A Dream Come True by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance
ISBN: 978-1-908303-48-6
Publisher: Barbara Cartland.com

CHAPTER SIX

Lady Shelley regarded Lucia with same kind of dismissive air as she might an inferior person. Her lovely mouth curled and she almost spat out her next sentence.

“Is this another of your playthings, Richard?” she snarled with a venomous tone in her voice. “I must say – this one is young, even by your standards.”

Lucia felt most affronted by this insult and began to rise from her seat as a jolt of anger surged through her.

“I am not a child. I am twenty-one and have been engaged as Lord Winterton’s new secretary,” she snapped, leaping to her own defence.

“A likely story!” retorted Lady Shelley, eyes staring dangerously.

Lord Winterton simply fingered his moustache and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying both women’s discomfiture.

“Camilla, you are wrong as usual,” he intervened eventually, as the two women glared at each other.

“This young lady is who she says she is. As I am spending so much time in London, matters here are becoming unmanageable. I needed a secretary and Miss Mountford is the daughter of a friend of mine. Now, come, let us withdraw to the library. I have some new etchings I wish to show you.”

Lady Shelley seemed to visibly retreat from her provocative stance and his assurances appeared to mollify her.

Lord Winterton rose from the table and then, as he passed her, he slapped her on the behind in a gesture that Lucia found both shocking and overly familiar.

‘Well,’ she said to herself, as the pair left the room. ‘And she did not even apologise to me. What a rude woman!’

She waited while Jepson served coffee and did not dare to leave the dining room for fear of another unpleasant encounter with the imperious Lady Shelley.

‘Perhaps Mama was not raving as I had supposed. Have I not just seen with my own eyes what sort of man he is? And it is plain as day what sort of woman Lady Shelley might be!’

Just then the unmistakable sound of giggling could be heard from the library next door. Jepson feigned a lack of hearing, but Lucia failed to see how he could not have been aware of the obvious activity.

“More coffee, Miss Mountford?” he asked, as she cast down her eyes and tried not to take notice of the numerous sounds that were coming from the library.

Lucia finished her coffee quickly and then returned to the study.

As she walked along the corridor, she bumped into a footman who was heading for the library with a silver tray, two glasses and a bottle of champagne.

‘Well! Champagne in the afternoon,’ she thought to herself.

But she could not help but feel the tiniest hint of jealousy that no one had ever brought champagne for her at such a scandalous hour.

She could not for one moment imagine the stiff and proper Edward even entertaining the notion.

‘Ah, Edward – ” she remembered as she returned to the study.

She supposed herself to be rather fond of him. How could she not like a man who was as fine a horseman as he was? – but his ardour had unnerved her.

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