An Angel Runs Away by Barbara Cartland Page A

if no one really wanted her.
    “So you will not be in to dinner tomorrow?” the Duchess was saying as they moved along the passage.
    “No,” the Marquis replied, “I am dining with the Cavendishes, so if I don’t turn up at the ball, you will realise that the dinner finished too late for me to appear.”
    “I understand,” the Duchess said, “and Ula and I must not complain, for you have been very generous in dining with us tonight. I suppose, unlike us, you do not intend to go to bed early.”
    “I promised His Royal Highness I would look in at Carlton House,” the Marquis replied, “and after that I have several other invitations.”
    He spoke slightly mockingly and again Ula was certain that the invitations came from lovely women who would be waiting anxiously for him.
    She went up the stairs with the Duchess, who, on reaching her room, said,
    “Goodnight, my child. My grandson is delighted with the successes of last night and how beautiful you looked.”
    “Does he – really think – that?” Ula asked a little wistfully.
    “He told me this morning that you exceeded all his expectations.”
    She saw the light that came into Ula’s eyes and the sudden radiance on her face.
    She did not say anything, but merely kissed the Duchess goodnight and went into her own room.
    ‘I don’t want the child to break her heart over Drogo,’ the Duchess murmured to herself, ‘but what can I do about it?’
    When she climbed into bed and her maid had turned out the lights, she did not sleep at once, but lay worrying over the two young people who filled her life at that particular moment.
    Ula had gone to bed with the Duchess’s words ringing in her ears and she thought that nothing else mattered if the Marquis was really pleased with her.
    ‘I must be very very careful,’ she thought, ‘to do everything he wants and not make any mistakes.’
    When she said her prayers, she thanked God that the Marquis had come in time to save her from Prince Hasin and she added a little plea that she need never see the Prince again.
     
    *
     
    She had been told not to hurry in the morning, but to rest while she had the chance.
    She therefore had her breakfast in bed and was not ready to go downstairs until it was nearly eleven o’clock.
    It was a luxury she had never known to be waited on and be able to do exactly what she wanted.
    All the last twelve months at Chessington Hall, she had been expected to be down as early as the servants, knowing that there were a dozen tedious jobs waiting for her which she had been unable to finish the night before.
    She put on one of the pretty morning gowns that the Duchess had bought for her. This particular one, which was a very pale blue like the sky in the early morning and trimmed with broderie anglaise threaded through with matching velvet ribbon, was not only very pretty but also very smart.
    As she walked downstairs, she took with her an attractive shawl in case when she went out into the garden the sun was not as warm as it looked.
    She felt it was unlikely to be necessary and she therefore, when she reached the bottom of the stairs, put it on a chair in the hall.
    Then she went as if drawn by a magnet into the library, hoping that today she would not be interrupted in her desire to read as she had been yesterday.
    Because she thought that it reminded her of the Prince, she did not take from the shelf the book he had snatched from her arms and thrown onto the floor.
    She chose another one, this time a book of poems by Lord Byron.
    She had only just settled herself comfortably in the window seat and started to read one of her favourite poems, when the door opened and the butler announced in a rather strange voice,
    “The Earl of Chessington-Crewe, miss!”
    For a moment Ula was frozen into immobility.
    Then, as she looked across the room at her uncle coming through the doorway, she saw that following him was a Bow Street Runner.
    She thought her eyes must be deceiving her, but there was