The Saint and the Sinner by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland [Barbara Cartland]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780709031703
Publisher: Barbara Cartland.Ebooks ltd
Published: 2012-05-23T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

As soon as Pandora and the three men entered the Salon from the terrace, Kitty cried out in a furious voice:

“Where the hell’ve you all been? And where’s Norvin? I told you to bring him back with you.”

“We could not find him,” Freddie answered, “but I expect he will turn up in a moment or two.”

“There’s something funny going on here,” Kitty said disagreeably, “and I don’t like it!”

Pandora did not wait to hear any more. She walked across the Salon and without speaking to anyone went into the hall and closed the door behind her.

She realised that once again the three women had had too much to drink, and Caro was in fact sprawling across a sofa with her eyes closed.

‘How can gentlemen find them amusing when they look like that?’ she wondered.

She had noticed at dinner how much they drank and how each glass seemed to make them noisier and more vulgar in their behaviour.

She could not help wondering what old Burrows thought, but he was too well trained to look anything but impassive.

She saw him rebuke with a steely, glance one of the footmen who sniggered at something which had been said. “If only Chart Hall could be like it used to be,” she said with a sigh.

Then everything was swept from her mind but the thought that in the morning the Earl would be fighting a duel on her account.

She was sure that he would be a match for Sir Gilbert. At the same time, duels could be dangerous, and she remembered stories she had read or heard of tragedies occurring when men were fighting each other and how the victor often had to flee the country for fear of being arrested.

She was certain nothing like that would happen here. But still she was afraid.

It was her fault, and yet what could she have done except not to have been so foolish as to go out alone in the garden?

She might have guessed, she thought now, that Sir Gilbert would follow her even though she thought he would have been too concerned with his gaming.

“It will be all right – I am sure it will be – all right,” she tried to promise herself optimistically, but all the same she felt afraid.

Mary came to help her undress, but for once she was not interested in anything the girl had to tell her. When she was alone Pandora got into bed, but only to lie sleepless in the darkness.

She began to pray frantically that everything would be all right and the Earl would not be hurt.

If he was even scratched in such an encounter, he might be angry with her and blame her for the whole occurrence.

The idea was so distressing that sleep seemed to retreat even further from her.

About an hour and a half later Pandora heard the rest of the party coming upstairs to bed and they were certainly very noisy about it.

She thought that if they were as drunk as they sounded, they might damage the beautiful Staterooms in which they were sleeping.

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.