“Your Grace rang?”
“Yes, Ross,” the Duke replied. “Come in and shut the door.”
The way he spoke told his valet that in his own words, ‘somethin’ was up’ and there was a glint in his eye that had not been there earlier in the evening.
*
Nearly an hour later the Duke, with his teeth obviously chattering although he was wrapped in blankets, was helped down the stairs by the Steward of the household and his valet.
He was so weak with the malaria that was making him shake, as Ross said ‘like an aspen leaf’, that they almost had to carry him across the hall and into his closed carriage, which was waiting outside the door.
Only as the two men lifted the almost helpless Duke onto the back seat did he murmur,
“I am sorry – tell her Ladyship how – sorry I am!”
“She will be deeply distressed, Your Grace,” the Steward replied. “We can only hope that this terrible attack will soon pass off when you are treated by your own physician at The Castle.”
“Thank you – thank you!” the Duke managed to gasp.
Ross, having covered his knees with a rug, climbed into the carriage to sit opposite his Master.
As he did so, the Steward said,
“You’ll let her Ladyship know when His Grace’s better? She’ll be distressed, deeply distressed, that he’ll miss the party tomorrow night that is being given in his honour.”
“His Grace’ll be disappointed too as soon as he’s well enough to know what’s what,” Ross answered. “These attacks of malaria often leave him weak as a kitten!”
The Steward made a sound of sympathy and stepped back as the footman closed the door of the carriage, climbed up onto the box and the horses moved away.
As they did so, the Duke disentangled himself from the blankets that had covered his head, saying,
“You have told Sutherland where to stop?”
“I’ve told him, Your Grace,” Ross answered, “but it’ll be best if you’d point the place out to him.”
He looked out of the small window behind his Master’s head before he said,
“We’re out of sight of the house now, Your Grace.”
“Then for God’s sake let the window down! I am suffocating!” the Duke replied.
He pulled off the rest of the blankets and arranged them on the seat beside him.
Then, as the horses came to a standstill, Ross opened the door and the Duke stepped out.
The carriage had stopped a little too soon and, as he walked along the shrubs lining the drive to where he had left Giovanna, the coachman drove the horses alongside him.
The Duke now moved through the shrubs, half- afraid that Giovanna might have recovered, released herself and disappeared.
He had made the knot as tight and secure as he could, but one of her hands was free.
Then he saw the white of her nightgown and knew that she was exactly where he had left her unconscious on the grass.
He undid the silk handkerchief, leaving one end still tied round her wrist and lifted her up in his arms.
He hurried with her to the open door of the carriage and, putting her gently inside, wrapped her in the blankets that had covered him when he left the house.
He laid her on the back seat and without being told Ross closed the carriage door and climbed up onto the box beside the footman.
As they set off, the Duke knew that he was doing what would be considered by his hostess to be outrageous in that he had not proposed to the Countess.
But for the moment he was concerned only with saving the life of Giovanna, whoever she might be, and protecting her from those who she was convinced were trying to kill her.
Her story hardly seemed possible and he was sure that most people would say that it was the fabrication of someone who was deranged.
Yet he was sure in his own mind that she was sane and suffering only from starvation.
They had travelled for several miles before, without moving, she opened her eyes.
The Duke, who had been watching her intently, bent forward. Then kneeling on the floor so that he was nearer still, he said quietly,
“You are all right, Giovanna, so don’t be afraid.”
She stared at him in bewilderment before she asked,
“W-where am I – and why are you – h-here?”
Then she gave a little sound that should have been a cry before she added,
“You – stopped me – you stopped me from dying.”
“I decided that we must save you,” the Duke replied, “so I am taking you away.”
Her huge eyes widened for a moment and then she looked up at the roof of the carriage and said,
“I-I am moving – what is h-happening?”
“You are in my carriage,” the Duke explained, “and I am taking you to my Castle.”
It took her a moment, he thought, to understand what he was saying.
Then in a voice almost shrill with terror she screamed,
“But you must – not do that! When they – find out, they will – punish me as they – threatened to do – and I cannot – allow that to happen.”
“What did they say the punishment would be?” the Duke asked quietly.
“I cannot – tell you that – it is too dangerous so please – please take me back.”
“To die?”
“To die – then no one will – suffer.”
“Except you.”
She did not answer, but her eyes were still dark with terror as she said,
“Do they know – did you tell them you were – taking me away?”
“No, of course not!” the Duke said quickly. “They think, if you are talking about the Dowager Countess, that I have been taken ill with a very bad attack of malaria and have had to return to my Castle to be treated by my own physician, who understands exactly what is required.”
“She – she will not – know that I am – with you?”
“Why should she?” the Duke asked. “Perhaps she will think, since you have disappeared, that you have killed yourself as you intended to do in the cascade.”
“If she – believes that – it will be all right,” Giovanna whispered. “But how will you – hide me?”
“I will be able to hide you,” the Duke assured her. “I promise you that no one will know you are with me except those I can trust.”
He thought as he spoke that Ross would nurse her and they would take into their confidence only a few of the older servants who had served the late Duke for a long time.
They would be completely and absolutely loyal to anything their new Master and Chieftain asked of them.
At the same time he was aware that there were dangers.
It would be an unforgivable insult to the Dalbeths if it was ever known that he had lied about the attack of malaria and had taken away with him a young woman, who for some reason he could not ascertain, they had imprisoned and ill-treated.
Giovanna closed her eyes as if she was too weak to say anything more and the Duke sat back again on the seat thinking that the whole scenario was incredible.
It was the kind of drama that he might have expected in India in The Great Game, but certainly something he had not dreamed of finding in Scotland.
As he looked at the girl opposite him in the faint light of the dawn, he thought that he had never seen anybody look so fragile and so emaciated. She really did seem to be on the edge of death.
By the time they reached his Castle the first rays of the sun were sweeping away the darkness of the night, but there were still a few stars twinkling over the moors.
Ross went in at the back of the house to unbolt the heavy front door.
There was nobody to see the Duke carry Giovanna wrapped closely in blankets up the stairs.
He had already decided that it would be a mistake for her to be put in one of the State rooms on the first floor where, as was usual in Scotland, the Chieftain’s Room and other reception rooms were situated.
Instead he took her to the very end of the passage to a room in one of the turrets, which he knew from the past was seldom used unless The Castle was full.
It was a pretty room that he had always loved as a boy because it was round.
There was a large curtain-draped bed in it and, as he laid Giovanna down gently against the pillows, the early sunshine streamed in through the window and the Duke could see her clearly for the first time in daylight.
Her hair was not silver as it had seemed in the moonlight, but the pale gold of the sun itself.
Her face was even thinner than it had seemed before and he knew that the lines on it came from starvation, as did the sharpness of her chinbone and the slenderness of her neck.
He laid her down and, when he bent to take off her slippers, he saw that one was missing.
He removed the other one and covered her with the blankets when Ross, who had gone on his instructions to the kitchen, came back with a glass in his hand.
“I’ve beaten up an egg in milk, Your Grace,” he said, “and added a wee drop of brandy.”
The Duke raised Giovanna up with his arm around her shoulders and, when she opened her eyes, he began to feed her with a spoon from the glass that Ross held close to her.
For a moment he thought that she was too weak to swallow. But, as he pressed the spoon against her lips, saying,
“Try to drink a little,” she obeyed him in the same way that a child might have done.
She swallowed several spoonfuls before she made a feeble movement with one hand to indicate that she wanted no more.
“You have to try to swallow it all,” the Duke said firmly. “You are sensible enough to know that you are starving and this will give you strength.”
“I-I am – sorry,” she mumbled faintly.
He knew that she was apologising for having been unconscious.
When he had managed to persuade her to take several more spoonfuls, he thought that there was just a little more colour in her face, but it might have been the sunshine.
Then she asked faintly,
“Am – I in your – Castle?”
“Yes, I brought you here,” the Duke replied, “and I promise that you will be safe and nobody will know that you are my guest.”
“They – must not know – you promise – you swear they will not know. If they do – they will kill her!”
“Kill who?”
He realised as soon as he asked the question that the terror was back in Giovanna’s eyes and she turned her head to one side, saying,
“I-I should not have – said that – forget it, please – forget it.”
The appeal in her eyes was so agonising that the Duke realised that he must not for the moment press her.
“Now I am going to leave you to go to sleep,” he said. “When you wake up, you must promise me to try to eat what Ross will bring you. When you feel strong enough, you and I will make plans.”
He felt that she could hardly hear what he was saying and was finding it impossible to understand.
He therefore covered her up to the chin with the blankets, pulled the curtains to shut out the light and without saying any more went from the room.
He knew that Ross would stay on watch until she was completely asleep.
When he went to his own bedroom, he was wondering frantically what he should do and where he could send Giovanna where she would be safe.
He was well aware that it would be a great mistake to keep her for long in The Castle.
However loyal his servants might be, there was sure to be somebody who, if pressed, would reveal that he had a young female guest.
He also knew that tomorrow, when it was discovered that he had left Dalbeth House without proposing marriage to the Countess, there would be consternation.
At first they would accept the Steward’s explanation that an attack of malaria had forced him to return home.
But he could not keep that pretence up for long and the fact that he was supposed to be ill must convince his own people as well as the Dalbeths.
This meant that he would be tied to his bedroom, which would be intolerable when there was so much to do.
When the Duke had undressed and climbed into bed, he closed his eyes and hoped that he would be able to sleep, but instead he found himself asking the age-old question,
‘Why does everything always happen to me?’
*
The Duke was awoken by Ross pulling back the curtains and setting down beside the bed a tray on which there was a teapot and a thin slice of newly baked bread spread with butter.
“I’m later than usual, Your Grace,” Ross said, “as I thought you’d need your kip, seein’ what sort of night you had.”
“How is she, Ross?” the Duke asked.
“Sleepin’ like a newborn babe, Your Grace,” Ross replied, “and the best thing she can do, if you asks me.”
“She is sleeping, not unconscious?”
Ross gave the Duke a reproachful look.
“I ken the difference, Your Grace, and she’s sleepin’. She woke once in the night and I gives her some more milk. She drank the rest of what was in the tumbler as if she really needed it.”
“Good!” the Duke sighed. “Now I will look after her while you rest.”
“There’s no need, Your Grace,” Ross answered. “I slept, as you might say, with one eye open and she never stirred except the once.”
“Well, now we have to think about what is to be done about her.”
“I’ve been considerin’ that, Your Grace,” Ross replied, “and I thinks we should let Mrs. Sutherland into the secret. She already knows the wee lassie’s here from her husband.”
The Duke remembered that Mrs. Sutherland, the housekeeper, was married to his Head Coachman and he replied,
“That’s a good idea.”
“I’d anticipated that Your Grace would agree,” Ross said, “and Mrs. Sutherland’s already lookin’ out some night attire and some clothes for when she’s well enough to get out of her bed.”
“Tell Mrs. Sutherland to let me know when Miss Giovanna is awake,” the Duke replied, “and I suppose you had better bring my breakfast up to the sitting room, as I am supposed to be ill.”
“I’ve ordered it already, Your Grace,” Ross answered. “It’ll be here as soon as you’ve had your bath and a shave.”
Getting out of bed, the Duke smiled.
Ross had been with him for so long that he anticipated his thoughts as well as his wishes.
He looked out of the window and thought that it would be a good day for riding over the moors or going down to the river to catch a salmon, but he knew that it would be a mistake to recover too quickly from what was purported to be a bad attack of malaria.
He therefore, having dressed as far as putting on a shirt and trousers, added the long velvet robe he wore at night and went into the sitting room, which adjoined his bedroom, to eat his breakfast.
Because he was hungry he did full justice to the dishes the cook had sent up and hoped that it would not be reported too quickly to the outside world.
He was, however, aware that they would be concerned that he was confined to his bedroom and that in itself would proclaim his ill health.
After breakfast he said to Ross when they were alone,
“I have just remembered that I left my tweed jacket by the cascade. Take one of the men with you whom you can trust to retrieve it and then go to the house to pack up my luggage. At the same time give my deepest apologies for having to leave in such a hasty fashion.”
He paused before he added,
“Assure her Ladyship that I shall be writing to her as soon as I am well enough to do so and looking forward to seeing them again once my physician will allow it.”
Ross grinned.
“Leave it to me, Your Grace. I ken exactly what to say.”
When he was alone, the Duke found that there was plenty for him to do.
Waiting for him on his desk in the sitting room were repo
rts on the condition of the estate that Sir Iain McCaron had prepared and a dismal number of overdue bills.
There was also an estimate from the local builders for necessary repairs to farm buildings and cottages, which was so formidable that the Duke knew that only with the help of the Countess’s fortune could any of it be put into operation.
It was after noon when Mrs. Sutherland came into the sitting room to say,
“The young lady’s awake, Your Grace. She’s eaten a little breakfast, but only enough to keep a sparrow alive and I thinks she’d like to see Your Grace.”
“I will come at once,” the Duke said. “You do realise, Mrs. Sutherland, it is important that as few people as possible should know that the young lady is here.”
“I quite understand, Your Grace,” Mrs. Sutherland replied, “and I wouldna want anyone outside to be aware that such a pretty lassie was stayin’ in The Castle unchaperoned!”
It was an idea that had not occurred to the Duke before and his eyes twinkled.
Without saying anything he passed through the door, which Mrs. Sutherland held open for him and went down the passage to the turret room.
He knocked but, without waiting for Giovanna to answer, went in.
She was sitting up in bed against the pillows and he noticed at once that the bed had been made with lace-edged sheets.
She was wearing a pretty nightgown, which had been supplied as if by some magical powers of Mrs. Sutherland, and over her shoulders was a soft white shawl.
She was certainly looking a little better than she had the night before, but was still pitiably thin and the Duke thought that on the hand she held out to him the fingers were little more than bones.
There was a faint smile on her lips and he thought it made her look very attractive and at the same time very young.
He took her hand in his, realising as he did so how cold it was, and sat down on the bed.
“You are feeling better?” he asked.
“Much better, thank you,” she answered. “I-I thought I would never feel like – this again.”
Then he felt her fingers tighten on his as she whispered,
“Y-you are – certain they will not – find me here?”
“Why should they have the slightest idea where you are?” the Duke answered. “No one saw me take you away except my own coachman, whom I can trust, and Ross, my valet, who, I assure you, is enjoying every moment of the drama!”
The Devilish Deception Page 4