Love Came From Heaven Read online

  Soon scores of carriages in obedience to the special sign were lining up on the grass and the entrance hall grew full of people.

  The Earl moved amongst them, apologising for the late opening of the gate.

  He was greeted warmly by a number of the local gentry, who announced themselves as neighbours and said they were delighted at last to be making his acquaintance.

  “We thought that you were just the perfect recluse,” remarked a smartly dressed woman.

  “Dashed hermit, we said,” uttered her husband.

  Selena, busily taking money and handing over entry tickets, was amused at the suave manner the Earl assumed.

  Since the death of the Countess, he said, his life had been given over, first to a study of engineering and then to recreating his sadly neglected gardens.

  “This is the opening of what is an ongoing project.”

  By now the Earl was addressing himself to all the visitors crowded into the entrance hall.

  “These ladies are the architects of my dreams. Miss Jerrold, the well-known garden designer, is overseeing the whole project, and,” he waved a hand in Selena’s direction, “Miss Norton, her assistant, has contributed so much to the designing process and is in charge of its implementation.”

  Selena blushed and ducked her head.

  “Miss Jerrold is distributing leaflets on the garden and Mrs. Cropper will tell you all about the portraits of my ancestors and the history of the Hall.”

  *

  At the end of the day, the Earl came to Selena.

  “It’s a huge success – and it’s all due to you!”

  She looked up at him and her heart was full of love.

  Would he ever take her in his arms and tell her she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen?

  “You’ve made it possible for my work to continue,” he went on, his eyes afire.

  Selena took a deep breath.

  She had been mulling over various ideas as the flow of arrivals slowed towards the end of the afternoon.

  “I am wondering, Alex, if there could be other ways we could make the visitors pay?”

  He sat himself on the desk beside her cash box.

  “Your ideas are always brilliant, Selena, so tell me what you’ve dreamed up now?”

  The Earl’s nearness and the warmth in his manner encouraged her.

  “I think we could offer the visitors something to eat during the luncheon period plus tea in the afternoon. And then perhaps you could write a short book about Wakefield and your ancestors that could be printed, like the leaflets, only this would be substantial enough to sell.”

  He looked right into her eyes with such admiration that she found her stomach somersaulting.

  “That’s so clever, Selena. Let’s go and talk to Mrs. Cropper.”

  He leaped up and the precious communication bond between them was broken.

  But Selena did not mind at all, because he admired her ideas and thought that she was wonderful.

  Could that ever be enough for her?

  The next day, the second of their Open Days, there were as many visitors as there had been the first day.

  By the third day that they were open, Mrs. Cropper had organised some help from the village and they offered coffee in the morning, sandwiches at lunchtime and tea in the afternoon in a hastily cleaned room next to the entrance hall.

  When the last visitor had departed, Selena counted out the money in her cash box, locked it into a cupboard, pocketed the key and set out for the cottage.

  As she walked slowly and contentedly through the garden with the little banqueting houses, a figure emerged from one.

  With horror Selena saw that it was Lord Taverner.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Lord Taverner came towards her, a beaming smile on his face.

  “Miss Norton,” he began, “I have been waiting to catch you on your own. I bring greetings to you from your stepfather, my good friend, Mr. Anstruther.”

  Selena knew that she was caught.

  It was not possible for her to walk away or be rude.

  Desperately she looked around to see if the Earl or even Joe were nearby.

  She and Lord Taverner were, however, all alone.

  “Good afternoon, Lord Taverner,” she greeted him coolly. “It is a surprise to see you here. I must have missed you amongst the queue of people buying tickets.”

  She did not want to accuse him of coming in for free, but she had a strong suspicion that he did not have a ticket.

  Perhaps they should adopt some sort of system for ensuring that those who wandered off into the gardens had actually paid their due.

  His smile widened even further.

  “As a friend of the family, so to speak, I can hardly imagine that you would charge me to visit you.”

  His confidence was so overweening that Selena felt her terror give way to anger.

  “Alas, your visiting card has not been brought to my attention,” she responded stiffly.

  “Oh, I don’t bother with conventions like that! No, with the place overrun with the most common of visitors as it has been, I knew the only thing was to wait until they had all disappeared.”

  Selena gathered up her defences.

  If she could now steer Lord Taverner towards a part of Wakefield where there were other people, she could feel more in control.

  “Have you viewed the menagerie, Lord Taverner? Many of our visitors have commented on how interesting the exhibits are.”

  “I read something about it,” he replied dismissively. “But having seen such a lot of creatures in their wild state on my many travels, it seems rather superfluous to view a collection of cages.”

  “I do envy you having seen a tiger in the wild,” said Selena, starting to move to the orchard. “Where would that have been?”

  Lord Taverner had no option but to follow her.

  “Er, that is, in India – Bengal, I think it was. Went on a hunting party, don’t you know. Massive thing it was, all stripes and huge eyes.”

  “Did you shoot it?”

  Selena had now walked half way to the orchard.

  “Well, actually, no. Got away. Shy creatures, I’m told. Look here, Miss Norton, do we have to conduct this conversation on the run, as you might say?”

  “I do want you to see our menagerie. The monkeys and the parakeets are so amusing and the camel is so very affectionate, it eats out of your hand.

  “And whilst we view them, you can tell me about whether you have seen Mrs. Anstruther and baby Bernard.”

  Lord Taverner seemed to give up the struggle to get Selena to stop her rapid walk.

  He had a long athletic stride that had little difficulty in keeping up with her.

  “I say, Miss Norton, I have to tell you how dashed attractive a picture you do make in that sort-of-brown dress against the green that’s all around us.”

  It was a more poetic comment than she would have expected from him and she almost stopped in surprise.

  Suddenly she wondered if she was being at all wise in taking him to the menagerie.

  What if George was not there? What if he and Marie had gone to have tea with the other staff?

  “Pleasant location, this place,” he remarked as they walked into the orchard. “Of course, it is small compared with Parklands, my own estate.”

  Selena hated the condescension in his voice.

  “Parklands is near here, just beyond that river, the border between the Wakefield estate and mine. I hope you will visit.”

  Lord Taverner waved his stick in the direction of the hill the Earl intended to use to launch his glider.

  “Indeed.”

  Selena’s tone was cold.

  “It is commonly held to be the most beautiful in the County if not the country – ”

  “Here we are now,” Selena interrupted with a note of relief in her voice. “Our menagerie.”

  Lord Taverner quickly scanned the cages, gave the camel and the elephant a brief look and did not appear
to be impressed.

  “Where is this tiger?” he demanded.

  “Over here.”

  Selena led him over to Stripey’s cage and was very relieved to see George approaching with a pail of water.

  “Good afternoon, George,” she called. “We have a new visitor. This is Lord Taverner. My Lord, this is Mr. Matthews, our Keeper.”

  George put the pail down and pulled at his forelock.

  “Afternoon, my Lord. We seem to ’ave ’ad a most successful time with our visitors, Miss Norton. They was particular interested wiv Stripey.”

  “That, I must assume, is the tiger that Miss Norton mentioned,” remarked Lord Taverner, leaning casually on his polished stick. “Not nearly as large as the one I saw in Bengal!”

  The tiger was lying on the floor of his cage.

  He slyly regarded Lord Taverner before opening his mouth in a mighty yawn.

  “I say, that’s somewhat bad form,” Lord Taverner smirked, approaching the cage.

  “I would take good care of ’im, my Lord,” warned George. “His feedin’ time is near.”

  “As if such a thing should matter to me,” boasted Lord Taverner, going closer to the cage.

  The tiger watched him disdainfully.

  “I don’t like the look in that man’s eyes,” muttered George so only Selena could hear. “If ’e were an animal, I’d say ’e was a wrong ’un.”

  Selena felt a nervous impulse to laugh.

  The tiger rose and came to the cage rails, staring at Lord Taverner, curling his lips and snarling deep into his throat.

  “My Lord – ” warned George again.

  He was too late.

  Using his stick, Lord Taverner gave a swift poke at the tiger in his chest.

  Stripey roared in rage and lunged at the railings in such a frightening manner that Lord Taverner took several steps back, tripped over a tussock in the grass and ended up flat on his back.

  The tiger roared again, assaulting the cage bars in a way Selena had never seen him do before.

  For a moment she was afraid they would give way, but the cage was strongly built and the bars held.

  Selena ran over to help Lord Taverner, then found herself gently moved out of the way by the Earl.

  “How dare you come here and inflict injury on one of my menagerie!” he shouted furiously, standing over Lord Taverner and making no attempt to help him up.

  He staggered to his feet, his face purple with anger.

  “How dare you keep a dangerous creature like that on your estate and then invite in members of the public. It’s a complete disgrace!”

  Selena went over to the cage.

  The tiger had stopped rattling the bars and was now angrily prowling around, swishing his tail and growling.

  “Stripey,” she ordered him in a commanding voice. “Come and talk to me.”

  The tiger stopped prowling and looked at her.

  George armed himself with a heavy stick, but held it in an unthreatening manner.

  “Good boy,” he called out soothingly.

  “That’s the lad,” Selena added encouragingly. “It’s all right. Nobody’s going to hurt you.”

  “Good God, Wakefield,” burst out Lord Taverner, on his feet again. “Do something!”

  The tiger roared again.

  “It needs shooting!”

  “Taverner, you are enraging it. Come away.”

  The Earl grabbed him by the upper arm and started to pull him away.

  “How dare you manhandle me?”

  Lord Taverner pulled his arm away and then shook his stick at the angry tiger.

  “I shall be on to the authorities over the danger this creature is to the entire neighbourhood!”

  He wheeled around and headed out of the orchard.

  The Earl joined Selena and George.

  “I apologise,” he said. “I had no idea that man was on the estate. What he did here was indefensible. Can you manage to calm down poor old Stripey?”

  “He’ll be fine in just a little while,” George assured him, “ – with Miss Norton talkin’ to him.”

  Selena could feel the Earl regarding her closely as she spoke steadily to the tiger, making her voice as warm and comforting as possible.

  “How do you do it?” he asked wonderingly as the tiger quietened down and then lay on the floor of the cage.

  “Stripey knows I am his friend – ”

  George had been to fetch the animal’s feed and had also brought a stepladder, which he opened out, placed it as near to the cage as possible without touching it, climbed up with the meat, opened a small sliding panel in the roof of the cage and chucked the meat through it.

  Obviously he felt trying to get the tiger to retire to his night quarters would be a mistake.

  The tiger pounced on the food and began to tear the flesh from the bone.

  “He’ll be all right now,” muttered George, climbing down. “Thanks for your ’elp, miss”

  The Earl turned to Selena.

  “I want to have a word with George, but I think I should see you back to the cottage first.”

  Selena felt a glow of pleasure at his words, but she responded,

  “I shall be fine. Why don’t you come and share our dinner with us this evening? Then we can enjoy a proper discussion.”

  A charmed expression came over the Earl’s face.

  “I’d very much like to, but I still think I should see you home.”

  “It is very kind of you, but it’s only a short distance and I am sure that awful man will have wanted to kick the dust of this place off his feet as soon as possible.”

  The Earl laughed.

  “Well, if you are sure.”

  “Quite, quite sure, Alex.”

  She felt his gaze following her as she walked out of the orchard and she was filled with a warm glow.

  But as she walked by the little banqueting house where Lord Taverner had been waiting for her earlier in the day, he stepped out again, barring her path.

  Selena gasped.

  He caught her round the waist.

  “I do think you owe me this after the way you have just humiliated me,” he grated and brought his mouth down fiercely on hers.

  She struggled desperately to free herself, kicking at his legs with her boots, pushing at his arms and swinging her head from side to side.

  But he brought one of his hands up behind her head and forced her mouth to meet his.

  Terror mixed with disgust roared through her veins.

  His breath was foul and his muscular body pressed hard against her slender form in a horribly invasive way.

  When his tongue forced its way into her mouth, she almost swooned.

  Suddenly she was free.

  Staggering back, she saw the Earl plant a heavy fist on Lord Taverner’s jaw and the man go sprawling onto the dusty path.

  “Are you all right, Selena?” he called out. “I shall never forgive myself for not accompanying you back to the cottage.”

  The Earl took her hands gently into his and looked searchingly at her.

  Selena could do no more than nod.

  Lord Taverner picked himself up from the ground.

  “Get off my land,” growled the Earl in a low voice charged with much emotion, as he dropped Selena’s hands and formed his into fists.

  “You are a despicable travesty of a gentleman and a disgrace to your title!”

  Lord Taverner flashed back at him in a voice full of vitriol,

  “I shall be reporting on your relationship with Miss Norton to her stepfather and Guardian. You are a liar and a cheat, Wakefield!”

  The Earl regarded him contemptuously.

  “As everyone on this estate is well aware, there is no relationship at all between Miss Norton and myself. If you dare to suggest otherwise, I shall sue you for slander!”

  Lord Taverner raised his stick threateningly and for a moment Selena thought he would slash at the Earl, but instead, he lowered it.

  “Wakefield,
you need not think you can get away with assaulting me. I am a visitor on your land, you have a duty towards me.”

  “I have no duty to a man who attempts to seduce an innocent girl. Now leave or I will set the dogs on you.”

  With a last look full of hate, Lord Taverner picked up his hat from where it had fallen on the ground and left.

  Selena staggered to a low wall beside the path and collapsed onto it, shivering.

  The Earl stared after the vanishing figure of Lord Taverner.

  “I don’t think he will ever dare come here again,” he grated. “I cannot forgive myself for allowing you to go off alone. Are you really unhurt?”

  His voice seemed jerky, as though he did not have complete control of himself.

  Selena gave a slightly hysterical laugh.

  “What would you have done for dogs if he had not left?”

  “Gone for Hector,” the Earl answered her promptly. “How do you feel now? Strong enough to make it to the cottage or shall I carry you?”

  Selena longed to be carried by him, to feel his arms around her, so very different from those of Lord Taverner, but she knew she was capable of walking by herself.

  “I shall be fine,” she murmured.

  “Then take my arm and let me help you.”

  The Earl slipped a hand beneath Selena’s elbow as she rose. Then he placed her hand in the crook of his arm and patted it.

  “We shall just take it slowly, Selena. You have had a great shock.”

  Selena felt wonderfully protected.

  Just to know that she could trust the Earl never to take advantage of her in the way that Lord Taverner, Mr. Anstruther and so many other men had was a wonderful and comforting feeling.

  On the other hand she longed for him, not to take advantage of her, but to draw her gently into his arms and – at this point her mind veered sharply away from the pretty picture she had been drawing for herself.

  Men were harsh and perhaps the Earl might not be so very different.

  It did not take them long to reach the cottage, where Jemima was enjoying a quiet cup of tea. She jumped up the moment Selena and the Earl entered.

  “What on earth has happened? I can tell something has.”

  “First, I think Selena needs to drink a little brandy, if you have any to hand. She has had a nasty shock.”