Learning to Love Read online

  “My list is already so long that you would be frightened if you saw it.”

  ”We must both keep our lists private until we know each other better otherwise it will be embarrassing to accuse each other of being so extravagant!”

  There was a silence until Kristina said,

  “I understood today exactly why you wanted money from Papa – and I now realise that if you had not received it, many people would have suffered and been unhappy.”

  “I thought you would understand,” the Earl replied in all sincerity.

  A great number of women would have thought he was throwing money away to give so much to the poor instead of concentrating first on his own requirements.

  Then before he could congratulate himself on having done the right thing, Kristina gave a cry,

  “I had forgotten!”

  “What is that?”

  “The horses – they will have come today, I am sure of it.”

  She did not wait for the Earl to reply, but pushed her horse into a canter and rode across the courtyard and under the arch which led to the stables.

  The Earl followed her, realising he had never given another thought to what she had said about the horses coming from Tattersall’s.

  Jim came running out as they appeared and he knew without being told that Kristina was right.

  As she was ahead of the Earl she slipped off her horse and leaving him with Jim she ran into the stables.

  “What time did the horses arrive, Jim?” the Earl enquired.

  “Soon after you’d left, my Lord, and we’ve got some new help from the village which we’ll need with so many new horses to look after.”

  The Earl did not wait to hear any more but walked into the stables.

  Kristina was already in the first stall, gazing at a magnificent black stallion. It was the sort of thoroughbred he had often dreamed of owning, but thought would never be his.

  Well bred and with a touch of Arab in him, he recognised that only those who could pay a very large sum could afford a horse that looked so fine.

  Kristina was rushing excitedly from one stall to another and the Earl had to admit that he had never seen a better collection of handsome animals.

  The groom from London and Jim were in ecstasies over them.

  The Earl found that there were three new grooms from the village who were anxious to work in the stables. Two of them were experienced men while the third had been employed for a short time with one of the Earl’s neighbours who was the Master of Foxhounds.

  “The Colonel will be real upset, my Lord,” the new groom said, “when he hears you have horses like these. They be better than anything he has in his stables!”

  “I feel very lucky to possess them and I am sure you will look after them well.”

  “I certainly will, my Lord,” the groom promised.

  The Earl was just about to turn away when he asked,

  “Why did you leave the Colonel?”

  The man hesitated.

  “He has a nasty temper on him, my Lord,” the groom said touching his forelock.

  Some time later he persuaded a reluctant Kristina that they should go into the house for tea as it was now after five o’clock.

  He thought that as they had been out all day she should rest. It seemed extraordinary to him that she was so small and so fragile in appearance, yet she could not only handle a large horse, but have complete control over it.

  He considered as they walked up the steps that once again he had been very lucky. He might have been married to a woman who disliked horses.

  She would then resent his being away from the house and her when he was riding around the estate.

  Brook was waiting for them in the hall and Kristina said,

  “The horses have arrived, Brook, and they are absolutely splendid!”

  “I thought they would please your Ladyship.”

  “They are wonderful! I only wish we could tell Papa how grateful we are.”

  She did not wait for Brook to reply, but walked to the study where tea was waiting.

  The Earl noticed that the room was very much cleaner and tidier than it had been previously. There was an arrangement of flowers on each side of the mantelpiece and a bowl of roses in front of the window.

  He knew that these changes were all down to Brook and he felt sure that Kristina would enjoy them and he was not mistaken.

  “Flowers!” Kristina exclaimed. “How lovely!”

  Then she looked at the Earl in rather a strange manner.

  “What is the matter?” he asked

  “I have just realised that I should have arranged the flowers for you. You told me to look after the house and Mama always arranged flowers for Papa in his sitting room. There were flowers everywhere because she loved him.”

  “Just as my mother did,” the Earl said. “That is why I am determined to employ a great number of gardeners as soon as possible to make the garden as beautiful as it used to.”

  “And I will help you,” Kristina added.

  The Earl thought she looked like a flower herself, but he could not tell her.

  She thanked Brook for thinking of the flowers when he came in with the tea and he said, “When I was down in the village, I had not forgotten the garden, my Lord. There are two men who used to work here in the old days who are anxious to return.”

  “I hope you told them that they would be welcome,” the Earl answered.

  “With your Lordship’s permission, they’re starting work tomorrow morning as I was thinking you’d need almost an army to put things into shape before the summer’s out.”

  “We will certainly engage an army if one is available. I intended to see to this tomorrow, but I am grateful to you for organising help so quickly.”

  As he spoke he remembered that once again everything had been done for him which he ought to be organising himself.

  Where Brook was concerned he did not mind nor feel he was being pushed to one side. The man was obviously eager to be of use and he knew that he should encourage him.

  When the cakes and scones came in, Brook was assisted by two footmen. Mrs. Brook must have worked very hard to produce so much so quickly.

  He saw too that the footmen were already in livery. The Hunts must have told Brook that the old suits of livery had been stored upstairs in the attic.

  As there were quite a number of them it would be easy for newcomers to be fitted in livery as soon as they arrived.

  ‘Everything is improving,’ he told himself, ‘and it is far quicker than I expected, I can only be very, very grateful.’

  Kristina was looking at the silver utensils on the silver tray. They were shining like mirrors.

  “Would you like me to pour the tea?” she asked.

  “Of course, that is something every hostess has to do.”

  “I hope I can do it as well as Mama used to, but we were never allowed tea in Florence. The nuns always said it was an English meal.”

  “Which is all the more reason for us to enjoy it,” the Earl replied, “but if you eat all the cakes and scones I see waiting for us, you will soon be so fat you will have to buy a great many more clothes!”

  Kristina laughed.

  “Now you make me feel as if I am being naughty every time I eat any of that delicious-looking iced cake. And of course I will have to remember not to be too heavy in the saddle.”

  They were both laughing when the Earl sat down at the tea-table.

  He thought how very different it was from the long silences of yesterday afternoon when they had driven down from London.

  As he helped himself to hot buttered toast, he thought of his mother sitting where Kristina was now.

  She would have wanted him to tell her everything that had happened today. What the people on the farms and in the villages had said to him and what he had said to them.

  He had thought it was the sort of subject he would never be able to talk about with any other woman.

  But Kristina, having giv
en him his tea, was pouring out her own as she said,

  “I was just wondering whether that last farmer, who was so thrilled when you said he could have as many sheep as he wanted, will buy the best breed.”

  “What makes you think he will not do so?”

  “Papa always told me if one was buying anything it was wise to buy the best.”

  “Which is usually the most expensive,” the Earl pointed out.

  “Papa realised that, but equally he believed the best always lasted longer and in the case of animals it was always a good investment.”

  The Earl thought that this was an intelligent observation.

  “I will certainly find out which is the best breed for our land and climate and I will suggest to Hopkins that is what he tries.”

  “I think it would be kind of you, after all I doubt if he can read, so he will not be able to learn about breeds except from others.”

  “Of course,” the Earl agreed. “You are quite right and it is something I should have thought of myself.”

  “I have thought of something else you should do later when you have the time.”

  “That is just the important point – when we have time! What are you suggesting?”

  “When I was at the Convent, one of the girls, who was French, was very excited because her father had taken up racehorses. He wished to challenge the English and was therefore building a racecourse near his Chateau on the Loire.”

  “A racecourse!” the Earl echoed almost beneath his breath.

  “I thought it would be exciting for us to open one here and perhaps – if you built one it would bring more horses to the neighbourhood. It would certainly be interesting for the poorer people to watch. They have nothing to amuse themselves when they are not working.”

  Quite suddenly the Earl began to laugh.

  “Why are you laughing?”

  “Because as an explorer,” he replied, “I have just discovered someone unique called Kristina who is quite unlike anyone else I have ever thought of, met or seen before!”

  CHAPTER SIX

  The Earl drove his team along the road at what he was certain was a record speed.

  He had been to Oxford having received an urgent request from his Bank Manager and his Solicitors to visit them.

  He thought perhaps the Solicitors would impart bad news about Mr. Randon and therefore he deliberately did not take Kristina with him.

  However when he arrived it was to find that the summons was not bad news, but good.

  A very large sum of money had arrived from America and his Solicitors and the bank were concerned as to how it should be invested.

  They could not do anything without the Earl’s instructions.

  He realised that this extra money would make it easy for him to construct the racecourse Kristina was suggesting and even easier to achieve everything required on the estate.

  He sent a large cheque to Lord Shield and promised him more when he needed it.

  As the Earl drove back to the Hall, he was thinking that in the last three days Kristina had been so charming to the farmers and everyone they visited was entranced by her.

  ‘She has the knack of getting on with people,’ the Earl told himself, ‘and that is most important on such a large estate.’

  At the back of his mind was an idea that he might purchase more land, which would make his estate even grander and Cariston Hall more prestigious.

  As he neared the village he drew in his team and they moved slowly past the thatched cottages which were now being repaired.

  – The Earl now employed a large number of workmen to carry out his orders some were concerned with the Church whilst some were building a new school.

  The rest were repairing and redecorating the cottages of the pensioners and making them as attractive as possible.

  As soon as the Earl had returned and paid all his bills, the village general shop was bursting with more goods to sell than ever and the same applied to the butcher.

  As the Earl was regarding the cottages he noticed that outside one of them was the chaise in which he had travelled to London.

  He had told Kristina she could use it if she wanted to go anywhere as he intended to buy a new, small chaise to be drawn by two horses.

  He thought too it would be a good idea to have a pony cart as it would make it easier for anyone in the house who wanted a run down to the village.

  There were so many items for him to think about for all the improvements that sometimes he thought his head was whirling. It was impossible for his brain to concentrate on everything that was required.

  He pulled in his horse to see that Jim was standing by the chaise.

  “What has happened, Jim?”

  “They comes to the Hall, my Lord, to ask us to find a midwife. The woman in this cottage were in labour and there be no one here to attend to her.”

  “Is her Ladyship inside?”

  “Yes, my Lord. Us picked the midwife up some three miles away and brought her back post-haste.”

  “Look after the horse, Jim, I will go and see what is happening.”

  He handed Jim the reins and walked in through a gate which had already been repaired. He noted with satisfaction that flowers had been planted on either side of the flagged path.

  The door of the cottage was ajar so the Earl opened it and looked inside.

  There was no one in the kitchen, but there was however the sound of voices on the other side of the passage where he thought Kristina must be.

  He was just about to knock on the door when a woman saw him and withdrew. He heard her say,

  “His Lordship is here, my Lady.”

  The Earl waited.

  A few minutes later, Kristina entered the room carrying a baby in her arms wrapped in a white shawl and she walked towards the Earl holding the infant very carefully.

  “Here is a new member of your flock,” she smiled. “You must admit he is a very good-looking baby.”

  As the child had only just been born, the Earl found it difficult to decide what his looks would be like in later life.

  At the same time he was sure he had never seen anything quite so delightful as Kristina with a child in her arms. The scene made him think of the picture books of the Madonna which his mother had read to him when he was a little boy.

  As he looked at her, he found such an exquisite expression in her eyes that he knew in that instant that he was completely and unmistakably in love.

  What he really desired was to see Kristina holding his own son in her arms and looking at him with the same expression on her face, which he recognised as the instinctive mother love of a woman for a child.

  He realised it was something he had always been seeking, although he had not been conscious of it until now.

  What he felt for Kristina at this moment was what he had always known in his heart he would feel one day for a woman.

  But not for one who could ignite in him a fire which quickly burned itself out.

  ‘I love her,’ he thought, ‘but she must not become aware of my feelings until I know that she loves me.’

  Kristina raised her eyes from the baby.

  “I was just thinking,” she said, “that as this is the first baby born since you have started to restore the estate – I think you should be his Godfather – and he should bear your name.”

  “I would be very delighted for him to be called Michael if you think that will please his parents.”

  “I know that they would be thrilled and honoured,” Kristina replied. “I will go and tell them.”

  She smiled at the Earl and moved into the next room and he thought he could hear a new note of excitement in the voices which had earlier been speaking quietly.

  “They are overwhelmed at your kindness and Michael’s mother says it is a very great honour,” Kristina announced.

  She came a little closer to the Earl and lowered her voice as she added,

  “I think it will please the whole village and make them feel, as I
know you want them to feel, that those who live on your estate are just one big happy family.”

  “How do you know that is what I want?” the Earl asked.

  “At times I can read your thoughts and I felt it was what you were thinking.”

  “I shall have to be very careful what I think in the future.”

  Kristina laughed.

  “I will not try to intrude, but I will know if you are thinking nasty thoughts about me like you were when we were married.”

  “That seems a long time ago,” the Earl said, “and I have completely forgotten what happened.”

  “That is the right way to look at it and now let us go home. But first I must say goodbye to Michael’s mother.”

  “I will go on ahead,” the Earl said, “I have some instructions to give to the stables, but will join you as quickly as I can.”

  “Do not be too long.”

  The Earl walked outside and mounted his steed.

  At the stables he found his head groom and two other grooms waiting for him.

  The Earl had heard some importance news whilst he had been in Oxford. It was that a sale of horses would take place next week on the far side of the City.

  He asked his head groom to find out more as if there was anything really good to be sold, it would be a mistake to miss it.

  The head groom had quite a lot to say and it was some time before the Earl could extract himself.

  Jim had driven into the yard with the chaise and the Earl stopped for a moment to tell him how pleased he was with the way he had groomed the horses.

  He did not want someone who had been faithful in the past to think he was being over-shadowed by all the newcomers.

  Then he walked from the stables down to the courtyard where he saw to his surprise a closed carriage outside the front door. He wondered who was calling and hurried up the steps.

  Brook was waiting in the hall and as he took his Lordship’s gloves and hat from him said,

  “Sir Geoffrey Hallet has called, my Lord.”

  “I wondered who it was and of course I am delighted to see him.”

  Sir Geoffrey had been a friend of his father’s and his house and estate were only five miles away.

  The Earl hurried towards the study which they were still using because the drawing room had not yet been redecorated.