Love In the East Page 4

  Shona laughed, and said in Spanish, “I am sure you would, but if you imagine that I am going to stand down for you, you will be disappointed.”

  “I say, that wasn’t fair,” he protested.

  “You mean, you didn’t understand it.”

  “Not a word.”

  “Then how would you help him with his travel book?”

  “But all this stuff about a travel book is moonshine,” he replied. “What he is really planning to do is – well, something quite different.”

  “His Lordship informed me that he was writing a travel book,” Shona told him in a discouraging voice. “I have no reason to disbelieve him.”

  “But how long have you known him?”

  “I met him for the first time today.”

  “Then it’s too soon for him to have confided his real purpose. In fact, I am not certain that he has admitted, even to himself, what he really means to do.”

  Some strange note in the young man’s voice sent a frisson of alarm through Shona, although she could not have said exactly why.

  “Whatever do you mean?” she asked. “You speak as though he is going to do something terrible.”

  “Perhaps he is. I don’t know. The point is, I don’t think he knows either. He won’t know until the very last minute when – well, it is a very long story.”

  “I am sure it is,” Shona said, beginning to be amused. “It is a long story, and you need time to think about it.”

  He was shocked.

  “Anyone would think you didn’t believe me,” he said, aghast.

  “Really? What made you think that?” she asked, smiling and implacable.

  “Ah, well,” he sighed. “If you don’t believe me, you don’t.”

  “I don’t. I think this whole farrago is a way of putting me off so that I will give up my job to you. You are wasting your time. Now, if you please, I would like to go to bed.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Oh, don’t go just yet,” Lionel begged. “Keep me company a while longer. I don’t enjoy being alone.”

  He fetched a glass from a cupboard and filled it from the bottle of wine that had been opened for Shona. He raised it to her in salute, giving her his most delightful smile.

  She smiled back. He was charming, but she had no intention of yielding.

  She also felt that he had already drunk more than was good for him.

  “It is time I was leaving,” she said, rising to her feet.

  “Oh, don’t go yet,” he pleaded, rising also to block her path. “Stay and keep me company.”

  “Thank you, no. I wish to retire for the night. His Lordship means to make an early start.”

  “Ah, but perhaps I can persuade you to change your mind about going.”

  “And perhaps you can’t. Please let me pass.”

  “You know,” he said, as if he had not heard her, “you are really quite pretty behind those glasses. I would like to see you without them.”

  He reached for her. Shona tried to sidestep but he moved too swiftly, whisking off her pince nez and staring into her face.

  “Let me go,” she said, beginning to become annoyed. “You don’t really mean that,” he said petulantly. “Well, if you don’t get out of my way now you will discover that I do mean it, and your eyes will water for a week.”

  But this was a mistake. His face lit up, like that of a child, promised a special treat.

  “I say! A challenge! Come on, let’s see who wins.”

  He pulled her towards him. His manner was playful rather than rough, but he was too strong for her.

  “Just one little kiss,” he begged, trying to press his lips on hers.

  Thoroughly indignant by now, Shona fought him, twisting her head this way and that in a frantic effort to escape.

  She barely heard the door crash open, or the violent oath of the man who had arrived. But the next moment she felt Lionel plucked from her.

  She steadied herself and was in time to see the Marquis shake the young man hard before thrusting him back against the wall.

  “What the devil do you think you are doing?” he raged. “I told you to stay away from this house.”

  “I came to talk to you,” Lionel replied, breathing hard. “To make you see how unfair you’re being. It should be me going with you.”

  “I have told you before, Lionel, you would make a poor hand at the job. You haven’t the ability with languages that I need. If you had studied harder at school instead of drinking and keeping low company – “

  “Oh, heavens not that again! I like low company. It’s more fun than the other kind.”

  “You’re drunk!”

  “Not drunk. Just a little tipsy.”

  “How dare you force your way in here and insult a lady,” the Marquis snapped.

  He turned to Shona.

  “I can only apologise for – ”

  He stopped, as though thunderstruck by what he saw, then quickly averted his eyes.

  Horrified, Shona suddenly became aware that the struggle had released her hair, and it now hung about her shoulders in glorious waves. She looked nothing like the plain and dowdy creature she was pretending to be.

  Seeing the dismay in the Marquis’s face, she thought quickly.

  “I hope your Lordship does not mean to blame me for this fracas,” she said as haughtily as she could manage. “I abhor the behaviour of ill-bred youth – ”

  “You cannot call me ill-bred,” Lionel declared, stung. “I am an ‘Honourable’.”

  “You most certainly are not. Anyone less honourable I have yet to meet.”

  “That’s not what I – ”

  “I know what you meant,” Shona brushed his protest aside, “and it is a lot of nonsense, calling a man ‘Honourable’ when he has the manners of a barnyard fowl.”

  Unwisely, the Honourable Lionel tried to continue the argument.

  “That has nothing to do with it,” he yelped. “Just because they call you Honourable doesn’t mean you have to – well, it’s how we do things in England.”

  “Then it’s about time England found a better way of behaving,” Shona informed him sharply. Lionel stared at her, aghast.

  “You’re a revolutionary!” he screamed.

  “I am a woman of common sense, and I will tell you this, that when a system produces such unappealing specimens as yourself, the time has come to do away with it!”

  “You’re a radical. You want to overthrow society!”

  “No young man, I do not want to overthrow society.

  But overthrowing you is another matter. That I would love to do, preferably from the top of a very high tower.”

  “Next thing you’ll be wanting to throw a bomb at the Queen,” he gasped.

  “Nonsense, why should I? It isn’t the Queen’s fault you are a spoilt brat.”

  “Well, she is his godmother, madam,” observed the Marquis, who had been observing this exchange with much amusement.

  He added, “And she tends to spoil him when they meet, so I suppose she bears some responsibility. However, I believe bombing Windsor Castle might be excessive. Suppose I just throw him out?”

  “An excellent idea,” Shona agreed.

  The next few moments were occupied by the Marquis’s determination to put this plan into action, and Lionel’s determination to resist.

  The unequal scuffle ended as it was bound to, with the front door closing behind Lionel’s indignant person.

  Shona seized the chance to turn to the mirror and began to sweep up her hair. She was doing this when the Marquis returned.

  She met his eyes in the mirror and read in them something that made her heart sink. She turned to face him, trying to look calmer than she felt.

  “Mrs. Winters, I apologise for the rude usage to which you have been subjected in this house,” he began.

  “Please think no more of it, my Lord – ”

  “I am afraid that I must. Clearly you are younger than you had led me to believe. I understand your r
easons of course – “

  “I need this job,” she said desperately.

  “I realise that. But you must understand that the two of us cannot travel alone together. If you cannot provide yourself with a female companion, then I have no choice but to ask you to leave.”

  “Wh-what?”

  “I cannot travel with an attractive young female and no chaperone.”

  “But I am not attractive,” she said wildly, groping around for her pince nez and ramming it onto her nose.

  “See! And I am not as young as I look.”

  “I have grave doubts on that subject.”

  Despair engulfed Shona as she saw all her dreams of escape coming to nothing.

  Where could she go? Back home, to fall into her step-father’s clutches? She would rather die.

  “Lord Chilworth, I beg you not to send me away,” she pleaded. “I have left – the place where I lived. There is no way back for me.”

  “I am sorry. I still want you to work for me, but you cannot come alone.”

  She began to feel desperate and on the verge of hysteria.

  “Then one of your own maids – ” she began.

  “I am afraid that a maid would not meet the case. To be an effective chaperone, the lady must be your social equal. An employee, who could be dismissed, would not do at all. Of course you can remain here for tonight, but in the morning – ”

  His voice, though kindly, was final. Shona’s sensation of hopelessness became overwhelming.

  But then the sound of the doorbell interrupted them.

  “If that’s Lionel again – ” the Marquis exclaimed vehemently and strode to the door, then out into the hall.

  Shona followed him and was in time to see the front door opened by a footman, who immediately backed out of the way of the wailing female who rushed into the hall.

  “Effie!” Shona exclaimed.

  Effie ran straight into Shona’s arms, sobbing wildly.

  “What is it, my dear?” Shona asked. “You were going to Jimmy. Wasn’t he there?”

  “Oh, yes he was there, the wicked, ungrateful lout, the rotten, suspicious – ”

  She carried on in this way at length. Shona could not catch every word, but she gathered that Jimmy had committed some terrible, unforgivable offence.

  “Let me stay with you,” Effie begged. “Don’t send me away.”

  “This lady is known to you?” the Marquis asked, watching them.

  “Yes, she – ” Shona was about to say that Effie was her maid when inspiration came to her.

  “She is my close friend,” she said. “Until recently we lived under the same roof and are almost like sisters.”

  “Then our problem seems to be solved,” he observed.

  It was true, Shona realised. Heaven had answered her prayers in the most unexpected manner.

  “If I may speak to her alone for a moment,” she said, drawing Effie back into the dining room.

  When the door was safely closed, she poured Effie a glass of wine and sat her down.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “That Jimmy is the nastiest, most evil – ”

  “Yes, I know about that,” Shona said hurriedly, “but what did he actually do?”

  “It was those clothes you gave me, miss. When he saw them he wanted to know how I came to own anything so fine.”

  “But he has seen you in my clothes before.”

  “Not as fine as this. That blue ball-gown – well, his eyes nearly popped out. He said I must have a lover – you know, the sort of man who buys girls expensive clothes.”

  She gave a loud wail.

  “He said I must have done something wicked,” she wept. “Oh, Effie, I am so sorry. I would never have thought of anything like this.”

  “What I am going to do, miss?”

  “You are going to stay with me and come abroad.”

  “What?”

  “I need a chaperone and Lord Chilworth will not take me without one. But he says she cannot be a maid. A chaperone has to be a social equal.”

  Effie’s eyes were popping out of her head.

  “So you must stop calling me ‘miss’,” Shona hurried on. “I am Mrs. Winters, and you are – your last name is Jakes, isn’t it? Then you are Miss Jakes. And we call each other by our first names.”

  “I cannot do that, miss,” Effie gasped, scandalised.

  “If you don’t, I am lost,” Shona stated firmly. “Very well, miss – madam – ”

  “Shona,” she said firmly.

  Effie nodded reluctantly.

  “Good. And you have your passport?” Shona asked, thanking Heaven for the number of times Effie had travelled with her.

  “Oh, yes. When I packed I knew I wasn’t going back.”

  “Now come and meet the Marquis.”

  They found him in the library and Shona introduced her ‘friend’, thankful that Effie was wearing the clothes that she had given her and she really did look a lady in them.

  Effie was nervous, but shrewd enough to keep her replies to a minimum and when he learned that she was prepared to come with them, the Marquis seemed satisfied.

  “Effie can share my room,” Shona said. “And I think we should go to bed now, to be ready early in the morning.”

  The huge bed was more than big enough for both of them, and she wanted to keep Effie close, so that she did not lose her nerve. And she still had a great deal to tell her.

  It took an hour to explain everything and by then they were both nodding off, worn out by the excitements of the day.

  *

  They left early next morning, although still not as early as Shona would have liked. The Marquis’s carriage rumbled away from the door at precisely eight o’clock, heading for Waterloo Station.

  At the station they boarded the train to Dover. As it pulled out of the station, Shona sent up a heartfelt prayer of relief that she had not been caught so far.

  Surely, now, she was safe?

  But she would feel even safer when they had set sail.

  “I cabled my Captain yesterday afternoon, telling him to have everything ready for our departure,” the Marquis said as they sat side by side in the carriage. “So we should be able to sail almost at once.”

  He seemed to speak with an effort. He had said very little so far and his face was pale and drawn. There were black smudges under his eyes, as though he had slept badly that night.

  They were alone in the carriage as Effie had gone to stand in the corridor.

  “Is your yacht very large?” Shona enquired at last, for something to say.

  “I must confess that it is more of a steamer than a yacht. It has the very latest engines and all modern comforts,” he replied.

  “Do you have a detailed itinerary?”

  “First we cross to Calais, but not to remain for very long. There is a place I wish to visit.”

  “You mean to include it in your book?” she asked.

  There was a short silence before the Marquis said, “No, I shall not include this place in my book. I have – other reasons.”

  Shona felt the sensation of having a door slammed in her face. Unwillingly she recalled what Lionel had said and wondered if there could be something in it after all.

  But it would be absurd to believe anything told her by that silly boy.

  Nor did she have the right to question the Marquis.

  After some moments silence, he said as if he could read her thoughts,

  “Are you being tactful or are you simply not interested in my reasons?”

  Shona smiled.

  “I was behaving as I thought I ought to behave,” she replied. “Or, to put it simply, how you would expect me to behave. It is surely wrong for me to appear too curious, but it is very difficult when one is with someone one does not know, not to be curious.”

  The Marquis laughed.

  “You have put it excellently and exactly what I might have expected you to say,” he said. “How is it possible that you are so
different, not only from anyone I have ever employed, but from anyone I have met?”

  “I don’t know about different,” she said. “But if I have learnt one thing it is that we should take life one day at time, even perhaps one moment at a time. Making plans is futile, because we never know what life is going to throw at us.”

  The Marquis stared at her.

  “Yes,” he said shortly. “That is what I have learnt too.”

  Suddenly his face turned very pale, even ravaged. Shona remembered the word that had occurred to her at their first meeting.

  Now he looked more haunted than ever.

  “You seem to know a great deal about life,” he said.

  “All I know is that there are only two wise ways of tackling a difficult situation,” she said. “I either keep quiet or run away.”

  The Marquis smiled.

  “Shall I guess what you are doing at the moment?” he asked.

  “If you would like to,” Shona replied.

  “I think you are running away,” he said. “I do not know why I should think it, but it somehow seems strange that you appeared just when I needed you.”

  Shona said nothing. She knew she must be very cautious about what she said.

  “Strangest of all,” the Marquis continued, “is the fact that you were ready to leave London without, apparently, saying goodbye to anyone.”

  He paused before he added,

  “As you are so young – younger than you want me to believe – there must be a number of people willing to bid you farewell.”

  There was silence for a moment.

  Then Shona admitted,

  “Very well, I am running away. When I heard that you needed someone to go abroad with you, I felt it was the answer to my problem when I least expected it.”

  He looked at her curiously.

  “And are you going to tell me what your problem is?”

  She shook her head.

  “One day I would like to tell you the whole story,” she said. “But not now.”

  “You are right. We are strangers. But I have the oddest feeling that we will not always be strangers.”

  Shona’s heart skipped a beat. How odd that he should put into words her own feelings. She too sensed that one day they might not be strangers.