have to keep me laughing and sparkling so that, when Henry sees me, he realises what a mistake he has made in leaving me.”
“I cannot think why he should have done so, seeing how beautiful you are,” Alina said.
“It was my own fault,” Denise said in a low voice, “and if I lose him, Alina, it would break my heart. I could never love anyone else in the same way.”
She was speaking in a very different tone of voice. Then she reached out and took her cousin’s hand.
“Help me – please – help me,” she begged. “I know my whole happiness is at stake. If I lose Henry, nothing else will ever be the same again for me.”
There was a cry in her voice that tore at Alina’s heart.
She knew that she would do anything, however difficult it might be, if it would help Denise.
“I will come to Rome with you,” she said, “but you will have to tell me exactly how I should behave. Remember that I have never been to London before or seen any of the smart sophisticated women I am to impersonate.”
“They are all very much alike,” Denise answered her. “They behave as if the world was made for them to walk on and believe that every man on whom they smile is very lucky and should feel as if he has just won a million pounds on the Racecourse!”
Alina giggled.
“Can you see me behaving like that?”
“Of course I can and that is exactly what you have to do. You are very grand, very self-important and very rich!”
“I would certainly need to be a good actress to make them believe that,” Alina remarked.
“Why did you not tell me?” Denise asked her again. “I just cannot bear to think of you selling all the lovely things in this room.”
“I was just wondering before you arrived what else I could possibly sell or how I could work to earn even a little money.”
“You have it,” Denise replied. “You are going to work for me and I am prepared to pay you anything you ask.”
She put her arms round Alina as she spoke and kissed her.
“I love you, Alina, and we shall have a marvellous time together. When I am married to Henry, I will find you a husband who is just as rich as he is!”
“I shall be quite content for the moment just to see the Colosseum and St. Peter’s,” Alina asserted.
“From what I have been told,” Denise then answered, “Rome is packed with marvellous treasures of every sort. So if you are prepared to go sightseeing you will be able to do so from morning to night.”
“That is all I want and I shall most certainly not interfere with you and the Earl.”
There was a pause before Denise said with almost a sob,
“Oh, Alina, do you think that he has forgotten me already? Supposing he has found an – Italian girl who is more – beautiful than I am?”
“I don’t believe it possible,” Alina answered, “and if he has, it means that he is not really in love with you. You know that we always used to say when we were younger that what we wanted to find was the real love which means we have found the other half of ourselves.”
“That is true. Do you remember Miss Smithson saying that the Ancient Greeks believed that after God had made Man and thought that he wanted a companion, He cut him in half and then called the soft gentle sweet part of him, woman?”
“I remember her saying that,” Alina smiled, “and what we are searching for is the other half of ourselves.”
“Of course,” Denise agreed, “and that is what Henry is to me – I know he is!”
“How could you have been so unkind to him?” Alina asked. “He must have been very unhappy to have rushed away from you in such an abrupt manner.”
“Don’t talk about it,” Denise insisted. “I was a fool – I know I was a fool. I just wanted to make him a little jealous so that he would be more in love with me than he was already. But I went too – far!”
Alina put her arm around her friend’s shoulders.
“Don’t worry, dearest, I am sure that you will be able to get him back and I will pray very hard that he is as miserable without you as you are without him.”
“I remember your prayers,” Denise said. “You always told me that they were answered.”
“That is what I am thinking of at this moment. When I do pray for a solution to my own problems, I even ask the birds outside in the garden for help.”
“And here I am, ready to help you,” Denise replied. “Now, let’s make plans.”
Because she was so determined to take Alina with her to Rome, Denise had worked it all out very intelligently.
First of all, as her father was going away immediately, she thought it would be possible for Alina to come to Sedgewick House, her own home.
Then they thought that the servants would know her and that could be dangerous for the cause.
“I will pick you up here on Wednesday morning,” Denise decided, “and we will drive to the train together. When we reach London, Lord Teverton will be waiting for us at his house in Belgrave Square.”
“I have no idea what he is like,” Alina said. “Supposing he is suspicious?”
“You need not worry about him. He is extremely angry that I am to travel with him to Rome, so I doubt if he will so much as speak to us.”
Alina looked surprised.
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because he is stuck up and interested only in himself! He is a huge success in London and a close friend of the Prince of Wales.”
She lowered her voice, almost as if she was afraid that she would be overheard.
“He also has affairs with the great beauties of London and I am told that when he leaves them they cry their eyes out!”
Alina did not understand.
“Leaves them?”
“You know what I mean,” Denise said.
She saw that her cousin was looking perplexed and explained,
“He has what are called affaires de coeur and, because he is so smart and also so rich, the women run after him as if he was a golden apple at the top of a pear tree!”
Alina laughed.
“I don’t believe it!”
“It is true!” Denise said. “He gives himself frightful airs and behaves as if everybody is beneath his condescension.”
