Lovers in London by Barbara Cartland Page A

prevent herself from gazing at him from time to time.
    Innocently Lanthia had intercepted her glances and if the Marquis was really convinced that the Contessa had something tigerish about her, she had felt the same.
    She could almost feel the Contessa reaching out to the Marquis, her hands like claws seeking to clutch him.
    Lanthia thought she was definitely eerie and rather frightening and this opinion helped her to understand to some extent why the Marquis should be running away from the idea of marriage.
    Any woman who became his wife would be much too possessive. She would attempt to imprison him just as he wanted to go exploring and needed to be free.
    â€˜I understand,’ she thought, ‘I do understand and I would like to tell him that he need not be afraid of me.’
    She knew, however, it was something she could never say.
    It was with a flourish that the Marquis drew up his horses outside Marlborough House.
    The groom, who had been sitting up behind, took the reins from him and he and Lanthia stepped out.
    Once again she felt she was walking into a sublime dream.
    They were greeted in the entrance hall by a Scottish ghillie in Highland dress and a scarlet-coated footman with a powdered wig took the Marquis’s hat and gloves.
    A butler then escorted them to a sitting room where Princess Alexandra was waiting to receive them.
    As she held out her hand in delight to the Marquis, she looked so beautiful that Lanthia thought,
    â€˜I know I am dreaming. I only hope I don’t wake up too soon!’

CHAPTER FIVE
    Ever since she was small Lanthia had heard so much about Alexandra, the Princess of Wales.
    As she became older she began to realise that Her Royal Highness was completely adored and idolised by the whole country. She was just so beautiful, pure, radiant and gracious that the public considered her their fairy Princess.
    Because Lanthia had lived a very cloistered life in the country, she had no idea of what the Marquis and many others in the know understood only too well.
    It was that Princess Alexandra had won for herself a popularity never previously accorded to a Royal Consort, a great deal of it being due to the fact that the Prince of Wales was known to be unfaithful.
    As Lanthia swept to the floor in a deep curtsy, she thought that, as she had once read, that the Princess looked like ‘a fairy doll on top of England’s Christmas Tree’.
    The Prince came forward to greet her saying,
    â€œYou are now looking even prettier than last night, Miss Grenville!”
    Lanthia smiled at him and the Prince introduced her to his other guests.
    To her rapt surprise among them were Mr. and Mrs. William Gladstone. He had been Britain’s Prime Minister until Mr. Benjamin Disraeli had superseded him.
    However, Lanthia had read in the newspapers that there was every likelihood of Mr. Gladstone coming back again with the Liberals winning the next election.
    A number of people thought it very strange that the Gladstones should be such close friends of the Prince and Princess of Wales as it was well known that the Queen had a strong dislike for him while he was Prime Minister.
    What very few people realised was that the Princess preferred as her guests, those gentlemen who actually ‘did’ something, such as politicians, churchmen and musicians.
    This had meant that Sir Arthur Sullivan and Signor Tosti were very regular visitors at Marlborough House and although most of the aristocratic families adored Princess Alexandra, their interests were very different from hers.
    She had confided to one of her close friends that the conversation of the British ‘upper crust’ always involved killing things, such as birds and wild animals; but where she was concerned, she preferred life and happiness.
    The Prince next introduced Lanthia to Mr. Oliver Montagu, who her father had often talked about.
    He was the Equerry in attendance on the Princess – he was always at her side to