The Wicked Widow

by Barbara Cartland

  There was a very reproachful note in her voice and the only thing that the Earl could do was to apologise profusely.

  “I will forgive you,” the Marchioness said, “only if you will call on me tomorrow. I shall be waiting for you at four o’clock.”

  Her eyes searched his for a response to the invitation on her pouting lips.

  There was just a little pause before the Earl exclaimed,

  “I will certainly come if I am in London, but I may have to go to the country.”

  “You are being evasive,” she complained. “I cannot understand why.”

  She would have said more, but at that very moment her partner claimed her for the next dance.

  She was obliged to move away, giving a backward glance over her shoulder at the Earl as she did so.

  He looked round and saw an alluring lady who he had had a brief affaire de coeur with.

  She had a complaisant husband who turned a blind eye to her love affairs and spent his time in the country breeding thoroughbreds.

  But before the Earl could move in her direction, a very smartly dressed woman, whom he did not know, came up to him.

  “We have never been introduced, my Lord,” she said, “but my name is Lady Shenley and I have heard so much about your magnificent and beautiful Castle.”

  “I am, indeed very proud of it,” the Earl responded.

  “That is not surprising,” Lady Shenley replied. “I have a special interest in it because the Nanny who was devoted to my two stepchildren is now looking after a child who I believe is your niece.”

  “Yes, that is so,” the Earl said. “My niece, Jane, is living with me while my brother-in-law is Governor of Aden. He and my sister thought that the heat there would be too much for her.”

  “How sensible,” Lady Shenley exclaimed. “I would love to see dear old Nanny again. I wonder if, as I expect to be, I am in the vicinity of your Castle next week, I might call on her.”

  “As I shall be in The Castle myself,” the Earl said, “I will be delighted to welcome you in person.”

  “How very kind, my Lord, and I am longing to see your Castle.”

  “Then, of course, I will show it to you,” the Earl affirmed.

  “I will reach Lilliecote by Sunday if that is not too soon?” Lady Shenley asked.

  “I am thinking of going home tomorrow,” the Earl answered. “So I shall look forward to your visit.”

  “You are kindness itself,” Lady Shenley said. “Thank you very very much.”

  She spoke in such a heartfelt tone that he was really rather touched.

  Then, when he would have spoken to her again, he felt a touch on his arm.

  An elderly woman was beside him, who he saw was the Duchess of Northumberland.

  She had been a friend of his mother’s and he exclaimed,

  “How delightful to see you, Your Grace. I did not know that you were in London.”

  “My granddaughter is making her debut this Season,” the Duchess replied, “and so I am chaperoning her here tonight. How are you, Rollo? But I need not ask you this question. I have never seen you looking better.”

  “And I can say the same of you,” the Earl answered gallantly.

  He knew that the Duchess was over seventy and he thought that it was very sporting of her to come to London to chaperone her grandchild.

  The Duchess drew him a little to one side and they could talk more comfortably against an open window.

  “I saw that tiresome woman, Lady Shenley, speaking to you,” she then said.

  “Tiresome?” the Earl enquired.

  “She is very pushing and I consider it disgraceful that she should appear at a party like this so soon after her husband’s death. He was such a charming man.”

  The Earl gave an exclamation.

  “Now I know who you are talking about. I knew Lord Shenley and always thought him, as you say, charming and very intelligent. I did hear that he had married again after his wife died, but did not expect anyone so young.”

  He was about to add the word glamorous, but thought that it might somehow offend the Duchess.

  “I have no wish to talk to you about that woman,” the Duchess said sharply, “but about The Castle. Is the garden still as beautiful as your mother made it?”

  “You know that I would not fail her in that respect,” the Earl answered. “She adored the garden and someone said only last month that it was the best-laid-out garden in the whole of England.”

  The Duchess sighed.

  “That is exactly what your mother would have liked to hear. Although I have tried to copy her in my own garden, I am afraid that it is a very difficult thing to do.”

  They talked for a little while longer and then the Duchess, remembering why she was at the ball in the first place, insisted on introducing the Earl to her granddaughter.

  As he might have expected, the girl was rather gauche, shy and not particularly pretty.

  However, he did his duty by dancing with her.

  When it was over, he returned her to her grandmother’s side.

  “I shall be giving a dance for Imogen next month,” the Duchess said, “and I shall be very hurt, Rollo, if you do not attend it, even though I know you are longing to tell me that you are not particularly interested in debutantes.”

  As the remark was unexpected, the Earl laughed.

  “Your Grace is taking the very words out of my mouth.”

  “I knew that was what you were thinking,” the Duchess said shrewdly. “I promise you there will also be a great many of your special friends present and do not forget that, however alluring they may be now, they started their social lives as debutantes.”

  The Earl could only laugh again.

  However, he promised the Duchess that he really would come to her party.

  Then he went in search of one of his friends who, as the Duchess had said, were all very alluring.

  He found her and finally led her towards the garden.

  As he did so, he was aware that Lady Shenley was watching him.

  He remembered what the Duchess said about her and, at the same time, he thought it was a little unkind.

  She was obviously much younger than her husband, Lord Shenley, had been.

  It seemed rather hard that she should be reproved for attending parties.

  He calculated that it must be over six months now since she went into mourning.

  ‘Older people’ he thought, ‘like to weep and wail dramatically for a very long time. ‘For younger women it could only be tedious and a waste of their youth.’

  *

  He did not stay very late at the ball.

  Charles was obviously enjoying himself and had no wish to leave,

  The Earl drove back alone in his carriage to Berkeley Square.

  As he climbed into bed, he gave Jenkins instructions that they would leave tomorrow for The Castle.

  He would drive a new team of chestnuts, which he had only recently bought.

  They were, without exception, the best matched horses in the whole of the Beau Ton.

  *

  Kyla and Terry were completely entranced by The Castle.

  After what Nanny had written to them, they had expected it to be large and impressive.

  But what was very exciting was that everything was not only historical but so tastefully arranged that every room was a picture in itself.

  The Castle had been added to by almost every generation.

  There were many closets with diamond-paned windows and huge rooms with very large windows, magnificent marble fireplaces and painted ceilings.

  Nanny took them round herself.

  While she knew a little of the history, Kyla longed to know more.

  “There’s no Curator at the moment,” Nanny explained, “because the man who’s been here for years has been taken ill. But I thinks you’ll find a lot of interestin’ books in the library and perhaps a catalogue which’ll tell you all you want to know.”

  The libr
ary itself was magnificent and Nanny said it contained over ten thousand books.

  The balcony, for access to the upper shelves, was reached by a spiral brass staircase.

  “And now show us the secret passages,” Terry begged her.

  “I think that his Lordship ought to do that,” Nanny replied. “They wouldn’t be secret if everyone knew about them.”

  “But you have found out where they are, have you not, Nanny?”

  Kyla was smiling as she spoke.

  She knew that Nanny was always curious and would find it impossible not to try to discover anything that might be hidden from her.

  “I’m not goin’ to say that I’ve no idea where they are,” Nanny replied.

  “Please show us just one, please,” Terry pleaded.

  Nanny looked over her shoulder to make sure that no one was listening.

  But, as the Earl was not at home, there was only one footman on duty in case someone called unexpectedly.

  The servants kept to their own quarters and now they were relaxing in the housekeeper’s room, the pantry and the big servants’ hall, which was opposite the kitchen.

  “Very well, I’ll show you one” Nanny said, making up her mind. “But you’re not to tell his Lordship what I’ve done and you are not to talk about it to any of the other staff. Do you understand?”

  “It’s a secret,” Terry said, “and I promise I will keep it a secret.”

  “Then come with me,” Nanny proposed.

  She touched a secret catch in the panelling at the back of the library.

  It opened slowly and Terry gave a gasp of excitement.

  “Can we go in? Please, Nanny, can we go in?”

  “Yes, we’ll go in,” Nanny said. “And I’ll show you how this passage takes us right up to the nursery floor.”

  She closed the panelling behind them as she spoke.

  Kyla realised, very much to her surprise, that the secret passage was lit in an exceedingly clever way.

  There was not more than a dim light, but just enough to show the way and it came from some openings in the construction of the walls.

  Nanny said that it had been done at the time when Cromwellian Troops were hunting the Royalists in the Civil War.

  “Other passages,” she continued, “were made earlier than this when Queen Mary was persecuting the Protestants and later her sister, Queen Elizabeth, the Roman Catholics.”

  Kyla looked at her admiringly.

  “How clever of you to know all this, Nanny.”

  “Well, I couldn’t live in The Castle and not learn a little about it,” Nanny replied. “So I makes friends with the Curator and, as he seldom has anyone to talk to, he tells me what I wants to know.”

  “And that is very very exciting for us,” Terry enthused.

  He began to walk ahead of them along the narrow passage.

  After a short way there were some steps leading up to the next floor and a little further on they came to what Nanny told them was a Priest’s Hole.

  It was actually a small room with an Altar on one of the walls and a wooden bedstead on another.

  “So this is where the Priests hid?” Kyla said.

  “That’s right,” Nanny agreed. “The Curator told me that the family used to creep in here to hear Mass while the Priest himself did not dare to go out for fear that he should be seen, arrested and beheaded.”

  Kyla gave a little cry.

  “They were very cruel in those days!”

  As she spoke, she thought that the same might be said for today.

  Could anything be crueller than her stepmother plans to kill dear Terry? And to sell her into a life of debauchery, which she would rather die than endure?

  Nanny did not say anything, but Kyla knew that she was thinking the same thing.

  To change the subject, Nanny suggested,

  “Now, come along and I’ll show you how you can reach the nursery without goin’ back to the front of the house.”

  They walked a long way along another dimly lit passage.

  Finally at the far end of it there was a ladder attached to the wall.

  Nanny climbed up it first and at the top she pushed open a trap door.

  Kyla followed behind her.

  She found that they were now in a large cupboard that was obviously used for things that were not wanted and for luggage, like their own, which was too small to be taken up to the attics.

  Terry joined them in the cupboard and Nanny pulled the trap door back into place.

  Unless anyone looked very carefully it would not be noticed and so no one would have suspected for a moment that an entrance to a secret passage was there in front of them.

  In fact, to make sure it was not observed, there was a rug covering it.

  Made of light wool, it was not heavy enough to prevent anyone from pushing open the trap from below.

  Terry was really delighted with everything he had seen.

  “Now I can creep about The Castle,” he asserted, “and no one will know that I am there.”

  Nanny and Kyla exchanged glances.

  They were both thinking that if the worse came to the worst and their stepmother came in search of them, this was where they could hide.

  “Now just you forget all you’ve seen,” Nanny ordered, “or you will get me into trouble. You promise, Terry, not to talk about it?”

  “Of course, I promise,” Terry answered.

  Nanny opened the cupboard door and they found that they were in another passage at the other end of which was the nursery.

  Jane had been lying down while they were exploring The Castle because she was rather tired.

  She was awake now and the nursery maid was putting her into one of her pretty frilly dresses.

  “You are back,” she said excitedly. “I was afraid you would forget about me.”

  “We haven’t done that,” Nanny answered. “And I have asked the chef to send you up somethin’ special for tea, somethin’ I know that both you and Terry will like.”

  “Chocolate cake!” Jane exclaimed.

  “Wait and see,” Nanny retorted.

  But Kyla knew that Nanny had not forgotten that chocolate cake was Terry’s favourite.

  After tea they played games and then first Jane went to bed and an hour later Terry.

  After that Kyla sat and talked with Nanny in the nursery.

  “Have you thought,” she asked Nanny, “what we shall do when the Earl comes back? After all he cannot expect to keep Lady Blessingham’s grandson for ever.”

  “I know,” Nanny said in a worried voice. “At the same time it’s a mistake to look too far ahead. His Lordship, bein’ a young man, is not particularly interested in children.”

  “Surely he likes Jane, who is such a pretty child?” Kyla enquired.

  “Oh, he’s very kind to her and begrudges her nothin’, which is very much for her good,” Nanny said. “But I think actually it’s time now he was thinkin’ of gettin’ married and havin’ children of his own.”

  “He has gone to Paris,” Kyla said. “I heard my stepmother say it was a City of gaiety and every possible excitement for men, so he will not be thinking of choosing a wife as yet.”

  “No real lady would talk about such things in front of you anyway,” Nanny said stiffly.

  “I think Stepmama was envious that any man preferred going to Paris to being in London with her,” Kyla said. “Of course she was not talking to me but to her friends, who said some very strange things that I did not understand.”

  “A very good thing too, if you asks me,” Nanny said tartly. “I never did think that her Ladyship was in any way a good companion for a young and innocent girl.”

  Actually, because she was intelligent, Kyla had thought that herself.

  She did not want to think about her stepmother let alone talk about her, so she said,

  “What worries me, Nanny is how we can get hold of any money. When what I have now is spent and I have sold Mama’s jewels, there will be no
question of our having any more. Unless, of course, we no longer remain in hiding and reveal who we are to Papa’s Bank or to his Solicitors.”

  “You can’t do that,” Nanny stressed.

  “I know,” Kyla answered. ‘That is what worries me. And, as you well know, Terry must go to school sometime.”

  Nanny held up her hands.

  “We can’t talk now about Terry goin’ to school or you two livin’ on your own. We shall just have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime you’re ever so safe here with me.”

  “It is wonderful of you to have us,” Kyla said. “I thank God that we are here with you and are not wandering about the country being frightened by highwaymen.”

  “Terry has told me all about that man, Bill, who was kind to you,” Nanny remarked.

  “I was so sorry for him,” Kyla said, “because really he is just one of the people whose lives were ruined by that horrible War.”

  Nanny nodded.

  “Wars are bad and wicked. Mr. Jenkins, that’s his Lordship’s valet, had said more than once it was a miracle that he and his Lordship survived and were not killed by that monster, Napoleon.”

  “So perhaps it is easier to fight an enemy in a war than to be like us” Kyla said in a low tone, “not knowing who is our friend and who is our enemy.”

  “There be no mistakin’ who your enemy is,” Nanny said sharply. “’Tis her Ladyship and if there is any justice in this world, she’ll surely get her just deserts.”

  “In the meantime we are fugitives,” Kyla said. “When I think of the long years ahead for us, hiding or running away, it frightens me so much.”

  Nanny pressed her lips together.

  Kyla knew that she was preventing herself from denouncing her stepmother as well.

  After a few seconds, Nanny suggested,

  “Stop worryin’, Miss Kyla. Just go to bed and thank God that you have somewhere to sleep, that you’re not hungry and now there’s no danger or I should know about it.”

  Kyla rose from her chair, saying,

  “You are right, Nanny. I am being selfish and ungrateful in thinking about myself and Terry when you are doing so much for us.”

  “You’re nothin’ of the kind,” Nanny contradicted her. “You’re just tired and, when one’s tired, things always seem worse.”