A Golden Lie Page 9

  Then he laughed at himself.

  He was extremely grateful to Devona for being so generous to the family and himself.

  But she was his cousin and so he could not help thinking that one day the tainted and unpleasant character of her father would inevitably appear.

  ‘I am grateful, so very grateful,’ he said to himself. ‘But it would be a mistake for me to become too involved with her.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  As the Earl suggested, they went to bed early.

  Devona was so tired that she fell into a deep sleep almost immediately.

  She woke because something roused her, but she was not certain what it was.

  As she realised that bright sunshine was streaming through the sides of the curtain, she knew it was morning.

  Equally she was certain that something had woken her and without really thinking about it she got out of bed.

  It was then she could see that there was a note pushed under her door.

  She picked it up and realised from the writing that it was from the Earl.

  He had written,

  “Please stay in your room until I send for you, which should be about luncheon time.

  As soon as you read this, put outside your door a dress that fits you exactly.”

  It was not signed and she stared at it in perplexity.

  Then she understood what his orders were.

  She was not to go to the funeral and that in itself was a great relief.

  Secondly as he asked for her dress she guessed that he was sending one of his servants, perhaps to London, to buy her some clothes.

  She ran to the wardrobe and took down the gown which she had worn for years, but which still fitted her.

  It was, of course, out of date, but that did not matter as it was the right length and the bodice fitted perfectly.

  She opened the door to put the dress outside and then she climbed back into bed, as her clock told her that it was not quite seven o’clock.

  ‘If he is getting me some clothes,’ she thought, ‘it will be wonderful to have something different to wear.’

  She thought it was amazing of him to think of her when he was so busy arranging his uncle’s funeral.

  She had dreaded the moment when she would see the coffin lowered into the cold ground, as she had seen her father’s and mother’s.

  Not because she minded about the Earl as she had minded about them.

  There was something terrifying in knowing that it would mean the end of an era as far as she was concerned.

  As the Earl had said to her seriously last night, she was starting a new life. Not as a Brooke as he thought she would be and not even as herself.

  In a way it was a consolation to feel that she was using her father’s name, even though she was acting a lie.

  Ever since she had been a small child and had a Nanny, Devona had known it was very wrong and wicked to lie, as her Nanny had said, wagging her finger, “One lie always leads to another!”

  In this case Nanny was certainly right.

  She had lied in saying that she was the late Earl’s daughter and she had lied in saying that there was no will.

  Now she was still acting a lie, as the Earl believed that she was entitled to the money his uncle had left that he had actually wanted with him in his grave.

  It all seemed to Devona very complicated and at the same time intimidating.

  ‘If I go on lying,’ she asked herself, ‘where will it all end?’

  There was no answer.

  She could only pray that she would be forgiven not only by God but by her father and mother.

  Because there was no hurry for her to start dressing, she lay in bed.

  She thought over what had occurred and how kind and understanding the new Earl had been and, if he had been anything like his uncle, he would have been furiously angry at her receiving any of his money.

  Having been scared of starving, she was now really frightened of having to be alone, even though she could pay people to be with her.

  When she thought of paying people, she wondered how she could give some of her money to Mr. Alton.

  He must not come into contact with the new Earl or anyone he might reveal her true identity to.

  She had thought of this for a long time and finally she decided what she would say to Mr. Alton.

  The Earl had left her some money and she wanted to share a little of it with him, but she was certain that if she gave him too much he would think it strange.

  Perhaps he would question the Earl as to whether she could afford it.

  She eventually made up her mind that once she had a cheque book she would give him five hundred pounds.

  It seemed to her quite a large sum and she would repeat it every year and it would give Mr. Alton all the comforts he could not afford now and it would not seem so much that he might be curious about it.

  While Devona was lying in bed, she heard heavy footsteps going down the passage.

  She knew they were carrying the coffin containing the Earl down the stairs to be buried.

  When she looked at the clock, she saw that it was nine o’clock and she thought the new Earl was deliberately having the Burial Service as early as possible.

  In that way it would attract little attention and it was unlikely that even the few people left in the cottages outside the gates would realise what was happening.

  ‘He is so wise,’ Devona said to herself, ‘so very very different in every way from his wicked uncle!’

  A little later she jumped out of bed and dressed.

  One of the servants had asked her last night if they should call her and she said ‘no’, as she would let them know what time she wished to get up.

  She did not know then whether the Earl would want her to attend the burial or not.

  Devona pulled back the curtains and the sunshine poured in.

  She wanted to forget the late Earl and everything about him and she hoped that the darkness and misery he had created had gone with him to the grave.

  Now she could enjoy life in the sunshine.

  She only wished fervently that her mother was with her.

  Then, as so often happened when she thought of her mother, Devona felt that she was beside her and she was telling her not to be afraid and to trust the Earl.

  “Trust him! Do trust him!” Devona felt her mother saying.

  “But how can I trust him,” she asked, “and not tell him the truth.”

  He might be very angry.

  When he arrived and was obviously not at all like his uncle, she should have told him then and there that she had destroyed the will.

  It had never occurred to her that she would inherit everything he left and she thought that the family would give her a little money and perhaps a cottage to live in.

  Now she was seriously rich.

  ‘I will most certainly give most of it back to them one way or another,’ she told herself.

  But she was afraid of doing anything too impetuous that might get her into trouble.

  She dressed herself in the same black dress feeling that it was correct. She had worn it ever since the new Earl had arrived.

  Then she sat down in the sunshine coming through the window and forced herself to read one of the books she had taken from the library.

  It was a history of Egypt that she was particularly interested in, but today it was impossible to concentrate as she kept wondering what was happening in the churchyard.

  There was plenty of room for new graves, but there was nothing to show where her parents had been buried.

  Time seemed to drag and Devona knew, however, that it was by the Earl’s orders that no one came near her.

  She began to think that she had been forgotten and, having had no breakfast, she would go without luncheon as well.

  Suddenly there was a knock on the door and she jumped up from the window calling out,

  “Come in!”

  It was the Earl’s housekeeper, who had come do
wn from London with the other servants.

  “Good morning, miss,” the housekeeper began. “I were thinkin’ you’d be awake by now. His Lordship told me you were very tired and we wasn’t to disturb you till you rang.”

  “I have had a good long sleep, thank you,” Devona managed to say. “Is his Lordship downstairs?”

  “He’s asked you to come down, miss. I understand the funeral went off very satisfactorily.”

  Devona did not answer. She was putting down her book and hurrying towards the door.

  She ran down the stairs to find the Earl, as she had expected, in the drawing room.

  As she entered, hurrying to him, he was smiling.

  “I expect you are hungry,” he suggested at once. “We are having luncheon immediately.”

  He glanced towards the door to make quite certain that they were alone before he said,

  “I thought that it would be embarrassing for you to answer questions as to whether or not you were going to the funeral. You know how servants talk and I gave orders that you were not to be disturbed until you rang.”

  “That was very kind of you, my Lord.”

  “There were no difficulties,” the Earl continued. “There were one or two people from the cottages and the Solicitors were represented as well as the Bank, otherwise there were no mourners.”

  Without waiting for Devona to answer, he walked to the grog table that would most certainly not have been present when his uncle was alive.

  “After what you and I have been through,” the Earl said, “we both need a drink. Although it may seem slightly strange, I have ordered champagne.”

  “I always thought that it was only for festivities,” Devona commented.

  “What could be more of a festivity,” the Earl asked in a low voice, “than that we should dispose of the bogey who has haunted the Brookes for years?”

  He handed Devona a glass of the champagne and then lifted his own glass.

  “To you and me,” he proposed. “We have buried darkness and misery and now in the future there is, I do believe, happiness for both of us.”

  “I hope you are right,” Devona murmured.

  She drank a little of the champagne and thought it delicious.

  The sun was shining and she felt happy.

  “Now what we are going to do this afternoon,” the Earl was saying, “is to ride my fastest horses. I think that we both need exercise and I want to see as much of the estate as you can show me.”

  “I only hope it will not depress you, my Lord.”

  “I refuse to be depressed by anything and in a way I feel it’s better to start from the bottom and work up than to find a dozen mistakes that have to be altered before one can go any further.”

  “I know exactly what you mean,” Devona replied, “and you are quite right. We will start at the bottom, but you must not be too surprised if it is very stony.”

  They had an excellent luncheon and Devona found, because she was hungry, that she could eat more than she had managed before.

  As she rose from the table, she said,

  “I will change in three minutes. Please don’t be shocked when you see my riding habit.”

  “As it is a particularly warm day,” the Earl told her, “I suggest that you leave your jacket behind and be quite comfortable, if you have one, in a blouse.”

  “I have one, but it’s not very smart.”

  She then ran up the stairs and put on her riding skirt which had been patched and mended in several places.

  The blouse was old and it also had been repaired, but, as she had washed and ironed it herself, it was crisp and clean.

  It never occurred to her to put on a hat, as she had never worn one when she was riding alone, as there was no one to see her, it would have been unnecessary.

  When she joined the Earl outside the front door, he thought that the sun on her fair hair was very lovely.

  It seemed almost to sparkle round her heart-shaped face and it shone like her eyes because she was excited.

  The Earl lifted Devona into the saddle of the best-bred and finest looking horse she had ever seen.

  She picked up the reins and bent forward to pat him knowing it was a horse that her father would have admired and ridden superbly.

  She had no idea that the Earl was watching her.

  He was wondering if she really rode as well as she said she did.

  Before they reached the far end of the first field, he realised without exaggeration that she was the best woman rider he had ever seen.

  They galloped at full bore for the first mile and then they slowed down a little.

  “This field should have been set down for wheat,” the Earl commented as they rode on.

  “I have often thought that myself,” Devona agreed, “and the next one has not been ploughed for thirty years.”

  The Earl did not say anything.

  Devona recognised, as they trotted on, that he was beginning to realise what an enormous amount there was to be done.

  They came to an empty farm which was about two miles away from The Hall.

  It was pathetic to see that the roofs of the buildings had fallen in and there was nothing but ruin where animals had once sheltered and cows had been milked.

  Next they moved on to see two more farms where everything needed repairing and the windows were filled with broken glass and yet the brick walls were standing as firm as they had at the beginning of the century.

  “There is nothing wrong here which cannot be put right fairly quickly,” the Earl remarked, as they rode out of the second farm, “and the sooner we get the farmers back on the land the better.”

  “I don’t think you will have any difficulty,” Devona said, “with so many men coming out of the Forces. I am sure the land here was very fertile before it was neglected.”

  “That is very true, Devona, which makes it a worse crime to let everything fall into this state.”

  She could see that the Earl was angry at the endless devastation, which had all been quite unnecessary.

  They rode on for the whole afternoon and covered a great deal of the estate, which so large that Devona knew it would take him several days to see everything.

  “The great difficulty,” the Earl said just before they reached the stables, “is to know where to start. Should I begin with the houses or the land?”

  “I am sure that you are capable of doing both at the same time,” Devona replied, “and it is so essential that the land should be put in good shape before the winter.”

  The Earl smiled at her.

  “That is a most intelligent remark. As you know, I have no intention of spending any longer than I have to in looking at the dirty pictures, dripping ceilings and walking on floorboards that creak.”

  Devona laughed.

  It was something she had not expected him to say and it had annoyed her when it happened in the passages or in her bedroom.

  “You will just have to wave your magic wand,” she said. “Then everything will be transformed even quicker than you expect.”

  “I only hope you are right, Devona. I always want everything I become interested in done yesterday instead of tomorrow. I can see that you feel the same.”

  “I have always thought that The Hall could be one of the most beautiful houses in the whole country if it was restored to its former glory,” Devona answered. “But then I never believed that it would happen in my lifetime.”

  “Well, it will,” the Earl said, “and the sooner I put everything in the hands of the experts the better. I am just wondering where I can find them.”

  “I am sure the Bank Manager or perhaps the Lord Lieutenant,” Devona suggested, “would have some idea as to who are the best in this County.”

  “You are quite right, Devona, and I was just being foolish in not thinking of that myself.”

  As they rode towards the stables, he added,

  “I am relying on you to help me with the choice of curtains, carpets and all the furnishings tha
t make a room look pretty and comfortable.”

  “I would love to do that,” Devona cried. “Thank you! Thank you! I have been so afraid that you would not find me useful.”

  “I expect you to be very useful,” the Earl said, “but we have not yet decided what to do about your chaperone.”

  “Oh, let’s forget her. No one is going to know or care if I am chaperoned or not!”

  She spoke impulsively, but then she remembered that behind the Earl was the whole Brooke family, uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces and cousins by the score and they would all be curious as well as critical.

  In a small voice the Earl could hardly hear she said,

  “You must do – as you think best and, of course – if you want me to live somewhere else, I must do so.”

  “I do not want you to live anywhere else,” the Earl said sharply. “I want you here and I want your assistance, but I have to think about your reputation.”

  Devona did not say anything.

  She only thought how disappointing it would be if she could not be alone with him.

  *

  Before she went down to dinner that night, she was carefully arranging her hair.

  She had been so used to hardly ever looking in the mirror at herself and now it was difficult to know how she could look her best and please the Earl.

  She had a bath, arranged by two of the housemaids, and she was just going to put on the same rather dreary and shabby evening gown she had worn the previous night.

  And then unexpectedly there was a knock on the door and before she could say “come in”, the housekeeper joined her.

  “They’ve arrived, miss,” she said with a smile.

  Devona turned round from the dressing table.

  “What has arrived?” she asked.

  “The clothes, miss. His Lordship sends to London for them this mornin’. He were hopin’ they’d be here in time for dinner tonight and the horses must’ve gone like the wind!”

  Devona jumped up from the stool as two footmen were bringing in dress boxes and setting them down where the housekeeper ordered.

  Now she understood why the Earl had wanted her dress in the early morning, when she had thought he might have sent to the town to buy her something decent to wear.

  It had never occurred to her that he would have sent someone to London and they could have returned before it was time for dinner.