Read Online 65 A Heart Is Stolen by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online

but he had the feeling that she was anxious to hear the answer to her question.
    He did not reply immediately and he was aware that she was looking at him enquiringly and almost as if whatever he said was of particular importance.
    “I have not yet made up my mind,” he answered at length. “Sir Anthony and I came here for peace and quiet.”
    “I cannot believe the highwaymen will trouble you again, my Lord.”
    “I certainly hope not.”
    Again there was a pause and the Marquis had the idea that he was expected to leave.
    Because he was intrigued, he asked,
    “May I look at your garden? And perhaps the rest of the house. I admit to being extremely curious after so many years of being forbidden to cross your threshold.”
    Ivana laughed.
    “As I was forbidden to cross yours. I cannot tell you how tantalising it was to see Heathcliffe in the distance, to have glimpses of magnificent horses and fine coaches going up and down the drive and imagining the parties inside the house to which I would never be invited.”
    “I can see that it must have been infuriating,” the Marquis laughed.
    “Being a woman, I think it made me more miserable than angry.”
    “Well, if you have never seen Heathcliffe, its owner will now be able to show it to you,” Anthony said eagerly.
    The Marquis glanced at him and realised that he was looking at her with admiration and was aware that Anthony had not missed the fact that she was extremely pretty. In fact, the Marquis told himself, lovely was the right word.
    As if he knew it was expected of him, with just a touch of amusement in his voice, he said,
    “I should, of course, be delighted to show you Heathcliffe and its contents, even if my father’s snuffboxes are no longer there.”
    “But there are lots of other things worth seeing,” Anthony added, “especially the pictures.”
    He looked at the Marquis and asked deliberately,
    “Why should not Mrs. Wadebridge dine with us one evening? We have, as it happens, not many engagements.”
    “Yes, of course,” the Marquis agreed. “What evening would suit you?”
    He looked at Ivana as he spoke and had the idea that she was considering the invitation before she replied to it.
    It struck him as strange that she was not more eager and, because she was reluctant, he decided that it might be because of the old feud and the sooner that was laid to rest the better.
    Aloud he said,
    “I think if you agree to dine with me, Mrs. Wadebridge, we could then be quite certain we had ‘buried the hatchet’ for all time. Would tomorrow night suit you? I will send a carriage to pick you up at half-after-seven.”
    “That is very kind of you, my Lord, and I shall be very pleased to dine at Heathcliffe.”
    The Marquis noted that she did not say, ‘to dine with you’, but he supposed that her choice of words was of no significance.
    Surely she could not wish to identify herself after all these years with the childish animosity that had existed between two old men.
    He rose to his feet.
    “I shall look forward to showing you my house,” he said, “and now may I see yours?”
    He thought she hesitated, but was not sure. Then, moving ahead of him, she remarked,
    “There is really not very much to see.”
    The Marquis and Sir Anthony followed her out into the hall and she showed them the dining room where the old oak furniture that matched the period of the house was polished like the stairs and the brass handles were so brilliant that they seemed to mirror everything around them.
    She then took them into the study, over the mantelpiece of which was a portrait of her grandfather in his Admiral’s uniform and beneath it in a glass case a long row of his medals and decorations.
    He looked a belligerent old man with a beard and had an aggressive air about him as if he was permanently on guard against the enemy.
    “An excellent likeness,” the Marquis commented, “and when you see my grandfather you will see that they were well paired!”
    “You