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Authors: Barbara Cartland

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For a moment the Marquis did not reply and then he muttered,

“Where your mother rests or does not rest is not my problem.  Your father married her against my will, and I, therefore, do not consider her or you to be any part of my family!”

David stared at him in astonishment and then with an effort, he enquired,

“Are you turning us away?”

“I am making it clear to you that your father chose to ignore what I had arranged for him.  I communicated to him very clearly at the time that I no longer thought of him as my son and he would have no claim upon me at all.”

Remembering that he had hardly any money, David was for the moment shocked into silence and then he tried in a conciliatory tone,

“I can easily understand, Grandpapa, that you were annoyed with my father.  Equally that was over twenty-two years ago.  He is now dead and he always spoke to me with great affection for this house and his brothers.”

“Your father chose his own life and I see no reason, now he is dead, that I should accept either his wife whom I despise, nor you, her son.”

“I would very much hope, Grandpapa, that we can talk this over sensibly and perhaps a little more amicably tomorrow morning.  As I have just requested, I think it is essential for my mother to rest after the long journey.”

“I told the servants to keep whatever conveyance you came in and it is waiting for you at the front door!”

David drew in his breath.

“Are you really turning us away?  As you can see my mother is sick and on the point of collapse.”

“That is not my concern,” the Marquis replied, “and the sooner you both leave this house, where you are not at all welcome, the better I shall be pleased.”

As he spoke he sat down at his writing desk as if to carry on with what he was doing when they came in.

For a moment David was at a loss for words.

He was also thinking that he might not have enough money to pay for the post chaise let alone lodgings for the night.

It passed through his mind that he would have to crawl to his grandfather for help and then pride told him that it was a course he should not take.

He merely turned round and walked to the chair his mother was sitting on and gently he drew her to her feet.

“I am very sorry, Mama, but I am afraid we have to journey a little further.”

She looked towards the Marquis and spoke up,

“Whatever you may say or think about me, David is your grandson and – I am very shocked that you should treat him in this fashion.”

The Marquis raised his head.

“As I have said, your husband disobeyed me and I have no use for either his wife or his offspring.”

The way he spoke was hurting and offensive.

David knew that nothing more could be gained and so he merely drew his mother towards the door.

And he was not surprised to find that Newman was waiting outside.

Between them they carried his mother back through the hall, down the steps and into the post chaise.

It was only then that David turned to Newman,

“Tell me, Newman, where we can go.  I cannot take my mother far.  You can see how exhausted she is.”

“I knows, Mr. David, and it's real sorry I am for her Ladyship and you.”

“Is there a hotel or a lodging house near here?”

Newman shook his head.

“I think you'd best go to the Vicar.  He's a kindly man.  He'll never refuse anyone and he were always very fond of your father.”

David smiled at him.

“Thank you, Newman, I am most grateful to you.”

The Vicar had then accepted them and understood immediately what had happened at Ingle Hall.

“Your grandfather is a hard man,” he said, “and he never forgave your father for refusing to be married to the distinguished lady he had chosen for him.”

“It was a decision my father never regretted.”

“I can understand that no one wants his wife chosen for him by someone else and I am glad that your father was so happy.”

“Divinely happy – and my mother is finding it very difficult to be without him.”

He carried her upstairs and with the gentle help of the Vicar's servant, a nice woman from the village, they undressed her and got her into bed.

It was only when David went to say goodnight to her that he realised how seriously ill she was.

It was essential that she should see a doctor as quickly as possible, so the Vicar arranged one to call the next morning.

But it was too late.

Elizabeth passed away peacefully in her sleep.

David was certain that she had joined his father and that they were together again.

He knew that if he was honest, it would have been virtually impossible for her to make a new life in England without her husband, especially without any money.

The first task that he must undertake, even before his mother was buried, was to pay a visit his father's Bank and talk to the Manager.

He was told in no uncertain terms that there was no money – what had been deposited originally by Lord Richard's Godfather had been gradually drained away.

The Bank had informed Lord Richard several times that there was very little left.

“When I sent your father the last hundred pounds,” the Manager said, “I told him there was no more money.  I, also, on his instructions, sold the few treasures he still owned.”

David had then gone back to the Vicarage with just enough to give the Vicar what he owed him for paying the post chaise and for his mother's burial.

He had obtained this sum by selling the delightful silver engagement ring his father had given his mother as well as the pearl necklace he had bought her when they had first visited India.

David had only been twelve years old when the family visited India for a short time.  Yet he had always remembered the beauty of the country, which had excited him more than any other country his father had taken him to.

He knew then what he wanted to do.

He travelled to London to call on the Secretary of State for India, Lord Clare, who, as it happened, had known his father and had been extremely interested in the different places in the world where Lord Richard and his wife turned up unexpectedly.

When David told him of his parent's death, he was most sympathetic.

“I have asked to come and see you, my Lord, as I want more than anything else to join a Regiment in India.”

Lord Clare had been delighted.

“We are very short of Officers in the Cavalry – ”

Then he hesitated before he added,

“As you have this affection for India and as you are your father's son, I cannot help thinking that you could be of tremendous help to the Viceroy in one particular way in which we are attempting to better the Russians.”

David's eyes lit up.

“Are you talking of
The Great Game
, my Lord?”

“You have heard of it?” Lord Clare exclaimed.

“My father told me about it,” David replied, “and if there is one thing I wish to do more than anything else, it is to take part in what seems to me the most exciting and original ‘game' that has ever been invented!”

“You are quite right about that, but I am sure your father told you of its dangers, its difficulties and the fact that you take your life in your own hands every day.”

“It is exactly what I want to do, my Lord.”

His enthusiasm pleased Lord Clare, who had indeed been extremely fond of Lord Richard.

David sailed out to India with a letter to the Colonel of his Regiment and also a private one to the Viceroy.

David had been deeply shocked at losing both his father and his mother, but the prospects ahead of him took his mind off himself.

Occasionally, he thought it was really rather sad to have no relatives and no family and to be, to all intents and purposes, entirely on his own.

When he thought of his grandfather and the way he had behaved, he wanted to forget that he was an Ingle, just as his father had done, and make a life for himself.

*

Yet now at the age of ninety-two, his grandfather was dead and, although it seemed incredible, so were both his sons from his first marriage.

As David ruminated on the irony of what had happened, he knew that his father would have laughed.

After everything his father had done to break all ties with his paternal family, his son was now the ninth Marquis of Inglestone.

If this had happened to his father, he could have looked forward to a long life as the Head of the family and as the owner of Ingle Hall and two thousand acres of good Kentish land.

As the ship drew nearer to English shores, he was hoping that the rest of the family, if any existed, would not resent him or feel that he was usurping their inheritance.

At the same time he could not believe anyone had much love for his grandfather, maybe a number of them hated him as much as he did.

Even now he could again feel his fury as he had assisted his mother from the study and had carried her with Newman's help into the post chaise.

He wondered if the Vicar was still at the Vicarage – he had meant to write to him from India, but had been too preoccupied to write to anyone.

He could not help recognising that, coming back to England after so long, he had in fact no friends there at all.

His father had always been meeting his Eton or Oxford friends in strange and unexpected places.

“Fancy meeting you here!” they would say to him almost before Lord Richard could greet them.

‘My friends,' David mused, ‘are scattered all over the world in strange places.  I have to think of England as a foreign country I have not explored before.'

Equally as he drove from London to Ingle Hall, he felt apprehensive.

Maybe there were many family members there who would resent his taking over his grandfather's place – they would remember all too clearly how his father had run off and married someone they had not approved of.

It was five o'clock in the afternoon when the post chaise turned in at the gates and he well remembered being impressed by them when he had first come to Ingle Hall with his dear mother.

Now, when he regarded the lodges, they looked, he thought, as if no one was living in them.

The post chaise ambled on and, once again the beauty of the Elizabethan house entranced him.

Only as they drove into the courtyard was he aware that the house looked very different from five years ago.

The mullion windows needed cleaning and the flowerbeds along the front of the house were filled with weeds.

There was certainly no red carpet being run down the steps before the front door.

David had deliberately not telegraphed through the time or day of his arrival, as he was not at all certain when it would be.

Also he had no idea who might be in the house.

He presumed that there would be servants, although it was doubtful if Newman would still be there as butler.

He therefore paid the driver of the post chaise, but asked him to wait just in case the house was closed up.

‘I may have to go somewhere else to find the key,' he told himself, but he thought it a little unlikely.

Although his grandfather had been dead for some time, the Solicitors, if no one else, would appreciate that he must come to Ingle Hall at some time.

He reached the front door and raised the knocker – he had looked for a bell but there did not appear to be one.

Then, as he was just wondering what he should do, there was the sound of footsteps.

The door creaked open slowly.

To his astonishment he found himself facing a very pretty young girl with long golden hair and blue eyes.

She stared at him for a moment and then exclaimed,

“Oh, it's
you
!  I thought it might be and I am sorry I have kept you waiting.”

David followed her into the hall which was just as he remembered it, except he could see it was very dusty – the ashes of what had once been a fire were lying untidily in the great medieval fireplace.

“I am sorry,” David began, “I did not give anyone notice of my intended arrival, as I was not certain when it would be.”

“We waited and waited,” replied the girl, “but the Solicitors told us that there was no reply to the cable they had sent to India.”

David smiled.

“Well, I am here now, and, as you know who I am, perhaps you will be kind enough to introduce yourself.”

“I am Benina Falcon, my Lord, and I am a distant relative of your father's mother.”

David put out his hand.

“I am delighted to meet you, Benina.”

“I am afraid you will find it rather uncomfortable, but it has been so impossible for Nanny and me to do very much to the house, although we
have
tried.”

David did not understand her, but for the moment he did not ask questions.

He merely answered,

“As I have come down from London I hope there is something for dinner and I would absolutely love a cup of tea!”

Benina laughed and he thought it a most attractive sound.

“Sorry!  Nanny and I did not think you might like tea, but I will run and tell her and bring it to you in the study.  We have been using that room because it is cosier than the others.  I expect you know the way.”

She was gone before David could reply.  He stared after her, feeling somehow bewildered.

‘Surely there must be some servants in the house,' he thought.

Although Newman has probably retired by now, he must have been replaced.  Looking around, David remembered that when he was last here there had been two footmen in the hall.

It all seemed so weird.

He walked down the corridor to the room where he had met his grandfather and, as he did so, he noticed again how dusty everything was.

‘Surely, even though my grandfather is dead, the servants could at least dust the furniture?'

He walked into the study and it was much cleaner.

BOOK: Hide and Seek for Love
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