CHAPTER TWO

Malvina and Nanny arrived in good time at Silstone House in Park Lane at three o’clock in the afternoon.

All the way Malvina was thinking out her plan for travelling to Paris.

She was very determined to see the man her father wanted her to marry without his being aware he was being observed.

They were greeted by the butler at Silstone House, who said somewhat reproachfully,

“We were not expecting your Ladyship here. His Lordship made no mention of your visit before he left.”

“I had an invitation from one of my friends to come to London to a party she is giving, but I thought perhaps it would worry Papa when he had so much to think about, so I did not tell him what I was planning to do.”

The butler smiled.

He had known Lady Malvina ever since she was born and he had spoilt her as soon as she could toddle with little titbits he kept in the pantry.

“Please tell cook, Bates, that we have already had luncheon, but Nanny and I would surely enjoy one of her special teas.”

She knew this would please the old cook who had also been with the family for many years.

Then she ran upstairs to the room she always used.

There were a number of her dresses hanging in the wardrobe, but she did not reckon that any of them were smart enough to wear in Paris.

‘I must go out to the shops tomorrow morning,’ she concluded. ‘And the sooner we leave for Paris the better.’

When she came downstairs, she visited her father’s other secretary who managed the house in London for him.

She told him much the same story that she had told the country secretary– that she wanted to buy some clothes in a hurry and did not wish to open any new accounts.

He protested strongly, as his counterpart had done, but eventually he did provide Malvina with three hundred pounds.

She concluded that now she had about enough to carry her through Paris and home again.

*

When she went shopping first thing in the morning, she put everything on account and did not spend a penny of the banknotes she had been given by the two secretaries.

She bought three dresses which were smart and up to-date. They made her look older than the clothes she had worn at school.

The most important thing she had to do now was to find a courier to escort her and Nanny to Paris.

She knew where he was to be found and informed the manager of the agency who dealt with such bookings exactly what she required.

“You will understand,” she explained firmly,“that he must meet us at Victoria Station, if you will now tell me the time of the morning train leaving for Dover. There will just be the two of us and our luggage.”

The manager was impressed with her name and in the carriage that she had arrived in.

He promised her the best courier they had and one who had made the journey to Paris many times.

Malvina was determined that the courier should not come to Silstone House as he would undoubtedly tell Bates that she was going to Paris.

If he did and the secretary was told, the information would soon be conveyed to her father in Scotland.

‘I must be very careful to cover all my tracks,’ she determined.

When she went back to the house, she found Nanny comfortably arranged in one of the many sitting rooms.

She left her to climb upstairs to the attic as she had remembered on the way to London that her Aunt Beatrice had died five years ago at Silstone House.

Her belongings had all been taken up to the attics where a great number of family items had been stored over the years.

Aunt Beatrice had been a great beauty in her day. She had married Lord Morecambe, who was a Secretary of State in the Government.

And it was on his death that she had come to live in Silstone House where she had entertained her many friends until she died.

Malvina remembered the trouble that she had taken to make herself look beautiful and graceful even when she was almost eighty.

She thought that among her aunt’s belongings there would undoubtedly be some make-up that she might need to use herself when she reached Paris.

She was not mistaken.

Th