The Healing Hand Read online

  “I’m very sure that your father has provided for you generously, but I do think it would be a mistake for you to walk about without someone with you. Will you take one of the maids or would you like me to come with you now to the Solicitors?”

  “Of course, I would like you to accompany me. If you will, it would be extremely helpful and then we must plan what I can do in the future.”

  She jumped up from her chair.

  “I will go and fetch my hat and coat. I also want to buy some new clothes, so tell them downstairs we might not be back until late this afternoon.”

  He looked at her in surprise as Tania smiled at him.

  “We will have luncheon together somewhere quiet, which will not shock anyone if we are seen. There must be a restaurant near here where we will not be noticed.”

  “Yes, of course, if it’s what you want, Miss Tania, I’d be honoured,” Mr. Martin managed to blurt out.

  As she ran up to the nursery, Tania knew that he was surprised that she was now behaving positively like a grown-up and not a child.

  ‘That is exactly what I am,’ she told herself. ‘I am no longer a young girl who just cannot move a foot without being chaperoned. And if Stepmama wants me to run my own life that is exactly what I intend to do.’

  At the same time at the back of her mind she was fearful of gaining the freedom she craved.

  As soon as she was ready, she ran downstairs to find that Mr. Martin was waiting for her.

  “I did not like to order a carriage, Miss Tania,” he said, “in case her Ladyship wants it. One never knows if she’ll be down when one least expects it or will stay in bed until luncheon time. We’ll take a Hackney carriage.”

  “That will be just as convenient,” Tania agreed.

  However, she pondered that, if her father was alive, he would have been furious at her not using his horses in the stables he was so proud of.

  ‘I will go and see them later,’ she thought, ‘but first things first and my finances obviously take priority.’

  It did not take them long to drive to the Solicitors in one of the streets off Piccadilly.

  They knew Mr. Martin and when Tania announced who she was, she was quickly taken into the office of Mr. Sinworth.

  He was the Senior Partner of the firm.

  “It’s such a privilege and a delight to see you, Miss Amesly,” he began. “I have been worried as to when you would come home. In fact, her Ladyship told me she was not expecting you until after Christmas.”

  “My stepmother was anxious for me to stay abroad at school, but as you must be aware, I am too old now for school. As the Mother Superior was sending a nun back to England, she thought it would be an opportunity for me to be properly looked after on what in fact turned out to be quite an upsetting journey.”

  “What happened?” asked Mr. Sinworth.

  Tania told him all about the train crash and how she had met two of her parent’s friends on the ferry.

  “I am so grateful you came to no harm,” he added.

  “Now I would like to know exactly what my father has left me. As you can guess, I need a great many clothes and, if I have the chance, I would like to travel abroad.”

  She thought Mr. Sinworth raised his eyebrows. He did not reply but merely rang a bell.

  The clerk who answered it was told to bring in all the papers concerning Lord Amesly.

  They were in a black tin box with Tania’s father’s name on the top of it.

  Mr. Sinworth opened the box and brought out the will, which he laid on the table.

  Then he read it rather slowly while Tania listened attentively to every word.

  Lord Amesly had left nine thousand pounds a year to his new wife and the house in London for her lifetime.

  Everything else, including the house and estate in the country, was left to his daughter unconditionally when she reached the age of twenty-one or married.

  Until then she was to be under the Guardianship of her stepmother.

  “Does that mean,” Tania asked Mr. Sinworth, “that she can make me do whatever she wishes, like for instance staying at school when I wanted to come home?”

  “According to the law her powers are considerable, Miss Amesly, but, as it will not be long before you come of age, I think it will not be very easy for her to make you do anything you do not wish to do.”

  Tania was not too sure, but she felt relieved.

  “And money – what about money?” she asked.

  “I can easily advance you anything you require at the moment within reason.”

  “Do you have to ask my stepmother’s permission?”

  There was a hesitation before Mr. Sinworth replied,

  “I would not believe that if you keep within reason, there is any need to ask anyone, not even the Trustees.”

  “So there are Trustees?” Tania enquired sharply.

  “Of course, of course, Miss Amesly. I am one of them as well as your uncle who lives in the North. The third Trustee is an old friend of your father’s, the Earl of Grantmore.”

  Tania stared at him.

  “Are you sure, Mr. Sinworth?”

  “Very sure. When you were away, your father saw a great deal of the Earl who is, I understand, now not at all well. He lives near your house in Park Lane.”

  He paused to make sure that Tania understood.

  “When his Lordship asked him to be a Trustee, he accepted at once and said it would give him something to think about when he was immobilised and had to stay in bed.”

  Tania thought this an extraordinary coincidence.

  But she had heard her father talk about the Earl of Grantmore. They had been at Eton and Oxford University together.

  It seemed almost like fate that she should have met the Earl’s son, Rupert, in such strange circumstances and was actually having dinner with him tonight!

  However, she had no intention of telling any of this to Mr. Sinworth, so instead she asked him,

  “I am sure you will understand that as I have been at school for so long, I do need some new clothes, in fact a whole new wardrobe. Mr. Martin and I are going shopping immediately we leave here.”

  Mr. Sinworth laughed.

  “You are quite right. It is what any woman would do and very lovely you will look in your new clothes. Just like your dear mother, of whom I was an ardent admirer since the first day I met her.”

  Tania smiled.

  “How much money will you give me?” she asked.

  “I think the best way,” Mr. Sinworth replied, “is if you send the original bills directly to me here for what you might call your ‘Coming–Out Trousseau’. I will also, if you think it a bore to have to go to the bank, give Mr. Martin some money each week for you to spend casually.”

  Tania felt that he had a special reason for giving her money in this way and so she agreed without any fuss.

  Mr. Martin was then given two hundred pounds for her as immediate cash.

  “You are very kind and I am most grateful” Tania sighed.

  “It is so nice to have you back, Miss Amesly, and any time you need me or are worried about anything, just come in or ask me to meet you somewhere.”

  Tania noticed he did not say ‘at your home’ and she thought he had a reason for not saying so.

  She thanked him again and then she and Mr. Martin drove off in the waiting Hackney carriage.

  Tania instructed the driver to take her to a shop in Bond Street, where she had often been with her mother, and she recalled how delighted they had been when her mother looked so beautiful in their clothes.

  Tania turned to Mr. Martin,

  “Were you surprised at the way that Mr. Sinworth arranged that every bill should go to him?”

  There was silence for a moment before he replied,

  “I think that Mr. Sinworth was afraid her Ladyship might insist on you giving her a large amount of money. It is something she has hinted at on several occasions. Now it will be impossible for her to do so without the appro
val not only of Mr. Sinworth but also the other two Trustees.”

  Tania understood.

  She was sure that her stepmother would, if it were at all possible, take every penny her father had left her.

  ‘She hates me,’ she thought to herself as they drove on, ‘and I will have to be so careful of everything I say and everything I do when we meet.’

  The carriage drew up at the shop in Bond Street.

  “Now, Mr. Martin, come and help me. As Papa’s daughter, I must be the best dressed and if possible the most attractive newcomer to the Social world. We cannot afford to make any mistakes!”

  Mr. Martin chuckled.

  “You will do that easily, Miss Tania.”

  “Nothing is ever so easy,” Tania answered, “and we must use our brains about this.”

  She thought as she spoke that she would really have to use her brains when it came to facing her stepmother.

  Then a very different thought came into her mind. As she went into the shop, she thought that tonight she would see Rupert again and she was determined that he, of all Selina Bracebridge’s guests, should think that she was worthy of being her father and mother’s daughter.

  ‘If I can only convince the Bracebridges that I am worthwhile and they love me as they loved my Mama, then I need not worry however hostile Stepmama is or however much she dislikes me in the house with her.’

  As she began to look at the clothes displayed, she was thinking that tonight there would be at least one person who would be kind to her.

  That was – Rupert More.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  When the Manageress realised who Tania was, she was delighted that she had come to them.

  “Your lady mother was one of our best customers,” she trilled, “and she looked beautiful in everything she put on. Whenever she wore a new dress of ours, I had a dozen customers the next day asking if they could buy one too!”

  Tania laughed.

  “I am afraid I will not be as good an advertisement as that. I have just come home from school and I need an entire new wardrobe of clothes.”

  The Manageress took her into the fitting-room.

  “If you will sit down, Miss Amesly. I will have all the new models paraded in front of you and we will choose what will suit your beauty as we chose for your mother.”

  Mr. Martin had said when they arrived at the shop that he would stay in the carriage.

  “I have some papers to read and there is no hurry, Miss Tania. I think you will shop better without me.”

  Tania guessed he was feeling rather embarrassed so she replied,

  “Will you forgive me for being a long time because I need so many clothes? But if I am in trouble over the accounts, I will send for you!”

  Now as she sat down, the first girls came parading in front of her and she was glad she was on her own.

  It made it easier to see what she wanted without asking the opinion of anyone else, least of all Mr. Martin.

  Almost two hours later she came out smiling.

  The Manageress was bowing to her, as she stepped into the carriage.

  “We are bringing two dresses with us now,” Tania told Mr. Martin, “the rest are to be delivered tomorrow.”

  “I suppose you have bought up all the shop?”

  “Practically all of it,” laughed Tania. “And when I asked them to send the bill to the Solicitors, they accepted it without comment.”

  She felt Mr. Martin was relieved he did not have to explain anything.

  When the two dress boxes were placed at the back of the carriage, she gave the footman another address.

  “More shopping?” enquired Mr. Martin.

  “I need some hats, I can hardly wear those I wore at school with these smart new gowns.”

  Mr. Martin made no comment and waited again as Tania bought half-a-dozen glamorous hats.

  Next came a short pause at a shoe shop.

  Tania thought she must get used to high heels, but it would be a mistake to buy too many new shoes in case they turned out to be uncomfortable.

  However, she took a pair with her she intended to wear that night with a new dress when she dined with the Bracebridges.

  “Now we can have luncheon,” she proposed.

  Mr. Martin gave a sigh of relief as Tania looked at her watch and gave an exclamation,

  “It’s very much later than I thought. Please forgive me, we should have had luncheon after the first shop.”

  “It is quite all right, Miss Tania. I will take you to a quiet restaurant in Shepherd’s Market.”

  She felt guilty that she had kept him waiting for so long.

  Mr. Martin was well known at the small restaurant in Shepherd’s Market and they were served quickly.

  Tania felt too excited to be hungry.

  She was longing for her new clothes to arrive and it was wonderful to be able to have the choice of a new gown every time she went out.

  She had not been able to resist putting on a simple but pretty dress with a little jacket before she left the first shop, and she had been even more pleased when she found a hat that matched it exactly.

  “I suppose,” Mr. Martin said, as they started their luncheon, “that I should have congratulated you on your new dress and hat, but I thought perhaps you would think I was being overfamiliar.”

  “Of course, I would not think that of anything you said to me, but, as I have to live in a home where I am not welcome, I am relying on you to help me. Not only with my clothes but in everything I do and say.”

  Mr. Martin was silent for a minute before replying,

  “I think, Miss Tania, you have to be very careful.”

  “In what way?”

  “Where her Ladyship is concerned – ”

  “I am well aware of that,” sighed Tania. “I am just wondering whether I should make a scene at being sent up to the nursery or whether it will be wise to say nothing and let my stepmother do the talking.”

  Mr. Martin hesitated.

  “I think, Miss Tania, the best advice I can give you is not to quarrel with her Ladyship unless it is absolutely impossible not to.”

  “Why?” Tania asked him.

  She knew Mr. Martin was feeling for his words and, after what seemed a long moment, he added,

  “It is not something that I should say to you, Miss Tania, but her Ladyship is someone who always wants to have her own way and will do anything to get it.”

  Clearly Mr. Martin was speaking frankly and at the same time he was worried about telling her the truth.

  “What you are really saying, Mr. Martin, is that her Ladyship resents my having any of Papa’s money. If she could push me away, perhaps to some other sort of school, she would have more money to spend on herself.”

  Mr. Martin drew in his breath.

  “That is something you could think, but not say – ”

  “I thought I was right – but I promise I will be very careful. Equally it is my home and I have nowhere else to go.”

  “I thought perhaps you might pay a visit to your uncle in the North? After all he is one of your Trustees.”

  Tania thought for a moment.

  “He and Papa never got on very well and he never made any effort to see me or communicate with me.”

  “Perhaps there are some other relatives?”

  “If there are I don’t know about them. Mama was adored by all her own family, but they were all older than her and I think there are very few, if any of them, left.”

  Mr. Martin sighed.

  “You will have to see exactly what her Ladyship is planning for you, Miss Tania, and of course I will help you whenever I can. But you do realise it is difficult for me.”

  She could understand that he did not wish to take sides.

  “Perhaps things will be better than we both fear. I am fortunate in having made friends with two people who loved Mama and who are being very kind to me already.”

  “I think that, if you look around, you will find a lot of people who
remember your mother and father – but they are not being so friendly to her Ladyship.”

  When they had finished luncheon, Mr. Martin said they must return to the house.

  “I did not expect to be away for quite so long and if her Ladyship has sent for me, she will be annoyed to find that I am not in the house.”

  Tania reckoned from the way he spoke that he was really frightened of offending her stepmother.

  So she hurried out to the carriage and Mr. Martin joined her as soon as he had paid the bill.

  As he climbed into the carriage, he suggested,

  “I had better give you the money that the Solicitor gave me. It would be better for it to be in your keeping than in mine.”

  Tania said nothing as she thought that he was really implying that her stepmother, if she realised he had been given two hundred pounds for her, would undoubtedly find some reason for snatching it away for her own pocket.

  Tania took the money from him and then they told the driver to take them back to Park Lane.

  Tania was thinking that, after her stepmother’s large luncheon party, the guests should have left by this time.

  However, when they arrived at Amesly House there were still two carriages waiting outside.

  Their driver therefore stopped outside in the street and she and Mr. Martin climbed out.

  “I expect they will be in the drawing room,” Tania commented, “so I will go straight upstairs.”

  She told the footman to take the two dress boxes up to the nursery.

  She reached the front door and Dawson opened it for her and, as she stepped into the house, Tania was aware that her stepmother was standing in the middle of the hall.

  She was saying ‘goodbye’ to a middle-aged man and, as she entered, Lady Amesly gave a cry and exclaimed,

  “Tania! And where have you been? You have no right to go out without telling me where you were going.”

  “I understood, Stepmama, that you were asleep and I did not think you would want me to wake you.”

  The man standing beside Lady Amesly laughed.

  “That’s a perfectly good excuse, Isobel, and there is no point in your saying otherwise.”

  “I can see that you have been out shopping, Tania,” Lady Amesly snarled.

  “I certainly needed some new clothes.”