103. She Wanted Love (17 page)

“I was too frightened to be hungry,” Pepe shivered.

“Of course you were, but we will make up for it by eating a really enormous luncheon. Then we will think of something rather quieter to do in the afternoon.”

“It was very clever of Miss Lawson to shoot those two horrid men,” Pepe piped up.

“Very clever indeed,” the Marquis answered. “At the same time, I don’t want to have to rescue you like this every day!”

“I was very frightened until she came and told me lovely stories about flags.”

Eleta was standing beside them and she knew that the Marquis wanted to be quite certain the wounded men were being brought down from the cave.

Then the Head Groom came running in to say,

“I thinks they’re past ridin’, my Lord, and we’ll have to fetch a cart for ’em.”

“There is a farmer a little way down the road. If you tell him it’s for me, there will be no problem about it. I am leaving you in charge while I take her Ladyship and Miss Lawson home.”

”We’ll do as your Lordship’s orders and I knows where the nearest Police Station is.”

“Report to me as soon as you get back, Abbey, and tell them I will be there early tomorrow. In the meantime they had better send for a doctor.”

“I’ll see to it, my Lord,” he answered.

While they were talking, Eleta mounted her horse and they now set off.

The Marquis was going slowly as he had Pepe in front of him and had one arm round her.

They then rode through the wood and past the pool where the Marquis was to have placed the money.

As they did so, he said,

“I must thank you, Miss Lawson, for saving Pepe and indeed a large sum of money.”

Eleta smiled.

“I was quite certain you would not have subjected yourself into parting with that sum without fighting for it!”

She recalled that he had said he would give twenty thousand pounds to save not only Pepe but herself.

Then she was vividly conscious once again of the feelings that had arisen within her when he kissed her.

It was only, she thought, because he was grateful to her for looking after Pepe, but she knew it was what she had felt about him from the first moment they had met.

‘I love him,’ she thought, ‘but he will never love me and I must be careful not to let him know my feelings.’

They rode on and when they arrived at The Court it seemed that the whole staff was waiting in the hall.

“We’ve been really worried about your Lordship,” Harris said, “and it’s a great sight to see her Ladyship.”

“We have won a most difficult battle, Harris,” the Marquis said, “and now I want a glass of champagne and a very large luncheon.”

Harris laughed.

“That’ll be waiting for your Lordship in the dining room in five minutes.”

“Pepe and I will just have time to wash our hands and make ourselves respectable,” Eleta said.

She did not wait for the Marquis to answer, but she and Pepe ran towards the staircase.

“I am glad I am home,” Pepe said, as they went into their room. “I was so scared until you came to save me.”

“I hope you prayed to your angel to look after you.”

“I did, but I knew, although it might be very very difficult, that you and Daddy would save me.”

“Just forget all about it,” Eleta suggested. “Wash your face and hands and we will hurry down to luncheon.”

Five minutes later the Marquis handed Eleta a glass of champagne as they entered the drawing room.

“If anyone deserves it,” he smiled, “you do.”

“I want champagne too,” Pepe asked.

“You can have a sip,” the Marquis replied, “but I don’t think you will like it as much as your lemonade.”

He gave the child his glass, Pepe took a very small sip rather warily and then she wrinkled her nose.

“You are quite right, Daddy,” she admitted, “I like my special lemonade that Monsieur Téyson makes with honey. It’s much, much nicer than that.”

“I will have to try it myself,” the Marquis muttered.

He was talking to Pepe, but his eyes were on Eleta and, because she felt such intense feelings moving within her, she blushed as she looked away.

Luncheon was awaiting them and, although it was delicious, it was hard for her to think of anything but the man sitting beside her.

She was aware that he kept looking at her, although he was talking to Pepe.

They were just finishing their coffee and Pepe was devouring a
petit four
when Harris came into the room and said to the Marquis,

“There’s a gentleman to see you, my Lord, on what he says is important business.”

“I have no wish to see anyone today. Who is he?”

“He says his name, my Lord, is Mr. Warner.”

Eleta was stunned into silence.

“Put him into the study and tell him to wait,” the Marquis ordered. “I have no idea who he is.”

Harris left the room.

Then Eleta said in a voice that did not sound like her own,

“It’is my stepfather. Please, please will you hide me somewhere? I cannot imagine how he has traced me here.”

The Marquis stared at her, but Pepe gave a little shriek,

“Your stepfather! The wicked man you have run away from. Oh, Daddy, we must hide her. He must not find her, he is a cruel horrid man.”

“I don’t understand. What is all this about?”

“I ran away from home and I told Pepe that is why I am here pretending to be a Governess. My stepfather wants me to marry a man who is fifty years old at least and whom I have never even met.”

“She cannot marry him! She cannot!” Pepe cried, jumping up to run to her father’s chair. “She will go away from us and we want her here.”

The Marquis put his arm round Pepe’s shoulders.

“Now tell me about this quietly,” he suggested, “so that I understand what is happening.”

“I am not a Governess and I have never been one,” Eleta began.

He smiled, but did not interrupt and she went on,

“My mother and father are dead and my stepfather said that I am to marry a man I have never met, but who he thinks is very influential. I therefore went to an Agency in London and they offered me this job. That is why I am here. I have been so happy and I love Pepe.”

“And I love Eleta,” Pepe asserted. “So, Daddy, send this horrid man away and say she is to stay with us.”

“Of course she must stay,” the Marquis agreed.

“It is impossible if he knows I am here,” Eleta said.

“Why?” the Marquis asked.

Eleta hesitated and then she told the truth.

“I am only twenty and he is my legal Guardian until I am twenty-one and that is not for another eight months.”

“All I can say,” the Marquis said quietly, “is that you are the most extraordinary, outstanding and brilliant twenty-year-old who has ever existed.”

He paused before he added,

“And naturally I cannot lose you.”

“Can you save her, Daddy?” Pepe almost screamed. “Because I want her, I want her here!”

“We both want her. So the sooner I get rid of him the better.”

“But the law is on his side,” Eleta mumbled.

“I am just thinking how I can defeat the law – ”

“I think it’s impossible unless I hide in the cellars and you say that the woman he is seeking has gone.”

“I don’t think that would be very effective, so I have a better plan.”

“What is it?” Eleta asked.

“I think both you and Pepe will want to hear what I say to him. Let’s go into the drawing room and you can hide behind the screen at the far end.”

Before Eleta could reply, he gazed at Pepe and said,

“Now listen! If you make one sound, he will know you are there and that will spoil my plan for keeping Miss Lawson with us.”

“I will be very very quiet,” Pepe promised.

“Then come along. I know exactly what I am going to say and you can both hear it.”

They went out of the dining room and saw Harris waiting outside.

“Wait for a moment,” the Marquis said to him. “I am going into the drawing room and, when we are inside, you can bring Mr. Warner to me there.”

“Very good, my Lord,” Harris replied.

As they then entered the drawing room, Eleta saw, which she had almost forgotten, that at the far end was a large screen, finely carved and inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

Eleta and Pepe hurried across the room and they sat down on the floor behind the screen.

Eleta knew it would be impossible for anyone at the other end of the room to see them.

She put her finger to her lips, remembering as she did so how she had done that the first time she saw Pepe.

From that moment Pepe had become in many ways a changed child and now she snuggled up against Eleta, who put her other arm round her.

She felt as if they were both holding their breath.

The Marquis was standing at the other end of the room.

‘I love him, I love him,’ Eleta said to herself. ‘Oh, please God, let me stay here. At least I will be near him and see him even if he will never love me.’

Then she felt again as if his lips were on hers and an amazing feeling was sweeping through her whole body.

‘This is love,’ she told herself. ‘It is what I thought I would never find.’

She heard the door open and Harris announce,

“Mr. Cyril Warner, my Lord.”

The Marquis held out his hand.

“I don’t think we have met before, Mr. Warner, and I am wondering why you wish to see me so urgently.”

“It has just come to my knowledge,” he replied in a hard voice, “that my stepdaughter is here pretending to be a Governess, for which she is not trained and, I understand, has given a false name and lied about her age.”

“Those are rather derogatory accusations and, as I find Miss Lawson extremely capable as a Governess to my daughter, I have no wish to lose her.”

“Miss Lawson, as you call her,” Cyril Warner said, “is actually only twenty and I am by law her Guardian until she is twenty-one. She will therefore return home with me and give up this ridiculous charade.”

“I am afraid that is impossible.”

“What do you mean by impossible? As I have just told you, my Lord, she has to obey me until she is of age.”

“That is where your information about this young lady is at fault,” the Marquis responded.

“I just cannot think why you should say that,” Cyril Warner said. “I intend to assert myself as I am entitled to do and she will pack and leave with me immediately.”

Eleta felt a quiver go through Pepe.

She pulled the child closer to her and at the same time in case she should speak she put her finger on her lips.

“Then I am afraid, Mr. Warner, that you will be disappointed,” the Marquis said, “when I tell you that your stepdaughter is in fact my wife.”

“
Your wife
! I don’t believe it. If it had been in the newspapers, I would have been aware of it.”

“I agree and so would the rest of the world. But unfortunately, as one of my relatives has just died, I am in deep mourning. I am therefore waiting for the funeral to be over before the announcement of our wedding is sent to
The Gazette
.”

”I can hardly believe your Lordship has married a woman you thought to be a Governess,” he snarled angrily.

“That is my business,” the Marquis replied, “and, as there is no more to say on the subject, I can only tell you that your visit here is fruitless. You will be informed the day before our wedding is formally announced.”

As he spoke, he put out his hand towards the bell-pull on the wall beside him.

Almost immediately the door opened and Harris appeared.

“Will you show Mr. Warner to his carriage,” the Marquis ordered.

For a moment Cyril Warner hesitated and there was no doubt the fury expressed in his face was about to pour out through his lips.

The Marquis walked away towards the window and stood looking out at the garden with his back to him.

Harris now had the door wide open and there was nothing Cyril Warner could do but leave.

He walked out muttering beneath his breath.

Then, as the door closed, Pepe jumped up and ran towards her father.

“You saved her! You saved her, Daddy,” she cried. “Oh, you are clever, so very clever.”

“Go and see that that dreadful man drives away,” the Marquis said, “and I don’t want him to talk to or ask questions of Harris or the footmen.”

Pepe understood and ran across the room.

Eleta stood looking at the Marquis.

“That was a very astute way of getting rid of him, my Lord, but I am afraid that he will eventually find out the truth.”

The Marquis smiled.

“If it is not before midnight tonight, he will be
too
late
!”

Eleta looked at him, not understanding what he was saying.

He put his arms round her.

“I have loved you ever since I first saw you,” he said. “I was just waiting for an opportunity to tell you so.”

Before she could realise what was happening, his lips were on hers.

He kissed her at first very gently.

Then, as if he was unable to control the excitement within him, more ardently and more passionately.

She felt herself quiver with a wild thrill that was so completely different from anything she had ever known.

Then, as the Marquis raised his head, she said in a voice he could hardly hear,

“This cannot be true.”

“It is true, my darling one. I love you and I think, because I see it in your eyes, that you love me a little.”

“I love you more than I can possibly say,” Eleta breathed, “but how could you ask me to marry you when you don’t even know my real name?”

“Does it matter?” he asked. “What matters is that we have found each other. I have been looking for you all my life and, as you have travelled to a lot of strange places and not found a husband, I think that you were looking for me.”

“Of course I was looking for you, but I thought you were only in my dreams,” Eleta whispered.

“That is where I intend always to be. So we will be married this evening and I am going to send now for the Vicar who is also my private Chaplain. As you know, I do not need to have a Marriage Licence because my Chapel, although consecrated, is private.”

“How can this be true,” Eleta asked, “when I have been so frightened that I would have to marry that dreadful Duke?”