A Golden Lie Read online

The Lord Lieutenant’s party then climbed into the carriage and the footman closed the door and jumped up on the box beside the coachman.

  The horses drove off and, as they went down the drive, the Earl, who was standing beside Devona, gave a sigh of relief.

  “Thank Heavens they have gone,” he said. “But I am afraid we will have to go and have luncheon with them tomorrow.”

  “Must we?” Devona asked him.

  “I found it hard to think up an excuse not to see his maps.”

  Devona wondered if secretly the Earl really wanted to see Lady Olga again, but she did not say so.

  The Earl turned back into the hall.

  “Actually it is rather interesting and what I never knew before is that Walton says there is a slate mine on the estate. If that is true, it would give us a reason to employ scores of men who would be no use working on the land.”

  “That would be kind, my Lord. But, of course, you realise that, if you bring a great number of people into the neighbourhood, there will have to be many more cottages.”

  The Earl smiled.

  “I have thought of that already and the sooner some local labour gets started on it the better.”

  Devona clasped her hands together.

  “You are wonderful!” she exclaimed. “You think of every detail and that is what is important when you have to plan anything as huge as what is facing you now.”

  “I know that and it’s a challenge I just cannot resist. We can be quite certain that a great deal of this money will help men who defeated Bonaparte and now look like being defeated by the peace they won for us.”

  “I know that you will help a good number of them,” Devona said softly.

  They reached the drawing room and the Earl said,

  “I suppose it’s too late now for us to go exploring the estate anymore. What I am hoping is that tomorrow the men I have sent for from London will be here to advise me about the pictures.”

  “That will be very exciting,” Devona said. “I have always hated to see them looking so faded and dusty. The ones in the Picture Gallery are so beautiful.”

  The Earl hesitated and then he suggested,

  “It is only half-past three. Shall we ride for another hour or two and look at the pictures later?”

  Devona smiled at him.

  “I would rather do that than anything else in the world,” she sighed.

  “That is just what I thought you were thinking,” he replied. “So let’s go to the stables.

  He thought that the light in her eyes was like that of a child who had been promised an unexpected treat.

  ‘She is so unspoilt,’ he thought again. ‘It would be a tragedy if men like Rawsley pursued her and turned her head with their compliments.’

  Because the idea annoyed him, he asked Devona,

  “What did you think of Erwell Rawsley?”

  He was aware that Devona gave a little shudder.

  “If you want me to tell the truth,” she said, “I think he is repulsive. And he said things to me which I am sure no gentleman should say to any lady he had just met.”

  “Let me warn you that he is a noted fortune-seeker. To my knowledge he has proposed to three heiresses who have been wise enough to refuse him and doubtless he has his eye on you.”

  “Then I hope I never see him again,” Devona said quickly.

  “I am afraid that he might be there tomorrow unless Lord Walton has had enough of him, but now you know what he is, just ignore him.”

  Devona thought that it would be difficult.

  How could she ignore someone who had behaved as Sir Erwell had at luncheon and afterwards?

  “I don’t want to be alone – with him,” she said.

  “No, of course not, Devona. If he asks you to go into the garden or the conservatory, you refuse. It is an old trick although you would not know of it when a man wants to kiss a pretty girl.”

  Devona gave a cry.

  “I have no wish for Sir Erwell or anyone else – to try to kiss me.”

  The Earl thought it was inevitable that they would, but he did not want to scare her.

  “Just be certain you keep close to other people,” he said, “and this is where you would find that a chaperone would come in useful.”

  “If a chaperone would protect me from men like Sir Erwell,” Devona replied, “then I might seriously consider having one.”

  “I think it is what you will have to do. I thought that Lord Walton was rather surprised to find us here alone until I told him that I had no idea of your existence until I came to my uncle.”

  There was silence and then Devona said,

  “Perhaps I had better not have luncheon with Lord Walton tomorrow.”

  “Of course you must come too, but I will put my thinking cap on and I am sure I have a relation of some sort who you will find kind and understanding.”

  There was a little pause before Devona murmured,

  “I would much rather be alone with you.”

  He knew it was because she did not understand what interpretation other people would make of them being alone together.

  “It is what I too would prefer,” he said aloud. “At the same time I have the uncomfortable feeling that Lord Walton is only the first of the County visitors we will find calling on us because they are all so inquisitive.”

  “Surely it was quite wrong of the Bank Manager to tell Lord Walton what money your uncle had left,” Devona said.

  “Quite wrong, but Lord Lieutenants of a County are a law unto themselves and they fancy that they are entitled to anyone’s secrets.”

  There was silence and then Devona asked,

  “Are you going to marry the lady who came here to luncheon?”

  The Earl was so surprised that for a moment he could not believe that she had actually asked the question.

  Then he answered without thinking,

  “No, of course not. As a matter of fact Lady Olga is married to a man older than herself who spends his time in the country while she likes being in London.”

  “Married!” Devona said in astonishment. “But she called you ‘dearest’ and ‘darling’.”

  The Earl did not reply and after a moment she said,

  “I am – sorry. I know I should not ask questions like that, but I was afraid – you were going to be married and would then send me away.”

  Her words were almost incoherent, but he knew how much it meant to her.

  “Now allow me to make this quite clear, Devona,” he said. “I have no intention of marrying anyone and I want you to help me with the house and the estate.”

  He saw Devona’s eyes light up and went on,

  “Equally because you are young and beautiful the outside world will be shocked if we live here alone. I think if your mother was alive she would think it was wrong.”

  Devona gave a deep sigh.

  “Because I want to be with you,” she said, “please, please find me a chaperone. Anything would be better than having to find somewhere else to live and I don’t want to go to London and meet men like Sir Erwell.”

  “You are going to stay here with me and I will find someone as quickly as I can who will not be a nuisance but all the old gossips in the County will approve of.”

  He made the last words sound rather amusing and Devona laughed as he wanted her to do.

  It occurred to him that it was far more comfortable for them to be on their own, especially as there was so much to be done in the house and on the estate.

  ‘That Bank Manager ought to be shot!’ he thought to himself. ‘If he had kept his mouth shut, no one would have realised that we were even here.’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  To Devona’s great delight, the Earl suggested that they should ride early the next morning.

  They would then enjoy some exercise before they had to go out to the Lord Lieutenant’s luncheon.

  They rode over the fields nearest to the house and jumped a number of fences and it was with reluctance that they w
ent back to the stables knowing that the time was getting on.

  When they went up to change, Devona hesitated.

  Which of her pretty day dresses should she wear?

  Finally she chose the blue dress because the white was more elaborate and she was afraid of spoiling it.

  There was a very attractive bonnet trimmed with tiny ostrich feathers to go with the dress.

  When she went down the stairs, she knew that the Earl looked at her with approval.

  She thought he looked very smart and extremely handsome and then she remembered that Lady Olga would be there and she would doubtless be clinging to him and adding endearments to every sentence she spoke.

  They were in the drawing room when the butler announced,

  “The carriages have arrived, my Lord.”

  When they went outside, Devona was surprised to see that there were two conveyances.

  One was a large open travelling carriage drawn by four chestnuts, which were the horses the Lord Lieutenant wanted the Earl to appraise.

  There was another conveyance that was a phaeton drawn by two horses.

  She looked at it in surprise and then saw that Sir Erwell was in it.

  She thought it strange that he had come to collect them and then, as they walked down the steps, she saw that Lady Olga was in the carriage.

  ‘I will not go with Sir Erwell,’ Devona told herself, but she felt, however, that she would be pressurised into doing so.

  They reached the carriage and before Lady Olga could speak there was a scream from the lake.

  The Earl stiffened and Lady Olga, turning her head, shouted,

  “That is a boy in trouble. Perhaps he is drowning!”

  The screams continued and then the Earl ran down towards the lake.

  As he did so, Lady Olga climbed out of the carriage and the coachman and footman did the same.

  Devona was just about to join them as they walked towards the lake.

  Then Sir Erwell came out of his phaeton.

  “What is happening?” he asked Devona.

  “There is a boy screaming in the lake. It seems as if he is in trouble and afraid of drowning.”

  “That is terrible,” Sir Erwell frowned.

  He looked at the lake, but the rhododendron bushes prevented them from seeing what was happening.

  “I will tell you what to do,” he said. “Stand on my phaeton and you will be able to see if the Earl is rescuing the boy. It sounds as if he is in grave danger.”

  The boy was still screaming and Devona became worried in case the Earl had to go into the water to save him.

  She went to Sir Erwell’s phaeton and climbed in. It was fashionably high and there was a groom holding the two horses.

  She stood up on top of the phaeton and even then it was impossible to see over the rhododendron bushes.

  The Earl had disappeared behind them.

  “Can you see anything?” Sir Erwell asked her.

  “Not at the moment, but the boy has now stopped screaming.”

  She was just about to jump down from the phaeton when Sir Erwell joined her.

  He put out one hand and pulled her down onto the seat and picked up the reins with his other hand.

  Devona thought that perhaps he was going to move the phaeton a little so that they could see the lake.

  But to her astonishment the groom stepped away from the horses.

  Then Sir Erwell brought his whip cracking down on their backs and they sprang forward.

  Before Devona could realise what was happening, they were driving at a tremendous pace over the bridge and onto the drive.

  “What are you doing?” she cried. “Where are you – going?”

  Sir Erwell turned his head for a moment to smile at her.

  “We are eloping,” he sneered.

  “I don’t know – what you are talking about. Stop immediately!” Devona insisted.

  “I told you that I had fallen in love with you,” Sir Erwell said, “and now we are going to be married.”

  Devona gave a scream of horror.

  “No! No!”

  Sir Erwell did not reply and hastened the speed of his horses.

  They were now halfway down the drive.

  Devona then saw that coming towards them was one of the grooms the Earl had brought from London.

  He saw the phaeton coming at speed and quickly stepped onto the grass at the side of the drive.

  It was difficult to think.

  But Devona pulled off her pretty blue bonnet and flung it at the groom.

  It fell at his feet and he picked it up in surprise.

  By the time he looked up, the phaeton was already tearing away and even if he had shouted he would not have been heard.

  Bewildered and carrying the bonnet, he walked on towards The Hall.

  *

  The Earl had reached the screaming boy and to his surprise he was not trying to swim as he had expected.

  He was standing in the lake with the water just up to his waist.

  “What is the matter? Why are you screaming?” the Earl asked him.

  The boy turned his head to see who was speaking and, when he saw the Earl, he was too impressed to lie.

  “’E gives me three pennies,” he said “to stand ’ere a-screamin’.”

  “Who gave it to you?” the Earl asked sharply.

  The boy jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

  “The gent oop there with two ’orses.”

  As he spoke the Earl looked towards the bridge and had one quick glance of a phaeton passing speedily over it.

  Then it was lost behind the trees.

  His intuition, which had never failed him, told him that something dangerous was happening.

  “Go on screaming,” he said to the boy, “for another few minutes. I have put a shilling down here for you on the grass.”

  The boy immediately started screaming again and the Earl ran back the way he had come.

  By this time, as if they had been told to do so, Lady Olga, the coachman and the footman were standing on the drive not far from the lake.

  As the Earl joined them, Lady Olga asked,

  “What can have happened, dearest Gavin? I was so worried in case you had to swim out to save the boy. And why is he still screaming?”

  The Earl did not answer.

  He ran past the two servants and reached the large carriage with a groom in charge of it.

  He was not wearing the ornate livery of the Lord Lieutenant and the Earl knew that he must have come with Sir Erwell.

  As he reached the carriage, he demanded,

  “Do you know where Sir Erwell Rawsley lives?”

  The man nodded.

  “Aye, my Lord.”

  The Earl was about to speak again when his own groom came from the bridge carrying Devona’s bonnet.

  He ran towards the Earl to tell him how he had obtained it.

  The Earl, having taken one glance at it, said to the groom,

  “I will give you five pounds if you can get me to Sir Erwell’s house before he reaches it.”

  He climbed onto the box of the carriage and the man scrambled up beside him as the horses were actually moving.

  Only as he drove away did the Earl hear Lady Olga shouting after him and the Lord Lieutenant’s servants were staring as he drove away over the bridge.

  As they reached the drive, the Earl said to the man beside him,

  “Was all this planned? It will be to your advantage to answer me truthfully.”

  “Aye, t’were, my Lord,” the man answered.

  “You mean Sir Erwell paid the boy to scream so that I would go to his rescue and he would drive the young lady away?”

  “That be the truth, my Lord,” the man agreed. “But Sir Erwell’ll kill me if ’e knows I told you so.”

  “Which way should I go now and how fast are his horses?” the Earl asked as they sped through the gates.

  “Turn left, my Lord. ’E comes down from London with ’em, but they a
in’t paid for yet. And that be sommit I shouldn’t be tellin’ you.”

  “I think you are wise to be honest with me,” the Earl said. “What is your name?”

  “Tom, my Lord.”

  ”Well, Tom, I think you know as well as I do that Sir Erwell has carried away a young lady who did not wish to go with him.”

  “That be true, my Lord,” Tom answered. “’E asks ’er to stand on the phaeton so ’er could see you at the lake and then ’e drives orf quick like.”

  The Earl’s lips tightened.

  Clearly the plot had been thought out very craftily by Sir Erwell and there was no doubt that Lady Olga had been willing to connive with him.

  It made the Earl very angry, not only because they had tried to fool him but the way Sir Erwell was behaving would undoubtedly terrify Devona.

  “Turn right, my Lord, when we gets to the next road,” Tom suggested.

  The Earl was moving as fast as it was possible to do in the narrow lanes.

  He was, however, aware that the four chestnuts he was driving were a fine team.

  After two more turns they were on a better road, which meant that they could go faster.

  “How far is it to where Sir Erwell lives?” the Earl asked a little belatedly.

  “A bit over two miles from ’ere, my Lord,” Tom replied. “But I don’t know what ’e’ll say if ’e knows I showed you the way.”

  “He need not be aware I did not know it myself, Tom. Have you been with Sir Erwell for long.”

  “A month, my Lord, but I ain’t been paid no wages as yet.”

  “Well, the five pounds I promised you will be of some help,” the Earl said.

  “It will, my Lord. But I just don’t know what the coachman of this carriage’ll do now you’ve run orf with ’is ’orses and left ’im behind.”

  “I expect they will have the good sense to get my groom to drive them to the Lord Lieutenant’s house.”

  He thought as he spoke that he did not care what happened to Lady Olga. If she had no luncheon at all, it would serve her right.

  He had been well aware that she had been jealous from the time she saw Devona, which was not surprising considering how exquisite she was.

  At the same time it was unforgivable of any woman to help a man as despicable as Sir Erwell and the Earl was well aware that he had only carried off Devona because he knew that she was an heiress.