Read Online Lovers in London by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online

the sky.
    She had not intended to bring it to London with her, but her mother had said,
    â€œAs it fits you so well, dearest, I should take it with you so that you can compare it with the gowns you buy. If you remember, we took a long time getting it made exactly as we wanted it to be.”
    Lanthia knew this to be true and it crossed her mind as she dressed that the Marquis might otherwise have been disappointed.
    The gowns she usually wore when she was dining alone with her father and mother and the one she had worn last night with Mrs. Blossom were much simpler.
    She put up her hair in the way her mother arranged it for parties.
    When she was finally ready, she looked at herself in the mirror. She was looking for faults, but could not find any.
    In fact she thought that she looked smart enough to go to any party given by a Duke.
    â€˜I do hope I don’t make any mistakes,’ she said to herself. ‘Equally it will all be very exciting and something to tell Mama about when I go home.’
    It might have seemed rather shocking if it had been necessary to drive on to somewhere else with the Marquis without a chaperone and she knew her mother would have disapproved.
    Now she would only have to walk downstairs with the Marquis and no one could say there was anything at all wrong in that.
    She wondered vaguely what excuse he would give the Duke for bringing her to his party, but it did not seem to matter too much.
    In fact because everything was happening to her in such a strange way, nothing seemed in any way real.
    It was just like one of the stories she told herself as she rode through the woods.
    *
    At precisely a quarter to eight the Marquis knocked on the door of the sitting room and Lanthia opened it.
    She had expected him to look very smart, but in his evening clothes he was overwhelming.
    He saw at a glance that Lanthia was exactly as he wanted her to be.
    It had struck him as just his good luck to discover anyone so exquisite and so perfect for the part he wanted her to play.
    In fact he could not imagine there was a woman in the whole of the City of London who could look so lovely and so perfectly dressed for the occasion.
    â€œI very much hope I will not do anything wrong tonight or make the Conté suspicious,” said Lanthia, as he did not speak.
    â€œI think anything you say or do will be completely and absolutely right,” replied the Marquis eventually. “I am thinking of all the compliments you will receive tonight and it is fortunate that unlike the Conté I will not challenge everyone to a duel who makes them!”
    Lanthia laughed as he had meant her to do.
    â€œI am sure that will not happen, but tell me quickly about our host tonight. I have been trying to think if I have ever heard anything about him.”
    â€œI expect you have,” replied the Marquis, “because he is, in his own way, quite famous. He is married, but he and the Duchess more or less live their own lives.”
    Lanthia was listening and he continued,
    â€œThe Duchess is very religious and when in London she attends the Church of Scotland with her own piper in full ceremonial dress sitting beside her!”
    Lanthia gave a little laugh and then wondered if she had been rude.
    â€œWhen she is at home in Stafford House, she reads novels lying on a sofa under a red satin eiderdown. She is surrounded by many mynah birds and parrots that perch on everything including the head of her old retriever!”
    Lanthia chuckled again.
    â€œWhat does the Duke do about it?” she asked.
    The Marquis’s eyes twinkled.
    â€œCome and see for yourself,” he said mysteriously and escorted her through the door.
    They walked down the corridor with the Marquis praying that the two Spaniards would not come out of their room as they passed their door.
    He thought it might make things more difficult than they were already if they were forced to go down in the lift together.
    Downstairs the Duke’s