Barbara Cartland - This Is Love

“And Papa fell in love with you,” she murmured.

“He wanted to marry me,” her mother replied, “mainly because he needed a young wife who would give him the son he wanted.”

Athina just stared at her mother thinking that this was something that she had never realised before.

“He talked to my father and mother,” the Countess went on, “and, of course, they were completely overjoyed that I should marry anyone as prestigious as the Earl of Murling. They had never aspired so high even though I was thought to be very pretty.”

“And what happened to William?” Athina had asked.

Her mother made a helpless gesture.

“I was forced to say ‘goodbye’ to him and it broke his heart as it broke mine.”

“Was there nothing you could do to persuade your father that you loved him?”

“I tried to tell him,” the Countess said, “but he would not listen to me. Everybody thought that I was the luckiest girl in the world to have captured an Earl before I was even launched onto the Social world! So we were married.”

Her mother did not say anything more.

Athina, however, knew that she had never loved the man who she had been forced to marry.

What is more he had been seriously disappointed in her.

It might have been Fate, or it might have simply been because she was unhappy, that the Countess had produced only one child and that was a daughter.

The doctors had said that they thought it was impossible for her to bear any more children.

At first the Earl would not listen to them, saying that he had never heard such nonsense. His wife was young and beautiful and so it was only a question of time.

But the longed-for son did not arrive.

He was therefore forced to accept the fact that Athina would be his only child. So he was determined to make her exceptional.

It was his way of hiding the truth that he was bitterly disappointed that the son he wanted so desperately would never materialise.

Loving both her parents, Athina found it very hard not to be aware every day and every hour how much they resented each other.

She would often talk animatedly and excitedly to her father on a number of different subjects

But, when her mother came into the room, it seemed suddenly as if the temperature had dropped. There was a restriction over whatever they said that she could not ignore.

Then Athina’s mother had died in one very cold winter when she contracted pneumonia.

It had passed through Athina’s mind that maybe her father would marry again, but he was very obviously too old.

Over sixty years old, he had made the best of his life by making his daughter his companion instead of the son he craved for.

He therefore carried on, Athina thought with some relief without a wife who he had always felt frustrated with.

When he had taken a nasty fall when out hunting, the doctors had claimed that it was nothing serious.

But he died a week later.

It seemed unbelievable to Athina that she should then suddenly find herself all alone.

The one thing she had learnt from her parents’ marriage was that never in any circumstances would she marry a man who she did not love.

‘Never, never,’ she told herself, ‘will I live like Papa and Mama – both so very charming in themselves and still both so unhappy as apart from me they had nothing in common.”

She was not certain what sort of man she really wanted to have in her life.

But one thing in her life she did realise – she would never allow anybody, whoever they might be, to choose her husband for her.

Almost as soon as the funeral was over, that was exactly what her relations had wanted to do.

They swept into the house, one after another and the conversation was always the same.

“You cannot live alone, Athina dear, and the sooner we find you a suitable husband the better!”

“I have no wish to be married,” Athina always answered firmly.

“That is quite ridiculous,” would be the answer. “You are already eighteen and, if you are not careful, you will be on the shelf and an old maid.”

They would laugh at the idea, but Athina knew that it was what they believed was the truth.

“You will meet plenty of gentlemen in London,” one relative after another had insisted.

Even before she had finished her last months of mourning, they began to bring men into the house to meet her.

“Lord Newcomb is staying with us for two days,” an aunt would say, “and it seems a pity, as he is here in the country, for you not to meet him.”

Or else the plan might be,

“I know that Sir Willoughby would be thrilled to see your father’s horses. Take him round the stables, Athina dear, while I sit in front of the fire.”

As soon as they arrived, Athina felt that every nerve of hers was on edge.

Her whole self rebelled at the thought that the newcomer was just there for one reason only.

To look her over as if she was on show at a fashionable Spring Horse Fair.

‘No! No! No !’ she wanted to scream out. ‘Go away and leave me alone. I don’t want to marry you or anybody else.’

However, one of the many things her father had taught her was self-control.

She was always charming and polite and no one had the slightest idea of what she was really feeling inside.

One man, more importunate than the rest, returned unexpectedly and alone the next day.

When he had actually proposed to her, she replied with what was in her mind,

“I am, of course, honoured, my Lord,” she said in a cold voice, that after such a very short acquaintance you should ask me to be your wife, but I must make it very clear that I have no intention of marrying anyone.”

“That is ridiculous!” he had replied. “Of course you will have to be married. No woman should live alone and certainly no one quite as beautiful as you.”

“I have plenty of people to look after me and, although you may think it rather strange, I like being alone with, of course, my horses, my friends and my estate.”

She saw a look in his eyes, which told her that her estate was as desirable to him as she was herself. In fact without it it was doubtful if he would have been so eager.

She held out her hand.

“Goodbye, my Lord, and I thank you for calling, but I think that you will understand when I tell you that it would be a mistake for you to come here again.”

There was nothing that her ardent suitor could do but leave and she told herself with a little smile that it was with his tail between his legs.

Athina stretched herself out on the goose feather mattress, which was very comfortable and closed her eyes.

Tomorrow, she thought, she would be home and that was where she wanted to be.

It was then, as she was just about falling asleep, that she heard a scream.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.