Read Online The Castle of Love by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online Page B

in a chair, a blanket round her shoulders. Her boots and stockings lay drying on the hearth. She was clutching a mug of hot milk, from which she now and then took a small sip. Her voice was tremulous as she told her tale.
    Sarah listened in grim silence.
    When Jacina had finished, the old woman turned her head and stared into the coals. Her face was sombre in the glow.
    "I knew it from the first," she said at last.
    "You – you did?" stammered Jacina.
    Sarah looked at her. "Oh, I didn't know exactly what was going on. Mercy, no, but when the Earl brought Miss Felice up here to meet me, I thought at once she had the look of a minx on her." Sarah mused for a moment before continuing.
    "They say suffering makes the heart soften, but it seems to have had the opposite effect on Miss Felice Delisle. And it must be that Fronard, leading her astray."
    Jacina was staring at Sarah. She had just remembered the encounter with Felice on the woodland path, when Felice had looked so dishevelled and had tried to keep her talking. She recalled the woodsman's cottage and how the door was swinging open as if someone had left in a hurry.
    Was the cottage another of Felice and Fronard's trysting places?
     She put down her mug slowly. "What must I do, Sarah?"
    Sarah's reply was unequivocal. "You must tell the Earl what you saw, my lovely. You must indeed tell him what you saw."
    Jacina knew that Sarah was right but her heart sank. How was she to approach the Earl? She knew what Sarah did not, that it had been a while since she and the Earl had been alone together or enjoyed any kind of companionship. She had long been banished from his good graces.
    Even now her cheeks burned at the memory of that scene in the library, when she had inadvertently offended Felice by wondering aloud at her relish for tragic love stories.
    Or had it been so inadvertent? Might she not even then have secretly suspected that Felice was not all she seemed?
    Jacina's thoughts were in a whirl. Whatever Felice was, the Earl was in love with her. How could Jacina possibly confront him with the lurid truth?
    With a sudden small cry she buried her face in her hands.
    Sarah watched anxiously.
    "Do you want that I should go tell the Earl, Jacina?"
    Jacina straightened. "No, Sarah. You – you didn't witness it. I did. It is I who – who must go."
    There was another reason for Jacina deciding that it must be she and she alone who went to the Earl. The Earl could well resent the messenger. Better then that the messenger be someone who was already out of his favour!
    Having found her resolve she knew she must act
    without delay. Shrugging off her blanket, she leaned down to collect her boots and stockings from the hearth.
     "But they're still damp!" exclaimed Sarah, when she saw what Jacina was doing.
    "I know Sarah but it's getting late and – I have to go tonight. You know that."
    Sarah sighed and sank back in her chair. Of course Jacina had to go tonight. Tomorrow would be too late.
    Tomorrow the Earl and Felice Delisle would be wed.
    *
    The castle was very quiet as Jacina made her way to the Earl's study.
    She knew that was where she would find him. She had seen the light shining from the study window. Sarah had said he sat up late.
    When she came to the study she tapped very lightly upon the door. She did not want anyone other than the Earl to hear. There was no response. She was about to knock again when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
    She cast about her in dismay. Where could she hide?
    There was nothing for it but to crouch down at the side of a large coffer that stood to the right of her in the passageway. She had to hope that whoever was approaching went to the left at the top of the stairs and not to the right. If they turned to the right and passed the coffer, they could not fail to see her.
    She saw the light of a lamp bob into view and squeezed further back against the wall.
    The person carrying the lamp stopped outside the Earl's study and knocked