The Cross of Love Read online

  He was about to make a light hearted comment, but something about her pale face silenced him.

  "If you will be kind enough to show me the way," he said, "I would be grateful."

  They left the house and climbed down to the woods and the stream, across a rough wooden bridge, grown somewhat precarious with age.

  "Why is the cross on my land rather than in the cemetery?" the Earl enquired.

  "Because this is where it was found, and Papa thought it should stay there. Look, there it is."

  Just ahead of them stood the cross looking strong, dark and impressive amongst the trees.

  She walked quickly ahead, and when she reached the cross she knelt down and said a private prayer thanking God for letting her find the money, with all the good it might do for the man who owned it, for the villagers, and perhaps to her too, although she could not, for the moment, see how.

  The Earl stood still, watching her in silent respect, wondering what was happening to him and to his whole world.

  Only when she had finished praying did the Earl move forward. She lifted the thistle, which he took from her and flung away. Then he bent down and started to pull up the ground round the cross. It crossed Rena's mind that perhaps he would find nothing. As the Earl pushed his hand lower and lower, she closed her eyes and held her breath.

  Then she heard him make a sudden sound which was almost a yell of delight.

  She opened her eyes. He was looking towards her, his hand outstretched. In it she saw a large lump of soil. Something in it was shining in the sunshine coming through the trees above them.

  More coins. For a moment she thought she was dreaming.

  "Your prayers have been answered," he said jubilantly. "And there are probably more if we dig deeper."

  "It is true, it is really true!" Rena said almost beneath her breath.

  The Earl lowered his voice. "Let's get back to the house. No one must know what we've found or that we've been here. The rest need to be brought up by experts who know how to treat them so that they won't be damaged."

  As he spoke he put the soil he was holding into the pocket of his coat. Then, putting his arm round Rena, he took her back the way they had come. Only when they reached the house and went in through the front door, did the Earl speak.

  "You've saved me," he said. "At least for the moment, you've saved me from feeling nothing but despair for this house and all it contains." Then he shook his head like a man in a dream. "I don't know how to thank you."

  "It's Papa you should thank," Rena said. "Do you really think there will be enough money for you to restore The Grange?"

  "I cannot believe our luck is as good as that," the Earl answered. "But even a little money is a tremendous help. It gives me a chance to think. But this must remain our secret."

  "Of course," Rena promised. "Once word gets out and you'll have the whole village digging up your land."

  "And the only person I want to share it with is you."

  Smiling, she shook her head. "It belongs to you."

  "Miss Colwell, please tell me something. When you first went to that place this morning, what were you praying for?"

  "For a job," she said simply. "I've 'eaten the bread of idleness for the past two months,' and frankly it's beginning to taste rancid."

  "Then let me offer you a job, as my housekeeper."

  She stopped and stared at him. "You mean that?"

  "It's not much of a job. You've seen the place as it is. It would take a brave spirit even to contemplate taking it on? And indeed you are a brave spirit."

  "Am I?"

  "Everything you've done today - I'm filled with admiration. You could take that huge task on, and defeat it. Oh, wait!"

  "What is it?" she asked anxiously, seeing her lovely new job vanishing before her eyes.

  "Perhaps your family wouldn't care for you to take such a post. They might think it beneath you."

  "Mama's family probably would. They were Sunninghills, and very proud of it."

  "You're a Sunninghill? There's an Admiral Sunninghill."

  "My third cousin. Or fourth. Or fifth maybe."

  "He might object."

  She stopped and faced him. "My lord, are you still in the Navy?"

  "No."

  "Then Admiral Sunninghill's disapprobation is neither here nor there." With a slight dismissive gesture, Rena disposed of Admiral Sunninghill and all his works.

  "But you?"

  "They ignored Mama after her marriage. I doubt he knows of my existence."

  "I won't tell him if you don't."

  They shook hands solemnly.

  "And your family at home in the vicarage? How will they feel?"

  "I have no family."

  "Nobody? No brothers, sisters, mother?"

  "No brothers or sisters and my mother died last year."

  "You're completely alone?"

  She nodded. Suddenly she couldn't speak for the tightness in her throat.

  "So," he said, "that settles it. Now you're my housekeeper."

  "Then my first job should be to ensure that you are well fed," she said, forcing herself to speak brightly. "I think we've already used up whatever was in the house. If you will give me some money, I will go to the shops and buy provisions, although they won't be very grand."

  "I'll be thankful for anything," the Earl answered. He put his hand into his pocket and brought out a sovereign.

  "Will this be enough?"

  "Oh, more than enough," Rena said.

  The Earl laughed ruefully. "I hope you won't find my stomach is bigger than my pocket, which happens to most people after they leave the Navy."

  "I am sure you were well fed in those days," Rena said. "I dare say ships are run very effectively."

  "That's true. Everywhere you looked my ship was clean and bright which is something I cannot say about my house!"

  "Leave the house to me. Later, when I've seen you fed, I can bring you some vegetables from my own garden. And then there's Clara."

  "Clara? I thought you said you lived alone."

  "Clara is a chicken. She lays eggs."

  "An invaluable addition to our community," he agreed.

  Rena collected a shopping basket from the kitchen and hurried out to the village grocery. Luckily Ned, the owner, had been to the town the previous day, and was well stocked.

  She went through the shop like a whirlwind, buying in flour, milk, tea, coffee, meat, butter, sugar, paraffin for lamps. It wasn't going to leave much of the sovereign, but she had a hungry man to feed.

  "Are you buying for an army Miss Colwell?" Ned asked in admiration.

  "No, for the new owner of The Grange."

  He stared. "I did hear someone had arrived but - owner? Are you sure?"

  "He's the Earl of Lansdale."

  "But the family died out."

  "Apparently not. It took time to trace him, and he was in the Royal Navy, which is why it took so long to get hold of him."

  "That's good news," Ned answered. "And, of course, if he's opening The Grange, he'll have to repair it and that'll be a blessing to us all. There are too many workmen with no work now." He added slyly, "Best not tell him about the ghost, then."

  "I wasn't going to mention the ghost," Rena declared primly, for the simple reason that there's no such thing."

  "No ghosts?" Ned demanded indignantly, as if she'd deprived him of a treat. "Course there are ghosts. What's a house like that without a ghost?"

  "I suppose there'll be a headless horseman galloping through the kitchen while I'm making pies?" she demanded. "Really Ned!"

  "Why are you making pies?"

  "Because I'm going to be the housekeeper there."

  "Parson's daughter? Housekeeper?"

  "Even parsons' daughters have to work to live."

  "Well, you'll be in the right place to keep him in order. You can make sure he knows what we all need."

  There it was, the burden that was to be laid on the new Earl, the yearning expectations of 'h
is' people, who looked to him for succour and sustenance.

  But as she left the shop she was too cheerful to heed its warning.

  Since it was early in the year the light was already beginning to fade as she returned to The Grange. So she hastily filled an oil lamp with paraffin and ventured upstairs to the master bedroom.

  She soon found it, a grandiose room with painted ceilings and dirty gilt furniture, full of glory at the expense of comfort. A door stood ajar. Pushing it open Rena found herself in a small dressing room with a narrow bed. The Earl's bags were there, and he'd made some attempt to unpack them, but the bed was bare of sheets and blankets.

  Further investigation revealed an airing cupboard containing sheets that were incredibly free from moths. She took out some bed linen and conveyed it to the kitchen, lit a fire inside, and hung the sheets on an old clothes horse in front of it.

  Then she put a kettle of water on the top. Now everything was warm and cosy, and the Earl, arriving soon after, stopped in the kitchen door and whistled with admiration.

  "Now this is what I call homelike," he said.

  "Sit down," she said cheerfully. "The kettle will boil soon."

  He drank the tea she set before him with an expression of bliss.

  "Sweeter than the sweetest wine," he said. "I see you've been busy."

  "You're going to be really comfortable tonight. You've done the right thing in moving into the dressing room. I can put a small fire in there, but the big room would have defeated me. Can you watch the pots on the range, while I go and make up your bed?"

  She gathered up the sheets and departed, returning a few minutes later to find the meal almost ready.

  "The Earl really ought to eat in the dining room," she suggested.

  "No thank you," he replied without hesitation. "We'll eat out here. What's the wine cellar like?"

  "I've never seen it."

  He took the lamp and disappeared, returning a few minutes later covered with cobwebs but with a bottle under his arm and a triumphant smile on his face.

  "Glasses!" he intoned. "We'll dine in style."

  She fetched some glasses from the dining room, cleaned them, and laid them out ceremoniously beside their plates. The Earl uncorked the bottle with a flourish and filled the glasses with a delicious looking ruby red liquid, and they toasted each other.

  "To us!" he declared. "To finding each other, and all the wonderful things that are going to happen now!"

  "I wonder if they will!" she sighed.

  "They will because we're going to make them. And this magnificent vintage wine is the first wonderful thing. Sip it slowly and with appreciation, for you may never taste the like again."

  Together they sipped.

  And together they choked.

  "Thunderbolts and lightning!" he exploded. "What is this?"

  "Vinegar," she whispered between gasps. Her eyes were streaming.

  They patted each other frantically on the back.

  "Miss Colwell, I really am very sorry," he said hoarsely. "I thought it would have - aaaarh! excuse me - matured over the years. But it's only soured."

  "You said I'd never taste the like again," she reminded him. "I only hope you may be right. No, give that to me - " He was about to pour the wine down the sink but she stopped him. "If what it's doing to my insides is anything to go by, it'll probably clean the range very efficiently."

  "You're a marvel," he said admiringly.

  She poured tea and they both drank it thankfully. Then Rena served the meal and they ate it companionably at the kitchen table.

  "The news is getting around the village that you're here," she told him. "They're afraid you'll be scared off by the ghost. I said that was nonsense because of course there was no ghost."

  "Shame on you!" he said at once. "What is an ancestral home without a ghost. I think it very unkind of you, Miss Colwell, that you should attempt to deprive me of my birthright in this way."

  His droll manner caught her off guard, and she had to peer at him to make sure how to take his words. The gleam of amusement in his eyes was shocking, she decided. But very delightful.

  An answering mirth growing inside herself made her say, "Forgive me, sir. I had forgotten that among every nobleman's patents of nobility a ghost is essential. However I fear that you may find The Grange's extensive choice a little too much to cope with. There's the Floating Lady, the Wailing Lady Anne, the Headless Horseman - or is it the Headless Horse? Well, I expect it amounts to the same."

  "You don't mean I might meet them all at once?" he asked in alarm. "I mean, one Headless Horseman plus one Floating Lady, a man can cope with, but the rest - have a heart ma'am." She fixed him with a baleful eye. "Would you be afraid?"

  "Absolutely terrified."

  They laughed together.

  "As soon as I've washed the dishes I'll lay the fire in your room, and then I'll leave," she said.

  "Leave? I thought you were here for good now?"

  "I am, that is, I'll work for you, but perhaps I had better not stay here at night."

  She blushed slightly as she said this, and could not meet his eyes. The village would be shocked if she, an unmarried woman, were to share the house alone with an unmarried man. Especially such a young and attractive man as he was. But delicacy prevented her from referring to the matter, except obliquely.

  Luckily he understood. "Certainly," he said hastily.

  "It's strange," she mused. "When I left the house this morning I thought I'd be back in an hour. Now it feels like another world."

  He nodded. He'd had that feeling a good deal himself recently.

  "So I'll stay tonight in the vicarage," Rena said, "and return here very early tomorrow, to make your morning tea."

  He carried the wood upstairs and helped her lay the fire.

  "I'll light it myself when I come to bed," he said. "Now I'll escort you home."

  She laughed. "In this tiny village. I've walked about in the dark for years."

  "Part of the way then."

  He took her to the duckpond, from where they could see the church spire, bleak against the night sky.

  "The moonlight will show me the rest of the way," she said. "Goodnight."

  "In that case I'll take myself to the local hostelry and get to know some of my neighbours. Goodnight."

  He strode off in the opposite direction and Rena headed around the pond, to the church and through the cemetery. As soon as the vicarage came in sight she stopped.

  There were lights in the house.

  She began to run, and as she neared she saw a wagon and trunks being unloaded and taken in through the front door. She ran faster, reaching the door out of breath.

  "And who, may I ask, are you?" An extremely refined sounding woman appeared in the hall and challenged her.

  "I might ask the same of you," Rena said. "What are you doing in my home?"

  "Your home? Our home I think. My brother, the Reverend Steven Daykers, is the new vicar of this parish and this is, I believe, the vicarage?"

  "Yes, of course it is, but nobody told me you were coming."

  The woman sniffed. "Is there any reason why you should be informed?"

  "Well - my name is Rena Colwell. My father was the vicar here until he died in January."

  "Then what are you doing here now?"

  "I had nowhere else to go. Of course I knew I should have to leave when the new vicar arrived, but I thought I'd be given some warning."

  "It seems to me that you've had quite enough time."

  They were interrupted by a shout up above.

  "Ma, look at these old clothes we've found."

  Two girls of about fifteen were standing at the top of the stairs, waving a couple of old fashioned dresses. Rena stiffened as she recognised her mother's clothes.

  "They were in the wardrobe of our room," one of the girl's called. "Aren't they funny? There are a lot of other things there too - "

  "They'll be mine," Rena said, tight-lipped. "That is my room."r />
  "Not any more," said the woman. "Please remove your things at once."

  Rena ran up the stairs and found her room a scene of devastation. Her drawers had been pulled out and upended on the floor. Her small personal possessions were strewn everywhere. The two girls ran after her into the room, staring at her rudely.

  "This is ours now. You shouldn't be here."

  "Then I will pack my things and go," she said, tight lipped, trying desperately to remember Christian charity. "Please leave while I do so."

  Instead of leaving they giggled. One of them picked up a picture of Rena's mother that she kept by the bed.

  "What a frowsty old thing." But her smile faded as she saw Rena's face. "Oh, who cares anyway?"

  She tossed the photograph on the bed and the two of them flounced out.

  Scarcely able to control her temper Rena began to pack up her things, moving like a whirlwind. If she didn't get out of here soon she would do something violent, she knew she would.

  In the end her belongings filled two large bags. She took what she could of her mother's clothes, but there was no room for everything, and it mattered more to have the photographs and personal mementoes of her parents.

  Then she thought back to the find of the coins, and realised that but for them she would have no place to lay her head tonight. And more than ever she felt that her father was watching over her.

  As she struggled down the stairs the haughty woman was standing at the bottom, waiting for her.

  "I'm sorry you were inconvenienced," Rena said to her politely. "I shall not trouble you further."

  The woman looked her up and down. "I do hope you haven't taken anything that isn't yours."

  Rena took a deep breath and controlled herself. "You may be sure that I have not," she said.

  A large piece of furniture was being manhandled through the front door.

  "I'll leave the back way," Rena said.

  "It's up to you."

  Some strange noises were coming from the kitchen. Rena discovered what they were as soon as she entered, and received a feathered body almost full in the face. She dropped the bags and clung to it.

  It was Clara, her chicken.

  "Poor Clara, how could I forget you?" she said. "You're coming with me."

  "Put that chicken down," said a tow headed young man. "That's our supper."