65 A Heart Is Stolen Read Free Page B

felt himself shudder as Rose’s face with her smudged lips and running mascara appeared before his eyes.
    Long before the guests at Veryan Hall were awake the Marquis and Anthony were driving away in the phaeton, which had just been built for long-distance driving.
    The family colours of blue and gold made it exceedingly smart, but it was doubtful if anyone, after seeing the Marquis himself, would look at anything but the magnificent team of jet-black horses which drew it.
    They were perfectly matched and were the pride of the Marquis’s stable as well as of their owner.
    “Now don’t take me too fast,” Anthony admonished as they started down the drive. “My head feels as though it might crack open at any moment and, if you jerk me, I swear I shall fall to pieces at your feet!”
    “You should have more self-control,” the Marquis answered.
    “I might say the same to you!” Anthony retorted. “What do you think your guests will say when they find you gone?”
    “Personally, I have not the slightest interest in what they say,” the Marquis replied. “I told Bradley to tell them I had been called away on important family business and that you had been kind enough to accompany me. If you ask me, I have done you a good turn in taking you away from Lucy Bicester.”
    “I am beginning to think that myself,” Anthony admitted. “I had the uncomfortable feeling that Bicester might turn up last night unexpectedly or that it was only a question of hours before she extracted out of me some large sum I cannot afford.”
    There was silence as the team passed through the lodge gates and the Marquis acknowledged the respectful curtsey of the woman who had opened them.
    “It seems to me,” Anthony said, “we have both had a lucky escape from situations that might prove disastrous to each of us!”
    “ If we have escaped!” the Marquis said beneath his breath.
    “What can Rose do, even if she swears you promised to marry her?”
    “I don’t know and I don’t like to think about it,” the Marquis replied. “I made it quite clear that nobody is to know where we have gone, so she should not be able to follow me.”
    “She will doubtless be waiting to pounce on you when we return to London.”
    “Oh, for God’s sake, don’t make it worse than it is already!” the Marquis said. “How could I have been such a fool as to not realise it was a wedding ring she was after? I was certainly not her first lover. Why should she want to marry me?”
    Anthony laughed.
    “Now, really, Justin, you sound like a surprised virgin! Of course she wants to marry you rather than Leicester, who has no money or Selbirn, who will have to wait at least another ten years before he comes into his father’s title.”
    “You seem to know a lot about her.”
    “I watched Rose pursuing you,” Anthony said, “and had the feeling that she might succeed in getting you on the hook.”
    “You could have taken the trouble to warn me.”
    “Warn you?” his friend exclaimed. “When have you ever allowed me to warn you about anything? You are always so certain that you know best and what is more, you would snap my head off if I ever discussed your love affairs.”
    This was so palpably true that the Marquis had nothing to say, but concentrated on driving his horses.
    It was certainly some consolation to know that they moved perfectly in unison and were as smooth and easy to handle as any team he had ever known in the whole of his life.
    “In future I shall keep to horses,” he remarked.
    Anthony laughed.
    “Until the next beauty sees you and is determined to get you into her clutches. The trouble with you, Justin, is that you are too handsome, too rich and too elusive.”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “I mean that women run after you because you make so little effort to run after them.”
    “The trouble is that I don’t have to.”
    “That is what is wrong,” Anthony said. “Women should appreciate that they are the prey, the