'I shall never be able to play like that! Yasmin, you have but to touch the strings and a whole world of feeling comes from them. You must have magic in your fingers'
'You are very talented, I agree,' Charlotte said, and Yasmin could have slapped her for the condescending tone she used. 'For myself, I confess I prefer the harpsichord, for it is more subtle.'
She glanced across the room to where the instrument stood, but no one responded to her hint and invited her to play. Yasmin felt meanly triumphant. She had also played the harpsichord when with Aunt Georgiana, and though badly out of practice, knew she was as skillful on that as on the guitar, although she preferred the latter. Yasmin, not certain of whether she was being challenged or herself challenging Charlotte, spoke.
'May I hear you?' she asked gently, and Charlotte preened. Lady Curtis nodded permission, and Sir Edward, looking at Yasmin with quizzically raised eyebrows, went across with Charlotte to sort out some music.
She played well, but woodenly, technically accurate but with little feeling. It was a piece Yasmin knew well, and for a moment she wondered whether she should repeat it and thus emphasise the differences in their playing. Fortunately wiser thoughts prevailed, and when Lady Curtis asked if she played, merely, Yasmin was certain, out of politeness, she replied she used to but was out of practice. She added she would dearly love to attempt a piece though, if they could bear with her.
Charlotte looked superior as she rose from the stool and gave up the place to Yasmin. She glanced at Sir Edward as she sat down and he asked her what music she would like.
'Oh, I will play a piece I remember,' Yasmin replied, smiling at him, and he raised his brows again and moved away to sit behind her.
Yasmin selected a piece similar to the one Charlotte had played, but with scope for a much greater display of skill and feeling. To her relief she had not lost her skill, and her performance was as polished as it had ever been. When Yasmin finished she refrained from looking at Charlotte, knowing she would not be able to conceal the triumph in her eyes. Maria filled an awkward pause by asking dolefully if there was anything she could not excel at. Yasmin laughed.
'To be sure there are many. I used to drive my teachers to distraction, for I could not sew a straight seam, or even make my cross stitch neat. Aunt Georgiana used to hide my samplers the moment I had finished them, for she was too ashamed to have them displayed, even just to her eyes!'
Sir Edward laughed.
'I am sure you exaggerate, my dear,' Lady Curtis said. Yasmin glanced at her a little nervously, wondering if she understood what had been done and disapproved. But she seemed oblivious of the undercurrents, and talked of other things until Sir Edward said it was time to take Yasmin home.
Yasmin rose to her feet guiltily. 'Oh dear, I am sure I have stayed too long,' she said anxiously, but Maria at once protested she had enjoyed it enormously, and hoped the visit would be repeated many times.
'As I do, my dear. I trust you will come again to see me, and please feel free to visit Maria any time you can leave your cousin. You need a change from nursing him.'
Yasmin made her farewells, and somehow got out of the room. Sir Edward took her shawl from the butler and wrapped it across her shoulders, then put on his cloak. Again he assisted Yasmin into the phaeton, but drove off to the far side of the house.
'This way we can see the lake,' he explained, and to that side of the house the ground fell away sharply, and at the foot of the slope was a large lake, studded with several small islets, and framed with trees on the further bank. The drive ran along the top of the hill and soon left the lake behind to plunge into trees, and then past another, smaller lodge, and out into a narrow lane.
'If you walk up to the house this is the quickest way from the cottage,' he explained. 'I hope you will come often, for Maria does not have many friends living nearby apart from Charlotte, and she has taken a great fancy to you.'
The drive home was far too short for Yasmin. It was only a few minutes before they reached the cottage. Sir Edward sprang out to help her down, and smiled warmly at her.
'Thank you for entertaining us. The golden gypsy has many talents, have you not?'
He remounted into the phaeton, turned it and waved, and before Yasmin could think of a reply he had gone. She was enraptured because he had called her the golden gypsy for the first time since Leon's accident, and when she recalled the tone he had used when he first named her so, she was sure it was a term of approbation, if not endearment. It was only later she wondered, uneasily, just what talents he had been referring to, and whether he meant her mean little revenge on Charlotte.
Chapter 6
Early on the following morning Maria appeared at the cottage, and Yasmin looked at her apprehensively. Had her behaviour on the previous day given Maria a disgust of her, she wondered. Her fears were soon set at rest.
'Yasmin, you played marvellously!' she exclaimed. 'Mother has been praising you ever since. I do wish she could see you dance as well.'
Relieved, Yasmin laughed. 'That might not please her so well,' she remarked. 'Our gypsy dances are somewhat unrestrained for most people! Oh, interesting to watch from a distance, but I doubt whether your mother would wish one of her guests to perform such dances in her drawing room!'
Maria laughed. 'Perhaps not, but it is a great pity.' She turned to Leon. 'Has Yasmin told you of her success?' she demanded.
'She never praises herself,' he returned easily. 'I do not believe she knows her own value.'
Maria nodded, then giggled. 'Oh, Yasmin, I shall never forget the chagrin on Charlotte's face when you began to play the harpsichord! She is so proud of her own playing, and thought she would outdo you, but it was clear from the first note you were far superior!'
Yasmin looked at her in surprise. 'I thought Charlotte was your friend!' she exclaimed.
Maria shrugged. 'Oh, I suppose so, but only because we live near to one another, and went to the same school. I confess she irritates me at times when she puts on airs of consequence. As she tried to do with you yesterday. She could not believe you had been educated as a lady, although we told her some of your story before you arrived. Oh, Yasmin, it is too exciting! You must tell me all about it!'
Yasmin smiled. 'You must have been very curious before,' she said.
'Indeed I was, but Ned laid it down so firmly that I was not to ask any questions I dared not! Even though I was
consumed
with curiosity! I could not understand how it was you spoke in an educated way, and could read, and a host of minor things,' she said frankly. 'When you mentioned an uncle in the Admiralty, I nearly expired in my efforts not to look surprised!'
Yasmin laughed. 'I realised afterwards how odd it must have seemed, although since he and my mother, his sister, had not met or even corresponded for years, I know almost nothing about him!'
'Lord Morris, is it not? Ned said he knows him slightly. He is a widower, it seems, and though people expected him to marry again, to get himself an heir, he has not yet done so. Of course he is still not too old, for I understand he is only just fifty.'
'Sir Edward will not mention me to him, I hope?' Yasmin asked anxiously. 'He does not even know I exist, you see, for my mother concealed it from him, fearing he, and her father when he was alive, would seek to harm me.'
'She told you you were adopted?' Maria asked.
'Yes, and although she retained her married name, to prevent people knowing she was related to Lord Morris, I suspect, she did not say she had been married.'
'There would have been greater curiosity about her then, I'll warrant,' Maria said wisely. 'But did 'no one ever suggest you could have been her child?'
Yasmin shook her head. 'There was never any attempt to conceal the fact I had lived with gypsies, and so it was assumed I had been stolen. The real truth was so amazing no one guessed it.'
'It must have been a most romantic story, for her to fall in love with your father, and leave everything, defying convention, to go away with him.'
'I wish I had known him,' Yasmin said sadly.
'Michael was a remarkable man,' Leon said quietly. 'I was less than ten years old when he was killed, but he was my favourite uncle. All the girls in the tribe were mad for him, but he cared for none of them. When he met Yasmin's mother, nothing else mattered except her.'
They talked about the Romanies, and Maria was fascinated, demanding Leon tell her all he could. Yasmin watched him, his face lighting up when he spoke of his family, and their way of life, and understood how greatly he missed it. She determined she would use all her powers of persuasion to send him back to them when he was well.
* * * *
After that day Maria came frequently to the cottage, and always made certain they lacked for nothing. She urged Yasmin to visit her at the Hall, escorting her there herself on the first occasion. Afterwards Yasmin ventured to go on her own several times, and Lady Curtis always made her welcome. Leon was much improved and had struck up a friendship with Joey, the eldest son of Mrs Barber, a lad of fourteen or so, and he was only too delighted to sit with Leon when Yasmin wished to go out. His father encouraged it, saying Joey might absorb some woodcraft from Leon that would be of use to him in his job as a keeper. Sir Edward had gone off to London again, and Yasmin had not seen him or Charlotte since the day of her first visit to the Hall. Maria mentioned Charlotte's father was entertaining guests and she had to remain at home while they were there.
Yasmin was working in the cottage one morning when there was a knock at the door. Thinking it was one of the Barbers she called to them to come in. The door opened and a bright shaft of sunlight momentarily slanted across the table where Yasmin was kneading dough. Then it was gone, and Yasmin looked up to see a tall dark man blocking the doorway.
'Good morning,' he said, smiling pleasantly and taking a few steps into the room.
Yasmin studied him, puzzled for a moment, for his face was familiar. Then she nodded and smiled.
'Of course, now I know you. You were with N – Sir Edward and Maria at the fair.'
He looked surprised. 'I was, but I find it remarkable you can remember me. Do you take note of all your customers so closely?'
Yasmin blushed and the man, misunderstanding her, laughed in a complacent way.
'I am honoured! Maria has told me all about you, and as Ned is away I came over to see you, to enquire whether there is anything I can do for you. May I sit down?'
Flustered, Yasmin recalled her duties as hostess, and suggested he sat on the settle near to Leon, who had been surveying him in silence from where he lay.
'You have all been extremely kind to us,' Leon said quietly. 'I cannot think why you take the trouble.'
The visitor shrugged. 'Why not?' he asked lightly. 'But seriously, Ned has shown me your carvings, and I agree with him they are exceptional. In helping you he is displaying them to the world, receiving credit for having discovered you and, who knows, possible commission from the sales. He could probably do with it, as we all could!'
Leon did not reply, and Yasmin could tell the idea of Sir Edward making money from his carvings, other than what would be paid to him in rent for the cottage, was displeasing to him. She looked from him to the stranger. They were both dark, but whereas Leon was swarthy, the stranger had pale skin and bright blue eyes that contrasted attractively with his black hair. He turned to look at her and she was startled by their brilliance. What would a girl have given for such eyes, she thought irrelevantly.
'I do beg your pardon,' he said, smiling apologetically. 'I have not yet explained who I am. I was so taken aback you should have remembered me, and assumed you also knew who I was. I am Richard Curtis. My father and Ned's were brothers, and I live a few miles away. I have been in London a great deal the last few months, or I would have made myself known to you earlier.'
He smiled at Yasmin as he spoke, and she blushed again, for his eyes told her all too plainly he found her attractive. She had grown accustomed to such looks from men when she had entertained at the fairs, but they had meant nothing, for then she had been surrounded by the rest of the tribe who protected her from over-bold advances. Though outwardly Richard Curtis seemed pleasant enough, there was something in his glance that produced a twinge of fear in Yasmin. She attacked the dough with greater vigour, and Richard laughed softly, then turned back to Leon.
'I must not interrupt your work, but I would be interested to talk with you. May I call you Leon? Where did you learn your skill? Is it one passed down from father to son amongst the Romanies?'
* * * *
Leon was pleased to talk, and as Yasmin worked she listened.
Richard Curtis most decidedly had a way with him of encouraging people to talk, for Leon, who did not easily talk with strangers, was almost loquacious as he explained about the carvings, and was led on to talk about the tribe and Romany customs. Again, as when he had been answering Maria's questions, she thought of how homesick for the rest of the tribe he was. Doubts about the future assailed her. She could never return to the tribe, and yet she did not wish for the alternative Leon offered, of marrying him and starting a new life. Looking at him now she doubted whether he would ever settle happily to another way of life, and thought that even if she did love him she ought not to keep him from his people, for the ties of family were stronger to the Romanies than to most others. When she could not even love him, it would be cruel indeed for her to separate him from them. But she knew he would not easily accept a parting, leaving her to make her own way in the world. She would need to convince him it was the best course for her, and that indicated she must visit the rector and ask his help in resuming the old life where she had left it. If she had a position to go to as soon as he was strong enough to rejoin the tribe, she might persuade Leon to accept the inevitability of a parting.