A Virgin Bride Read Free Page B

would go to the country before her wedding day.
    One thing was quite obvious.
    The servants did not as yet know about her father’s plans for her.
    She realised how difficult it was to keep anything secret from the staff and her mother had often said that the servants knew what was happening before she did herself.
    As she sat down for luncheon, she could not help wondering whose advice she could now seek.
    Then suddenly she remembered her Godmother.
    Lady Manvill had been very kind to her when she was a child. Venetia had often told her of troubles at home she had not wanted to bother her mother with – they were the sort of small things that were completely trivial to grown-ups but important to her.
    As Bates brought in the next course, she asked him,
    â€œIs Lady Manvill in London? I had a letter from her a month ago when she was staying away and it did not say if she was living in the country or in London.”
    â€œHer Ladyship was dining here last week before His Grace went on to a party at Marlborough House.”
    â€œWell then, I expect she is in Belgrave Square and I do want to see her.”
    â€œShall I order a carriage, my Lady? His Lordship’s taken one with him, but the smaller one’ll be in the Mews.”
    â€œTell them to bring it round in half-an-hour. I want to change my clothes when I have finished luncheon.”
    She thought as she spoke that she had very little to change into – only another dress she had worn at school.
    Her dresses had been made in France and therefore they fitted perfectly.
    The other girls there had admired her, yet she was well aware that they would look very inadequate on the new wife of the Duke of Rockinston.
    â€˜Two weeks!’ she grumbled to herself. ‘How can I possibly be ready to be married in that time? How can any man, unless he is completely inhuman, expect me to do it?’
    She felt a sudden anger against her future husband.
    In fact against any man who would expect a woman to obey his command, however inconvenient, because he was so puffed up with his own importance.
    â€˜One thing I know about him already,’ she thought, ‘is that he is inhuman. He is not only self-opinionated but selfish and is not in the least concerned with other people’s feelings.’
    Bates came back into the room.
    â€œI’ve ordered the carriage, my Lady. Will you want one of the maids to accompany you?”
    Venetia gave a little cry.
    â€œOh no! Of course not! I had forgotten it is correct now I am grown-up to be chaperoned everywhere I go. But I am only going to see my Godmother, so it’s a waste of time and ridiculous for one of the maids to sit in the carriage doing nothing.”
    Bates laughed.
    â€œIt’d be what His Grace’d expect me to arrange for you, my Lady.”
    â€œWell, just don’t tell him what I am doing. I don’t expect I shall be long. I’m sure I shall be back before Papa and as Nanny used to say, ‘ what the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve over ’!”
    Bates laughed again,
    â€œI expect she’s still saying it to the children she’s looking after now. I understands a month ago she called here to see how we all was. She asks if we’d heard from your Ladyship.”
    â€œI do hope Nanny is happy in her new position.”
    â€œShe’s only got one baby to look after,” said Bates, “and she’s with some people – I forgets their name – who live in the country and she be nice and comfortable.”
    â€œJust what I would want for her.”
    She thought as she spoke that it was really being home to hear about the people who had been part of her life for so many years.
    How was it possible her father could expect her to walk out on them?
    And how could she start an entirely new life with a strange man?
    â€˜It’s inhuman! It’s cruel! It’s wicked,’ she fumed.
    Then as she finished her meal with a