Love Danced in

CHAPTER ONE ~ 1875-1

CHAPTER ONE ~ 1875Joanna West arrived at her destination after a rather long journey.

As she came up the drive, she looked at the house in front of her critically.

It was very nearly fifteen years ago when she was a small girl that she had first come here to The Four Gables to see one of her oldest relatives.

Her mother had brought her because she thought it only right that she should see the more elderly members of the family before they died.

It was after these relatives had died that Joanna’s parents had taken over the house.

Joanna had spent quite a great deal of her adult life in London.

She had actually been a great social success. Not only because she was extremely pretty but because she was very amusing.

It was something new and sparkling for the London Society that had become somewhat boring with having the same beauties, the same dancers and the same aristocrats year after year.

Although Joanna had been a success in London, she had returned home quite often to be with her parents whom she loved.

Because she was an only child, they treated her as someone very precious.

She had, however, been over in France staying with some friends who had invited her and her parents almost every year to stay in Paris and enjoy the parties given night after night by the French Social world.

It was when she was enjoying herself and being so much admired that she received a telegram asking her to return home immediately as there had been an accident to her parents.

Worried as to what had happened to her beloved parents, Joanna had hurried off home only to arrive several days later to be told that her mother and father were both dead.

It was such a shock to her that at first she could not understand or appreciate what had occurred.

Then she learnt that they had gone driving and were intending to visit some friends who lived far away.

They had run into a carriage heading for the North whose driver was extremely drunk.

Not only had the horses collided with each other, but the carriage her father and mother were driving in was turned over.

The hood of the carriage which was solid had fallen on top of her parents, who had no protection whatsoever on them and they were both killed instantly.

It was an accident which might only happen once in a hundred years.

But the fact that it had actually happened was not only something that had been impossible to avoid, but was also so dangerous that those involved in it had no chance of surviving.

The horses were so badly injured that they had to be put to sleep and there was no chance of saving the lives of Joanna’s parents.

Because they had not waited for her to return from abroad before the funeral took place, Joanna was unable to take even the briefest glance at her adored parents before they were lowered into the ground.

As she went back to their house, she realised that she was now alone in the world and had no one to turn to in her misery.

It seemed to her, however, that there was no end to her unhappiness.

As she was still wondering how she could manage alone and how it was possible for her to improve the house that had belonged to her father and mother, another relative who she had not seen for several years wrote to her.

She said how deeply distressed she was to hear of the accident that had killed her parents.

As she realised that she was now completely alone in the world, she suggested that Joanna should go North and stay with her until they both decided what she should do in the future.

“It seems strange,” the letter went on, “that you are almost the only relative I have in my old age.”

I thought, as I had never married, that it would be possible for me to find a young male relative who would make this ancestral home that I inherited from my parents, a place where all our relatives could come at Christmas or other times.

But, as we have been so scattered, I have no one to whom I feel that the house will be a happy memory to all of those who visit it.

Unfortunately one by one either through Wars or old age our relations have died.

I now find myself almost month by month crossing out someone on the Family Tree.

Now your parents have left us, you, my dear, are the one member of the family I am able to see. I believe we had one or two distant cousins, who were living abroad and who have all died there.

Therefore, I suggest that you and I do our best to make the family name known and respected as it has been for the last five hundred years.

So, my dear, come North to stay with me as soon as you can.

We can therefore discuss exactly how we can make the family name just as well-known and respected as it has always been throughout the centuries.”

Joanna had read her cousin’s letter through two or three times.

She thought through the idea carefully in her mind and decided that, although her relative was very kind, she must go back to the house where her parents had always been so happy.

Because she had been travelling so much, she had not known the local people well and when she had been at school she had often stayed with her many friends in the holidays.

She had been aware that the house her father and mother lived in was not only somewhat isolated but their friends were few.

But they were content with each other and seldom invited people to stay at The Four Gables.

And frankly the part of the world where they lived was comparatively empty of those who found them, when they were old, interesting enough to visit.

But Joanna was certain that her parents had been content to be more or less alone with just themselves for company.

However, she had found the family house in rural Huntingdonshire very dull.

The Four Gables was not a particularly large house, but it had been built solidly, which made the outside seem austere and unfriendly. It was built in the Elizabethan style of high chimneys and indeed the four gables were instantly recognisable.

But inside it was warm and cosy and her mother had made the drawing room especially bright and colourful and the many bedrooms were all delightfully decorated in impeccable good taste.

There were few people who she wanted her father and mother to entertain who, as far as she was concerned, were not eager to entertain her.

So she had been delighted with the invitations that she had received from her school friends.

She knew, without being in any way conceited, that she was undoubtedly popular at her school and her friends had enjoyed, as much as she had, the time she had spent with them during the holidays in France or Italy rather than England.

Now, when she learnt on her arrival that her parents had already been buried, she thought it really dreadful that she had not been able to be present at their funeral.

“Only just a few people came,” the butler who had been with her parents for over thirty years told her. “As we were not certain, Miss Joanna, how long it would be before you came home, the Vicar insisted that the burial should take place and I was in no position to contradict him, I am afraid.”

“And did some of the family come to the funeral, Winslow?” Joanna asked.

“I think, miss, that, as the family has been, as you know, getting older and therefore smaller than it was when I first came to your father and mother, there was really no one to make the journey here or perhaps it all happened too quickly for those who had to travel a long way.”

It just seemed terrible to Joanna that her father and mother had been buried without anyone from the family to bid farewell to them.

But, when she looked round the house, she thought it not surprising that the majority of their family who still existed had thought it too long a way to travel and would undoubtedly not be particularly comfortable when they did arrive.

Because her father was old and becoming blind and her mother had no wish to entertain, they had been quite content to be with each other as they had been for nearly thirty years.

They had both always pressed Joanna to accept the invitations she had from her school friends, as they thought that it gave her a good insight into the Social world, which her mother had often said was very dull where their home was situated.

“Your father inherited The Four Gables from his father and actually it was his grandfather who had bought it in the first place,” her mother had told her.

She had paused before continuing,

“I admit it is somewhat isolated from the rest of the world, but we have been very happy here and so content to be with each that we have not missed the Social world at all, which you, my darling, should enjoy now that you are growing older. Soon you will be leaving your school for ever.”

Joanna had not spoken a word in reply, but her mother carried on,

“As we are very isolated, I suggest that whenever anyone at school asks you to stay with them, you accept and make as many friends who live in the South as you possibly can.”

“I am quite happy at home, Mama,” Joanna had said.

“Of course, you are, darling, because we love you and do everything in our power to make the holidays happy and interesting,” her mother had replied.

She had smiled at her affectionately as she went on,

“But I am well aware that we are a long way from a town and there are very few people in this part of the world who your father and I might call ‘good friends.’ Most of them are far too busy with their horses and dogs to worry about us because we do not ride to hounds. Quite frankly I can understand why the young people find your father and me rather old and dull.”

“You are nothing of the sort, Mama,” Joanna had replied at once.

Her mother had bent and kissed her as she said,

“We are very happy and very proud that you like coming home. But we are not so stupid as to realise that at your age you should have young men to dance with and, of course, a good number of balls and Receptions to attend.”

She paused before she had continued,

“There you would meet hostesses who would invite you to the next party they are giving where you would find life much more amusing than it is here at home.”

“I love being at home and I do love you, Mama,” Joanna had said.

Her mother had kissed her and replied,

“I have always been content to be alone with your father and he has only wanted to be with me. But we are sensible enough to realise that you should be with men and girls of your own age and be dancing every night.”

“I did all that when I was last in London,” Joanna remembered saying. “We danced and danced until my feel and legs were rebelling against my doing any more!”

Her mother had laughed.

“Next Christmas I think there will be a few young people in the neighbourhood and then we will have a party. You can dance for your friends as you danced at school where I heard that you won a prize.”

“I am very proud of it,” Joanna had told her mother, “and I want to show my dance to you, Mama. But I have been so thrilled to be back home that I have spent my time talking to the horses rather than unpacking.”

“Maisie will do that,” her mother had said. “Your father is delighted that he has found a nice horse which we have bought for you, as we thought that our other horses were getting too old.”

“How exciting!” Joanna had exclaimed.

She did not add, because it might hurt her mother, that she was so looking forward to seeing the old horses for the simple reason that she had known them for so long that she could not imagine being at home without them always in the stable.

But now it seemed to her that every horse in the stable was old to a point when they were not as fast as they had been in their youth.