The Runaway Heart

by Barbara Cartland

  “It’s all right, Cousin Felix,” she said. “I am still alive, I am really.”

  “If you had been badly injured,” he said, “I should never have forgiven myself, never.”

  “Well, it wasn’t your fault,” Karina replied.

  “No, but I brought you here,” he answered. “I took you away from safety, if nothing else. I could not imagine that there would be dangers of that sort lurking in this house.”

  “What did they take?” Karina asked.

  She had asked the same question of the nurse, but no one seemed to know.

  “As a matter of fact I have just been checking the things with Julie,” Felix answered. “Garland had to go up to London to see the insurance people and he asked his mother to go through the catalogue and see exactly what is missing. They got away with quite a lot.”

  “Oh no!” Karina exclaimed. “I had hoped I had saved all those lovely things for him.”

  She paused a moment and then she added,

  “They did not take the pink elephant, did they?”

  Felix nodded.

  “I am afraid so.”

  “But they cannot have taken it!” Karina cried. “It’s his luck.”

  “I don’t think that Garland is superstitious,” Felix smiled. “Anyway he doesn’t seem to worry very much. If it was me, I should be frantic.”

  Karina was silent for a moment and then she asked,

  “Do you really believe that losing the elephant will affect him? That he will become unlucky because it has gone?”

  Felix shrugged his shoulders.

  “It seems ridiculous when you say it like that,” he answered, “but the elephant has a whole history attached to it and people swore that their whole lives had altered because of it.”

  He paused and then went on,

  “It was originally owned by a Maharajah and while he had it he was victorious over all his enemies. No one could stand up against him. And then it was stolen and from that moment his luck changed. He lost every battle and finally he was killed.”

  “Oh, don’t tell me anymore!” Karina cried. “Poor Mr. Holt. He must be worried even though he will not admit it.”

  “They took most of the lapis lazuli and some of the burial jade,” Felix said. “Those actually were the most valuable objects.”

  “I don’t mind about the burial jade,” Karina cried. “It’s the pink elephant that worries me.”

  “That is a very feminine remark,” Felix said with a smile.

  When Lady Holt came to see her later in the morning, she too talked of her son’s losses.

  “Of course Garland can buy more,” she said. “But the collection was unique as it was. But still we ought not to complain. If it had not been for you, they might have taken the whole lot.”

  “But how can they dispose of it?” Karina asked. “Every piece must be known.”

  “That is just the point the Police made,” Lady Holt answered. “But you see, dear, there are a great many collectors of valuable pieces of art who are prepared to buy anything unique just for the pleasure of owning it. They don’t want people to know that they possess such treasures. They just want to gloat over them by themselves.”

  “You mean they arranged the burglary?” Karina asked.

  “Oh no,” Lady Holt replied. “They would do nothing like that. But the burglars must have been very superior types who know exactly where to place their stolen goods. That is why the Police think that we have very little hope of getting anything back.”

  “I think it’s disgraceful!” Karina cried hotly.

  “So do I,” Lady Holt answered. “But we must be grateful to you that they did not take more.”

  She rose to her feet and then said casually,

  “Why exactly did you go downstairs at that particular hour and dressed as well?”

  “That is what the Police asked me,” Karina said, “and it sounds silly when I say it. But I wanted to go for a walk. I could not sleep and – well, I always have gone out at night.”

  “I see,” Lady Holt said in a tone of voice that told Karina that she did not understand in the slightest.

  She was looking very elegant this morning in a beautifully cut coat and skirt of pale-blue wool. She wore an enormous brooch of blue sapphires on her lapel and a huge ring of the same gems glittered on her finger.

  Karina thought that it was impossible to imagine Lady Holt so worried or beset by problems that she would lie awake restlessly, let alone want to walk off her troubles. She gave the impression of a hothouse flower that had never known the cold winds of poverty or adversity.

  “Well, dear,” she said vaguely. “It’s a good thing that you did want to go for a walk, though I must say it seems a funny hour to choose.”

  With a faint smile she went from the room, leaving behind her a fragrance of an expensive Parisian scent and the vague feeling in Karina’s mind that her explanation was not satisfactory.

  She understood this better later in the day when, having struggled to her feet, she came slowly downstairs to the drawing room. It had been an effort to dress and long before she was ready she regretted that she had bothered the doctor for permission to get up.

  Anyway, having said both to Felix and Lady Holt that she would come down to tea, she felt it would look too much like weakness to send a message that she had changed her mind. So, feeling a little groggy and as if her head did not really belong to her, she walked very slowly down the stairs, holding on to the banisters.

  There was no one in the hall and she guessed that they were already all congregated in the drawing room.

  Tea was quite a ritual. There were huge silver trays, a big silver teapot and a kettle with a large methylated spirit lamp and underneath it cakes of all sorts and descriptions, sandwiches, scones and big pats of Jersey butter to be augmented with homemade strawberry and raspberry jams.

  Even the members of the house party who swore that they were slimming succumbed to the temptation of drop scones just off the griddle and crumpets golden brown and buttery in a silver muffin dish.

  As Karina crossed the hall, she could hear the clatter of cups and the babble of voices. She felt shy and wished that she had not come and then, raising her little chin, she told herself that she was being stupid.

  She had to face them all at some time and it need not be for long. The doctor had been very explicit that she must return to bed within two hours.

  It was then, as she reached the door, that she heard what they were saying.

  One voice, loud and clear, with a slight drawl that she recognised as belonging to Lady Carol Byng, said quite audibly,

  “But you are all so stupid. Of course she let them in. Why else would she be lurking about the hall in her tweeds at three o’clock in the morning?”

  Karina felt exactly as if someone had hit her over the head again.

  Because it was too late to retreat she could only go on walking down the whole length of the drawing room, realising that everyone had stopped talking and turned to watch her come.

  It was Felix who spoke first. He sprang up from his place on the sofa and came towards her.

  “Karina, my dear! How lovely to see you! How do you feel? Is your head still aching?”

  His words broke the spell and a little buzz of conversation started up.

  “Come and sit down by me,” Karina heard Lady Holt say, and she obeyed her, feeling as if her legs would hardly have carried her any further.

  “Now, what will you have to eat?” Felix said, fussing round the table.

  He brought her a plate and handed her sandwiches and scones, both of which she took automatically, conscious all the time of the flush on her cheeks and the burning indignation in her breast.

  She did not look towards Lady Carol, but she knew that she was sprawling in a big armchair, a mocking smile on her lips, one long-fingered white hand tossing back her heavy chestnut hair from her square forehead.

  “Now, you are not to tire Karina with questions,” L
ady Holt said. “She has told the Police everything she knows and really there is nothing more to say.”

  “Everything?” Lady Carol asked with a mischievous and perhaps slightly spiteful lilt on her question.

  “Of course she has told everything,” Felix answered for Karina. “And everyone has said that, if it had not been for Karina, the burglars would have taken everything.”

  “But how did they get in? That is what I want to know,” Lady Carol said. “The Police told me themselves that it was an inside job. There was no question of breaking in through the window.”

  “No, of course, we all know that,” Felix answered rather sharply. “The Inspector told me that it was quite obvious they had forced the lock of the garden door. They had then switched off the burglar alarm from inside the house and forced the other two locks. It was not very difficult. In fact I wonder that Garland had not taken better precautions.”

  “I thought it would all turn out to be my fault in the end,” Garland Holt said and they all looked up and laughed.

  He had not been in the room when Karina had entered, but he had come in a few minutes later and had stood listening to what Felix was saying.

  Karina had been aware of him the moment he appeared.

  It was not that she was looking in his direction. She had just known that he was there and now she looked up at him, remembering his kindness as he had carried her up the stairs and set her down on the sofa in her bedroom.

  “Garland! When did you get back?” Lady Holt said. “I did not expect you until dinnertime.”

  “What did the insurance people say?” someone asked. “Are they going to pay up?”

  Garland Holt walked into the circle round the table and, taking a sandwich off a plate, took a bite from it before he answered,

  “They will pay in the end,” he said, answering the last question. “But it is not going to be easy. They suspect me either of having burgled myself for the insurance money or all of you of putting a piece of jade in your pockets just for the devilment of it.”

  “I hope you were firm with them, Garland,” Lady Holt said.

  “I am always firm, Mother,” he answered. “May I have some tea?”

  “Of course, dear boy. How stupid of me,” she replied.

  Karina realised that the attention of the house party had been diverted from herself to Garland and with a little sense of relief she felt herself relax.

  At the same time she could not help hating Lady Carol for what she had said. How dare she think such a thing? How dare she suggest even for a moment that she would stoop to being in league with burglars and thieves?

  “Is it true, Garland, that you have lost your luck?” she heard Lady Carol ask now.

  “My luck?” he questioned, helping himself to another sandwich.

  “Your elephant,” Lady Carol prompted.

  “Yes, it’s gone,” Garland replied laconically.

  There was a little cry round the table at this.

  “But how terrible!” someone exclaimed. “Aren’t you frightened?”

  “Of what?” Garland enquired.

  “Well, that you will lose all your money, that the house will be set on fire or that you will be involved in an accident?”

  “No, I am not frightened of any of those things,” Garland Holt answered. “I am not superstitious.”

  “But I am,” his mother cried. “I always have been. Felix and I turned our money last night when there was a new moon and we bowed seven times in the correct manner. And then this happens! But I suppose we can hardly count it as our bad luck. What do you think, Felix?”

  “I think the real sufferer is Garland,” Felix answered.

  “Yes, of course,” she replied quickly, as if she was glad that no vestige of bad luck could be attached to herself.

  “What we were waiting to ask Miss Burke,” Lady Carol said, “is why she was downstairs last night. It does seem such an odd time to go for a walk in the garden.”

  “I think Miss Burke has already explained that quite satisfactorily,” Garland Holt said. “She could not sleep and therefore she thought that she would go out for some air. There is nothing very peculiar about that, is there?”

  “No, I suppose not,” Lady Carol drawled in a doubtful tone. “At the same time, if she had left the garden door open, it would have saved the burglars the trouble of forcing it, wouldn’t it?”

  “She was going out,” Garland said uncompromisingly. “She was not coming in.”

  Karina put her cup down on the table with a hand that trembled. She was not frightened, she was merely getting angry. Why should Lady Carol think such things about her, she wondered?

  “Of course, that makes it all very clear,” Lady Carol said. “Miss Burke comes downstairs, sees the burglars after they have already made a big haul and then screams. They hit her on the head, but not so hard that she is really hurt.”

  She paused and looked round the room.

  “It reminds me of what happened to June Cavendish,” she went on. “Don’t you remember? She found her maid tied up to the bedpost and all her jewellery gone. Then, of course, a few weeks later the maid disappeared too and they found that she had been in league with the burglars all the time.”

  Karina stood up suddenly.

  She was very pale, but her blue eyes were blazing in her white face.

  “How dare you suggest that I was in league with the burglars the other night!” she said. “You have no right to say such things when you cannot prove them.”

  She tried to speak with the violence that was throbbing in her heart, her anger rising in her throat so that it almost seemed to choke her; but to her own horror her voice only sounded weak and ineffectual and the tears came rushing to her eyes.

  “How – dare you!” she stammered and then to her dismay she realised that the room was going black.

  Lady Carol’s smiling scornful face seemed to swim in front of her. She turned to put her hand on the back of a chair, staggered and then at that moment someone caught her up in his arms.

  Even as the darkness swept over her, Karina knew who was carrying her once again. She was only unconscious for a few seconds.

  When she opened her eyes, she was in the hall.

  “I am – all right,” she said weakly. “Put me – down.”

  “You little fool! What did you want to come down for?” Garland Holt asked.

  She was surprised by the roughness in his voice.

  “I am all – right, I can walk,” Karina murmured, but he paid no attention.

  Once again he was carrying her upstairs, just as he carried her the other night. And suddenly she felt too weak to argue any further.

  It was so comforting to get away from the drawing room, away from Lady Carol’s accusing quizzical eyes, away from Felix trying to make things better but merely making her feel embarrassed and away from all the crowd of Lady Holt’s guests who, she felt, in their hearts all agreed with Lady Carol’s accusations.

  Garland Holt kicked open the door of her room and set her down on the bed.

  “It was stupid of me – to make a scene,” Karina apologised.

  “I think you were justified,” he answered.

  “She had said it before just as I came into the room,” Karina explained. “It made me angry, but I suppose in a way it is what they would think. I am the only stranger, the only outsider. All the others have known each other for a long time.”

  “That is no excuse for what she said.”

  He thrust his hands deep into his pockets and walked across the room.

  “It’s damnable, but there is little you can do about it.”

  “I think it would be best for me – to go away,” Karina said. “Could you – could you suggest to Cousin Felix that he should take me to London soon?”

  “What are you going to do when you get there?” Garland Holt asked. “You cannot stay alone in Mainwaring’s flat, even though he is your cousin.”

  “No, no, of course not,” Karina sai
d. “I want to get a job.”

  “What sort of job?”

  She made a little gesture of helplessness.

  “I don’t know,” she answered. “Cousin Felix said that he would find me something.”

  As if his name had conjured him up, Felix came hurrying into the room with a decanter in his hand.

  “Julie suggested that you should have a little brandy,” he said. “I went and fetched the decanter from the dining room.”

  “It’s very kind of you,” Karina told him, “but I don’t want any now.”

  “Nonsense,” he answered. “There is nothing like brandy when you feel faint.”

  He poured some out into a glass on the bedside table and, putting it into Karina’s hand, said,

  “Drink it.”

  It seemed easier to obey him than to argue. She took a sip, felt it run down her throat and, because she was still feeling as if she might fade away, took another sip and yet another.

  “That’s better,” Felix said approvingly as the blood came back to her face.

  The brandy gave Karina courage.

  “Please, Cousin Felix, will you take me away? I cannot stay here after what has happened.”

  “My dear, I have to find you a job first. You cannot just trail about the streets of London hoping that someone will employ you.”

  “Yes, I know,” Karina said. “But I thought you said that you would find something for me.”

  “I shall, of course, in time,” Felix replied, “but it’s not as easy as it sounds. You have no qualifications and no experience.”

  Karina felt like crying. Was this the end to all her plans? If Cousin Felix could not find her a job, what was there left for her to do but to go home? Almost instinctively she looked towards Garland Holt.

  “I don’t quite see what you are making such heavy weather about, Mainwaring,” he said. “There are plenty of jobs in London. We are always being told we have full employment.”

  “My dear Garland, there are jobs and jobs,” Felix answered. “Have you looked at Karina? Does she look the type of hardy young woman who could work in a factory or stand day after day selling behind a counter?”

  “But I am strong, I am really,” Karina protested.

  “And another thing,” Felix went on, as if she had not spoken, “Karina, as you know, has to keep out of sight for the next month or so. Coincidence is a very strange thing. It is always turning up when one least expects it. If she works in a shop, it is ten to one that someone will see her and will go and tell her aunt or uncle. They will be looking for her by this time, there is no doubt about it.”