Read 106. Love's Dream in Peril for Free Online

mind and knew about the kiss. “Oh, Jane, please don’t think any more about it. I have had a quite perfect afternoon and now we simply must dash.”
    Jane decided to say nothing about the wager. Adella was going to London tomorrow and she would probably never see Digby again.
    Why spoil her happiness?
    “Come on, Jane! Our lives will not be worth living if we arrive back after five o’clock.”
    And with that Adella caught up her skirts and ran along the pavement. It was such bliss to go so fast and to feel the cool air rushing past her face.
    She still had the feeling, exactly as when she had walked beside Digby, that her feet were scarcely touching the ground and she did not want Jane to ask her any more questions, as she knew she would have to tell everything if her friend persisted.
    If she spoke about the kiss and about the way that Digby had made her feel, the dream, the vision of joy and bliss she had experienced in the Gardens might change and therefore lose some of its golden perfection.
    There would be time enough tomorrow, when she had read the letter that Digby was going to send her.
    Adella gave a little skip for sheer delight and ran on and Jane, clutching their parasols and gasping for breath was close behind her as they reached the leafy side street that led to the school.
    It was only just five o’clock. They had made it!
    *
    Digby felt quite light-headed, as he trotted up the stone staircase to his rooms, a bit like one of his sisters’ kites, when the girls had let go of the string and there was nothing to anchor it to the ground anymore.
    ‘I must have caught a touch of the sun,’ he said to himself.
    But it was not that, he knew. Yes, he had been out all day riding and then walking in the Botanical Gardens.
    It was not his long day out in the summer sunshine that was affecting him, it was that heavenly girl, Adella.
    She was even prettier and even sweeter than he had first thought when he made that stupid wager with Lord Ranulph.
    He could not get her lovely face out of his mind, so vivid and alive and happy, gazing up at him after he had kissed her.
    And he knew that, if the light weight of her slender arm was still resting on his, the strange dizzy feeling that possessed him would vanish.
    Oh well! He would get Batcup to pour him out a splendid glass of chilled white wine and then he would go to his desk and write a note to her, as he had promised.
    He was surprised, as he reached the landing where his rooms were situated, to see Batcup, his scout, standing outside the door.
    The old man’s face was creased with worry.
    “Mr. Dryden, I wanted to warn you that you have a visitor.”
    “Batcup, you know I never mind if any of the chaps drop by to see me and you let them, in fact, I’m delighted.”
    “No, sir, it’s not that.”
    Puzzled, Digby pushed the door open.
    On the rug by the fireplace was a burly figure in a long tweed coat. Digby recognised Mr. Evans, the Manager of his father’s estate at Duncombe.
    “This is a surprise!” he exclaimed. “Has Batcup looked after you? I trust he brought you a cup of tea.”
    Mr. Evans looked down at his boots and Digby saw that the man wore a black band around the arm of his coat.
    It must then be bad news. Perhaps one of his many elderly great-aunts had died.
    Mr. Evans coughed and then spoke,
    “Sir, there has been an accident. Your father fell from his horse as he was taking a jump this morning.”
    Digby caught hold of the back of an armchair. The golden dream that had filled his mind evaporated like mist.
    “Is he – all right?”
    Mr. Evans looked down at the hearthrug.
    “I am afraid not, sir. He – it was instant, I believe. I am so very sorry, sir.”
    Digby felt his heart grow icy cold.
    His Papa! How could it be? His tall, loud-voiced, cheerful Papa, the rock of the family, gone.
    Now, he, Digby would be the head of the Dryden household.
    He felt he should weep or shout or say something, but everything about him felt frozen