A Kiss In Rome. Barbara Cartland
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– everyone said so,” Alina agreed.
“Then all you have to do is to make yourself look a little older than you are now. Good gracious! If you cannot act the part of a lady who is a suitable chaperone for me, what can you do?”
Alina laughed.
“You are being ridiculous. At the same time, you know, dearest, because I do want to help you and also because, if I am honest, I would love to go to Rome, I am longing to say ‘yes’.”
“That is wonderful,” Denise cried. “We leave in three days’ time.”
“Three – days?” Alina repeated.
“But that will be plenty of time for you to decide which of your mother’s clothes you are going to wear and I will provide you with everything else.”
She put her hand over Alina’s as she said,
“I am now so ashamed of myself for not realising before now how poor you are. I have mountains of clothes, really mountains of them, which I could have sent to you, but I was so selfish I did not think of it.”
“You are not to blame yourself,” Alina said, “and just what would I do with mountains of clothes in Little Benbury?”
“You can wear them,” Denise answered, “but the gown you have on now is a disaster!”
“I have had it for years,” Alina admitted, “and it is rather threadbare.”
“Throw it away, throw everything you have away and I am sure there are furs and jewels belonging to my mother of the kind you would be expected to wear.”
Alina looked at her questioningly and Denise said,
“Now, let’s work this scenario out carefully. You are not coming as the country-bred and impoverished Lady Langley, who is chaperoning me because Papa is paying her to do so.”
Alina made a little sound and she went on,
“I will, of course, pay you myself. I have an absolute mint of money! But you will have to look rich and a Lady of Fashion or people will not be impressed by you.”
“Why do you want them to be impressed?” Alina asked her.
“I want Henry to be impressed for one. I have no wish for him to think I am just running after him. I have to arrive in Rome with a different reason for going there and it could be that I am accompanying Lady Langley, who is a friend of my family, because she has recently been widowed and is feeling lonely.”
“You are making a whole drama out of it,” Alina protested.
“That is what I intend to do. And I will write your part for you just as you used to write one for me in the past. Now I will do it for you.”
Alina laughed.
“Oh, Denise, you are incorrigible! But I am sure that you are making a terrible mistake. There must be plenty of people more suitable than I am to go with you to Rome. Suppose I make silly errors and give the show away?”
“I have never known you to fail at anything,” Denise said. “You are much cleverer than I am. Every one of my Governesses, Tutors or anyone else who taught us always used to say, ‘now come along, Miss Denise, try and be as clever as your cousin who after all is younger than you’.”
Denise was mimicking a Tutor’s voice and Alina threw her arms round her neck and kissed her.
“Oh, Denise, it is such Heaven being with you again,” she sighed. “I have missed you so much and all the funny things we used to laugh about together.”
“That is what we are going to do all the way to Rome. Otherwise I shall just sit here and mope,” Denise answered. “You 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