“What made you come here? And how did he know that you might?”
“We all had dinner here one night. Papa tried to pretend that we were celebrating our engagement. He thought I wouldn’t make a scene in public, but I did. They were both furious.
“I got up and ran from the table. Mr. Dale, the landlord was so kind. He told Papa he would throw him out if he didn’t stop upsetting me. I thought maybe he was still here, so this was where I came, but I now realise I shouldn’t have done.
“I expect Sir Stewart went to the house first, but when I wasn’t there he must have remembered this place, and what happened that night.”
“He thought Mr. Dale would shelter you,” John mused. “And when he found he had died, he was not sure what to think. The longer we can keep him confused the better.”
“I have told him again and again that I don’t want him to touch me. In fact I would not marry him if he was the only man left in England. There is something so horrid about him that I would rather die than marry him!”
She spoke so violently that John said,
“Now listen, don’t upset yourself. I promise you will not be forced into marrying this man.”
“But he is so determined,” she cried. “You do not know what he is like, how ruthless he can be in getting what he wants. Save me, oh, please save me. I don’t know which way to turn.”
He could see that she was becoming hysterical. Like most men he was nervous of female hysterics and began to consider escaping. But then something in her wretchedness pierced his heart, and he forgot about himself in his need to comfort her.
“There, there,” he said, gathering her into his arms and drawing her close. “There is no need for this. You are safe now, I promise you.”
“I don’t think I will ever feel safe again in my life,” she choked.
John patted her back and she rested her head on his shoulder, a prey to bitter sobs.
“There, there,” he said again.
He felt that the words were feeble, but she seemed to find some comfort in them and clung to him.
It felt so sweet to hold her warm, delicate body pressed against his own. A gentle fragrance flowed from her, filling the air, so that John found his head spinning. Gently he stroked her bright hair, feeling its silkiness against his fingers and wondered if he had wandered into Heaven.
“Don’t upset yourself,” he murmured. “You are with me now and I will not allow anything harmful to happen to you.”
“Oh, that sounds so wonderful,” she said in a small voice. “If I do marry I want it to be to someone who loves me for myself. Otherwise I would rather stay single.”
She looked at him with an expression in her eyes which John found very touching. He thought how dreadful it would be if so much beauty and charm were to be wasted in a spinster life.
“Will you really help me?” she asked softly.
“I promise I will do everything I possibly can,” John answered bravely.
She gave a deep sigh which seemed to come from her very heart.
“You have been so clever to send him away empty-handed.”
“And that is what I will continue doing if he comes back and tries to find you,” John replied kindly. “I think that, for tonight at any rate, you should dine up here in your room. Then if that monster returns he will not be able to find you by looking through the windows.”
“Yes, I will stay here,” she said purposely. “And I will keep the door locked just in case.”
“A good idea. I will ask Mrs. Jones to prepare something special for you and I will carry it up myself.”
“And will you stay with me for a while and talk to me, so that I don’t get too frightened by myself?”
The idea of being alone with her was so tempting that he took fright. She was so beautiful and so desirable, that he was not sure he could trust himself to behave with propriety.
“I will do my best,” he responded, gently disengaging himself from her. “But I have to remember that I am on duty in the hotel and must spend some time looking after the other guests.”
“Thank you for being so kind. What would I do without you? Even with your protection I am still very frightened.”
“Try not to be,” John told her. “We are going to win and when you go into battle, as I found when I was in the army, you have to feel quite certain that you are going to be a better warrior than the man who is up against you. That is what we have to feel at this moment.”
He rose to his feet as he finished speaking and said,
“Now I must go back to work because people will be arriving without me present to look after them.”
He opened the door before he turned round to say,
“I promise you that you need not be frightened any more. You are safe, completely safe. Perhaps tomorrow we will find another way of winning the battle.”
He shut the door before she could answer.
As he walked down the stairs he realised that while she had been talking to him her eyes had been shining.
‘What man could resist such eyes?’ he thought.
Then he told himself to stop day-dreaming and get on with his work which, after all, was what he was here for.
Downstairs John was pleased to see that the dining room was very busy. He walked through to the kitchen, where Mrs. Jones was deep in her pots and pans.
“The young lady who arrived this afternoon will take supper in her room,” he announced. “I want you to prepare her the best menu, and when it’s ready –”
He was about to say that she should send for him to carry the tray upstairs when he became aware that Frank was trying to attract his attention.
“We need the key to the cellar,” the young man said. “Nobody knows where it is.”
“It’ll be in your desk,” called Mrs. Jones over her shoulder as she plunged into yet another task.
Together John and Frank went searching in his desk until they found the elusive key.
“Have you suddenly appointed yourself part of the catering staff?” John asked as they climbed down the steps to the cellar.
“Well I have to do something to pass the time,” his valet replied virtuously. “So I thought I would make myself useful. Hey, look at that!”
He was holding up a lamp so that they could both look around the well-stocked cellar.
“I am going to like this job,” Frank exclaimed gleefully.
From somewhere he had obtained a list of the bottles that were needed in the dining room, and they spent a fascinating time seeking them all out before returning upstairs, each of them rather dusty.
They headed for the kitchen where Frank set down the bottles and John checked to see if Miss Smith’s supper was ready.
“It has just gone up,” Mrs. Jones said.
“Gone up?” he echoed, aghast. “But I was supposed to carry it up myself.”
“You didn’t say anything about that, sir.”
“Yes, I – no, I didn’t, did I? Who took it?”
“Miss Campbell. She sometimes helps out when business is brisk.”
But John was already halfway up the steps, pursued by Frank, who could see that his master was agitated about something and considered it part of his job to help.
John arrived first to find Miss Smith’s door open and a cry coming from inside. She had not put on her light and since darkness was falling rapidly he could not be certain what was happening.
What happened next was too fast for anyone to follow. John dashed into the room to intervene, taking hold of Miss Campbell, who was still holding the tray.
Miss Campbell reacted with a shriek which made Frank also rush into the room, although to do what precisely he could not have said.
“Take your hands off me,” Miss Campbell screamed, trying to struggle free of John without dropping the tray.
Somehow Frank, most ill-advisedly, got between them at the precise moment when Miss Campbell started to defend herself. The result was that the soup was spilled all dow
n his trousers and he received a box on his ears that made his eyes water.
Miss Smith lit a lamp and they all stared at each other.
“How dare you!” Miss Campbell howled at Frank in a voice of outrage. “How dare you assault me in that vile manner!”
“It wasn’t me,” Frank replied indignantly. “It was –”
He started to indicate his employer before realising that he was in an awkward position.
“It was a misunderstanding,” he finished lamely, rubbing his face.
“For which I am to blame,” John intervened smoothly. “I intended to bring Miss Smith’s supper myself and hurried up to take over from you. But now that we are all here it might be a good moment to explain the situation.
“Miss Smith’s presence here is to be concealed and it may be easier to achieve this with the two of you in on the secret. Miss Smith, allow me to introduce my assistant, Frank, and Miss Campbell, who both work at the Paradise Hotel.”
The two young women stared at each other. Then looks of recognition broke over their faces.
“I remember you,” Miss Campbell proclaimed. “You visited the hotel when old Mr. Dale was alive. You were with two men – and there was a terrible row –”
“And you were so kind to me,” Miss Smith burst out. “Now I remember you too. I ran away from those men into one of the back rooms and Mr. Dale told you to look after me and you did.”
Before the relieved eyes of the men the two girls embraced.
“Thank heavens for that,” John said.
“Yes, I thought it was going to turn very nasty for a minute,” Frank muttered.
But Miss Campbell evidently had very sharp ears. Breaking from Miss Smith’s embrace she turned furiously on Frank.
“It will certainly turn nasty if you dare to manhandle me again,” she said firmly. “Very nasty indeed. I trust I make myself quite clear.”
“Perfectly,” Frank said, rubbing his cheek reminiscently.
“It was not really his fault,” John said quickly. “He does not normally go around manhandling young women –”
“Here, I didn’t –”
“Silence, Frank,” John told him. “I think you should apologise to the young lady.”
“Me apologise to her? I am the one that has the soup all down me!”
“Then you had better go and change, hadn’t you?” his employer said remorselessly.
“But look at me!”
“Must we?” Miss Campbell asked disdainfully.
“Now see here, miss! You did this and what have you to say about it?”
“Only that it will teach you not to go around manhandling innocent females,” she replied with spirit.
“If you say that once more I’ll –”
She squared up to him.
“You’ll what?”
“I’ll – I’ll – I’ll take offence.”
“Fine. Splendid. You’ve taken offence and I am shaking in my shoes, so now we can consider the matter closed. Don’t stand there like a booby with soup all down you. You look ridiculous.”
“Suppose I demand that you wash my clothes?”
“Suppose I box your ears again?” she threatened, taking a step towards him.
“Ow, get her off me!” Frank yelped, backing away into the hall. “She’s violent.”
“Serves you right,” John said with a grin, following him out.
“But it wasn’t me that manhandled her,” Frank said desperately.
“I know, it was me, but I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. Come Frank, I am only asking you to save my dignity.”
“What’s it worth?”
“Let me just say that if you don’t keep my secret, I will turn Miss Campbell loose on you with instructions to do her worst.”
“You wouldn’t!” Frank breathed, awed by this ruthlessness.
“I would. Now go and get changed.”
Frank fled.
A moment later Miss Campbell emerged with the ruined supper on the tray and announced that she was going downstairs to fetch another.
“Perhaps, sir, you would be good enough to escort me downstairs,” she said loftily. “To protect me from brigands.”
“I don’t think you need worry,” John said in a placating voice. “That particular brigand has gone to change his clothes, but I will be happy to escort you.”
As they descended he was profuse in his thanks for the way she was helping out, since it was not her task to be a waitress.
“Old Mr. Dale was always very kind to me,” she said. “I would have done anything for him.”
In the kitchen John waited while a new supper was set out on the tray and then carried it away himself.
As he passed the dining room he was pleased to see that there were still plenty of customers. The pretty maid who had caught Frank’s eye earlier that day was collecting plates and stacking them onto a trolley by the wall.
To John’s amusement Frank, evidently having donned clean clothes in a hurry, was also there, talking to her as she worked and generally getting in her way.
“Pretty Cherry,” he wheedled. “Such a pretty name for such a pretty girl.”
“Who said you could call me Cherry?”
“It is your name, isn’t it?”
“It might be and it might not. It is no concern of yours either way.”
“But it could be,” Frank pleaded.
“Not unless I say so, and I don’t say so.”
“Is this fellow bothering you?” John asked her. “I can see he is not doing anything useful.”
“I am helping,” Frank said aggrieved. “I am carrying plates and things.”
Cherry regarded him sceptically.
“One plate,” she said.
Frank grinned.
“But think how useful I’ll be later,” he said, “for walking you home.”
“I never said you could walk me home,” she replied with spirit. “Besides, I only live five minutes away, and I have a friend calling for me.”
Frank looked crestfallen.
“A male friend?” he asked.
“Mind your own business, you cheeky boy, and move out of my way.”
“Leave her in peace, Frank,” John cautioned, drawing him aside. He smiled at Cherry. “Has anyone been here asking questions?”
“Nobody, sir. Do you mean that man who was here earlier? I think he has either found who he wanted or given up the search.”
“I only hope you are right,” John said.
Over her shoulder he could see Frank making signs, asking if he should tell Cherry any more than she already knew. He shook his head firmly and set off upstairs.
CHAPTER SIX
John knocked gently on the door of Miss Smith’s room, calling,
“It’s all right. It is only me.”
She opened at once and stood back for him to pass through. She immediately closed the door behind him.
“I am so sorry for the disturbance,” he said as he set down the tray on the dressing table. “I hate to think of you being alarmed.”
“Don’t worry, I am not any more. And it was a relief to find someone that I knew. I like Roseanne so much.”
“Roseanne?”
“Yes, that’s her name. Did you not know?”
“I met her for the first time this afternoon and she terrifies me.”
“She terrifies that poor young man, too,” she added, chuckling.
He too began to laugh.
“Poor Frank. He fancies himself as a ladies man, but he’s having very bad luck tonight. Roseanne almost knocked him out and Cherry has just snubbed him. Now madam, your supper is served.”
He delivered the words with a flourish, drawing out the chair for her and offering her a napkin.
“Thank you, kind sir,” she said. “Oh, but what’s this?”
He was uncorking a bottle of wine.
“I am sure I did not order wine.”
“This is compliments of the house and to celebrate our meeting
.”
“Oh, yes,” she replied eagerly. “I feel so much safer now and that I will always want to celebrate.”
John filled two glasses of wine and as they clinked, they both started laughing.
“I am so hungry,” she told him, tucking into her supper with gusto. “It has been such a day.”
“Do you realise,” John said suddenly, “that after all that has happened I still do not know your name? Your first name, I mean.”
“Cecilia,” she said.
John immediately thought that Cecilia was the prettiest name he had ever heard.
As she ate he began to tell her stories of his life in the army, not the grim tales of war and suffering, but the many light-hearted incidents. She laughed heartily and he began to think that he must be quite a wit.
Somehow the hours slipped by, the most pleasant hours John felt that he had ever spent. But he also felt a little guilty.
“I have been enjoying our conversation so much that I had forgotten I was on duty,” he said. “I should really go downstairs and see to – to –”
“See to what?” she asked, smiling as if she perfectly understood his problem.
“See to – whatever needs seeing to,” he finished lamely.
“And what would that be?”
“You are not being fair,” he protested. “I have admitted to you that I am a novice. I am sure there is something downstairs that I ought to be seeing to.”
“If only you knew what it was,” she teased. “I expect the guests have finished their dinner and will be playing bridge. And your staff is quite used to running this place without you.”
He realised that she did not want him to go and that was a temptation that he knew he must avoid.
“I must leave for your sake,” he said. “It isn’t proper for me to be here with you alone. I should not really have stayed so long.”
“But I trust you,” she replied, seeming puzzled.
He was stunned by the innocence in her eyes and her voice. It put him on his honour as a gentleman.
“I have a job to do downstairs,” he said firmly, “and it is time I was doing it. Don’t forget to lock yourself in when I have gone.”
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