But as she lay down on her bed, she closed her eyes and whispered softly,
“Thank You, God. Thank You.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The next morning Benina was dressed and tidying her hair when the door opened and David peeped in.
He did not speak to her, but merely beckoned with his hand and she knew he was going downstairs.
She ran over the bedroom, picked up her riding hat and followed him.
He arrived at the ground floor and instead of going out as she expected, he turned towards the breakfast room.
When she joined him, she mumbled to David,
“I thought we would have to creep out of the house without breakfast.”
“Newman would be annoyed if we did, Benina, and quite frankly I am feeling hungry.”
He helped himself to bacon and eggs and passed a plate to Benina.
“Thank you, my Lord. Where are we going?”
“Anywhere at all as long as we keep away from the house and I suggest we hurry.”
She realised he was afraid that Stella would find out that they were leaving and might come down to protest and make a scene.
They ate in silence.
Then, with David leading the way, they hurried out of a back door and on to the stables.
Ben was there and had saddled the two horses.
David lifted her onto the one with a side saddle.
Then as he mounted the other horse, Ben piped up,
“You’ll not be rough with ’em, my Lord. They’re better than I’ve ever seen ’em on their new food, but they ain’t as strong as them ought to be.”
David smiled at him.
“We will be very careful with them, Ben, and thank you for having them ready for us.”
Ben touched his forelock and they rode off.
They went first through the paddock at the back of the stables and then onto the fields that should have been growing crops.
It was only as they were riding along with the sun rising in the sky that Benina said,
“I forgot in my hurry to bring my hat.”
“There are only the birds and the bees to see you,” David remarked, “and they will tell you that you look very attractive.”
Benina laughed.
“I am delighted to receive a compliment even from the rabbits if they will offer me one!”
“Well, I can easily pay you a compliment, Benina, by saying you ride extremely well. I know the moment I see a woman on a horse whether she is a good or bad rider and you are undoubtedly at the top of the list.”
“It is fabulous to be riding again, my Lord.”
She bent forward to pat the neck of her horse.
With the sunlight shining on her hair, David felt she might be a Goddess riding towards Olympus.
They did not talk much, but rode on in the direction he had chosen to what had originally been the Home Farm.
They were not surprised to find the house not only empty but in a poor condition. Part of the roof had fallen in and everything including the pigsties needed repair.
“You know what this is going to cost,” David said after he had looked round for several minutes in silence.
“You will soon be able to repair it or build another Home Farm,” commented Benina.
“If we find the money,” he said, accentuating ‘if’.
“I am absolutely certain we will – ”
They rode on, finding another farmhouse in more or less the same state and of course empty.
It was nearly two o’clock when they arrived back at Ingle Hall.
David insisted on returning by the back route and Benina knew it was because he wanted to be quite certain that Stella Ashworth had left before they entered the house.
She thought that she had never enjoyed a morning more, nor been happier than she had been with David.
She waited apprehensively in case he should look worried and depressed, as he seemed at breakfast.
There was, however, no sign of Stella’s horses in the stables and her carriage was not in the yard.
David walked into the house, not the way they had left it, but through the front door.
Newman was in the hall looking concerned.
“I wondered as to what’d happened to your Lordship. Luncheon’s been ready for ages and Nanny was worrying it’d be spoilt.”
“I am sorry we are late, Newman, but now we are back and very hungry.”
He put his hat down on one of the chairs and asked,
“Did Miss Ashworth leave without any trouble?”
There was a slight pause before Newman replied,
“She waited until it were nearly midday, my Lord, hoping you’d return. Then I says to her, I says, that you’d be likely to stay out for luncheon – so she went.”
David gave a sigh of relief.
Newman was obviously hesitating and then he added,
“As she steps into the carriage, Miss Ashworth says to me, ‘tell his Lordship when he returns that women and Russians have long memories’.”
Listening, Benina almost gave a little cry of horror, but she suppressed it in case she should upset David.
He did not say anything.
Newman hurried away to bring in the luncheon. It was rather over-cooked, but they were both ravenous and they ate without speaking.
When they had finished and Newman had left the coffee on the table, David suggested,
“Now we must go back to our work. I want to have another look at the first floor before we start on the second. I cannot help being convinced that is where my grandfather would have hidden his money.”
“Before you do that,” replied Benina, “I want you to come with me and this is very important.”
David looked at her in surprise.
“What is this all about, Benina?”
“I want to show you something.”
She got up from the table as she spoke and walked towards the door.
David opened it for her.
“Where do we go now?”
Benina slipped her hand into his.
“Somewhere that you should have gone a long time ago.”
She drew him along the passage that led towards the study and then she turned down a long side corridor to a flight of stairs.
It was rather dark and narrow and only as they went along it did David realise they were going to the gunroom.
When they entered, he thought it was larger than he remembered.
It contained a collection of sporting guns, fishing rods and duelling pistols as well as other weapons that had been handed down over the ages.
David, like all men, was delighted with them.
“I just cannot think why I didn’t come here at once. Look at all these pistols. We must try them out to see if they still work.”
“I am sure they will, my Lord, and I will challenge you as to who hits the bullseye first!”
David looked at her in surprise.
“Can you shoot?”
“Of course I can. Papa always thought a woman should be able to defend herself. As we lived in the depths of the country, it was a mistake not to anticipate that there might be highwaymen behind a hedge or a dangerous wild animal lurking about.”
David laughed.
“I will have to make a list of your many talents, I can see.”
“I am afraid there are not very many and one thing I have never learnt to do is to flirt!”
David thought he might have known she would not have missed the way that Stella had been behaving.
Although it was all too familiar to him, Benina was inexperienced and innocent and how could she know that so many women in the Social world behaved in exactly the same way?
He picked up a modern pistol that was lying on top of a table, guessing that it was one his grandfather must have acquired fairly recently.
To his surprise there were several of them and he wondered if they had been bought as a precaution to deal with burglars who might come to steal the pict
ures.
Then he vaguely recalled someone saying that his grandfather had threatened to shoot anyone who came to the house whom he did not welcome.
“This is what I brought you here for, my Lord, as I think that after what Miss Ashworth said to Newman, you would be very foolish not to be armed.”
He realised that she was referring to the Russians and he had to admit it was a sensible idea.
Benina picked up a revolver.
“I will carry this one, my Lord, and I think it would be wise and also kind to give one to Newman.”
“Do you think he could manage one?”
“Of course he can. I heard him telling Nanny that if she wanted rabbits or ducks, he would shoot one for her.”
“That answers the question,” David smiled. “But I think if it is what Newman needs, he had better be armed with a proper gun.”
“I should let him choose what he wants,” suggested Benina, “and let’s all be certain that we have enough bullets.”
They searched and found them in a drawer.
“Now to work,” enthused David.
They walked back up the stairs and as they were passing through the hall, Newman appeared.
“We are going to search again on the first floor, and by the way, Newman, Miss Benina insists that you and I carry guns or pistols to protect ourselves.”
“I’ve been thinking, your Lordship should do just that,” replied Newman, “ever since you’ve been here. As it so happens, I’ve got me own gun by me bed, but I’d feel happier if I had something I could carry in me pocket.”
“Then help yourself, Newman, but I see no reason why you should be particularly anxious.”
He knew this was not strictly true, then, as if Benina realised that he did not want to speak about the Russians, she remarked,
“Now you are here people are bound to talk about the picture gallery and there are valuables of some sort in every room.”
“Yes, of course,” agreed David.
He reached the top of the stairs, so he did not see Benina, halfway up the stairs, looked back meaningfully at Newman, who nodded his head.
She was well aware, because Nanny had told her, that Stella’s lady’s maid had intrigued the kitchen with a graphic description of how David had saved Fort Tibbee.
‘I would suppose,’ she ruminated, as she followed him along the first floor passage, ‘that it was far too good a story for anyone to keep secret!’
At the same time she was feeling frightened. She had read in magazines and newspapers about Russia’s ambition to build up a huge Empire as impressive as and even larger than the new German Empire.
Prince Otto von Bismarck, the First Chancellor of the German Empire had succeeded in uniting all the small German Principalities into an Empire.
The Russians were determined to do the same in the Balkans and there was very little doubt that their advances in Asia showed that they ultimately desired to take over India.
However, Benina was conscious that David did not want to talk about the Russians.
They worked hard on the first floor moving things, opening endless drawers and cupboards, hunting for secret passages that they never found.
When it was teatime, they had to wash away the dust and dirt from their hands before they went downstairs.
Nanny, as expected, had baked a fruitcake and there were several plates with sandwiches, bread and butter and delicious small buns.
David said he had not eaten such delights since he had been in the nursery.
“I shall never be too old for Nanny’s little titbits,” sighed Benina.
David smiled at her.
“You have been a brick today, Benina, but I don’t want you to become too tired.”
“I am not tired and I cannot help thinking about the magnificent horses you will be able to buy once you have found the hidden millions.”
“I was thinking of that as well. The horses we were riding this morning did us well, but I have a feeling that Ben is going to think they should have a rest tomorrow. It would be a mistake to push them too hard too quickly.”
“I agree, my Lord, but I did enjoy riding today.”
“I swear to you that we will ride in the future on the finest horses available – once I can pay for them.”
He noticed Benina’s eyes light up.
He did not realise that it was not only because he was promising her horses.
He was promising her they would be together in the future.
It was impossible for Benina to put into words how relieved she was that Stella Ashworth had finally gone.
Even now she could feel the agony that had swept over her when she thought that David would respond to the seductive way she was speaking and caressing him.
She was not so naïve as not to realise that if David brought a bride to the house, she and Nanny would have to leave.
When tea was finished, Newman appeared to take away the tray.
“It was lovely to have so much silver out,” Benina said. “It must have taken you a long time to polish it.”
“That’s true, Miss Benina, and with everything in the safe as black as the night, it’s going to take me a week of Sundays to get it back to the brightness it should have.”
“There’s plenty of time, so don’t exhaust yourself.”
David then left the room.
Lowering her voice, Benina muttered to Newman,
“I think we would be wise to carry our guns loaded. If we were burgled or attacked, there might not be time to load them in a hurry.”
“I’ve been thinking of that meself, Miss Benina.”
He paused and looked to the door as if to make sure that David was not listening.
Going a little nearer to Benina, he added,
“Seeing as what we’ve heard about them Ruskies, I’ve asked Mr. Cosnet and Ben to sleep in the house till we be sure they’re not after his Lordship.”
“That is a very wise idea of yours. I am sure Nanny will not mind cooking for two extra in the evening.”
Newman smiled.
“Mr. Cosnet knows the way to get to Nanny’s heart. He comes in today with a bowlful of strawberries and he’s promised her there’ll be some fresh raspberries tomorrow!”
“I know that’ll please her and I expect we will have some of them for dinner.”
“You can bet on that, Miss Benina.”
He left just as David returned and Benina thought it would be a mistake to tell him what had been arranged.
She was fully aware how touchy he became when anyone referred to the Russians and had seen how horrified he had been when Stella had said that they were all talking about him in Calcutta.
It also meant, she was sure, that he would be talked about in England too.
Every word made life more dangerous for him.
Because she did not want him to feel depressed, she set out at dinner to be amusing and to keep him laughing.
She told him stories of her father’s horses and of the people they had known in the country. She recounted anecdotes about her relatives and some who had been very eccentric in their behaviour.
When they went into the study after dinner, David threw himself down in one of the armchairs.
“I have a lot of work I should do before I go to bed, Benina, but I do want you to go on talking to me, as I have never enjoyed an evening more.”
“You are like a child being told fairy stories to send him to sleep,” Benina teased him.
“You tell me stories that I find really amusing and I cannot hear too many of them.”
They carried on talking until Benina yawned.
“Frankly I am rather tired, so I am going to bed, but don’t be late yourself, my Lord.”
“I have several letters I should have written more than a week ago to friends who were kind to me in India. I was not able to say goodbye to them as I had left in such a hurry. If I don’t write them now, they will never be done.”
“Well limit yourself to tw
o or three every night and then the task will not be so arduous.”
Benina walked towards the door before she added,
“Let’s think where we will start tomorrow. As you know, there must still be nearly half the house to be done.”
David threw up his hands.
“I know! I know! I keep hoping and praying that we will find the money soon, so we will not have to look any further.”
“I had thought of that already. So hurry and finish your letters. There may soon be many congratulations you will have to answer!”
Benina did not wait for a reply, but closed the door and ran upstairs to her room.
She was really exhausted as well as feeling a little stiff because she had not ridden for so long.
The horses had carried them nobly and she thought good food would make them stronger every day.
At least she and David would have plenty time to ride before they settled down to what looked like being an everlasting search.
She undressed and then she walked to the window to have another look at the moonlight.
She wanted to feel the beauty of it before she went to sleep.
First she looked up at the stars and then down into the garden where there was a fountain on the lawn.
She was contemplating how glorious it would be if they could make it play again, but as there was so much to do for everyone, she did not dare ask Cosnet for anything more outside the kitchen garden.
She looked out towards a row of lime trees with the moon shimmering like silver on the leaves.
Suddenly she was almost certain that she had seen a movement, but it was too dark to see anything clearly.
Yet she was sure that in the darkness something or someone was moving – slowly like a man moving step-by-step and pausing between each one.
Still she could not be sure.
Yet she felt as if by instinct that there was danger in the air, whether she could account for it or not.
She turned back into the room.
There was only one candle by the bed and beside it lay the revolver she had carried in her pocket when she had gone downstairs for dinner.
She picked it up.
Then blowing out the candle, she opened the door and ran downstairs.
By this time Newman would have gone to bed and the house was in darkness except for an occasional candle in one of the sconces.
Hide and Seek for Love Page 12