An Angel Runs Away by Barbara Cartland

“How many proposals did you receive last night?”
    “You will hardly believe it,” Ula said, “and I feel quite certain by this morning they will have changed their minds, but there were no fewer than three young gentlemen who said they intended to ask if they could pay their addresses to me.”
    The Duchess laughed.
    “It is what I expected.”
    “I cannot believe it possible that any man could imagine he wants to marry a woman he has danced with only once.”
    “Most women don’t look like you, my dear,” the Duchess said, “and I am sure the men in question were all frightened that somebody else might steal a march on them by getting there first.”
    Ula was silent for a moment.
    Then she said,
    “It is strange – but each one began by saying, ‘are you in love?’ When I shook my head they said, ‘then if you are not in love with the noble Marquis, I have a chance’.”
    The Duchess smiled and then she said insistently,
    “I do beg of you, my dear, not to fall in love with Drogo.”
    Ula’s eyes opened wider than usual as she answered,
    “Why do you think that I should presume to do anything so foolish?”
    “Because inevitably women want what they cannot have,” the Duchess replied. “So many women have done everything in their power to get Drogo to give them the quite inexpensive but inexpressibly valuable present of a gold ring.”
    She looked at Ula and then said as if she wanted to impress it upon her,
    “I am quite sure that the very unpleasant experience my grandson has had with your cousin Sarah will make him revert to what has been his intention ever since he was quite young and that is never to be married.”
    “But, of course,” Ula said, “he is quite right, unless he really falls in love with someone. I am sorry Sarah should have hurt him and perhaps made him very cynical, but I know he would have been very unhappy with her.”
    “I am aware of that now. Like many other men, Drogo was for a time blinded by her beauty.”
    The Duchess sighed before she said almost to herself,
    “But she is the only girl, and this is unfortunately the truth, whom he had ever seriously considered making his wife and I think it will be a long time before he recovers from the blow inflicted upon him.”
    “I can understand that,” Ula said in her soft voice, “but as Papa often said, ‘time heals many things’. Although the Marquis is now bitter and upset, I am sure that, as he is such a marvellous person, he will find somebody to love and love is the quickest healer of all.”
    The Duchess smiled.
    “Only you could think like that, my child, and what we have to do is to find you a husband you love and who does not love you just for your pretty face.”
    Ula was silent and the Duchess guessed that she was remembering how much her mother had loved her father and he her.
    She found herself praying that the child would not be disappointed or disillusioned as her grandson had been.
    She was sure, even from the few days she had been with her, that Ula was very vulnerable and very sensitive.
    ‘She must find the right sort of man,’ the Duchess thought, ‘a man who will protect her and keep her from anything that could spoil her intrinsic purity and goodness.’
    Then she was surprised that she could apply such words to someone who being so young would obviously still be quite immature.
    She was well aware, however, that Ula was different from most girls of her age, for her character and personality were unusually developed for her years.
    ‘In fact, she is exceptional,’ the Duchess told herself.
    She had already made up her mind that when the Marquis had finished using her as a tool to enact his revenge on Lady Sarah, she would look after her at her house in Hampstead and try to find her a husband who would make her really happy.
    *
    After the Duchess had gone up to rest, saying they had only a small dinner party to attend that night and so would be able to go to bed long before midnight, Ula