Beauty or Brains Page 3

  What she was looking for, pushed behind one of the wardrobes, were some suitcases that she always used when she was going away for a short visit.

  They would hold all the dresses she would need for at least several weeks.

  As she took the simplest and least flamboyant ones from the wardrobes, she thought it would be a mistake to look too smart or to attract attention in any way.

  As she had always done things very quickly in her life, she managed to fill the two cases in very quick time.

  Then she went to her bedroom to collect her brush and comb and her face cream.

  When everything was in the cases, she closed them and went to the door and opened it softly to see if anyone was about.

  The floor outside was dark and silent.

  But she thought she heard a movement from below stairs as if the housemaids were brushing the carpets in the sitting rooms and passages.

  Carrying her cases and she found them quite heavy, she crept along the passage, having closed her door and put on it a note saying boldly, do not disturb.

  It would prevent her lady’s maid from calling her or bringing up her breakfast.

  There was a narrow staircase that was only used by the servants, which ascended at the end of the corridor. It led to the room that was occupied by her secretary.

  Mr. Masterton had been there in her father’s time and he was now growing old, but he was most efficient in paying the wages for the estate and in the house.

  Iona was certain that he would have drawn out a good deal of money to pay the extra people who would be engaged for her wedding day.

  As she opened the door, the room was in darkness.

  Then, as she pulled the curtains back, she could see how neatly Mr. Masterton had everything arranged.

  Fortunately she knew where he kept the keys of the safe where there was always plenty of cash.

  When she unlocked the safe, she found that she was not mistaken. In fact, at a quick glance, she decided that there was at least one thousand pounds there, if not more.

  She had purposely taken her biggest handbag with her and she transferred the money in notes into it.

  Then she filled another bag with coins that she put into one of her cases.

  She left a note on the safe to tell Mr. Masterton what she had taken and signed it.

  She quickly pulled the curtains across the window and hurried into the passage that led to a garden door at the side of the house. It was bolted to keep out burglars, but she pulled them back and stepped out into the sunshine.

  Shutting the door behind her, she put her suitcases by it and then she ran as quickly as she could to the stables.

  She did not go to where the horses were kept, but instead she went to the building at the far end of the stables where the carriages were housed.

  Here was kept the present her father had given her when she was a child when he had first taught her to drive – a donkey cart.

  It was, she thought at the time, the most exciting gift she had ever received.

  Because there had been a small pony to pull it, as her father had said, in less than a year she had learnt to drive as well as he did.

  He had then given her a slightly bigger carriage that could be pulled by two ponies, which were a sheer delight to Iona as they were faster and she enjoyed driving them as much as she loved riding her father’s hunters.

  She felt that the donkey cart would be unobtrusive and if she travelled alone people would not be surprised. Whereas if she drove a chaise, they would obviously think it strange that she had no groom with her.

  With some difficulty she found the boy who was on duty at night, who had fallen asleep on the hay in a stall.

  She sent Ben, for that was his name, to fetch her cases.

  “I have to take them to someone in the village,” she said, as she knew he would remember it if he was asked.

  But he was thinking, as she wanted him to, that she was giving a present of clothes to someone she favoured.

  It took Ben only a short time to fetch two ponies and fit them into the shafts of the donkey cart.

  They were part of a team and there were two other ponies which matched them perfectly and were capable of drawing the smart chaise her father often travelled in.

  For a woman to be driving a team unaccompanied was, Iona knew, to attract attention and that was the one thing she wished to avoid.

  When the two ponies were placed in position in the donkey cart, she picked up the reins, thanked Ben, and then drove off.

  She noticed that he was yawning and felt that he would not be in a hurry to tell the rest of the staff where she had gone.

  As they would all be talking about the wedding, it was unlikely that they would ask him if anything unusual had happened.

  She had risen so early that morning that it was not yet seven o’clock as she drove out of the yard, her head held high.

  Avoiding the main drive, she took a route through the fields that led to the very end of the village.

  Iona thought with some satisfaction that she had got away without anyone seeing her.

  When it was realised that she had disappeared there was only Ben who had seen her go and, as he was rather a stupid boy, it would be a long time before anyone found out that she was actually missing.

  The problem she had now was where she could go.

  If she stayed in the County, she would have, if she was discovered, all her family begging her to come back.

  And what was more, they would plead with her to change her mind and marry John.

  She therefore decided that, as her Governess, whose deathbed she was supposedly going to, lived in the North, it would be in the North that they would expect to find her.

  What they did not know, and she had not told them, was that Sarah Dawson had died nearly a month ago.

  She had sent flowers to the funeral, but had been in London at the time, so those in the country had not even been told of her demise.

  It was doubtful if the servants would remember her as she had only been a Governess to Iona when she was ten and two years later she had gone to a school in London.

  There had been so much chatter about her wedding that it had never occurred to her to tell the old servants who would remember Miss Dawson that she was now no longer in this world.

  ‘It was clever of me to think of her,’ Iona reflected as she drove on. ‘I know that dear Miss Dawson would have been glad to help me.’

  Even as she thought of this, she wondered just how many of the staff who were employed now would want to help her do anything quite so outrageous as to cancel her wedding the day before it took place.

  She could imagine all too clearly just how angry her relatives would be, thinking it extremely wrong of her to cause such a commotion at the eleventh hour.

  She was very certain, however, that not one of them would imagine for a single moment that she was running away from marrying John.

  They all thought him charming and handsome and were more relieved than they dared put into words that he was taking her off their hands.

  They had most certainly done their best, Iona had to admit, in keeping her well chaperoned whether she was in London or the country.

  Although it might at times have been very tiresome for them, they had all benefitted from the money and the many presents she had given them.

  At least, she thought, she would not have to send back all the presents she had received, as at the moment they would merely think that the wedding was postponed.

  It was only as time passed, and if John was tactful, they would accept that it was never actually going to take place.

  As she drove on and the sun became brighter and hotter, she wondered again where she should go and where it would be possible for her to hide.

  In her anxiety to disappear as quickly as she could, it had not struck her that she might find it difficult as a young girl alone to stay in comfortable hotels.

  But she could not think of anyone with whom sh
e could hide from her family.

  There were several cousins who lived in Sussex and Kent, but she was determined to avoid those Counties.

  She knew only too well that if any of her relatives, however distant, came in contact with her, they would then merely notify her aunt.

  She, being her nearest relative would be absolutely furious at the way that Iona had disappeared without even telling them where she was going.

  They would undoubtedly think it quite mad of her to trouble herself so much over an old Governess, rather than be the bride at what was a very smart Social occasion.

  ‘I am sorry that I will upset them so much,’ Iona said to herself.

  At the same time she asked,

  ‘How could I marry John when he loves Mary and she loves him?’

  For the first time since she had eavesdropped their conversation she could not help thinking that they had, in fact, treated her somewhat shabbily.

  Then she thought that one could not help love.

  It was either there or it was not.

  Although she had loved John in her own way and had been willing to marry him because he was so kind and helpful, she realised that if she was honest she did not love him in the same way that Mary did.

  He was so handsome, so charming and so pleasant to be with.

  But the way Mary had spoken of her love for him and he had replied with his, told her, if she was truthful, that her love was not as great as theirs.

  ‘I do love him,’ she thought, as she drove on, ‘but I suppose in a way it is the same as I loved Papa and would have loved my brother, if I had had one.’

  She stopped and then her thoughts continued,

  ‘I felt that John protected me and is one of the most charming men I have ever known. But there is surely more to love than I was receiving from him or giving.’

  She was working it out for herself while the ponies, clearly delighted to be given their heads, were increasing their distance from Langdale Hall.

  ‘I will go to the sea,’ Iona decided, ‘and I am sure that no one will think of looking for me there.’

  The difficulty was she was not certain where they would look for her.

  Because she had gone alone, without a groom and without a lady’s maid, they would, she was sure, think that she would be staying with friends and doubtless search her address book for their names.

  ‘I have to be very clever and make sure that I am not carried back after only a few days of freedom,’ she told herself.

  She could imagine only too clearly all the fuss they would make over her disappearance and how they would try with every means possible to force her to marry John, despite the fact that she had run away from their wedding.

  ‘I can honestly say that I don’t love him as much as I thought I did,’ Iona told herself.

  But she knew that her family would not listen.

  ‘If John has any sense,’ she mused, ‘he will pay his friend the five thousand pounds he was asking for and stay with him until our marriage is completely forgotten.’

  How they would talk. They would talk, talk, talk, coming to the conclusion that poor John was to be pitied.

  Two hours must have gone by before she realised that having had no breakfast she was rather hungry.

  As she was keeping away from the main roads and travelling down narrow lanes, it took her some time to find a small Posting inn.

  It looked quite respectable and, when she drove the ponies into the stable yard beside it, there appeared to be no sign of any other carriage.

  When the ostler then took charge of the ponies and promised to provide them with plenty to eat and drink, she went into the inn.

  It was a small building with low ceilings, but clean and the aged publican bowed to her politely.

  “Is there anythin’ I can do for you, miss?” he asked.

  “I had to come away from home in a hurry,” Iona replied, “and would therefore be grateful if I could have something to eat and coffee to drink.”

  The publican smiled.

  “That’ll not be difficult, miss. If you’ll come this way, I’ll take you into the dinin’ room.”

  It was a dark room with long windows overlooking a garden at the back of the inn.

  It did not take long before she was served with eggs and bacon, which were well cooked, and coffee that was drinkable if not particularly tasty.

  She found out from the publican exactly where she was and it was still quite a long way from the sea where she wanted to be eventually.

  She was amused, however, to find that the publican was surprised that she was travelling alone and rather than tell him she inferred that where she was going there would be people much older to look after her.

  “You must be ever so careful of yourself, miss,” he said. “If it’s not them ’ighwaymen, then there be plenty of slippery fingers to take anythin’ of any value from you and them be very fine ponies you be a-drivin’.”

  “I will be very upset if anyone steals them.”

  “Then you must take extra care, miss,” he repeated. “I’ve ’eard tales about someone like yourself who’s woken up in the mornin’ in a hotel to find that ’is good ’orses ’ave been replaced with them as wouldn’t fetch a threepenny bit at a sale and there be no way of ’im gettin’ them back.”

  “I will be very careful with my ponies,” Iona said, “because I love them very much and, as you can see, they are very well bred.”

  “That’s why I be a-warnin’ you if your father and mother let you drive around alone without a friend or a servant beside you.”

  He spoke in a fatherly way that rather charmed her.

  At the same time she felt a little streak of fear just in case her ponies were taken away from her.

  Then she told herself that it was the way one would expect a man, living in the depths of the country, to think about the world outside.

  She paid him for her breakfast and for the food the ostler had given the ponies.

  As she took his hand to say goodbye, he said,

  “Now you take good care of yourself, miss. You be a very pretty young lady and there be ’ighwaymen who’d be more interested in you than your ’orses.”

  Iona laughed.

  “I promise you I will take the greatest care of both and thank you for looking after me so well.”

  He helped her into her cart and waved as she left.

  She waved back, thinking that at least he was very friendly and now that she was all alone in the world she needed friends wherever she could find them.

  She travelled on, stopping later in the day at a not so pleasant inn for a quick luncheon.

  Then she set off once more, still hoping it would not be long before she reached the sea.

  However, she realised at about six o’clock in the afternoon, when the sun was not so strong and was now beginning to sink in the sky, that her ponies were tiring.

  They had kept up their pace all through the day and she knew that she was a long distance from home.

  Tonight, at any rate, they would not be looking for her and she need not be afraid of staying anywhere where a ‘nosey parker’ would think it strange that she was alone and would be able to inform the family about her.

  It was, however, difficult to find a nice Posting inn like the first one she had first stopped at.

  When finally she found an inn, she was not the only guest staying there.

  There were a number of common-looking men who were travelling together and one elderly couple.

  And there was one man by himself who Iona, when she entered the dining room, realised was looking at her in a way she disliked.

  She deliberately sat in a seat where she had her back to him.

  But, when she was just finishing the rather dull and heavy pudding she had been served, he came to her table and sat down in the seat opposite her.

  “If you’re travelling alone,” he said, “and I’m doing the same, it seems to me we should introduce ourselves.”

>   As Iona thought that it would be a mistake to be rude, she replied,

  “If you want to talk then I am afraid that you will be disappointed. I am very tired after travelling a long way today and am going straight to bed.”

  “You cannot be so unkind as to do that,” he said. “I’ve had a damned awful day too. The fella who I was supposed to meet didn’t turn up and another who’s usually more friendly said he was too busy to waste time on me.”

  “It does sound very hard,” Iona murmured.

  “What you’re saying is that nothing would interest you, but I’d like to know where you are going.”

  “I am going to the sea,” Iona told him, “but it is taking longer than I expected and those who are waiting for me will wonder why I have not arrived earlier.”

  “Well then, their loss is my gain,” the man replied. “Now come on, you be friendly and I’ll stand you a drink. What would you like? Whisky or red wine?”

  “You are very kind,” Iona answered, “but I would like nothing because I never drink anything alcoholic. As you can see, I am having lemonade, which unfortunately I am certain has never encountered a fresh lemon!”

  The man laughed.

  “That is true enough. Now please let me get you something to cheer you up. What about a cherry brandy or something with a bit more kick in it.”

  “Thank you, but no,” Iona replied, “but I am very tied and so I am going up to bed. Perhaps we will meet at breakfast, although I am leaving very early.”

  “I’ve a better idea than that,” he smirked.

  Iona had risen as he spoke and now he rose too and, when she walked towards the door, he came beside her.

  There were people talking in the hall and, as she went up the stairs and he accompanied her, she thought it a mistake to stop and say goodnight to him while the other people were listening.

  She reached her bedroom, which was on the first floor and it was, she thought when she had first seen it, a rather shabby room and not particularly clean.

  She stopped at the door and held out her hand.

  “It is nice to have met you,” she said. “But, as I have told you, I am leaving early tomorrow morning.”

  “Allow me to unlock the door for you,” he offered, taking the key from her hand.