The Saint and the Sinner by Barbara Cartland Page A

nothing more arduous to do than to be entertained. Her mother had always said that men were at their best when they were doing something.
    “They are like children,” she had said. “When a child asks: ‘What shall I do?’ you know they are bored, and that is when they get into mischief.”
    “Where have you been all the morning?” Freddie asked as the Earl joined them. “Clive and I felt better after a gallop on your excellent horses, but it does not look as though you have sat on anything except a chair.”
    “I have been rather busy with affairs concerning the house and the Estate,” the Earl replied. He looked at Pandora as he spoke and his eyes were twinkling.
    Without really thinking what she was doing, she slipped her hand into his.
    “It has been very exciting!” she said in a low voice. The Earl’s fingers squeezed hers and only as she saw the suspicious look on Hettie’s face did she wonder if she had been indiscreet.

Chapter Four
    When luncheon was over the Earl rose to his feet and said:
    “I am going riding.”
    He had eaten very little and Pandora was sure that his mind was on other things.
    He certainly paid very little attention to what Hettie was saying, and he answered his friends absent-mindedly.
    She had been relieved to find that there was no sign of Sir Gilbert.
    Although she did not ask about him, Richard told her what she wanted to know when he mentioned that last night Sir Gilbert had made an arrangement to see Sir Edward Trentham today.
    Clive and Richard now looked at the Earl enquiringly as if they expected him to invite them to ride with him, but before they could speak the Earl said,
    “If you are not too tired, Pandora, I would like you to come with me. There are things I want to see which I feel only you can show me.”
    “Of course, Cousin Norvin.”
    She hurried excitedly upstairs to change into a riding-habit. She had put one in her trunk with the faint hope that there would be a chance of her riding again over the land she loved.
    Because she knew that men hated to be kept waiting, she pulled off her gown and hurried into the pretty green habit that she had worn for several years but which still fitted her.
    It might be old, but it was well cut.
    However much they economised on their ordinary gowns, her father had always insisted that she and her mother were properly dressed in the hunting field.
    Arranging her hair in a chignon at the back of her head, she put on the high-crowned hat she wore for riding, which had a gauze veil of the same colour as her habit to float out behind it.
    Then she ran downstairs to find the Earl waiting for her in the hall, and outside were two magnificent horses, better bred than anything she had ever before ridden or her father could have afforded to buy. The Earl lifted her into the saddle, and as his hands went to either side of her small waist she realised how strong he was.
    She looked down at him, met his eyes, and what she had been about to say suddenly left her mind. She knew only that he was smiling and that some of the lines seemed to have gone from his face.
    He looked up at her for what seemed to be a long time, but could in fact have been only a few seconds, before he turned and mounted his own horse.
    Pandora supposed it must be the excitement of riding again at Chart, but her heart was beating in a strange manner and she felt as if it was hard to breathe.
    They had reached the bridge before she managed to say,
    “Where do you wish to go?”
    “I thought you might like to show me the part of the Estate I have not yet seen,” the Earl answered.
    “What have you seen already?”
    “Very little,” he admitted. “At Christmastime the weather was bad and we were all excessively drunk. The last time I was here I spent my time with a fair charmer who did not ride.”
    Pandora had the idea that he was deliberately saying such things because he thought they would shock her.
    They were duelling with each other, she thought, not only