A Teacher of Love Read online

  She spoke calmly looking up almost defiantly into the Earl’s face.

  Unexpectedly he laughed.

  “I don’t believe this. Are you real or are you part of my imagination?”

  “I am very real, my Lord, and if you had come as we expected in time for dinner, your sons would have been waiting for you, changed for dinner for the first time in their lives and both bearing presents that they have made themselves to give to you.”

  She still spoke accusingly, but the Earl, as if he was mesmerised by what was occurring, responded in almost a conciliatory tone,

  “I apologise if I insulted your ability to be a Tutor, but I was doing what I thought was best for my sons – and what can be better than a good education?”

  “Nothing, I agree entirely. However, when a child is young, it all depends on the way he is taught and how well the person teaching him responds to his feelings and abilities.”

  “I suppose there I have to agree with you, but I did believe that the man I engaged before I left had every possible qualification I required for my sons.”

  “They are too young to comprehend what he was talking about. He bored them to the point where they went on strike and refused to take any more lessons!” she replied hotly.

  “Then what have you been giving them?” the Earl asked, as if he thought he must score a point somewhere.

  “I have taught them to think for themselves and discover ways to learn in an indirect manner that are both interesting and amusing.”

  “I am afraid I find all this very bewildering,” the Earl remarked. “But indeed I am prepared to listen to what you are telling me. I might even consider that your method of teaching is better than the traditional one.”

  He was speaking somewhat sarcastically.

  “You must, my Lord, judge for yourself, but I do beg of you, because it concerns the future of your sons, not to criticise and certainly not to humiliate them by treating them as if they were just naughty children.”

  She made a gesture with her hands at the rooms on her right, as she added,

  “I moved them down here so that they will think of themselves as gentlemen and as significant in the world as you are. It is ridiculous for them to be shut up in what was a nursery and will always be, in their minds, part of their early childhood.

  “Tomorrow I would hope you will take breakfast with them and later, if you are in, they can be with you at luncheon and dinner.”

  “I can see you are organising my life for me in a way I have not experienced before,” the Earl said sharply.

  “I am not concerned with your life, my Lord, but the happiness of your two sons. When I came, as anyone who is truthful will tell you, they were both exceedingly unhappy and frightened little boys.”

  The Earl stared at her.

  For a second she thought that he was going to walk away and refuse to listen to another word.

  Instead, rather to her surprise, he remarked,

  “I cannot do anything else but believe what you are telling me, even though I find it almost incredible, but, as you suggest, I will be pleased to see my sons at breakfast and, of course, to hear their side of this extraordinary tale.”

  Tasia smiled at him.

  “That is exactly what I wanted you to say, my Lord. Thank you and goodnight.”

  She turned as she spoke and walked into her room, closing the door quietly behind her.

  For a moment the Earl stood looking after her.

  He found it hard to believe that she had really left him and so he walked slowly to his own bedroom.

  As she heard him go, Tasia smiled to herself.

  He was not in the least what she had expected, but equally she was fully aware that he was even more difficult to cope with than she had anticipated.

  He was certainly exceedingly good-looking, but she felt it hard to forgive the fact that he had been so stupid in the upbringing of his sons.

  Of course they had been unhappy.

  He had left them in the hands of those ponderous scholars who had no idea that all children needed love, affection and a great deal of understanding.

  ‘Perhaps he will sack me tomorrow,’ Tasia thought as she took off her dressing gown. ‘If he does I will have to go home.’

  She now began thinking of herself and how fatal it would be if she returned home too quickly.

  After all the trouble she had taken, her father would still insist on her marrying his dreadful friend.

  As the boys slept peacefully that night, she tossed and turned for some time before she finally fell asleep.

  *

  When she awoke, as was usual at eight o’clock, she hurried to the boys’ rooms.

  She found they had already been called, but were still lying in bed.

  “You are having breakfast with your father today,” she told them, “at half-past-eight. So hurry up and be very pleasant to him. Remember to have your presents ready.”

  “Are you coming down to breakfast with us?” Peter asked.

  “No, I think you should be alone with him today, but try and persuade him that you would like to go riding tomorrow morning and tell him quite frankly we have been riding here in the Park.”

  “I think it would be much better if you came with us,” Simon came in.

  Unexpectedly he pushed his hand into hers.

  “Supposing Father does not listen to us and tells us we are not to ride anymore.”

  “I am sure he will not do that,” answered Tasia.

  “He might. Please, please, Tasia, come with us.”

  For the past week the boys had tired of calling her Miss Wicke.

  “It does not sound like you,” said Simon, “and we all use our ordinary names. Even Jimbo does not have to be Mister or Master!”

  Tasia laughed.

  “You can call me by the nickname that my mother always used. It is ‘Tasia’.”

  “Oh, I like that name,” the two boys chorused.

  After that they seemed to be saying Tasia, all the time – “Tasia, let’s go out. Tasia let us go riding. Tasia, please take us to the zoo again.”

  It was only now that Tasia recognised that the Earl might think that she had been playing down to the children, instead of asserting herself as their teacher.

  Then she told herself that it was not worth worrying about.

  If he sacked her, she would have to go at once.

  If he permitted her to stay, it would only be for a short while, as she could not leave her father forever.

  She therefore dressed herself quickly.

  She was not that interested in which dress she wore, but actually the one she chose was most becoming.

  Anyone with any intelligence would have realised it was made by an experienced and fashionable couturier.

  She was feeling a little apprehensive, but she went downstairs with the two boys just before half-past-eight.

  As they reached the hall, the Earl came out of the study.

  “Papa!” Simon called out. “We were hoping you would come home last night.”

  “I am so sorry to have been late, boys, and now my visitors from last night have just departed.”

  He bent so that Peter could kiss his cheek and then Simon kissed him on the other side.

  The Earl looked over their heads towards Tasia.

  “Although we have already met, we have not been properly introduced.”

  “Her name is Tasia,” Peter told him excitedly, “and she has taught us lots and lots of interesting things. But first, Papa, we have presents for you. This is mine.”

  He held out the picture he had painted and Simon, who had been hiding his behind his back, held his out too.

  The Earl took them from the boys.

  “You have done these for me?” he asked. “That is very clever of you.”

  Then he looked at the lion and commented,

  “This lion has a very strange face!”

  The boys laughed.

  “It is you, Papa! You look like a
lion and we have been finding in the animals at the zoo everyone who is here in the house.”

  The Earl looked at Tasia.

  “I suppose,” he said with a faint twist to his lips, “I should be very gratified at being a lion. I might easily have been something most unpleasant!”

  “It was Simon’s idea, not mine,” murmured Tasia.

  “Well, let’s go in for breakfast. Then you can tell me all about this new game of turning everyone you know into animals.”

  “Only their faces,” said Peter, “and I see Tasia as a horse.”

  They had reached the dining room by this time and the butler opened the door for them.

  “A horse, why a horse?” asked the Earl.

  “Because it is what we want to talk to you about,” persisted Peter, “but Tasia can say it much better than we can.”

  He looked pleadingly at Tasia, but she suggested,

  “I think that your father would rather hear the full story from you.”

  “Shall we show him our exhibition first?” Peter was whispering, but the Earl heard him.

  “What exhibition? Is this another surprise for me?”

  “Yes it is, and we shall be very very upset if you are not pleased with it!”

  “It is something they have worked very hard on,” Tasia explained. “I think it is most enterprising and I am certain that your Lordship will think so too.”

  “And if I don’t, I presume you will be annoyed with me!”

  “I would not presume to be anything of the sort, my Lord, but I do think it would be very difficult for you not to be impressed.”

  The Earl was well aware that she was telling him to be careful what he said to the boys, whatever he might think.

  Then, because she was behaving in such an unusual way and was at the same time so extraordinarily attractive, he found everything that was happening seemed unreal.

  Equally it was unexpectedly intriguing.

  He had often returned to the house feeling in some way it was a rather gloomy establishment.

  The emptiness of it had been depressing and even when he had filled it with his friends, he still found that it did not delight him – not in the same way as his house in the country.

  Now, when he thought about it, he remembered that as a boy he had always found the house dispiriting.

  It was always from Regent’s Park that he went back to school and it was therefore connected in his mind with saying goodbye to the horses, to his dogs and to his father.

  He had not missed his mother because he had been too young when she died for him to remember her.

  Now he persuaded the boys to postpone showing him their exhibition until after breakfast.

  Seeing that they obviously wanted Tasia with them, he asked her to join the table for breakfast.

  And, as if their father no longer frightened them, the boys chatted away over the meal.

  They told him in breathless tones about their visits to Madame Tussaud’s, the zoo, the Tower of London and the British Museum.

  Then, just before the Earl had finished his breakfast, Simon suggested eagerly,

  “Will you come now, Papa, and see our exhibition? It is very important that you should see it and understand why we have made it for you.”

  The Earl rose from his chair and then the two boys jumped to their feet.

  For a moment Tasia did not move and Simon said,

  “You are coming with us, Tasia.”

  “I think you should go alone with your father.”

  “Oh no, of course not,” the Earl came in before the boys could speak.

  “I gather you inspired this exhibition and therefore you must accept my congratulations or hear my condemnation!”

  “Very well, my Lord, and, of course, if it is the latter, I must take the brunt of your criticism!”

  The Earl smiled as if he fully understood that she was telling him not to blame the boys for anything.

  He thought to himself as he walked on with Peter and Simon on either side of him that it was strange how he could read Tasia’s thoughts.

  When he woke up this morning, he had thought he must have dreamt what had happened last night.

  Yet, when his valet came to dress him, he had said,

  “They’re all of them waitin’ to hear, my Lord, what you think about the new Tutor. Mrs. Donaldson was sayin’ her has worked wonders with the young gentlemen, and the cook were all praisin’ her up to the skies. They all thinks you’d get a surprise when you sees her.”

  The Earl did not say he had seen her already.

  He merely felt that it was all utterly and completely ridiculous.

  How could a woman, a mere girl be in charge of his two sons?

  How could she have possibly confronted him with such determination last night?

  He had to admit they were extremely difficult children, but he had always wanted them to grow up bright, intelligent and sociable young men.

  He had never understood why they did not seem particularly fond of him.

  Whenever he had corrected them, he had known, although he did not wish to admit it, that they more or less disliked him.

  Now, as they were jumping along beside him, Simon slipped his hand into his.

  “We will be so disappointed, Papa, if you don’t like our exhibition.”

  “I am looking forward to seeing it, Simon.”

  Peter ran ahead to open the library door.

  Tasia had spent several hours there yesterday.

  She had arranged the books, open at the pictures of horses, on and around the sofa and by the mantelpiece.

  There were pictures of horses by the finest artists in the world, as well as some odd pictures and postcards they had picked up when out shopping.

  It was not surprising that the Earl stood inside the door of the library and stared at what was awaiting him.

  “Horses!” he exclaimed. “I never knew that I had so many!”

  “But these are in the house, Papa,” said Peter, “and what we want are horses in the stables.”

  The Earl was silent for a moment before enquiring,

  “Are you asking me to buy you horses to ride?”

  As he spoke, he saw the expression in Tasia’s eyes and realised that she was surprised and delighted that he understood exactly why the exhibition had been set out.

  “Yes, yes, of course, we are,” cried Simon. “Please, Papa, we want horses of our own and can they be as big as the Duke of Wellington’s?”

  “It was not the Duke of Wellington,” added Tasia, “who made us dream up this exhibition. Tell your father why we started.”

  “It was all because Richard III called out, ‘A horse, a horse, my Kingdom for a horse’,” explained Simon.

  “We went to Madame Tussaud’s,” Peter chipped in, “and saw the little Princes in the Tower who the wicked King killed.”

  “So that was your first history lesson, boys. Well, I must say that it is the finest collection of the finest horses I have ever seen and I doubt if I will be able to equal it.”

  “But do say you will try, Papa,” Peter begged and Simon looked up at him pleadingly.

  “I do want a horse all of my own, but I will not kiss and cuddle it as much as Caligula did!”

  The Earl chuckled and looked across at Tasia.

  “All right, you win!” he exclaimed. “I now realise my sons are remarkably learned historians where it concerns their own desires!”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Tasia was completely entranced by the Earl’s house in the country when she first spied it.

  They had driven down in two open chaises.

  The Earl driving one with the boys, and Tasia had travelled in the other.

  She had longed to say that she would like to drive it herself, but thought it would be embarrassing if the Earl refused to allow her to do so.

  She was quite happy sitting with Jimbo on her knee and gazing at the countryside thinking how much she preferred the endless shades of green to Lo
ndon.

  When they arrived at Linsdale Court, Tasia thought it was even more impressive than she had expected.

  It was Elizabethan with many additions made over the years by great architects and she mused as they drove up that she had never seen a more beautiful house.

  The boys were thrilled to be in the country and they wanted to go immediately to the stables to see the horses.

  It was not until they were all having dinner together – the Earl had asked Tasia to be with them – that he stated,

  “I went out and bought something yesterday before we left London which I am told has just arrived here, but you will not be able to see it until tomorrow morning.”

  The boys looked at him questioningly,

  “I will give you a hint. Have you any idea who Sir Stephen Henlow is?”

  There was silence and then Tasia asked,

  “May I answer that question, my Lord?”

  “Of course, Miss Tasia, but I am only surprised that you have not told my sons about him already.”

  Tasia laughed.

  “There has not been time, my Lord, but Sir Stephen did win the Derby last year as well as the Oaks.”

  Before the Earl could reply there was a shout from both Peter and Simon.

  “Horses! You have bought us horses, Papa!”

  “That is what you asked me to do and I am telling you they are the finest specimens I have ever seen. You can each choose your own horse, but I warn you it is going to be a difficult choice!”

  The boys were so excited that they could hardly sit still in their chairs.

  “A horse of my own!” Simon cried. “Can I give him any name I want?”

  “Of course you can. He has been named already by his previous owner, but naturally if you think of a better name, you can give it to him.”

  Later, as Tasia managed to change the conversation from horses, she realised how delighted the boys were.

  By some skilful questioning that did not sound too inquisitive, she discovered what the Earl had been doing while he was abroad.

  To her it was as exciting as the endless talk about horses had been to the boys.

  British experts had invented submarine telegraph cables and they had started to lay a particularly deep one to link up the widespread Empire.