“Do you often give a ball?” Devinia enquired.
“Not always my own. I loan it to the local Hunt when they have their Hunt Ball. It is also used at Election time when speakers come down from London and are very impressed at being given such a good background.”
“I am not surprised,” Devinia said. “I should think they would be ashamed if they don’t win after impressing the people who listen to them with their eloquence as well as a platform which would, they would expect, carry them straight into the House of Commons.”
“That is what they all hope it will do,” the Duke agreed. “But sometimes they are disappointed.”
He took her to the back of The Castle where there was a beautiful flower garden as well as two very old and fine fountains throwing water up in the air towards the sky.
When the water caught the sunshine, it was almost blinding and it fell into an exquisitely carved bowl beneath it.
“It is absolutely beautiful,” Devinia said. “How can you own anything as lovely as all this and leave it for one moment? I should be so frightened it might vanish and I would come back to find it was all a dream.”
“I come back and think I must go on dreaming,” the Duke answered. “I always hope when I reach home that I have left all my troubles and difficulties outside the gates.”
“I am sure that you do and nothing could make you happier than to be here in your Castle of Love,” Devinia burst out spontaneously.
He next introduced Devinia to Mrs. Shepherd, the housekeeper, who was told that she had no clothes except for the few things that had been packed for her in London.
“Now don’t you worry about that,” Mrs. Shepherd said, who was rustling in her black dress. “As I’ve often said to His Grace, I’ve enough clothes here to stock a shop or to dress the Queen herself and what I wants is to see it on someone pretty like this young lady.”
“That is a compliment,” the Duke said. “I suggest, Mrs. Shepherd, we take her upstairs and put her in one of the most comfortable rooms and see if, after all you have said, you have enough clothes to dress her so that she looks entrancing.”
“You leave it to me, Your Grace,” Mrs. Shepherd replied.
There was a note in her voice which told all too clearly how thrilled she was at this opportunity.
A little later when she was told that tea was ready, Devinia walked into the drawing room to find that there was a special cake which had obviously been hastily made as soon as the morning newspapers had arrived.
On it was written in large letters,
“All happiness to you both on your engagement and every blessing for the future.”
“We will have to go to the kitchen after that, Your Grace,” Devinia said after she had looked at it, “and thank the cook. Has she been with you for long?”
“Years. She came when my father came into the title and she has been longing for me to get married and frightened that she might die before I do so.”
As he finished speaking it flashed through his mind and he knew that Devinia was thinking the same thing that when their engagement was broken off the staff would feel in some way that they had been to blame.
Devinia said nothing.
‘It was funny,’ she thought, ‘that he could read her thoughts.’
Then he said in a very quiet voice,
“What we both have to do is to live for today and not anticipate what might happen tomorrow.”
“I should so like to think,” Devinia answered, “that there were no clouds in the sky. But you know as well as I do this is only a way to save you from Penelope and quite frankly I am afraid of what she might do.”
“You are not to think of such things,” the Duke told her firmly. “She can do nothing but accept the situation as it is. I am afraid that you will also have to put up with the members of my family who will, of course, be immensely curious as they have never heard of you before.”
He paused before he added,
“But they will be delighted that I am preparing to marry when I have been so positive in the past that I would not be hurried and would wait for many years before I even thought of taking a wife.”
There was a harsh note in his voice as he spoke.
And the smile went from Devinia’s lips.
Then she said very quietly,
“As you and I both know, this is only a game. But it will easily become something rather more frightening if we keep anticipating what might happen in the future.”
The Duke did not speak and she went on,
“We are both pretending to be well-off and so it is essential that people should not guess that we are acting a part. So we must try to enjoy our subterfuge as much as we can. I for one am more thrilled than I have ever been at seeing your lovely Castle and thinking I have just stepped into a dream and I have no wish to wake up for a long, long time.”
The Duke laughed.
“You are absolutely right. Now after what you have been through you should have a rest before dinner. I am quite certain the cook and those who assist her are planning something really fantastic for our first night in The Castle.”
Devinia gave a cry of joy.
“That will be exciting and something I shall look forward to.”
“Well go up now and have a rest,” the Duke told her. “And I hope I will have something to show you when you come down to dinner which will be intriguing for you as well as a surprise.”
“Now you are making me feel curious, Your Grace, and instead of resting I will be wondering what it will be.”
“No guessing,” he affirmed, “or no surprise!”
“That is unkind,” Devinia replied. “But before I go down on my knees and ask you to tell me your secret I will go upstairs and talk to the housekeeper. I am very curious to see what clothes she has for me.”
She did not wait for the Duke to answer but slipped out of the room.
He thought inwardly that everything was going far better than he thought it would.
He was wondering not only what his family would say when they read the newspapers, but just how Penelope would react.
Even the thought of her made him scowl.
Because he had no wish to remember the danger he had been in, he went out to the stables.
He was greeted by his Head Groom who was full of what a success he had had with the horses.
The Duke let him talk for a time and then he said,
“By the way, Plumb, the young lady I am engaged to has just lost her dog which she loved very much. Have you, by any chance, or do you know anyone who has a dog or a puppy which requires a new owner?”
“Now it’s funny you should ask that, Your Grace,” Plumb said, “as Albert the gardener’s got a new puppy that were born just last week. Its mother had to be put to sleep after it were born.”
He hesitated before he went on,
“The vet said there was nothin’ they could do for it. You can imagine, Your Grace, that Albert were real upset after havin’ her for so long.”
“I am sure he was,” the Duke replied. “But we can easily find him another guard dog, which I now remember that his dog was.”
“We’ve thought all about that already, Your Grace, and we’ve heard of a very fine dog that its owner wants to sell as he has too many of ’em.”
“Then, of course, we must buy it,” the Duke said. “In the meantime what about the puppy?”
“It’s givin’ Albert a lot of extra work, as he has to hand-feed it and as Albert said he’s too old and too busy to spend so much time with it.”
The Duke did not wait to hear anymore.
He went straightaway off to Albert’s house and his wife showed him the puppy which was a small attractive spaniel who was, she claimed, always hungry.
“Well, I have someone who will be very delighted to feed him,” the Duke told her. “May I take him back with me now?”
“Of course, Your Grace, and to tell the truth I be glad to be rid of him. My husband’s had to feed
him night and day and there be so much goin’ on in the garden. As it happens, he’ll be feedin’ himself very soon.”
“That is all the better,” the Duke replied.
Carrying the puppy and saying that he would send a footman back for his food and the basket he slept in, he walked back to The Castle.
The butler told him that Miss Mountford was still upstairs with the housekeeper.
Carrying the puppy in his arms, the Duke went up the stairs and, knowing which room she was in, he knocked on the door.
“Come in!” he heard Devinia call out happily.
As he entered the room, she was wearing what was an extremely attractive dress and admiring herself in one of the long mirrors.
“Oh, it is you, Your Grace!” she exclaimed.
Then, as she saw what was in the Duke’s arms, she gave a cry.
“A puppy!”
“His mother is dead and he is looking for someone to love him,” the Duke said putting the dog into her arms.
“Oh, he is just so sweet! Absolutely sweet! And of course I do love him already. Can I really have him for myself?”
“He is all for you,” the Duke answered. “I am told he is very hungry and requires food constantly, although he might be able to eat on his own in two or three days.”
“I will feed him, I will look after him and I will love him,” Devinia promised. “Thank you, thank you, you could not have given me anything I want more. Although no one will really take Jo-Jo’s place, this one will certainly come second.”
The Duke smiled at her.
He thought that if he had given a woman a diamond necklace costing thousands of pounds she could not look more pleased than Devinia was.
She was holding the dog close to her and talking to him just as human beings should talk to animals.
The Duke realised she had, for a moment, forgotten everything else, the clothes she had been so thrilled with and himself as well.
She was just giving her heart to the small puppy she was holding in her arms.
“Is it really for me?” she asked after a moment.
“It is yours completely,” the Duke replied. “All you have to do is to look after him and love him.”
“Of course, I will,” she promised at once. “What is his name?”
“As far as I know he has not been named yet and so you can christen him.”
“Of course, I will,” Devinia replied. “I will think of a marvellous name for him because I feel sure he is going to be, when he grows up, a very fine and handsome dog.”
“That is up to you, Devinia,” the Duke reflected.
He was just about to say something more when he realised that Devinia was not listening to him.
She was talking to the puppy in a way which made him aware that she cared for him already and now he was snuggling against her.
The Duke looked at his housekeeper and smiled,
“I see I am not wanted. I expect even your lovely dress will now take second place.”
“She’ll look real beautiful in them all, Your Grace,” Mrs. Shepherd remarked.
“I am quite sure she will with your help,” the Duke replied.
He walked from the room and down the passage to his own bedroom.
As he did so he was thinking again that fortune was on his side.
In saving himself from Penelope he had found by accident the one person who would play the part with great success and without any complaints.
‘Things might well have been so different,’ he told himself as he walked into his own room.
It was now difficult for Devinia to think about the dresses when the Duke had given her this lovely puppy that needed all her attention, her care and, of course, her love.
However, as he had fallen asleep in her arms, she put him down on the end of the bed.
When she saw the frown on the ousekeeper’s face she said:
housekeeper’s face, she said,
“I promise you
he will not make a mess. I am sure I will be able to find him a basket where he will sleep and, of course, he will need a bowl for his food.”
She had hardly finished speaking when there was a knock on the door.
A footman came in carrying the two items she had mentioned which had been collected from the little dog’s previous home.
He was fast asleep but just murmured a little when Devinia put him into the basket.
Then she put the food she was to feed him with in a bowl and some water from her wash-stand into another.
“I realis that you are worried,” she said to Mrs. Shepherd, “but I have looked after a dog who have I loved dearly ever since he was born. And he was always clean and our housemaid at home said he was the best behaved dog she had ever seen.”
“Well, I hopes this one’s the same,” Mrs. Shepherd replied a little tartly.
“I promise you he will be,” Devinia assured her, “and please help me with these dresses. I don’t want His Grace to be ashamed of me when his relatives come to look me over. Also I would expect, his neighbours.”
“I am afraid, miss, you will find they will all come here. They have always been that curious about His Grace that I’ve sometimes felt like tellin’ them to mind their own business.”
Devinia was listening wide-eyed as she went on,
“As they often says to me, ‘who’s takin’ his fancy now and is he engaged to anyone yet’?”
She paused before she added,
“Of course, I could not be rude to any of them as they were friends of His Grace. But I felt like tellin’ them that no man whoever he might be wants people pryin’ into his private affairs and pushin’ their daughters at him hopin’ they will end up with a Duke in the family and thinkin’ how much kudos it’ll give them.”
“I can understand in a way that it is because a Duke sounds so romantic that they would want to have him in their family,” Devinia said. “But no one has any right to ask questions that concern only the person they are talking about or the woman they hope he will marry.”
“That’s quite right, miss,” the housekeeper replied, “and what I thinks myself. My mother always used to say, ‘curiosity killed the cat’ and I’ve often thought them who was curious about His Grace should have a sharp lesson. But then who’s to stop them bein’ curious about anyone as handsome and as charmin’ as His Grace.”
“I am sure you are all very fond of him,” Devinia said.
“We are, indeed, miss. We only hopes you’ll make him happy. Between ourselves I never thought he’d marry so soon. He always swore he’d wait until he were older and then settle down with a wife and family.”
Devinia felt that she should say nothing to this.
So she only replied,
“Of course you want him to be happy and I will do my best.”
“That’s what I hopes you’d say,” the housekeeper said smiling. “Now, I’ve ordered your bath and you’ll have a real pretty gown to please His Grace at dinner. I’ll try to get some jewellery from the safe to go with it.”
“It sounds very very exciting,” Devinia said, “and thank you for being so understanding.”
Mrs. Shepherd then left the room.
Devinia ran at once to look at the puppy and he was fast asleep in his basket.
She thought that he was very beautiful although she was not quite certain of his breed, but felt that he must be a spaniel.
“I will look after you,” she told him in a soft voice. “I am sure I will grow to love you as I want you to love me. We are very lucky, you and I, to be here with someone as kind and generous as the Duke.”
She gave a deep sigh as she went on talking to the puppy.
“I did not know, when I was so unhappy yesterday, that anyone could be as kind as the Duke is being to me. Now on top of everything else he has given you to me.”
Then she lifted her eyes up to the sunshine coming in through the window.
Not in words but in her heart, she now said,
‘Thank you, Mama, for sending him to me. I know for the moment I am safe and I am no longer utterly and completely alone as I was when I lost Jo-Jo. Please, please, Mama, do not let this wonderful dream end too quickly.’
CHAPTER FOUR
Mrs. Shepherd found an exceptionally pretty dress for Devinia.
It had a wide and almost crinoline size skirt and a tight bodice ornamented with the most beautiful lace.
“I thought it was exactly what you needed for your first night in The Castle,” Mrs. Shepherd said. “It must have belonged to the Duchess who was painted by all the great painters at the time as the most beautiful woman in England.”
Devinia smiled and replied,
“In which case I had better wear a yashmak over my face so that they only look at the dress!”
The housekeeper smiled too.
“I thought you’d have an answer, miss, But it be a long time since we’ve had anyone as pretty as you in The Castle.”
Devinia thought that this must be an exaggeration, as the Duke would have had his friends here as Penelope had often talked about all the ladies who had fallen under his charm.
Although, Devinia had gathered, they were mostly married ladies.
She remembered her mother saying once that a man who did not intend to be rushed up the aisle with some ambitious debutante invariably spent his time with married women who could not ask the same of him.
She kept trying to think of things that her mother had said to her so as to interest the Duke.
And to make sure that he did not send her away too soon from The Castle simply because he found her boring.
‘Maybe the pretend engagement will indeed last for months,’ she told herself hopefully.
At the same time she had the distinct suspicion that once Penelope realised that she could no longer have him, she would marry one of the other men who had already asked her, but who were not as prestigious socially as the Duke.
‘It is so wonderful here,’ she thought to herself as she finished dressing. ‘I want to stay and explore not only the house but everything around it.’
She was about to ask the housekeeper if she should go downstairs when there came a knock on the door.
She turned round to see the Duke.
160 Love Finds the Duke at Last Page 6