Thinking of her reminded him that George Greshame had not said goodnight, but had gone upstairs before the rest of the party.
‘Perhaps he is ashamed of his behaviour,’ the Duke thought, ‘and a good thing, too. Whoever he thought she was, George had no right to behave like that at Ollerton.’
It suddenly struck him that this was the first time in his life he had ever worried about his friends’ morals, even though some of them, if he considered it dispassionately, behaved in what seemed an outrageous manner.
Because all the beauties, with whom he had enjoyed his usually very ardent but brief affaires de coeur, had been, like Elaine Blankley, promiscuous and passionate, the Duke realised that he had never thought of women in any other way.
These thoughts continued while he was undressing in silence and, when his valet left him, he climbed into bed and turned out the light, and found himself remembering how years ago when he had been a young man his thoughts had been chivalrous and, for want of a better word, respectful.
He recalled imagining himself as a Knight when he had sought the favour of the woman he had first loved with a reverence that was almost spiritual.
He had wanted to worship her, thinking of her as if she had the aura of a Saint and the purity of a lily.
Then, because he was so handsome and attractive, she had shown him that she was very human and desired him in a totally different way.
So, naturally, he had responded.
At the same time something deep within him had told him that he was disappointed – or was it perhaps disillusioned?
He remembered how his feelings of reverence had changed to simple physical desire.
‘I expected the impossible,’ he thought bitterly.
Yet, strangely enough, he could remember exactly what he had felt and how the mere thought of Pauline, for that had been her name, had made him feel as if his spirit was lifted upwards and he had wanted, because he loved her, to take the stars from the sky and lay them at her feet.
He wanted too to be finer, better and more noble in himself – to be worthy of her.
He wanted to do great and glorious deeds so that she would be proud of him and he thought that he was ready to die in her defence and would be glad to do so.
‘I was just being a fool!’ the Duke told himself.
But he felt that the ideals he had sought then were still there now, beneath the surface, overlaid with cynicism and yet, strangely enough, not entirely extinct.
It struck him that if he had never met Pauline, his life might have been very different.
Then he laughed because it had all happened a long time ago and he told himself that he was still too young to hanker after the past and what should really concern him was the future.
And his future, much as he disliked the idea, must be linked with Lady Millicent or a girl like her.
“Dammit all – there must be an alternative!” the Duke cried aloud in the darkness.
But there was no answer.
Only an ominous silence.
Chapter Six
As the Morning Service proceeded in the little grey stone Church in Ollerton Park, Anita was aware that Lady Millicent was praying with an intensity that she had not expected of her.
They were sitting next to each other and Anita could feel her exuding tension almost like an aura.
Anita had always been sensitive to other people’s feelings and she wanted, if she could, to help Lady Millicent.
At the same time she had no wish to intrude upon her private feelings.
The Duke read the lessons in his deep voice and Anita thought that he not only made the Old Testament and the New sound poetical but also gave the words a meaning that Parsons often failed to do.
The service ended and because they were in the Ollerton pew, the congregation waited for them to leave first.
Then as Anita reached the porch, Lady Millicent, who was beside her, suggested,
“Shall we walk back?”
“What a good idea!” Anita replied. “I would much rather walk than drive.”
Lady Millicent told the Countess what they were going to do and the two girls set off to walk across the Park rather than down the oak-edged drive, which was the route taken by the carriages.
In the distance Ollerton looked very magnificent with the Duke’s standard moving gently in the breeze and the house reflected in the smooth silver surface of the lake.
“It is so beautiful!” Anita said aloud, as she had said so many times before.
Then she looked at Lady Millicent and there was no mistaking that her pretty but usually expressionless face was filled with a look of suffering.
“What is the matter?” Anita asked her. “Can I help you?”
“Nobody can – do that,” Lady Millicent replied with a deep sigh.
There was silence. Then suddenly, in a very different voice from the one in which she bad spoken before, Lady Millicent exclaimed,
“I am so miserable! I only wish I could – die!”
Anita saw that she was about to burst into tears and, taking her arm, she drew her to where there was a tree fallen on the ground which would make a seat where they could sit and talk.
By the time they had sat down Lady Millicent had her handkerchief to her eyes, although Anita was aware that she was making every effort to control her tears.
“Please let me help you,” she pleaded.
“It’s no – use,” Lady Millicent answered in a broken voice, “Mama – says the Duke will – propose to me this – afternoon when he takes me driving – and I have to accept him.”
Anita looked at her in surprise.
“You do not wish to marry the Duke?”
“No – of course not!” Lady Millicent replied. “I hate him – and I want to m-marry S-Stephen!”
Her voice broke on the name and now she sobbed uncontrollably.
“Tell me who Stephen is,” Anita asked gently after a moment, “and why you cannot marry him.”
“He is the most wonderful – marvellous man in the whole world!” Lady Millicent replied almost incoherently. “I love him – and he loves me!”
A burst of tears made the words almost unintelligible.
“Why can you not marry him?” Anita persisted.
“I think Papa would have agreed, in fact I am sure he would have, until the letter came from the Duchess asking us to – stay. After that he forbade me to see Stephen any more.”
“But why?” Anita asked. “I don’t understand.”
Lady Millicent raised her head to look at her in surprise.
“Do you suppose Papa would miss the opportunity of having a Duke as a son-in-law – especially one as rich as this one?”
“But surely,” Anita said, “if your father and mother know you love someone else – ”
“Stephen is a second son. His father, Lord Ludlow, is an old friend of Papa’s, but that I love him is of no – consequence, when I – might be a – Duchess.”
Lady Millicent was crying once again, crying helplessly and Anita felt deeply moved by her unhappiness.
“Listen,” she suggested, “you must tell the Duke about this and I am quite sure he will not ask you to marry him.”
“It will be too late,” Lady Millicent replied. “Mama and Papa would kill me if they – thought he had asked me to – marry him and I had – refused.”
“Then he must not ask you.”
“How can I stop him?” Lady Millicent asked brokenly.
Anita thought for a moment and then she said,
“Shall I tell him that you are in love with somebody else?”
Lady Millicent took her handkerchief from her eyes to look at Anita in surprise before she said,
“Could you do – that? Would he – understand?”
“Of course!” Anita answered. “The Duke was very kind to me when a horrible elderly Parson wanted to marry me and my great-aunt, who has appointed herself my Guardian while my mother is abroad, insisted I should do so.
Actually that is why I am staying here.”
“And you really think he would – understand that I want to – marry Stephen – rather than – him?”
“Of course he would!” Anita replied.
She knew as she spoke that the Duke had no personal interest at all in Lady Millicent except that she was a means by which he could please the Queen and prevent his cousin from inheriting his title.
Lady Millicent clasped her hands together.
“Oh, Anita, if you can save me from having to marry the Duke, it would be the kindest and most wonderful thing you could possibly do for me.”
“Then I will do it.”
“It will have to be before we go driving. After all, for me to be alone with him is tantamount to a proposal before he actually asks me to be his wife.”
Anita nodded.
“I understand and somehow I will prevent him from taking you.”
“You have saved me when I thought everything was lost and I was doomed never to see Stephen again!”
“I am sure everything will be all right,” Anita said.
“Mama told me before we came to Church that the Duke had said we would go driving at three o’clock. She has already decided what gown and bonnet I shall wear.”
“Don’t say anything to your Mama,” Anita replied, “and behave quite normally during luncheon. I will speak to the Duke either just before or just after, depending on when I can get hold of him.”
“You – promise you – will do –so?” Lady Millicent asked, the fear back in her voice.
“I promise,” Anita answered, “and I am quite certain he will understand. He is a very understanding person.”
As she spoke, she thought of how kind the Duke had been not only about the Reverend Joshua but also in saving her from Lord Greshame.
She supposed that, as Lady Millicent was so young, it had never entered his mind that she might already have lost her heart to somebody else.
In fact, thinking back over what had been said, she felt that neither the Duke nor the Duchess had thought of the three girls who came to the house on approval as people but merely as puppets to be manipulated into marriage just to suit him.
‘The whole idea is wrong!’ Anita thought to herself.
Aloud she said,
“Wipe your eyes, Milly, and you had better wash your face before your mother sees you. It would be a mistake for her to know you have been crying.”
“I am not crying any more,” Lady Millicent relied. “Thank you, oh, thank you, Anita, for being so kind to me! Perhaps if the Duke does not marry me, he will now marry Rosemary or Alice instead. I knew last night they were both hating me because he danced twice with me and only once with each of them.”
Anita thought privately that neither Lady Rosemary nor Alice Down had any chance of becoming the Duchess of Ollerton, but she thought it would be a mistake to say so.
What was important was that she should save Lady Millicent and because she was interested she asked her about the man she loved.
Because her feelings had been bottled up ever since she had come to Ollerton, they now seemed to explode and for the first time since she had arrived Lady Millicent talked animatedly and excitedly and, as she did so, she looked very much prettier than she had before.
“We have loved each other for over a year,” she told Anita. “At first Papa said it was a ridiculous match and he had no intention of letting me throw myself away on someone who had no chance of coming into the title.”
She paused before she continued,
“Then, because Stephen was so charming to him, he had begun to weaken and we were quite certain we would be able to be married before Christmas.”
“That is what will happen,” Anita said with a smile.
“And you must promise me you will come to the wedding! You must be there!”
“I would love to be invited,” Anita replied.
When they arrived back at the house, it was to find that it was too near luncheon time for Anita to have a chance of speaking to the Duke before they went into the dining room.
She found to her relief that she was sitting a long way from Lord Greshame, but was next to a middle-aged Peer who had some excellent racehorses and they talked about his stable and the Duke’s all through the meal.
When they left the dining room, Anita saw Lady Millicent give her a frantic look and knew that it was imperative that she should speak to the Duke quickly, because it was already nearly half-past two.
Therefore, she managed with some dexterity to be the last lady to leave the room and, slipping past a number of male guests, she reached his side.
“Could I speak to you for a moment? It is very urgent,” she asked quickly.
He looked surprised, but he answered immediately,
“Of course, Anita. Come to my study in ten minutes.”
She smiled at him and walked after the Duchess, who was going upstairs to lie down as she always did after luncheon.
Seeing that the Duchess’s maid, Eleanor, was there to help her onto a chaise longue near the window so that she would enjoy the sunshine and the fresh air, Anita hurried down a side staircase which she knew would bring her to the Duke’s study without her having to go through the hall.
She had learnt that it was a room he kept for his personal use, where no one intruded unless they were specially invited.
She opened the door and found him waiting for her, standing in front of the fireplace and looking exceedingly elegant, wearing one of his orchids in his buttonhole.
“Come in, Anita!” he called. “What is this momentous subject you have to discuss with me? I hope it will not take long as I have arranged to take Millicent Clyde out driving at three o’clock.”
Anita, having closed the door carefully, moved towards him.
“That is what I want to speak to you about.”
The Duke looked surprised and Anita went on,
“Milly is desperately unhappy. She is in love with somebody else and she knows that if you propose to her she will be forced by her parents to marry you.”
The Duke did not speak and after a little pause Anita added,
“I told her not to be upset, that you would understand and make an excuse not to take her driving this afternoon. Then her father and mother will give up hoping that they can have a Duke for a son-in-law and she will be able to marry the man she loves.”
When she had finished speaking, Anita looked up at the Duke with a little smile on her lips.
“I knew that you – ” she began.
She stopped suddenly because she had seen the expression on the Duke’s face.
Then, as she realised that something was very wrong, he exploded,
“How dare you! How dare you interfere in my private affairs and discuss me with my guests!”
“I-I am – sorry – ”
“I have never heard of such impertinence, that you should, in my own house, interfere with my plans and my arrangements. And it is utterly inconceivable that you should take it upon yourself to say what I would or would not do! Dammit all, who do you think you are!”
His voice seemed to ring out in the big room.
Perhaps because he seemed so tall and so overpowering in his rage, Anita gave a little cry of sheer fear and ran towards the door.
As she reached it, she looked back and he saw that her face was very pale.
Then she was gone, leaving the door open behind her as she ran down the passage.
*
The Duchess was nearly asleep when the door opened and Anita burst into the room.
“Oh, it is you, dear,” the Duchess murmured.
“If you please, ma’am, I have to leave immediately!” Anita cried.
The Duchess was so astounded that she felt she could not have heard aright.
“Go – where?”
“Anywhere – home,” Anita replied.
“What has happened? What has upset you?”
Now the Duchess was fully awake and could
see that Anita was very pale and her eyes had a stricken look in them, although she was not crying.
“What has upset you?” the Duchess asked again.
“I cannot explain,” Anita answered, “but please, Your Grace, let me go home. I am afraid I have no – money to pay the fare – but, if you will lend it to me, I will pay – you back.”
“Yes, of course,” the Duchess said. “But as it is Sunday there will be no trains so late in the afternoon. If you really wish to leave, you will have to wait until tomorrow morning.”
“I would – rather go now – at once.”
“I am sure that’s not possible,” the Duchess replied.
Anita gave a little sob and, without saying any more turned, and went from the room.
When she had gone, the Duchess rang the bell for her maid and, as the elderly woman who had served her for many years came into the room, she said,
“Something has upset Miss Anita, Eleanor. See if you can find out what it is. I am very worried about her.”
“I’ll see what I can do, Your Grace.”
The Duchess lay back against the pillows.
There was little that went on in the house that Eleanor did not know about sooner or later and it would be only a question of waiting before she would be informed of what had occurred.
She was not mistaken, for only a quarter of an hour later Eleanor came back into the room and the Duchess looked at her expectantly.
“It appears, Your Grace Miss Lavenham went to His Grace’s study after luncheon. She was there only a few minutes before she comes out and runs across the hall and up the stairs to Your Grace’s room.”
“Have you any idea what upset her?” the Duchess asked.
“No, Your Grace, but I have a suspicion that what Miss Lavenham said to His Grace caused him to send a message to Lady Millicent saying he was unavoidably prevented from taking her driving at three o’clock as had been arranged.”
“Then His Grace has not gone driving,” the Duchess murmured quietly, as if speaking to herself.
“No, Your Grace,” Eleanor said, “and if you ask me, Lady Millicent must have been confiding in Miss Lavenham that she was hoping not to have to marry His Grace, being head over heels in love with a young man she has known ever since she was a child.”
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