An Introduction To The Eternal Collection Jubilee Edition by Cartland Barbara Read Free Book Online Page A

the Keens had come to live near to Camfield Place. She had the dark hair, flashing dark eyes and olive complexion of a typical Spanish girl; she was bold and flirtatious in her manner and Lizbeth could see quite clearly how Francis, weak and inexperienced where women were concerned, could be flattered by her interest in him.
    Lizbeth’s face was worried as she walked slowly back up the garden to where the family was seated beside the sundial.
    “’Tis cold,” she heard Catherine say pettishly as she neared them. “I shall return to the house. April sunshine is always deceptive and it is easy enough to catch a chill if one trusts it too far.”
    “I will come with you,” Phillida said, rising to her feet.
    “Will you not show me the dovecote ?” Rodney asked almost desperately. “Your father tells me you have over a thousand doves there. I would like to see them.”
    “Father can show them to you so much better than I can,” Phillida answered, and Sir Harry, without realising what was occurring, agreed heartily with his daughter.
    “I’ve made a study of the birds,” he said. “Come, Hawkhurst, I would like you to see them. God’s death, but I often wonder what we would do without doves in the winter, and our cook makes the best pie of them I have ever tasted. Is that not the truth, Catherine, my dear?”
    But Catherine was not listening to him. She had turned to Lizbeth.
    “Where is Francis?” she asked.
    There was something in her voice and in her eyes which told Lizbeth all too surely that her stepmother guessed where Francis had gone. It was Catherine who had goaded Sir Harry into forbidding Francis the Keens house in the first place. It was Catherine who would make trouble now, if she could be sure that Francis had disobeyed his father.
    “Francis has gone to the stables,” Lizbeth lied. “He wishes to mount the new grey which Father was talking about last night.”
    She saw the suspicion in Catherine’s eyes change to uncertainty, while Sir Harry roared out his approval.
    “By my beard, I’ll make a horseman of the boy yet,” he smiled. “If he can ride the grey, I’ll make him a present of it. How would that be for a birthday present?”
    “Francis would be delighted, Father.”
    Lizbeth felt miserable, even as she spoke. Francis was afraid of the grey horse, she knew that.
    “We won’t tell him yet,” Sir Harry said; “we will keep it as a surprise. In the meantime, we will see how he manages the animal.”
    He turned as if he would go to the stables.
    “No, do not go and watch him, Father,” Lizbeth said quickly. “You know how nervous Francis is. He would fall off for a certainty if you were there. Besides, Master Hawkhurst wants you to show him the dovecote.”
    She looked towards Rodney as she spoke and he heard the appeal in her voice, and saw an expression of almost pleading in her eyes. Instinctively he responded to it.
    A woman in trouble or in need of his strength and protection was something he could never resist. It flattered his vanity, now, that Lizbeth should beg his help.
    How pretty she was, he thought. He would like to put his arms round her and tell her that he would chase away her troubles, whatever they might me. Was her heart beating as quickly as when he had last felt it thudding against his breast?
    He smiled at the thought, smiled also to Lizbeth and turned to her father.
    “Yes, do show me the dovecote, Sir Harry,” he said. “Well, of course, if you are really interested,” Sir Harry conceded. “Are you coming, Phillida?”
    But Phillida had gathered her embroidery together and, rising to her feet, was following her stepmother up the path towards the house.
    “If you will excuse me, Father,” she answered, “I would rather go into the house. ’Tis cold, and I have no liking for the dovecote.”
     

3
    Lizbeth lay in the dark and listened. There was only the silence of the great house, which had long been closed for the night. Outside she could hear