Read 65 A Heart Is Stolen for Free Online

over a mile and a half from the house and found it difficult to recall even approximately the number of inhabitants who lived there.
    “You are very silent, Justin,” Anthony remarked.
    “I was thinking,” the Marquis replied.
    “I am so tired that I can think of nothing but how comfortable the bed in my room is likely to be.”
    “You are lucky you don’t have to dance attendance on Lucy, and that is putting it politely.”
    “What do you bet Bicester turns up there tonight saying that he has changed his mind and has decided to accept your invitation after all?”
    “If he does, he will find an empty house,” the Marquis replied. “You can be quite certain that Bradley will have bundled everyone back to London by now.”
    “I can imagine their fury! They were expecting to stay for at least another week.”
    “If you ask me house parties always go on for far too long,” the Marquis remarked. “For the first few nights the conversation seems witty and entertaining, but after that one has heard all the jokes and even one’s drink seems to taste stale.”
    “You are spoilt, that is what’s the matter with you!”
    “Nonsense!” the Marquis replied. “We are just too intelligent for the type of people with whom we are forced to associate.”
    Anthony laughed.
    “I would love to see their faces if they heard you say that!”
    “For the moment I have no wish to see any of them again,” the Marquis answered petulantly.
    The butler announced dinner and they walked into a delightful room that overlooked another part of the garden.
    A huge window, which almost covered one wall, was open and the sun was sinking behind the trees in a blaze of glory.
    “I wish I could paint that,” the Marquis sighed.
    “Van de Velde did his best,” Anthony replied, “and I see you have two excellent pictures of his on the stairs.”
    “They portray the sea which is why my father bought them,” the Marquis answered.
    They sat down at the table, which was lit by four candles in exquisitely chased gold candlesticks.
    In the centre of them was a gold ship which Anthony stared at with undisguised admiration.
    “I must say,” he said, “I can well understand your father collecting everything to do with the sea. What I cannot understand is your taking so little interest in what he bought and leaving it here instead of taking it with you to Veryan or to London.”
    “I never thought of it,” the Marquis said simply. “The things here belong to Heathcliffe and I like everything in its rightful place.”
    He thought again, as he spoke, of the snuffboxes and decided that he would not show them to Anthony until they were all back in the showcase.
    The dinner was good and the Marquis appreciated that the fish was fresh from the sea and the partridges, if a little tough, had obviously been shot when the household had been told of their arrival.
    The beef, however, was tender and excellent and Anthony, who had a second helping of nearly everything, exclaimed when the fruit was put on the table,
    “I have enjoyed my dinner! I had thought I was too tired to eat, but now I feel better.”
    “It’s the sea air,” the Marquis explained. “Wait until tomorrow, you will be ready to eat an ox all to yourself!”
    “We shall need some exercise first.”
    “A swim in the sea will provide that and, of course, the horses. I have told Bradley to send us at least a dozen.”
    Anthony laughed.
    “A grand gesture.”
    “I am determined you shall not be bored.”
    “I would be more impressed were I not certain you are really thinking of yourself!” Anthony teased.
    “I have always found in the country one has to make one’s own diversions,” the Marquis said loftily, “and that is what I intend to do while we are hiding here.”
    “Hiding?” Anthony queried. “So you admit that is what you are doing?”
    “Of course I am,” the Marquis answered. “I don’t intend to return to London until I am quite certain that there are no