Love and The Marquis. Barbara Cartland

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СКАЧАТЬ knew that this was true.

      “I will send a letter to my mother,” he said, “explaining, for she will undoubtedly learn sooner or later the reason why I am leaving for France and shutting up the house.”

      Imeldra gave a little murmur of distress, but she did not speak and the Earl went on,

      “Dutton will be in charge of everything. You can tell him to do anything you want.”

      Imeldra looked around the salon.

      She had not spent much time since her mother died at Kingsclere, which was the family seat. Before that it had been their permanent home.

      It was after his wife’s death that the Earl felt that the place was haunted by the woman he had loved so deeply and he could not bear to be there without her.

      It was then that with his small daughter he had set off on their travels to foreign lands.

      Once or twice a year they came home and the Earl would run his horses at Ascot and at Newmarket.

      He would be in the Jockey Club or the Royal Enclosure with some beautiful woman who had taken his fancy at that particular moment, while Imeldra, properly escorted, was allowed to roam amongst the crowds.

      The gypsies would tell her her fortune and, as she was so pretty and well dressed, they were always very glamorous forecasts.

      She would watch the many shysters and the bookies and those who made their living by entertaining the crowds and extracting pennies from their pockets by doing so.

      It had all been the most immense fun and the summers at Kingsclere were as vivid and as beautiful in her mind as anything she saw abroad.

      But inevitably the end of the summer meant the end of the Earl’s latest affaire de coeur.

      As soon as he had finished shooting the first partridges, he would be off to the sun from the Mediterranean to North Africa and once unforgettably down the Red Sea to India.

      It was a strange and varied life for any child, but Imeldra grew to girlhood with a wider knowledge than any of her contemporaries had, not only of countries and places but of people with strange religions and conflicting political ideals.

      Because her father was so intelligent, he spent his time not only with beautiful women but with the Statesmen of the countries they visited, the Prime Ministers, the Chancellors and the Foreign Secretaries.

      And whenever he entertained, Imeldra would listen to what they were saying and try to understand so that she could discuss the most interesting points with him afterwards.

      As they talked together after dinner that evening, she had a feeling that no man she would meet in Society would ever be able to take his place, since even if he loved her, their brains would not match each other’s.

      What was more, she would never be able to learn from him as she had learnt from her father.

      Inexorably the evening came to an end and, when Imeldra looked reluctantly at the clock over the mantelpiece, the Earl said,

      “I am going to say ‘goodbye’ to you now, my precious daughter. You know that I cannot bear emotional farewells, so I am asking you, my darling, not to come downstairs until I have left tomorrow morning, which will be very early.”

      With an almost superhuman effort Imeldra bit back the words of protest that came to her lips.

      She knew that her father was right in that they had nothing more to say to each other but, when she saw him drive away, she would want to cry because he would be going out of her life for a very long time.

      She was aware that he was really saying to her that it would be a mistake for them to meet again until she was married.

      The idea of losing him as well as having to marry somebody because he considered it the ‘right thing to do’ was terrifying.

      However there was no point in saying so and it would only make him unhappy.

      She could already feel the misery she would know once he had gone surging over her.

      Instead she put her arms around his neck saying as she did so,

      “I love you, Papa, and nobody in the whole world could have a kinder more wonderful or more handsome father than I have.”

      “But not a very good one, I am afraid, my precious.”

      “That is where you are wrong,” Imeldra said. “You have not only given me a marvellous childhood but you have also given me high ideals and aspirations.”

      The Earl looked at her to see if she was telling the truth and she continued,

      “Because we have always talked over things so sensibly, I am not bemused or fascinated by the things that are wrong. I merely accept them as part of living. But you have always pointed out to me the things that are right and good and noble. And because you have always wanted me to aim for them, that is what I intend to do.”

      The Earl put his arms around her and held her very close to him.

      “Thank you for saying that to me, my sweet,” he said. “It makes me very happy. I have often been afraid that your mother was reproaching me because I had not let you be brought up by your grandmother.”

      “Mama would have understood that I had to be with you,” Imeldra said. “And because I know what you meant to each other, I also know exactly what I want to find in a husband.”

      Because the Earl could find no words to answer her, he merely kissed her.

      Then he said,

      “If things go wrong, if you are in trouble, you have only to send for me and you know I will come to you from the very ends of the Earth.”

      “Just as I will come to you, Papa, if you ever want me.”

      Her father kissed her again and, as if there was nothing more they could add to what they had already said to each other and with their arms linked they walked up the great staircase to where they were sleeping in bedrooms adjacent to each other.

      The Earl kissed her again on both cheeks and on her forehead.

      Then without saying anything he went from her bedroom and closed the door.

      For a moment Imeldra thought that she must throw herself down on the bed and let the tears that were pricking her eyes become a tempest of weeping,

      Instead she went down on her knees to pray to her mother to protect her father and keep him from coming to any harm.

      It was a long time before Imeldra went to sleep and when she woke up the next morning it was to hear movements in the passage and to know that her father was leaving.

      It was then that once again the misery of being without him seeped over her and it was only thanks to years of exerting self-control that she prevented herself from rushing out and holding onto him and begging him to take her with him.

      Then she recalled that it was just the sort of thing that the women СКАЧАТЬ