Read Online A Kiss from the Heart by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online

to stop thinking about you ever since our chance encounter in Hyde Park earlier in the week.”
    She blushed – rather prettily, he thought.
    â€œI did not expect that you would come,” she cooed, shyly casting her eyelashes downwards and then looking up over them.
    With her elegant head freed of any decoration, the Earl thought her quite enchanting.
    Her hair was so dark, it was almost the colour of a raven’s wing, while her skin was just as white as alabaster.
    Yet there was something about the arrangement of her features that was not quite symmetrical and as she spoke, the spell she had cast upon him began to pall.
    The tea arrived.
    â€œYou simply must sample cook’s delicious coconut cake!” she urged, gesturing to Morton to cut a slice. “And the raspberry tarts are divine – they are fresh raspberries, you know, from Papa’s estate in Hertfordshire.”
    The Earl attacked the delicacies on his plate with relish. It was now some hours since he had eaten breakfast and his stomach was beginning to rumble.
    â€œI did not realise that your father owned an estate in Hertfordshire,” he responded, making polite conversation. “As you said he was in Bournemouth, I assumed his estate was in Hampshire.”
    â€œOh, yes, we have another house at Boscombe,” she rambled on, catching a crumb from her lips with the tip of her tongue. “It belongs to Grandmama. She’s frightfully old, but still very active. Papa has some business to attend to and will be staying with her for the duration of his visit.”
    The clock on the mantelpiece chimed three o’clock and a silence fell between them.
    In spite of himself, the Earl just could not prevent himself from focusing on her slightly off-kilter features.
    â€˜Why had I not seen it before?’ he wondered, as she drifted on about her mother’s relations in Cheltenham and how disappointing she had found this Season so far.
    He finished the last raspberry tart and wondered if he could manage to draw his visit to a close before four o’clock.
    â€œAre you in London for long?”
    He stared at her. He had been so utterly lost in his own thoughts that he had not been listening to a word she had been saying.
    â€œOh, I, er, until Papa’s affairs are concluded.”
    He knew what she was thinking and it made him uncomfortable and a little irritated.
    â€˜Dash them all!’ he ruminated. ‘Why do they all sit in judgement?’
    Miss de Montfort set down her plate and took his. As she did so, her fingers lightly brushed his and he realised that she was staring coquettishly into his eyes.
    â€œWill you be attending the Strathclyde’s ball?” she enquired, scarcely able to tear her gaze away from his face.
    She fluttered her long eyelashes and put her head on one side in what she believed to be a flirtatious manner.
    â€œI have not decided as yet,” he said, as a feeling of being caught in a sticky cake-laden trap swept over him.
    â€œOh, but you must go!” she chided. “All the most important people will be there!”
    â€œIt depends upon how Mama feels about attending such an event when we are still in mourning,” he said in a tone that he hoped would prevent further discussion of the topic.
    â€œNaturally,” she answered, feeling embarrassed that she had pressed the matter so.
    The clock struck half-past three and the Earl began to wish he were elsewhere. A deep sense of gloom was now threatening to envelope him.
    â€˜Why is it no one can ever hold my attention?’ he thought, as she turned the topic of conversation to their new carriage. ‘No sooner do I find a woman attractive, than I begin to see faults in her that render her unappealing in my eyes.’
    At last, at precisely four o’clock, he rose, unable to bear another moment in her company.
    â€œI am afraid I have to leave,” he said in a voice that he hoped was soothing and