Chapter one ~ 1887
Riding very fast Lucille put her horse at a high fence and leapt over it in style.
Patting the horse’s neck, she exclaimed,
“That’s a good boy! I am very pleased with you.”
She pulled him in gradually.
As she did so, a man on a large stallion came from beneath the shelter of some trees where he had been watching her.
He then swept his tall hat from his head and she saw that he was exceedingly good-looking and very elegantly dressed.
She recognised that at last she was meeting the Marquis of Shawforde.
“May I congratulate you on the way you took that fence,” he said. “I was just about to put my own horse at it, but I feel he would not do as well as yours.”
Lucille smiled at him and he saw that she had two dimples, one on each side of her mouth.
She was in fact one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen.
Her fair hair was the colour of sunshine and her eyes as translucent as a mountain stream, she was just fantastic.
He thought that she must be a visitor to this part of the country.
There was a silence between them for a moment.
And then Lucille said,
“I am waiting to watch your Lordship’s performance.”
The Marquis raised his eyebrows.
“If you know who I am,” he replied, “I can only ask you to be kind enough to introduce yourself.”
“My name is Lucille Winterton.”
He wrinkled his brow as he concentrated before he responded,
“I have not seen you in London for, if I had, I should not have forgotten you.”
“You have not seen me in London,” Lucille replied, “for the simple reason that I have not yet been there!”
“You livehere?” he asked incredulously.
“I live just outside the village and not far from your Lordship’s main gate.”
“Then I shall not lose you again.”
She laughed as if she thought it somewhat presumptuous of him.
Drawing his horse nearer to hers, he then said,
“I must suppose that, as you are riding on my ground, it is something you ought not to do.”
“It may be your ground technically,” Lucille replied, “but for years, if not centuries, it has been the local Racecourse. Everybody in the village and many people in the County as well race and jump their horses here.”
She gave him a quick glance and added,
“If you forbid us to do so, I think there will be a revolution!”
The Marquis laughed.
“I promise you I shall not do that, especially as I have metyou here this morning.”
He accentuated the word ‘you’.
Lucille’s eyes were twinkling as she replied,
“If you only knew how envied I shall be by everybody in the vicinity.”
“Why?” the Marquis enquired.
“Because they have all been looking forward to meeting you and were very disappointed that when you gave exciting parties at The Hall they were not invited.”
The Marquis laughed.
“Is that what they were expecting?”
“Of course they were, my Lord,” Lucille said. “They thought when you inherited that things would change at the Big House, only to find that, where your neighbours are concerned, it is exactly the same as it was before.”
“That is certainly something that shall be remedied,” the Marquis declared. “When will you dine with me?”
“Now you are making me embarrassed, my Lord. It sounds as if I was fis