No Escape from Love by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782131496
Publisher: Barbara Cartland EBooks ltd
Published: 2012-10-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

Vernita was feeling frantic.

The day had passed and there was no sign of the Count. She felt that any moment he would arrive at the Hôtel de Charost, but, although during the morning she hung about at the top of the stairs hoping to see him in the hall, there was no sign of him.

Several other gentlemen called on the Princess while she was in the Boudoir Violet choosing still more gowns and bonnets, but when she came upstairs to dress she spoke of spending the afternoon with a friend.

It was with difficulty that Vernita prevented herself from enquiring if the Count would go with her.

Instead she encouraged the Princess to talk as she sometimes did when she was dressing by asking artless questions about her party last night and the one she was to attend this evening.

The Princess could always be flattered into talking about herself, but, although Vernita tried everything she could to inveigle her into mentioning the Count’s name, she failed.

She realised that, since the Emperor had noticed her, the Princess was looking at her with interest and treating her as a human being.

The knowledge that the evening was approaching and she would either have to do as she was told or else refuse a man who considered himself omnipotent filled Vernita with horror.

She was very innocent, but she knew that women like the Princess had lovers and, while she was vague about what they did together, she knew it was something very intimate and very private.

The idea of any man touching her except the Count made her feel sick and disgusted and she knew that she had felt violent revulsion against the Emperor yesterday when he had tried to kiss her.

She decided when she was alone during the afternoon that she would have to leave the Hôtel de Charost, either of her own volition or because she would be dismissed as the Princess had threatened.

She had not unpacked all the contents of her trunk and now the few things she had removed because she wished to wear them she repacked and was ready, she thought, to leave at a moment’s notice.

At the same time she realised that she could not face Paris alone unless she discussed the matter first with the Count.

She supposed she could go back to her old room in the Rue des Arbres. But she could not pay for it unless she found work and the idea of walking the streets looking for employment was too horrifying to contemplate.

She tried to pray, but she felt that it was impossible to do anything but cry out for her mother as a child might have done.

‘Help me, Mama, help me,’ she begged. ‘Tell me what to do. Supposing he has left Paris – and no longer – wants me?’

She could not believe that the love she felt for the Count had been just a moment’s rapture and he had forgotten her already.

She had heard the sincerity in his voice when he had said he loved her.

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