The Healing Hand Read online

  “Suppose you introduce me,” the departing guest suggested. “The only thing I do know about clothes is that they are very expensive!”

  Tania laughed.

  “That is true! I needed new clothes badly and it has taken me a long and exhausting time to buy them. That is why I am late.”

  “If what you are wearing is part of what you have been buying,” said the man, “then I congratulate you, and it is only right for me to tell you that you look entrancing.”

  Tania laughed again.

  “That is exactly what I like to hear and it makes me feel that I have not spent money to no purpose.”

  “I should hope not indeed!” huffed Lady Amesly.

  She turned towards the man.

  “Goodbye, Roger. As you realise, I have to see to my stepdaughter. She has just arrived back from France where she has been at school.”

  “Well, one lesson they taught her,” the man called Roger answered, “is how to dress herself with a Parisian chic that I am sure will delight every man in London.”

  He put out his hand towards Tania,

  “Goodbye, Tania, and allow me to congratulate you on your excellent taste. I will look forward to meeting you again, I hope very shortly.”

  Tania put her hand in his.

  As she did so, she thought, although it was strange, that this man was not a particularly nice person.

  She could hardly explain it to herself, but there was something about him, which, despite the pleasant words he was mouthing, she felt was repulsive and creepy.

  Then releasing her hand and turning towards her stepmother, he said,

  “Goodbye, Isobel, and thank you for the delightful luncheon. I will see you this evening at eight o’clock and I promise not to be late.”

  “If you are, I would worry that you have forgotten me,” Lady Amesly responded in what Tania thought was a somewhat seductive voice.

  “That would be impossible,” he answered lightly.

  Taking his hat from one of the footmen, he walked out of the front door.

  Lady Amesly walked towards the drawing room.

  “Come with me, Tania,” she demanded sharply. “I wish to talk to you.”

  There was nothing Tania could do but follow her. She realised that Mr. Martin had vanished almost as if he had been a ghost.

  *

  They entered the drawing room and Lady Amesly closed the door.

  “Just how dare you,” she began furiously, “go out shopping without my permission?”

  “I needed some new clothes very badly and I went first to see the Solicitors.”

  “Solicitors! Why should you go to see them?”

  “Because Papa sent me a letter when he became so ill saying that if anything happened to him, the Solicitors would explain everything to me. I therefore did exactly as he wanted me to do.”

  “That is for me to say, Tania, and I presume from the way that you are now dressed that is what you have been spending my money on.”

  “No! I only spent money that Papa left me and the bills have all gone to the Solicitors.”

  Lady Amesly glared at her.

  “What are you saying? Why should the Solicitors pay your bills?”

  “Because they thought it was the best way of doing things. I wish to spend a considerable amount of money on clothes. You must be aware that I have not had anything new for the last two years.”

  “I have never heard such impertinence in my life,” Lady Amesley erupted. “I am your Guardian and you will have to do as I tell you and not take things upon yourself in this monstrous manner.”

  “I had no wish to trouble you,” said Tania calmly, “and I cannot believe you wish me to go on wearing, now I have returned to London, the clothes I wore at school. Not one has been replaced as the Mother Superior expected me to leave sooner than I was able to do.”

  “It is exceedingly irritating,” Lady Amesly sneered after a short pause, “that the Mother Superior would not keep you as I wished her to do.”

  “I’m too old to be at school. Now I am back, I am hoping I will have the chance to enjoy myself as Mama and Papa would have wished me to do.”

  “I think that’s very unlikely, Tania, as I find young girls a bore and so do the friends I am entertaining tonight. You will therefore take your dinner upstairs, as you should have had your luncheon.”

  “Actually, as it so happens, I am going out tonight. I have been invited to dinner by two of Mama’s friends.”

  “Friends! What friends?”

  “Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge, who live in Belgrave Square.”

  She saw by the expression on her stepmother’s face that she knew who they were and she had doubtless wanted to be friends with them herself.

  Her next question proved this supposition.

  “Did they ask me?”

  “No. They asked me because we travelled together on the ferry and they decided that they would give a dinner party for me to meet some of my parents’ close friends.”

  For a moment Lady Amesly did not have anything to say, so Tania added,

  “So you see I should not be intruding on your party and it is extremely nice for me to meet so soon those who loved Papa and Mama.”

  Lady Amesly was silent for a moment and then she spoke up,

  “When you visited the Solicitors, they undoubtedly told you what your father left you in his will. I hope you realise that keeping up this house and the country estate is expensive and I expect you to contribute generously to the trouble I have taken whilst you have been abroad.”

  “I would, of course, have to ask my Solicitors and doubtless my Trustees about that suggestion.”

  “Why would you ask them?”

  “It was the arrangement Papa made before he died and I am only too happy to carry out his wishes.”

  She felt there would be no answer to this assertion and so she walked towards the door.

  “Forgive me, Stepmama, but I must go upstairs and unpack the clothes I have bought. I want to wear one of my new dresses this evening.”

  She reached the door as she finished speaking.

  Then, before her stepmother could think of what to say next, Tania had left the drawing room.

  She hurried upstairs to find that the two dress boxes had been handed to her maid.

  “Do you wish me to hang these up now, miss?” she asked as Tania entered the nursery.

  “Yes, Betsy, and I will wear the prettiest tonight.”

  She was thinking as she took off her hat and jacket that she had escaped rather lightly from her stepmother.

  She had almost forgotten while she was away how much she resented her and how disagreeable she could be if she did not have her own way.

  She certainly now looked much older and Tania felt that she had grown even nastier than she remembered her being during the last holidays she had spent in England.

  Her stepmother had clearly been extremely jealous of every kind word and thought her father had for her, and she had done everything in her power to make him see her as a tiresome troublesome child.

  And if she had been jealous of her then, Tania was certain she would be even more jealous of her now.

  Especially when she was well dressed and too old to be punished, as she had tried to punish her before she had gone away to school.

  At the same time, judging by the fact she had been pushed up into the nursery, it was going to be a hard battle and Tania wished with all her heart and soul that there were somewhere else she could live.

  Then she told herself that she would not allow her stepmother to spoil this evening.

  She would be dining with a couple who were kind and loving and, of course, with Rupert –

  It was then she remembered he said that he would call on her at six o’clock.

  She wondered how she could manage to talk to him without her stepmother interfering and perhaps even being offensive to her in front of him.

  She was still wondering what she could do when Betsy came ou
t of the bedroom.

  “I’ve hung ’em up, miss, and I thinks there be some more parcels arrivin’ tomorrow. Mr. Martin has told me to look out for ’em.”

  “Yes, I hope there will be, Betsy. The shoes that go with the dress I am going to wear were in the Hackney carriage. The footman should have brought them up with the other boxes.”

  “I’ll go and find them, miss. A letter comes for you while you was out. It be on the table.”

  Tania had not looked at the nursery table and now she saw a letter addressed to her.

  She knew even before she opened it, that it must be from Rupert, and she thought he was telling her that he would not be able to come to the party tonight.

  It was with a sense of relief that she read,

  “My dear Tania,

  Owing to unforeseen orders I cannot, alas, join you, as I wanted to do, at six o’clock.

  However, I have ordered my father’s carriage to take us to the party in Belgrave Square and I will call for you at about seven-thirty.

  Please you must forgive me for not keeping my first engagement, but you will understand just why when I tell you what is happening.”

  It was signed simply,

  “Yours sincerely,

  Rupert.”

  He had strong upright writing and Tania thought it was exactly how, looking as he did, he ought to write.

  She was sorry that he could not come to see her, but it would save her the difficulty of explaining why she was in the nursery and could not receive him in the drawing room.

  *

  In fact the Secretary of State for War had sent for Rupert.

  Sir Sidney Herbert, who had been a Minister in Sir Robert Peel’s Government, had now been given the most impossible task it was possible to imagine.

  The Prime Minister had just appointed him Secretary for War.

  Half-brother to the Earl of Pembroke and heir to the famous Wilton House in Wiltshire, Sir Sidney was one of the most popular and admired men in London.

  He was good-looking, had great intelligence and a genuine love for his fellow men. He was an excellent shot and a bold rider to hounds.

  He was exceedingly rich and a devout Christian and his Parliamentary career had been outstanding.

  Rupert was welcomed at the War Office and taken immediately into Sir Sidney’s office.

  He rose when Rupert entered and held out his hand.

  “I asked to see you, More,” he began, “because you may know that the current situation is extremely bad and deteriorating.”

  “I have only just returned to England, Sir Sidney, and I am therefore not fully up-to-date with events, but the newspapers are all full of gloom.”

  Sir Sidney sighed.

  “Yes, it is indeed much worse than we anticipated and I am almost certain that our diplomats will not be as astute as we hoped they would be.”

  “You definitely think it will be war, Sir Sidney?”

  Rupert was a great admirer of Sidney Herbert and he knew it was unlikely that even he would be clever enough to achieve peace when everyone else was becoming more or less resigned to war.

  Rupert was only too well aware, as perhaps another man might not have been, of the difficulties the Secretary for War was already encountering.

  The Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen, was a man of great integrity, but he was inclined to believe what he was told by people who wanted to please him.

  The Home Secretary, Lord Palmerston, held a view that was totally opposite to that of the Prime Minister.

  There was, Rupert felt, a great conflict of opinion in the Cabinet and it was almost impossible for the British to exert much influence in the worsening situation between the Czar and the Sultan of Turkey.

  He had been told by a friend last night that the Russians believed the British were going through a phase of pacifism and they were sure the British were unlikely to intervene in anything they did.

  It was no use Rupert telling his friend this was not the case, as he knew that the Czar felt passionately that he had good reason to go ahead and declare war on Turkey.

  Sir Sidney Herbert ignored the question and asked Rupert to sit down.

  “I want you to organise the recruitment of as many men as you can, More, and start training them at once.”

  “So, you really think there will be war?” Rupert persisted.

  “I should be lying if I said to you I was optimistic,” replied Sir Sidney.

  They then attempted to think how they could do the impossible – which was to enlist and train a great number of troops before war was actually declared.

  Once again Rupert put forward his ideas for better food for the Army and a more comfortable life in Barracks as he had to his General.

  He was pleased to find that Sir Sidney agreed with everything he said and yet they were both aware that it would be impossible to achieve what he was asking for in a very short time frame.

  However, as Rupert left the War Office, Sir Sidney confided in him,

  “One thing we both must do is to keep smiling and make sure there is no panic amongst our own people. I think the war will be too far away for the British to realise just how terrible it will be if it does take place. Anyway let’s you and me forget it for tonight.”

  Rupert looked at him questioningly.

  “Tonight, Sir Sidney?”

  It did flash through his mind that perhaps he was expected to go to some Regimental or Official dinner.

  In which case he would not see Tania.

  “I understand you are dining with the Bracebridges, as I am,” Sir Sidney replied. “I saw Charles this morning and he told me what trouble you had experienced in a train crash in France and that you rescued the beautiful daughter of an old friend of your father’s.”

  Rupert thought that Charles Bracebridge must have been rather too voluble on the subject, but he merely responded,

  “I am so glad you are coming to the party tonight, Sir Sidney, and I am certain you will think Miss Amesly worth saving!”

  The Secretary for War laughed.

  *

  Rupert hurried off to change his clothes for dinner.

  He had first to see his father who was still in bed, but reading the newspapers.

  “I suppose these damn fools are going to involve us in another war,” he fumed as his son entered the room.

  “I am afraid so, Papa.”

  “Did I not tell you that this would all happen if we went on neglecting the Army and allowed it to wither away to nothing? Heavens above! Why should we be governed by one idiotic Prime Minister after another who can never see further than the end of his nose?”

  Rupert had heard all this before, so he sat down at his father’s bedside.

  “Papa, you should be coming to the party I told you about tonight. Apparently Sir Sidney Herbert is an old friend of the Bracebridges.”

  “I know – and you can tell him from me that it is too late now to blame the idiots who have preceded him. If he can produce an effective Army at a moment’s notice out of the ground, he is a magician and there’s no other word for it.”

  Rupert sighed.

  “I do agree with you, Papa. But there is nothing we can do but recruit as many men as possible. I am supposed to train them before we leave.”

  “Those politicians are damn fools!” his father said furiously. “If I were well enough, I would go to the House of Lords and say so.”

  “It is too late. Even if they listened to you, there would be nothing they could suggest beyond what we are now trying to do. And you are right, it needs a miracle to produce trained soldiers out of nowhere.”

  “Of course it’s impossible, my boy, and by the way, what’s the name of the young girl you were telling me you rescued from the train?”

  “Tania Amesly. And I understand you knew her father. In fact, you are one of her Trustees.”

  “Good Lord, so I am! I thought I recognised that name – I am getting senile. If you ask me, it is this damned treatment the doctors
are giving me!

  “It is not that my brain does not work, it is because they fill it full of rubbish, which makes me feel as if I am walking through a fog all the time.”

  “Then don’t take it, Papa. I’m sure it is a mistake to take too many doctors’ medicines. Because they think you are so rich and can afford to pay them, they pop in and out simply to gorge money out of you.”

  “I have never heard a truer word. I will throw away my doctor’s medicines and rely on the herbs your mother grew in the Herb Garden in the country.”

  “I honestly think, Papa, you would feel better if you followed her advice. They used to call her a ‘white witch’ in the village. It was only after she healed them that they altered the second word to ‘angel’.”

  The Earl smiled.

  “You are quite right, my boy, as always. I will now give up all these pills and go to the country. The servants there knew that what your mother made for the villagers worked and that is the medicine I shall take in the future.”

  “I’m sure you would feel better, Papa, and if I have to go overseas, which seems inevitable, I would be much happier if I thought you were being looked after at home.”

  “You are right, Rupert, but I will stay here until you actually go. Otherwise I will never see you.”

  “I will see as much of you as I possibly can, Papa, but it looks as if I will be kept very busy.”

  He was thinking, as he dressed for dinner, that he wanted to see not only his father but Tania as well.

  He had never imagined that any woman could be such fun as she had been at sea. She had enjoyed, as he had, the waves rocking the ship and splashing over the decks.

  ‘I have never met anyone like her,’ he mused again.

  Later, when he was told that his carriage was at the door, he hurriedly went to say goodnight to his father who was half asleep.

  Then he ran down the steps and told the coachman to take him first to Amesly House.

  “I knows where it be, sir,” called out the coachman.

  Rupert then jumped in, feeling a strange excitement of anticipation that he had not felt for a long time.

  *

  Tania was feeling exactly the same.

  She was so relieved that she would not have to endure yet another uncomfortable encounter with her stepmother before she left.