But, when the evening came and she had still had received no word from him that they should go together to the Duchess’s Suite, she suddenly felt depressed and spontaneously said to her father,
“Now you have seen the house, Papa, would it not be best if we leave here tomorrow? I believe some of the guests who only came for the Horse Show are now returning to London.”
“Leave tomorrow?” Marcus Stanley echoed in amazement. “I have no intention of doing anything of the sort! I have not yet seen all of the house or any of the outside buildings. The riding school is, I am told, without its peer anywhere in the country and the dovecotes are different from those elsewhere and so are some of the out buildings.”
He did not wait for Nerissa to say anything, but merely remarked as he left the room,
“We will leave on Tuesday and that will still be too soon for me.”
‘It was stupid of me to suggest it,’ Nerissa told herself.
She went to her bedroom to find that Mary had already arranged what she should wear that evening.
She had herself thought that a very pale blue gown that had belonged to Delphine was the most suitable, but Mary insisted that she wanted her to wear white and she was to change into it after dinner as the other ladies were doing.
“Do you mean we all have to change again after dinner before we reappear wearing the flowers?”
Mary smiled.
“You’ll see what I mean, miss, when they start paradin’ themselves. It would be just impossible for most of them to sit down to the table.”
Nerissa thought it strange, but, at Mary’s insistence, she put on the very pretty gown she had not worn previously and went down to dinner knowing that what she really wanted was to see the Duke.
She wondered what he had been doing all day and guessed that he had spent his time with Delphine, who was looking very beautiful, glittering with jewels and with an expression on her face which Nerissa knew meant that she was very sure of her own success.
When dinner was over and they had come out of the dining room, Delphine immediately took charge.
“Now hurry everyone,” she said, “you know what you have to do. We all meet in the anteroom of the ballroom without any of the guests seeing us and, as soon as our audience is assembled, we parade through the door onto the dais and walk down the steps into the centre of the room to take our place on one side of it until we are all assembled.”
Although the other ladies had apparently heard all this before, it was new to Nerissa and she hoped that she would not make any silly mistakes.
She went upstairs to her room to find that Mary was waiting for her and, when she saw the gown that she was to wear, she exclaimed in surprise.
It was a very pretty white gown of Delphine’s, simple and unadorned but now the hem was ornamented with bunches of forget-me-nots and, when she had it on, Nerissa found that she had a wide blue ribbon, almost like the Order of the Garter, and ornamented with tiny bunches of the same flowers to wear across one shoulder ending below her waist in a large bunch of them.
It was very effective, she thought, and so was the wreath that encircled her fair hair.
“You have taken a lot of trouble, Mary,” she said, “and I think it is very kind of you.”
“It may not be anythin’ like as spectacular as what some of the other ladies is wearin’, miss,” Mary said, “but in my opinion, you’ll be the most beautiful of them all.”
Nerissa laughed.
“Thank you, Mary. Now you have given me confidence. But the forget-me-not is after all a very small and unobtrusive little flower.
When she joined the others in the anteroom to the ballroom, she realised that it was certainly the truth.
Delphine looked fantastic.
She had an enormous hooped gown covered completely with pink roses and a wreath round her head. She also carried a sunshade covered in roses.
As if that was not enough, in the wreath some of her more spectacular diamonds were arranged between the flowers and the arrangements round her décolletage was the same.
She looked sensational and so beautiful that Nerissa thought it would be impossible for anyone to rival her, which was quite obviously what Delphine felt herself.
Some of the ladies had certainly tried their best.
One, representing a lily, wore a simple white gown that had huge wings made of lilies tied to her shoulders and she carried a great sheath of them in her hands.
Another lady wearing red carnations had a muff of the same scented flowers, which also ornamented the hem of her white gown and her wreath was the size of a Russian’s fur hat and very attractive.
As Nerissa expected after a brief glance, no one paid very much attention to her.
Then, as the music from the ballroom grew louder, Delphine said from the doorway,
“Now everybody is assembled and the judges are all in position with pencils and paper to put down how many marks they give us as we go on. Don’t forget that you have to describe your flower in either your own words or those of some poet.”
As she spoke, Nerissa remembered that she had been surprised when she came into the anteroom to see one or two ladies looking through books of what appeared to be poetry.
She supposed that she had not listened very carefully or else had not been told that she was to describe her flower.
Quickly she tried to recall if she had ever known of some famous poet like Lord Byron writing of anything as insignificant as a forget-me-not.
There was what sounded like a brisk roll of drums and, as Delphine, holding her small sunshade over her head, swept in through the door onto the dais, there was a loud burst of applause.
Nerissa realised that the guests whom the Duke had invited to join them after dinner must have already arrived and from the sound of the applause she knew that they had quite a large audience waiting for them.
One by one the ladies left the anteroom and were moving sedately as if they had had years of practice.
As they entered the ballroom, Nerissa could hear each of them saying a few words in clear unhesitating tones before the music grew louder and then, she thought, they must be walking to their places as Delphine had instructed them.
As eleven contestants left in front of her, she realised with a faint little smile that she was the last because she had made no effort to have herself placed anywhere else.
She reached the doorway, waited until she saw that the last lady, resplendent as a white camellia, had reached her appointed place and then she moved slowly forward.
For a moment the lights in the ballroom were so bright that she felt dazzled by them and she unexpectedly felt shy as well.
Then, while everybody else was just a sea of faces, she saw the Duke seated amongst the other gentlemen who were the judges.
She knew then she could not shame herself in front of him.
Gracefully she walked to the front of the stage and, without having to think of it, some lines came to her lips and she said them in a soft very sweet voice that somehow compelled everyone to listen to her.
“The Forget-me-not – blue as the sky,
Small, unnoticed – which is why
You will forget with somebody new,
But I will always remember you.”
As she finished speaking, the applause rang out and she walked down the steps with her eyes lowered to join the other contestants.
She now realised that, all grouped together, they formed a bouquet. Next, as the audience clapped and went on clapping, the Duke collected all the voting papers and, going onto the platform, made a short speech.
He said that he was sure this Festival of Flowers had been more impressive than any Festival that had ever taken place before at Lyn.
Surely nothing could be more beautiful than the human flowers that graced the ballroom.
Then he read out the result of the voting and it was not surprising that Delphine came first by a large margin.
‘This will make her happy,’
Nerissa thought to herself.
She did not miss the satisfaction on her sister’s face as she moved towards the Duke to receive the first prize from him, which was a very charming brooch in the shape of a flower made of enamel and set with small semi-precious stones.
Nerissa was near enough to hear her say ‘thank you’ in a voice that everybody in the ballroom could discern and then in a whisper that was meant only for the Duke, ‘you know I shall treasure this prize because you have given it to me.’
There was an intimate note in her voice and an expression in her eyes that the Duke could not misunderstand.
But Nerissa thought that he made no response and Delphine was obliged to move away to make room for the Lily, who had won the second prize.
As soon as the prize-giving was over, everybody in the ballroom surged forward wanting to look at the beauties more closely and to ask them, although in some cases it would be a difficult manoeuvre, for a dance.
Nerissa went to find her father but it was obvious that he did not wish to be interrupted, engrossed as he was in conversation with a gentleman who owned a house not far from Lyn and which was also of the Tudor period.
Nerissa was therefore glad when Harry approached to slip his arm through hers and say,
“You look really smashing. I thought the forget-me-nots were very appropriate.”
“Why?” Nerissa asked.
“Because we shall certainly none of us ever forget being here and I have something to tell you.”
He drew her away from the noise into another room and she asked him apprehensively,
“What is ‒ it?”
“You will hardly believe it,” Harry went on, “but the Duke asked me if I had any horses. When I replied ‘no’, he said he would give me one that I could have with me at Oxford!”
“Did he really say that?” Nerissa cried. “How wonderful, Harry. That means you can save your money and spend it on something else.”
“For a moment I could hardly believe what I was hearing, but now I know why he gave it to me.”
“Why?” Nerissa asked.
“It is obvious. Although I would have bet against it, he has made up his mind to marry Delphine and is ingratiating himself in the correct manner with her relatives.”
“Yes – of course – that must be the – explanation!” Nerissa agreed and wondered why she did not feel as pleased as she knew that she ought to on learning that Harry was receiving such a generous gift.
For some reason the evening seemed to drag on and, although she danced with quite a number of the gentlemen and managed to avoid Sir Montague, she felt that she was not really enjoying herself.
‘I must be tired,’ she thought and realised that no one would notice if she slipped away to bed.
Delphine, obviously the Queen of the proceedings, was being feted and complimented.
She had so many would-be partners dancing attendance upon her that she found herself taking each gentleman twice round the ballroom before she left him for another.
‘I will go to bed,’ Nerissa finally decided.
She walked slowly up the stairs and, when she would have gone to her bedroom, she had a sudden longing to see the wreath and make quite certain that it was still there.
She walked past the State Bedrooms until she found the Duchess Room and then opened the little dressing room door.
Everything was just as she and the Duke had left it last night.
Two candles were burning away on either side of the mirror and, because the room was so small, it was easy to see the cabinet quite clearly.
Nerissa looked at it, feeling as if the unhappy Duchess, who had thrown away her life so unnecessarily, was beside her.
“Why could you not have had faith in him?” Nerissa wanted to ask her and she felt as if the Duchess was trying to tell her something.
She could not think what it could be and instinctively she put out her hand and ran her fingers, as she had last night, along the underneath of the polished top.
She then found the slight protuberance at the corner that she had pressed before and for a moment, as nothing immediately happened, she thought frantically that the whole thing had been an illusion.
Then slowly the drawer opened and there it was – the wreath that had lain there for so many years, carrying with it the curse that had made each Duke, one after the other, unhappy.
Nerissa reached out and drew the wreath from its hiding place.
Now, as she looked at it a little more calmly than she had last night in the excitement of the moment, she felt that it was even more beautiful than she had at first thought.
The workmanship was really fantastic and she guessed that it must have been a foreign jeweller, perhaps an Italian, who had made it so skilfully.
She held it nearer to the candlelight on the dressing table and then on an impulse she took off her wreath made of forget-me-nots and, lifting the diamond wreath in both hands, set it on her head.
It seemed to fit her exactly.
As she put it on, she thought that she heard a soft sigh beside her as if the Duchess’s ghost was satisfied and this was what she wanted.
It was only a faint impression and yet Nerissa was certain that she had actually heard a sound and that the unhappy Duchess had been with her.
Then she was just as certain that the ghost had gone and she was alone in the room.
It was all so strange and bewildering and yet she was quite convinced that she was not imagining anything, but what she had felt had actually happened.
Then, as she gazed at her reflection in the mirror, the door of the dressing room opened and the Duke came in.
She could see him reflected in the mirror, but she did not turn round and only watched him as he came nearer until he stood just behind her.
Now their faces were reflected side by side in front of them.
“That is how I want to see you – ” the Duke began very quietly.
As if she had been awoken from a dream, Nerissa realised that he was flesh and blood and that perhaps it was reprehensible of her to have tried on the Duchess’s wreath without asking him first.
She turned quickly to apologise and then, as she met his eyes, she found herself unable to speak, but only to stare at him as he finished the sentence quietly,
“ – when we are married!”
Nerissa’s eyes widened until they seemed to fill her whole face.
“I knew I should find you here,” he continued, “and I was indeed intending to ask you to put on the wreath so that I could see you, as I am indeed seeing you now, looking exactly as you should as my wife.”
“I-I don’t – know what you are – saying,” Nerissa whispered.
“I am saying,” the Duke said very quietly, “is that I love you and the reason why I have never married is because I have never found anyone until now who could assure me that the curse was lifted and I could now find the happiness I so much need in my life.”
Because it seemed impossible that this was happening, Nerissa could only stare at him.
Then slowly he put his arms around her and drew her against him.
“I love you!” he exclaimed and then his lips were on hers.
As he kissed her, she knew that the reason why she had been unhappy and restless and everything had seemed wrong was simply that she loved him.
She had known it and she dared not express it even to herself.
She had loved him she thought wildly when he had come into the kitchen at Queen’s Rest and he was the most handsome man she had ever seen.
Although she told herself that he belonged to Delphine, she had found herself irresistibly drawn towards him.
From the moment they had ridden together in the early morning, she had known that when he was not there the world was empty and her whole being was crying out for him.
The Duke’s kiss was at first very soft and gentle, as if he was afraid of frightening her.
Then, as the softness and innocence of her lips excit
ed him, his became more possessive, more insistent, more demanding.
He kissed her until Nerissa felt as if he carried her into the sky and they were no longer human but one with the stars.
They were a part of each other so that they were indivisible and it would be impossible for them to ever be separated.
Then, as the Duke tightened his arms about her and went on kissing her, she felt a rapture within herself that was something that she had never known and was not even aware existed.
It was quite perfect and part of the magic that she had felt in the woods ever since she was a child and combined with it was the beauty of Lyn.
It merged with the Duke himself until there was nothing in the world but him. His arms, his lips and the love that she could feel coming from him to join the love that came from within herself.
Only when the Duke raised his head did Nerissa look up at him to say in a voice that did not seem like her own and came from a long distance away,
“I – love – you!”
“That is what I wanted you to say,” the Duke answered, “and I love you too!”
Then he was kissing her again, kissing her demandingly and passionately, as if he had been afraid that he would never find her and, now he had, he was making sure that she was his.
Only when they were both feeling breathless and Nerissa with a little murmur hid her face against the Duke’s shoulder did he say in a voice that was curiously unsteady,
“How soon will you marry me, my darling?”
It was then that Nerissa came back to reality and looked up at him to say,
“A-am – I – dreaming – or did you – really ask me to – marry you?”
“How could I want to do anything else,” the Duke asked, “when you have been given to me through a Power that I don’t understand, the key to our happiness in the wreath that has wrecked so many of my ancestors’ lives?”
“It was so wonderful that I – could,” Nerissa replied, “but – you know I cannot – marry you.”
The Duke’s arms tightened.
“What do you mean, you cannot marry me?”
“You – are to – marry Delphine!”
The Duke shook his head.
“I have never proposed marriage to your sister and I have no intention of doing so.”
Never Forget Love Page 11