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She opened the door cautiously.
There was one oil-lamp burning, but it was enough for her to see clearly what she sought
Moving almost like a shadow, she went to the board on the wall and without difficulty,
because the keys were all labelled, found the two which belonged to the house in Paradise Row.
She took one, then letting herself out onto the terrace she ran across the garden to the gate in
the wall.
* * *
Petrina opened the front door of the house in Paradise Row.
It was in darkness, but because she remembered the plan that Nicholas Thornton had shown
her she felt her way with outstretched hands through the small Hall and into a room on the right
of it.
This she was sure was a large Salon running the full length of the house, with windows
looking both onto the street and onto the garden at the back.
She had expected the room to be empty, but she stumbled against a chair, and realised that
her feet were moving on a carpet.
Slowly, frightened that she might fall, she found her way to a sofa and sat down on it
She had before leaving Staverton House scribbled a note to the Earl, which she had left on
her pillow.
She knew that if he did not find her in the Library he would go upstairs, as he had promised,
to her bed-room.
She told him where she had gone, knowing that if she did not find the keys as she expected in
the Secretary's room, she would have to go upstairs again, for there was nowhere else in London
where she could hide.
Now she only had to wait, and she found herself planning that if the Earl thought she was in
danger of being arrested he could give her the money to go abroad or to Scotland where no-one
would be able to find her.
It was frightening to think she might have to live alone and perhaps in disguise for the rest of
her life ... so frightening that Petrina wondered if it would not be better to die and get it over.
She was quite certain that because of what she had done there could be no happiness for her
in the future and the Earl would never forgive her for causing a scandal.
Anyway, he was so angry with her that though he had been kind in listening to her story,
that was not to say that she did not still disgust him as he had told her she did when he learnt
about the fireworks.
"I love him! I love him!" Petrina whispered to herself, and felt again the pressure of his lips on
hers and the sensations of joy the kiss had aroused in her breast.
'He is so magnificent ... so wonderful in every way,' she thought. 'How could I expect for one
moment that he would even think of me except as a tiresome child?'
He certainly had had no wish to be her Guardian and she remembered how reluctant he had
been to accept the responsibility.
How could she ever have imagined, she thought, that she would fall in love with him and
that even to be in the same house with him was a joy and a delight beyond all dreams?
"At least he has kissed me," she told herself, and wondered unhappily what lay ahead of her
in the future.
She wondered too if he agreed that she should go away into hiding, whether, if she asked
him to do so, he would kiss her again.
She wanted to feel his arms round her, she wanted him to take possession of her lips as Lord
Rowlock had tried to do.
Then she told herself she was being presumptuous or, as the Earl would say, impertinent in
even imagining such a thing.
Time seemed to pass very slowly, so slowly that Petrina, sitting tense and rigid in the
darkness, began to think that perhaps the Earl, when he found she had left Staverton House, had
decided to abandon her.
He would not care that she was in an empty house alone. Perhaps he would think it was the
best way to be rid of her and forget her very existence.
And perhaps, she thought suddenly, he would be even more disgusted with her than he was
already because she had come to the house where he had kept his mistress.
For the first time since leaving Staverton House Petrina began to question her own wisdom
in running away.
Now she thought she could smell on the air the fragrance of the perfume used by Yvonne
Vouvray, and she imagined she could hear the Earl's voice speaking to her of love and her soft
exquisite tones with a broken accent answering him.
Petrina gave a little cry and put her hands over her ears as if to blot out her own imaginings.
Then as she took them away she was aware that she was not alone.
Someone had come into the house without her hearing them or perhaps they had been
there all the time.
There was someone standing just inside the door of the room and as she held her breath she
heard her name.
"Petrina!"
There was no mistaking the deep voice which had spoken, and with a cry that seemed to
echo in the darkness Petrina rose to her feet and ran to where she knew he was standing.
The Earl put his arms round her and felt her body soft, warm, and frantic against his.
He held her very close.
"It is all right," he said soothingly. "He is not dead."
Petrina's face had been hidden against his shoulder and now she raised it.
"He is . . . not dead?"
She could hardly say the words and they were little louder than a sigh.
"He is alive, though you were very rough with him," the Earl answered. "But he thoroughly
deserved it!"
Petrina hid her face once more against his shoulder, conscious of an inexpressible relief
which was mixed with the wonder of feeling the Earl's arms holding her so tightly.
"Are you . . . sure?" she asked a little incoherently.
"Quite sure!" the Earl replied; and there was a hint of amusement in his voice as he added,
"So it is quite unnecessary for you to hide from the Police and you can come home, my darling!"
Petrina was suddenly very still.
As she raised her face, thinking she could not have heard him aright, the Earl's lips came
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