“It was a very stupid thing for me to do – but I could think of no other way that we could begin to raise two thousand pounds – and I didn’t think anyway that anybody would pay that money for this house.”
“I don’t see why not,” the Earl objected. “It is very attractive and incidentally part of The Castle and the estate.”
Minerva’s eyes lit up.
“Do you mean – you might buy it? I thought of it, but I am sure that Tony would be too frightened – to suggest it to you.”
“I feel that Tony has made me out to be some kind of ogre!” the Earl complained. “And why has he been so secretive about you?”
Because the question took Minerva by surprise, she could not think of an answer.
She merely looked away from the Earl, her long eyelashes fluttering because she was feeling shy.
“Of course I unders
