Stand and Deliver your Heart by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788674201
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks ltd
Published: 2020-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

The Earl came down the stairs for breakfast early to find that Vanda was already in the parlour.

She was looking very smart in her riding habit, wearing a hat that had a gauze veil trailing prettily behind it.

“Good morning, Vanda,” he smiled at her. “Now I know you really are a country girl.”

“Because I am up so early?” Vanda asked. “I like riding when the world is fresh.”

“So do I,” the Earl agreed, “and I wish I was riding this morning.”

As the landlord and the waitresses came hurrying in with their breakfast, he suggested,

“As I want to talk to you on the way to where we are going, I have told my groom to ride your horse.”

He thought Vanda looked as if she was going to refuse and added swiftly,

“He is a very experienced rider and, I promise you, you can trust him.”

“I feel sure that I can,” Vanda said, “and actually Papa’s grooms with your team have already left.”

“I thought they would have,” the Earl said, “and, if they have to wait for you so that you can ride home with them, I am sure that will present no difficulties.”

Vanda had already instructed the grooms to be sure to take the Earl’s superlative horses as gently as possible.

They were to meet her at the crossroads.

It was about a mile from the village and she doubted if there would be any people about to notice them.

She well knew that her father, when they arrived home, would be extremely interested in the Earl’s new horses.

She thought with a feeling of excitement that it would be wonderful when all the stables at The Hall were again filled with horses to equal or even surpass them.

As they went on with their breakfast, the Earl asked her,

“Did you sleep well?”

“Very well, thanks to you.”

There was a question in his eyes and she explained,

“I have been worrying about you riding so blithely into danger. But now that you are going to the Barracks, I am no longer afraid.”

“I am just longing to say,” he answered, “that the whole situation is exaggerated. I cannot really believe that English highwaymen, however many there may be, are anything like as intimidating as the dastardly Napoleon Bonaparte!”

Vanda laughed.

And then she said,

“One is a national problem, the other a personal one.”

The Earl liked the quick way she managed to reply to him and he said,

“After what you told me last night about the distressing lack of compliments paid in this part of the country, may I tell you that you look very lovely and very smart.”

“You are making me feel as if I was deliberately asking for compliments,” Vanda replied, “but now they are here, I am definitely enjoying them.”

The Earl laughed.

Vanda could not help feeling that it was very delightful to be with him.

When breakfast was finished, the Earl paid the landlord so generously that he bowed almost right down to the ground in appreciation of what he had received.

Outside the Earl’s phaeton was waiting.

When his groom had handed him the reins, he started to move out of the yard.

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