The Duke Comes Home Read online

  Would he, as Ilina had suggested, have sold the Van Dycks and the Holbein? But even the money from those pictures would not have lasted for ever.

  Yet, if only one of the farms was put in order, it would mean some rent coming in every year and he supposed that the solution to every problem had to start somewhere.

  At a sound from the bedroom the Duke hastily rose to his feet.

  Ilina was, as Emily had said, restless. Now she turned her head first one way and then another and the Duke was worried that she would rub off her bandage.

  Speaking for the first time since she had been injured in the study, she said in a frightened little voice,

  “I must – go to – Pegasus. He is – starving – I know – he is hungry.”

  She tried to get out of bed, but the Duke put his hands on her shoulders and gently put her back against the pillow.

  “He is – starving – I cannot – let him starve.”

  Then she gave a cry of horror and sat up again to say almost incoherently,

  “Why – should we – starve? It’s – easier to – die and be with – David. But Pegasus – how can I – kill you – when you are so beautiful?”

  The Duke sat down on the bed beside her and put his arms round her.

  “Go to sleep, Ilina,” he suggested soothingly. “Pegasus is not going to starve and you must rest.”

  She made a little effort as if she would struggle against him and then suddenly she turned her head and laid it on his shoulder.

  “Oh, David – David,” she whispered, her voice almost inaudible, “I have – failed. He will not – listen, he is going to – destroy everything we – love. Everything – we have – left.”

  She gave a little sob and then in a voice that was somehow infinitely pathetic she said,

  “Are you – angry with – me that I have – failed you and The – Abbey? Oh, David – I am so – ashamed that I have been so – stupid and ineffective.”

  Now she was crying.

  The Duke could feel the tears shaking her whole body. She was still unconscious, but he knew that her skin was very hot because a fever was raging in her.

  There was nothing he could do while she cried, but hold her close and hope that because she thought he was David it would somehow seem comforting.

  Then she spoke again to wail brokenly,

  “I have – failed – I have – failed.”

  He put her down very carefully against the pillows and squeezing out a flannel that was on the washstand in the corner of the room, he laid it against her forehead to cool it.

  The mark where the Indian had struck her was burning, but, after several applications of the cold flannel, he thought that her temperature was not so high and she sank again into complete unconsciousness.

  The Duke wiped her forehead with a towel and then pulled the sheet up to her chin.

  Instead of returning to the schoolroom, he sat down by the bed on a small wooden chair watching her.

  *

  Ilina awoke, thought that she felt very strange and after a moment opened her eyes. She was in her room, but through the open door she could see that there was someone in the schoolroom.

  It was morning, because the sunlight was coming through the uncurtained windows there, although in her own room the curtains were still pulled.

  She wondered what had happened and why there was someone next door.

  Then with a little cry of horror she remembered the man who had demanded the Nizam’s jewels and the shot that had been aimed at the Duke.

  At the sound she made, the person next door rose to his feet and she saw that it was Singh.

  He came to the door of her room and asked,

  “You awake, Lady Sahib? You understand what I say?”

  “You are Singh,” Ilina replied. “What has happened? Why are you here?”

  Singh walked across the room and pulled back the curtains.

  “You been ill, Lady Sahib. Have had concussion for four days.”

  “Four days!” Ilina exclaimed. “It cannot be – true.”

  “True,” Singh affirmed. “Now Lady Sahib better.”

  He poured some liquid into a glass and brought it to the bed.

  “Lady Sahib drink,” he urged. “Nice barley water.”

  Ilina took the glass from his hand, feeling that it was an effort to do so and the glass was unexpectedly heavy.

  After she had taken a few sips, she gave it back to him and lay against the pillows.

  “Have you been nursing me?” she asked.

  Singh nodded.

  “Wound on head much better. Now fever gone Lady Sahib feel herself again.”

  “I hope so. Have you been sitting up with me all night?”

  Singh shook his head.

  “No. Master do that. He gone now take bath and sleep before he go riding.”

  Ilina gave a little exclamation.

  “Pegasus! Is he – all right?”

  “Master ride Pegasus every day. He very fine horse.”

  “Very – fine,” Ilina agreed.

  With a smile on her lips and her eyelids closing, she felt very tired, but somehow happy. The Duke was still here. He had not yet gone away.

  Some hours later Emily came in with warm water for Ilina to wash and a fresh nightgown. It was one of her mother’s and far more elaborate than her own.

  Trimmed with lace it had narrow blue ribbons running through it, which ended in pretty little bows.

  When Emily made the bed and brushed the front of Ilina’s hair, Singh came back to dress the wound on her head and declare that it was very much better.

  “Doctor say Lady Sahib very nearly well,” he informed her. “Everyone very happy.”

  Emily had already told her that the vases of flowers, and by now there were over a dozen of them in the two rooms, had come from the village.

  “Everyone very worried about you, my Lady,” Emily said. “First the children came up with flowers and then Ben, the carrier brought three of the old ladies from the cottages to ask how your Ladyship was feelin’.”

  “How kind,” Ilina said. “I hope someone was nice to them.”

  “His Grace saw them himself,” Emily replied. “They all wanted to meet him. Your Ladyship can be sure they told everyone in the village what he’s like.”

  Ilina gave a little laugh. She could quite imagine the chatter of tongues there would be!

  Nothing had happened on the estate for years except the death of her father.

  She knew that the story of the thieves climbing into The Abbey would be a wild excitement and that they had knocked her down would be something to talk about and exclaim over for years.

  When Emily had finished and left her alone, she found herself thinking about the Duke and wondering if he had felt annoyed at having to sit up with her at night.

  It seemed incredible that he should do so, but at the same time she realised that it would be impossible for Emily to look after her both day and night and Mrs. Bird was too old.

  Gladys might be persuaded to help, but she could hardly work in the kitchen all day and then keep awake through the night.

  That the Duke should have agreed to look after her was not only astounding but made her feel shy.

  While she was thinking about him, it seemed almost as if her thoughts had conjured him up when she heard his footsteps first on the stairs and then in the schoolroom.

  He walked to the door of her room and, as she looked at him, she stared wide-eyed for he looked very different.

  So different that it took her a moment to realise that for the first time since she had known him he was dressed elegantly and smartly in well-cut clothes such as her brother might have worn.

  “Good morning, Ilina,” the Duke greeted her, coming towards the bed. “I have been told that you are awake, I began to think that you were the Sleeping Beauty and that cobwebs would accumulate around you for the next one hundred years.”

  Ilina laughed.

  “I feel very
– contrite,” she said, “to have put – you to so much trouble.”

  “You have certainly been somewhat of a worry,” he said in a dry voice and added, “does your head hurt you?”

  “Not very much,” Ilina answered. “Only the bruise on my forehead, which is very unbecoming, throbs a little.”

  The Duke sat down beside her bed and asked,

  “How could you have done anything so rash as to tackle those thieves single-handed?”

  Ilina blushed.

  “I suppose it was very – silly of me. I did not stop to – think.”

  “It was most fortunate that I saw you going up the steps.”

  “So that is how you came at – exactly the – right moment,” Ilina exclaimed and with a cry added,

  “I remember now the man with a knife said that he was going to – cut off one of my fingers if I did not tell him – where the Nizam’s jewels were – hidden.”

  “I heard the words ‘Nizam’s jewels’ as I came down the passage,” the Duke said, “and that was when I realised why they were there.”

  “If you – had not – come – ”

  “Forget it,” he interrupted. “They come up to trial in a week or so and Wicker is sure that they will be sent on a convict ship to Australia or else be given a fifteen-year sentence.”

  “They – will not – be hanged?” Ilina asked, “Horrible though they were – I would not wish that to – happen to – anyone over me.”

  “As it happens they were intending to shoot me,” the Duke answered. “If you had allowed them to do so, all your troubles might have been at an end.”

  Ilina found it hard to look at him.

  She did not speak, but he saw the colour deepen in her cheeks and after a moment he said,

  “That is not something we will talk about at the moment. Instead I will tell you that Pegasus is waiting impatiently for your return.”

  Ilina’s eyes seemed to light up.

  “He has been good with you?”

  “He tolerates me, but he has made it quite clear that he prefers his owner.”

  Ilina smiled.

  “I wish I could see him. I suppose he would find it difficult to get up the stairs!”

  “I have a feeling it would be much more difficult to get him down!” the Duke answered. “It would be easier if you visited him as soon as you are well enough to do so.”

  “I feel so well. I am sure I can get up tomorrow.”

  “I am quite sure that Dr. Davison will not allow that,” the Duke said, “but in case you are bored, he tells me that you are a good chess player and, as I rather fancy myself at the game, I am prepared to challenge you.”

  Ilina clasped her hands together.

  “I would love that! Papa used to play with me – until he became too ill to do so. And David and I often played together when it was too wet to go riding.”

  “We will see how you feel tomorrow,” the Duke promised.

  There was a little silence and then Ilina said nervously,

  “What have you been doing these – last four days?”

  She felt that it was like waiting for a blow in case he declared that he had already started to board up the house.

  Instead he rose to his feet, saying,

  “I have had little time to do anything except worry over you, Ilina. And adjust myself to staying awake at night and sleeping in the daytime.”

  “It is very kind of you to – have done that and I am only – sorry I have been such an – encumbrance.”

  “There are better ways to express it and now I think you should rest. I will come to see you a little later before you are shut up for the night.”

  He walked towards the door and as he reached it, Ilina said,

  “I am sure there will be no – need for – anyone to stay up with me tonight. If I do want – anything I shall be – able to get if for myself.”

  “Of course,” the Duke replied. “Equally I am sure that when Dr. Davison arrives he will tell you that you must make haste slowly.”

  He stood waiting, as if he expected a reply and then she said,

  “Thank you – again for being so – kind.”

  As she spoke her eyes met his. She felt that there was a strange expression in them that she did not understand.

  Then, as he walked away looking extremely elegant in polished riding boots and breeches that could only have been cut by a Savile Row tailor, she found to her considerable surprise that she was no longer hating him.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Checkmate!”

  Ilina looked at the chessboard somewhat ruefully.

  “You have won again,” she exclaimed. “And I used to think that I was a good player.”

  The Duke smiled.

  “I learnt many years ago with my father. Perhaps chess is a family pastime?”

  “Why not?” Ilina asked. “As it may have been invented by the Chinese, it is always supposed to be a game for the intelligent.”

  “Is that what you think I am?” the Duke enquired.

  Moving her chessmen back on the board, Ilina replied,

  “I think you are very intelligent in – some ways and very – stupid in others.”

  She spoke without thinking and then, as if she felt that she had been rude, she looked at the Duke and apologised,

  “I am – sorry. That was something I should – not have said.”

  “I like frankness,” the Duke replied, “even if it is not very complimentary.”

  There was a little pause and then he asked,

  “I suppose I need not ask the reasons why you think I am stupid, but I would still like to hear you say it.”

  “Do you mean – that?”

  He nodded and she thought, sitting opposite him at the table in the schoolroom, it was difficult to imagine that any man could look so smart and at the same time so unlike what she imagined the gentlemen in London to be.

  Despite the elegance of his new clothes, which she thought it would be too personal to comment on, there was something strong and vigorous about him.

  His coat, like the one he had first appeared in, seemed of little consequence and it was almost as if everything he wore was just an adjunct to himself and subsidiary to his personality and character.

  It was difficult to put into words, but he was so vital and so magnetic that she found it difficult to think of him as an ordinary man like her father or even David.

  He might in fact have come from another planet.

  And yet these last three days since she had ceased to be delirious and was agitating to leave her bedroom and go downstairs, he had been exceptionally kind.

  Dr. Davison had been quite adamant that she was not to move too soon.

  “Very little is known about head injuries,” he said, “and the only thing I am certain of, having treated a large number of them from the hunting field, is that until the bruises have completely disappeared it is essential to keep as quiet as possible and let the body work its own magic to bring it back to normal.”

  “I don’t – want to rest,” Ilina said petulantly. “I want to go downstairs and – ride Pegasus.”

  “His Grace is doing that very competently for you,” Dr. Davison replied, “and because I have no wish for you to turn suddenly into an idiot or a moron, I insist that you do not move from here until I allow you to do so.”

  Ilina gave a little chuckling laugh, which he thought was very attractive.

  “I remember your saying almost those same words to me when I was about eight and had fallen off my pony. In fact, if remember rightly, you threatened either to tie me down to the bed or lock me in my bedroom!”

  “You were lucky I did neither,” Dr. Davison said. “As a little girl you were always hurting yourself in one way or another.”

  “I suppose I was adventurous,” Ilina said softly, “something I have not had much chance to be since I grew up.”

  There was a shadow in her eyes as she thought of the long hours that she had spent at her fa
ther’s bedside and the way that he had shouted at her and found fault with everything she did.

  She often thought that the only thing that had saved her from going insane was Pegasus.

  Because she was able to ride him early in the morning when her father was still asleep, or at any other time when his valet would sit with him, she could keep calm.

  During those two years, which now seemed like centuries, she thought that without Pegasus and the love she had for him it would not have been her father who died but herself.

  Now that the nightmare was over, only to be succeeded by another one, the problem that when the Duke closed The Abbey and she would have to decide what she would do and where she should go.

  It was so much on her mind that she would go to sleep worrying about it and wake up in the morning asking herself the same questions for which there was no answer.

  It would have been the same all through the day if the Duke had not come continually to see her and yesterday she had been well enough to move into the schoolroom.

  He had brought up the old and rather battered leather chessboard that she had played on with her father and had challenged her to a game.

  It had been an unexpected excitement, which had made her eyes sparkle and brought a flush of colour into her pale cheeks.

  Because Dr. Davison had been adamant that she must not tire herself, she had worn a pretty dressing gown that had belonged to her mother.

  It was blue satin a little deeper than her eyes and was trimmed with real lace, which the Duchess had taken from a ball gown she had worn when she was young. It made a wide frill round Ilina’s neck and two rows of lace above her wrists.

  It was too much effort to arrange her hair and she was actually afraid of getting tired so quickly that she would have to go back to bed. She therefore just tied it with a bow at her neck.

  The sunshine streaming in through the windows encircled her head with a halo of gold. but she had no idea that she looked like a very young angel.

  She felt a little embarrassed when she was waiting at the table with the chessboard in front of her for the Duke to come into the schoolroom.

  She told herself that it was ridiculous to be shy when he had already seen her in bed night after night.

  She was convinced that he was only waiting impatiently for her to get well so that he could close the house as he intended to do and go abroad.