As the train gathered speed and the officials on the platform together with the senior servants from the Marquis’s house bowed farewell, Valeda thought she was leaving a world which she still felt was part of her dreams.
She could hardly believe it possible that so much had happened in so little time.
When she had staggered upstairs with the help of one of the servants, who had been hastily summoned to her assistance, she had felt waves of exhaustion sweeping over her.
They were combined with an irrepressible elation because she had been close to the Marquis and listened to the voice that spoke to her in a manner which she knew would always haunt her.
She was, however, too tired to think clearly. After she had reached her bedroom, a maid had come scurrying from another part of the hous
