13. Music Is The Soul Of love - The Pink Collection , livre ebook

MUSIC IS THE SOUL OF LOVE
“You are not wearing your mask,” he observed. He moved forward and stood looking down at her.
“No.” Her lips barely moved.
She wondered if he would recognise her as the girl he had met years ago, on the night he was shot. Or perhaps the moonlight would make that harder. No recognition showed in his face as he gazed at her.
“You are very beautiful,” he said fervently.
Then he put his arms around her and drew her closer to him. Almost before she realised what was happening, Carina felt his lips conquer hers.
As he drew her closer still, a strange feeling swept from her breast to her heart.
As the Duke’s kiss held her captive, she thought for a moment she was flying up into the sky and touching the stars themselves.
He held her tighter and his kisses became more demanding so that she felt as if he was drawing her very heart from her body to make it his.
“So we reach the end of our games,” he claimed huskily.
Carina tried to reply, but no words would come.
THE BARBARA CARTLAND PINK COLLECTION
Barbara Cartland was the most prolific bestselling author in the history of the world. She was frequently in the Guinness Book of Records for writing more books in a year than any other living author. In fact her most amazing literary feat was when her publishers asked for more Barbara Cartland romances, she doubled her output from 10 books a year to over 20 books a year, when she was 77.
She went on writing continuously at this rate for 20 years and wrote her last book at the age of 97, thus completing 400 books between the ages of 77 and 97.
Her publishers finally could not keep up with this phenomenal output, so at her death she left 160 unpublished manuscripts, something again that no other author has ever achieved.
Now the exciting news is that these 160 original unpublished Barbara Cartland books are ready for publication and they will be published by Barbaracartland.com exclusively on the internet, as the web is the best possible way to reach so many Barbara Cartland readers around the world.
The 160 books will be published monthly and will be numbered in sequence.
The series is called the Pink Collection as a tribute to Barbara Cartland whose favourite colour was pink and it became very much her trademark over the years.
The Barbara Cartland Pink Collection is published only on the internet. Log on to www.barbaracartland.com to find out how you can purchase the books monthly as they are published, and take out a subscription that will ensure that all subsequent editions are delivered to you by mail order to your home.
If you do not have access to a computer you can write for information about the Pink Collection to the following address :

Barbara Cartland.com Ltd.
240 High Road,
Harrow Weald,
Harrow
HA3 7BB
United Kingdom.

Telephone & fax: +44 (0)20 8863 2520
MUSIC IS THE SOUL OF LOVE
Copyright © 2005 by Cartland Promotions
First published on the internet in 2005 by Barbaracartland.com

The characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any real person or actual happening.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher.
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THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND
Barbara Cartland who sadly died in May 2000 at the age of nearly 99 was the world’s most famous romantic novelist who wrote 723 books in her lifetime with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages.
As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays, books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She also found time to be a political speaker and television and radio personality.
She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and this was called Jigsaw . It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback and was translated into 6 different languages. She wrote continuously throughout her life, writing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States, where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author.
Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels, so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world.
Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her good looking and dashing heroes and above all her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone’s life.

“The tender words of love are as soft music to the ear.”

Barbara Cartland
Titles in this series

The Cross of Love
Love in the Highlands
Love Finds the Way
The Castle of Love
Love is Triumphant
Stars in the Sky
The Ship of Love
A Dangerous Disguise
Love Became Theirs
Love drives in
Sailing to Love
The Star of Love
Music is the Soul of Love
CHAPTER ONE - 1865
The theatre was abuzz. The performance of Twelfth Night was magnificent and soon it would be time for the lights to go down for the last act.
From her place in a box near the stage, fourteen-year old Carina Denton sighed with delight. Her first visit to London had proved to be everything she had hoped and tonight was the best of all.
When her school friend, Alice Grade, had invited her for a visit, her parents had been a little uncertain. But Alice’s family were respectable, old-fashioned people and permission was soon given.
“Alice, who is that?” Carina whispered to her friend, indicating a young man in the box immediately opposite.
He was in his early twenties, and incredibly handsome, Carina thought. Tall, elegant, striking and attired in full evening-dress, with cuff-links that must have been real diamonds from the way they sparkled.
But there was something else about him that drew her attention. His dark eyes were fierce and turbulent. His curved mouth hinted at a darkly sensual nature.
Not that Carina understood this. She only knew that there was a wildness and a drama about him that made it impossible for her to turn away.
“I don’t know him,” Alice whispered back.
“What are you girls whispering about?” asked Miss Ferrars, her governess.
“We are wondering who that young man is,” Alice told her.
Miss Ferrars gave a little gasp and averted her eyes modestly.
“That is Lord Thornhill and you must not look at him.”
“Why?” Carina wanted to know.
“Because he is not a proper person.”
“Why?” Alice demanded.
Miss Ferrars was in an awkward position. As a governess she was expected to be prim, proper and puritanical at all times. Yet beneath the severe bodice of her dark dress beat the heart of a romantic.
Normally her employer, Alice’s mother, would have answered these questions. But at the last minute Mrs. Grade had been stricken with a headache, and Miss Ferrars alone had accompanied the girls to the theatre.
“He is improper because – he does improper things,” she said lamely.
“What sort of things?” Alice persisted. “Oh, do tell us please.”
“He has a bad reputation,” Miss Ferrars replied. “People say he is – dissolute.”
“But what does he do?” Carina wanted to know.
Poor Miss Ferrars could not have answered that question in a million years. At forty she was as innocent and sheltered as a young girl. She knew that Lord Thornhill was dissolute because she had been told that he was. But precisely how a man went about being dissolute she had only the vaguest idea.
“Never mind,” she said hastily. “Thank goodness he has gone now.”
Lord Thornhill had slipped away through the curtains at the back of his box. Miss Ferrars gave a sigh of relief.
But her relief was to be short-lived. A moment later he appeared in the box immediately next to theirs.
Now Carina could see him better.
He was little more than a boy, although his face was already marked by experience. He had the air and grace of a prince who knew that the world was his to be enjoyed as he pleased.
Carina gazed at him, awed by his aura of glamour and romance, thinking that he was exactly what a hero ought to be.
The box beside them contained three ladies who, from their family resemblance, might have been a mother and two daughters.
He courted them all, kissing their hands, giving them practised, flirtatious smiles. The girls looked at him with yearning, the mother with knowing anticipation.
The door at the back of the box opened and a middle aged man came in. As soon as he saw Lord Thornhill, Carina could sense the tension.
‘He does not like him,’ she thought, watching the man’s suspicious eyes flicker from his wife to his daughters. ‘I wonder why?’
But however deep his dislike, the man evidently lacked the courage to order Lord Thornhill out of his box. As the lights went down for the last act, the young man settled himself audaciously between the daughters.
The curtain went up. In moments Carina was absorbed by what was happening on the stage, believing in the characters, loving every moment of it.
“Fiend!”
The voice rang out from the stag