104. A Heart Finds Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

smart chaise outside the front door. It was drawn by four perfectly matched horses.
    As she walked nearer, she saw that the chaise had a crest on the outside of the door and she did not know of anyone in the County who had such a smart chaise or such fine horses.
    The groom, who was standing at their heads, wore a livery she did not recognise.
    Hoping she looked tidy, she hurried into the house to find Brooks waiting for her in the hall.
    “There be a gentleman to see you, Miss Alnina,” he said, “and he says he be the Duke of Burlingford.”
    Alnina stared at him in surprise.
    But Brooks, obviously thrilled at such an important visitor, was already walking ahead of her to open the door into the study.
    Instinctively Alnina put her hand up to her hair to tidy it and then, putting down the potatoes on the nearest table, she followed Brooks towards the study.
    She wondered why she had never heard of the Duke of Burlingford before.
    ‘It could well be an elderly friend of Papa’s,’ she reflected, ‘who has just heard of Charles’s death.’
    Brooks opened the door and she walked in.
    A tall young man was standing looking out of the window and, when he turned round, Alnina thought that he was very handsome and certainly not likely to be a friend of her father’s.
    He walked towards her, holding out his hand.
    “I have learnt that your name is Miss Lester,” he began, “and I think I knew your brother, Charles, who was at Eton with me. He was younger than me, but I remember he was selected for the cricket team at a very early age.”
    Alnina smiled and then replied,
    “I suppose you do not know that Charles is dead.”
    “Dead!” the Duke exclaimed. “But why should he have died? He was a good deal younger than me.”
    “He died after fighting a duel in France and you could not have seen it in the newspapers. It was reported, I think, as a warning to other young men who could get into trouble in Paris.”
    “I am sorry, very sorry to hear of Charles’s death,” the Duke said, “but I really came to see you because of your advertisement in The Times . It did not give your name, only the address.”
    “So that is why you have come here, Your Grace. I wondered, when I saw your horses outside and admired them very much, who you could possibly be.”
    “I have only recently come into the Dukedom,” the Duke replied, “owing to a disaster that happened to my cousin and his son at sea.”
    “Oh, I did read about that. I was wondering where I had heard your name before and now I remember.”
    “Unfortunately I did not read about your brother,” the Duke added. “But I am really sorry to hear the news.”
    “I am sorry too,” Alnina said. “But sadly Charles left a great number of debts and to pay them off I am trying to sell the house and more or less everything in it.”
    “It is a very beautiful house, Miss Lester. In fact, as I came up the drive, I thought it was one of the most attractive houses I have seen for a long time.”
    “I love it because it is my home,” Alnina admitted, “but it has to go, like almost everything else in it.”
    She glanced up as she was speaking at the empty space over the mantelpiece where a picture had hung and she had been lucky to receive three hundred pounds for it.
    As if he was reading her thoughts, the Duke said,
    “I know what you must be feeling.”
    “Now we should talk business, Your Grace. You came to see the wedding dress and it would be helpful if you would not mind coming up to the bedroom to view it.”
    “Of course I will do so.”
    The Duke thought as he spoke that Charles’s sister was certainly very attractive and he recalled that Charles had been a very good-looking boy.
    It seemed sad that she should have to sell the family house and its contents.
    ‘Surely,’ he thought, ‘there must be a successor who would carry on the Lester family.’
    Alnina, however, was walking towards the door and he followed her.
    The Duke was well aware, as they