Part 5 (1/2)
It was of the largest ancestral houses in Great Britain and required an army of servants to keep it clean, besides all the outside departments which had made her call it a State.
Looking at the Viscount from under her eye-lashes she told herself he would certainly look right as the owner of Worfield.
She could imagine him entertaining in the grand manner of which his uncle would approve, playing his part in County Affairs and doubtless in time representing the King as Lord Lieutenant of Hertfords.h.i.+re.
It all seemed cut and dried a story of which one knew the ending from the moment one started to read the first page.
Then she asked herself what did she feel about William as a man? And what did he feel about her?
Supposing they had met each other in different circ.u.mstances?
Supposing he was poor and a n.o.body and she was unimportant just Miss Beverley without the aura of Sir Roderick's fortune behind her?
She looked up at the Viscount enquiringly and as if he sensed that she was thinking about him, he bent forward to say : ”You are beautiful, far more beautiful than I antic.i.p.ated or had hoped!”
”You have heard about me?”
”About your success in Rome. I have a friend who met you out there. What he told me was not flattering, I realise that now. Merely factual.”
She smiled.
”You are beginning to sound like the Italians who manage to make everything they say sound like a compliment.”
”It is not difficult when one is speaking to someone like you.”
Astara smiled again but she was quite composed and very sure of herself.
”I think, My Lord,” she said after a moment, ”as we both have heard so much about each other, that it is important that we should use our own minds to determine what is true and what is not. ”
”That is what I always do myself,” the Viscount said. ”I have never yet taken a reference on any servant I have employed, and I seldom bother to look at the pedigree of a horse before I buy it.”
”In the East they call that 'using one's third eye ',” Astara murmured.
He looked puzzled and she explained: ”There is an old legend that in the distant past the first human being had only one eye in the centre of his forehead, then he developed two more and the middle eye was lost.”
”But you are suggesting that it is still there.”
Astara nodded.
”That is the eye we use when we judge people by what they are to us and not just by what we have heard about them.”
”Then I hope your third eye will be working where I am concerned,” the Viscount said.
”I would say the same to you. ”
”It is already,” the Viscount smiled. ”Shall I tell you now what I feel about you? Or would you rather wait until later? ”
”I think I would rather wait until you are quite certain,” Astara replied. ” 'He who travels slowly ... arrives safely'.” ”As we will!” the Viscount said firmly.
Then Sir Roderick came back to the table and there was no chance of any further intimate Conversation.
Astara however soon had her chance, or rather was manoeuvred by Sir Roderick into having it, of being alone with Lionel Worfield.
Deliberately, but so cleverly that Astara was amused, Sir Roderick took the Viscount onto the terrace to show him a new strain of deer which had been introduced to the Park.
She had left the tea-Cable to seat herself on a sofa and Lionel joined her.
”You are very different from what I expected, ” he said bluntly, and when she looked surprised he added: ”That sounds rude, but I do not mean it to be. It is just because you are English by birth, I did not expect you to look un-English. ”
”I always thought I looked very English with my fair hair and blue eyes,” Astara protested.
”They are certainly traditional,” Lionel agreed, ”but while they are beautiful there is something unusual in your appearance which I did not expect.”
”I think perhaps it is because my great-grandmother was Greek and therefore I am not entirely English,” Astara explained.
”Then that was perceptive of me, was it not?” Lionel exclaimed. ”Did William say the same thing?”
”No. Why should you think he would?”
”Only that we were discussing what you would be like on our way down here. My father has often told me how fond he was of your father, and William said the same. I suppose we both expected a beautiful young Englishwoman out of the same mould.”
Astara laughed.
”You are certainly frank, Captain Worfield.”
”Do you not think that as we share Uncle Roderick, we might use each other's Christian names?” he asked. ”I will call you Cousin Astara, if you like, but it is rather a mouthful.”
”Are you being complimentary in accepting me so quickly as a relative?” Astara asked.
”You are so much more attractive and certainly a thousand times lovelier than any of my other relatives,” Lionel replied, ”that I am only too willing to accept you in any capacity. But I know which one I prefer. ”
He was starting to woo her very quickly, and she had the feeling that he was making the most of having her to himself while William was out on the terrace with Sir Roderick.
”Thank you,” she said aloud, ”and I shall be delighted if I may call you Lionel and if you would call me Astara.”
”You must meet my father,” Lionel said. ”He is a great authority on Greece. I believe he once spent a whole of one vacation there when he was up at Oxford. Anyway, Greek Literature is what he reads for relaxation, although I cannot say it appeals to me.”
”What do you read? ” Astara enquired.
”Very little,” he confessed honestly, ”except the news-papers and that sort of thing. To tell you the truth, and you might as well know the worst at once, I am not really clever like the rest of my family.”
”But I am told you are very brave,” she said softly.
”I try to be a good soldier,” he answered, ”and if I am honest I rather enjoy a battle.”
Astara did not answer and after a moment he went on: ”Perhaps a woman would not understand this, but there is something very exhilarating in challenging an enemy, in matching oneself and one's men against his.”