The Prisoner of Love by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782133674
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks ltd
Published: 2013-05-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Sorilda was just about to reply when suddenly the door seemed to burst open.

As the butler announced in a somewhat shaken voice, “Lady Alison Fane, my Lady!” a woman passed him, rushing into the room in a manner that made Sorilda stare at her incredulously.

She ran towards the Earl, who had risen to his feet and as she did so Sorilda saw that the visitor was extremely attractive with fair hair, not so gold as the Duchess’s, but still unmistakably fair and with wide blue eyes that at the moment seemed to be dark with anger.

“Sholto!” she cried before she reached the Earl’s side. “It’s not true! Say it’s not true!”

Her voice seemed to ring out so shrilly that Sorilda expected the crystal chandeliers to tinkle with the force of it. Then, as the Earl did not seem to find words to reply to her, Lady Alison turned her head to look at Sorilda.

“Is this her? Could you possibly have been so treacherous, so cruel, so underhand?”

Now she no longer shrieked and there was an unmistakable sob behind the words.

At last the Earl found his voice.

“I regret to find you so upset, Alison,” he said. “I had, in fact, intended to call upon you tomorrow morning.”

“To tell me you are married?” Lady Alison asked and now again she was furious. “When I was informed a few minutes ago at Lady Shrewsbury’s ball what had happened, I did not believe it!”

“How did Lady Shrewsbury know?” the Earl asked curiously.

“Apparently one of your servants told her butler,” Lady Alison replied, “but I should have thought, had you any sensibility, that I would have been the first to be informed of your intention to marry!”

Sorilda knew that the Earl was finding it difficult to explain.

Before he could do so, Lady Alison went on,

“After all we have meant to each other, after all the love I have given you, the happiness we have found in each other, how could this happen, how could it? If you had decided to marry, why not marry me?”

“It’s not exactly like that, Alison,” the Earl began tentatively, but Lady Alison had not finished speaking.

Once again she was looking at Sorilda.

“What can this woman give you that I have not given you? By what means has she tricked you into marriage when you have always sworn that you would remain a bachelor?”

She gave a sudden shriek and flung up her hands dramatically.

“How could you have done this to me! How could you make me suffer in such a way? I love you, Sholto. Yes, I love you with my whole heart and now I shall not only suffer the agonies of being forsaken but also be a laughing stock to all my friends!”

Lady Alison almost spat the words at him as she walked from the Earl to stand over Sorilda.

“I loathe you,” she cried, “and, if I can hurt or injure you in any way, you may be quite certain I will do so! If you think you can keep the most elusive man in London in your clutches, you are very much mistaken.

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