In fact, he did return in the afternoon, but only to go straight upstairs to dress for an evening out. Just before he departed again, he looked in on her with a smile.
"Are you managing all right?" he asked. "Good – I knew you could cope."
Then he was gone, without giving her a chance to reply.
She ate a lonely supper and retired early, feeling unhappy.
Next morning there was no sign of him when she started work and Henly confided that he had returned very late last night.
It was after lunch when she heard him come downstairs and go into his sitting room. Dorina went straight to him with the letters. Strictly speaking she knew she should have waited to be sent for, but something in her longed to see him.
As she entered he turned from where he was standing at the window.
"I have your letters for you," she said as she put them down on his desk.
She had arranged them with the private ones on the bottom.
Two of the letters were from English hostesses who wanted him to dine with them.
The third was the letter she had read the previous day.
To her surprise the Earl took this last letter, read it, then tore it into pieces and threw them into the waste-paper basket.
Dorina longed to ask him why he had not wished to answer the woman who had written with such desperate passion.
But she thought it best not to pry, which undoubtedly she had done by reading his very personal letter.
He was very businesslike that afternoon, and finished work early. He was giving a dinner party that evening.
Dorina wondered if Elsie would be there, sitting beside him, laughing with him.
Perhaps not, since he had torn up her letter.
But there would be many other women.
"Enjoy your party," she said as she left him. "But don't forget you're leaving early tomorrow morning to go to the races."
"I suppose I'll have to go," the Earl sighed. "I have a horse running in the third race. But there's really so much for me to see to here that I ought to stay. Yes I must go. I have friends expecting me."
She retired early and tried to sleep, but she could not help being intensely aware of the noise of merriment coming up from the Earl's dinner party below.
She pictured him there, surrounded by beautiful women. Then she dived under the bedclothes and pulled the pillow over her head.
By the time Dorina reached her office the following morning, the Earl had left the house.
She wished she could have gone with him to the races.
'He is so different from the other men I have met,' she told herself.
But she did not want to explain the difference even to herself.
It was late in the afternoon and she was beginning to think she had finished all the work she had to do, when to her surprise, one of the footmen announced,
"A gentleman to see you, Miss Martin."
She looked up and saw it was Mr. Johnson.
She gave a cry of surprise and exclaimed,
"I was not expecting you. How wonderful to see you. Do tell me what you are doing here."
"I have come," Mr. Johnson began, "with extremely good news. In fact you will be astonished at what I have to tell you."
Dorina looked surprised and quickly sat down beside him.
"Tell me," she said eagerly.
"We've done it!" Mr. Johnson said.
"Done what?" Dorina asked.
"The horseless carriage," was his astounding reply. "We've created one and it works."
Dorina drew in her breath.
Then as Mr. Johnson finished speaking, she clasped her hands together and bent towards him.
"I cannot believe what I am hearing!" she exclaimed.
"It's been a very hard job, to make a four-wheeled vehicle which will run on the roads and be propelled by gasoline. But we've done it.
"I received your letter on the very same day that we knew we had a success. It was like an omen. I knew I had to come and see you at once.
"Now that you know, I beg you to be careful. You have a rival here in this house. He must not guess how far advanced we are, in case it inspires him to complete his own work."
"I don't think there's much danger of that," Dorina said. "His project isn't very far advanced."
To her surprise, his face changed.
"On the contrary, he – "
"He what?" Dorina asked, beginning to feel uneasy.
"I suppose he has kept it from you, as he's kept it from most of the country. But the Earl's project is almost at the point of success."
Dorina stared.
"Surely not?"
"I learnt about it because a man who had worked for the Earl came to work for us because he was dismissed, he thought unfairly, and therefore came and told us everything."
Dorina drew in her breath.
"Tell me more," she said. "I want to know every detail."
"The Earl has been very clever. He has his private factory in a part of London which you would never visit. Certainly none of his smart friends would go there. He's nearly at the point of success, but he's managed to keep it a secret from everyone."
"Yes," Dorina said quietly. "He has."
He had refused even to confide in her, she realised.
She had thought they were drawing close, but all the time she had been nothing but an employee, to be told exactly what suited him and no more.
It hurt more than she would have believed possible.
CHAPTER FOUR
For a moment Dorina wondered sadly how he could have deceived her.
But then she remembered that she was here under false pretences. How could she blame him for keeping his secrets when she herself was keeping so many?
"What I came to tell you," Mr. Johnson said, "is that we're planning a big meeting in Birmingham, to which we will invite buyers from all over the world. There we will put our horseless carriage on display and gather orders ahead of our competitors. I'll write to you soon when I know more. But be prepared to come to Birmingham quickly."
"I will," she said.
"I know your father, if he were alive, would be thrilled and delighted that we have been so successful. I think it only right, if you agree, that if our great new invention is praised, as it will be, you take the credit of owning it and make everyone aware that your father unfortunately is no longer with us."
Dorina drew in her breath.
For a moment she almost felt as if the room was swinging round her.
She found it difficult to believe what she had heard and to realise the importance of it.
Then she told herself that she must not behave like a frightened woman.
As her father's daughter, she must bravely face the future carrying on his great legacy.
And yet it flashed through her mind that she would be far happier if she remained as she was, with the Earl, growing closer to him.
Then she told herself she would not be a coward.
At last she managed to say,
"Of course I will do exactly what you want me to do. I can only thank you, as my father would have done, from the bottom of my heart. Have people not been curious as to where he is?"
"I told them he was abroad looking for new ideas and new inventions," Mr. Johnson said, "and, of course, everyone in their minds added – 'and new customers.'"
Then almost as if he thought the Earl might be listening, Mr. Johnson added,
"Are you quite certain Lord Kennington does not know who you really are?"
"Of course not," Dorina replied. "I came here as his secretary, and he has no idea I have any interest other than the work I am doing for him."
"Good. Let's hope it stays that way. I gather that his own vehicle is so far advanced that it might cause us problems if news gets out. As things are, we will soon have the world at our feet."
"Or perhaps he will," she murmured.
'I suppose,' she told herself, 'I ought to hate him, because if his car is at all g
ood, it will take some of the glory away from me and Papa.'
However she did not say this aloud.
"Please arrange an increase in wages for all the men who are working on the horseless carriage," she said. "Our future depends on them, and I want them to feel appreciated."
"It will certainly do that," Mr. Johnson agreed. "May I say you are your father's daughter in thinking of other people as well as yourself?"
"Thank you," Dorina said.
"Perhaps I should go now. It would be better if the Earl does not find me here."
When he had left, Dorina sat silently thinking over what she had heard. She knew that this should be her proudest and happiest moment. But all she could think of was how the Earl had thrown dust in her eyes.
'He is cleverer than I thought him to be,' she thought.
In a strange way she found that she was almost as eager for his success as she was for her own, even though they were rivals.
She wished that she could discuss it with him, and no longer keep her true identity a secret.
'How close we might have grown, sharing the same ambitions,' she thought. 'Now, perhaps he will think I was spying on him.'
She could not bear that thought. She had found that there was something almost magical in being with him.
But now, how could things ever be right between them again?
After a while Dorina realised that she could not go on day dreaming all this time and went back to work.
But within a few minutes there was another interruption.
She heard the sound of voices in the hall. The butler seemed to be trying to restrain someone who would not be denied.
Then the door opened and a woman swept in.
She was very smartly dressed. The feathers in her hat fluttered as she shut the door behind her.
As she approached the desk she gave an exclamation and stared at Dorina.
"Where is Evelyn?" she asked, naming Dorina's predecessor.
"I am afraid Miss Barnes is very ill, so I have taken her place."
"Are you now his Lordship's secretary?" the woman asked in such a scathing voice that Dorina looked at her in surprise.
She thought she was deliberately being unpleasant.
"I have come," she said quietly, "to help his Lordship in an emergency. Fortunately that is what I am able to do."
"I should be very much surprised if you can," the woman answered. "I told him that I would be calling on him this morning. Where is he?"
"He has had to go out," Dorina told her.
"But I want to see him at once," the newcomer persisted. "In fact we had arranged to be together today, and that is why I came here as early as I could."
"I am sure his Lordship will be returning as soon as possible," Dorina replied. "In the meantime perhaps you would like to wait for him."
She spoke in a polite voice, but it was hard to keep her temper in the face of so much unpleasantness.
"He should have informed me," the woman went on accusingly, "that he required a secretary. I would have found him one who would be, I am quite sure, far more capable of doing his very difficult work than you are."
She was being very rude. But Dorina knew that in her position, it would be a mistake to be rude in return.
She therefore said,
"I am sure, madam, you know your way about the house and the butler will bring you any refreshment you require. I will tell his Lordship as soon as he arrives home that you are waiting for him."
"I will be very surprised," the woman retorted, "if you do anything efficiently. You are far too young and far too inexperienced for this work, and I will tell him so as soon as he comes back."
With that she went out slamming the door behind her.
Dorina was astonished that anyone so smartly dressed, who was obviously of some importance, should behave in such a way.
When a few moments later, the butler appeared she asked,
"Who was that lady? She was very upset not to find his Lordship at home."
Henly laughed.
"Upset, is the right word," he replied. "She's been scowling at me as if it is my fault he's forgotten the appointment."
"Who is she?" Dorina enquired.
"Lady Musgrove. She's been after his Lordship for some months. If you ask me she fancies herself as a Countess and there's not a person in this house who's not praying it won't happen."
"She certainly seemed annoyed and surprised to find me here," Dorina replied.
"Of course she was," Henly answered. "You're far too pretty for her Ladyship's liking, and I know now why she snapped at me in the drawing room."
Dorina laughed.
"Surely it cannot concern her who the Earl has as his secretary," she said. "He could hardly manage without one."
"Of course not," the butler agreed. "But Miss Barnes is about fifty. She's a good worker but she doesn't look as good as you do. You're like a bit of sunshine in the early morning."
Dorina laughed.
"That is the nicest compliment I have ever received," she said. "I would love to be a bit of sunshine, and I hope I've helped his Lordship with this huge amount of correspondence. Just look at what has arrived this morning and someone has to answer them for him."
"Well, her Ladyship thinks you're too pretty to be useful behind a desk," the butler said. "If you ask me it would be a disaster for us all if his Lordship married her, as she wants him to do."
Dorina could understand that.
After the way Lady Musgrove had spoken to her, she was quite certain that she could not manage the household in the way her mother had always done.
As she had said so often,
"If the servants are happy, their master is happy. Always remember that, darling, and it is something which should be written in every rich man's and woman's diary."
Dorina had laughed at the time and her father did too.
But she knew that all the servants at home were devoted to them both.
They had been unceasingly kind to her from the time she left the pram and toddled into the kitchen.
'Henly is right,' she thought to herself. 'The Earl must not marry a woman like that, who might not only offend his staff at home, but the people who work for him in other parts of the world. It was very important that the Earl should choose the right wife.'
But she did not allow herself to think too much about who the right wife might be.
She was still working on the correspondence, when Lady Musgrove reappeared.
"Exactly when did his Lordship depart?" she snapped.
"I am afraid I have no information," Dorina replied, "as he left before I came down to breakfast."
Lady Musgrove stared at her.
"Are you staying here in the house?" she asked in astonishment.
"When I applied for the job, I explained to his Lordship that I had only just returned home from the continent," Dorina told her. "He therefore offered me a room until I found somewhere else."
"All I can say is that you should do so as quickly as possible," Lady Musgrove replied. "It is not a good idea for people to think he has a young secretary who looks, to my mind, overdressed. That sort of thing is not good for his reputation."
Dorina drew in her breath.
For a moment she thought she should be as rude to Lady Musgrove as she was being to her.
Again she thought it would be a mistake.
Instead she said,
"Lodgings in London are very expensive."
"Then I suggest is that you look harder," Lady Musgrove retorted. "I am sure in some back alley you will find a cheap bedroom where, at least, you can spend any free time you have, rather than staying here in Grosvenor Square."
As she finished speaking she turned on her heel and swept out of the office.
She shut the door noisily behind her.
'She is ghastly,' Dorina thought. 'I expect she is honey-mouthed and charming when the Earl is here. But he has no idea that she can be so poisonous to anyone she thinks is
beneath her.'
She did not see Lady Musgrove again and learned later that, after waiting for another hour, she had left.
"Good riddance to bad rubbish, as far as I'm concerned," the butler said.
Love Drives In Page 5