Read Online The Keys of Love by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online

seemly.”
    Henrietta blinked and turned away.
    â€œYou must follow the dictates of Lady Butterclere!”
    She did not add that she had no desire whatsoever to mingle with Romany at Merebury or anywhere else.
    One reason was her simple desire not to be found out. It was fortuitous that her own social circle was far away from the North of England and Merebury.
    She dreaded going to an event as Henrietta Radford and meeting with Lady Butterclere or Romany, who would recognise her as the Eddie Bragg pianist in an instant.
    Another reason was Romany’s character.
    She affected a certain naivety and was in thrall to Lady Butterclere, but Henrietta could detect an ambition, a greed in her black button eyes that was disconcerting.
    Romany Foss, she sensed, was the sort of girl who always got what she wanted in the end.
    That she wanted the Duke of Merebury was beyond question.
    She was distracted from these unpleasant reveries by the sound of the fog-horn. Its loud bellow shattered the sense of dead calm that lay about the ship.
    Voices called out playfully through the mist.
    â€œLand ahoy! England ahead.”
    Henrietta’s heart gave a great leap.
    With no more thoughts of Romany, she turned and hurried down to the cabin, where Nanny had been packing since breakfast.
    *
    She and Nanny watched while three gangways were lowered down to the quayside and trunks were swung out to be caught by dockworkers on shore.
    A black covered wagon drew up at the foot of the gangway from Steerage and two Police Officers emerged. They strode up the gangway and disappeared from view.
    Henrietta leaned over the rail.
    A few minutes later the two Officers reappeared on the gangway leading a figure hunched in a dark cape.
    A murmur arose around Henrietta.
    â€œThat’s the blaggard that tried to murder someone on board!”
    The felon clearly did not wish his face to be seen. His hat was pulled low and he kept his eyes on the ground.
    Henrietta gazed at him as he was bundled roughly into the wagon. She almost felt sorry for him.
    It would be a long time before he saw England!
    England !
    Her heart sang as she lifted her head and looked at the shoreline.
    To many it would seem so chill and cheerless that morning, but to her it was almost magical.
    Mist swirled about glistening roofs, pinnacles and spires. A coppery sun, like an old English farthing, peered through pearly grey clouds. To the South and to the North, dark mountains loomed.
    Directly ahead to the East lay Merebury Court.
    Lady Butterclere and Miss Foss were descending the gangway and Nanny tapped Henrietta on the elbow.
    â€œBetter keep close to those two,” she warned, “as we’re travelling on with them.”
    A number of vehicles from Merebury Court stood waiting on the quayside.
    Lady Butterclere and Romany Foss rode in the first carriage with the family crest on its side.
    Henrietta, Nanny and Eddie were assigned a second carriage, smaller, but also sporting the Merebury crest.
    A selection of old barouches, gigs and broughams, many obviously dragged out of dusty retirement, conveyed the rest of the orchestra, including the indomitable Kitty.
    Eddie sat with his legs crossed, whistling under his breath. That he had practically blackmailed Henrietta into coming with him did not seem to weigh on his conscience.
    Henrietta wanted to censure him, but she could not. He was just so irrepressibly cheerful and so openly blatant in his passion for music that she had to forgive him.
    Besides, and this was something she hated to admit to herself, Eddie was the instrument that would allow her at least to set eyes on the Duke of Merebury, to see him and at least understand why he was haunting her.
    â€œYou know, I still haven’t figured it all out,” said Eddie, uncrossing and re-crossing his legs.
    â€œWhat haven’t you figured out?” asked Henrietta.
    â€œThat skinny Lizzie, Miss Foss, I’m so certain I’ve seen her somewhere