Lies for Love Read online

  She hurriedly packed what she had been using, put the dressing-table set that had been her mother’s on top, added a shawl that was on the bed because there were so few blankets, and did up the strap of her trunk.

  As she was doing so a footman appeared in the doorway resplendent in the Gale livery with its crested silver buttons and carrying his cockaded top-hat in his hand.

  “Morning, Miss Carmela,” he said with a grin.

  “Good-morning, Ben.”

  “Her Ladyship says I were to fetch yer trunk.”

  “It is there,” Carmela said pointing to where it stood. “Can you manage it alone?”

  “Course I can!” Ben replied.

  He put his hat on his head and picked up the trunk and carried it easily across the nursery.

  The children were still sitting at the table watching what was occurring in astonishment.

  As Carmela came from the bedroom wearing the cloak that had belonged to her mother and a plain chip bonnet trimmed with black ribbons, she thought that compared to Felicity she must look like a hedge-sparrow beside a bird of paradise.

  At the same time she felt nervous as to what Mrs. Cooper would say.

  As she went down the stairs she was aware that the Vicar’s wife would have every right to be annoyed and insulted by her precipitate departure.

  Carmela had always done whatever Felicity wanted, and although she was in fact only a few months younger in age her friend seemed at times almost to belong to a different generation.

  She had always been the ring-leader in all their activities, and she was also very self-assured having travelled and met people of importance. She was, Carmela had often said with a smile, in consequence grown up before she was a child.

  As Carmela reached the small dark hall, she was aware that Felicity was in the sitting room talking to Mrs. Cooper.

  With her heart beating apprehensively, Carmela walked into the room half-expecting to receive a torrent of abuse in the querulous voice that Mrs. Cooper could use most effectively when anything annoyed her.

  Instead to her surprise the Vicar’s wife was smiling.

  “Well, you’re a lucky girl and no mistake!” she said before Carmela could speak. “Her Ladyship’s just been telling me that she’s plans for you which’ll be very much to your advantage.”

  “Mrs. Cooper is being so sweet and understanding in saying that she will not stand in your way,” Felicity said. Carmela had only to look at her friend to know that her eyes were twinkling, and she was speaking in the soft dulcet tones she used when she was manipulating someone to her own ends.

  “It – it is very – kind of you,” Carmela managed to stammer.

  “I’ll miss you - I don’t pretend I shan’t,” Mrs. Cooper replied. “But her Ladyship has promised to send me one of the young girls from the kitchen of the Castle to straighten things out, and that’ll be a help, it will indeed!”

  “I will send her as soon as I get back,” Felicity said, “and thank you once again, dear Mrs. Cooper, for being so kind. Please remember me to the Vicar. As I will not be able to attend Church this Sunday because Carmela and I are going away, perhaps you will be kind enough to place my small offering in the plate?”

  As Felicity spoke she opened a pretty satin reticule that she carried over her arm and took out a little mesh purse from which she counted out five golden guineas into Mrs. Cooper’s outstretched hand.

  “That is really very kind of you,” Mrs. Cooper said in gratified tones. “Very, very kind!”

  She transferred the coins into her other hand so that she could say goodbye to Carmela.

  Then with Felicity moving ahead like a ship in full sail and Carmela following almost as if she was mesmerised, they stepped into the carriage while Mrs. Cooper waved at the doorway as they drove off.

  Only as the horses turned out through the narrow gate onto the roadway did Carmela say:

  “Have you really – rescued me?”

  “You certainly look as if you are in need of it,” Felicity answered. “Dearest Carmela, how can all this have happened to you in such a short time?”

  “Papa died at the end of January,” Carmela replied, “and I could not write to tell you as I had no idea where you were.”

  “I was in France staying first with one of Grandmama’s friends, then another,” Felicity replied, “so even if you had written to me, I doubt if the letter would have found me.”

  “You must miss her very, very much.”

  Felicity’s grandmother with whom she had lived ever since she was a child had been the Dowager Countess of Galeston.

  She had been a rather awe-inspiring lady of whom the village had been very much in awe, but she had liked Carmela’s mother and father, and even encouraged the latter in his painting by buying several of his pictures.

  Because there were few children of Felicity’s age in the neighbourhood who her grandmother would allow her to know, Carmela was encouraged to visit the Castle, and when the two girls became inseparable it was obviously with the Countess’s approval.

  It was only as Felicity grew older that she went away often to stay with the Countess’s friends even though her grandmother was not well enough to accompany her.

  This meant that Felicity’s knowledge of the world was very different from that of Carmela’s.

  At the same time, as soon as she came home their friendship continued as before, and Carmela was content to be Felicity’s confidante, listening to her adventures not with envy but with admiration.

  “I was a success! A great success!” Felicity would boast after some interesting visit, and Carmela was only too ready to believe her.

  It was just like old times, Carmela thought now, with Felicity telling her what to do and she being only too delighted and happy to oblige.

  “What are your plans?” she asked as the carriage rolled on.

  The horse turned through the imposing iron-work gates with their attractive stone lodges on either side which was the entrance to the mile-long drive to the Castle.

  “That is what I am going to tell you,” Felicity said, “and it is also why I need your help.”

  “My help?” Carmela asked.

  Felicity turned towards her and said in a tone of voice very different from the one she had used before:

  “You will help me, Carmela? Promise that you will help me!”

  “Of course I will, dearest,” Carmela replied. “You know I will do anything you want me to.”

  “That is what I knew you would say,” Felicity said. “What I am going to ask may seem a little strange, but I knew when I came to find you that you would never fail me.”

  “Why should I?” Carmela asked in a puzzled tone. “You have always been so very, very sweet to me.”

  She waited, wondering why her friend was looking so serious and she knew without words that she was going to ask her something unusual and perhaps difficult.

  Felicity was looking ahead to where the Castle stood on a high piece of ground, its towers silhouetted against the sky.

  It was built on an ancient site but it was in fact quite a modern Castle, and the Countess had bought it from its previous owner when she was looking for somewhere to live after she had shaken the dust of Galeston from her feet.

  Carmela had heard the story often enough.

  The Countess, who had been a great beauty and a social personality of her time, had some time after her son inherited quarrelled with him and the rest of the family and finally decided she would have nothing further to do with them.

  Although she had always been a very dominating person and determined to have her own way in everything, they had not at first believed her.

  But after a series of bitter and prolonged arguments, and letters that sped backwards and forward between the Countess and the rest of the Gale family she finally left the Dower House into which she had moved after her son had inherited.

  Taking everything she possessed with her the Countess told the Gales once and for all that she had no wish to see any of them again.

  They found it hard to believe, especially as she had taken her son’s young daughter with her.

  This in fact, had been one of the bones of contention between them because Felicity’s mother had died when she was born and the Countess had disapproved of the way in which she was being brought up.

  Her son was more interested in his son and had allowed his mother to have the upbringing of Felicity thinking that the child might in fact sooner or later, heal the breach, between them.

  The Countess however had moved to another part of England altogether and had no intention of being conciliatory.

  As her son was nearly as obstinate as she was the feud grew and grew until there ceased to be any communication between them.

  Then the Countess had died and when Felicity went to France to stay with some of her grandmother’s friends, Carmela had wondered if she would turn towards the family she did not know.

  This might be impossible, but it would obviously not be correct for her to live at the Castle alone without a chaperon.

  “We are going home,” Felicity was saying, “and I will tell you the whole story as soon as we can be alone.”

  “You are making me very curious,” Carmela said. “Is there anybody staying at the Castle?”

  “No, not at the moment.”

  The way Felicity spoke also sounded not quite natural and Carmela could not help wondering what she had in store to tell her and how it concerned her personally.

  At the same time she was very thankful to leave the Vicarage.

  She had always been deeply affected by her surroundings, and the ugliness of the Vicarage itself, the plainness of the children, and of their parents also had been very hard to bear.

  She had found it difficult to like either the Vicar or his wife, but though she knew she should be grateful to them, they were just not very pleasant people.

  The Vicar particularly seemed to be lacking in Christian charity, and Mrs. Cooper was just a tiresome neurotic woman who had too much to do and was not really fond of her children in spite of the fact that she had given them birth.

  They were also comparative newcomers to the village, having lived there for only six years while the previous Vicar had died after being the incumbent for over forty.

  It was a joy for Carmela as she walked into the Castle to see again the perfect taste with which everything was arranged.

  It was not only that the curtains were made of an expensive brocade but they were exactly the right colour, just as the wall-coverings were restful and the pictures on them were a joy to look at.

  There were also flowers arranged in large cut-glass vases that scented the atmosphere, and servants in smart uniforms smiling a welcome because they knew Carmela well and made her feel that, like Felicity, she had come home.

  Felicity handing her cloak to a footman and pulling off her bonnet led the way into an attractive sitting room that the two girls had always thought of as their own.

  It had been furnished by the Countess with blue covers for the sofas and chairs which matched Felicity’s eyes, and the pictures were in the Fragonard style depicting ladies with the same elegance, Carmela thought, as Felicity herself.

  “Is there any refreshment you’d like M’Lady?” the Butler asked from the door.

  Felicity looked at Carmela who shook her head. “No, thank you, Bates.”

  The Butler closed the door and they were alone.

  “You are sure you are not hungry?” Felicity asked.

  “You could not have eaten that filthy breakfast!”

  “The very thought of it made me feel sick!” Carmela answered. “Oh, Felicity, I am hopeless at looking after children. At least - those children!”

  “I am not surprised,” Felicity answered, “and how could you do anything so stupid as to think that was where you would be happy?”

  “What else could I do?” Carmela asked.

  “You should have known I would have wanted you to come here,” Felicity replied, “and do not pretend you were too proud, because I will not listen to you!”

  They both laughed because it was an old joke about people being proud.

  “When people talk about charity they always mean giving money,” the Countess had said once. “But it is much more difficult and far more charitable to give one’s self to people.”

  The two girls had thought this an amusing idea and Felicity would go back to the Castle to say to her grandmother:

  “I have been very charitable this afternoon, Grandmama. I talked for over ten minutes to that terrible old bore, Miss Dobson, and I feel sure now I have moved up several places on the ladder to Heaven!”

  “I am proud,” Carmela said now, “but if you are thinking of being charitable to me I am only too willing to accept.”

  “That is exactly what I want to do,” Felicity said, “so now, dearest, listen to me.”

  “I am listening,” Carmela answered, “and I have a strong feeling you are up to some mischief of some sort.”

  “I suppose that is what you might call it,” Felicity agreed. “As it happens, I am going to be married!”

  Carmela sat upright.

  “Married? Oh, Felicity, how exciting! But – to whom?”

  “To Jimmy - who else?”

  Carmela was very still.

  “Jimmy Salwick? But Felicity, I did not know that his wife had died.”

  “She has not!”

  Carmela looked at her friend wide-eyed. “I – I do not – understand.”

  “She is dying, but she is not yet dead, and I am going away with Jimmy to France to stay there until we can be married.”

  There was silence. Then Carmela said:

  “But, Felicity, you cannot do such a – thing! Think of your – reputation!”

  “There are no arguments,” Felicity said in a low voice. “This is something I must do and Carmela, you have to help me!”

  Carmela looked worried.

  She had known for over a year that Felicity was in love with Lord Salwick who was a near neighbour.

  He was an attractive, very charming young man who had inherited a large but dilapidated ancestral home and an impoverished estate with no money to restore it.

  Because Felicity had always known she would come into some money on her grandmother’s death, they had been prepared to wait. She knew that if they approached the Countess she would make a great many difficulties because even if he were free she did not consider James Salwick, charming though he was, good enough for her granddaughter.

  The Countess had always moved in the very highest of society, and had been when she was young, a Lady of the Bed-Chamber to the Queen.

  She had therefore set her heart on Felicity marrying one of the great noblemen who graced the Court and had compiled a list of the most eligible Dukes and Marquises whom she considered acceptable as her granddaughter’s husband.

  “It is no use arguing with Grandmama about Jimmy,” Felicity had said often enough to Carmela. “You know how determined she is when she makes up her mind, and if I insist that I will marry no one else, she will just make it impossible for us to see each other.”

  “I can understand that,” Carmela replied, “but what will happen when she produces a man she considers an ideal husband for you?”

  Fortunately that situation had not arisen because the Countess became too ill and Felicity therefore was sent away to stay with her relatives, a number of whom, because the Countess had French blood in her, lived in France.

  As soon as the war was over and France began to settle down again Felicity was sent to stay in a huge Chateau on the Loire with aristocrats who in some miraculous manner had survived not only the Revolution, but the social changes effected by Napoleon Bonaparte.

  But the Countess’s connections were not only French. Felicity had travelled to Northumberland to stay with the Duke, to Cornwall, to visit some of the ancient Cornish families who had eligible sons, and even once she went as far north as Edinburgh.

  Although she always returned with stories of the people she had met and the men who had made love to her, when she was alone with Carmela she admitted that the only man who really meant anything to her was Jimmy Salwick.

  When he was very young his parents had arranged his marriage to a wife who gradually became more and more mentally deranged until finally she was placed in a private asylum.

  It was a cruel fate for the young man because there was no way he could ever be rid of his wife except by her death, and he was tied to a woman he never saw.

  It was inevitable that he should lose his heart to what was to all intents and purposes the girl next door.

  It was not surprising that he loved Felicity because, as Carmela saw when they were together, love made her glow with a radiance that any man with eyes in his head would have found irresistible.

  At the same time for Felicity to go away with him was to Carmela inconceivable.

  “What I do not understand, dearest,” she said now, “is why you cannot wait. If Jimmy’s wife is dying, then surely as you have waited so long already, another few months or perhaps even a year would not matter?”

  As she spoke she thought it would matter even less now that Felicity did not have her grandmother trying to force her to marry somebody else.

  “I thought that was what you would say,” Felicity replied, “but it is far more complicated than that.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I have only just learned when I returned to London from France that Grandmama has left me a huge fortune.”

  “A huge fortune?” Carmela repeated.

  “It is enormous, really enormous!” Felicity said. “I never had the slightest idea that she had so much.”

  Carmela did not speak and after a moment Felicity went on:

  “As you know, she quarrelled with Papa and all my other relatives. She said they were always battening on her, always expecting her to pay for everything, and it annoyed her.”

  “I always thought that living here she must be rich,” Carmela said slowly.

  “Yes, of course, rich by ordinary standards,” Felicity agreed, “but not having a fortune that is so large that I cannot believe it! She kept it a secret.”