“I have ordered you a horse,” he told her, “and here it comes.”
It came into the stable yard as he spoke and Devinia saw that it was an almost all white stallion.
It was not only very well-bred but, she was certain, a horse that could gallop very fast if he wished to.
‘It is almost impossible,’ the Duke thought as she ran towards the stallion, ‘for anyone to look as excited and enraptured.’
She patted the animal and talked to him as the Duke remembered his father had always told him to talk to any horse that he was about to ride.
‘She is certainly unusual,’ he thought to himself.
But, as she was obviously anxious to be off, he said nothing.
He merely mounted the horse that he had ordered for himself, which was one of his favourites.
They went first to the paddock and the Duke said,
“I think that you had better feel your way by taking Pegasus round the paddock before we go into the rougher areas which are on the other side of the stream.”
Devinia did not reply, but gave Pegasus his head.
She cleared the jumps that were scattered over the paddock without any difficulty.
Watching her, he told himself that she rode well and so he need have no qualms about racing her.
He had known many women who had talked about how much they enjoyed riding only to find that they had no wish to do anything but trot.
The whole idea of racing was something that was definitely only for men.
Because he was curious as to why she could ride so well, the Duke then took her from the paddock into the land beyond the stream where he had ridden so often.
He had, in fact, never been accompanied there by a woman. But on many occasions with his male friends who had wanted to race him and knew that it was only possible by being as good a rider as he was himself.
He was therefore surprised when Devinia put her horse into a gallop as soon as they reached the open fields.
His own horse had to strain every nerve to keep up with her.
By the time they had drawn their horses to a full stop the Duke was well aware that this strange girl, who had sobbed so miserably in his arms and who had rescued him from her cousin, was undoubtedly a good rider.
One who would be greatly praised and commended whenever she appeared on a horse.
Devinia then drew in Pegasus near to the end of the ground where there was a tall wood where the Duke had often shot.
When he came up beside her, he asked,
“Who taught you to ride like that?”
“My father did originally, but after he was killed I had three of his horses and, as I could not bear to part with any of them, I had to exercise them myself.”
She sighed.
“You see we were very poor and could not afford more than one man to rub them down and clean out the stables, but he was far too old to ride at any speed however much the horses needed it.”
“Now I see why you wished to be in the country.”
“Nowhere I have ever been has been as marvellous as this,” she said. If you let me ride your horses, I only hope I will live to one hundred before you turn me away.”
The Duke laughed.
“I promise not to, because I can see how useful you are. I was afraid that Pegasus would be too large for you, but I am sure that he has never had a finer rider on his back as he has had this morning.”
“Thank you! Devinia replied. “That is just the sort of compliment I really appreciate, Your Grace.”
Then her voice dropped as she added,
“I thought when I went to live with my step-uncle I would never have a compliment again.”
“So he would not let you ride his horses?”
Devinia shook her head.
“No, he disapproved of women being fast riders. But I think actually that it was an excuse for not having to provide me with a horse, especially as Penelope only had one which she used in Rotten Row and had no wish to ride at any other time.”
“Now I have seen how well you ride,” the Duke said, “my horses, ma’am, are at your disposal.”
“You could not give me anything else that I would appreciate more,” she replied excitedly. “Thank you, thank you and it is wonderful for me to be able to race you.”
“We will have one more race before we take the horses back,” the Duke suggested. “I think we must both be prepared today for visitors.”
“Visitors?” Devinia asked in surprise.
“My loyal friends will want to congratulate me on what appeared in the newspapers yesterday and I would not be surprised if some of my relatives, as well as my friends, came down from London.”
He gave a wry smile before he concluded,
“Their curiosity will be more important than their feelings about making the long journey.”
The way he spoke made Devinia laugh.
“Now you are frightening me,” she said. “I am so terrified of saying the wrong thing.”
“All that you have to do is to keep telling them how much you admire me and how happy you are at meeting them and let them make the rest of the conversation.”
Devinia laughed.
“It is not as easy as you think. As I have no wish to tell lies, they are certain to ask me how we met and where we met and how was it possible for you to fall in love with someone so unimportant as me and am I looking forward to being a Duchess?”
The way she spoke with her words almost falling over each other, made the Duke laugh.
“I am certain,” he said, “you will have a reasonable answer to every one of their questions. At the same time be prepared. You will undoubtedly be asked them and it would be very wise for us to give the same answer to each question.”
“Yes, of course,” Devinia replied. “I did not think of that problem. Where did we meet? Or shall we think of somewhere better than my cousin’s house?”
“I think where possible we must tell the truth,” the Duke observed.
There was silence for a moment and then Devinia said in a rather embarrassed voice,
“We can say correctly that you came to the house to see Penelope and not me.”
“I went, if I recall rightly, because Penelope asked me,” the Duke replied. “It was there that I met you and remembered we had met several years before when I was shooting in the North of England, where I believe you told me you had some relatives.”
“Yes, of course, how clever of you to remember! There are several distant cousins of mine in the far North of Northumberland and I remember that my mother had relatives staying at the time and we were asked to a dinner party where you were present.”
The Duke stared at her.
“Good Heavens!” he exclaimed. “That was almost six years ago and if I am honest I just cannot remember meeting you.”
“I was not important enough or old enough at the time to be introduced to you,” Devinia replied. “I merely thought, when I went out with the shoot, that you shot very well. But to be honest I never expected to see you again.”
She paused before she said a little shyly,
“Of course I can now say that I hoped and prayed we would meet again if I ever came to London.”
The Duke laughed.
“You make everything into a Fairytale and that one will do. I remembered admiring you when I saw you with the people at the shoot and then I had not forgotten how pretty you were.”
“We must not make the story of our first meeting sound unreal,” Devinia replied. “I think if I remember you, that is as it should be.”
“Nonsense!” he exclaimed. “You are very pretty now and you must have been exceedingly pretty at fourteen or fifteen or whatever age you were. And I found that no other woman in London was as beautiful as you.”
“No one is going to believe that,” Devinia answered firmly. “As you have many people talking about you and what they call your ‘love affairs’, they are certain to realise that you are not pining for me.”
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The Duke shrugged his shoulders.
“We do have to give them something to think about and also convince them that I prefer you to your cousin Penelope. Because she was so outstanding and so pretty, she expected to marry a Duke, although, of course, she would doubtless have accepted the Prince of Wales if he had not been already married!”
“Now that is going too far,” she protested. “You will spoil it if you make the stories sound unconvincing.”
“I am only teasing,” he laughed. “I promise that I will behave nicely, but you must not forget how grateful I am to you for saving me.”
“As you have saved me,” Devinia replied. “I was so happy last night in the lovely bedroom I have in The Castle and the first thing I did when I woke up was to jump out of bed and see if Prince was there or if he was also part of a dream.”
“And was he there?” the Duke enquired.
“Of course. He was very good and did not wake me up all night.”
“Well, I am sure our visitors will be too curious to be able to talk about anything except why it is possible for me to find a wife who is someone they do not know and have never heard of.”
The Duke paused before he went on,
“That is the story and that is exactly why they will be asking you a thousand questions and being immensely puzzled as to why I would prefer you to all the other young women in London who have tried to catch me.”
“I suppose there were so many. But you must be modest and not let people realise that you were well aware that they were after your title and not you.”
“Now you are being insulting,” the Duke protested jokingly. “A lot of women have assured me over and over again that they love me to distraction and it had nothing to do with my position in the Social world.”
He spoke with laughter in his eyes and a sarcastic note in his voice which told Devinia that he was joking.
“I think we are safest,” she said, “when I play the part which I do extremely well because, of course, it is the truth, that I am only an innocent little country girl and am astonished by the wonder, the beauty and the importance of London.”
She stopped for a moment and then, taking up her reins, she added,
“And so, of course, have captured the most elusive Nobleman of all time!”
She was mocking the Duke and, even as he turned to tell her that she must be more respectful, she touched her horse with the whip and Pegasus sprang away.
It was only by really exerting himself that the Duke managed to catch up with her just as the field came to an end and they then trotted into the orchard.
As he drew level with her and before he could say anything she said,
“Please don’t be angry with me. It has been such a glorious day and I will always remember it. You must just believe I am playing a part.”
She pulled at her reins before she added,
“I am not myself. Not what you would expect of a rather stupid young woman, but what they would expect of someone clever enough to catch and bind you as, of course, at the moment, I intend to do.”
She did not wait for the Duke to answer, but hurried across the orchard towards the stables.
He was still laughing when he caught up with her.
When they had taken the horses to the stables and then walked back to the house, it was the butler who met them at the door.
“I think, Your Grace, you’ll be surprised,” he said, “that no less than three messengers have been here from London to inform Your Grace that members of your family and friends will be arriving for luncheon today.”
The Duke sighed,
“I did not expect them to arrive so quickly.”
“The messengers were informed yesterday that they were to be here as early as possible,” the butler said, “and one of them left at four o’clock this morning.”
“Well, they are certainly persistent, Travers, and I am sure we can feed them well if nothing else.”
“I’ll tell cook, Your Grace, but I think you’ll find we’ll have twenty extra for luncheon.”
He paused then he added,
“Unless others turn up unexpectedly!”
Because she was feeling nervous, Devinia followed the Duke into the hall.
“Who is coming?” she asked when they reached the empty study. “Who can it be?”
The Duke held out both his arms.
“I have not the slightest idea, but I have a suspicion one or two of them will be coming entirely out of curiosity. So be prepared and whatever happens they must not guess for one single moment that we are playing a game.”
“No, of course not!” Devinia agreed. “But I have thought of one thing this morning when I was dressing that I think you have forgotten.”
“What is that?” the Duke asked.
“Well, I suppose that if our engagement is to look genuine, I should be wearing a ring.”
The Duke threw up his hands.
“Of course, you should. How could I have been so stupid? Well, as I showed you before, there are at least half a dozen of them in the safe, so you can have your pick as to which one you prefer. I will get them right away.”
“No,” Devinia said. “You know if this is real you would go out and choose an engagement ring for me. Then I would exclaim with surprise at how beautiful it is.”
The Duke chuckled.
“You are quite right. If we are playing a part, we must play it correctly.
He disappeared at once.
Devinia went to the window and looked out at the garden and for once she was not looking at the flowers.
She was thinking that if this was real it would be thrilling to have a wonderful ring given to her from the superb antique collection which belonged to the Duke.
She remembered them shining when she looked at them, most especially the opal necklace. But he must not give her an opal ring as that would be unlucky.
She was still at the window when he came back.
“I have chosen the prettiest ring of them all,” he announced. “It is over two hundred years old and I am sure you will like it.”
He took her hand as he spoke and put it onto her engagement finger.
The ring itself was lovely, but it was a little too big and she knew that she could easily have it altered.
The Duke had chosen a diamond ring and in the centre was a large diamond surrounded by smaller ones all of them cut to shine like the sunshine outside.
“It’s lovely!” Devinia exclaimed. “Thank you and I will wear it until we say ‘goodbye’ and then I will be sorry to part with it.”
The Duke grinned.
“By that time you might be sorry to part with a lot of things, but for the moment everyone will be impressed by your engagement ring and it certainly becomes you.”
Devinia looked down at it and thought that it was the prettiest ring she had seen.
She just wondered if she would be able to wear any of the other jewellery in the special safe, but perhaps that was asking too much.
“I will go and change,” Devinia said. “But I think before the visitors arrive we must make quite certain that there are no mistakes in our performance.”
“Now you are frightening me,” the Duke replied. “So, the less we say of substance the better.”
“I have chosen the best part,” Devinia said as she went to the door. “I will be far too shy to say anything and you therefore can do all the talking, Your Grace!”
She left the room before he could answer her.
But he was laughing as he walked to his writing-table where the messages from London would be waiting for him.
CHAPTER FIVE
It transpired that the Duke, if anything, had under-estimated the interest that his engagement would create.
His relatives, some of whom he had not seen for years, turned up to congratulate him.
Others wrote him long letters that he had to answer as to why, where and who he had found to marry.
After having written out
one, he copied the others as they were exactly the same, although he hoped that they would not compare them.
As he had anticipated quite a number of those who called themselves his greatest friends arrived from London to congratulate him, but really because they were intrigued.
Devinia, with the deft help of Mrs. Shepherd, was wearing a most alluring and extremely pretty dress.
She also arranged her hair so that she wore flowers of the same colour as her dress.
It appeared almost as a halo against her golden hair.
“You look lovely,” Mrs. Shepherd told her, “and there’ll be no question as to why His Grace wants to marry you.”
Devinia hoped fervently that this was true.
When she went down to luncheon, she realised that a great number of the Duke’s friends were astounded by her appearance.
The men fell over themselves in their efforts to pay her effusive compliments. While the ladies present were no less enthusiastic.
After luncheon a number of people who had come from London drove back in their carriages.
There were half a dozen who had arrived late for tea and therefore had to be invited for dinner.
“I am not going to ask you to stay the night,” the Duke told them, “because there is a full moon tonight and so you will be able to find your way back home without the slightest difficulty.”
“We had not thought of staying,” one of them said. “We have only brought what we stand up in and I don’t suppose you want to provide all the bedclothes we would need if we stayed the night.”
“I have a feeling that more people will be arriving from London tomorrow,” the Duke said, “and I have to think of my staff.”
One of his friends laughed.
“I feel sure that they are enjoying every moment of it. After all The Castle has been as dull as a grave for years when your mother was ill and again when your father was busy with his affairs in London.”
He chuckled as he added,
“There is nothing that servants dislike more than an empty house and a cook always complains if there is no one to praise her food.”
“I am sure you are right,” the Duke agreed. “My cook is thrilled at being able to cook the food that you have enjoyed tonight. She is already thinking about what she will put in the Wedding cake.”
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