A Virgin Bride (3 page)

He took a deep breath.

“I am to invite the guests for the 20
th
of May.”

“Are you really telling me, Papa, that he does not intend to meet me until we are actually married?”

Again there was an ominous silence.

“I think it is possible he may return in time. But if not, he has told me he will come directly to Lynbrook Hall, and if he arrives in London only the night before, he can easily drive down for the ceremony which will take place at two o'clock.”

“
If I am there
,” Venetia added very softly.

“I need not ask you what you mean by that! Let me make it perfectly clear that my only daughter should make a brilliant marriage.

“If you are so stupid as to make trouble and reject not just me but the greatest opportunity you will ever have, then I will wash my hands of you and hope never to see you again!”

Venetia did not answer.

He drew his watch from his pocket and looked at it.

“Because you were late in arriving, I have no time for any more talk about this matter.

“I am lunching with the Prime Minister, and unlike most people I have the reputation of always being on time. If you have any more to say on this subject, you can keep it until this evening, when, as I thought you might be tired, we are dining alone.”

He walked right out of the room, closing the door sharply behind him.

Venetia did not move.

She was wondering if all she had heard could in any way be true and not a figment of her imagination.

How could her Papa, or anyone else for that matter, expect her to marry a man she had never seen?

Even though he was of such Social significance.

She knew her father was delighted at the idea and absolutely determined that the marriage should take place.

It was impossible!

‘How can I make him realise' she thought, ‘that if I could meet the Duke, I might like him enough, once I knew him, to be his wife?'

But how could a woman of any intelligence marry a man just because he had a grand title?

For a moment Venetia felt she must be dreaming and that this was all happening while she was asleep.

She had thought about marriage.

Of course she had.

The girls at school talked about love incessantly.

At the back of her mind Venetia had imagined that when she came to London, she would, as she had always been promised, attend many balls and receptions.

Her father had always said that he would give a ball for her and she would therefore meet countless young men.

Without being conceited, Venetia realised, because she resembled her mother, who had been an acknowledged beauty, that she was very pretty.

And she would undoubtedly receive quite a number of proposals.

Perhaps by some miracle she would meet a man she really loved and they would then marry and live happily ever afterwards.

It was always at the back of her mind, but because she was so interested in the subjects she was studying, she was not worried about being a little old to be a
debutante
.

She had had no personal experience of men, only the brothers of the girls with whom she stayed, but they were either very young or not interested in schoolgirls.

Her father had become much more difficult since her Mama had died. She alone had been able to coax him into a good temper when he was in one of his moods.

It had been obvious to anyone who knew the couple that he adored her and whatever she did he accepted it as her right and never argued with her about it.

That, unfortunately, could not be said of anyone else he came into contact with. He was generally considered to be cantankerous and verging on pompous, though nobody would have been brave enough to ever say so.

Yet Venetia could never have imagined her father would do anything so extraordinary and unreasonable as to marry her off before she had even set foot on a ballroom floor.

She admitted that from her father's point of view, the Duke of Rockinston would make an exceptional son-in-law.

She had heard of the Duke.

Indeed she had!

He was mentioned in every
Court Circular
and his horses were usually first in every classic race.

That, Venetia had to admit, was much in his favour, but after all she was to marry a man – not a horse!

Completely stunned at the proposition that had been put to her by her Papa, she did not move until Bates came in to tell her that her luncheon was ready.

“Mrs. Shepherd was hoping you would go upstairs to see her before you went to the dining room,” said Bates, “but as your Ladyship is downstairs, she's waiting to see you in the hall.”

“Then I must see her, Bates.”

The old housekeeper had been with the family at the house in Berkeley Square since before Venetia was born.

Venetia walked out of the study and into the hall to kiss Mrs. Shepherd affectionately.

“It's lovely to see you, my Lady,” Mrs. Shepherd was saying. “We've been looking forward to your coming home. You've been away far too long.”

“It is just what I was thinking, but now I am back I want to see all the staff I remember so well – I just hope none have left.”

“There haven't been many changes, my Lady. You'll remember cook who used to be in the country, but has come up to town since you've been away.”

“I had hoped I should still find the same servants at Lynbrook Hall as before I left.”

“There have been some changes, but we do have to move with the times!”

Venetia laughed.

“That's one thing I don't wish you to do. But then I suppose I have grown older, if not any wiser.”

She was just joking, but Mrs. Shepherd replied,

“You've grown into a very beautiful young lady. Your mother, God bless her soul, if she were alive, would be very proud of you. We was saying in my room only the other night that there be plenty of fine young gentlemen running after you. It's a real shame you've been shut up in that school for so long.”

“Well, now I am back, Mrs. Shepherd.”

She thought it would not be for very long.

In fact she was already thinking it was doubtful if she would go to the country before her wedding day.

One thing was quite obvious.

The servants did not as yet know about her father's plans for her.

She realised how difficult it was to keep anything secret from the staff and her mother had often said that the servants knew what was happening before she did herself.

As she sat down for luncheon, she could not help wondering whose advice she could now seek.

Then suddenly she remembered her Godmother.

Lady Manvill had been very kind to her when she was a child. Venetia had often told her of troubles at home she had not wanted to bother her mother with – they were the sort of small things that were completely trivial to grown-ups but important to her.

As Bates brought in the next course, she asked him,

“Is Lady Manvill in London? I had a letter from her a month ago when she was staying away and it did not say if she was living in the country or in London.”

“Her Ladyship was dining here last week before His Grace went on to a party at Marlborough House.”

“Well then, I expect she is in Belgrave Square and I do want to see her.”

“Shall I order a carriage, my Lady? His Lordship's taken one with him, but the smaller one'll be in the Mews.”

“Tell them to bring it round in half-an-hour. I want to change my clothes when I have finished luncheon.”

She thought as she spoke that she had very little to change into – only another dress she had worn at school.

Her dresses had been made in France and therefore they fitted perfectly.

The other girls there had admired her, yet she was well aware that they would look very inadequate on the new wife of the Duke of Rockinston.

‘Two weeks!' she grumbled to herself. ‘How can I possibly be ready to be married in that time? How can any man, unless he is completely inhuman, expect me to do it?'

She felt a sudden anger against her future husband.

In fact against any man who would expect a woman to obey his command, however inconvenient, because he was so puffed up with his own importance.

‘One thing I know about him already,' she thought, ‘is that he is inhuman. He is not only self-opinionated but selfish and is not in the least concerned with other people's feelings.'

Bates came back into the room.

“I've ordered the carriage, my Lady. Will you want one of the maids to accompany you?”

Venetia gave a little cry.

“Oh no! Of course not! I had forgotten it is correct now I am grown-up to be chaperoned everywhere I go. But I am only going to see my Godmother, so it's a waste of time and ridiculous for one of the maids to sit in the carriage doing nothing.”

Bates laughed.

“It'd be what His Grace'd expect me to arrange for you, my Lady.”

“Well, just don't tell him what I am doing. I don't expect I shall be long. I'm sure I shall be back before Papa and as Nanny used to say, ‘
what the eye does not see, the
heart does not grieve over
'!”

Bates laughed again,

“I expect she's still saying it to the children she's looking after now. I understands a month ago she called here to see how we all was. She asks if we'd heard from your Ladyship.”

“I do hope Nanny is happy in her new position.”

“She's only got one baby to look after,” said Bates, “and she's with some people – I forgets their name – who live in the country and she be nice and comfortable.”

“Just what I would want for her.”

She thought as she spoke that it was really being home to hear about the people who had been part of her life for so many years.

How was it possible her father could expect her to walk out on them?

And how could she start an entirely new life with a strange man?

‘It's inhuman! It's cruel! It's wicked,' she fumed.

Then as she finished her meal with a cup of coffee, she said to Bates,

“If Papa comes back early, tell him I shall try to be home in time for tea.”

“I'll tell His Grace, my Lady, but I thinks when he gets talking to them politicians he stays much longer than expected.”

“They talk too much, that's the whole trouble!”

“That be true enough,” agreed Bates, “and there's a lot of things as wants doing in the country. If you asks me, it be a case of all talk and no do!”

Venetia laughed.

“That is very true of politicians everywhere, Bates. They are always making the excuse that things that need altering take too much time and nothing gets done.”

“That be it!” exclaimed Bates, “and I thinks there's a chance of us having an election pretty soon.”

“Then there will be more talk than ever!”

She remembered the last General Election in which she had taken part not long before she had gone to school.

The speakers at the meetings in Hertfordshire all came to stay at Lynbrook Hall and she had thought as a rule they were not particularly attractive men.

The politicians had spent their time complimenting her mother and talking seriously to her father.

Venetia finished her coffee and went upstairs.

As expected, one of the maids on Mrs. Shepherd's instructions had unpacked her boxes.

She took off the suit she had worn to travel in and as it was warm she put on her prettiest afternoon gown.

It was really too young and simple for a
debutante
and it flashed through her mind that she would have to go shopping whether she was getting married or not.

Then she felt it was impossible to face the idea of a trousseau that must be completed in less than two weeks.

‘Perhaps I can ask my Godmother to speak to him,' she reflected and then she wondered if she too would think that to marry the Duke was a marvellous achievement.

Equally she told herself hopefully that Aunt Alice – as she had always called her – would be sensible enough to realise that the whole idea was quite ridiculous.

The marriage could not take place in two weeks, even if she was really in love with the prospective husband.

She picked up her handbag and gloves and then she hurried down the stairs.

The carriage was a small one her father used if he was going to his Club or out to dinner alone.

The horse was a well-bred animal, one Venetia had not seen before, so she patted him and asked the coachman where he had come from.

“His Grace brings 'im a year ago from a gentleman who died near Lynbrook Hall,” he answered. “His Grace bought three others, just as good, if not better than 'im!”

“Well, I think it was very wise of my father. I can see this is a beautiful horse and I am delighted that he is taking me out this afternoon.”

“It be nice to 'ave your Ladyship back.”

Venetia smiled and climbed into the carriage.

The hood was down because it was a sunny day and she thought, as she drove towards Belgrave Square, how beautiful London looked in the sunshine.

She had a glimpse of Hyde Park and hoped that she would be able to ride there tomorrow morning.

Then she told herself that she would have to go shopping from first thing in the morning until last thing at night – otherwise she would have to be badly dressed or naked to her wedding!

‘I will not do it! I will not! It is monstrous! It is so unfair! It is utterly and completely absurd!' she protested furiously under her breath.

As the words rolled off her tongue, even though she did not speak them aloud, she knew it was hopeless.

However much she might rebel, however much she might fight against her Papa, it was a battle she could not win.

She felt that, although he loved her in his own way, he was more thrilled by the prospect of having the Duke of Rockinston as his son-in-law.