Lucky Logan Finds Love by Barbara Cartland

be with him. I hate to miss a minute of his company when he has been away for so long.”
    Belinda knew she did not want her to accompany her and she went to her own room.
    She wondered if perhaps now that he had returned, Marcus Logan would suggest that his mother should dispense with her services.
    She realised, a little to her surprise, that she had no wish to go.
    She had been horrified at the idea of coming here in the first place when her stepfather had suggested it.
    Now she had to admit to herself that she found Marcus Logan extremely interesting.
    He was very different from the man she had thought he would be and when they had argued, he had been really enthusiastic about it.
    He was not in the least condescending, as he might have been.
    ‘He is so knowledgeable. He has learnt everything he knows at first hand. I have been only a pupil,’ Belinda told herself.
    She wondered why she had ever imagined that he would be dull and pedantic and, although it was perhaps not exactly the right word, rather sinister.
    When her stepfather had talked about it, it had seemed rather creepy that he should have this strange perception for finding precious stones.
    In her mind this had become mixed up with witch doctors, wizards, sorceresses and strange religions that made peculiar sacrifices to their Gods.
    It was therefore astonishing to find that Lord Logan was young, smart and obviously enchanted with life.
    As they looked at the books, he described the people living in some of the places he had been to. He made it seem so real that Belinda could almost see a picture of it.
    There would be Mosques and Temples, camels moving through narrow streets, donkeys carrying great burdens. There would be small children with huge dark eyes, playing in the sand.
    ‘He is so lucky to have been able to go there himself,’ she thought. ‘I can only make my mind translate what I read into a picture of what is happening in another part of the world.’
    She wondered, now that Marcus Logan had returned, whether as a now superfluous reader she would be banished to her own room.
    She remembered that when she was young her Governesses had always dined in the schoolroom.
    ‘I suppose I am now on the same level and therefore I must not complain,’ she told herself.
    She could not help thinking it would be very exciting to hear Lord Logan talking about the places he had just visited.
    As she thought about it, she remembered why she was in this beautiful house in the middle of Regent’s Park.
    The instructions her stepfather had given her before he had deposited her here flowed into her mind.
    “I will arrange for there to be a Hackney Carriage outside the gates,” he had said. “It will ostensibly be waiting to be hired, but actually it will be waiting only for you.”
    Belinda was listening and waiting for him to explain.
    “The Hackney Carriage will bring you,” her stepfather went on, “to wherever I am staying. I am not yet certain where that will be, but tonight it will be with
Madame
Yvonne.”
    He was speaking as if he were thinking it out for himself.
    Quickly, as if he was embarrassed at what he had said, he went on,
    “As I cannot afford to pay for anything myself, I am forced to rely on my friends.”
    “Yes – yes – ” Belinda murmured.
    D’Arcy Rowland then continued,
    “The driver of the Hackney Carriage will be told where he is to bring you the moment you know where Logan has just come from.”
    He tightened his grip on the reins as he continued,
    “And for God’s sake, don’t waste any time. Run from the house immediately, just as you are. Jump into the carriage, and then I will be able to set the wheels in motion, which will make us both rich enough to laugh at everything and everybody!”
    It had sounded quite easy at the time.
    Now Belinda was once again struggling with her conscience.
    Lady Logan had been kind enough to engage her.
    Marcus Logan had obviously accepted her.
    But in the process he had interested