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.“It’s a lot of money and don’t you waste it or get it stolen.”“I promise to do neither, Betty.As you know I’ve always tried to keep my promise.”“That be true enough, but you’re going to live a very different life from the one you’ve lived before.”“I know that, which is why, Betty dear, I need your help.It’s a great comfort to me to know that whatever occurs you are here and will let me know what happens.”“I’ll do that,” Betty promised.“But I wish you was goin’ to any other house rather than that man’s.”“Now you are making it sound even more exciting than it already is!”“You must promise me one thing,” Betty said.“If he makes advances to you, you then come straight home.You’ll be better off with the Duke, old though he may be, than with that Marquis.”“I have my doubts about that for the simple reason that the Duke is offering marriage, while it’s obvious that is the last thing I am likely to get from the Marquis!”Eleta waited until Betty had slipped out to go to the bank and then she went to her father’s room.When her mother had married Cyril Warner, she had arranged for him to sleep in the room next to hers, but it was on the other side of the corridor.This meant that her father’s room remained very much his and his possessions were still there.She entered the room and it somehow smelt musty and was just the same as it had been when she was a child, when she used to run in to talk to her father while he was dressing for dinner or getting ready to go riding.What she was looking for and which she found at the back of a chest of drawers was a small revolver that he always carried when he went abroad.“Is it dangerous where you go, Papa?” she recalled asking him.“Sometimes,” he replied.“But it’s always best to be prepared for the worst.Therefore, because I carry what you would call a gun, I know I can protect myself however dangerous the enemy might be.”She remembered thinking at the time of her father shooting people instead of birds and she knew now that it was what she might want to do but for a different reason.She found that the bullets were also in the drawer and took them and the revolver to her bedroom and put it right at the bottom of the case she was packing.She had no wish to discuss the reason why she was taking it with Betty and then she began to pile on top of it the clothes she thought were most suitable for a Governess.Fortunately those she had worn at school had been more or less plain, but she had no wish to leave behind all the pretty dresses she had bought in Paris, so she put them in another case.She thought if she kept it locked, they would not be criticised by the Marquis’s staff as being unsuitable for a Governess.What was far more difficult was to pack her hats, as she could not bear to leave all the pretty ones behind.She was thinking as she packed them that she might not stay long anyway with the obstreperous daughter of the Marquis.In which case she might have to go somewhere to find an entirely different position where her best dresses would be appreciated.‘I have to be practical about this,’ she kept telling herself as she looked in the wardrobe.Then she suddenly remembered that her mother had an enormous number of dresses of every sort and Eleta was certain that they had remained untouched since her death.She went to her mother’s room to find that she was not mistaken.The wardrobe was full, also the cupboards in the small dressing room opening out of the bedroom.As she opened all the cupboard doors, there was a blaze of colour and the sweet scent of white violets.Eleta was sure that it would please her Mama if she wore her dresses and, as she had always favoured rather classical designs, they were still in fashion.Eleta took two of the prettiest and most elaborate of the evening gowns as well as a cape for travelling and a smart day dress she was sure her mother had never worn.‘One day perhaps I will need a great many more of them,’ she mused.Nothing could make her feel more protected than to be wearing her Mama’s clothes and she had nearly finished packing when Betty came back from the bank.“Here’s the money, my Lady,” she said, “and be extra careful it’s not stolen from you.”“I will lock it away carefully, Betty, and the same with my jewel-case.I am not taking many jewels, for it would be a mistake for a Governess to appear in emeralds and diamonds!”Betty laughed.“It would indeed and, if you give your other jewels to me, I’ll put them away in the safe in your mother’s room and I have the only key.”Eleta thought this was a good idea, but at the same time she took with her the pearl necklace her father had given to her on her tenth birthday and a pair of earrings.“You seem to have packed a great deal,” Betty said, looking round the room.“I only hopes it means you’ll stay there in peace and not come rushin’ back after a week.”“I am not coming back,” Eleta replied, “until my stepfather is convinced that he cannot succeed in making me marry the old Duke or until I am twenty-one and he no longer has any legal power over me.”Betty sighed.“It may take just as long and, if you asks me, you’ll soon be leavin’ that terrible man’s house and lookin’ for somewhere quieter and safer.”“Well, do keep your eyes open in case something turns up where my stepfather would not find me, Make no mistake, I have no wish to be tied to anywhere, but as Papa once said, ‘needs must when the Devil drives’.”Betty put up her hands in horror.“Don’t say such things, my Lady, as they frighten me.So take care and, if it’s difficult, come on home.”“To the Duke who might be waiting for me? It will have to be very very difficult before I do that.”She thought to herself that she had done her best, but she could not insist that Eleta should stay here under the present circumstances.Tea had been brought upstairs to Eleta while she was packing, but she had been very careful not to let the footman realise what she was doing.When he carried it in, she had deliberately taken a dress out of one of the cases and hung it up in the open door of the wardrobe and it looked quite obvious, without her saying anything, that she was unpacking.“Mrs.Buxton hopes that you’ll enjoy your tea, my Lady,” the footman said, “and she wants to know if you’ll be going down for dinner.”“I think, as I am so tired after my journey, I would rather have dinner in my room,” Eleta said.“Is the Master dining in or out?”It was what the servants called Cyril Warner and Eleta never heard it without feeling irritated that he should be Master in her mother’s and father’s house.The footman hesitated.“I thinks,” he said, “the Master be waiting to hear if your Ladyship be dining upstairs or down.”Eleta thought this was good news, as it meant there were no guests and if she stayed upstairs her stepfather would probably go to his Club.“Please ask Mrs.Buxton just to send me up a little soup and perhaps an omelette and tell the Master I have a bad headache and am going straight to bed.”“I’ll tell them both, my Lady,” the footman replied and disappeared.Eleta then undressed and climbed into bed.She was trying to think over as she did so of all the items she must take with her, just in case she did not return home for a long time.At the same time she could not help feeling that she was leaving something very precious behind her
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