65 A Heart Is Stolen by Barbara Cartland Page B

could see them more frequently.”
    The Marquis had the feeling that she was being definitely hostile and now he looked into her eyes as he said,
    “I think, Mrs. Wadebridge, you are taking me to task not only for neglecting the snuffboxes but also for neglecting Heathcliffe. Could that be right?”
    “How could I presume to question anything your Lordship does?” Ivana replied. “But of course, if I have made you feel guilty, I can only apologise.”
    The Marquis’s lips twisted and he was trying to think of a scathing reply, as Travers announced,
    “The phaeton is at the door, my Lord!”
    “Then I must go,” Ivana said. “I am sorry if I seem rude, but actually I don’t like leaving my old nanny alone for long. She becomes nervous.”
    “Of what?” the Marquis enquired.
    He noticed Ivana’s dimples as she answered,
    “The dark. Nanny believes in ghosts and spirits who walk by night. What else can you imagine would perturb her?”
    There was a glint in her blue eyes, which left the Marquis feeling as if they crossed swords.
    It gave him a strange feeling of elation.
    He did not know why, but, instead of dampening down his instinct to probe deeper, she had positively accentuated it.
    They walked into the hall and Travers put her shawl around Ivana’s shoulders.
    “Thank you, Travers,” she said quietly.
    As they walked to the phaeton, the Marquis was trying to remember if he had mentioned Travers by name during dinner.
    He was almost certain he had not and yet again there was no reason why she should not know his butler’s name. He too must shop in the village.
    Ivana sat between the two men on the way back and the Marquis was aware that Anthony was whispering compliments in her ear and she was laughing with him.
    It struck him that she was certainly not the shy frightened country girl he had expected her to be. She seemed sure of herself although there was a very young untouched look about her that the Marquis had not seen for many years.
    The sophisticated women like Lady Rose he made love to certainly did not have it and it suddenly struck him that considering how few, if any, cosmetics Ivana used, her face would certainly not look smudged in the morning and he was quite certain that she did not snore.
    It did not take them long to reach Flagstaff Manor and the Marquis negotiated the narrow drive most skilfully.
    Ivana stepped out to thank them most profusely for a delightful evening.
    “I must see you again very soon,” Anthony said in a low voice as he took her to the door.
    Ivana was saved from answering because Nanny was standing there looking, he thought, like a ruffled hen who had been worrying over her one chick.
    “Goodnight, Sir Anthony,” Ivana said.
    He kissed her hand and she looked to where the Marquis was still sitting in the phaeton, controlling the horses.
    “Goodnight, my Lord.”
    He swept his hat from his head.
    “Goodnight, Mrs. Wadebridge.”
    Ivana went into the house and Anthony climbed back into the phaeton.
    With some skill the Marquis managed to turn the horses so that the wheels of the phaeton did not go over the closely cut grass or the white-painted stones.
    They drove through the gates and then, as they turned towards Heathcliffe, he looked back at the house.
    From the angle they had reached he could just see the end of the great barn protruding behind it. Then, as he looked, he was aware with a sudden start of satisfaction that in one of its windows there was a light.

CHAPTER FOUR
    The Marquis awoke in the morning with a feeling of excitement that he had not known for years.
    He had been a long time in going to sleep, finding it difficult to see anything but Ivana’s face and her expressive eyes.
    He kept remembering how frightened she had seemed when he and Anthony had first walked into her drawing room at The Manor and, the more he thought over the way they had been received, the more he was absolutely convinced that she and her nurse had been expecting them.
    It