She found her way to the garden door through which she had come to The Castle to blackmail the Earl.
As she walked home, she did not hurry.
She was utterly happy and yet bewildered as the Earl had kissed her.
She told herself that it was just relief because he was safe and because his assailant could do him no more harm.
But she knew now that she had loved him for a long time and, even if she never saw him again, her heart was his forever.
*
It was an hour later when Minerva heard the sound of a horse’s hoofs.
She was waiting in the sitting room, but did not move, as she had left the front door of The Dower House ajar.
She thought that the Earl, if it was he who had ridden over, would tie his horse to the railings and then come into the house.
She was not mistaken, for a minute or
