A Shooting Star Read online

  “To complete the wonder of this glorious party, I ask Your Royal Highness’s permission for me to sit beside my father, who I have seen very little of these past months. It would so much complete my happiness and enjoyment of this wonderful evening if I can be close to him.”

  As she finished speaking, Flavia sat down and for a moment there was a surprised silence.

  Then, as everyone clapped, the Prince said,

  “Of course I will give the most beautiful debutante I have ever seen my permission for her to sit wherever she wishes. I am only a little peeved it’s not beside me!”

  Then the Duchess of Manchester rose to her feet.

  “Of course I will do as this lovely girl has asked,” she said. “As it so happens, I have been looking forward to making the acquaintance of the Earl of Haugton.”

  As the gentlemen in the party stood up, she walked round the table to take the place of Flavia.

  “Thank you, thank you,” Flavia enthused. “You are so kind and I knew you would understand.”

  “Naturally I understand, my dear, and let me tell you, you are not only the prettiest debutante I have seen for a long time, but certainly the best speaker.”

  Flavia thanked her and then she went to her father.

  “I am very complimented by what you have just said, my dear,” he murmured. “But it is very unusual.”

  “That is what I meant it to be, Papa. Anyway it is the truth. I would rather sit next to you, Papa, than anyone else.”

  She sensed that he was thinking that she should not have interfered with his arrangements.

  But he could not put into words how anxious he had been for her to sit next to the Earl of Haugton.

  As the dinner progressed and one delicious course followed another, everyone present seemed to be enjoying themselves.

  There was one exception.

  Lord Carlsby was scowling because, sitting exactly opposite the Earl and the Duchess, he could see that they were undoubtedly getting on well together.

  The Prince was enjoying himself too.

  He found it hard to take his eyes off Lillie Langtry and with the help of Lord Linwood she was making him laugh.

  As Flavia knew only too well, her father could be most amusing if he wanted to be.

  She had seen in the past when her mother was alive a whole table lapse into silence when he was speaking and what he said was always far more hilarious than anything they could offer themselves.

  There was a charming gentleman on Flavia’s other side and he was a great admirer of the Duchess and also of Benjamin Disraeli.

  It was easy to make him talk about politics and he told her many things she wanted to know about the grave situation in Europe.

  It was when the ladies left the dining room that he said to Lord Linwood,

  “Your daughter is undoubtedly a chip off the old block, Linwood. I have had one of the most interesting conversations I have ever enjoyed at a dinner party. It is only a pity that she cannot be a boy to follow you into the House of Lords.”

  “I do find her equally interesting,” Lord Linwood replied. “And, as you will discover, very different from the ordinary debutantes we have cast upon us every Season.”

  “She most certainly is,” the man agreed. “I hope I will have the chance of talking to her again. I have the feeling that she will be besieged by young men who will be more interested in dancing with her than talking politics!”

  “I will make sure she does both.”

  He was delighted that his daughter had been such a success with an eminent member of the Government.

  After the ladies had left the dining room, they went upstairs to powder their noses and to tidy their hair.

  Her mother’s bedroom, which had never been used since she died, was opened as well as two other bedrooms.

  They were all very kind and friendly to Flavia and when she thanked the Duchess of Manchester again for giving up her place at dinner, Her Grace replied,

  “I felt I was depriving you of the most handsome man I have ever seen. As you are undoubtedly the most beautiful debutante, you must get together and make the most of each other.”

  “You were so kind to me, Your Grace, and tonight is an occasion I will always remember.”

  “And we will always remember you,” the Duchess replied. “It was very brave of you to stand up and ask a favour from the Prince of Wales. It is what I would have done when I first came to London if I had thought of it. As it was everyone was surprised I was so outspoken. I used to say what was in my mind instead of being afraid of what people would think.”

  “I am sure you were right to do so,” Flavia said. “I saw last year you were brave enough to attack Sir Charles Dilke when he criticised the Prussians after their defeat of France.”

  The Duchess laughed.

  “I remember everyone was horrified with me at the time and said that I had too strong an influence on my husband.”

  Flavia knew that she had been gossiped about as having too strong an influence on everyone!

  She wondered a little apprehensively if her father would seek the Duchess’s help in forcing her to marry the Earl and then she told herself such a possibility was too far-fetched.

  When the ladies came downstairs, the gentlemen then joined them.

  The older members of the party sat down at the card tables while the rest headed for the ballroom.

  Now the guests who had not been at dinner began to arrive. They were mostly young and were delighted with the band that Lord Linwood had engaged.

  The gentlemen all admired Flavia’s appearance and she next found herself dancing energetically with one after another.

  They even practised ‘cutting-in’ when they thought one of her partners had danced with her for more than his share. They fought with each other for the next dance and Flavia found it amusing and very flattering.

  It was getting on for midnight when she walked in from the garden at the back of the house.

  As she tried to enter the ballroom through one of the many French windows, she found the Earl of Haugton standing in front of her.

  “I have been very remiss in not asking my hostess to dance with me,” he said, “but my excuse is that it has not been possible to get anywhere near her.”

  Flavia did not answer him and he went on,

  “May I have the pleasure of this dance? I find it impossible to wait until you are without a partner.”

  He obviously intended to sweep away any other arrangements she had made and she was unnerved by his eagerness to dance with her.

  At that very moment she was standing outside the window and he was just inside the ballroom.

  Lowering her voice until it was a little more than a whisper, she said to the Earl,

  “Leave me alone. It is dangerous – and you must ignore me.”

  As he stared at her in astonishment, she walked quickly past him.

  She then talked animatedly to the first young man she encountered inside the ballroom.

  For a moment the Earl thought he could not have heard her correctly.

  There must be some mistake.

  Then he saw Flavia being swept around the floor, her gown shimmering as she moved, the star in her fair hair glittering as it caught the light.

  He told himself he must have imagined what she had just said to him.

  It could not be true!

  She had actually told him to ignore her.

  But why?

  What could be dangerous about a dance?

  He stood staring at Flavia moving round the dance floor.

  He thought that ever since he had come to London he had never before in his whole life had a woman tell him that it was dangerous for them to dance together.

  Nor had any member of the female sex ever ordered him to ignore her.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  All the way home in his elegant carriage, the Earl was thinking about Flavia.

  He had indeed expected Lord Linwood’s daughter to be attractive
.

  He had heard many people talk about her mother.

  He had accepted the invitation to the party given in Flavia’s honour simply because the Prince of Wales would be there.

  He was keen to meet him as he was a great admirer of the Prince and he thought, as most people did, that he was very badly treated by his mother, the Queen.

  The Earl had been wondering if he should tell the Queen that many people felt she was being exceedingly unkind to her eldest son.

  Then he told himself it was none of his business.

  At any rate he would wait till he had met the Prince which would give him a better idea of whether the Queen was right or wrong.

  The Earl was a very positive person and considered himself an excellent judge of character.

  He believed it was wrong that the Prince of Wales was not allowed to take any part in affairs of State.

  However, as he was very astute, he always thought before he did anything unusual and he had no intention where Her Majesty was concerned of putting a foot wrong.

  Because he had spent so much time at Windsor Castle with those who were actively engaged in attending on the Queen, he had never before been to a party where the Prince of Wales was the chief guest.

  He was also much flattered that the Queen should consult him on so many different matters and it was quite obvious that she really enjoyed his company.

  He thought she was really ‘a nice old girl’, but she was the Queen of the United Kingdom and he was totally fascinated by all the pomp and ceremony with which she was surrounded.

  Ever since childhood the Earl had more or less been in command of his own home and those who served in it.

  His mother had died when he was at school at Eton and his father had, when he came home, practically handed over the running of the estate to him.

  It was an extraordinary situation for a young boy to find himself in, although, since most of those employed on the estate had been there for years, they advised him in the correct manner.

  They also accepted the fact that as his father was no longer interested in the estate and thus his son, Vincent, however inexperienced, had to take his place.

  Actually, after his mother’s death, his father was seldom at home and spent much of his time travelling in Europe.

  In the meantime, Vincent struggled on at home and learnt cannily to turn everything to his own advantage.

  He entertained his closest friends from school and they enjoyed riding his horses, shooting his pheasants, and helping him organise races and steeplechases.

  It was not surprising that everyone at Eton and later at Oxford University moved Heaven and earth to be invited to Haugton Hall.

  Thus Vincent became the most popular student at both places.

  At Eton he did very well at cricket and followed it up by being made Captain of the Christ Church College cricket team at Oxford.

  If there is one talent the British admire the most, it is a man who is good at games.

  And so it was not surprising that the young Vincent became a most sought after and flattered young man when he first appeared on the Social scene.

  Yet, from the moment he finished his education, he was determined to travel.

  He sought out his father and learnt from him about the countries that up to now had just been names on maps, and then his father gave him introductions to the Rulers of countries he was interested in.

  It was not surprising, with such a varied education and having been a success wherever he went, that when he became the tenth Earl of Haugton on his father’s death, the Social world welcomed him enthusiastically.

  By this time, Vincent had discovered women – or rather women had discovered him.

  Because he was so exceptionally good-looking and boasted an ancient title, women pursued him from the time he left Eton.

  At first he was not particularly interested in them, but he learnt a great deal about the female sex when he was in France on an extended visit.

  In other countries he visited, it was accepted that he should find it easy to make love to the most beautiful of the women at Court – and there was a great variety of them.

  Then when he eventually came home to England, he was introduced by one of his relatives to the Queen at Windsor Castle.

  He found that she not only admired him for his looks, as she always liked handsome men, but Her Majesty was really interested in his knowledge of foreign countries.

  She found his reports fascinating and useful and she took a rather perverse pride in keeping one step ahead of her Statesmen – she really enjoyed knowing more about some Eastern Potentates than they did.

  The Earl realised that she was picking his brains and was only too delighted to encourage her to do so and he was not in the least bit shy of expressing his opinions to Her Majesty.

  Many found Queen Victoria overwhelming and so were afraid to contradict her on any subject.

  They would have been surprised if they had known how she listened attentively to everything the Earl told her and invariably asked for more.

  Of course, as soon as he appeared in London at the start of the Season, he was bombarded with invitations from every fashionable hostess and ambitious mother.

  He knew he was a great catch in the matrimonial market. However, he had long ago decided that he would not be caught.

  He was well aware when he reached his twenty-seventh birthday that most of his contemporaries both at Eton and Oxford were married and the majority of them had started a family.

  This was often because they had inherited a title or were going to inherit one and so most of them had been pushed up the aisle by their pushy relations.

  The Earl enjoyed pretty women, of course he did, and there were a great number to choose from.

  Unfortunately he found that his affaires-de-coeur never lasted long. Inevitably after a few weeks he began to feel restless and bored by conversations that never varied.

  There was no doubt that there was little more he could say about love than he had said already.

  Exciting and fiery, it was always marvellous when it started, but, where he was concerned, it died down too quickly and it faded away into a boredom that he could not ignore.

  Sometimes he noticed a beautiful woman whom he thought completely and utterly desirable.

  She would look at him across a ballroom with an invitation in her eyes, but he would be aware that a number of men were fighting for her attention.

  It was then he thought that there must be something wrong with him and when he diagnosed it, he found the answer was always the same.

  The lovely creatures appealed only to his body!

  He would be the very first to admit that they were highly successful at doing so – but not to his mind.

  Only occasionally did he have a conversation with a beauty that did not concern herself.

  Inevitably, he found that he was talking to a woman who was not really listening to what he was saying and instead she was wondering just how soon he would kiss her again.

  “The trouble with women,” he had said to one of his friends recently, “is that they are too eager and one does not really have to make much effort to win them.”

  His friend had laughed.

  “That is what you may think, Vincent, because you are exceptional. But poor creatures like myself who do not have your good looks or your possessions, have to wait for what we want or find when we do knock on the door it is closed against us!”

  “That’s a very sad story,” the Earl commented.

  “But it happens to be true,” his friend answered. “And you should be thankful for being the exception. No woman refuses you and that is what we resent about you.”

  The Earl had chuckled, but he had not denied that was it the truth.

  Yet now, for the first time in his life, a woman was avoiding him and actually telling him to ignore her!

  As he had entered the drawing room this evening and had seen Flavia, he had thought she was exceptiona
lly lovely and she seemed so unlike the other women present in a way he could not explain.

  Then he saw her name next to his on the dining room table and considered that he was very lucky to be sitting next to her on such an auspicious occasion.

  She was certainly beautiful in a different way from the other beauties present.

  He could not quite explain it or put it into words.

  But he thought she was unique to look at, although doubtless, as she was so young, she would have little to say for herself.

  Then to his surprise, she had risen to her feet and, without showing any shyness had made a speech, asking the Prince of Wales if she could change her place at the table so that she could be near her father whom she loved.

  The Earl thought that she spoke brilliantly for such a young girl.

  He also thought it exceptionally brave of her to rise and address the Prince of Wales without apparently any prior arrangement.

  When His Royal Highness then agreed and Flavia changed places with the Duchess of Manchester, the Earl was taken aback.

  At the same time he did not suppose that there was anything personal about her wish to change her place.

  But then he had asked her politely to dance and she had answered him in such an astonishing manner.

  He could only think that something had happened, which he did not know about and he could not think what it could possibly be.

  Why should knowing her be dangerous?

  The words seemed to repeat themselves in his ears over and over again as he drove home.

  Even when he got into bed, he found it impossible not to hear her whisper,

  “Leave me alone. It is dangerous – and you must ignore me.”

  The Earl made up his mind before he went to sleep that he must find out the reason for this rebuff, but equally he could not think how.

  After all Lord Linwood had always been pleasant to him when they had met at Windsor Castle and the same might be said of Lord Carlsby.

  He remembered that another elder Statesman, when he had first started to visit the Queen several times a week, had said to him,

  “You are now popular with Her Majesty and have become a privileged person at Windsor, but don’t upset Lords Linwood and Carlsby, who have been Her Majesty’s closest advisers for some considerable time.”