202. Love in the Dark by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788670890
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
Published: 2018-08-26T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

Driving back from Florence in the carriage beside Mr. Chambers, Susanna held a parcel tenderly in her hands.

She had spent a long time in the shops on the Ponte Vecchio buying a present for Mr. Dunblane.

Finally, after a great deal of deliberation, she had chosen an eighteenth century musical box which played a gay little tune that the shopkeeper told her, the pheasants had danced to in Medieval times.

Now, knowing what she was thinking Mr. Chambers said,

“I am sure that Fyfe will be delighted with your present. He has no family to remember him on special occasions.”

“His father and mother are dead, I understand.”

“Yes, and he has always been a very lonely person despite – ”

Mr. Chambers stopped and did not finish the sentence.

“I am so glad you told me that it was his birthday today,” Susanna said. “I would never have known it otherwise.”

“I should really be giving you a present.”

Susanna looked at Mr. Chambers in surprise and he explained,

“I cannot tell you what a difference your being here has made not only to my employer but also to me.”

“I – don’t think – I understand.”

“When we crossed the Atlantic after his accident,” Mr. Chambers said, “I thought that I would never be able stand the tension of living with him in such circumstances.”

He smiled at her as he added,

“I have known Fyfe ever since he was a boy and been in the position not only of secretary, but what Royalty would call a Comptroller. Yet when after his accident he was in despair about his eyesight, I felt helpless and as much of a stranger to him as if I had never known him before.”

'‘It must have been very difficult for you,” Susanna smiled sympathetically.

“It was,” Mr. Chambers agreed. “Then you arrived and everything was different.”

“It is sweet of you to say that.”

“I mean it. You have not only helped him through what must be the most difficult time in his life but also given him new horizons of the mind.”

Mr. Chambers laughed.

“I feel that am sounding quite poetic, but there is no other way to express how you have introduced him to new subjects and, I think, made him use his brain in a way that he has never used it before.”

“It is wonderful to hear you say such things!” Susanna cried. “And I have never been so happy in the whole of my life.”

“You look happy,” he agreed, “your whole being vibrates with it.”

“It is very exciting when we are discussing the books I read aloud.”

“There was a thrill in Susanna’s tone as if she was speaking to herself and then she added anxiously,

“I do hope that the books we ordered from Paris – will have arrived.”

“I am sure they will,” Mr. Chambers replied reassuringly.

“It is a very long list. We have both become so interested in the works of Gustave Flaubert.”

“I have heard you arguing about Education Sentimentale, Mr. Chambers remarked, “and I wondered if Madame Bovary was suitable literature for a young lady like yourself.

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