A Battle for Love

by Barbara Cartland

  “It all sounds far too good to be true,” Serla said. “Thank you, thank you so much, I feel as if the sunshine has suddenly come out and the darkness that has covered me for so long has been swept away.”

  “And I promise you that it will never come back,” the Dowager assured her.

  *

  The next day the Marquis rode early in the morning and then returned to Berkeley Square for a late breakfast.

  He was not surprised to learn that Serla had already finished breakfast and was with his grandmother.

  When he sent a message that he would like to see her, Serla came running down the stairs. She rushed into the study where he was wading through a pile of letters.

  “You wanted me?” she asked breathlessly.

  “I wanted to ask you if you had had a good night and was now ready for the fray,” the Marquis smiled.

  “Your grandmother has all of Bond Street arriving at any moment,” Serla replied, “and I am only hoping that I shall not bankrupt you by the time we have finished!”

  The Marquis laughed.

  “I think that is unlikely and so you can safely leave everything to Grandmama. She is a master at organising balls, garden parties, Receptions and even Nativity Plays.”

  “Now she is organising me,” Serla said, “and I am only frightened that I shall let her and you down and you will send me away in disgrace.”

  “I think that is most unlikely and if you are looking for compliments, you look very pretty the way your hair has been arranged.”

  “Your grandmother’s lady’s maid did it for me this morning, but tomorrow we are having a top hairdresser to do it before we all go to luncheon at Devonshire House.”

  “It is the first I have heard about it,” he said.

  “Actually I think that you will find your invitation with your letters and your grandmother has been asked too. She has now sent a letter to ask if she could possibly bring a young lady who is staying with her.”

  The Marquis smiled.

  He knew that this was typical of his grandmother.

  She had arranged that on the very first day of their engagement that they were having luncheon at one of the most prestigious houses in London.

  He was to learn later that the Prince Regent was to be a guest and his grandmother had been aware of it.

  Now, as the Marquis looked critically at Serla, he thought that she was prettier than ever and, because she was happy and excited, her eyes were shining.

  Although her dress was dull and not fashionable, it did not matter at all. The translucence of her skin and the shining gold of her hair were what everyone would see.

  ‘No one will question for a moment,’ the Marquis told himself, ‘that the reason I am marrying her is that I have fallen in love.’

  He was to think the same when he came down to dinner to find his grandmother and Serla waiting for him. When he left the house, the couturiers from Bond Street were arriving with boxes and big bundles of clothes and, when he returned to the house, they were just leaving.

  They seemed, he thought, somewhat exhausted, but obviously elated with the deals they had done.

  Now he saw Serla dressed by his grandmother and he knew that indeed she had waved her magic wand.

  Serla was wearing one of the most up to date and beautiful gowns it was possible to imagine.

  Since the end of the War, decoration on the muslin gowns with high waists had become very elaborate. The one Serla was wearing was ornamented all round the hem with roses sprinkled with diamanté.

  The Prince Regent had decreed that evening gowns should be décolleté and so there was quite an expanse of Serla’s white skin to be seen. Round her neck she wore a single string of pearls and there were roses in her hair and on her shoes.

  The Marquis thought it was impossible for anyone to look lovelier. She must have stepped out of the Fairy stories that his grandmother had read to him as a child.

  “I can only say, Grandmama,” he grinned, “that you are a genius. At the same time the foundation you had to work on was very receptive.”

  The Dowager and Serla laughed and she curtseyed to him, saying.

  “Thank you kindly, sir. It is a nice compliment and we worked so hard that I would like you to say more.”

  The Marquis’s eyes twinkled.

  “Like most women you are being rather greedy and I thought you were far too shy to say anything like that.”

  “Now that I am feeling so beautifully dressed and so happy,” Serla said, “I want to sing on the rooftops and fly up to the stars.”

  “I would hope you will do nothing of the sort,” the Marquis replied. “But it seems rather sad that I am the sole audience of such a brilliant opening to the drama!”

  “That is where you are mistaken,” the Dowager answered. “We are having dinner somewhat late as I have asked quite a number of our relatives to dine with us.”

  The Marquis looked surprised.

  “I had no idea.”

  “But, of course, it is the correct thing to do,” the Dowager said. “If your engagement is to be announced tomorrow, the family must be told first.”

  “I did not think of that,” the Marquis frowned, “as I suppose I should have done.”

  “It does not matter at all, dearest boy. I have sent grooms running in every direction and, because they are so curious, nearly everyone has accepted.”

  “You are much cleverer than I am, Grandmama. It never struck me for a moment that I should tell the family.”

  “They would certainly have complained if they had not been told,” the Dowager said. “Now, as they will be arriving here at any moment, I think you should approve the seating at the table that Mr. Simpkins has left for you. And be ready to answer questions they are likely to ask.”

  “Good Heavens!” he then exclaimed. “What do you think they will be?”

  “Where you met, which can be Langwarde and how long you have known each other.”

  The Marquis glanced at Serla.

  “We can hardly say we met yesterday,” she said, “if I am already wearing your ring.”

  “Shall we say a month ago?” he suggested. “I think that is actually the truth, because I saw you when I came down to Langwarde then. Of course, we can pretend that we met in London afterwards.”

  “The great thing is to answer as few questions as possible,” the Dowager advised. “Tell them that you are thinking of the future rather than the past. And ask them what they propose giving you as a Wedding present. That will give them something else to talk about.”

  The Marquis laughed.

  To his surprise he found that the evening was far more enjoyable than he had expected.

  Because the family were so overjoyed that he was to be married they were delighted to meet Serla and were quite overcome by her appearance.

  She certainly seemed to be radiantly happy and the Marquis found that she was making everyone around her laugh at the things she said.

  It was indeed the spontaneous happy laughter of a child who had been given the toy she wanted.

  He compared it with the rather contrived laughter that was fashionable among the women he had been with.

  Serla’s laughter tinkled away and it made everyone round her laugh in the same way.

  When the evening ended, the family, as they said ‘goodnight’, were all ecstatic about the bride-to-be.

  “How could you have found anyone so lovely?” the women enquired curiously.

  The men patted him on the back and said,

  “Very good luck, old chap. She is the prettiest thing I have ever seen and only you could have discovered her.”

  The Marquis was aware that just one or two of his relations remembered the scandal that had been caused by Serla’s mother.

  However, they did not mention it and the rest of the family were impressed that she was the niece of the Earl of Langwarde as they had hoped that Clive would take a wife whose name was the equal of his in Debrett’s Peerage.

&nbs
p; Luckily they were not, like the Earl, so obsessed by the Family Tree, although they were very proud of their ancestors and of the Marquis’s achievements.

  They drank to the health of the future bride and bridegroom at the end of dinner.

  “This has certainly given us a surprise,” one of the Marquis’s female relatives said. “I was told only a month or so ago that you were determined to remain a bachelor, however many pretty women you met!”

  “I was just waiting for the right one to come along,” the Marquis answered with a smile.

  Then for the first time he wondered what would happen when this charade they were acting came to an end.

  ‘She is certain to find a husband,’ he told himself.

  But he could not help feeling a little uneasy. She might have to go back to the poverty he had learned she had endured.

  When he retired to bed, he was thinking with some satisfaction just how much it would annoy Charlotte when she opened the newspapers and learned of his engagement.

  ‘I have taught her a lesson she will never forget,’ he said to himself. ‘However angry she is, there is nothing she can do about it. Her engagement to Nottingham will come in a very poor second. I only hope everyone believes that she accepted him out of pique because I had already refused to make her my wife.’

  The more he thought about it the cleverer he felt he had been.

  It was only on the spur of the moment that he had decided how he would punish Charlotte and help Serla.

  She was indeed very vulnerable and he recognised that when she had been so touchingly grateful for what his grandmother had said about her mother.

  During the evening when she was enjoying herself, she kept glancing towards him as if to reassure herself that she was doing nothing wrong.

  ‘She is only a child,’ he thought. ‘It is absolutely appalling the way she had been treated by the Earl and by Charlotte too for that matter.’

  It was not surprising that she had pushed Serla into the background and humiliated her as she is so pretty.

  ‘If nothing else,’ the Marquis told himself, ‘I will give her a good time while she is supposed to be engaged to me. If she falls in love with a poor man, I will make them an allowance of some sort or find him a position so that she can at least afford a few luxuries.’

  He was thinking how extraordinary it had been for Serla’s mother to run away the night before her Wedding and her love must have counted for her more than anything else in her life.

  She had given up the whole world she belonged to, the only world she knew, and it was for a man who would never be accepted by her father.

  ‘That is just the sort of love I want,’ the Marquis mused as he turned over on his pillow.

  But he knew, almost angrily, that it was something he would never find.

  Charlotte had thrown him over for a higher-ranking title and it was obvious that no woman would ever think of him as an ordinary man. Inevitably he was just a wealthy Marquis with his impressive houses as a background.

  ‘Perhaps all this fuss is just a lot of nonsense,’ he tried to tell himself.

  Even as he did so. he could hear Serla’s melodious little voice saying that she had lived in a house of love.

  ‘The whole thing is just an illusion worked up by the poets who write so much drivel about love.’

  Even so, he knew that was what Serla sought and he had the uncomfortable feeling that for him at any rate it was out of reach.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The next morning the Marquis was feeling a little apprehensive.

  Was the luncheon party that day with the Duchess of Devonshire, he asked himself, really a good idea?

  After all it was plunging Serla straight into the deep end and she was not being given time to think. But having put everything into the hands of his grandmother, he did not like to interfere.

  He was looking very smart when he came down the stairs to find the Dowager and Serla waiting for him.

  “Are you ready, Grandmama?” he asked.

  “We are waiting for your approval,” she replied.

  She indicated Serla with a wave of her hand, who was standing by the mantelpiece looking at him nervously.

  The Marquis, who fancied himself as a connoisseur of women’s clothes, knew that she looked perfect.

  The Dowager had managed to find Serla a pale blue gown which was very pretty for a young girl. It showed off her exquisite figure and was most elegantly trimmed with frills round the hem and over the short sleeves.

  On her head she had a chip straw bonnet encircled with flowers of the same blue.

  “I congratulate you, Grandmama,” he said. “I told you that you could perform miracles.”

  “If you are satisfied, that is all Serla and I ask for,” the Dowager replied.

  As they climbed into their carriage, Serla enthused,

  “This is so exciting I feel sure that it cannot really be happening and I am just imagining it.”

  “You will find it very real when you get there,” the Dowager said, “and don’t forget to curtsey to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent.”

  The Marquis had been a little worried if she should be shy, especially when they were congratulated on their engagement.

  The Duchess of Devonshire kissed him on both cheeks when they arrived and gushed,

  “Congratulations, dearest Clive! We are so excited about your engagement and wish you every happiness.”

  “Thank you,” the Marquis replied, “and now let me introduce my future wife.”

  He saw the Duchess’s eyes widen as if she was a little surprised.

  Then, as Serla bobbed a little curtsey and called her ‘ma’am’, the Marquis knew that she was behaving exactly as he wanted.

  It was a luncheon party for about twenty people and the Prince Regent was the last to arrive.

  As all the women swept down in a deep curtsey and the gentlemen bowed, it was a very entrancing sight. The Duchess had told the Prince Regent that this was a special occasion.

  “The Marquis of Darincourt, Sire, has announced his engagement,” she told him.

  The Prince Regent held out his hand.

  “Many congratulations,” he trumpeted, “I shall look forward to your Wedding and drinking your health.”

  “You are very kind, Sire,” the Marquis replied as he presented Serla.

  When they went into luncheon, the Duke proposed their health as soon as they sat down at the table.

  The Marquis was not seated by Serla but opposite her. She had two good-looking young men on either side of her and he could see her chattering away.

  She was apparently not in the slightest abashed by such an important occasion and she was making the men on either side of her laugh.

  Serla was very different from other women. She enjoyed everything so much that she made those she was talking to enjoy it as well. There was a ripple of laughter coming from those around her all through the luncheon.

  When the long luncheon was finished, they moved into the drawing room which overlooked the garden.

  The Prince Regent walked up to where the Marquis was standing with Serla.

  “As you are marrying such an exceptional man,” he said to her, “you will have to tell me what you want for a Wedding present.”

  “I know what I would like best, Sire,” Serla said unexpectedly. “It would be just a very tiny peep at the magnificent treasures you have collected at Carlton House. Everyone says that they are breathtaking.”

  The Prince Regent was delighted. If there is one thing that pleased him it was that people should appreciate his good taste.

  “You shall have your peep,” he promised.

  Turning to the Marquis he added,

  “Do bring your beautiful fiancée here to luncheon tomorrow, Clive, and if she is interested I have some new pictures which no one has yet seen.”

  “She will be very honoured, Sire,” he replied.

  He thought with pleasure that the whole of London would be
talking before midnight. Serla’s success with His Royal Highness and her invitation to luncheon would be noted in The Court Circular.

  When they left after luncheon, the Duchess said to the Marquis,

  “She is enchanting! It is so like you, Clive, to find someone unique who none of us has seen before.”

  She turned to the Dowager to add,

  “You must, of course, all come to the ball that I am giving the week after next. If the weather is fine, the trees in the garden will all be decorated with magic lanterns and it will be very romantic for the young.”

  The Marquis raised her hand to his lips.

  “You have always been very kind to me,” he said, “and I look forward to any party you give because they are always better than anyone else’s.”

  The Duchess laughed.

  “You are flattering me, but, of course, I believe every word you say.”

  The Dowager said to Serla as they drove back to Berkeley Square,

  “You were a great success, my dear, and I was very proud of you.”

  “I was so frightened,” Serla replied, “of doing the wrong thing, but I enjoyed every moment of it. I have never been to such a wonderful luncheon party before.”

  The Marquis thought it was rather touching that she enjoyed everything so much and to please her he said,

  “I hope Grandmama is providing you with a riding habit because, if we go to many of these parties where we eat and drink far too much, I think we should take some exercise in Hyde Park.”

  “Oh, can we really ride?” Serla sighed. “It would be marvellous.”

  The Marquis could see when she was excited about something that her eyes lit up like stars. There was nothing affected or pretence about her enthusiasm.

  She enjoyed everything and was so thrilled about her new clothes that not only the Dowager but the women from the shops enjoyed dressing her.

  “What are we doing tonight?” the Marquis asked his grandmother as they arrived back.

  “We are dining with Lord and Lady Chichester and there will be dancing later. But it is quite a small party.”

  “That is a blessing at any rate and we shall not have to stay up too late.”