Love is for Ever by Barbara Rowan Read Free Book Online Page B

as Miss Howard there’s a strong possibility that he might do so!”
    Jacqueline felt herself stiffen.
    “I can’t imagine Mr. Errol taking any notice of me at any time,” she answered. “So far, I’m sure, he regards me as an unnecessary guest, and but for his natural politeness would ignore me altogether.”
    “Oh, he has a great deal of natural politeness—I’ll grant you that,” Neville admitted. “But wellborn Spaniards regard politeness as an essential virtue. The important thing to remember about Dominic is that he is only half Spanish, and the other half of him is English. Many of his instincts are at war with one another—or so I sometimes think. He has the cool-headedness of an Englishman allied to the unpredictableness of a Spaniard. He is also dangerously good-looking, and was born with what is generally known as a silver spoon in his mouth—only in his case I’d say it was a golden one!”
    “You make him sound quite a menace,” Jacqueline remarked, swallowing the last crumb of her cake and declining to be tempted to another.
    “A menace?” the doctor echoed, and stared at the glowing tip of his cigarette. “Well, he could become a menace—if a young woman like you, for instance, ever decided to think seriously of him!”
    And then car wheels sounded outside on the gravel of the drive, and looking up quickly Jacqueline saw that an enormous, pearl-grey colored car had come to rest at the foot of the verandah steps, and the next moment a tall, spare figure in an immaculate white suit descended from the driving-seat and slammed the car door behind him with a movement of unrestrained impatience.
    Jacqueline looked quickly at her host. Her eyes, also a little surprised, said:
    “Talking of menaces!...”
    CHAPTER FIVE
    Jacqueline was looking demurely down at the skirt of her dress and brushing a few crumbs from it when Dominic Errol appeared in the doorway to the living room. She heard Dr. Barr greet him coolly:
    “Oh, good afternoon, Errol!” He stood up rather lazily. “You haven’t come to collect Miss Vaizey, have you? I telephoned to say she was here.”
    “That’s what I have come for,” Dominic answered, and to Jacqueline his voice sounded cold and clipped and almost harsh. “My aunt thought it desirable that I should collect her at once, as we are dining out this evening and Miss Vaizey will have insufficient time to dress.” He looked directly at Jacqueline, and his blue eyes seemed to her to sparkle like stars on a frosty night. “Are you ready to leave, Miss Vaizey?”
    Jacqueline’s slim eyebrows met in a tiny pucker above her grey eyes.
    "But isn’t it rather early,” she suggested, “to be thinking about dinner? I’ve only just finished tea, which Dr. Barr kindly gave me. And last night, if I remember rightly, it was quite late when we dined.”
    “Nevertheless, I’d be glad if you could drag yourself away now!”
    There was no doubt about it, his voice was edged with noticeable sarcasm, and he was plainly displeased about something.
    She stood up. She looked across at Dr. Barr, but apart from the merest suspicion of a smile in his eyes—a rather odd smile at that—his expression gave away little. She held out her hand to him a little hesitantly.
    “Thank you, Doctor,” she said, “for giving me tea. Another day I should like to see the clinic if you have the time to spare to show me round.”
    “I can always make time to show you round. Miss Vaizey,” Neville Barr replied, with what she thought was a faint emphasis on the ‘I’.
    She moved down the verandah steps to the car, and Dominic held open the door beside the driving-seat for her. She felt the superbly sprung seat yield beneath her light weight, and Dominic looked at her carefully to make sure she was quite comfortable before he closed the car door upon her. Then, as if his natural good manners had surged a little to the fore, he turned to Jacqueline’s recent host and said: “My aunt would be glad