Read The Temptation of Torilla for Free Online Page B

with her father two years before, the inns had been almost deserted.
    What visitors there were, were commercial travellers, professional men or farmers and not particularly interesting either to look at or to talk to.
    Torilla could not help staring wide-eyed at the elegance of some of the gentlemen who had come from the Racecourse. It was a long time since she had seen intricately tied muslin cravats, champagne pantaloons that clung as if their wearers had been poured into them and hessian boots polished until they reflected like mirrors.
    Her father in his black clerical garments and the miners in their dirty rags were all she had had to look at for two years.
    What she had never imagined was that a man with any pretentions to being a gentleman would behave as Sir Jocelyn had done.
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    The stagecoach travellers were called at five thirty in the morning and a maid knocked perfunctorily on Torilla’s door to announce,
    “Yer breakfast’s a-waitin’, miss.”
    Torilla had in fact been awake for some time.
    She had dozed a little in the early hours of the morning, but kept waking with a start imagining that Sir Jocelyn was putting out his arms to catch hold of her and she could not escape.
    ‘The sooner I am away from here the better!’ she told herself.
    She dressed and put her nightgown into the small valise, which contained the other things she needed for the night. She knew it was very unlikely that any of the race-goers would be up so early.
    Nevertheless, while she ate the rather unpalatable breakfast that had been provided for her and her fellow travellers, she kept watching the door of the coffee room in case Sir Jocelyn should come in.
    Only when the stagecoach rolled away from The Pelican Inn did Torilla heave a sigh of relief and tell herself that she had learnt a lesson she would never forget.
    The Marquis, having breakfasted from a plentiful selection of well-cooked dishes in his private room, left the inn at nine-thirty with a new team of horses, fresh and fidgeting because, like their owner, they wished to be on the road.
    It was a clear, sunny day. The air had had a bite in it, but as the sun came out there was a warmth that told the Marquis summer was not far away.
    When he was dressed and Jim was just putting his night things into an expensive leather holdall, the Marquis had gone onto the landing and looked at the next room.
    The door was open and he saw that it was empty. Vaguely at the back of his mind he remembered while he was still half-asleep hearing soft sounds very early in the morning.
    They had in fact been so soft that they had not awakened him completely and he told himself now that the girl he had rescued the previous evening must have been a stagecoach traveller.
    The stagecoaches left at six o’clock, but the rest of the visitors at The Pelican Inn, the Marquis was sure, would be spending another day at the races.
    He had no wish to meet Sir Jocelyn again, so he did not linger in the yard, which was even busier than it had been when he arrived.
    Horses were being brought from the stables to be put between the shafts of phaetons, chaises, barouches and gigs.
    The ostlers and private grooms were shouting at each other and the innkeeper was running backwards and forwards with bills that must have taken half the night to tot up.
    The Marquis tipped generously, then drove off anxious to be on the road before there was much traffic, as he had quite a considerable distance to travel before his next port of call.
    The whole day went well.
    The luncheon which he enjoyed at another posting inn, having been arranged by Harris, was not only to his satisfaction but he also found the landlord had some excellent claret.
    The Marquis bought several dozen bottles and ordered them to be sent South, to add to the enormous amount of wine he had already in his cellars.
    He thought it so good that he decided he would ask the Prince, who fancied himself a connoisseur, to taste it.
    As he journeyed on, he planned