A Steeplechase For Love

by Barbara Cartland

  She let herself in through the front door. It was open and she well knew that it would not be locked until the evening.

  Some of the newly engaged servants had already arrived and they would have established themselves, Helsa reckoned, in the most comfortable of the bedrooms allotted to them. They would also have been given a great number of instructions from Mr. Martin.

  Helsa walked through the hall. The staircase rose on one side of it and there was a huge mediaeval fireplace on the other.

  She glanced at the large array of Regimental Flags arranged on either side of the mantelpiece and they were, she knew, the flags collected by her many ancestors from the battles over the centuries they had fought in and won.

  Her father had always spoken about the flags with pride and she wondered if Lady Basset would understand why they were there – even if they looked somewhat old and worn, she must be told how proud her family were of their provenance.

  Mr. Martin was using the estate room as his Office. It had been there since The Hall had been rebuilt by the third Earl of Irvindale.

  As Helsa knew it was piled with black boxes which contained the private papers of each successive generation as well as all the records of the income derived from the estate and notes of everything that had been spent on the house itself.

  Mr. Martin, who was a good-looking man for his age, was writing at a desk in front of one of the windows.

  When Helsa walked in, he asked,

  “Is that you, Robinson?”

  “No, it’s me,” Helsa replied, moving over the room. “I’m afraid I have bad news for you, Mr. Martin.”

  Mr. Martin rose to his feet.

  “I thought that you would be along shortly, Miss Helsa, and that Miss Emerson would be with you.”

  “That is what I thought too. But, as I said, I bring you bad news.”

  Mr. Martin looked at her questioningly.

  “You are not going to tell me that Miss Emerson cannot come? She promised she would.”

  “I know she did, Mr. Martin, and she is extremely distressed about it. But her grandmother has been taken ill and they have sent for Doctor Emerson. You know as well as I do that he cannot drive himself.”

  Mr. Martin gave a deep sigh and sat down again at his desk.

  “What on earth are we going to do now?” he asked.

  He spoke more to himself than to Helsa.

  “I have been thinking about it,” she replied, “all the way here. You know we simply could not think of anyone who could take on the job as lady’s maid to Lady Basset. We were desperate until Mary said that she would take the position just for fun.”

  “She would have been excellent at it,” Mr. Martin added rather gruffly.

  “I know and she will come back just as soon as she can.”

  “We can hardly now ask Lady Basset after all this preparation to wait for her.”

  “I know,” murmured Helsa.

  Mr. Martin sat down on a hard chair near his desk and Helsa guessed, because he had not waited for her to sit down first, that he was feeling desperate.

  He usually had extremely good manners.

  “I have thought about what we can do,” said Helsa. “In fact there is only one other solution to the problem.”

  ”What is that?” Mr. Martin asked her with a note of despair in his voice

  “That I must take her place.” Mr. Martin sat up in his chair and stared at Helsa.

  “You would take her place?” he exclaimed. “But surely you cannot do that?”

  “Why not?” she asked. “You know how important it is that Lady Basset should be pleased with the household when she arrives. I can imagine nothing more annoying for her than to be told that the lady’s maid is unavailable and she will have to make do with one of the housemaids.”

  She glanced over her shoulder as she spoke to make sure that the door was closed and then in a lower voice she added,

  “You know they all come from the village and have not the slightest idea how beautiful clothes should be kept and cherished. If they made a mess of them, her Ladyship would be furious.”

  “She would indeed,” Mr. Martin agreed, “and Lady Basset might then refuse to pay what has already become quite a considerable sum.”

  “That is exactly why I must now take Mary’s place. I will not be as good as her, but I promise I will be better than anyone else we can possibly think of.”

  She smiled before she added,

  “Unless of course you have an angel tucked up your sleeve!”

  “I am definitely not a magician, Miss Helsa. It is quite impossible for me to put my hand, as you might say, on anyone who could fill Miss Emerson’s place as lady’s maid except for yourself.”

  “That is exactly what I thought. I must, for Papa’s sake, act the part of lady’s maid until Mary is free or we can find someone who is really experienced.”

  “You know that is impossible, Miss Helsa. I can only say that it is extremely kind of you to do something you have certainly never done before. However, you are so clever that you will be, as we might say, ‘well up to scratch’.”

  “Now you are just being complimentary, because you have got your own way and I have to convince Papa it is the right thing to do under the circumstances. But I am sure he will agree and we can only hope that Mary will not be away very long.”

  “I think it is wonderful of you, Miss Helsa, and if it was possible you know that I would do everything in my power to find someone else. But there is no one around here and I have always understood that a good lady’s maid is essential for a Lady of Quality.”

  “Well, I only hope I am good enough and of course you must tell everyone in the household that no one is to tell her Ladyship who I actually am.”

  “I will do that, and they will obey me,” Mr. Martin said, “for the simple reason they are grateful to have this particular job and are frightened it will not last very long.”

  He lowered his voice before he murmured,

  “I am able to pay them more money than they have ever thought of earning in the past. Therefore they will not do anything I disapprove of.”

  “Then I will leave it all to you, Mr. Martin. I shall come in again tomorrow morning. I shall be sleeping in the nursery as we had fixed for Mary and I will not have anything much to do until her Ladyship finally arrives.”

  “All I can say,” replied Mr. Martin, “is that you are an extremely sporting young lady, and your father will be extremely grateful to you.”

  He drew a breath before he finished,

  “I only hope we do not have any more shocks like this one before the curtain goes up!”

  “I was just thinking how lucky we are to have The Hall looking as it used to look when I was a little girl,” Helsa sighed. “You have not forgotten to tell the gardeners to bring in plenty of flowers tomorrow?”

  “Some flowers have been arranged already today. You might glance in the drawing room and see if they are exactly as you want them to be. I remember how glorious they looked in your grandmother’s time.”

  “I thought everything in the house looked beautiful then,” replied Helsa, “as it does now. I only hope and pray that Lady Basset is truly grateful for all the trouble we have taken for her.”

  “I expect, Miss Helsa, if she is as rich as we think she is, it is what she would expect to find everywhere she goes and therefore takes it all for granted.”

  “Of course, you are right – ” “In fact I have found in my long life,” Mr. Martin carried on, “it is only when one loses something valuable that one realises just how special it was and how much it meant to one personally.”

  “That is very true, but whatever does happen I will always be exceedingly grateful to Lady Basset because the house is now looking so wonderful again.”

  She sighed before she continued,

  “It is just as I remember it before my grandfather could not afford to keep it up and many rooms had to be closed.”

  “I am still hoping, Miss H
elsa, that a real miracle will happen and your father will be able to live here and take his rightful place in the County.”

  “I have thought of that myself when lying awake at night. It would be so lovely for me to be the ‘Lady of the Manor’ so to speak.”

  Then Helsa gave a little sigh.

  “You know better than anyone else, Mr. Martin, that it is something we cannot afford. Papa only laughed when I pointed out to him the other night at dinner that he cannot even afford to pay himself!”

  “Your father is a very brave and saintly man, and when he does give up as Vicar who everyone turns to with their troubles, we will find it very difficult to replace him.”

  “I know that,” Helsa agreed, “but I think what fun it will be to do the placing rather than be placed!”

  Mr. Martin laughed.

  “You have always got something smart to say, Miss Helsa, and only you would step into the breech as you are doing now.”

  “I can only hope that I do not fail. I must not forget from the moment I leave this room that my name is Mary. When I come here tomorrow, I am just another member of the staff and they must be very very careful not to give me away.”

  “I am sure they would not do so intentionally and I will make sure that they remember.”

  “As I shall be sleeping in the nursery,” Helsa said, “I will feel I will not have to worry too much about myself. Nanny will be watching over me and making sure I don’t make a mistake.”

  Mr. Martin walked towards the door with her.

  As he looked at Helsa, he thought she was without exception the most beautiful young girl he had ever seen in his life.

  At the same time he appreciated, perhaps more than anyone else in the village, how clever she was.

  He reached for the handle of the door and said,

  “Thank you, thank you more than I could possibly say for being so sporting and for saving the ship, because that is exactly what you have done.”

  “Cross your fingers,” begged Helsa, “that I do not make a mistake and go crashing from my pedestal before I have really enjoyed sitting on it.”

  “Until tomorrow, goodbye to you, Mary!” replied Mr. Martin.

  “Goodnight, sir,” Helsa answered him.

  They were both laughing as she walked down the passage towards the front door.

  There was still no one in the hall and so Helsa let herself out and closed the door behind her.

  As she walked down the drive she told herself this was an adventure – at least it was something new and very different.

  As she crossed the bridge over the lake, she thought it was a predicament that had never happened to her before.

  Perhaps in such a humble position she might learn something that would be extremely interesting and even in some unexpected way that she could not really imagine, exciting and above all, exhilarating.

  ‘It is just what I need at the moment,’ she thought. ‘We have all been too depressed and dismal for too long.’

  As she walked on, she thought the birds in the trees were singing as if they understood her.

  There was a lightness in her heart that had not been there before.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Helsa was up at The Hall long before they expected Lady Basset to arrive.

  She immediately went up to the room that had been her grandmother’s to find that everything was clean and tidy and the room itself looked extremely inviting.

  She had mentioned to Mr. Martin that there must be flowers in every room and she noted with satisfaction that her instructions had been carried out. Cosnet had picked armfuls of beautiful blooms and they had been extremely well arranged, Helsa thought, by the new housekeeper.

  She was an elderly woman, a certain Mrs. Walters, who had lived in the village all her life, but she was rather better educated and came from a superior family to most of the villagers.

  Helsa inspected the wardrobe and the dressing table so that she would know exactly where to put Lady Basset’s belongings when she began the unpacking ritual.

  Then she walked downstairs to visit Mr. Martin in his Office.

  As she came in, he rose to his feet.

  “You are forgetting who I am,” Helsa said with a twinkle in her eye. “You would not stand up for the lady’s maid!”

  “I might if she was attractive enough!” Helsa laughed.

  “I think that very unlikely. From what I remember of lady’s maids staying at The Hall when my grandfather and grandmother gave parties, they were mostly all middle-aged disagreeable women and they invariably offended the housemaids, who then complained to my mother.”

  “Everyone in the village took their complaints to your mother, Miss Helsa, and she always had a kind word for everyone.”

  “That is indeed true. I am sure Mama would think what we are doing here is a great joke. But she would help out with the details we have forgotten.”

  “I hope you have forgotten none,” said Mr. Martin. “If you have, it is my head that will fall, not yours!”

  Helsa laughed and sat down at the desk.

  “What I have really come to ask you,” she began, “is if you know anything about Lady Basset? I really don’t want to put my foot in it by being rude about wherever she comes from or saying anything which would make her feel I was being overfamiliar.”

  Mr. Martin spread out his hands.

  “To tell the truth I know very little about her, Miss Helsa. I did ask the Agent to send me any information he could, but I think he is in the same position as we are. He just knows her by name and has not even set eyes on her.”

  “So we don’t know if she is old or young, pretty or ugly. But if she wants to entertain so lavishly, she must be attractive in some way.”

  “Well, all I can tell you,” added Mr. Martin, “is that Robinson and the kitchen staff would be very disappointed if they had only one lady to do everything for.”

  “So would I and I would want to put out for her the prettiest dresses she possesses and, with the help of the real Mary, copy them if I can!”

  Mr. Martin chuckled.

  “I might have guessed, Miss Helsa, that you were not going to waste your time in any way. I expect you are already contemplating rifling The Hall’s library more than you have done already.”

  “I have listed every book I have ever taken,” Helsa insisted, “and so has my Papa. I would assure you that we are very careful of what we own.”

  She sighed wistfully,

  “It would be so wonderful if Papa could live in this house as his ancestors did and afford to keep it as clean and beautiful as it looks at the moment.”

  “‘If wishes were horses, beggars could ride’,” Mr. Martin quoted. “At the same time I hope and pray, Miss Helsa, that one day your dreams do come true.”

  “I have a feeling somehow they will. I cannot think how. But that is what makes all this such an adventure. If we are not prepared to face every problem when it occurs, we will get nowhere.”

  “You are a very wise young lady. Now let me get on with my current task which is to determine how much I can charge Lady Basset for the staff working for her.”

  Helsa gave a start.

  “Do charge as much as you can!” she cried. “When Lady Basset departs, we may not be so lucky in finding someone else as rich to rent The Hall. Then everyone in the village whether they are working here or not will be very disappointed.”

  “I will do my best and no one can say more!”

  Helsa smiled at him and left the Office.

  She thought as she walked down the passage how lucky they were to have Mr. Martin in charge.

  She realised, just as he had been in the school, he would be strict in having everything exactly as it should be and at the same time he would be liked and respected by everyone who worked for him.

  Even the naughtiest little boys at the school liked him despite the fact they were always being punished, and she remembered that the elder boys and girls really enjoyed the lessons they had rec
eived from Mr. Martin.

  Her father said they were very lucky to have such an excellent village school and as many of the boys and girls sang in the choir he knew them all well.

  Helsa went into the kitchen and found Mrs. Cosnet, as she had anticipated, in somewhat of a flutter.

  “It’s all so difficult for me, Miss – H – ”

  She started to say ‘Helsa’ and then as she caught Helsa’s eye, added quickly,

  “ – Mary.”

  “What is wrong, Mrs. Cosnet?” asked Helsa.

  “It’s just that I don’t know what ’er Ladyship will fancy and ’ow can I plan a meal if the dishes I’ve chosen are the ones she most dislikes?”

  “I can see that makes it difficult, Mrs. Cosnet, but I am sure that as soon as she does arrive, Lady Basset will tell you which her favourite dishes are.”

  “I only ’opes so, but I’ll be ever so upset if any of those I’ve chosen for ’er comes back untouched.”

  Helsa knew of old that she was very sensitive about her cooking and so was as consoling as she could be before she left the kitchen for the garden.

  Cosnet had done wonders in the short time he had been given with three youths working on the weeds and Cosnet himself was cutting still more flowers for the house as Helsa congratulated him on what he had done already.

  Then she went into the hall to find Robinson.

  He was standing at the front door looking out down the drive through an avenue of ancient oaks.

  Just as Helsa reached him, he exclaimed,

  “Here she comes!”

  Without replying Helsa looked in the direction of his eyes and saw that coming up the drive was a carriage drawn by four horses.

  She could see that there was another carriage, if not two, behind it.

  She realised as lady’s maid she should not be in the hall and so she ran upstairs to stand on the landing waiting for the first carriage to reach the courtyard.

  She could just glimpse the horses and thought that they seemed exceptionally fine and despite the fact they had come all the way from London, they travelled up the drive at a very slick pace.

  She squeezed herself back against the side of the wall so that she could see but not be seen.