Money or Love Read online

  “And he is coming back to us?”

  “He is delighted to do so and I have told him what he is expected to do. That is to engage all the servants we require and there are to be quite a lot of them.”

  “It will be lovely to have someone who has known us before, Robin. How clever of you to think of him!”

  “I have been clever in another way as well,” Robin added smugly, “and this came to me in a flash.”

  “Now what can that be?” asked Alena.

  “I was thinking about the ball and that, as the men are working only in the kitchen at the moment, it’s going to take quite a long time before they start work on the front of the house and the ballroom.”

  Alena shrugged her shoulders.

  “I am afraid that is inevitable.”

  “Which would mean we would have to put off your ball until the end of the Season, instead of giving it at once so that you will be invited to all the other balls.”

  “Naturally, but it cannot be helped.”

  “Yes it can, if you do what I want you to do.”

  Alena looked mystified.

  “You will invite all the guests in two weeks time to a Moonlight Ball.”

  She stared at him.

  “A Moonlight Ball?” she repeated.

  “I was wondering what we could do that would be original and then suddenly this came to mind. We can use the new form of electric lighting in the main rooms and the ballroom.”

  Alena gave a gasp as Robin continued,

  “But we shall not have time to install it completely. There will be just enough to create a huge moon that will throw a silvery light in the ballroom.”

  Alena clapped her hands together.

  “It’s a brilliant idea, Robin. What you are saying is that the guests will not see the dilapidated state of the walls and the pillars.”

  “That is the idea and if there are plenty of flowers, the place will look amazingly beautiful.”

  He smiled before he added,

  “And, of course, you must wear a gown that glitters like moonlight.”

  “You are so clever, Robin, that it is a great pity you cannot sell your brilliant ideas and make a fortune.”

  “I promise you, Alena, that our Moonlight Ball will be a huge success. I shall also have a moon in the dining room and smaller ones in the hall and passages.”

  Alena could not help feeling excited.

  She had been thinking that, unless they could hurry the workmen, no one was going to be at all impressed by the house, only by the Picture Gallery.

  Now she thought that if Burley produced enough housemaids they could easily clean away all the dust and polish the furniture.

  It would be very difficult for anyone in the artificial moonlight to notice that the carpet was shabby and the sofa and chairs needed re-covering.

  Robin was delighted with his ideas and talked about them all through luncheon and was hardly aware of what he was eating.

  Alena had realised that they would not be able to eat in the kitchen, so she had asked one of the workmen to buy some food in Shepherds Market.

  She had made a list for him of meat and fruit, a loaf of bread and a large packet of butter and she hoped that Robin would think it sufficient.

  As it was, he ate everything, drank some claret she had brought up from the cellar and hurried off.

  He said he had so much to do and Alena did not ask for details as she thought it would delay him.

  She began writing out copies of Robin’s letter.

  She was now feeling so much more optimistic than she had earlier in the day.

  *

  It was a sheer delight when Burley arrived.

  He was obviously as thrilled at coming back to the house as Alena and Robin were at having him.

  “I miss the house in the country, Miss Alena,” he said, “but it weren’t the same when Sir Edward became so ill. There be no one then to wait on them nurses who all complained at everything I did for them.”

  “Oh, I don’t believe it, Burley. We always thought you were perfect.”

  Burley laughed.

  “That’s just what I missed when you’d gone, Miss Alena.”

  “Well, I hear Sir Robin has given you a free hand, Burley, so please find us plenty of good and hard-working housemaids. You can see the mess this house is in.”

  “I’m not surprised as it’s been empty for so long, but I’ll soon make it shipshape. Don’t you and Sir Robin worry – just leave it to me.”

  He went off to visit the Agency and as Alena was to find our later, he got in touch with some of his friends, who were only too pleased to join him.

  Alena realised that, of course, Robin had let Burley think that money was no object.

  Now their father was dead everything that had gone wrong during his illness had to be forgotten.

  “I was always afraid you’d not be able to open this house, Sir Robin,” Burley commented.

  Knowing he was very curious, Robin replied,

  “I have come into some money I did not expect. So I can now see Miss Alena has a proper ‘coming-out’ as a debutante – and that is why we must be in London.”

  “Yes, Sir Robin, I can understand.”

  Burley certainly did not skimp in engaging the staff they required.

  Fortunately there was enough livery upstairs in the attic for the four footmen who would be on duty in the hall.

  There were two pantry boys cleaning the silver as well as a scullion and two assistants for the cook.

  It was indeed fortunate, Burley remarked, that his older sister had been widowed the previous year and would like to come back into service.

  She had been the head housemaid to a distinguished Nobleman and therefore the position of housekeeper over six young maids was very much to her liking.

  It was a joy, Alena thought, to retire to bed so soon after their arrival and find everything prepared – her bed turned down and her nightgown laid out.

  Hot water was in a brass can on the washstand and the dust in the room had disappeared as if by a magic hand.

  Robin had naturally taken the Master bedroom and Burley was valeting him until he could find someone, who in his words, was ‘up to his job’.

  “I am so happy with you here, Burley,” Robin had said quietly.

  “That’s as maybe, Sir Robin, but when things get busy, I can’t attend to your clothes in the way I’d want and have the dining room up to scratch as well. I’ll find a valet, but he’s got to be someone I’ve complete confidence in.”

  Robin smiled as Burley was certainly proving his worth.

  “It was brilliant of you to think of him,” Alena said again the evening after he had arrived.

  Robin had other news that he thought fantastic.

  “I have just called in at the American Embassy,” he boasted when he came home late for tea.

  “Why did you go there?” Alena asked him.

  “You know the answer. I was wondering how we could make the Americans aware of us as much as we are so aware of them.”

  “You cannot be serious about both of us marrying Americans,” Alena remarked nervously.

  “It’s where the money is, Alena, and that, as you well know, is exactly what we need – ”

  There was a pause before he added,

  “And as quickly as possible!”

  Alena knew he was telling her that even the large amount of money they had received from the Italian artist was not going to last for ever.

  She therefore waited curiously and apprehensively for him to tell her what he had achieved at the Embassy.

  “I introduced myself to the American Ambassador and told him I was a huge admirer of the strides America was making, especially in shipbuilding and modern design of machinery.

  “I hope he was impressed by your remarks.”

  “He was indeed and I said I was thinking of going to America shortly myself as I was contemplating buying a yacht!”

  Alena stared in surpris
e at him as he went on,

  “I could think of no one who could provide me with one that was more up-to-date and had all the latest gadgets than the American firm, which has already produced some sailing ships that are far more advanced than ours.”

  “He must have enjoyed all that flattery!”

  “He was very delighted, especially as I implied that I would be sparing no expense on any yacht I purchased.”

  Alena laughed because it all seemed so ridiculous.

  “I then invited him and his wife to our ball and said I would be sending him an invitation in the next two days.”

  “I am sure he accepted with alacrity.”

  “He certainly did and I then asked him if there were any young and pretty American girls in London at present. I thought it would be nice for you, when you come with me to New York to have some friends there already.”

  Alena laughed.

  “Oh, Robin, you are too sharp for words!”

  “I rather thought so myself too, especially after the Ambassador gave me this list!”

  He drew some papers from his pocket and put them down in front of his sister.

  Alena saw that there were two pages of names and addresses.

  “Things are certainly moving quickly, Robin, but I am afraid if we go too fast we shall make mistakes.”

  “The faster the better. We must get this ball going first. You will see that one of the girls named here comes from one of the richest families in the whole of the USA.”

  Alena looked down and saw the name Mary-Lee Vanderhart.

  “Is that her?” she asked.

  “Yes. According to the newspapers she is worth, or rather her father is, two or three hundred million with even more to come!”

  “Well, it ought to take you some time to spend that amount! But it would be a great mistake to count your chickens before they are hatched.”

  “I am well aware of that, Alena. The newspapers have also told me that she is very beautiful.”

  There was a pause and then Alena commented,

  “I am certain that anyone with that money would be described as beautiful even if she had a face like the back of a cab!”

  “Now you are being cynical and you, my dearest, will not only be far more beautiful than any of your guests, but will appear to have more money than any of them!”

  Alena laughed.

  “I think this daydream of yours is gradually turning into a circus, Robin, and I am quite certain the clowns will appear soon!”

  “The only clowns here will be us if we make fools of ourselves, Alena. This is our one big opportunity and I assure you I am not going to make a mess of it.”

  As he spoke, there was a loud crash in the corridor outside and he hurried out to see what had happened.

  Alena thought it was merely one of the workmen who had dropped a ladder or perhaps his tools.

  So she sat down at her writing table again and then she looked at the list Robin had given her and shuddered.

  It was all very well to talk lightly of marrying a rich American for his money, but after all she was indeed the same flesh and blood as they were.

  Once she and Robin were married there would be no escape.

  ‘I don’t want to think about it,’ Alena told herself.

  As she was writing the additional envelopes and the letters that Robin had to sign, it was difficult not to feel that she was plunging deeper and deeper into a quagmire that might eventually engulf her completely.

  It was late that evening when Alena rose from the writing table with a sigh.

  She had been working at the invitations all day and it was not as easy as it had appeared at first.

  She had to make sure that her mother’s and father’s friends were still alive.

  Although there was a Debrett’s Peerage in the house, it was out of date and she thought that tomorrow she must make Robin buy or borrow a new one.

  She had now written out invitations for nearly five hundred people and if only half of them accepted it would still be a large ball.

  She hoped that Burley would have engaged a cook by this evening, although he did say he had an excellent chef coming the following morning and in the meantime he would cook anything Alena required himself.

  *

  Robin decided to go to his Club.

  “I shall meet friends there who will be delighted to be asked to the ball and I would like to know if some of the Officers who served with me in the Regiment are still at Knightsbridge Barracks.”

  He left at seven o’clock and Alena ate alone.

  Burley had felt that the enormous dining room that was not yet properly cleaned would be somewhat depressing.

  Instead he brought her dinner on a tray to the study and she found that the supper he had prepared for her was delicious.

  It made her feel strong enough to go on until she had finished the task her brother had set for her, but it had taken her far longer than she thought it would.

  When she glanced at the clock, she saw that it was nearly midnight – and that meant that Burley would have locked the front door and gone to bed.

  “We might engage a night-watchman later,” he had said, “but your father, Miss Alena, was always against our keeping a footman up all night and I’m sure you’ll agree it’s unnecessary.”

  “When you think just how long the house has been empty, it’s so amazing it has not been burgled. But I don’t think we need worry.”

  “I’ll get everything just perfect at soon as possible,” Burley promised. “But it all takes time.”

  “Of course it does, Burley, and I do think you have done wonders already.”

  “As Sir Robin kindly keeps saying, but this be only the beginning and we’ve a long way to go yet.”

  When Burley said goodnight, he told Alena that he had put an oil lamp in the hall so that Robin would see his way when he returned and the candles had been lit in her bedroom.

  They were using lamps and candles still, although Robin kept talking about electric light.

  Alena put down her pen – her fingers were aching after the length of time she had been writing.

  Then she stretched out her arms and yawned.

  ‘If I don’t retire to my bed soon,’ she thought, ‘I shall be late in the morning.’

  She blew out the five candles intending to grope her way to the door.

  Just as she was about to do so, she heard a slight sound outside the window.

  No one had drawn the curtains and she had thought it rather pleasant when she looked up from her work to see the moonlight in the garden at the back of the house.

  The garden itself certainly needed much attention, but it was no use thinking about gardeners until they had engaged everyone they needed in the house.

  Alena thought the most sensible thing would be to find a firm to restore the garden as it had been originally with a neat lawn, flowerbeds and comfortable seats under the trees.

  There was also a fountain, but she was sure it had not worked for a very long time and she knew that it was a luxury she must not ask for at the moment.

  Now, as she looked towards the window, she saw to her astonishment that there was a man outside.

  She wondered who it could possibly be.

  Perhaps it was Burley looking to see if she had shut and locked the windows before she retired to bed.

  Before she could decide if it was he or perhaps one of the new footmen, the window was pulled up from the bottom.

  Even as she stood staring, the man slipped into the room and, turning round, he pulled the window back down behind him.

  It was then, when she could just faintly see his face in the moonlight, Alena realised that he was a stranger.

  It flashed through her mind that he could well be a burglar.

  Because she was frightened, her voice trembled as she blurted out,

  “Who are you – and what do you want?”

  The man started and turned towards her.

  “Who are you?
” he retorted. “And what on earth are you doing here?”

  “This is my house,” replied Alena, “and – why have you climbed in through the window? Are you a burglar?”

  “Your house!” the man exclaimed in astonishment. “But the house is empty – there is no one living here.”

  “How do you know that?” she demanded.

  She thought, although she could really not see, that he was smiling.

  “I have been calling here for quite some time,” he replied, “and so far I have never met a single soul. So I rather doubt that you are the proprietor.”

  “But I am,” she persisted, “and, if you are a stranger, you have no right to come into my house.”

  He did not answer and Alena thought it was more frightening talking in the dark than if she could see him.

  She reached out for the matches and lit the candles she had just blown out.

  She was conscious, as she lit them one after another, that the stranger had not moved.

  Now she looked over at him with a candle on each side of her face.

  She had no idea how lovely she looked.

  She was staring directly at the stranger and he was not in the least what she was expecting.

  She had somehow thought that if he was a burglar, or perhaps a man in search of food, he would be rough and raggedly dressed.

  Instead she found she was facing a young man who was exceedingly good-looking and fashionably attired.

  His coat was well cut and his collar and tie were immaculate.

  He was holding in his hand something that looked like a block of paper.

  For a few moments they both stared at each other and then the newcomer muttered,

  “Are you real or have you just stepped out of one of these pictures? I am trying to think which artist would do you the most credit.”

  Alena gave a little cry.

  “Pictures!” she exclaimed. “You have come here to steal our pictures?”

  The intruder smiled.

  “Not to steal them, just to view them and to wonder how anyone who owned anything so unique and priceless could leave them so recklessly unattended!”

  His voice was sharp, as he added almost abruptly,

  “You might easily be burgled and then you would lose your treasures that are completely irreplaceable.”