[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.I’ll be prayin’ everythin’ will be all right and there’s no nasty pitfalls when you least expects them.”“Yes, do that, Nanny.”Ivana kissed her old nurse’s cheek and stepped into the carriage that was more comfortable and luxurious than any carriage she had ever travelled in before.When she reached Heathcliffe to find four footmen on duty in the hall and Travers greeting her politely, she had a sudden impulse to run away and return to the quiet security of Flagstaff Manor.Then pride made her lift her chin and she followed Travers towards the drawing room asking herself why should she be afraid of the Marquis or any other man.“Mrs.Wadebridge, my Lord!” Travers announced.The Marquis walked towards her and Ivana thought that it would be impossible for a man to look more magnificent and it was difficult not to be aware how drab and insignificant she must look beside him.As it happened, the blue gown that Nanny had made for her the previous year gave her a picture-like appearance so that she might have stepped down from one of the portraits on the walls of Heathcliffe.‘She should be painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds,’ the Marquis thought to himself.He was aware that, while he bowed in response to her curtsey, Anthony, taking advantage of the fact that she was a married woman, kissed her hand.“Come and sit down,” he was saying.“I feel sure you would enjoy a glass of champagne.”“It would certainly be a treat,” Ivana replied.“I suppose, as your house is a sort of Naval establishment, your guests are provided only with rum!” Anthony suggested, his eyes twinkling.“In case you are suspecting we have not paid excise duty,” Ivana flashed, “let me inform you, Sir Anthony, sailors are just as civilised in their tastes as soldiers!”“That is right, Mrs.Wadebridge,” the Marquis agreed.“Don’t let him tease you.And to prove that soldiers can still appreciate the sea, I hope you will enjoy after dinner looking at the ship pictures that this house contains.”“They are superb – ” Ivana said and added quickly, “so I have always – been told.”There was just a faint pause before the last words and the Marquis looked at her enquiringly.He thought the colour rose in her face, but she turned her head to speak to Anthony and he was not certain.He, however, watched her every move and he was sure that she knew the way to the dining room.He also thought, although he could not be certain that once during the evening a look passed between her and Travers that made him sure that they had met before.“I believe my agent, Markham, Mrs.Wadebridge,” he said apropos of nothing, “was a friend of your father’s?”For a moment he thought Ivana Wadebridge’s eyes widened, and then she asked,“Did he tell you so?”“He spoke of your father in glowing terms, so that I was sure they were acquainted and Markham agreed that was so.”“I daresay they met,” Ivana said vaguely, “especially as we shop in the same village.”The Marquis reflected that this told him nothing, but determined to attack he asked,“Are you going to tell me, Mrs.Wadebridge, that this is your first visit to Heathcliffe?”Ivana laughed quite naturally.“All my life,” she said, “there was not an angel with a flaming sword keeping me away, but a Naval gun pointing directly at my back if I should so much as walk in the direction of Heathcliffe!”The way she had answered his question made it impossible for the Marquis to press her further and, when dinner was finished and port was on the table, she rose to her feet to say,“I think, my Lord, I should withdraw in the correct fashion and wait for you in the drawing room.”“I think we will start by sitting in the library,” the Marquis replied.“I want to show you from where the snuffboxes were taken and you can see how devastatingly empty the place is.”“Then I will wait for you in the library,” Ivana smiled.She went from the dining room and only when she had been gone for some minutes did the Marquis realise that she had not asked where the library was.Equally, he told himself there would be a footman on duty in the hall and she could ask him.Because it was insistent in his mind, he said to Anthony, “I am certain that there is something strange about this young woman.I am sure she is not what she appears.”“I am perfectly happy with her as she is,” Anthony said.“I find her charming, amusing and very very lovely.Good God, Justin, what else do you expect?”“That is the trouble, I don’t know what I expect,” the Marquis replied.“I just feel in the back of my mind or in my bones, as my father used to say, that everything is not as it should be and I am being deceived.”“It is Rose who has made you feel like that,” Anthony suggested.“You think because she tricked you that everybody else has the same idea.You look for footprints, criminals behind every door and doubtless smugglers in the cellar.I will make love to Ivana and tell her I think she is adorable!”For some reason Anthony’s answer annoyed the Marquis
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]