A Road to Romance Read online

  Then, before the Marquis could reply, she had left the room and he heard her running up the stairs.

  He thought that there had been quite enough drama for one day and he hoped that there would be none tonight.

  However, he went to the stable to see if the horses were still there and he found all three of them lying down, which he thought he should be doing himself.

  He locked the stable door and took the key to the publican.

  “I hope you will understand,” he said as he handed it to him, “that, as there are so many horse thieves about at the moment and my horses are very valuable, I will feel happier if it is impossible for anyone to get into your stable without making a noise.”

  The publican looked surprised.

  “I never thinks of that,” he said. “But, of course, you be right, sir. There be stories in the newspapers every day of somethin’ bein’ pilfered and it’d be a great tragedy for you to lose your fine ’orses.”

  He paused for a moment before he added,

  “We don’t often ’ave them as grand as that in this ’ere village.”

  “Well, I am taking special care of them as you can well understand,” the Marquis said. “Thank you for the excellent dinner and I hope to have a good sleep before we start off tomorrow morning.”

  He ordered breakfast for eight o’clock and then went upstairs.

  There was no sound coming from Velina’s room or from the room next to it where Johnny was sleeping and he thought that they must be fast asleep after such a long day.

  Then, as he opened Johnny’s door to be quite sure of it, he saw in the moonlight coming through the window that the bed was empty.

  The blankets were turned back and he thought that he must be with Velina.

  At the same time the boy was clearly missing and, after what he had just said downstairs, he felt anxious.

  He went to the next room and was about to knock on the door, but, as there was absolute silence, he then pushed it open very quietly.

  There was just enough light coming into the room for him to be aware that Johnny was in bed with Velina.

  He saw that Velina was asleep with her golden hair falling on either side of her face.

  She had an arm round Johnny who was sleeping with his head on her shoulder.

  Jimmie was sleeping comfortably at the end of the bed and, when he saw the Marquis, he wagged his tail but did not make a sound.

  For a moment the Marquis stood looking at them.

  He felt they created a picture that any great artist would be only too pleased to paint and then he closed the door very quietly and went to his own room.

  It was some time before he fell asleep.

  Because he was thinking of the picture Velina had made with Johnny, he wondered how many other people of his acquaintance would have taken an unknown small boy from a working class family into their arms.

  He knew without being told that Johnny must have felt very alone and frightened.

  Now the only world he had known with his mother and his cruel uncle had been left behind and this meant that everything that he was familiar with had been left behind as well.

  It was a situation that he could understand himself,

  But he most certainly did not think that the average woman, especially one who was obviously a lady by birth, would have understood the suffering of one small boy of no social standing and taken him into her arms.

  ‘Velina is unique,’ he thought to himself before he fell asleep.

  *

  The Marquis was woken because he heard Johnny talking in an excited voice to Velina.

  He realised that they were both getting up in the next room, while he was still, as they thought, asleep.

  He looked at his watch and saw that it was now a quarter-to-nine and he quickly jumped out of bed.

  He was used to dressing himself very swiftly when he had to do so and after washing in cold water, he put on one of his clean shirts that Herbert had provided for him and walked through his door.

  As he did so, he heard Johnny running downstairs.

  Then he found that Velina’s door was open.

  She was packing her nightgown together with the other things she had needed into the one of the bags that was carried on Fireball’s back.

  She looked up at the Marquis and smiled.

  “Good morning, Neil.”

  “Good morning,” the Marquis answered. “I hope you slept well.”

  “Like a top and Johnny is in very high spirits. He is only afraid that the horse you bought for him yesterday is just a dream.”

  “The sooner we are on our way the better,” he said. “I asked last night if breakfast could be ready at eight o’clock, but I overslept.”

  “I thought you would. I think that this has been the nicest place we have slept in.”

  “You are right,” the Marquis agreed, “and certainly the food is better here than anywhere else.”

  By now Velina had finished packing the bag and the Marquis took it from her and carried it down the stairs.

  A round table in the dining room was already laid for breakfast and Johnny was chattering to the publican’s wife in the kitchen while Jimmie was having a large meal while he did so.

  “A very good morning to you, sir,” the publican’s wife greeted him when she saw the Marquis.

  “Good morning,” the Marquis replied, “and thank you very much for your excellent dinner last night and I am certainly looking forward to my breakfast.”

  “It’s ready for you now, sir, and I’ll bring it straight in,” she smiled.

  Johnny slipped his hand into the Marquis’s.

  “She gave Jimmie an extra big dinner last night,” he enthused, “and an even bigger breakfast this mornin’. He thinks this be a smashin’ place and so do I.”

  “Well, you had better come and eat your breakfast,” the Marquis told him, “because Hunter will be waiting for you outside.”

  They ate a large breakfast, the sausages being very delectable and the Marquis reflected that sitting round the table they looked a very homely family as anyone passing by would confirm.

  He was thinking, however, that it was amusing that neither he nor Velina knew each other’s full names.

  Johnny, who any stranger would easily think that he was their son, was a boy they had just picked up while passing a cottage by the roadside.

  “I was thinking that too,” Velina said unexpectedly.

  “Are you then reading my thoughts?” the Marquis asked.

  “I can sometimes,” she admitted. “In fact, I always knew what my father was thinking just as he felt the same about me.”

  “I found it happening abroad once in the East,” the Marquis said. “But I have never met anyone who could do it in England.”

  “I will try not to be a nosey parker where you are concerned,” Velina replied, “but sometimes I cannot help it!”

  “I think it is a very dangerous activity. Suppose you were watching a man and reading his thoughts and realised that he was ready to rob a bank or even murder someone. Would you go to the Police?”

  Velina put up her hands.

  “Now you are trying to frighten me and I hope that will never happen. Although I can read your thoughts, it’s not something I can do to everyone.”

  “Well, that is a relief at any rate, Velina. If my thoughts are very private, I will be annoyed if you not only read them but tell the world what I am thinking.”

  “Of course I would not do that,” Velina answered. “Everything of yours is very special and secret because you have been so kind to me.”

  “I am pleased to hear that,” the Marquis said. “The last person to read my thoughts was a very old Indian. As he had never been out of Bombay, my thoughts of England at any rate were quite safe.”

  Velina laughed.

  “I am sure they were and anything I read I promise to keep to myself.”

  Johnny, who was giving little bits of his breakfast to Jimmie, was not listen
ing to them.

  Now having finished eating, he jumped up from his chair saying,

  “Can I go and look at Hunter and ask him if he had a good sleep last night?”

  “Of course you can,” Velina replied. “You can put on his bridle, as I am going to dress Fireball as soon as I have finished my coffee.”

  Johnny hardly listened to her before he was out of the room and they heard him running across the yard with Jimmie at his heels.

  The Marquis looked at Velina.

  He felt that she looked even lovelier now than she had last night.

  At the same time he thought that the picture of her and Johnny asleep in the bed at the inn would always be something he would remember.

  Velina pushed her chair back.

  “I am now going to get Fireball ready,” she said, “as I am slower than you. But please don’t forget that I will pay you back half the bill. So you must add to it what else I owe you.”

  The Marquis did not answer and she walked into the passage towards the door that led into the yard.

  The Marquis went to the bar and, as he expected, he found the publican and paid his bill.

  It was very reasonable considering all that they had had and the Marquis added a large tip.

  The publican looked at it in surprise.

  “You’ve given me too much,” he queried.

  “That is a present for your wife for being so kind and helpful,” the Marquis told him. “You two must work very hard as I have not seen anyone else assisting you.”

  “I ’as a man who comes by three times a week to clean out the stables,” the publican answered, “but the rest we does ourselves. It’s ’ard to make enough money for the wife and me without ’avin’ unnecessary expense.”

  “Well, we have been very comfortable here at your inn,” the Marquis said, “and thank you very much.”

  “Thanks very much, sir. You be a real gentleman,” the publican grinned, shaking him by the hand.

  The Marquis felt that this was indeed high praise and he was smiling as he went into the kitchen to thank the publican’s wife.

  “It’s been ever so nice ’avin’ you ’ere,” she said, “and I ’opes you’ll come again.”

  “I hope so, too,” the Marquis replied.

  He joined Velina to find that Johnny had put the bridle on Hunter correctly and it only remained for him to tighten the saddle.

  “You have done very well, my boy,” the Marquis praised him. “Now you must ride Hunter slowly to start with, otherwise you will get too far ahead of us.”

  “If we can go into a field, we can let ’im gallop,” Johnny suggested.

  “We have to find a field first, so take him slowly until we are clear of the village.”

  The other two horses were soon made ready and the Marquis then lifted Velina onto the saddle.

  He picked up Jimmie and put him beside her.

  “You take him for the first hour and I will take him for the second,” he proposed.

  “He is no trouble.”

  “A dog is always a trouble when he is on a horse,” the Marquis replied. “But I think it’s dangerous for him to run behind us when we are on the road. It’s different when we are in the fields.”

  “Or if he was bigger,” Velina said. “I am always afraid that if a small dog follows closely behind a horse he will be kicked.”

  She gave a little sigh before she added,

  “The dog is all Johnny has of his own and whatever happens he must not lose Jimmie.”

  “You are quite right,” the Marquis agreed. “So we must be very careful of him. We will take it in turns to have him and, when we find a field, we will have luncheon in the open air for a change. But I suppose I should have thought of that last night.”

  He did not say anything more, but hurried back into the kitchen.

  It only took the publican’s wife a short time to put together some cold chicken, slices of meat pie and a large piece of cheese.

  She added chunks of newly baked bread and some butter and the Marquis then bought two bottles of cider and freshly made lemonade was put into a bottle for Johnny.

  The parcel of food added a little to what Samson was already carrying and, when the Marquis joined Velina, she was smiling.

  “It was clever of you to think of that,” she said. “I wish I had thought about it myself. Of course Johnny will enjoy a picnic.”

  “Where is Johnny?” the Marquis asked.

  “He has just ridden a little bit up the road and has promised me he will not go far,” Velina answered.

  The Marquis then hurried out of the yard and to his relief he saw Johnny about a quarter of a mile up the road.

  When he and Velina joined him, Johnny piped up,

  “I tried to hold Hunter back, but he said he wanted to gallop in the fields so you must not be angry with us.”

  “I am not angry,” the Marquis told him. “But I was worrying about you and, of course, Hunter.”

  “We are all right,” Johnny said, “and please can we ride really quickly?”

  They rode on with Johnny riding ahead of them and the Marquis and Velina kept him well within sight.

  Finally they came upon some open land, which was exactly what the Marquis was looking for.

  “Now,” he said to Johnny, “you can ride Hunter as fast as you like and we will follow you. But be careful of potholes.”

  Johnny had been waiting for this and he rode off at once with Velina watching him anxiously and the Marquis then said,

  “He’s all right! He is not going too fast and so the farmer was right when he claimed that the horse is well-trained.”

  “He is really too small to be riding a horse,” Velina commented.

  “I think he handles it as well as any boy of twelve or fourteen would do,” the Marquis replied, “so you are not to worry.”

  She smiled at him.

  “He is a dear little boy. As far as I can ascertain, no one loved him and his mother had not even taught him to say his prayers.”

  The Marquis looked at her, but he did not speak.

  Then she continued,

  “When I asked him if he had said his prayers, he replied, ‘I only pray when I go to Church which isn’t very often’.”

  “I am quite certain that you taught him a prayer,” the Marquis said quietly.

  Velina nodded.

  “Yes, the one I always said myself when I was a child, and he knows now that not only God is listening to him but also his special angel up in Heaven.”

  The Marquis thought that this was what he would want his own children to learn when they were old enough to understand.

  As they were both riding quickly to keep up with Johnny, he did not say anymore.

  They rode on for the next two hours.

  All the time Velina thought that they were getting further North and nearer to her aunt and that meant, she thought, when she reached her, her kind protector would say goodbye and then travel on to wherever he was going.

  It then suddenly occurred to Velina that he had not explained why he was going North and she wondered if perhaps he had his family there.

  He was so tall and such a good-looking man that she was sure he must have been pursued by quite a number of women.

  She remembered her father being sarcastic about someone who lived near them.

  He had been a very attractive man when he was young and her father had said that women in the County had run after him.

  Velina wondered if Neil would think of her when they parted and if there would ever be any chance of them meeting again.

  Then she told herself that she was asking too much.

  She had been very very lucky in finding someone to escort her North and, of course, protect her from the men her stepfather had sent after her.

  Even to think of them made her shudder and she wondered if she should ask Neil if there was anywhere she could go where she would not be found.

  Then she thought it would be a mistake to be an
encumbrance and she would just hope that her aunt would rally the rest of the family round her.

  Then they could forcibly tell her stepfather that she could not be forced into marrying someone who she had no wish to marry.

  It all seemed very simple.

  At the same time she could not help thinking with a sinking heart that her aunt was not a very strong character and she might easily be trampled by her stepfather.

  It was getting on for one o’clock when the Marquis saw ahead of them a great number of trees by the roadside and beyond them an open field.

  The sun by this time was hot and he thought that they should have their meal with some protection from it.

  He therefore called out to Johnny who was still well ahead of them and then they turned towards the trees.

  “You must be tired of carrying that parcel,” Velina said, “and I should have taken my turn with it.”

  The Marquis smiled.

  “Are you suggesting that I am not strong enough to manage it?” he asked.

  “Of course not, I only thought how uncomfortable it must be. It was so kind of you to think that it would be nice to sit in the shade and enjoy our luncheon.”

  “We have certainly not passed an inn that attracted me,” the Marquis commented.

  “I thought the same. I am certain that those kind people have provided us with something nice and edible.”

  “To make it a surprise, I will not tell you what there is,” the Marquis joked.

  Velina laughed.

  “That makes it much more fun. Actually I have always enjoyed a picnic especially at Johnny’s age.”

  “One person who will never go hungry is Johnny,” the Marquis said, “and the other is Jimmie!”

  “If we had tried to find a child and a dog who were amusing and really no trouble, we could not have done better.”

  “I agree with you. He is a delightful little boy.”

  “We must be very careful who we find to look after him,” Velina remarked.

  “I promise you that I will be very sure not to hand him over to anyone who would treat him as he has been treated in the past,” the Marquis assured her.

  There was a hard note in his voice that Velina did not miss.

  She knew that Neil had been as horrified as she had been when the drunken man knocked the dog over and then poor little Johnny.