For a moment David was stunned into silence. Then as Stella saw him, she ran forward.
“David, darling!” she cried. “I am here! Are you pleased to see me?”
She threw herself against him and he could not help putting an arm round her, but did not kiss her.
He merely looked down at her and asked,
“What has happened? Why are you in England?”
“Papa had to attend an urgent interview at the War Office and I decided to come along with him. How could you leave India without saying goodbye to me?”
“I thought I did and that you understood.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about, David. Of course I did not understand. But it’s wonderful to see you, although I expected you to be in London.”
“So you drove down here?” he asked as if he was working it out.
He had taken his arm from her and yet Stella was still standing close to him with her hands flat on his chest.
“I had to see you,” she whispered. “You know I had to see you.”
David became aware that Benina was watching in wide-eyed astonishment.
He deliberately moved away from Stella, saying,
“I want you to meet my cousin who is living here too. Benina Falcon – Stella Ashworth.”
Stella took one quick look at Benina and nodded to her disinterestedly.
Benina, who had half-risen from her chair to shake hands, sat down again.
“May I pour you a cup of tea?” she asked. “I am sure you must need one after your journey from London.”
“I am in no hurry,” Stella replied almost rudely.
As she spoke the door opened and Newman came in with a teacup and plate for the new arrival.
David picked up his cup of tea.
“It is certainly a surprise to see you, Stella. How long will you be staying in London?”
She looked at him coyly from under her eyelashes, before she answered.
“I think that really depends on you – ”
“Then I must disappoint you, Stella, as I just cannot come to London at the moment. As you may be aware, my grandfather has died and there is an enormous amount to be done in this house and on the estate. I have no time for gallivanting.”
“I am not asking you to gallivant,” replied Stella, “but to be with me.”
“I am afraid that is impossible and I am sorry to tell you that your journey here has been fruitless.”
Stella looked towards the window.
“It’s growing late and I think Papa would not wish me to drive back alone in the dark. I brought my lady’s maid with me, so I will be no trouble and we can leave, if that is what you want me to do, tomorrow morning.”
David realised from the way she was speaking that it would be impossible for him to insist that she drove back to London that night.
He looked despairingly at Benina, who suggested,
“I will go and prepare a bedroom for your friend, my Lord, and Nanny will arrange for the lady’s maid to stay in one of the rooms that have been cleaned.”
She rose from her chair without finishing the cake she was eating and slipped out of the room before David could open the door for her.
When she thought Benina was out of earshot, Stella enquired,
“Is that badly dressed girl really your relative?”
“You heard me say her name is Falcon, which was my mother’s name before she married my father.”
Stella gave a rather affected yawn.
“I do find relatives such a bore. It must be tiresome for you having her living here in the house.”
“As a matter of fact she has been extremely useful to me,” David replied coldly. “There is so much to do, as you can already see. My grandfather allowed this house to deteriorate badly before he died.”
“Why didn’t you tell me your grandfather had died? When the Viceroy told Papa you had left because you had become the Marquis of Inglestone, I couldn’t believe it.”
The way she was looking at him and the manner in which she spoke told David what he already suspected.
If she had realised when he asked her to marry him that he was already a Marquis, she would not have hesitated to accept him.
He was already feeling rather suspicious about her statement that her father had to visit the War Office and it was, he was sure, a fabrication to hide their real reason for coming to England.
David, holding his tea in his hand, did not sit back down on the chair he had been sitting in.
It was too close to Stella.
Instead he sat on the sofa by the tea table.
He had only just put his cup and saucer down on the table when Stella moved to sit next to him.
She slipped her arm through his and let her head rest lightly on his shoulder.
“I was very unhappy when you left, darling David,” she breathed. “I knew that I had made a terrible mistake in refusing you when you asked me to be your wife.”
For a moment David was at a loss for words and then he remarked,
“I feel now as if that happened a long time ago. I have had so much to do since I returned that I have not had a minute to think about my private life.”
“Then let me think of it for you,” Stella murmured. “I love you, David, and I always have – ”
David was wondering desperately what he should say when the door opened and Benina came back.
Instinctively Stella moved a little way from him.
“Newman is taking your luggage upstairs,” Benina told Stella. “Your maid says that you have the key of your trunk and she needs to unpack your evening dress.”
Stella made a sound, which David knew was one of annoyance. She had left her bag in the chair where she had been sitting and she rose from the sofa to retrieve it.
Quickly David rose to his feet.
“I had better fetch a bottle of claret from the cellar,” he said to Benina. “I suppose you have told Nanny that Miss Ashworth will be here for dinner?”
“I expect Newman has told her and I will help her if she needs me.”
She would have left, but David stopped her.
“Wait a minute, Benina, I will fetch the key and then I will come with you.”
“I expect Newman can find the claret in the cellar if I give him the key.”
David realised she did not appreciate that the last thing he wanted was to be left alone with Stella.
He knew by the way Benina was speaking that she was not only surprised at Stella’s affectionate attitude but upset by it.
He could understand why.
She was afraid that she and Nanny might have to leave if Stella was to take her place in helping him restore Ingle Hall.
David, however, was quite determined to have his own way.
He found the key to the cellar in the writing desk and without saying anything to Stella, hurried after Benina as she walked down the corridor.
When he caught up with her, he told her,
“There was nothing I could do, but agree to Miss Ashworth staying the night.”
“It will be nice for you to have a friend,” Benina replied, “and, of course, I will have dinner in the kitchen with Nanny.”
“You will do nothing of the sort. I want you to dine with me and that is exactly what you will do.”
“I feel sure you would much rather be alone with her, my Lord.”
“It is my decision, Benina, and I will be extremely angry if you do not do as I tell you!”
She looked at him and he recognised that she was bewildered and did not follow what was happening.
“I will explain everything to you later when she has gone. At the same time as far as she is concerned, you are the hostess. You are to do as I tell you and come down to dinner and stay afterwards until we all retire to bed.”
Benina did not reply, but he knew when he left her to go to the cellar that she would obey his instructions.
He gave the claret to Newman and after a moment’s thought, he went into the kitchen.
As he expected, Nanny was making something on the kitchen table and Benina had sat down opposite her.
David deliberately closed the kitchen door as if he did not want to be overheard.
Then going nearer to Nanny, he asked,
“You have heard what has happened?”
“I understand we have a visitor, my Lord.”
“An unexpected one and an unwanted one. Now I need your help and this is very important.”
He looked at Benina as he spoke and he was aware that she was listening with a worried look in her eyes.
“The last thing that I could possibly want now is for Miss Ashworth to suspect that we are searching the house for my grandfather’s money and that we have practically none until we find it.
“There is no gossip like Indian gossip – they chatter and chatter away when they have nothing else to do. Miss Ashworth’s father is the General Commandant in Calcutta and the Viceroy told him why I came home. But they know nothing else about my position here or the difficulties we are involved in.”
Nanny gave a sigh.
“I gets it, my Lord, and it’d be a great mistake for them to talk, as they surely would if they knew the full truth.”
“I knew you would, Nanny, and Benina must help me tonight over dinner. It’s going to be very difficult if Miss Ashworth asks any awkward questions.”
Benina’s eyes lit up.
“Of course, I will help. I did not understand and I thought you wanted to be alone with her.”
“I think, without meaning to sound too conceited,” continued David, “she wants to be alone with me, but I am apprehensive at the questions I may have to answer. Thus I need you. You must keep the conversation rolling so that she is not suspicious in any way.”
“I do follow you now,” admitted Benina. “I am sorry if I was being stupid.”
“As she will undoubtedly be tired from travelling, I am sure we can go to bed early without seeming rude.”
“I will yawn when you tell me to, my Lord!”
Now she was laughing and David hesitated for a second before saying,
“I think you might suggest that she would like to rest before dinner. Then if we go back and finish our tea, there will not be such a long wait between the two meals.”
Benina seemed indecisive.
“Now you do what his Lordship requires,” Nanny came in. “I knows better than you how these smart ladies, wherever they be, in Mayfair or India, talk their heads off and poke their noses into things what don’t concern them. ‘Least said, soonest mended,’ as my old father would say.”
“Quite right, Nanny,” agreed David. “Now come on Benina, let’s go back and I am sure that we can keep the conversation going on India if nothing else!”
He saw that the worried expression had gone from Benina’s face.
She jumped to her feet eagerly.
“Tell Miss Ashworth,” said Nanny, “I’ve shown the lady’s maid up to her room and one for herself.”
“I hope she will be comfortable.”
“We’ve done our best, my Lord, and if there’s too much dust, she’ll feel she’s back in India!”
David was chuckling as he and Benina walked back to the study.
When Stella came down for dinner after being more or less forced into having a rest, David had to admit that she did look exceedingly glamorous.
She was wearing a gown that would have been a lot more suited to a formal dinner at Government House than, as she had intended, a tête-à-tête with him.
The full skirt made it possible to have row after row of lace-trimmed frills reaching from the waist to the floor, and the same frills covered her arms and accentuated the smallness of Stella’s waist.
She wore rather too much jewellery for a young girl and David suspected that she had worn it deliberately.
She wanted to show him how beautiful she would look at the Opening of Parliament in the Inglestone jewels.
These were in the safe in the pantry and he had not even bothered to look at them, as he knew that Newman had looked after them carefully and David was certain he would have told him if anything was missing.
They had been entailed for longer than anything else, including a necklace that had been given by Queen Elizabeth to the then Marquis of Inglestone.
Compared to Stella’s, Benina’s dress was out-of date and plain, although dear Nanny had done her best by adding a dashing sash of blue satin, the colour of her eyes.
She looked, David pondered, very young and very unsophisticated.
At the same time ‘beautiful’ was the right word to describe her.
‘One day,’ he mused, ‘I must give her a dress that is as expensive as Stella’s to frame her beauty as she should be framed – ’
With a sigh he recalled that it entirely depended on whether they found his grandfather’s money.
He had changed into evening dress for the first time since he had come back to Ingle Hall.
It would have seemed out of place when they were eating at a small table in the study, but correct for a formal occasion in the dining room.
Newman had risen to the moment.
There were four magnificent silver candlesticks on the table as well as a huge ornamental goblet that was three hundred years old.
The pictures round the wall were all of the previous Marquises of Inglestone by a great artist of the day. The earliest were now of enormous value, although they could all have done with extensive cleaning.
Despite Newman’s tireless efforts there was still a good covering of dust on the panelling, but David thought it was unlikely that Stella would notice it.
As she settled herself into a chair on his right, she looked around her appraisingly.
“This is a marvellous room for a party,” she cooed. “I am sure we could easily seat fifty or sixty people here!”
David was well aware that she used the word ‘we’.
“I have always disliked large parties, but I believe my great-grandfather gave one each year that was always followed by a ball.”
“I did so miss dancing with you, David, when you disappeared so unexpectedly.”
Stella spoke in a low seductive voice that he knew only too well – it was the same way all the pretty women in Simla had spoken to him and he had found it amusing to flirt with them as they expected him to do.
Now David commented rather quickly,
“I have been far too busy to even think of balls and parties. In point of fact, Benina and I are worried that the fields have been neglected and no crops have been sown for several years.”
He hoped that Stella would be bored into silence, but instead she persisted,
“After you left, Papa learnt what a wonderful job you had done when you saved Fort Tibbee. Everyone in Calcutta was talking about your exploits and saying how resourceful and brave you were.”
“I hope they were doing nothing of the sort – ”
“But of course they were, David, and, as Papa said, it was a great triumph for those in The Great Game that the Russians had been foiled once again.”
David drew in his breath.
“I am sure,” he retorted almost angrily, “that your father has told you never to talk about The Great Game or those who take part in it.”
Stella laughed.
“He told me to be careful what we said in Calcutta. But of course people realised that you were the hero of the hour and had been praised by the Viceroy. Papa said that if your bravery had not been on a secret mission, you would have been awarded a medal.”
She gave a little laugh and added,
“But now you have a large Coronet on your head, you really don’t need one!”
David did not reply, thinking how dangerous this sort of conversation was – it was in fact typical of stupid women who had no idea of what those who served in The Great Game went through.
Once again he tried to turn the conversation round, but Stella could not be silenced.
“When I learnt that you had gone,” she was saying, “I could not believe it was true. For a moment I was afraid the Russians had caught up with you and were determined to murder you because you had saved the Fort.”
“It is something I don’t wish to talk about,” David responded sharply.
“You are too modest, darling!”
She put out her hand and laid it on his arm.
“You must allow all those who love you to say how proud they are of everything you have done for India. But, now you are so distinguished, I feel sure Her Majesty will want to keep you in England.”
He did not answer and after a moment she added,
“I can see there is a lot to be done to this house and of course we must employ the best architect – ”
“How long is your father staying here in England?” David asked her abruptly.
Stella hesitated and then she replied,
“I will answer that question – when we are alone.”
David knew the answer without being told and for a moment he could not think of anything to say.
Then because she was determined to help, Benina very tactfully begged Stella to tell her about the Viceroy’s house in Calcutta.
“I have always heard it resembles Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire that was redesigned by the Adam brothers,” she persisted. “They also worked on various parts of this house and made the furniture in the drawing room and I will show it to you after dinner.”
“I want to see everything,” said Stella. “Especially the ballroom, where my father said he had once danced as a young Subaltern and thought it one of the most beautiful ballrooms he had ever seen.”
“I will show it to you,” offered Benina.
Stella gave her a rather sour look.
“I think that David should show me as he is such a wonderful dancer. I am sure that even without a band we might waltz round the room as we have done so often before.”
There was little David could do to stop her making such remarks and she was continually touching him with her hand.
It was something he had always disliked, whoever the woman was, but he found that it was an essential part of their flirting.
Fortunately they were served only three courses for dinner and although Nanny had cooked them very well, she had not expected a third person for dinner and so the helpings were inevitably rather small.
There was an inaudible sigh of relief from David as dinner ended and when Benina suggested they should go to the study, Stella said to David,
“Come with us. You cannot sit here drinking alone and you know I am longing to talk to you.”
“As a matter of fact, Stella, I am going to bed very early. I have a great deal to do tomorrow and Benina and I have to pay a visit to a farm on the other side of the estate, so we will breakfast early.”
“Would you like me to come too?” asked Stella.
David shook his head.
“It is extremely rough riding and we only have two horses. I think you would be wise to set off for London as early as possible as the traffic into the City often becomes heavy in the afternoon.”
“I don’t want to go back to London,” she protested petulantly.
“But I am afraid that is just what you will have to do, because quite frankly we are not ready for visitors yet. As you can see we have a very small staff and I have not yet had time to put my grandfather’s affairs in order.”
There was nothing Stella could say and they walked into the study in silence.
They sat down and it was quite obvious that Stella resented Benina being there and to make matters worse, David deliberately sat down at the writing desk.
He said there was so much he had to do and thus they must forgive him for not joining in the conversation.
Finally, after a long uncomfortable silence David said that he was going to bed.
“Benina and I have had a hard day and I am sure that after your journey, Stella, you will be glad of an early night.”
She began to object that she was not tired, but David would not listen.
Eventually they walked rather stiffly up the stairs.
The room Nanny had prepared for Stella was one of the finest of the Staterooms with silver and gold furniture.
Stella’s lady’s maid was waiting for her and David wished her goodnight at the door.
“Sleep well, Stella. It was very kind of you to come and visit me. You and your father must come to stay when the house is in order and I can entertain you properly.”
“You know I only wanted to see you,” murmured Stella softly.
He left her and went towards the Master Suite and when they reached Benina’s bedroom, she whispered,
“Are we really going out early in the morning?”
“I have left a note for Nanny,” David replied, “to say we will have breakfast at seven-thirty and the horses are to be round at eight o’clock. Then we will keep out of sight until she leaves before we come back for the search.”
Benina gave a little giggle.
Without saying anything further, she closed her door and David walked slowly to his own room.
He was thinking that on the whole the evening had passed off no worse than he might have expected, but equally he was worried at what Stella had said of the gossip about him in Calcutta.
Then he told himself he was safe enough here.
Yet he remembered that the Russians were reputed never to forget or forgive their enemies.
He undressed and opened the windows wide to let in the cool night air and climbed into bed.
Benina had given him a book she had found in the library on the early history of the Inglestone family.
It was rather difficult to read, as it was old and the print was bad, yet because the book was so interesting, he had managed to read nearly a chapter every night.
With two candles by his bed, he was just beginning where he had left off when the door opened.
To his astonishment Stella walked in.
For a moment he could not see her clearly and then as she reached his bed, he saw that her hair was flowing over her shoulders.
She was wearing a very attractive negligee that was open down the front to show the nightgown beneath it.
“Stella!” he cried. “What are you doing here?”
She sat down on the side of his bed facing him as she answered,
“I have to talk to you, darling, and it is impossible when that tiresome young girl is always with us.”
David put his book down on the table beside him.
“There is nothing to say, Stella, you told me very clearly you did not love me and I came home determined to forget you.”
“But I am sure you were unable to, dearest David, just as I found it impossible to forget you.”
She moved nearer to him holding out her arms.
“Kiss me, David, kiss me like you used to kiss me. You will find our love is even more wonderful than it has ever been.”
David did not move and then he muttered,
“No, Stella. What is over is over and it’s no use trying to go back.”
“I do love you, David, as I will always love you. It was only because I was afraid of poverty that I was foolish enough to say ‘no’.”
“You were quite right. We should not have been happy together, I recognise that now.”
“But I realise now that I do love you desperately, so we can be married and Papa is delighted at the idea.”
David thought cynically that he was not surprised.
It was a very different issue for the General to give the Marquis of Inglestone permission to marry his daughter than to accept a young Captain with no money and no title!
Stella moved even closer to him.
He put out his hands to stop her coming any nearer.
“Now listen, Stella, you have no right to come here, as you well know. I have no intention at all of ruining your reputation, so that your father can insist on our marriage.”
He knew from the flicker of Stella’s eyelashes that was just what she had been planning.
“Go back to your room now, Stella, and forget we ever thought we were in love with each other.”
“But I love you, David,” she cried. “Kiss me and tell me you will no longer say these unkind words to me.”
“As I have told you, I have no intention of ruining your reputation,” David repeated sharply. “Return to your own room – and you must leave for London early tomorrow morning.”
Stella stared at him.
“Are you really saying this to me?” she demanded.
“I am saying it and I mean it.”
Stella rose from the bed and onto her feet.
“I have offered you my heart, David, and you have refused it. I don’t believe that you would have forgotten so quickly if it had not been for that girl you pretend is your relative. Very well then, I hope she satisfies you with her dowdy clothes and her ignorance of the Social world!”
She stamped her foot, but it was not very effective as she was wearing bedroom slippers.
“I hate you, David,” she screamed. “I hate you for what you have done to me and I will never forgive you.”
She reached the door, pulled it open and then made her parting shot.
“I hope after all you have done to me, the Russians do get you!”
With that she stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her.
David gave a deep sigh.
He could hardly believe what had just happened.
He was in fact deeply shocked that Stella, who he had always considered young and innocent, should actually have come to his bedroom and he was quite sure that she had been prepared to stay there with him.
He was used to married women in Calcutta being unfaithful to their husbands, but he had never had anything to do with the young unmarried girls.
He could only think now that he had been so very lucky in escaping from Stella, who he had once foolishly wanted to be his wife.
He knew only too well from past experience that if he married her, she would be unfaithful to him.
Just as so many other women were unfaithful while their husbands were doing their duty for their Queen and country.
These wives were undoubtedly bored with little but female company and yet that was no excuse.
‘It is what I have never wanted in my life and what I do not intend to have,’ he told himself sternly.
Equally he was sorry that Stella should be so upset, even though he despised her for her behaviour.
He had considered himself in love with her because she was so beautiful and in the atmosphere of India it was difficult for a man not to seek love.
Perhaps love was too perfect a word to describe the emotions that were certainly aroused more by the Indian climate than by anything else.
‘I have indeed had a very lucky escape.’
He climbed out of bed and walked to the window.
Outside the moon was shedding its silver light over the garden and he could see it shimmering on the lake.
It looked so enchanting that for a moment he forgot the difficulties that were confronting him.
He only thought with a feeling of satisfaction it was now his.
“It’s mine for my lifetime,” he called out aloud.
Then he remembered that it was essential for him to produce a son and heir.
There were so few Ingles left and as far as he knew there was no one to follow in his footsteps as he had just followed in his grandfather’s.
‘I will have to marry someone,’ he pondered.
Then, as he recalled the anger in Stella’s face when she left him, he shivered.
He might well be suffering now, yet it was nothing to what he would suffer if he married a woman like her – she would be unfaithful whenever he turned his back and what she called her love for him was really for his title and position in Society.
He looked up at the stars and knew he was asking to be loved for himself – as he had always hoped.
He had believed he would find the ideal woman as his father had done with his mother and been blissfully happy, but simply because he had now inherited his grandfather’s title, it was unlikely that such a blessing could ever be his.
He turned away from the window.
The moonlight on the garden and lake below was so stunning that he knew it was part of the beauty he craved – the beauty best expressed quite simply by the word ‘love’.
But it was something so many men had found out of reach and only a few had been lucky enough to find love and possess it.
What chance had he?
He pulled the curtains to shut out the moonlight and then he went slowly back to bed.
He felt as if all his dreams had been roughly broken and now the future seemed even more difficult and more hopeless than it had ever been.
*
Benina had heard a door slamming shut sharply and wondered if something was wrong.
She was not in bed, although she was undressed, and she had already laid out her riding habit on a chair so that it would be ready for her when she awoke in the morning.
Benina knew that she must not keep David waiting. She was mindful of her father’s words of caution that men found nothing more annoying than an unpunctual woman. He said that it implied a woman believed that waiting around was a man’s duty, which it was most certainly not.
She put her riding boots in front of the chair.
Then she walked over to the window to have a last look at the garden, which looked like Fairyland in the moonlight.
As she gazed down onto the lake she thought what fun it had been to swim with David.
‘I am so lucky,’ she thought. ‘Another man might have been as unkind and cruel as the Marquis and sent Nanny and I away from Ingle Hall.’
And how thrilled the pensioners would be at all he had done for them.
She was sure no other man would be so generous when he had so little money.
‘He is wonderful! Wonderful!’ she told herself.
Then she sensed a quiver of jealousy sweep through her – Stella Ashworth was so beautiful and obviously very enamoured with him.
‘How could he possibly refuse her?’ she wondered.
Then she thought perhaps it was because he was at the moment so poor that he did not want to respond to her affection for him.
She was hoping and praying that Stella would leave as David had told her to do in the morning.
Then a thought suddenly struck Benina.
When he found his money, he would then feel he could accept Stella Ashworth’s advances.
The whole idea was agonising.
It was like a dagger into her heart to think that she would lose David.
She clenched her fingers together and the pain was an echo of the pain in her chest.
It was then she finally admitted to herself that she loved David.
She had loved him since she had first seen him.
It was not only because he was so very handsome, but because he was so kind and understanding and he was so good to Nanny and to poor old Newman.
‘No other man could be so marvellous,’ she mused.
Then once again she could see Stella’s seductive eyes flashing at him, her long fingers touching his arm and naturally she wanted to dance with him.
It was what Benina herself would love to do.
Because her feelings were growing more and more intense, she turned away from the window.
‘I must go to bed,’ she decided, ‘and try to sleep. It will be difficult when perhaps David is thinking of the beautiful Miss Ashworth – ’
She knew it was almost wicked, but she could not help hoping that they would not find the money too soon as if they did, David could then ask Stella to marry him.
Perhaps he would give her and Nanny a cottage in the village.
‘I will have to leave – I could not stay,’ she felt.
The idea of it seemed to tear her heart into shreds.
She walked back resolutely towards her bed as she must have all her wits about her for tomorrow.
As she reached her bed, she heard a door slam and because it seemed very loud in the silence, she ran to her own door.
She pulled it open.
By the light of the one candle burning in its silver sconce in the passage she saw Stella.
She was disappearing into the room that Nanny had prepared for her.
She slammed that door too, but not as loudly.
Benina stood staring at the closed door.
She realised, although it seemed incredible, that the first door she had heard slam had been the one belonging to the Master Suite.
It was obvious that Stella had come from there.
‘She must,’ Benina reckoned, ‘have gone in to say goodnight to David and whatever he said must have annoyed her, so she rushed back to her room in a temper.’
Benina had no idea what had happened or what had upset her. She only knew with a lift of her heart that David could not have been affectionate or kind to Stella.
Otherwise she would not have been so angry.
Suddenly Benina felt happy again.
She admitted to herself that she had been depressed and uneasy ever since Stella’s arrival.
But now her heart seemed to be dancing around and the sun was shining in her soul.
She did not quite understand the whole scenario.
But as she lay down on her bed, she closed her eyes and whispered softly,
“Thank You, God. Thank You.”