A Battle of Brains by Barbara Cartland Page B

before he said,
    â€œEverything is all right, my darling.  Your prayers are answered and we will not be thrown out of the hotel or be forced to walk home.”
    â€œLord Milborne has helped you?”
    â€œHe has been very generous and what is more, he has given me the winner of the big race this afternoon.”
    The horse had indeed won and they then spent two very happy weeks in Baden-Baden before moving on.
    It was Lord Milborne who had rescued them, but Yolanda had not thought of him since.
    Yet she realised now that she could not allow her stepfather to outwit him as she suspected he wanted to.
    She had heard several people talking at the dinner table about the new automatic air brakes.  Everyone thought they would prevent the accidents, which kept occurring on the railways.
    The Stockton and Darlington railway was designed in 1825 to carry coal from the mines to the waterways and it had proved immensely successful.
    In the following years England was covered with a vast railway network and soon other countries in Europe began to build their own railway systems.
    There were many unfortunate accidents because it was easy to start a train, but difficult to stop it.
    Several men working on manual handbrakes had to be co-ordinated, but if this procedure failed, a dangerous accident was likely.
    Now there was talk about a Mr. Westinghouse in America who had developed an automatic air brake, which was being adopted by a number of American railways.
    Yolanda realised from the look on her stepfather’s face and the many questions he asked when the air brake was being discussed that he was interested in the product.
    And it meant that he would want to buy it before anyone else in England could.
    Yolanda was not concerned – it did not matter to her from whom he obtained the air brakes.
    But she was aware that she could not permit him to trick Lord Milborne, who had saved her father, her mother and herself from disaster.
    â€˜I have no wish to hurt Step-papa,’ she determined.  ‘But at the same time he has so much.  Perhaps Lord Milborne needs a helping hand now, just as Papa needed one all those years ago in Baden-Baden.’
    *
    That afternoon she had arranged for some fittings in Bond Street and afterwards she asked the coachman to take her to Grosvenor Square.
    She believed that her stepfather’s secretary would keep a list of the people he knew and where they lived.
    So she looked at the book on his desk while he was at luncheon and found, just as she had expected, Lord Milborne’s address listed – Milborne House, Number 93 Grosvenor Square.
    She and the maid who accompanied her drove there from the shop in Bond Street.
    Yolanda felt that she was being somewhat disloyal to her stepfather, but at the same time it was honourable to try to pay back some of the huge debt her father owed Lord Milborne.
    Grosvenor Square was indeed the largest and most impressive square in London and yet to Yolanda it seemed somehow overpowering.
    When the carriage drew up by an important-looking house, it was with difficulty that she prevented herself from instructing the coachman to drive on.
    Then she remembered the smile on her father’s face when he had come back from his walk with Lord Milborne in Baden-Baden, and how he had bent to kiss her mother before he told her the good news.
    â€˜I am sure,’ she pondered, ‘this is what Papa would want me to do.’
    The first footman on the carriage rang the bell of Number 93, the butler opened the front door and Yolanda stepped out.
    â€œI would like to see Lord Milborne,” she asked.
    â€œIs his Lordship expecting you, madam?” the butler enquired.
    â€œNo,” she replied.  “But will you please inform him that Lady Yolanda Wood wishes to speak with him.”
    The butler was obviously impressed by her title, so instead of asking her to wait, he took her across a high-ceilinged hall and opened a door on the