Love and the Cheetah by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788672498
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
Published: 2019-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

The Duke had risen early as he usually did.

Instead of going to the stables, however, as he most often would have done, he went to his menagerie.

It was a hobby that always thrilled him and was very close to his heart.

He had learned, however, that it was a great mistake to tell people about it. They either told him that they were terrified of wild animals or else lectured him that it was cruel to keep them cooped up in cages all of the time.

He was sick and tired of hearing the same arguments over and over again.

The fact that menageries had been in existence and popular in all countries since the time of Julius Caesar did not seem to impress his critics.

He therefore had placed his menagerie well out of sight of any of his guests who might wander in the gardens.

He kept it entirely for his own enjoyment and he had long term plans to expand it year by year. This would mean his going abroad to buy the animals he particularly wanted to include in his collection.

It was just half past six as he walked out through the front door, passing two maids in mobcaps who were scrubbing the steps and who then stopped to curtsey to His Grace.

He walked through the gardens, appreciating as always their timeless beauty and then he went through a door in the Herb Garden and down into the orchard.

The fruit trees were breathtakingly lovely with swathes of pink and white blossom scenting the fresh morning air.

As he gazed at them, they reminded him of how Ilesa had looked last night at dinner and he had been stunned by her beauty when he had first seen her in the Vicarage.

But wearing a picture gown that he recognised as being out of date, she looked as if she belonged to a different era.

He was still thinking of her as he reached the enclosure of his favourite animal, a tiger called ‘Rajah’.

The Duke had brought him back from India as a cub and had trained him himself.

Rajah was inclined to be fierce and he made the men who looked after him feel nervous.

They never entered his enclosure alone and, when he was fed, there was always another man standing by with a sharp-pronged weapon to hold him at bay if it became necessary.

The Duke walked to the entrance and lifted the bolt.

The menagerie was locked at night, but it was always opened at dawn so that he could go in and see the animals as early in the morning as he wished.

Then, as he closed the door of the enclosure behind him, he looked for Rajah.

Instantly he was stunned into immobility.

He could see that Rajah was lying under one of the trees in his enclosure.

But then he thought that he must be dreaming!

Rajah’s head was resting in the lap of a woman sitting beside him and she was stroking the tiger’s head.

For a moment he felt that he must be imagining the picture that he saw before him.

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