A Paradise On Earth by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-906950-76-7
Publisher: Barbara Cartland.com

CHAPTER SIX

John knocked gently on the door of Miss Smith’s room, calling,

“It’s all right. It is only me.”

She opened at once and stood back for him to pass through. She immediately closed the door behind him.

“I am so sorry for the disturbance,” he said as he set down the tray on the dressing table. “I hate to think of you being alarmed.”

“Don’t worry, I am not any more. And it was a relief to find someone that I knew. I like Roseanne so much.”

“Roseanne?”

“Yes, that’s her name. Did you not know?”

“I met her for the first time this afternoon and she terrifies me.”

“She terrifies that poor young man, too,” she added, chuckling.

He too began to laugh.

“Poor Frank. He fancies himself as a ladies man, but he’s having very bad luck tonight. Roseanne almost knocked him out and Cherry has just snubbed him. Now madam, your supper is served.”

He delivered the words with a flourish, drawing out the chair for her and offering her a napkin.

“Thank you, kind sir,” she said. “Oh, but what’s this?”

He was uncorking a bottle of wine.

“I am sure I did not order wine.”

“This is compliments of the house and to celebrate our meeting.”

“Oh, yes,” she replied eagerly. “I feel so much safer now and that I will always want to celebrate.”

John filled two glasses of wine and as they clinked, they both started laughing.

“I am so hungry,” she told him, tucking into her supper with gusto. “It has been such a day.”

“Do you realise,” John said suddenly, “that after all that has happened I still do not know your name? Your first name, I mean.”

“Cecilia,” she said.

John immediately thought that Cecilia was the prettiest name he had ever heard.

As she ate he began to tell her stories of his life in the army, not the grim tales of war and suffering, but the many light-hearted incidents. She laughed heartily and he began to think that he must be quite a wit.

Somehow the hours slipped by, the most pleasant hours John felt that he had ever spent. But he also felt a little guilty.

“I have been enjoying our conversation so much that I had forgotten I was on duty,” he said. “I should really go downstairs and see to – to –”

“See to what?” she asked, smiling as if she perfectly understood his problem.

“See to – whatever needs seeing to,” he finished lamely.

“And what would that be?”

“You are not being fair,” he protested. “I have admitted to you that I am a novice. I am sure there is something downstairs that I ought to be seeing to.”

“If only you knew what it was,” she teased. “I expect the guests have finished their dinner and will be playing bridge. And your staff is quite used to running this place without you.”

He realised that she did not want him to go and that was a temptation that he knew he must avoid.

“I must leave for your sake,” he said. “It isn’t proper for me to be here with you alone.

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