A Golden Lie

CHAPTER ONE 1821-1

CHAPTER ONE

1821The Earl of Narbrooke was dead.

Devona, who was standing silently by his bedside, could hardly believe it.

She felt that he must have had a stroke in the night because he was lying in rather a strange manner.

At the same time there was no mistaking that he was dead.

*

She was remembering when she had first arrived at Narbrooke Hall seven years ago that he had seemed to be rather a good-looking man for his age.

But, as the years passed had by, he had become, she thought in her own mind, uglier and uglier.

She blamed him for the death of her father and her mother.

But now he, himself, was dead and she was alive!

She wondered what she would do now and realised that it was all extremely difficult.

When her father, Colonel Euan Campbell, had been wounded in the War in France, he had taken nearly a year to recover in their comfortable little house in Essex.

When he was finally well enough, he knew that he would have to find some useful work to do, as his life in the Army was over and he had very little money.

He had married someone he loved deeply and they were extremely happy.

They were also exceedingly thrilled with their small daughter.

He had thought when he first married that, when he came out of the Army, because he had a gift for managing horses, that he would be able to make money by breeding, training them and selling them at Tattersalls sale rooms.

Or he could sell them at the many Horse Fairs that took place in their neighbourhood.

But the War had swept all possibility of that away.

Many of the available horses had gone to the Army and most that had been left behind were not for sale.

“We shall have to do something, my darling,” the Colonel had said to his wife.

“But I am sure it ought to be with horses,” she had replied. “You are so good with them. And we do want to be in the country.”

“Of course,” he had agreed.

It was, however, not at all easy.

The War was then at its height and a great number of people in England were suffering because of it.

Money was very scarce and the young men were all battling against Napoleon in France, where the casualties were horrifying.

The men like the Colonel who were sent back home wounded could only tell a doleful tale.

For the moment there appeared to be no chance of success in finding a job, until finally after many attempts, the Colonel heard that the Earl of Narbrooke, who lived in Norfolk, required someone to run his stables.

He set off to meet the Earl optimistically and his wife prayed that something would come of it.

She was worried about the education of their small daughter, Devona.

She knew that Devona had her father’s quick brain and she was now at the age when she needed good Tutors and Governesses.

‘How can we afford those?’ she had asked herself helplessly.

The Colonel returned that evening and came into the house. Even before he had climbed out of their ancient travelling chariot, his wife realised that he had good news.

He kissed her affectionately and then, as the men who helped him with his horses took the conveyance away, he put his arm round his wife and drew her into the house.

“I think I have found what we wanted,” he said.

“Oh, Euan, I do hope so. Tell me all about it.”

The Colonel then not only told his wife about the extremely large period house the Earl possessed but also described a small cottage near the stables which would suit them perfectly.

“It all sounds too good to be true,” Mrs. Campbell enthused. “And what is the Earl like?”

“A rather strange man,” he replied, “but I think we shall get on quite well together.”

He spoke a little hesitantly which worried his wife, but she thought it wise not to ask too many questions.

At the time they fortunately had someone anxious to buy their house, including the furniture in it.

Mrs. Campbell hated the idea of parting with the furniture they had owned since they were first married and which meant a great deal to her.

At the same time she recognised that her husband was right when he said that they could not go on as they were and so she was prepared to make the best of it.

She kept back some small pieces she particularly loved that had always belonged to her family. These were pictures and miniatures her mother had collected and there were also one or two rugs that had been wedding presents.

They set off for Narbrooke Hall with everything they wanted to keep following them in a hired cart.

Devona was thirteen and to her it was an adventure.

She had ridden ever since she could walk and she looked forward to finding the stables belonging to the Earl filled with fine horses, although her father had been a little vague about them when she had asked him questions.

It was a long way to Narbrooke Hall and Devona’s mother thought that the flat land they were passing through without a single house in sight was rather depressing.

As they drove up the drive to their first glimpse of Narbrooke Hall, it was certainly impressive.

It was an even larger house than Mrs. Campbell had expected and, with the sun shining on the windows and on the lake in front of it, it was almost majestic.

The cottage too, although small, had a pretty garden around it and appeared to be in good repair.

They moved in their belongings and the Colonel went to see the Earl.

When he returned, Devona was just getting ready to go to bed.

“Was the Earl pleased to see you, darling?” her mother asked him.

“I don’t know if pleased was the right word,” the Colonel replied. “He gave me a long lecture as to how economical I had to be as times are so hard.”

Mrs. Campbell laughed,

“You knew that without being told!”

The Colonel nodded.

“Only too well, but equally I hope that we are not going to be short of horses!”

“What do you mean by that, Papa?” Devona asked.

“Well, I understood when I was first engaged that I would have a number of horses in the stables to manage and his Lordship intended to buy a good deal more.”

“So what does he say now?” Mrs. Campbell asked.

“He appears to want to cut down on what he has already, but until I have looked at them carefully, I cannot tell him if it is a wise move or not.”

Devona knew that her mother thought it was rather strange that the Earl did not ask to see her.

And they were a week at Narbrooke Hall before she saw the inside of the house.

Then she was walking down to the lake when she saw the Earl driving away in a very ancient phaeton that needed painting and she thought that the two horses pulling it were not particularly well bred.

Devona had not yet been to the stables because her father had said that it was a mistake to do so until he had everything arranged and also the Earl might not like her intruding.

“But Papa, I have to ride,” Devona had protested.

“I have to get permission first from his Lordship,” her father said. “We are very lucky to have obtained such a nice cottage and to be here. But he is a strange man and I don’t want to upset him unnecessarily.”

Devona was far too fond of her father to make a fuss, but she did think it rather odd.

Now, when she saw the Earl disappearing down the drive, she walked towards the front door.

There she saw a man she thought must be the butler standing looking out towards the lake.

“Good morning,” she began a little nervously.

He was an elderly man, but he was not, she thought, as smart-looking as the butlers she had seen in houses in Essex when she had been visiting friends with her mother.

“Good morning,” he replied. “I guess you’re the little girl who’s moved into Stable Cottage.”

“That is right,” Devona said to him. “We are very comfortable, but I am longing to see inside this big house.”

The butler, whose name was Hitchin, laughed.

“Well, you’re saying that at the right moment. His Lordship’s gone off to the town, as he always does once a month. So come in now, miss, and I’ll show you around.”

“You are very kind,” Devona said. “I have to admit that I am very curious.”

She walked into the house and realised that at one time it must have been magnificent, but now she could see that it had fallen into disrepair.

Everywhere she looked she could see that endless ceilings, walls and floors needed attention.

There were some very fine paintings on the walls.

She had learnt to appreciate the famous artists of the world, but the pictures here needed cleaning. The gold had also faded on practically every frame and in some of the rooms the panes in the windows were cracked.

The rooms themselves were enormous and, when it had first been built, the house must have been, she thought, worthy of a King.

The furniture was all antique and some of it was generations old, but the sofas needed recovering and so did the chairs while most of the carpets were threadbare.

They had been through several rooms before she was brave enough to say to Hitchin,

“Why has the pretty wallpaper in this room, which is peeling off, not been replaced?”

“You can ask that in every room,” he replied. “His Lordship says he hasn’t the money and as far as I can make out, nothin’ much had been done before this War started.”

He took her down a wide passage where there were some very fine inlaid chests and carved tables. At the end of it, he opened a door and Devona gave a cry of delight.

There was a library.

It was a very large library with a balcony running round half of it and anyone could climb up it by a twisting stairway.

“How wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Do you think that his Lordship would let me read some of the books?”

“He don’t read them himself,” the butler answered, “and if you enjoys books, there’s plenty of them for you.”

“That is what I was thinking,” Devona said. “Oh, please, please ask him if I can come here sometimes. It would make me so happy and my parents too.”

Hitchin smiled.

“I’ll do what I can, miss, but then I don’t make no promises.”

Devona walked round the library with joy.

She could see that none of the books were up to date and some of them were very old indeed, but she knew that she would enjoy reading a great number of them and was already praying that it would be possible.

Hitchin then took her up the stairs to see the State bedrooms. They all had huge four-poster carved beds with canopies sometimes in gold and sometimes in embroidered silk.

They were very impressive, but the ceilings in the rooms were cracked and again the walls needed painting and the window panes replacing.

What delighted her almost as much as the library was the Long Picture Gallery that ran the whole length of one wing of the house.

There were paintings that she knew must have been collected for generations by the Earls of Narbrooke and she wanted to spend hours looking at them and admiring the styles they were painted in.

“These must be very valuable,” she commented.

“I’m sure they be that alright,” Hitchin replied.

Devona hesitated a moment and then she asked,

“Why does his Lordship not sell one of them so that he can do up the house?”

Hitchin laughed.

“That be not possible. They all have to go on to the next Earl, just in the same way as they’ve come down to this one.”

“Oh, of course, I understand that they are entailed,” Devona said. “It’s silly of me not to realise it.”

She thought that it must be frustrating to see such valuable pictures gradually decaying and not being able to spend any money on them.

“Does his Lordship have any children?” she asked, thinking it odd that there was no sign of them and nor had anyone spoken of them.