103. She Wanted Love (12 page)

When he drew up his team outside the front door, he was aware that he had broken his own record.

As the Head Groom came running from the stables followed by two other grooms, he remarked,

“I have brought you something really worth having, Abbey. This are the finest team I have ever had.”

“They certainly be fine to look at, my Lord.”

“I thought you would think so, that is why I could not resist them, although I don’t mind telling you they cost me a pretty penny.”

“But if you’ve broken the record, my Lord, then they be worth all you paid for ’em and a great deal more!”

The Marquis laughed.

“You are quite right, Abbey.”

He went into the house to be greeted by the butler.

“It’s very good to see your Lordship back,” he said. “We were beginning to think you’d forgotten us.”

“No, I have not, Harris, and it’s wonderful to see so many flowers in the garden. I must certainly congratulate Greenhill on such a display.”

“He was hoping your Lordship’d be pleased.”

“Pleased, I really am delighted. Now where is her Ladyship?”

“At the lake, my Lord, with the new Governess.”

Harris, who had been at The Court ever since the Marquis was a small boy, was about to say what a success Miss Lawson was, then he thought it would be wise to let the Marquis find it out for himself.

The difference in Lady Priscilla had, of course, not gone unnoticed by the rest of the staff.

At first they had been somewhat quizzical about the alterations Miss Lawson had made, but now they had to admit that her Ladyship was a different child.

All Harris said was,

“Her Ladyship was expecting your Lordship to be here about teatime. It’ll be a nice surprise for her that your Lordship’s appeared so early.”

“I hope so,” the Marquis said a little doubtfully.

He was remembering that the last time he had come home his daughter had refused to leave the nursery.

He had had to go up to her and there she had told him violently that she hated lessons and had no intention of doing them.

He had reproved her for having sent away another Governess, but she had merely said that she hated them all, as much as she hated her lessons.

The Marquis had been very angry and finally she had flounced into her bedroom and slammed the door. He had felt then that anything more he said would not only be unpleasant but useless and he had therefore left the house without saying goodbye to her.

On the long drive back to London he had wondered what he could do with his daughter in the future and it was obvious that no Governess could cope with her.

He had no difficulty in deciding not to ask any of his relatives to come to his assistance, as it was obvious to him that they would not be any more successful than he was in trying to tell the child what to do.

Also he disliked intensely having to admit he had failed in being the sort of father they expected him to be.

‘I ought to love my daughter and she ought to love me,’ he told himself.

But he knew that they had only to be together for there soon to be a ferocious quarrel in which they both inevitably lost their tempers.

‘I can only hope,’ he said to himself, as he walked down towards the lake, ‘that things will be different from last time. If they are not, I will have to leave, beautiful though my home is at this time of year.’

*

Now, as the Marquis picked her up and she hugged him, he thought it could not be the same child who had flounced into her bedroom.

“So you have been swimming,” he finally asked.

“And I can swim now, Daddy,” Pepe said excitedly. “I can really swim, just like a fish!”

“A rather big fish,” the Marquis smiled. “You must be careful you are not caught!”

Pepe laughed.

“There is no fisherman to catch me here and if there was I would dive under the water and he’d not see me!”

The Marquis thought that this was a very different conversation from any they had had in the past.

Then he looked down to the lake and saw that, as he expected, Pepe had not been alone.

The sun was glinting on Eleta’s hair, turning it to gold.

She was not at the moment swimming, but she was still in the water watching Pepe greet her father.

For a moment the Marquis thought that he must be dreaming.

He had never seen anyone quite so lovely.

He could only think for one absurd moment that she was a mermaid who was there by mistake or maybe she was just an apparition that emanated from his imagination.

Then, as Eleta started to swim slowly towards the hut, he realised that she was indeed real and human, but he thought she was far too lovely to be anything but a visitor.

Pepe still had her arm round his neck.

“How did you get her so early, Daddy?”

“I came with some new horses I want you to see. They are perfectly matched and it’s my fastest time ever.”

“I have a new horse,” Pepe bubbled, “he is called Silver Star and he is very very fast.”

“A new horse?” the Marquis asked dramatically.

Then, as Eleta stepped out of the water and onto the grass, he looked at her with astonishment.

The soft blue bathing dress she wore revealed the perfection of her figure and he thought that he had never seen anyone quite so perfect or so beautiful.

“Who is that?” he asked Pepe in a low voice.

“She is my new Governess. She is very clever and I love her. We have a lot of surprises for you, Daddy.”

The Marquis thought that the new Governess was certainly a surprise in herself and, as she slipped into the hut, he suggested,

“You had better finish dressing and then we will go back to the house and you must tell me everything you have learnt since I have been away.”

Then, as if his memory jolted him, he asked,

“The last occasion I was here there was an elderly woman who was your Governess. I cannot remember her name, but she told me that she was leaving.”

“Oh, she left and the one after her left and so did the one after that,” Pepe answered. “They were all horrid, ugly, nasty people and they tried to teach me all the things I did not want to learn.”

“And when did this one come to you?”

“She has not been here very long, but you will be very surprised at what I can do. She tells me beautiful, beautiful stories.”

The Marquis put his daughter down on the ground.

“Now hurry up and dress,” he urged. “I want to hear everything you have done. It all sounds exciting.”

“It’s all very exciting, Daddy, and I have a special surprise for you.”

She was thinking as she ran towards the hut that it was a pity that her father had come back so soon.

It was, of course, Eleta who had said to her,

“When your father does return, you must be able to play the piano to him. He will be astonished that you can.”

Pepe was thinking that if he had come next week or the week after she would be really good, but now she could play a little, which before she had not been able to do at all.

Inside the hut Eleta was nearly dressed.

“We thought your father would not be here until this afternoon,” she said.

“I know and I have told him that we have lots of surprises for him and I kissed him as you told me to do.”

“I saw you do that and you did it very well. Just remember that your father has no one to make a fuss of him now he is back in his home. All men want a woman to listen to them and to do things with them.”

Pepe put her head on one side.

“What sort of things?”

“Like riding with him and asking his advice and, of course, looking pretty and smiling as you are now.”

“I will be very very nice to Daddy, I promise.”

“We must both be. Or he might send me away and say he wants an older and stricter Governess for you.”

“Oh, he must not say that, he must not!” Pepe cried. “I love you and I don’t want to lose you.”

“Then you must make him think how happy he is to be with us. Make a very big fuss of him and make him feel important, which of course he is.”

“I will try, I promise you I will try. I know you are frightened that he might send you away, Eleta, but, if he does, I will come with you.”

“You must not say that to him. Just make him feel it is fun to be here in the country and that he has a very clever and very loving daughter.”

Pepe gave a little laugh and, after Eleta had done up her dress at the back, she ran out of the hut.

Her father was standing where she had left him by the water and she slipped her hand into his and said,

“I am so glad you have come back, Daddy.”

“You used to call me ‘Papa’,” he queried,

“Miss Lawson said ‘Papa’ sounded so very stiff and ‘Daddy’ was a more affectionate word.”

“I think that Miss Lawson is quite right, although it never occurred to me before.”

“She always thinks of something new and exciting and please, Daddy, be very kind to her because she is very frightened you might send her away.”

Pepe’s fingers tightened on his hand as she added,

“You won’t do that, will you?”

“No, of course not,” the Marquis replied. “If she is teaching you and you are happy, that is all that matters.”

“Thank you, Daddy, thank you. I have learnt a lot with Miss Lawson and there is lots more to learn.”

“Of course there is,” he agreed.

Eleta came out of the hut and he thought again as she walked towards him that he had never seen anyone quite so lovely.

Then, as Eleta held out her hand, she said,

“As I expect Pepe will have told you, my Lord, I am the new Governess and I hope that you will approve of everything we have done.”

“I am sure I will. My daughter seems to be happy and that is more important than anything else.”

“I was hoping that was what you would think.”

“I am very very happy,” Pepe cried, pulling at her father’s arm. “We have so many surprises for you.”

The Marquis looked at Eleta.

“Is this some new method of learning I have not heard about?” he enquired.

“No, I think it is something that comes naturally in a different way to different people,” Eleta replied.

It was not the answer he expected and he asked,

“Are you really suggesting that the lessons that are more or less laid down in the books are out of date?”

“Not exactly out of date, but I think, my Lord, you must realise that we are all made differently and none of us are the same. So what we are taught may be manna from Heaven for one person, while for another it is almost the fires of Hell.”

The Marquis chuckled.

“I have not heard that before and you must explain it to me in more detail.”

“I think you will be able to see the difference for yourself,” Eleta suggested.

As they were walking into the house, the Marquis thought that she was not only too young to be a Governess but certainly too beautiful.

Now that her hair was arranged neatly at the back of her head, it made her look very youthful and he thought her features, as he glanced at her, were almost classical.

It then struck him that she could not be real and she might in fact have dropped down from Olympus.

As they walked on, Eleta said,

“I only wish it was true. When I first saw Mount Olympus, I was disappointed. Then I knew that the spirits of the Gods and Goddesses are still there, just as they are all over Greece.”

The Marquis was astonished.

“You have read my thoughts!” he exclaimed,

“I too was surprised that I did,” Eleta replied. “It does just happen sometimes. But let me say, not often.”

They walked on for a little while and Pepe was still holding her father’s hand and then Eleta said,

“I have been planning for some time to tell Pepe about Greece and its superb Gods and Goddesses that have altered the thinking of almost every country in the world.”

“And you think that would be a valuable part of my daughter’s education?”

“I think it is something we all yearn for and some of us are lucky enough to discover.” Eleta answered.

The Marquis again thought he must be dreaming. This could not be happening to him in his own home.

Was it just his imagination?

Was she actually a Goddess from Mount Olympus walking beside him and teaching his daughter?

Eleta had, when she first arrived, been very careful not to refer too much to religion.

She had learnt in the Convent that quite a number of the girls were sick of being taken to Church every day and disliked being made to say prayers and being given long and boring lessons on Church history.

So she had only occasionally mentioned angels and had not enquired whether Pepe said her prayers at night.

Then they had talked about the angel called ‘Pepe’ who looked after her.

Eleta began to think that she should suggest they went to Church on Sunday or to pray in the charming little Chapel attached to the house.

She had discovered it when she was exploring some of the other rooms and she thought that it was one of the prettiest private Chapels she had ever seen.

It was a joy to see anything quite as beautiful as the Chapel and it had been built at the same time as the house.

The Adam brothers had indeed excelled themselves in making a Chapel that was really lovely, but also had an atmosphere of holiness which you felt from the moment you walked through the door.

When Eleta was talking to the Head Gardener about the hut at the lake, she had also asked him if he would send more flowers into the house.

“I would like as many as you can spare me,” she had said, “for the room we use as a schoolroom. I would also like to see the Chapel decorated as I am sure you do it beautifully.”

The flattery succeeded and the next day when she peeped into the Chapel she saw there were not only flowers on the altar but on all the windowsills.

It made the Chapel look even more glorious and she thought that she must take Pepe there more often.

It would be a mistake to do anything to antagonise Pepe, but Eleta wanted her to feel how useful prayer could be to her and how much it would mean in her future life.