Love in the Highlands Read Free Page A

heartless female who had abandoned him, and henceforth think only of Lavina.
    The thought was so glorious that there was suddenly an extra spring in her step, and she bounced about spinning dizzily. The other young dancers stopped to watch her, while her partner stepped back to let her dance alone.
    Oblivious to everything but her own joy she whirled and spun in an ecstasy of delight. For a glorious moment the whole world was hers to relish.
    The music slowed, then stopped as she sank into a deep curtsey while the other young people applauded her. When she lifted her head she was looking straight at Lord Elswick.
    He was staring at her very hard, but his expression was a blank. With the confidence of extreme youth she interpreted that blank to please herself. Obviously he was stunned by her beauty and grace.
    Lady Bracewell was talking to him now, smiling, indicating the young people. Lavina edged a little closer so that he could see her better.
    And then he shrugged, turned away, and over his shoulder came floating back the terrible words,
    "My dear Jemima, you must forgive me, but I have better things to do than romp with children."
    From the mature heights of twenty Lavina could see that, as insults went, it was fairly mild. Since she had not made her debut she was, officially at least, still a child. So it was barely an insult at all, merely a statement of fact.
    But at seventeen her sensibilities had been lacerated. Suddenly she became aware of her breathless state, her tousled hair, her flushed cheeks. She had behaved like a hoyden and now she looked like one.
    Oh heavens! Oh, disaster!
    Worse still, she heard the sound of a suppressed giggle from behind her.
    Like every beauty she already had her enemies, girls of her own age who professed friendship but seethed with envy, and were secretly glad to see her crest lowered. And now they could laugh at her.
    That night she had sobbed into her pillow and sworn that she would never, never forgive Lord Elswick as long as she lived.
    Now, sitting in her carriage on the way to ask his help, she supposed she would have to forgive him. Anything was better than being forced into marriage with Prince Stanislaus.
    But she wished it had been anyone but Lord Elswick.

CHAPTER TWO
    The Earl's family had lived in Oxfordshire for five hundred years.
    In 1390 King Richard II had made Baron Ringwood a grant of lands and money. The Baron had built a magnificent country house which each generation had improved upon in size and value.
    In the Civil War the Ringwoods had been staunchly on the Royalist side, resulting in Charles II elevating the title to an Earldom. Ringwood Place was now an imposing residence with a grand exterior of white stone, and an extensive park where peacocks wandered, uttering their eerie screams.
    Lavina had been born there, and she loved the place. Since she had been old enough to remember, the grounds, and the lake where she had learnt to swim, had always seemed like fairyland.
    Now the prospect of leaving it, and the country she loved, filled her with dread.
    How could her father persuade the Marquis of Elswick to agree to a fake engagement, when it was well known that he loathed women?
    It came from the way he had been treated when he was very young. He was, in fact, not quite eighteen, and was attending Oxford when he fell very much in love with a pretty girl whose father had bought a house on his estate.
    The girl and the young Viscount, as he was then, had met and fallen in love while they were out riding.
    He had loved her madly, and been sure that she loved him equally. He was determined to marry her in the face of all social difficulties, including his parents' opposition.
    But he had no money, except what his father allowed him, and if he married her he would be cut off without a penny.
    Undeterred, he set the wedding date, certain that his father would relent. In this, he was wrong.
    "But it doesn't matter," he told his bride. "What does it matter if we're