Lost Enchantment E-Book

Barbara Cartland

• Herausgeber: Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: The Eternal Collection
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 343

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

When Justin, the tall and handsome Marquis of Alton, comes to the rescue of an elfin young beauty named Sylvina, whose dog, Columbus, has been wounded by a snare in the woods on his estate, he is instantly smitten by her beauty and innocence, so unlike the scheming and worldly wise ladies of the Social world in London. Of course Sylvina does not know that he is the Marquis of Alton, just that he is her 'Knight Errant' and saviour when she most needed one. And, when he suggests that they repair to Alton Park, he is dismayed to find that she is terrified by the idea of meeting the Marquis. He is even more appalled when, after the idyllic time they had spent in their private woodland Eden, Sylvina refuses ever to see him again. What the Marquis does not know is that Sylvina is being blackmailed into marriage to the unsavoury Mr. Cuddington, the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Only when Cuddington himself is exposed for betraying his country to Napoleon Bonaparte and the French does the Marquis realise that Sylvina has loved him from the second they had first met. And more and more he is falling in love with Sylvina and now he is determined to set her free from the demons surrounding her, even if he has to kill to do so!

Leseprobe

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The author would like her readers to know that the background of this story set in the year 1803 is as accurate as research can make it. The details of Napoleon’s invasion fleet, the spy fever gripping England and the personages in the Government are all part of history.

Chapter 1  1803

The Marquis of Alton was blue-devilled, which meant that everyone in the whole of Alton Park from his personal valet, who had come down with him from London, to the lowest scullion, was affected by his Lordship’s temper.

He had arrived unexpectedly long after midnight and, because he was in one of his black moods, it seemed that nothing was to his satisfaction.

The chef, shaken into wakefulness, performed miracles in providing a cold collation in under fifty minutes, but even so his Lordship looked disdainfully at it and, having nibbled at a few dishes, left the rest untouched, which cast a shadow of despondency over the whole kitchen staff.

Also, on entering the huge baronial dining room and glancing in a disparaging way at the shining array of silver, which had with unprecedented speed been taken from its shrouds of green baize to ornament the table, his Lordship had remarked sourly,

“Short of footmen, are we, Westham?”

The old butler, who had been at Alton Park since he had started as pantry boy to his Lordship’s father, replied apologetically,

“As I was not aware that your Lordship was honouring us with a visit, I allowed four of the younger men to repair to the village to drill with the Volunteers. They were keen, my Lord, and I felt it was my patriotic duty to encourage their enthusiasm.”

There was nothing his Lordship could reply to this and after a moment Westham ventured,

“What news is there of the War, my Lord? We know little here, but what we do learn sounds extremely ominous.”

His Lordship remained silent and the butler continued,

“They are saying, my Lord, that this year of 1803 will be known for ever as the Year of Invasion.”

“If we are invaded,” his Lordship said in his most uncompromising voice, “then I can assure you, Westham, that we shall repel Bonaparte with every weapon at our command.”

There was a moment’s silence, but, as his Lordship glanced with no show of interest at a succulent boar’s head garnished with fresh peaches, the butler then said,

“The Volunteers are most dissatisfied at the idea of carrying pikes, my Lord.”

His Lordship had pushed back his plate with an angry gesture.

“There are not enough flintlocks for everyone, Westham, and pikes can be an intimidating weapon if used with intelligence.”

His Lordship did not sound very convincing even to himself and it made him even angrier that his own men who had joined the Volunteers should be treated in such a shoddy fashion.

However, it was not policy to say so and the Marquis could only curse the Addington administration silently as he had cursed it so often before.

Refusing the rest of the dishes that were awaiting his approval, he walked from the dining room.

“A glass of port, my Lord?” Westham cried in despair after him.

His Lordship did not deign to answer, but he would have been honest if he had admitted that he had already consumed enough wine that evening, which was in part the cause of his ill temper.

*

It must have been the unusual amount of wine, he told himself the following morning after spending a restless night, which he had drunk at dinner with the Prince of Wales that had been the cause of all his troubles.

One always ate and drank too much at Carlton House, but this had been an exceptional occasion when the Prince was entertaining on an even grander scale than usual and a large number of his guests were extremely unsteady on their feet by the time they left the dining room.

The Marquis had not been unsteady, but he had certainly been in a receptive mood and it must have been for that reason that he had listened to Lady Leone Harlington when she had sought him out as the gentlemen joined the ladies and looked at him provocatively from under her eyelashes.

“It is a long time since your Lordship has honoured me with a visit,” she said in her soft seductive voice, which had enticed more men into committing indiscretions than anyone could possibly count.

“You have missed me?” the Marquis asked.

Lady Leone turned her face towards his with a gesture that adoring swains poetically compared with the beauty of a swan arching its long white neck.

“You know that I have missed you,” she replied softly. “Justin, what has gone awry between us?”

“Nothing I am aware of,” the Marquis replied and, although he spoke with an effort of sincerity, they both knew that he lied.

“Are you not running away from the inevitable?” she enquired.

“The inevitable?” he questioned.

“You know that I intend to marry you,” she answered bluntly.

Even in his slightly befuddled state the Marquis sensed the iron determination beneath the gentleness of her voice. Yet, because he had dined too well, her presumption had only amused him.

It was later, much later, that he found himself seated on a comfortable sofa in the Countess of Harlington’s salon with Leone beside him.

At the reception that had followed the dinner at Carlton House she had never left his side and he realised that she had flaunted him as her escort as a man might flaunt a trophy he had won in battle.

There had been more to drink, more to eat, and while caution told him that he was putting his head into a noose, some cynical part of his mind told him that Leone was right – it was inevitable.

They had known each other since childhood and while the Marquis had grown up to become the most elegant, the most handsome and the most sought-after Corinthian in the whole of the Bon Ton, Leone, when she emerged from the schoolroom, had become overnight the toast of St. James’s, the ‘Incomparable of Incomparables’ and without exception the most talked-about young woman in London.

Even while the Marquis was away fighting in the War he heard of her escapades, her daring, her adventures and a thousand ways in which she contrived to get herself criticised by the older generation.

He had returned to London when an armistice was declared between France and Great Britain to find Leone at the peak of her beauty.

He had found it amusing to flirt with her when they met, but he did not make any push to become one of the circle of infatuated bucks who followed her adoringly.

The Marquis already had the reputation of a gay Lothario and there were countless ladies of fashion ready to fall into his arms and ready, if he as much as looked in their direction, to make open for him a way into their hearts and their bedchambers.

In a very short time the Marquis’s love affairs were the talk of every Club. Society, ever eager for succulent titbits of gossip, exaggerated the number of husbands he had cuckolded and his many affairesde coeur, but there was, in fact, little room for exaggeration.

The Marquis, refusing no feminine favours, at the same time grew increasingly more cynical. He had enjoyed the cut and thrust of war and he had gloried in having to fight to win.

It was in contrast almost banal to find how easy a different sort of conquest could be and how inevitably boring it was to be the pursued rather than the pursuer.

He also became aware that most people thought a match between Leone and himself would not only furnish a respectable ending to her somewhat flamboyant escapades, but would also be an advantage to them both.

It was time Leone settled down, it was time she married and, while she had everything to gain with regard to rank and wealth by becoming the Marchioness of Alton, she was also not averse to winning for herself the most sought-after bachelor in the length and breadth of the country.

From the Marquis’s point of view the situation was even simpler. It was important that he should be married. His relations continued to tell him so until he avoided them, because the subject made him yawn, but when Mr. Pitt had started on the same track he was astonished.

“What you want, Alton,” the former Prime Minister said almost aggressively, “is a wife.”

“A wife?” the Marquis queried in surprise,

“Yes, a wife,” Mr. Pitt repeated. “It has been over a month now since, on my return to the House of Commons, I asked you to ferret out the Napoleonic spies in our midst and one in particular. But you have got no further in discovering who this traitor may be. It is always the women who have secrets whispered to them on the pillow and repeat them to their bosom friends the following morning.”

“I assure you, sir,” the Marquis said with a little twist of his lips, “that I hear a deal of female chatter.”

“That I can well believe,” Mr. Pitt assented, “but I still think you would learn more if you had a wife constantly by your side, a wife who perhaps would not spend so much time prattling about love as your present fair charmers do.”

The Marquis put back his head and laughed.

Then he said quite seriously,

“I am prepared to oblige you, sir, by devoting my time, my wealth and anything else you may ask of me in trying to solve your immediate problems, but even for the sake of my country I am not prepared to shackle myself to some empty-headed chatterbox, whose conversation when the War is over I would have to endure for what would seem an eternity of time.”

Mr. Pitt had smiled and then said,

“I understand only too well your devotion to bachelorhood, but at the same time, Alton, this is damned serious. I am absolutely convinced that the traitor is someone close to the Government, someone in one of our most vital Ministries. But God knows whether it is the Admiralty, the War Office or the Foreign Office!”

“Then you do admit, sir, that you have given me a difficult assignment,” the Marquis smiled.

“I know no one who could do it better,” Mr. Pitt declared, “but I still think you need a wife to help you.”

It was with Mr. Pitt’s words ringing in his ears that the Marquis had looked down at Leone seated beside him on the sofa, her dark seductive eyes half closed with a passionate intensity that he knew was not all pretence.

He was well aware that she was trying with every womanly wile she had ever known to entice him into declaring himself.

“Oh, Justin,” she purred softly, “you know we would deal well together. We could give the most sought after parties in London and we could entertain at Alton Park. We would be, if it is not conceited to say so, the best-looking couple the Bon Ton has ever seen. And besides all that, I have a decided partiality for you, as you well know.”

There was a feline sensuality in the manner in which her eyes slanted at him from beneath her dark lashes and there was an open invitation in the pouting red lips raised towards his.

“You are very lovely, Leone,” the Marquis said thickly and put out his hand to touch the rounded whiteness of her long neck.

There was no telling who had made the first move, but the Marquis found himself kissing her passionately and with a certain brutality that she somehow evoked in him by her very compliance.

It was the sophisticated kiss of two people easily aroused to passion and, as the Marquis drew her closer and closer, he could not help wondering in some detached part of his mind how many men had kissed her in just this way before, how many men had held the soft warm seductiveness of her body in their arms and found their breath come quicker at the fiery response of her lips.

Leone’s arms were round his neck and, as he crushed her almost breathless with the violence of his desire, he might at that moment have said the words she was longing to hear had they not been interrupted.

There was a sudden noise in the hall outside the salon and a male voice called,

“Leone, are you there?”

It was the Viscount Thatford returning home from a party and Leone had drawn herself reluctantly from the Marquis’s arms.

“It’s Peregrine,” she said with a note of anger in her voice.

Then, as her brother came into the room, she whispered so that only the Marquis could hear her,

“Come and talk to Father tomorrow. I shall be waiting for you.”

It was this last sentence that sent the Marquis blue-devilled to the country. It was too well planned, too obvious! It gave him a sense of being trapped and of being forced into a declaration before he had finally made up his mind.

Granted he had kissed Leone, but she had deliberately enticed him into doing so. She had seduced his kisses from him and then taken it for granted that he would say the words that he had never in his life said to any woman.

Reaching his house in Berkeley Square, the Marquis had ordered his fastest phaeton, changed his clothes and set off for Alton Park.

He had a sudden yearning to be free of London, to be away from the scented softness of women, to breathe instead the fresh air of the country, to smell the fresh fragrance of flowers and know that he was alone – alone and content with his own company.

By the time he reached Alton Park he was too angry to enjoy what he sought.

His brain was beginning to clear, and he knew it was wine that had undoubtedly blunted his better judgment.

It was all those damned toasts he had had to honour, ‘To Victory’ – ‘The annihilation of our enemies’ – ‘The downfall of Napoleon’– ‘The Navy – ‘The Army’ – ‘The Volunteers’.

There had been dozens of them and, because the Prince of Wales proposed each one of them, none of his guests could refuse to empty his glass.

The Marquis’s constitution was strong and when he woke in the morning his head did not ache, but he was still oppressed by the thought of Leone waiting for him in London, the Earl of Harlington calculating how large a marriage settlement he could extort and the knowing smiles on the faces of their friends who would assert it was exactly what they had expected from the very beginning.

‘Curse William Pitt! It’s all his fault!’ the Marquis tried to tell himself as he emerged from his bedchamber and slowly descended the magnificent carved staircase with its heraldic murals standing like sentinels at every turn.

However, he was fair-minded enough to admit that it was really no one’s fault but his own. No outsider, however important he might be, could coerce a man into marriage and no man, unless he was cork-brained, would allow himself to be coerced.

Leone was by no means the first woman who had aspired to snare him into making her an offer of marriage. Nevertheless he had been stupid enough to let her manoeuvre him into the very position he had tried to avoid.

He had been well aware that she was determined to capture him and that was why he had deliberately avoided being with her in any compromising circumstances.

Then yesterday he had dropped his guard and now she was waiting for him. There had been a look of satisfaction on Lord Thatford’s somewhat inane face when he had come into the salon and found them alone together.

From what the Marquis had heard, Thatford was well under the hatches and the thought of a wealthy brother-in-law would undoubtedly lift his depression.

The duns who were after him would be only too willing to give him time before they pressed their bills further once it was known that his sister was to marry one of the wealthiest Noblemen in England. If his brother-in-law did not cough up, Thatford would see that his sister did, the Marquis was convinced of that.

There was no doubt that Leone was beautiful and, from all he had heard, her whole family had been gambling on her beauty.

“Why was I such a fool?” the Marquis asked himself aloud and Westham, who was hovering at the back of his chair, enquired,

“You spoke, my Lord?”

“Only to myself,” the Marquis said disagreeably.

The old butler sighed. He had known the Marquis too long not to realise that a fit of the sullens that lasted all through the night must have arisen through some real problem. It was unlike Mister Justin, as he still thought of his Master. He could be mad as fire on occasions, but it invariably lasted but a short time.

As a boy he was noted for his sunny nature and as a man he had become difficult and at times overbearing. But one thing he had always been and that was just.

Old Westham knew that for the Marquis to be disagreeable for more than a few hours to those who served him meant that something untoward had occurred.

He was wise enough not to attempt to converse further with his Master, merely bringing food to the table, which was summarily waved away, and noting somewhat apprehensively that the Marquis drank a large brandy before walking through the open window out onto the terrace. It was not his Lordship’s habit to partake at breakfast.

‘Something must be wrong, very wrong indeed!’ old Westham told himself.

Bareheaded in the sunshine, the Marquis sauntered through the rose garden, not seeing the beds of flowers that had been planned so exquisitely by his mother some years before she died, not noticing the wide herbaceous borders with their budding promise of colour to come or the flaring flame of the azaleas against the mauve, purple and white of the fragrant lilacs.

The gardens at Alton Park were famous, but the Marquis walked through them with unseeing eyes, intent on his own thoughts, confused and apprehensive, and in a despondency that he had not known since going back to Eton at the end of the holidays.

“Damn! Damn! Damn!” he muttered to himself.

He timed his curses to the movement of his feet, yet found the oaths brought him little relief.

He walked on and on, deep in his thoughts, too intent to notice where he was going, until he was startled by a sudden cry.

Almost automatically he stood still to listen.

The cry came again and then, as he became aware that he had wandered far from the house and into the woods, a girl came running from between the trees.

“Help, help!” she was crying.

Then she saw him standing in the path and ran to him.

Surprised at the swiftness of her arrival, he became conscious of a small pointed face the tears running down it as they overflowed from two large frightened eyes.

“Help me – oh, help me!” she begged breathlessly “My dog – he is caught in a trap and I cannot release him – please – please come!”

“Of course,” the Marquis agreed quickly.

He felt a very small hand slipped into his and found that she was compelling him to run through the trees quicker than he had ever attempted to move since he had left school.

“He is – here,” she panted, as they turned into a clearing and there was no need to say more.

A small black and white King Charles spaniel was caught by the leg in a rusty gin-trap. The dog was frenzied with fear, yelping and whining and tugging at his leg, which was bleeding profusely.

The girl ran towards the dog, but the Marquis, grasping her hand, restrained her.

“Don’t touch him,” he urged in a voice of authority. “He is frightened and may bite you. At this moment he cannot recognise friend or foe.”

“Release him – please set him – free,” the girl pleaded.

The Marquis, grasping the dog in an expert fashion, held him firmly and with his foot released the gin-trap so that the rusty iron teeth sprang open.

“Thank you – thank you,” the girl breathed and reached out her arms towards the dog.

The Marquis did not hand the little animal over, instead he carefully inspected the torn and bleeding leg. As if the dog had understood who had rescued him, he turned his head and tried to lick the hand that held him.

“Is his leg broken?” the girl asked.

“I am not certain,” the Marquis replied. “What we must do is take him at once to someone who is experienced in the care of animals. The wound must be washed because, as you can see, the trap is old and rusty.”

“How can people be so cruel – so wicked – as to put such things in the wood?” the girl asked. “No animal should be trapped in such a manner.”

“I don’t think that there are many traps in these woods,” the Marquis answered.

He remembered that he had given the order over five years ago that no traps were to be used on his land.

“I hope not,” the girl said. “I was so happy – and so was Columbus until this – happened.”

“Columbus?” the Marquis questioned, looking down at the little dog in his arms.

“I called him that because he was so curious,” his owner explained. “Now see to what a state his curiosity has – brought him.”

She gave a tiny sob as she spoke and, taking a handkerchief from the waist of her pale green dress, she started to wipe away the tears from her cheeks.

“Do you read Greek?” the Marquis asked in an amused voice. “Or did somebody tell you that Columbus meant curious?”

“I know a little Greek,” she answered simply, “but – how can I thank you, sir, for saving Columbus?”

“We have not saved him completely as yet,” the Marquis replied. “As I have said, he must be taken to someone who understands dogs, who will treat the wound.”

“Oh dear,” the girl exclaimed helplessly, “I wonder if there is someone like that in the village! I could – ask.”

“I have a better idea,” the Marquis answered. “A man I know who is really experienced lives not far from here. Shall we take Columbus to him?”

“I don’t like to inconvenience you, sir,” the girl answered. “You have been so kind already.”

“You will not inconvenience me,” the Marquis answered.

Looking down at her he realised how pretty she was in a strange kind of elfin way.

She had a little pointed face, huge eyes, which he now realised were unexpectedly green, and very fair hair curling in the most unfashionable manner over her tiny head.

She had a bonnet, but she had obviously thrown it to the ground in an effort to release her dog.

Now she picked it up and said,

“Can I carry Columbus?”

“I think he would be easier with me,” the Marquis answered. “See, he is no longer afraid, and perhaps in my arms he would be less jolted than in yours.”

“You are so kind,” she said. “If you had not been there – I don’t know what I would have done. I never expected there would be someone in the woods to help me.”

“You might have come across a keeper,” the Marquis said, “but he undoubtedly would have accused you of trespassing.”

Her eyes were wide with apprehension.

“Am I trespassing?” she asked. “I never thought of that. You see – when I used to walk with my father in the Vienna woods they were free to everyone. I forgot that in England woods would be in the possession of an autocratic owner.”

“Perhaps not always autocratic,” the Marquis demurred, “but in England every man’s home is his castle, and every man’s property is private.”

“If he is lucky enough to own a property,” she said.

“So you were happy in the woods until this happened?” the Marquis asked.

“So very, very happy,” she said with a little sigh. “You can have no idea what it is like for me to be among trees again and to forget – ” She paused and substituted, “ – to remember the stories my mother told me – when I was a little girl. Then the woods to me were peopled with nymphs, dragons and Knights Errant.”

She stopped as they moved along the woodland path.

“Of course, that is what you are,” she exclaimed, “a Knight Errant come to save me – or rather Columbus! How wonderful – it’s just like a story!”

“I am honoured that you should think so,” the Marquis said with a smile on his lips.

“But do you not understand?” she said. “It is indeed one of the tales my mother – used to tell me at bedtime. I have thought of them so often lately. I was desperately frightened for Columbus and then suddenly you were there! A Knight to the rescue, but you should have been on a horse!”

“I regret the omission,” the Marquis replied. “My horse is er – indisposed.”

“And being in search of fame and fortune you could not afford another one!” she sighed. “But you ran to the rescue – that would have been difficult in armour!”

“And indisputably noisy!” the Marquis remarked drily.

They were both laughing.

He realised that she had an entrancing dimple in each cheek and her eyes, when she was amused, held a Puckish mischievousness.

“I forbid you, sir, to spoil my story!” she challenged him.

“I promise you not to do that,” the Marquis answered. “But tell me why do you have such a partiality for woods?”

She put her head a little on one side as though she was considering his question.

“I think it is because we all have special places in the world that we feel we belong to,” she said. “Some people feel fulfilled in themselves when they are beside the sea – some people wish to climb mountains, which give them something they cannot explain and something I suppose that is spiritual.”

She paused and then continued.

“But I have always felt at home and happy in a wood. I seem to belong to the trees – and this is a very lovely wood.”

The Marquis looked round.

Most of the trees were silver birch. The pale green of their spring leaves made an arch over their heads so that the sunshine only flickered through fitfully, casting tiny gleams of gold on the mossy path.

“You look like a wood-nymph yourself,” he said. “In that green dress and without your bonnet you might indeed be part of the forest.”

She smiled and he saw that her smile illuminated her face and made it almost breathtakingly beautiful.

“I think my parents must have known that,” she said, “when they christened me.”

“And what is your name?” the Marquis enquired.

“My name is Sylvina,” she said. “Do you know what that means?”

The Marquis wrinkled his brow.

“It’s not Greek?”

“No.”

“Latin?” he enquired.

She nodded.

“That is clever of you. Now can you guess the rest?”

“It’s not very difficult,” he smiled. “A forest maid?”

She laughed like a child.

“I believe you knew,” she said accusingly, “or else you are too good at guessing.”

“What is your other name?” he enquired.

To his surprise she turned her head away and for a moment there was silence.

Then she said a little hesitatingly,

“Could you please – not ask me that question? Just for today I want to forget everything – but the woods. I don’t want to remember why I am here and where I have come from, I just want to be – Sylvina.”

“Of course, that is as it should be,” the Marquis said. “Here in the magic of the wood we have no identity outside. And, in case you are interested, my name is Justin.”

She turned to him again with a light in her eyes.

“That is perfect!” she cried. “Only a true Knight Errant would be called Justin. And now I can say once again – thank you, Sir Justin, for rescuing Columbus.”

They walked for some little way until the path ended and they came out at the side of a field.

Ahead of them and a little below lay Alton Park.

The morning sunshine was glittering on its diamond-paned windows. Encircled by lakes that were linked by arched bridges, it had an almost unearthly beauty, the grey stone of the great mansion blending with the flower-filled gardens and the deep green of the woods that guarded it like protecting arms.

As the Marquis glanced at his home with satisfaction, he heard a small frightened voice beside him say,

“Surely – that is – Alton Park.”

“Yes, indeed,” he answered. “It is beautiful, is it not?”

“It is where – the Marquis of Alton – lives.”

“It is,” the Marquis replied.

There was a little pause and then she said,

“I cannot go there – you don’t – understand, I cannot go to – Alton Park.”

“I was only taking you to someone who lives in the precinct of the house,” the Marquis said drily. Then he added, “but why would you not wish to visit such an attractive place?”

“I know – the Marquis is not at – home,” Sylvina replied. “Indeed I believe he seldom comes – here, but I would not wish – Oh, I cannot explain – but please give me Columbus and show me the way to the village.”

The Marquis was intrigued.

“Listen, Sylvina,” he said, “there is nothing to hurt you at Alton Park, of that I am sure. And as for the Marquis, why have you such a dislike of him? Do you know him?”

“No indeed – I have not his Lordship’s acquaintance,” Sylvina replied stiffly.

“Then it must be something you have heard about him,” the Marquis insisted.

He wondered a little wryly which of his indiscretions had been repeated to this small exquisite creature, who certainly appeared to have no direct connection with the Bon Ton.

Her dress was pretty but cheap. There was nothing fashionable about the arrangement of her hair or of the straw bonnet she carried by its ribbons.

“What can you have heard about the Marquis?” he asked.

For a moment there was silence.

“I have – heard,” Sylvina said at length, speaking in a low voice, almost as though she spoke to herself, “that he is – tenacious – uncannily perceptive and – merciless.”

The Marquis was astonished.

“Who can have told you that?” he asked.

“Oh, I should not have said – such things!” she exclaimed. “It was indeed presumptuous of me to speak in such a manner of the Marquis, but I believe that he is old and – frightening, and therefore – for reasons I cannot explain I must go back – to the village.”

“Is that not somewhat unkind to Columbus?” the Marquis asked.

She turned to look up at him and he was astonished at the fear in her eyes.

“I don’t want – to be unkind to Columbus,” she said and her lips trembled, “but I cannot go to – Alton Park.”

“Then I have a solution,” the Marquis suggested, “that is, if you will trust me.”

“Trust you?” Sylvina asked. “But of course I do. You rescued Columbus.”

“Then what I suggest is this,” the Marquis said. “You go back into the wood. I will show you a place a little way from here where there is a fallen tree. Sit there and wait while I take Columbus, have his leg treated and then bring him back to you.”

He saw that she was hesitating and added,

“If we don’t do something quickly, the poor little dog may get blood poisoning.”

“Yes, yes, of course – I understand,” Sylvina said. “But would you really do that – for me? Is it not too much to ask?”

“No indeed,” the Marquis replied. “Have I not vowed myself to your service? Is not that what Knights Errant do when they come to the rescue?”

As if his tone had been a little too intimate, he saw a lovely flush of colour creep up her cheeks and her eyes fell before his.

“If you promise – that I am not imposing on your kindness, sir,” she said with a dignity that had something childlike about it, “then I shall wait – as you suggest.”

The Marquis showed her the fallen tree he had mentioned. It was very old and half covered with ivy and he remembered sitting on it when he had been a boy playing truant from his Tutors, escaping into the woods when he should have been poring over his books.

“I will not be longer than I can help,” he promised.

He saw the trust in her face, as she replied,

“I will wait and think how lucky I am to have found you, Sir Justin – just when I needed you most.”

The Marquis strode away from her, the dog lying peacefully in his arms save for an occasional little whimper when his torn leg hurt.

It was nearly three quarters of an hour before the Marquis returned.

As he came back towards the fallen tree, he half wondered whether the forest maid would still be there waiting for him.

Had he perhaps been dreaming? If it had not been for a spot of blood on the cuff of his new whipcord coat, he would have thought that he might have been.

He came almost silently through the trees and saw her.

She was sitting looking into the heart of the wood, her face in profile to him, her straight little nose etched against the trees, her eyes wide, her lips parted as though she felt a sudden ecstasy at being alone in the woods and a part of them.

Looking at her the Marquis realised how tiny she was. As she had walked beside him the top of her head had been about level with his heart.

Now she moved her hands and he thought that her slim little fingers were as exquisite as the flight of the kingfisher.

As if she realised that someone was watching her, she turned her face and he saw her eyes light up as though the sunshine had become imprisoned in them.

“You are back!”

She scrambled down from the tree and ran towards him, only when she reached him did she realise that he was alone.

“Columbus!” she exclaimed. “What has happened – to Columbus?”

“He is all right,” the Marquis said soothingly. “The man to whom I took him said that the muscles of his leg are torn, but he thinks that there are no bones broken. He has bandaged his wounds and given the dog something to ease any pain he might be feeling. So he wants Columbus to remain quiet for an hour or so. After that I have arranged that you should take him home.”

“He will get well – will he not?” Sylvina asked.

“I promise you that there is nothing really wrong. Columbus has been very lucky. The trap might have really injured him, but in two or three weeks he will be perfectly fit again.”

“That is marvellous beyond words!” Sylvina cried. “How can I – thank you for your kindness?”

“You can thank me,” the Marquis answered, “by letting me entertain you until Columbus has had his rest. Would you like me to show you a pool in the middle of the wood where the deer drink in the evening and where I am certain that Pan plays his pipes to those who can hear such music.”

Sylvina clasped her hands together.

“Oh, could you really take me there?” she asked. “How lovely that would be. And have you ever heard Pan playing his pipes? It is something I have longed for more than anything else – except perhaps to see a bluebird.”

“A bluebird!” the Marquis exclaimed.

“Yes. My mother used to tell me that when people are really happy, the Gods send a bluebird to sing to them of joy, to tell them of the heavenly things that no one can tell us here on Earth. Only a bluebird has the right song for those – who truly love each other.”

“And you think perhaps we could hear one today?” the Marquis asked.

She blushed in confusion.

“No – of course I did not mean that,” she said. “I was only relating to you what I feel would be a wonderful and unforgettable experience. Now you have made me feel that I am saying – all the wrong things. It is something I often seem to do these days.”

“It was not the wrong thing,” the Marquis said quickly. “I was only teasing you. Do you mind being teased?”

“No indeed,” Sylvina answered, “my brother often does it. It’s just that, having been so much alone these past years, I have the habit of saying without thinking – just what comes into my head. I know that it is unconventional and very foolish, because people misunderstand me and then I feel ashamed.”

“I think it is exceeding pleasant,” the Marquis said, “to find someone who is natural, who says what they think is the truth rather than things they think they ought to say.”

“I wish I could believe you,” Sylvina replied, “but Mr. Cu – ”

She stopped.

“There are – p-people who say I must curb my thoughts and try to be a fashionable lady. But I hate the fashionable world, I don’t want to be a fashionable lady and – I don’t want to have anything to do with Society.”

She spoke so passionately that her voice seemed to ring out in the woodland.

“You would be a great success in fashionable Society,” the Marquis commented. “You are beautiful and the Social world loves beautiful women.”

“Now you are teasing me again,” Sylvina complained. “You know I am not beautiful and you can see how unfashionable I am. I made this gown myself and when I look at the ladies in London I know that they would laugh and sneer at me if I went amongst them looking – like this. Besides, I have no desire to go to parties or to be dressed up like some – people want me to be.”

There was so much unhappiness in her voice that the Marquis was startled.

“Why should anyone want you to do things you don’t want to do?” he asked.

There was silence and then she said,

“We agreed we would forget today – all the unhappy and – frightening things and – think only of the woods.”

“That is what we agreed,” the Marquis smiled.

“Then let’s forget,” Sylvina begged. “Please, please, Sir Justin, let’s forget just for a little while that we have to go back. Let’s pretend that there is nothing outside the woods and that we could stay here for ever.”

“For ever?” the Marquis repeated with raised eyebrows.

“For ever,” Sylvina repeated almost passionately. “If only I could lie down on the moss beneath the trees – and never go back. If time could pass me by and I could awake to find myself old and grey – then I would be utterly content.”

“There must be a less drastic way of solving your problems,” the Marquis suggested quietly.

She shook her head.

“There is no other solution!”

“At times we all feel that we are like Columbus caught in a trap, but invariably, if we try hard enough, there is a way out,” the Marquis said, and wondered if it was indeed the truth.

“No,” Sylvina answered dully, “for me – there is no way out.”

“How do you know?” the Marquis asked.

“I have thought and thought,” she said simply, “and I cannot – find one.”

“Then suppose you let me think for you,” the Marquis suggested. “I am considered rather adept at solving puzzles,”

She looked up at him and he thought that she had the sweetest face that he had ever seen.

She smiled at him as one might smile at a clever child and then she said, her voice infinitely sad,

“I would like to let you try to solve my puzzle, Sir Justin, but it is not – mine alone. And so I can only attempt to solve it – myself and unfortunately there is no solution.”

“Let me – ” he began to plead, but she interrupted him.

“Oh, look! Look!” she whispered.

He saw that by leading her down a woodland path while they had been talking they had reached the pool in the centre of the wood that he had told her about.

Surrounded by trees, it had a strange, almost eerie mystery about it.

With the sun throwing shimmering rays through the darkness of the trees, the water glimmering and the kingcups glowing in golden profusion on the banks, it really did seem an enchanted place.

Then the Marquis felt a small eager hand slipped into his and a soft breathless little voice said,

“Thank you, thank you, dear – kind Sir Justin, for bringing me here.”