The Tree of Love

by Barbara Cartland

  Shenda was certain that this was due to the drugs he was being given and now it was wearing off, it made him feel even worse than before he had fallen asleep.

  “Is he complaining about his wound?”

  “Not right now, but he’s real disagreeable about ’is ’ead and I thinks you should stay ’ere, miss.”

  Shenda felt that he was right and that it would be a mistake to thrust herself on the Captain when the drug he had been given upset him.

  “Very well, Higgins, I will do as you tell me. But if he is bad in the night, call me, because that is what I am here for.”

  “And as I wants to keep you ’ere, I’m glad you ’as the good sense to listen to what I says, miss.”

  Shenda smiled at him.

  “I have now finished my supper and I have enjoyed it very much. I think now I will go into the library to find a book to read and then I will go to bed.

  “Please promise that if our patient is worse you will tell me. Otherwise I will wait until tomorrow.”

  “Now that be sensible and I hopes, miss, you sleep well.”

  He left the room and Shenda went into the library.

  She had guessed that there would be a library in the house and she had not been mistaken and it was much like the one at home only smaller.

  She picked up three interesting books and retired to her bedroom.

  Once again the beauty of it thrilled her and then she recalled it communicated with the boudoir that communicated with the Master suite.

  She put the three books down beside her bed and then she walked through the boudoir until she reached the communicating door at the far end.

  She stood listening intently and she could discern Higgins talking in his gruff rather amusing way.

  Then, as he finished what he was saying, she heard the deep clear English voice of the Captain.

  He was swearing, not violently but positively, and it was as if somehow every word was relieving the pain in his head.

  She listened for two or three minutes and then turned away and returned to her own room.

  If he had been in great pain, she knew he would not have been able to swear so fluently or so clearly.

  Higgins was right – it would be a great mistake for him to see her at this moment.

  If in a fury, he threw her out tomorrow morning at least she would spend one night in this lovely bedroom.

  The whole scenario made her feel as if she was just stepping into a fairy tale.

  *

  When she awoke in the morning, Shenda could not think for a moment where she was or what had happened.

  Then bright sunlight streaming through the curtains shone on the gold mirror by her bed and caught the wings of one of the cupids climbing up it.

  She then remembered where she was and why she was here.

  She sat up in her bed and looked at the clock beside her – it was nine o’clock.

  She had asked before retiring last night if she could be called at eight o’clock.

  It was obvious that Higgins had let her sleep, as her patient obviously had no immediate need for her.

  She jumped out of bed, rang the bell and drew back the curtains.

  The elderly housemaid who she had seen for a few moments last night came into the room.

  “Monsieur Higgins has requested me to inform you, mademoiselle,” she spoke up in French, “that Monsieur le Capitaine had a good night’s sleep and he thought that you should not visit him too early.”

  “I understand, thank you,” murmured Shenda.

  “Le petit dejeuner will be served as soon as you are downstairs, mademoiselle.”

  Shenda then washed and wondered if this evening she would be able to order a bath for herself.

  Then she put on one of her plainest dresses, hoping it would make her look professional and arranged her fair hair neatly but not as elaborately as she usually wore it.

  She smiled graciously at her reflection before she walked downstairs for breakfast.

  It was a French breakfast of croissants and coffee and she was delighted to see that there was a pot of honey on the table – as if to remind her, she thought, that it was to be eaten and not used otherwise!

  She was just finishing a second cup of coffee when Higgins came into the room.

  “Good mornin’, miss, ’ave you ’ad a good night?”

  “Very good, thank you, Higgins, but do I feel rather guilty at being so late and leaving you so much to do.”

  Higgins laughed.

  “I ain’t done much I can tell you. I’m not touchin’ that there wound now you’ve put that sticky ’oney all over it. I’ve no wish to ’ear what ’is nibs ’as to say when he sees what it looks like this mornin’!”

  “You are quite right and I think it would be wise for me to go in alone and tell him who I am.”

  “Perhaps it’d be better if I comes along with you. He is never in a good temper first thing in the mornin’.”

  “I can understand that because he has been sent to sleep by one of those nasty drugs, but, if you have not given him another one, the effects should be wearing off by now.”

  “He certainly has a lot to say, miss.”

  It was quite obvious to Shenda that he was worried in case his Master was rude to her or if he upset her as he had obviously upset his previous nurses.

  As she rose from the table, she smiled at Higgins.

  “I have to be brave and see the Captain now – and I hope it will not be as bad as you are anticipating.”

  “All right. All right, miss, you thinks I’m a fusspot, but I wants to ’ave you ’ere ’cos I thinks them doctors be doin’ ’im no good.”

  “Then I tell you what we’ll do, Higgins. I will cope with your Master if you will go now and fetch me the herbs I wrote down last night. It will take you a little time, but I am sure you will find a shop that stocks most of them.”

  For a moment she thought that Higgins was going to refuse and then he answered,

  “All right, but you be ’ere when I comes back.”

  “I certainly will be.”

  She ran upstairs at once while Higgins disappeared down the corridor that led to the kitchen.

  Only when she reached the Captain’s bedroom door did she draw in her breath.

  She was praying that the gentleman suffering inside would not be too offensive when he saw her.

  Then she opened the door and entered.

  Captain Ivan Worth was sitting up in bed with his breakfast tray beside him.

  As Shenda walked across the room towards him, he did not look up and she was certain that he thought it was Higgins.

  Then, as she reached the bed, he saw her for the first time and his eyes widened.

  “Who are you?” he demanded.

  “His Grace the Duke of Wellington brought me to you yesterday. He has asked me to nurse you and to heal the wound you sustained so gallantly at Waterloo.”

  “The Duke has asked you to nurse me?” Ivan asked incredulously. “Why should he do that?”

  “I have done quite a lot of nursing in England and I think you are not recovering as fast as the Duke expected.”

  “So he sent you here to me! Well, I wish he would mind his own business! I have sent away two other nurses and I have no intention of having a woman fiddling about with me!”

  He spoke harshly and Shenda gave a little gasp.

  “Please let me try to help you. I know I can do so as the doctors have been giving you the wrong medicines and treating your wound in the wrong way.”

  “I am more than ready to believe that,” he snapped. “But I don’t want any woman in this house, so please thank the Duke and tell him I have no wish for his interference.”

  He spoke so crossly and firmly that Shenda knew he meant exactly what he said and that he was determined to have his own way.

  For a few moments she stood looking at him and then she gave what was almost a little cry.

  “Please, please,” she pleaded, “don’t send me
away. I have nowhere to go and no money.”

  Ivan stared at her.

  “I presume you can go back to the hospital where you came from,” he muttered.

  “I did not come from a hospital. I have never been in one in my life. I have come from England.”

  “From England to nurse me! I don’t know what on earth you are talking about.”

  “I came to Paris to see the Duke,” Shenda told him, “because my father is dead and he sent me to him as I had nowhere else to go and no money.”

  “What do you mean you have nowhere else to go? You must have relations or friends.”

  “He sent me to the Duke – because my brother was killed at Waterloo and – since the people who worked on our estate had all gone to the war – it had fallen in a bad state and so had our house.”

  The words came almost brokenly from between her lips and her eyes were filled with tears.

  With a tremendous effort she managed to add,

  “Papa sent me to the Duke and the only way he felt he could help me was if he put me here to nurse you. Please, please let me try. I promise not to do anything to upset you, but I am very sure I can make you much better than you are at present.”

  “I just cannot see how you can be sure of that nor is it the Duke’s business to send me women he cannot cope with himself.”

  “He was being kind and he was also very anxious about you,” Shenda cried.

  “I don’t want the Duke or anyone else to mess me around. And I don’t want a woman in this house!”

  Shenda gave a little gasp and the tears ran down her cheeks.

  Then Ivan admitted,

  “At any rate my wound is better today than it was yesterday, so you can tell the Duke there is no need for any interference on his part.”

  “It is better than it was yesterday!” she exclaimed. “But do you know why?”

  Shenda did not wait for an answer, but carried on,

  “It is because I took off the grease the doctors had put on your wound and dressed it with honey. I knew that it would take away the inflammation and, if you leave it, it will take away the pain as well.”

  Ivan stared at her.

  “What on earth are you talking about?” he fumed.

  “When you were unconscious from a sleeping drug you should never have been given, Higgins took off your bandages and I could see what a terrible state your wound was in. The creams they have given you that I looked at on your chest of drawers caused the inflammation.

  “So I sent downstairs for honey and although they laughed at the idea, I knew that you would be better this morning.”

  Ivan put his hand on his bandages as if to see that they were still there and then he mumbled,

  “Now I think of it, I recall my mother once saying that honey is a healer – ”

  “It is a really wonderful healer for you both inside and out. Oh, please – please let me help make you better.”

  “I have already said I don’t want a woman messing me about,” Ivan repeated.

  However the way he spoke now was very different from the way he had spoken earlier.

  “I promise to keep out of sight and out of your way as much as possible – but I swear the honey I will treat you with and the herbs that Higgins has gone to buy will make you feel better in a few weeks if not days.”

  There was silence for a moment, before he said,

  “I suppose I must believe you, but if you annoy me or do anything I dislike, then you must leave at once. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, of course, Captain, and I will be sure to keep out of your way as much as I can.”

  She looked at him and saw that he was scowling, so she added quickly,

  “Thank you, Captain, thank you for letting me stay. I really do have nowhere to go and it would be extremely humiliating to have to go back to the Duke again.”

  Because he did not answer, she added,

  “I will wait till Higgins comes back with the herbs I have ordered and then he and I together will attend to your shoulder. Until then I will keep out of sight.”

  She did not wait for a reply, but hurried across the room and through the communicating door to the boudoir.

  Only as she shut the door behind her did she realise that she had been saved.

  Saved by no more than the flicker of an eyelid from being sent away.

  For a moment she felt almost faint.

  It had been, as she was so well aware, a hundred to one chance that the Captain would want to get rid of her and yet now almost by a miracle she was safe.

  She could stay as long as he saw as little as possible of her.

  ‘Thank you, God, thank you,’ she prayed over and over again as she ran across the room to the window.

  As she looked out onto the street outside, she felt as though she had fought a battle on her own.

  Although, like the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo the odds had been against her, she had been victorious too!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  When Shenda left him, Ivan had told himself he was a fool.

  He had made up his mind to have nothing more to do with women.

  Yet here he was giving in feebly to a woman sent to him by the Duke of Wellington.

  At the same time he was forced to admit to himself that she had a point in saying that the way the doctors were treating him was disastrous.

  By this time he should be feeling much better than he was so far.

  Even to think of a woman brought back Helen into his mind.

  He felt his fingers clench together as they had done when she first upset him.

  Ever since he had left Eton and Oxford he had been pursued by women –

  Not only because his father was so immensely rich and had an important title, but also because he himself was exceedingly good-looking.

  It was impossible with his background for women not to find him very desirable from a Social point of view and even more so when they met him.

  Even when he was a schoolboy many women had admired him and told his mother how attractive he was and she had often said when he was older,

  “I hope, darling, that you will marry someone who will love you for yourself, just as I loved your father – and not because you are a friend of the Prince Regent.”

  When the Prince of Wales became Prince Regent because of his father’s illness, he looked to Ivan for help and he was asked to every party at Carlton House.

  He was surprisingly knowledgeable about pictures and furniture and the Prince Regent always took him with him when he was searching for new treasures for his house.

  He seldom bought anything without consulting Ivan about it even though he was much younger than he was.

  “You and I, Ivan, like the same things,” His Royal Highness had said a hundred times. “I am not quite certain about a picture I was offered this morning. Come and have a look at it and give me your opinion.”

  When Ivan claimed that something was a fake, the Prince Regent always trusted him and he took an intense interest in the ornamentation of Carlton House.

  It was partly due to this closeness that Ivan did not join a Regiment that was part of Wellington’s Army.

  The Prince Regent was much against him joining anything that would take him abroad.

  In fact Ivan felt that it was his duty to be at home as his father was so ill.

  The old Marquis was nearly seventy and his doctors put his ailments down to old age. His son was convinced that it was something more serious, yet he did not like to argue with them.

  Then his father suffered a severe stroke and lapsed into unconsciousness making it impossible for him to go abroad, as he had to take over not only caring for a sick man but his desolate mother as well.

  He had to look after an estate that was very short of men and their racehorses needed a great deal of attention.

  All these problems increased when his father died and he had to look after all the members of the family – not only those nearest to him but every relation
as they now looked to him as the Head of all the Worths.

  It was then that Lady Helen Oswald came into his life.

  She appeared suddenly in the Social world, shining like a bright star and was undoubtedly the most beautiful debutante there had been in many years.

  She was the daughter of an Earl and so she would naturally have received a great deal of attention as soon as she was presented at Court.

  But her outstanding beauty attracted every eligible bachelor in England and she was toasted in the Clubs and acclaimed in all the newspapers.

  When Ivan had first set eyes on her, he felt his heart turn several somersaults and there was no doubt that Lady Helen was as attracted to him as he was to her.

  It was not difficult for them to see each other and they met every night at the Season’s endless parties – and above all at the many extravaganzas hosted by the Prince Regent at Carlton House.

  It was at one of the balls when the garden was lit with myriads of fairy lights and Chinese lanterns that Ivan proposed to Helen and she accepted him.

  “We must not announce our engagement yet,” he insisted, “until I have had a chance of notifying my many relatives. Otherwise they will feel insulted and it would be a mistake to set off on the wrong foot.”

  Helen had shrugged her shoulders.

  “Relations are such a bore,” she remarked, “except, of course, we will want their wedding presents.”

  Ivan had laughed.

  “I will give you all the presents you want, but first, my darling, I have to buy you a ring and it will be the most dazzling diamond London has ever seen!”

  He thought that no man was luckier than he was.

  The next day after he had finished all his duties at Wellington Barracks, he had gone to Bond Street.

  He wanted a ring worthy of Helen’s beauty, but it was not easy as the shops stocked plenty of rings, but none of them seemed to him fine or unique enough.

  He had wondered if the Prince Regent could help him find the ring he required, when unexpectedly Ivan had seen in a pawnbroker’s shop a ring that he thought worthy of Helen’s lustrous eyes.

  It was an emerald but he did not believe, like some people, that emeralds were unlucky.

  It was very large in size and was, Ivan thought, an exceptionally beautiful stone, but it had been put into an unflattering setting that made it look vulgar.