Love is Triumphant by Barbara Cartland Page B

from Rosina as possible.
    Rosina pulled out the box where she kept the letters, unlocked it, and took out the contents.
    "Here are all the letters he wrote her," she said,
    handing them over.
    Her friend read in silence for some minutes before saying bleakly,
    "This is his handwriting, and these are the self-same phrases he has used to me. And this – "
    She was holding the final letter, the one that had driven Miss Draycott to her death.
    "This one is dated a week after he and I met, when he was already speaking words of love to me. He was already planning to marry me for mercenary reasons, wasn't he?"
    "I'm afraid he was," Rosina said gently.
    "I don't understand. How do you come to have these?"
    "As I have told you Miss Draycott is now dead. She threw herself off a balcony and died in my arms. I took these things from her room to preserve her reputation.
    "In her dying moments she thought only of him. She wanted no harm to come to him, so I tried not to injure him. I simply told him to leave you alone, under threat of being exposed. But I would never have exposed him, if he'd simply backed away from you.
    "But when he told you such lies about me, I had no choice but to defend myself with these letters."
    "She is dead," Lady Doreen murmured. "She died for love of him. How terrible."
    "Bad news is always terrible," Rosina said. "Forgive me for the distress this must cause you, but believe me, if you had married him you would have been wretched."
    "I would give anything not to believe you, but I cannot ignore these letters."
    "I promise you every word I've told you is true," Rosina answered. "I don't want you to be caught and tied to such a despicable man. He's selfish and dangerous."
    "You were right to tell me," Lady Doreen agreed, "but it has been a shock. I thought, I suppose stupidly, that what he was saying to me he had never said to any other woman. That I was the one woman he'd been looking for."
    She fell silent, sunk in sadness.
    Rosina regarded her with sympathy. At last she said,
    "I'm afraid that is part of his act and he does it very well. But I'm certain that poor Miss Draycott was not the first person he had made love to, nor will she be the last."
    "What am I to do?" Lady Doreen said. "I had promised to help him canvass in the constituency, if he was adopted as candidate. I can't do that now, but Papa will wonder why.
    "Perhaps I could tell him that I've promised to help you canvass votes for your father, as we are such good friends."
    She looked quickly at Rosina.
    "We are friends, aren't we?"
    "Always," Rosina replied fervently. "Forgive me if this has hurt you, but it would have been worse for you to learn the truth later."
    "You are quite right," Lady Doreen said in a soft voice.
    "Don't let yourself be sad for long," Rosina said impulsively. "He isn't worth it, and what you have learned from him may be useful in dealing with other men. You have so much to offer that the wrong sort of man will always imagine you are easy prey."
    "Then he will find himself mistaken," her friend said in a resolute voice. "I will wait for the right man."
    "I'm glad you said that," Rosina told her. "He must love you because you are the perfect woman he has been looking for, and perhaps praying for, all his life. As you are so pretty and very intelligent, I think that, sooner than you expect, you will find the right person who you will love, and who will love you for the rest of your life."
    She paused for a moment before she added, "That is what we all want. Of course I want it too, but – " she broke off and sighed. "I don't know if it will happen for me."
    "But all the men are sighing for you," Lady Doreen said.
    "But I am not sighing for them," Rosina said with a laugh.
    "And I thought you wanted to take Arthur away from me."
    "I did – but only to toss him on the rubbish heap where he belongs," Rosina replied with spirit.
    At this Lady Doreen even managed a faint laugh.
    "I should thank you for being brave enough to