Love Drives In by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online Page A

face the future carrying on his great legacy.
    And yet it flashed through her mind that she would be far happier if she remained as she was, with the Earl, growing closer to him.
    Then she told herself she would not be a coward.
    At last she managed to say,
    "Of course I will do exactly what you want me to do. I can only thank you, as my father would have done, from the bottom of my heart. Have people not been curious as to where he is?"
    "I told them he was abroad looking for new ideas and new inventions," Mr. Johnson said, "and, of course, everyone in their minds added – 'and new customers.'"
    Then almost as if he thought the Earl might be listening, Mr. Johnson added,
    "Are you quite certain Lord Kennington does not know who you really are?"
    "Of course not," Dorina replied. "I came here as his secretary, and he has no idea I have any interest other than the work I am doing for him."
    "Good. Let's hope it stays that way. I gather that his own vehicle is so far advanced that it might cause us problems if news gets out. As things are, we will soon have the world at our feet."
    "Or perhaps he will," she murmured.
    'I suppose,' she told herself, 'I ought to hate him, because if his car is at all good, it will take some of the glory away from me and Papa.'
    However she did not say this aloud.
    "Please arrange an increase in wages for all the men who are working on the horseless carriage," she said. "Our future depends on them, and I want them to feel appreciated."
    "It will certainly do that," Mr. Johnson agreed. "May I say you are your father's daughter in thinking of other people as well as yourself?"
    "Thank you," Dorina said.
    "Perhaps I should go now. It would be better if the Earl does not find me here."
    When he had left, Dorina sat silently thinking over what she had heard. She knew that this should be her proudest and happiest moment. But all she could think of was how the Earl had thrown dust in her eyes.
    'He is cleverer than I thought him to be,' she thought.
    In a strange way she found that she was almost as eager for his success as she was for her own, even though they were rivals.
    She wished that she could discuss it with him, and no longer keep her true identity a secret.
    'How close we might have grown, sharing the same ambitions,' she thought. 'Now, perhaps he will think I was spying on him.'
    She could not bear that thought. She had found that there was something almost magical in being with him.
    But now, how could things ever be right between them again?
    After a while Dorina realised that she could not go on day dreaming all this time and went back to work.
    But within a few minutes there was another interruption.
    She heard the sound of voices in the hall. The butler seemed to be trying to restrain someone who would not be denied.
    Then the door opened and a woman swept in.
    She was very smartly dressed. The feathers in her hat fluttered as she shut the door behind her.
    As she approached the desk she gave an exclamation and stared at Dorina.
    "Where is Evelyn?" she asked, naming Dorina's predecessor.
    "I am afraid Miss Barnes is very ill, so I have taken her place."
    "Are you now his Lordship's secretary?" the woman asked in such a scathing voice that Dorina looked at her in surprise.
    She thought she was deliberately being unpleasant.
    "I have come," she said quietly, "to help his Lordship in an emergency. Fortunately that is what I am able to do."
    "I should be very much surprised if you can," the woman answered. "I told him that I would be calling on him this morning. Where is he?"
    "He has had to go out," Dorina told her.
    "But I want to see him at once," the newcomer persisted. "In fact we had arranged to be together today, and that is why I came here as early as I could."
    "I am sure his Lordship will be returning as soon as possible," Dorina replied. "In the meantime perhaps you would like to wait for him."
    She spoke in a polite voice, but it was hard to keep her temper in the face of so much