The Haunted Heart by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788675901
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks ltd
Published: 2022-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Gina remembered to knock on Alice’s door before she was called and a few seconds later she heard her unlock it.

She went in, asking as she did so,

“Did you have a good night?”

“Very good,” Alice replied, “and I really feel like my old self again this morning.”

Gina instinctively glanced over her shoulder just in case somebody was listening.

“I think you should still pretend to be weak,” she proposed.

“I am fed up with being frightened and pretending to be anything but what I am,” Alice said. “And we are lunching with Sir Charles today.”

There was a lilt in her voice, which told Gina that she was excited by the idea.

“Do be careful in front of Mrs. Denver,” she said, “and I have something amusing to tell you.”

“What is it?” Alice asked.

“I slept in the room next door to yours last night and now I must go back and make sure that no one is aware of it.”

“Why?” Alice asked.

“Because I have a suspicion,” she replied, “that some of the ghosts, at any rate, look like Mrs. Denver!”

Alice giggled.

“You are making it up!”

“I may be,” Gina admitted, “at the same time it is certainly a possibility.”

What made her think that was because the lady whom the Earl had fancied had been so frightened that she had not returned to The Priory.

If Mrs. Denver was in love with him as Alice had said, then she would wish to get rid of any rivals.

At the same time the whole story seemed too far-fetched.

‘It would be impossible for the Earl to marry a woman who had been his housekeeper,’ Gina thought to herself.

She was much too innocent to have any idea that Mrs. Denver might expect something different from marriage.

Anyway she had no wish to provoke a lot of comment about what she had done.

She hurried back to her bedroom.

Before she left the room that was next to Alice’s she smoothed down the sheets and put the cover back on the bed.

When Nanny called her, she said,

“I am going to have breakfast with her Ladyship, Nanny, and will you tell Rose that I would like to move into the room next to hers, because she wants me there.”

“That stuck-up Mrs. Denver won’t like you movin’ without her permission,” Nanny said sharply.

“She can hardly refuse me, seeing how many unoccupied rooms there are at The Priory,” Gina replied.

She put on her dressing gown and hurried off to have breakfast with Alice before she had her bath and dressed. Alice was waiting for her and she began,

“I hope I am going to have something to eat this morning. I am hungry.”

“Ask for some eggs,” Gina suggested, “and also steaming hot coffee.”

She thought that Alice looked frightened and she added,

“All right, I will do it. If that woman thinks I am interfering she cannot dislike me any more than she does already.”

“I expect she is very jealous of you,” Alice said, “and if Cousin Druro so much as looks in your direction, she will drown you in the lake.

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