Winged Victory

Chapter One ~ 1814-2

He was used to anyone who entered his study for the first time exclaiming in admiration first at the pictures and then at the comfortable way that it was furnished with sofas and chairs in dark red leather.

There was also a desk and other furniture, which were glorious examples of Robert Adam’s genius.

But on this occasion the Earl’s visitor just stood a little way inside the door looking at him in a manner that he could not help recognising was one of pleading.

“I suggest you sit down,” he said “and then quickly, because I am entertaining friends, tell me what all this is about.”

“I am – very grateful to you for – seeing me, my Lord.”

As the girl spoke, she sat down on the very edge of the armchair that the Earl indicated. She had taken off her riding gloves and he saw, as she linked her fingers together, how nervous she was.

“First before you begin,” the Earl said, “I suggest you tell me your name.”

“It is Cledra, my Lord. Cledra Melford.”

The Earl looked surprised.

“Melford? Are you any relation to Sir Walter Melford, who is holding a sale tomorrow?”

“He is my uncle.”

“Your uncle? And yet you are asking me to buy your horse this evening before the sale begins?”

“Star is not to be put in the sale tomorrow, my Lord, so that you or any of your friends could bid for him. He is to be sold – privately to a man who will – ill-treat him.

As if she thought that the Earl looked skeptical, Cledra said hastily,

“It is true! I swear to you, that my uncle is selling Star to a man called Bowbrank – who has a – reputation for – cruelty.”

She looked desperately at the Earl as she went on,

“I would rather – kill Star – myself than let – him suffer in such a way.”

She thought as she spoke that the Earl looked skeptical, as if he felt that she was being hysterical, but she went on,

“Mr. Bowbrank works his horses so hard that three of them died last year from sheer exhaustion and they are always beaten on every journey because he believes that is the only way that he can get any speed out of them.”

“Bowbrank!” the Earl exclaimed. “You mean the man who owns the inn that supplies Post chaises and other vehicles in Newmarket.”

“Yes, my Lord, I thought you might have heard of him.”

“And you tell me he is cruel to his animals? Surely that would not be a very economical way of running his business?”

“He is cruel not only because he is insensitive but also because he drinks, my Lord.”

Again Cledra thought that the Earl was not impressed by what she had said and she begged him,

“Please – please believe me – and Uncle Walter is selling Star to this man simply because he wants to hurt me. He knows that if I think of Star – suffering in such a – way I shall want to – die.”

“Why should your uncle wish you to be so unhappy?” the Earl enquired.

“Because he hates me,” Cledra replied, “just as he hated my father.”

“You speak as if your father is dead.”

“Yes – he died four months ago. He and – Mama were killed in an accident and I had to come and live with my uncle as there was – nowhere else for me to go.”

The Earl did not speak and after a moment she went on,

“Papa had no money – in fact he was in debt – but Star is mine. He was registered in my name and therefore Uncle Walter could not claim him. But now he says that I am to sell him to pay for my board and keep with him – and, as he is my Guardian – there is nothing I can do to – stop him.”

“What you are asking me to do is to buy your horse before he can be handed over to this man Bowbrank.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

“And give you the money, I suppose?”

“Oh, no, that was something else I was going to ask you,” Cledra replied. “When Uncle Walter came and took me away from the house – where I had lived with Papa and Mama in Essex he refused to pension the old maid who had looked after me ever since I was a child – or to give anything to the groom who had cared for Papa’s horses and who was almost like one of the family.”

There was a sob in her voice as she continued,

“He left them penniless, my Lord, except for the very little money I could give them, which I obtained by selling Mama’s jewellery – without Uncle Walter being aware of it.”

The Earl looked at Cledra searchingly as if he could hardly believe what she was saying.

Yet the same instinct he relied on when he was looking at a horse told him that what she was saying was the truth.

He was also aware that, as she was speaking, she was straining with every nerve in her body to persuade him to do what she wished.

“It is certainly a very odd request, Miss Melford,” he said slowly, “and why, as you have never met me previously, have you come to me instead of to a friend of your father.”

“Papa’s friends are all in Essex where we lived,” Cledra answered, “and it was only yesterday – when I overheard a conversation that I realised what Uncle Walter was – about to do.”

She drew in her breath as if in pain and then carried on,

“When I challenged him, he told me that Star was not good enough to be put in the sale with his own horses, but I knew actually it was because he wished to – punish me because I am Papa’s daughter.”

“It seems a strange reason,” the Earl remarked.

“Papa was everything Uncle Walter is not!” Cledra replied. “To begin with he was a real sportsman, kind, understanding and – always ready to help other people. He was a soldier until that became too expensive for him and then he and Mama went to live very quietly in the country. But because everybody who met Papa loved him, he became very popular and – that annoyed Uncle Walter.”

Cledra paused and the Earl realised that because she was speaking of her father who had so recently died, she was fighting valiantly against the tears that made her eyes glisten, but which she would not let fall,

“Besides which,” she went on, “Papa and Mama were invited to stay with many of the people who would not ask Uncle Walter because they did not like him. They went to balls and were guests at house parties and Race Meetings and because Papa was such good company and because he was fond of him a friend of his made him a member of White’s.”

The Earl thought that this, if nothing else, would have rankled with Sir Walter who was unacceptable in the smartest and most distinguished Club in St. James’s.

After what had been said at dinner, he found himself beginning to believe Cledra’s story. Then he thought that, like all women, she was probably exaggerating.

Yet she looked very young and pathetic and was apparently alone in a hostile world in which her only relative disliked her.

After a moment he said slowly,

“What you are asking me to do is to buy Star from you and send the money to two people whom you feel your uncle should have pensioned off after your father’s death.”

“W-would you do that? Would you – really?”

There was a sudden little lilt in Cledra’s voice that had not been there before and her eyes were shining.

“I suppose it is possible for me to do so,” the Earl said, “but I think that your uncle would consider it a strange way for me to behave.”

Cledra gave a cry that seemed to echo round the room.

“Uncle Walter must never know that you have bought Star – or where he is.”

“Do you think that he might take his revenge upon me?” the Earl asked mockingly.

“Oh, no – not on you – but on Star. Last year there was a horse that – died and – ”

Cledra stopped suddenly.

“I-I am sorry – I should not have – said that.”

“I think that, having started something so momentous, it would be extremely irritating if you did not finish what you were about to say.”

“It would be – better for you not – to know.”

“But I insist!”

The Earl spoke in a way that would have made it hard for a man, let alone a woman, not to obey him and after a moment Cledra said uncomfortably, as if she was regretting that she had ever brought up the subject,

“Do you remember the Craven Handicap at the Spring Meeting?” she began hesitatingly.

“Yes,” the Earl replied.

“It was won – if you remember – by Lord Ludlow with his horse called – Jessop.”

The Earl nodded.

“It beat Uncle Walter’s horse by a nose.”

“Yes, I do recall the race.”

“Uncle Walter was very angry. He disliked Lord Ludlow anyway – and, apparently because he only had a few horses and Uncle Walter has a great many, Lord Ludlow rather crowed over him after the race.”

“What happened?” the Earl asked.

“Uncle Walter was very very angry that evening and the next day – Jessop was found – dead in his – stall.”

The Earl looked at her before he said with a note of incredulity in his voice,

“Are you seriously suggesting that your uncle was responsible for the death of that horse?”

Because he spoke scathingly the colour rose in Cledra’s pale cheeks and she looked away from him.

“P-perhaps I should not – have told you – but I overheard by mistake something that he – said to one of the men who works for him – and I know too where he keeps the – poison that was – used in Jessop’s water.”

It seemed incredible and yet once again the Earl was aware that Cledra was speaking with a sincerity that he could not doubt.

Before he could say anything further she added,

“That would happen to Star – I know it would – and I was going to ask if you buy him from me that you should take him away from here as quickly as – possible and – register him under a different name.”

“I find it very hard to credit what you are saying to me,” the Earl declared. “You don’t think because Star means so much to you that you are perhaps exaggerating the danger he is in?”

“I swear to you that I have not exaggerated or said anything that is not true and I know that, if Uncle Walter becomes aware that I have sold Star to you, he will die or suffer in some – horrible way that I cannot – bear to think about.”

“It seems incredible!” the Earl remarked beneath his breath.

“There have been a number of other incidents since I have been living with my uncle in Newmarket but I don’t wish to speak about them,” Cledra said. “I am concerned only with saving Star and obtaining the money somehow to the two people whom Mama and Papa trusted and who have worked for us ever since I can remember.”

The Earl thought that apart from Cledra’s story about the death of Jessop the fact that he had left two old servants unprovided for confirmed everything that he had heard about Walter Melford and justified the instinctive dislike that he had always had for him.

While he was thinking it over, he was aware that Cledra was watching his face and the anxiety and fear in her eyes was so expressive that he felt almost as if she was kneeling in front of him and praying that he would do what she asked.

“Would you think,” he asked, “that six hundred guineas is a fair price for your horse?”

Cledra gave a little cry.

“You will really give as much as that for him? Oh, thank you – thank you. And thank you for saying you will – have him. I know he will be – safe with you.”

“What makes you so sure of that?”

“Papa admired you enormously. He used to follow your successes on the Racecourses and say, ‘Poynton has won again. I am so glad, he is a great sportsman and has an unsurpassed knowledge of horses’.”

“Thank you,” the Earl said with a faint touch of amusement in his voice. “That is the sort of compliment I like to hear.”

“Papa was not saying it to you, he was simply stating a fact.”

The Earl acknowledged the distinction with a smile and Cledra went on,

“I knew that you were the only person I could really trust with – Star. He is so gentle and so intelligent. He will do anything I ask of him and Papa and I taught him not with a whip – but with – love.”