Love by the Lake Read online

  It was a brooch of typically Indian workmanship set with small precious stones and it was very pretty. There were ear-rings and a ring to match it.

  Lolita’s mother had been delighted with the gift and her father’s friend had told them about some of the magnificent jewels he had seen in the Palaces of the Maharajahs.

  “They are worth a King’s ransom,” he had claimed, “and are passed down from generation to generation. They would no more think of selling them than of changing their names.”

  However, a year later when they were very hard-up, someone offered her mother quite a considerable sum and she had been forced to sell them.

  Lolita had not thought again about the Indian jewels until this moment.

  Now this conversation came back clearly to her and she also remembered that she had told a friend what she had heard and he had told her,

  “I know Michael Duncan. He is a very nice young man and the General is the best Commander the Brigade of has ever had. When I next see him in White’s, I will tell him how sorry I am to hear about his loss.”

  Knowing how badly Lady Cressington had behaved, Lolita knew what she must now do, and she could understood why she had disappeared from London where she was being such a success and why she had come North to hide in Lord Seabrook’s castle.

  The necklace was of course not the main reason for her departure as having met Lord Seabrook she was determined to marry him.

  It would certainly be a very much better marriage than to a Captain in the Brigade of Guards – even if his father was a General and a Baronet.

  ‘I must now save Lord Seabrook as well as Simon,’

  Lolita told herself.

  She wondered how she should go about it and when she thought the whole situation over in her mind, she realised she had two important facts on her side.

  Firstly that Captain Michael Duncan was looking for Lady Cressington, but could not find her and secondly that he was a member of White’s Club in St. James’s.

  She had heard her father talking about his beloved White’s so often and whatever else he gave up he had no intention of ceasing to be a member.

  She went to her bedroom and taking a sheet of writing-paper wrote on it,

  “The necklace you seek is at Castle Seabrook, Ullswater.”

  She hesitated for a moment and then wrote at the bottom,

  “A Friend.”

  She addressed it to Captain Michael Duncan at White’s Club and walked downstairs to the hall.

  She had noticed yesterday that the post arrived twice a day – once in the morning and once in the afternoon. His Lordship’s secretary usually had a lot of letters waiting for the postman and he would place them on a tray which lay on a table under the stairs.

  Lolita hoped there would be some letters there now and was not disappointed. There was in fact quite a pile of envelopes already stamped and she knew they would be collected by the postman when he delivered the letters in about an hour’s time.

  She slipped her letter addressed to the Captain under the others and quickly returned upstairs again to the schoolroom.

  She reckoned it would be several days, not less than three or four, before there was a response of any sort.

  *

  The following morning she rode again with Lord Seabrook and Simon was, for the first time, allowed off a leading-rein.

  “Now I am really riding like Papa,” he hooted excitedly.

  “Then you must be as good as he was,” said Lolita.

  “I am good now, am I not, Uncle James?” asked Simon.

  “Very good indeed,” his uncle told him, “but you have got to be better still if you are to keep up with Lolo.”

  Simon chuckled.

  “When I have a horse as big as hers, I will race her.”

  “And I will race you too,” said Lord Seabrook, “so you must be able to beat us both.”

  Lolita smiled at him, thinking how sensible he was with Simon.

  If the terrible Lady Cressington was not at the castle, she believed that Simon would at last have a home where he need not be afraid.

  She now knew how disagreeable her Ladyship could be and she now found it all the more unpleasant to sit at the luncheon table and watch her flirting with Lord Seabrook, insinuating in every way she could that she wanted to be alone with him.

  Lady Cressington was determined that Simon and his governess should take luncheon in the schoolroom and she was very angry when she learned from her lady’s maid that Lolita had been out riding with Lord Seabrook before breakfast every morning.

  She had not been aware of it at first, but on the fourth day after they had come to the castle she said to Lolita after Lord Seabrook had left the room,

  “I understand, Mrs. Bell, you have been out riding every morning and as I believe Simon is accompanied by a groom, there is no reason for you to ride too. In future you will stay in the castle and wait for the boy’s return.”

  “Is this an order from his Lordship?” asked Lolita innocently.

  “It is an order from me,” asserted Lady Cressington.

  “You obviously do not know your place as a governess, which I can quite understand as you are far too young to be one. Therefore you are taking liberties which you have no right to.”

  She almost spat the words at Lolita, who thought it would be a mistake to reply and so she walked out of the room without saying anything.

  She was well aware, however, that Lady Cressington was glaring at her back with a furious expression on her face.

  Lolita was quite certain she would try to make Lord Seabrook dismiss her.

  ‘If I have to leave,’ she thought, ‘I will take Simon with me and we will hide somewhere where no one will find us.’

  At the same time she was well aware that the money she had taken with her would not last for ever.

  Lord Seabrook had been kind enough to instruct his secretary to pay her back everything she had spent in bringing Simon to the castle. She had made a list of everything the journey had cost, writing down what she had paid for post-chaises and what she had spent at the inns on the way.

  She had then given the list to Simon.

  “I want you to add this up for me,” she suggested, “and then take it to his Lordship’s secretary. You must count what he gives you to be certain he is right and that he pays you what you have added up.”

  Simon stared at the list and very slowly with a little help from Lolita he added it all up.

  After two or three attempts he got it right and she said,

  “Thank you so much. It is something I hate doing myself, it really is a man’s job.”

  “Shall I take it downstairs now?”

  “Yes, of course, and if you see your uncle, show him how clever you have been in getting the sum right.”

  Simon went away and when he came back he said,

  “Uncle James said it was very clever of me and he gave me ten shillings all to myself!”

  He showed Lolita the coins.

  “Now I can buy you a present. What do you want very, very much?”

  Lolita knew he would be disappointed if she said she wanted nothing and so they went to the village at the top of the lake and she chose an inexpensive but pretty ornament made to represent the castle.

  Simon was delighted with it too.

  “Now when you look at it you will always think of the castle,” he told her.

  “Of course I will, but it is more fun looking at the castle in real life!”

  “That is what I think,” agreed Simon. “Now we can go home and climb right up to the top of the tower again.”

  It amused him to be able to look out from such a height.

  Lolita told him stories of how his ancestors had stationed sentries on the tower where they watched for any enemy who might approach them.

  Later that day Lord Seabrook asked to see Lolita.

  “I think it was very kind of you to spend so much money bringing Simon to me. He showed me what it had cost you
.”

  “It was actually a lesson in arithmetic, my Lord,” replied Lolita. “He added up the list with a little difficulty and because I told him to do so, he checked everything your secretary gave him.”

  Lord Seabrook laughed.

  “I cannot understand, how you can be so astute with children. You are little more than one yourself.”

  “Perhaps I think the same way as they do – and want the same things.”

  “What do you want?” he enquired.

  “I suppose the answer to that question is happiness,and Simon and I are very happy here with you, my Lord.”

  She almost added ‘except for one thing,’ but that would have been impertinent.

  “I am glad to hear it and that you are giving Simon some basic lessons, even if they are rather unusual ones!”

  “They will become more serious in time,” said Lolita, “but he has already learnt almost enough history to write a book himself, and I want, with your permission, to take him to see Walcott Priory so that I can tell him about the monastic orders who came to England and what they achieved in many parts of the country, including Norfolk and Canterbury and,although I was not aware of it, in Ullswater too.”

  “You are obviously very well educated, Mrs. Bell.”

  “I have loved reading just as I have loved riding.”

  “And you also love children,” remarked Lord Seabrook. “What about men?”

  He saw to his surprise a strange look come into her eyes.

  Then she said quickly,

  “I must go and find Simon. He is in the garden with the dog you have given him and he is not yet quite certain how to control it.”

  She had gone before Lord Seabrook could think of an excuse to keep her talking to him.

  He felt that she now puzzled him even more that she had done previously.

  *

  Later the next afternoon Lady Cressington insisted that Lord Seabrook should take her for a drive.

  Lolita went down to the library to try and find a book she wanted and discovered to her delight that the library was up-to-date.

  There were not only a number of books she wanted to read herself, but many with illustrations which were exactly what she required for Simon and she picked up three books which she knew he would find interesting.

  She had left him in the schoolroom writing a list of dog’s names as he had not yet named his dog, as she thought it was good for his hand-writing as well as using his brain to think up suitable names.

  She was passing the study door which was wide open and as she did so, she saw, as she had noticed earlier, the newspapers placed on a stool in front of the fireplace.

  She had not read a newspaper since she had come to the castle. There did not seem to be time and no one thought to bring one up to the schoolroom.

  She walked into the study and picked up The Morning Post.

  She opened it, wondering what was happening in the big world beyond Ullswater. She read the headlines one by one and found there seemed to be nothing very startling.

  Then as she turned another page she saw the Court Circular and beside it the obituary column.

  It was headed,

  “Mrs. Ralph Piran.”

  Lolita felt as if her heart stood still as she read on,

  “Mrs. Ralph Piran, formerly the Countess of Walcott, died yesterday at 26 Park Lane. She had been unwell for several months.”

  The obituary went on to give the date she had married the Earl of Walcott and it reported that they had left their ancestral home on Ullswater to live quietly in Worcestershire.

  It mentioned at the end that there was one daughter of her first marriage, Lady Lolita Vernon. She was abroad, but had been informed of her mother’s death.

  Lolita read the article through twice.

  Then putting down the newspaper she ran upstairs to the schoolroom and by the time she reached it the tears were running down her cheeks.

  Although she tried to wipe them away, Simon looked up when she appeared.

  “You are crying, Lolo,” he exclaimed. “What has hurt you?”

  Lolita collapsed into an armchair and Simon rushed to put his arms around her neck.

  “Don’t cry, Lolo,” he pleaded. “Who has been unkind to you?”

  “I have just – learned,” spluttered Lolita, “that my mother has – gone to – God. She was very ill, so I could not say – goodbye to her – but I shall miss her so very much.”

  “My Mama and Papa are with God,” said Simon gently, “you told me so.”

  “Yes, of course they are and we can – talk to them in – our prayers.”

  “I cried when my mother died,” said Simon, “but now I love you and I would cry and cry if you died.”

  “I am not going to die, Simon, and I believe your mother sent me to you so that I can look after you.”

  “That was very clever of her. If you had not found me, Step-mama might have caught up with me and taken me back.”

  His arm tightened instinctively as he added,

  “Then she would have beaten me again because I had dared to run away.”

  “It is something you are not to think about,” Lolita told him, “because you are very happy here.”

  “You must be happy too, otherwise I shall cry like you are.”

  “I don’t want you to cry,” said Lolita, hugging him

  At the same time because he was so loving the tears kept running down her cheeks.

  Simon kissed her.

  “You are not to cry,” he insisted. “How can I make you happy?”

  “You make me happy because you love me and so I will try not to cry any more.”

  She held him close for a moment and then went to her bedroom to wash her face.

  It had been such a shock to know her mother was dead and that she would never see her again. She wondered vaguely if her stepfather would marry someone else and she was sure that with all his money he would find quite a number of women very willing to do so.

  Equally she could not help being afraid as if he felt lonely he might want her back not only to keep him company, but to make it possible for him to attend the social events he would not otherwise have been invited to.

  ‘I will never go back now,’ she decided with determination.

  Lolita had felt that even though her mother was unconscious, she afforded her some measure of protection, but now she was gone she would be completely at the mercy of her stepfather and undoubtedly Murdock Tanner as well.

  She walked back into the schoolroom, picked up the books she had brought from the library and started to show Simon the pictures.

  They were sitting in one armchair close together when Lord Seabrook entered the room.

  “I wondered where you were,” he said, “and as Lady Cressington has a headache and has gone to lie down, I thought you would like to come down and join me for tea.”

  Simon jumped up out of the chair.

  “We would love to, Uncle James, but you must be very kind to Lolo because she’s unhappy.”

  “Unhappy! Why? What has happened.”

  He looked towards Lolita as he spoke and she felt he must notice that her eyes were swollen.

  “It is – nothing – important,” she began to say, but Simon interrupted her.

  “Lolo’s mother is dead, Uncle James, and she is missing her, just like I missed Mama when she died and they took her away in a black box.”

  “I am very sorry to hear this news,” Lord Seabrook said to Lolita. “It must be a great shock. I had actually thought that as you never mentioned your parents you are an orphan.”

  “My mother was very ill and not able to recognise anyone when I left London,” replied Lolita in a low voice. “She was being well looked after, otherwise I could not have brought Simon to you.”

  “Come down and give me my tea and tell me more about your family,” suggested Lord Seabrook. “What other relations do have you?”

  Lolita rose from the chair.

  “I
have none, my Lord,” she said firmly, “absolutely none and I do not want to talk about it.”

  There was nothing more he could say, but he was even more curious.

  *

  Despite the orders Lady Cressington had given Lolita, she was riding with Lord Seabrook again before breakfast the next morning.

  And to please Simon they had been sailing on the lake in a small boat with a red sail and he was even more thrilled with it than he had been with the yacht.

  Because he looked so happy, Lolita felt happy too.

  She had cried herself to sleep when she went to bed.

  Although her mother had been in a coma long before she left London, there was always the hope that she would get better and she enjoyed the feeling that she herself belonged to someone.

  Now she was entirely on her own and when she thought of the future she became frightened.

  She wanted to claim her mother’s belongings and also any money and jewellery which she might have left her. And yet if she did so she would have to be in touch with her stepfather and that was something she dared not do.

  It was frightening to think that her only possessions in whole world were her clothes, her mother’s ring and the two hundred pounds she had taken from her stepfather’s safe.

  She hoped and prayed that she would be able to stay on at the castle, but Simon would eventually go to school and what would happen to her then?

  But what was more likely was that if Lady Cressington got her way she would be turned out in a week or so.

  Then she would have to make a terrible decision.

  Whether to take Simon with her and disappear or leave him to suffer once again as he had suffered before.

  It all churned over and over in her mind.

  She found it difficult to sleep because she could not answer the questions, which kept occurring and re-occurring.

  However, when they came back to the castle from their sail they were all laughing and as there was no sign of Lady Cressington, they went happily into the dining room.

  They had only just sat down when she joined them and Lord Seabrook rose as she entered the room.