103. She Wanted Love (14 page)

“Are you really pleased with my music, Daddy?” she asked him again. “I worked very hard at it because Miss Lawson knew it would be such a surprise for you.”

“It has been a real surprise and the most marvellous present you could possibly have given me.”

Pepe kissed his cheek.

“That is just what I wanted you to say to me.”

The Marquis tightened his arm round her and Eleta began to play.

As she was feeling swept away by the music that came from this perfect piano, it seemed to carry her into a magical world where everyone was happy and no one was frightened.

She played again the music she had heard and loved in different countries, including Greece where naturally she connected it with Apollo.

It suddenly struck her as she was playing that the Marquis was undoubtedly the most handsome man she had ever met.

With his broad forehead, his clear features and, perhaps most important of all, his steady eyes, he looked different from any other man she had ever imagined.

‘He looks exactly as a Marquis should look,’ she told herself.

Then, because she was afraid of being a bore, she stopped playing and the Marquis, who had sat very quietly with Pepe in his arms, said,

“Thank you very much. I recognised some of the tunes you played and I thought you made them even more effective than the orchestras applauded all over Europe.”

“Thank you, my Lord, I don’t believe a word of it, but I am delighted at such a marvellous compliment.”

“Actually what I said is true, but before the day comes to an end I would like to go into the garden and see the flowers.”

“They are very very beautiful,” Pepe sighed.

“Then you must show them to me, darling.”

He walked towards the door, leading his daughter by the hand and then he looked back.

“I want you to come too, Miss Lawson. I have a feeling, but I may be wrong, that you know more about flowers than I do and I rather fancied myself up to now.”

Eleta laughed.

“I think you are expecting too much,” she replied.

“I am prepared for another shock,” the Marquis said, “and, after what has happened already today, I would not be surprised if we do not find angels descending from Heaven and waiting for us on the lawn!”

“That would be exciting, Daddy,” Pepe said. “And maybe my angel, who is called ‘Pepe’, will be with them.”

“Your own angel? Have you one?”

“When Miss Lawson and I were frightened of the thunderstorm, she told me that both her angel and my angel were looking after us.”

“If your angel is called ‘Pepe’,” the Marquis asked, “then what is Miss Lawson’s called?”

Eleta drew in her breath, but to her relief she heard Pepe say,

“That is a secret. As I promised not to tell anyone, I cannot even tell you, Daddy.”

“Of course you must keep your promise, darling.”

“That is what Miss Lawson told me.”

They walked into the garden.

The many flowers were even more stunning, Eleta thought, than when she arrived and the Marquis certainly knew a great deal more about them than she did.

She learnt that many of them had been brought by him from Nepal and from other places in the world where orchids are particularly fine and unusual.

As always, Pepe was fascinated by the fountain and she was standing staring up at it when the Marquis asked in a low voice to Eleta,

“How could you possibly have achieved this? How could you have transformed my naughty daughter into this charming and intelligent girl I can hardly recognise?”

“I am glad you are pleased,” Eleta replied shyly.

“Of course I am pleased, but tell me how you have done it.”

Eleta looked towards Pepe.

She was standing with her head thrown back to gaze up at the top of the rising water and it was a picture that any famous artist would have wanted to paint.

Then, almost as if the Marquis had compelled her to answer his question, she said,

“I believe that what Pepe wants is love.”

There was silence for a moment and then he said,

“That is something we all want, but, if it is real, it is difficult to find.”

They had tea in the conservatory, where many of the rarest and most unusual plants the Marquis had brought back from abroad were just coming into bloom.

Pepe was delighted with them and her father tried to teach her the names of some of them.

“You must not make it too hard for us, my Lord.” Eleta protested. “We have so much going in and out of our brains at the moment that I am afraid, if you push us too hard, there will be a collision.”

“I cannot believe that where you are concerned. If this is the new method of teaching the young, I can only say I will recommend it to every teacher in the world.”

Eleta laughed as he continued,

“Then they will erect a statue of you outside every school!”

“What a thought!” she cried, “but as everyone is so different, you cannot make it dull and formal by writing it all down.”

The Marquis nodded in agreement.

“I am quite convinced,” Eleta went on, “after my experience here that the only real way of teaching is from mind to mind and, of course, from heart to heart.”

“You are absolutely right, Miss Lawson, but I don’t think anyone except you has ever thought of it that way before.”

“I am certain they have, but they have not had the same material as I have had with Pepe, nor such enchanting surroundings in which to teach her.”

She paused for a moment before she added,

“Everything is so beautiful here, that anyone who lives amongst it must inevitably become beautiful too.”

“That is what I used to hope,” the Marquis replied, “and what I now believe.”

Eleta turned to look at him to see if he was telling the truth as he saw it.

When their eyes met there were somehow no words with which they could express what they were feeling.

It was after tea that Eleta proposed,

“I think as it is such a lovely evening we must have one more look at the sun sinking behind the trees and then we must go upstairs.”

“And leave me?” the Marquis asked.

“I am afraid so, my Lord. I think it’s a mistake, because we ride so early in the morning, that Pepe should be late in going to bed.”

She looked at the clock and continued,

“Her supper will be ready for her at seven o’clock.”

“Do you eat at the same time?” the Marquis asked.

“Yes, of course,” Eleta replied.

“Well I think tonight, as I am alone,” he answered, “you should have dinner with
me
.”

Eleta looked at him in surprise.

“Are you sure that is wise, my Lord?” she asked. “It is very unusual, I know, for a Governess to have dinner in the dining room, although it is permissible for her to appear there for luncheon.”

“There is no one here to be shocked or curious. I have some work to do first, but I should be delighted if you will be my guest at eight-thirty, Miss Lawson.”

“Of course I want to accept,” Eleta said, “but you must realise that it will surprise the staff.”

The Marquis smiled.

“I should have thought that what you have achieved already is enough to keep them talking until Christmas,” he said. “Therefore one more shock is neither here nor there.”

“Then, my Lord, I am delighted to accept your kind invitation and I hope Pepe may come and say goodnight to you before she goes to her own room.”

“I will be in the study waiting for her.”

Pepe, although she protested that she had no wish to go to bed, was really very tired. It had been an exciting day and, as Eleta was aware, the heat had taken its toll.

The chef sent her up a particularly appetising dish of her favourite fish and that was followed by a deliciously light pudding and two or three even more unusual
petits
fours
than she had had before.

“I will thank Monsieur tomorrow,” Pepe said, “and tell him that he has beaten all records with the food he gave Daddy at luncheon and the special cakes at tea.”

“I think you will have to go and tell him how clever he has been as soon as your father leaves,” Eleta suggested.

“When is he going?” Pepe enquired.

“I have no idea, but I expect he will in a day or so.”

“I love having him here and I think Papa is very nice now and not cross and disagreeable as he was before.”

“You must forget all that,” Eleta said. “You must remember he had all those tiresome women telling him how bad and naughty you were and, because they were supposed to be experienced, he believed them.”

She smiled at Pepe before she went on,

“It was not his fault he did not find out how clever you really are and how many new and exciting things you will have to show him the next time he comes home.”

Pepe was immediately interested.

“What will they be?” she asked.

“I am not quite certain yet, because you are such an unusual person in yourself.”

She saw that Pepe did not understand exactly and she held up her hand.

“Firstly,” she said touching her little finger, “you have proved yourself good enough to ride almost as well as your father and secondly you have learnt quite a lot of French in a very short time.

“Thirdly you are swimming exceedingly well and fourthly and, perhaps the most important of all, you have composed a tune which is all your own and which no one has ever heard before.”

Pepe listened entranced.

“Am I really as clever as that?” she asked.

“You are much cleverer, but we have to find out what special gifts God has given you and how you can use them to delight or help other people.”

“Is that what I ought to do?

“Of course it is, but some people are so selfish and don’t give enough of themselves to others. And you, Pepe, have so much to give. But first we have to discover it.”

“That will be exciting!” Pepe exclaimed.

“Now run down and kiss your father goodnight, but don’t stay long because I have a special story to tell you when I tuck you up. Then I have to have a bath and change my dress before I have dinner with him.”

“Then I will hurry because it would be a mistake to keep Daddy waiting.”

Eleta smiled.

“It is clever of you to understand, but I knew you would. We both have to think of other people as well as ourselves.

“Yes, of course,” Pepe said happily. “Now I will go down and give Daddy a big kiss.”

“And tell him that you love him,” Eleta added as the child reached the door.

“I do love him,” Pepe called back, “but I also love you, Eleta, more than anyone else in the whole world.”

She did not wait for Eleta’s reply, but ran down the large staircase into the hall.

When Eleta had put Pepe to bed, she just had time to enjoy the bath that had been brought to her room.

Then she put on one of the prettiest evening gowns she bought in Paris.

She was so glad that she had included them in her luggage, even though she had thought at the time it was very unlikely she would have a chance of wearing them.

Now she took a last look at herself in the mirror and she certainly did not look like any Governess or teacher she had ever seen!

She wondered if perhaps the Marquis would think she was pretending to be more important than she actually was and then she told herself, if he did think that, it was entirely his fault.

He should not have asked her, as a Governess, to have dinner with him, but he had the excuse that he wanted to discuss his daughter’s future with her.

It was five and twenty minutes past eight when she walked into the blue drawing room where a footman had told her that the Marquis was waiting.

When Eleta came into the room wearing a dress of soft pink chiffon with a bustle of silver lace, the Marquis felt that she might have stepped out of a dream.

He watched her walk towards him and, when she reached him, he put a glass of champagne into her hand.

“Tonight we have to celebrate something extremely special,” the Marquis began.

“What is that, my Lord?” Eleta asked.

“The change that you have made in my daughter. If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it was true but part of someone’s imagination.”

Eleta smiled.

“I am so glad you are pleased, my Lord.”

“As I have told you before there are no words to express what I feel. I only know that today I have found my daughter and she is absolutely and completely different from the child I have known.”

He picked up his own glass and held it up.

“I can only toast you for looking and being, as you quite obviously are, an angel from Heaven or a Goddess from Mount Olympus.”

“I am delighted to be either and thank you very much. It’s the finest compliment I have ever had.”

“I am sure that you have had a great number of them,” the Marquis replied in a different tone of voice.

“Not really,” she replied. “I hope, my Lord, after all the encouraging things you have said about Pepe, that you will tell me what you are contemplating for her next.”

“You can hardly expect me to think of anything better than you have done already. How is it possible that, looking so young, you could know exactly what to do with a child who everyone else told me was un-teachable?”

“Few children are really that unless they are driven to it by people who don’t understand them. Because Pepe is very intelligent, she needs encouragement and guidance not condemnation, which as far as I can make out is all she received from the women who came here.”

“And you succeeded magnificently where they had failed. Now I want you to tell me about yourself and why, looking as you do, you have become a Governess.”

Before Eleta could think of an answer, to her relief dinner was announced.

They went into the dining room and, as might have been expected, the chef had made every possible effort. He produced a meal that the Marquis would not have found surpassed in any restaurant in Paris.

It was impossible to talk privately while they were at dinner with all the servants waiting on them and so they exchanged anecdotes about the different countries they had both visited.

The Marquis found it extraordinary that Eleta knew most of the countries in Europe and had also been to Africa and Egypt.