Read Online A Dangerous Disguise by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online

answer that," he said. "So let us talk about something else. I would rather talk about you."
    "And I want to talk about you," Ola replied. "So we will just have to find something which will please us both, although what it will be, I cannot think."
    "I can think of a lot of things," the Duke said, "which I long to say to you and I want to hear your answer. You're so different from anyone I have ever met before. Your Highness - "
    "Fraulein Schmidt," she corrected. "The Princess does not exist."
    He looked at her quickly.
    "I beg your pardon?"
    "I mean at this moment she does not exist," she amended quickly. "I want to forget her. I wish I'd never – never been born a Princess."
    "I wish that too. It's precisely what causes the trouble between us. You see, there's something – no, never mind."
    "If it's important, perhaps you should say it now?"
    "It is important, but not for my life could I say it now. Later, when we've had a little time together."
    He took her hand in his.
    "When do you have to return?" he asked.
    "When you grow bored with looking after me."
    He shook his head, and spoke in a low voice.
    "You know that isn't possible. Why do you pretend not to know?"
    "Perhaps there are things we cannot know, cannot allow ourselves to know?" she said with a touch of sadness.
    The Duke did not speak. He was looking at her in a way she did not understand. She went on,
    "The day will come when you'll have to go back to your ancestral home, and I'll have to go back to mine." The Duke nodded.
    "That is a problem we will have to face sooner or later. But not just at this moment. Let us put all sad things away, and think only of being happy today."
    For the rest of the meal they talked of nothing very much, and drank a delicious wine. Now and then they looked up, their eyes met and they smiled.
    "Now we'll travel on the underground railway," he said. "And this evening we will find something else to do."
    "Don't you have duties?"
    "They don't matter, beside you," he said simply.
    It was the most totally happy time Ola had ever known.
    It did not occur to her then that a terrible danger was looming close to her. A more worldly wise woman would have thought it strange that he could simply drop all his duties to be with her.
    But all she saw was the happiness of being with the man she loved, and the conviction that his feelings for her were the same.
    Surely, nothing could be wrong in a world where there was love?
    They took another cab to Paddington Station and went down a staircase that felt endless until they came out onto a railway platform.
    "Where are we?" she asked.
    "A long way beneath the earth," he told her, seeing the alarmed look on her face. "Hold onto me."
    His arm was about her shoulder, and she took his other hand, squeezing it hard when a train came thundering out of the tunnel. The din was indescribable, and she began to wonder whether she had fallen into hell.
    Then they were inside the train, clattering along through the earth. She tried to talk to him but it was impossible through the noise and at last she gave up.
    "Do you want to see any more of the underground?" he asked when they reached a station.
    She shook her head. She was beyond speech.
    He took her back to Paddington, and they came back up into the light.
    "You're looking very pale," he said, looking into her face with concern. "Perhaps I should not have taken you?"
    "I wouldn't have missed it for anything," she said. "But I would like a cup of tea."
    The Duke chuckled suddenly, and took out a large, white handkerchief.
    "I should have said you were pale except for a smut on your nose," he said, rubbing it gently away. "Come now, and we'll find a tea house."
    He brought her tea and cream buns, and then they took a cab bank to the embankment.
    "I have one more surprise for you," he said. "Look."
    She followed his pointing finger to a boat hung with coloured lamps. People were scurrying down the gangway, eager for the treat that awaited them. From