He stood looking at her for a moment.
Then he drew her to her feet.
“I want you to stay here so that I can kiss you for the rest of the day,” he said, “but I have a great deal of arranging to do and before we can dine together and talk about ourselves, I must let you go for the moment, although it will be difficult to let you out of my sight.”
They had reached the door of the music room and he stopped to kiss her again. Then without speaking they walked hand in hand down the corridor towards the hall.
Only when they were at the end of it did the Duke say,
“I will send you back in my carriage and it will call back for you and your luggage at seven o’clock. I will have everything arranged by then, but darling, the hours we shall be apart will seem like centuries.”
He stopped still in t
