A Road to Romance Read online

  “It’s a challenge which I have never had before and that alone makes it unique,” Lord Alfred observed.

  He raised his glass.

  “To Your Grace, and may you never regret lifting us out of our gloom.”

  “I will drink to that,” the Duke replied.

  They raised their glasses.

  When he had drunk his, the Duke rose to his feet.

  “I am now going to luncheon,” he said, “and I will look forward to seeing both of you tomorrow morning at seven o’clock in Berkeley Square.”

  He moved away before either of them could rise.

  As they sank back in their chairs, Lord Alfred said,

  “Well, it’s certainly something new and there is one horse I would particularly like to own. I expect you know it, Neil, as it was a good winner at Cheltenham last week.”

  “I was thinking of that one myself,” the Marquis replied. “Actually the Duke has a very fine collection and I would be delighted to include any of them with mine.”

  “As your stables and the Duke’s are far larger than mine,” Lord Alfred said, “I should be delighted for any contribution.”

  “I just cannot imagine what sort of adventures we are likely to have,” the Marquis ruminated. “If you ask me we will come back with sad tales of losing our best horses, having our money pickpocketed or taken by highwaymen and the only women we are likely to talk to on the journey are the somewhat slovenly maids in the local inns where we will be staying.”

  Lord Alfred chuckled.

  “That is very typical of you, Neil. You are always looking on the black side. Perhaps this journey will cheer you up and you will feel a different man after it.”

  “To be very frank with you I think that exceedingly unlikely. After all we both know that England is rather a dull country and the peasants are not particularly attractive, as you might find them in any foreign land.”

  He sipped a little more champagne and went on,

  “If you ask me we will be spending nights in most uncomfortable circumstances. And we will eat food that is inedible and come home without anything happening that does not happen almost every day in the villages we own round our ancestral estates.”

  Lord Alfred threw up his hands.

  “That is just the sort of thing you would say. Well, I am quite certain I will find excitement every mile and will return home to choose the Duke’s best horse.”

  He laughed before he added.

  “I will also find, as no man has found before, the most beautiful girl in the world!”

  “Who will refuse you, because you are merely Mr. Milton and she will be looking for a Lord at least!”

  Lord Alfred laughed and retorted,

  “Poor Neil, if every man gets what he expects, that will be your lot! Whilst I will surely be finding adventures everywhere I stay and every day as I go to Land’s End.”

  “Very well, Alfred, I will now bet you a thousand pounds that you have to admit when you get back it has been a waste of time and the country has provided you with nothing you have not had in abundance before.”

  “I will accept that bet,” Lord Alfred replied. “We will write it down in the betting book.”

  “No, I will take your word as a gentleman and a member of White’s Club not to cheat on it. But I think it would be a mistake for anyone to know what we are doing, in case it enters their heads to make a good story out of it that would make us the laughing stock of the Club.”

  “I see your point,” Lord Alfred agreed, “and I will naturally accept your word of honour. Only there must be no cheating or in other words using your imagination.”

  “No, of course not,” the Marquis replied. “I would not think of such a thing and if nothing else you will know the truth at the end of my journey.”

  “That is something to look forward to at any rate,” the Marquis said brightly.

  “So what are we going to do tonight?” Lord Alfred asked. “Our last night of freedom, so to speak.”

  “If we are determined not to go to tonight’s party, we cannot be seen in public. Perhaps we are making fools of ourselves by accepting the Duke’s bet.”

  “You are thinking that already?” he asked.

  “Well, it’s really rather a bore to have to ride all the way to the North alone. As I already suspect, there will be nothing better than bad food, bad beds and drab women!”

  Lord Alfred grinned.

  “I am expecting the very opposite. There will be excitement, amusement and a beautiful woman, an angel in disguise, who will invite me into her castle and I will then become, at first sight, infatuated by her.”

  The Marquis suppressed a laugh.

  Then he said somewhat sourly,

  “You will doubtless be able to write a book about that. But not a word of it will be true.”

  “No one knows. Unless you come back full of new ideas and new interests, I will marry you off to the most ambitious debutante of the year and you will settle down in the country for the rest of your life.”

  “Now that is a threat and not a promise. I will miss you, Alfred, while I am travelling alone. I think it rather unkind of the Duke to send you in the opposite direction.”

  “I must say I am surprised at the old boy coming up with something so original and in fact so intriguing,” Lord Alfred said. “I really believe that it will be very good for both of us to experience the world from another aspect and not because we are both extremely eligible bachelors.”

  “I have often thought of wearing a notice saying ‘not eligible’ on the collar of my coat, so that I can show it to those young women who are thrust upon me by eager mothers determined that they should be my bride.”

  Lord Alfred looked at him curiously before he said,

  “Have you ever been in love, Neil?”

  “I thought I was once or twice, but it has always proved to be an illusion and sooner or later she has become a demanding and grasping dullard just like so many other women have been.”

  “You have been my best friend ever since we were at Eton,” Lord Alfred said,” but I have never known you so depressed, bitter, if that’s the right word for it, and against the world, as you are at the moment.”

  “I think,” the Marquis said slowly, “that it is either indigestion or the result of having too much too often. To be honest with you I am just sick to death of being chased. Not because I am an attractive man, but because I have an important title. I am tired of hearing the same reproaches and pleadings when one so-called love affair finishes.”

  “Well, all I can say,” Lord Alfred said, “is that this is a case of kill or cure. You will either come back worse than you are at the moment or immensely better. I would not really like to bet on either.”

  “Keep your money in your pocket and, as we have no wish to be anywhere tonight, come and dine with me.”

  He paused before he added,

  “At least we will eat a very good meal and enjoy some outstanding wines before we then set out on a trip in which we will have nothing but beer and sausages!”

  Lord Alfred threw back his head and laughed.

  Then he said,

  “I am going home now to pack what I will need for tomorrow.”

  He drank down the last of his glass of champagne as he finished speaking.

  Then he stood up and the Marquis did the same.

  As they walked out of the morning room, they were both looking somewhat serious.

  Two members, as they saw them pass by, wondered what could have happened to the two most handsome and debonair young gentlemen of White’s Club.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Marquis drove back to his house in Belgrave Square.

  When he went upstairs to his bedroom, he found his valet waiting for him.

  Herbert had been with him for years and he was the only one of his large staff he ever talked intimately to.

  As he had said to one of his friends,

  “No man is ever a hero to his valet. But a val
et is unfortunately so much with one that it’s impossible not to be confidential.”

  “And indiscreet,” his friend added, laughing.

  When the Marquis was in his large bedroom, which overlooked the square, he turned to Herbert and said,

  “Herbert, I am taking part in a bet and I need your help.”

  “Not another one, my Lord!” Herbert exclaimed. “You know the last one was a disaster.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” the Marquis replied. “This is something new and which I am certain I will find extremely uncomfortable.”

  Herbert, who was over forty years of age, looked at him with a worried expression in his eyes.

  He was really devoted to the young man he looked after and he was always frightened that he would become involved with some woman, who would be only marrying him for his title and his money and who would inevitably make him unhappy.

  The Marquis took off his coat and threw it onto the chair.

  “Now listen, Herbert! I have taken a bet that I will ride anonymously to the far North of England and not have any adventure or anything exciting to relate when I return.”

  Herbert was listening to his Lordship attentively and wondering exactly what this meant.

  “If I do have an adventure, then I gain one of the horses I have always envied that belongs to the Duke of Dunstead.”

  Herbert smiled.

  “His Grace has indeed an excellent stable. If your Lordship’s allowed to choose, it’ll be difficult because so many of them have been winners of the Classics.”

  “I know,” the Marquis said, “and if I don’t have any adventure worth reporting, then I have to give him one of my horses.”

  Herbert shook his head.

  “You won’t be able to deceive His Grace, my Lord, he’ll take one of the very best.”

  “I am aware of that, Herbert. So I have to look out for an adventure, but goodness knows what I can expect if I am just Neil Barlow.”

  Herbert chuckled.

  “You don’t look like anyone called Barlow to me, my Lord!”

  “Well, you will have to make me look ordinary or people will be too frightened to speak to me let alone ask my help in some disaster such as a pretty girl falling off a cliff or an even prettier one drowning in the river!”

  “I’ll be surprised if your Lordship has anything like that to cope with.”

  “Well, if I don’t,” the Marquis replied gloomily, “I will lose one of my best horses. And I cannot think of one I would ever like to part with.”

  He thought for a moment before he continued,

  “Well, the dies are cast and you have to make me look like Barlow. I can only take clothes with me which I can carry on Samson’s back.”

  “I guessed that it’d be Samson you’d choose to take with you,” Herbert said. “He be a very fine horse. You be careful you don’t lose him if you’re goin’ unprotected.”

  “I will take a pistol. Just a small one, which will go in my pocket, in case I encounter a highwayman.”

  “There’s always a danger of that, my Lord. If you Lordship takes my advice, you’ll keep to the main roads. It’s going off on side tracks that gets one into trouble.”

  “I can see the sense of that,” the Marquis remarked. “Now what I want you to do, Herbert, is to wait a week, then journey, if you like by sea, up to my cousin’s castle in Northumberland.”

  “I remembers it although your Lordship’s not been there in the last three years.”

  “Well, as I have to go to Northumberland, I might as well, when I arrive, be comfortable. I am sure that my cousin will be delighted to see me.”

  “That he will, my Lord, and if you asks me, you’ve rather neglected him these last years when you’ve been so wanted here in London.”

  The Marquis realised that he was referring to the enormous number of invitations he had had from what he and Alfred thought were ambitious mothers as well as the beautiful ladies he had enjoyed affaires-de-coeur with.

  He had indeed stayed several times with his cousin, who had always been extremely kind to him when he was at Eton and Oxford and it was quite true to say that he had not been in touch for some time.

  ‘So I will make it up to him now,’ he thought to himself.

  Then he said aloud to Herbert,

  “You must take with you all the clothes I will need and, of course, a present to apologise for my recent neglect, if that is what you call it, these last three years.”

  “I knows what his Lordship really enjoys,” Herbert said, “and you can leave it to me.”

  “I know I can, but, as you well know, I must have a change of shirts if nothing else and I cannot have dinner every night, wherever I am, in my riding breeches.”

  “Now you leave it to me, my Lord. I knows what Samson can carry and what he can’t. What time will you be settin’ off tomorrow mornin’?”

  “I am meeting with Lord Alfred, who has accepted the same bet I have, who is going South to Cornwall, at the Duke of Dunstead’s house at seven o’clock for breakfast.”

  “I thinks, my Lord,” Herbert said after a moment’s pause, “the earlier you go the less commotion it’ll make.”

  “Commotion!” the Marquis exclaimed.

  “Well, the staff’ll think it odd you ridin’ off. It’d be a great mistake if it was talked about in the drawing rooms and, if it appeared in the newspapers, then you’d no longer be disguised.”

  “You are quite right, Herbert, I had not thought of that. In fact it is very clever of you. I will leave from the Mews quite early so that they will merely think I am going into Hyde Park.”

  He thought for a moment and then added,

  “If you go there earlier still, you can saddle Samson and put the saddle bags with my clothes on either side of him without the grooms being aware of it.”

  “That’s just what I be thinkin’ of myself, my Lord. The quicker you ride out of London, the better.”

  The Marquis did not answer.

  He was ruminating that the ride to Northumberland would undoubtedly be a bore and that he had been rather a fool in taking up the challenge offered to him by the Duke of Dunstead.

  However, it was much too late now to go back on his word and he could only hope that he would be able to reach Northumberland in record time and then be able to return, if necessary, by sea.

  “It should not be too difficult for you to find a ship which will take you up to Shermont Castle, Herbert. There are always ships en route for Edinburgh, although I don’t expect you will find them very comfortable.”

  “Your Lordship needn’t worry about me,” Herbert answered. “All you have to worry about is yourself, my Lord, and I only wish I was comin’ with you.”

  The Marquis laughed.

  “I think they would be rather surprised if I did the bet disguised as Mr. Barlow who could not go anywhere without his valet!”

  Herbert, however, was not amused.

  “I’m talkin’ seriously, my Lord. So you must take care of yourself. I don’t like to think of you alone on the roads at night, so stop at some safe inn afore it gets dark.”

  “I will certainly do so,” the Marquis promised. “In fact in the dark I am likely to lose my way. I have, as you well know, been North a number of times, but only as far as Doncaster to see my horses run.”

  “And very successful they turned out to be the last time, my Lord.”

  The Marquis smiled.

  “I was very proud of them and very pleased with myself for owning them. It will seem very strange to only own one horse, which must not be a spectacular one.”

  He had specially chosen Samson, who actually had won several Classic races, simply because he did not look so stylish as some of the other horses he owned.

  The stallions he rode in the Park were outstanding, but Samson, although he was very fast, did not attract the same attention as those that were far slower than he was.

  The Marquis greatly enjoyed his bath in front of the firepla
ce.

  Then, putting on his best evening clothes, he turned to Herbert,

  “I have forgotten for the moment which invitation to dinner I accepted for tonight.”

  “As it so happens, my Lord, you refused the dinner parties and are dinin’ alone with her Ladyship.”

  “Oh, yes, so I am. It slipped my mind. Actually I thought it was the Devonshires I was expected at.”

  “No, that’s tomorrow night, my Lord, and I’ll have to make a good excuse for your Lordship not bein’ there.”

  “Yes, of course it is, how stupid of me, but so much seems to be happening at once and unless you remind me, Herbert, I will make a thousand mistakes.”

  “I can’t remind you if I’m not with your Lordship,” Herbert parried. “But you did promise Lady Cowleigh that you would dine with her alone.”

  The Marquis remembered now and he recalled as well that Lord Cowleigh had an important engagement in the country.

  Lady Cowleigh was someone new he had pursued with some difficulty for the past two weeks.

  She had managed to be elusive, which made it all the more interesting.

  He had been surprised when she had told him the day before yesterday that she would be very delighted if he would dine with her, as her husband was away on business.

  He had in fact been so surprised that she had at last succumbed to his invitations that it was unusual and indeed very remiss of him to have forgotten her.

  ‘It would happen,’ he thought, ‘just as I am leaving London and I am sure that I will find her irresistible.’

  He then found himself wondering if it would be a mistake to start another affaire-de-coeur.

  He would then be obliged tomorrow to send her a message to say that he had been called away and so he was not certain when they would be able to meet again.

  He was far too experienced not to realise that this would annoy her considerably and it was very doubtful if she would be waiting for him on his return.

  On the other hand, it was impossible to say at the last moment that he was unable to keep the appointment he had made and she would be quite right if she then felt that he had let her down in a most unfeeling manner.