Read Online 106. Love's Dream in Peril by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online Page A

which had brought her here from Oxford, she saw that two small white ponies were harnessed to the landau.
    Jim, the groom, was standing at their heads with an anxious expression on his face.
    “Oh, they are so sweet!” Adella cried.
    There was really something enchanting about the two little creatures with their large eyes and long white manes and tails. They looked straight out of a Fairy tale.
    “Do you like them, miss?” Jim asked her.
    “I love them! What are they called?”
    “This one is Sugar and this one Spice, miss.”
    “Oh, how perfect.” Adella stroked their soft noses.
    “I’m glad you think so, miss,” Jim looked relieved. “They’re a wee bit small and they’ll ’ave a job pullin’ your uncle’s heavy old landau. We won’t be able to go too fast.”
    “I don’t mind a bit,” Adella said. “I adore them.”
    Now that she looked more closely, the two little ponies did look rather odd in front of the high landau, which was intended to be pulled by tall strong horses.
    But they looked so delicious with their short legs and their neat little hooves. Spice tossed his head and then gave a shrill neigh, pawing at the road impatiently.
    “Look at him, he’s so keen to be off!” Adella cried. “I am sure we will make very good speed.”
    Jim helped her into the Landau.
    “I’m glad you think so, miss,” he said. “When your uncle chose these little fellers for you, I thought it must be a young child who was comin’ to live with ’im. I was very surprised to see you was a young lady.”
    “My uncle had not seen me for a long time,”
    Jim climbed up into the driver’s seat and took up the reins.
    “Oh, dear me,” he declared, looking down with a comical expression of dismay on his face. “They are a very long way down. It’s like drivin’ two little mice. The other coachmen’ll never let me live this down.”
    Adella bit her lip to keep from laughing. She was so much looking forward to her first drive in Hyde Park and she was certainly not going to let the opinion of some foolish coachmen spoil it for her.
    “Let’s go,” she urged.
    Jim clucked to Sugar and Spice and then they set off, their little hooves clopping along at a steady pace.
    There were few people about in the Square and in the surrounding streets. But, as the landau arrived at Hyde Park and came to Rotten Row, the famous route for horses and carriages, it was another world altogether.
    There were open carriages everywhere, pulled by tall horses with gleaming coats and polished hooves. They were overflowing with ladies in fine silks with feathers and flowers cascading from their large hats.
    Now Adella understood why it was so important to sport an open carriage. It was so that the gentlemen on Rotten Row on their fine horses could see you.
    The gentlemen cast admiring glances at Adella as they trotted past, but she noticed that the ladies raised their eyebrows at the sight of Sugar and Spice. Some of them laughed behind their hands.
    The only ponies to be seen were trotting up and down with small children on their backs, while anxious Nannies hurried behind in their thick navy uniforms.
    As the landau trundled along, Adella realised that she was travelling at a snail’s pace compared to the others.
    She did not really mind until a black-haired woman in a tight-fitting habit cantered past on a tall grey horse and laughed out loud as she saw the ponies.
    “Look, it’s as good as a circus!” Adella heard her call to her companion, a dashing Army Officer at her side.
    A flood of anger and embarrassment rushed over Adella and she opened her parasol and held it so that, if anyone else made fun of her, she should not see them.
    “Jim, please, I think we should turn for home,” she called out.
    “Why, miss, we’ve ’ardly got to the far end of the Row! Now we’re ’ere, we might as well continue. I should think everyone’s ’ad a good look at us by now.”
    As he spoke, there was a thud of galloping hooves, and