Lucky Logan Finds Love by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online

– happened? How – can it?’ she asked herself despairingly.
    It was then her whole body shook with a terror that made it impossible to think and she could only feel as if she had reached the end of the world.
    Finally, when she could cry no more, her brain began to think more clearly.
    She thought that her stepfather’s plan was such a wild one that it was unlikely to come off and she told herself that she would have to find some other way of saving both her home and herself.
    What it would be she had no idea.
    Yet she knew her father would expect her to explore all likely possibilities before giving up and accepting the inevitable.
    She remembered how he had told her once that he had lost his way.
    It was in a remote part of a country where the natives were hostile. He had three bearers with him, carrying his luggage, who were so terrified that they wanted to run away.
    “It must have been very frightening, Papa,” Belinda had said.
    “I admit it was a very uncomfortable situation to be in,” her father had replied, “but I knew I had to keep my head and not let the men with me be aware that I was worried. It was, I am sure, the prayers I sent up to the Power that is always there, if we seek it, that saved me.”
    “Do you mean, Papa,” Belinda asked, who was quite young at the time, “that you think God, when you prayed to Him, told you what to do?”
    “I am sure of it!” her father answered. “It was a question of which way to go, right or left. I learnt later that had I taken the wrong path, we would not only have lost our lives, but also our heads, for the natives there were head-hunters!”
    “Oh, Papa – how frightening!” Belinda had exclaimed.
    “I lived to tell the tale,” her father said, “and I am telling you the story, my dearest, so that you will remember that however difficult things may seem, you must never give up.”
    Belinda remembered his words so clearly.
    She felt now as if he was telling her again so that she would know she was not alone and the Power above that he believed in was there to help her.
    She lay back against the pillows.
    She felt as if her tears and what her father had said had swept away her terror of the future.
    ‘Perhaps something will turn up,’ she told herself, ‘and if ‘Lucky Logan’ can use his intuition, so can I!’
    She climbed out of bed, washed her face and started to pack.
    Because she was afraid she might never be able to come back to the house, she packed nearly everything she possessed.
    Then she looked at her books. They were on shelves which had all been specially made for them in a corner of the room.
    They were mostly books and manuscripts her father had written himself. Some had been published, some he had intended to polish up for publication, but had never got round to it.
    It was impossible for Belinda to take them all with her.
    ‘I am sure I can claim them as personal presents,’ she thought.
    But she was not certain if that would be legal. Finally she packed three of the ones she loved best.
    Then, for the first time since her mother had died, she went to her bedroom.
    Lady Wyncombe’s gowns were still hanging up in the wardrobe room that opened out of the bedroom.
    They were as she had left them.
    Just as Belinda would not go back into her mother’s room after her death, so she knew that her stepfather had never opened the door.
    He slept in what had been the best spare room and it was at the opposite end of the corridor from the room he had shared with his wife.
    Without waiting for orders, Bates had moved his clothes into the dressing room attached to that bedroom.
    Now Belinda could smell the fragrance of her mother’s favourite perfume, which was lilies of the valley.
    It brought her back so vividly that Belinda wanted to cry again.
    She could not bear to think of her mother’s gowns being handled by strangers or perhaps sold by the bank to the villagers or whoever cared to bid for them.
    There were the trunks in the