Joined by Love by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78213-227-1
Publisher: Barbara Cartland.com
Published: 2013-02-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

Lucilla had always thought that Wellsprings Place, where she had grown up, was the loveliest country house she had ever seen.

But, as she walked gingerly up the curved drive to the Marquis of Castlebury’s home, her breath making a little cloud in the cold air, she thought there was something about Appleton Hall that was especially beautiful.

Was it the soft colour of the honey-coloured stone? Or the graceful proportions of the tall windows? Or just the atmosphere of welcome that seemed to emanate from the elegant porch and the wide front door?

Lucilla pushed her cold hands deep into the pockets of her pink coat and stood still for a moment, looking up at the old house and trying to make up her mind just exactly why she found it so appealing.

Then she heard a shrill yapping and a small white dog raced towards her and started jumping up excitedly.

“Daisy!” a girl’s voice called. “Oh dear, I am so sorry, she is going to ruin your lovely coat with her muddy paws!”

Lucilla looked down at the dog’s little snub-nosed face and bulging black eyes and she laughed at its comical expression. “It really doesn’t matter! I am sure the mud will brush away.”

“You are very sweet,” remarked the tall dark-haired young woman who was approaching her across the wide lawn in the front of the house. “Daisy is so naughty about jumping up, especially if she likes somebody.”

She held out her hand to Lucilla. “I am Violet Castlebury, Dermot’s sister. And you must be Lucilla.”

Violet’s eyes were as soft and dark as pansies and Lucilla could tell from the shape of her eyebrows and her elegant nose that she was indeed the Marquis’s sister.

“My brother was so very amused to meet another of Nanny Groves’s charges!” Violet was saying. “We often wondered, when we were younger, about the little girl she had left us for.”

The little dog was scrabbling at Lucilla’s coat hem as if it would have liked to jump into her arms.

“Daisy, do get down!” Violet exclaimed, picking up her pet and kissing the top of its head. “She adores you, it’s obvious! But we have been looking at the spring bulbs, which are just coming up in the Park and her paws are very muddy. You must be cold, Lucilla – do come inside.”

Inside Appleton Hall was even more glorious than Lucilla had expected. As she now stepped into the hall, she breathed in the fragrant scents of lavender wax and of the white lilies that stood in a great vase on top of the piano.

“My brother loves music,” Violet went on, as she led Lucilla into the drawing room, “and he insists that the hall has the best acoustics of any room in the house, so he must have his piano there!”

Lucilla remembered how he had come to the little salon at the Armstrongs, when he had heard her playing Chopin, but she said nothing. The Marquis had obviously forgotten that day and would not have said anything to his sister and so Violet would not know that they had met before.

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