Kiss from a Stranger Read online

  She knew that the thin almost transparent gauze or muslin dress with its high waist, puff sleeves and ribbons crossed over the breast would suit her.

  Then, as she reached The Castle, she laughed at the idea, knowing that what concerned her at the moment was not having a new gown but enough to eat.

  She went to the main door automatically and only when it was opened by a new servant she had not seen before did she think perhaps that she should have gone to the kitchen entrance.

  “I wish to see Mrs. Davison,” she said in her soft voice.

  She was sure that the servant was thinking, as she had, that it was the wrong door to ask for the housekeeper, but he merely replied,

  “I’ll find out if she’ll see you. What name shall I say?”

  “Miss Lynd,” Shenda replied. “I come from the Vicarage.”

  Now the servant’s attitude changed.

  “If you’ll come upstairs, miss,” he said, “I’ll take you to Mrs. Davison’s room.”

  “Thank you,” Shenda answered.

  She had expected that the new Earl would engage more servants, as the household had been sadly depleted in the last two years.

  She only hoped that he had not dispensed with the older ones whom she had known all through the long years when the old Earl was too ill to see anyone.

  Because it was polite, her father had called almost every week and had taken her with him.

  Sometimes the Earl would see her father and she would wait outside in the gig they had arrived in.

  At others, Bates, the butler, who had been there for forty years, would ask her to come inside and she would wait in one of the rooms that was kept open for callers.

  If it was in the afternoon, Bates would suggest that she have a cup of tea in the morning room which Shenda knew was used as a dining room by the family when they stayed overnight.

  Every other room in the great house had Holland covers over the furniture, the shutters closed and the curtains drawn.

  It all seemed to her very sad and she now wanted to ask if the State rooms had been opened. Then she realised that the servant would think she was being too curious.

  He knocked at the housekeeper’s door, which Shenda could have found quite easily herself, and when Mrs. Davison said, ‘come in’, he opened it and let Shenda pass him.

  Mrs. Davison, who was sitting by the window, gave a cry of delight when she saw her.

  “Miss Shenda!” she exclaimed. “I was only thinking about you a little while ago and wondering what you would be doing after the death of your dear father.”

  “That is what I came to talk to you about,” Shenda replied.

  “Oh, my dear, I’m so sorry!” Mrs. Davison said.

  Taking Shenda by the hand, she pulled her towards a comfortable armchair and sat down next to it.

  “I know what you must feel without your mother, God rest her soul, and now your father, whom we all loved.”

  “There is a new Vicar coming in almost at once!” Shenda told her.

  “So quickly?” Mrs. Davison exclaimed. “That’s the doing of that new manager. Everything about him is hurry, hurry and no time to draw breath and that’s a fact!”

  “I saw there was a new footman, I suppose that was what he was, who opened the door,” Shenda remarked.

  “Four of them! And all wanting training by Mr. Bates, which doesn’t please him, I can tell you!”

  Then Mrs. Davison smiled.

  “Nevertheless, it’ll be like old times to have the house open with house parties and would you believe it, Miss Shenda, there’s a party coming down from London next Friday! Twelve of them!”

  “With the new Earl?” Shenda asked.

  “Of course!”

  It flashed through Shenda’s mind that she would like to meet him.

  Then she remembered why she had come.

  “I have an idea, Mrs. Davison,” she said, “and I don’t know what you will think about it.”

  “An idea?” Mrs. Davison said. “If it’s as good as the ones your mother used to suggest to me, then I can tell you, I’ll welcome it!”

  “You are so kind, but I think first I must tell you that I have no money and nowhere to go.”

  Mrs. Davison stared at her.

  “I can hardly believe it! What about your relatives?”

  “There is only Papa’s brother who lives in Gloucestershire and I feel sure that he will not want me nor will he welcome Rufus!”

  She put her hand down as she spoke and touched Rufus, who was lying at her feet.

  He had followed her closely all the way up the stairs and now was very quiet and still as she had taught him to be when they were in other people’s houses.

  “That’s the most terrible thing I’ve ever heard!” Mrs. Davison was saying. “But what’s your idea, Miss Shenda?”

  “I thought – Mrs. Davison – that it would be – wonderful for me – if I could come here – as a seamstress!”

  Mrs. Davison stared at her and Shenda went on quickly,

  “Mama used to tell me how in the old days when she and the Countess were friends, there was always a seamstress in The Castle.”

  “Indeed there was!” Mrs. Davison said. “And when she died, oh, eighty she was and nearly blind, I didn’t replace her. I thought with all the rooms closed what was necessary to be done I could do myself. But now things are different.”

  “You have not engaged anyone?” Shenda asked quickly.

  “I’ve thought about it, I certainly thought about it when they tells me there’s twelve guests arriving in three days’ time! And the ladies of the party’ll all have their maids with them and the gentlemen their valets.”

  Mrs. Davison drew in her breath before she added,

  “If there’s not a lot of torn sheets and pillowcases without buttons at the end of their visit, then you can call me a liar!”

  “I can do all those things and mend anything else for you!” Shenda asserted eagerly.

  “But you’re a lady, Miss Shenda! You ought to be sitting downstairs with his Lordship’s guests – and none of them’ll be as lovely as you!”

  Shenda laughed.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Davison, it is very kind of you to say so, but you know I would be the ‘Beggar Maid’ at the feast without a decent gown to my name and no money to buy one!”

  Then in a different tone she pleaded,

  “Please – please, Mrs. Davison – let me stay! I would be so unhappy away from the village and all the people who knew Mama and Papa. And if I can stay near, it will be like – living at home. His Lordship is not likely to meet the seamstress, whether she is the poor old woman who died, or me!”

  “That’s true,” Mrs. Davison said, “and I don’t suppose that Mr. Marlow, who’s the new manager’ll interfere with the household.”

  “Then I may stay? Oh, please, Mrs. Davison – I can stay?”

  “Of course you can stay, Miss Shenda, if it’ll make you happy,” Mrs. Davison agreed. “You can have your meals with me and the seamstress’s room is on the top floor with a comfortable bedroom next door.”

  She thought for a moment.

  Then she said,

  “No! I think that’d be a mistake. I’ll have you next to me! There are two rooms kept for visiting lady’s maids, which I can easily turn into a bedroom and a sewing room and I shall feel I’m looking after you, so to speak.”

  “You are so kind – so very very kind!” Shenda enthused.

  There were tears in her eyes as she added,

  “I thought I should have to – go away and that – nobody would – want me.”

  “I want you, Miss Shenda, and that’s the truth!” Mrs. Davison said. “Anyway, I was intending to say to his Lordship as soon as I got the chance that I can’t manage without help.”

  “Now you can tell him you have help,” Shenda said. “It will be lovely to be here and I can talk to you about Mama and Papa and not feel I am alone and have left everything that was – familiar.”

/>   As she spoke, a tear ran down her cheek and she brushed it away with the back of her hand.

  “Now, don’t you go upsetting yourself,” Mrs. Davison said. “What we’ll do now is to have a nice cup of tea and you can tell me what you want to bring with you.”

  “Farmer Johnson has been very kind and says he will store anything I don’t want for the moment, but it would be lovely to be able to keep my things here. Perhaps you have room in the attics?”

  “Room?” Mrs. Davison replied. “There’s enough room for furniture from a dozen houses, as well you know! You can keep your things by you, Miss Shenda, knowing they’re there if you wants them.”

  “That will be wonderful! And perhaps if you don’t have too much work to give me, I could make myself a new gown. I have not been able to afford one for years and I would not want you to be ashamed of me!”

  Mrs. Davison smiled.

  “You’re exactly like your mother – the most beautiful lady I’ve ever seen and that’s the truth, cross my heart!”

  “You could not say anything that would make me happier!” Shenda sighed. “Oh, Mrs. Davison, thank you, thank you!”

  She rose from the chair and impulsively kissed the old housekeeper.

  “Now that’s settled!” Mrs. Davison said. “And I know Mr. Bates’ll be as pleased as I am that you’re safe and that we can keep an eye on you. There’s no need for anybody else, except those who have been here years, like ourselves, to know who you are.”

  Shenda looked at her enquiringly and Mrs. Davison added,

  “The new staff might feel embarrassed seeing that you’re a lady and yet you’re employed as they are.”

  “I understand,” Shenda said. “And, of course, I will be very tactful.”

  “What you’ve to do is to keep out of their way, Miss Shenda. You can have your own sitting room and your meals with me and, if I like to take them on my own, that’s my business and there’s no reason for anyone to interfere.”

  “I will be quite happy on my own if you have to eat in the housekeeper’s dining room,” Shenda said.

  She knew when the house was full that the senior servants ate in what was known as the “housekeeper’s dining room” while the lower and younger servants were in the servants’ hall.

  “Now, you leave everything to me,” Mrs. Davison said. “I know what’s right and what your dear mother’d want. I won’t have you mixing with those who wouldn’t treat you as they should!”

  She spoke so positively that Shenda had no wish to argue.

  She merely thanked Mrs. Davison again for saving her and Rufus, and prayed in her heart,

  ‘Thank you, thank you, Mama! I know that this was your idea and now I am safe!’

  Chapter Three

  The Earl was looking forward with pleasure to his first party at The Castle.

  Perry had said that he must invite the friends he had known in the past and pair them off with the attractive women they were enamoured with at present.

  Perry was not only excited at having the Earl back from the sea, but he thought it essential that he should enjoy himself in London after being away for so many years.

  “You will have to forget the war now, old boy!” he said. “Everybody is sick of talking about it and the Prince Regent has set the pace by amusing himself continuously and extravagantly.”

  For a moment the Earl could think only of the sufferings of the Navy, who were finding it intolerable to blockade the French Ports month after month or else to chase the French ships from the Mediterranean to the West Indies often without firing a shot.

  They had grown used to living on the sparse rations of ships’ biscuits filled with weevils and meat that had been preserved in salt for years.

  The main objective that mattered was that the French ambition to conquer England should be checked and Napoleon defeated.

  As if Perry was aware of what the Earl was thinking, he said firmly,

  “Forget it, at any rate for the moment. You have been concentrating on Bonaparte for so long that you are beginning to look like him!”

  The Earl laughed and then listened attentively to Perry’s plans for his amusement.

  The first was quite simple.

  He produced one of the most attractive women the Earl had ever seen and the moment he looked into her very expressive dark eyes it was easy to let the stringencies of war fade into the background.

  Lucille Gratton was the wife of a Peer much older than herself who owned a large but impoverished estate in Ireland.

  Because she was exceedingly beautiful and had been acclaimed from the moment she left the schoolroom, she expected every man she met to fall at her feet.

  She had taken several lovers during her husband’s frequent visits to the Emerald Isle, but after a few months she had found them boring.

  She was looking for a man who was different and rich when Perry introduced her to the Earl.

  After being at sea for so many long months without even seeing a woman, Lucille was a revelation and to Perry’s delight the Earl was captivated.

  They dined the first night in a party and for the next they were alone together in Lady Gratton’s house.

  It was inevitable that the Earl should walk home as dawn was breaking, thinking with satisfaction that his years at sea had not prevented him from being a good lover.

  He had never met a woman who was more passionate, fiery or insatiable.

  She had accepted his invitation to The Castle and he knew that, with her presence, the party would be everything he wanted as an introduction to his new position.

  He had sent his requirements to The Castle by an old secretary who had served his father.

  Perry had helped him prepare a schedule of the bedrooms, pointing out that the people who were paired together must be as near to each other as possible.

  “Is this usual?” the Earl asked him.

  “I can assure you that it is arranged in all the best houses,” Perry said. “For Heaven’s sake, Durwin, you are old enough to know the facts of life!”

  They both laughed, but the Earl could not help thinking it was rather strange that an affaire de coeur could take place so blatantly that everybody was aware of it.

  It was very different from how it had been in his mother’s day.

  Yet as far as he was concerned, he was prepared to be carried along on the tide since it was part of Lord Barham’s instructions.

  As he looked at his visitor’s list, however, he felt certain that there would not be a spy amongst them.

  Nevertheless, perhaps something said would point him in the right direction so that he could do what was expected of him.

  Perry’s choice among the gentlemen had been two Peers whom the Earl had met and liked in the past, a Marquis who would inherit a famous Dukedom and a Baronet who worked in the Admiralty.

  That, with Perry and himself, made six gentlemen.

  Besides Lucille were five ladies he had not seen, but who, he had been told, were the crème de la crème of the beauties who embellished Carlton House.

  The Earl was certain that everything at The Castle would be as comfortable as he wanted it to be and he had been glad to hear that some of the old servants were still there.

  Bates, the butler, whom he could remember when he was a small boy and Mrs. Davison, who used to smuggle chocolate cake and sweets to his room when he had been punished.

  There were also one or two other servants who had not died or moved to a better position elsewhere.

  As soon as he arrived in England, he had appointed a new estate manager to The Castle, having learnt that there was no one in charge.

  The man, called Marlow, had been highly recommended by an Admiral with whom he had travelled to London from Portsmouth.

  He had sent for him as soon as he arrived in Berkeley Square and, thinking that he seemed efficient, had sent him to The Castle with instructions to discover what needed doing.

  It was satisfactory to find that, as his father had been s
o ill the last years of his life, expenditure had been low.

  There was therefore a considerable sum of money in the bank that he could spend on improvements.

  ‘The first thing I must do,’ he told himself on receiving a report from his new manager, ‘is to visit the farmers. I am sure that I will remember some of them and, of course, make sure that the pensioners have been well looked after.’

  He had a feeling, as he and Perry journeyed to The Castle in a new phaeton with a team of new horses bought the previous day, that, until the house party was over, he would have little time for anything else.

  There was also an enormous amount to do in Berkeley Square.

  The house had been closed up during his father’s illness and the servants had either been dismissed or pensioned off. There was in fact only one man, the butler, whom he could still remember.

  The Earl was used to command and had on several occasions in his life had to recommission a ship in record time.

  Compared to that, the house was comparatively easy.

  He had also, which was most important, to buy himself an entire new wardrobe. He had never had many civilian clothes and those he had were worn out or he had grown out of them while he was at sea.

  Within forty-eight hours of arriving in London, he looked respectable enough to venture out of the house.

  This was made possible by telling Weston, the fashionable tailor, that he wanted an entire wardrobe and borrowing clothes from him in the meantime.

  The fourth day after his return he had visited the Admiralty.

  He thought as he tooled his new team of horses with an expertise he had not forgotten, that this actually was the first moment he had been able to relax since he set foot in England.

  “I am glad you like Lucille,” Perry was saying. “I have always thought her the most beautiful amongst her contemporaries and far more intelligent than the majority of them.”

  The Earl tried to remember if he had in fact had an intelligent conversation with Lucille.

  He knew if he was truthful that what conversation there had been was on one subject and one subject only.

  He therefore did not reply and Perry gave him a swift glance, a knowing smile on his lips.