The Winning Post Is Love Read online

  Whereas Dolina, as an unmarried girl, might read into his words something he had never said and, for the time being, never intended to say to anyone.

  But Rosetta merely smiled.

  “If we have the chance tomorrow,” she said, “I am certain if it comes to a question of endurance that Starlight would beat your horse. That is what I will be thinking tomorrow if you are still with us at The Hall.”

  The Marquis had forgotten that he was supposed to be returning to The Castle later in the day.

  He had been thinking that his valet could take over his clothes when Lord Waincliffe and his brother and sister had his conducted tour round The Castle.

  Then, as Rosetta rode on ahead of him towards the stables, he really wanted to challenge her again.

  He would feel dismal and bored if, after the visit to The Castle was over, they went home and he had to dine alone.

  *

  Back at The Hall Rosetta went up to her room and changed into one of the gowns belonging to Dolina.

  She felt she had never enjoyed a morning more.

  And the Marquis had not been at all as aloof and formidable as she had feared last night. This morning he seemed younger and considerably more amusing than she had expected him to be.

  ‘Perhaps,’ she told herself as she changed, ‘he is not as bad as he is painted.’

  But he would soon grow bored with being in the country with only the Racecourse to think about.

  She wondered if Gordon would ask him to sign a document to confirm that he would pay for the costs – and whether they could trust him not to back out.

  After all, they would be doing a great deal of work and spending money they could never recover.

  Then she told herself that she did not believe for a moment the Marquis could behave like that and she would certainly expect him to be honourable and keep his word.

  ‘At the same time,’ she thought, ‘it would be nice to make sure that everything is clear and tied-up and next she wondered if she ought to tell Gordon what she was thinking.

  When she went downstairs to the breakfast room, the boys were already there talking nineteen to the dozen to the Marquis and they all rose when she entered.

  “Please don’t move,” she asked them.

  Then turning to Gordon, she exclaimed,

  “Thank you so much for the most wonderful ride I had on Starlight. He is indeed marvellous and although his Lordship did his best to beat him, it was a dead heat.”

  “The Marquis has been telling us how you raced each other,” said Henry. “And he is now determined to challenge us all with the new horses he intends to buy.”

  Rosetta looked at the Marquis enquiringly and he explained,

  “There was a most fantastic collection coming up for sale at Tattersall’s that belonged to a man who has just died. I was determined they would be mine and to my delight I heard yesterday, just before leaving London, that the executors have decided to accept the offer I made for the whole collection and they are being delivered to The Castle this morning.”

  “Oh, how fantastic!” cried Rosetta.

  “I have seen them on several occasions when I was staying at their late owner’s house. I always thought that they were the finest thoroughbreds I have ever seen.”

  “Now all your other poor horses at The Castle will take second place,” said Rosetta. “I feel so sorry for them and I am sure they will feel hurt.”

  “In that case you will just have to look after them as well as all the people in my villages, Dolina. You could cheer them up by riding them.”

  He felt that her blue eyes would then shine with excitement as they had done before.

  But to his surprise, she did not answer.

  She merely walked to the side table to help herself from one of the silver dishes.

  “Now today, my Lord,” Henry came in excitedly, “we have to go to the Racecourse and show you exactly how it will look when it is finished.”

  “I was there this morning and I think you are quite right and have chosen just the right place for it.”

  “I thought if we rode there after breakfast,” Gordon said, “we could decide exactly where the Racecourse itself should be as well as the paddock and the stands.”

  “I think,” the Marquis added quietly, “we should have an expert to decide that. I happen to know the man in charge of Ascot Racecourse. I will ask him to come and answer all those questions that quite frankly I don’t feel we are capable of answering ourselves.”

  “You are right,” agreed Gordon, “and I think that we will all want to ride out this morning and will then be irresistibly drawn to where the Racecourse will be.”

  “I think Starlight should have a rest,” said Rosetta. “I rode him rather hard this morning and he not only raced but excelled himself at the jumps.”

  Gordon looked at her in surprise.

  “Are you telling me that you took him over what we call, ‘the jumps’ and which I have only just attempted to take myself?”

  “He flew over them all like a bird and his Lordship was, I believe, impressed by his performance.”

  “I certainly was, Dolina, and, as I have many horses at The Castle that need exercising, why don’t we go over there and instead of riding your horses, you can ride mine. You will actually be doing me a favour.”

  “It’s certainly the best idea I ever heard,” Henry enthused. “I have been longing to see the horses in your stable, my Lord. Whenever I have seen them on the roads or in the fields, I felt that they were too good to be true.”

  The Marquis smiled.

  “Well, they are indeed true and I will be delighted to mount you all. What I suggest is that I drive Dolina, while you, Gordon and Henry, ride your own horses as far as my stables.”

  He deliberately used their Christian names and ,as if he knew they were slightly surprised, he declared,

  “After all, we are neighbours and now partners and we have known each other since we were children. Thus we cannot go on being so formal and, as you all know, my name is ‘Euan’.”

  “I think that’s marvellous, Euan,” Gordon replied. “Then after luncheon you can show us The Castle, as you have promised.”

  “Then everything is arranged. All we have to do now is to wait for Dolina to change once again into her riding clothes.”

  Rosetta jumped up from the table.

  “I promise to be no more than five minutes. I think that seeing your stables and your superb horses will be so exciting.”

  Now the Marquis could see her eyes shining.

  He thought it impossible for any woman to look so thrilled – unless of course she was thinking about him!

  “Hurry!” Henry called as Rosetta walked towards the door. “Otherwise Euan may change his mind and we will never see those marvellous horses except on canvas!”

  The Marquis laughed.

  “We will avoid that disaster,” Rosetta piped up, “and I will be ready in three minutes instead of five!”

  She ran from the room and the Marquis thought, as he had thought so many times already, that she was unique and so different from other women.

  He could not imagine Hermione or any of the other beauties being so thrilled at the idea of riding his horses.

  They kept their excitement for being with him and he knew only too well the way their lips invited his and the soft touch of their hands.

  ‘She is just so unlike them in every way,’ he told himself. ‘As well as being the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.’

  Then he asked himself why she did not respond to him as a man as every other woman did.

  They had been together this morning, had talked and even prayed in the monk’s Chapel.

  Yet she still did not look at him invitingly.

  He knew only too well there was not the expression in her eyes that told him she was longing for his kisses.

  ‘Why, why,’ he asked silently, as they rose from the breakfast table, ‘is she so different?’

 
CHAPTER SIX

  Driving behind the Marquis’s magnificent team he had brought down from London, Rosetta thought it was an experience she had never had before.

  The horses moved with a swiftness and smoothness she felt was fantastic and she found it hard to take her eyes off them.

  She was looking exceedingly pretty in another of Dolina’s dresses and a little hat that framed her face.

  Once again, the Marquis thought that it gave her a unique ethereal look he had never seen before on any other woman.

  Although it was just a short distance across country between The Hall and The Castle, it was several miles by road and they could not go fast all the time because of the villages they had to pass through.

  Rosetta said nothing, but the Marquis noticed that she was looking at the empty cottages as they passed them and on most of them the thatch urgently needed restoring.

  “If you are criticising me,” the Marquis said as they passed by another cottage, “I can only tell you that I have seldom driven along these lanes before, so I am as shocked as you are at the amount of work that needs to be done in these villages.”

  She turned to smile at him as she replied,

  “That is exactly what I want you to say. I know that once the Racecourse is built, people will flock to these villages and they will become prosperous overnight.”

  “Not as quickly as that, but you have made it very clear to me that I have neglected these people and must, of course, make amends.”

  “It’s all so exciting, Euan, that I find it hard to think of anything else.”

  “If you don’t like my Castle, I shall be extremely annoyed – ”

  “Of course I will like it. I have thought about it for years and wanted to see inside. I feel that this is a day I will always remember however old I become.”

  The Marquis laughed.

  “I don’t think you need worry about it at present, Dolina!”

  He was just about to pay her a compliment and then he realised once again that she was watching the horses and it seemed to him so extraordinary that she should pay more attention to his horses than to him.

  He had originally thought of her as just one of the many beauties of Mayfair, who were far more interested in London than the country.

  In fact, he could not remember being with a woman who had no wish to live anywhere but in the middle of London – most of them would complain bitterly when they had to go to their husband’s country seat.

  To them the parties that took place in London every night were irresistible as well as all the luncheons when the food and wine were superlative and the balls where they could dance closely with him.

  “I think the horse you were riding this morning,” Rosetta butted into his thoughts, “is the best of the four, although they are all stupendous.”

  “That is what I thought, but I am surprised that you recognised it when they are all so perfectly matched.”

  “Even the horses have their special beauties,” she remarked, “and no horse, even if their coats are the same colour, looks exactly like any other.”

  Rosetta was still admiring the team as they drove in at the gates that led to The Castle.

  As they went up the drive, the Marquis could see that she was really elated at seeing his home.

  Many women had told him how wonderful it was and yet he had known they were talking about him rather than The Castle itself.

  When they entered through the front door, Rosetta did not speak. She was looking round her, taking in the magnificent staircase with its exquisitely carved balustrade.

  There was a huge medieval sculptured fireplace and beside it were regimental flags commemorating at least a dozen battles when Millbrooks had fought with distinction.

  The Marquis waited until Gordon and Henry had dismounted and their horses taken away by grooms.

  “Welcome to my Castle,” the Marquis intoned, “but before luncheon I think we all need a drink.”

  There was champagne waiting for them in one of the most beautiful drawing rooms Rosetta had ever seen.

  The furniture was all French and the pictures were mostly by famous French artists.

  There was a long glass-topped table in front of one window and Rosetta gave a gasp of delight when she saw it contained some of the snuffboxes she had been told the Marquis had in his collection.

  “I think the French ones are beautiful,” she sighed, “but the Russian are unique! And you are so lucky to own those boxes, which must have been popular in China and the East before the Europeans had even heard of them.”

  The Marquis thought it quite extraordinary, seeing how young she was, that she knew so much about so many different subjects.

  After a delicious luncheon, the Marquis started to take them round some of the rooms in The Castle.

  Again he found it almost impossible to believe that someone so young should know so much about pictures and furniture.

  When later on in the afternoon he opened the door into the library, Rosetta gave a cry of delight.

  “I have never seen a more magnificent library,” she exclaimed, “or one that housed so many books! Have you read them all?”

  The Marquis’s eyes twinkled.

  “Not entirely, I still need a few years before I catch up with you. I am sure that you will tell me you have read more books than I have, Dolina.”

  “As you are older than me, you should have read more than I have,” retorted Rosetta. “These are fantastic and beautifully arranged in your library.”

  The Marquis reflected again with a slight feeling of pique that she was far more interested in his library than in its owner.

  In fact, he had great difficulty in persuading Rosetta that there were other rooms he wished her to see before tea.

  “Could I just slip back into the library before we leave?” Rosetta begged. “I see you have a Shakespeare Folio which I thought was only in the British Museum.”

  She talked of books until they reached the drawing room where tea was arranged for them.

  The Marquis recognised that no other woman he had taken round The Castle had praised his possessions rather than himself.

  He did notice that Gordon and Henry were almost tongue-tied by everything they saw and, as he felt that they were being somewhat neglected, he suggested,

  “As soon as tea is finished, I have something quite different to show you that, I do believe, you will find as absorbing as your sister finds my other collections.”

  “What can it be?” Gordon asked.

  Before the Marquis could speak, Henry cried,

  “I know! You are going to show us your horses. I was afraid we might go home without seeing them.”

  “Of course you are going to see them, but I kept them until last because I thought that you would find them more enchanting than anything inside The Castle.”

  “Now you are making it impossible for me to say I want to go back to the library,” protested Rosetta.

  “It’s for you to choose, Dolina,” the Marquis added.

  She smiled at him.

  “You will know the answer already. Although The Castle is fantastic, Shakespeare can wait and I do want to see your horses too.”

  They all laughed and the Marquis thought that once again she was completely unlike anything he might have expected.

  The stables were as magnificent as The Castle.

  Gordon was promising himself that the moment they made any money from the Racecourse he would spend it in copying the Marquis’s stables.

  The horses themselves, as Rosetta anticipated, were sensational and she thought it would be very difficult for anyone to own a better collection.

  There were far more of them than she or Gordon had expected and the Marquis admitted that he had been extremely extravagant lately.

  “I have not only paid a large sum for my new team of horses,” he told Rosetta, “but I mentioned the collection of exceptionally fine horses I was lucky enough to be able to buy before they were put up for auc
tion.”

  “Yes, we do remember.”

  “Well, they were delivered this afternoon.”

  The Marquis grinned before he added,

  “I hope you will approve of my extravagance.”

  He then led them to a stable at the far end of the yard, explaining that he had built it recently with every up-to-date gadget.

  The new mangers and the way water was provided were most interesting to Gordon, but Rosetta was stunned by the horses themselves.

  Never in her life had she seen a finer collection of such majestic thoroughbreds. They were so amazing to look at that they might have stepped out of a picture book.

  “You need a Stubbs to paint them all and do them justice,” she said in an awed voice.

  “I thought they would please you, Dolina.”

  “They are absolutely and completely wonderful!” she enthused. “In fact there are no words to describe how splendid they are.”

  She walked from stall to stall talking to the horses and the Marquis mused that an artist would not only want to paint the horses but the beautiful woman admiring them.

  “They are really a superb collection,” said Gordon. “No man could be luckier than you, Euan.”

  “The only difficulty,” Henry chimed in, “is that you have to decide which one to ride. To be fair, as they are all as good as each another, you will have to ride them one after another, which I reckon should take you a whole day at the very least!”

  “It’s an idea, but I actually have a better one,” the Marquis laughed, “as you are admiring my horses so much and as I have greatly enjoyed staying with you at The Hall, I suggest, if you will have me, that I come back with you tonight, and tomorrow we all go riding together on my new horses. Not on the Racecourse, but over my land, which I think you will find almost as interesting as The Castle.”

  Before Gordon could speak, as he was taken aback by the invitation, Rosetta said,

  “It’s the most marvellous present you could give us, and thank you, thank you, Euan. I would rather ride one of your new horses than fly to the moon!”

  “Then you shall ride the very best of them and now I suggest we go back to The Hall and you can tell me while we are driving there which horse is your special choice for tomorrow morning.”