The Marquis Is Trapped by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online Page A

thought I would meet you.”
    “Well, fate or a rough sea has brought me now,” the Marquis replied.
    “And you must stay with us,” insisted Neil.  “We are giving a dinner party tonight and it will be delightful for our friends to meet you.”
    “I am sure I shall enjoy meeting your friends.  Are you sure you want me to stay?  I can easily go back to my yacht.”
    “I insist you stay with us, Oliver.”
    He rang a bell and told the butler that the Marquis would be staying the night and a carriage was to be sent to the yacht to fetch his clothes and his valet.
    “It is very exciting for us having you here,” Lady McTranar said to the Marquis.  “Whenever we have news from London, you always seem to be mentioned.  The boys have told me so many stories of what fun you had when you stayed here when you were younger.”
    “I am glad I have not been forgotten – ”
    “I am sure it would be difficult for anyone to forget you ,” Lady McTranar replied.
    There was a note in her voice that sounded familiar.
    When he looked at her, he recognised the expression in her eyes that he had seen so often.
    It seemed most extraordinary that Neil’s stepmother should be so young!  The Marquis guessed she was about the same age as him or perhaps just a few years older.
    Yet she had been married to Lord McTranar whom he remembered as being the same age as his father.
    The Marquis learnt that the party this evening was being given in honour of the Duke of Hamilton and several Scottish aristocrats from Edinburgh had also been invited.
    After having no one to talk to for the last few days, the Marquis enjoyed the conversation that followed over a number of cups of tea.
    Then Lady McTranar took him up the stairs and the Marquis realised immediately he was being put in one of the State bedrooms.
    Waiting for him in the room was Gilbert with his evening clothes already laid out on a chair.
    “I do hope you have everything you require,” Lady McTranar said.  “And your valet can ask for anything he requires from the servants.”
    “You are very kind,” replied the Marquis.  “And I am looking forward to a dinner I did not expect.”
    “Then let’s hope you will not be disappointed.”
    She smiled at him beguilingly before she left him in the room to change.
    Gilbert was delighted that he was staying on shore.
    “You are very wise, my Lord, to turn in here.  The Captain was saying before I left the yacht that it looked as though it’d be even rougher tonight than it were during the day.”
    “That is what I rather suspected and I am sure that we shall sleep very much better here than we would on The Neptune .”
    He realised when he had bathed and dressed that he was looking extremely smart as he walked downstairs.
    The Duke of Hamilton had already arrived and he reminded the Marquis that the last time they had met was at Windsor Castle.
    “I don’t go South very often,” he said, “and when I do, I usually get told off by Her Majesty for having done something wrong!”
    The Marquis chuckled.
    “I well remember my father wondering before he had an audience with Her Majesty what he had done and invariably it was something of which Her Majesty did not approve!”
    They both laughed and then dinner was announced.
    There were twenty people in all to sit down in the huge dining room with a minstrels’ gallery at one end.
    The Marquis found that he was on the left of Lady McTranar while the Duke of Hamilton was on her right.
    Because she was looking extremely attractive, they both vied with each other in making her laugh.
    She managed to flirt with them just as skilfully, the Marquis considered, as if she was one of the acknowledged beauties of the Beau Monde .
    The Highland Games were scheduled to take place the following week and there was much conversation at the table about the athletic skills that would be on display.
    The Marquis expressed his regrets that he could not stay and enjoy the Games.
    “We would just