The Tree of Love Read online

  Shenda had not understood this advice at the time, but when her grandmother was ill, her mother had insisted on her playing the piano.

  She had told the whole family that they were not to chatter by her bedside and that Granny loved the music.

  Shenda now looked expectantly at the piano, which had been put at the other end of the room, as she recalled as a little girl playing the first piece of music she had learnt.

  The footmen had left and Higgins had gone into the room next door.

  She ran her fingers gently over the keys and started to play a soft tune that made her think about the garden and flowers at home.

  She continued playing, thinking she was riding through the woods on Samson, and birds were fluttering in the trees and squirrels scampering on the branches.

  She was feeling bright sunshine streaming through the leaves.

  She reached the pool in the centre of the wood and there was a slight movement on the surface as if the water nymphs were hiding from her.

  She played on and on remembering again what she had thought when she was riding her beloved stallion.

  Her father would be waiting for her in their house when she returned and she was reliving hurrying down the corridor to the study where he would find him sitting in his favourite chair.

  Then, as she opened the door of the study, he would hold out his arms and smile saying,

  “Come on my little one, I have something for you to do for me – ”

  With a sigh Shenda took her hands from the keys.

  She had no idea she had been playing for over half an-hour and then she was aware that Higgins was standing beside her.

  She felt for a split second as if she had come back physically through time to face him.

  “What has happened?” she managed to ask.

  “The Captain now be fast asleep with a smile on his lips.”

  Shenda eased herself off the piano stool and tiptoed through the communicating door into the Master suite.

  Quietly she then walked to the huge four-poster bed and she could see that Higgins was right.

  The Captain was indeed smiling.

  It was the first time that she had seen him smile and there was no longer a deep frown between his eyes.

  ‘He is very handsome,’ she mused to herself, ‘and I am so glad I have been able to help him.’

  She stood gazing at him for a while and then turned and went back into the boudoir closing the communicating door behind her.

  “He looks better already,” she murmured.

  “I ’as to ’and it to you, miss, though I finds it ’ard to say you be right and I be wrong.”

  “I think we are both right in wanting the Captain to recover quickly.”

  As she spoke, she thought that when he did he might want to return to England and once again she would have to rely on the Duke to find her somewhere to go.

  Then she shook herself – there was a great deal to be done before that could happen.

  The Captain’s wound had only just begun to heal and even the special herbs that Nicholas Culpepper had recommended all those years ago would take time to work.

  “I tell you what I would like to do, Higgins. I want to go out and see a little of Paris. It is so thrilling for me to be here and I would love more than anything else to walk down by the Seine.”

  “Well you can’t go walkin’ alone and that’s a fact!”

  “Why ever not?” Shenda enquired in surprise.

  “It be like this, miss, them Frenchies ’ave an eye for a pretty girl and you be too pretty to be walkin’ about alone.”

  “Oh, it just cannot be true, Higgins! I have always walked about alone at home, although, of course, it was in the country.”

  “Well, now you be in a town and a town that be full of Frenchies who wouldn’t let you get away with it!”

  “But I want to go out and see Paris.”

  Shenda was thinking as she spoke that perhaps she should ask one of the elderly housemaids to go with her, but that would be a nuisance and a bore. They would be so slow and she doubted if they would want to walk as far as the Seine anyway.

  “I’ll tell you what us’ll do, miss. I won’t make it uncomfortable for you. I ’as to stay ’ere and look after the Master, as you knows, but one of them men downstairs be quite a nice lad and he don’t talk much, so you won’t ’ave to listen to ’im.”

  “You mean he would accompany me?”

  “Yes, but I’ll tell ’im that you wants to be alone and he’s to walk well behind you. It’s just in case any of them Frenchies comes up to you thinkin’ they can ’ave a bit of fun, so to speak, he’ll push them off. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, I do, Higgins, and thank you very much for thinking of me. It is so kind of you.”

  “His Grace says I was to keep me eye on you, miss, and that’s what I means to do!”

  Shenda ran up to her room to fetch a hat. It was too warm for her to need a coat, so she picked up her handbag.

  Downstairs she found a young footman waiting for her in the hall and Higgins was there too.

  As she appeared he said,

  “Pierre ’ere says as he comes up from the country he would like to stretch his legs. He’s quite prepared to walk behind you for as long as you wants, miss.”

  “I will not be away too long. I just want to have a look at the Seine close to, as I have only seen it from the other end of the Place de la Concorde.”

  “Well, don’t you be a-fallin’ in,” Higgins smirked.

  “I will try not to and if I do, you will have to come and rescue me!”

  “That’ll be the day,” Higgins retorted, “cos I can’t swim!”

  Shenda was laughing as she started to walk down the Faubourg St Honoré.

  She was aware that Pierre was following behind her, but she did not look back.

  She walked on thinking how beautiful the fountains were with the sunshine shining through the trees.

  She could only walk slowly as there were crowds of tourists walking about on the pavements.

  Eventually she reached the River Seine and could see boats and barges moving up and down the river.

  The scene was just as fascinating as she thought it would be and she noticed some steps leading down to the river below.

  She went down them with Pierre right behind her.

  Then she found herself level with the Seine and just ahead was a comfortable seat.

  She sat down and now she could view the boats as she really wanted to see them and it was very enthralling.

  Someone had once said nothing was more romantic than the Seine at night, as then there were lights shining on the river both from the banks and the boats and barges.

  ‘I would love to come here at night,’ she mused.

  She was sure that if she did the seat she was sitting on would be taken by a courting couple.

  She was also certain that Higgins would not allow her to come alone.

  She was watching a ship filled with what appeared to be huge logs passing and after it there was a boat with a number of children who were obviously on an outing.

  It was then that she heard a man hurrying down the steps behind her and he went to the edge of the water just a little way from her.

  He stood there for a moment staring at the river.

  Then, to her surprise, he threw something violently into the water.

  As he did so, he turned and hurried back the way he had come, almost running up the steps.

  For a moment she could not think what on earth he had thrown into the river.

  She thought perhaps it was something he disliked in his house or perhaps some old clothes he no longer needed.

  Then as she looked she realised what he had thrown into the river was moving.

  To her astonishment it was a dog.

  It was fighting against the strong current and trying to swim back to the shore.

  Shenda jumped quickly to her feet as she realised that Pierre had also moved towa
rds the river.

  The dog was small, but he was managing to swim bravely towards the bank even though he was being swept down river by the current.

  Pierre joined Shenda as they moved along the bank of the river their eyes glued to the dog swimming towards them.

  “How could anyone do anything so cruel?” Shenda cried to Pierre in French.

  “I expect he thought that the dog would drown. If he’d been an old dog he would have.”

  Shenda did not answer him – she was watching the small dog struggling nearer and nearer.

  She and Pierre were moving along together so that they were keeping level with him.

  Shenda was half afraid he was too small to survive and he would perhaps become so exhausted that he would be swept away by the strong current.

  After they had gone quite a long way down the river, he reached the side and without being told Pierre bent down and caught hold of the dog by the back of his neck.

  He lifted him onto the bank and they both jumped away as the dog shook himself and water flew everywhere.

  Only when she could go near him without getting wet did Shenda bend down and pat the little dog gently on the head.

  She could see now that he was a small terrier and obviously not very old.

  He seemed to like her patting him and then Pierre took a large handkerchief from his pocket and dried him.

  He liked that too.

  Looking at him now that he was fairly dry, Shenda realised she had been right.

  He was quite a young dog and seemed well bred.

  Pierre wrung out his handkerchief.

  “We’ll take him home with us,” suggested Shenda. “And I think we should drive back, as he has had enough exercise for the moment!”

  “I’ll call a carriage, mademoiselle,” offered Pierre.

  He ran ahead of her up the steps and onto the road, hoping an empty fiacre would pass by.

  Shenda was patting the dog and talking to him.

  “You were brave to swim like you did, little doggy, and it was very clever of you to save yourself. Now I am taking you to a new home where you will be very happy.”

  The dog seemed to like her talking to him and after a moment he rubbed himself against her leg.

  At that moment Pierre stopped an empty fiacre and Shenda picked up the dog and climbed inside.

  She placed the dog beside her on the back seat and Pierre sat opposite them.

  “I call that a great adventure, Pierre. We went for a walk and came back with a prize dog, which I am sure will be welcomed by everyone in the house.”

  She knew as she spoke it was what she was hoping, although perhaps the Captain would refuse to keep him.

  He might tell her that, as he had no use for women, he had no use for stray dogs either!

  ‘Somehow I must persuade him to let the dog stay,’ Shenda thought to herself.

  She wondered how best to introduce him cleverly, as the Captain must indeed welcome the small terrier, as he had not been prepared to welcome her.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  When they returned, Shenda told Higgins excitedly all that had happened.

  He patted the dog and exclaimed,

  “Well, there’s one thing about ’im, he’s got pluck!”

  “That’s a good name for him, Higgins! We’ll call him Pluck.”

  The little terrier seemed to like his new name and wagged his tail furiously and then Shenda asked,

  “What about the Captain?”

  Higgins thought for a moment.

  “I thinks it’d be a mistake to tell ’im about the dog right away. We’ve got to get ’im used to you first, miss.”

  “Yes, of course, and I am just terrified I will annoy him and he will send me away.”

  “Just you go on as you are and us’ll keep Pluck in the kitchen when he’s not with you.”

  Pluck was a great success with everybody and chef spoilt him with titbits from almost every dish.

  Shenda settled down to do exactly as she had done the first day that had proved reasonably successful.

  She treated the Captain’s wounds first thing in the morning and last thing at night and only Higgins went into the bedroom during the day.

  He did, however, make sure that the Captain drank his Maidenhair tonic every day.

  Shenda was somewhat worried that if he took it at night it might keep him awake.

  “He be more energetic and he’s talkin’ about gettin’ up,” Higgins told her two days later.

  “That’s wonderful news, Higgins! I was certain the Maidenhair would do the trick.”

  She had expected the Duke of Wellington to call on the Captain and indeed she would have liked to see him herself, but Higgins told her that he had departed for Cambrai to organise the Army of Occupation.

  “I suppose His Grace’ll call in as soon as he comes back,” Higgins reflected. “And it’ll give ’im a big surprise when he sees the Captain.”

  She was fully aware that the Captain’s wound was healing in a miraculous fashion and there was little doubt that he was feeling better, eating more and looking happier.

  *

  It was now the fourth day she had been in the house and Shenda played the piano in the boudoir after attending to the Captain’s wounds, as she had every day.

  She found the piano gave her an enormous amount of pleasure and she really loved composing music to represent whatever she was thinking about.

  Now the music she was playing was the story of her growing up and of her happiness at being with her parents.

  And of the magic she found amongst the flowers in the garden and in the woods.

  She played how the squirrels carried their nuts up the trees to hide them, and how the goblins would work in the roots as she listened to them by putting her ear against the trunks.

  She played to the brilliant stars overhead and to the moon creeping up the sky that had always fascinated her.

  She played the tunes all the birds sang in the spring, and then her feelings as she first saw the Seine and thought how beautiful it was.

  The music of the Seine made her think of Pluck and how the brave little dog had swum to safety after his cruel owner had tried to drown him.

  Then she played of her delight when she and Pierre had rescued him and how they had brought him home in triumph!

  She looked down and became aware that Pluck who always lay at her feet when she was playing was not there.

  She was so used to him being with her that it never seemed at all possible that he might run away and then she noticed with a little consternation that the communicating door was more open than she had left it.

  She jumped up from the piano and ran to the door.

  She peeped into the Master suite to see that Pluck was sitting on the Captain’s bed.

  He had grown used in the last day or so to jumping onto her bed and this morning he had licked her cheek to wake her up.

  Nervously she entered the room and as she neared the bed she saw with considerable relief that the Captain was patting Pluck in front of him.

  He had his head on one side as if he was listening to what was being said to him.

  Anxiously Shenda drew nearer and as Ivan looked directly at her, he asked,

  “Where did this come from?”

  “Pierre and I saved his life the day after I arrived.”

  He looked at her questioningly.

  “I wanted to see the Seine – and Higgins would not let me go alone so Pierre followed me just in case someone interfered – with me.”

  She stumbled over the last words, but she could see by the expression in the Captain’s eyes that he understood.

  “I longed to see the Seine and when I reached it – I went down the steps to be beside the water.”

  Ivan did not say anything and yet she knew that he was listening as she continued with her tale,

  “While I was sitting there regarding the boats, a man came down the steps and threw something into the river. I thought it wa
s an object he wished to be rid of.”

  “And it turned out to be a dog,” Ivan added as if he felt he had to be a part of the story.

  “It was Pluck and when he started to swim, Pierre and I were scared he would be swept away by the current.”

  “He is indeed very small and currents in the Seine are, I know, exceptionally strong.”

  “He somehow managed to reach the bank and then Pierre pulled him out.”

  “So he is another visitor in this house for us to cope with,” Ivan muttered.

  Shenda felt that he was being reproachful, so she explained quickly,

  “The staff all love him and it was Higgins who said how plucky he was, so we called him ‘Pluck’. I am afraid we are spoiling him which is why he was not frightened to come in to you.”

  “I should be very annoyed if any dog was afraid of me,” he grunted.

  “I was not certain if you would welcome him and that is why I kept him hidden.”

  “He has introduced himself quite correctly, and as I happen to be extremely fond of dogs, I hope you will share him with me.”

  Shenda smiled.

  “You know that I am only too willing to do so. But I have a feeling like most sporting terriers he would prefer to be with a man rather than with me.”

  Ivan laughed and it was the first time she had heard him laugh and it was indeed a cheerful sound.

  “I think this calls for a special tune,” he suggested. “So I now suggest that you go back to your piano and tell me how pleased you are that Pluck and I are friends.”

  Shenda stared at him.

  “Are you saying, Captain,” she asked him in a very small voice, “that you understand what I have been saying to you in music?”

  “Of course I understand. You told me all about the beautiful woods you ride in at home and the birds, squirrels and rabbits that have meant something very special to you ever since you were a child.”

  Shenda drew in her breath.

  “How could you really understand – ?”

  “I suppose that the answer is very simple – it’s just what I feel myself, so naturally when you put it into music it makes me imagine what you are thinking.”

  Shenda’s eyes lit up.

  Then she was afraid that he was speaking to her so naturally that she might make a mistake.