Read Online An Angel Runs Away by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online

his second to join a not too expensive Regiment, there was nothing left for the third.
    Daniel, therefore, because it was traditional, went into the Church, although he would have preferred, if he had had the choice, to join the Navy.
    He was not only strikingly good-looking and exceedingly charming but he was also a man of great compassion and understanding of other people’s problems.
    It therefore turned out that he had made a remarkably good Parson, as he loved people for what they were and not for what they pretended to be.
    He found that the difficulties and worries of his flock became his personal problems, so that he exercised his brain as well as his heart in doing his best to solve them.
    It was obviously impossible for him to return with Lady Louise to Chessington village after they had run away.
    His father, therefore, in consultation with the Bishop who, fortunately, was an old friend, arranged for Daniel to be appointed Vicar to a small village in Worcestershire.
    It was assumed that their presence there would offend no one and their social crime would soon be forgotten.
    Actually, there was very little social life in their new Parish, which suited Lady Louise, who wanted only to be alone with the man she loved.
    They were supremely happy with their only child until, as Ula grew older and, as her mother saw, very lovely, she wondered how it would be possible for her ever to meet the right sort of man she could marry.
    There was, however, no chance of her being forgiven by her own family for refusing to marry the Duke and Daniel’s father was now dead.
    His two elder brothers were both struggling to live on small incomes with a number of sons, each of whom demanded an education which they found very expensive.
    “If only Ula could have a Season in London,” Lady Louise had said once to her husband.
    Then she regretted she had spoken. It still hurt him to think that he had deprived her of so much when she had preferred to marry him rather than a wealthy and important Duke.
    “I am afraid, my dear, the only thing we can afford is tea on the lawn or perhaps a few people for supper in the Vicarage,” he had replied.
    Lady Louise laughed.
    “Whom could we invite?” she asked. “You know most of the so-called gentry around here have ‘one foot in the grave’, and all the young men in their families gravitate as soon as they are old enough to London and away from the quiet of the country.”
    “That is what we want,” Daniel Forde said fiercely.
    He had taken his wife in his arms and kissed her.
    “I love you!” he declared. “Is that not enough?”
    “It is all I have ever wanted and what I have!” Lady Louise had answered softly. “But I was talking about Ula, darling, and not me.”
    “We shall just have to pray that something turns up,” Daniel Forde said optimistically.
    He had then kissed his wife again so that there was no chance of her saying any more.
    It was after her father and mother’s funeral that Ula’s uncle had taken her back to Chessington Hall. He was grumbling all the time over what an expense she would be and how the last thing he wished to do was to revive the memories of her mother’s disgraceful behaviour by allowing her to meet his friends.
    “Surely, Uncle Lionel, you are glad Mama was so happy?”
    “If she was, she had no right to be,” her uncle replied harshly. “She behaved abominably and, although Avon married subsequently, I am sure he had never forgiven her for insulting him in such an outrageous fashion.
    It was something Ula was to hear over and over again in the months to come.
    Although it hurt her like the stab of a knife every time she heard her mother decried, it was impossible for her to answer her uncle or defy him without being beaten for doing so.
    The first time he struck her she could hardly believe it was really happening. Her father had never in his whole life raised his hand to her and, even when she was a child, had never punished her, except