Two Hearts in Hungary Page 3

It was no use wishing for the moon.

  She had to stay at home and worry about the future.

  It was certainly something that she could not talk about to Cousin Jane.

  Impulsively she turned again to the window to look up once more at the stars.

  ‘Let me – find a man I will – love – and who will – love me,’ her heart cried out.

  It was half a wish and half a prayer and she felt as if her message flew up into the sky.

  Perhaps, she thought, there really was a ‘man in the moon’ who was listening to her.

  Then, as she put up her hand to draw the curtains to shut out the night, she had an idea.

  It was so extraordinary and so incredible that for a moment she was still.

  Then something strong and defiant rose like a flame within her.

  It seemed to seep through her body and into her brain.

  She looked up once again at the moon as if that was where the idea had come from.

  ‘I will – do it,’ she said softly, ‘but you will – have to – help me!’

  Chapter Two

  Aletha had very little time to carry out what she now planned to achieve.

  In fact it took her two or three hours to pack her clothes, which she had seldom done herself.

  She had also to decide how she could obtain enough ready money to travel with.

  As was to be expected, she had only a small amount of cash in her handbag, mainly to use in the Church. It was also there in case she had to tip someone unexpectedly when she was out riding.

  She knew, however, that she would need quite a considerable amount for the journey that she had in mind.

  There was only one solution and that was the jewellery that she had inherited from her mother and, because she loved it, she had been allowed to wear some of the pieces since she left school.

  So she kept a number of the brooches and bracelets in the drawer of her dressing table and the tiaras, the necklaces and the earrings were all lodged in the safe in the pantry.

  These she could not obtain without alerting the butler. He would undoubtedly think that it was very odd that she should want her jewellery in the middle of the night.

  She therefore looked carefully through the brooches that she had inherited.

  There was a diamond crescent brooch, which had been too big for her to wear at her age, but she knew that the stones were good and therefore it was a valuable piece.

  So she put it into her handbag.

  Then she remembered somewhat belatedly that she would need her passport.

  She had one of her own because soon after her mother died her father had thought that it would be a good idea for them to have a change of environment.

  He had taken her away to France to stay with the Comte de Soisson who was an ardent racehorse owner like himself.

  Before leaving the Duke had anticipated that he might have to return to England at the request of the Queen and he had arranged for Aletha to have her own passport instead of just being included on his.

  It was a letter signed by the Marquis of Salisbury who was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

  It was most fortunate that there was no way of identifying the holder except that she was in possession of the passport herself.

  For Aletha had already decided that, once she was on foreign soil, she would use a false name.

  It was highly unlikely when she had reached Hungary that her passport would be looked at except by the border Officials.

  Then she thought of what she was intending to do and she knew that it was outrageous.

  It might also be dangerous.

  *

  When her father learned of her plan, he would undoubtedly be infuriated.

  At the same time, she told herself, unless she was unlucky, she would be able to return home before he had come back from Denmark.

  Then there would be no reason why he should suspect that she had not been staying with one of her friends.

  Cousin Jane had arrived at six o’clock that evening and fortunately had gone straight to bed.

  Consequently her father had then asked Mr. Heywood to dinner so that they could go on talking about horses and their purchases.

  Aletha was delighted that they had been able to escape from a dreary meal with Cousin Jane mouthing banalities or else discussing her health in some unpleasant detail.

  It was in point of fact her health that had solved Aletha’s problem.

  Her lady’s maid had come to see Aletha to admit,

  “I’m ever so afraid, my Lady, my mistress isn’t well. She’s got a real bad cold and, as it’s infectious, I’ve put her straight to bed.”

  “That was very sensible of you,” Aletha replied. “I certainly have no wish to catch a cold at the moment or any moment for that.”

  “She’ll be better in a day or so,” the maid said confidently, “and her Ladyship always likes stayin’ here at Ling Park.”

  Aletha gave a sigh of relief.

  Now she knew that she could put her carefully thought-out plan fully into operation.

  When she had finished packing, she sat down and wrote a note to Cousin Jane.

  She said that, as she was ill, she was going to visit some friends for a few days and she had also left a letter for her father just in case he should return before she did.

  Because she loved him, she told him the truth.

  He would be angry, but at the same time with any luck his anger would have abated by the time she did return.

  She then glanced at the clock. She had finished everything that she had to do and should now rest.

  She planned to leave the house as soon as she dared after her father had gone.

  It was four miles to the nearby Railway Station and she knew that he was leaving at six o’clock sharp.

  She also knew from their conversation at dinner that Mr. Heywood had arranged to travel to London with her father on the same early train.

  He would reach London in time to catch the Steamer to Copenhagen, which left shortly before midday.

  If he missed it, there would be a delay of two days and that would most certainly upset the programme that had been meticulously arranged for him in Denmark.

  Because Aletha was so excited and feeling very nervous of what she was doing that she was unable to sleep.

  She lit a candle every hour to see the time.

  When it was just six o’clock, she heard her father walking down the corridor towards the stairs and she could also hear the footsteps of his valet and of the footmen carrying down his luggage.

  He had been very insistent that she should not see him off.

  “I want you to sleep until your usual hour, my dearest,” he said, “and also, if I am honest, I am rather disagreeable first thing in the morning and I don’t want you to think of me like that when I am away.”

  “I could never think of you in any way except with love,” Aletha assured him, “and that you are the most wonderful man in the whole world.”

  Her father kissed her.

  “You are such a good girl,” he said, “and I am so very proud of you. I am quite certain that Heywood is right and you will take all of London Society by storm when you start your Season.”

  “I do hope so, Papa,” Aletha replied.

  Now, as she heard him leaving the house, she wondered if he would be so angry with her.

  If so he might refuse to allow her to make her debut and then she realised that if he did so it would cause a scandal.

  So she was quite certain that, when she did return, her escapade would be hushed up and nobody told about it.

  ‘I will get back home before Papa in any case,’ she decided, ‘and I am sure that I can swear Mr. Heywood to secrecy.’

  When she reckoned that her father had left the house, she jumped out of bed and dressed.

  She was taking a considerable amount of luggage with her including her hunting boots and riding habits.

  Besides, of course, her pretty new gowns an
d a selection of her smart bonnets.

  There was just a chance that she might meet some of the exciting Hungarian aristocrats who she had read about in magazines and newspapers.

  If so she was determined that she would look her very best.

  At a quarter past six she went from her bedroom dressed in a chic travelling cloak.

  To her rather plain bonnet she had fixed a veil that had belonged to her mother and, as only married women wore a veil, she thought that it would be an effective disguise for her.

  She did not intend to reveal herself to Mr. Heywood until after the Steamer was fully committed to the journey.

  Meanwhile she would appear to be an older woman who could be travelling alone.

  This was actually a hazard.

  When Aletha had come back from France without her father, she had been escorted by an elderly lady’s maid and a Courier and it was he who arranged everything for her in a most efficient way.

  He was there as a protection from the moment she left the French Château until she was back at Ling Park.

  But she was completely determined that nothing, however difficult it may turn out to be, would prevent her from reaching Hungary.

  As she came down the stairs, two night-footmen were still on duty in the hall.

  They and two other footmen who had been there to see her father off looked at her in some surprise.

  She ordered two of them to collect the luggage from her bedroom and another was told to run to the stables to say that she required a carriage to take her to the Railway Station.

  “Because we were so preoccupied last night with His Grace,” she said, “I forgot to tell anyone that I too am leaving this morning to stay with friends of mine.”

  She knew that this would be repeated throughout the house when it was discovered that she had gone as well as her father.

  The carriage came round to the front door surprisingly quickly.

  The Duke always became somewhat irritable if he had to wait for any amount of time when he wished to go anywhere.

  The grooms were therefore used to saddling a horse or putting a pair between the shafts in what was considered as record time.

  Aletha’s luggage was piled into the carriage.

  Only as the footman opened the door for her, did he ask,

  “Be you goin’ alone, my Lady?”

  “It is such a short distance,” Aletha replied with a smile, “that it was not worth my taking a maid with me.”

  The footman then closed the carriage door and they drove off.

  As she reached the Railway Station, she expected to have a long wait until the next train came in.

  In fact it was only fifteen minutes before one appeared.

  The porter, who knew who she was, found her an empty First Class compartment and put a label on the window marked RESERVED.

  As the train moved off, Aletha thought with satisfaction that she was safely over the first hurdle.

  Now she had to be very sensible when she reached London and she had enough time to plan exactly what she would do.

  The train steamed past fields green with young crops and woods where the trees were just coming into leaf.

  By the time they reached the suburbs of London, Aletha had everything planned in her mind.

  She knew that she could not possibly afford to make any mistakes or miss the Steamer that was sailing from Tilbury at one o’clock.

  A porter found her a Hackney carriage and having tipped him before he closed the door Aletha said,

  “Tell the driver to go to the nearest pawnbroker’s. It must not be too far out of our way because I have to catch a Steamer at Tilbury.”

  The porter looked at her in surprise.

  Then he asked rather familiarly,

  “Come wivout your money then, ’ave you?”

  “Yes, I have,” Aletha replied. “I was stupid enough to leave it on my dressing table, so unless I am to miss the Steamer to Ostend, I have to pawn my brooch.”

  The porter grinned.

  “That’ll teach you to be a bit more careful next time, ma’am!”

  “It certainly will,” Aletha agreed and smiled at him.

  The porter gave instructions to the cabby, who appeared to understand what was needed.

  He whipped up his horse and they drove off.

  When they stopped at the pawnbroker’s, Aletha was somewhat relieved to see that it had a respectable-looking shop window and was situated in a comparatively quiet street.

  She then climbed out of the carriage.

  Feeling nervous, although she did not show it, she was pleased to see that the shop was empty of customers.

  An elderly man with a large hooked nose was standing behind the counter.

  “Good day,” Aletha began.

  Holding out her diamond brooch, she went on,

  “I would like to pawn this for a very short time because I unfortunately left my money at home and have to catch a Steamer to Ostend.”

  It was the excuse the porter had put into her mind.

  “When’ll you be back?” the elderly pawnbroker asked in a somewhat aggressive tone.

  “In ten days,” Aletha said firmly. “I promise you I have no wish to lose my beautiful brooch, but I cannot travel with no money in my purse.”

  The pawnbroker turned the brooch over in his hand and was examining it very closely and carefully.

  Then he proposed,

  “I’ll give you seventy pounds for it and I wants one hundred pounds back when you redeems it.”

  Knowing the value of her mother’s diamonds, Aletha knew that she was being cheated, but she was not prepared to argue about it.

  “I will accept that,” she said, “as long as you promise me that you will not sell it in the meantime. It belonged to my mother and I could not bear to part with it for long.”

  The old man looked at her penetratingly as if he was questioning whether or not she was speaking the truth.

  Then unexpectedly he smiled.

  “I believe you,” he said, “but another time don’t be so careless. Young ladies of your age shouldn’t be patronising pawnbrokers.”

  “It is something I have certainly never done before,” Aletha said, “and thank you very much for helping me, but it is very important that I catch this particular Steamer.”

  The pawnbroker opened a drawer that appeared to be full of money and then counted out seventy pounds exactly.

  He handed it to Aletha and she put it away in her handbag at once.

  “If you’re alone,” he now said in a fatherly manner, “you keep a tight hold on that there handbag of yours. There be thieves and pickpockets as’ll have it off you.”

  “I will do that,” Aletha answered.

  “There be plenty of thieves, I hears, on the ships,” the pawnbroker went on, “and if they don’t take it off a pretty girl at cards, they’ll take it with kisses!”

  The way he spoke made Aletha shiver.

  Next he gave her a ticket by which she could redeem her brooch.

  She put this too into her handbag, which she tucked tightly under her arm.

  Then she held out her hand.

  “Thank you very much,” she said, “I will certainly remember your good advice.”

  “You do that,” he said, “and if you asks me, you’re far too young to be travelling alone.”

  Aletha smiled at him.

  But when she climbed back into the Hackney carriage, she recognised that he was right.

  She might encounter a lot of trouble until she gained the protection of Mr. Heywood.

  She realised, however, that it would be a terrible mistake for him to see her before they were on the train from Ostend.

  It was an Express which would take them first to Vienna.

  She had heard him discussing the journey with her father, although she had not listened very attentively at the time.

  It had not occurred to her then that she might do anything so outrageous as to join Mr. Heywood on his jou
rney.

  When the idea had come to her last night, she had felt that it was something that she had to do.

  Why should she stay at home and listen to Cousin Jane croaking over her illnesses?

  She should have been travelling with her father to Hungary to buy the horses to delight the Empress Elizabeth with.

  She could not accompany him, but why not Mr. Heywood?

  The moment she began to think about it everything seemed to fall into place like a jigsaw puzzle.

  But she had to be certain that Mr. Heywood could not make her return home like a piece of unwanted luggage.

  It would be impossible anyway once they were on the train on their way to Austria.

  Next they arrived at the dock and she saw the Steamer waiting on the quay.

  It was getting on towards one o’clock and there were quite a number of people going up the gangway.

  Mercifully there was no sign at all of Mr. Heywood and she hoped that he had already embarked.

  Then she felt with a sudden panic that she might at the last moment find that there was no accommodation for her.

  She pulled her veil well down over her face.

  Because of what the pawnbroker had said, she put on a pair of spectacles that her father had used when he had visited Switzerland one year.

  He had bought them out there and, when he returned to England, he explained,

  “The sun was so brilliant on the snow that it just hurt my eyes. The Swiss Ambassador suggested I should wear these slightly tinted spectacles.”

  Aletha had not thought of them again until she was just leaving the house.

  Then she remembered that the spectacles were in a drawer in a chest that contained dog leads and riding gloves.

  She had slipped them into her handbag before she had run down the steps to get into the carriage.

  She felt now as if they protected her from the world and also if Mr. Heywood did happen to see her he would be most unlikely to recognise her.

  She thought that the cabby looked at her in surprise and she certainly appeared somewhat different from the way she had when he had picked her up.

  She found a porter to carry her luggage and went ahead of him up the gangway.

  Having travelled with her father, she knew that not having a reservation meant that she had to go to the Purser’s Office.

  When she found it, there were several people waiting ahead of her in a queue.