Love by the Lake Page 8

  “Who lives in the Priory?” she enquired nervously.

  “The late Earl with whom the title died out,” Lord Seabrook told her, “sold it to a man who had made a lot of money in the cotton business. He found the house too big for him and at the moment it is empty.”

  “I would be interested to see it sometime, my Lord,” said Lolita, trying to speak casually, “and of course I must tell Simon about the monks.”

  “That is an excellent idea. The castle is full of the history which he will have to learn about sooner or later.”

  “I shall make sure that he enjoys every word of it, as I have always found history fascinating myself.”

  They rode on for a little while before Lord Seabrook unexpectedly asked her,

  “Have you ever been abroad?”

  “Yes, indeed I have, I have been to France, Italy and Greece.”

  Lolita’s father and mother had saved every year so that they could have what they called ‘a second honeymoon’ abroad.

  When they found it impossible to leave her behind, she had gone with them. There had always been someone in a small pension who would look after her when they went out in the evening.

  In the daytime she remembered playing on the beaches and staying by a river while her father and mother talked to each other in loving terms, as if they had just met for the first time.

  “I suppose your travelling makes you even more qualified to be a governess than you would be otherwise?”

  “My French is pretty good, while my Italian is a little spasmodic, but in Greece I preferred what I saw to what I heard.”

  Lord Seabrook chuckled.

  “That is honest at any rate. Most governesses would have claimed they were extremely proficient in everything about those three countries.”

  “Anyone who lies is not really suitable to teach children,” answered Lolita.

  She did not realise that Lord Seabrook’s eyes were twinkling again as he deliberately but subtly tried to learn more about her.

  ‘If she was really a governess,’ he thought, ‘she would not have been able to travel to those countries, because she must have been only a very young girl at the time.’

  He looked at Lolita and thought again how lovely she was before he continued his thoughts,

  ‘Therefore she must have gone with her parents who could afford the journey and the expenses which are always larger than one expects.’

  As they turned for home, he told himself he did not know very much more about Mrs. Bell than when they had started.

  ‘She is clever enough not to make any mistakes in what she says. At the same time she does not realise that she is speaking to me as if she was an equal, which is something no ordinary governess would do.’

  Because she was not shy she talked to him as she would have talked to any other young man whom she had met in a private house.

  They returned to the castle and Lord Seabrook said that he wanted Simon to have breakfast with him so that he could tell him how much he enjoyed the ride.

  “We will all go to the breakfast room,” he announced,“and I expect, Barty, you will have thought of it already.”

  “I did think your Lordship would want Master Simon with you,” the butler replied tactfully.

  Without thinking, Lolita had taken off her hat as they entered the hall and she put it down on a chair with her riding gloves. She had arranged her hair more tightly and neatly so that it would make her look older.

  Now from the exercise there were little curls draped on her forehead and her cheeks and the sun coming through the windows shone on her hair turning it to gold.

  Lord Seabrook considered that it impossible for anyone to look so beautiful and ethereal.

  She might have been the Goddess Diana coming down from Olympus to associate with human beings.

  Simon was chattering away about his pony.

  “I would like to ride him again this afternoon please, Uncle James.”

  “If you want to, but you must first ask Mrs. Bell what she has planned for you. It might be time for lessons and you will have to sit at a desk.”

  He was teasing and Simon came back,

  “Lolo’ll not do anything so boring and if we are in the castle, she has hundreds of stories to tell me about the people who lived here and the battles they fought when they were so very brave.”

  “I am sure they were and I was wondering if perhaps instead of the castle you would like to explore my yacht.”

  “A ship!” Simon exclaimed. “That would be spiffing! Can it go very fast?”

  “I hope you will think so, but of course not as fast as you can go on you pony.”

  “We can’t race them as one is on the water and the other is on the ground.”

  “That is true,” replied his uncle. “At the same time I think you would like to see the mountains at the far end of the lake and the other parts of Ullswater which are nearly as beautiful as here.”

  He realised as he spoke that Lolita was looking at him with wide eyes.

  “That sounds wonderful, my Lord,” she said, “and I know Simon will be thrilled to be on a yacht. He was looking for boats on the lake as soon as he awoke this morning.”

  “Well that is just what we’ll do,” Lord Seabrook said, “and of course I hope my other guest will join us.”

  He spoke as if he had only just thought of her.

  Lolita hoped that Lady Cressington would refuse the invitation, but she told herself that would be asking too much.

  Although she was complaining that she had always disliked yachts, Lady Cressington took an early luncheon with them and it was only reluctantly that she agreed to go aboard.

  Simon was so excited at the idea that he talked endlessly to his uncle all through luncheon.

  Because she was not receiving his Lordship’s undivided attention, Lady Cressington was extremely cross.

  Lord Seabrook obviously enjoyed answering the questions Simon asked, because they were so intelligent and he did not welcome the ‘beauty’s’ sulky expression and the way she continually attempted to capture his attention.

  She was trying to make him talk exclusively to her.

  Lolita, knowing what was expected of her, did not say a word unless she was addressed.

  As luncheon progressed she began to feel a little anxious. Perhaps Lady Cressington would be able to divert Lord Seabrook’s interest in Simon back to herself.

  They left the dining room to get ready to board the yacht.

  As they did so Lolita heard Lady Cressington say,

  “I always think, James, that it is a mistake for children to come down for meals when they should be in the schoolroom. It really does prevent one from having an intelligent conversation.”

  “I thought,” replied Lord Seabrook, “that the conversation at luncheon was extremely bright for a small boy who is not yet eight years old.”

  “I am afraid I find children of that age extremely boring,” Lady Cressington huffed, “unless of course they were my own.”

  As she was speaking she gave his Lordship a sideways glance, which told Lolita all too clearly that she intended to marry him.

  It was something that worried her all through the afternoon although the cruise on the yacht was fascinating.

  The beauty of the mountains was breath-taking and although the lake was completely calm and the yacht moved very slowly through the water, Lady Cressington clung to Lord Seabrook’s arm as if she was afraid she might fall in.

  She was obviously whispering intimate words in his ear which she had no wish for anyone else to hear.

  Lolita kept out of the way as much as possible, but she enjoyed being on board the yacht almost as much as Simon did.

  It was the very latest model and an exceptionally fine acquisition.

  The Captain and the crew were delighted to welcome guests aboard and Lolita managed to see all the cabins, which were furnished most attractively and so expertly planned that she was sure that no guest would feel cramped even
if they undertook a long voyage.

  The Master Cabin, which of course was the largest, boasted every modern convenience it was possible to imagine.

  There was a bathroom with a shower opening out of it and the curtains and covers on the bed were extremely pretty. The Saloon, which was all in green, had been, she learned, arranged and decorated entirely by its owner.

  Lord Seabrook was apparently intensely interested in all the new gadgets that were now available for modern yachts.

  *

  They came back earlier than planned to the castle because Lady Cressington complained that she was feeling tired.

  It was only then that she actually spoke to Lolita for the first time that day, having ignored her when she had first appeared in the morning. All through luncheon and while they were aboard the yacht she said nothing to her.

  When they reached the castle Lord Seabrook took Simon to see a picture of his yacht which he had promised to show him.

  Lady Cressington walked up the front stairs with Lolita following her and when they reached the top, her Ladyship turned round to face her.

  “I find it quite unnecessary, Mrs. Bell, that you should accompany us everywhere we go. You must have enough tact to realise that his Lordship and I wish to be alone. If he wants his nephew to come with him, the child does not require a bodyguard. In future you will kindly stay in the schoolroom, where you belong.”

  She spoke in a hard and offensive tone of voice, very unlike the cooing seductive way she addressed Lord Seabrook.

  Lolita did not answer and Lady Cressington tossed her head and walked away towards her room.

  When she had gone Lolita became conscious that Mrs. Shepherd had been waiting for her in the shadows.

  “Don’t be upset, Mrs. Bell, at what her Ladyship says to you, as she’s jealous of anyone who even speaks to his Lordship. A fine day it’ll be for all of us if she gets her way.”

  They turned towards the stairs leading up to the schoolroom.

  “I suppose,” said Lolita in a small voice, “her Ladyship means to marry him.”

  “She’ll get him by hook or by crook,” muttered Mrs. Shepherd, “and a sad day it’ll be for all of us, including Master Simon.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Mr. Barty was telling me that at dinner last night she kept saying that little boys were at their best and their happiest when they were at school. She was recommending some schools she knew where he could go before going to Eton.”

  Lolita became worried.

  “I have always understood from my father that when a family can afford it the boys have a tutor before they go to Eton or whichever Public School is chosen for their education.”

  “That’s what happened to his lordship and Master Simon’s father,” Mrs. Shepherd pointed out. “But some people who don’t care much for their children send them off when they’re eight and if you ask me it’s far too young.”

  “I maintain,” insisted Lolita, “and it would be a great mistake for Master Simon to go away to school until he has fully recovered from the way he has been treated by his stepmother.”

  “It was wicked and cruel of any woman to behave as I hear she behaved,” said Mrs. Shepherd angrily. “I never did like her and it surprised me, except that he was lonely, that Mr. Rupert married again.”

  She sighed before she continued,

  “Master Simon’s mother was an angel come down from Heaven itself, and I can only imagine that woman trapped him as her Ladyship will trap his Lordship unless we can somehow prevent it.”

  Lolita became even more concerned about Simon as she knew that however much he was enjoying himself at the moment, the hell he had suffered must still be at the back of his mind and it would be impossible for him to adjust to a strange school at present.

  “If you ask me,” Mrs. Shepherd was saying, “Master Simon will find his step-aunt as bad as his stepmother.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because of the way she treats the staff,” replied Mrs. Shepherd.

  They had reached the schoolroom by this time and she sat down in the armchair by the fireplace as if she was breathless before resuming,

  “She’s so disagreeable to her lady’s maid that I wonder the woman stays, and if Master Simon’s stepmother beat him that’s just what her Ladyship will do when he’s in her power.”

  “Then we must somehow stop it,” cried Lolita. “We cannot allow this to happen again. It would be too cruel and wicked.”

  She was thinking as she spoke that she would take Simon away if there was the slightest chance of it happening,but she had no idea where she would go or how she could pay, but somehow she must save him.

  “Now don’t you fret yourself,” Mrs. Shepherd was saying. “It hasn’t happened yet and with any luck his Lordship will see sense afore he goes too far. But make no mistake that woman’s after him and if she gets what she wants it’ll be goodbye for most of us and Heaven knows what’ll happen to that poor little boy.”

  She looked at the clock and gave an exclamation.

  “I must go and see what’s happening downstairs. You can never trust these young housemaids! However much you tell them, it goes in one ear and out the other.”

  She was still talking as she left the room.

  Lolita sat down on a chair.

  How could it be possible that Simon could have walked from one hell into what might become another?

  ‘I must save him,’ she thought. ‘Oh please, God, he cannot suffer all that again!’

  Then just as if it was an answer to her prayer she felt something come into her memory.

  Something she had entirely forgotten, which had happened about three months ago.

  It was almost as if the clouds which had encompassed the mountains at the end of the lake were moving slowly away and as they cleared she could feel her memory coming back to her.

  It was something which she had heard, but which she had forgotten until this very moment.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Lolita recalled that she had been attending a luncheon party in London and when the meal was over a number of the young people present moved into the garden.

  She had stayed behind for a moment talking to the hostess about her mother as they had been great friends.

  Then the door had opened and the hostess’s eldest son came in.

  “Hallo, Harry!” she exclaimed. “I did not expect you until later.”

  “I got away early,” he replied.

  “Have you had luncheon?” his mother asked.

  “Yes, I have, thank you, but I have told a servant to bring me a drink. I need one as I am in such a rage.”

  “A rage! What has happened?”

  “You will hardly believe it,” he continued, “and I myself find it very difficult to comprehend.”

  “Tell me,” his mother implored.

  The young man sat down in the nearest chair.

  “You know Captain Michael Duncan, who is in the Regiment with me.”

  “Yes of course. Such a nice young gentleman! I am always glad to see him.”

  “I did not tell you,” Harry went on, “that he became secretly engaged to Catherine Cressington.”

  “The great beauty?”

  “Yes, and she has been dangling him about for some time in a way which I thought was most unkind.”

  Lolita noticed that her hostess pursed her lips together and it was obvious that she disapproved of Catherine Cressington.

  “Because they are engaged,” Harry resumed, “and she is very fond of jewellery, Michael lent her a magnificent necklace which his father had brought back from India. The General was very proud of it.”

  “Why particularly?”

  “Because he had received it as a gift from a Maharajah whose life he had saved and it is absolutely fantastic.

  “I think I have heard people talking about it,” replied his mother.

  “I am not surprised. It is an arrangement of enormous emeralds, rubies, sapp
hires and of course diamonds. It is worth a fortune.”

  “And I suppose it will be Michael’s one day.”

  “It would have been, except that it has disappeared from around the neck of Catherine Cressington!”

  His mother stared at him.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean what I say,” answered Harry. “Michael lent it to her to wear for one particular party she was attending. Then on their way home she told him she no longer wished to marry him and that, as you can imagine, upset him very much.”

  “Of course it did and I am very sorry for Michael. I can only hope it does not break his heart. “What has broken his heart,” added Harry, “is that Catherine Cressington has disappeared and so has the necklace.”

  “Do you mean she has taken it with her?”

  “She has stolen it if you want the truth,” asserted Harry. “The General is furious and there is nothing poor Michael can do as she cannot be found.”

  “But she is such a success,” exclaimed his mother. “Everyone in London is talking about her beauty.”

  “I know that, but Michael thinks she now has some other man she wants to marry who has a title. Apparently she always resented the fact that he would have to wait a long time to inherit his father’s title as the General is in very good health.”

  “I have never heard of anything so disgraceful,” his mother declared. “But surely eventually she will send him back the necklace.”

  “I very much doubt it, but if you ask me she is hoping to keep it when all the fuss and commotion has died down.”

  “Well, I call it stealing,” his mother fumed. “There is no other word for it.”

  Lolita could now remember thinking that Lady Cressington, whom she had seen once at a large party, must be a very strange woman.

  She could not imagine her mother or indeed any of her friends stealing anything, even if it was something quite inexpensive, but to go off with a trophy such as Harry had described was shocking, to say the very least of it.

  She knew well how magnificent Indian jewels could be and although she had never been to India, her father had a friend who used to call occasionally at their little house in the country. He was a great traveller and on one occasion he had come back from India with a present for her mother.