Love in the Highlands Read Free Page B

poor, as long as we love each other."
    But she had wanted money and the delights it would bring. On what should have been their wedding day, she had run off with another man, leaving her groom, abandoned and ridiculous, at the altar.
    He had never got over it.
    "I hate all women!" he had said once. "I trust none of them, and I swear they will never torture me again as I have been tortured now."
    He became well-known in the county for hating women, and entertained mostly men at the castle he had inherited when his father died.
    He frequently travelled abroad, but never seemed to form any attachments there.
    In many ways he was a benefactor to the part of the world where he lived. He helped to improve the county and was a generous friend to a number of people who were in trouble, or too poor to look after themselves.
    He was a member of several London clubs, and was popular with the men who frequented them. It was there he met those who waited on the Queen, including Lord Ringwood.
    He was thirty-three, yet gave the impression of being older, because of the legends that had swirled around him for more than a decade.
    "I really can't believe that he is going to help us," Lavina sighed as they discussed matters during the journey.
    "He might, simply because he would disapprove of anyone being forced to marry someone they did not love."
    "But would that overcome his dislike of women?" Lavina asked. "On the contrary, it might give him pleasure to refuse his help to a woman, and send her away to be unhappy."
    The more she thought about it, the gloomier the prospect became.
    At last Ringwood Place came into view. The carriage swung through the main gate for the journey through the grounds. There were the familiar trees that Lavina loved, the great pond, with contented ducks paddling on it. Even in her distraught state the sight of these well-loved signs of home had the effect of calming her.
    As soon as they reached the house Lavina sent for the housekeeper and ordered a light lunch that could be served quickly. The sooner they were on their way to Elswick Towers the better.
    Then she hurried up to her bedroom where her trunks had already been carried. Jill, her maid and Mrs Banty, her dresser, were already at work, unpacking.
    Mrs Banty was a middle-aged woman with an air of imperious authority, whose pride was to be able to locate any of Her Ladyship's garments and suitable accessories at any time, day or night. That ability was to be tested now.
    "I'm going to Elswick Towers," Lavina told her, "and I want to look utterly superb."
    "The pink," Mrs Banty said without hesitation, pointing to a trunk that, to the casual eye, looked just like the rest. "It is in there."
    In moments they had extracted a 'visiting' costume of pink silk, trimmed with four flounces, each surmounted by a band of purple velvet ribbon. The over-skirt was of a heavier, ribbed silk known as faille. This was a lighter shade of pink, trimmed with white lace, with purple velvet ribbon and bows.
    Working like the expert she was, Mrs Banty produced the perfect accessories, a tiny parasol of the same pale pink as the overskirt, and a white chip bonnet, trimmed with purple velvet ribbon, and tiny pink rosebuds.
    The ensemble was completed by the daintiest pair of black kid walking boots.
    As soon as she had finished her lunch Lavina sped upstairs to put on the dress that Mrs Banty and the maid had lightly pressed and brushed out.
    Reverently they helped her put it on. When everything was in place Lavina regarded herself in the mirror, wondering if this was all a dream. Surely there was a kind of madness in running away from London at a moment's notice, to throw herself on the mercy of a man who hated women?
    But then she took another look at the magnificent creature looking back at her, and she had to admit that she was proud of what she saw. This was no romping child, but a great lady of the highest rank. She looked glorious enough to enchant any man. But could she