The Winning Post Is Love Read online

  “I know which one I would love to have,” Rosetta replied before either of the men could speak. “It’s that one I believe should be named ‘Horizon’.”

  The Marquis looked at her in surprise.

  “I don’t think I have heard that name used before,” he murmured.

  “I think it’s a good name for a horse and for all of us. You have swept away so much darkness and given us an horizon to a new world that we fervently believe will be very different from what it has been in the past.”

  “Thank you,” the Marquis bowed. “I think that is the nicest compliment I have ever received.”

  “You should be the best judge of that,” she retorted.

  The Marquis knew that she was teasing him.

  Then they all returned to The Castle, having given instructions to one of the grooms to attach another team to the chaise.

  “I cannot believe,” Rosetta sighed, “they are better than those who brought us here.”

  “Perhaps no better, but old friends. I am sure that you of all people, Dolina, would not want them to feel that their noses have been put out of joint! The new arrivals are perhaps a little faster than they are.”

  Rosetta laughed.

  “Now you are talking in a language that I can really understand. I am always afraid that my horses will feel neglected or they will feel I love and admire a new arrival more than I love them.”

  The Marquis thought it very touching that she cared so much for animals.

  Some of the beauties he had pursued in London had ridden in Rotten Row simply because they wanted to show themselves off and they had little affection for their horses and nor did they worry about how they were cared for.

  It seemed extraordinary to him that this girl, who has been acclaimed as a beauty, should have such affection for everything countrified.

  He had not missed the way that she had admired the flowers that filled the drawing room.

  He had seen her hand as she softly touched a rose or an orchid and, as they walked back through the garden, she was not thinking about him, she was concentrating on a bed of rose bushes that had always delighted him even as a small boy.

  They had not hurried back into The Castle.

  The chaise was waiting for them outside the front door and the Marquis was giving instructions to his valet to follow him with his clothes.

  Gordon turned to Rosetta,

  “I can only hope that Mrs. Barnes will excel herself tonight as she did last night.”

  “I am sure she will do her best,” Rosetta said softly. “But I suggest you and Henry ride back the quick way over the fields. It will give her advance warning and, if there is anything extra she needs, she has time to order it.”

  “Of course and we might have thought of it on the way here, but we had to keep a little way behind, otherwise we would have had your dust in our eyes.”

  “If you go home across the fields, you will be back long before we are along all those twisting lanes.”

  When the Marquis had finished giving his orders, he found Rosetta alone.

  “Where have Gordon and Henry gone?” he asked. “Don’t tell me they have returned to the stables for another look at my horses.”

  “No, they have ridden home to make sure that the cook has something for our dinner. An unexpected guest, especially one as distinguished as you, causes a commotion in the kitchen!”

  “I had not thought of that,” the Marquis confessed.

  He turned to his butler and instructed him,

  “I will take with me that pâté de foie-gras, which I brought from London and which I have not yet sampled, together with a case of my best champagne.”

  “Very good, my Lord.”

  “That is so kind,” Rosetta said as they walked down the front steps. “Men usually think that good food grows on gooseberry bushes and don’t realise it requires a great deal of thought and hard work before it goes on the table.”

  “Do you ever find time to think about yourself?” the Marquis asked. “You always seem to think of others.”

  “I try to because so many of them are not happy in their lives. Therefore any kindness, however small, does give them pleasure.”

  “You are quite right, Dolina, but I have a feeling you are telling me in a roundabout and tactful way that I am selfish and too interested in myself.”

  “I am doing nothing of the sort, Euan. You have been exceedingly kind to us, and I am merely trying to help Gordon and Henry because they have been so desperately worried and had no one to help or care for them.”

  “They have you,” the Marquis commented.

  Rosetta realised that once again she had made a mistake, but she managed to avoid replying because they had now reached the chaise, drawn by a new team of, to her delight, white horses.

  “How pretty they look!” she exclaimed.

  “I thought you would like them, but I warn you they are getting on a bit and are not as fast as another team I own and they cannot compete with the new ones.”

  “There is no need for us to hurry.”

  The Marquis glanced at her.

  “That is not a compliment to me as I first thought. You are still thinking of the cook!”

  “Now you are reading my thoughts. I cannot think of any reason why I should worry about you.”

  “I can think of a lot of reasons why you should!”

  As he was speaking, he picked up the reins.

  He was thinking that there was a great deal he had to say to her.

  It would be a challenge because she had made it clear that she had found The Castle and his horses more stimulating than he was.

  He was wondering what she would say if he tried to kiss her and now he thought about it, it was something he had wanted to do ever since he had first seen her.

  Yet he had been perceptively aware that it had never entered her mind that he wished to do so.

  ‘Why is she so different?’ he asked himself. ‘Why does she not want me to be closer to her than I have been at meals? Why does she not look at me with that invitation in her eyes I have seen in so many other women? Why is she not excited by me as a man?’

  All these questions were rushing through his mind again, but he had no answer to any of them.

  Then he knew that, sitting beside him with her eyes on his team, she had made no effort to move closer so that her arm touched his or, as so many other women had done, put out a hand to rest on his knee.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked almost sharply.

  There was a pause before Rosetta admitted,

  “I was just thinking how wonderful The Castle is, but it is sad that so few people can see it.”

  The Marquis turned to look at her in surprise.

  “What on earth do you mean by that?” he asked. “I often have friends down from London and those working on the estate come to The Castle from time to time.”

  “A mere handful of people, but The Castle is filled with so much beauty and all the achievements of those who lived hundreds of years ago.”

  “Are you really suggesting,” the Marquis demanded incredulously, “that I should allow the hoi polloi to walk over my Castle?”

  “No, not exactly. I merely thought that on special occasions and for rather special people, like those who are collecting for charity, it would be a joy and thrill if they could see all I have seen today, which I know is unique in the whole of England.”

  The Marquis was silent as he drove on and then he thundered,

  “Supposing they steal some of the treasures I am lucky enough to own?

  “It is a question of proper organisation. You would have guides in every room they visit who would keep an eye on anyone who might want to slip something into their pockets. And you would not tempt them unnecessarily by leaving the snuffbox cabinets unlocked.”

  After a while the Marquis muttered,

  “You certainly put new ideas into my mind. At the same time, I cannot help thinking you are reproaching me for not
thinking of them myself.”

  Rosetta smiled.

  “I think actually you have been enjoying yourself as every man is entitled to do. But sooner or later you will want to spend much more time in your beautiful Palace, for there is no other word to describe it, and if people want to come to bow to you, can you really refuse them?”

  The Marquis looked quizzically at Rosetta.

  “You know, Dolina, you scare me. I am not going to listen to you any longer. I want to treat you as if you were just an ordinary beautiful woman, who should now be talking to me about love and what she feels about me.”

  He did not look at Rosetta and yet he sensed that she turned to stare at him.

  He was quite certain she was completely surprised at what he had said to her.

  But surely, he told himself, she has had men in London talking to her about love since the first moment she appeared there.

  Then he told himself that it must be a pose.

  Of course she had had thousands of compliments.

  Doubtless a great number of young men had tried to kiss her and asked her to marry them.

  No woman could be as beautiful as she was and go unnoticed.

  He had heard all about her in London, but because they had never met, it had not occurred to him that she was different from other young women, who would invariably pursue him for his title or they wanted him to make love to them.

  ‘I just don’t understand her,’ the Marquis thought as they drove on.

  It really annoyed him as he believed that in his long experience he had met women of every type and so often they had turned out to behave exactly as the woman before her and the one before that.

  He was driving through a small village that looked somewhat forlorn when Rosetta remarked,

  “I am sorry if you think I have been rude or if I have offended you. It’s only that you have so much and so many people have so little, that I was trying somehow to help both you and them.”

  She spoke humbly and the Marquis thought once again that this was unexpected.

  He had never known a woman who could apologise so fully for what she had said or done.

  “You have not said anything to apologise for,” he replied. “You have merely made me think in a way I have not thought before. You are quite right and it is an issue I should have confronted.”

  “I expect a great number of people would think I was interfering and being tiresome, but I just cannot help saying what I think. My father has often told me it will get me into trouble sooner or later.”

  She knew as she spoke that she had made another mistake.

  She was sure that the late Lord Waincliffe, who had sometimes visited her mother, would not have made that sort of comment.

  But equally she remembered him as being a very charming man, who had always brought her presents.

  He had also been very kind to her father when he retired and yet for some reason she had never understood he had never asked him or her up to The Hall.

  It was only when she was older and heard people whispering about him and her mother that she realised her resemblance to Dolina might have been embarrassing.

  ‘I must be more careful,’ she told herself. ‘I know I will say something to make the Marquis suspicious that we are deceiving him.’

  They drove on in silence for a little while and then the Marquis asked her,

  “Have you enjoyed yourself today? What will you remember about it more than anything else?”

  Rosetta thought for a moment, wondering which of his many possessions she would choose as her favourite and then she replied,

  “I think if I am absolutely honest with you what I will remember most about today is when we thanked the monk in his Chapel for making you more aware of how important it is not only to us but to many other people, that we should build a Racecourse.”

  The Marquis thought that this was just like her – to say something he did not expect.

  He knew without asking that to her the monk was highly significant and she truly believed that it was he who made him agree that the Racecourse was really necessary.

  “It will mean,” he replied, “your brothers working very hard if it is to be a success. Although I will do what I can, I have many commitments I cannot avoid in London.”

  “Of course you have, Euan, but it will be exciting when you come down and see how far we have progressed and how thrilled everyone locally is at all we are doing.”

  She gave a murmur of satisfaction as she added,

  “I am certain that they will all want to help – ”

  “I am quite sure you will make them do so. I think one person you should tell is the Lord Lieutenant. He is rather a bore, but it will be better to put him in the picture before he hears it from some mischief-maker or reads it in the newspaper.”

  “That would indeed make him extremely annoyed. We must persuade Gordon to ride over to see his Lordship tomorrow, before we start canvassing the local builders and carpenters for their help.”

  “I think,” the Marquis advised, “you should go with Gordon. You are far more persuasive than he is and there is just a possibility that the Lord Lieutenant may think an influx of people into the neighbourhood could be harmful.”

  “Do you really think he would oppose us?” Rosetta asked in a frightened tone.

  “No, I am only putting obstacles in your way,” he said, “to see how you tackle them.”

  “You are now beginning to frighten me,” Rosetta complained.

  “It was very unkind of me. I am certain the Lord Lieutenant will be delighted that his County will evoke so much interest. Also I must tell you that when he resigns next year as he intends, Her Majesty has already suggested that I might accept the position – ”

  Rosetta clasped her hands together.

  “Oh, that is marvellous news! Of course you will be a perfect Lord Lieutenant.”

  “There is one snag which unfortunately might just persuade Her Majesty to look elsewhere – ”

  “What is that?” Rosetta enquired.

  “It is traditional that Lord Lieutenants are married!”

  There was silence.

  Then to his astonishment, Rosetta laughed.

  “That will surely be no problem for you,” she said. “According to newspaper reports, you are talked about as being seen with every beautiful woman in London. Surely one of them would make you a very suitable wife.”

  “Do you really think,” the Marquis replied, “that I would marry anyone just to be Lord Lieutenant? If I do marry, I want to do so for love.”

  Because there was an angry note in his voice, she looked at him in amazement and then enquired,

  “Despite everything they say about you, have you never really been in love?”

  “No,” the Marquis answered positively. “I don’t want to talk about it, but as you have asked me, the answer is – no, never!”

  He thought, as he spoke, that no one would believe him.

  But it was the truth.

  He had been enamoured, infatuated, and he had told a great number of females that he loved them.

  But the truth was that he now knew that his heart had never been touched.

  When he had left them, as invariably he did, he had never thought about them again.

  Rosetta was silent and feeling surprised.

  There had been so much talk about the Marquis.

  Reports of his love affairs percolated down to the country, so that even the servants cracked jokes about him and some of the elderly folk called him a disgrace.

  Yet, although she had found it hard to believe, she could understand in a way that his affaires-de-coeur never lasted long – almost before they had finished talking about one woman, there was another and yet another.

  That merely increased the number of those who disapproved of him, who were shocked by all they heard.

  Yet, because he owned The Castle and because he was so handsome, he was naturally discussed by everyone, from the Lord Lieutena
nt’s wife down to the customers in the little village shop.

  Rosetta heard the gossip there, especially because the shopkeeper had two daughters – one was a housemaid at The Castle whilst the other one worked in the Marquis’s kitchen in London.

  It was therefore not extraordinary that their father always knew all that the Marquis was doing.

  The village found the gossip more entertaining than anything they could read about in the newspapers.

  But Rosetta had not imagined for one moment that he had never really been in love.

  She knew now what he meant, as another woman might not have understood.

  He was seeking, and it was rather strange that he had not yet found it, real love – the real love she had prayed would one day be hers.

  They were still both silent when the Marquis turned in at the drive gates of The Hall.

  Rosetta thought that Gordon and Henry would have been back some time by now and they would have told Barnes that the Marquis was staying for another night.

  The Marquis drew the chaise to a standstill.

  Rosetta was just about to say how quickly the team had brought them, when Barnes came running out.

  Before opening the door of the chaise for Rosetta as she expected him to do, he went round to the other side and said to the Marquis,

  “A man’s just arrived, my Lord, from The Castle to say your aunt, the Countess of Wentworth, be arriving this evening. Her Ladyship says she has to see you. She says it’s very important, my Lord.”

  The Marquis gave a deep sigh.

  “That means I must return immediately. I knew my aunt was in trouble, but I did not expect her to descend on me without any warning.”

  “Then you must go to her at once,” said Rosetta.

  “Please apologise to your brothers on my behalf and tell them I will be rather late for dinner.”

  “I will tell them, Euan.”

  “And don’t forget to talk to them about informing the Lord Lieutenant of our plans.”

  “Of course I will tell them and I do hope your aunt has not brought you bad news.”

  “I expect it’s a problem I will have to solve.”

  Rosetta then stepped out of the chaise and closed the door behind her.

  Now she held out her hand, saying,