CHAPTER 8"I shall never marry. I have changed my mind."
Anne Courtenay's tone was dull and lifeless. She was standing in the little drawing-room of the cottage that had been General Courtenay's home for years and stood on a corner of the estate that had once been the Courtenays'. The cottage and the land surrounding it was their last remaining possession. Anne was in mourning—just a simple black frock that suited her fair skin to perfection. That very morning General Courtenay had been laid to his rest, and his old sister, saddened and broken, had returned to her home in London. Anne was feeling lonely and frightened. Her eyes were glancing round the room now as if she feared something that might lurk amid the gathering shadows.
Opposite to her stood Michael Burford. The famous trainer w
