The Lioness and the Lily by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788675031
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
Published: 2021-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

The Earl was sitting in the Orangery with a number of papers in front of him when Purilla joined him.

She hesitated before speaking and he looked up and realised that she was a little shy because she was wearing one of the new gowns that he had ordered for her from London.

It was exceedingly becoming and looked what it was extremely expensive.

He knew by the expression in her eyes that she very much wanted his approval and he said as was expected of him,

“You look charming. Bates told me that a carriage-load of gowns had arrived this morning and I do hope that they please you.”

“They are wonderful, more wonderful than anything I have ever had before, but I feel a little strange – ”

She paused before she added,

“You do really – like me in this – gown?”

“You look very lovely,” the Earl said. “Is that what you want me to say?”

He saw by the way her face lit up that she had been anxious in case she did not please him and he thought how vulnerable she was and how much more difficult than he had expected his marriage was likely to be.

For the last two days he had felt too tired and weak to worry about anything except regaining his strength after he had almost collapsed on his arrival at Rock Castle.

Bates had sent a groom post haste for Dr. Jenkins who scolded the Earl more or less in the same way that Nanny had.

“I warned you, my Lord, against overdoin’ it too quickly,” he said. “Concussion is somethin’ we know little about, except that the patient should rest and not do too much. You disobeyed the rules and now you ’ave to pay for it.”

“All right, all right,” the Earl said irritably. “You have made your point. I will take things easy, but nothing infuriates me more than to feel as I do now.”

“Physical injuries are one thing, mental ones another,” Dr. Jenkins said, “and I have the feeling that you have not only to cure your body, my Lord, but also your mind.”

The Earl did not acknowledge that he was right, but he knew that in fact for a local doctor, Dr .Jenkins was unusually perceptive.

He had been very worried – worried about Louise, worried about his marriage to Purilla, even though it seemed such plain-sailing, and worried too about the future with a young girl who did not now seem to him as simple and amenable as he had expected her to be.

The Earl was not at all conceited, but he was well aware that women found him exceedingly attractive and he had expected any woman he married would, of course, love him and be content with the affection that he would give her as a husband.

What he had not anticipated was that Purilla would, although she had not said so, demand not affection but love.

He could see by the expression in her eyes when she had knelt at his feet that she had

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.