103. She Wanted Love Read Free

at least telling her stepfather that she was back, so she walked towards the study.
    The old butler quickly went ahead of her, opened the door and announced,
    “Lady Eleta, sir.”
    Cyril Warner was seated at the writing table that had once been her father’s.
    It was a beautiful example of the Regency style and despite herself, because her Papa had always sat at it, Eleta resented seeing Cyril Warner in his place.
    He rose slowly to his feet and held out his hand.
    “So you are back at last,” he began. “The ship must have been late.”
    “I thought we made up for it on the train,” Eleta replied. “But the Channel was rougher than it usually is.”
    “Which it should not be at this time of the year,” her Stepfather responded severely.
    Buxton had stayed in the room.
    “Will your Ladyship have tea in here,” he asked, “or in the drawing room?”
    Eleta looked at her stepfather and, before she could answer, he said,
    “In here, Buxton. I wish to talk to her Ladyship and we must not be interrupted.”
    “Very good, sir.”
    He left the room and Cyril Warner moved to stand in front of the mantelpiece.
    “It’s a long time since you were at home,” he said.
    It was not just his words, but the way he said them which told Eleta that it was a rebuke.
    “I am sorry, Step-papa, but as it so happens I was staying with friends in Greece and then with other friends in Cairo. Both visits were most enjoyable and instructive.”
    “I cannot think that they taught you anything you could not have learnt here in England,” Cyril Warner said somewhat aggressively.
    Eleta thought it was a mistake to argue.
    He had always been against her being educated in France and he had at one time suggested that she came home and was taught by a Governess.
    Her Mama, however, had resisted, knowing that she would learn more at the Convent than any Governess could teach her and so she had remained happily in France.
    “Now I am here,” Eleta said quickly, “I am very anxious to hear how things are in the country. Have you any new horses and are the flowers in the garden as lovely as I remember them?”
    “The answer to your first question is ‘no’ and to your second, ‘yes’,” Cyril Warner answered abruptly.
    Eleta was just about to protest that the horses when she last rode them were growing old when she remembered that he was not a good rider and did not particularly enjoy being on horseback.
    So she changed the subject,
    “I hope the old staff are still there and there are not too many newcomers.”
    “I have reduced the staff because I seldom go to the country,” he replied. “I am in fact extremely busy. Busier than I have ever been before in London.”
    “How interesting,” she managed to say. “Is it some new sort of ship you are building?”
    She had just finished speaking as the door opened and Buxton came in with two footmen carrying the tea.
    On a tray carried by the second footman there were large and small cakes that had been her favourites ever since she was a child.
    One look at them told her that Mrs. Buxton was still in the kitchen and, as she walked over to the sofa to sit down in front of the tea tray, she said,
    “Please tell Mrs. Buxton I am so glad that she has not forgotten me and I have been looking forward to her gingerbread ever since I left Calais.”
    “And the Missus has been working hard on all your Ladyship’s best favourites and getting them ready since breakfast time this morning,” Buxton replied.
    “Do tell her I will come and see her when I have finished eating much more than I ought to,” Eleta smiled.
    “Now you enjoy yourself and don’t worry about your weight,” Buxton answered. “It’s happy we all are to see your Ladyship back with us.”
    He left the room without waiting for Eleta’s reply and she glanced at her stepfather to see him frowning.
    ‘After all,’ she reflected, ‘it is my house and my home and everything in it was chosen by Mama or came from my