Follow Your Heart (6 page)

And if she did so, what would it mean to her uncle?

These questions were still turning over and over in her mind. At the same time Lendi had given her hope, which she could not explain.

A hope which seemed impossible but almost, despite herself, she believed in it.

Believed it completely and absolutely.

She must follow her heart
.

For the next two days Della was fully occupied arranging the dinner party.

She was determined that it should not be an intimate one, with opportunities for Jason to speak to her privately. What she really wanted was to have a good look at him to see if he had improved – which was extremely unlikely – since she had last met him.

Her heart sank every time she thought of him, but equally she knew she must help her uncle.

He was wise and sensible enough not to talk about Jason when they were alone. Instead, they discussed every other subject that had ever interested them.

Della recognised, however, that he was worried and troubled. It made her more and more angry that the Duke, his best friend, should now have forced this virtually impossible situation upon him.

‘It certainly does not seem very friendly to me,' Della grumbled to herself.

She finally decided that it would be a mistake to ask any of the young girls of the County to come to the dinner party.

They were all very charming and yet they were not so beautiful or particularly skilled conversationalists. It would be impossible for Jason not to compare them with the fascinating and erotic women he had known in Paris, which inevitably would be to their disadvantage.

Finally, after a great deal of thought, she asked a gentleman and his wife who she knew were extremely happy, so much so that people called them, ‘the love birds'.

They were both in their early thirties and had been married for six years. To see them together was to know they were made for each other and nothing else in the world seemed of any importance to them.

She selected another couple that were older friends of her uncle's. He had commanded a Regiment and retired to his family house in the County. He boasted a large family and his wife was still an attractive and very jolly woman. She was always laughing and obviously adored her husband.

‘These two couples,' Della decided, ‘will give Jason an idea of what is expected of him when he marries.'

That left her with a woman short.

She remembered Lady Southgate who lived in the next village. She was a widow having been married to an older man who died of a tropical disease when he was in the East.

He had for a short time been the Governor of Hong Kong and Lord Lainden had stayed with them when he was in that part of the world. Lady Southgate was left without a great deal of money and so she retired to the country and took to breeding dogs.

She was much younger than her husband and Della reckoned that by this time she must be about thirty-six.

She was still very good–looking and even if she did not amuse Jason, Lord Lainden would be delighted to see her. Besides, having entertained many guests as a Governor's wife she would be a delightful addition to any party.

Della spent a long time with Mrs Beston choosing the menu. If nothing else she and her uncle must enjoy the dinner party and she consulted Storton about which wines would be the most appropriate for the occasion.

Whenever she thought of Jason she shuddered.

She could only hope when they did meet he would not be aware of her feelings about him.

The whole idea of their meeting seemed to darken the sky and yet the day drew nearer and nearer like a desert dust storm.

*

Della had to occupy herself during the afternoon as her uncle was working on his book, so she decided to go and see the gypsies again.

She wanted to have another talk with Lendi to make certain why her life in the future should not seem as bad as she feared.

She had, of course, remembered to send the gypsies the chickens and eggs she had promised.

This morning she had sent a groom with vegetables and jams she knew they would enjoy. Now she picked some flowers from the garden, which she could carry on the front of her saddle.

She walked slowly to her uncle's stable.

The one horse she owned she had christened Apollo and he nuzzled against her when she entered his stall.

She always felt guilty that she had neglected Apollo, as there were so many finer and more spirited horses at her disposal in the Duke's stables.

She remembered something as she patted Apollo. If things went wrong and she could not face marrying Jason, then he would be the only mount available to her.

‘I will ride him now,' she resolved.

She told the old groom who had been with her uncle for years to saddle Apollo.

It was a lovely afternoon and the sun was warm on her bare head. She tried to feel the excitement that was always hers when she was riding.

Instead, however, she could only think that she was to greet Jason this very evening and after they had met, her uncle and the Duke would be expecting Jason to ask her to marry him.

It took her only fifteen minutes to reach the gypsy camp and as usual in the afternoon everything seemed very quiet and still.

However, as she approached the caravans Piramus appeared and stood waiting for her.

“Nice to see you, Lady,” he said as she reached him. “I thinks you be comin' to say goodbye.”

“You are leaving!” exclaimed Della in surprise.

“Early morrow morn,” replied Piramus. “We happy here – very grateful what – Lady and my Lord give, but must move on.”

Della knew that ‘the travellers', as the gypsies were often called, could never stay anywhere very long.

There were many legends as to why they needed to keep moving and one of them she knew only too well. The gypsies were said to have hammered the nails into the cross on which Christ was crucified and their punishment was that they should wander all over the world until He returned.

The Romanies were the true ancient gypsy race and they had first come to England in the reign of Henry VIII.

They had their own taboos, marriage service and unusual gypsy customs of death and burial.

The women were fortune–tellers, although few, Della was sure, were as good as Lendi.

She was upset to hear that they were leaving and she wanted to see Lendi right away, but it might have been more significant to talk to her after she had actually met Jason.

As she slipped from the saddle, she said to Piramus,

“I have brought some flowers for Lendi.”

“She pleased, Lady, but this moment – asleep. Pity to wake her.”

“Of course I will not disturb her. I will just place the flowers on her bed.”

She left Piramus holding Apollo's bridle and walked up the steps into Lendi's caravan.

As her son had told her, the old gypsy was fast asleep. Della was longing to talk to her, but she would not do anything as unkind as wake her.

If Lendi were ill the ancient gypsies remedy of sleep and fresh herbs would be a better healer than anything else.

She stood for a little while by the bed and felt as if she was reaching out to Lendi with her troubles.

In some strange way it seemed as though the sleeping gypsy heard her plea and comforted her.

Della could almost hear her voice saying again,

‘
Follow your heart
.'

‘That will be impossible if I am forced to marry Jason,' she wanted to tell her.

She longed for Lendi to explain to her what she had meant by her words.

However, the sleeping Romany did not move and finally Della had to turn away and leave the caravan.

Piramus was still standing where she had left him, patting Apollo.

“Fine horse,” he said as Della joined him.

“You have met him before and he is a very dear friend.”

Piramus smiled and she knew he understood. To the gypsies their horses were sacred. They were their best friends and they treated them ‘as man to man'.

She knew that in return the horses obeyed their master's orders almost like a human being.

“I wish you were not leaving,” she told Piramus. “Say goodbye to all your family and tell them my uncle and I will look forward to seeing you all again next year.”

She almost added that she might, when they came, be in a different house to the one she was living in now. It was something she could have said to Lendi, but not to Piramus.

She merely bent down to hold out her hand.

“Goodbye, Piramus, and take good care of yourself and Lendi. You know how fond my uncle and I are of all of you.”

Piramus bowed over her hand.

“Lady – very gracious, anything – you need us, we – come.”

“How can I let you know when I am in trouble?” enquired Della.

“You call – we will hear.”

Piramus spoke so positively that she knew he was telling her the truth from his heart.

She found his words very comforting. If everyone else failed her, the gypsies would still be her friends.

It was impossible, however, to put her feelings into words, so she simply said,

“Thank you so very much, Piramus.”

He bowed again.

Della rode home, put Apollo into his stall and walked slowly into the house.

*

Storton had laid the table for dinner beautifully. The flowers she had picked earlier in the day looked most attractive and the silver candlesticks had been cleaned until they shone, while the glasses on the table sparkled.

“It looks very nice, Storton,” said Della knowing well that he liked to be praised. “And I am sure the Duke will enjoy the dishes that Mrs Beston and I have chosen.”

Storton assured her that everyone would find the menu delicious.

For desert he had strawberries from the garden and grapes, which had arrived from Wood Hall.

“Did anything else come with them?” Della wanted to know.

“Four bottles of champagne, Miss Della, two bottles of brandy and one of Cointreau.”

Della felt herself stiffen.

The Duke was certainly making certain that everyone enjoyed themselves tonight. Equally she was conscious that he would not have sent them champagne if Jason had not been one of the guests.

Food from the Home Farm and the greenhouse were one thing, but her uncle, who had a great experience of good wines, had always provided the best vintages at his table.

However, it would be a mistake to say anything in front of Storton so she merely congratulated him once again on the table and left the dining room.

Her uncle joined her for tea and deliberately talked about his book and the chapter he had just written.

Della became aware when he left her that he was almost as nervous as she was at what was to transpire later.

She went up to her bedroom to dress. She wanted to put on the plainest gown she possessed or wear something black.

‘It will reflect the way I feel,' she thought.

Then she felt that she was being childish and stupid.

It would be a bad mistake to antagonise the Duke before it was absolutely necessary.

‘What I will have to do,' Della told herself firmly, ‘is to play for time. The Duke is in a hurry because he is afraid Jason will revert back to his old ways and this sudden penitence would be lost overnight.'

He would then very likely return to Paris and she was longing for him to do just that!

At the same time she must not be disloyal, it would undoubtedly upset her uncle if the Duke should realise that she was deliberately trying to avoid Jason – or worse still make him unwilling to marry her.

‘Time! Time! Time!' she kept repeating in her mind. ‘Time is what I need, but I must not appear to be reaching out for it.'

She forced herself to dress in one of her loveliest gowns. In fact it was the prettiest she had bought to wear in London before she was able to come and live in the country.

She had not been invited to a ball or party important enough to wear it so it had languished in her wardrobe and never been seen.

Now as she pulled it on she wished she were going to a glamorous ball in London where she might meet the Prince Charming of her dreams. A man who would love the same things she loved and understand what she felt about life.

‘We would both know the moment we met,' she pondered, ‘that we were meant for each other.'

She looked at her reflection in the mirror as she dreamed on.

‘There would be no need for words as my heart would reach out towards his heart. After that it would only be a question of how soon we told each other of our love.'

But it was just a dream
.

It was still in her mind until she was finally dressed and her hair had been arranged by Emily.

Her gown was white with just the slightest glimmer of diamante as if it was the dew on a flower. Emily pinned three pink roses at the back of her head, which was certainly very becoming and indeed no tiara could have been more attractive.

Round her neck she wore a single row of pearls, which had been her mother's and a bracelet to match them on her left wrist.

“Young girls should not wear jewellery,” her mother had always told her.

Yet Della knew that tonight she needed the help only her mother could have given her if she was still alive.

‘What would you have said, Mama?' she asked silently. ‘Would you have told me that I must marry Jason or would you have come up with a brilliant and magical idea of how I could escape my fate?'

She thought she must ask the question of the stars.

Leaving the dressing table she walked towards the window to pull back the curtains.

It was not yet completely dark.

The first evening stars were shining over the trees and later there would be a young moon climbing up the sky.

‘Help me – Mama,
help me
!' Della prayed. ‘I am so frightened. The Duke is a very powerful enemy.'

She felt that as she prayed that her mother had heard and understood. Della felt she could almost see her smiling at her and it was so comforting.