A Battle of Brains by Barbara Cartland Page A

pride about some business deals that had been a huge success and had eventually made him a multi-millionaire.
    As soon as luncheon was finished the horses were brought round to the front of the house from the stables.
    They rode together first into the paddock and then to look at the new jumps, which had been erected while Yolanda was lying in bed.
    They rode over the broad acres of his estate.
    â€œYou must be very proud of all this,” she exclaimed.
    â€œIt is what I always told myself I would have one day – a house bigger and better than anyone else’s.  It was blessed when your mother came to stay and she was even more beautiful than any of the pictures on my walls.”
    â€œI meant to talk to you about your pictures.”
    The horses were now walking side by side and the sun was shining on Yolanda’s golden hair.
    She was not wearing a hat as there was no one to see her except her stepfather – it was the way she had enjoyed riding with her father.
    â€œWhy do you buy so many expensive and famous pictures?” Yolanda asked him.
    â€œFirst because I enjoy looking at them and secondly because I know it will impress the people I want to impress.”
    She liked his response because he was so frank.
    â€œHave they come to see them?”
    â€œQuite a number came while your mother was here.  That is what I am hoping you will do now you have taken your mother’s place.”
    Yolanda looked a little puzzled and he explained,
    â€œWe shall entertain the right people who will know a masterpiece when they see one and who perhaps have one or two in their own homes.  I promise you that I have no intention of wasting their beauty on those who don’t appreciate them!”
    Yolanda knew what he was telling her – he would not in future ask men like Cecil Watson to stay with them in the country.
    She did not respond to his comment so instead she gave him a smile, which made her, for an instant, look very much like her mother.
    â€œWe are going to enjoy ourselves, although I know it is only a question of time before you will fall in love and leave me.”
    â€œI will never leave you completely, Step-papa.  It is what I very stupidly thought I might do, but I promise you I shall not contemplate it again.”
    â€œWe will make this house a very happy one,” he told her quietly, “just as when people stayed with us when your mother was alive, they always went away feeling very happy and different to when they arrived.  As one woman said to me, ‘it has been Heaven this weekend being with you two wonderful people.  Please, please ask me again’.”
    Yolanda’s eyes softened as she listened.
    â€œIt is a very nice idea, Step-papa, and that is what we will do.  I know it would please Mama.”
    â€œI know that too and I am certain she will help us.”
    *
    That night when Yolanda went to bed, she thought how stupid she had been.
    She had not attempted to understand her stepfather before now.
    She had actively disliked him and been snobbish enough to believe that he was rather common and beneath her.
    Now when he had told her frankly of his struggles and difficulties to reach right to the top, she realised it was something he had always done alone and without love.
    Until he had found her mother.
    Yolanda was now thinking of just how much she had meant to him – she could hear it every time he spoke of her.
    The sincerity in his voice and the expression of love in his eyes was very moving.
    â€˜We were so incredibly lucky that he was so kind to us,’ she said to herself.  ‘And it was most ungrateful and stupid of me not to understand.’
    She was now determined to make it up to him.
    When she said goodnight, once again she put her arm round his neck and kissed him affectionately.
    It was the way she had kissed her father.
    She knew her stepfather understood without words what she was saying to him.
    When