The Glittering Lights (Bantam Series No. 12) Read Online Free Page A

was confident that in due course Cassandra would tell him what it was, he also was aware that he was no longer dealing with a child who would obey him without question.
    There was no time to say much more to each other. Dinner was announced and they proceeded to the Dining-Room, Lady Alice being wheeled ahead of Sir James and Cassandra.
    As might be expected, the meal was superlatively cooked by a French Chef, whose salary to keep him in Yorkshire was an extravagance which few other men would have contemplated.
    There were flowers decorating the Dining-Room table from the huge green-houses which covered over two acres of garden, there were fruits forced in a manner which commanded the admiration of all the horticulturists in the North of England, and Sir James’s gold racing trophies helped to decorate the table.
    Sir James seated himself in his high-backed chair and remarked with satisfaction:
    “How nice it is to have on either side of me two of the most beautiful women in the world, and to know that tonight I do not have to make polite conversation with a number of boring acquaintances.”
    Lady Alice laughed.
    “You like having us alone because it is a novelty, but if it was something which occurred too often you would soon be yawning.”
    “How can you say anything so unkind?”
    Sir James took his wife’s hand and raised it to his lips.
    “Have I ever appeared to be bored with you?”
    “No, darling,” Lady Alice answered, “but I take very good care that you have many distractions to amuse you.”
    It was true, Cassandra thought, watching them. Lady Alice would arrange for all the most attractive and beautiful women she knew to stay at The Towers and be their guests at luncheon, dinner and on every possible occasion.
    She sometimes wondered if her mother felt jealous at the way in which they flirted outrageously with her father and obviously set themselves out to use every possible feminine allure to attract him.
    Then she knew with that new instinct that she had discovered in herself that Lady Alice held her husband by not appearing to do so.
    There was between them an understanding which seemed to enrich their lives, so that Cassandra knew that no-one, however beautiful, would ever take the place of her mother in his affections.
    At the same time, she was well aware that Sir James had the reputation of being a Don Juan and that women found him irresistible.
    “It is not surprising, Papa,” she had told him once, “because I also find you irresistible and I am your daughter.”
    “I can return the compliment,” he said, “and one day when you fall in love, Cassandra, the man to whom you give your heart will find it is possible to express your attraction in words.”
    When dinner was over they sat for a little while in the Drawing-Room talking in front of the fire, and then when Lady Alice went up to bed, Cassandra rose to follow her.
    “I admit to feeling a little stiff, and also a trifle tired.”
    “Are you riding early tomorrow?” her father asked. “I think I might come with you.”
    Cassandra hesitated a moment before she replied:
    “I think, Papa, I will go to London.”
    “To London?” Sir James exclaimed.
    He realised that Lady Alice, being propelled towards the lift he had had installed for her, was out of earshot.
    “I need some clothes, Papa.”
    “But of course! That is understandable. I want you to look your best, Cassandra, when Alchester arrives.”
    “I hope I will do that.”
    “Do you want me to come with you?”
    “No, Papa, you know how much it would bore you if I was having fittings all day, and I do not expect I shall stay long.”
    “I know your Aunt is at our house in Park Lane,” Sir James said. “I had a letter from her yesterday telling me she had engaged a new Cook.”
    The widowed Lady Fladbury had, after her husband’s death, made her home in her step-brothers house in Park Lane.
    It was convenient for Cassandra if she wished to go to London at any time to