“Lucilla has most kindly offered to look after Daisy while we are abroad,” Violet responded, “but – it was very wrong of me to ask her.” She turned to Lucilla, “You must have many calls upon your time and attention and it was quite unfair of me to presume that you might look after my dog.”
Almost as if she understood what was being said, Daisy gave a little whimper and climbed into Lucilla’s lap. The Marquis laughed. “No one asked you for your opinion, Daisy! And you know she will be perfectly well cared for here, Violet, with the housekeeper and the maids to fuss over her.”
“Yes, of course, I know, Dermot, but – ”
“My sister hates to go away and leave her beloved creatures behind.” “I do! It is very foolish of me,” Violet said and she smiled, even though the sad look still lingered in her eyes. “I even feel miserable that I won’t be here to see all the daffodils I have planted come into bloom. And the birds in the aviary will be starting their nests. I can’t bear to leave them.”
Violet’s eyes were so full of pain that Lucilla could not help but feel sorry for her. “Please – if it makes it any easier for you, I would really love to look after Daisy and the birds – and even the daffodils!”
The Marquis raised his dark brows at Lucilla and was about to say something when the butler arrived to announce that luncheon was served. So instead of speaking, he slid off the arm of the sofa.
“Let’s go and eat!” he suggested, “and afterwards, Lady Lucilla, I would be delighted to escort you on a little tour of our estate.”
The luncheon was delicious with soup and fish and a green salad of delicate leaves from the glasshouses on the Castlebury estate. Lucilla was happy to sit back and enjoy her food, as Violet and Dermot reminisced happily on their childhood and the happy days when Nanny Groves had presided over the nursery at Appleton Hall.
As the butler brought fruit for their dessert to the table, the Marquis turned to Lucilla. “I must apologise for Violet and myself – here we are talking nineteen to the dozen and quite ignoring you,” “Not at all,” she replied and told him how much she was enjoying their conversation, for she could tell how much they loved each other and appreciated each other’s company. “I think I have quite missed out by being an only child,” she murmured.
“Oh – you are so polite!” the Marquis grinned at her. “A true product of Nanny’s education. You see – I told you we had something in common.” And he gave Lucilla a slight wink, just as he had done yesterday.
Lucilla looked down at her plate, hoping that the heat that was rising in her cheeks did not show too much.
He was so different from the man she had met at the Armstrongs. He now seemed so happy – almost flirtatious – and he did not seem to have any idea how it made her feel to see him and to be so close to him.
Now he was standing up from the table and inviting her to walk with him. “Let’s leave Violet and Daisy to doze in front of the fire,” he suggested, as the butler brought their coats.
As they stepped out of the front door, the Marquis eyed the cut of Lucilla’s coat with approval and suddenly she wished she had her old velvet coat with her instead.
‘I know that this coat makes me look good,’ she thought, ‘but I cannot bear to remember who bought it for me and why!’
Outside the sun was beginning to break through the mist and long rays of light lit up the broad avenues of trees and the expanses of lawn surrounding Appleton Hall.
“I am rather worried about my sister,” the Marquis confided, as soon as they left the house and headed toward the Park. “She is becoming like an old woman, always wanting to stay at home and fuss with her dogs and birds.”
Lucilla did not really know what to say to this, but she pointed out that it was natural for any woman who was kind-hearted to care for the well-being of her pets.
“Yes!” he agreed, “but she should get married and have a family! I should miss her, of course, but – ”
“Perhaps she has not met anyone she likes,” Lucilla commented, not quite daring to look at him.
The Marquis sighed. “Oh, she has, that is the trouble. She was engaged to be married, but, alas, her fiancé was killed, fighting in the Boer War. And now she will not look at anyone else.”
“Did she really love him?” Lucilla asked, trying to ignore the tight feeling building in her chest. “If she did, then perhaps – she just cannot – love someone else – ”
“It was a long time ago.”
“Even so, it would not be right for her to try and – love someone she did not really care for.”
The Marquis was striding along quickly now, his feet leaving wet prints as he trod across the damp grass. Suddenly he turned round to face Lucilla.
“You speak with conviction,” he said, looking into her eyes, “almost with passion. I think you must be talking from some kind of personal experience.”
Lucilla’s face was so hot she had to put her hands up to her cheeks so the smooth leather of her gloves might cool them.
“I am sorry,” the Marquis looked away from her. “It is really unfair of me to speculate about your personal and private affairs in this way.”
“No, it’s just that – I am in a difficult position.”
Lucilla was longing to tell him everything, all about Harkness Jackson, although she knew that it would not be right to speak about this with someone who was a relative stranger and – a gentleman.
But she did not want to close the conversation. “I – have had a proposal of marriage,” she stuttered, “and – I cannot accept it, because I do not – could not – love the gentleman concerned. And so, perhaps I can feel some sympathy with your sister – ”
The Marquis’s dark brows were creased in a frown. “I am sorry to hear that you are in this situation,” he said. “But Violet is older than you are – she must marry soon.”
“Have you ever been in love, my Lord?” As soon as the words were out of Lucilla’s mouth, she wished she had not said them, for the lines on the Marquis’s face deepened.
“Yes!” He almost spat the word out. And he began to walk faster again, so that Lucilla had to trot to keep up with him.
“And – would you – ” she asked him breathlessly, thinking that now she had begun, she might as well carry on, for she very much wanted him to understand what she was trying to tell him, “have married that person, the one you loved?”
“I asked her to marry me! She led me to believe that she would be my wife – and then – ” His hands clenched into tight fists as he spoke, “She turned her back on me, for the sake of another man’s greater fortune.” Lucilla stumbled over a patch of rough grass and almost fell to her knees. He was talking about Ethel! It could only be her he was referring to.
“Lucilla!” The Marquis turned back, reaching out for her arm to steady her. “Are you all right? I am being quite thoughtless, rushing ahead like this.”
“No, it is I who is thoughtless,” Lucilla answered, when she caught her breath. “We should not be talking about a subject that is so painful to you.”
“Oh, please don’t concern yourself. I don’t care who knows it,” the Marquis said, his eyes glinting with a bitter light. “She has betrayed me for a man I swear she does not love. But – enough of that. Let’s turn back. The grass is still damp, even though the sun is out and your shoes will be soaked.”
Lucilla had not noticed that the ground underfoot was soggy and that the water was staining her shoes.
“I am sure that you will recover in time,” she said, as the Marquis was still looking morose.
He shook his head. “I cannot believe that I will ever care for a woman again.”
“Then – can you not see how your sister must feel? If she has lost her one true love?”
“It’s not the same. Her fiancé died. He did not say he loved her, promise to marry her and then betray her.”
His eyes were dark and unreadable as he looked at her and Lucilla knew that she should say no more.
; Then he smiled at her, although his eyes remained guarded. “Dear Lucilla – you are a kind soul. And there is so much more of the estate to see. Come, I shall take you to the aviary.” They turned back towards the house and he led her to a stunning construction of metal and wire with domes and vaults to rival the great Crystal Palace, although on a far smaller scale.
There were trees planted inside it and all over the branches wooden nest boxes with holes for doors and neat little roofs were hanging.
Lucilla gasped in sheer delight as she watched the brightly coloured birds flitting from twig to twig, flicking their wings at each other and inspecting the boxes.
“They know better how to live their lives than we humans,” the Marquis remarked gloomily, as he stood by her side. For a moment she wondered what he meant. And then she realised that the bright birds were all in pairs. Some sat side by side in the trees, their feathers fluffed up against the cold. Others were peeping out from the cosy nest boxes. Look as she might, all through the huge aviary, she could not see a single bird on its own.
‘Will I ever find someone who really loves me and always wants to be by my side?’ Lucilla thought and she shivered as she pictured herself alone and forever fleeing the unwanted attentions of the likes of Harkness Jackson.
The Marquis seemed lost in sadness now, his eyes turned inward to his own painful thoughts.
‘He is so changeable,’ Lucilla mused. ‘He is like a stormy spring day, one moment bright and full of sunshine and the next as perturbed and miserable as can be.’
Her heart turned over in her chest as she looked at him, at his dark hair and his strong brooding face. She wanted to reach out to him, touch his arm and try to comfort him, but she did not dare.
“You are cold!” the Marquis queried. “I have kept you outside for far too long. Let’s go back to the fire.” As they walked along the terrace that ran in front of the house, he apologised to her for talking so much about himself. “It’s all foolish nonsense,” he said. “And I should not burden you with it. It was most rude of me.”
“It is causing you great pain, my Lord, and surely it is good to talk about issues that are troubling us, for then they become smaller in our minds.”
He smiled at her, his dark mood evaporating. “You sound just like Nanny!” Lucilla felt her own heart lightening too. “I’m sure it is a good thing you are going away,” she said. “To be abroad will distract and entertain you – ”
“Yes,” the Marquis replied with a bitter little smile “and there will be many miles – and the English Channel – between Ethel and myself.”
He did not seem to notice that he had spoken her name out loud, but Lucilla felt her skin suddenly recoiling from the fur at her wrists.
If he knew that Ethel had bought the coat for her, just what would he say? He would be disgusted. He must never, never find out.
“Oh, Lucilla – you must stay for tea!” Violet cried, coming down to meet them in the hall.
The butler was approaching to take Lucilla’s coat and hang it up, but she stopped him. She had to get away and take the coat that she now found completely hateful with her.
“You are very kind, but I must get back to Holly Cottage and look after Nanny. She finds making her own tea a chore now – ” Violet reached out and put her arms around Lucilla, kissing her on the cheek.
“It has been so lovely to meet you, Lucilla. You are welcome here any time you would like to come and visit us. I am sure Dermot will be just as happy as I am to see you again.”
The Marquis nodded. “Absolutely,” he said and then a mischievous look crept into his eyes. “And as for Daisy – she will be quite bereft without you!”
Lucilla bent down to pat the little dog, which was fussing around her feet. “I really would be very happy to look after her for you while you are away,” she confirmed. “It would be no trouble for me at all.”
Violet gazed at her, her soft brown eyes full of tears. “Oh Lucilla, you are so kind. She really does seem to have taken to you. And I have too! I never had a sister, but – if I had, I would have liked her to be just like you!”
The two girls embraced and Lucilla hurried away down the drive, anxious to be back at Holly Cottage before the afternoon light began to fall into dusk.
As she laid the tea tray in Nanny’s little kitchen, the Marquis’s face was there constantly before her eyes, as she remembered everything he had said and all the shades of emotion and passion that had passed through him.
‘I have never in my life met anyone quite like him,’ she thought to herself. ‘He feels everything so deeply.’ And, try as she might, she could not put him out of her mind or still the feelings in her heart that seemed to grow stronger each time she thought of him.
*
“How did you like Appleton Hall?” Nanny Groves asked her, as they sipped their tea.
“Oh, it is so beautiful! Such a fine old house,” and then Lucilla continued, “Nanny – I must ask you something.”
“What is it, my dear?”
“I have something that was – a gift from someone I – don’t like very much.”
Nanny Groves looked sharply at Lucilla. “Have you accepted a gift from this man you spoke about yesterday?”
“No! Of course not, Nanny! But – it is difficult.” Without mentioning her name, she explained about Ethel and how she had bought the glorious pink coat and given it to Lucilla against her will.
“I think this girl wanted me to accept Mr. Jackson’s proposal. She wanted me to have the coat so that I would impress him – ”
“But why, my dear?”
“She herself is engaged to a friend of Mr. Jackson’s – another American.”
“Ah!” Nanny nodded her head. “I see. It’s a bold step for a well-bred English girl to take, to marry someone so very different from her own kind. She must have hoped that she would not be the only one to make such a choice.”
“Then what should I do, Nanny? The pink coat is so beautiful, yet I don’t feel comfortable wearing it.”
“Then you must return it, at once.” Nanny replied. “Go and find one of the big baskets in the scullery – the ones that my laundry comes back in from Appleton Hall. We’ll pack the coat in it and send it by rail tomorrow.”
“I don’t want her to know where I am,” she said, suddenly feeling afraid. “They will come after me, I am sure.”
“Just tell the Stationmaster not to put any return address on the basket. No one will ever be able to find out where it has come from.”
Lucilla went to unhook the coat from where it was hanging in the hall. It was still a little damp from her walk back from Appleton Hall.
‘I will not have a warm coat now,’ she reflected, as she stroked the fur cuffs. But, deep inside, she knew that she had made the right decision as she folded it up and carried it through into the scullery to pack it away.
She must leave her old life far behind and move on, whatever the future might hold.
*
The next morning dawned bright and sunny. Lucilla loaded the basket into the wheelbarrow and trundled it down to the Station with one of Nanny’s thick woollen shawls wrapped around her shoulders to keep her warm.
The kindly man with the big moustache came out from the Ticket Office to take it from her.
“No return address, miss? Are you sure?” he asked.
“Quite sure.” Inside the basket she had placed a note for Ethel, thanking her and saying that she did not need the pink coat anymore and wished to return it.
The Stationmaster looked rather puzzled, but took the basket from her with no further questions.
As he did so, Lucilla heard a clatter of hooves on the road behind her and a man’s voice called out, “Halloa there!”
It was the Marquis. He came trotting up to her on a tall grey horse.
“Whatever are you doing?” he asked her, frowning down at her. “Surely you are not leaving us already?” “Oh – no!”
“But what’s that great baske
t? I thought it must be your luggage.”
Lucilla did not know what to say. She did not want him to know that the large basket contained her pink coat, as then she would have to think of something less that truthful to tell him about it.
Luckily he was now staring at Nanny’s shawl. “And what are you wearing?” he asked. “I didn’t recognise you, as I rode down the street just now.”
Once again, Lucilla was at a loss for words. But now the Marquis was smiling at her.
“If I had not ridden up to see what was going on, I might have taken you for a washerwoman!” Once again, Lucilla thought how swiftly his moods changed. Now he seemed full of laughter and high spirits.
He leant down from the saddle, his eyes glowing with excitement.
“I am so glad I caught up with you,” he whispered. “For I have had a wonderful idea. I think – I hope – that you are going to like it very much!”
Her heart beating painfully fast, Lucilla looked up at him, wondering what on earth he was about to say.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Marquis swung himself out of the saddle and leapt down so that he was standing close to Lucilla.
He took her hand and, gazing into her eyes, he then almost exploded,
“Come to Paris with me!”
Lucilla was shocked to the core by his words. Her heart beat fast, swelling with joy and her head was spinning with excitement.
He gripped her fingers tightly, bringing her back to earth.
“Don’t you think that will be the most wonderful fun?” he asked, his brown eyes glowing. “Yes!” Lucilla managed to whisper, as she could scarcely breathe for the tide of emotion that surged in her breast. He wanted her to go away with him!
“It came to me yesterday – when you were leaving. It was something Violet said about wishing that you were her sister.”
Lucilla wondered why he was talking about Violet.
She felt a little sad, as she realised that the Marquis was no longer gazing into her eyes. He was looking beyond her, his face alight with fun almost as if he was already surveying the busy boulevards of Paris.
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