CHAPTER ONE ~ 1867

The Countess of Wenlock came down to breakfast rather late.

She always insisted on having breakfast downstairs rather than in her bedroom which most of her friends asked for after being out late the night before.

The Countess, however, was keen to keep herself active.  It was only when she was in London entertaining and being entertained that she found it at all difficult to get up early in the morning.

It was nearly ten o’clock. which was pretty late for her. and breakfast was ready waiting for her in the dining room.

She sat down at the table and the butler put in front of her the scrambled eggs and bacon she enjoyed so much for breakfast.

She always had them whether she was in London or in the country.

The house in London was her favourite because it was so spectacular.

It had been built nearly two hundred years ago in the middle of London opposite what was now called Hyde Park and it stood back from the road which was known as Park Lane.

It had a large garden filled with shrubs flowers and many different vegetables just as it was at their house in the country.

She noticed, however, that to the North of her there were now houses facing onto Park Lane.

She was very afraid that one day they would extend further and stand in front of the house which had been in the Wenlock family ever since it was first built at least two centuries ago.

When her husband had died two years ago and her son became the Earl in his father’s place, she was worried that he might get married and want her to leave their house in London if not the one in the country.

But Donald showed no sign of getting married.

He was merely enjoying himself speeding from one beautiful woman to another.

The Countess was very proud of her son and she was well aware that he was exceedingly good-looking with the result that women pursued him relentlessly.

For him it was inevitable that he went from one entrancing blossom to another.

Her daughter, the lovely Salvia, however, was very different.

She enjoyed the parties which, when she came to London, were waiting for her every night if she wanted to go to them.

But she really much preferred being in the country and riding the many excellent horses that her father had filled his stables with.

She had missed her father more than anyone else because he had found her so intelligent that he preferred to take her with him on his travels rather than his son.

There was only a year between them, but it always seemed to him that Salvia was the eldest simply because her intelligence and brain was much the same as his.

Before he had married he had travelled a great deal, but he found when Salvia grew older that it was easier to take her with him on his trips rather than her mother or his son.

“If I am not at home,” her mother had said to him, “you know perfectly well the garden will not be properly looked after and our many horses and dogs might easily be neglected.”

She had smiled at her husband as she added,

“Quite frankly, darling, I want to keep the house perfect for when you return from what I am grateful to say is seldom a very long voyage.”

Actually he was engaged in running messages from Queen Victoria to other countries in Europe and the Middle East.

Because he was so astute it did not take him long to deliver them and to receive an answer that usually pleased Her Majesty.

Salvia always adored travelling with her father.

Although no one ever said so, it was perhaps she who missed him more than anyone else.

It was with some reluctance that the Countess came to London after he died when she would have much rather stayed in their country house.

At the same time she loved her London home and thought it was very good for Salvia to accept the many invitations that she had received from the very moment she became adebutante.

She was very pretty as well as bright and it seemed to quite a number of people that it was extraordinary she had not already been marched up the aisle with one of the handsome and grand gentlemen who had fought to dance with her.

Salvia had received several proposals of marriage, but she had no wish to leave home.

Compared to her father she found that the majority of young gentlemen she danced with were not particularly intelligent, however flattering they might be to her.

Looking round the breakfast room now and the sun outside the windows, the Countess thought that the flowers were particularly lovely.

 ‘I do hate London when it’s cold and frosty,’ she thought to herself.  ‘But when the sun is shining, I love to be in the country.’

Then she laughed at herself for wanting too much when she already had a great deal to be thankful for.

She had just finished breakfast when Salvia came in wearing her riding clothes.

“I have just been in Rotten Row, Mama,” she began.  “You have never seen such a lot of stupid girls who want to ride because it is the vogue, but who have no idea how to handle a horse.”

“I would suppose that they were admiring Bruno,” her mother asked, knowing which horse she would have been riding this morning.

“All the men did,” Salvia replied, “but the women were so bus