The Wonderful Dream Read online

  Sometimes, when they teased each other, they would seem like two children.

  She hesitated before she asked another question,

  “Should I – not be wearing – mourning for Mama?”

  “Certainly not!” Lady Bressley said. “It is important that no one in London connects you in any way with the death of Walter Wilton and you will, of course, never mention him to any of my friends.”

  She spoke sharply.

  Because Claudia had been so fond of the man she had believed to be her father, she was loyal enough to say,

  “He was always – very kind to me.”

  “I am sure he was, my dear,” Lady Bressley replied, “but, because he was also intelligent, he would understand that I am doing what is right for you when I say that you must forget him.”

  She paused for a moment before she went on,

  “When we get back from Spain, I intend to introduce you to the Social world and, as my Godchild, you will be accepted in the highest and most important circles.”

  She spoke in a tone of satisfaction.

  Then she said seriously,

  “But remember, Claudia, if it is known that you were living in Walter Wilton’s house, then you will be ostracised by everybody, just as your mother was.”

  Claudia wanted to say that it had not worried her mother in the slightest, but she knew that it would be a mistake.

  Instead she kept silent and Lady Bressley continued,

  “My friends in Spain will accept you without question as my Goddaughter. When we return, as I have said, you will decide whether to claim your position as your father’s daughter.”

  There was no question of Claudia arguing about it.

  She told herself that she must remember that her name was now ‘Claudia Coventry’.

  She was aware that the servants in Grosvenor Square had addressed her as that and it was also on the door of her cabin.

  As they entered the Bay of Biscay, Claudia felt that she had left her old world behind and was sailing into a new one.

  It was not only very different, but very exciting.

  Her Godmother’s lady’s maid looked after her.

  For the first time in her life she had her bath prepared for her, her clothes pressed and her hair arranged.

  Certainly the attention to her hair transformed her appearance.

  She thought when she looked at herself in the mirror that it was hard to recognise little Claudia Anderson!

  A girl who had no friends except the few she had made at school.

  She had been aware of one thing however.

  Because she lived with Walter Wilton she was very much better read and more advanced in her education than they were.

  He had taken a First Class degree at Cambridge and was extremely intelligent. And he had helped her with her homework.

  He also made her help him when he was learning his lines.

  “You speak beautifully!” Lady Bressley said to her, “and, when you read to me, I feel that your voice is like music.”

  With difficulty Claudia did not say that it was all due to the man she had thought was her father.

  She knew that it annoyed Lady Bressley when she mentioned him.

  She therefore said nothing.

  The sea was rough as they passed across the Bay of Biscay and Lady Bressley stayed in bed.

  But Claudia was not allowed out of the suite.

  “If you break a leg or an arm, which is easily done in a very rough sea,” Lady Bressley said, “it will be very tiresome and nobody wants an invalid as a guest.”

  “I can understand that,” Claudia agreed, “and I will be very careful.”

  After they had steamed past the Bay of Biscay, at last Claudia was able to explore the decks and look at the other passengers.

  The majority of them were sailing through to India and the rest were leaving the ship at various Ports on the way.

  Quite a number disembarked at Lisbon and the next Port of Call was Cadiz, where they themselves left the ship.

  Owing to the excellent organisation of Lady Bressley’s secretary, a comfortable carriage drawn by two well bred horses was waiting for them on the quay.

  Hopkins, whom she had not seen since they left London, immediately took charge.

  As soon as their luggage was piled on the back, they set off with the Courier and the lady’s maid sitting on the box.

  While Lady Bressley and Claudia travelled alone inside the carriage.

  They had disembarked at Cadiz early in the morning.

  They had therefore driven some distance before reaching a large inn where they were to stay the night.

  It was a posting inn very much the same as those in England.

  Claudia knew that the horses would be changed there, so that they would have a fresh pair to carry them tomorrow.

  She thought that the Posting inn was quite comfortable.

  Lady Bressley, however, disparaged it and claimed that it in no way compared with the ones she had found in France.

  Everything was done for her comfort.

  She had brought her own sheets and pillowcases with her and her maid, Emily, had packed every little accessory to which she was accustomed.

  Claudia was entranced by the countryside through which they were passing.

  The undulating land with glimpses of mountains in the distance was attractive.

  The rivers and the picturesque villages kept her staring out of the windows and she was afraid of missing something.

  It was therefore a relief when Lady Bressley dozed off and she did not have to follow any conversation.

  They left the inn after breakfast early the next morning.

  The weather was good and they made excellent progress before luncheon.

  They had brought this meal with them and they ate it by the side of a stream that glistened in the sunshine.

  It was all very lovely.

  Claudia kept thinking how lucky she was to be seeing Spain and hearing the Spaniards speak their own language.

  She had been delighted to find at the inn that she could understand some of what was being said.

  At the first opportunity, she thought, she would buy a dictionary.

  Then she could learn every new word she heard which she did not understand.

  It was growing very hot as the afternoon progressed.

  Claudia was soon hoping that it would not be long before they reached their destination.

  She knew it was another hotel where they would spend the last night before reaching Seville.

  The road narrowed and there were high rocks on either side of it.

  The horses, although they were getting tired, were travelling at a good speed.

  Suddenly round a corner there came towards them a huge wagon drawn by four horses that appeared to be out of control.

  It crashed into them.

  The horses screamed, men shouted and the wheels of the two vehicles clashed together.

  The carriage containing Lady Bressley and Claudia overturned.

  Badly shaken and dazed, Claudia was only vaguely aware of what was going on and of being conveyed to the hotel where they had intended to stay.

  There she was treated by a doctor for slight concussion.

  Still dazed, she was helped into bed by a kindly chambermaid and given something to help her sleep.

  Only when the night was past and morning dawned did she learn the full extent of the tragedy.

  Lady Bressley had been killed instantly.

  The Courier had a broken leg and the coachman a badly cut face.

  By what seemed a miracle, she and the lady’s maid had escaped with only a few cuts and bruises.

  Three of the horses had had to be destroyed and the carriage was incapable of going any further.

  The local Priest called to see her.

  He suggested that Lady Bressley should be buried in the local churchyard.

  The Courier had already stated that it would be difficult to convey her
body back to England.

  Claudia had no idea what her family would wish done.

  As she did not know any of them, she agreed.

  It was the Courier, even though he could not move, who arranged everything.

  Claudia and the lady’s maid were the only mourners as the coffin was lowered into the ground that afternoon.

  When they arrived back at the hotel, Claudia asked to see the Courier.

  He was taken in a wheelchair to one of the reception rooms.

  “I want to return to England!” she said to him.

  “I can make arrangements for you to go as soon as you wish, Miss Coventry,” the Courier replied, “but the doctor insists that I must not leave here for at least two weeks.”

  He gave her a sharp look before he added,

  “I can afford it with the money Madam gave me for the journey.”

  Claudia did not say anything.

  When she was alone in her room she knew that she had no money.

  The only thing she would be able to offer the hotel to pay for her room and meals was her mother’s jewellery.

  She was still limp and upset by what had happened, which was not surprising.

  She felt that she could not at the moment face the uncomfortable performance of explaining her predicament to the proprietor.

  It would be even more difficult if he did not speak English while her Spanish was very limited.

  ‘I will do so tomorrow,’ she decided.

  She then went straight to bed without going down to dinner because her head ached.

  *

  When Claudia awoke next morning, she could think more clearly and told herself that she had been very silly.

  Of course there was money – not her own – but her Godmother’s, which she carried in a despatch case.

  Claudia knew that she kept it in her bedroom in charge of her lady’s maid.

  Lady Bressley would certainly not have come abroad without plenty of money both for the journey and for all other needs during her visit.

  ‘How could I have been so stupid as not to think of that before?’ Claudia thought.

  She also knew that Lady Bressley had carried jewellery with her.

  She always wore a considerable amount and Claudia wondered if it had been placed for safety in the hotel safe.

  Both the cases had been beside her in the carriage.

  She would also wear a bracelet and make-up even when she was in bed.

  ‘There should be plenty of money to pay for my ticket back to England,’ Claudia told herself.

  She had not yet been called, but she climbed out of bed.

  Pulling back the curtains she rang the bell for Emily, who should have called her some time ago.

  As Emily had been almost unharmed in the accident, she would have collected the two cases.

  She would have kept them in her room or in the hotel safe, while Lady Bressley was being buried.

  ‘It was very foolish of me not to think of it before,’ Claudia chided herself, ‘but they will be perfectly safe with Emily.’

  Because she was impatient, she rang the bell again.

  One of the chambermaids then opened the door,

  “You ring, señorita?” she asked.

  Slowly because she had to think out every word, Claudia asked her to fetch Lady Bressley’s lady’s maid.

  The chambermaid understood and disappeared.

  She came back about a quarter of an hour later to say,

  “Maid go away, señorita. She leave.”

  Claudia looked at her in astonishment.

  “I think there is some mistake,” she said.

  The maid did not understand.

  Claudia began to dress and, when she went downstairs, she asked for the Courier.

  He had been accommodated on the ground floor because of his injuries.

  After what seemed a long time, a porter wheeled him into the reception room where Claudia was waiting for him.

  “I am sorry,” she said, “to have to send for you, but I have just been informed, although I am sure that it cannot be true, that Emily has left. What can have happened? Where can she have gone?”

  The Courier paused for a moment before he replied,

  “I am afraid that this will be a shock, Miss Coventry, but she has indeed left with Hopkins, who I thought was a trustworthy man.”

  “But – why? Have they – returned to – England?”

  “I understand from the proprietor that last night they asked for her Ladyship’s jewellery, which had been placed in his care by those who carried you to the hotel after the accident. He said that they also asked for the case that contained, I think, her Ladyship’s money, and certainly the papers and the return tickets, which I had given into her keeping.”

  “Are you – are you – saying,” Claudia asked, “that they have – stolen everything?”

  “They have indeed! I am afraid, Miss Coventry, you are going to find yourself in a very uncomfortable position.”

  Claudia stared at him.

  It was hard to believe that what he was telling her was true.

  If it was, then she was completely penniless, except for her mother’s jewellery which, without realising it, she had clung to even after she was injured.

  She had carried it with her when they left Cadiz because Lady Bressley had said that sometimes the luggage was stolen off the back of a carriage. It would be taken off without the passengers usually being aware of it.

  Claudia had felt that she could not bear to lose the things that her mother had prized.

  They were all she owned now, except for the contents of the house.

  She was glad that she had followed Lady Bressley’s example by carrying them with her.

  It seemed incredible that Emily should have suddenly become a thief.

  Or that Hopkins, of whom Lady Bressley had spoken so highly, should have decamped with everything that was valuable.

  She wondered if she should send for the Police.

  As if he could read her thoughts, the Courier said,

  “The Spanish Police will not show any interest, as we are foreigners. The best thing you can do, Miss Coventry, is to get back to England as quickly as you can.”

  He spoke in a somewhat disagreeable voice.

  Claudia knew instinctively that he had no wish to be responsible for her.

  Now that his rich patron was no longer available, he was concerned only with his own problem.

  She went back to her room to stare blindly at the expensive clothes that her Godmother had bought for her.

  She felt it was farcical that she should be so well dressed and yet have no money.

  She opened the box that contained her mother’s jewellery and compared with Lady Bressley’s it made a very poor show.

  There was a diamond brooch, but the diamonds were very small.

  There were pearl earrings, which her mother had loved.

  The pearls were by no means perfect nor particularly valuable.

  There was an attractive coral necklace, but coral was not expensive.

  There was a bracelet with a number of charms on it that Walter Wilton had given her mother.

  It was certainly very attractive and Claudia had loved it ever since she had been a child.

  She had been almost as thrilled as her mother was each time a new charm had been added to it.

  But she thought that a jeweller would pay very little money for it and it would break her heart to have to part with it.

  The rings might be worth rather more.

  One ring contained three diamonds and Claudia had always believed that it was her mother’s engagement ring.

  Otherwise there was nothing except for several very pretty but unsaleable earrings and they matched the bead necklace that her mother wore in the summer.

  Claudia knew that other pieces Walter Wilton had given her had been sold to pay for her education.

  At other times, when things had been difficult between shows, and Walte
r had needed a new suit, something had been sold to pay for it.

  She looked carefully at the contents of the jewel box and wondered if there would be enough, even if she sold everything, to pay for the cheapest accommodation aboard a ship.

  There was the sound of voices and she realised that it was after one o’clock and time for luncheon.

  She therefore carried her jewel box with her and went slowly down the stairs.

  After luncheon, she thought, she would talk to the proprietor.

  He would be busy now and it would be wisest to acquaint him with her predicament when the meal was over.

  But, when she sat down at the table, she found herself too shocked and worried to eat more than a very little.

  Neither did she feel fit after all to face the proprietor.

  Going back to her bedroom, she lay down miserably on her bed and mercifully fell fast asleep from sheer mental and emotional exhaustion.

  It was late in the afternoon before she awoke.

  Feeling much better and now even hungry, she dressed for dinner and went down to the dining room.

  She was aware that new people were coming into the dining room who had not been there before.

  There was a man and a woman with three children who were all making a noise.

  There was a man alone whom she could not help noticing because he appeared to be English.

  He was tall broad-shouldered and, she thought, very distinguished-looking.

  He was obviously of good standing.

  The proprietor himself bowed him to the best table in the dining room and it was near a window that opened onto the garden.

  Two waiters were told to attend to him, while the wine waiter hurried quickly to his side.

  ‘I am sure he is English,’ Claudia thought. ‘I wonder if he would help me.’

  Then she knew that she would be far too embarrassed to approach anyone who appeared to be so grand.

  More people came into the room to occupy the empty tables.

  But the tall Englishman was receiving far more attention than anybody else.

  Like her, the rest of the people in the dining room were kept waiting until his needs had been catered for.

  At last the Englishman had given his order.

  A bottle of wine was brought to his table for his approval.

  He took one sip and sent it away.