Beyond the Stars by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788674911
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks ltd
Published: 2021-05-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

The young man who Lupita had been dancing with took her into the Conservatory when the music had stopped for an interval.

“I love flowers,” she commented, “and these are particularly lovely.”

“You are like a flower yourself,” he complimented her.

She gave him a shy little smile and bent forward to touch a rare orchid.

The Conservatory was exactly what she might have expected to find in a large house in Chelsea and the Dowager Countess had told her before she went there that her mistress, Lady Godwin, was a great connoisseur of beautiful things.

Lupita was therefore enjoying not only the treasures in the house but also the flowers.

She learnt that they had been brought to London from every part of the world.

The Dowager Countess had gone with the Earl and Lupita to the dinner preceding the dance but had left soon afterwards.

“I am too old to stay out very late,” she said, “and I shall enjoy just watching for a few minutes you young people moving round the floor.”

The ballroom was a most attractive one, although not as large as the one at Devonshire House. It had long French windows opening out into the garden and the murals at one end of the room were scenes of Venice.

Everywhere Lupita looked she found something that she wanted to study because it was so beautiful and unusual.

But she did not have the opportunity. All the young men in the party wanted to dance with her and so far she had only had one waltz with the Earl.

As he had not been in the ballroom for some time, she guessed that he had gone to the card room.

In fact, on the way to the ball from Grosvenor Square, he had said,

“It is really a young people’s party tonight and if you do not see me on the dance floor, you will know that I am playing cards.”

She could not help feeling that she wanted to dance with him once again and hoped that he would soon reappear.

She moved up to another strange blossom she did not recognise and thought that it must have come from the East.

It was then that the young man said to her,

“You are very lovely, in fact the loveliest woman I have ever seen. If I did not know you were engaged, I would ask you to marry me.”

Lupita turned to look at him in amazement.

“Engaged?” she said quickly. “I am not engaged. What made you think that?”

The young man smiled.

“Everyone knows that you are going to marry the Earl of Ardwick,” he said, “and I think that he is the luckiest man in the whole world!”

“But – it is not true!” Lupita protested. “The Earl is – acting as my – Guardian now that my father is – dead, but I assure you that he has no – intention of – marrying me.”

She thought as she spoke of just how bitter and angry the Earl’s voice had been when he was talking about Heloise Brook.

It would take him a long time, Lupita reflected, to get over the way that she had behaved towards him.

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