Castle of Love Read online

Jacina was sent to play outside. It was a blustery day. The wind tugged at her straw bonnet, as she ran down to the river that flowed through the castle grounds and into the moat. She watched in delight as a pair of white swans glided by with their cygnets.

  Suddenly the wind snatched the bonnet from her head and sent it spinning into the swift flowing water. Jacina gave a cry. She ran alongside the river, keeping pace with her bonnet as it bobbed along. She did not know what to do except keep it in her sight.

  She reached the point where the river swirled into the moat. The bonnet swirled with it. Once it entered the calmer moat waters, the bonnet remained almost at a standstill. Alas, it was still beyond her reach.

  She looked round desperately. Perhaps she could find a branch, or a gardener’s rake. Anything she could use to fish out her bonnet.

  It was then she noticed a tall gentleman lounging against a nearby tree, watching her. He had dark eyes and a lock of black hair tumbled over his high forehead. Jacina could not help but notice the amused look on his face

  “It’s n-not funny,” she said. Her red-gold hair glinted in the sun and her green eyes blazed with indignation.

  The gentleman’s expression immediately changed.

  “Indeed it is not,” he said gravely, “and I humbly apologise for my frivolous demeanour. In recompense, will you allow me to retrieve your bonnet for you?”

  Jacina looked at him doubtfully. “How will you retrieve it without a pole?” she asked. She looked back at the water and her lower lip began to tremble.

  “It’s my v-very best bonnet, you know.”

  “Your very best!” exclaimed the gentleman. “ Then there is no time to lose.”

  The gentleman removed his velvet jacket and pulled off his leather boots. Then, in his shirt and trousers, he jumped straight into the moat and waded out. Jacina was astonished.

  The moat had silted up over the years and the water rose no higher than the gentleman’s shoulders. He reached the bonnet without having to swim at all. When he returned to the bank, he vaulted up onto the grass. Then he bowed to Jacina.

  “One very best bonnet,” he said, holding it out.

  The bonnet was soaked but Jacina clutched it to her as if it were a long lost treasure.

  “I do n-not know how to thank you, sir,” she said.

  “You can thank me by telling me your name.”

  “It is Jacina Carlton, sir.”

  “Ah! Your father is even now attending my grandfather, I believe?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The gentleman picked up his jacket and boots. “I must return to the castle and change my clothes before supper.” He gave another low bow. “Hugo Ruven, forever at your service.”

  With that he turned and disappeared among the trees.

  Jacina saw no more of Hugo Ruven. Only two days later, he had sailed away to join his regiment in India.

  That was ten years ago.

  So much had changed for the worse for the Ruven family since then.

  Jacina gave one last, sad glance at the portrait. Then she made her way to the castle kitchen. She liked to say hello to the cook, whom her father had often treated for what the cook called her ‘bone troubles.’

  The kitchen was in turmoil. Servants ran to and fro with platters on which sat the various dishes to be cooked for the new Earl’s supper. There was a great side of ham and a huge salmon caught early that morning. There were pastries and pies and syllabubs.

  The cook was pounding a slab of dough with her knuckles.

  “Well, here’s Miss Jacina,” she said. Her face was red and shiny. She stopped to wipe her sleeve across her brow.

  “You are working even harder than usual this morning,” observed Jacina.

  “That I am,” said cook. “I’m making a rabbit pie for lunch. No decent pie without pain, that’s the truth!”

  “You are making a lot of things,” said Jacina, looking round with wide eyes.

  “I’m making things as’ll have a nice, strong smell,” said cook. “Because when a person can’t see –” She didn’t finish but shook her head sadly.

  Jacina chatted for a little while and then said goodbye. She left the kitchen and found the back stairs that led to the nursery. She was going to see old Sarah. Sarah had been Nanny to Hugo and Crispian when they were boys. Jacina got to know her when her father came one winter to treat Sarah’s chilblains.

  The old Nanny was sitting alone in the nursery. All about her were playthings from the childhood of her charges. There was a large white rocking horse. There was a wooden Noah’s Ark complete with painted animals. There were books and balls and toy soldiers. Old Sarah kept the nursery just as it had been when Crispian and Hugo were boys.

  She was always pleased to see Jacina.

  She straightaway swung the kettle over the fire for tea. She could have rung down to the kitchen, but she knew they were busy. Besides, she was convinced she made better tea than anyone at Castle Ruven. She kept a caddy of her own in the nursery.

  The caddy was from India, with scenes of an exotic garden painted on it. Jacina often wondered if Hugo lived in a house with a garden like this around it.

  Sarah fetched a biscuit jar from a cupboard and offered Jacina some shortbread while the tea brewed.

  Jacina sat eating her biscuit while Sarah chatted about castle affairs.

  “There’s been such a bustle here since we heard the Earl was coming home. My poor master Hugo.” Sarah wiped her eye with her apron. “Mercy me, what cruel times we’ve had.”

  Jacina brushed crumbs from her skirt and looked at Sarah thoughtfully.

  “Sarah?”

  “Yes, my lovely?”

  “What will happen now to – Felice Delisle?”

  “Bless me, don’t you know the latest?”

  Jacina shook her head. “I only really know what you tell me, Sarah. You know more than anyone.”

  This was true. Sarah knew everything that went on within the castle walls.

  It was from Sarah that Jacina first heard the full story of Felice.

  Felice was the daughter of Monsieur le Comte Delisle, an old friend of the Earl’s and a widower like himself. Monsieur le Comte had fled to Switzerland during the French Revolution. He had lost his estates and so never returned to the country of his birth. He married late in life and still his young wife died before him. He became an inveterate gambler and died penniless, leaving his only child to the guardianship of the old Earl.

  The old Earl did all he could for his ward. He settled a living allowance on her and made sure she went to a good school in Switzerland.

  In the summer of 1852 the old Earl went travelling in Europe. He took his grandson Crispian with him. They stopped in Geneva, where Felice was at school, intending to stay for just a few days.

  They ended up staying for over a month.

  Felice was a pretty girl of sixteen. She had auburn hair and large eyes and was considered a very good pupil by Madame Gravalt, the owner and Headmistress of the school.

  It seemed inevitable that Felice and the shy heir to the Ruven title should fall in love. The Earl was secretly delighted but insisted they wait to be married. It was agreed that Felice should come to England to be married when she was twenty-one.

  She never came.

  In 1855 Crispian went to fight in the Crimea. He wanted to prove to himself and his fiancée that he was brave. As brave as his younger brother Hugo.

  He died shortly before the Crimean war ended.

  Now the old Earl, Felice Delisle’s guardian, was also dead.

  Jacina thought it must be terrible to be an orphan and lose your fiancé and then your guardian. It was with all this in mind that she had asked Sarah what was to become of Felice.

  “Well,” said Sarah, peering into the teapot to see if the tea was brewed, “you know she took Master Crispian’s death very hard and was ill in a sanatorium for a long time after?”

  Jacina nodded.

  “Well, after the illness, she went to liv
e with this Madame Gravalt, who had meanwhile given up the school in Geneva and retired to a village in the mountains. I suppose she was as near to a family as Felice had. The old Earl invited Felice here but –”

  Sarah shook her head. “She didn’t want to come. I suppose it was too soon to visit the place where Master Crispian grew up.”

  Sarah stopped to pour out two cups of tea. Jacina took her cup and dropped in some sugar. Sarah took a sip from her own cup and sat back with a sigh. Jacina waited, stirring her tea. She tried to be patient, but she found herself gradually stirring harder and harder, until the spoon tinkled loudly against the china. Sarah looked up, startled.

  “What was I saying?” she asked.

  “You were explaining why you thought Felice didn’t accept the Earl’s invitation to come and live here after Crispian died –” said Jacina, feeling a little ashamed of herself for having so startled the old lady.

  “Ah, yes.” Sarah shook her head dolefully. “The old Earl had grown very fond of her, you know. Not just for the sake of his friend, but also for her own sake. She was the daughter he never had. I’m sure that’s why, after Master Crispian died, he started to encourage Master Hugo to take an interest in her.”

  Jacina felt herself go strangely still. “And did he – take an interest?”

  “Well, he’d not met her, of course, but he started writing to her and she to him. During the whole year she was convalescing, they exchanged letters.”

  Sarah fell silent. Jacina waited. She could not understand why her heart seemed to be beating so quickly. She watched as the old Nanny sighed and wiped her eyes with her apron.

  “So they were writing to each other.” Jacina prompted.

  Sarah looked dazed for a moment. “Who, my lovely?”

  “Felice and – Hugo.”

  “Oh, yes. Yes, they were. And some sort of understanding was growing between them, it seems. Because when the old Earl became ill, he asked Master Hugo to declare his intentions. So Master Hugo wrote back promising to marry Felice. The old Earl told me about it shortly before he died. It made him very happy.”

  Jacina drew in a deep breath before she spoke. “And will they marry, Sarah?”

  Sarah frowned. “The talk now is that it won’t happen. ‘What young woman would want to yoke herself to an invalid’, that’s what they’re all saying. But they’re fools. Master Hugo is still a great catch. There’s many a young lady of nobility round here wants him, if Miss Felice should change her mind. But she won’t. Mark my words. The new Earl and Felice Delisle will marry here at Ruven before the year is out.”

  Before the year is out –

  The blood rushed to Jacina’s face and she looked away.

  Why did the thought of Hugo Ruven getting married affect her so? After all, she had not had so much as a glimpse of him since that incident long ago when he rescued her bonnet.

  From far below the open nursery window there came the sound of wheels on gravel. Jacina jumped up and ran to the sill. She leaned out to look.

  Approaching the castle was a coach drawn by four white horses. Visible on the side of the coach as it swerved round the head of the driveway was the Ruven coat of arms.

  The new Earl of Ruven was home.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Jacina hurried down the stairs. In the Great Hall, the servants were gathering to greet the new master of Castle Ruven. Jacina saw her father and ran to his side. He glanced down at her and smiled but his eyes betrayed anxiety.

  How would everyone respond to the sight of the blinded Earl?

  The huge front door stood open. Jarrold the butler stood at the top of the flight of wide steps that led down to the driveway. He would be the first to greet the new Earl. He stood very upright as should befit his position.

  The coach had drawn to a halt. The white horses pawed the ground and champed at the bit. They knew they were at the end of their journey and looked forward to mashed oats and the comfortable straw of their stables.

  A footman, dressed in the Ruven colours of deep maroon and black, approached the coach. He pulled down the folding steps. Then he stood aside and with one smooth movement opened the coach door.

  The first to step out was the Earl’s valet. He turned at the bottom of the folding steps and waited.

  From within the coach, a hand appeared and grasped the frame of the door. In one swift move, the Earl was out on the coach steps, straightened to his full height. So firm and unfaltering was his bearing, that those watching barely noticed him extend his right hand to the valet. The valet guided him down and then released his hand.

  The Earl strode with head held high toward the castle steps.

  Jacina’s heart missed a beat. He was darker and leaner than when she had last seen him, but the tilt of the head and the firm stride were the same.

  The butler hastily descended the steps just as the Earl reached them.

  “The first step, my Lord,” he whispered.

  For a moment, a frown crossed the Earl’s forehead and the unseeing eyes seemed to darken. But he controlled whatever impatient thought was within.

  “Thank you, Jarrold,” he said. “It is Jarrold, isn’t it?”

  Jarrold bristled with importance. “Oh, yes, indeed, my Lord. It is Jarrold the butler here, sir. The household is in the Great Hall waiting to greet you.”

  “Good. Then remind me, Jarrold. How many steps are here before me?”

  “Just five, my Lord.”

  “Thank you,” said the Earl.

  He ascended the steps without a stumble and passed into the Great Hall.

  There was a stir amongst the waiting household. The mouths of the younger maids, those who had not been at the castle when Hugo was a young man, dropped open when they saw him. He was so tall and his shoulders so broad. His features were proud and even haughty, but he had the firm jaw of a man who kept his passions under control. His brow was dark and there was the hint of a sardonic twist to the full, red mouth.

  His eyes were black and liquid. Their unseeing gaze was disconcerting.

  Jacina thought how tired he must be after the long journey, but he was most gracious as he moved along the line of waiting servants. Jarrold walked alongside him and told him whom he was meeting. The Earl inclined his head and spoke a few words to each person.

  Cook had put on a clean apron. Her round, rosy face beamed as he asked if her cooking was as good as he remembered.

  The Earl was coming to the end of the line of servants. He was very close now to Jacina. She could see the lines of fatigue on his face. She also saw for the first time a scar across his brow. This was surely from the injury that had blinded him.

  Next to cook was Nancy. She impulsively put her hand out as the Earl approached, as if she wanted to touch him and be sure he was real. The Earl seemed to sense her hovering hand. He caught it in his own.

  “Nancy, my Lord,” said Jarrold, with a frown at Nancy. She had overstepped the bounds.

  “What, the little scold who used to help Sarah in the nursery, and scrub my head in the big tub by the fire?” asked the Earl with a lift of his brow.

  “Oh, yes, sir, that’s me, sir,” cried Nancy excitedly. The Earl had remembered her! “Only I’m not so little now, you wouldn’t recognise me if you saw me –”

  There was a barely audible gasp from the onlookers. Nancy’s voice trailed off in dismay as she realised what she had said.

  The Earl dropped her hand. Only Jacina noticed the faint flinch that crossed his features.

  “It must be borne,” she heard him say under his breath. She knew it was meant for himself and not for Nancy.

  Jarrold furiously motioned Nancy away. She scurried back to the kitchen, her apron over her head. Since Nancy had been at the end of the line, the other servants felt equally dismissed and started to hurry after her. They were eager to get out of earshot so they could discuss the events of the last few minutes.

  “My Lord,” said Jarrold in a low voice, “ I shall severely reprimand Nancy –�
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  “Jarrold,” said the Earl wearily, “there are to be no repercussions.”

  Jacina understood what the Earl was thinking. There were likely to be many such blunders ahead of him.

  Jarrold drew himself up. “Very well, my Lord. And now, it remains for me to introduce you to Doctor Carlton and his daughter.”

  “Let me take your hand, Doctor Carlton,” said the Earl. “We shall not stand on ceremony with each other. I have heard a great deal about you from my grandfather’s letters. You were a conscientious doctor to him and a firm friend. I believe you even beat him at cards!”

  “Not as often as he beat me,” smiled the doctor. “He was a singular gentleman and I shall miss him greatly.”

  “I should like to talk more with you.” said the Earl. “But first I wish to change out of my travelling attire.”

  “We can return another time at your convenience,” said the doctor.

  “Oh, no, I mean you to stay and take some refreshment with me. If you do not mind waiting a little. I will change and then go and say hello to Sarah. She will be most displeased if I do not. But I shall not be long.”

  “We can wait in the library,” said the doctor.

  Jacina was standing by with downcast eyes. Jarrold had quite properly acknowledged her presence, but since that moment the Earl and her father seemed to have forgotten she was there. She was feeling rather as if she did not exist when she suddenly heard her name spoken.

  “Allow me to present my daughter, Jacina,” said the doctor.

  Looking up, Jacina saw that the Earl had turned his head to the right of her father and not to the left where she actually stood.

  “My Lord,” she said quickly.

  Earl Hugo turned his head in her direction. She dropped a curtsy. He might not be able to see it, but she knew he would hear the sweep of her muslin skirt on the stone floor. For a second, she fancied she saw his lip curl in a faint smile.

  She could not be sure, for a moment later he held his hand out for her to take and she felt the blood rush to her face. Hesitatingly, she placed her hand in his. It seemed to disappear in his strong grasp.

  “Jacina,” he murmured. “An unusual name. I do not believe I have heard it before.”