Only Love

Chapter 1 ~ 1903-1

Chapter 1 ~ 1903“I have something to tell you, Iola,” the General said.

He spoke in his well-articulated voice that could be heard across any Barrack Square.

“Yes, Papa?”

Iola looked up from her plate on which were several slices of underdone beef.

It was the General’s favourite dish and she thought every time they had it that she would like the beef to be cooked more and not to have such a large helping.

But as her father carved, she found it politic to take what he gave her and not to argue about it.

“I must say,” the General said, “that I am extremely gratified and in a way surprised, but then you are my daughter so it might be expected that you would make a good match.”

Iola stared at him in surprise.

“What are you saying, Papa?” she asked in a puzzled voice.

“I am informing you,” the General said, “that Lord Stoneham has asked if he can pay his addresses to you and naturally I have given my consent.”

Iola stiffened until her whole body was rigid and it seemed for a moment as if she had lost her voice completely and the power to think.

Lord Stoneham? Surely her father could not mean the Lord Lieutenant, who had called this morning and been closeted with the General in his study for so long that Aunt Margaret had wondered if they should invite him to luncheon.

But eventually he had left, driving away in his carriage with his crest emblazoned on the panels and his servants wearing his smart livery of Royal blue and orange.

“What did Lord Stoneham want with you, Alexander?” his sister asked the General when he came into the drawing room.

“I will tell you later,” the General replied in a repressive tone. “Luncheon should be ready by now and you know I like my meals on time.”

“Yes, of course, Alexander,” his sister had said meekly.

They proceeded into luncheon, the General going first with an air of urgency about him.

Iola had not been curious, as her aunt was, about Lord Stoneham’s visit.

He often called at The Manor to see her father on matters that concerned the County and the General, to his intense gratification, had been appointed Deputy Lieutenant and was only too pleased to represent Lord Stoneham at any function he was unable to attend himself.

Now she felt that she could not have heard correctly what her father had just said to her.

At last, as if her voice came from very far away, she managed to say,

“Did I hear you – right, Papa? Are you – s-saying that Lord Stoneham wishes to – marry me?”

“That is correct,” the General boomed. “He wishes to marry you and in fact is in a hurry to do so.”

“B-but – Papa – his wife has not been dead for – ”

“A year next week,” the General interrupted, “and twelve months, as you are well aware, is the prescribed time of mourning.”

Aunt Margaret clasped her hands together in a kind of ecstasy.

“It’s the most exciting news I have ever heard!” she cried. “Just think, Iola, you will not only be the wife of the Lord Lieutenant, but you will be able to go to the Opening of Parliament wearing a tiara!”

Her voice seemed almost to tremble with excitement while Iola, still feeling as if she had turned to stone, said,

“I cannot think, Papa – why Lord Stoneham should wish – to marry me. He is old – very old.”

“He may be past the first flush of youth, that I grant you,” the General replied, “but he is a man I both admire and respect and he will make you a most commendable husband, there’s no doubt about that.”

Iola felt herself shudder at the word ‘husband’.

She had never until this moment thought of Lord Stoneham as a man, but as a figure of consequence.

She had, indeed been gratified when he had danced with her twice at the Hunt Ball, which had taken place much later in the year than was usual because he was in mourning.

She thought, of course, that he had singled her out because she was her father’s daughter and she thought the same when he was courteous to her whenever he called at The Manor or when she had attended during the last three months long-drawn-out and very dull dinner parties that he gave at Stoneham Park.

But never for one second had it ever struck her that he might be interested in her as a woman, any more than she was interested in him as a man.

‘Husband!’

The word seemed to scream itself at her and echo round the panelled dining room.

“It’s a great honour that he has chosen you,” the General said, as if he spoke to himself. “He will call on you tomorrow at twelve noon, so be ready to receive him.”

As he finished speaking, he rang the silver bell that stood on the table in front of him and the servants came back into the room.

Iola’s plate went away untouched.

She refused the pudding, the cheese that followed it and, when her father cut himself a large slice of plum cake to eat while he drank his glass of port, she said in a nervous little voice,

“W-will you – excuse me – Papa? I don’t – feel very well.”

“Excitement, I suppose,” the General remarked. “It’s understandable. Run along and lie down. You must look your best tomorrow.”

Iola hurried from the room and the General turned to his sister.

“Girls have no stamina nowadays,” he complained. “If anything unusual happens, they collapse!”

“I expect it has been rather a shock, Alexander,” Margaret Herne replied.

“I suppose so,” the General admitted. “She has had no other suitors. I thought that young jackanapes Windham was here too often, so I sent him away with a flea in his ear before there was any mischief done.”

“I am sure you were right, Alexander. Captain Windham would not have been a suitable parti for any daughter of yours.”

“That’s what I thought. To start with, he is in a bad Regiment.”

His sister smiled.

“I am sure dear Iola will see the advantages of marrying a Nobleman of such importance as Lord Stoneham. But, of course, she is only eighteen and he is – ”

“It’s not years that count in a man of Stoneham’s calibre,” the General interrupted. “He has intelligence and a capacity for leadership that is not found amongst the young. Look at the mess that was made of the Boer War! Disgraceful! An exhibition of incompetence I never expected to find in the British Army.”

This was a well-worn bone of contention and his sister added hastily,

“As I have said so often, Alexander, they don’t make men like you these days and I am sure Iola will appreciate that she will find many of your qualities in her future husband.”

“That’s true,” the General agreed.

He helped himself to another glass of port and carried on,

“You had better start thinking about Iola’s trousseau. I am prepared to spend a little more than I might have done had her marriage been to a less consequential man.”

His sister smiled with pleasure as she replied,

“You must remember, Alexander, that, as she will be seen in public as Lord Stoneham’s wife, she will be expected to appear with him on public platforms and, of course, make her curtsey at Buckingham Palace to the new King.”

The General gave a laugh.

“We shall certainly have to spend quite a considerable sum on her gown for that occasion if she is to compete with the elegance of Queen Alexandra. But I expect Stoneham will ante-up once she’s his wife!”

He sipped his port before he said, lowering his voice,

“I don’t mind telling you in confidence, Margaret, that he spoke as if he was infatuated with the girl. Between ourselves I was quite surprised how eloquent he was about her.”

“You mean he is in love, Alexander?”

“That’s not an expression I care for. Far too emotional,” the General remarked. “But I suppose I should admit in this case that it appears to be true.”

“Then Iola is even luckier than I thought her to be!” Margaret Herne exclaimed. “When you said that Lord Stoneham wishes to pay his addresses, it sprang to my mind immediately that the reason he wishes to marry again is that he wants an heir.”

“Exactly!” the General said. “It was a great tragedy that his boy being killed in Africa. Never thought he would get over it!”

“It’s obvious that he has!”

“It seems so,” the General agreed. “Anyway, he is insistent that the marriage should take place next month, but I did not say so to Iola in case it should frighten her. I have always understood that girls feel a little nervous and shy about rushing into marriage. Personally I should have thought that a six month engagement would be more advisable. Give them a chance to get to know each other.”

“I remember that you were engaged, Alexander, for nearly a year.”

“That’s what I was thinking about,” the General replied, “but nowadays everything is rush, rush! In my opinion being too hasty invariably leads to trouble.”

“I hope not where dear Iola is concerned.”

“No, of course not, but we must do what Stoneham wants.”

There was a faint smile on the General’s lips as he added,

“We certainly don’t want to lose him.”

“What a terrible thought!” Margaret Herne exclaimed. “I promise you, Alexander, I will impress upon Iola how very fortunate she is to have such a good and important man as her husband.”

*

The word ‘husband’ was still echoing in Iola’s ears as she stood at her bedroom window looking out over the snow-covered ground.

The trees glistening with frost and silhouetted against the wintry sky made a picture that usually lifted her heart in a manner that she found difficult to put into words.

But now she stared at them blindly and instead saw only Lord Stoneham, feeling in some detached part of her mind that she was examining and analysing him in a way that she had never done before.

How could she possibly contemplate, even for one moment, marrying a man who had seemed to her a father figure?

He was so aloof and living in a world so different from her own that she thought sacrilegiously that he might be God rather than a human being.

With his white beard shaped in the fashion set by the King and his somewhat portly figure and air of consequence it was not surprising that it had never crossed her mind for one instant that he might be a suitor for her hand.

Because her brothers who were both much older than herself were now serving abroad she lived a very lonely existence at The Manor.

As a rule she met only the General’s elderly friends or the ladies who came to the house to discuss ‘the good works’ that her aunt was heavily committed to, but who seldom invited them back.

Even if they did, the General disliked going to most people’s houses and invariably refused invitations without consulting either his sister or his daughter on the matter.

Books therefore were Iola’s main form of entertainment as well as a means of acquiring knowledge.

The novels of Sir Walter Scott had first introduced her to romance and she had followed them with a number of much more sophisticated modern novels besides the classics like Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope.

As she grew up, she found herself dreaming of the heroes she had read about and also inventing her own.

At the Hunt Ball, which was the first grown-up ball she was allowed to attend, she found it exciting to dance with the younger members of the Hunt in their pink coats.

Although she had been gratified that the Lord Lieutenant had singled her out amongst the other girls who might all have appreciated such attention, she had thought privately that it was a waste of a dance that she could have enjoyed with a younger man.

Her younger partners had not called and they had certainly not approached her father, while Lord Stoneham had.

‘He is old! Old!’ Iola murmured to herself. ‘Why should he want me?’

She knew that Lady Stoneham had been a large Junoesque figure who always appeared to be hung with jewels, several rows of large pearls in the daytime and diamonds in the evening, besides a tiara that had glittered on her grey hair.

‘How could I possibly take her place,’ Iola asked, ‘and why should he want me to?’

Then, almost as if someone had answered the question aloud, she knew the answer.

Lord Stoneham wanted another son!

The General had been extremely upset when Edwin Stoneham had been killed four years ago.