She glanced down the table to see that her father was looking happy.
She knew it was because the women on either side of him were not only beautiful but also intelligent.
They were both making him laugh and he was being, Odela knew, witty and amusing, as he used to be when her mother was alive.
‘I cannot make him unhappy by telling him what is going on behind his back,’ she told herself again.
She recognised that it would be an exceedingly cruel thing to do to him.
When the ladies left the dining room, leaving the gentlemen to their port, Odela hurried upstairs.
She knew that at this moment her father’s room would be empty and his valet would be, as he called it, ‘givin’ a hand’ in the pantry.
She went into the bedroom and locked the door.
She knew where her father kept the key of the safe.
He had fondly believed in the past that it was known only to her mother, but Odela had often helped her mother take the jewels out of the safe that she wished to wear that evening.
She therefore went to the secret hiding place to find that the key was indeed there.
She unlocked the safe and, as she had expected, she could see the papers that they had brought away from the Solicitors. They had already been placed there by her father.
The top shelf contained papers and the next contained money.
He always kept some handy in case it was necessary for him to have ready cash for an urgent payment.
She took out quite a number of banknotes and also some sovereigns.
Then she replaced the key and went to her own bedroom.
The ladies were all tidying themselves in her stepmother’s room and quickly Odela went down the stairs so that she was in the drawing room before they returned.
When dinner was over, the Viscount came obediently to her side and he tried to engage her in a conversation about horses.
She responded to him for several minutes and then went to the piano saying,
“I feel sure that it will brighten up the party if I play to them.”
A little later her father told her how delighted he was that she played so well.
“It is all due to you, Papa,” she replied. “You paid for the most expensive music teacher in Florence.”
“My money was obviously well spent,” her father smiled, “but I feel that you should be talking to our guests.”
“I want you to hear two more pieces I have learnt,” Odela answered and he did not press her.
She went to bed at the first opportunity, knowing that she had a great deal to do.
Gatesy had managed to bring to her room a small trunk that was not too heavy.
She had hidden it in one of the cupboards and Odela packed into it her best gowns and, of course, her riding clothes.
Then, after her stepmother had retired to bed, the night footman knocked on her door.
Odela opened it.
“Miss Gatesly tells me, my Lady,” he said, “there be a trunk as contains some things you’re givin’ her.”
“Yes, of course, and they are all ready,” Odela replied to him in a low voice, “but I did not think Miss Gatesly would want them this evening.”
“Miss Gatesly tells me she has to leave early in the mornin’,” the footman replied. “She’s had bad news.”
“I am sorry about that,” Odela said, “and what a good thing the clothes I am giving her are ready.”
The footman carried off the trunk and Odela undressed and climbed into bed.
She was used to rising early as in Florence the pupils who had special tuition often had to begin their lessons at seven o’clock promptly
She was therefore ready and dressed by ten minutes to six. She had learnt from the timetable in the secretary’s office that there was a train from Paddington to Oxford at six-thirty.
She and Gatesy caught it quite easily after she had climbed into the Hackney carriage at the top of the Mews.
Odela had written a letter to her father, which she had carefully put on his writing desk in his study.
She knew that he would not go to his desk until after breakfast.
In it she wrote,
“My Dearest Papa,
I am so stunned and upset by my huge fortune I learnt about yesterday that I feel I need time to think.
I know you will understand that it is impossible to do so in London with so many engagements and so many things to buy.
I am therefore going to the country for a few days so that I can ride Dragonfly and sort things out in my own mind.
I know you would not approve of me travelling alone, so I am taking Miss Gatesly with me.
I have also borrowed some money from your safe and I will, of course, pay you back!!!”
Odela had added a number of exclamation marks after the last word so that her father would realise that she was making a joke.
Then she ended her letter,
“I love you, Papa, and I want to spend my fortune exactly as you and Mama would want me to do, but I really do have to think very carefully about it.
Please don’t be angry with me and let me have just a little time to myself.
Your very loving and affectionate daughter,
Odela.”
She felt that her father would understand.
At the same time she was absolutely certain that her stepmother would not.
‘She will try to force me back,’ she thought, ‘and then I shall be in her power.’
Every instinct in her body had told her last night how dangerous the situation now was.
She only had to look round the house to realise the changes that had been made and, behind every change and the smooth-running perfection of it all, was a strong personality.
There was nothing soft, gentle or sweet about her stepmother.
She was a woman who was determined to have her own way and would move Heaven and Earth to get it.
It would not concern her if anyone was hurt in the process.
‘The Viscount has already agreed to what she has suggested,’ Odela murmured to herself, ‘and unless I am fully on my guard I shall wake up to find myself married to him almost before I can breathe!’
“You’re lookin’ ever so worried, my Lady,” Gatesy ventured from the other side of the carriage.
“I am really very happy that we got away so easily,” Odela replied to her.
She knew it was because they had started so early as she had learned that her stepmother was never called until ten o’clock in the morning.
When they arrived in Oxford, it was not difficult to hire a carriage to take them the five miles to Shalford Hall, which was deep in the countryside.
The moment they were clear of the beautiful City of Oxford with its spires and towers, Odela began to feel different.
This was the England she knew and loved with its woods, its hills and silver rivers.
As soon as the carriage drew to a standstill outside The Hall, Odela jumped out.
She hurried up the steps to knock on the huge door herself.
When it was opened by a footman, who had been at The Hall since he was a boy, Odela held out her hand.
“James!” she exclaimed. “I was hoping you would still be here.”
“Why, if it isn’t ’er Ladyship!” the footman cried with obvious pleasure. “I ’eard as you was a-comin’ back to England.”
“I am back and now – I have come home,” Odela replied.
She said the same to the old butler who came hurrying towards her from the pantry.
“We were wonderin’ when we’d see you, my Lady,” he said, “but we thinks you’d be too busy with all the gaieties in London for us here!”
“All I have wanted – is to come home,” Odela said softly.
She did not waste any more time talking.
Leaving the butler to pay the Hackney carriage and look after Gatesy, she ran straight to the stables.
The grooms all greeted her with delight
.
But it was Dragonfly she wanted to see more than anything else.
He whinnied when he heard her voice and a few seconds later the stable door was opened and her arms were round him.
“I have missed you! I missed you!” she cried, “Oh, darling Dragonfly, have they looked after you properly? You have not – forgotten me?”
It was very obvious that he had not done so.
He was as delighted to see her as she was to see him.
Odela asked for him to be saddled in an hour and then she took Robinson, the Head Groom, on one side.
It was he who had taught her to ride when she was a very small girl.
She told him that she wanted his help, but when she told him why, he looked worried.
“I have run away from London, Robinson,” she began, “and I am going to hide – so that no one will find me for some time.”
“Now what you wanna go and do a thing like that for, my Lady?” he asked. “T’aint right. It’ll upset ’er Ladyship.”
“I realise that,” Odela replied, “but it is something I have to do – and I shall need your help to do it.”
She thought that Robinson was going to be difficult and said swiftly,
“If you want the truth, her Ladyship wants me to marry somebody for whom I have no liking and – who would make me very unhappy.”
She knew by his expression on his face that he had no liking for her stepmother.
“That not be right, my Lady, seein’ as you’ve bin in foreign parts for so long.”
“I know, Robinson, but you know what her Ladyship is like – and she will not listen to anything I say.”
Robinson pressed his lips together.
“What do you want me to do, my Lady?” he asked. “I’ve known you all your life and I’ll not ’ave you un’appy. I’d cut orf me leg first!”
“I should be very very unhappy if I did what her Ladyship requires,” Odela murmured.
After that he agreed to everything she wanted.
It was he who took her over to Nanny’s house, promising that if there were any enquiries made he would say that he had no idea where she had gone.
“I hate asking you – to lie, Robinson,” she said, “but it will be a little time before her Ladyship insists on my returning to London and – things may have changed by then.”
She gave a sigh before she went on,
“But I have to hide somewhere and I know I shall be safe with Nanny.”
“’Course you will,” Robinson replied stoutly, “and I’ll do what you say, my Lady. But when ’is Lordship finds out the truth, ’e might give me me notice!”
“If he does, I swear I will employ you myself and build up my own stable,” Odela said impulsively.
She saw the expression of surprise on Robinson’s face. He at any rate had not heard about her fortune.
“I have learnt since I returned to England that Mama left me some money, so I promise you, Robinson, that nobody who served us when Mama was alive will ever need to worry about their future or be without work or money.”
Robinson said nothing and Odela went on,
“But please don’t talk about it yet, although doubtless you will be hearing about it later.”
“You can trust me, my Lady,” Robinson assured her.
Having told him exactly what she wanted Odela then went back to the house.
Luncheon was waiting for her and the old butler told her that she had caught them by surprise and there would be a better meal at dinner.
“Mrs. Banks wants to tell you she’s done her best,” he smiled.
There were so many people who wanted to see Odela.
She therefore decided that it would be a mistake to go to Nanny until the following morning.
She knew exactly where she was living as she had written to her all the time that she had been away at school in Florence.
At first, after she had been dismissed, she had taken a position looking after an Ambassador’s children.
But she had not been happy in London, as Odela might have expected, and then six months ago she had left the Embassy.
She had been asked by the sister of the Marquis of Trancombe to look after her small daughter while she went abroad with her husband.
The Marquis of Trancombe’s house and estate were only about six miles from Shalford Hall and Odela could understand how delighted Nanny was at the idea of going back to a part of the country that she knew so well.
Odela vaguely remembered the last Marquis when he was a very old man.
He had been a friend of her father and mother and they had often talked about him.
She thought once when she had been small that she had been invited to a children’s party at Coombe Court.
The Marquis’s son who had now inherited, so far as she could remember, had not been there at the time and later he had gone abroad with his Regiment almost as soon as he left Oxford University.
Nanny had written enthusiastically about Coombe Court.
She said it was a very comfortable impressive house and the nurseries were exactly what she liked.
She wrote,
“I like having the little girl all to myself with no one to interfere. She makes me think of you when you were the same age and how sweet you were.”
“We will ride over to see Nanny first thing in the morning,” Odela had told Robinson, “and no one but you must know what we are doing.”
Because they were riding, the clothes she wanted to take with her had to be put into saddlebags.
Robinson brought the saddlebags to her and she packed the clothes herself.
No one had seen her take them upstairs and they were the deep bags that were usually used for game in the shooting season.
They were able to hold practically everything that she had brought with her from London.
She carefully wrapped up the miniature of her mother and one or two other things that she greatly treasured to carry with her on Dragonfly.
One thing that made it easier was that nearly all the staff at Shalford Hall were old as the younger servants had been taken by her stepmother to London.
They would be brought back again if and when they moved to the country.
The housemaids who had been there for many years moved slowly, but it was not difficult for Odela to carry the saddlebags downstairs herself.
She put them just outside the garden door where no one could see them before Robinson collected them.
She had eaten an early breakfast and then she told the butler and the footmen who were waiting on her that she was going riding.
They were not at all surprised when she walked to the stables rather than have the horses brought round to the front door.
She and Robinson left the stable yard by the back entrance and only two of the stable lads saw them go.
They were far too frightened of Robinson to ask any awkward questions.
Robinson was riding a large stallion that was extremely sturdy and could carry any amount of weight.
Dragonfly was rather skittish, but Odela was sure that he was feeling happy to have her on his back again.
When they were well on their way and had galloped over several green fields, Odela exclaimed,
“It’s so wonderful to be back! I cannot tell you how much I have missed being here when I was abroad.”
“And we missed you, my Lady,” Robinson answered. “T’weren’t the same without you comin’ and goin’ in the stables at all hours!”
“And now I am riding Dragonfly again.”
She thought as she was speaking that she would like to ride away into the horizon and never come back.
Then there would be no problems, no Viscount waiting to trap her and no scheming stepmother like a witch stirring up trouble.
Aloud she said,
“Have you seen anything of Nanny since she went to Coombe Court?”
“She’s bin in touch with Mrs. Field,” Robinson replied, “and told ’er that she’s right ’
appy there.”
Mrs. Field was the housekeeper at The Hall and Odela knew that she must warn Nanny not to let Mrs. Field know who was with her.
“’Ow long does your Ladyship think you’ll be a-stayin’ at Coombe Court?” Robinson asked in his slow voice.
“I have no idea,” Odela answered. “All I want you to do is to say that you don’t know where I went when I left home except I told you that I was staying with friends.”
“Well, there be a number of ’ouses round abouts where you’d be very welcome, my Lady.”
Odela was aware of this and it was lucky, she thought, that Nanny had gone to one whose owner she had never met.
Both his parents, who had known her mother and father, were dead and there had been children with whom she had played ever since she could walk.
Her mother had been very conscious that she was an only child and must therefore have companions of her own age.
Fortunately Oxfordshire was fashionable and boasted a good number of noble and County families.
‘If Stepmama visits everybody we know in the hope of finding me, she is going to be busy,’ Odela reflected with delight.
It took them less time cross-country to reach the house belonging to the Marquis of Trancombe than if they had travelled by carriage.
It was in an even more beautiful part of the country, Odela thought, than her own home.
There were great woods rising on undulating land and there were exquisite views over meadows filled with the flowers of spring.
Yellow buttercups, forget-me-nots and cuckoo pint all made the fields that they were riding through a glorious picture of nature at its finest.
It was even more beautiful to Odela than any of the famous pictures that she had seen in the Galleries of Florence.
“I am home! I am home!” she wanted to cry to the birds, the butterflies and the bees that hovered over the flowers.
Then she remembered that her real home was Shalford Hall.
But if she stayed at The Hall her stepmother would be waiting to carry her off to London and the dreadful Viscount.
It was a thought that made her shiver and she was silent for the last miles before they reached Coombe Court.
When she saw the house in the distance, she gave a little gasp.
With the sun shining on its windows and the statues that decorated its roofs silhouetted against the sky it looked just like a Fairy Castle.
Princes and Princesses: Favourite Royal Romances Page 66