Beauty or Brains

by Barbara Cartland

  Iona too would have liked to go to her home, but she knew only too well that, if she did so, there would be endless questions of where she had been hiding.

  Then her family would announce her wedding to John all over again.

  She was certain that it was too soon for John to say he wished to marry someone else and they would both be embroiled in the most uncomfortable situation of having to tell lies until her family stopped questioning them.

  ‘I still have to stay away,’ Iona told herself, ‘and goodness knows where I will go. But it’s essential that I don’t stay here.’

  She fastened her ponies into the cart.

  Then she drove off seeing no one and with no one being aware that she had gone.

  *

  She drove through the village and tried to find the main road that led to the sea.

  It was only when she was several miles away and the sun was rising in the sky that she realised she had done what she was afraid would be impossible and left without anyone knowing about her departure.

  She was sure that it would not occur to Newman or his wife that she had definitely left and they would expect, if they found her room empty, for her to be in the garden or perhaps down by the lake.

  ‘They will have quite a shock,’ she thought. ‘But eventually they will forget me, although I will never forget them.’

  She drove for quite a long way before she realised that she was feeling hungry.

  She stopped in a small village to have some tea and some rather dull sandwiches.

  It was in a shop that was clearly patronised mostly, she thought, by children because they sold a very varied selection of sweets.

  If anyone was curious who she was and where she was going, they certainly did not ask her any questions.

  She then drove on wondering where she would end up, but always aiming towards the sea.

  She stopped for a snack luncheon.

  Only when it was late in the afternoon did she think that she should now be sensible about finding somewhere to stay the night.

  There was no one to ask and she was nervous of going to any of the larger hotels.

  She was certain that there might be men there who would behave in the same way as that man had done the first night of her escape from home.

  Finally she saw an elderly Parson walking down the road from the Church and drew up beside him.

  “I am sorry to bother you,” she began, “but can you tell me if there is anywhere I can stay the night where my ponies would be looked after? As I am on my own, you can understand I don’t want to go anywhere that I might find uncomfortable because of the other guests.”

  She spoke shyly, but the Parson understood exactly what she was saying.

  “I am afraid that you will find it rather difficult to find the accommodation you require here,” he said. “There is, of course, the village inn that is kept by a respectable man and his wife. They occasionally take in a lodger.”

  “It sounds exactly the sort of place I would like,” Iona replied.

  “You are really too young to be travelling alone,” the Parson remarked. “But I am sure that you will be safe there, especially if you say I directed you to them.”

  “Thank you, thank you very much, sir.”

  The Parson paused before he added,

  “If you are travelling South, as I expect you are, you will find a charming inn called The Cherry Orchard.”

  He smiled at her before he continued,

  “It’s only fifteen miles from here, but it’s very quiet and respectable and they only take two or three visitors at the inn. They are famous for their excellent food and the majority of people stop there for meals.”

  “Thank you! Thank you so much,” she said. “You are very kind and I am most grateful.”

  He smiled at her again and took off his hat as she drove on.

  She found the local inn and told them that she had been sent there by the Parson.

  “Oh, that be the Vicar,” the publican said. “He’s always been very kind to me and me wife and I’ll look after you as he wants us to do.”

  The food was very poor, but Iona found that there was a good stable for her ponies and her bed was clean and comfortable.

  However, she lay awake wondering what on earth she should do when she reached the sea.

  If it was possible she wanted to go somewhere safe where she could stay for at the very least three or four months before she dared to return home.

  ‘If only I could have stayed on at The Court,’ she thought miserably. ‘But they would have discovered who I was and then I would have to go back and face the whole family demanding explanations from me.’

  She was quite certain by this time that someone would have found out that the Governess who had taught her so many years ago was dead.

  The one thing she did not want was a hue and cry because she had run away before her wedding

  She was quite certain that her whole family would not only be demanding a full explanation for her behaviour but would insist that the marriage, which had only been postponed, should now take place at once.

  ‘I must find somewhere where no one will find me,’ she told herself, but had no idea where it could be.

  *

  The next morning almost as if she was afraid that the Police were not far behind her, she set off very early for the place the Vicar had suggested.

  Because the roads were narrow it was impossible to go fast and she did not actually reach The Cherry Orchard until it was almost evening.

  She could see as soon as she arrived that the garden was as beautiful as the name of the inn.

  She learnt from the publican a great deal about the difficulties of accommodating travellers who asked for too much or those who drank too heavily.

  “At the same time,” Iona commented, “it must be interesting to meet new people. I have never seen anything more beautiful than your garden and the inn itself.”

  “My wife and I were determined to have somethin’ different,” the man replied. “We’ve worked very hard to make this a unique place where people can come and spend their holidays, go to bed early and relax in the garden.”

  “In other words you don’t want people who only stay one night as I am doing,” Iona replied.

  “I’m hopin’ that you’ll come back another time,” the man retorted. “At least you can tell your friends that this is a home from home.”

  “I will certainly tell everyone that,” Iona assured him. “I can only congratulate you once again on the most beautiful garden I have seen for a long time.”

  *

  When she left the next morning, the publican gave her a bouquet of flowers to take with her and she thanked him profusely.

  “I hopes you will come and see us again, miss. My wife is very worried that you are travellin’ alone without anyone to look after you.”

  “Well, tell me where I can stay tonight where I will be as safe and as comfortable as I have been with you.”

  “I was just hopin’ you’d ask me that question,” the publican said. “You will find a very nice place in a small village about a mile from the sea. It’s called The Rocking Horse.”

  Iona laughed.

  “What a funny name!”

  “You’ll find The Rocking Horse very comfortable,” the man told her. “They have about eight or ten bedrooms, so you should get in unless you are particularly unlucky.”

  He paused for a moment before he added,

  “If you tell the owner you have come from me, he will do everythin’ he can to make you feel at home.”

  “Thank you very much. I have loved staying with you and hope I can come again.”

  The publican spread out his hands.

  “We’ll be waitin’ for you, miss.”

  She tipped the ostler generously, who had looked after the ponies, also the servants in the dining room.

  As she drove off, the publican waved her goodbye and she thought how kind and understanding he was.
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br />   The Rocking Horse was certainly larger than The Cherry Tree, but not quite so beautiful.

  Undoubtedly the owner of the hotel was determined to make anyone who stayed with him happy and content.

  There was, however, to Iona’s dismay rather a lot of people already in the reception room. As the majority were men, she felt a little apprehensive.

  As she told the proprietor that she had come from his friend, she asked a little tentatively,

  “I suppose, as I am alone, it would not be possible for me to have a private room where I can have my dinner. I am, of course, quite willing to pay for one.”

  The proprietor looked at her and then there was a twinkle in his eyes as he responded,

  “I think you are a very wise young lady. Although it is a service we don’t provide very often, we have a small room where my wife writes her letters and I add up the bills. We can put that at your disposal.”

  “That is very kind of you,” Iona said.

  She thought as she spoke that it was something she was always saying to people.

  Perhaps because she was young and alone everyone wanted to help her rather than if she had been older and so could look after herself.

  Her room was small but quiet and, when she went downstairs for dinner, she found the small sitting room that belonged to the proprietor and his wife. It was a most delightful little room that opened onto the garden.

  She enjoyed her dinner on her own.

  Then she was surprised when she was told that the ostler she had left the ponies with wished to speak to her.

  She went out into the yard and he told her that one of her ponies had just shed a shoe.

  “Oh, dear! I had no idea it was loose,” Iona said.

  “Well, I can get the blacksmith to call tomorrow,” he told her, “but not till the afternoon. I knows that ’e ’as an appointment for a gentleman who ’as large stables.”

  “I am prepared to wait, if I have to, until tomorrow evening. Will you arrange it for me, please?”

  She told the proprietor what had happened and he said,

  “We’re delighted to have you to stay and, if you are going a long way, I suggest you rest in the garden during the day. Then walk down to the pretty stream where it is cool and I am sure you will be alone.”

  Iona found that he had not exaggerated.

  She then spent the afternoon before the blacksmith came watching the fish moving downstream and keeping in the shade of the trees to avoid the strong sun.

  The blacksmith did not arrive until six o’clock, but he quickly fitted a new shoe and patted the pony.

  “This be a fine pair you ’as ’ere, ma’am,” he said in admiration. “But you mustn’t work ’em too ’ard.”

  “I will try not to,” Iona promised. “But I do have quite a long way to go.”

  She wondered as she spoke if that was true and then she had an impulse to remain where she was.

  It would perhaps be better if she stayed by the sea and she would at least be lost in a crowd and so not make people too curious.

  She was already aware that both the proprietor and his wife were intrigued to find out why she was travelling alone and it was obvious that a number of their visitors had asked who she was.

  ‘I must move on,’ Iona thought. ‘Perhaps this will happen to me wherever I go.’

  It was impossible when she was driving or sitting alone by the stream not to think of the Earl and how much she loved him.

  ‘Just how could I be such a fool as to have fallen in love for the first time immediately after I had lost John?’ she asked herself.

  Then she thought that she should be grateful to God that she had not been married to John before she realised that his heart lay elsewhere.

  And that he was only marrying her, as so many men had wanted to marry her, for her money.

  ‘At least no one will think that I am very rich now,’ she mused.

  Yet after her first night she realised the predicament she was in.

  ‘What am I to do?’ she prayed. ‘What am I to do?’

  But there did not seem to be any answer.

  Only a blankness that she thought was even more frightening than if she had something definite to be worried about.

  She had a bath before dinner and then went down to her quiet little room.

  There was a big party in the dining room and she was so glad, when she heard loud voices and laugher, that she was not there.

  A pretty woman sitting by herself in a corner was certain to arouse interest.

  She knew that she would have been afraid if one of the men, more adventurous than his friends, had introduced himself.

  She might have been asked to join the party and it would have been difficult to refuse.

  ‘Whatever can I do?’ she asked herself again. ‘I cannot go on like this for ever. I dare not go near any of my friends because, however much I may ask them to keep my presence a secret, they would be certain sooner or later to let one of my family know where I was.’

  She finished her dinner and was just thinking that she might be wise to go to her room when the door opened.

  “There be a gentleman to see you,” the proprietor announced.

  As he closed the door, Iona turned round.

  She had been standing gazing out of the window at the sun sinking behind the trees.

  Now she realised that there was a man just inside the door of the small room.

  She looked at him.

  And then she froze into immobility.

  It was the Earl standing there!

  He was looking extremely handsome. At the same time slightly pale from the ordeal he had been through.

  “Oh,” she exclaimed tremulously, “it is – you!”

  “Yes, it is me,” he replied sharply, “and a very nice dance you have led me. How dare you run away just like that without telling me where you were going and why you were leaving!”

  He spoke so fiercely to her that she could only stare at him.

  Then he asserted,

  “I suppose you know that it might have killed me following you all this way! But what else could I do?”

  “I don’t know why you are here,” Iona murmured. “I told you – where to find the treasure – you have been seeking.”

  “Yes, you told me that, having found for me what I had been seeking for so long and, having saved my life, you could just walk out and leave me as if we were of no consequence to each other.”

  He walked slowly towards her as he spoke.

  Now he stood looking down at her.

  “How could you have been so cruel, so utterly and completely brutal in running off like that,” he demanded, “and not telling anyone where you were going?”

  He was still speaking furiously.

  Then in a very small voice Iona told him,

  “I had – to go.”

  “Why? Why should you go? You could not have been frightened of the Police as Newman had told them he killed the man and, as the robber had already assaulted me, there would have been no trouble over what had occurred.”

  “I am glad – about that,” Iona stammered. “It was very kind of him – to take the blame.”

  “What about me? Have I not been kind to you?”

  “Yes of course – you have,” Iona replied.

  It was difficult to speak as she was so overcome at the Earl’s appearance and the anger and fury in his voice.

  Then, after a long silence, she asked,

  “Why are you so angry?”

  “Surely you should know the answer to that!” the Earl snapped. “How could I lose you? How could I let you go when you saved my life and found the treasure I thought I would never find? Did you really think that you could walk out of my life and I would not miss you?”

  Iona felt as if her heart turned a somersault.

  Then she asked in a small voice,

  “Did you really – miss me?”

  “I nearly went mad when I heard that you had gone. They
kept it from me for the first day and then, when I demanded to see you, they told me the truth that you were no longer there. How could you do it? How could you be so unfeeling and so cruel?”

  He was still speaking very angrily.

  Iona stared at him.

  As their eyes met, it was impossible for her to look away.

  Slowly, so slowly that she was hardly aware that he was moving, the Earl drew nearer to her.

  He put out his arms and pulled her close to him.

  “You must have known,” he said quietly in a voice that was no longer angry, “that I could not live without you.”

  She looked up at him.

  Then, as he pulled her even closer to him, his lips found hers.

  For a moment he kissed her very gently.

  Then demandingly and almost angrily as if he was afraid of losing her and punishing her at the same time.

  When his lips set her free, she hid her head against his shoulder.

  In a voice quite different from the tone he had used before, the Earl said,

  “I think even if you did not admit it, you loved me a little. You could not have cared for me or taken so much trouble if you had not done so.”

  Almost as if the words fell from her lips without her really saying them, Iona whispered,

  “I love – you! I love you!”

  “And I love you, my darling,” he asserted. “If you think I was going to lose you, you are very much mistaken. You are mine and, when I looked at the fortune you had found for me, I knew it was unimportant beside you.”

  “Are you really – saying this to me?” she stuttered.

  “I have much more to say, but for the moment I only want to kiss you and make quite sure I have found you. If you hide from me again, I think I will kill myself.”

  Iona put her head against his shoulder.

  “I thought it would have caused a lot of problems – if I had stayed with you,” she whispered.

  “There is just one problem for me,” he replied, “and that is I might lose you again! We are going to be married immediately and I will make sure that you cannot run away from me this time.”

  Iona looked at him with tears in her eyes.

  “How can you say such – wonderful things to me?” she asked. “And did you really say – you wanted to marry me?”