CHAPTER SIXThe Marquis did not dismount. He made no move at all to console Eugenia but waited in respectful silence for her sobs to cease.
All around the clearing, treetops rustled and swayed. A deer started out from the undergrowth, then froze – with eyes as black as mere water, it stood for a moment staring at the two riders before bolting fearfully back into the woods.
Still Eugenia wept. Added to the shock of seeing ‘Paragon’ restored to its former modest glory was a sense of deep foreboding. The future was being spun so cunningly about her that she could barely parry its threads.
The Marquis’s horse shifted, stepped a few paces back before lowering its head to crop at the grass. The Marquis let the reins trail.
“It seems the restoration of ‘Paragon’ does not please Miss Dovedale,”
