Blessing of the Gods

CHAPTER ONE 1882-1

CHAPTER ONE

1882“It’s Lord Springdale, my Lady,” the nurse called out when she answered a knock on the door.

The woman in bed gave a cry of joy.

“Oh, please let him come in.”

The nurse opened the door and Lord Springdale, who was a tall very good-looking young man, walked in.

He came across the room and his grandmother held out both her arms as she said,

“Oh, Ian, I am so glad to see you and it is so kind of you to come.”

“Of course I came at once,” he replied. “I only got back from Scotland yesterday and so I had no idea that you were in a hospital until the butler told me.”

“I did not want you to be worried while you were enjoying yourself with your friends,” his grandmother said. “But now you have come I feel better already. It was only because the doctors fuss so much that I let them bring me in here at all.”

“I think it is very wise,” Lord Springdale remarked, “and I have heard that this is a very comfortable hospital.”

He had also heard, although he did not say so, that it was a very snobbish one.

They definitely liked to have important people and aristocrats as their patients.

Equally he would always want his grandmother, to whom he was devoted, to have the best.

“Now tell me about your visit to me,” she asked.

As she was sitting up in bed, he thought she looked, not ill, but actually better than when she had been rushing about as she always liked to do, entertaining and helping her endless list of charitable causes.

“First I need to know about you, Grandmama,” he said. “It was a terrible shock when I arrived home and learnt that you had been taken away and was here in this hospital.”

“It is really only the doctors fussing over me,” his grandmother replied. “I could perfectly well have had a nurse at home. But they thought it would be better if I was here. What they actually meant was that it was better and easier for them!”

Her grandson laughed.

“I can believe that,” he answered. “Now promise me that you are really getting well and will soon be coming back to the house as it is not the same without you.”

His grandmother looked satisfied.

He knew that she loved being with him in the large house in Berkeley Square that had been in the family for several generations.

Not as long as the house in the country where his Lordship had been born and which now belonged to him although he always spoke as if she was still in charge of it.

“Now tell me about your party with your friends,” Lady Springdale suggested. “I am bored with talking about myself.”

“Then you are the only woman who can say that,” her grandson laughed. “The women where I was staying were, in fact, a perfect nuisance because they only wanted to talk about themselves and were not interested as I was in the horses and the sport.”

There was silence for a moment.

Then Lady Springdale volunteered,

“I rather hoped that you would be bringing me good news.”

Her grandson groaned.

“If you really thought that I would propose to that exceedingly dull daughter of my host, you are very much mistaken. I was very fond of her brother, as you do know, because we were at Eton and Oxford together but, although I did not say so to him, his sister is a crashing bore!”

His grandmother sighed.

“Oh, Ian, I thought she was rather nice and because you were keen on staying with the family I foolishly hoped that you had other reasons for going there.”

“Then you were very wrong,” Lord Springdale said. “What is more, Grandmama, I can tell you here and now, I have no intention of marrying anyone!”

His grandmother gave a cry of horror.

“My dear boy, you are nearly twenty-seven and you must have an heir. You know as well as I do if anything happened to you there would be no one to carry on as Head of the Family and your title would die out completely.”

“I wonder if that would matter so much fifty years from now?” he questioned with a touch of sarcasm in his voice.

“Of course it would matter,” she replied. “We have always been so proud of being an old family. Moreover we have played a huge part in the history of England, at least we can be proud of our name and we have done our best in a quiet way to help our beloved country to become an example to all the others in Europe.”

Her grandson had heard this all before.

In fact it was one of her favourite speeches.

He therefore said nothing.

And then after a rather uncomfortable silence Lady Springdale said,

“Now listen to me, dearest Ian, you must realise how important your position is. So, if you do not produce a son, then the title will be discontinued and our name will die out. All we have achieved in the past centuries will be forgotten and lost in the sands of time.”

He did not think that his family had done all that much, but he was too polite to say so.

Instead he said quietly,

“I am sorry to disappoint you, Grandmama, but I really have no wish to be married at the moment.”

“But you do see, my dearest boy, that, as you are getting older and I am afraid more particular, you may not have the heir who is so vital to our family’s future.”

Her grandson did not speak.

And after a moment Lady Springdale sighed deeply and then went on,

“As you will well know it has always been a bitter disappointment to me and to your grandfather when he was alive that we only had one son, your father. As you know after you were born, your mother was unable to have any more children.”

She sighed again before she added,

“I longed to have a good number of grandchildren, but alas my daughter, as you know, married an Italian and lives in Italy. She only managed to produce three girls. It broke my heart that she did not come back here to England. And you will know over the years that I have seen very little of my granddaughters.”

He had heard all this a thousand times before.

But, because he was so fond of his grandmother, he took her hand in his and said soothingly,

“You have been such a wonderful grandmother and no one could ever blame you for not having the number of grandchildren you want. But I promise you I will always be a devoted grandson and you must not force me into a life that I know I would dislike intensely until I do find the right woman to share it with.”

“But, dearest, you said all this last year and the year before,” his grandmother persisted. “I did so hope that you would bring me good news by now.”

“I am sorry, Grandmama, but I absolutely refuse to marry someone I don’t like and who has no attraction for me simply because you crave grandchildren.”

Despite herself Lady Springdale laughed.

“That does sound a little odd,” she replied. “At the same time it happens to be the truth.”

“Well, it’s a game I am not playing at the moment.” But when I do find this wonderful woman, who will look delightful in your tiara when you lend it to her, I promise you, you will be the first one to congratulate me.”

“That is very poor comfort,” she answered. “It’s a promise you have made to me so often before.”

“Yes, I know, Grandmama. In fact ever since I was twenty-one you have tried resolutely to force me up the aisle with some tiresome young woman, who I know only too well would bore me stiff the moment the honeymoon was over.”

“How can you say that, dearest?” his grandmother questioned. “After all there are masses of very pretty girls in London, who I am certain would be only too pleased if you were attracted by them.”

She was reflecting as she spoke that, although her grandson was unaware of it, she knew that he had been having a number of affaires-de-coeur with married women who were undoubtedly the Queens of the Social world and who entertained all the attractive gentlemen in London.

They were far more amusing and fun than whole bevies of innocent young debutantes.

Lady Springdale had, in fact, two or three friends who told her exactly who her grandson was interested in at present.

Invariably after a very short passionate love affair, he would drift away to find someone new, while, according to them, the woman he had left behind wept bitterly.

His grandmother naturally has been far too tactful to mention this to him.

But, when he had finished his last affaire-de-coeur, she was delighted at the news and so hoped that this was the moment when he would finally settle down and marry someone who would produce an heir.

“So what are you going to do now that you are back in London, Ian?” Lady Springdale asked him aloud.

She was hoping that he would tell her the truth, but thought it unlikely.

“I don’t know,” he answered. “When I came back, I found a huge pile of invitations, but I have not had time to peruse them. They seem to me much of a muchness.”

“What you really mean,” his grandmother said, “is that they are being given for the girls who are coming out this Season and you are really looking as you have before, for someone older and – perhaps more experienced.”

This was something that he had not heard from his grandmother in the past.

He laughed before he chided her,

“Now, Grandmama, you are being very curious. I can assure you that there is no one at the moment who I find more attractive than you and that is why I have come straight here, having only arrived home just before dinner last night.”

“I am very touched you should do so, my dear boy. At the same time I had hoped, as you were away so long, that you would have the news I am so anxious to hear.”

“You said that already,” he replied. “Quite frankly there was no one there you would have thought, if you had seen them, attractive to me.”

His grandmother sighed.

“I just cannot imagine what you are looking for, an angel from Heaven perhaps? Or must she be someone so sensational and so completely different in every way that you are bowled over by her.”

“Now you are putting words into my mouth that I have not actually said, Grandmama. Actually, if I did get married, it would be someone exceptional like yourself and honestly they do not grow on trees and so are impossible to find.”

His grandmother did not answer him.

And after a moment he said softly,

“Grandpapa always claimed that you were the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and he fell in love with you the moment he entered the ballroom.”

Lady Springdale gave him a watery smile.

“That is true. And your grandfather said to himself ‘that is the girl I am going to marry’, and he did marry me and we were very very happy together.”

“When I walk into a ballroom and see the girl I am going to marry, I will let you know,” her grandson said. “In fact I will bring her to you wherever you are and you will know that she was worth waiting for.”

Lady Springdale sighed once more.

“You are a naughty boy,” she said. “You always have a clever excuse for not doing what I want.”

Her grandson laughed.

“Anyway I can see that you will soon be out of here and back in the house and looking after me as you always do when you are in London.”

“I will indeed stay with you for a little while,” she promised. “But you know how much they will miss me at home, especially my dogs and cats. I want to go back to the country as soon as I am well enough.”

“Don’t be in any hurry. I will come and see you tomorrow and you can tell me what the doctors have to say. After all you pay them enough and they might as well give you the information that I have always found difficult to coax out of them.”

His grandmother laughed.

“That is true. But I expect I will do what I want to do and at the moment that is to be out of this hospital as quickly as possible, although I have to admit that they do look after me very well.”