“But he did not do so,” the Earl pointed out quietly.
“I hate his money, I will not touch it or anything he owned,” Cledra suddenly raged.
Then after a little silence she said in a different tone,
“Except – please could we send some of it – at once to the old pensioners at Newmarket?”
The Earl smiled.
“I was right!” he exclaimed.
“Right?”
“I knew that would be the first thing you would think about and I have already sent a letter to my Manager at Newmarket instructing him to provide them with food and extra money until you can put their pensions on a proper legal basis.”
Cledra gave a little cry.
“Oh, thank you! Only – you could be so – wonderful and so understanding. Thank you. I cannot bear to think that they should – suffer any – longer from Uncle Walter’s – meanness and cruelty.”
“I quite understand,” the Earl said, “that, when you have provided for those who rely on you, you will want to sell the house at Newmarket, but your grandfather’s house, which should have been your father’s, is also yours.”
“It was – home until Mama and I had to – live in a tiny – cottage,” Cledra said almost beneath her breath.
“Your uncle was a wicked man and made many innocent people suffer,” the Earl declared. “You will have to make up for his deficiencies.”
“He would have – killed Winged Victory,” Cledra said in a low voice.
“Winged Victory was fighting to save himself,” the Earl answered, “and he certainly saved me from committing murder!”
Cledra put out her hand as if to hold onto him as she said,
“If you had – murdered Uncle Walter you might have been in terrible – trouble – and I would never have – forgiven myself because it would have been – my fault for coming to – you in the first place.”
“But, as you have just said, Winged Victory saved me from that and it was your intuition that saved him and my horses from an appalling death.”
“Winged Victory told me he was in danger,” Cledra answered, “but, when I was thinking about it this morning, I knew it was very wonderful of you to – believe me. Most people, I am sure, would have thought that I was just being – hysterical.”
“That is something you have never been in all the dramatic experiences that we have endured together,” the Earl said, “and I want to tell you, Cledra, that I think you are very brave and a very exceptional young woman.”
He liked the look of surprise in Cledra’s eyes at his words and knew that she had not anticipated for a moment that he would praise her so fulsomely.
The colour flared into her cheeks as she asked,
“Do you – really mean – that?”
“I always say what I mean and I think that your father, if he was alive, would be very proud of you.”
“Papa would have – understood as – you did.”
Then she added in a different tone of voice,
“Now that Papa is dead surely there should be somebody like him or Grandpapa to live in the Big House. It has belonged to the Melfords for over a hundred years.”
“As it is now yours,” the Earl replied, “you will be able to live in it when you are married and carry on the family tradition.”
Cledra stared at him for a moment and then she looked away out through the window into the garden.
“I-I shall – never marry,” she sighed.
The Earl thought that this was what he might have expected her to feel and he said,
“You think that now because of the abominable way your uncle treated you. But you are young, Cledra, and you will find you will soon forget the horrors of these last two years.”
She did not answer and after a moment he went on,
“When you are feeling stronger, we must make plans with my grandmother for you to meet the Social world in London and be presented to the Prince Regent at Buckingham Palace.”
The Earl spoke very quietly with an almost coaxing note in his voice, but Cledra jumped to her feet.
“No!” she cried. “No. I will – not do that – and I know why you are – suggesting it! It is so that I shall meet men who will propose – marriage to me.”
She quivered as she spoke and the Earl saw the fear that had been there before was back in her eyes.
He too rose to his feet.
“You must try to be sensible about this, Cledra. There is no hurry and we will talk it over when you feel stronger.”
Cledra gave a little cry like an animal that has been trapped.
“I-I understand what you are – saying and I know, now that Uncle Walter is – dead, I have to go – away and not bother you any m-more. But I am frightened – and I will not know how to look after – myself when I am all – alone.”
Her voice broke on the last word and, without thinking and without meaning to, she turned towards the Earl and flung herself against him hiding her face in his shoulder.
“H-how can I – I leave you?”
Her voice was choked with sobs and he could see tears running down her cheeks.
“I-I am only – safe when I am with – you.”
Slowly his arms went round her.
He could feel that her sobs had become a tempest shaking her whole body.
“You must not cry,” he urged her gently. “You have been so brave.”
“I am – not b-brave,” Cledra replied, “I am a – coward and I wish now I had – d-died. Then at least I would have – Papa and Mama to – look after me.”
The Earl’s arms tightened.
“You are not to say such things.”
“H-how can I – help it if I have to go away all – alone and leave you?”
Her words were almost incoherent, but the Earl heard them.
“Do you mind so much leaving me?” he asked very gently.
“I-I – love you! I – love you because you are – so wonderful – so m-magnificent – and when I have gone you will forget me – just as you have forgotten all those – other women who – loved you, b-but I shall never – never – never forget you.”
The Earl moved and put his hand under Cledra’s chin to turn her face up to his.
She did not resist him. She merely closed her eyes against the light, the tears were still running down her cheeks and her lips trembled.
The Earl looked down at her for a long moment before he asked,
“Are you quite sure that you love me?”
“H-how can I – help it? There is – nothing else in the – whole world – but you.”
Her voice broke again and the Earl bent his head and his lips were on hers.
For a moment Cledra could hardly believe what was happening to her and then his mouth seemed to take possession of her.
His lips were strong and demanding and she felt an ecstasy that was like a shaft of sunlight rising up through her body, sweeping away her misery and moving from her breasts into her throat.
It was so lovely, so rapturous and so unlike any other feeling that she had ever known before that she wished she might die while she knew such happiness and would therefore not lose it when he let her go.
Then the feeling seemed to intensify until it became alive and she knew that she had loved him from the first moment she had seen him and it was true when she said that he filled her whole life and there was nothing else.
The Earl’s lips had at first been very gentle, then, as he felt the softness and sweetness of Cledra’s, the ecstasy rising within her aroused the same feeling within himself.
His kisses became more intense and he held her closer still until he could feel her heart beating against his.
Only when he raised his head to look down at the radiance in her eyes did Cledra say a little incoherently,
“I – love you! I love – you! I knew that – if you kissed – me you would – take me into Heaven.”
The Earl did not answer.
He merely kissed he
r again and now with a passion that made Cledra feel as if he was giving her the sun and its rays burnt their way into her heart.
She knew that whether he wanted her or not she was his, now and for all Eternity and, when he left her, he would take her heart and her soul with him and she would become but a shadow of herself, empty and alone.
But for the moment there was the rapture of being close to him, the wonder of his kisses and the feeling that she was safe and secure.
It was so glorious and so utterly perfect that she knew the vibrations between them made them one person and they were indivisible.
‘How can I – lose him?’ she asked herself desperately.
Then, because he was holding her, it was impossible to think of anything but that he was there and she was his and that he filled not only her whole world but the sky as well.
Only when the feelings he gave her were so intense that they were almost a physical pain did she break under the unendurable glory of it and hide her face against his neck.
“I-I – love you!” she whispered, “but I did not – know that l-love was like this.”
“Like what?” the Earl asked and his voice sounded hoarse and unsteady.
“Like being in the sky – far away from – the world being safe and so unbelievably – gloriously happy that I think I must have – died.”
“You are very much alive, my darling.”
As if surprised at his words and the way he spoke, she raised her face to look up at him.
“P-please – say that again,” she whispered, “just once because – I want to be sure I – heard it.”
The Earl gave a little laugh.
“There are many things I want to say to you besides ‘my darling’, but, because you are intelligent, you must know that I love you as you love me.”
“It – it cannot be – true!”
There was still a touch of tears in Cledra’s voice.
He smiled before he replied,
“That is what I said when I found myself thinking that I could not lose you. You will stay with me so that I can look after you and I will not allow you to marry anybody but me!”
“Do you – really mean that you – want to marry me?”
“I think that is a sensible procedure when two people love each other as much as we do.”
“You – love me? You really – love me?”
“I love you and I will persuade you to believe me, but it is going to take a long time.”
Cledra gave a sound that was indescribable before she breathed,
“I never thought you would feel like that when there are so many – other women in your life – but I prayed that I could – stay with you just for a – little while because only with you can I – feel safe.”
“I will keep you safe for ever,” the Earl insisted, “and of one thing you can be sure, you will never leave me and I will never leave you.”
“B-but – I may – bore you?”
“I was bored in the past because I had not found you. But now we have found each other, my adorable one, all we have to do is to keep loving each other.”
“That is what I want to do for ever – and ever. And I will try in every way – possible to make you – happy.”
“I am happy,” the Earl said, “if that is the meaning of the extraordinary sensation I am feeling at the moment and I promise you, my darling, it is a very different feeling from any I have ever known before in my life.”
Cledra lifted her lips to his.
“Kiss me – please – kiss me again,” she asked. “I am so – afraid that this is all a – wonderful dream – and the Fairy Palace, the Fairytale gowns and you will all – disappear when I wake up.”
“Which is the most important?” the Earl quizzed her.
“You! As long as you are there – everything else can go. I just want – you.”
There was a passion in Cledra’s voice that had not been there before and it made him aware how deeply she was feeling and he knew unbelievably and incredibly that he felt the same.
He had known, he felt, from the very beginning when Cledra had turned to him for help and protection that she was not only his responsibility but an essential part of him that he could not deny.
It was what he had been looking for all his life, although he had not been aware of it.
Now, because she was so helpless and at the same time so brave and, because she had given him her heart without asking anything in return, she had captured and enslaved him in a way that he knew was different from anything he had ever known or would ever know in the future.
It was not only her childlike belief and trust in him, it was also the vibrations between them that the Earl realised were unique and different from anything he had ever known with any other woman.
He was prepared to believe that they were two souls who had found one another again after a million lives and would go on into Eternity together.
He had so many things to explain to Cledra in the future.
But, as he looked down into her eyes brilliant with happiness with her lashes still wet from her tears, at her lips inviting his and at her face that seemed to have an unearthly radiance about it, he knew that he was the luckiest man in the whole world.
“What have you done to me, my precious, that I should feel like this?” he asked, “I was prepared to wager everything I possess that I should never feel so completely and helplessly in love.”
“You are so wonderful,” Cledra whispered. “I love you and there is nothing left in the whole world but my love – and I want to give it to you – and go on giving and giving – until I am – all yours.”
The note of emotion in her voice told the Earl that he had awoken her to the first passionate desire that she had ever felt.
Because it was so alluring and at the same time so utterly innocent he knew that he must protect her not only against other men but against himself as well.
He would be very gentle because she was so young and so inexperienced.
He thought that of all the campaigns he had fought perhaps this would be the most intriguing and one which would require his instinct and perceptiveness together with his love that was so new to him to guide and inspire him.
He pulled her a little closer to him as he sighed,
“We have so much to give each other, my darling, now and in the future and I think the love we have found is not only something personal to ourselves but a victory over cruelty and evil.”
“A Winged Victory,” Cledra cried, “because when you kiss me and when you – touch me – you carry me on wings to a Heaven that is far more marvellous than anybody has ever been able to – describe it.”
“That is just what I want you to feel,” the Earl said, “and you are right, my precious little one, ours is a winged victory and we have won a battle where love has been overwhelmingly victorious.”
Then he was kissing her again and there was only his arms, his lips and him, as he carried her up to the stars, where there was no fear, only LOVE.
OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.
Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love, just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.
The Eternal Collection, classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .
Elizabethan Lover
The Little Pretender
A Ghost in Monte Carlo
A Duel of Hearts
The Saint and the Sinner
The Penniless Peer
The Proud Princess
The Dare-Devil Duke
Diona and a Dalmatian
A Shaft of Sunlight
Lies for Love
Love and Lucia
Love and the Loathsome Leopard
Beauty or Brains
The Temptation of Torilla
The Goddess and the Gaiety Girl
Fragrant Flower
Look Listen and Love
The Duke and the Preacher’s Daughter
A Kiss for the King
The Mysterious Maid-servant
Lucky Logan Finds Love
The Wings of Ecstacy
Mission to Monte Carlo
Revenge of the Heart
The Unbreakable Spell
Never Laugh at Love
Bride to a Brigand
Lucifer and the Angel
Journey to a Star
Solita and the Spies
The Chieftain Without a Heart
No Escape from Love
Dollars for the duke
Pure and Untouched
Secrets
Fire in the Blood
Love, Lies and Marriage
The Ghost who Fell in Love
Hungry for Love
The Wild Cry of Love
The Blue-eyed Witch
The Punishment of a Vixen
The Secret of the Glen
Bride to the King
For All Eternity
King in Love
A Marriage made in Heaven
Who can deny Love?
Riding to the Moon
Wish for Love
Dancing on a Rainbow
Gypsy Magic
Love in the Clouds
Count the Stars
White Lilac
Too Precious to Lose
The Devil Defeated
An Angel Runs Away
The Duchess Disappeared
The Pretty Horse-breakers
The Prisoner of Love
Ola and the Sea Wolf
The Castle made for Love
A Heart is Stolen
The Love Pirate
As Eagles Fly
The Magic of Love
Love Leaves at Midnight
A Witch’s Spell
Love Comes West
The Impetuous Duchess
A Tangled Web
Love lifts the Curse
Saved By A Saint
Love is Dangerous
The Poor Governess
The Peril and the Prince
A Very Unusual Wife
Say Yes Samantha
Winged Victory Page 14
