A Battle of Brains by Barbara Cartland Page B

they went upstairs, she slipped her hand into his.
    â€œIt is really so exciting to be going back to London, Step-papa.  But you will help me?”
    He realised that she was asking him to keep away from her any man who might frighten her.
    His fingers tightened over hers.
    â€œI am always here for you, Yolanda, and I shall be extremely careful whom you meet.  Let’s at first keep to your mother’s friends.  I know some of them already, who I met when you were away in France and I am sure that if I appeal to them, they will welcome you with open arms.”
    When they reached Yolanda’s bedroom, they kissed again.
    Then Mr. Garrack went to his own room.
    Yolanda found that the housemaids had packed all her gowns and the trunks were now standing in her room waiting for any last item before they were locked.
    She thought as she looked at them that this was the beginning of a new adventure.
    It was what her father had often said when they had moved from a place they could not afford, and sometimes it was because the people there were wary of playing cards with him because he won so much from them.
    â€˜ A new adventure !’
    She breathed the words to herself.
    Then she felt that her mother was somehow smiling at her and telling her that was what it would indeed be.
    â€˜Perhaps,’ mused Yolanda, ‘I shall find someone as attractive as my Papa and that will be the most wonderful adventure of all.’
    Yet somehow she felt it unlikely.
    The men she had met in the very brief time she had been in London had seemed so young and immature.  They were not intelligent, but in fact rather stupid.
    However, she was sensible enough to realise why they had disappointed her.
    She had always spent time with older men, like her father and his many friends, and now it was the same with her stepfather.
    Even when she had disliked him, it was impossible not to be very impressed by his brain – and impressed by the interesting comments he made about his work.
    â€˜Maybe,’ she pondered, ‘I shall find all young men are boring and dull because they have not lived exciting and adventurous lives as Papa and Step-papa have lived.’
    It was indeed a rather depressing thought, but then she told herself firmly that in this new adventure anything could happen.
    The unexpected was always round the corner.
    â€˜What I am going to do, Mama,’ she whispered as she lay alone in the darkness, ‘is to try to enjoy myself as I know you would want me to and it will please Step-papa.’
    She was beginning to realise now why her mother had undoubtedly been fond of Oliver Garrack, even though she had given her heart and soul to her first husband.
    â€˜I was very foolish not to realise that, although he is different in so many ways to my Papa, he is an extremely interesting man and a most intelligent one.
    â€˜It meant everything to her when she was so bereft, lonely and totally penniless to have someone in her life who literally worshipped her.’
    Above all else he wanted her mother to be happy.
    â€˜I must try to understand people better than I have done in the past,’ Yolanda told herself, ‘and not judge men as I have been doing because they do not resemble Papa.’
    When she mulled it all over, she concluded that her mother had always found something nice to say about everybody – however different they were and whatever their position in life, she was always complimentary.
    As she fell asleep, Yolanda was thinking that she must try to make her stepfather happy.
    She had never even thought of worrying about his feelings before, but now she realised how much he must be missing her mother.
    Perhaps in his own way he was trying to ease his unhappiness at losing her by working even harder, and that was the real reason why he had brought Mr. Watson down to the country.
    Without, of course, imagining for a moment that he would behave as he had to her.
    She was quite