A Virgin Bride (15 page)

Rock found this hard to believe.

“The Englishmen I met with Papa before I went to school in France patted me on the head and said I was, ‘a pretty child as was to be expected as my mother was so beautiful'.”

Rock chuckled.

“You have had very incompetent teachers when it comes to the art and craft of being a beautiful woman. But you will learn quickly and will doubtless soon find I am a dull Englishman who does not express his feelings in the same glowing terms as a Frenchman can.”

“I think that whatever anyone said to me, I would be sensible enough to realise what was sincere and what was insincere.”

“The whole trouble with you is that you are far too intelligent, Venetia. I have a suspicion I will find out soon that you are a ‘blue stocking'.”

“You are more likely to decide I am so ignorant about life as you have led it that I am only a very small sock! Then you will be bored and return to the beautiful women we saw today in the
Bois de Boulogne
.”

Rock felt they were back where they had started.

“I am astonished, Venetia, that you are so knowledgeable in so many ways, yet know so little about life as it is today.”

“I am not very worried about that. In fact I find it exciting to be with you. When you were telling me about all your travels yesterday, I thought it the most thrilling thing that has ever happened to me.”

“I hope there will be far more exciting subjects for you in the future,” Rock said without thinking.

She looked up at him and asked,

“What sort of things?”

For a moment he almost laughed at himself.

He had created a problem just because he was not thinking as carefully as he should.

“There are so many different things – places, people, restaurants and distant parts of the world. You and I are undertaking a special pilgrimage of our own and we must not forget it.”

“
To find love
?” enquired Venetia.

“Exactly!”

“I am wondering,” she asked tentatively, “if you do fall in love with me – how I will know that you have.”

“You will know because I will tell you so,” Rock replied simply. “I think it will be a mistake if we are shy or prudish about it.”

“I agree with that, but if you don't fall in love with me and think I am just impossible, then we must somehow rearrange our lives so that we remain friends.”

“How could we do so if we have to live in the same house and entertain our relations, who will be, I promise you, exceedingly inquisitive about both of us?”

“I can quite believe that, Rock, and of course they will question me endlessly about you and you about me.”

Rock knew that the first question they would ask is when they were going to have an heir and yet this was a subject he had no wish to discuss with her at present, so he just added,

“I am sure they will and we will have to think out subtle answers if it is impossible to tell them the truth.”

“I feel now as if I am walking down a long tunnel and there is light at the far end of it. But I find it is taking me a long time to reach it.”

Rock thought this was hardly a compliment to him that she would take such a long time.

All the same he could appreciate that Venetia had accurately described what they were both feeling.

“What I really want, Venetia, is to make sure you enjoy your honeymoon and not expect too much too quickly.”

He saw she was listening and her eyes met his.

“You are very lovely, Venetia. There is not a man in this room who would not be glad to change places with me at this moment. But I am trying to be sensible and not rush my fences. You must try to understand my feelings as well as your own.”

“I do understand your feelings, Rock. It must have been horrible for you when that ghastly Earl went all round London saying how terrible you were. I was terrified he might have come to the wedding and made a scene which would have upset Papa.”

“It would have upset me too, but my Best Man had arranged that there was someone at every door to make certain he did not enter the Church.”

“We were very lucky there was no disturbance. In fact everyone I spoke to enjoyed the wedding enormously.”

“Including you Venetia?”

She gave him a quick smile.

“Shall I just say that you were not as terrifying as I expected? And you looked so handsome and distinguished compared to most of the men in the congregation.”

Rock laughed because he could not help it.

“That is rather a double-edged compliment and I do think you might have worded it better – ”

“I expect the lovely ladies who were furious at your getting married, like the one who accosted us when we arrived here, would have expressed it much better, but then they have known you for a long time whilst I have enjoyed your acquaintance only for three days.”

He laughed again.

“It does seem incredible. And may I say you are handling the situation very adroitly. In fact I feel sure you would be more useful in the House of Lords helping the War Office than I could be.”

“Now you are trying to wriggle out of a promise that is not only your duty to keep, but is something you will feel strongly about once you realise how much you are needed.”

Rock thought she was now prophesying something that would undoubtedly come true.

Once again he thought this was an extraordinary conversation to be having with a young girl – even more extraordinary with one he had just married.

“I think what we must do now, Venetia, instead of worrying about the future, is to make sure we enjoy the present. You tell me anything you particularly want to do in France and we will make out a list of places to visit. We must not look back and say what a pity we missed them.”

“I can give you my list right away, Rock. I want to go to the
Opéra
and I only hope you like music as much as I do. I want to sail down the Seine in one of the barges or perhaps, if you are feeling extravagant, in a private boat.”

“That I will promise you,” murmured Rock.

“I wish,” she continued, “to eat in all the wonderful restaurants like last night's, so that when we return to your houses in England and I have to discuss with the cook what we will have for dinner, I will be experienced enough to choose your favourite dishes.”

“I will cheer you up by saying in answer to your last remark that when my old cook retired, I then engaged a French chef. He is a Master of his art and can provide rather more than roast beef and apple tart!”

“So that is one problem well solved as far as I am concerned. But if you don't like music, I can understand you may have no wish to go to the
Opéra
.”

“As it happens, I am very fond of music and I hope you can play the piano as well as you can talk.”

“I gained a distinction at my school for music and if you really enjoy opera, it is something I had always hoped I would find in the man I married.”

“So you did contemplate marriage?”

“Of course I did. All the girls were constantly talking about it at school and the French girls, as you know, have their marriages arranged for them if they are aristocratic. I am certain too that the German girls do exactly what their fathers bully them into doing.”

“That is just what your father did to you – ”

“I can understand he wanted to save you and I don't really mind being your lifebelt now.”

“Which you have been so very gracefully, Venetia, I am eternally grateful to you.”

He spoke with a deep sincerity in his voice.

Instinctively and without thinking, he put his hand over hers.

She looked up at him and their eyes met.

For a moment it was impossible for either of them to look away.

The next day, as Rock said, ‘the balloon went up'.

His mother had written to all her friends in France, as she was thinking she must help her son on what would obviously be a most difficult honeymoon.

Lady Manvill had also written and, as she had lived in France for a time, she knew a great number of people.

Invitations poured in and most of them would have been exceedingly hurt and distressed if the young couple had refused them.

To Venetia it was a new excitement she had not expected and it made up for the balls she had missed as a
debutante
.

Her enjoyment was so infectious that everyone who entertained her and Rock invited the young couple again.

There were endless balls in Paris and in the glorious châteaux in the country.

Venetia found it all enchanting and delightful.

She rushed round to Frederick Worth and begged him to make her more dresses as quickly as possible.

He quickly appreciated that Venetia was, after his Royal customers, a magnificent advertisement for him. He took on new workers and those who were with him already were forced to work all night.

The clothes arrived sometimes only an hour before Venetia was ready to leave for a party, but inevitably she was, as Rock told her, ‘the belle of every ball'.

As they did not go to bed until two or three o'clock in the morning, they were often very tired the next day.

It usually meant that when they were asked out to luncheon they only just arrived on time.

They no longer had much time to talk about horses and Rock's travels that Venetia had enjoyed so much – it was hurry, hurry, hurry to the next engagement.

Then to Rock's surprise, driving home one evening or rather very early in the morning, Venetia enquired,

“When are we going back to England, Rock?”

“Are you anxious to go home? I thought being the success of Paris you would want to stay here indefinitely.”

She did not reply and so he asked her,

“What has upset you, Venetia?”

“I am not really upset,” she said in a small voice. “But I was quite right in thinking I don't like Frenchmen.”

“What has happened?” Rock insisted.

“The Vicomte tried to kiss me this evening and I was frightened he might actually do so.”

Rock made up his mind immediately.

“Then we will go home tomorrow – without anyone knowing what we are doing until we have departed.”

Venetia looked at him in surprise, but all she could see was his profile against the streetlights.

“Enough is enough,” said Rock firmly as if she had asked a question, “and I have been thinking every morning how much I was missing my horses.”

“It will be
wonderful
to ride again.”

He realised the excitement was back in her voice.

“We will just sneak away as we sneaked in. Leave everything to me.”

When they had reached their house in the
Champs
Élysées
, Venetia went upstairs.

As she reached the landing she saw that Rock had not followed her but had gone into the sitting room.

He was leaving instructions for the servants as soon as they were up in the morning.

*

Because he was so efficient, she was not surprised when she found herself soon after midday travelling in a fast train towards Calais.

“What will they say when they find we have left without saying ‘goodbye'?” she asked as the train pulled out of the
Gare du Nord
.

“We will send them letters of thanks once we are home,” he replied. “But I am glad you have not found the Frenchmen more attractive than us poor Englishmen!”

“It was silly of me to be frightened. But, as you know, I have never been kissed and I certainly did not want my first kiss to be from a Frenchman who had drunk too much champagne!”

“Forget him!” Rock thundered.

He was annoyed that she should have been upset.

She had been so happy and delighted at the interest she had aroused in Paris.

He had noticed with a smile that her luggage was now three times as large as when they had arrived in Paris.

He thought that she would soon captivate the
beau
monde
in London as she had captivated the Parisians.

Because they were both tired they talked very little on the journey and they fell asleep as soon as they reached
The Thistle
.

*

When they arrived in London, she was delighted to find Rock's chaise with its excellent team of horses waiting to take them to the country.

“I thought you would want to stay in London,” she queried Rock, “at least for the night? That would mean we would have had to see Aunt Alice and tell her how kind her friends have been to us.”

“You can do that later when we have rested in the country. I am looking forward to showing you what will be our main residence in the future.”

“I can't wait,” sighed Venetia. “And I only hope it is looking forward to seeing me.”

Rock smiled.

He knew with her enthusiasm and the way she had charmed the crew of
The Thistle
, that the large staff at Rockinston Hall would take her to their hearts.

Venetia was overcome at her first sight of the great building.

It had been the ancestral home of the Rockinstons for generations and it was even larger than she expected, despite all her father had told her about it.

The garden and the woods round it were even lovelier than Lynbrook Hall. As it was spring, the trees were all in blossom and the wild flowers were a mass of colour in the fields.

The garden itself was, she thought, more beautiful than any garden she had ever seen in her life.

To begin with there was a large lake in front of the house and the little stream running through the paddock was, Rock told her, full of fish.

“I caught my first trout when I was five,” he told her.

“I was so pleased with it that my mother had it put in a glass case and you can admire it still in the nursery.”

The way he spoke made Venetia give him a quick glance and then she looked away again as his eyes were burning into hers.