The Duke Comes Home Read online

  They had played several games yesterday and now today, to her delight, he had come to the schoolroom after luncheon to play with her again.

  She looked across the table at him and asked,

  “Did you ride Pegasus – this morning?”

  “Of course,” the Duke replied. “I would not dare to face you if I had neglected your horse.”

  “Where did you go?” Ilina asked a little wistfully.

  “A long way,” the Duke replied surprisingly. “I found at the extreme North of the estate that there is a slate quarry.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “I talked to some of the people in the village – ”

  “Little Fladbury?” Ilina interposed.

  “Yes, Little Fladbury,” the Duke agreed, “and they told me that there is still a great deal of slate in the seams. The quarry was closed down ten years ago because there were no orders for the slate.”

  Ilina was silent for a moment and then she said,

  “I am afraid that was Papa’s fault. He quarrelled with our Manager who I think was rather an incompetent man and after he had sacked him because we were hard-up, Papa did not replace him.”

  “So there was no one to find customers for your slate. That must, I suppose, also apply to the gravel pit.”

  Ilina smiled.

  “So you found that too?”

  “I consider it extraordinary,” the Duke commented, “that anyone who was in need of money as badly as your father was, did not develop the natural sources of wealth that exist on his very large estate.”

  Ilina made a little helpless gesture with her hands.

  “I am sure that you are right and I can only excuse Papa by saying that he was not a businessman or ever likely to be.”

  “Surely there was someone who could have advised him?”

  “Perhaps Mr. Wicker and his partners might have done, but I am certain that he would not have listened to them. Mama loved him so much and wanted him to be happy, so she never argued or opposed him unless it was absolutely necessary.”

  “That is exactly how all women should behave to their husbands.”

  The Duke knew that he was being provocative and there was a mocking smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eyes that Ilina had begun to watch for.

  “If a woman wishes to inspire her husband,” she replied after a moment, “surely she should argue with him when she knows that he is – wrong or at least try to influence him in the right – direction.”

  Then, as if she felt guilty of criticising her mother, she added,

  “I don’t expect that Mama ever knew about the quarries. I knew only when I heard the servants talking.”

  “You did not think to mention it to your father?”

  “Not until after Mama was dead and we were getting desperately short of money. Then I did suggest that perhaps the gravel pit might be put in working order.”

  As she spoke, Ilina remembered how her father had shouted at her to mind her own business and that when he wanted her advice he would ask for it.

  He had added furiously that he was not going to sell anything that was his, as if he was nothing but a shopkeeper.

  There was no need to express her memories in words, since watching her face the Duke was quite aware of what had happened.

  “Of course,” he remarked casually, “I am very out of touch with England and the way English gentlemen behave, but I cannot believe that all of them are so rich that if they had a goldmine in the garden they would ignore it.”

  As if what he had said took her mind away from the past Ilina laughed and replied,

  “Not a goldmine, but I have heard that some lucky Noblemen own coal mines and that the Duke of Westminster receives an enormous income from the rents of the houses on his estate in London.”

  “Unfortunately I have not yet found coal or a built-up area on the estate,” the Duke replied sardonically.

  “I believe that my great-great-grandfather gambled away several streets and squares that belonged to the family,” Ilina told him. “All that is left now are a few cottages that the tenants pay a shilling or two a week for and even forget to do that.”

  “And who collects those precious shillings?”

  The way he spoke made Ilina look at him sharply before she responded,

  “You know the answer to that. I am afraid that the cottages are in such a bad state and the people so hard-up I cannot – bear to take their money.”

  The Duke smiled.

  “That is what I heard. If your father was a bad businessman, Ilina, you are certainly a very incompetent business woman!”

  “I am aware of that. I suppose because I have always felt ashamed that we have done so little for our tenants, I thought that we really ought to pay them.”

  The Duke did not answer and after a moment she said in a very small voice,

  “What will – happen to them when – you go away?”

  As she spoke, she knew that part of her nightmare was the menace of the workhouse to those they employed.

  There husbands and wives were separated from each other and most of the old people, when they were forced into the great gloomy building, were sure that they would never come out alive.

  “That is something I have no intention of talking about now,” the Duke said sharply and she thought he was afraid that she might argue and plead with him.

  She was certain that he did not want to inform her again that his mind was made up and that he had no intention of changing his decision to go abroad and leave everything he had inherited to rot.

  As if he was apprehensive that she might persist in saying what he did not want to hear, he rose from the table.

  “You are not – leaving me?” Ilina asked quickly. “Please give me another game.”

  The Duke looked at the clock on the mantelpiece.

  “I would like to,” he answered, “but I have someone waiting to see me downstairs and I must ask you to excuse me.”

  “To see – you?”

  It was a question but, although he must have been aware that Ilina was curious, he merely replied,

  “I will come and say goodnight to you before dinner and to give you something pleasant to think about, Dr. Davison says that if you have a good night you may come down tomorrow for luncheon.”

  Ilina gave a little cry of delight.

  “Did he say that – did he really – say it?”

  “On one condition that you sleep well and you don’t walk down the stairs or walk up them again.”

  Ilina looked at him questioningly and he said,

  “That means, since Pegasus cannot oblige, I will carry you down and I have the feeling that you are even lighter now than when I carried you up here from the study.”

  He smiled before he added,

  “That is really an order and you are to eat plenty for dinner tonight. I am going to tell Mrs. Bird that you are very hungry!”

  “Oh – no! Please don’t.” Ilina exclaimed.

  But already the Duke had left the schoolroom and she found herself talking to a closed door.

  But she was thrilled at the news that, after being incarcerated for so long in two rooms, she could go downstairs.

  Then, almost as if a shadow came over the sun, she found herself thinking that perhaps already the Duke had begun to board up some of the unwanted rooms in The Abbey preparatory to going abroad.

  She knew instinctively that there was a kind of urgency about him these last few days that was different from the vibrations that had come from him before she was injured.

  She was fully aware now that he had been both hostile and aggressive towards The Abbey and everything pertaining to it and at the same time completely indifferent.

  He had seemed to her to be deliberately detaching himself from its treasures as if they did not concern him and he wished to have nothing to do with them.

  ‘I don’t think,’ Ilina thought, ‘I could bear to watch him destroying – for that is what he will be doing everyt
hing that I have loved and which, whether he likes it or not, is a part of us both and our blood.’

  Then, as Emily came into the room to help her back to bed, she had to fight back the tears that came to her eyes and which she told herself angrily were a distinct weakness of hers.

  *

  When morning came she found to her surprise that, because she had been so tired when she went to bed, she had slept soundly and peacefully.

  She had woken once in the night and prayed fervently that help would come from somewhere to save The Abbey and to make the Duke want to take his rightful place in England instead of going abroad.

  ‘Please God – please,’ she prayed, ‘make him see that this is – something he – should do and stay where he is most – needed.’

  She could not believe that any place in the world could need him more.

  Yet she had to face the truth that it was not a very attractive proposition for a man who had no money and whose interests were all East of Suez.

  ‘Yet because he is so clever, I feel that if he applied his mind to it he could make the estate pay and restore at least one of the farms,’ Ilina argued with herself.

  When she asked how she knew that he was so intelligent, she was sure that she could feel it from the waves that came from his personality, which at times she felt so strongly that they were almost overpowering.

  Then she pulled herself up sharply.

  What did she know? She was ignorant of men and certainly had met very few of them since she had grown up.

  Besides if the Duke was really so clever, he would surely have made heaps of money abroad.

  She remembered hearing of men who had acquired great fortunes in India, Singapore or Hong Kong.

  ‘Why could he not have been – like them?’ he asked, gazing up at the picture of her brother.

  Then sensibly she told herself that it was no use crying for the moon. If there was no miracle to save The Abbey, then what she had to concern herself with was her own future.

  “Help me, David – help me,” she said aloud.

  There was no reply and she thought that not only David but God had forsaken her and there was nothing she could do about it –

  At the same time, because it was so exciting to go downstairs, she put on the prettiest gown she possessed and Emily helped her to arrange her hair in a chignon.

  “Do you feel all right, my Lady?” Emily enquired anxiously when Ilina rose from the stool in front of the dressing table.

  “My legs feel rather weak,” she replied. “But it will be lovely to go downstairs and – ”

  She paused.

  She had been about to say, ‘to see what is happening’, but she knew that it was the last thing she wanted to see at the moment and instead finished,

  “ – and see Pegasus.”

  “I thought you’d be thinkin’ of your horse, my Lady,” Emily said. “We’re all real glad you’re better and Mrs. Bird has cooked all your Ladyship’s favourite dishes.”

  “I must try to get to the kitchen to thank her.”

  “If you do you’ll have – ” Emily began.

  Then stopped, as if it would be a mistake to say what was trembling on her old lips.

  Ilina looked at her in surprise, wondering what she would find in the kitchen.

  But Emily had already turned away and was opening the door into the schoolroom. As she did so, the Duke must have come in from the passage for Ilina heard her say,

  “Good morning, Your Grace. Her Ladyship’s ready for you.”

  Ilina was about to walk into the schoolroom when he came into the bedroom.

  Once again she found herself admiring his appearance and the smart cut of the frock coat he wore over a double-breasted waistcoat across which there was a gold watch chain.

  Although she was ashamed of herself for thinking of it, she could not help wondering how much it had cost and where he had found the money.

  Almost as if a little devil whispered in her ear, she wondered if he had already sold one of the pictures!

  Then she told herself sharply that if he had, it was his business and it was not for her to interfere.

  Nevertheless she could not help feeling a pain in her heart that accentuated whatever had seemed like a stone in her breast since the Duke’s arrival.

  It had grown heavier and heavier and at times she felt that it would finally stop her breathing from sheer fear and despair.

  But, when the Duke smiled at her, the pain seemed to fade and she found herself smiling back.

  “I am here to carry you out of your Ivory Tower. Are you prepared to face the world outside?”

  “Yes – of – course.”

  “I would be very remiss, if I did not tell you that you look very lovely. Like spring itself.”

  Ilina stared at him in astonishment.

  It was the first time he had paid her a compliment, but she told herself that he was merely teasing her and answered lightly,

  “If you are feeling poetical – you have some – idea of how I am – feeling.”

  She turned towards him and he picked her up in his arms. As he did so, she felt a strange little quiver run through her, a sensation that she had never known before.

  She then told herself it was because she was so excited at going downstairs. But, as the Duke carried her across the bedroom and through the schoolroom. she was very conscious of his closeness and the strength of his arms.

  He walked along the corridor that connected the West wing with the centre block of the house.

  Now Ilina was not thinking of herself, but was afraid of what she might see.

  She felt that she must close her eyes just in case the boards were already up outside the windows and the hall was in darkness.

  More probably, however, the Duke had started on the rooms that were not being used, like the Silver Salon and the Duchess’s Drawing Room.

  They reached the top of the stairs and, as he started to descend the carved and gilt staircase slowly and with care, Ilina realised that the sunshine was coming in through the long windows with their unstained glass and heraldic shields and illuminating the flags on each side of the big marble mantelpiece.

  She looked lower and then thought that she must be imagining what she saw!

  Because she was so astonished, she moved a little in the Duke’s arms. He tightened them around her and, as he did so, she gave a gasp.

  Standing on either side of the front door were four footmen wearing the liveried coats with shining crested silver buttons and striped waistcoats that she had not seen for many years.

  She stared at them as if she was imagining their presence and then looked up at the Duke as if he would convince her that the scene was just a mirage.

  There was a faint smile on his lips as his grey eyes met hers and she could only murmur in a voice that did not sound like her own,

  “Why – are they – there?”

  “They were what I expected to find when I arrived.”

  It was impossible for Ilina to say anything more.

  He reached the last step of the staircase, moved onto the marble floor and carried her past the footmen towards the Silver Salon.

  There was another footman, Ilina saw in astonishment, standing in front of the great double mahogany doors.

  As they approached, he flung them open and the Duke carried her into the salon, which she had not seen without Holland covers over the furniture since her mother died.

  Once again she was convinced that she must be dreaming.

  The sunshine streaming through the windows as there were no shutters revealed the beautiful brocade and gilt furniture that had been designed by Robert Adam.

  It also shone on the pictures, the china, and on the tables huge vases of flowers, which were very different from the little wild bunches that had been presented to her by the villagers, which had filled the schoolroom.

  The Duke carried her to the hearthrug and set her down gently on soft cushions on the sofa.

&nb
sp; When he had done so, he stood with his back to the fireplace, which was also filled with flowers and she could only stare at him in such surprise that her eyes seemed to fill her whole face.

  “‘What – have you – done? Why is – it like this?” she asked in a whisper.

  “You must tell me how it used to look,” the Duke replied.

  “It’s lovely – lovelier than I remember. But I don’t understand – ”

  He did not answer and instead went to a silver tray that stood on a table in the corner and filled a glass from a bottle of champagne that was resting in a crested ice cooler.

  She sat looking at his back still feeling that she must be dreaming.

  When she looked round the room again, she was sure that she must be asleep in the bed upstairs and that what she thought she was seeing was just an illusion.

  The chandeliers, which had been grey with dust, were sparkling like diamonds.

  Everything was so clean and polished so brightly that the colours that had been dim and dulled by neglect portrayed a freshness and a beauty that seemed to be part of the sun.

  The Duke gave Ilina a glass of champagne and he had one in his other hand for himself.

  “I think, Ilina,” he said in a deep voice, “that this is where we drink to the future.”

  “The – future?”

  It was a question and her voice trembled.

  “The future,” he repeated quietly. “May it bring you what you want.”

  Ilina looked up at him as if she was afraid that she was imagining what he had said.

  Then, as if there were no words to reply with and she needed something to sustain her, she sipped a little of the champagne.

  It was a luxury that she had not drunk since her mother had died and even before that only half a glass at Christmas and birthdays.

  Now she thought that it was part of the sunshine and the glitter of the chandeliers.

  When she at last found her voice, she asked,

  “What is – happening? I just – don’t – understand.”

  “We have a great deal to talk about, Ilina,” the Duke said, “but for the moment I want you to enjoy yourself and to leave the explanations until later.”

  “How have you – done all – this and so – quickly?”