“I want your help,” Eleta murmured again.
“My help?” the girl repeated, “but why?”
“I will tell you, but first I want you to promise to keep everything I tell you absolutely secret.”
Lady Priscilla just stared at her, as Eleta went on,
“So secret that I can only beg of you to help me, please, please help me, I need it so much.”
“I don’t understand. How can I help you?”
“Come, sit down and I’ll tell you why it’s secret.”
Lady Priscilla sat down at the end of the bed.
“If you will help me, I will be very very grateful. But, as I have just said, it is something very secret that no one must know except you.”
“Why is what you are going to tell me so secret?”
“I will tell you why and then you will understand, but first you must promise me on your honour that you will tell no one what I am going to tell you.”
“I promise.”
“Then cross your heart like this,” Eleta said, and she crossed her own heart with her first finger.
Rather slowly, because she had not done it before, Lady Priscilla followed her.
“Now you have promised me, I will tell you the truth, which you will understand is so very secret.”
“What is it?” Lady Priscilla asked.
“I have run away,” Eleta whispered.
“Run away! But why?”
“My father and mother are dead and my horrible stepfather wants me to marry an old man simply because he is important and will help him in with his business.”
She spoke slowly so that Lady Priscilla would not miss a word and after a moment the child enquired,
“So you ran away and they don’t know where you have gone.”
“That is true and it is very clever of you to realise it, but if they find out where I am, I will have to go back and marry this terrible old man.”
“So you want to stay here?” Lady Priscilla muttered as if she was working it out in her mind.
“I would like to stay here,” Eleta said, “but I am not really a Governess, I never have been one and, if they find out that about me, I will be sent away at once.”
She drew in her breath before she added,
“Please, please help me. Only you can help me by pretending I am a Governess.”
“How can I pretend?”
“I was thinking about that as I was coming down from London. As I cannot teach you anything, you will have to pretend you are learning from me.”
“How can I do that?” Lady Priscilla asked.
“The first thing I thought of was that everyone who comes to this house says how magnificent it is.”
Lady Priscilla nodded.
“Then you will say that you always think the Adam Brothers designed wonderful houses.”
She saw that the child looked surprised and added,
“That is all you have to say and they will think how clever you are.”
“What else will I have to say?”
“We will have to pretend we are doing lessons,” Eleta answered. “And we will think of things which will make people believe that you are learning a lot.”
“What sort of things will I have to say?”
“For instance when your father is here and you see him early in the morning you say, ‘bonjour, mon père,’ just three words, but he will think you are learning French.”
Lady Priscilla laughed.
“That’s very funny,” she giggled.
“We will think up lots of ideas to impress people and they will be sure I am a very very good Governess.”
“You said we have to pretend to have lessons?”
“We will write something in notebooks,” Eleta said casually. “When they look at them, they will think we are having a long lesson on places I will tell you about. I have been to Paris and I have lovely stories about Egypt and also Greece, where I saw statues of the Gods and Goddesses.”
“You will tell me about them?”
“Of course I will tell you stories. That is the best way we can pretend to be having lessons.”
Lady Priscilla clapped her hands together.
“That sounds a very different kind of lesson from what the other Governesses wanted me to do.”
“I told you I am not a Governess,” Eleta replied, “so you will have to tell me how I should behave like one.”
Lady Priscilla giggled again.
“That will be funny, me teaching you!”
“If you are going to help me, that is what you will have to do. If I am sent away, I have nowhere else to go. Then if I go back to my stepfather, I will have to marry that horrid old man.”
“I will not let them send you away,” Lady Priscilla asserted. “But what shall we do?”
“I can see that there is so much to do here,” Eleta replied. “I am sure there are many wonderful horses in the stables and we will ride and ride so that no one will ever know where we are or can listen to what we say.”
“You can ride!” Lady Priscilla exclaimed. “None of my other Governesses wanted to ride.”
“Well I want to ride,” Eleta said. “I love riding and we will ride for miles and miles so that no one can snatch me up and take me back to London.”
“I will stop them from doing that!”
“If you are really going to help me,” Eleta said, “I can only say thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I was so frightened you would send me away and I would have to go back to my wicked stepfather.”
“I will not send you away and I am sure if they think I am having lessons no one will want you to go.”
“Then we must act our parts very cleverly. I have to pretend I am a Governess, but really you will be teaching me what I have to do. And I will just tell you what you have to say so that no one is suspicious.”
“We must stop them, of course we will stop them.”
“Thank you, thank you,” Eleta exclaimed. “I was so frightened I would be sent straight back to London and my stepfather would be waiting for me.”
“You must stay here,” Lady Priscilla said firmly, “and I will be very careful to say that you are teaching me lots and lots of things I don’t know.”
“That will be true anyway. I hate telling lies and I am going to tell you stories about all the exciting places I have been to and I am sure there are endless stories hidden in this house that no one else has ever found.”
Lady Priscilla’s eyes were shining.
“About what? Can you tell me a story?”
“Well, show me your picture gallery and I will tell you stories about the paintings. I have seen a great many pictures in Paris, in Rome and also in Spain.”
Eleta paused for a moment and then she said,
“I expect you have a big library.”
“It’s full of books and I hate books,” Lady Priscilla pouted.
“But the stories are always good in the best books,” Eleta told her. “So I will read them and then tell you the story afterwards in my own words.”
“That will be fun,” Lady Priscilla answered.
There was a knock on the door outside the nursery.
“What is that?” Eleta asked.
“I expect it’s luncheon. You must be hungry after coming all the way from London.”
“I am, now I think about it,” Eleta replied. “But I was so frightened you would send me away that I could not think of anything else.
“Of course I am not going to send you away.”
“Then be careful what you say in front of anyone,” Eleta whispered. “The walls have ears and always hear what you don’t want them to hear.”
Lady Priscilla laughed as if she thought it funny and then she peeped outside the door and turned to say,
“Yes, it is luncheon and it’s on the table.”
“Let’s eat quickly and then perhaps you can take me to the stables. I am sure that you have superb horses here and, as I told you, I love horses.”
”Shall we go riding?” Lady Priscilla asked.
She spoke as if she thought it very unlikely and Eleta was sure that she loved riding just as she herself had loved it at her age.
“Do you think, do you really think we can?”
“Of course we can,” Lady Priscilla replied.
“You can say you want to show me the woods and I have a riding habit in my luggage.”
“Then we can go riding. So I will tell Harry, the footman, who is bringing in the luncheon.”
Eleta rose from the bed and tidied away her hat and then, as she went into the nursery, she heard Harry say,
“Yes, my Lady. I’ll tell them to have your pony ready for you and a horse for the Governess.”
As Harry closed the door, Eleta walked in from the bedroom.
She could see the food was laid out on the table, but as she had expected it was plain nursery food and, although she made no comment, she was thinking it would be much more sensible if Lady Priscilla had her meals downstairs.
However, she did not say anything but helped Lady Priscilla and herself to the rather wishy-washy dishes.
They would be suitable, she thought, for a child much younger and were very unsuitable, as far as she was concerned, for a Governess.
Because she hoped it would be interesting, she told the child about the horses she had ridden and how she had loved them.
“When I left England and went to school,” she said, “I cried, not because I was going abroad, but because I was leaving the horses I loved and which I know loved me.”
She saw that Lady Priscilla was interested and then told her the horses’ names and how she had ridden round the Racecourse and had managed to clear all the jumps.
“I want to do that!” Lady Priscilla exclaimed.
“Of course you do, but I expect your pony is getting too small for you.”
“Much too small for me and I am not allowed to ride without a leading rein.”
“Do you ride well?” Eleta asked her.
“Very very well, but they still make me go with a leading rein, although I know I am quite safe without one.”
“Of course you are,” Eleta agreed. “We will not tell them, but we will take it off as soon as we get away from the stables.”
She saw the excitement in Lady Priscilla’s eyes and she knew that this was another reason that had made the child angry and difficult.
Half-an-hour later they rode out of the stables after the Head Groom had handed Eleta the leading rein.
She had already had to struggle with him when he offered her a horse she considered was almost an insult and she had some difficulty in persuading him to saddle up the horse she wanted.
As soon as they were out of sight of the stables, Eleta then took the leading rein from Lady Priscilla, who unfastened it from her pony’s bridle.
“Now we can go really fast,” she cried.
“I want to see first how well you can ride and then I am going to ask for a far larger pony or even a horse, if I think you can manage it,” Eleta told her.
There was no doubt that the child took after her father and was in fact an excellent rider.
They galloped across the nearest field and turned into a wood.
“I really love woods,” Eleta said. “They are always exciting and I am quite certain that there are real goblins under the ground and fairies among the leaves.”
“The Governess before you told me there were no such things as fairies and goblins were imaginary creatures who don’t really exist.”
“Of course they exist, but only people like you and me who believe in them ever see them. I am quite certain I have seen goblins in the wood at home and I am sure that they are working here underground.”
Lady Priscilla gave a gasp and Eleta went on,
“As for fairies, we will find a circle of mushrooms where they have danced the night before and then we will be quite certain there are plenty of them here as well as in the garden with the lovely flowers.”
“Do tell me more!” Lady Priscilla begged.
“I think we should keep the stories for this evening when we have nothing else to do,” Eleta suggested. “Now I want to gallop very very fast towards that hill I can see in the distance.”
“That hill has a big cave at the very top of it,” Lady Priscilla said. “No one will ever let me go near it.”
“Why not?” Eleta asked.
“Because they say it’s dangerous and there are lots of other caves inside it, so I might get lost.”
“That sounds very thrilling and something we must explore one day,” Eleta said.
She knew that the child was delighted at the idea and then, as they were riding home, Eleta said,
“I cannot go on calling you Lady Priscilla, it is such a long name. I would like to call you Pepe, which I think your father called you when you were quite small?”
“He sometimes does now,” she replied. “But he is usually so angry with me for sending away a Governess, that when he is here I get a long lecture.”
“Please don’t send me away,” Eleta begged, “then he will not be able to lecture you.”
“I don’t want you to go away, you tell me the most marvellous stories.”
“I haven’t started yet, but I promise you there are hundreds and hundreds of stories in the house alone.”
As they rode back, she was thinking it was without exception the finest house she had ever seen.
“It must be full of stories,” she said aloud, “and, when you take me round to explore it – and I would much rather you did than be taken by Mrs. Shepherd, I know we will find a story in every room, perhaps two or three.”
“How will you find them?” Pepe asked.
Eleta thought for a moment and then she said,
“I think, maybe, when there is a marvellous story hidden in a room either in a book or because something has happened here in the past, if we are clever it will come into our minds.”
“And if it comes into your mind, will you tell me?”
“Yes, but if it goes into your mind first you will have to tell it to me.”
Pepe laughed.
“We will be telling each other stories all the time.”
“Of course, and why not?” Eleta asked. “They are far more interesting than conversation and some stories are very exciting.”
“And you will tell them all to me?”
“Yes, I will and it will be a very special lesson.”
“It seems a funny lesson compared to the sort the others tried to give me,” Pepe sighed.
“But I am a very funny sort of Governess. As you know, you are helping me and saving me and therefore I am the heroine. You must be writing a book in your mind whenever you think about me.”
Pepe was thrilled at this idea, so thrilled that, when they neared the house, Eleta said,
“We must not forget the wonderful stories we are going to find and if we make notes about them we will not forget them. One day, Pepe, you will write them down and they will be published and you will be a famous author.”
“But I really hate books,” Pepe said, as if the word automatically came to her lips.
“There are books and books,” Eleta replied, “just as there are people and people. Some people we love, who are very wonderful, and it would be lovely to write about them, but some people are wicked and horrid and we must just forget them.”
She saw that the child was thinking over what she had just said and finally she replied,
“If they are wicked, they are the villains!”
“Yes, of course they are, Pepe, but you and I are the heroines and the good people who will always be helped not only by the fairies but by the angels.”
This started a new train of thought and they were still talking about angels and whether there was one for everyone in Heaven when they reached the stables.
“I see her Ladyship’s ridin’ without a leadin’ rein,” the Head Groom said. “I don’t know what his
Lordship’ll say about that.”
“Her Ladyship is quite old enough and competent to ride on her own,” Eleta said, “But she should have a larger pony or even a horse. She really rides very well.”
“I don’t know what his Lordship’ll think about it. We’ve always bin extra careful about her Ladyship and there’ll be terrible trouble if she has an accident.”
“I promise you she is not going to have one,” Eleta said. “I am sure because you are so clever you will find a larger pony or a horse for her to ride tomorrow.”
She realised in flattering him that she had said the right thing, as after a moment’s pause he replied,
“I’ll do me best, but I might not be able to find one as quickly as that.”
Eleta smiled, thanked him and, as they went into the house, she suggested,
“I think it would be nice if we had tea downstairs, if not in the drawing room, there must be other comfortable rooms where we can sit in beautiful surroundings, which, of course, make wonderful stories for us.”
“I would love to do that,” Pepe enthused, “but they always say I have to stay in the schoolroom, which, as you know, is really my nursery.”
“I do realise that and, as there is no one else in the house, I am now going to ask the butler to bring us tea in whichever room you fancy best for our stories.”
“The tapestry room has stories on the tapestries, but no one would tell me what they are all about.”
“Very well, Pepe, we will have tea in the tapestry room today. Then tomorrow we will find another room where there will also be stories but different ones.”
They walked in through the front door and there was no butler to be seen, only two footmen on duty.
“Lady Priscilla and I would like tea in the tapestry room,” Eleta said. “We are now going upstairs to change, but we will not be long.”
The footmen looked at her in astonishment.
“In the tapestry room?” one of them queried. “But her Ladyship always has her tea upstairs.”
Eleta smiled.
“She is too old for the nursery now and I hope we will find a more comfortable schoolroom, so when we have finished tea I would then like to see Mrs. Shepherd.”
She spoke politely, but with an authority that the footman readily acknowledged.
“Very well, miss,” he said.
103. She Wanted Love Page 7