An Angel Runs Away (3 page)

She was just stating a fact, the Marquis recognised, and not trying to impress him in any way.

Then, after they had driven a little farther, he asked,

“What made you run away today, particularly?”

“It was because you were coming to – propose to Sarah and everybody was in a fluster. Sarah changed her gown several times to impress you – and because she said I was slow at doing what she wanted she – hit me with her hairbrush – and told her mother that I was being deliberately – obstructive because I was – jealous!”

Ula paused and then she went on,

“Aunt Mary said, ‘Are you surprised? No one will ever marry Ula, since she is without a penny to her name and the child of a common Parson, who left a pile of debts because I expect he was even too stupid to think of paying them out of the poor-box’.”

Ula gave a deep sigh.

“I suppose she thought that she was making a joke, but I suddenly realised I could not – bear it any longer – and when Sarah hit me again – I ran out of the room and out of the house – and I swear I will never –
never
– go back!”

“What will you do with yourself?” the Marquis enquired.

“I intend to go to London and I intend to become a Cyprian!”

The Marquis was so astonished he jerked the reins of the horses so that they threw up their heads.

“
A Cyprian
!” he exclaimed. “Do you know what you are saying?”

“Yes, I do. Cyprians have a lot of money given to them. Cousin Gerald, Sarah’s brother, came home last week – and at first there was a terrible row because some of the tradesmen had written to Uncle Lionel to say that, as he would not pay his debts, they intended suing him in the Courts.”

She glanced up at the Marquis as she spoke to see if he was listening and she went on,

“He raged at Gerald for some time, then Gerald said, ‘I am sorry, Papa, but I spent all my allowance on a very pretty little Cyprian. She asked me so nicely to give her what she wanted that I found it impossible to refuse her. I feel sure you understand’.”

“And what did your uncle say?” the Marquis enquired.

“He laughed and said, ‘I do understand, my boy, and I felt the same when I was your age. Very well, I will settle these debts, but you are not to be so extravagant in the future’.”

“So that made you feel that you could be a Cyprian?”

“I-I am not quite – certain what they do,” Ula admitted, “but I am sure – somebody will be able to tell me.”

“And whom do you intend to ask?”

She smiled at him and he thought as he looked at her again that she looked very like a small rather badly treated angel who might have fallen out of Heaven by mistake.

“Now that I have met you,” Ula replied, “I can ask
you
!”

“And I will answer you,” the Marquis replied. “It is quite impossible for you to be a Cyprian!”

“But – why?”

“Because you are a lady.”

“Is there a rule that ladies cannot be Cyprians?”

“Yes!” the Marquis replied without hesitation.

There was silence and then Ula said,

“Then I shall have to find something else to do. Perhaps I could be a cook. I can cook very well when I have the right ingredients.”

Before the Marquis could say anything, she added,

“Perhaps I – look rather – young and people would – hesitate before allowing me into their kitchens.”

“I think that is undoubtedly the truth, but what would you really like to do, apart from those two things?”

Ula gave a little laugh and it was a very musical sound.

“What I would really like is – quite impossible – but it is to be an ‘Incomparable’ – like Sarah – and have all the attractive men at my feet – begging me to marry them!”

“Then I presume, you will choose the most important of them!” the Marquis said sourly.

Ula shook her head.

“Of course not! I would choose somebody I – loved and who would love me – but it is something that will never happen.”

“Why should you say that?”

“Because, as Aunt Mary and Sarah have told me over and over again, no one will ever marry me because of the scandal Mama caused when she ran away with Papa – and because I have no money – not even a penny to my name!”

She gave a little sigh.

“It would be wonderful, even though Mama said it was vulgar, to be ‘The Toast of St. James’s’, with everybody thinking I was beautiful! But that is something that will never happen, so I just pretend it might in my dreams – and no one can take those away from me!”

‘An ‘Incomparable’ like Sarah!’ the Marquis said to himself.

Then, when the traffic began to thicken on the road as they neared London, an idea came to him, an idea that made him look even more cynical than usual.

Now his eyes beneath his drooping eyelids were bright, at the same time dark, as if he were still angry, but working out a plan in his mind.

They drove for a short while in silence. Then when the road was cleared and Ula thought the Marquis would attend to her, she said,

“May I ask you – something?”

“Of course.”

“If you leave me in London, you will not – tell Sarah where I – have gone?”

“I shall not be seeing Sarah,” the Marquis answered.

Ula looked at him in astonishment.

“But I thought – I understood you were to – propose to her this afternoon.”

“I have not seen your cousin nor do I intend to do so,” the Marquis replied, “and I have no intention of marrying her or anyone else!”

Now there was a note in his voice that told Ula he was very angry and, after a moment, she said,

“Uncle Lionel will be very upset.”

“That cannot be helped.”

There was silence and then the Marquis enquired,

“I presume you are surprised that I have not proposed to your cousin as everybody thought I intended to do.”

“Everybody was so certain that was why – you were calling,” Ula replied. “But if you have – really made up your mind – not to marry her, I think you are wise.”

“Why?”

He knew Ula was feeling for words before she replied,

“I am sure that the only way for – two people to be really – happy when they are married is for them to love – each other.”

“Then you were aware that Lady Sarah did not love me?” the Marquis asked.

“Y-yes.”

“She loves somebody called Hugo?” he questioned.

Ula shook her head.

“She used to laugh at his poems, which were really quite beautiful, almost as good as Lord Byron’s.”

“She showed them to you?”

“No, she threw them away and perhaps it was wrong of me to do so, but because they were so well written I – kept them.”

“You have not told me who this Hugo is.”

“He is Lord Dawlish and I feel sorry – very sorry for him.”

“Why?”

The Marquis’s sharp monosyllabic questions did not seem to perturb Ula and she answered,

“Because, although he loved Sarah with – all his heart, she does not – love him and would therefore if she married him, make him very unhappy.”

There was a little pause.

Then Ula said,

“They have said lots of strange things about you, that you have – no heart, but I don’t believe that anyone who has so many fine horses would not – love them.”

The Marquis understood her reasoning and thought it something no one else had ever said to him.

After a moment he remarked,

“I think we must get down to your problem. As you have no one to love you or protect you, you will find London a very frightening and, in fact, a very dangerous place.”

She looked at him a little apprehensively, then said,

“No one would steal anything from me, as I don’t possess anything.”

“I was not speaking of money.”

“Then I cannot think what other dangers there are, except that Uncle Lionel may send the – Bow Street Runners to look for me, although I think when Aunt Mary realises I have – gone, she will be glad.”

“And what about your cousin Sarah?”

“She hates having another girl in the house, even though I was treated as if I was a servant and not allowed to – come down to meals if there was – a visitor.”

“That seems extraordinary considering you are your uncle’s niece!”

“As he told me so often, I am only a penniless orphan living on his charity and tainted for all time by – my mother. I think really they were – afraid that if anybody saw me, the gossip would – start all over again.”

“I think that more than likely,” the Marquis said and now once again there was a calculating look in his eyes.

After driving a little farther, he turned off the main road and started to climb a hilly lane bordered by trees.

When they reached the top of it, he turned in at some Park gates with a lodge at the side of each gate and Ula looked at him in surprise.

“Where are we going?” she enquired.

The Marquis pulled his horses to a standstill under the shade of a large lime tree.

The horses were tired and therefore did not fidget unduly and, holding the reins loosely in one hand, he turned halfway around in his seat so that he could look at Ula.

While they were driving, she had tidied up her hair a little under her bonnet and he could see that like her Cousin Sarah’s golden locks, it was fair, like the very pale gold of the first fingers of dawn.

Her small face was heart-shaped and her eyes that seemed so unnaturally large in it were the soft grey of a pigeon’s breast.

There was something very childlike about her and also, the Marquis thought, because she was so young and, he was sure, very innocent.

She seemed to exude a purity that made her look even more like a small angel than he had thought the first time he had looked at her.

As if she knew that he was appraising her, she looked at him.

While she raised her chin a little proudly as if she would not humble herself, at the same time there was a touch of fear in her eyes.

“I have something to suggest to you, Ula,” he said, “and I want you to consider it very carefully.”

“Yes – of course,” she answered, “but you don’t mean to – take me back?”

“It is what I ought to do,” the Marquis replied, “but I have always disliked, in fact, loathed, cruelty, although I find it hard to believe that anyone would treat a young girl as you say your uncle and cousin have done.”

Ula’s chin went up a little higher.

“Perhaps I ought not to have – complained to a stranger – but I always tell the truth. Papa would have been – very hurt if I had done – anything else.”

“Then of course I believe you,” the Marquis said with a faint twist of his lips, “and that is why, Ula, I am not behaving as I should and I will not take you back to Chessington Hall.”

“Thank you –
thank you
!” Ula cried. “I was afraid for one moment that was what you – intended to do and, if I ran away, you could – easily catch me.”

“Very easily,” the Marquis agreed, “but I don’t want you to run away. I want you to help me and at the same time yourself.”

“Help you?” Ula questioned, but her eyes were shining and he thought that the fear had left them.

“If you are upset by what you have experienced in your uncle’s house,” the Marquis began, “I am also upset although in a different way.”

“What can they have done? What can they have – said to you?” Ula asked impulsively. “The whole household was agog because you were coming to propose to Sarah. Why did you not do so?”

“I don’t intend to go into details,” the Marquis said loftily. “It is sufficient for you to know that I learnt that your cousin is very different from what I expected and, as I have already said, I have no intention of marrying her or for that matter anyone else!”

“You should never marry, unless you really fall in love,” Ula murmured.

She thought the Marquis had not heard her, because he went on,

“It is something that is best forgotten, but I have an idea which I am sure you will agree to.”

“What is it?” Ula enquired.

“It is that you should become the ‘Incomparable’ you have dreamed of being and rival your cousin by becoming the most talked about and admired young woman in the whole of Society!”

Ula stared at him and her eyes opened so wide that they seemed to fill her whole face.

Then quickly she looked away, saying as she did so,

“You are teasing me because it was – very presumptuous of me to think of such an idea – even in my dreams.”

“I am not teasing you,” the Marquis contradicted her, “in fact, I intend to make your dream come true.”

Now she was looking at him again and she asked,

“What are – you saying? I am afraid I am being – very stupid, but I just don’t – understand.”

For a moment the Marquis’s lips were hard and set in a tight line.

Then he said,

“I intend to teach your cousin a lesson, and your uncle as well, for his behaviour towards you is completely unpardonable.”

He thought as he spoke that only a brute without any sensitivity could beat anything so fragile and fairy-like as the child sitting looking at him with wide eyes.

Her skin was very white, with the translucence of a pearl, and the Marquis found himself shuddering at the thought of a whip being applied to anything so delicate or so beautiful.

Because he knew that Ula was waiting for his explanation, he said,

“We are now in the drive of the house of my grandmother, who is the Dowager Duchess of Wrexham. She is old, but still energetic and finds time heavy on her hands.”

His voice was very firm as he went on,

“I am going to ask her to present you to the Social world and especially to make it apparent to those who never have enough to gossip about that I consider you, without exception, the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.”

“They will – think you are – crazy!” Ula cried. “How can I possibly – compare with anyone like Sarah or indeed the – beautiful women you – admire?”

There was a hesitation before the last word and the Marquis asked sharply,

“Who has been talking about me and what do you know about the women I ‘admire’?”

Ula gave a little laugh.

“Everybody talks about you, you must be aware of that! When there were dinner parties at Uncle Lionel’s house, I used to creep into the Minstrel’s Gallery, where no one could see me watch the party down below. Sooner or later they always talked about you – the men about your horses, the ladies about your latest love affair.”