Sword to the Heart (Bantam Series No. 13) by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online Page A

here ... before?”
    “No indeed, Miss, of course not,” the Housekeeper replied. “He was married from Lady Claris’s own home. ’Tis not far away. Only the other side of the hills.”
    Then as if she felt she had said too much, the Housekeeper turned away abruptly to give an almost sharp order to one of the housemaids to hurry up and remove the bath.
    With her hair arranged once again in the more sophisticated manner that Ellen had tried out for the first time that morning, and with her full skirts rustling silkily, Natalia descended the stairs.
    Now for the first time she could appreciate the exquisitely moulded arches of the staircase, although the marble itself felt cold beneath the touch of her hand.
    The huge tapestries hanging on the walls she knew must be of great antiquity and she realised that they depicted battles. Battles in which, she told herself, the Lord Colwall of the day had fought as a Knight.
    There were also faded flags hanging on either side of the chimney piece and swords and shields on two walls.
    There were a number of footmen on duty in the hall. Their claret-coloured livery seemed very ornate in Natalia’s eyes, and their powdered wigs were splotches of white against the dark panelling.
    The Major-Domo was waiting to take her down a long Gothic - arched corridor which was lined with suits of armour, some early English and some French. He threw open the door of a large Salon.
    Natalia had a quick glimpse of walls covered with pictures, of a ceiling of carved mahogany, of gilded furniture, of sofas and chairs in tapestry and damask.
    There were three Gentlemen standing by the great carved mantel-piece but she had eyes for only one!
    A Gentleman so outstanding, so handsome, that he seemed, even as he had done in her mother’s small Drawing-Room, to dominate the whole room.
    Lord Colwall had not changed!
    If anything, she thought, he was more handsome than she remembered.
    And because she was so pleased to see him, because everything in her life had seemed to move towards this dramatic climax, she forgot everything, formality, good manners and even her own shyness as she ran towards him.
    Her voice seemed to ring out in the silent room.
    “You are here! I am so glad, so very ... very glad to see Your Lordship again!”

 
    CHAPTER THREE
    Natalia reached Lord Colwall’s side.
    She stood looking up at him; her eyes were very large and shone like stars in her small face, her fair hair seemed to gleam like a halo in the lights from the chandelier.
    To Sir James Parke, watching them, Lord Colwall’s face was entirely expressionless as he said courteously:
    “I am delighted your journey was not too arduous.”
    As if she suddenly remembered her manners, Natalia sank down in a deep curtsey. Then as she rose she said irrepressibly:
    “The Castle is magnificent! Even more magnificent than I imagined it would be. And you, My Lord ... you are just the same as when I first saw you three years ago!”
    “I was telling Lord Colwall,” the Reverend Adolphus interposed, “how much your mother regrets being unable to accompany us.”
    “Yes, of course,” Natalia said quickly.
    She sensed that her father was reprimanding her for not having mentioned her mother at once.
    “It is indeed regrettable that my cousin should have sustained an accident at such a very inappropriate moment,” Lord Colwall remarked.
    “It only happened a week before we left ... ” the Reverend Adolphus began.
    Natalia’s attention was distracted by a big dog which rose from the hearth-rug to approach her tentatively. It was a mastiff and quite one of the largest dogs she had ever seen.
    “He is yours?” she exclaimed to Lord Colwall. “Just the type of dog you should have!”
    “I should not touch him,” Lord Colwall said quickly, but it was too late.
    Natalia had knelt down on the floor beside the dog and put her arms around its neck.
    “He is magnificent, like your horses,” she smiled.
    The mastiff’s tail was