than a mystery or a puzzle that needed untangling.
There was obviously something strange about these two young people and the little dog.
Turning to the footman, he called out,
“Home, James.”
The footman closed the door of the carriage.
As the horses began to move off, the Earl turned and said,
“I think the first thing we should do is to introduce ourselves. I am the Earl of Ardwick.”
The girl opposite him gave a little gasp.
“I have heard of – you,” she exclaimed. “You have very fine racehorses – and you – won the Gold Cup at Ascot – last year.”
The Earl smiled.
“I did indeed, but I am surprised that you should be aware of it.”
“My f-father was very interested in racing,” the girl replied, “and when his – sight began to fail I-I used to read to him about the Race Meetings in the – newspapers.”
She spoke without any affectation and it made the Earl feel sure that she was a country girl.
She obviously knew very little about London and the way that Londoners behaved.
A quiet family hotel she was envisaging for herself and her brother would be difficult to find.
The proprietors would also think it very strange that a young girl was travelling without a chaperone.
“You have not yet told me who you are,” the Earl prompted.
“I am Lupita Lang – and this is my brother, Jeremy, whom we always call ‘Jerry’.”
She hesitated for a moment before she went on,
“Perhaps I should also – tell you that he is the Earl of Langwood.”
The Earl looked at her in astonishment.
Then he repeated,
“The Earl of Langwood! In which case I knew your father, who I imagine must now be dead.”
“He – died last – winter,” Lupita replied.
There was a note in her voice that told the Earl how much her father’s death had upset her.
“I am deeply sorry to hear this news,” the Earl said. “I met your father two years ago at Newmarket and I am sure I saw that him at Ascot last year, when as you say, I won the Gold Cup.”
“Yes – he was there,” Lupita agreed, “but – now that he is d-dead – Jerry and I have – had to run away.”
The Earl looked at her.
“Run away?” he queried. “Why and from whom?”
There was a pause when he wondered if she was going to tell him the truth.
At that moment there was the sound of a loud bang and Jerry moved quickly to the open window.
Outside red-coated soldiers were marching down the road led by their band.
It was a sight that Londoners were very familiar with since Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations of two weeks ago.
But to Jerry it was all so new and exciting.
He leaned out of the window as far as he could to see the soldiers marching smartly past.
It was then that Lupita said in a low voice that only the Earl could hear,
“Th-there is – somebody trying to – kill Jerry!”
CHAPTER TWO
The Earl stared at her in amazement.
Then, when he would have spoken, she put her finger to her lips and he was aware that she could not speak to him in front of the small boy.
As they drove on, the Earl said to her,
“I do think, Lady Lupita, that it would be a great mistake for you to stay at a hotel alone with Jerry. As I knew your father, I feel in a way responsible for you and I therefore suggest that you stay at my house in Grosvenor Square.”
Lupita looked at him in some surprise.
“Stay with you? But we – have only just – met you.”
“I know that,” the Earl answered with a smile, “but perhaps you don’t understand the difficulties you would encounter in a strange hotel. Also, owing to the Queen’s Jubilee, every hotel in London is heavily booked at present.”
“I-I did not think of – that,” Lupita said, as if it was very careless of her.
“Then let me suggest that you stay with me,” the Earl went on, “at least until you can get in touch with your relatives. You will be amply chaperoned as my grandmother is fortunately with me at the moment.”
He paused to smile at her before he continued,
“She is getting on for eighty, but it would never have occurred to her to miss the Jubilee celebrations and she intends to enjoy every possible moment of it.”
“Thank you – thank you very – much, my Lord,” Lupita now enthused. “It is very – very kind of you – and I know if Papa was alive that he would be – extremely grateful to you.”
The Earl did not say anything more, but then he was wondering to himself what all this was about.
Despite his anger at the way that Heloise had behaved, he was finding himself interested and intrigued by Lady Lupita’s situation and problems.
How could anyone as attractive as the girl sitting beside him be running away?
Not from a man who was pursuing her, but who was intent on killing her brother.
He thought that it must be a figment of her imagination and could not possibly be true.
At the same time, because he had known and respected the Earl of Langwood, he was very determined to get to the bottom of her difficulties whatever they might be.
It did not take them long to reach the large and impressive house that the Earl owned in Grosvenor Square.
The horses drew up outside it and James jumped down.
The Earl was then aware that the footman was holding the gown box and in it was the fancy dress that Heloise had intended wearing at the Duchess of Devonshire’s ball.
He vaguely wondered, since she would now be going with the Duke of Dunbridge, what she had chosen instead.
Then he told himself that she was utterly despicable and he would not waste any more time even thinking about her.
The front door was opened the moment the horses drew up outside it.
The footman went ahead to put the gown box inside the house.
The Earl helped Lupita out of the carriage and Jerry followed them, leading his dog.
As in all the Earl’s houses, the hall at Grosvenor Square was extremely imposing.
It boasted a magnificent crystal and gold staircase and a huge chandelier that glittered in the light streaming down from high windows.
The Earl gave his hat and gloves to a tall footman in fine Livery and the butler hurried ahead to open the door of a room at the end of the hall.
As they entered, Lupita thought that it was the most attractive room she had ever seen.
The Earl was walking across to where a distinguished lady with white hair was sitting by the mantelpiece reading a book.
Because it was July, there was no fire in the grate and instead the fireplace was filled with flowers whose vivid blossoms made a glorious patch of colour.
“You are back already, Ingram?” his grandmother exclaimed. “I was not expecting you so early.”
“I have brought you some visitors, Grandmama,” the Earl replied, bending down to kiss her cheek. “This is Lady Lupita Lang and her brother who is now the Earl of Langwood. I daresay you will remember the late Earl.”
“Langwood,” the Dowager Countess cried. “But, of course, I remember him. And a very handsome man too.”
She turned towards Lupita.
“Your mother, my dear, was very beautiful and I can see that you are very like her.”
Lupita dropped her a curtsey.
“It is very kind of you ma’am to say so and I am so glad that you knew Papa.”
“Lady Lupita and Jerry are staying with me,” the Earl explained, “and I will go and make arrangements about their rooms.”
He left the drawing room and the Dowager Countess turned to Lupita,
“Sit down, my dear, and tell me all about your father. I am so sorry to hear that he is no longer with us.”
“I-I miss him – so very much,” Lupita answered. “Jerry and I live in the country and we have come to London quite – unexpectedly.”
“I am so delighted that you should stay here with my grandson,” the Dowager Countess said.
Jerry, who was playing with his dog, looked up.
“If there is a garden here, ma’am,” he asked, “may I take Bracken in it?”<
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“I am sure you can,” the Dowager Countess smiled.
She picked up a small silver bell that was on a table by her side and rang it.
The door was at once opened by the butler and the Dowager Countess said,
“This little boy wants to take his dog into the garden, Dawkins. I am sure you can send one of the footmen with him.”
“Yes, of course, my Lady,” the butler replied.
He held out his hand to Jerry who jumped up, saying,
“We were in the Hackney carriage for a long time. I don’t think Bracken will like being in London very much.”
“I expects he’ll soon get used to it,” Dawkins replied.
They were still talking as they left the room and the Dowager Countess enquired,
“Do tell me, dear child, about your mother. I remember seeing her in several ballrooms before she married your father and thinking how extremely beautiful she was.”
“Mama died three years ago,” Lupita answered, “and – my father missed her so much – that I don’t think he minded – dying. He caught a very bad cold before Christmas – I blame myself for not – looking after him better – as Mama had always done.”
“So now you are looking after your little brother,” the Dowager Countess commented.
“Yes,” Lupita agreed.
“I am sure he is very lucky to have you.”
The Dowager Countess glanced up at the large ornamental clock on the mantelpiece.
“I hope you will understand, my dear, if I now go and lie down before dinner. Otherwise I will feel too tired to come down all those stairs.”
She rose to her feet as she spoke and walked rather unsteadily across the room.
Lupita hurried to open the door for her and as she did so the Earl was just coming in.
“You are going upstairs now, Grandmama?” he asked.
“You have guests and I well know that you are going to the ball,” the Dowager Countess replied. “So I am going now to lie down, otherwise this charming young lady will be having dinner alone.”
“As it happens, Grandmama, I shall be here,” the Earl announced.
His grandmother looked at him in surprise.
“I understood you to say that you were dining with the Marlborough’s.”
Beyond the Stars Page 2
