103. She Wanted Love (13 page)

It had certainly not helped her up to the present and Eleta was certain that the Governesses had very likely told her, as they had Mrs. Hill, that she was a child of the devil.

After they had walked back from the lake with the Marquis, she said that she was going to go upstairs to tidy herself for luncheon.

“I will come up in a moment,” Pepe said. “I just want to show Daddy the picture that came back last week from being cleaned and which is in his study.”

Eleta thought that this was certainly a new step in the relationship between father and daughter and without more ado she disappeared.

She ran down the corridor that led to the Chapel and when she went in she felt immediately the atmosphere of holiness that to her was very vivid.

She then knelt down and prayed fervently that the Marquis would accept her and she would not be sent away.

‘Please God, please let me stay here,’ she prayed. ‘If I go back, I know I will never be able to find another position as nice as this. If Step-papa finds me, whatever I say, I will still have to marry the Duke.’

She felt as if her prayers went up to Heaven and, when she opened her eyes and looked at the Cross on the altar, she felt that she was being blessed.

Then, because she dared not linger, she ran all the way to her new bedroom on the first floor.

She looked in the mirror and saw that her hair, after being pinned up in such a hurry, was untidy and she then rearranged it making it a little more severe because she thought she would then look more like a proper Governess.

She had decided to wear, when she first met the Marquis, a dress that was very simple, but, because it had been such a lovely day, she had put on one of her summer frocks that was a pale blue scattered with pink flowers.

There was no time now to change, so she hurried downstairs, just in case luncheon had been announced.

She had timed it well because Pepe was still with her father in his study looking at the picture of horses that he had sent to be cleaned and reframed.

As Eleta was about to enter, Pepe was saying,

“I am going to ride a horse as big as that one day, Daddy, and then I will be able to race you.”

“I expect you will win,” the Marquis said, “simply because I will be getting so old I will have to ride slowly.”

Pepe laughed.

“You will not be as old as all that.”

“Judging by the rate you have jumped from a pony to a horse, Pepe, I expect you will be challenging me on the Racecourse in the next year or two.”

“I hope so and Miss Lawson says I ride very well.”

Then, as they had no idea that Eleta was standing just inside the door, the Marquis said,

“Tell me, is your new Governess a good rider? I was surprised to learn that she rides, as none of your other Governesses did.”

“Oh, they were ghastly old women who would not have been able to ride a donkey.” Pepe said scornfully. “Miss Lawson is very good. The grooms in the stables are astonished at how well she can handle your horses.”

“She has been riding my horses!”

“Only because they needed more exercise than they were having,” Eleta remarked from the doorway.

The Marquis turned round.

She thought perhaps that he would be irritated and she went forward saying,

“Please don’t be angry with me for doing so. But there were too many for the older of your grooms and the young ones were too frightened to ride them.”

For a moment she thought that the Marquis was annoyed and then unexpectedly he smiled.

“You are certainly a surprise in every possible way, Miss Lawson. I did not know that I had given orders to my secretary for a new groom as well as another Governess!”

“I am sorry if I have done anything wrong, my Lord, but, when your Head Groom saw me ride, he knew I was used to horses and I took out a different one each day.”

Before the Marquis could speak, Pepe pushed her hand into his.

“You must not be angry with Miss Lawson,” she said. “She has tried in every way to make things happy and better for me and I cannot lose her.”

There was almost a pregnant silence and then the Marquis replied,

“No, of course not, I must thank her for being so considerate not only to my daughter but to my horses.”

”Please,” Eleta begged, “when you are not here, my Lord, may I go on riding them?”

The words came out before she could control them.

The Marquis looked at her.

She had no idea how lovely she looked with the sun coming through the windows turning her head to gold and her blue eyes were looking pleadingly up at him.

For a moment they just gazed at each other and then something passed between them that Eleta could not put into words.

Then in the silence Harris announced at the door,

“Luncheon is served, my Lord.”

Pepe gave a little skip of joy.

“I am hungry,” she cried, “and I am sure Monsieur Téyson has something delicious for us.”

The Marquis looked surprised when she mentioned the chef by name, but he did not question it.

He and Pepe walked hand in hand towards the door, but Eleta hesitated and said,

“Maybe you would rather, my Lord, have luncheon alone with Pepe and I can, of course, have mine upstairs.”

“No, of course not. I want you to have luncheon with me and tell me how you are educating my daughter and I must congratulate you that she can now swim.”

“I can swim very well,” Pepe boasted. “In fact I can go right across the lake to the other side and then back again almost as quickly as Miss Lawson can.”

“It is certainly something new,” the Marquis said, “to find that one of the Governesses is bathing. I always suspected that some of them were rather worried at having a bath!”

He was speaking jokingly, but Pepe piped up,

“They were horrid women and taught me nothing!”

Her father looked at her.

“I thought it was you who refused to learn.”

“Only because they tried to teach me stupid boring things.”

“But Miss Lawson is different?”

“She is very very different and she has taught me lots and lots I did not know before. Tomorrow when you have breakfast I am going to say, ‘
bonjour, mon père
’.”

The Marquis looked at her in astonishment.

“Are you telling me that you are learning French?”

“I know lots of French words.”

Listening to this conversation, Eleta could not help praying that Pepe would not forget them.

When they reached the dining room, the Marquis sat down at the head of the table.

Pepe sat on his right and Eleta on his left.

She realised that Monsieur Téyson had certainly done his best where the food was concerned.

They started off with a prettily decorated dish of smoked salmon and, when the second course arrived, Pepe exclaimed before anyone else could speak,

“Oh, it is
boeuf en croûte
! One of my favourite dishes and you will love it, Daddy.”

The Marquis looked at Eleta and asked,

“Does she really know any French?”

“We started where I thought was the right place – at the dining table. Your chef has been most co-operative.”

The Marquis continued to be surprised when Pepe greeted the pudding with a cry of ‘
isles flottantes
’.

When the coffee came in, she exclaimed that the
petits fours
were new and the chef must have made them especially for her father.

Pepe chatted away about where she had ridden on her new horse and told her father that one of the mares had a foal and that she and Miss Lawson were now thinking of a good name for it.

“I think I will have to help you there,” the Marquis suggested, “as I have to look at its pedigree.”

Pepe laughed.

“That is exactly what Miss Lawson said to me and I think if all the foals have pedigrees I should have one too.”

“But you have one,” the Marquis answered.

“Not with my name on it. Miss Lawson wanted to see the Family Tree – and it ends with you.”

“That is most remiss of me and I must apologise. Your name will be put on it immediately and I will have a special copy made for the schoolroom.”

“That will be lovely. Of course I want to be on our Family Tree. One day, Miss Lawson says, you will give me a brother and he, when you eventually die, will be the next Marquis.”

Eleta thought that this was rather embarrassing, but to her relief the Marquis laughed.

“I must say,” he said, “I never expected to find my very difficult and in the past naughty daughter rebuking me about our Family Tree!”

“We saw it hanging in the library,” Eleta added, “and, as it is such a magnificent one, I thought Pepe would be proud to be on it. We started at the top and it was only when we reached the bottom we found it ended with you.”

“As I have said, I will put right immediately. I am just wondering, Miss Lawson, how many other things you have found different from what they should be.”

“Perhaps I had better break it to you before anyone else does, my Lord, but I thought, and I do hope you agree with me, that Pepe is too old to be shut up in the nursery at the top of the house. We therefore moved down to the first floor and we are actually occupying the King’s suite.”

For a second the Marquis just stared at her and then he exclaimed,

“The King’s suite! You are certainly going to the top, Miss Lawson.”

“What could be more appropriate for your lovely daughter, my Lord?” she replied.

For a moment she thought that he was going to be angry and then he laughed.

“You are now leaving me breathless, confused and, of course, amazed. Tell me what else you have done. Or should I try guessing?”

“I think,” Eleta replied, “that Pepe has something very special to tell you that she is learning, but you have come back a little too soon. It would have been a better surprise if you had stayed away perhaps another fortnight.”

“I am prepared to believe anything at the moment! Tell me, Pepe, what is this secret?”

“I think it would be best, Pepe, if you showed your father what you can do instead of trying to put it into words,” Eleta suggested.

“Yes, yes, we will take him there as soon as he has finished his coffee. And I want to eat one more
petits four
before I leave.”

”You can eat as many of them as you like, while Miss Lawson and I finish our coffee.”

Pepe managed to devour two
petits fours
and then she jumped off her chair saying,

“Now Daddy, we are going to give you a surprise and I have been working very hard to make it for you.”

Eleta realised that the Marquis had not the faintest idea what it could be.

But he was obviously amazed at the change in his daughter and he could not help looking at her as if he was not quite certain that she was real.

They left the dining room and then Pepe led him to the music room.

Fresh flowers and plants had been put in after the gardeners heard that the Marquis was arriving and they scented the air exquisitely.

She would have helped Pepe onto the stool in front of the piano, but she insisted,

“No, you must play first, as you always play to me. Then I will play the special tune that I have composed for Daddy.”

Eleta could see that the Marquis was looking even more astonished than he had at luncheontime and then he sat down in the comfortable chair near the piano.

Without arguing, she ran her fingers over the keys and played one of the delightful romantic waltzes that had thrilled her when she went to the opera in Paris.

She saw that the Marquis was listening intently and when she finished he clapped and Pepe clapped too.

Eleta rose from the stool and turned to Pepe,

“Now it’s your turn. Don’t be in a hurry, it’s a very beautiful tune you have composed and I want your father to hear every note of it.”

Pepe sat on the stool. Her legs were not quite long enough to reach the pedals, so Eleta moved her carefully into position.

Then, as she knew that it meant so much to her, she prayed that Pepe would remember the notes which she had found out herself.

Her prayer was certainly answered.

Pepe played the piano with only one hand and she managed to make the tune, which she thought had come to her in her sleep, realistic to her father.

It was short, but it was recognisably a good tune.

When she finished, she looked at the Marquis and he clapped his hands and enthused,

“Wonderful, darling, and a lovely tune. One day when you have finished it, we will get it published so that everyone can play it and it will make them as happy as you have made me.”

“You really like it, Daddy?” Pepe asked.

“Of course I like it. I had no idea that I had such a talented daughter who is also a musician.”

“That is what I want to be and Miss Lawson says there is no doubt I will be.”

The Marquis rose from his chair and, picking his daughter up from the stool, kissed her.

“I am very proud of you, Pepe. It is something I have never said before, but I have a feeling I will be saying it many times in the future.”

“Do you really think it’s a pretty tune?” she asked.

“It’s lovely. I promise you when you have finished it, it will be printed and there will be a picture of you on the cover.”

Pepe gave a cry of delight.

“Did you hear that, Miss Lawson?” she asked.

Then, looking at the Marquis, Eleta said,

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

“Pleased is not the right word. I am just astonished, delighted and very grateful to you.”

He spoke with a deep note of sincerity in his voice.

As his eyes met Eleta’s, he was aware that there were tears in her eyes.

He wondered how she could care so much for a child she had only known for a very short time.

At the same time she was so attractive, in fact so beautiful, it was difficult to imagine her as a Governess.

“Now I think,” he said aloud, “we should ask Miss Lawson to play for us again. I promise you, Pepe, I will not neglect my music in the future as I have done in the past.”

Pepe stepped down from the platform and, as Eleta sat down on the stool, the Marquis took Pepe on his lap in the armchair.