Dollars for the Duke by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782131533
Publisher: Barbara Cartland EBooks ltd
Published: 2012-10-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

Slowly, because he was not quite certain what he should do about it, the Duke moved quietly into the hall.

Only when using all her strength and both hands, Magnolia was still unable to move the bolt at the top of the door, did he say,

“Perhaps I can help you.”

If he had fired a pistol, she could not have seemed more startled. She appeared almost to jump into the air before she turned round to stare at him, her eyes seeming to fill her whole face with terror at his appearance.

The Duke saw that she was wearing a dark gown and over it a long cloak trimmed and lined with ermine. She had a small, comparatively plain bonnet on her head, and beneath it her hair with its strange streaks of silver looked very unusual and, if he had thought about it, very lovely.

As she was obviously stricken into silence, he asked,

“May I, as your husband, know where you are going?”

There was a long pause before in a voice that trembled so much that it sounded as if it was strangled in her throat, Magnolia managed to murmur,

“A-away!”

“That is obvious,” the Duke replied coldly, “and I imagine someone is waiting for you outside.”

“N-no – !”

“You really mean there is no one?”

“No – of course – not – ”

“Am I to understand,” he asked, deliberately keeping his voice very quiet and calm, “that you are going out into the street alone? Where to?”

Again there was a pause before she replied almost as if she was reluctant to answer him,

“I-I don’t – know.”

The Duke looked at her as if he felt she could not be telling the truth.

Her eyes in the light from the candles in the sconces revealed only that she was frightened to the point of immobility and he realised that she had not moved since first he had spoken to her.

He looked down at her feet and saw there was a leather box that she must have placed on the floor before she tried to move the bolt on the door.

It was a very expensive looking box and he suspected it held her jewels.

Again quietly, so as not to frighten her more than she was already, he suggested,

“Suppose we sit down and you explain to me what is happening, and why you feel you have to leave me?”

She made a little convulsive movement and he thought that she was going to refuse.

Then, as if she was too helpless to do anything but obey him, she moved a trifle and the Duke walked forward to pick up the jewel case.

Carrying it, he walked back into the room where he had been when she came down the stairs and was aware as he did so, that she was following him.

He set the jewel case down on the desk and, as she stood indecisively in the doorway, he said in quite an ordinary casual tone,

“This room seems rather cold. I think I should light the fire.”

He took a spill as he spoke

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