LORD OF MANY SECRETS

SIXTEEN

She felt her brain to be reeling. "But it is surely... You, sir, cannot have been a friend of my father?"

He shut his box again, and slipped it back into his pocket. "I regret, madam, I had not that honor", he said.

"Then, oh, there is some mistake!" she said. "There must be a mistake!"

"Quite possible", agreed his lordship. "But the mistake, Miss Tellaro, was not mine".

"But you are not our guardian!" Patrick burst out.

"I am afraid there is no loophole for escape", replied Clements. "I am your guardian". He added kindly. "I assure you, you cannot regret the circumstance more than I do".

"How can this be?" demanded Elizabeth. "My father did not mean it so!"

"Unfortunately", said Clements, "your father's Will was drawn up nine months after the death of mine".

"Oh!" groaned Miss Tellaro, sinking down upon one of the gilt and crimson couches.

"But the name!" said Patrick. "My father must have written the name down!"

"Your father", said Clements, "left you to the sole guardianship of Gabriel St James Aturo, Fifth Earl of Clements. The name was certainly my father's. It is also mine. The mistake - if it is a mistake - is in the title. Your father named mine the Fifth Earl in error. I am the Fifth Earl".

An unfilial expression was wrenched from Miss Tellaro. "He would!" she said bitterly. "Oh, I can hardly believe it!"

Patrick gulped, and said, "this must be set right. We are not your wards. We had rather be anything in the world than your wards!"

"Possibly", said the Earl, unmoved. "But the distressing fact remains that you are my wards".

"I shall go at once to my father's lawyer!" declared Patrick.

"Certainly. So just as you please", said the Earl. "But do try and rid yourself of the notion that you are the only sufferer".

Miss Tellaro, who had been sitting with one gloved have covering her eyes, not straightened herself, and folded both hands in her lap. It was evident to her that this conversation led nowhere. She suspected that what Clements said was true, and they would find it impossible to overset the Will. If that were so, this bickering was both fruitless and undignified. She quelled Patrick with a frown, and addressed herself to the Earl. "Very well, sir, if you are indeed our guardian perhaps you will be good enough to inform us whether we are at liberty to establish ourselves in Rome?"

"Subject to my permission you are", replied Clements.

Patrick ground his teeth, and flung over to the window, and stood starring out on to the square.

Miss Tellaro's fierce blue eyes met her guardian's cool grey ones in a long look that spoke volumes. "You may, through an error in my father's Will, be our guardian in name, sir, but that is all".

"You cannot have read the Will, Miss Tellaro", said the Earl.

"I am aware that the control of our fortune is in your hands", snapped Miss Tellaro. "And I am anxious to come to an agreement with you!"

"By all means", agreed Clements. "You will not find me at all difficult. I shall not, I hope, find myself obliged to interfere in your lives very much". He added, with the flicker of a smile. "I am not even going to make myself unpleasant to you on this question of your coming to Rome against my advice".

"Thank you", said Miss Tellaro witheringly.

He moved toward the secretaire and opened it. "That was after all, a piece of advice given to suit my own convenience. I have no real objection to your having come to town, and I will do what lies in my power to see you comfortably established". He picked up a document and held it for Miss Tellaro to see. "I have here the lease of a furnished house in Spear Street which you may move into at your earliest convenience. I trust you will find it to your liking".

"You are extremely obliging", said Miss Tellaro, "but I do not know that I should care to lodge in Spear Street".

The smile gleamed again. "Indeed, Miss Tellaro? And in which street would you care to lodge?"

She bit her lip, but replied with dignity, "I am as yet wholly unacquainted with Rome, sir. I should prefer to wait until I can decide for myself where I desire to live".

"While you are making up your mind", said Clements, "you may lodge in Spear Street". He put the lease back into its pigeon hole, and closed the secretaire. "The task of engaging you servants can be left to my secretary. I have instructed him to attend to this".

"I prefer to engage my own servants", said Miss Tellaro, goaded.

"Certainly", replied Clements suavely. "I will instruct Kingsley to direct those he considers the most suitable to call on you at your hotel. Where are you putting up?"

"At Hotel Nacional", said Miss Tellaro in a hollow voice. A vision of butlers, footmen, housekeepers, serving maids, grooms, all streaming into the Hotel Nacional to be interviewed, most forcibly struck her mind's eye. She began to perceive that the Earl it Clements was a foe well worthy of her steel.

The Earl lowered his sword - or so it seemed to her. "Unless you would prefer to see Kingsley himself, and give him your commands?"

Miss Tellaro, with a chilly haughtiness that concealed her inward gratitude, accepted this offer.

Patrick looked over his shoulder, and said belligerently, "I shall be sending to Tellaro, for certain of my horses, but we shall be needing others, and a carriage for my sister".

"Surely you can buy a carriage without my assistance?" said Clements in a weary voice. "You will probably be cheated in buying your horses, but the experience won't harm you".

Patrick chocked. "I did not mean that! For sure, I don't need your assistance! All I meant was - what I wished to make plain..."

"I see", said Clements. "You want to know whether you may set up your stable. Certainly. I have not the least objection". He came away from the secretaire, and walked slowly across the room to the fire place. "There remains, Miss Tellaro, the problem of finding a lady to live with you".