Seek the Stars Page 8

  He could imagine no one else he knew who could have carried it all off so splendidly.

  First at the intimate dinner with his grandmother and then at the luncheon today, Sadira had not made a single mistake.

  He was sure that there was no suspicion in anybody’s mind that things were not as they appeared.

  As he looked back, he realised that everything Sadira had said and done was exactly right.

  Everyone in his family whom she had met so far were hysterical with delight about her.

  He was thinking as he drove home that once again his luck had not failed him.

  *

  Inside the house Sadira found with relief that both her father and her stepmother were out.

  She went up to her bedroom and locked the door.

  She then went to the wardrobe room, which adjoined it, and picked up two large canvas bags.

  They were what she had used at school. She had needed them when the girls were taken on expeditions involving a stay for one or two nights at the places they visited.

  As the girls invariably had to carry their own luggage, they used canvas bags, which were lighter than leather cases would have been.

  Now Sadira took from her wardrobe the plainest and simplest clothes that she possessed.

  She packed them neatly and knew that it would be a mistake to be carrying anything surplus to essentials.

  She therefore discarded a great many gowns, keeping strictly to what she deemed was absolutely necessary.

  When the two canvas bags were packed, she replaced them in the wardrobe room, locked the door and took away the key.

  By this time it was growing late in the afternoon.

  But she knew that, if her father was at the House of Lords, he would not return until quite some time later.

  Sadira then went into his bedroom.

  Her father had a special safe there and, apart from him, only she knew the combination of the lock.

  It was when her mother was ill and rather weak that she had been told how to open it and this was to enable her to put away her mother’s jewellery as it was something that the maids were not allowed to do.

  Sadira then locked the outer door to her father’s bedroom so that his valet could not come in and interrupt her.

  She went ahead and opened the safe and, as she had expected, she found a considerable amount of money inside it.

  There was also some small change as he never left it lying about in drawers.

  She went through the banknotes and took for herself what seemed to be a very large sum of money.

  Equally she knew only too well that she would need it all at some stage..

  She took some sovereigns and half-sovereigns, knowing that she herself possessed very little ready money.

  Her father had always said that she could have what she wanted, but he thought it was a mistake for her to carry too much money around on her person and she therefore gave all her bills to his secretary for payment.

  Now Sadira knew that she would have to look after herself.

  She had to be practical and work out as near as she possibly could what she would need to last her for a long time.

  Finally, when she had taken almost everything her father had in the safe, she locked it and then she went back to her own bedroom.

  When her maid came in, she was writing letters at her secrétaire, which stood in a corner of the room near the window. She brought in the bath that Sadira would take before she dressed for dinner.

  Having finished what she was writing, Sadira put the letters into envelopes and hid them underneath the blotter.

  She remembered that her father and stepmother would be going out tonight to the same dinner as the Earl and so she would be alone.

  She thought that she would have her meal brought up to her bedroom on a tray.

  “I am tired,” she said to the maid, “and I shall go to bed early, but now I am going to walk for a little while in the garden for a breath of fresh air.”

  “It be cooler now the sun’s gone down, my Lady,” the maid replied, “and I’ll have your bath ready for you when you comes back.”

  “Thank you, Betsy,” Sadira replied.

  She went downstairs, not hurrying, and out through the French windows into the garden.

  It was narrow, as were the gardens of the houses on either side of it, but it went back quite a long way to the Mews.

  This was where her father and the owners of the neighbouring houses kept their horses and carriages.

  She went out through the door at the end of the garden, leaving the lock on the latch.

  As her father and stepmother were going out to dinner, the coachman and the footman would be on the carriage.

  There would therefore be no one with the other horses in the stable and the doors to it were closed.

  Sadira then walked down the Mews.

  There was a groom whose Master was a very old man and her father knew him well, but he had been ill for some time.

  His groom was usually to be found sitting outside his stable door or, having little to do, talking to other grooms.

  When Sadira visited her father’s horses, which she did frequently, he was often there and always greeted her politely.

  She usually asked him how his Master was keeping and he would reply grimly,

  “’Is Lordship ain’t no better and me and ’is ’orses don’t get enough exercise, but there ain’t nothin’ I can do about it.”

  Sadira had felt rather sorry for him.

  Now she walked a little way down the Mews, where he was usually to be found and to her relief she saw him through the open door of one of the stables.

  He was rubbing down one of the carriage horses and whistling to himself as he did so.

  “Good afternoon, Britan,” Sadira began.

  “Afternoon, my Lady,” he replied. “I sees in the newspaper this mornin’ as you be goin’ to be married and I ’opes you’ll be ever so ’appy.”

  “Thank you, Britan,” Sadira replied.

  “And what a man you’ve chosen! ’Is ’orses be some of the best. I always ’as a bet on ’em when I ’as a chance and some money.”

  “Well, I only hope they will not disappoint you,” Sadira replied.

  There was silence for a moment and then she asked him,

  “I wonder if you would do me a service?”

  “I’ll do what I can,” Britan answered. “What be you askin’ me to do, my Lady?”

  “I want to go very early tomorrow morning to Tilbury Docks,” Sadira replied, “but I am anxious that no one in my house should know what I am doing. Can I trust you to take me there and say nothing about it to anybody?”

  “Cross me ’eart and ’ope to die!” Britan declared. “When I gives me word, I jolly well keeps it!”

  “That is what I hoped you would say,” Sadira sighed. “So I will tell you what I want you to do.”

  Britan stopped grooming the horse and came to stand beside her.

  “What be your Ladyship up to?” he asked. “A bit of romance?”

  “Perhaps that is what you would think it is, Britan, but as I told you, no one must know.”

  “I’ve given me word,” he replied firmly.

  “Then could you please be waiting here for me at six o’clock tomorrow morning?” Sadira asked.

  Britan nodded and then she went on,

  “I have two bags that I want to take with me. If I take them into the garden while the staff are having their supper, perhaps you could collect them without anybody being aware of it.”

  “Trust me, my Lady.”

  “I will put them just inside the garden door,” Sadira stressed. “Here is the key.”

  She put it into his hand.

  As he took it, he looked up and asked,

  “Now, my Lady, what be you up to? You’re not elopin’, be you, ’cause if you are, you’ll break ’is Lordship’s ’eart.”

  “No, I am not doing that,” Sadira said. “I need to go away for
a short time, but I have been forbidden to do so. That is why I want your help, Britain.”

  She thought that he looked indecisive and she rapidly went on,

  “I know I can trust you.”

  “’Course you can.”

  “If you know nothing and say nothing, then you cannot be held responsible for anything that happens to me,” Sadira said, “so, please – please, once you have dropped me at Tilbury, forget all about it.”

  “I’ll not do that,” Britan answered, “but I won’t say nothin’ to nobody.”

  “I will certainly make it worth your while,” Sadira said with a smile and adding,

  “Six o’clock or perhaps I had better say a quarter to six as our coachman might be up early.”

  “Don’t you fret,” Britan said, “that lot don’t strain themselves unless they ’as to.”

  “Very well then I will be with you at six o’clock sharp.”

  “I’ll be waitin’,” Britan promised, “and your bags’ll be inside the carriage with you.”

  “Thank you – and I am very grateful,” Sadira replied.

  She hurried back into the house, having left the garden door locked behind her.

  She had a nice hot bath and put on a pretty negligée.

  What was brought up from the kitchen for her dinner was delicious, but Sadira was too excited to be hungry.

  She was embarking on an exciting adventure.

  It was not only the most outrageous thing that she had ever done but was also the most dangerous.

  Yet the stars had shown her the way and she knew that somehow they would help and protect her.

  When she was left alone, she took her bags downstairs and she knew that the servants would now be having their supper.

  The senior servants ate in the housekeeper’s room and the others were in the servants’ hall.

  And none of their windows faced onto the garden.

  Wearing her nightgown and negligée, she went out through the French window onto the lawn.

  It was growing dusk and she was sure that no one would notice her as she carried first one of the canvas bags and then the other down the garden to the door into the Mews.

  She set them down by the door that she had given Britan the key to.

  Then she went back as quietly as she could into the house.

  In her room she took from beneath the blotter the two letters that she had written. One was to her father and one to the Earl.

  To the Earl she attached with a clip a piece of paper on which she had written a note,

  “Please have this taken during the morning to the house of the Earl of Kensall.”

  She then went downstairs and put the envelope addressed to her father on his desk as she knew that he always went to his study immediately after breakfast.

  Her stepmother would still not have been called as she was seldom woken before ten o’clock.

  Sadira then went back to her bedroom.

  ‘I am really sure that I have thought of everything,’ she told herself.

  Then, as if she was compelled to do so, she walked to the window and pulled back the curtains.

  By now it was nearly dark and the first stars were beginning to twinkle in the sky.

  She looked up at them.

  ‘Show me the way,’ she asked them. ‘I know you will not fail me.’

  Everything was very quiet.

  She had the feeling that there was a sudden peace within herself and the fear and the horror had subsided.

  ‘The stars will protect me,’ Sadira whispered to the sky, ‘I know they will.’

  She climbed into her bed and fell asleep almost before her head had touched her pillow.

  chapter five

  The Earl awoke early and felt in need of some exercise.

  He thought that only on horseback would he be able to shake off the depression that he had been suffering from for the last two days.

  He went to the stables himself, selected one of his superb stallions and five minutes later he was riding towards Rotten Row.

  He was mounted on the stallion that he had bought only a week before at Tattersalls salerooms before the bidding started for a large amount of sovereigns that he did not want to disclose to his friends and family.

  He was feeling pleased to find that the stallion was very obstreperous and looking for a challenge.

  It reared and bucked to show its independence and it took the Earl quite some time to get it under control.

  There was nothing he enjoyed more than the age-old battle between man and beast and, when finally the stallion settled down to a steady trot, he recognised that he was the victor.

  It was far too early in the morning for there to be any of the beautiful women who drove in their carriages down Rotten Row.

  They invariably waved to him, expecting him to stop and talk to them so that they could flirt with him.

  He was hoping, however, that he might see Sadira.

  He knew that she rode early, but today there was no sign of her in Hyde Park.

  He was thinking again about how tactful and charming she had been yesterday with all his relatives and in consequence he was not feeling as apprehensive about the future as he had been.

  When he arrived back at Kensall House after his most satisfactory ride, he would have gone straight into the breakfast room.

  Before he could do so, however, he was informed by the butler that there was a letter for him from Langbourne House.

  This information swept the smile from the Earl’s face and there was a distinct frown between his eyes as he walked over to the sideboard to choose what he would eat for his breakfast.

  He was feeling certain that the letter in question came from the Marchioness.

  He thought that it was both indiscreet and very tiresome that she should write to him at the moment.

  He had already received one passionate letter, which he had read through quickly before he threw it into the fire.

  This second one would undoubtedly say very much the same and so it would share the same fate.

  ‘It is always the same,’ he told himself angrily, ‘a woman will never give up and wants a brief affaire de coeur to last forever.’

  It was dangerous for her to write anything that the Marquis might see and also very stupid as well.

  The knowledge of what was waiting for him spoilt his breakfast.

  However, he refused to hurry and deliberately read both The Times and The Morning Post before finally he started to walk towards his study.

  His secretary had arranged the usual pile of invitations for him and there was another pile of private and personal letters.

  On his blotter was the letter that he could see was from Langbourne House.

  He glanced at it and was at once aware that it was not addressed in the Marchioness’s handwriting. Nor had she used her private writing paper, which was always rather vulgarly heavily scented.

  This, he surmised, showed a little more sense and yet it made him angry that she should have written to him at all.

  Therefore he put the letter to one side and began the task of wading through the pile of invitations.

  He marked those he accepted with a tick and those he rejected with a cross.

  And he then read his other personal letters, which his secretary had not opened.

  Now he looked once again at the letter from Langbourne House.

  He sighed deeply, picked it up and then opened it.

  As he unfolded the piece of paper inside the envelope, he realised that it was not from the Marchioness but from Sadira.

  Wondering why she should have written to him, he read,

  “My Lord,

  I have been thinking over our situation and I realise that, if I am suffering, so are you, only in your case it is worse.

  I am aware that when we are together you are wishing that someone else was beside you and I think it would be impossible for us to go through life together in such circumstances day after day, week after we
ek and month after month.

  I have therefore decided to go away so that you will never see me again. I have told my father that I am going to Paris with some friends in order to buy my trousseau.

  He will therefore not worry about me for at least two or three weeks and after that, when he cannot find me, he will have to accept that I am dead.

  As our engagement has now been made public and I have been accepted by your family, 1 am quite certain that Papa will not do anything that would cause a scandal.

  You are therefore safe and free and I can only wish you real happiness in the future.

  There is one thing I would beg of you to do for me. My stepmother threatened, when I said that I had no wish to marry you, that she would have my horse, Swallow, taken away and starved to death and would give my dog, Bracken, to some man in the slums who would ill-treat him.

  As I love both Swallow and Bracken more than anything else in the world, please, I beg of you, take care of them and don’t let them suffer a horrible fate that they most surely do not deserve.

  Sadira

  The Earl sat back heavily in his chair as he could hardly believe that what Sadira had written about her horse and dog was true.

  Yet he then remembered the red mark on her cheek and he was well aware that the Marchioness’s emotions, whether of love or hatred, lacked all control.

  But how could Sadira possibly go away, presumably abroad, and then just disappear?

  He thought of how young and innocent of the world she was.

  If she had gone away alone, as she appeared to have done, he could not bear to think of the trouble that she could find herself in.

  She was so beautiful and, as he was well aware, every man who looked at her smiled and looked again.

  He rose from his desk and walked across the room and, moving backwards and forwards, he tried to think of what he should now do.

  He told himself that perhaps she had not gone away alone.

  If she had told her father that she was going with friends to Paris, then she had probably left England with them.

  The best thing he could do now was to try and prevent her from leaving her friends and going off on her own.

  He ordered his carriage to be brought round to the front door and then went upstairs to change from his riding clothes.