Love and the Cheetah Page 9

  “I’ve been hearin’ that you’re goin’ to the party tonight, miss,” she began, “and so I was just wonderin’ what you’d wear.”

  “I was wondering the same thing,” Ilesa smiled. “But I do not have very much choice.”

  “I realise that,” the housekeeper answered, “and I thought, seein’ what a picture you made last night in that pretty lace gown, whether you’d like to have another one of the same period.”

  Ilesa looked at her in surprise and Mrs. Field explained,

  “I’ve got His Grace’s mother’s gown she wore when she was about the same age as yourself and it’s the one she was painted in.”

  As Mrs. Field spoke, she picked it up off the bed.

  Ilesa saw that it was a gown of pale pink in exactly the same style that Queen Victoria wore when she came to the throne.

  It boasted a very full skirt and a bertha that revealed the shoulders and the skirt was ornamented on either side with tiny pink roses.

  The satin sash that encircled the waist was fastened at the back with a large bow.

  “It’s lovely!” Ilesa exclaimed. “May I really wear it?”

  “I think you’ll find it fits and if not the seamstress can quickly alter it, so to speak. If she stitches it on you, Rosie will be waitin’ to undo it when you come to bed.”

  “Oh, thank you, thank you!” Ilesa cried. “It’s the prettiest gown I have ever seen!”

  After she had enjoyed a hot bath, the maids helped her into the gown and Ilesa thought, when she looked in the mirror, that she was like someone out of a picture.

  The housekeeper had asked the gardeners for some pink roses and arranged them at the back of her head.

  When Ilesa finally went downstairs, she felt that she was walking on air and was a part of a Fairytale.

  At the same time something the housekeeper had told her was very much in her mind.

  She had asked,

  “You are quite certain that His Grace will not mind my wearing something that belonged to his mother?”

  “I doubt he’d remember it,” Mrs. Field answered. “His Grace lost his mother when he was only ten years old. Although he was brought up by his aunts, nothing can take the place of one’s own mother.”

  “That is very true,” Ilesa agreed, “and I miss my mother every day.”

  “His Grace looked unhappy for years and we in the house felt real sorry for the little boy.”

  This story made Ilesa see the Duke in an entirely new light.

  Now, as she was nearing the salon door, she was not thinking about him as important, distinguished and rather overwhelming.

  Instead she saw him as a small boy, lost and sad without his beloved mother.

  When Ilesa entered the room, everybody was present except for Doreen.

  As she walked towards them, there was a silence as they turned to look at her.

  Then the Vicar asked in a bewildered voice,

  “Is this really my younger daughter?”

  “It is, Papa!” Ilesa smiled. “And I have to thank His Grace’s very kind housekeeper for finding me this beautiful evening gown.”

  “You look lovely,” Lady Mavis told her, “absolutely lovely.”

  Lord Randall said the same thing in a rather more flamboyant manner,

  The Duke said nothing and Ilesa looked at him questioningly and then she saw a strange expression in his eyes that she did not understand.

  “Y-you don’t – mind my – borrowing it?” she stammered anxiously.

  “You not only grace my house,” the Duke replied, “but you will undoubtedly be the belle of the ball this evening.”

  Ilesa grinned.

  “I am afraid you are flattering me, Your Grace, but I only hope that it comes true.”

  Doreen arrived in the room a few minutes later, obviously intending to make a dramatic entrance.

  Her gown was very different from the one that she had worn the night before. It was of a deep emerald green and it accentuated the whiteness of her skin, as did the large emerald necklace that she was wearing.

  Both the younger men complimented her on her appearance in fairly fulsome terms.

  Ilesa realised, however, that when she looked at Doreen that she was extremely angry as seemed usual for their stay with the Duke at Heron Court.

  As on the previous night, there were other guests for dinner and they were fortunately announced before Doreen could express her opinion of her sister’s appearance.

  As the newcomers were all hunting people, they talked of their horses and of their plans for the coming Season.

  The dinner passed with everyone in a very good humour.

  When dinner was over and the ladies had retired leaving the gentlemen to their port and cigars, Ilesa managed to keep away from her sister.

  Lady Mavis came over and said to her,

  “You look lovely, my dear, and I am so delighted that you and your father can stay on for another day. I am sure that he will be of great help to my nephew in his plans for the Private Chapel.”

  “Papa is very knowledgeable on historic buildings as well as architecture,” Ilesa agreed.

  “He seems to know everything about everything!” Lady Mavis smiled. “And he rides so well too, I feel sure that you are very proud of him.”

  “I only wish that Papa could have a few horses as good as those of the Duke’s,” Ilesa said wistfully. “We have two that are growing old and I cannot see how we shall ever be able to replace them.”

  “I think it is really tragic,” Lady Mavis replied, “that someone who is as outstanding a horseman as your father should not be able to afford the best horses.”

  When the gentlemen later joined the ladies, the Duke proposed,

  “We must all now go to the ballroom. My cousin is expecting us and I don’t think, as her guests are so young, that the orchestra will play into the early hours of the morning.”

  “I thought that my dancing days were over,” the Vicar said, “but actually I am looking forward to waltzing in your ballroom, which I am told is as magnificent as the rest of your house, Your Grace”

  “Adam certainly did his best when he designed it,” the Duke remarked. “Having said that, I will leave you to judge for yourself.”

  To Ilesa it was the most beautiful ballroom that she had ever seen.

  The white pillars were touched with golden flowers and the painted ceiling held huge crystal chandeliers hanging from it.

  The polished floor seemed to invite everyone to waltz and it was, she thought, all part of her increasingly fantastic Fairytale.

  Doreen was waiting expectantly for the Duke to ask her to dance after he had introduced his party to their hostess.

  But he walked up to her and said,

  “This counts as a ‘coming out’ ball for your sister and I claim the right to be her first partner this evening.”

  Doreen’s eyes darkened.

  But before she could say anything, Lord Randall put his arm round her waist and swept her onto the floor.

  The orchestra was playing an inviting waltz and Ilesa felt as if she was dancing on the clouds.

  The Duke was an excellent dancer and, as they swung round and round, he said,

  “You are so light I feel as if you have wings on your feet.”

  “That is just what I was thinking myself,” Ilesa answered, “and this is very very exciting for me.”

  Her eyes were shining and her hair glittered golden in the light of many candles.

  She thought, as the Duke twirled her faster round the room, that, if she never danced with anyone again, she would never forget this glorious moment.

  Nor would she ever forget the beauty of the surroundings and how handsome the Duke was.

  After the Duke she danced with Lord Randall and he was charming and attentive.

  Eventually the party ended with a cotillion when there were generous presents for all the young girls, who looked like flowers in their pretty ballgowns.

  It was not quite
midnight when Ilesa finally went to bed.

  She decided that she would get up early again so that she could spend as much time as possible with Rajah and Che Che.

  *

  As she had taught herself to do, Ilesa awoke early a deep sleep because she was so tired after such a full and inspiring day.

  The sun was just breaking in the East and was sweeping away the last of the evening stars.

  The sky was clear by the time she reached the garden.

  Although she longed to stand and gaze at the flowers and linger in the Herb Garden, she felt as if Rajah and Che Che were calling for her.

  The joy of being with them was a privilege that she knew she would never have again.

  She then ran as fast as she could through the orchard and, when she reached Rajah’s enclosure, she saw him under the big tree just as he had been the day before.

  She opened the gate slowly and started talking to him and it was in the very special soft tone that she always used for animals.

  She sat down on the ground beside him and put her arms round his neck.

  “You are so beautiful,” she murmured. “I shall think about you when I go home and send you messages, which I feel somehow you will hear.”

  The tiger seemed to understand and he nuzzled up against her.

  Then, as she stroked his fur again, she heard the lock click behind her and the Duke came into the enclosure.

  “I thought I would find you here,” he observed.

  He walked towards her and to Ilesa’s surprise Rajah did not get up to greet the Duke.

  He waited until the Duke sat down on the other side of him and then he turned his head towards him.

  “I came early,” Ilesa told the Duke, “because I could not bear to lose any time ‒ when I could be with Rajah and Che Che.”

  She gave a little sigh.

  “I shall miss them both ‒ when I go home.”

  “As I am sure they will miss you,” the Duke commented.

  “They will have – you!” Ilesa replied.

  “And I shall miss you too,” he answered.

  There was silence.

  Then, because Ilesa was aware that something was on his mind, she looked up at him.

  “I was just wondering,” the Duke next said quietly, “what you are going to do about us.”

  Ilesa was very still.

  “I-I don’t – know what – you mean,” she stammered after a moment’s hesitation.

  “I think you do. I fell in love with you, Ilesa, the very first moment I saw you. I could not believe that anyone could be so beautiful or so unspeakably lovely.”

  “I – it cannot be – true,” Ilesa muttered as if to herself.

  “It is true,” he went on, “and now I am asking you, no begging you, to marry me.”

  He was looking at Ilesa as he was speaking and her eyes met his.

  For a moment her whole face was transformed into a radiance that was like the burning sun itself.

  It was as if she was transported out of time and space into the Fairytale world that she so fervently believed in.

  Then, as the Duke watched her spellbound, the radiance faded from her face.

  In a voice that seemed to come from a long way away she then blurted out,

  “D-Doreen! It is – Doreen you – are to – marry!”

  The Duke shook his head.

  “I have no intention whatever of marrying your sister or anyone else for that matter. I have never in my life asked a woman to marry me, but I cannot live without you, Ilesa, and that is the whole and absolute truth.”

  As he spoke, he put his arm over Rajah and along Ilesa’s shoulders.

  Then, she was not quite sure how it actually happened, his lips were on hers.

  It was the first time that she had ever been kissed and it was everything that she had expected and much much more.

  She felt as if the bright sunshine was streaking through her breasts and her whole body responded to the vibrations that she felt from the Duke.

  In a way that she did not understand she was a part of him.

  Then he set her free and they just sat there and looked into each other’s eyes with Rajah purring softly between them.

  “I-I love you,” Ilesa whispered. “I did not know that it was – love – but it is – and it is – so wonderful!”

  “That is all I want to know,” the Duke replied. “Now, my darling, you can share Rajah and Che Che with me. I cannot believe that many people have kissed for the first time across the back of a fully grown tiger!”

  Ilesa gave a tremulous little laugh.

  Then once again she turned her face away from him.

  “But Doreen – is longing to – marry you. She is – determined to – marry you. How can I be so – unkind and disloyal to her?”

  The Duke put out his hand and gently took hers.

  “I have told you, my darling Alesa, that I never intended to marry anyone and certainly not someone like Doreen.”

  “But – but she – thinks you – love her,” Ilesa stammered.

  The way she said it told the Duke without words what she was thinking.

  “Listen, my precious darling, I can well understand because you are so innocent and unspoiled that you are shocked that women like your sister should have affaires de coeur with men when they are married or have been married to someone else.”

  The colour flooded into Ilesa’s cheeks and she dropped her head because she could not look at him.

  His fingers tightened on hers as he went on,

  “You must understand that to most men women are like lovely flowers. We would be inhuman if we did not admire their beauty and enjoy their fragrance and want to possess them if only for a short while.”

  “But – surely – that is wrong?” Ilesa asked.

  “Not if the two people concerned both know exactly what they are doing. And, if the woman is not a young girl like yourself, but is already married. Although it may seem reprehensible that she is being unfaithful to her husband.”

  “Papa would – say that was – very wrong,” Ilesa argued.

  “And he would be entirely right in thinking so,” the Duke said. “But it is something that has happened since the beginning of time. What I am trying to tell you, my sweet one, is that every man has in his heart a shrine where he puts first his mother and then the first woman he really loves. Who, if he is fortunate, is his wife. He wants her to be perfect and to belong to him, and only to him.”

  He paused before he added,

  “That is what he is searching for from the time he grows up even if he does not want to admit it. But of course, as you will understand, he has disappointments. He thinks he has found the perfect flower, the pure lily that should be put in the shrine beside his mother, only to be disillusioned.”

  Ilesa was listening and she thought it very touching.

  From the way he spoke and the sincerity in his voice, she knew how much his mother had meant to him.

  “I have searched and searched for you,” the Duke carried on, “only to find out that I was mistaken each time and the flower that I picked so eagerly had faded.”

  His voice deepened as he said,

  “Now I have found you, Ilesa, and I can hardly believe that you are real and not just a part of my imagination. And my dreams.”

  “I am – real!” Ilesa insisted. “But why – oh, why do you – have to be a – Duke? Why could you – not have been an – ordinary man whom I – could love – look after and make – him happy?”

  The Duke thought that it was the most moving words that he had ever heard.

  He was well aware that the women like Doreen who pursued him and schemed to marry him were attracted by his title far more than they were by him as a man.

  Some had wept bitterly when he had left them and at the same time he could not help being cynically aware of the truth.

  Their tears would not have been so bitter if he had not been a Duke as well as an ardent lover.


  When he looked across Rajah at Ilesa, he recognised that she was everything that he had longed for and everything he really wanted.

  Now he realised that it was something priceless that he would have to fight for.

  For the first time in his life it was going to be difficult to make a woman do what he wanted.

  Where Ilesa was concerned, it would be against her conscience or perhaps her soul.

  He held her hand in both of his as if he was afraid that she might escape from him or suddenly disappear up into the sky.

  Then he said,

  “I don’t want to upset or worry you, my darling, but I swear to you that I will never rest until I have made you my wife.”

  He smiled at her before he went on,

  “Somehow we will cope with the problems together, but I will not, cannot lose you.”

  There was a pause and Ilesa stuttered in a very small voice,

  “It is not only – Doreen – but since – Mama died Papa has been so – unhappy – and I know I could not – leave him all – by himself in the Vicarage – with everybody – knocking on the – door with their – problems and – he would have to – manage alone.”

  She drew in her breath before she added,

  “It would be – cruel and – wicked for me to – do so and Mama would be very – unhappy.”

  “Your father can have the choice of any Parish and any Living in my gift and there are a good number of them.”

  Ilesa shook her head.

  “He will never – leave Littlestone. The people there – rely on him to – help them and – Papa has known them ever since he was – born in the Big House – and grew up amongst them.”

  She turned to look at the Duke and there were tears in her eyes and they were just about to start running down her cheeks.

  “H-how – how could I – go away and leave him at – this moment? Oh – please please understand.”

  The Duke did not speak and she said even more piteously,

  “When you – kissed me – I knew that I – loved you – and I know – now that what I have been feeling ever since – I came to – Heron Court when everything we – did was so exciting and wonderful – was really love.”

  The Duke did not speak and she went on,

  “How – how could I – make you happy – or be as you – want me to be – if I knew I had deserted Papa?”