They Found their Way to Heaven Page 13

  “In time, you might have taught me better. But now we will never know.”

  Elvina stared at him, her face white with shock as she realised the truth of his words.

  “You are right to leave me,” he said. “We had our chance, but we lost it.”

  He raised her hand and brushed his lips against it.

  “Goodbye, my dearest. I will never forget you and what might have been.”

  He rapped against the wall of the carriage and the vehicle stopped. The Duke opened the door, climbed down into the road, closing the door behind him.

  “Drive on,” he called to the coachman.

  The carriage began to move.

  With tears pouring down her face, Elvina turned to look through the small rear window. Through it she could see the road stretching away from whence she had come, and the Duke, who had already turned and was walking along it away from her.

  His head was down and his shoulders hunched as if in despair, but his step never wavered and he did not look back.

  She watched until the last moment, as he grew smaller and smaller, until he vanished among the trees leaving only emptiness behind.

  CHAPTER TEN

  After two days Simpson arrived home with the horses, and Elvina hurried out to the stables to meet them. She hugged Jupiter and Mars again and again, burying her face against their satin necks.

  The servants were agog, eager to know from Simpson why their Mistress had returned, pale and distraught, without a word to say to anyone. But Simpson was tight-lipped, which only served to increase the speculation.

  Elvina had been dreading a meeting with Margaret, which could only be awkward for both of them. But Margaret had departed, leaving a forwarding address for her belongings.

  Elvina despatched them with a generous cheque. She bore Margaret no ill-will.

  But it meant that now she was alone with nothing to do in the evenings but sit and brood.

  The Duke’s words had struck her like a blow.

  It was all true.

  She had blamed him for instinctively doing what he had been reared to do and yet she had done the same. He had implied that with time and enough love, she could have taught him a better way. And it was true.

  Instead she had made one swift cruel judgement and given him no chance to make amends.

  Now it was she who could never make amends. It was all over between them and nothing could put it right.

  She gave Jupiter and Mars time to rest after their journey home and then she began taking them out and spending all day on horseback, first Jupiter, then Mars, next Jupiter and then Mars again.

  One day as she was riding home in the gloom she saw a small commotion as soon as she came within sight of the house. Her housekeeper had come out onto the front porch and stood waiting for her with every sign of urgency. As Elvina slowed, the housekeeper ran a few steps towards her.

  “Oh, thank Heavens you’re back, my lady! Such a thing has happened and none of us knows what to do. She says she must see you and won’t go away until she has, and she won’t go back in any case because she’s run away forever and – ”

  “Mrs. Jenkins, whatever are you talking about?”

  Elvina asked, dismounting and handing the reins to a groom.

  “Who is here?”

  “Lady Violet Castleforde, my Lady.”

  “What?”

  “She arrived an hour ago, my Lady, with her maid.”

  “Thank goodness for that! Where are they?”

  “In the library. I have taken them some supper and prepared rooms. I hope I did the right thing.”

  “Absolutely right. We cannot send Lady Violet back at this hour.”

  She hurried inside, her mind in a whirl at this latest development. As Mrs. Jenkins had said, she found Violet in the library, accompanied by the maid who had looked after them both at the castle.

  As soon as she saw Elvina, Violet cast herself upon her.

  “Oh, Elvina, I am so glad you are here. I won’t go back, please don’t say I have to. I hate it.”

  “Calm down,” she soothed.

  “I won’t go back to the castle. I hate it now you are not there.”

  “All right, we will talk later once you are settled in. I am glad you had the sense to bring your maid.”

  It soon became apparent that Violet had organised her departure very well. She had brought a large amount of luggage, which the maid was soon despatched to unpack.

  “And now tell me everything,” Elvina said once they were alone. “Whatever are you doing here? You cannot just run away.”

  “I can and I have! The castle is hateful now you have gone.”

  “But your brother will be worried out of his mind. What must he be thinking right now?”

  “He doesn’t know anything yet. He has gone away for a few days.”

  “And he will come back and find you gone. Oh, Heavens!”

  “I left him a letter saying I could no longer endure living with a brother who is permanently in an evil temper.”

  “I am sure that is an exaggeration.”

  “It isn’t. Since you left he slouches around the castle, looking grim and nobody dares to talk to him.”

  “Is he really that angry?”

  “Angry? He’s wretched, miserable. He cannot bear to talk to anyone.”

  “I do not think so, Violet. He is just very angry with me. He told me so when I left.”

  “Well, he’s not angry now, not with you, anyway. Just everyone else. It’s like living under a black cloud, so I left!”

  “Then I must write to him and explain where you are.”

  “Oh, please don’t send me away,” Violet begged piteously.

  “That is up to him. I will tell him that you are welcome to stay here and perhaps he will agree.”

  “Do you think he will?” Violet asked touchingly.

  “I shall tell him that it will benefit your education to spend more time with your governess,” Elvina said firmly.

  She waited until everyone was in bed before sitting down later that night to write the hardest letter of her life.

  She tried to set aside the picture Violet had given her of the Duke sunk in despair. Violet was a romantic girl, who thought it would be easy to reunite two lovers.

  But it could not be easy when there was pride, obstinacy and bitterness on both sides.

  At last Elvina settled for a formal tone.

  ‘My Lord Duke,

  I have to report the safe arrival of Lady Violet who has asked to remain with me for a while. As I believe her education would benefit from time spent with me, I am requesting your permission for her to stay.

  I feel sure I do not need to assure you that Lady Violet will be well cared for in my household at all times.

  I hope to hear from you very soon.

  Yours sincerely,

  Elvina Winwood.’

  She tried to remain detached as she sealed the letter, but she could not banish from her mind the thought of him receiving the letter, the look on his face as he saw that it was from her.

  Perhaps he would come here himself. She would see him again. They would soften to each other and somehow find a way forward.

  Anything would be better than this wretched loneliness, thinking of him night and day, becoming increasingly sure that she had made the wrong decision.

  But perhaps he was feeling the same and would seize this opportunity to come to her.

  She had only a short time to wait for her answer, which came by return of post. It was a letter, not from the Duke, but from his secretary.

  ‘My Lady,

  His Grace has asked me to convey to you his thanks for your hospitality to the Lady Violet, and his agreement to her residing with you for the immediate future.

  I remain your Ladyship’s obedient servant,

  John Kenham.’

  It was like a blow over the heart. He could not have told her more clearly that he was finished with her, as she had declared she was with him. />
  She could not blame him for accepting her decision.

  Her heart was breaking, but she would be strong, learn to live with reality and devote herself to Violet. The girl had learned to trust her and she would not betray that trust.

  “We have to look forward to next year,” she told her, “when you will make you debut at a great ball at Castleforde House in London. “You will be gorgeous in white satin and no other debutante will hold a candle to you. You will wear the Castleforde pearls – ”

  “No, the Castleforde diamonds,” Violet broke in eagerly.

  “Pearls,” Elvina said firmly. “Diamonds are too old for you. You may wear them after you are married.”

  Violet pulled a face, but instantly she was smiling again and saying,

  “Tell me all about when you were a debutante.”

  Elvina reminisced about her own coming out ball, which now seemed so very distant.

  “Did you have lots of admirers?” Violet wanted to know?

  “Lots,” Elvina replied. “But none of them was the right one. I knew that even then.”

  “How do you know when the man is the one?”

  “Sometimes you don’t, not at first.” Elvina gave a sigh. “It’s fatally easy to get it wrong.”

  “You mean like you and David?” Violet asked.

  “I think it is time for you to go to bed now,” Elvina suggested hastily.

  While the weather was still warm she took Violet on expeditions to visit the locality. Once they travelled to the seaside and stayed for four days.

  On their return there was a letter for Violet in handwriting that Elvina recognised as the Duke’s. Before her heart had time to skip a beat, Violet had whisked it away and hurried upstairs.

  When she came down for dinner she did not mention the contents to Elvina.

  *

  The year was moving on and the colours were turning to the tints of autumn.

  The Times reported that Queen Victoria had made her annual visit to Balmoral in Scotland and would be attending the Highland games at Braemar.

  “David usually goes to Scotland,” Violet confided one afternoon as they were shopping in Elswick. “The Queen is very fond of him. She says she likes to see him in a kilt because he has such good legs.”

  “Really?” Elvina said, trying to sound indifferent. “And is he going this year?”

  “Oh, yes,” Violet said airily. “He must be there by now.”

  Through the newspapers Elvina was able to follow the Queen’s stay in Scotland, but although she read every line several times she was unable to find any mention of the Duke of Castleforde.

  Then the Queen left Scotland and she ceased to follow the newspaper reports.

  “I suppose, Violet, you ought to return to your brother one day soon,” she said one evening.

  “Why don’t you come with me?” Violet asked. “I am sure he would like to see you.”

  “I don’t think so. He didn’t even answer my letter. He just arranged for his secretary to write to me.”

  “Of course, he would die rather than write to you himself,” Violet commented wisely. “He is much too proud. Isn’t that silly of him?”

  “Very silly,” Elvina agreed. “But then, I was silly and proud too. I lost my temper. My father always said I was too hasty, especially when I became angry and didn’t think properly.”

  “What exactly did you quarrel about?” Violet wanted to know.

  “He didn’t tell you?”

  “He said you were stubborn and unforgiving, which was a very strange thing for him to say.”

  “Why was it strange? I was stubborn and unforgiving.”

  “You do not understand. Castlefordes can do no wrong. It’s a matter of family pride. And if you do no wrong, you don’t think you need forgiveness. It must be the first time David has ever admitted that he needed to be forgiven for anything.”

  “Yes, I see. Nothing else?”

  “No, he just broods about how ‘unkindly’ you judged him.”

  “I was upset because he was not going to marry me before he discovered I was an Earl’s daughter. When he knew that I had the correct social standing, he asked me at once.”

  “That is disgraceful!” Violet said, horrified. “As though anything mattered but your love. He should be boiled in oil!”

  “That is just what I thought at first, but it wasn’t really his fault. He instinctively read the situation as he had been reared to react. But so did I. I thought he should put love first, because that was how I was reared.”

  “But you were right and he was wrong,” Violet asserted stubbornly.

  “I was raised surrounded by love. Your brother wasn’t. Should he be blamed because he didn’t understand its ways or its importance? He could have learned about love through me, if I had been more generous.”

  “I still think he should be boiled in oil. He is not worthy of you and you are better off without him!”

  Elvina sighed.

  “No,” she said. “I will never be better off without him. I made a cruel mistake and now it’s too late.”

  Violet, who was sitting on a stool beside Elvina’s chair, looked up at her.

  “Are you sure it’s too late?” she questioned earnestly.

  “He will never forgive me. He as good as told me so when we parted.”

  “But perhaps he is sorry too.”

  “Then why doesn’t he come and see me and say so?”

  “Because he is too proud,” Violet explained. “And that brings us back to where we started!”

  She spoke kindly and patiently, as though talking to someone unusually slow-witted and Elvina had a strange feeling that something was happening that she did not understand.

  When she had bade Violet goodnight and gone to her own room, Elvina lay in bed, tossing and turning. The conversation had disturbed her.

  ‘Perhaps he’s sorry too.’

  The words echoed in her heart.

  ‘He won’t say sorry because he is too proud.’

  ‘And I have been too proud,’ Elvina pondered. ‘But one of us has to make it right or we will lose each other for ever.

  ‘And I will not let that happen.’

  On that thought she fell asleep and enjoyed her best night since she had left the castle.

  She rose quietly at dawn and scribbled a quick letter to Violet, which she slipped under her door. Then she crept downstairs and ran to the stables.

  There she woke Simpson by throwing a stone at his window. Twenty minutes later he was driving her to Kelnwich station in the dogcart.

  *

  It was two hours before Simpson returned home to be met by an agitated Violet.

  “Did you take Lady Elvina to the station?” she demanded anxiously.

  “Yes, my Lady.”

  “Did she actually catch the train?”

  “Yes, my Lady. I actually saw her Ladyship onto the train and watched it depart.”

  “Ooooh!” Violet wailed desperately.

  “Her Ladyship did say that she had left you a letter, explaining everything.”

  “Yes, she did. That’s what is so terrible!”

  Simpson did not point out the illogicality of this last remark. Or perhaps he knew more than he admitted.

  “As soon as I have had breakfast I want to go into Kelnwich.”

  “Yes, my Lady.”

  An hour later, both refreshed, they met up again and he drove her into the little town.

  “The Prince Regent Hotel,” she said, naming the best hotel in town.

  As soon as they reached the hotel she jumped down and hurried inside, running to the desk and saying breathlessly,

  “I have come to see Mr. Baines. I know he is in room fifteen, so if you will please tell me where it is – ?”

  The porter looked horrified at the thought of a well-bred young lady going unchaperoned to a gentleman’s room.

  “On the second floor, miss, but wouldn’t it be better if I sent for – ?”

 
“No, no, it’s all right,” she called over her shoulder as she ran up the stairs. “He’s my brother.”

  A moment later she was knocking on the door of room fifteen. It opened and she hurled herself into the arms of ‘Mr. Baines’.

  “Oh, David, something terrible has happened. It’s all gone wrong!”

  “Come, it cannot be as bad as that,” the Duke replied, although he had gone a little pale. “What’s happened? Has that Broadmoor fellow turned up again?”

  “Oh, no, and it wouldn’t matter if he had. She doesn’t love him, she loves you. She told me so last night!”

  A glow of delight suffused his face, which had grown haggard and drawn over the last few weeks.

  “That’s wonderful,” he sighed. “Does she know that I am here?”

  “No, she thinks you are at the castle. As I told you in my first letter, I did it just as we planned. I turned up on her doorstep and told her I had run away because you were so horrible that nobody could bear to live with you – ”

  “Yes, I can imagine. I am sure you enjoyed that bit!”

  “I did. And I was really, really convincing. Tears and everything.”

  “In other words, you thoroughly enjoyed yourself,” he added wryly.

  “I did exactly what you told me to do,” she replied with offended dignity. “And Elvina has never once suspected that we planned the whole operation together.”

  “I know. Your letters have been very illuminating. You have done wonderfully well as my ambassador and now it seems that together we will succeed. So what can have gone wrong?”

  “Everything!” Violet exclaimed tragically. “When I got up this morning, Elvina had gone and she left me this letter.”

  She handed him the note she had found pushed under her door that morning.

  ‘Violet dear,

  I have been thinking over what we said last night, and I have decided that the only way is for me to go and see your brother, to try to put matters right.

  By the time you read this letter I shall be on my way to the castle. Since I started early I shall probably be back tonight. If not, tomorrow morning. Do not worry.

  Cross your fingers for me,

  Elvina.’

  “What are we going to do?” Violet wailed.

  “I rather think that I am going to be married?” he answered with a faint smile. “And it is all thanks to you and your excellent work on my behalf.”