Love Drives In Read Free Page B

a cab."
    "Shall I tell him where it's going, miss?"
    "No, I don't think so."
    The Earl of Kennington's house was one of the largest in Grosvenor Square. She thought when she rang the bell that even the door looked rather grand and impressive.
    It was opened by a footman, wearing a very smart uniform. Behind him stood the butler.
    "I would like to see Lord Kennington," Dorina said, trying to sound firm and confident. "It is very important."
    The butler frowned.
    "Are you, by any chance, another secretary?"
    "I beg your pardon?"
    "Ever since his Lordship's secretary was taken ill, we've had a stream of applicants coming to this door." He added gloomily, "none of them any use."
    Dorina suppressed the urge to smile broadly. So the Earl actually needed a secretary. This was better than she could have hoped.
    "I think you will find that I am of some use," she asserted confidently.
    "Then please come in."
    He stared when he realised that she had two large bags with her, but indicated for the footman to help her.
    "I arrived in England only this morning and came straight here," she explained hastily.
    "Be so good as to wait in here while I speak to his Lordship. Your name, if you please."
    "I am Miss Martin," she told him.
    He opened the door of a small room near the hall, and when Dorina went in he closed the door behind her.
    She had a look round the room thinking it looked richly furnished.
    Clearly Lord Kennington was very rich, which meant that his business was profitable. But while her father had ploughed his profits back into the business, the Earl's father had expended some of his on a title.
    She wondered which of them had been wiser.
    She moved over to the fireplace and regarded herself in the mirror which hung above it.
    She looked, she thought, very sensibly dressed, just right for a secretary.
    But her hair had slipped forward a little and was very golden against her skin. She pushed it back and put on the glasses which she had brought with her.
    They were actually her father's, but she thought they gave her the impression of being older than she was. Also, she hoped, more intelligent.
    The butler opened the door.
    "His Lordship will see you now, Miss Martin."
    This was it, the moment she had planned for.
    She had a feeling that her prayer had reached her father, wherever he might be and he was somehow helping her.
    Whatever happened, she must not let him down.

 CHAPTER TWO
    They walked down a passage on a very soft and expensive carpet.
    She thought the pictures on either side of her were beautiful, while the furniture was outstanding.
    The butler opened a door halfway down the corridor.
    Then he said,
    "Miss Martin to see you, my Lord."
    Dorina realised, as she walked in, that it was his Lordship's study. A man was sitting at a very large writing desk near the window.
    The sun was glinting on a gold ink-pot.
    As he put down the pen he was holding, it too glinted for a moment in the sunshine.
    He rose and to Dorina's surprise, he was rather younger than she had expected him to be.
    Somehow when she heard her father and other men talking about him, she had imagined he was at least forty five and would have an aggressive manner.
    But the man in front of her was, she thought, only thirty and surprisingly good-looking.
    He had dark brown hair with a slight curl. His eyes were deep blue and had a brilliance that caught her attention. It was as though a light glowed from within him.
    His figure was tall and broad shouldered and his legs very long. He seemed to radiate power, and cast everything else in the room into shadow.
    He shook her by the hand saying,
    "It is very kind of you to come and see me, and I need someone very badly at the moment."
    He indicated a chair on one side of the fireplace and he sat down near it on a sofa.
    "I'm in a rather difficult position as you have doubtless been told," the Earl began. "My secretary who has looked after me for several years and who, I may say, is completely indispensable, has