Look Listen and Love by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782130710
Publisher: Barbara Cartland EBooks ltd

Chapter Five

The more Tempera considered what she should do, the more confused she became.

She felt as if everything had fallen into small pieces around her and she could not put them together again. There was danger in every course she might take, and even more in doing nothing.

If only the Count were not staying at the Chateau, then perhaps the deception might not be noticed for a long time. Many people saw what they expected to see, and the Duke would be so familiar with his picture so that even he might merely feel happy to know it was there and would not examine it closely.

But she was quite certain that sooner or later during his visit to the Chateau the Count would look at every picture on the walls and discuss them with the Duke.

It was the sort of things that connoisseurs like her father always did.

Even if they had seen a picture hundreds of times before, they would still stand in front of it again, look and appraise it and, as her father had said so often, listen to what it had to say.

“I have to do something,” Tempera told herself. The question was – what?

She sat in the shade of the olive tree staring with unseeing eyes across the verdant valley, aware of nothing but her own confusion.

She was oblivious to the loveliness of her surroundings, the bees buzzing amongst the flowers and the fragrance of wild thyme.

Then with a sense of shock which made her start violently she heard an amused voice say,

“I could show you a better hiding place than this.”

She looked up at the Duke, her eyes wide in her heart-shaped face, and thought he seemed larger and more overpowering than ever.

It was impossible to ignore that her whole being responded to the knowledge that he was there and that she was seeing him again.

“What has happened? Why are you looking so worried?” he enquired.

She looked away from him, surprised that he should have noticed and aware that her heart was pounding in a most unaccountable manner.

He sat down beside her amongst the wild flowers.

“What has upset you?” he asked.

Now there was a beguiling note in his voice that Tempera thought she had not heard before.

“It is – nothing,” she murmured.

Even as she spoke she knew how annoying it was when people made such a silly answer when there was obviously something very wrong.

“That is not – quite true,” she added quickly, “but it is – something I cannot tell Your Grace.”

“Why not?” he enquired. “And why have you come out here to hide yourself?”

She did not answer and he said with a smile,

“If you are trying to hide from me may I say it is impossible. I lived here for months when I was a boy and I know every nook and cranny where it was hard for first my nurse, then my tutors to find me.”

Tempera gave a little sigh.

She knew she longed to ask him about his childhood, to listen to him talking to her in his deep voice that seemed to compel her attention.

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