The Earl Escapes by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788675017
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
Published: 2021-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

“They were really thrilled to meet you,” Valencia smiled.

They were leaving the third of the farms that the Earl had inspected.

She was glad that he appeared very much at home with the simple people who worked on the Dolphin Estate as their forebears had done for many generations.

He admired their livestock, accepted a glass of delicious home-made cider and complimented the farmer’s wife on the attractiveness of her house.

Everybody seemed so pleased with the Earl’s attention and interest.

Valencia felt a little thrill of happiness because she knew that she had made him aware of his responsibilities.

It was also an inexpressible joy that he had disposed of Lady Hester and the two men who had come with her. She had been terribly afraid that they would not leave The Priory.

But she learnt later in the day, after the Earl had returned home, that they had obeyed his instructions and they had left within an hour of the scene that had been enacted in her father’s study.

“I wish I could be sure,” she said to the Vicar, “that they will now leave the Earl alone and not try any more of their wicked tricks on him.”

“I am both surprised and horrified,” her father said quietly, “and I hope that the Earl will have learnt from this experience that ‘one cannot touch pitch without being defiled’.”

Valencia, however, was prepared to lay all the blame on Lady Hester for what had happened. She felt that the dark-eyed beauty was as sensuous as a snake and as poisonous.

Because her father was so eager to get on with his book, he had left it to her to take the Earl round the estate.

She had been only too willing to comply.

She wanted more than anything else to see the reaction of the people to their new Master as well as to make sure that the Earl understood how much The Priory and, above all, he himself meant to them.

In between visiting more of the farms, which were some distance apart from each other, they called on several cottagers and inspected a school.

Valencia also showed him another small but beautiful Norman Church, which was in the far North of his estate.

There was no Incumbent at present and her father therefore took the Services there every other week.

The Vicarage was closed and the blinds drawn over the windows and almost without thinking Valencia said,

“It would be lovely if you appointed a young Vicar here who could not only take the Services but organise cricket and football matches with the other villages.”

“Are you suggesting that also comes under my jurisdiction?” the Earl asked in surprise.

“Of course,” Valencia replied, “you choose the Vicar, you pay his stipend and you can instruct him as to what other duties you wish him to perform besides those of arranging the Services.”

“I think that there should be a handbook for landlords,” the Earl said ruefully.

Valencia laughed.

“There will be plenty of people willing to tell you what is expected without your needing a handbook!”

“You are

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.