Read 63 Ola and the Sea Wolf for Free Online

that her maid Hannah was leaving today. In which case why wait until tomorrow and miss being together tonight?
    He looked at the clock.
    He had risen early and the letter had been waiting on his breakfast table.
    He calculated that, if he left London within the next hour, he could be at Elvington by about eight o’clock.
    When he had dined, he would ride across the Park and through the fields as he had done before and be at The Manor by ten o’clock.
    The window would not be open for him, but the servants would be in bed and, if Sarah was in her bedroom, he could easily attract her attention from the garden without disturbing anybody else in the house.
    ‘I will surprise her!’ he told himself with a smile, thinking of her delight and what an excitement his arrival would be to both of them, because it was unexpected.
    He gave the order for his phaeton and his fastest team of four horses to be brought round immediately and was soon on his way to Elvin.
    His arrival was no surprise to his servants because his staff had instructions always to be ready to receive him and his chef was prepared to produce a superb menu without having any previous notice of his arrival.
    The Marquis, having bathed and changed, ate an excellent dinner, waited on by his butler and three footmen. At precisely nine forty-five he went to the front door to find one of his fastest horses waiting outside.
    Because he often rode at night after dinner, he thought his staff would not have the least suspicion as to where he was going. He would therefore have been extremely annoyed if he had known that everyone in the house, from the butler to the youngest knife boy, was aware of his infatuation for the widow who lived at The Manor.
    “All I can say,” one of the footmen said to another as he rode away, “is that she’s real lucky to catch ’is Lordship. There’s not a gentleman to equal ’im in the sportin’ world.”
    “You’re right there,” his companion replied, “and I suppose she’ll suit ’im all right. But I’d never fancy a widow meself.”
    “Why ever not?” his friend enquired.
    “I like’s to be the first!” was the answer. “First past the winnin’ post and first in the bed!”
    There was laughter at this and it was fortunate that the Marquis crossing the Park in front of the house was unaware that his staff did not suppose he was just enjoying the evening air.
    Once out of sight he galloped because he was in a hurry to reach Sarah.
    He thought romantically that the noise of the horse’s hoofs repeated over and over again the three words that were uppermost in his mind,
    “I love you! I love you! I love you!”
    At the end of the Park he passed through a wood, then over several fields until at last he could see ahead of him the shrubbery that bordered the garden of The Manor.
    He knew exactly where he could tether his horse and, having done so, he walked surely and without hesitating along the twisting path that skirted the rhododendrons and ended at the edge of the rose garden in the centre of which was a sundial.
    It was then that he was aware that the lights were on, not only in Sarah’s bedroom but also in the drawing room.
    The Marquis stood still.
    It suddenly occurred to him that perhaps Sarah was entertaining, which would explain why she had asked him to come tomorrow instead of tonight.
    Then he told himself that she would never have expected anyway that he would have received her letter so early and have left London immediately.
    She knew how meticulously he always planned his various engagements and it was, in fact, unprecedented for him, as he had done this morning, to send messages to no fewer than four people regretting that he could not keep the appointments he had made with them.
    ‘When I tell her, she will appreciate how much I love her,’ the Marquis told himself.
    Now, looking across the darkness of the garden towards the light, he suddenly felt uncertain.
    The last thing he should do was to walk in