Helga in Hiding by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788674959
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks ltd
Published: 2021-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Helga drew in her horse and exclaimed,

“That was wonderful! I never knew that riding could be quite so marvellous until I came here.”

“I am so glad you feel like that,” the Duke replied.

“I suppose,” Helga said with a little sigh, “that tomorrow will be the last time I shall ever be able to do this.”

As she spoke she was thinking that today was Sunday and so she was hoping that there might be a chance of riding early tomorrow morning before everybody left and the Duke took her back to London.

At the same time she hardly realised that she was talking aloud.

She was looking out over undulating green land to where in the valley below there was a twisting silver stream bordered by graceful willows and beyond it again there was a fir wood silhouetted against the sky.

It was so lovely and, as the countryside had always been so much a part of her own life, she could hardly bear to think that she had to leave it to go back to London.

“So you have been happy here,” the Duke asked and his voice seemed to intrude on her thoughts.

“Very very happy! How could I be anything else when you have been so kind to me?”

“That is just what I want you to think,” he said, “and it is something I want to talk to you about, Helga.”

She looked at him questioningly and he asked,

“What plans have you made for when you return to London?”

“As it happens, I have no plans,” Helga replied, “but now I have the money you have generously given me, things are not ‒ as frightening as they were before.”

“Frightening in what way?”

Quickly Helga remembered that she must not be indiscreet and so she answered,

“I don’t want to think about it. I just want to be happy while I am here and still living in the dream I stepped into from the moment I saw Rock Castle.”

“Dreams do come to an end,” the Duke said in a practical voice, “and I think, Helga, you should talk to me about your future.”

She did not answer him and after a moment he went on,

“You are very young and very inexperienced and, if you really intend to go on the stage, you will encounter many difficulties and you will not know how to cope with them.”

“Perhaps it – would be a – mistake.”

“I have never met anyone who is a better actress than you or performed in a way that was so faultless,” the Duke said quietly. “Quite frankly, Helga, I think you are a natural actress, something that only happens just once in a blue moon like Mrs. Siddons, Sarah Bernhardt and perhaps, if we are thinking of women nearer home, Gertie Miller.”

Helga laughed.

She had read in the newspapers what a huge success that Gertie Miller was at The Gaiety and she hoped that when she returned to London she would be able to watch her performance and see her in person.

“I would never aspire to be anyone so famous,” she murmured.

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