A Heart Finds Love

CHAPTER ONE 1880-1

CHAPTER ONE

1880

Alnina looked round the room trying to see if there was anything else she could sell.

She had already sold everything of value that she could find in the house, but there were still a large number of debts outstanding.

Her brother, Charles, had been bankrupt, although no one had been aware of it when he died.

Now she was left to save what she could of a home that had been her father’s delight and joy and his father’s and grandfather’s before him.

Lord Lester had been, when he was a young man, very keen on travelling and as a result there were a great number of treasures in the house that he had brought from different parts of the world.

Alnina found that these had sold well and fetched much more than she anticipated.

Charles, the last of the Lester male line, as far as she knew, had been a wild spender ever since he came into the title and, because he was so handsome, he was a great success socially.

But what he really enjoyed was going off to Paris and spending a lot of money on the attractive women who had become famous all over Europe.

Alnina had at that time been at school and therefore was not aware of what her brother was doing.

Their father had always encouraged his children to learn languages and to be Cosmopolitan as well as English.

So she had stayed on an extra year at her school in Holland when she should have left, because she was very keen on learning more languages than she already knew.

Alnina had had a terrible shock when she arrived back in England.

She had learnt that her brother had fought a duel in Paris in which he was badly wounded and had died three days later.

As she had been away from home for so long, she had no idea where their other relations were or even if they had any nor did she want to seek them out and ask them to help her.

Instead she sent for her brother’s Solicitor and then, to her horror, she learnt of the enormous amount of debts he had run up in the last five years since he had become Lord Lester.

“I will have to sell everything I can to meet these debts,” she said to Mr. Burns the Solicitor.

“I am afraid, Miss Alnina,” he then replied, “that your brother’s creditors did not want to wait and were on the point, before his Lordship went abroad, of bringing a Court case against him.”

“I hope they will not do that to me,” Alnina asked.

“I can prevent them doing so,” Mr. Burns said, “but only if you can pay them back bit by bit all that is owed.”

“I will certainly do my best,” she answered, “but, as you know, a large house without many acres attached to it is not particularly interesting. We are unfortunately fairly near to London and I think people who are really social want either to be in London or much farther out in the country.”

Mr. Burns knew that this was true, but he was well aware that there had been no offers for the house since it had been put on the market.

Because he was a kind man and had known Alnina since she was a little girl, he had shown her how to sell the very best furniture at Christie’s auction rooms in London.

He had also sent quite a number of his clients down to the house to see if there was anything they wanted to buy.

‘At least,’ Alnina thought to herself, ‘every creditor has been given some money, but there is still such a large amount outstanding, so there must be something more that I can sell.’

But all the silver had already gone, as well as her mother’s jewels.

She had already sold all the pictures that were of any value. And one or two of them proved to be valuable enough to keep most of the creditors at bay.

Now, having looked around the rooms that seemed extraordinarily empty, she walked up the stairs and into her mother’s bedroom.

She had felt it was almost sacrilege to sell any of her mother’s clothes. She wanted to wear them herself, but they were in some ways too old-fashioned for her.

Anyway, it was most unlikely than anyone would want to buy ball dresses that were out of date.

Her day clothes she knew would go for very small sums to the village women who would find them useful, but she was determined not to empty her mother’s room completely until the very last moment.

Her dearest Mama had died when she was fifteen and she had loved her dearly.

She had been extremely fond of her father and, although she wanted to love her brother, she had seen very little of him.

He was always enjoying himself either in London or on the Continent and it was terrible to think that it was his passion for Paris that had ended in his losing his life.

‘I am only so glad,’ she thought as she entered her mother’s bedroom, ‘that Mama is not alive to know that Charles died in such a horrible way.’

Now, as she looked round the room, she thought that she would have to part with the mirror on the dressing table. It was one she had loved ever since she had been tiny.

The gilt-wood was ornamented with little cupids climbing up the sides and at the very top was a carved bird with outstretched wings.

Alnina could remember counting the cupids when she was just old enough to be able to do so. Then she had asked her mother where the bird was flying to.

“Up into the sky among the stars,” her mother had said. “He is a bird and that signifies what we feel when we learn something very exciting and we lift up our hearts to Heaven.”

She had not understood at the time what her mother was saying, but now, as she looked at the little bird, she thought it was something she must try to do.

It was no use to sit too gloomily in the house which was being stripped of everything that was beautiful.

She realised that the gilt mirror would fetch some money as it was antique and so would the beautiful French secretaire that stood in one corner of the bedroom.

Then, as she hated to part with them, she quickly opened the wardrobe, wondering what was left inside.

The first thing she saw at the back of it, under a white linen cover, was her mother’s wedding dress.

It had always been the most fascinating dress and she could remember it ever since she was very small.

Because Lord Lester had enjoyed travelling, he had bought his wife’s wedding dress on a journey he had taken while they were still engaged.

It was indeed the most unusual wedding dress that Alnina had ever seen. She had forgotten about it until now, but was sure that it would sell for a large sum.

The whole dress was decorated with the wonderful embroidery that only the Chinese could do so well and it was always believed to have been done by small boys who should really have been at school.

But to make it really spectacular, Lord Lester had ordered diamante and pink stones to add to the embroidery.

This gave it the appearance of bunches of flowers, while the bodice glittered, Alnina had always thought, as if worn by a fairy.

She took it out of the cupboard and removed the white covering and then she hung it up so that she could look at it carefully.

It must have taken years to complete and was in a perfect condition as it had only been worn once.

‘I will certainly sell it,’ she now thought, ‘and ask a sum that should substantially reduce my debts to Charles’s creditors.’

She could imagine some woman being delighted to wear it at her wedding or it would certainly enhance any museum or even perhaps be worn on the stage.

After looking at it for some time, Alnina sat down at the secretaire.

She wrote a description of the gown to be put in an advertisement and she felt certain that the way she had worded it would attract someone who was interested in anything unusual.

She was sure that there was no other wedding dress in England that could compete with this one.

‘It must have cost Papa a fortune,’ she mused.

He, in a way, was very much like Charles and, if he wanted something, he bought it regardless of whether he could afford it or not.

She could not help wishing that they had both been a little more sensible, as now she had to spend her time selling everything she had loved ever since she was small.

When she had finished writing the advertisement, she went downstairs.

She then found Brooks, the butler, as she still called him, who with his wife had come to the house many years before her father’s death and then there had been a great number of servants.

Brooks had looked after Charles and with no other help unless he was giving a party.

It was typical of her brother, Alnina thought, when he had come home from White’s Club, having lost money at the card tables, immediately to throw a large party, but she thought the noise and laughter made him forget that he was a loser.

Now Alnina was worrying, if she sold the house, what she would do with Brooks and his wife, as they were both growing older.

It would be, she knew, very difficult for them to find another place after being here for so many years.

She smiled at Brooks, whose hair – what remained of it – was white, and handed him the letter.

He would give it to the postman, if he called later in the day. It was too far for the old man to go to the village.

As the Brookses were so well known, any food Mrs. Brooks wanted was usually sent up from the shops to The Hermitage as the house was called.

“What be you selling now, Miss Alnina?” Brooks asked when she handed him the letter.

“Mama’s wedding dress,” Alnina answered. “I hate to let it go, but it should, because it is so unusual, fetch quite a good sum of money.”

“Money! Money!” he muttered almost beneath his breath. “It’s all we has to think of nowadays.”

“I know and you and Mrs. Brooks have been very kind to me. So you can be sure that I will find somewhere for you in the future.”

“It ain’t right that you has to do all this for Master Charles,” Brooks said. “He always were a naughty boy even when he was very little. He never listened to anyone, not even your father when he was alive.”

There was nothing Alnina could say that she had not said already, so she therefore merely smiled at Brooks and said,

“We will win through in the end, you know that we will. You and Mrs. Brooks have been wonderful and I am very very grateful to you.”

“It ain’t right, Miss Alnina, when you should be going to dances and meeting young gentlemen, that you be stuck here a-worrying over money day in and day out,”

“I can think about dancing later when I have paid our debts,” Alnina replied. “Mind you don’t forget that letter. I just know that it will create an interest amongst the Curators of museums if no one else.”

She thought a little wistfully, as she turned away, that her mother’s tiara had been almost the first thing she had sold, as well as the diamond necklace that she wore at balls and the pearls she wore every day.

They had all gone very quickly and yet what she received for them was only a drop in the ocean of Charles’s debts.

Now, as she went upstairs again she was wondering if she would ever get married.

And if she did, what sort of gown she would wear. It certainly would not resemble her mother’s.

She had been told that it had been a sensation at the time, but several older members of the family had thought that it was too fantastic and had disapproved.

‘Mama must have looked so beautiful in it,’ Alnina had often said to herself.

She thought now as she walked past the mirror, which had not yet been sold, that she too would look very pretty at her wedding.

‘If anyone wants to marry me and I have to pay for my own dress, it will have to be a very cheap one,’ she told herself.

Then, because it was too frivolous a thought when she had to concentrate on the house, she went into another room to see what else could be sold.