Count the Stars by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barbara Cartland EBooks ltd
Published: 2013-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

The Duke had taken himself to task during the night for being disagreeable.

Then he felt ashamed when the valet came into the room with his boots somewhat indifferently cleaned, but with three cravats, washed and with no more than the proper amount of starching, exactly as Jenkins might have produced them.

Because he thought it was the least he could do to show his appreciation, the Duke tied his cravat in a more complicated and fashionable style than he had done hitherto on the journey.

Then he went downstairs to breakfast to apologise to Valora and determined to make her day a happy one.

He also told himself that once he reached York his feelings for her might alter and she would no longer attract him so violently as she had done last night.

He thought the reason was partly that he had never before been alone with a woman for so long unless he was making love to her.

He was also inclined to attribute the intensity of his feelings to the fact that he was in better health and more full of energy than he had been for a long time.

The publican brought him his breakfast almost as soon as he was sitting at the table. To the Duke’s surprise Valora did not appear.

He was not worried that she had disappeared or was ill, because he had heard her moving about in her room while he was dressing and talking to someone else, who he imagined was a chambermaid.

He did, however, glance at his watch two or three times before, as he was finishing his coffee, she came into the parlour.

He was just about to ask her what had kept her, when she came to his side to say,

“Would you please give me some money?”

The Duke raised his eyebrows, but he did not speak and she added quickly,

“I don’t want to take more than you can – afford to give me and I am sure Grandpapa will – pay you back when we – reach him.”

“Why do you want money at this moment,” the Duke asked.

He thought Valora would reply that it was for the chambermaid who had been helping her. To his surprise she hesitated and looked down in what he thought was an embarrassed manner.

“I hope that we have no secrets from each other, at any rate none that concern our journey,” he said quietly.

“It is for the – maid who helped me with your cravats,” Valora replied. “She is very worried about herself.”

The way Valora spoke made the Duke sure that he knew the answer to his question, but he waited and, after a moment, she said with the colour rising in her cheeks,

“She is having a – baby and she will not be – employed here any longer. She does not know where she will go.”

“Then I presume she is not married!” the Duke remarked cynically.

Valora lifted her eyes to his.

“How did you guess?”

The Duke desisted from saying it was not only the oldest story in the world,

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