She picked up a notebook and pencil from her desk and, without even looking back at Lord Buckleigh, followed the maid from the room. She hoped that she appeared composed, for her cheeks were burning and she felt both embarrassed and irritated that she should have been so weak with him and that the maid should have seen him kissing her hand.
Lulu Carlo’s bedroom opened off the wide landing at the top of the stairs. The maid knocked on the door and, as a petulant voice answered, she opened it and Aria passed into the room.
It was a large high-ceilinged room with long windows opening onto a balcony, facing which was a huge bed upholstered in peach velvet and ornamented with carved angels.
Lulu Carlo was lying back against a pyramid of large pillows, a dressing jacket of pink chiffon trimme
