Free Love in the Highlands by Barbara Cartland Page A

who had joined him.
    When the music came to an end she waited for him to turn and speak to her. But he remained still, and now it occurred to her that he might be angry at her intrusion.
    Perhaps he thought that if he ignored her, she might go away.
    Then, just as she was deciding that this might be the best thing to do, the Marquis turned round and looked at her with an expression in his eyes that she had never seen from him before.
    "So it's you," he said in a quiet, almost wondering voice. "I couldn't imagine who it was whose musicianship seemed so much a part of my own. I did not know that you could play the violin."
    Lavina laughed.
    "And I had no idea that you could play the piano," she replied.
    "I have played since I was very young," the Marquis told her. "Now I live alone, I find there is no company so consoling as the piano."
    "I feel the same about the violin," she said. "I can also play the piano."
    "You can?" he exclaimed. "From what your father has told me about you I thought of you as being an outdoor girl, liking only riding horses."
    "I do enjoy those things," Lavina told him, "but I find that music is almost as thrilling and exciting as jumping a high fence."
    The Marquis looked at her with new interest.
    "What a fascinating comparison. But then, you're a very unusual young woman, in every way. If you were not, I suppose we wouldn't be here, on this boat together. I've thought of you as many things, but never before as musical."
    "Nor I, you," she said. "But now I know why you don't feel lonely when you are at the castle."
    Even as she spoke she realised she had said the wrong thing. Immediately the Marquis turned and started to play another popular tune, a very fast one, this time. It was almost, Lavina thought, like someone dancing wildly and madly to prevent him or herself thinking of what they had lost or what was impossible to possess.
    Just for a moment she hesitated.
    Then, as she knew the tune, she began to play it with him, matching him speed for speed, and knowing that she was playing extremely well. He gave her a quick glance and upped the tempo. She managed to stay with him, and they rattled away together until the tune came to a triumphant finish.
    As the last notes died away he looked at her, his eyes alight with satisfaction.
    "That might have come from the Albert Hall," he said. "Perhaps one day, if we were to lose all we possess we might get ourselves hired there."
    Lavina laughed.
    "Thank you for the compliment."
    "You deserve it. You play extremely well and I can only think you were taught by a very experienced musician."
    "Actually, it was my mother who wanted me to play, to please my father," Lavina told him. "I have loved music ever since I heard the first note when I was in the cradle."
    He was silent for a moment, before nodding in agreement.
    "Music makes me forget all grief and woe," he said. "When I play I pass into another world, one that has never been spoilt."
    For a moment Lavina could not think of an answer.
    After a pause she said:
    "Play me one of your favourite songs and I will see if I know it well enough to join in with you."
    The Marquis turned towards the piano and began to play a gentle, yearning piece of music that, for all its slow tempo, was very difficult. For a few ecstatic minutes they played as one.
    When the last note had died away he rose from the piano and looked at her, as though something about her puzzled him.
    "I didn't think it possible that I would find someone
    with whom I am so much in harmony, whose music seemed to come from the same well-spring as my own."
    Lavina was silent for a moment, thinking the answer to this was very obvious. He had spent too much time alone, seldom visiting other houses, and not knowing of the music that was made in them.
    Suddenly he seemed to become aware of how he was talking to her. She could almost see him withdraw back into himself. He turned towards the door, saying abruptly,
    "Goodnight, I hope you sleep