Winged Victory Read online

  It was a pretty room and the Earl felt that any woman would appreciate the azure blue of the hangings and the white panelling that had decorated the walls since the house was first built.

  They put down Cledra in her basket near the bed and now they had reached the end of their journey the Earl bent down and removed the muslin that covered her face.

  She had not moved since they had left Newmarket and, because she was so still, he was wondering if the journey had been too much for her when Mrs. Dorkins came into the room.

  She was an elderly woman, but she had before she married late in life, been lady’s maid to the Earl’s mother and he had in consequence known her ever since he had been a boy.

  “Master Lennox!” Mrs. Dorkins exclaimed and then corrected herself, hastily dropping a curtsey and saying,

  “I means – your Lordship.”

  “I want your help, Hannah.”

  “My help, my Lord?”

  Her eyes were drawn instinctively to the basket on the ground and she walked towards it exclaiming,

  “Now what can your Lordship have here?”

  “Somebody who needs you to nurse her and bring her back to health,” the Earl replied.

  He saw the surprise in Hannah’s face and added,

  “I will leave Yates to explain to you what must be done and the secrecy that is necessary while I go and see my grandmother.”

  “Her Ladyship’ll be ever so excited to see you, my Lord,” Mrs. Dorkins replied. “She was only sayin’ this morning that ’twas far too long since you’d paid us a visit.”

  “I am aware of that, Hannah, but I know that what I have to tell her Ladyship will be better medicine than any physician can supply.”

  He walked from the room as he spoke leaving the door open and heard as he went Yates begin a voluble explanation as to why they were here.

  The Earl walked down the passage to a room in the centre of the house where his grandmother had changed what had once been a large and impressive salon into her bedroom.

  As she was confined to one room and was only occasionally able to leave her bed for a chair in the window, she had insisted that her surroundings should be as attractive as possible.

  She wanted the people who visited her to go away with the impression that she was not only surrounded by beauty but she herself was still beautiful as she had been when she had been acclaimed as one of the loveliest ladies that Society had ever seen.

  Now the Dowager Countess was in her late seventies, but her classical features were unchanged and, although there were lines under her eyes and wrinkles, which she deplored, any artist would have found her still extremely beautiful.

  In fact the Countess’s success as a leader of Society had not depended entirely on her looks.

  She was also intelligent and witty and made every man she met wish to see her again and not only pay her compliments but talk to her because she inspired and stimulated them.

  The Earl knocked on the door and, when it was opened by a lady’s maid who was also getting on in years, the woman gave what was almost a shriek of delight before she cried,

  “It’s you, my Lord! Her Ladyship’s been longin’ to see you and wonderin’ why you’ve not called on her for so long.”

  “Well, I am here now,” the Earl replied, “and it is good to see you looking so well, Emma.”

  The old maid curtseyed, and then left the room leaving the Earl alone with his grandmother.

  A quick glance showed him that she was not in bed, but sitting in a chair by the window with an ermine rug going slightly yellow with age over her knees.

  She was decked as usual in a profusion of jewels that glittered in the sunshine streaming in through the window.

  The Countess never allowed anybody to see her until her hair was dressed, her face rouged and powdered as it had been when she was young and some of her fabulous and extremely valuable jewels draped round her neck and glittering on her fingers and wrists.

  Now, as the Earl went towards her, she held out both her hands and the movement made her gems scintillate, so that she seemed to be enveloped in all the colours of the rainbow.

  “Lennox! Where have you been, you naughty boy!” she scolded him. “I thought you had forgotten me.”

  The Earl kissed both his grandmother’s hands and then her cheek before he sat down in the chair next to her.

  “You are looking very beautiful, Grandmama,” he began. “Are you waiting for some ardent beau to call upon you?”

  “Flattery will get you nowhere!” the Countess replied.

  At the same time she was smiling at the compliment.

  “I am dressed up,” she went on, “because if there is nobody else to admire me, I might as well admire myself. At this time of the year everybody is enjoying the London Season, except for me.”

  “I have been to Newmarket.”

  “I guessed that. How many races did you win?”

  The Earl laughed.

  “That is indeed flattery, Grandmama. Most people would have asked if I had won a race.”

  “Don’t try any false modesty with me,” the Countess said almost sharply. “You know as well as I do that you win and go on winning. It becomes almost boring to read The Racing News.”

  She glanced as she spoke towards the newspapers that were lying on a stool by her side and the Earl was not surprised to see among them sporting newspapers that were usually read only by gentlemen and that he never saw them in any other lady’s sitting room except his grandmother’s.

  “As you have undoubtedly read which races I won yesterday,” he replied, “I need only tell you that I was first in the Sefton Stakes with the only horse I entered today.”

  “Good,” the Countess smiled, “then, as you are here already, you must have left Newmarket without watching the last three races.”

  “I left for a special reason,” the Earl answered.

  The way he spoke and the fact that he lowered his voice slightly made the Countess look at him quickly.

  At that moment the door opened and the butler came into the room followed by a footman carrying a tray on which stood an ice cooler containing an open bottle of champagne, two glasses and a plate of very thin pâté sandwiches.

  Both the Earl and the Countess were silent as he placed the tray on the low table and would have poured out the champagne, but the Earl said,

  “I will do it, Dorkins,”

  “Very good, my Lord.”

  The servants left the room and the Earl half-filled both glasses and handed one to his grandmother.

  “You know that I am not supposed to drink alcohol,” the Countess remarked.

  “You will need it when you hear what I have to tell you,” the Earl responded.

  “I thought the moment you came into the room that you had something exciting to impart,” the Countess said. “At least I hope it is exciting. I cannot tell you, Lennox, how bored I am sitting here with nobody to talk to but the servants and thinking of all the things I am now too old to enjoy.”

  “You will enjoy what I have to tell you and especially when I begin by saying that I have brought with me a young woman, whose presence must be a complete secret from everybody except those in your household like Hannah whom we can trust implicitly.”

  The Countess stared at him for a moment incredulously.

  Then she said,

  “A young woman? Are you telling me that you have finished with that red-haired Hungarian?”

  The Earl threw back his head and laughed.

  “That is so like, you, Grandmama! You tell me that you are bored here with nobody to talk to, while in fact there is nothing that happens in London that you don’t know about! There has never been anybody as well informed as you.”

  “It is no thanks to what I learn from my grandson,” the Countess replied tartly. “Now tell me the whole story. Who is this woman and why have you brought her to me?”

  “Because I have kidnapped her and, quite frankly, I am rather nervous as to the
consequences.”

  His eyes twinkled as he spoke, but, if he had meant to startle and intrigue his grandmother, he had certainly succeeded.

  The Countess’s eyes searched his face as if for the moment she thought that he was playing a joke on her.

  Then she said with an eagerness that made her seem immeasurably younger than her years,

  “Tell me what you have done and don’t leave out a single detail.”

  *

  Twenty minutes later the Earl accompanied by Yates left the Dower House and drove back the way they had come. When they reached the main drive they went towards the house as if they had just arrived from Newmarket.

  There was no reason why the Earl should not call first on his grandmother. At the same time he was hoping that nobody had seen the phaeton moving beneath the thick foliage in the Park and that it would not enter anybody’s head that he and Yates had rid themselves of a large basket.

  When they reached the Big House, the Major Domo who supervised the whole household expressed surprise that the Earl had arrived so early.

  “I must apologise, my Lord, that I was not waiting on the steps for your Lordship’s return,” he said. “But I was expecting you an hour or so later, thinking that your Lordship’d stay for at least the fourth race before leaving Newmarket.”

  “There were no horses of any particular interest in those races,” the Earl replied loftily, “and I was resting on my laurels after Swallow had romped home in the Sefton Stakes.”

  “That’s good news. Very good news, my Lord.” the Major Domo beamed.

  The Earl was quite certain that all his staff, not only at Poynton Hall but on all his other estates, had backed Swallow, just as they would have backed his two other horses, which had won races on the previous day.

  He went into his study and sent for his Agent to give him a report on what was happening on the estate and informed the butler who was making enquiries on behalf of the chef that he would be alone for dinner.

  “I want a light meal,” he said. “I always find at Race Meetings one eats and drinks too much.”

  “That’s what your Lordship’s late father always used to say, my Lord,” the butler replied, “and he was as abstemious as your Lordship, which was why he kept his figure to his dying day.”

  “I hope I shall do the same,” the Earl commented.

  When he was alone, the Earl took a cursory look at the newspapers before he went upstairs to bathe and change for dinner.

  He had not talked to Yates when they were driving back to the house, but now as he put on his evening clothes, in which he looked even more magnificent than he did in the daytime, he said to his valet,

  “Did you explain to Mrs. Dobson exactly what was necessary?”

  “Yes, my Lord, and she’s very skilled with wounds. She were rememberin’ how she nursed you, my Lord, when you had a fall out huntin’ and another time when you fell out of a tree into a gooseberry bush and scratched yourself all over.”

  The Earl smiled.

  “I will never forget how those thorns stung and irritated me! But I was tough even as a small boy, while Miss Melford looks very delicate.”

  “I hope she’s stronger than she looks, my Lord, and I’ve got some special healin’ cream, which I promised to give to Mrs. Dobson. I’m wonderin’ if your Lordship will be callin’ at the Dower House tonight or tomorrow mornin’?”

  “I think it would be wiser if I went tomorrow morning before I return to London. It is very important, Yates, that nobody should connect me or you with her Ladyship’s visitor.”

  “I knows that, my Lord.”

  “In fact I hope you have impressed upon Mrs. Dobson that no one outside the household should know that she is there. It is absolutely essential that everybody else should remain in complete ignorance that she even exists.”

  “It’s goin’ to be difficult, my Lord. Servants chatter in the country worse than they does in London or even at Newmarket.”

  “I am aware of that,” the Earl said shortly, “but gossip can indeed be dangerous, as we both know.”

  “Yes, my Lord,” Yates agreed.

  It would be some time, the Earl thought, before Sir Walter’s enquiries led him to believe that Cledra’s disappearance had anything to do with him.

  And yet one never knew. There were so many possibilities that might end in their secret being exposed before they were ready for it.

  The Earl puzzled over the whole situation, facing it as he had faced every campaign in which he had been engaged during the war in India or the revolutionaries in France, who, having seized power, were as merciless and brutal as Sir Walter Melford.

  He fell asleep thinking of all the possible eventualities and how he could combat them if they did occur. And he awoke to go on planning, using his brain in a way that he had not been obliged to do for quite some time.

  As he ate very little breakfast and preferred to ride alone, there was no one to notice, when having galloped off in a different direction on leaving the Big House, he rode round through empty fields and an isolated part of the Park to bring him to the Dower House.

  There was no groom waiting for him at the door and he put the horse he was riding in the stable and entered the house by a side door.

  He walked upstairs, but made no attempt to go to his grandmother’s room, knowing that she would certainly not wish to receive him so early in the morning before she had applied her cosmetics or taken her jewels from their leather boxes, which had grown slightly worn with age.

  Instead he walked along the corridor to the Blue Bedroom, knocked perfunctorily on the door and opened it before Hannah could reach it.

  She dropped him a curtsey and then said as eagerly as his grandmother had spoken,

  “It’s good to see you, my Lord! I was hopin’ you’d call on us. The young lady’s awake and, as your Lordship’ll understand, a little bewildered by what’s happened to her.”

  The Earl did not answer, but walked towards the bed.

  The early sunshine coming in through the window made the room glow with a golden haze.

  In the light of it he saw two very large eyes staring at him and found that Cledra’s small pointed face was crowned with hair that, he realised, was the colour of the first rays of the sun.

  Hannah withdrew and the Earl put out his hand.

  “Good morning, Cledra. How are you feeling?”

  “Are you – are you – really here? And is it – possible – as that nice person has just – told me that I have been asleep for – three days?”

  The Earl took her hand in his and sat down beside the bed.

  “Do you remember what happened before that?” he asked quietly.

  “Uncle – Walter – ! H-he does not – know I am – here?”

  “He has no idea of it.”

  “And – Star – is s-safe?”

  “Star is quite safe,” the Earl replied. “But you will remember that you asked me to change his name? There is now no such horse as ‘Star’ but there is a new animal in my stable that has been registered as ‘Winged Victory’. Also I think you will have a little difficulty in recognising him when you see him.”

  Cledra looked at him questioningly and he explained,

  “I thought it was wise before I removed ‘Winged Victory’ from Newmarket to dye a certain patch on his nose so that he is now jet-black.”

  Cledra gave a little cry and he felt her fingers tighten on his.

  “That was – clever – very clever of you. But now do you – think he is – safe?”

  “I am sure he is, but we have to make very certain that you are safe too.”

  The expression in her eyes changed almost like a cloud passing across the sun.

  “Uncle Walter was – very – very angry.”

  “Are you strong enough to tell me what happened?” the Earl asked.

  Cledra drew in her breath.

  “When I – came down very early to breakfast because it was the day of the – s-sale somebo
dy had just told him that – Star was missing. He guessed at once that I was – responsible – and he dragged me to the stables and taking me into – Star’s stall – asked me where he was.”

  “Did you tell him?” the Earl enquired.

  “You know that was – something I would – never have done. Not only to – save Star but also to – safeguard you after – you had been so – k-kind.”

  “What did your uncle do then?”

  “He – knocked me down because I refused to answer and then – he asked me again and I still – refused.”

  Cledra’s voice broke and after a moment with an effort she continued in a whisper,

  “When he realised that I would not tell him he – gagged me – and then he beat me until –I cannot remember – anything else.”

  The Earl thought that this was a good thing.

  At the same time as he listened to Cledra’s story without being aware of it, his fingers had tightened on hers.

  Only when she gave a little exclamation of pain did he see that he had squeezed her hand until it was almost bloodless.

  “Forgive me,” he said. “It is just that I find it impossible to believe that any man could treat a woman in such an appalling fashion.”

  “H-how did you – find me?”

  The Earl told her that, when he had seen a stall locked and covered with horse blankets and noticed Star’s name on it, he had thought he heard a slight whimper.

  “I felt I had to go back and investigate,” he told her simply.

  “So you – brought me – away?”

  “I took you away without, I think, anybody being aware of it,” the Earl answered, “but you must take no chances. First you must get well and then we can decide where you can go where your uncle will never find you again.”

  Her eyes widened for a moment as she asked apprehensively,

  “Y-you don’t – think he will – find me here?”

  “There is always a risk. That is why you will be seen only by my grandmother’s elderly servants who have been with her for many years and have known me ever since I was your age and younger.”

  “You are – very kind, so very – very kind,” Cledra cried, “but I would not – wish you to get into any trouble on – my behalf.”