The Castle of Love Read Free Page A

sat eating her biscuit while Sarah chatted about castle affairs.
    "There's been such a bustle here since we heard the Earl was coming home. My poor master Hugo." Sarah wiped her eye with her apron. "Mercy me, what cruel times we've had."
    Jacina brushed crumbs from her skirt and looked at Sarah thoughtfully.
    "Sarah?"
    "Yes, my lovely?"
    "What will happen now to – Felice Delisle?"
    "Bless me, don't you know the latest?"
    Jacina shook her head. "I only really know what you tell me, Sarah. You know more than anyone."
    This was true. Sarah knew everything that went on within the castle walls.
    It was from Sarah that Jacina first heard the full storyof Felice.
    Felice was the daughter of Monsieur le Comte Delisle, an old friend of the Earl's and a widower like himself. Monsieur le Comte had fled to Switzerland during the French Revolution. He had lost his estates and so never returned to the country of his birth. He married late in life and still his young wife died before him. He became an inveterate gambler and died penniless, leaving his only child to the guardianship of the old Earl.
     The old Earl did all he could for his ward. He settled a living allowance on her and made sure she went to a good school in Switzerland.
    In the summer of 1852 the old Earl went travelling in Europe. He took his grandson Crispian with him. They stopped in Geneva, where Felice was at school, intending to stay for just a few days.
    They ended up staying for over a month.
    Felice was a pretty girl of sixteen. She had auburn hair and large eyes and was considered a very good pupil by Madame Gravalt, the owner and Headmistress of the school.
    It seemed inevitable that Felice and the shy heir to the Ruven title should fall in love. The Earl was secretly delighted but insisted they wait to be married. It was agreed that Felice should come to England to be married when she was twenty-one.
    She never came.
    In 1855 Crispian went to fight in the Crimea. He wanted to prove to himself and his fiancée that he was brave. As brave as his younger brother Hugo.
    He died shortly before the Crimean war ended.
    Now the old Earl, Felice Delisle's guardian, was also dead.
    Jacina thought it must be terrible to be an orphan and lose your fiancé and then your guardian. It was with all this in mind that she had asked Sarah what was to become of Felice.
    "Well," said Sarah, peering into the teapot to see if the tea was brewed, "you know she took Master Crispian's death very hard and was ill in a sanatorium for a long time after?"
     Jacina nodded.
    "Well, after the illness, she went to live with this Madame Gravalt, who had meanwhile given up the school in Geneva and retired to a village in the mountains. I suppose she was as near to a family as Felice had. The old Earl invited Felice here but – "
    Sarah shook her head. "She didn't want to come. I suppose it was too soon to visit the place where Master Crispian grew up."
    Sarah stopped to pour out two cups of tea. Jacina took her cup and dropped in some sugar. Sarah took a sip from her own cup and sat back with a sigh. Jacina waited, stirring her tea. She tried to be patient, but she found herself gradually stirring harder and harder, until the spoon tinkled loudly against the china. Sarah looked up, startled.
    "What was I saying?" she asked.
    "You were explaining why you thought Felice didn't accept the Earl's invitation to come and live here after Crispian died – " said Jacina, feeling a little ashamed of herself for having so startled the old lady.
    "Ah, yes." Sarah shook her head dolefully. "The old Earl had grown very fond of her, you know. Not just for the sake of his friend, but also for her own sake. She was the daughter he never had. I'm sure that's why, after Master Crispian died, he started to encourage Master Hugo to take an interest in her."
    Jacina felt herself go strangely still. "And did he – take an interest?"
    "Well, he'd not met her, of course, but he started writing to her and she to him.