A Kiss in Rome

CHAPTER ONE ~ 1879-1

CHAPTER ONE ~ 1879Alina Langley looked round the room and wondered miserably if there was anything left for her to sell.

Everything that was of any real value had already gone from the house quite some time ago now.

She thought that the patches on the wall where the mirrors had hung and the gap where the pretty inlaid secrétaire had stood made her want to cry.

“What can I do?” she asked the drawing room. “What can I do?”

It just seemed incredible to her that everything had happened so quickly.

From feeling safe and happy in the world around her she now felt as if the ceiling had crashed down on her head.

When her father a year ago had had a fall out hunting and broken his spine, it was for her mother as if the world had come to an end.

They had been extremely happy together. They were not in the slightest bit rich, but they had enough money to enjoy their horses and the few acres of land that they were surrounded by in the middle of glorious English countryside.

Then, when Sir Oswald died one day in considerable pain, it was found that he had run up a mountain of debts.

They were certainly not due to riotous living.

He had not paid his taxes and he owed a great deal to his coachbuilder and to the builders who were engaged for endless repairs to the house.

What was worse, shares in Companies that he had invested both his wife’s and his own money in had turned out to be worthless.

Lady Langley, however, was not at all perturbed by any of this.

She only knew that without her husband she had no wish to go on living.

To Alina it was horrifying to see her mother fading away before her eyes. She was still so young and beautiful and had always seemed like a girl.

So, as she had no wish to live, Lady Langley simply died so that she could be with her husband again.

It was then that Alina knew that she was alone in the world and, what was even more frightening that she had no money.

The house was hers because she was an only child, but how could she possibly keep it up?

Anything that was valuable had been sold off already to pay her father’s mounting debts.

A few pieces of antique furniture that she cherished she had had to sell to pay for special food and medicines for her ailing mother.

It was just a waste of money for Lady Langley never got better and had never intended to do so.

Alina walked over to the window to look out at the garden.

The daffodils made a golden patch of colour beneath the trees and the almond trees were just coming into bloom and the grass was now beginning to grow strongly on the lawns.

The sun was shining brightly and so she opened the window.

She could hear the song of birds and the buzz of the bees hovering over the blossom.

It was all so familiar to her and she felt as if they were telling her that they sympathised with her in her present predicament.

How they wished that they could find some way to help her.

“What can I do?” she asked the wrens who were watching her from a bush that was just beginning to show the first green leaves of spring.

It was then to her surprise that she heard in the distance wheels approaching the front door.

She was wondering who it could possibly be.

The only people who had called to talk to her after her mother’s funeral had been from the village and they had walked to the pretty Norman Church at the end of the garden.

She then thought that it might well be the doctor who had always been a good friend of the family.

Then she remembered that he had gone away to Scotland on a short holiday.

Slowly, because she almost resented being disturbed in her loneliness, she walked from the drawing room out into the hall.

The woman who came to clean in the morning had already left and she opened the door herself.

A very smart and modern carriage was standing outside on the gravel drive.

There was a face at its window that made her cry out in astonishment,

“Denise! Is it really you?”

She ran down the steps and, as the elegantly dressed figure climbed out of the carriage, she flung her arms around her.

“Denise, how wonderful to see you!” she exclaimed. “I thought that you had forgotten all about me.”

“No, of course not,” Denise Sedgewick replied, “but I have come to ask for your help.”

“My help?” Alina repeated in surprise.

She just could not imagine how Denise Sedgewick could possibly want her help.

Her mother had been a distant cousin of the Sedgewick family and had been devoted to Denise’s mother before she had died in childbirth.

As Alina and Denise were almost the same age, with Denise just a few months older, it was arranged that they should take lessons together.

Every Monday Alina would ride over to their house, which was only two miles away across the fields and stay there until the Friday, when she returned home to be with her father and mother.

It had been a very satisfactory arrangement from Lady Langley’s point of view.

Because Denise’s father was wealthy, he could afford the best-educated Governesses and they also had a number of Tutors for various additional subjects that he wanted his daughter to be well educated in.

Alina very much enjoyed her lessons and especially loved being with Denise.

She was very lovely and in fact both girls were outstandingly beautiful.

Perhaps Denise was the more sensational of the two, having perfect features and hair that seemed to be gold-tipped with little flames of red.

Her eyes were the green of a forest stream.

It was no surprise when, just before her eighteenth birthday, Denise went to London to be presented at Court by her grandmother.

She had been an outstanding success in London Society.

In fact she was such a sensation that Alina had lost touch with her.

At first the two girls had corresponded with each other frequently, but soon Alina found that she was writing three letters to one hurried note in reply from Denise.

She therefore thought that perhaps she was imposing on their friendship and wrote only occasionally and sometimes at Christmas.

Lately she had not written to her at all.

Now Denise was saying,

“Dearest, you must forgive me for not having come to see you sooner. I have not been at home or with my grandmother, but staying in all sorts of exciting houses for house parties which I am longing to tell you about.”

“You look lovely, Denise!” Alina exclaimed.

She was looking as she spoke at the very elegant travelling coat that Denise was wearing and her hat trimmed with feathers.

She noted too the elegance of her gloves, her shoes and her handbag, in fact everything about her was the height of fashion.

They went into the drawing room and Denise gave a cry of surprise.

“What has happened?” she exclaimed. “What have you done? Where are all the lovely mirrors and the pictures I remember so well?”

“I have so much to tell you,” Alina replied quietly.

Denise waited and then Alina went on,

“After Papa died, we found that we were very poor.”

“I was so upset to hear about his accident,” Denise murmured sympathetically. “But I had always imagined that you were very comfortably off.”

“We thought we were,” Alina answered her, “but there were a great many debts and Papa’s investments did not pay any dividends.”

Denise clasped her hands together.

“Oh, dearest, how terrible! I wish I had known. Of course I would have wanted to help you.”

Alina drew in her breath.

“I don’t think you know,” she murmured, “that Mama – died three weeks ago.”

Denise gave a little cry of horror and flung her arms round Alina.

“I had no idea, oh, Alina, I am so sorry. I know how much you loved her and I loved her too.”

“Everybody loved Mama,” Alina sighed, “but she found that she could not go on living without Papa at her side.”

Denise sat down on a sofa that was clearly in considerable need of repair.

“You must tell me all about it,” she suggested. “I had no idea that anything like this had happened. When I decided to come to you for help, I expected, of course, to find your mother here with everything in the house as beautiful as I have always thought it to be.”

“We have had to sell everything that was saleable,” Alina admitted in a low voice.

There was a little pause before she added,

“We will talk about that later. I want to hear about you and the success you have been in London and, of course, why you have come to me for help.”

She saw by the expression in her friend’s eyes that something was really wrong.

After a moment Denise exclaimed,

“Oh, Alina, I have been such a fool! You will not believe how stupid I have been.”

Alina sat down beside her.

“Tell me all about it, dearest.”

“That is what I decided to do and why I came here,” Denise replied, “and I was sure that you would help me.”

Alina reached out and took Denise’s hand in hers.

“Start at the beginning,” she urged.

“Well, as you have heard, I was a success in London. I really was a great success, Alina, and it would be silly of me to deny it.”

“How could you be anything else?” Alina asked her fondly. “You are so lovely and you have all those beautiful clothes that you wrote and told me about.”

“My grandmother was very generous,” Denise said, “and naturally Papa was prepared to pay for anything I wanted.”

There was a smile on her lips as she added,

“I really was the belle of every ball I went to!”

“Of course you were,” Alina supported her loyally.

“It is not only your looks that count in London,” Denise added. “There are plenty of sophisticated beauties who fascinate the Prince of Wales and all the smart gentlemen who frequent the Marlborough House parties.”

“I am sure that none of them could be as beautiful as you,” Alina smiled.

“They think they are far more beautiful and the men who go after them are not interested in debutantes.”

Alina waited, still wondering what could be wrong.

“However I have had dozens of proposals,” Denise told her, “and finally, Alina, I lost my heart.”

“How exciting!” Alina exclaimed. “Who is he? And are you very happy?”

Denise gave a deep sigh.

“He is very handsome and he is the Earl of Wescott so Papa was only too delighted at the idea of my marrying him.”

“You are going to be married?”

“That is what has gone wrong,” Denise answered.

“But what has happened?”

“I cannot understand how I can have been such a fool! Henry was in love with me, very much in love with me, and asked me to marry him.”

Alina was listening wide-eyed.

She could not understand the story that she was hearing.

“I don’t know what came over me,” Denise continued, “but I think it was because Henry rather took it for granted that I would accept him. Although there could be no question of my doing anything else, I prevaricated.”

“You mean,” Alina asked, “that you did not accept him.”

“I did in a way, but told him that he would have to wait a little for us to be quite certain that we really loved each other.”

“And he disagreed?”

“No. But, Alina, I was so stupid! Just to make him more in love with me and a little jealous, I flirted with a lot of other men, until finally I went too far.”

“What happened then?” Alina asked.

“Henry wrote me a letter saying that it was quite obvious that I did not really care for him and then he left England!”

There was a note of despair in Denise’s voice that Alina did not miss.

“He left England?” she questioned. “But where has he gone?”

“He has gone to Rome to stay with his grandmother,” Denise replied, “and I am terrified, yes terrified, that I shall never see him again.”

“But, surely, if you write to him – ” Alina began.

“I am not going to do that. I have decided to go to Rome and see him. I know when he sees me again everything will be all right. I can tell him that I love him more than anything on earth and we will be married.”