The Sign of Love by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788672252
Published: 2019-08-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

After Rose had left the cabin, Bettina remembered that there was a lace collar that needed mending on one of her gowns.

As Rose was so preoccupied with her own affairs and had other ladies to look after, Bettina decided that she would do it herself.

She looked for the little sewing box that had been her mother’s and which contained most of the cottons and silks she required for mending and repairs.

She slipped the silver thimble onto her finger and chose a silk to match the lace that was old and very fragile.

She threaded her needle and darned it with small skilful stitches, thinking as she did so of the hours she had spent at school learning to embroider under the tuition of a French nun.

Madame de Vesarie had always been very insistent that her pupils should aspire to every feminine accomplishment.

They were all taught to play the pianoforte, to sketch and paint watercolours and to embroider with the traditional stitches that had been handed down to every generation for centuries.

Some of the older girls were allowed to cook so that when they returned to their ancestral mansions they would be able to supervise the stillroom where all the pastries, jams and special condiments were made.

Because Bettina had stayed so long at school she had learnt everything that Madame de Vesarie’s Seminary could teach her.

She felt now with a little drooping of her spirits that, if she had to marry Lord Eustace, she would probably spend her time sewing, not fine or beautiful materials but garments for the poor.

These, because those without money were not allowed to be vain or self-conscious, would undoubtedly be extremely ugly.

She found herself wondering why people like Lord Eustace always made the poor feel crushed and servile, allowing them no feelings or will of their own and then expecting them to obey in every way what was decided for them.

She thought that Rose’s story of how her grandmother had been treated was typical of what she had learnt by reading the newspapers and some reports on the objects and aims of the Reformers.

They had the right ideas, she told herself, but put them into operation in the wrong way.

There was too much regimentation and too much driving people into doing what those in authority thought to be right rather than persuading them to be co-operative.

She gave a little sigh.

It was quite certain if she put forward such ideas that Lord Eustace would not listen to her.

Unexpectedly the door opened and her father came into the cabin.

She looked up at him with a smile of welcome and then, as she saw the expression on his face, she asked quickly,

“What has happened?”

Sir Charles closed the door behind him and walked across the small cabin to the porthole as if in need of air.

He stood for a moment gazing out onto the blue sea.

Then he said,

“I have something to tell you, Bettina.”

“What is it, Papa?”

Again there was a pause before Sir Charles answered her,

“I have just come from the Duke.

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