As the French train left Calais the Duke heaved a sigh of relief.
At the same time he could not help feeling a little amused that in his new position life was smoothed for him in a manner that he could hardly have believed possible.
When they reached Inverness Station, he had sent a number of telegrams from the Station Master’s Office asking for a Courier to meet him in London and for arrangements to be made for his journey to Naples.
The Station Master was obviously impressed with the stature of the Duke of Invercaron.
When he and Giovanna were escorted by several officials into two reserved sleeping compartments with Ross in an adjoining compartment, he thought that it was very different from the way he had had to scramble for a seat in the past.
Giovanna was already tired and the Duke had a sleeping berth made up and insisted on her lying down.
She had, as he knew, been nervous that something might happen to her on the journey and, although he had promised her that it was perfectly safe once the train was moving, he realised that when night came she would be terrified to be alone in the dark.
He was also half-afraid that by some unfortunate coincidence Kane Horn might board the same train.
He therefore had the second bunk in Giovanna’s compartment made up and he lay on it without undressing.
He saw that because he was with her, for the first time since leaving The Castle, she fell into a deep sleep.
He was sure that because she loved him she would not be as agitated as she would have been otherwise.
He was certain of this when they sat talking together in a private cabin while they crossed the English Channel.
He was half-afraid that she would be upset by the sea, but he had the feeling, although he did not mention it, that because she was so happy to be with him and to know that he loved her, she was hardly aware of anything else.
The Courier, who had been engaged for him by the Railway Authorities at St. Pancras Station was a competent man who spoke, he assured the Duke, both French and Italian.
As soon as he understood exactly what was required, he sent urgent telegrams to all the necessary authorities with the result that not only did they have a private cabin on the ship, but also, which the Duke had never enjoyed before, a private coach attached to the Express waiting at Calais.
Giovanna was delighted.
“I have always heard that the Queen travels like this,” she smiled, “but now I know that a Duke is just as Royal!”
The Duke laughed.
“Not exactly,” he said, “but I am pleased that you will be more comfortable than you might otherwise have been.”
Their coach was very luxurious and there were two sleeping compartments with brass bedsteads in them and everything else fitted to the walls.
“It’s like having a little house all to ourselves,” Giovanna exclaimed.
“That is what we will have very soon,” the Duke said quietly.
She looked up at him and he saw the happiness in her eyes, which was then replaced by an expression of apprehension over what lay ahead.
The Duke took off the bonnet she had travelled in and unbuttoned her coat, but he did not remove it in case she should feel cold.
“Come and sit down,” he suggested. “As soon as the train starts, Ross is going to serve us with dinner, which I have ordered ahead and I think that we both need a glass of champagne.”
“All I want is that the train – should go very very quickly,” Giovanna replied.
The Duke knew that she was frantic in case Kane Horn should arrive in Naples before they did.
To reassure her he said,
“I am prepared to bet a large sum of money, which I do not possess, that we are way ahead of our enemies and remember that they will not have the same ‘Royal’ facilities as we have.”
He thought that she was reassured and knew it would be a mistake to go on talking of what lay in the future, about which he was extremely apprehensive.
On his instructions the Courier had already sent telegrams to the Chief of Police in Naples, but, knowing how indolent the Italians could sometimes be, the Duke wondered if his title would carry as much weight in a foreign country as it did in England.
He was also worried about Giovanna in case she should collapse on such an arduous journey, being still so weak.
There was, however, nothing he could do about that except cosset her in every way he could and Ross was even more insistent than he was that she should rest.
They ate a delicious meal provided, the Duke was aware, by the best hotel in Calais, which therefore cost a considerable sum of money.
When it was finished, Ross urged Giovanna,
“Now come along, miss. You know what Mrs. Sutherland’d say if she was with us, that you mustna dare open your eyes until it’s daylight.”
Giovanna laughed and the Duke thought that it was a very pretty sound.
“I think you are bullying me,” she protested, “but I admit I am actually very tired.”
Ross went ahead to open the door that led into her bedroom and she looked at the Duke.
“I will come and kiss you good night,” he said, “but now you must do as Ross says.”
She gave him a little smile and walked slowly, holding onto the chairs as she passed them, through the open door.
After a short while Ross came back.
“Now dinna you worry, Your Grace,” he said. “Her Ladyship’ll be fine.”
It was the first time that he had referred to her in her rightful style and the Duke looked at him reflectively before he asked,
“You are aware, Ross, who Miss Giovanna really is?”
“I had my suspicions, Your Grace, from the very beginnin’,” Ross replied, “but I didna want to have my head snapped off, if I had suggested it to you.”
The Duke smiled and asked,
“What made you suspicious?”
“The way that young woman at Dalbeth House looked the first night we dined there,” Ross answered. “I saw her coming down to dinner after you went into the drawing room and I said to meself, ‘she’s not a Scot or I’ll eat me bonnet!’”
“That was very clever of you,” the Duke said. “I did not at the time suspect that she was an impostor, but merely oversophisticated and overpainted in a way that would certainly shock our Clansmen.”
“She shocked the Macbeths right enough,” Ross said. “You should have heard what they said aboot her in the servants’ hall!”
The Duke could imagine how horrified the old servants would have been that any girl so young and also their Chieftain should be powdered and painted in a manner that they would have expected of a harlot.
“I saw the men, Your Grace,” Ross said as he took the glasses from the table, “and we’ll have to have our wits aboot us to cope with them.”
“I know that,” the Duke agreed quietly, “but whatever happens we must avoid upsetting Lady Sinclair who, I understand, is in very delicate health.”
He knew by the expression on Ross’s face that he thought this might be an impossibility, but he did not say anything before retiring to the small kitchen that lay at the other end of the coach.
There was a folding bed in it and the Duke was glad that Ross was near him and did not, as often happened, have to get off at the first stop in order to transfer to one of the Third Class carriages.
The Courier, however, had been clever enough to ensure that they were attached to an Express and there was actually only one stop between Calais and Paris.
They reached Paris early in the morning. Although the Duke was up and dressed he did not disturb Giovanna and, when later he peeped into her compartment, she was still asleep.
She had in fact been almost asleep when he went, as he had promised, to say good night to her.
He had therefore kissed her only very gently.
Because she was looking so lovely with her fair hair falling over the pillow he longed to stay talking to her and kissing her.
But he realised that she was completely exhausted and, almost before he left, her eyes were closed and she was drifting away into unconsciousness.
It was the best thing that could happen and yet, when the Duke went back to the drawing room, he was aware that the blood was throbbing in his temples because he had touched her and his heart was behaving in a most unpredictable manner.
‘How is it possible,’ he asked himself, ‘that at my age and with all my long experience I should feel like a boy with his first love?’
It seemed incredible, and yet he knew that the Indians believed that the real love that came from Krishna was Divine and, of those who sought it, most were disappointed.
The Duke knew that he had now found the love that was his by The Wheel of Rebirth although it had never struck him that somebody like Giovanna was waiting for him if he could only find her.
A streak of fear shot through him at the thought that, if he had reached the cascade even a few seconds later than he had, he would have been too late and would never have known that she existed.
But he had not been too late.
He had found her and now, like one of the heroes of mythology, he had to rescue her not from demons or dragons but from a gang of unscrupulous avaricious criminals who were prepared to kill for money.
There was so much he wanted to know about them that only Giovanna could tell him, but he must wait until she was prepared to talk.
It was not until sometime after they had left Paris and were speeding South that she came into the drawing room looking so lovely after her night’s rest that the Duke gave an exclamation of joy at seeing her.
“I am ashamed of having slept for so long,” she said as he put out his hand to help her into a comfortable armchair by the window.
“It was the most sensible thing you could do,” he said.
“When Ross brought me my breakfast at ten o’clock, I could hardly believe that I had slept right through the night.”
“You did not feel afraid?” the Duke asked.
“I knew that – you were near me and that – you were – protecting me.”
The way she spoke was very touching and he said,
“Shall I tell you how lovely you look or do you feel that it’s too early in the day to talk of anything so exciting?”
She laughed.
“I want to think I look lovely for you, but I am very conscious of how my bones are sticking out and of the lines on my face.”
“Don’t worry about that,” the Duke said. “In a few days, especially in the sunshine, you will look as you did before you came to Scotland.”
“I hope – so,” Giovanna sighed.
Ross interrupted by bringing them a pot of steaming coffee with some fresh cream that he had taken on board at Paris.
There was also a jug of milk for Giovanna and when she saw it she exclaimed,
“Please – may I have some coffee with it? Mrs. Sutherland made me drink so much milk that I am afraid I shall turn into a cow!”
The Duke laughed.
“I think that is unlikely, but you will find it will taste nicer if you mix it with coffee. We will do that until we return home.”
She gave him a quick glance, which he knew meant that she was praying fervently that she would be allowed to return home with him.
He therefore said quietly when Ross had left them alone,
“Drink your coffee, then I want you to help me make plans. But it will be difficult unless I know exactly what has been happening and why you went to Naples in the first place.”
Giovanna gave a deep sigh and then she slipped her hand into his in a confiding childlike manner that the Duke found very touching.
He kissed her fingers one by one until she said,
“If you do that – I will find it – difficult to think of – anything but you.”
“Just as I can only think that you are the most perfect adorable woman I have ever met in my life,” the Duke said in a deep voice.
“Is that – true?”
He looked at her for a long moment before he replied,
“Before we start talking about what has happened to you, my darling, before we even mention the future, I want to tell you one thing.”
He felt her fingers tremble as if she was afraid and he said,
“Look at me!”
She turned her head and he thought that her gold-flecked eyes, even with a very worried expression in them, were the most beautiful things he had ever seen.
“What I am going to say,” he went on in a deep voice, “is that if you were not who you are, if you were someone quite different without a single penny to your name, I would still go down on my knees and beg you to be my wife.”
As he spoke, he knew that it was something she had not expected him to say.
Then suddenly her face was radiant and her fingers tightened on his.
She did not speak, but her lips parted as if she found it hard to breathe.
“Do you believe me?” the Duke asked. “For I swear by Almighty God that it is the truth.”
“I do believe you,” Giovanna answered, “but it is my – horrible money that has been the cause of – everything that has – happened to me! I only wish that my Godmother had left it to – somebody else!”
It was a cry that came from her heart and the Duke said quietly,
“I knew that you would feel like that! At the same time, my precious, you know what it will mean to your people as well as mine, who are so desperately in need of help.”
“Will you promise to look after them – first?” she asked.
The Duke smiled.
“That is what I would have expected you to say and I was only afraid that the Countess of Dalbeth would be more concerned with new gowns than leaking roofs and perhaps would find London more exciting than a crumbling Castle!”
“How can you imagine I could ever – ?” Giovanna began.
Then she realised that the Duke was only teasing her.
“I used to worry about the Clansmen when I was in Naples,” she said, “and I knew without being told that Stepmama was spending all Papa’s money on herself and leaving nothing for the crofters and those in the Glen who were always desperately poor.”
“How could your father have married anybody so utterly unworthy?” the Duke asked.
“She married him!” Giovanna replied.
The Duke remembered how Sir Iain McCaron had said much the same thing and then he asked,
“Now, tell me what happened.”
“Papa went to Edinburgh to stay with some friends for a Regimental dinner that was being given at Edinburgh Castle. I was glad he was going because he had been so unhappy after – Mama died and sometimes I-I thought that without her he had – lost the – will to live.”
There was a little sob in Giovanna’s voice and the Duke knew how unhappy she had been at the time.
“He was away for longer than I had expected,” she continued, “and when he returned – she was with him!”
“They were married?”
“They told me that they had been married very quietly, although – Papa could remember nothing about it.”
The Duke stared at Giovanna in astonishment.
“Did he really say that?”
“I was sure later that my stepmother had drugged him by putting something in his wine which made him do exactly what she wanted – of which afterwards he had no recollection.”
The way she spoke made the Duke ask,
“What made you certain that was what she had done?”
“Because it was what she did after they – returned whenever she wanted something – special from him.”
“Tell me exactly what happened then,” the Duke begged.
“From the moment they came home Papa started to drink a great deal more than he had ever done before. It was not just an occasional whisky, which he had always enjoyed, but bottles of claret and port and champagne, which she preferred.”
“Did you speak to him about it?” the Duke asked.
“Of course I did,” Giovanna answered. “I said, ‘please, Papa, don’t drink so much. You know it would upset Mama if she was here and it makes me embarrassed and unhappy when you are not really yourself’.”
“What did your father reply to that?”
“The first time I spoke to him he said, ‘you are quite right, my dearest, and I know that I am making a fool of myself. I promise to be more sensible from now on’.”
“And was he?”
“He tried – I know he tried!” Giovanna said earnestly, “but my stepmother was furious with me.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me to mind my own business and that she would look after my father and she knew what was best for him.”
“So he went on drinking.”
“He tried not to do so in front of me, but I realise that, whenever my stepmother wanted him to give her some money, she would take him a glass of claret or port and say, ‘I have brought you a drink, dearest Keith, and I want you to drink a toast with me because we are so happy together.’”
Giovanna paused and the Duke asked,
“What happened then?”
“I realised after this had happened two or three times that my stepmother must be putting something very potent into his glass, because immediately Papa had drunk it he became almost insensible or what appeared to be very very drunk.”
The Duke’s lips tightened before he asked.
“Did you accuse your stepmother of doing anything like that?”
“I accused her of many things,” Giovanna replied, “but most of all of spending money that we could not afford. After Mama died, I would help Papa with the accounts and I knew that, before he married my stepmother, we had economised very strictly in order to help the Clansmen, many of whom are on the verge of starvation.”
She drew in her breath as if she was remembering how upsetting it had been and went on.
“When the winter had been hard, they had nothing to eat – it was pitiful,” she continued. “Always in the past when this happened Papa and Mama used to help them over the bad times.”
“Of course,” the Duke murmured, knowing that it was what every decent Chieftain did.
“But when they came as they always had to the house for help,” Giovanna went on, “my stepmother sent them away, telling them that my father was too ill to be worried with their complaints.”
She gave a deep sigh.
“I knew how wrong and wicked that was when Papa was their Chieftain and, if he had been himself, he would never have let them be treated in such a callous manner.”
“What did you do?”
“I gave, when I could, any money that was available and spoke to one of the elders of the Clan who provided the small children with milk, which had always been Papa’s responsibility.”
Giovanna looked away from the Duke as if she was embarrassed as she said,
“What was so degrading was that my stepmother was buying new curtains, new carpets and expensive ornaments for the house and decorating it in a most extravagant manner while our people were – hungry.”
As if she could not help it, her voice broke and the tears ran down her cheeks.
The Duke put his arm around her shoulders.
“If this is upsetting you too much, my precious,” he said, “we will talk about it another time.”
He wiped away her tears and then Giovanna said,
“No – I want to go on – I want you to know. It is so – wonderful to be able to talk to you – when I thought that nobody would – ever again understand and I should – die with the secrets inside me.”
“Your secrets now are mine, as mine are yours,” the Duke said, “but you must tell me your story another time.”
“No – now!” Giovanna replied almost fiercely.
He kissed her forehead and then sat back again in his own chair, still holding her hand.
As he did so, an idea came to him and he said,
“As you are so regrettably thin, I believe that there is room for us together and, if you are going to go on with your story, I want to hold you closer than I can at the moment.”
He had been right.
When he had seated himself beside her, there was still room, if he held her close to him.
She made a little sound of contentment and put her head on his shoulder and the Duke said,
“Now I think it will be easier and a great deal more pleasant because I can feel you against my heart.”
“I – like being – close to you,” Giovanna murmured.
She looked up at him and the Duke wanted to kiss her, but he thought that it would interrupt what it was imperative he should know and he therefore urged,
“Go on with what you were telling me.”
“It was then – after I had fought with her about the Clansmen and told her that we could not afford the money she was spending, that my stepmother showed me how much she – hated me.”
She gave a little shiver before she said,
“I could feel her hatred pouring out from her almost as if it was something – alive – and very evil.”
“Which it was!” the Duke murmured, thinking of what had happened afterwards.
“Everything I did, everything I said, was wrong,” Giovanna went on, “and finally I suggested to Papa that I should go away.”
“Did he understand?”
“He said, ‘your stepmother has been suggesting for some time that you should go to a boarding school’.”
“Were you surprised?”
“No – I was only afraid that she would – choose the school.”
“So you went to stay with your grandmother.”
“I had received a letter from her asking how I was and, when I showed it to Papa, he said, ‘why do you not go and stay in Naples? I think you would be happier there’.”
“Were you surprised at the idea?” the Duke asked.
“At first. It had never struck me that I might leave Scotland. Then I looked at Papa and realised just how much he had deteriorated.”
She sighed and went on,
“We were talking early in the morning before Stepmother was awake. He had had too much to drink the night before and I knew that if she was aware I was with him and we were happy together, she would bring him one of her poisonous glasses of wine. Then he would become so drunk – that I would not be able to talk to him.”
Giovanna was silent for a moment before she said very touchingly,
“I felt as if – Mama was beside me – telling me what to say and – I asked Papa if I should write to my grandmother and suggest that I visit her.”
“And he agreed?”
“He urged me not only to write, but to go at once! I think – at that moment he was aware not only of how much I was suffering – but that he was suffering himself from the woman who was destroying him – but about whom he could – do nothing!”
There was so much unhappiness in Giovanna’s voice that the Duke held her even closer to him and put his lips against the softness of her cheek.
“It must have been very hard for you, my darling.”
“P-perhaps I was – wrong and should have – stayed,” Giovanna said, “but because it was all so – horrible and so unlike the happiness we had known with Mama – I wanted almost frantically to get away.”
“I can understand that. After all you were only fifteen.”
“I was old enough to realise how terrible it all was, but not old enough to save – Papa.”
The Duke was aware that as a young and inexperienced girl there was nothing she could have done against a woman as dangerous and determined as her stepmother.
“So you left for Naples?” he asked.
“Colonel Dalbeth, who was Papa’s cousin, sent his daughter who was a very sensible woman of over thirty-five to escort me there. We did not travel grandly like you, but Second Class and it was all rather fun and an adventure.”
“Your grandmother was pleased to see you?”
“Delighted, but I thought that it was somehow wrong to leave Papa – and I meant to go back soon.”
“Do you suppose he would have let you?”
“I wrote to Papa every week and he answered once or twice – then when I wrote and asked if he wanted me to come home, my stepmother replied.”
“I can guess what she said!” the Duke remarked.
“She made it very clear that neither she nor my father wished to see me. I was to stay where I was and not have any stupid ideas about returning to Scotland.”
“Then what happened?”
“Grandmama had already arranged for me to have some lessons from various teachers, but, when she knew that I was staying for good, she thought it would be best if I became a boarder at the Convent School, as I would have girls there of my own age to talk to and also have better teachers than those I was having at that moment.”
“So you went to live at the Convent,” the Duke said. “It must have seemed strange in a way.”
“It was very different from what – I had imagined a Convent would be,” Giovanna answered. “On one side were the dedicated Sisters who prayed all the time or attended to the very poor in Naples.”
“You were not allowed to be with them?” the Duke asked.
“No,” Giovanna replied. “On the other side was the school, which was attended by thirty pupils, all of whom came from the best families in Italy or France. We had highly experienced teachers in all subjects and they were not always nuns.”
She smiled.
“Although we had to attend a lot of Services and had hours of religious teaching every week, we were also extremely well taught on all the other subjects.”
Giovanna paused before she looked up at the Duke and said,
“I am so very glad now that I – learnt so much because otherwise – you would find me very ignorant – and perhaps be – bored with me.”
“I could never be bored with you!” the Duke asserted.
“But I am afraid that my learning is all from books, whereas you have travelled about the world, fought in India and been very very brave.”
The Duke laughed.
“You have been listening to Mrs. Sutherland and Ross and, when you know me well, you may find me very different from their picture of me.”
“I know you well – enough to know that – you are very – wonderful!” Giovanna said in a soft shy voice.
Then, as the Duke did not speak, she added quickly,
“You do love me – you do really love me – you are not just saying it – to make me happy?”
“I love you as I have never loved anyone in my whole life,” the Duke answered. “In fact I had no idea that I could feel as I feel about you, my lovely one.”
“You – you are – sure of that?”
“Absolutely sure,” he said, “and it is something I will prove to you as soon as you are safe and we are married.”
As he spoke, he turned her face up to his and kissed her. As he felt their vibrations join and they became one person, he knew that there was really no need for words.
He kissed Giovanna until her eyes were shining like the sun outside and he knew that she was feeling the same ecstasy that he was feeling himself.
“I love you – God, how I love you!” he exclaimed. “I wish we could go away together on a honeymoon, my darling, and forget everything but ourselves.”
But as he spoke he knew that the dark menacing hand of Kane Horn overshadowed them both.
He told himself that the sooner it was brought into the open and finished once and for all the better.
All he could do at the moment was to think of Giovanna and kiss her until everything except the wonder of their love was, for the moment, forgotten.
*
It was much later in the day after Giovanna had slept for a long time after an excellent luncheon before they could continue their conversation.
She had come back into the drawing room, where the Duke was waiting for her and was wearing a pretty gown of a soft blue material that must have belonged to his aunt.
Mrs. Sutherland had altered it to fit Giovanna and, while it was not a very elaborate gown, it was swept back into some semblance of a fashionable bustle.
Its very simplicity made Giovanna look sylphlike and, as he had first thought her to be, a nymph from the cascade.
The pale gold of her hair, the green of her eyes and the dazzling whiteness of her skin gave her the look of an Immortal while the slenderness of her body made her ethereal and insubstantial.
The Duke drew her down to the end of the carriage where there was a seat which during her absence he had had an arm of the chair removed from and thereby created what was in fact a small sofa.
“As I like you close to me,” he said, “I think than we shall be more comfortable here than in one armchair.”
Giovanna smiled.
“I was very comfortable as we were – but as long as I can still be – near to you – I don’t mind where we are.”
“As that is what I want too,” the Duke replied, “we are in complete agreement, my darling!”
He kissed her gently and touched the silkiness of her hair with his hand.
“How can you manage to look so beautiful after all you have been through?” he asked.
“That is what I wanted you to say. At the same time I think you must be blind,” Giovanna replied. “I am very ashamed of my looks and to please you and Mrs. Sutherland I have drunk all the milk that Ross brought me at the last place where we stopped.”
She wrinkled her small nose and added,
“I don’t think French milk is very nice!”
“We will think of something else to fatten you up,” the Duke promised.
“I think being happy with you is better for me than anything I could eat,” Giovanna whispered.
Because it was what he thought himself, he kissed her.
It was quite a long time before Giovanna returned, because she knew that it was something she must do, to where her story had been interrupted.
“It was in May that I had a letter from Scotland telling me that Papa – was dead.”
“Was it a terrible shock?”
“It was what I had expected because I had not heard from him for such a long time. I always wrote to him – but he never replied – and I had a feeling, perhaps because I am ‘fey’ that it would not be long before he – joined Mama – in Heaven.”
She spoke very simply, but the Duke knew that she regretted that her father had died without her being there to say goodbye to him and instead had left him at the mercy of a woman who hated her.
“And when did you let them know that you would go back?”
“I did not think of that at first – but then I had a letter from Colonel Macbeth and other members of the Clan to say that I must return, as I was now the Countess of Dalbeth and Hereditary Chieftain.”
She paused as if she was remembering how upsetting it had been.
“They did however suggest,” she went on, “that, if I was at school, I might wish to finish the term.”
“Was that what you wanted?”
“Yes, of course, I was so nervous of going back to Scotland. Grandmama and I discussed it together and thought it most important that I should pass my examinations, which all came at the end of the summer term.”
“Then what happened?”
“A letter suddenly arrived from America to say that my Godmother was dead and that she had left me a fortune!”
“It must have been a great surprise!”
“It was! But I realised at once that I could now help the Macbeths and the other Clansmen about whom I had worried all the time, knowing that when I was not there Stepmother would just send them away empty-handed.”
She sighed and went on,
“They would have had nobody to turn to except the elders, who never had any money or at any rate far less than we had.”
The Duke was touched by the way she had cared and Giovanna continued,
“They told me which Bank I could get in touch with in London or Edinburgh and Grandmama said that her Solicitors, who were in Naples, would see to everything for me.”
“Which I presume they did.”
“Unfortunately they thought it was their business to write to my stepmother and I think it must have been their fault too that the news of my inheritance appeared first in the Italian newspapers and, as I learned later, was copied by the English and I suspect the Scottish ones.”
The Duke was sure that was what had happened and why both the Dalbeths and the McCarons had got in touch with the Marquis of Lothian as Secretary of State for Scotland.
“While I was finishing my time at the Convent, I did not think very much about it after that,” Giovanna said, “until I received a letter from Colonel Macbeth telling me I must return to Scotland and at the same time I also had a letter from Stepmama.”
“What did she say?”
“She said that if my grandmother could arrange for me to be escorted as far as Dover, she would meet me there.”
“Were you upset at the thought of seeing her again?”
“It seemed to be something that could not be avoided,” Giovanna replied. “I was only afraid that now that Papa was dead she would be my Guardian and I would have to obey her. But I knew that, having so much money, I would be able to do what I wanted as regards helping people and I thought in that, at any rate, I would be supported by my relations.”
“So you left for Scotland.”
“Grandmama talked to the Mother Superior and she sent one of the nuns with me, a sweet Sister who had travelled on behalf of the Convent to conferences or special meetings in Rome and places like that.”
“And when you reached Dover – what then?”
“Stepmama and her elderly maid, Annie, a woman I remembered but had never liked, were waiting for me at the Lord Warden Hotel. I said goodbye to the nun and set off with them for Scotland.”
The Duke waited, knowing that this was the moment in her story where Giovanna began to be afraid.
“At first,” she said shyly, “my stepmother merely talked about my money and asked me what arrangements had been made about it. I saw no reason not to tell the truth and showed her all the letters and documents that Grandmama’s Solicitors had handed to me before I left Naples.”
She gave a sigh before she added,
“It was only later that I realised how foolish I had been. She now knew the names of the Bank Managers to be contacted in London or Edinburgh, who had promised to do anything I wished and transfer money to any Bank in Scotland that would be convenient.”
“And when did your stepmother ask you to do that?”
“We stayed the night in London, where a representative from the Bank came to the hotel and I signed a lot of documents, which stepmother read very carefully before I did so.”
As if the Duke was accusing her of being stupid, Giovanna said,
“She had been quite pleasant to me on the journey from Dover and I thought, now that I was older and Papa was dead, she did not seem to hate me as much as she had three years earlier. In fact I believed that she wanted to be friendly.”
“I am sure that she acted her part very well!” the Duke said sarcastically.
He did not, however, want to prevent Giovanna from telling him every detail and she continued,
“It was not until we had reached Inverness that my stepmother came into the carriage where I had slept quite peacefully and said,
“‘We will have rather a rough drive before we reach home and, as the roads have been badly damaged by the winter rains, I have brought you something to soothe your stomach. Personally I find the roughness of the roads worse than the waves of the sea!’
“‘You make it sound terrible!’ I laughed trying to remember what the roads had been like when I had left home.
“‘We have had two very bad winters,’ my stepmother said, ‘and one is thrown about the carriage from side to side until one feels quite sick and dizzy!’
“‘I shall be all right.’ I laughed.
“‘Well, drink this anyway,’ my stepmother said, offering me a small glass filled with a white liquid.
“‘I would rather not,’ I answered, ‘I am sure it tastes nasty!’
“‘It merely tastes of peppermint,’ she replied. ‘I have made it up especially for you. I have just had some myself and given the same amount to Annie’.”
Giovanna moved a little closer to the Duke.
“I-I know it was – foolish of me, but she was so insistent and I did not – want to upset her. I-I never thought she would do the same sort of thing to me that she had done to – Papa.”
“What happened?”
“I-I drank what she had given me – and a few minutes later I must have – fallen back unconscious for I can – remember nothing of what happened after that.”
“You were drugged!” the Duke exclaimed.
“I must have been,” Giovanna agreed, “and it lasted all the way back. The next thing I knew – I was lying on a bed – in a room that when I lived at home had – never been used.”
“You were alone?”
“I-I was alone when I – came back to consciousness and I felt – desperately – terribly ill. I managed to get off the bed – and I found a tap and only as I attempted to fill a glass with some water did I – realise where – I was.”
“Where were you?”
“In a room that had been specially built onto the house by my grandfather for his mother.”
The Duke waited and Giovanna explained.
“She was very old and apparently had a horror of noise – in fact even the slightest sound could keep her awake at night – and so my grandfather built a special room on one of the top floors, which was isolated from the rest of the house.”
She made a little gesture with her hand as she explained,
“In order to reach it one had to walk along two empty corridors. It fortunately had a bathroom attached and there was running water – only cold of course – but which I know now saved my life.”
“You mean because you could drink even if they did not feed you?”
Giovanna nodded.
“If I had been – thirsty as well as hungry – I am sure that I should have died quite quickly – and being starved would have been – more agonising even than it was.”
“When did you know what was happening to you?” the Duke asked.
“Stepmother came and told me. Then I knew how much she had always hated me when I was at home and that not only had her hatred grown stronger but she loathed and detested me because I was rich.
“‘If you think you can control your money,’ she said, ‘you are very much mistaken and, if you think you are going to marry a Duke as they have planned for you to do, you are also in for a surprise!’
“‘What are you talking about?’ I asked. ‘This is the first I have heard that I am to be married.’
“‘Apparently those old fools the Macbeths and the McCarons have decided you shall marry the Duke of Invercaron,’ she said, ‘and reign like a Queen in Scotland with all your money to spend! But I am going to stop it and you are going to reign nowhere as far as I am concerned except in Hell!’
“‘I don’t know – what you are – talking about,’ I cried.
“‘Then listen to me,’ my stepmother replied. ‘What is going to happen to you is that you are going to die!’
“‘I think you must be mad!’ I said. ‘Do you not suppose there will be questions asked as to where I am and what has happened to me? And as Chieftain my Clan will want to see me’.”
Giovanna shuddered as she added,
“Then – she smiled, and for the first time I was really – frightened.
“‘Your Clansmen will see you,’ she said in a mocking voice. ‘They will see their pretty Chieftain and they will applaud as she marries the Duke of Invercaron and throws her money about like confetti, but it will not be you – not poor mad Giovanna whom I brought to live here out of sheer kindness because she had nowhere else to go. No, Giovanna, you are going to die! A girl who is mad and deranged, suffering from fits of screaming and frenzy, which is dangerous! No one will mourn her when she is dead. She will just be pushed into the ground and forgotten!”’
As Giovanna finished speaking the tears choked her voice and she turned her face against the Duke’s shoulder and he held her closer against him.
“I can understand, my precious darling, how terrifying it must have been,” he said gently.
“I thought I must be imagining it, but it was – true. She had it all planned and the only person who – came near me was that horrible old Annie who had – always hated me. She used to say through the door,
‘“I’ve brought you a delicious dinner and the cook’s taken ever so much trouble o’er it. There’s salmon fresh frae the river and venison so tender as it’ll melt in your mouth, but it’s mad you are, ye poor wee thing, that you just send it awa untouched!’”
Giovanna gave a little gulp remembering what a nightmare it had been before she said,
“I-I could – hear Annie waiting – until the food was cold – before she carried the tray away again, saying – I was – too mad and too ill to eat.”
“I can hardly believe it!” the Duke exclaimed. “It seems incredible that such people really exist.”
“It was – terrifying!” Giovanna agreed. “And Stepmother used to come every other day to see how weak I was getting and to – taunt me with what a success – her daughter would be as the new Countess.”
“Her daughter?” the Duke asked sharply. “Was it really her daughter?”
“I knew from what Papa said that she had been married before and she had one child – but I never knew whether it was a boy or a girl – until she said that her daughter had taken – my place and that nobody suspected for a – moment that she was not – me!”
Now the tears were running down Giovanna’s face and the Duke kissed them away before he kissed her lips.
Then, as he kissed her and went on kissing her, he knew that only by the mercy of God had she survived the cruel fate that a demon in the shape of a woman had devised for her.