Chapter Eighteen
With Vanessa leading them back to the house, carrying picnic things, there was a distinctly boarding-school-jape atmosphere in the group. Lizzie did her best to smile and giggle with the others when it was the last thing she felt like doing.
The ballroom was already full of people but Vanessa took them through the servants’ quarters and up the back stairs so Lizzie got to the nursery without anyone seeing she looked like a half-drowned cat dressed in old Girl Guide blankets.
Alexandra, Meg and Vanessa sat round her.
‘There’s no earthly reason you shouldn’t come to the party,’ said Vanessa, sitting on the bed where Lizzie was now huddled. ‘Have a bath, get into your frock and join us! You’re my guest. Daddy won’t notice you.’
‘I just want to get into a hot bath and sleep,’ said Lizzie. ‘I’m dropping with tiredness. But thank you.’
‘You don’t need us to stay with you?’ asked Meg, her hand on Lizzie’s.
‘Certainly not! You go to the ball and tell me all about it later.’ Lizzie paused. ‘When are we leaving?’
‘Five,’ said Alexandra, who had obviously thought about this. ‘Then we can definitely get the car back here by nine.’
‘My cousin Anthony definitely won’t be up before eleven at the earliest,’ said Vanessa. ‘He never takes his keys with him and always parks in the spot easiest to get out of. He’ll be leaving on Monday morning, early, to go to the City.’
‘You go and have a bath, Lizzie,’ said Alexandra. ‘I’ll wake you tomorrow, bright and early.’
As much as Lizzie loved and appreciated her friends, she was relieved when she was finally alone. She went into the bathroom and turned on the hot tap in the bath. Suspecting it would take ages for the hot water to get to the top of the house she held her hand in the stream until the water got hot. It seemed to take forever but at last she felt confident that her bath would be hot and put in the plug.
While the bath was filling, extremely slowly, she went back into the main part of the nursery to look for some paper. She needed to write Hugo a letter.
While she and her friends had stumbled and giggled their way across the fields to the house, Lizzie had been thinking she would only be able to get over Hugo if she stopped seeing him. But Hugo, being a gentleman, and very kind, would want toget in touch with her after what had happened between them. She had to stop this.
She opened all the visible drawers in the nursery until she found what she was looking for: an old exercise book. She didn’t think she could write a proper letter on tiny bits of paper from her diary. She needed space.
She had to keep stopping to check on her bath but eventually she managed to write something that sort of expressed what she wanted to say.
Dear Hugo,
I don’t suppose I’ll ever be able to thank you enough for saving my life. It’s one of those things that is beyond thanks. But of course I am extremely grateful!!
It’s because I am so grateful that I don’t want to mess up your life for ever. I completely understand that what happened after you rescued me was just a reaction to the whole near-death experience and it shouldn’t affect your future life. It would be awful if anyone found out because there would be dreadful consequences.
Because of this, I don’t want you to contact me. There’s no need and it could be bad for you. I want you to be happy! I promise that I’ll be all right!
She really didn’t know how to end it so she put:Yours sincerely, Lizzie.
She had to copy it out neatly but in the end she was happy with it.
She got in the bath, which wasn’t quite hot enough, and washed herself until she was sure she no longer smelt of the river. Now all she had to do was work out how to get the letter to him.
As she lay in bed she had cause to be grateful that she was so tired and would fall asleep quickly. Because she knew in her heart she would have plenty of time to think about – and possibly regret – the passion that nearly dying and then being saved had brought out in her.
Chapter Nineteen
Vanessa insisted on tiptoeing out into the chilly dawn to direct the girls to her cousin’s car. What she hadn’t mentioned was that it was a sports car and would be a squash for the girls and have very little space for luggage. It also had its top down and so was open to the elements.
They looked at the little MG in silence. ‘It’s not the sort of car I’m used to,’ said Alexandra. ‘Could we steal something a bit more – conventional? Like that one?’ She pointed to a stately Daimler.
‘Uncle Robert’s car? Good God no!’ Vanessa went pale at the thought.
Alexandra hesitated for a bit and then exhaled. ‘OK. Cars are much the same really. Aren’t they?’
This was obviously a rhetorical question so no one answered.
