Never Laugh at Love by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782131199
Publisher: Barbara Cartland EBooks ltd

CHAPTER FIVE

Anthea stared at herself in the mirror and realised that she had never before looked so attractive – in fact almost beautiful.

She could indeed hardly believe it was her own reflection that she was seeing.

The exquisite and extremely elaborate wedding gown, which her Godmother had sent her from London, was undoubtedly every woman’s ideal gown for the most important moment in her life.

On her head Anthea wore a lace veil that had been in the Duke’s family for generations and surmounting it a diamond tiara fashioned in the shape of a wreath of flowers that glittered and quivered with every movement she made.

“I did not believe anything could be so lovely!” Thais had said in an awed voice before she left for the Church with her mother and the other girls.

In fact the whole family, it seemed to Anthea, had been breathless with excitement ever since she had told them in an embarrassed manner that she was to marry the Duke.

After she had announced it on her mother’s return from Doncaster, for a moment they had stared at her speechless.

Then there had been a babble of excitement, which made it difficult for Anthea to make herself heard.

“The Duke of Axminster!”

“But you hardly mentioned him in your letters!”

“Why did you not tell us about him?”

“How could you have been so secretive?”

The Duke’s letter to Lady Forthingdale had in fact arrived the next day, but by that time the Duke had met Anthea’s family.

She had expected them to hate him as she told herself she did, but to her astonishment he charmed them all.

“He is so handsome and exactly what a Duke should be!” Chloe cried.

Thais was beguiled into thinking him more romantic than any hero she had ever read about in a novel.

“He said such kind and complimentary things about Papa,” Lady Forthingdale said later with a little throb in her voice, “and I know, Anthea, that he is just the husband Papa would have chosen for you had he been alive.”

It was hard at times for Anthea not to cry out that she was acting a lie, that the Duke did not care for her – and that if she had a choice she would not marry him.

But because she felt so guilty and because she was so afraid he might discover her treachery, she forced herself to act the part expected of her.

The Duke had not only made himself extremely pleasant to her mother and to the girls, but he had also proved unexpectedly considerate.

Because he realised they had no servants, when he came to a meal he brought with him delicacies that required no cooking and insisted that his servants should wait at table.

For the first time Thais, Chloe and Phebe ate pâté de foie gras, boar’s head, succulent hams and game cooked in a manner that bore no resemblance to the plain boiling and roasting which had been the limit of Nanny’s repertoire.

Exotic fruits from Lord Doncaster’s greenhouses were also produced and there were chocolates and bon-bons that were so expensive to buy that none of the girls had ever been given them before.

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