A Very Unusual Wife Read online

  Elmina was amused to notice that, while Chang had been almost subserviently respectful to the Marquis on first arrival, as soon as he began to teach him, the way he spoke was firm and authoritative.

  She knew that the spiritual side of Karate was to him of far greater importance than the physical exercise.

  Rather to her surprise, the Marquis quickly understood and accepted this and, when he had been shown by Chang the special breathing techniques, he at once grasped the spiritual aspect of mental concentration.

  ‘He is very very clever,’ she told herself, as she saw him comprehending, even more quickly than she had done, the inner meaning that was essentially the foundation of Karate.

  This, of course, was derived from Bodhedharman, the monk who had originally taught it at the Shaolin Temple.

  They worked hard for nearly two hours with Chang, then leaving him with Hogson to show him the horses, the Marquis and Elmina again went riding.

  Feeling that they had exerted themselves enough for one day, he took her quietly through the woods and she found herself entranced by the beauty of the trees and the quiet pools where the wild deer sprang away at their appearance.

  Rare birds Elmina had never seen before fluttered to the tops of the trees before she really had time to observe them properly.

  “My father was very interested in birds,” the Marquis explained, “and at one time had a large aviary here. Some of them escaped and have bred in the woods without apparently much difficulty.”

  “I think that is very exciting!” Elmina said. “But I should be afraid when your friends are shooting pheasants or partridges that they might kill some of these by mistake.”

  “Not if they wish to be invited another time!” the Marquis said sharply.

  Elmina realised that no penalty could prove more effective.

  At dinner they seemed to have so much to talk about that she was quite surprised to find that the evening had passed and it was time for bed.

  When they retired and the Marquis left her, as was now his custom, at the door of her bedroom, he said,

  “The usual time, if you wish to come riding in the morning. Goodnight Elmina. I know you will sleep well.”

  “I hope you will also,” she replied.

  “I will doubtless dream that you are defeating me either on the jumps,” he smiled, “or else with some new hold Chang has omitted to show me!”

  She had laughed, but when she was in her bedroom she felt suddenly very alone and wished that she could go on talking to him.

  ‘He is so intelligent,’ she told herself.

  She said a little prayer of thankfulness that she found she could talk to him almost on equal terms.

  She felt sometimes as if he deliberately introduced subjects that were beyond the comprehension of the average woman, almost as if he was trying to catch her out and prove her ignorant.

  Very occasionally she had to admit that she did not understand what he was saying, but usually they had a spirited argument, perhaps about some obscure religion about which she knew as much as he did or over some point of Classical history.

  Whatever it was, Elmina was aware that neither Mirabel nor Deirdre would have known anything about the subject and she suspected that most of the Marquis’s lady friends would be no less ignorant.

  She could not help wondering whether he missed Lady Carstairs.

  Sometimes not when she was riding with him, but when they were sitting in the salon after dinner, she longed to ask him if he preferred looking into the inviting blue eyes of the woman he loved rather than hers.

  However honest they had promised to be with each other, she felt sure that his love affairs were ‘taboo’ and he would consider it bad taste on her part to mention them.

  Now, lying in the dark, Elmina wondered, as she had wondered almost every night, what the Marquis now felt about her and if his feelings had changed in any way from the first night when he had come to her bedroom.

  He had expected then to make love to her, although it could not have been even for him love as he had known it and quite certainly not the very special spiritual experience she wanted it to be for herself.

  Yet he must have felt some urge to touch her and kiss her, otherwise he would not have come.

  Now, after a whole week together, he had shown no sign whatever of thinking of her as an attractive woman or in any way desirable.

  ‘Perhaps I have lost him by being too clever,’ Elmina thought to herself.

  Then to her surprise she found herself questioning whether she had been right in insisting on their marriage being so very different from what the Marquis had taken for granted.

  Supposing she had let him make love to her, whatever that entailed, as he had expected to do?

  Perhaps then he would have fallen in love with her instead of, as she now realised, treating her on her own insistence, as a companion and a male one at that!

  ‘Have I been stupid? Have I thrown away the substance for the shadow?’ she asked.

  She felt lost, alone, very young and hopelessly ignorant.

  What did she know of men, especially one like the Marquis?

  How could she have compelled him to change his mind and to make it on her own terms impossible for him now to approach her?

  ‘I have been a fool!’ she told herself and wanted to cry.

  She had an irresistible impulse to go into his bedroom, wake him up and ask him to be frank with her.

  Suppose she did that and said to him,

  ‘I have made a mistake! Please want me as you did on the night we were married! Let us start from there, rather than worry as to whether it is ideal love or something very different.’

  Then she told herself that everything she believed in and everything that Chang had taught her made her sure that the love that was worth having was something one must strive for.

  It came not only from the heart and the body, but also from the soul.

  ‘But why should the Marquis believe that?’

  The question seemed to dance in front of her eyes.

  Then, because she was so agitated by the ideas that seemed to come flooding into her mind, frightening her with their intensity, she climbed out of bed and walked to the window.

  She slipped behind the curtains, as she had done the first night of her marriage and stood looking out over the garden and the lake beyond.

  Now the moon was on the wane, but there was still enough light from what was left of it and the stars to see the beauty of everything below her.

  But instead of its loveliness lifting her up into the sky as it usually did, she felt a dull ache of fear that she would never find what she sought, and to the Marquis she would never be anything very special.

  ‘I love him!’ she thought to herself and was astonished to find herself realising it. ‘I want him to love me as a man loves a woman who to him is different from all other women!’

  She told herself despairingly that that would never happen and was startled by the pain that seemed to seep through her whole body at the thought.

  Suddenly she felt that she could not bear the loneliness of the great room with its golden cupids symbolic of the love that was eluding her.

  In the same way as when she had been at home, she felt her only comfort could be found with the horses.

  As she thought of it, she knew it would be exciting to look again at the horse that had arrived only yesterday and which the Marquis intended to ride tomorrow.

  Two days ago he had given an exclamation of excitement when a letter had arrived by post.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I have a surprise for you,” he answered, “and one which I feel will give you as much pleasure as it gives me.”

  “What is it?” Elmina asked again curiously.

  “I have bought an Arab mare that is considered by the experts to be the most outstanding horse in the world!”

  Elmina’s eyes had lit up and the Marquis had gone on,

  “She belong
s to an Arab Chieftain who I did a good turn for a long time ago. When I heard about the mare, I wrote to him asking that, if ever he considered selling her, he would allow me the privilege of being her owner.”

  “And did he say ‘yes’?”

  “He replied with the flowery sentiments of the East that he would be honoured that Shalom, which is the name of the mare, should grace my stables.”

  The Marquis paused to look down again at the letter.

  Then he said,

  “I did not tell you about it, because the Arabs are invariably unpredictable and I thought that while he agreed to my suggestion, he might easily find innumerable excuses for not sending the mare away from his own country.”

  The Marquis held out the letter to her.

  “I was wrong. As you see, this is to inform me that Shalom has actually arrived at Dover, and Allah willing, will be here in two days’ time.”

  Elmina had been almost as excited as the Marquis and when the mare had arrived yesterday evening as dusk was falling they had both gone to the stables to see her safely ensconced in the stall that had been prepared for her.

  She was a beautiful animal with an arched neck and all the characteristics of a pure-bred Arab mare.

  She was so faultless that Elmina could understand her being spoken of as ‘the most perfect horse in the world’.

  It had been impossible, to the Marquis’s great annoyance, to keep such a purchase secret from the newspapers.

  They not only reported the mare’s arrival but also had described his house and his stables and had made some very complimentary comments about the other horses he possessed.

  Elmina had read the articles in both The Times and The Morning Post and had remarked,

  “I am sure that this will mean we shall have sightseers knocking on the gates and asking to see Shalom.”

  “I am extremely annoyed that I should be written about in such a way!” the Marquis replied. “I dislike publicity of any sort, for it invariably ends in trouble.”

  Remembering how the local people had talked about him and Lady Carstairs, Elmina quickly changed the subject.

  She was certain that she was right and, whether they were on their honeymoon or not, people would certainly call and ask if they could see Shalom.

  Now, knowing that she would find it impossible to sleep, she thought that she would pay a quick visit to the stables, which was something she had often done at home whatever the time of night.

  She lit a candle and opened her wardrobe to find something to wear. The first thing she saw lying on the floor of the cupboard was the black suit she wore for Karate.

  It was easier to slip into this than anything else and, as she was certain that there would be nobody to notice her, she took off her nightgown and put on the garment.

  Tying back her long hair with a bow or ribbon, she opened the door of her bedroom very quietly and walked down the passage.

  As usual at night, the majority of the candles in their silver sconces had been extinguished, but there were a few alight so that it was easy for her to find her way.

  Elmina, however, did not go down the main staircase, knowing that the night-footman would be on duty in the hall.

  Instead she took a secondary staircase, which led her to a garden door from which she had only to walk a short distance through a number of rhododendron bushes to reach the entrance to the stables.

  There was enough light in the sky to see her way and yet in the shadows she was quite certain that if there was anybody looking out they would not notice her.

  She had no wish to explain why she was so restless in the middle of the night.

  There was a large archway leading into the cobbled yard of the stables through which she passed and, as she expected, everything was quiet.

  Although she knew there were always one or two of the stable lads on duty at night in case any of the horses were ill or frightened, she expected that they would be asleep and would not hear her.

  The outside door of the stable was open, which rather surprised her.

  Then, as she went inside, she was just about to go first into the stall occupied by Skylark, when she realised that there was a light in the next one where Shalom was housed.

  She went quickly to it, found the door open and walked in to see with astonishment that there were two men she did not recognise with the Arab mare.

  They turned round as she appeared and one of them in a rough voice exclaimed,

  “Who are you and what do you want?”

  “It’s a woman!” the other one said.

  “What are you doing here – ?” Elmina began to ask.

  Then, as she spoke, something heavy was thrown over her head from behind her and, even as she began to struggle, she realised that she was helpless.

  She wanted to scream, but her voice was lost against the thickness of the horse blanket and her arms beneath it were roped down to her sides.

  A rope was put around her ankles, tying them together, and then as she screamed in fear she was toppled over and laid down on the floor.

  It had all happened so quickly and she was trussed up like a chicken almost before she had time to think.

  “You said as ’ow you’d knocked ’em all out, Bert,” one man said.

  “I ’as! This woman weren’t ’ere then!”

  “Tiens! What we do wiv her?” another voice asked.

  Elmina had the idea it was the man who had come up behind her and thrown the horse blanket over her.

  She thought he spoke with a strange accent that was unlike that of the other two men.

  “Better take ’er wiv us,” the first one who had spoken said. “She’s seen our faces so it wouldn’t be safe to leave ’er ’ere.”

  “Easier kill ’er!”

  The way the other man spoke made Elmina draw in her breath with fear.

  “We’ll go into that later. Come on! Abe says get a move on!”

  “If we’ve gotta take ’er, we’ll need another ’orse.”

  “Alright, Bert, but take a quiet ’un and you can ’ave ’er in front of you. It’ll be easier that way and I’ll ride the Arab.”

  Elmina listened with horror.

  She realised that the men were thieves who had come to steal the Arab mare because she had been described in the newspapers as being the most perfect horse in the world.

  She was also the most expensive, which meant that somebody had employed these men to steal Shalom from the Marquis.

  She heard footsteps as one of the men went to the next stall and she knew that he was inspecting Skylark.

  Then, as the horse, who always resented strangers in his stall, lashed out at him, Bert came back quickly saying,

  “I ain’t takin’ that animal!”

  “Then find another, you fool!” the man who was obviously in charge replied. “There’s enough of ’em to choose from!”

  Bert walked in the opposite direction and a minute later said,

  “There’s one that seems quiet enough down ’ere, but I wants some ’elp in saddlin’ ’im.”

  “Bring that one then,” Abe said. “Jacques can ’elp you!”

  It was he who had first spoken to Elmina and she thought now that he had seemed almost middle-aged, but she was sure that he was experienced with horses.

  There was something that was, she knew, very noticeable in men who were grooms and jockeys and had always spent their lives with horseflesh.

  He was obviously having no trouble in putting a saddle on Shalom. The mare was standing still while he did so and Elmina thought that that was not only because the animal was tired after her long journey.

  She herself was more frightened than she had ever been before in her life.

  She was quite certain that these men would not hesitate to kill her if it suited them and she had no chance of defending herself when she could not move either her hands or her feet.

  She heard the two men who were further down the stable coming back, bringing a horse with them.
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  She fancied, although she could not be sure, that it was one of the horses the Marquis had had for some years and which he rode out hunting.

  “You ready, Abe?” the man called Bert asked.

  Abe, who had now saddled Shalom, replied,

  “I be ready! Jacques can ride one of those we came on!”

  “They ain’t as good as these!”

  “Take the lot of ’em then. You only needs four legs to carry us to the coast!”

  As he spoke, Elmina understood.

  They were taking Shalom abroad and she guessed that the instructions to steal her had come from one of the French owners. Now she knew what was the accent of the third man – he was French!

  The Marquis had told her during their various discussions how his greatest rivals on the Racecourse were the French.

  “They send their best horses over here to try to beat me,” he said, “but so far they have always failed!”

  “Have you ever raced in France?” Elmina had enquired.

  “Once or twice,” he replied, “and I intend to try again next Season. But I want to be quite certain before I do so that any horse I put into one of their races will win!”

  Elmina had laughed.

  “I think it is unsporting to bet on a certainty!”

  “I feel I am racing not only on my own behalf but for the glory of England,” he answered.

  He spoke with the sarcastic note in his voice that he used so frequently.

  Elmina had realised, however, that while he was mocking at his own patriotism he was actually very sincere.

  Other apparently incidental remarks he had made at various times had made her suspect intuitively that he had built up a defensive attitude towards the world as if he was afraid it might hurt him.

  Perhaps, she told herself later that evening when she was alone, that was why he had avoided or deliberately had not sought the real love that meant so much to her.

  It seemed hard to believe, but it might have been because he was afraid that having found it, he would be disappointed and so it was a risk he was not prepared to take.

  It did not seem quite in keeping with what she had learnt of the rest of his character and yet she asked herself humbly what did she really know about him?

  For that matter what did she know about men in general? He might easily be far more subtle and sensitive than she had suspected.