Read Love Drives In for Free Online Page B

a great number of letters which had arrived by the morning post.
    Her mind was still elsewhere as she opened the first letter, and she scarcely noticed that the writing paper was rich and engraved not only with the address, but with a very important crest.
    The letter read,
    Darling Gerald,
    I miss you terribly and long to be with you. You always say such wonderful things to me, and I lie awake at night thinking how happy we were that magical evening.
    It is very boring being here in the country, with everyone talking about horses and racing, when I want to be with you.
    I love you, I love you, and as soon as I am back in London I want you to tell me that you really love me.
    Bless you and a thousand kisses,
    Elsie.
    With a sense of shock she realised that she had intruded on something private. Hurriedly she put the letter back into the envelope.
    She wondered who Elsie was. It seemed strange for a young girl to write in such a way.
    Perhaps it was an older woman.
    Yes, she wrote like a woman of experience and the Earl evidently had a relationship with her that enabled her to write to him in such passionate terms.
    Was this the reason why he seemed indifferent to virtuous young ladies of society? Because he enjoyed liaisons with women whose virtue was less outstanding?
    The thought saddened her. But, after all, what did she know about him?
    She put the letter discreetly with the others, and left it for him.
    'If only he would return,' she thought. 'I would so like to talk to him.'
    But when the butler, whom she had discovered was called Henly, brought in her morning coffee he told her that his Lordship would be out all day.
    In fact, he did return in the afternoon, but only to go straight upstairs to dress for an evening out. Just before he departed again, he looked in on her with a smile.
    "Are you managing all right?" he asked. "Good – I knew you could cope."
    Then he was gone, without giving her a chance to reply.
    She ate a lonely supper and retired early, feeling unhappy.
    Next morning there was no sign of him when she started work and Henly confided that he had returned very late last night.
    It was after lunch when she heard him come downstairs and go into his sitting room. Dorina went straight to him with the letters. Strictly speaking she knew she should have waited to be sent for, but something in her longed to see him.
    As she entered he turned from where he was standing at the window.
    "I have your letters for you," she said as she put them down on his desk.
    She had arranged them with the private ones on the bottom.
    Two of the letters were from English hostesses who wanted him to dine with them.
    The third was the letter she had read the previous day.
    To her surprise the Earl took this last letter, read it, then tore it into pieces and threw them into the waste-paper basket.
    Dorina longed to ask him why he had not wished to answer the woman who had written with such desperate passion.
    But she thought it best not to pry, which undoubtedly she had done by reading his very personal letter.
    He was very businesslike that afternoon, and finished work early. He was giving a dinner party that evening.
    Dorina wondered if Elsie would be there, sitting beside him, laughing with him.
    Perhaps not, since he had torn up her letter.
    But there would be many other women.
    "Enjoy your party," she said as she left him. "But don't forget you're leaving early tomorrow morning to go to the races."
    "I suppose I'll have to go," the Earl sighed. "I have a horse running in the third race. But there's really so much for me to see to here that I ought to stay. Yes I must go. I have friends expecting me."
    She retired early and tried to sleep, but she could not help being intensely aware of the noise of merriment coming up from the Earl's dinner party below.
    She pictured him there, surrounded by beautiful women. Then she dived under the bedclothes and pulled the pillow over her head.
    By the time Dorina reached her office the