Follow Your Heart Read Free Page B

applying to a man.”
    As he finished speaking he moved towards the front door and to her surprise Della realised he was leaving.
    â€œWhy, are you not staying for luncheon?” she asked.
    The Duke shook his head.
    â€œI have a number of people waiting for me at the Hall and fortunately luncheon is at one–thirty as my sister is arriving from London, so I will not be late.”
    He looked at Lord Lainden as he spoke and his eyes twinkled in case he might be accused of the crime of being late.
    Then as the Duke took his hat from the footman he turned to say,
    â€œGoodbye, Edward, and I shall be waiting eagerly to hear your answer to my question.”
    Lord Lainden did not reply. He walked to the door to watch the Duke hurry into the waiting carriage.
    The footman, wearing an impressive uniform, closed the carriage door before climbing up onto the box beside the coachman.
    As the horses moved off, the Duke bent forward to raise his hand and Lord Lainden waved back.
    The carriage proceeded swiftly down the drive.
    â€œI felt sure he would stay to luncheon,” sighed Della.
    â€œHe has rather important friends staying with him,” commented her uncle, “and now we must not keep our luncheon waiting.”
    He walked quickly towards the dining room with Della following him.
    She wondered vaguely what the answer might be to the Duke’s important question, but her uncle spoke of other matters as soon as they sat down.
    She thought it must be something confidential that could not be discussed in front of the servants.
    The luncheon was excellent, but Della thought Mrs Beston would be disappointed that the Duke had not stayed.
    She had, however, a great deal to tell her uncle about her ride and informed him that the gypsies were now in residence in the field beside Long Wood where they camped year after year.
    â€œSo they are back!” exclaimed Lord Lainden. “That is good and of course I must go and see them.”
    â€œThey will be very disappointed if you do not.”
    Della then told him how Lendi was now bedridden and added that Mireli was learning to take her place.
    She knew her uncle was listening intently, but at the same time she could sense there was something on his mind.
    And it was worrying him.
    Della had always been able to pick up on the thoughts and feelings of others, ascribing her feyness to her mother’s Scottish ancestors and their folklore of those born with ‘second sight’. Even as a child she had been sensitive to what was happening around her, aware of secrets that never occurred to other children the same age.
    When she grew older she found she knew things which grown–ups either kept hidden or were not aware of themselves.
    Sometimes she found herself predicting an occurrence before it happened.
    During her first stay at Wood Hall she had been aware of the ghost before anyone else told her about it.
    â€˜I wonder what is worrying Uncle Edward,’ she pondered before luncheon was over.
    She knew her uncle so well. He never had to tell her when he was faced with a difficult political problem, as she was aware of it from the way he spoke or perhaps it came from his vibrations.
    She was glad it was the Duke who had been the visitor otherwise she would have been suspicious that he was being asked once again to go abroad. Perhaps it would be either to Paris, Berlin or Amsterdam to settle some international difficulty for which no one else could find a solution.
    But it was the Duke who had brought a note of discord to the house.
    Della therefore supposed it must be something to do with his family. At one time there had been a monumental crisis when the Duke’s nephew became infatuated with a most unsuitable woman. If it had just been an affaire–de–coeur no one would have worried particularly.
    The gossips would soon have found someone else to talk about, but the Duke, however, had learned that his nephew was contemplating marrying