CHAPTER FIVEPegasus moved.
And Ilina woke and for a moment could not think where she was.
The horse nuzzled at her. She patted his nose and, sitting up on the straw, realised that she had cried until she was exhausted.
Now she smoothed back her hair from her forehead and pulled some pieces of straw from it.
She felt calmer but at the same time had a sense of despair, which she knew would increase every moment until the terrible deed that the Duke contemplated was completed.
As the horror of it swept over her, she asked aloud,
“How – could he? How could he do – anything so – wicked?”
Then she realised that it was no good going back over it all again and the best thing she could do would be to go to bed and hope that in the morning by a miracle he might have changed his mind.
There w
