The Cruel Count (Bantam Series No. 28) by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online

tightly that beneath her gloves her knuckles must have shown white.
    ‘How he will despise me,’ she thought. ‘How contemptuous he will be if he is aware how afraid I have been.’
    With an effort and in a voice which even to herself seemed far away, she asked:
    “Could we ... stop for a ... moment?”
    “But of course,” he said courteously.
    She slipped from her horse’s back without waiting to see whether he dismounted and walked away into the trees, moving steadily over the mossy ground until she thought she was out of his sight.
    She was shivering with cold and yet there were beads of sweat on her forehead.
    ‘I ... must put my ... head ... down,’ she told herself, ‘I must put... my ... head ... down.’
    When she was sure that he could not see her, she dropped on her knees and tried to bend her head. She fell forward half unconscious and her forehead struck the ground!
    The shock of it forced away to some extent the suffocating waves of darkness. For a moment she just lay there. Then with an effort she rolled over onto her back and tried to breathe deeply.
    Without realising she had done so she had taken off her hat as she had walked away from the Count through the wood. It had been an instinctive gesture to try and get air.
    Now she could not even remember what had happened since she had dismounted from her horse.
    ‘Breathe ... deeply,’ she told herself, ‘in out ... in out.’
    The darkness was receding but she was still shivering and her fingers felt numb.
    ‘How contemptible it is,’ she told herself, ‘to be such a coward!’
    Why could she not be like other people, like her sisters, who had never been afraid to climb anything?
    And then as she lay there fighting for breath, she heard the sound of footsteps and knew the Count was coming through the wood in search of her.
    With an agonising effort she managed to sit up. Her head was swimming.
    It was difficult to focus her eyes but she stared ahead of her, not turning round as he reached her side.
    “You are all right?” he asked and for the first time there was some concern in his voice.
    “Of ... course,” she answered forcing the words between her lips.
    He took one look at her white face and drew a flask from his pocket. He took off the top which constituted a small cup and filled it.
    “Drink this,” he said.
    She would have argued had it not been almost impossible to speak. Instead obediently she put out one hand, realised it was shaking and steadied it with the other.
    She took the little cup from him and put it to her lips. The brandy seared her throat, but even at the first sip she felt better.
    “Drink it all,” the Count said commandingly.
    She obeyed him because it was easier to obey than to argue with him.
    She could feel the spirit moving through her body like fire. Now her fingers were no longer numb and her hands were not trembling.
    She could feel him towering above her and thought he must be gloating over her weakness.
    “I am ... ashamed to ... say,” she managed to articulate at last, “that I felt a little ... sea sick ... or should it be ... land-sick? My Uncle who is an ... Admiral has always ... told me that it takes him ... forty-eight hours after he ... has been at ... sea a long time to get his ... balance.”
    The sentence was really a triumph. Every word was difficult to enunciate but she managed it.
    “Of course it is quite understandable,” the Count said in a deep voice. “I believe many people feel uncomfortable after a sea voyage, just as Lord Nelson used to be sea sick when he returned to his ship after leave ashore.”
    Vesta handed the Count back the silver cup.
    “I am all ... right ... now,” she said, “and of course ... you will want to ... continue the ... journey.”
    She wondered how she would get to her feet, but he bent down and helped her.
    For once she was grateful that he should touch her and did not hate him for doing so.
    He picked up her hat.
    “You have bruised your