Read Online Follow Your Heart by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online Page A

frightened of Jason and frightened of the pressure being piled on to her. Frightened that she might, before she knew what was happening, find herself married to a man she detested.
    It was then that she knew she must escape.
    There was obviously no question of Jason waiting as she had hoped, nor of her having a chance to find some way out of this marriage without offending the Duke.
    The trap was set and all she now had to do was to put her foot into it.
    â€˜I cannot. I cannot do it,’ she moaned to herself. ‘It is – too much to ask.’
    She looked wildly round the room.
    She almost expected the walls to open and that she would find a hiding place in them.
    Then suddenly, almost as if she was being guided by a power greater than herself, she knew what she must do.
    It was really quite simple.
    She must be brave enough to follow what her instinct told her was the only solution.
    She was standing irresolutely in the middle of the bedroom when she heard her uncle come upstairs.
    He knocked on the door and opened it.
    â€œGoodnight, Della! That was an excellent party and everyone enjoyed themselves.”
    â€œYes – I think they did,” Della managed to say.
    â€œAnd Jason is coming over tomorrow afternoon, I understand.”
    â€œSo – he – said.”
    â€œThat too is extremely good news. Goodnight my dear.”
    He closed the door and Della heard him walk down the passage to his own room.
    She started to undress in a frenzy; first she snatched off her jewellery and next the gown she was wearing. She threw it down on the chair as if it was of no consequence.
    She put on the simple dress she would have worn the next morning.
    She crossed the room and sat down at the French Secretaire that stood in one corner and took a piece of crested writing paper from its leather box. She opened the blotter, picked up a pen and wrote quickly without hesitating.
    It was almost as if the words she was writing were being dictated to her.
    â€œDearest Uncle Edward,
    I have to go away for a short time to think about what is being asked of me and recover from it all being such an unexpected shock.
    I know you of all people will understand.
    Tell the Earl when he comes, that I had very foolishly forgotten I had promised to spend a few days with friends and as we are travelling along the coast in their yacht, it is impossible for you to get in touch with me.
    If you tell him that you will contact him as soon as I return, there need not be any hard feelings between you and the Duke.
    Forgive me, but this is something I have to do and it is too soon for me to be able to talk coherently with Jason.
    My love, as always
    Your very devoted niece
    Della.”
    She put the letter into an envelope and addressed it to her uncle.
    Then she looked into the wardrobe room that adjoined hers for a laundry bag and found a large one in which Emily carried away the clothes to be washed.
    Taking it to her wardrobe she filled it with the simplest of her dresses, adding her underclothes, light shoes and her hairbrush.
    After picking up the letter she had written to her uncle she blew out the candles and opened her bedroom door.
    As she expected, most of the lights in the passage had been extinguished, leaving just enough for her to be able to see her way.
    Walking on tiptoe she placed the letter on the carpet outside his bedroom door and then proceeded down a side staircase, which led her to a door that opened into the garden. She undid the bolts and slipped through closing it behind her.
    She hurried across the lawn and through the bushes into the stable yard.
    The old groom who looked after her uncle’s horses would be in his cottage and fast asleep at this time of night. The boy who helped him lived in the village.
    It did not take Della long to put a saddle and bridle on Apollo.
    She fixed the laundry bag on the back of the saddle and took Apollo to the mounting block and climbed onto him.
    She left the stables