Punished with Love

Chapter One 1883-1

Chapter One 1883Riding along the dusty country lane, Latonia wondered why her cousin had sent her such an urgent note early that morning.

It was unlike Toni to sound so agitated and Latonia found herself going over all the events that might have occurred since they had last been together, which was only the day before yesterday.

It was in fact strange that they had not been in communication for the last forty-eight hours, because, as Toni often said, they were closer than any sisters were ever likely to be.

Actually Latonia often thought that Toni was more like a twin sister, which was not surprising considering that their mothers had felt the same kind of relationship before their daughters were born.

Lady Branscombe and Mrs. Hythe had been first cousins and they had both started their babies in the same month and had laughingly said that they were racing each other as to who would be a mother first.

Mrs. Hythe had won and Latonia was just three days older than her cousin.

To make the unity between them closer, both Lady Branscombe and Mrs. Hythe had been determined to give their children similar names and, strangely enough, they had been convinced that they would produce daughters.

“Hubert naturally wants a son,” Lady Branscombe had said. “What Englishman does not? But I am certain, Elizabeth, that I shall have a daughter and that you will have one too,”

“That is extraordinary,” Mrs. Hythe replied, “because, when I have been dreaming about my baby, it has always been a girl – and, although we have no grand title to inherit, such as makes it imperative for you to have a son, Arthur wants a boy he can teach to ride and shoot and who will ultimately go into the same Regiment he was in himself.”

“Arthur will have to wait!” Lady Branscombe said with a smile.

But she did not anticipate, nor did Elizabeth Hythe, that the two girls would both be only children.

It was, of course, obvious from the moment they were born that they would play together and spend as much time as possible in each other’s company and they were given very nearly the same names – Latonia and Antonia.

They shared a Governess, which was convenient for the Hythes, who had little money and it was on Lord Branscombe’s horses that Latonia learnt to ride, finding them far more spirited and better bred than anything her father could afford.

She was, however, not jealous of the difference in financial status between herself and Toni.

Although her father and mother lived in a pleasant but small manor house with a few acres of ground, she was aware, even when she was very young, that the atmosphere was very different from that in the huge mansion that belonged to Toni’s father.

As she had once said to her mother,

“Aunt Margaret and Uncle Hubert never seem to laugh in the way that we do.”

But Toni, who had shortened her name from Antonia as soon as she could speak, made up for the lack of gaiety where her father and mother were concerned.

She was not only exceedingly attractive, but she was mischievous, impulsive and, as she grew older, very flirtatious.

She soon realised that it was not only her social position and her father’s great fortune that made her attractive, but her own beguiling and magnetic personality, which left young men bemused, bewildered and head-over-heels in love, almost as soon as they met her.

Lady Branscombe had intended to present Latonia and Toni to Queen Victoria at the same time and give them a London Season, which she was sure would result in both of them finding desirable and eligible husbands.

Unfortunately, Lady Branscombe had been killed in a hunting accident two years before Toni reached her eighteenth birthday and Lord Branscombe arranged for a distinguished relative to take his wife’s place.

But Latonia was tragically orphaned a few months before it was planned that she and Toni should go to London.

Captain and Mrs. Hythe had gone to London to visit Lord Branscombe’s younger brother.

Kenrick Combe had the reputation of being one of the most outstanding and promising young Officers the Army had ever produced.

He was spoken of with respect by those in command and with something like awe by his contemporaries.

While he was holding a post of some importance in India, he had asked his brother, Lord Branscombe, to come out and join him and not only had planned a lot of social entertainment during his visit but had promised to show him those parts of India that he was particularly interested in.

Unfortunately at the last moment Lord Branscombe found it impossible to leave England.

Not only had his duties in the House of Lords kept him but he was also in fact feeling extremely unwell with some complaint that the doctors were finding difficult to diagnose.

They decided that he was not strong enough to undertake such an arduous voyage and the extensive entertaining that was to take place when he reached India.

Therefore, rather than disappoint his brother, he sent Captain Hythe and his wife at the last moment, to represent him.

“It is something Papa will enjoy, as he has always longed to see India,” Mrs. Hythe had said to Latonia. “He has also been a friend of Kenrick Combe ever since he was a boy.”

“Of course you must go, Mama,” Latonia had replied, “but I shall miss you.”

“And I shall miss you, darling. But I know you will have fun staying with Toni and mind you behave yourselves. If there is any mischief about, Toni will be in it.”

Mrs. Hythe had laughed at the time and Latonia had laughed with her.

Only when her mother and father had left had she realised how much mischief Toni could manage to pack into twenty-four hours of the day.

She was not yet officially ‘out’ and was therefore supposed to be confined to the schoolroom, thinking of her lessons and certainly not of young men.

But where Toni was concerned they sprang up like mushrooms overnight and there were always notes being surreptitiously delivered to her by servants who had been bribed, assignations in obscure little woods and riders lurking amongst the fir trees who would appear mysteriously as soon as they were out of sight of the house and ride with them until they returned to it.

To Latonia it was all very exciting and at the same time very innocent.

Sometimes she would ask her cousin,

“Do you think you are in love, Toni?”

“No, of course not!” Toni would reply. “Patrick, Gerald and Basil are only boys, but I like the look in their eyes when they stare at me and I enjoy knowing that they are longing to kiss me, but are afraid I will be angry if they try.”

Latonia laughed, knowing that Toni spoke the truth and was not really interested in any of the men she attracted.

Equally she wondered what would happen in the future and she was also aware that, as far as she was concerned, for the first time in their lives she and Toni were very different.

She had no wish to have dozens of men running after her.

In her daydreams she always thought that she would find one man whom she would love and who would love her, just as her mother had fallen in love with her father the moment she saw him.

‘I want a home,’ Latonia told herself.

It was something she was to repeat a month later, when, tragically, she learnt of the death of her parents.

She had received a letter from her mother about their trip to India, in which she read,

“It has all been fascinating and Papa has enjoyed every moment of it and has so much to tell Uncle Hubert when he returns.

I hope you will not mind, dearest, if we decide to stay on for another month. I am sure you are quite happy with Toni and it will really not be long before we are together again.”

Three weeks before this letter arrived, taking the usual seventeen days to come from India to England, Lord Branscombe died from a disease of the heart.

It was something the doctors should have diagnosed sooner and only when it was too late did they realise in what a frail state he had been for a long time and that it was a miracle he had not died earlier.

Telegraphs flashed the news to India, and Toni realised that her Uncle Kenrick, fifteen years younger than her father, was now the fourth Lord Branscombe.

“What is he like?” Latonia asked.

“I have not seen him for years,” Toni replied. “Papa was very proud of him, but from all I have heard he is somewhat of a martinet and the Subalterns serving under him find him terrifying.”

She spoke lightly, as though it was of no importance, but Latonia had already heard the servants say that the new Lord Branscombe would be Toni’s Guardian.

A month later, on their way back from India, having found it difficult to leave earlier because of the preparations which had been made for their entertainment, Captain and Mrs. Hythe had contracted yellow fever.

A sailor developed it first and this had resulted in the whole ship being quarantined when they reached Port Said.

Mrs. Hythe had written to Latonia saying how frustrating it was to be cooped up in a ship that flew the Yellow Flag and to be prevented from going ashore.

There was, however, nothing they could do about it and, when first one and then another of the members of the crew succumbed to the dreaded disease and then finally some of the passengers, the Hythes could only pray that they would be immune.

When Latonia learnt that her father and mother had died, it was at first impossible to believe that she would never see them again.

Because she loved her parents and had enjoyed so much happiness with them, she felt as if a part of herself had died with them. Over and over again she wished that she had been with them so that there would have been no question of their being separated.

Then she told herself that life had to go on and her father of all people would hate her to be a coward, refusing to face up to the difficulties that lay ahead now that she was alone.

What made it harder than anything else was that Toni had already been taken away to London by a relative who had arranged to chaperone her when she made her debut.

“It is no use sitting moping in the country, dear child,” she had said. “You must come to London and, although you cannot go to parties because you are in mourning, you can meet people in my house and, as soon as six months are over, you can go to theatres and the opera and find a million other things to occupy you.”

She had not included Latonia in the invitation, which, as she had only just learnt of her own bereavement, she could not have accepted anyway.

As the months passed and Toni did not return, Latonia realised that the chaperone had no wish to undertake further responsibilities and that the idea of her ‘coming out’ at the same time as Toni had been conveniently forgotten.

Latonia did not mind. She was quite happy in the country and an old Governess, who had once taught both her and Toni when they were small, had moved into the manor house to live with her as a chaperone.

Miss Waddesdon was an intelligent woman who was now getting old and, having no wish for anything but a quiet life, she was content to let Latonia do exactly what she wished.

This, without Toni, amounted to nothing very sensational and the months drifted past until without any warning Toni returned.

She had no sooner arrived than she sent for Latonia and, as they flung their arms around each other, they both knew that nothing was changed and that they were back on the same footing as they had been since childhood.

“I have been longing to see you!” Toni cried. “I kept on suggesting to Cousin Alice that you should join me in London, but she was absolutely determined that I was enough trouble on my own!”