A Dream from the Night

by Barbara Cartland

  The Earl drew in his breath and sat back against the seat.

  He did not look at Olinda, but at the lake lying in front of him and at the great house in the distance.

  “Why should you think that?”

  “She had just dismissed Mr. Hanson,” Olinda explained in a low voice.

  “Dismissed him?” the Earl exclaimed, his voice ringing out like a pistol shot. “How do you know? And why should she have done that?”

  “Because he wrote a note to me that your mother intercepted,” Olinda replied very quietly.

  Now the Earl turned to look at her with an incredulous expression on his face.

  “He wrote a note to you?” he repeated.

  “It is the second time he has done so. There was a note pushed under my door the first night I arrived to say that he was waiting to see me in the library at midnight.”

  “What did you do about it?”

  “I tore it into a thousand pieces!” Olinda answered. “But I-I was – afraid of him!”

  The Earl’s lips tightened.

  “Because I know it would upset you,” he said after a moment. “I will not express what I feel about that unutterable cad.”

  “I think he feels that he is irresistible to women and no one in my position could refuse to do as he wished,” Olinda murmured.

  “Nothing you could say about him could make me loathe him any more than I do already!” the Earl said.

  “Anyway, your mother – having taken the note from the footman who was to bring it upstairs to me, read it – then she apparently told Mr. Hanson she had finished with him.”

  The Earl did not speak.

  Then after a moment Olinda went on,

  “Can you not understand? She had been deeply hurt and so she wanted to hurt you. I think tomorrow, when Mr. Hanson has gone, you will be able to make her change her mind.”

  “I doubt it,” the Earl said. “Even if she is well rid of him, there will be other men. There have always been other men! And I think she hates Kelvedon!”

  “That is in a way understandable,” Olinda said. “It means so much to you and I expect it meant so much to your father that she is jealous of it.”

  “Would every woman be jealous of it?” the Earl enquired.

  “I don’t think so, unless they wished to focus your entire attention upon themselves,” Olinda said. “But your mother is so beautiful that I feel she could never countenance any rival.”

  “I understand,” the Earl replied, “but whatever you may say to try to comfort me, Olinda, I have a feeling that we have reached the parting of the ways. My mother will go to London, taking all the money with her.”

  He was silent for a moment.

  Then he said with a pain in his voice that was unbearable,

  “How can I let the people who trust me suffer? Burrows, who is too old to find another job, Higson, whom I have kept on although he is past retiring age, Mrs. Kingston, who has never known any other home and who feels the same way about Kelvedon as I do?”

  “I know,” Olinda said softly, “and that is why you must find a solution.”

  “A solution?” the Earl exclaimed. “And how do you think I can find that?”

  “You have to think of one,” Olinda murmured. “You have to.”

  The insistence in her voice made him look at her for a moment in surprise. Then he said in a different tone,

  “You are right! That is what I have to do!”

  “Have you no money of your own?” Olinda enquired.

  “I have about seven thousand pounds a year,” he answered. “Enough to be extremely comfortable as a bachelor travelling abroad or living at the family house in London which, like everything else, is kept up by my mother.”

  He paused before he added bitterly,

  “It would pay the expenses of Kelvedon for about a month, if one was economical.”

  “You have to save it,” Olinda said. “Is there nothing you could sell?”

  “I have no intention of accepting my mother’s suggestion that I should sell the pictures from the walls,” the Earl said and his voice was hard. “I have never thought that they belonged to me personally, but to my son and the Kelvedons who will come after him. The estate is the same. Every acre is a precious heritage which belongs to the future generations.”

  “And there is nothing else?” Olinda asked.

  “There is a Hunting Lodge in Leicestershire with a few hundred acres and the racing stables at Newmarket,” the Earl answered. “I suppose I could dispose of them. It would help to maintain Kelvedon for a little while. But let us face facts, Olinda, my mother is not an old woman. She may live for another twenty-five or thirty years.”

  “I cannot believe that sooner or later you could not make her see reason,” Olinda said.

  They both knew what they were thinking without putting it into words.

  When the Dowager Countess’s beauty had faded completely, she would perhaps be glad to rely on her son, to acknowledge that he was the only man left in her life.

  They talked, argued and discussed ways and means until the sun sank and the dusk faded into night.

  Once again the stars were shining overhead and the moonlight touched the cupolas on the house and the top of the Grecian Temple.

  The moon was stronger than the night before and Olinda could see the Earl’s face quite clearly.

  He talked to her with complete and utter frankness, asking her advice, listening to what she had to say and gradually as the hours passed becoming more confident, more sure of himself.

  “You can do it! I know you can do it!” she insisted. “It will be difficult. You must take everyone, the staff, the farmers and the whole estate, into your confidence and ask them to work with you”

  “Do you think they will agree?”

  “I know they will agree. They love you and they trust you.”

  He drew a deep breath and it seemed to Olinda that he had thrown off his despair. There was a light of battle in his eyes that had not been there before.

  “This is a challenge,” she said softly. “If you accept it, I know that in the end you will sweep aside all the difficulties, all the problems, and win!”

  There was a note of elation in her voice and for the first time for hours he turned to look at her and saw the moonlight reflected in her eyes and shining on her hair.

  “Why do you believe in me?” he asked.

  “I just do,” she replied simply.

  “With all your heart?”

  “With all my heart,” she replied and she knew that it was the truth.

  She had been so intent on thinking of him that not for one moment since she had come to the lake had she thought of herself.

  All through the day she had been beset by doubts and despair and a kind of gnawing misery because of what had happened the previous night.

  But now all she could think of was the difference she had made in him and that she had relieved his unhappiness and made him believe in himself.

  For the first time she felt a little shy.

  “It must be very – late,” she said. “I must go – back.”

  She rose as she spoke and he too rose to his feet.

  They stood looking at each other.

  Then the Earl said very quietly,

  “You are going to help me, Olinda? I cannot do it without you.”

  “Are you – sure you want – me?”

  He smiled.

  “More sure than I have been of anything in my whole life.”

  “Then I will – do whatever you – want.”

  He put his arms around her and drew her close and she quivered at his touch, but he did not kiss her.

  Instead he held her very tightly, his cheek against hers.

  “I still don’t believe you are real,” he said. “You are my dream, the dream I have always dreamt here by the Temple. That is what I want you to be, because it is the only thing that will keep me sane and keep me fighting.”

  Olinda did not r
eply.

  She only knew that it was a happiness she had never imagined simply to be close to him, to feel his face against hers and to know that he needed her.

  Then he released her.

  “Go home, my darling,” he said. “You will be tired tomorrow. I thought of you working so hard all day.”

  “What will you do?” Olinda enquired.

  “I will sit here for a little while,” he answered, “and think not only about Kelvedon but also about you. Then I shall go for a walk. Perhaps up through the woods to the Goddess of Wisdom. I feel that you and I, Olinda, are going to need her help in what lies ahead.”

  “She has watched over Kelvedon all these years,” Olinda sighed. “I am sure that she will not fail you now.”

  “You always say exactly the right thing.”

  The Earl took Olinda’s hand and raised it to his lips.

  “Thank you, my sweet. Those are inadequate words, but between us there is no need for them.”

  “Goodnight,” Olinda said softly.

  She turned and walked away and, without looking back, crossed the Chinese bridge and found the path that led through the garden back to the house.

  She felt strangely at peace with herself and knew that she had left the same feeling of peace with the Earl.

  It was as if they had both fought a tremendous battle side by side, a battle that had involved not only their hearts but also their minds and souls and they had won!

  Although there would be many battles in the future it was, Olinda thought, the most important.

  She had reached the lawns in front of the house and turned to seek the protection of the shrubs so that she could approach the garden door unseen.

  As she did so, she looked up at the great building, Fairytale-like in the light from the moon and knew in her heart that it was worth fighting for.

  Then she stiffened in sudden surprise.

  *

  When Olinda had finished her breakfast, Lucy cleared the table and put the cover from the Countess’s bed back onto it

  The maid was looking tired and had little to say this morning.

  Olinda thought that it was because she had doubtless stayed up late last night talking with the other servants and had perhaps been unable to sleep once she had gone to bed.

  She herself also had slept very little.

  While she behaved in a normal fashion, getting out her silks, setting them on the table ready to continue her work on the coverlet, she knew that a part of her was tense.

  She was, in fact, waiting for the moment to receive her dismissal and go upstairs to pack her box.

  It was unlikely that the Dowager Countess would let her off scot-free, for she would not for one moment believe that she had not welcomed Felix Hanson’s advances.

  Olinda wondered if he had already left the house. But she would not question Lucy and for once the maid seemed to have nothing to chatter about.

  It was half-past eight when Olinda started to work and she had been stitching at the small beautiful flowers on the coverlet for nearly an hour before she heard the sound of voices in the passage.

  They seemed to be talking unusually loudly. Suddenly the door was thrown open and Lucy came rushing in.

  “Oh, miss! miss!” she cried with an expression on her face that made Olinda stare at her with startled eyes.

  “What is it, Lucy?”

  “Her Ladyship, miss! Oh, miss, it’s horrible!”

  “What are you talking about, Lucy?”

  “Her Ladyship’s dead, miss! They say his Lordship killed her!”

  For a moment Olinda was unable to move.

  Then she said sharply,

  “That is ridiculous! Who is saying such things?”

  “Everyone, miss. When Miss Heyman called her Ladyship a little while ago she found her – dead on the floor she was! She must have lain there all night! And they’re accusin’ his Lordship!”

  “How can they do such a thing?”

  “He said it himself! His Lordship said, ‘I’ll see you dead first!’ They all heard him – Mr. Burrows – Henry – James! They heard him say it, miss!”

  “He could never have done such a thing!” Olinda said angrily.

  “They’ve sent for the Chief Constable, miss. It won’t take long for him to get here from Derby and Mr. Hanson’s in a terrible state. Henry says there’s tears runnin’ down his cheeks!”

  ‘I don’t believe it!’ Olinda thought, but she did not say it out loud.

  Lucy disappeared and Olinda walked up and down the sitting room.

  She felt that she ought to do something, but she did not know what.

  She could not approach the Earl at such a crisis, but it seemed impossible that anyone could suspect, whatever he might have said in the heat of the moment, that he would really kill his own mother.

  Once he had worshipped her, once he had loved her so deeply that it had hurt him unbearably when she had fallen short of his ideals and, as he believed, betrayed his father.

  But underneath all his bitterness Olinda knew that he did in fact still love her.

  That was why it hurt him so much that she should debase herself with a man like Felix Hanson.

  ‘They will soon find out their mistake,’ Olinda thought reassuringly.

  But she knew only too well how the words that the Earl had uttered would be repeated and perhaps elaborated upon by those who had heard him.

  It was an hour later, when she was wondering frantically how she could find out what was happening, that Mrs. Kingston opened the door.

  Olinda could see that she had been crying. Her eyes were red and swollen and she said in a low voice which showed that she was attempting to keep control of herself,

  “The Chief Constable’s here, Miss Selwyn, and he asks that all the members of the staff should go into the hall as he wishes to speak to them. You’re not really a member of the staff, but I think perhaps Colonel Gibbon would expect you to be there.”

  “I would like to come,” Olinda replied.

  Anything was better than remaining alone in her sitting room, isolated from the rest of the household and growing nearly frantic with anxiety.

  Mrs. Kingston said no more, but preceded Olinda along the passage and through the green baize door.

  As they descended the Grand Staircase, Olinda could see the Chief Constable, wearing his blue uniform with the red sash, standing with his back to the high marble mantelpiece.

  The Earl stood beside him and Olinda felt her heart give a sudden leap at the sight of him.

  He looked very pale, but he held himself with a dignity that she admired. He did not look up at her as she came down the stairs.

  There were a large number of servants already in the hall. There was also Mr. James Lanceworth, Mr. Thompson, the curator, and besides the housemaids, Burrows and six of his footmen, including Henry and James.

  As soon as Mrs. Kingston and Olinda had reached the bottom of the staircase, the Chief Constable began,

  “I have come here, as you all know, because your Mistress, the Dowager Countess of Kelvedon, has been found dead. She obviously died last night and her lady’s maid informs me that, when she wished to attend to her Mistress, as was usual and help her to bed, she refused her entrance to the room, saying that she wished to be alone.”

  The Chief Constable looked round at the silent audience and said,

  “I have, however, heard a story that her Ladyship was threatened before dinner when she went upstairs. Where is the butler?”

  “I am here, sir,” Burrows said stepping forward.

  “Your name?”

  “George Burrows, sir.”

  “Tell me, Burrows, what happened when you came into the hall to announce dinner.”

  Burrows glanced at the Earl and there was an unhappy expression on his face.

  “I want the truth,” the Chief Constable said seeing his hesitation. “I have already been told what happened and I wish you to repeat it.”

  “I heard h
er Ladyship and his Lordship quarrelling, sir, and her Ladyship said that she intended to close the house and dismiss the staff.”

  The old man paused.

  “Go on,” the Chief Constable prompted.

  “Her Ladyship then told his Lordship that if he wished to keep the place going he could sell the pictures, one by one.”

  “What did his Lordship say?”

  “He said, sir, ‘I’ll see you dead first!’”

  “Did anyone else hear those exact words?” the Chief Constable enquired.

  There was a murmur from James.

  “Your name?”

  “James Hater, sir.”

  “Is what Mr. Burrows has just said the truth?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Who else was present in the hall?”

  “I was, sir.”

  “And your name?”

  ‘Henry Jackson, sir.”

  “And you heard the same words from his Lordship?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Felix Hanson, who was standing in the background, gave an audible sound and put his hands up to his eyes.

  The Chief Constable glanced at him, but the Earl did not turn his head.

  Then the Chief Constable said,

  “Do you admit, my Lord, to saying those particular words, as described by those who heard them?”

  “I do,” the Earl replied.

  There was a silence.

  Then one of the housemaids gave a little sob.

  “I am, of course, entitled to reserve my defence until my lawyer is present,” the Earl went on, “but I wish to say firmly and categorically that I spoke in the heat of the moment and that I did not murder my mother. If she died by an assailant’s hand, it was not mine.”

  Now he looked at Felix Hanson who still had his hand over his eyes.

  “In the circumstances, my Lord,” the Chief Constable said, “you will understand if I ask you to come with me so that the Police can take a statement from you.”

  “Of course,” the Earl replied.

  It was then that Olinda moved forward.

  “May I say something?”

  All eyes in the hall were immediately turned towards her.

  She came from behind the servants to face the Chief Constable.

  “May I ask your name?” he enquired.