103. She Wanted Love Read Free Page A

father’s family.’
    Then she knew she was thinking of her stepfather once again as an intruder and she should not do it.
    With an effort she asked,
    “Do you like your tea, Step-papa, with or without milk or cream?”
    “I want neither,” Cyril Warner replied. “I just want to talk to you, Eleta.”
    He pulled up a chair and sat down on it facing her.
    She had the sudden feeling that what he was going to say was something frightening, but she could not think what it could be.
    She drew in her breath and felt an uncomfortable apprehension that she could not express in words.
    She poured out her own cup of tea and then reached out to help herself from the nearest plate.
    As she did so, she was aware that her stepfather was watching her and once again she had the feeling that there was something in his eyes or perhaps his silence that was almost sinister.
    “What is it, Step-papa?” she asked him. “What has happened?”
    “Nothing has happened, so far,” he replied. “But it is something that I hope will happen quite soon.”
    “What is that?” Eleta enquired apprehensively.
    She was thinking as she spoke that Mrs. Buxton’s cooking had lost nothing with the passing of the years. In fact there were some new cakes on the table that she had not seen before but which she was anxious to sample.
    “Now listen to me,” her stepfather began.
    “I am listening,” Eleta replied. “At the same time it’s so wonderful to be here and to have the same things to eat that I loved when I was a child and the same servants running the house as they have always done.”
    “I am glad you appreciate it,” Cyril Warner said in a terse voice.
    “I suppose we are all the same,” Eleta sighed. “We enjoy ourselves when we are away, but it is wonderful to come home.”
    She was aware that Cyril Warner stiffened and then she asked,
    “What is it? What are you trying to tell me?”
    “I told you that I wanted to talk to you, Eleta. I therefore want your full attention.”
    “Of course that is what you will have. Equally you must not mind me enjoying my tea. Mrs. Buxton will be so upset if the plates go back untouched.”
    “I am not concerned with Mrs. Buxton’s feelings one way or the other,” he snapped. “And what I have to say concerns your future and that is much more important.”
    He spoke sharply and Eleta stared at him.
    “Concerns my future,” she repeated slowly. “What do you mean by that?”
    “I mean that I have arranged your marriage and I am sure it will give you the same pleasure as it gives me.”
    “ My marriage !” Eleta exclaimed. “What do you mean? How can you arrange my marriage?”
    “Much more easily than I thought it would be,” her Stepfather answered. “Unless living in France has made you less intelligent than I believe you to be, you will be delighted at what I have to tell you.”
    With a huge effort Eleta made herself ask slowly and in what she hoped was an ordinary voice,
    “What have you arranged?”
    Cyril Warner sat back in his chair.
    “I have arranged that you will marry, as soon as possible, the Duke of Hazelware.”
    Eleta stared at him.
    “You have arranged my marriage?” she questioned. “How could you possibly do that? I have never met the Duke of Hazelware. In fact I don’t think that he was a friend of either my mother or my father.”
    “But he is a friend of mine and a most important one. He is in fact exactly the man I want as the Chairman of my new Company which he has promised to be. He will also benefit by having you as his wife. So that there is no reason for you to feel that he is condescending to you.”
    “I cannot imagine that what you are saying is true,” Eleta cried. “Why should I marry the Duke of Hazelware whom I have never met? And it is not my concern whether he is Chairman of your Company or not.”
    Cyril Warner laughed and it was not a particularly pleasant sound.
    “If you will allow me to explain the circumstances through which I