A Lucky Star

by Barbara Cartland

  “And this is Miss Preston, my assistant,” said the Earl, introducing her. “She also speaks Italian, so there is no need for you to bring in an interpreter for her.”

  Signor Benedetti seized Anthea’s hand and kissed it, pronouncing her charming.

  He then led them upstairs to a large room in which sat a number of elderly gentlemen.

  Anthea was seated next to one of the younger men, who paid her a great deal of attention.

  ‘Linette was not exaggerating,’ she said to herself, as the assembled men droned on and on about certain shipbuilding technicalities. ‘If it were not for Signor Martinelli next to me, I would have difficulty in keeping awake!’

  At last after several hours spent wrangling over the details of the order, Signor Benedetti stood up and shook the Earl by the hand.

  “Then, we have a deal,” he announced in English.

  Anthea was delighted.

  The Earl smiled warmly at her as they all rose from the table to shake his hand.

  Later when they were once again in their carriage, the Earl thanked her profusely.

  “I expect you heard all Signor Benedetti said – that you are as beautiful as you are intelligent. He was most impressed with your Italian and your contribution helped enormously winning me the contract.”

  “Nonsense, my Lord, I did nothing more than smile sweetly and talk to Signor Martinelli next to me.”

  “You were my lucky star!” replied the Earl. “And tomorrow I shall be signing the contract. I had expected our negotiations to take a good deal longer, but everything went so smoothly, I can only attribute it to your presence!

  “Now, we must hurry back to the ship – I am most anxious to see how Linette is. I have never known her to suffer a migraine before and hope this is not an unfortunate omen for the future.”

  ‘I shall have to have a word with Linette,’ Anthea told herself. ‘She should not deceive her father and break his trust. Oh, I do so wish she had not put me in such an uncomfortable position.’

  But on returning to The Sea Sprite, they could not find Linette anywhere.

  Eventually the Earl asked one of the crew.

  “She went ashore hours ago, my Lord.”

  “What, on her own?”

  “I am sorry, my Lord – I don’t know, everyone else has gone ashore. As I myself did not see her Ladyship, I could not say whether or not she was unaccompanied.”

  “I am sure that someone would have gone with her, perhaps Midshipman Jones,” soothed Anthea, knowing full well that it was highly likely that Linette had slipped off on her own. “He comes with us whenever we go out.”

  “I would hope so. I have often told her it is unsafe for foreigners to go wandering around Naples. There have been kidnappings of strangers – ”

  His voice trailed off and Anthea wanted to reassure him, but she knew that she would be a hypocrite if she did.

  “Would you care to join me for coffee?” asked the Earl suddenly. “If I don’t have company, I will only sit and worry about Linette until she returns.”

  “If I am not distracting you from more important matters, I would love to,” replied Anthea delighted.

  “I don’t think I could concentrate on anything until I know that Linette is safe. Come, we will see if Jackson is still on board.”

  The Earl rang and Jackson appeared.

  “Jackson, we should like some coffee and tell me, did Lady Linette go ashore alone this afternoon?”

  Jackson hesitated and glanced over at Anthea.

  “I was not here when she left the ship, my Lord, so I am afraid I could not say.”

  ‘She has gone on her own!’ fumed Anthea.

  She sensed Jackson was uneasy even if the Earl had not picked up on it.

  As Jackson left the room, the Earl turned to Anthea.

  “So, Miss Preston – I have not had the opportunity to discover more about you, and how you met Linette.”

  Anthea thought quickly – she knew that if she told him she had run away from an arranged marriage, the Earl might not be impressed.

  “We met in Monsieur Henri’s establishment just off Bond Street. I went there to buy a new gown and Linette was in the next cubicle. I could not help overhearing her commenting upon the fact that she was about to travel to Italy and had no chaperone and so I came to the rescue!”

  “That was most generous of you. Were your parents quite happy for you to go off with a stranger like that?”

  “Oh, my father knows of you by reputation – he is Sir Edward Preston of Mount Street. I believe you have a house in nearby Park Lane?”

  “Yes indeed, but I’m afraid, as Linette has probably told you, I am not one for socialising on the London scene. Business has kept me so busy and I prefer the quiet life. I spend a great deal of time at our house in Surrey.”

  “Yes, Linette did tell me.”

  “And you mentioned that you had a stepmother, so what has happened to Lady Preston?”

  Anthea hung her head and tried not to cry.

  “She is dead, my Lord,” she answered him quietly.

  “Oh, I am so sorry. I did not realise – ”

  “It was earlier in the year – and very suddenly. An illness. I was abroad at the time and had to come back to England. Papa has since remarried.”

  The Earl regarded her for a long moment and then slowly nodded his head.

  “And do I take it you that don’t get on too well with your stepmother?”

  Anthea blushed furiously.

  “I am sorry if I have given you an unfavourable impression, my Lord – ”

  The Earl laughed and shook his head.

  “No, it’s not what you have said, but what you have not said. It explains your eagerness to drop everything in London and accompany Linette to Italy.”

  “It was sheer serendipity and I did not wish to live as my stepmother dictated. Papa – ”

  Her voice trailed off.

  “He is a different man since he remarried, then?”

  Anthea nodded.

  There was a silence as they drank their coffee. She could see that the Earl was thinking hard.

  “Miss Preston,” he began tentatively. “There is one question I would ask you – but it is a very personal one.”

  “Please, continue, my Lord.”

  “You will please forgive me commenting upon the fact that you are a little older than Linette, but it does rather beg the question why you are not married with a husband of your own?”

  Anthea set down her cup.

  “It – is – a somewhat sad tale,” she stammered. “I was once engaged to someone, but he – he jilted me.”

  “Oh, I am sorry,” replied the Earl with a concerned look. “I trust that my asking you such a question has not caused you any pain? It must have been dreadful for you. I did not mean to pry, but, as you can understand, I only wish to discover more about you.”

  “It is quite all right, my Lord. You are perfectly at liberty to ask whatever you so wish. You are entrusting me with the care of your daughter and it is only right that you enquire as to my character.

  “Linette is such an impulsive girl and engaged me without your knowledge and I certainly expected that you might wish to know more about me.”

  “You must not think that I am interviewing you. I trust Linette, even if she can be a little headstrong at times, and Captain MacFarlane speaks well of you, so they cannot both be wrong. It’s not always been easy for me, as Linette craves a mother figure since her own mother died.”

  ‘Here is my chance!’ she decided, as she screwed up her courage to ask the Earl her burning question.

  “You have not remarried?” she asked him gingerly.

  “No,” he replied without a hint of embarrassment. “I know some men require a wife as an absolute necessity, but Linette and I have managed perfectly well on our own. And with my business occupying so much of my time – ”

  His eyes took on a faraway look as he paused midsentence. Anthea wondered what,
or of whom, he thought.

  ‘Perhaps there has been a love that Linette does not know about,’ she mused with an unknown fear clutching at her heart. ‘Or perhaps there is still a sweetheart – ’

  Just then, the door to the Saloon burst open and in walked Linette, looking as if she was touching the stars.

  “Jackson said I would find you in here,” she called casually. “I am sorry I was not here when you returned. I felt better and wanted some air, so I went out for a drive with Midshipman Jones.”

  Anthea stared at her crossly.

  ‘She does not even seek to keep up the pretence of having been ill!’ she said to herself. ‘Surely her father can see that she is right as rain?’

  “You are a naughty girl,” he chided fondly. “But if you had a member of the crew with you, then I am happy you are now feeling better. Did the ship’s doctor give you something?”

  Linette paused.

  ‘It’s so obvious that she’s lying, why can he not see it?’ seethed Anthea inwardly.

  But the indulgent Earl was obviously wrapped tightly around Linette’s delicate little finger.

  “Yes,” she answered her father eventually in a tone that told Anthea she was indeed lying.

  “I am glad you are feeling better, dearest,” he said, moving over to kiss the top of her head. “Shall I ring for tea? You don’t want your migraine to return and I have heard that coffee is not good for headaches.”

  Linette smiled indulgently and the Earl sprang up to ring for Jackson.

  Anthea meanwhile was feeling angry.

  ‘He was just about to tell me something significant, when she comes wafting in as if nothing had happened! I am sure she was with Roberto – why else would she look as if she has just been given the sun, moon and stars?’

  “Did your meeting go well, Papa?” asked Linette, throwing herself down in a chair.

  “Yes, very – thanks to Miss Preston here, but there is another matter I wish to discuss with you – in private. Miss Preston, I hope you will not be offended if I ask you leave us alone for a while?”

  ‘He has twigged that she is lying,’ thought Anthea, before replying that she did not mind in the least.

  She closed the door of the Saloon and wondered if she should seek out Midshipman Jones.

  ‘I may well be doing Linette a disservice and, even though she did see Roberto, she may have asked him to accompany her.’

  But Midshipman Jones was nowhere to be found.

  She returned to her cabin and sat there fretting.

  ‘If the Earl worms it out of Linette that she was not ill, then he may reconsider my position as her chaperone as he will guess that I knew too,’ she thought glumly. ‘To not have him trust me or worse to send me packing back home would be a disaster.’

  Wringing her hands Anthea tried to occupy herself until Linette returned to her cabin.

  ‘Have I now lost the Earl’s trust?’ she muttered, as she paced up and down. ‘Oh, I could not bear it if I have.’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Next morning Linette breezed into Anthea’s cabin, oblivious to the consternation she had caused the previous afternoon.

  “Oh, please don’t be cross with me!” cried Linette, as Anthea told her off for being so reckless. “Roberto and I had a wonderful time, do you not want to hear about it?”

  “You don’t seem to understand, Linette. If you had not persuaded your father that Midshipman Jones had, in fact, accompanied you, then he would have been very cross with both of us if he had discovered the truth.”

  “It was not a complete lie,” pouted Linette, twisting her gloves in her hand. “Midshipman Jones came as far as Roberto’s house and then left us. And after I left Roberto’s house, the driver was with me. So, you can see – I was not totally alone.”

  “I fear you don’t understand the situation, Linette,” warned Anthea. “Don’t you realise that as your Papa holds me responsible, should anything happen to you, then I shall be shipped straight back to England?”

  “Oh, I had not thought of that,” said Linette, a little sulkily. “I am sorry – I have no wish to get you into hot water, but it is just that I love Roberto so! Now, I want to tell you all about yesterday afternoon. It was heavenly!”

  She chattered on and Anthea was forced to listen.

  “He has already asked me to marry him!”

  Anthea sat bolt upright and asked her to repeat what she had just said.

  “I hope you have not said ‘yes’, Linette.”

  “We want to run away together and marry – Papa will have a purple fit as I am not yet twenty-one, but here in Italy, people are not so strict.”

  Anthea got up from her chair with her eyes blazing.

  She was trying to control her anger, but was finding it very difficult in the face of Linette’s irresponsibility.

  “You must think this through carefully. And how will you live? Roberto is a struggling artist and the money his parents left him will not last for ever.”

  “He has heaps of money! And I have an income – ”

  “Which your Papa will stop if you displease him in this way. Linette, I beg you, think of what you are doing.”

  “Well, if you feel like that – ” she answered, getting up and slamming shut the connecting doors to their cabins.

  ‘Really,’ muttered Anthea under her breath. ‘They say that love makes one bold, but Linette takes it too far!’

  She was interrupted by a knock on her cabin door. Thinking that it might be Midshipman Jones coming to see what they wished to do that day, she went to open it.

  Instead of Midshipman Jones, it was the Earl!

  “Oh, my Lord, I was not expecting you.”

  “I am sorry, but there is to be a further meeting at Benedettis and I was hoping you would accompany me. It is my fault for not mentioning it last night at dinner. But Linette did not give me the opportunity to say anything as she so dominated the conversation!”

  “I would be delighted to come with you, my Lord, I do hope that nothing is untoward?”

  “Not at all. It is just that I am sure the Benedettis would be delighted to see you again. They are taking us for a grand luncheon and I would like you to come as my guest, by way of my saying ‘thank you’.”

  “But I have done nothing. It is all your doing – you are so brilliant that I am certain you would have still left with the contract without my being there.”

  “Nevertheless, I wish you to be my guest.”

  “And Linette?”

  “She has promised me – no more gallivanting. I have arranged for one of the crew to take her to luncheon and, then, an art gallery. I don’t wish to alarm you, but I have been told that the Camorra are highly displeased that I have won this order. As a result it is imperative that neither of you goes around alone.”

  “I thought they did not present a problem to you?”

  “That was until I secured the Benedetti order. They have some involvement in the shipyards here and I would not put it past them to try and ruin my negotiations. Now, as I have some work to do, can you meet me in an hour?”

  ‘Linette will not like this at all,’ thought Anthea as the Earl left. ‘I would wager that she will do all she can to slip away and meet Roberto. I should go and warn her not to leave the ship without a chaperone of some description.’

  She went to the door, but all was quiet.

  ‘Perhaps she’s asleep,’ thought Anthea, pushing the door open a little.

  But Linette was not in her cabin.

  ‘She has slipped out again! The little fool!’

  Running out of the cabin and along the gangway, Anthea bumped straight into Midshipman Jones.

  “Have you seen Lady Linette?” he enquired looking flustered. “His Lordship has now ordered me to take her out sightseeing today, but she is nowhere to be found.”

  “No, I was coming to ask you the very same thing. I do believe she has given both of us the slip.”

  “His Lordship will be furiou
s. What shall we do?”

  “If I tell you where she is, promise that you will go and find her, but you must not tell his Lordship?”

  “Anything, as long as she is safe.”

  “Here, this is the address of where I believe her to be. Go there and tell her that you have been instructed not to leave her side. Tell her that the Camorra is up in arms at her father’s latest deal and she will understand. If not, then the person she is with will insist she obeys you.”

  Midshipman Jones looked at her in awe.

  “It is the address of Roberto di Novelli! You are so clever, as well as beautiful,” he said, permitting himself the luxury of a fond look. “If you had not been here, I dread to think what might have happened.”

  “There is no need to tell his Lordship. Now, go. I will say that I have seen you both leave. His Lordship is occupied in his cabin and will not know any different.”

  Midshipman Jones hurried to a waiting carriage.

  Anthea sighed with exasperation.

  ‘Linette really is the limit!’ she muttered to herself. ‘Now, I must go and get ready for this luncheon.’

  Her heart was now beating faster and faster – and not just with excitement.

  She knew that if the Camorra had the Earl as their target, then being with him could lead to danger.

  ‘But as long as I am with him, I will not worry,’ she sighed, putting on her hat.

  *

  As Anthea and the Earl drove to their appointment, she could not help but constantly be on her guard.

  Her eyes scanned the crowds in the bustling streets, searching for signs of anything out of the ordinary.

  ‘I have no idea what the Camorra might look like, but if I am alert, then I can be ready should anyone mount an attack on us.’

  “You don’t seem very relaxed today,” remarked the Earl as they drove along. “I do hope that what I said about the Camorra has not frightened you.”

  “I must confess that I am a little unnerved.”

  “Then you must not be. You are safe with me.”

  The Earl moved a little closer to her and smiled.

  She felt her heart leap as she looked into his amber eyes. The sun was shining and she could almost imagine herself drowning in their silky depths.