Beyond the Stars Read online

  The Duke was dressed as the Emperor Charles V and had no intention of doing anything so theatrical or dramatic. He was a shy retiring man by nature, but he adored his wife and was content to let her do anything she wished.

  As the Duchess was now getting into the palanquin, four Egyptians presented themselves to the Earl in the sitting room.

  They had come in answer to the letter that he had sent to the Egyptian Embassy and they were dressed as slaves, although he doubted if their costumes were exactly authentic.

  However, all four of them looked the part and had brought what he required, which was a long narrow board.

  The Duke had had the brilliant idea that Lupita should enact the romantic story of how Cleopatra had herself smuggled into Julius Caesar’s presence rolled up in a carpet.

  The Egyptians set the board down on the floor.

  Obediently because the Earl had told her in the carriage what he wanted her to do, Lupita lay down on it.

  Then she was wrapped up, not in a carpet, which would have been far too heavy, but in a bedspread that had a Persian design on it.

  It would appear to those who glanced at it exactly like an Oriental carpet.

  The Earl waited until the Duchess had been carried out into the ballroom.

  She was then greeted with loud cheers and claps from the large number of people already assembled there.

  He had noticed as he passed the doorway that all the Dowagers had seated themselves round the walls.

  There were some fantastically dressed young men standing in the background waiting for the dancing to begin.

  These were the men that the Earl knew would be the first to query why he was not with Heloise and so they would undoubtedly be consumed with curiosity as well as being bowled over by the beauty of Lupita.

  As the applause that greeted the Duchess subsided, the Earl gave a signal.

  The four Egyptians raised the board with Lupita lying on it and then placed it on their shoulders.

  The Earl had been wise enough to ask for men who had been in the Army and they could be relied upon to march in unison with each other.

  And to carry their burden with an expertise he would not have expected of an ordinary civilian.

  The Earl walked in followed by the Egyptians.

  As they set the board down on the floor of the ballroom the Master of Ceremonies then announced once again,

  “The most noble Gaius Julius Caesar, Dictator of Rome!”

  Lupita was completely covered by the Persian bedspread.

  For a moment everyone looked bewildered and the Egyptians ceremoniously removed the coverlet and the Earl moved forward to help Lupita to her feet.

  The light from the many huge chandeliers glittered on the jewellery on her headdress and on her gown and she seemed to shimmer with more than a thousand lights as if she was a twinkling star in the firmament.

  “Her Majesty Queen Cleopatra of Egypt,” announced the Master of Ceremonies.

  There was a moment of silence from sheer astonishment.

  This was followed by everybody applauding and cheering with delight.

  It had been a complete and absolute success.

  The Earl bowed and Lupita curtseyed to him.

  Then tongues began to wag furiously as people started asking again and again who she was and why they had not seen her before.

  The band started to play and the Earl put his arm round Lupita.

  “Was it as you – hoped?” she asked him in a whisper.

  “You were perfect.” he replied.

  “And now I am at my very first ball,” Lupita breathed with a rapt note in her voice, “but I feel as if I am – dancing on a cloud.”

  She looked so radiant as she spoke that the Earl thought it not surprising that everybody in the ballroom was gazing at her.

  Next they danced their first dance together and twirled in harmony around the ballroom.

  Immediately many of the Earl’s friends came rushing up to them and insisted on being introduced to Lupita, but he soon managed to be dancing with her again.

  Meanwhile the Earl had caught sight of Heloise.

  He saw at once that there was another reason why she had wanted to come to the ball with the Duke.

  She was wearing the Dunbridge diamonds, which were famous and spectacular and were recognised by everyone present.

  Lionel Bridge, who was to be the first Earl of Dunbridge was soldiering in India at the end of the last century with Sir Arthur Wellesley.

  In one of his many campaigns he had saved the life of the Nizam of Hyderabad largely by being in the right place at the right time

  The Nizam naturally had been extremely grateful.

  As he possessed a private diamond mine of his own, he had given the young Officer an enormous number of uncut diamonds to take back with him to England.

  The story had fascinated the Prince of Wales, who later became the Prince Regent and then King George IV.

  It was whispered that some of these splendid diamonds had paid a large number of His Royal Highness’s outstanding debts.

  A little later Lionel Bridge distinguished himself both in the Peninsula War and then at the Battle of Waterloo.

  Eventually, whatever the pretext, he was then rewarded by becoming the first Duke of Dunbridge.

  He had certainly been a strange and unusual character.

  When he was over forty, he married a girl who was the daughter of another Duke and their Wedding was the talk of the whole country.

  The Duke had indeed emulated King George IV and some people said that he had even borrowed part of the very spectacular clothes His Majesty had worn at his Coronation.

  He had been described as looking ‘like some gorgeous bird of the East’.

  Tonight the fourth Duke had come dressed as his ancestor with a train of crimson velvet inset with golden stars. His large hat, Spanish in design, was decorated with ostrich feathers.

  If the Duke looked fantastic Heloise had been determined to outshine him and everybody else in the ballroom.

  She was wearing an enormous tiara which was almost like a crown, glittering with the Nizam’s diamonds and round her neck were ten strings of large diamonds reaching nearly to her waist.

  She had several bracelets on each arm and huge earrings with diamond drops that almost touched her shoulders and her gown was, the Earl felt, very like the actual Wedding gown that was worn by the first Duchess.

  On Heloise it was not particularly becoming, but there were yards of it trailing behind her.

  In fact it aroused little interest or comment compared to the diamonds she was wearing.

  The Earl, to his great satisfaction, learnt later that she had received some applause, but not nearly as much as Lupita had.

  He had already heard several men making rude remarks about Dunbridge’s hat.

  He too was staring at it when Mrs. Asquith wearing the costume of an Oriental snake charmer, same to his side to say,

  “What is going on, Ingram? I thought you were coming tonight with Heloise Brook.”

  Margot Asquith was noted as being one of the most dangerous gossips in the whole of London Society.

  The Earl therefore hesitated before he replied.

  Then before he could do so she looked at Lupita and remarked,

  “But naturally, seeing who you are with, I understand. She is exquisite, quite exquisite!”

  The Earl suddenly had an idea and so bending towards Mrs. Asquith he said almost in a whisper,

  “Please be careful not to say anything about us yet. It is too soon and we have not had a chance to talk to our families.”

  Margot Asquith’s eyes lit up.

  There was nothing that she enjoyed more than hearing of an engagement or an affaire de coeur before anybody else was aware of it.

  “But, of course, dear boy,” she said. “I will be very discreet as I always am.”

  She patted the Earl on the arm and then moved away. He knew that not for one moment would she
be able to keep the information to herself.

  She would be telling everyone in the room that the Earl of Ardwick was not engaged to Heloise Brook, as they had all expected, and in fact his new love was Lady Lupita Lang!

  Without even looking, the Earl was aware that the Dowagers were glancing towards him and beginning to gossip with more intensity.

  Taking Lupita by the arm, he drew her from the ballroom and into the garden.

  Here there were endless Chinese lanterns hanging from trees and the paths were outlined with pretty fairy lights.

  Lupita was too young and unsophisticated to realise that to be alone in the garden with a man was an indiscretion and no strict Mama would ever have allowed her debutante daughter to leave the ballroom.

  The Earl made sure that Lupita could be seen from the windows as he pointed out to her some of the other guests.

  Lupita was thrilled to see the Prince of Wales in the full glory of the Grand Prior of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.

  They both laughed at the Countess of Westmorland who was dressed as Hebe and had a huge stuffed eagle on her shoulder and she was finding it virtually impossible to cope with it when she was dancing.

  But the most amusing of all of them was undoubtedly an American lady, Mrs. Ronalds, who was representing Auterpe, the Muse of Music.

  To Lupita’s astonishment she had electric lights woven into her hair so that they lit up the lyre that she was carrying.

  There were so many strangely garbed and exciting people to see that Lupita was thrilled and enchanted by it all.

  The Earl too found himself enjoying the spectacle and forgetting for the moment how furious he was with Heloise.

  Later when he had heard people criticising her display of diamonds as being ‘somewhat vulgar’ he thought it served her right.

  He was, however, aware that, because Lupita was so lovely, they were not as surprised by his not being with Heloise as he might have anticipated.

  He was determined to show Heloise that he was not the least upset at her decision to marry the Duke.

  He danced almost every dance with Lupita and made her refuse the many invitations she received from other gentlemen.

  This in itself fanned Margot Asquith’s assertion that they were already secretly engaged.

  He was not surprised when they had said ‘goodnight’ that many of the older Dowagers to whom he spoke murmured,

  “Congratulations, my dear boy!”

  It was three o’clock in the morning when he and Lupita eventually said ‘goodnight’ to his hostess.

  As he kissed her, the Duchess said,

  “You know, Ingram, that I am seething with curiosity and, if you don’t tell me what is going on, I will never speak to you again!”

  “You know I could not bear that to happen, so expect me sometime in the afternoon.”

  “And don’t dare to forget that appointment,” the Duchess said wagging her finger at him.

  The Earl and Lupita waited in the hall while their carriage was being brought round to the front door.

  She admired a huge marble basin, which was filled with water lilies.

  She looked rather like a lily herself, the Earl thought, as she touched the white blooms with the tips of her fingers.

  Then, as they climbed into the carriage and the horses moved off, Lupita sighed,

  “It was wonderful – wonderful – wonderful! I can never thank you enough for taking me to such a – marvellous party. I shall remember it for the rest of my life!”

  “I am quite certain that after tonight you will be invited to a great number of others,” the Earl pointed out.

  She looked at him in surprise.

  “But – why should people invite me?”

  “You have been a great success, Lupita,” he said, “and as many of the guests will have known your father, you will by now have been added to their lists and, as I have just said, the invitations for you will flood in.”

  “I-I really cannot believe – it,” Lupita sighed again.

  Then she suddenly gave a little cry.

  “If that happens, Cousin Rufus will know – where I am!”

  “You are not to worry about him,” the Earl said. “I will deal with your cousin so that he does not upset you again.”

  There was silence for a moment before Lupita carried on,

  “But I am sure – absolutely sure – that he will still want to k-kill Jerry. I don’t think I told you that his valet – whom he brought with him when he came to Wood Hall, told our servants that his Master was heavily in debt – and that he was glad to – escape from London as the duns – were threatening him.”

  It was what he might have expected, the Earl thought to himself.

  It would undoubtedly make Rufus Lang very determined by one means or another to grab hold of the money that now belonged to a small boy of six.

  It was only this child who stood between him and the title and all that appertained to it.

  As they drove on, the Earl was thinking to himself that he must not make the mistake of underestimating the menace that Rufus Lang represented.

  He was undeniably a serious danger to the young, unspoilt and very beautiful girl sitting beside him.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Lupita awoke as the maid was pulling back the curtains and the bright morning sun was streaming into her bedroom

  She then brought in a breakfast tray and put it down beside the bed.

  “Breakfast in bed?” Lupita exclaimed. “That is very luxurious.”

  “His Lordship’s orders,” the maid said, “and, as ’e’d like to take you drivin’ in the Park, ’e asks if you’ll be downstairs by eleven-thirty, my Lady.”

  “Of course I will be,” Lupita exclaimed.

  She glanced at the clock beside her bed and was amazed to see that it was just after ten o’clock.

  ‘I am certainly quickly getting used to London ways,’ she thought.

  She was still eating her breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs when Jerry came running into the room.

  “Lupita!” he cried, “they would not let me come in before because they said you were asleep. You are lazy to sleep so long!”

  “I was very late last night, dancing at the ball,” Lupita told him.

  Jerry was not interested.

  “I’ve got some new toys,” he said, “and you must come and see them with me.”

  “I will do so as soon as I am dressed,” Lupita promised.

  Jerry walked round her bedroom looking at the pictures and she knew that he was really longing to go back to his toys.

  She thought that only the Earl could have been so clever.

  He not only had a garden in which Bracken could go when he wanted to and he also had been thoughtful enough to instruct the housekeeper to get down for Jerry from the attics any toys that she had hoarded there.

  ‘I am lucky – so very – lucky,’ Lupita told herself over and over again.

  She thought of all the compliments that she had received last night from the men who had danced with her.

  In fact there were not many besides the Earl, but other men had gone up to him saying,

  “I insist on being introduced to the most beautiful Cleopatra I have ever imagined.”

  ‘It was really the dress, not me,’ Lupita told herself modestly.

  At the same time the thought that she had indeed been a success and it was very exciting and she very much hoped that the Earl was pleased with her and that she had not made too many silly mistakes.

  Mrs. Fielding came in to arrange for her bath and help her to dress.

  Lupita put on the best day gown she had brought with her and her prettiest hat.

  She could not help feeling that after last night the Earl would expect her to look more spectacular.

  However, when she went downstairs, he looked at her appraisingly.

  He obviously did not feel that she looked so countrified that he would change his mind and not take her driving.

&nbs
p; Outside stood an elegant chaise drawn by two perfectly matched horses.

  The groom was sitting up behind wearing the Earl’s smart Livery with a cockade in his tall hat.

  Before they left the house the Earl gave instructions that one of the footmen was to keep Jerry occupied.

  He suggested he would perhaps enjoy a ball game with the racquets that were kept in the games room.

  As they drove on, Lupita said,

  “You think of everything, my Lord. How can you be so excessively kind and at the same time so clever?”

  “Now you are flattering me,” the Earl answered. “I am delighted to hear it, but actually it is I who should be paying you the compliments.”

  Lupita looked at him anxiously,

  “I-I was afraid,” she said in a small voice, “that you would not think me – smart enough to come driving with you.”

  “I think you look charming,” the Earl replied. “But I have constituted myself as your Guardian now that your father is dead so I have sent for a Bond Street dressmaker to visit you this afternoon and provide you with the gowns you will need if you are to accept half of the invitations that will be flooding in.”

  To his surprise Lupita laughed.

  “I don’t – believe your story about all these – invitations.”

  “Just wait and see and you will soon realise that I am right,” the Earl responded.

  He drove his horses with an expertise and skill she knew very well would have pleased her father.

  When they turned into Rotten Row, Lupita was certain that their carriage looked smarter than any other in view.

  There were so many exquisitely dressed ladies sitting in open Victorias holding up their pretty little sunshades.

  There were also a number of gentlemen on horseback who all seemed to know the Earl.

  They drove slowly.

  The Earl then suddenly became aware that seated in an open carriage, with the Duke of Dunbridge beside her, was Heloise.

  He drove past, knowing that she was watching him.

  He therefore deliberately turned his head the other way to acknowledge the greetings of a gentleman on horseback.

  He thought with some satisfaction how much it would annoy her that everyone in sight was looking at Lupita and obviously admiring her.