Alone In Paris Page 11

  There was something about the way she spoke that made it impossible for the Duke to laugh.

  Instead he said,

  “You are certainly surprising me. Equally I feel flattered that you should think that I am capable of such achievements. But now I think we should go.”

  Una looked round her and realised that the people who had filled all the tables when they arrived had nearly all left.

  The ladies with their feathers and jewels and the gentlemen who had been talking earnestly to them, as she had been talking to the Duke, had all driven away.

  She stood up quickly.

  “Ought – I to have suggested that we should – leave?” she asked, feeling that she might have made a social error.

  “No,” the Duke said. “On such occasions it is something we decide together.”

  He saw the relief in Una’s face and did not say anything more until they were away from the restaurant, driving through the beautiful parts of the Bois de Boulogne that had been laid out by Baron Haussmann.

  Then she said,

  “When you are kind enough to take me with you anywhere, Your Grace, will you please tell me how I should behave? I am so afraid of making a faux pas.”

  “You have not made one so far,” the Duke assured her.

  “I have never been in any fashionable places before and, of course, never with a man – like you.”

  “What men have you been with?” he asked quickly.

  “I am afraid I have never known many,” Una answered. “There was Papa, of course, and the gentlemen who used to come to our house when we lived in the country. And there was the Priest – who heard the confessions of the girls and said Mass at the Convent every Sunday!”

  She thought before she went on,

  “There was the doctor who was an Italian, who used to pretend to scold me because I was never ill and – there was also a Music Master.”

  “What was he like?” the Duke asked. “I have heard about Music Masters before now.”

  “He was very very old,” Una answered, “and he had once played in a famous orchestra.”

  She smiled as she continued,

  “The girls who did not want to learn and found it a bore used to inveigle him into talking about the old days and then the lesson was over and they had not played a note!”

  “Did you do that?” the Duke asked.

  “No. I was anxious to learn, although I shall never be a good pianist.”

  “You were talking about the men you knew,” the Duke prompted.

  “I am afraid that is all,” Una said, “unless, of course, you count Monsieur Dubucheron and you.”

  “Do you expect me to believe that?” the Duke enquired.

  “I don’t – think I have forgotten anyone,” Una replied. “Of course, there was the postman and the gardeners at the Convent and the Gendarmes who used to hold up the traffic for us when we crossed the road to visit the Galleries. They used to wink at the older girls and the nuns would get very angry.”

  ‘She is too good to be true,’ the Duke thought to himself.

  He felt, as he did so, that Una was beginning to mesmerise him.

  ‘If this goes on,’ he thought, ‘I shall believe the whole Fairy story from start to finish.’

  He drove his horses for some moments without speaking and then looked sideways to see if she was waiting for him to continue their conversation.

  To his surprise she was staring with delight at the places they were passing and apparently not in the least perturbed that she had lost his attention.

  To his astonishment he felt quite piqued.

  “Where would you like to dine tonight?” he asked and Una’s face turned to him.

  “Dine?” she asked. “Do you mean – in a restaurant?”

  “Why not?” he asked. “I think you would find it interesting and, of course, I would like to show off the very beautiful lady I shall have accompanying me.”

  “You intend to ask – Mademoiselle Joyant to be your guest?” Una enquired.

  The Duke gave her a quick glance before he replied,

  “I was intending that we should dine alone.”

  There was silence and then Una said,

  “I would love that, but I am afraid you will not be particularly proud of me this evening, for I have only – the evening gown that I wore last night.”

  The Duke’s eyes twinkled.

  Here it came at last!

  Here was the breakthrough he had been waiting for.

  “Well, that is easily remedied,” he said. “If your wardrobe is so limited, then we must do something about it.”

  “What – do you – mean?”

  “I mean,” he replied, “that, of course, you must choose some gowns, any gowns that take your fancy and I will pay the bill.”

  He spoke bluntly because he thought that they had played games for long enough. The sooner they got down to fundamentals the better.

  There was silence and, because she did not speak for so long, the Duke turned once again to look at the little face raised to his.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “I don’t – think I – understand,” Una stammered. “Are you – suggesting that you should give me – a gown?”

  “As many as you like,” the Duke said carelessly. “You need not be afraid of bankrupting me.”

  “I am sure – you mean to be very – kind,” she said in a hesitating little voice, “and it is very generous of you – but I could not accept a gown as a present and it will be – some time before I can earn enough to pay for them myself.”

  The Duke hesitated, wondering whether he should say ‘stop pretending!’

  Then he told himself that she might as well continue the farce of deceiving him.

  But he could not help supposing that she thought that by doing so, the rewards would be very much greater than if she succumbed too quickly.

  Instead he merely said,

  “You are not very grateful for a present I wish to give you.”

  “I am not – being ungrateful,” Una said, “and, as I have said – you are very, very kind – but it would not be right and so I can only say – ‘thank you again – but no’.”

  “Why?” the Duke asked. “I don’t understand.”

  “Mama always told me,” Una said, “that a lady could never accept any present from a gentleman.”

  The Duke thought of all the dozens of women who had accepted with alacrity anything he pleased to give them.

  It always started with a small jewel, a brooch, a bracelet and a pair of earring and then it escalated towards pearls, which cost an enormous sum, then gowns and furs as well as sunshades and a thousand other things.

  He did not for a moment believe that Una intended to refuse his offer, she was merely expecting him to overrule her objections.

  “I think the sensible thing to do,” he said, “would be to send for one of the famous couturiers from the Rue de la Paix and suggest that he design gowns that will express your personality and your originality. He will, in the meantime, provide you with something to wear until they are ready.”

  Una clenched her hands together.

  “I shall be able to – buy myself a new gown when Monsieur Dubucheron pays me – for Papa’s painting.”

  The Duke gave a short laugh.

  “That is a very impractical suggestion and not one I should have thought you were so foolish as to make.”

  “F-foolish?”

  “You know as well as I do that any money you get from your father’s painting, or anything you earn, must be kept against a rainy day. It always comes sooner or later! In the meantime I am ready to be your banker and you should not refuse my offer.”

  “I have tried to – explain to you,” Una said, “it would not be – right. Mama said that, if one were engaged to a gentleman, it was permissible for him to give his fiancée a fan or even a pair of gloves at Christmas, but anything else would be misconstrued by – everyone who learnt about it.”
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  “Misconstrued? In what way?” the Duke asked slowly.

  Una paused and then she said hesitatingly,

  “Mama thought that a girl would be considered very – fast to allow a gentleman, however well she knew him, to give her – an article of clothing.”

  “If your mother thought that was fast,” the Duke said, “what do you think she would say about you staying alone in my house without a chaperone?”

  There was a silence and then Una said slowly,

  “I never thought about it – until this moment. Was it – wrong of me to – accept your invitation? I had nowhere – else to go.”

  There was a little touch of panic in her voice and the Duke said,

  “Personally, I should have thought it extremely stupid to have refused my invitation and be forced to look for lodgings in the middle of the night.”

  “It would have been – very frightening.”

  “Having swallowed a camel,” the Duke said, “why strain at a gnat?”

  “You mean – that, as I am – staying at your house – I should allow you to give me a gown?”

  “Not one gown, but all that you need.”

  Una was silent for a moment and then she said,

  “Please – may I think about– it?”

  “Of course,” he replied. “Take your time and perhaps we could go somewhere quiet tonight, so that I need not be ashamed of you.”

  As he spoke, he thought that he was breaking all the Queensberry Rules and hitting below the belt. At the same time he was beginning to find the conversation rather boring.

  He wanted to dress Una.

  He wanted her to look as beautiful as he knew she could look in one of the exquisite gowns that were created in Paris and copied by every fashionable woman in the world.

  ‘Dammit all!’ he thought to himself. ‘It’s about time I took the lead in this drama, which could only be happening in Paris, but should have been written for French and not English actors.’

  Chapter Five

  They drove on for some way before the Duke spoke again.

  Then he asked her,

  “What is your favourite stone?”

  Una, who had obviously been thinking of something else, seemed to start at his voice.

  “Stone?”

  “I mean jewel,” the Duke explained. “All women love jewellery. I don’t suppose that you are an exception.”

  Una thought for a moment and then she said,

  “I think turquoises are – very beautiful and I expect you know that in the East they are considered to be lucky.”

  “I have heard that,” the Duke said.

  “Mama said the Tibetans who mine stones in the mountains always wear a piece of turquoise to keep away the ‘Evil Eye’.”

  She gave a little laugh.

  “I don’t suppose that you are afraid of the ‘Evil Eye’, but in the books I have read it was a very real menace in Medieval times.”

  The Duke realised that once again she was moving away from the subject he wished to discuss.

  “So if you had the choice, you would rather own a turquoise than any other gem?”

  “I expect I should feel very lucky if I had one,” Una replied, “but, as I was born in July, I believe my birthstone is a ruby.”

  The Duke smiled to himself.

  This was getting better. Now she was beginning to show her interest in the expensive jewels that he was quite certain she would end up demanding.

  “At the same time,” Una went on, “I think that rubies are rather sinister and perhaps the best and most lovely jewel of all is a pearl.”

  “Pearls can be very expensive,” the Duke said.

  “I am sure that all jewels are,” she replied, “which is why I am very unlikely ever to own any.”

  She gave a little sigh.

  “Mama said that what she minded selling more than anything else, when she and Papa came to France, was the diamond crescent which her mother had left her in her will.”

  The Duke knew that diamond crescents and diamond stars were very fashionable amongst English women, but he had always thought that the jewellery that could be bought in Paris was the finest in the world.

  His mother had worn a tiara set by Oscar Massin, which he suddenly thought would look extremely attractive on Una, young though she was.

  Massin was a Master craftsman, who created jewelled flowers such as sprays of eglantine, lilies-of-the-valley and ears of corn.

  His lilies-of-the-valley, the Duke told himself, might have been fashioned especially for Una.

  Although it was absurd to imagine that she would ever wear anything from the Wolstanton collection, he thought perhaps he would buy her a brooch made of diamond lilies-of-the-valley.

  Also, if she insisted, he would add a pearl necklace that would encircle her small round neck and enhance the beauty of her skin.

  Aloud he said,

  “What you are really saying is that you would rather own pearls than anything else.”

  “I know what I would rather have more – than all the jewels in the world,” Una replied.

  “What is that?” he asked curiously.

  “Horses like the ones you are driving now, which are the equal, I am sure, of those you possess yourself.”

  The Duke was astonished.

  Once again he had been unable to hold her attention, as would have been very easy with any other woman, on the irresistible subject of what he should give her.

  “If you had a horse, where would you keep it?” he asked.

  Una laughed light-heartedly.

  “I could hardly expect you to invite it to stay, as you invited me, and I am afraid that I should get into trouble if I let it graze unattended in the Bois de Boulogne!”

  She was making it all a Fairy story and, as the Duke thought of how he could reply, she went on,

  “Perhaps really one should have an invisible horse or at least invisible until one was riding it.”

  “It would certainly save a lot of trouble,” the Duke agreed, feeling that he should enter into her fantasy.

  “I always thought it was very unfair that the immortals and the witches had so many things that one would love to have oneself.”

  “What sort of things?” the Duke asked.

  “A magic mirror on the wall, for one,” Una replied, “to tell the true character of the person who looked into it.”

  “I thought you were telling me just now that you could do that without the aid of a magic mirror,” the Duke answered.

  “Perhaps it is – presumptuous of me,” she said, “but I can – sometimes be aware not only of people’s – personalities but also what is – happening in their lives.”

  “You are a fortune-teller?” the Duke asked scornfully.

  “Not exactly.”

  “And have you had any prognostications about me?”

  She hesitated for a moment and then she said,

  “Perhaps – you would rather not hear.”

  “I not only want to hear, but I insist on hearing,” the Duke said. “If you make such ambiguous remarks, you can hardly expect me to ignore them.”

  “Well, I thought last night at dinner,” Una said, “that you talked and listened to what was being said. At the same time you were – watching, not really – participating.”

  The Duke did not speak and she gave a little cry.

  “Once again I am explaining myself badly, but it was as – if everyone around you were on the stage and you were in the audience.”

  “I am not going to tell you if that is correct,” the Duke answered, “but I would like to hear what else you thought.”

  He was sure, as he spoke, that doubtless Dubucheron, who was a very keen judge of men, had given her a short outline of his character before they arrived for dinner.

  Now Una hesitated longer than she had before and then said in a very low voice,

  “I may be quite wrong – I think perhaps I am – but I have a feeling – that you are trying to �
� make up your mind about – yourself.”

  She looked away from him after she had spoken.

  He knew suddenly that she felt not exactly shy but self-conscious because she was speaking about something that came from deep inside her.

  It was astounding, but he thought it would be a mistake to say so and he merely replied lightly,

  “You are not making it very clear.”

  “It is not very clear to me,” Una said, “but perhaps it is – something that is – going to happen. I can sometimes see things – out of time.”

  “Out of time?” the Duke questioned.

  Una smiled.

  “Papa said once that if we were high enough up in the sky, we could see Cherbourg, New York and a ship in the Atlantic.”

  She glanced at the Duke from under her eyelashes as if she was afraid that she was boring him, but then, seeing that he was listening, she went on,

  “The people on board the ship would believe that they had left Cherbourg yesterday, that where they were at the moment in the middle of the ocean was today and New York was several days ahead.”

  “I see what you mean,” the Duke said slowly. “For you and me high up in the sky, it would all be happening at the same moment.”

  Una smiled at him as if he had been rather clever.

  “Exactly!” she said. “And that is why I sometimes feel, when I am very interested in a person, that I can see a little bit of his or her yesterdays and tomorrows – while it is happening to me today.”

  “And you are very interested in me?” the Duke asked.

  “Of course,” she answered. “I think that you are the most complicated – difficult – and of course much the most – exciting person I have ever looked at in my magic mirror.”

  She laughed as she spoke and the Duke smiled.

  “You are making me nervous,” he said. “Suppose you find out that I am really a wicked ogre in disguise? What will you do then?”

  She did not say that that was impossible, but merely replied,

  “I should slip on my invisible dancing shoes, which would carry me seven leagues away before you knew what was happening! I might even put a spell on you!”

  The Duke thought that they had journeyed a long way from his original enquiry as to what stones she favoured.