The Duke’s arms tightened.
“I want it more than I have ever wanted anything in my whole life.”
The way he spoke was so surprising that Aldora looked up at him, her eyes very wide and questioning.
There was no need to put what she was asking into words.
“I love you, my precious!” the Duke said. “And I have been so desperately afraid that you would go on hating me and I should lose you.”
“How could I have been so – foolish as to hate you? I love you – but I never thought you would – love me.”
“It will take me a very long time to tell you how much.”
Then he was kissing her again, kissing her until they were both breathless.
“How could I ever have guessed,” the Duke asked when he could speak, “that anybody could make me feel like this? What have you done to me, my darling, and how can you be so different from anybody I have ever met before?”
He gave a little laugh and before she could answer he went on,
“Of course we both know the answer. We have belonged to each other in previous lives and perhaps when we reach India we shall find somebody to tell us about them and learn for how long and how desperately we have searched to find each other over the centuries.”
“Do you – really believe that?”
She saw the smile on his lips and pressed herself a little closer to him.
“I know it is true,” she said, “but I am so – humiliated and – ashamed that I did not recognise you, when I – first saw you, as the man who has always been in my – dreams – ”
The Duke laughed.
“As I certainly did not recognise you,” he said, “making that grotesque face and raging at me with all that hatred vibrating from you.”
Aldora hid her face against him again and he heard her murmur,
“How can you – love me when I – behaved so badly and you – might through my stupidity, have been killed!”
“But you saved me!” the Duke said. “Now, as I told you before, I am your responsibility. So how could you leave me to face all the dangers there will be in India without you to look after me?”
Aldora drew a deep breath.
“You are – quite certain you really – want me? Suppose, because I love you so much, that I – bore you as all those – other women have done?”
The Duke knew that it was a very real fear and he said quietly,
“Look at me, Aldora!”
She raised her face to his and he saw that while her lips were red and quivering from his kisses there was a touch of fear in the depths of her eyes.
“Listen to me, my precious,” he said, “so that we shall never make a mistake over this again.”
His eyes held hers captive as he went on,
“As you know, there have been a great number of women in my life, but all I felt for them was a very natural desire for their bodies.”
Aldora made a movement that he recognised as being one jealousy, but he continued,
“But, while I find your face more beautiful, more alluring, altogether more captivating than any other woman’s I have ever seen, you have something which they never had and which is very much more important.”
“What is – that?”
“Your intuition, which makes it quite unnecessary for me to put into words what I want to say as we stimulate and inspire each other. I adore you and could never grow tired of your quick little brain, but there is still something more.”
“More?” Aldora questioned.
“It is difficult to find the right word for it,” the Duke answered, “but I suppose it is what Christians call ‘the soul’, and the Buddhists think of as the spirit of life that is only temporarily enclosed in this body we use.”
He saw by the shining light that came from Aldora’s eyes that she was understanding what he was trying to say and he went on,
“In that, as in our bodies and minds, we complement each other. We are one person, my darling, and even the ceremony of marriage will not make us closer than our Karma has made us at this moment.”
Aldora gave a cry that was a note of sheer rapture.
“How can you say such things? How can you think in the way I have always wanted somebody to think?” she asked. “Oh, please – love me – and make me yours – help me to
understand as you do – and teach me all the things I should know.”
“That is exactly what I will do!”
It was a vow.
Then he was kissing her again, kissing her until she knew that, as he had said, they were one person completely and absolutely.
*
What was known as ‘The Bridal Suite’ in the largest and newest P. & O. Liner for India was filled with flowers.
There were so many flowers in the State Room that there hardly seemed room for any passengers and the fragrance of the Madonna lilies in the bedroom scented the air.
Hobson began to move some of the baskets of exotic fruit from the chairs and tables on which they had been placed by the Stewards and to carry them outside into the corridor.
“They won’t get through this lot until they reaches their Golden Wedding!” Aldora heard him muttering to himself.
She laughed, thinking that she must remember to tell this later to her husband because she knew it would amuse him.
She went into the bedroom and began to take off the thin travelling cape that she had worn over the silk gown into which she had changed after the Wedding.
It was the very pale blue of a summer sky and her bonnet was trimmed with tiny ostrich feathers in the same colour.
She put them down on a chair and knew that Hobson would hang them up later for her and would also unpack some of the large trunks that were already taking up too much room in the cabin.
She had agreed readily to the Duke’s suggestion that she should not bring a lady’s maid with her from England, but wait until she arrived in India.
There would be many experienced Indian servants to maid her in Calcutta, trained in their duties by previous Governors’ wives or Memsahibs.
“English servants are always a nuisance in foreign countries and especially in India,” the Duke said, “with, of course, the exception of Hobson. I could not manage without him!”
“Of course not!” Aldora agreed, “And he is very important to me too!”
The way she spoke made the Duke look at her curiously and she said,
“It was Hobson who made me – understand how – foolish I had been about – Lady Lawson.”
She did not look at the Duke as she spoke because she felt embarrassed.
And yet she wanted him to know that she no longer condemned him for what she now understood was not entirely his fault.
The Duke, however, put his arms around her and said,
“If there have ever been any other women in my life except you, I cannot remember them, and there is no point in you ever thinking about them.”
She did not speak and he went on,
“I love you, Aldora! I love you more every moment we are together, every second that I think of you and every time I touch you!”
She felt herself quiver at the passion in his voice as he asked impatiently,
“Why do we have to wait such a long time before we can get married? I find it intolerable!”
Aldora laughed and it was a very happy sound.
“Actually, darling, it is only three weeks,” she said, “and I don’t think that any other Duchess or Vicereine has ever before been hurried up the aisle at such a gallop!”
“To me it seems like three centuries,” the Duke groaned. “I want to be alone with you while, God knows, for all I see of you we might be living on separate planets!”
“I know,” Aldora agreed, “but Mama insists on my having a trousseau, although most of it will have to follow us later.”
“I would be quite content for you to be with me in that very provocative nightgown you were wearing when you sat on my bed and massaged my
forehead! It required all my willpower to prevent myself from pulling you into my arms!”
“I thought you had a – headache and were – in pain!” Aldora said reproachfully.
“A pain I hope never to suffer again, the pain of being unable to kiss you and to tell you how I was falling more and more madly in love with you!”
“How can I not have – realised – that?”
“I felt the only way I could win you was to make you think I was indifferent,” the Duke explained, “although I was extremely anxious in case my plan did not work.”
Aldora laughed.
“I think, darling, your plans will always work. You are so clever that I am prepared to believe you can do anything even as you have already taken the stars from the sky and given them into my arms!”
“That is what I will do when I really make you mine,” the Duke said.
She thought now that he had spoken with a note in his voice that seemed to vibrate through her and, even as she thought of him, the door of the cabin opened and he came in.
He seemed to fill not only the small space where they were standing but the whole world, the sea and the sky.
Aldora’s eyes as she looked at him were very revealing and the Duke closed the door and held out his arms.
She ran towards him and he pulled her close against him before he asked,
“Can it really be true that we are married and at last we can be alone together?”
“It is what – I have been – waiting for too,” Aldora said and there was a throb in the words that told him how much it meant to her.
She had known when they knelt together in St. George’s Church, Hanover Square and received the blessing of God that they were already joined by their belief in a faith that went back thousands of years before Christianity and nothing, not even death, would ever separate them.
But there was still a very human desire to be able to love each other completely and every night when she said her prayers. Aldora had prayed that the Duke would not be disappointed in her.
Now, as he held her close and still closer, she was a little apprehensive that she might fail him.
She thought that he was about to kiss her again.
Instead he looked down at her and there was an expression of love in his eyes that seemed to transform his face.
“Once again we are at sea, my precious,” he said, “and, although this is not my own yacht, where there was only my own crew to look after us. I intend to enjoy my honeymoon by being alone with you and forgetting that anyone else even exists!”
Aldora looked up at him with a little smile waiting for him to explain and, as she did so, she could feel the engines throbbing beneath them and realised that the Liner was putting out to sea.
Owing to the time of the tide they had not been able to cast off and sail until after dark.
Now there was hooting from the other ships and cheers from the quayside as they moved away, but Aldora was not listening to them.
“What I have arranged,” the Duke was saying and she knew that he had planned out every detail, “is that our unpacking can wait until tomorrow. While we have a glass of champagne in our State Room, Hobson will unpack just what we need for tonight. Then we can go to bed.”
“I-I would like that,” Aldora said.
It had been a long, but exciting day and she had not slept very much the night before.
However she knew that there was a far more important reason why the Duke wanted them to retire early.
She blushed at the thought and he smiled as kissed her.
They went into the State Room where there were pâté sandwiches waiting for them on the table and an opened bottle of champagne in which they could drink each other’s health.
There had been so many people at the Wedding for them to greet and shake hands with that the only two people who had nothing to drink, Aldora thought, and who hardly tasted the Wedding cake had been the bride and bridegroom.
The invitations had had to be sent out in great haste for everybody wanted not only to be present at the Wedding of the Duke of Wydeminster, but also to say ‘Good Luck!’ and ‘God Speed’ to the next Viceroy.
The Prince of Wales had been a Guest of Honour at the Wedding, as had the Prime Minister, Mr. Disraeli.
As the acceptances to the invitations came in, Aldora said,
“I am beginning to understand how important you are and will be, and I am afraid that I shall be lost in the crowd!”
She was only teasing him, but there was a touch of seriousness in what she said.
“I am already making plans,” the Duke had replied, “and, as you know, I dislike my plans being disrupted, so that there will always be times when we can be alone together. I can assure you that I shall insist on having my own way in this, if in nothing else!”
“You always get your own way,” Aldora smiled, “and I am beginning to think it is very bad for you!”
“My way is your way,” he replied.
“I could say the same to you and predict that before my Term of Office is over you will be a very spoilt and demanding young woman,” he complained.
“You know that all I want to do is to make you happy and – please you.”
“You do please me,” he answered, “but that is a very feeble word to express what you make me feel.”
“I love you – I love you,” Aldora whispered, “but I am so afraid – I may make you – angry at times.”
The Duke smiled before he replied,
“I expect, my darling heart, that, since we are both very positive and intelligent people, there will be many occasions when we will argue and even quarrel with each other.”
“Oh! No!” Aldora cried.
“But,” the Duke went on, “they will only be storms that will soon pass and be followed by a rainbow.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very sure.”
In the impulsive manner that always thrilled him she put her arms around his neck and sighed,
“Show me how to please you – I am so – ignorant about – love.”
“That is what I want you to be,” the Duke replied. “If I ever find anybody else, except myself, teaching you I shall murder him, however much of a scandal it would cause!”
He spoke so violently that Aldora looked at him in surprise.
At the same time she felt a wild excitement because she was learning every minute that they were together how much the Duke loved her.
She knew that it was an overwhelming emotion that was as new to him as it was to her. And they vibrated towards each other until she felt at times that even outsiders must be aware of the magnetism that flowed from their hearts and souls.
Then after Hobson had left them and the ship was moving under the stars down the English Channel, Aldora slipped into the large bed.
It was made up with the Duke’s own monogrammed sheets and silk pillows trimmed with lace.
As she waited for her husband, she thought that it was the reverse of what had happened before.
Then he had been in bed on his yacht and she had come to him.
There was only one small light beside the bed and it cast a golden glow on her hair and illuminated the lilies that stood in every corner of the cabin.
Only the Duke could have thought to make everything so beautiful for her, Aldora told herself and, as she thought of him, he came in through the door that led from the State Room and closed it behind him.
He saw her waiting for him, her golden hair falling over her shoulders to her waist, her eyes wide and excited until they seemed to fill her whole face.
He sat down on the mattress facing her and took her hand in his.
“I love you, my darling,” he said in his deep voice. “I seem to have fought a million battles to reach you and stormed the Gods to make sure that you would be mine!”
“I-I am yours!” Aldora said softly.
The Duke looked into her eyes for a long moment.
Then he kissed her hands, f
irst one and then the other, before he climbed into the bed beside her.
He put his arms around her and felt her quivering against him, not with fear but with the same wild excitement that he felt rising within himself.
He knew that the sensations she aroused were so glorious and so wonderful that it was the perfection that he had thought he would never find.
He drew her closer as he said,
“I worship you, my darling, and because I have so much to teach you, you must help me to be very gentle and not frighten you in any way.”
“I am – not frightened – I could never be – frightened with you,” Aldora said. “In fact I know now that – love casts out fear, hatred and – wrong.”
It was almost as if she asked him the question and he answered,
“I believe that too and, darling, what I want to give you now that we are together is the beauty that we shall find in India.”
She made a little murmur of joy and he went on,
“It is the love that will carry us through all the difficulties and problems and reveal to us the secrets that you have been seeking for so long.”
“I am sure that those secrets are already in our souls,” Aldora replied, “and, when our minds discover them, we shall learn that they are each one of them – motivated by – love.”
The Duke thought that this was something they would discuss and argue over in the future and it would absorb them both.
Then, because Aldora was so close to him that he could feel her heart beating, the fire was rising within him and his lips were aching to kiss her.
He kissed her eyes, her straight little nose and then her mouth.
As he moved lower to kiss the softness of her neck, he knew that he aroused in her sensations she had never known before and which complemented those that consumed him.
The vibrations that came from them both were filled with the light that came from the stars, the light of their enquiring minds and the Light of Love.
As it emanated from them, covered them and dazzled their eyes, they were lifted up on the peaks of ecstasy.
Then, as the Duke made Aldora his, they were one with the Gods.
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The Storms Of Love Page 14
