An Unexpected Love by Barbara Cartland

quite. She seems more than happy looking after Curbishley Hall while you and your parents are in London. And of course her reduced circumstances make the possibility of changing her station in life “well, we will not continue thus. But talking of marriage, Lady Ravina – ”
    â€œWere we?” Ravina looked up, startled, wishing the footman would return with coffee to bring this awkward meal to a close.
    Sir Michael pushed his plate aside and folded his hands pompously on the table in front of him.
    He looked to Ravina as if he was about to preside over some official meeting.
    She felt a wild desire to giggle begin to rise inside her.
    â€œI have decided that I must turn my mind to that problem. I need a wife to provide me with an heir. The Priory needs a Mistress, someone who will care for it, help me with all the different functions I wish to give and take her rightful position in the social fabric of the County.”
    He took a deep breath, the buttons on his waistcoat straining.
    â€œLady Ravina, I know that we have – ”
    â€œOh! Oh! Goodness me. I am so sorry!”
    Ravina had jerked her hand, sending a cascade of red wine splashing across the table.
    She leapt up and dabbed at her amber skirt with a linen napkin.
    â€œOh, dear, red wine is so difficult to remove from fabric. I do hope it will not stain. Would you ring the bell for your butler, please, Sir Michael? I know it is only a riding habit, but I must sponge it immediately.”
    Ravina chattered on, hardly drawing breath, glad that in the ensuing fuss, the thorny subject of marriage was forgotten.
    She was also glad that she had remembered one of the many lessons Nanny Johnson had taught her.
    â€œIf you are keen for a gentleman to stop talking on a certain subject, it is far better to cause a diversion rather than try to interrupt him. Gentlemen hate to be interrupted.”
    A maid was summoned and escorted Ravina upstairs to a guest bedroom where she could rest while her skirt was carried away to be sponged.
    Ravina lay on the bed, her head aching from the strain of the day, watching out of the window as the afternoon sun slid down the sky until it hovered above the waving green branches of the nearby woodlands.
    When her skirt was finally returned to her, she lost no time in hurrying downstairs and saying her goodbyes.
    Sir Michael was waiting for her in the hall. He accompanied her outside where a groom was holding Sweetie.
    Ravina listened to Sir Michael’s repeated promises that she and she alone should be hostess at his big house-warming party.
    Hardly knowing what she was saying in her haste to leave, Ravina agreed to return in two days to finalise all the plans.
    With a sense of relief she allowed the groom to help her onto Sweetie.
    She gathered the reins together, waved farewell to Sir Michael and urged the mare forwards.
    Then she realised the groom was still holding Sweetie’s bridle, walking swiftly at her side.
    â€œMy Lady – ”
    â€œYes – ?” Ravina peered down at the worried face. “Why, I know you! It’s Bobby Watson, isn’t it? Hello, Bobby, how nice to see you. I did not know you were in service with Sir Michael. I am pleased for you. This is a step-up, surely.”
    The Watson family were well known to Ravina and her parents. Joe Watson, the father, was a surly brute of a man who, although he was trained as a blacksmith, worked as little as possible, unless you counted poaching as work.
    He feigned illness and injury and relied on the charity of nearby families to keep him and his family from the workhouse.
    He lived with his wife and an ever-increasing family in a little hovel close to the river bank.
    The shack was damp and dark and Ravina hated the times she was made to accompany her mother there on errands of mercy – delivering old clothes and baskets of produce to Mrs. Watson to help her cope with her brood of thin, runny–nosed children.
    Ravina