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  “Oh, I am sure Mr. Jackson did not mind too much. He was going to play cards with Mr. Pargetter.”

  Ethel struck her forehead in a gesture of despair.

  “Lucilla, you are such a fool. Harkness is absolutely crazy for you. He talks about nothing else. And do you know how much money he has? If I wasn’t already engaged to Mortimer – ”

  “Please, Ethel, stop!” Lucilla cried. “You just don’t understand – Mr. Jackson is not someone I could ever think of in that way.”

  Ethel leaned forward in her chair, her green eyes very bright.

  “Lucilla, you must be sensible. You cannot go on living with your aunt forever.”

  “I may not be able to go on living with her at all after today,” Lucilla commented sadly.

  “Well – what does that matter? You have a beau, Lucilla! A rich American, who would marry you at the drop of a hat.”

  “I am sure that even my aunt would not want me to marry someone like that, who I don’t even like.”

  Ethel raised her blonde eyebrows. “I wouldn’t bet on it. Oh, Lucilla, what’s wrong with you? You are such a pretty girl and good company too. Just think what fun we could have if you married Harkness! He and Mortimer are the best of friends – why, we could see each other all the time and we would never have to worry how much we were spending!”

  “Ethel – please!” Lucilla cried. “You must stop!” She could not hold back her tears any longer and they were running down her cheeks. Ethel seemed to have no idea how much she disliked Harkness Jackson.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Ethel said after a moment. “Mama always tells me how bossy I am! Let’s forget it for now. Why don’t you come and play the piano? There’s no one at home now except for us and you can play away to your heart’s content.”

  Lucilla was feeling decidedly uneasy about Ethel’s remarks. Could she really mean that she thought it would be a good idea for her to marry Harkness Jackson? Could she not see how much she hated the American?

  But it was Heaven to sit down at the grand piano again in the little salon and as Lucilla felt the smooth ivory keys beneath her fingers, her troubled thoughts vanished.

  She started with a few soft notes and then just let the music flow through her, as she found herself playing another of her Papa’s favourite Chopin waltzes.

  Ethel sat close by on one of the gilt chairs, but she could not stay still for long. After a while she stood up and put her handkerchief to her eyes. “You play so beautifully, but don’t you know any cheerful tunes?” she asked, as Lucilla picked out the closing notes of the waltz.

  Before Lucilla could reply, there was a commotion from the street outside and Ethel ran to see what was going on.

  “Lucilla, quick!” she shrieked. “You have to come and see this!”

  The two girls peered down from the window and Lucilla could see a strange contraption that looked rather like a carriage without its horses and it was belching smoke and making a loud grinding noise.

  Seated on the weird contraption were two gentlemen wearing leather hats, goggles and thick glasses.

  “How amazing! Mortimer’s gone and done it!” Ethel sighed. “He’s bought a motor car!”

  “Oh – so that’s what it is!” Lucilla said, remembering that she had seen similar contraptions on several occasions, when she had been out in London with her aunt.

  She watched from the window as the two gentlemen tinkered about with its engine until the grinding noise and the smoke stopped.

  Then her heart sank as the larger of the two pulled off his hat and goggles and she could see that he was Harkness Jackson.

  “Ethel, thank you very much for the coffee and the piano, but I should be thinking about leaving,” she began, trying to ignore the feeling of despair that overcame her as she thought of returning to her aunt’s house.

  Ethel smiled mischievously. “Too late, Lucilla!” she cried out. “Look – they’re coming in!”

  Lucilla turned back to the piano and tried to play again, but her fingers had turned numb and useless and she might just as well have tried to pick out a tune with boxing gloves on.

  With a great clatter of boots on the parquet floor and a loud roar of laughter, Harkness and Mortimer came into the salon.

  “Did you see it, honey?” Mortimer was shouting to Ethel. “What did you think? Isn’t she a beauty?”

  “Well, I don’t know about all that smoke – and what a frightful racket!” Ethel said, as Mortimer clasped her in a bear hug.

  “Hey, Princess!” Harkness was coming towards Lucilla, looking rather like a large frog, she thought, with his wide shiny face and his tightly buttoned green motoring coat. “How is the girl, today?”

  “Oh dear!” Ethel called out, extricating herself from Mortimer’s arms. “She is in need of rescuing, Harkness. That awful old aunt of hers has been on the warpath.”

  Harkness came over to Lucilla and dropped heavily on his knees next to the piano stool.

  There was nowhere for Lucilla to escape to. He was just too big for her to slip past and, anyway, Mortimer and Ethel were blocking the way through the door.

  Harkness seized Lucilla’s hand in his large ones and held it so tightly that she winced with pain.

  “Princess,” he breathed heavily, his little grey eyes staring into hers and Lucilla felt her heart turn to stone as she heard him say, “look no further. I am your man.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Lucilla looked desperately towards Ethel, wishing that she might say something to make Harkness Jackson leave her alone.

  But Ethel just smiled and then nodded her elegant blonde head, as if she had been planning this meeting all along. “Come along, Mortimer dear,” she cooed. “I don’t think we are very welcome here just at the moment.”

  “Aha!” he exclaimed, gazing at his friend Harkness, still on his knees in front of Lucilla. “Sure, honey, let’s go.”

  And the two of them left Lucilla alone in the salon, her hand caught in the big American’s grasp.

  “Please, will you let me go?” Lucilla begged him, struggling to keep her voice steady.

  “Lady Lucilla,” Harkness began, clutching her hand even tighter. “Princess! I was all set to call on you this afternoon – but you have come to me instead!”

  “I – didn’t know that you would be here,” Lucilla managed to say, “I came to visit Ethel – ”

  Harkness was not listening. “From the first moment I set eyes on you,” he was saying, “I knew you were the girl for me. I’ve waited a long time to find a wife and now I’ve found her. I’ain’t goin’ to beat about the bush. What do you say, Lucilla? Will you be mine? ”

  Lucilla closed her eyes as a wave of fear passed through her body.

  “No!” she managed to say at last. “No, I can’t!”

  To her horror she heard Harkness laughing. “Atta girl!” he chortled. “I like a girl with spirit. A lady with spirit, even better!”

  “Please Mr. Jackson, I am quite serious!” Lucilla cried. “Ah, so am I, Princess.” Harkness raised her hand and kissed it. “I’ve never been so serious in all my life.”

  “So then, Mr. Jackson, you must listen to me! I cannot possibly accept your proposal of marriage – ”

  He lowered her hand and gazed at her admiringly with his little grey eyes. Then he grinned. “Ah – I know what you’re up to! You’re playin’ hard to get!”

  “No, no, I am not!” Lucilla’s voice cracked as she tried desperately to make him listen. “Please, believe me, I cannot marry you.”

  Harkness let go of her hand. He shook his head and sat back on his heels.

  “You look adorable, Princess. Them roses in your cheeks are comin’ right into bloom. I’m goin’ to let you play your little game with me, sweetheart, for I know that girls love to say ‘no’ when they mean ‘yes’.”

  Lucilla tried to think of some other words she could use to make him understand that she meant what she was saying and that she could never, never become his wife.
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br />   But before she could speak, there was a tap at the door of the salon and Ethel came in.

  “Well?” she enquired, tossing her blonde head and smiling brightly, “can I congratulate you?”

  Harkness chuckled. “I’m gettin’ a rough ride – this cute little English rose is turnin’ out to be a bit of a wild mustang. But – I like ’em fiery and I’m stickin’ with this one till she gives in.”

  “Lucilla!” Ethel exclaimed, looking cross, “How can you be so hard-hearted! Dear old Harkness – ” she patted the American’s bald head as she said this, “ – is completely besotted with you. How can you be such a tease?”

  “I’m not – really not – being a tease!”

  “Oh, you English girls!” Harkness climbed to his feet, leaning on Ethel’s shoulder, as he was rather stiff now from kneeling down for so long. “So straight-laced and yet so fiery, all at the same time. I just adore you, gorgeous.”

  “Why don’t you go now and sit with Mortimer, Harkness, and have some coffee? You must have lots of things to discuss after all that business with the motor car,” Ethel suggested, “and leave Lucilla to me for a moment.”

  The American shrugged and went out of the little salon, leaving the two of them alone.

  Lucilla took a deep breath, as she felt as if all the time the big man had been with her in the salon, there had been no air at all and then she took out her handkerchief and wiped her hand where he had kissed it.

  “Well?” Ethel’s green eyes were piercingly bright. “Did he propose?”

  Lucilla nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  “But you turned him down?”

  Lucilla nodded again.

  Ethel sat on one of the little chairs with a heavy frown wrinkling her brow. “Well. All may not yet be lost,” she said after a moment. “It hasn’t made him like you any the less – in fact, I think he’s even keener, if that’s possible.”

  “Ethel – I don’t want to marry him! I couldn’t!” Lucilla cried, finding her voice at last.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Lucilla. Just think, we could have a double wedding. Mortimer and me – and you and Harkness! We would be the talk of London. It would be the Society event of the year!” Now her green eyes glowed with excitement. “But – I’m sorry, Ethel – I can’t!” Lucilla now struggled to hold back her tears.

  “I’m sure you’ll come round to the idea in the end.” Ethel sighed. “After all, what other options do you have? Do you really think you can go back to Mrs. Lewis’s?”

  Lucilla wiped her eyes and then touched her cheek, where her aunt had slapped her. It still felt very tender.

  “I have nowhere else to go,” she murmured. “Why don’t you stay here with me for a while and think it all over? I know Mama won’t mind as she likes you.”

  “I – should leave, now – ” The mere thought of staying with Lord and Lady Armstrong where Harkness Jackson was likely to return and bother her at any moment, filled Lucilla with dread.

  But then she could see her aunt’s angry face and the horrid cold house, where she had felt so unhappy and tears welled up in her eyes again.

  Ethel sighed impatiently. “Well – I suppose if you do go back to your aunt’s, it might help you to see sense. Mortimer and I will come with you, Lucilla, if you like. We could drive you in the new motor car!”

  “No, it’s quite all right – I can easily walk,” Lucilla replied quickly, as she thought that Ethel might well ask Harkness Jackson too and she most certainly did not want to have to sit next to him.

  “Don’t be silly,” Ethel scolded her. “Your aunt will not be half as unpleasant to you if I come with you. I will ring for our coats!”

  In the event Harkness Jackson did not come with them in the car – although he wanted to – but there were not enough hats and goggles to go around and, as it was such a cold day with a North wind blowing, he insisted that Lucilla borrow his, to protect her face from the weather.

  “Be seein’ you, Princess,” he almost shouted, as he helped Lucilla up the steep step into the motor car. “Keep them pretty roses bloomin’ for me!”

  She hated the feel of the goggles against her face, knowing that, only a very short while before, he had been wearing them. But at least he was not there sitting beside her, she reflected, as the motor car roared into life and rattled away down the street, leaving Harkness waving to them from the pavement.

  Lucilla felt quite faint as the car pulled up outside Aunt Maud’s house, as her nose was full of the fumes from the engine and her ears were ringing with the noise.

  Aunt Maud came out of the house and was standing on the front steps, her face a picture of astonishment as she gazed at the motor car.

  Ethel pulled off her goggles and called out to her,

  “Good morning, Mrs. Lewis! We’ve just brought Lucilla back.”

  Aunt Maud now looked even more surprised, as she watched while Lucilla removed her goggles and shook out her hair that had been flattened by Harkness’s leather hat.

  “What – what?” she stammered.

  “I shan’t come in,” Ethel called, “but I think Lucilla has some news to tell you that will make you very happy, Mrs. Lewis!”

  “Ethel, don’t!” Lucilla cried. “Don’t tell her!”

  “Foolish girl!” Ethel whispered, leaning close to Lucilla. “I bet you’ll think better of refusing Harkness just as soon as you walk through that front door. And, Lucilla, just picture that double wedding! I’m counting on you – we’re going to be the sensation of the year!”

  With that she pushed Lucilla out of the car and onto the pavement, as Mortimer revved the engine and turned in a tight circle to begin their return journey.

  “I did not expect to see you so soon,” Aunt Maud remarked very coldly and she stepped backwards as Lucilla came through the door and into the hall, as if she found her niece most distasteful.

  “I am sorry for what happened this morning, Aunt, but it was not my fault. I did not know that Mr. Pargetter was expected or I would not have stayed downstairs.”

  Aunt Maud sniffed. “You know my feelings on the matter. I cannot have you under my roof when my fiancé comes to visit.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know. Congratulations, Aunt Maud!”

  “Yes, Mr. Pargetter proposed to me this morning, Lucilla. We are to be married in a month. Arrangements must be made for you to live elsewhere, for I will not be able to offer you my hospitality any longer.”

  Lucilla felt her heart turn to ice as she heard this. “I have – nowhere to go, Aunt,” she mumbled.

  “You should have thought of that before you took it upon yourself to behave so disgracefully. But what was Lady Armstrong’s daughter shouting about just now from the seat of that extraordinary carriage?”

  “Oh, it is nothing, Aunt.”

  “I distinctly heard her say that you had something to tell me.”

  “No – really – ” “If you persist in being so underhand and devious, Lucilla, I shall call on Lady Armstrong this afternoon and find out from her just what is going on.” Aunt Maud’s mouth closed like a trap after these words and Lucilla knew that she would do exactly as she threatened.

  “I – received a proposal of marriage – but – ” she began, and saw her aunt’s eyebrows rise in astonishment.

  “Really, Lucilla? From whom?”

  “From – Mr. Jackson. But – I did not accept.”

  Aunt Maud’s eyebrows descended into a ferocious frown. “What? You received an offer of marriage from a gentleman, who, I am told, is in possession of considerable wealth – and you turned it down? You little fool!”

  Lucilla winced as she saw her aunt’s hand rise in the air, but this time there was no slap, though her cheeks were trembling with rage as she continued speaking,

  “How dare you think that you can reject such an opportunity, while you continue to not only eat me out of house and home, but in addition try to come between me and my intended husband?”

  “I did not – ”
Lucilla began.

  Aunt Maud was wringing her hands together as if in an attempt to stop herself from hitting Lucilla again.

  “I am so sorry, Aunt. I really cannot marry him, I just can’t – I don’t like him – not at all.”

  “Lucilla,” Aunt Maud exclaimed, slowly biting her lip to calm herself. “Go to your room. I will give you until tomorrow morning to think about your situation. If you decide to accept Mr. Jackson’s proposal, you may remain here until your wedding. If you persist in behaving like a selfish little fool, you must then pack your bags and leave tomorrow.”

  “Thank you, Aunt,” Lucilla whispered and made her way to her bedroom, her feet feeling heavy as lead as she climbed the stairs.

  Alone at last, Lucilla lay down on her bed and gave way to the tears that had been threatening to overcome her ever since Harkness had proposed to her.

  ‘How could my aunt be so cruel?’ she whispered, her words lost in the feather pillow where she had hidden her face. ‘She is my Mama’s sister, and – my dear Mama was the kindest gentlest person!’

  She could not understand it.

  It seemed as if her happy childhood at Wellsprings Place and the love she had shared with her dear Mama and Papa were just a make-believe, a happy dream that was all over and finished for ever.

  Lucilla now found herself living in a very different world, a place where no one seemed to understand her or care about her.

  ‘Ethel is no friend of mine. All she really cares about is money and clothes, and fine houses,’ she thought to herself. ‘I could never be like that – ’

  But, as her sobbing slowed and she became calmer, Lucilla began to think about what her future might hold.

  Her aunt’s cruelty had shocked her deeply and she could still feel the bruise on her cheek where she had been slapped. “I cannot stay here, I cannot!” she shouted at the ceiling, sitting up and drying her eyes. ‘I don’t even want to spend another night here – but – what can I do?’

  Perhaps, after all, she should take Ethel’s advice.

  Would it really be so bad to be married to someone like Harkness Jackson? Lucilla shivered at the thought of it, and yet – he had seemed to care for her and perhaps, just like Mortimer would do for Ethel, he would buy a house for her and she could live there and not see him very often.