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her face was broken.
    â€œExquisite indeed,” he agreed in a bored manner.
    Leonora’s sudden feeling of elation at his interest in her faltered, particularly as Maud seemed so satisfied with the tone of his reply.
    â€œWell, come along now,” she said, taking hold of his arm and leading him away.
    â€œI’m absolutely starving.”
    Leonora watched them depart.  Then she put on her apron again and resolutely tightened its strings.
    For a few delicious moments she had tasted what the girls at Fenfold had discussed so ardently – romance .
    She had experienced its highs and lows within the space of less than twenty minutes and she had survived – though whether unscathed was another matter.
    It would be so difficult to forget the strength of the arm that had encircled her waist and the muscular chest to which she had been so firmly grasped.
    The maids brought more pitchers of lemonade and the orchestra resumed as guests began to stream back from the supper tables.
    Leonora was soon busy filling up the glasses once again and she tried not to watch the couples dancing.
    Several times out of the corner of her eye, she caught Maud Broughton swirl by, but not always in the arms of the gentleman with the black mask.
    Towards ten o’clock she took a glass of lemonade for herself and wandered to the window.  It overlooked the sweeping driveway at the front of the house.
    A carriage waited outside, its steps set down and its door open with a footman standing to one side.
    Light streamed out onto the gravel as the front door opened.  Leonora’s heart skipped two beats as a figure in a black mask strode elegantly down the steps and, gesturing to the coachman, climbed into the carriage.
    The footman then slammed the carriage door.
    â€˜ The crest !’ she thought.  ‘It is surely the same one I saw on the carriage that had splashed my dress by the Black Jack Inn !’
    Which meant that the gentleman she had thought so arrogant was the very same as the masked stranger in whose arms she had swooned this evening!
    She rubbed the glass with the edge of her apron and pressed her face more closely to the pane, but the carriage was already turning.
    She could not see the crest now, but she could make out a figure at the window.
    As she watched, the figure seemed to look her way.
    Too far to make out any features, it was yet near enough for her to see the gloved hand that waved in tender farewell!
    Entranced, she intently watched the carriage move away under the elms that lined the drive.
    In a moment carriage, crest and passenger were all swallowed up in darkness.

CHAPTER THREE
    For the next few days Leonora found herself in an unfamiliar state.
    At the sound of horses’ hooves on the road beyond the cottage, her heart would begin to beat quickly.
    When passing Broughton Hall on her way to see the baker or butcher, she could not refrain from stopping and peering through the gates in the ridiculous hope of seeing that carriage bowling towards her.
    When the postman arrived, she could not help flying down the stairs two steps at a time as if one of the letters might be from him !
    After all, he did know her name, so it would not be so difficult to find out where she lived.
    He had held her close in the dance – closer she was certain than was usual in these affairs – closer than she had seen him hold Maud Broughton.
    She had even heard him agree with Maud that she, Leonora, was indeed exquisite.
    Admittedly he had indicated a certain boredom with the subject, but might that not have been to deceive Maud?  Because later he had waved to her as he had departed.
    Was it really beyond the realms of possibility that he would come for her?
    Time and the continued silence on the part of the mystery gentleman soon disabused Leonora of this conceit, and after a few days she was forced to concede that he had all but vanished into thin air.
    â€˜You are just a silly fool,