Free A Flight To Heaven by Barbara Cartland Page A

than a horse, if one sticks to the road.”
    The King laughed.
    “I am only sorry that you had to resort to borrowing from one of the under-gardeners! If you could only have waited a little, we should have arranged for a brand new machine to be bought for you.”
    Arkady could not help smiling.
    “Ah, sir – but I think the Fates wished otherwise!”
    “Whatever do you mean, Count,” the Queen looked at him in surprise. “You are sounding very mysterious – very Russian, in fact!”
    “I chanced upon an angel today,” he replied, “and I think if I had gone exploring at some other time, I would have missed that meeting.”
    “Now you are telling us a Russian Fairy tale!” the Queen responded with a regal smile.
    “Not at all, ma’am. A wild and beautiful angel on a winged white horse flew down from the sky and spoke to me. An angel dressed in blue with long flowing hair – ”
    “Well, I have never heard of any celestial beings visiting Norfolk before,” the Queen sighed. “Perhaps you were a little light-headed from all the exercise?”
    Arkady bowed politely.
    “That was certainly the case,” he said.
    The King smiled.
    “There is always a logical explanation,” he said. “even for the most remarkable occurrences, but then Count Dimitrov, we must take care to keep you entertained while you stay with us. We cannot run the risk of losing you to another ethereal visitation, when there are so many pretty girls among our neighbouring families. We must give a ball for you, Count.”
    Arkady was pretty sure that he heard the Queen give a little sigh of pleasure and certainly her face seemed to glow in the candlelight.
    “A very good idea,” she said. “I always welcome any opportunity to bring guests to our ballroom for a little music and dancing.”
    The King and Queen were both quite portly now and well past middle age. But Arkady had a sudden vision of them in their younger years, enthusiastically partnering each other in waltzes and polkas.
    Their kindness to him was undoubted, although he could not help thinking, that he would rather spend another five minutes in the company of the lovely blue-eyed angel with the wild dark hair he had met by the sea than a long night of dancing with the local beauties.
    His reverie was interrupted by the entrance of the butler to announce that dinner was served.
    “Come Count, you must have your fill of our best English roast beef,” the King said, as they walked into the dining room. “It will keep the angels from bothering you!”
    But Arkady found he had no appetite for rich food that night. His mind and heart were filled with a strange ecstasy, a vivid vision of blue sky and golden sand and a white horse racing towards him.
    *
    Chiara woke next morning with an uncomfortable feeling in her heart.
    Mervyn Hunter’s last words were ringing inside her head, “ it will not be long before we meet again !”
    She did not want to see him.
    She could not forget how he had seized the reins from her, making Erebus fall and then blamed the little pony for throwing her.
    She found this thought so troubling that she spoke of it to her Mama over breakfast.
    “I cannot believe that Mr. Hunter would do such a thing. He was so worried about you,” Lady Fairfax said. “As soon as you failed to return to the drawing room and the groom told us you had gone out for a ride, he insisted that he should come and find you.”
    “I do not think it was quite gentlemanly of him to make my horse lose his footing. He blamed Erebus for my fall just to make himself look like a hero.”
    Lady Fairfax frowned and put down her coffee cup.
    “Are you quite sure? It was almost dark. Perhaps you did not see exactly what happened. Mr. Hunter told me that Erebus ran away with you across the fields.”
    “No, no, Mama!”
    Chiara explained that she had just been taking a short cut, because she wanted to return to Rensham Hall as soon as she could.
    “I cannot believe, my darling, that he would