Born of Love by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782139454
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
Published: 2017-03-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

The Duc raced ahead of Marcia and, as they pulled in their horses, she was laughing.

She had no idea how lovely she looked with her eyes sparkling, her cheeks flushed and her golden hair rioting over her head.

She turned to him and said,

“I am not going to say ‘the best horse won’, because I think your stallion is already very pleased with himself.”

“And I suppose you are thinking the same of his owner,” the Duc remarked.

“But of course!”

Looking towards the château in the distance, she added,

“How can you be anything else when you possess so much of everything? But, as my Nanny always warned me, ‘pride comes before a fall!’”

“I think mine said something similar,” the Duc nodded, “but it would be churlish not to tell you that you ride better than any woman I have ever seen.”

“Papa would be pleased to hear that,” Marcia answered.

Then she gave a little cry and put up her hand as if to silence her lips.

“Be careful! Be very careful!” she cried. “If you say anything like that to Papa, he will think that you are growing to like me.”

She paused before she said urgently,

“I have just thought – nobody must know that we met out riding and you must ignore me when we get back to the château.”

“Are you really telling me how to behave, Lady Marcia?” the Duc asked.

“Of course I am,” Marcia replied. “I have as much, if not more, to lose than you by being a puppet in this ridiculous drama.”

She did not see the surprise on the Duc’s face, but went on,

“The one thing we must not do is to ride back to the château together. I will go one way and you must go another.”

“It gets more and more complicated,” the Duc said, “but I understand what you are saying to me.”

“I will hurry back now,” Marcia said as if she was thinking it out, “and join Papa for breakfast. If you come in later, there is no need for anybody to think that we met out riding.”

She had assumed as she spoke that they had been unobserved.

Then she suddenly realised that it would not be difficult for someone, if they were looking out of the windows, to be aware of them talking together.

Because the thought agitated her, she said quickly,

“I will go now, but before I do, may I choose which horse I would like to ride this afternoon in the races?”

“No,” the Duc replied, “I will choose one for you.”

Marcia looked at him to see if he was serious and said,

“If it is some hobbledehoy animal that prevents me from winning any of the races, I shall get even with you in one way or another!”

She did not wait for his reply, but rode away on Aquilin at a gallop.

The Duc looked after her, thinking that she was certainly amusing as well as being different from any woman he had ever encountered.

Then obediently he turned his horse towards the valley.

He knew how he could arrive back at the château by a different route from the one Marcia had taken.

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