The Keys of Love Read Online Free

knees.
    â€œHow do I deceive you? I am impassioned for you. Impassioned !”
    He did indeed appear impassioned, his nostrils were quivering and his pupils burning with ardour.
    â€œI’m so sorry if you are, Prince, for I am not!”
    â€œYou refuse me? It is quite impossible,” he cried and with that he lunged forward to embrace her.
    Her sampler and its sharp pin was an impediment.
    â€œOooch!” yelped the Prince, holding up a palm on which a bead of blood had instantly appeared.
    â€œI am afraid I can only think it serves you right,” said Henrietta, in what she hoped was an icy tone. “Now you must please leave or I shall call one of the servants.”
    It was at this very moment that the Prince appeared to metamorphose before her very eyes.
    All ardour so obviously feigned was gone in a flash.
    His lips tightened until they seemed a thread drawn under his moustache. His eyes hardened like hailstones.
    â€œYou would call a servant to remove me ?”
    â€œY-yes. C-certainly,” replied Henrietta, unnerved by the malice now apparent in the Prince’s demeanour.
    â€œNobody threatens this to Prince Vasily,” he hissed. “ Nobody . I will go, but you will regret such treatment of me. This I promise!”
    Henrietta trembled as he put his face close to hers.
    â€œI will make sure you suffer for this,” he grunted through gritted teeth.
    Then he turned and was gone the way he had come.
    Henrietta felt faint.
    She had never in her life encountered such hostility, nor endured such a threatening volte-face of behaviour.
    She was afraid he had cursed her and she wished to get as far away from him and his kind as possible.
    She had had enough of this long line of importunate deceivers.
    When she heard the sound of her father’s voice in the hall, she groped her way thankfully to the door of the drawing room.
    â€œPapa!”
    Lord Radford turned and started at the sight of his daughter, wide-eyed and trembling.
    â€œHenrietta! What on earth is the matter, my dear?”
    She took several unsteady steps towards her father before collapsing with a sob into his arms.
    â€œI want to go home, Papa. Not in a few months or a few weeks, but tomorrow . Please, Papa, please. I mean it with all my heart. I want to go home !”

CHAPTER TWO
    Henrietta and her father stood at the railings on the first class deck of The Boston Queen .
    Nanny was below, ensuring their trunks containing Henrietta’s wardrobe were delivered to the right cabin.
    Lord Radford had booked her passage on a ship that sailed only two days after the incident with Prince Vasily.
    Henrietta felt no sadness as she gazed at the Boston skyline. It was not her home and she had few friends.
    â€œWell, the cabins are fancy enough,” came Nanny’s voice. “No better than they should be for a Radford!”
    Henrietta’s father turned with a quick frown.
    â€œYou are forgetting yourself, Nanny. Remember, that for the purposes of this voyage, she is not Henrietta Radford. She is Miss Harrietta Reed .”
    Nanny looked crestfallen.
    â€œOh, dearie me, my poor old head.”
    He had decided that it would be best for Henrietta to travel incognito on the ship in order to avoid the kind of attentions that were driving her out of Boston.
    He also wished to spare her the embarrassment of being met at Liverpool by various gentlemen of the press.
    The story of the English Lord who had struck oil in America had already been reported in The Times and any reporter worth his salt would consider it quite a scoop to interview Henrietta on her arrival home.
    Lord Radford could not leave his business as yet, as he was still training up a manager to take his place.
    He would follow Henrietta as soon as he could.
    â€œI hope you remember that your name is now Miss Reed,” he was saying to Henrietta. “That is the name you are booked under, after all.”
    â€œI’ll remember,”