100. A Rose In Jeopardy by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online Page A

His very best friend for so many years. How could he betray Lyndon like this?
    But he only had to look at Marian, at the reflection of the candle flames making little stars in her dark eyes and her sweet lips parted in a smile, to know why.
    Julius had fallen completely under her spell, just as he had done and then something came into Lyndon’s mind that cast a chill over his whole body.
    Julius came from a very wealthy family indeed. He might not be a Lord, like Lyndon, but his family was even wealthier than the Brockleys.
    Perhaps it was not Lyndon that Marian had cared for as much as the houses in Mayfair and Epsom – and the substantial Brockley fortune.
    The hubbub of the crowded café filled his ears and he felt hot and exhausted.
    He pulled the hat from his head and fanned it back and forth to try and make a cool breeze.
    Then the palm fronds rustled by him and an angry face topped with a shock of red hair peered through.
    “Hey! It’s really not on, spying on people like that! I’ll have to go and speak to the manager,” Julius thundered. “They’ve no right to let in disreputable types like you.”
    And then he gasped with shock as he saw Lyndon.
    Lyndon clapped the hat back on his head, but it was too late.
    Marian was now at Julius’s side. She had seen him too.
    “If that doesn’t beat everything,” she exclaimed. “First he won’t even speak to me and now he’s following me around.”
    She slid her arm through Julius’s and gave Lyndon a proud, cold little smile.
    “Come along, darling,” she proposed seductively.
    Julius stared at Lyndon.
    “You’d better leave,” he suggested, his face almost as red as his hair.
    Lyndon put his hat on with a flourish and dropped a few coins on the table to pay for his food.
    “I wish you a pleasant evening,” he said and turned his back on them.
    The long black cloak swirled around his body as he walked out of the hotel, ignoring the stares of the guests in the lobby.
    It was twilight outside now and, as he strode along the pavement, he wanted to keep on walking until London was far behind him.
    What was there to stay for?
    His friends, his family, the woman he had loved, all meant nothing to him now.
    And, in his brand new disguise, he was free to go wherever and be whoever he liked.
    All he had to do was decide on a destination.
     

CHAPTER FOUR
    Through a cloud of cigar smoke, Rosella could see that Mr. Algernon Merriman had fallen forward onto the table and was fast asleep, his cheek resting on his arms.
    The flickering candlelight illuminated a bald patch on the crown of his head, which she had not noticed before.
    It was a long time since Rosella had dined with any gentlemen at New Hall, as her Aunt Beatrice had very few guests, but she knew that Lord Brockley and Mr. Merriman should leave the table and go to the smoking room to enjoy their port and cigars.
    A strange whistling noise, accompanied by a series of loud grunts, came from Algernon. He was snoring.
    Rosella could not bear it any longer, so she pushed her chair back and rose to her feet.
    “If you will excuse me, my Lord,” she began, but Lord Brockley waved his cigar at her, indicating that she should sit down again.
    “Where are you going?” he demanded and a ring of smoke escaped from his thin lips, expanding slowly before dissolving into a misty cloud that hung over the table. “We haven’t had our little discussion yet.”
    Rosella’s head swam and she felt as if she could not breathe.
    “It is very late now, my Lord,” she said, thinking longingly of her cool quiet bedroom.
    “This is my house,” Lord Brockley asserted, “and late or early, while you are staying here, your time is my time.”
    There was something about the tone of his voice that made Rosella suddenly shiver.
    “Your fortune,” he continued. “What is it?”
    And then he smiled the cold smile she had seen that afternoon, as she lowered herself onto her chair again.
    “I – don’t have a