A Collector of Hearts

by Sally Quilford

  Descending the staircase behind her employer, Caroline looked for a familiar face – Blake’s – but could not find him in the crowd.

  “Well,” said one of the Harlequins, coming forward and bowing slightly. “You’re a sight to behold, Lady Cassandra.”

  Caroline smiled awkwardly. “Good evening, Blake.” He took her hand and led her down the rest of the staircase, ignoring Mrs Oakengate, who stood alone looking somewhat bemused.

  He gave a theatrical bow, which had she been in a better mood would have made her laugh.

  She turned back, and waited for her employer, only to find Mrs Oakengate looking confused by the sea of costumes surrounding her. Before Caroline could help, a rather short Laughing Cavalier stood forward. “Please, Mrs Oakengate, let me clear up some of your confusion.”

  Mrs Oakengate gave an audible sigh of relief. “Count Chlomsky, thank you. It is comforting to know there is someone on whom I can still rely.”

  The doors to the ballroom opened, and the guests started pouring in.

  “Is there a problem?” Blake asked Caroline, stopping her from following them.

  “Yes, there’s a problem. No one tells me anything, and even Mrs Oakengate isn’t her usual forthright self.”

  “You sound annoyed.”

  “Oh I am many miles further on from being annoyed. I’m fed up of people lying to me or not telling me what they know.”

  “Does that include me?”

  “Yes, it does as a matter of fact. First you’re an up and coming director. Then you’re a political journalist. And now you’re the grandson of the hotel magnate who owns this abbey. I can’t help wondering how many more layers I’m expected to peel off before I find the real you, Blake.”

  “I wish I could tell you…”

  Caroline put up her hand to stop him speaking any further. “No, don’t wish you could tell me. Just tell me. Otherwise, please just leave me alone. I’m tired of all the subterfuge.” She stormed away from him and grabbed a drink from one of the side tables in the hall. She almost spilled it when Blake spun her around by the arm and pulled her into an alcove. “You don’t have the god-given right to know everything, Caroline. Just because your life and that of your notorious parents is an open book, doesn’t mean everyone always has to tell you everything about themselves.”

  Caroline gasped, as a searing pain shot through her. “Is that what you think of me? I’m quite certain you’d have thought even less of me if I’d lied about them and then you’d found out. But don’t you think that if you’re talking about running away with someone, and expecting them to go along with it, that person deserves honesty? Or am I just supposed to follow you blindly, like my mother followed my father? Even if it means to my death?”

  “Oh don’t be so dramatic. If you can’t trust me to be doing the right thing, perhaps I don’t even want to run away with you anymore.”

  “Good, because I’ve got better things to do.” Caroline walked away with as much dignity as she could muster. At that moment she was thankful for the silver mask covering half her face, so that no one else could see the anguish she knew must be written there.

  The funhouse mirrors which Caroline had seen in the room off the secret passageway were set around the room, whilst guests stood in front of them, laughing at their distorted appearance. It made Caroline shiver to see their strange costumes rendered surreal. The fact that she had no idea who was behind each costume did not help her feeling of unreality. She recognised Mrs Oakengate, because she had helped her to dress, and she guessed that the Laughing Cavalier sitting with her was still Count Chlomsky. But everyone else looked a stranger to her. She tried to work out which one was the prince, but could not. It brought home how ordinary looking he really was. There were several short, portly men in the party – whom Caroline knew to be directors or character actors – so in costume he looked no different to any of them. Assuming he had made an appearance yet.

  Bats and spiders, hung from the ceiling, and a full size skeleton had been set in front of one of the mirrors and somehow danced to the music. Only up close would anyone see the fine strings guiding its actions, whilst one of the servants sat in the gallery above the ballroom, pulling on them and seemingly having a whale of a time. Smoke and mirrors, thought Caroline, to comfort herself. That was all it was.

  She spied Anna Anderson in a corner and made her way through the crowds, glad to at least see someone she did recognise. Anna wore a simple green cocktail dress.

  “You look magnificent,” said Anna. “For a moment there I thought the portrait had come to life.”

  “Oh please. Don’t. You’re not wearing a costume,” Caroline said as she sat down.

  “Lord no,” said Anna. “The powers that be would not allow it.” She gestured across the room. “Just in case I outshine her. That’s her, dressed as Marie Antoinette, and sidling up to that highwayman.”

  “Hmm,” said Caroline. “Actress’s hey? Who’d have them?”

  “You seem a bit upset. Problems with The Oakengate?”

  “Actually I’m rather worried about the old girl. Something spooked her today at lunch.”

  “Yes, I noticed that. Her age getting to her perhaps?”

  “I hope that’s all it is. I know she can be a bit difficult, but to be honest I’d much rather have her like that. Difficult I can cope with. Dazed and confused is a different matter. Believe it or not, I’m actually rather fond of her. She is very much alone in the world.”

  “She has you.”

  “Yes, but as she pointed out today, she has to pay me.” Caroline decided she had been a little indiscreet. She should not really be talking about her private conversations with Mrs Oakengate. She changed the subject. “Anna, do you know how the prince got invited to this party?”

  “The prince? No, no idea. I suppose the Hendersons will know. What makes you ask?”

  “It’s just that he’s sprung from nowhere. And I’m pretty sure that Mrs Oakengate’s funny spell – for want of a better term – had something to do with him. She seems to think he’s been making a fool of her.”

  “In what way?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. The flirting I suppose. Pretending he’s smitten with her. It is odd, isn’t it? A man of thirty going after a woman in her sixties. Not that it doesn’t happen. I know someone who married a man half her age. But a prince… well, to put it in rather crude terms, you’d think he’d be looking for someone who could give him the heir and spare, wouldn’t you?”

  Anna laughed. “Yes, I suppose so. But there’s no accounting for taste. Not that the Oakengate isn’t very well preserved for her age.”

  “No, she’s still very attractive. But it doesn’t ring true.” Caroline sighed.

  “You are in a mood.”

  “There are things going on you don’t know about.”

  “Please, do tell. I love a mystery.”

  “No,” said Caroline. She smiled wryly. “And now I’m doing it.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Keeping things from someone. Maybe later, when everyone has settled down for the night, I’ll come along to your room and tell you everything that’s been happening. I could use a friend to talk to. But not now. There are too many people around.”

  “Is the delicious Blake Laurenson involved somehow?”

  “Yes.” Caroline’s lips set in a grim line.

  “He’s real heart throb material, isn’t he? If you don’t want him anymore, I’d be quite happy to end up on his casting couch.”

  That threw Caroline for a moment, before she remembered that all the other guests still believed Blake was an up and coming director. “What made you think I wanted him in the first place?”

  “I’ve got eyes in my head. I’ve seen the way you look at each other. Look, Caroline, I’m probably not the right person to say this. Joking aside, I’ve heard it said that Blake might not be what he pretends to be. None of the actors here have ever heard of him as a director, and believe me, they would all k
now. They collect directors’ names like other people collect stamps.”

  Caroline wondered how much she could trust Anna with the truth about Blake. What harm would it do? A small voice inside her said that it might do a lot of harm. She did not know why Blake wanted his identity kept a secret, and to tell Anna would be betraying a trust. As angry as she was with him, she would not do that.

  “But if he’s only just starting out,” said Caroline, and left the rest hanging.

  A Harlequin approached the table and Caroline’s heart flipped. “Lady Cassandra, you must do me the honour of dancing with me,” the Harlequin said in Jack Henderson’s voice.

  “Sorry, but I’m keeping Anna company.”

  “Go on, Caroline. In that outfit, it’s a sin not to dance,” said Anna.

  “In that case, I’d be honoured,” said Caroline, before joining Jack on the dance floor. She hoped that a dance with another handsome man, albeit a married one and therefore out of bounds, would cheer her up a little.

  “If I ever decide to make a film of Lady Cassandra’s life, I think I’ll be calling you,” said Jack as they started to dance a quick step to a Fred Astaire song.

  “You haven’t seen my acting yet!”

  “Believe me, Caroline, I know quite a lot of actors who can’t really act. You’d be amazed how much we achieve with smoke and mirrors.”

  “That’s strange,” said Caroline. “I was thinking about smoke and mirrors when I came in tonight and saw all this.”

  “It’s in our bones,” said Jack. “We can’t see a room without wondering how to create a scene.”

  “Mr Henderson…”

  “Jack.”

  “Jack. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but how did the prince end up coming this weekend? I mean, he hasn’t come out in public elsewhere. So why now?”

  “A secretary from the Cariastan Embassy called me and said that the prince was interested in coming, because Mrs Oakengate was going to be here.”

  “So you’d never actually met him before he arrived.”

  “No, not at all.”

  “And it was definitely the Cariastan Embassy.”

  “I thought so at the time,” said Jack, mysteriously. “I suppose Blake has been talking to you.”

  “Blake? Why, what has he got to do with this?”

  Another Harlequin standing next to them interrupted them. It was Blake. “May I cut in?”

  “Yes, of course,” said Jack, lightly. “I must go and find my wife before she runs off with a highwayman. There are far too many around tonight.”

  Blake took Caroline in his arms just as the music changed to a slow dance. She stood stiffly in his arms, whilst he guided her around the floor. “I’m sorry for what I said,” he murmured against her hair. “It was unforgivable.”

  “Yes, it was.”

  “So does that mean you’ll never forgive me?”

  “I might if you stop being so obscure and tell me what’s going on.”

  “Even if I stripped away that last layer, as you called it, Caroline, it wouldn’t tell you anything about else about me. It wouldn’t tell you that I like watching cricket on a sunny afternoon, or that I like going to see Hitchcock films. Or that I one day want to write the great political novel. Or that I lost my first tooth at the age of six, and the one and only time I ever lost my heart was two days ago in the lane, or that the happiest moment of my life was standing in a secret passageway in the dark, holding you in my arms. That’s who I am, and nothing else you learn about me will change that. Or at least it won’t change me. It will change the way others look at me, even the way you look at me, and I’m not ready for that. I don’t think I ever will be.”

  “What is it? What can be so awful that you want to run away from it?” asked Caroline. Tears stung her eyes. “Because that’s what you talked about. Running away.”

  “It’s something that will crush me, if I let it. But I’m not going to let it. I won’t let them come between what I feel for you, and they will definitely try to do that. They will want to take you away from me, and I can’t allow it.” He held her even tighter. “Damn it, I’m not going to lose you. You’re the only light in the darkness for me. I love you, Caroline.”

  “Whatever it is, I promise you won’t lose me,” she said, pressing her cheek against his. “I love you too.”

  “Just keep telling me that, darling then I won’t get weak and give in to them.”

  “Who are they, darling? Is it something you’ve gotten into that you wish you hadn’t? Is it about stealing the Cariastan Heart?”

  Blake threw back his head and laughed. “So you’re determined to think I’m a criminal, then? Would you still run away with me, if you thought that’s what I’d been up to?”

  Caroline did not even have to think about it. The sensible black and white view of the world she had always maintained suddenly became very grey indeed. For the first time in her life, she understood the love her mother had for her father. It might not be the right thing to do, but as far as she could see it was the only thing she could do. She nodded. “Yes, if it will help you to escape from the people you talk about, I will. Because I know there’s good in you.”

  “And you intend to be my saviour.”

  “It sounds awful when you put it like that.”

  “Not awful. Wonderful. Except you’d actually be stopping me from doing something that deep down I know I should do, but which utter selfishness prevents me from doing. If you knew, you’d think I should do it to. I know you would. Which is why I’d rather not tell you.”

  Caroline frowned; perplexed by the direction the conversation had taken. She saw herself reflected in one of the mirrors, but as always with the funfair mirrors, it all felt wrong. Only this time it felt more wrong, as if she were standing in the wrong place.

  The music stopped, and as it did, all the lights in the ballroom went down, so that they were in near darkness. The male guests gasped, and some of the women screamed. People making ‘oo oo’ sounds in the style of ghosts followed this. That soon turned to laughter and someone shouted, ‘Nice one, Jack.”

  Caroline felt Blake moving away from her, but it was too dark to see where he went.

  “It’s nothing to do with me,” said Jack from somewhere within the darkness. “Penelope, did you arrange this?”

  “No, darling, and I wish whoever switched them off would switch them back on again. I’ve spilt my gin and tonic.” The guests laughed again. Everyone seemed certain that it was part of the evening’s entertainment. Caroline thought otherwise, actively waiting for a gunshot or some other sound to show that a crime had taken place.

  The lights went back up as suddenly has they had gone off. Caroline looked around but Blake was nowhere to be seen. It occurred to her that he had gone down to the cellar, to see who had switched off the gas taps, so she made to follow him, only to find her way blocked by Mrs Oakengate.

  “What have you done with it?” said Mrs Oakengate.

  “What?”

  “What have you done with the Cariastan Heart?”

  “You were wearing it, Mrs Oakengate.”

  “Yes, and I felt you snatch it from my neck!”

  Chapter Eight

  Caroline and Mrs Oakengate carried on their discussion in the hallway. “I didn’t take it Mrs Oakengate. Honestly.”

  As she spoke, Blake emerged from the door that led to the kitchens. Count Chlomsky and the Hendersons had followed them into the hall, whilst other guests crowded towards the ballroom door.

  “What’s going on?” asked Blake.

  “She stole the Cariastan Heart,” said Mrs Oakengate. “She was near to me just beforehand and snatched it from me whilst the lights were out. I saw her dashing away as they came up again.”

  “She can’t have,” said Blake. “She was with me when the lights went out.”

  “Oh you would say that. No doubt she’s fooled you too. I knew I shouldn’t have taken on someone whose parents were so notorious.”


  Caroline turned to her employer indignantly. “How on earth does it follow that if my parents were both spies that it would turn me into a thief? That doesn’t even make sense.”

  “Stealing state secrets. Stealing expensive jewellery. It’s all the same,” said Mrs Oakengate. “I knew there was something going on here this weekend, but I hardly believed it was my own companion.”

  “I’ll call the police,” said Jack Henderson. “Then we’ll sort this out.”

  “No,” said Mrs Oakengate. “I don’t want a scandal. Caroline, if you just give it back to me, we’ll forget the whole thing. Of course, I won’t be able to employ you anymore, but you can hardly expect otherwise.”

  Caroline felt as if her life were spiralling out of control. The whole thing was ludicrous. Just because her parents were spies did not automatically make her a thief. She also began to wonder about Blake. Had this been what he was involved in? If so, that would mean that he had used her as an alibi, by saying he was with her when the lights went out. But it also made him her alibi, so that did not make sense. Unless…. Unless he had an accomplice. Someone who dressed up as Lady Cassandra. It went back to who had suggested Caroline’s costume. She still doubted it was her employer’s idea. “Mrs Oakengate,” she said, as calmly as she could. “Whose idea was it that I dress as Lady Cassandra tonight?”

  “It was mine. I’ve already told you that. You look just like her.”

  “Please forgive my rudeness, Mrs Oakengate, but you’re not the most insightful woman in the world.”

  “I won’t forgive that.”

  “Well, as you’ve just fired me, it hardly matters if I’m rude to you or not, does it? And as I’ve been wrongly accused of stealing, I think I’ve every right to ask questions.” Caroline took a deep breath, to try to calm her fevered mind. “In fact, Mr Henderson I would like you to call the police. Get them here now, and have everyone searched.”