A Theatre of Love by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788675468
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
Published: 2021-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

In the next few days the Duke thought that he had been very astute.

He left the house early each morning to go riding and then he either rode to Little Bedlington or else drove there in his chaise.

He had, of course, persuaded Maria Colzaio to sing for him.

She had offered him her drawing room to rehearse with her and Lavela in undisturbed comfort.

It was a beautiful room containing a magnificent grand piano, which the Duke enjoyed playing.

As the Vicar had pointed out, Maria Colzaio’s voice was not as high as it had been, but then it still had the beautiful warm quality that had made her so famous.

After the first day when she was obviously a little nervous, she turned to the Duke,

“I am really enjoying myself, and may I say, Your Grace, that it is just so wonderful to have an accompanist who plays as well as you.”

“I think this is one of the most exciting things I have ever done,” the Duke replied, “and to hear you sing one of my own compositions is beyond my wildest dreams!”

In contrast Lavela’s young clear voice was, he thought, very moving and spiritual.

He recognised that, when she performed before the audience including the Prince and Princess of Wales, they would be astonished.

He had deliberately not told the Ashleys or Maria Colzaio who his principal guests would be on the night.

He thought that it would make Lavela feel nervous and he was afraid as well that it might upset Maria Colzaio who still wished to remain incognito.

He therefore merely told them both that they were performing for his Christmas party guests.

Also for the mothers of the children who were performing who could be squeezed into the back of the stalls.

There were as it turned out only five who were going to stay the night at Moor Hall and the rest could not leave their other children who were still small.

“You have no idea what excitement you have caused,” Lavela related to him. “If you had thrown a bomb into the centre of the village, it could not have been more sensational!”

When she was not rehearsing, Lavela was finding the right clothes for the children to wear.

Whilst they sang their Carols, they would wear their own best dresses and she decided that they should wear also a small wreath of mistletoe that they would make themselves.

It would be tied at the back of their heads with red ribbons and they would hold a little bouquet of mistletoe and holly.

“I wish I had not thought of that,” she complained to the Duke. “I have been removing the thorns from the holly and my fingers are now sore.”

“I have always believed that angels fear no pain!” he teased her.

“Then I must have come from somewhere very different from Heaven,” Lavela retorted.

They found so many things to laugh about at the rehearsals with Maria Colzaio.

It sent the Duke away so cheerful that he began to forget his tiresome difficulties at Moor Hall.

The first night he knew from the condition of his bed when he returned to his room that Fiona had waited for him.

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