The Cross of Love

The Cross of Love by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: The Cross of Love by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online
Authors: Barbara Cartland
Tags: Fiction - Romance
bedrooms are terrible! Your room is the best of the bunch, but even that needs a wash and a great deal doing to it."
    "I shut my eyes when I am undressing, and look out of the window when I am dressing," the Earl said drolly.
    "Very ingenious, but we couldn't count on your visitors to do the same. You really must not let them stay."
    There was silence for a moment, and she wondered if she'd offended him.
    Then he said slowly, "I think I should be honest and tell you that the man who is coming here is exceedingly rich. I met him when I was in India and when he heard - I suppose from the newspapers - that I had come into the Earldom, he looked me up and told me that he was very anxious to see my ancestral home."
    "To see your - ancestral - home?" she echoed in a stunned voice.
    In silence they both looked around them. They looked up at the grimy ceilings, around at the peeling walls, and down at the shabby furniture.
    "He's going to get a shock, isn't he?" she said at last.
    "A considerable shock," John said grimly. "I only wish I thought it would scare him off."
    "Why do you want to scare him off?"
    "Because I have a horrid feeling I know what he wants of me. We met when I was a penniless sailor and he asked me to a dance he was giving for his daughter, to make up the numbers, I believe. Well, I'm still penniless, but now I have a title."
    "You mean - ?" "What this man really wants - and I am quite certain it is what he will say when he gets here, is for me to marry his daughter!" Rena gave a little gasp. "Why should you do that," she asked, "unless you have fallen in love with her?" He was silent for a moment, and she felt a strange chill come over her heart. "No, I'm not in love with her," he said. "But if her father's money can restore The Grange and make the people here prosperous again, it couldn't possibly be my duty, could it? No!" He checked himself, turned sharply and strode back into the kitchen. Rena stayed where she was for a moment. She was glad that he hadn't waited for her reply to that question, because she was not sure that she would have known how to answer. After a minute she followed him into the kitchen, and began making his breakfast. "Why was I even thinking like that?" he asked. "Of course I shan't marry where I do not love. If I marry, it will be to a woman I love, who will make me happy, even if we are not particularly rich." "I think you're right," she said, concentrating on what she was doing, and not looking at him. "But you don't think I'll keep to my resolution?" he asked, shooting her a look.
    "I think it could be hard for you if he says he'll restore The Grange. Suppose he gives you enough money to repair it and bring the estate to life again. You could spend your life, in future, as a country gentleman, with of course, horses and dogs to verify it."
    There was silence for a moment. Then the Earl walked to the window in the kitchen and stood looking out. Rena thought he was looking at the part of the kitchen garden which was desperately untidy.
    There were a few cabbages and onions, but for each one of them, there were at least a dozen weeds.
    "I suppose," she mused, "if she loved you, you would perhaps, in time, come to love her."
    She wanted to add 'and her money', but thought that sounded rude.
    John turned from the window and said in a very positive tone, which seemed somehow to echo round the kitchen: "I will not sell myself for what they call in the Bible, 'a mess of pottage.' Although it might now be thousands of pounds."
    "Well done."
    "I would rather starve than find myself married to a woman for whom I have no feelings, and be subservient to a man with whom I have nothing in common."
    He spoke almost violently.
    "But what else can you do?" Rena asked.
    "What did you say?"
    "Perhaps you should think hard before saying no." She didn't know why she was urging him to a course of action that she would hate, but there seemed to be a little demon inside her playing Devil's Advocate.
    "You

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