Pure and Untouched Read online

  Unless of course she could remember the men she had encountered before she had been left at the Convent.

  He thought over how she had nearly spoken about her father when he had told her she was rich and he was sure that she was about to say that if she had money it meant that her father was dead.

  As they drove on, he told himself that sooner or later he would get her to talk about her past and discover exactly who she was.

  It would be intriguing to try to find out where she came from, who were her parents and what was her name.

  If there was one thing the Duke enjoyed, it was being challenged either to prove himself in the field of sport or to use his brains in some unexpected manner.

  Now he found himself determined, however difficult it might be, to unravel the tangled chain of events that had brought Anoushka to the Convent, to discover who had paid for her education there, and finally left her what to any woman was a considerable fortune.

  Because of what she had so very nearly said, he felt sure now it must have been her father, but if so, why had he never been to see her?

  Why had he hidden her in that mysterious way?

  It would have been more understandable if it was her mother who, having produced a love-child had placed her in the Convent for safety and had somehow been able to provide such large sums of money for her.

  ‘I must get to the bottom of this,’ the Duke told himself.

  He felt a sudden enthusiasm for the task he had been set and which swept away for the moment at any rate the haunting memory of Cleodel.

  *

  The place to which the Duke took Anoushka was one of the most respectable restaurants in Paris, but after the dinner was over the tables in the centre of the room were cleared and a band played popular dance tunes.

  The Duke had been given one of the alcoves that surrounded half the room where they were a little raised above the tables on the floor and therefore had a better view of the dancers.

  Having dined so well at home, the Duke only ordered champagne and some spoonfuls of caviar, which he was sure Anoushka would have never eaten before. When it came she looked at it, he thought, in surprise and he explained,

  “This is caviar. It comes from Russia and is one of the greatest specialities that gourmets can enjoy.”

  “Caviar!” Anoushka said almost beneath her breath and there was a lilt in the tone which the Duke did not miss.

  “You have heard of it?” he asked.

  “I thought I should never eat it again!” The Duke did not reply. He only knew this was another clue and a very helpful one.

  He had been sure from what his sister had said that Anoushka’s mother must have been Russian.

  He remembered that, when he had visited St. Petersburg five years ago, the women he met at the Winter Palace were all extremely beautiful and that many of them had the large mysterious eyes that he thought might be almost replicas of Anoushka’s.

  At the same time she did not look completely Russian, and he knew that was because her father was English.

  It was the combination of the two that made her look so unusual.

  He waited until she had finished her portion of caviar, eating it quickly with a fork and refusing the hot toast she was offered to go with it.

  “Will you have some more?” he enquired.

  Anoushka looked at him doubtfully.

  “Would it be greedy if I said yes?”

  “I want you to enjoy yourself,” the Duke said, “and I am glad you like caviar. It is something I like too and I am quite sure it is a delicacy they did not provide you with at the Convent.”

  “I am sure, with the exception of the Reverend Mother, that none of the nuns would have ever heard of it.”

  “I am surprised that you liked it when you were a child,” the Duke said, thinking he was being rather subtle. “I feel most children would think it greasy.”

  Anoushka did not reply.

  She merely looked at the dancers and after a moment said,

  “I think the Reverend Mother would be shocked by the sight of a gentleman putting his arms around a lady’s waist.”

  “The Reverend Mother is not here, but I am, Anoushka, and I think, as we agreed to be frank with each other, you are evading my questions.”

  She looked at him before she stammered,

  “Please – you must not be angry – but – it is something I cannot – answer.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I have – given my word.”

  “To whom?”

  “That is another question that I cannot – reply to.”

  “I can understand your keeping your words of honour to everybody except one particular person.” “Who – is that?”

  “Your husband. You must realise that the Marriage Service today made us one person and therefore our loyalty is not to anybody else, but only to each other.” Anoushka was silent for a moment before she asked, “Are you – sure that is – right?”

  “It is how I interpret the Marriage Ceremony and I am sure, if you ask your Father Confessor, he will tell you the same thing.”

  Anoushka sighed.

  “I think you must explain to me what is expected when one is married, since the nuns and novices never had husbands and so are not allowed to talk about them.”

  “But now you are married and I am here to explain to you what a husband means and also what a wife should or should not do.”

  Anoushka was not looking at him but at the dancers and yet he was aware that she was listening to him.

  Then the Duke thought again it would be a mistake to get involved in such a difficult conversation so soon after they were married.

  And yet because he was aware that, ignorant though she was, Anoushka had a quick and very intelligent brain, he told himself it was going to be difficult to keep to commonplace and banal subjects when there were such intriguing fundamental ones waiting for them, all of which he knew opened up new horizons she did not even dream existed.

  Then he realised she was not only very lovely but unique.

  He did not miss the glances she had received when they came in and the way the men at the adjacent tables kept gazing at her.

  He knew she was supremely unaware of their admiration, intent only on looking at what was happening with the eyes of a child.

  ‘That is what she is in many ways,’ the Duke told himself. ‘At the same time she has a brain which when it is developed will make many men look foolish.”

  The dance floor was now crowded and as one couple who had obviously had too much to drink bumped into another the woman slipped and fell down on the floor.

  Anoushka gave a little gurgle of laughter. “Has that happened because the floor is so slippery?” she asked.

  “No, it is because those people have been drinking too much and are unsteady on their feet,” the Duke replied.

  “I have heard of drunkenness, but I did not know it made it difficult to walk or dance.”

  “In most cases it means that people are rather noisy and laugh too much.”

  He saw the look of apprehension on Anoushka’s face as she pushed her glass of champagne to one side as if she was afraid to drink any more.

  “You need not worry that it will happen to you,” he said. “I have told you I will look after you.”

  “Please do that,” Anoushka said. “I would be horrified at myself if I behaved like the woman over there!”

  The Duke watched the woman now giggling stupidly as two men tried to lift her to her feet.

  Then as the other dancers passed, they looked at her contemptuously, raising their eyebrows and shrugging their shoulders in a typically French fashion.

  “I think it is – degrading”, Anoushka said, “for a woman to – behave like that. I don’t – like to see it. Please – can we – go?”

  The Duke put a number of franc notes on the table and rose to his feet.

  “Of course, Anoushka. It was a mistake to bring you here in the first place.”
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  They walked out of the restaurant, the carriage was called and when it arrived the Duke told his servants to open the hood.

  As they drove off with the stars shining above them, Anoushka said in a nervous little voice,

  “Perhaps it was – wrong of me to ask you to take me away. I am – sorry if I spoiled your enjoyment.”

  “You did nothing of the sort,” the Duke answered. “What you have just seen is something which I am sure rarely happens at that particular restaurant. You were just unfortunate and it is not the sort of behaviour you are likely to come into contact with elsewhere.”

  He realised as he finished speaking that Anoushka was not listening.

  Instead she was looking up at the stars with her head thrown back. The line of her long neck had an almost classical beauty as they passed the street lights that revealed both her profile and the glitter of diamonds on her white skin.

  She looked ethereal and after a moment she said,

  “The sky is so beautiful at night and it seems strange that men and women do not look at the stars instead of dancing in a small stuffy room.”

  “They dance because they want to be close to each other,” the Duke replied, “and the stars are far away.” Anoushka turned her head to look at him.

  “Are you saying that the men and women we saw tonight dancing together want to be close to each other because they are – in love?”

  “No, of course not,” the Duke replied. “But most women who are unmarried are seeking a husband and men like to dance with any woman they find attractive.”

  Anoushka thought this over. Then she said,

  “I don’t think I really want to dance, but if I did, it would be much more pleasant to dance alone.”

  Chapter 5

  The following day, the Duke thought, was filled with Anoushka’s laughter.

  To his surprise there were so many things that amused her, since he had never thought of them as being in the slightest degree funny.

  First she had found the Champs-Éysées as alluring as did any of the children who flocked there every morning.

  Green and picturesque with great private mansions scattered amongst the trees, it provided also numerous sideshows with Punch and Judy, roundabouts, miniature carriages drawn by goats and stalls selling toys, gingerbread and balloons.

  The Duke realised as he watched Anoushka’s eyes shining and listened to her exclamations of joy and the sound of her laughter that this could not have been part of her childhood.

  He longed to ask her questions, but he knew if he did so she would lapse into one of those repressive silences which he could not break.

  Instead he drove her round Paris in an open chaise to see the sights.

  The half-finished Eiffel Tower made her laugh too. “Who could have thought of such a monstrous monument?” she asked, when he explained it was to be the centre point of an Exhibition.

  “I agree it is not particularly beautiful,” the Duke replied, “but at the same time there will be a magnificent view from the top of it when it is finished.”

  When they drove beside the Seine, Anoushka did not laugh, but she was fascinated by the animated scene on the great river, with its bateaux-mouches gaily decorated with pendants and streamers and the bateaux lavoirs for washerwomen.

  When they were driving along the wide boulevards, Anoushka was again laughing at the strange people sitting outside the cafés, the dandies, and the ladies of both the Monde and the Demi-Monde displaying the latest and most outrageous fashions.

  She still found the bustle funny, although her own gown had one which was so skilfully made that on Anoushka it did not seem an exaggerated form of dress but added to her grace and the dignity with which she moved.

  Finally the Duke took her to meet Frederick Worth in the Rue de la Paix.

  He was used to women for whom he had bought clothes speaking of Worth almost as if he was a God.

  They treated him with a reverence that made the Duke feel that they were quite prepared to kneel down and worship him if he would create for them the gowns they wanted. He was not therefore prepared for Anoushka’s reaction.

  Now as he looked through her eyes at the great man who came from Lincolnshire and who had slept under the counter as an apprentice, the Duke could understand the quiver at the corners of her mouth and the irrepressible twinkle that lit the purple of her pupils. In his fur-trimmed velvet coat, with the beret he always wore on his greying hair, and speaking in his bombastic manner, Worth, when thought of as an ordinary man, was indeed funny.

  Because he realised that the Duke was very rich, the famous designer studied Anoushka closely and then appreciatively.

  There was silence as he walked round her, regarding her from every angle before he said and his voice was entirely sincere,

  “It will be a pleasure and a privilege to dress somebody whose beauty is so different from that of my other customers.”

  Anoushka looked at the Duke to see if what Frederick Worth was saying pleased him.

  “That is what I thought myself,” the Duke said quietly, “and my wife needs an entire trousseau as quickly as you can provide her with one.”

  It was then that Anoushka saw the great man in action.

  His assistants hurried with silks, tulles, velvets, brocades, cloth of silver, lace, gauze, all of which he threw casually over Anoushka’s shoulders, held against her waist or tried in all colours of the rainbow against her skin.

  Then he was scribbling sketches on pieces of paper, calling for more and yet more satins, spangles, fringes, tassels and feathers until Anoushka felt she would be swamped by her clothing and left with no individuality of her own.

  It was the Duke who inspected the sketches, listened to Mr. Worth and decided what should be made.

  Only when they drove away and Anoushka felt as if she must breathe deeply to resuscitate herself did she begin to laugh. “How dare you laugh at the most acclaimed man in all Paris!” the Duke exclaimed with mock severity.

  “He was so funny!” Anoushka said. “All those people running round him like busy little ants and he giving orders as if he was creating the world rather than a gown!”

  “You are committing lèse-majesté,” the Duke complained. “If he was aware of it he might refuse to design for you and then where would you be?”

  “Perhaps like Eve looking for fig leaves, but in the Bois rather than the Garden of Eden,” Anoushka replied and the Duke joined in her laughter.

  He took her to luncheon at the Pré Catelan in the Bois de Boulogne because he wanted to see what she would make of the beautiful amazons, who galloped between the Porte Dauphine and the Champ des Courses and stopped there to refresh themselves and exchange gossip.

  He forgot until he arrived there that he knew so many people in Paris that it was inevitable that he should find himself surrounded by friends and that Anoushka would be the object of their intense curiosity.

  He introduced a number of people to her and then he quickly moved her away to a secluded table under the shelter of one of the trees.

  “We will have a very light luncheon,” he said, “because tonight I intend to take you to a restaurant where there is no dancing but where the food is superlative and those who dine there think of little else.”

  “I think that food must be very important to the French,” Anoushka remarked.

  “That is true,” the Duke agreed. “They have in fact two national passions which absorb them to the exclusion of all else.” “What is the second one?” Anoushka asked.

  “Love,” the Duke replied.

  She looked at him in surprise.

  “Do you mean that they think about it almost as if it was a subject of study?”

  “To the Frenchman it is an art, as important as painting, music, sculpture or food.”

  “There must be a great deal to learn about love.” “A Frenchman takes a lifetime to be proficient in it.”

  The Duke saw that Anoushka was puzzling over what he had said.
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  Then three people came up to the table with exclamations of delight at seeing him.

  Leading them was an Englishwoman with whom the Duke had had a fiery tempestuous affair, which had only ended when her husband who was a Diplomat at the Court of St. James’s had been moved to another country.

  La Comtesse de Portales as she was now was still exceedingly beautiful and was well aware of it.

  Her red hair and slanting green eyes had held many men captive and the two Frenchmen who accompanied her were both friends of the Duke and delighted to see him.

  “I intended to call on you this afternoon,” the Comtesse said, “to offer you my congratulations, and of course my good wishes for your happiness. You know, dear Raven, that I want you to be happy.”

  She looked up into the Duke’s eyes in a manner which said without words that she thought it was very unlikely he would find that elusive goal except with her.

  “You are even more beautiful than I remember, Madelaine,” the Duke said courteously, raising her hand to his lips. She smiled at him intimately before he added,

  “Let me present you to my wife. Anoushka, la Comtesse de Portales, who was an irreparable loss to England when she left our shores.”

  Anoushka nodded her head and, as the two men were shaking hands with the Duke and congratulating him on his marriage, the Comtesse looked her up and down in a manner that was very different from the way she had looked at the Duke.

  Then, as if she decided to make something very clear, she said,

  “I was most surprised to hear of the Duke’s marriage. He has been a very close and very dear friend of mine and I thought that he might have informed me of his intentions.”

  Anoushka looked at the woman speaking to her with interest and she thought she could understand why the Duke admired her.

  She was certainly extremely beautiful and yet instinctively Anoushka felt beneath the surface that she was not a good woman and that the attitude she had towards her was decidedly unpleasant.

  “You must visit my house,” the Comtesse continued, “and you must not mind, Duchess, if your husband and I have a great deal to say to each other. As I have already told you, he is a very very dear friend.”