The Love Trap by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782136781
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks ltd
Published: 2015-04-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter five

By the time they reached Folkestone, Janeta was very tired.

Because it was a cross-country journey, it had been impossible to do it by train and they therefore travelled by road, changing horses at Posting houses.

As the Duke regularly made the journey there from Wynchester Castle, they were his own horses, so naturally the journey had been done in almost record time.

Nevertheless, when the saw the Duke’s yacht moored at the quayside, Janeta was glad the journey was over.

It had been impossible at the speed they were travelling to talk very much and she had in fact slept a little. She suspected that the Duke dozed too, even though when she woke she always found his eyes open.

They went immediately aboard the yacht, a new acquisition he was very proud of. Every modern gadget was incorporated into the vessel and everything looked very spic and span.

But Janeta was glad to go to her cabin and, at the Duke’s suggestion, undress and climb into bed.

“When we reach Paris,” he said, “I will, of course, engage a lady’s maid for you, but until then I am afraid that you will have to look after yourself.”

Janeta laughed.

“That is something I have done all my life, so it will be no imposition!” she replied.

Then she wondered if always having a lady’s maid would be somewhat restrictive and if actually she would prefer to manage on her own.

The Steward brought her dinner on a tray and told her that the Duke was eating a good meal upstairs.

“As soon as His Grace has finished, we’ll be moving out of harbour. The sea’s smooth and I don’t think Your Grace’ll find it unpleasant.”

“I am sure I will not,” Janeta replied.

She knew, because her father had told her, that in ships Stewards waited on ladies even in their cabins. She had expected to find it embarrassing, but the Steward who had brought her dinner was a middle-aged man with a sunburnt face and a twinkle in his eyes.

Janeta did not feel the least shy that she was sitting back against the pillows in a frilly pink bed jacket over a diaphanous nightgown that the Duke had bought her in London.

In fact, because it was all so different from what she had ever experienced, she felt it was unreal and talked to the Steward quite naturally as he took her tray away.

Then, as she was thinking that she would now be able to sleep, the Duke came into her cabin.

She smiled at him as she said,

“I have been told you have eaten a good dinner and I can well believe it, because the food is delicious.”

“I chose my chef with great care,” the Duke replied.

He sat down on the side of the bed and asked,

“How are you? Not too tired I hope.”

“I thought I should be too excited to be tired,” Janeta replied, “but now I feel that the lap of the waves will soon rock me to sleep.”

She spoke without sounding the least affected and after a moment

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