“Not exactly wrong,” the Duke replied, “but it cannot wait.”
Safina rose and walked towards the door.
“Where is it?” she asked.
“Upstairs,” the Duke replied.
They walked up the staircase from which the carpet had already been removed by the workmen.
When they reached the corridor, Safina looked at the Duke for guidance and, taking her by the hand, he drew her towards his own bedroom.
When he opened the door, she questioned him,
“What has happened? Has something been damaged. Oh, darling, I do hope it’s not a piece of the Sèvres china.”
“It is more important than that,” the Duke said.
She turned around and saw that he was locking the door.
Then as he came towards her, she said,
“You don’t mean – you cannot have – brought me here – ”
“It is important for me to tell you how much I love you,” the Duke declared, “and quite frankly it cannot wait.”
“You made me – think that – something had – gone wrong,” Safina said accusingly.
“It would be very wrong if I had to wait any longer to make love to you,” the Duke answered.
Her eyes widened and she murmured,
“But it – is only – the afternoon – I always thought – ”
The Duke laughed.
“I shall have to teach you, my precious, that any time is the right time for love.”
He pulled off his coat as he was speaking and threw it down on a chair.
He put his arms around Safina and her body melted against his.
It was impossible to think of anything but the wonder of love!
*
Two hours later the Duke and Duchess came down the stairs.
Safina’s cheeks were flushed and her eyes were shining.
The Duke thought that every time he looked at her she was lovelier than ever before.
“I expect that there will be a dozen people waiting to see you,” she pointed out.
“I am now ready to answer their questions,” he replied.
She looked up to smile at him.
As they reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw through the open door a carriage pulling up outside. It was drawn by four horses and there were two coachmen on the box.
“Visitors!” she exclaimed in a whisper to the Duke.
“I hope not,” he answered.
Safina looked again.
Now the carriage door was open and a man was stepping out of it.
She looked at him in astonishment.
Then she gave a cry and ran down the steps towards him.
“Papa!” she cried. “How is it possible that you are here? I thought that you were in Scotland.”
She flung her arms around the Earl’s neck and he kissed her, saying,
“I drove down from London as soon as I heard where you were.”
The Duke, who had followed Safina, held out his hand.
“It’s very nice to see you, my Lord,” he said, “but I am afraid that we are in rather a mess.”
“I have a great deal to tell you,” the Earl replied as they walked up the steps, “so take me to where we will not be disturbed.”
As he spoke, he looked at the ladders that cluttered the hall and the workmen who were painting the ceiling.
Safina glanced at the Duke.
“I am afraid it must be upstairs, Papa,” she said. “All the rooms on the ground floor are being renovated.”
The Earl did not answer, but started to climb the staircase.
Looking at him, Safina thought that he seemed tired and, in some strange way, older than ever before.
They walked along the corridor and she opened the door of her own bedroom as she remembered guiltily that they had left the bed in the Duke’s room without tidying it.
Her own bed had, however, been made by one of the women who had taken up the position of housemaid.
As the room was so large, there was a sofa and two armchairs in front of the fireplace.
The Duke then took from the Earl the hat and the cape he had travelled in. He put them tidily on a chair against the wall.
Then he asked,
“Can I get you anything to drink, my Lord? But perhaps you have not had luncheon?”
“I had something light to eat on the way,” the Earl replied, “and I will have a drink later. I want first to talk to both of you.”
There was a note in his voice that made his daughter look at him anxiously.
As he sat down on the sofa, she slipped her hand into his and felt his fingers close over hers almost painfully.
The Duke sat down opposite them and, as her father did not speak, Safina asked,
“Are you – angry, Papa, because – Crispin and I are – married?”
“Not because you are married,” the Earl replied, “but at the appalling way that it was forced upon you.”
“It was – horrible at – the time,” Safina said, “but now we are very – very happy. So happy, Papa, that I know it is everything that you have ever – wanted for me.”
The Earl drew in his breath and then he said,
“Then you are extremely fortunate. I have now to tell you my story because it is something you both have to know.”
The pain in his voice was unmistakable and Safina could only look at him with a worried expression in her eyes and wonder what had occurred.
“As you know,” the Earl began, “I left for Scotland a week ago to represent Her Majesty the Queen at a very important meeting, which was to take place in Edinburgh.”
The Earl paused for a moment before he said,
“You were in Florence and I did not expect you to reach England until after I returned.”
Safina parted her lips to explain, but her father went on,
“I naturally had no idea that your stepmother had contrived that you should come back earlier than I had planned.”
“Who told – you that had – happened?” Safina asked her father.
The Earl did not answer and she guessed that he wished to tell the story in his own way, because he continued,
“I arranged to journey to Edinburgh with Lord Burrough, who was also to be a guest of the Duke of Hamilton and was intending to go there by sea in his yacht.”
“The most comfortable way to travel,” the Duke remarked.
“It should have been,” the Earl agreed, “but unfortunately, as we emerged from the Thames Estuary into the North Sea, there was a sea fog and we collided with a trawler or rather it collided with us.”
Safina gave a cry.
“Papa, you might have been hurt!”
“I was uninjured,” the Earl replied, “but Lord Burrough fractured his leg and was badly bruised as well.”
The Earl cleared his throat before he went on,
“There was nothing I could do but bring him back to London where he could be attended to by his own physician.”
“So you did not go to Scotland after all,” Safina exclaimed.
She realised as she spoke that it was an unnecessary remark and she was not surprised when her father continued,
“We got back late yesterday evening and by the time I had escorted Lord Burrough to his house, aroused his servants, put him to bed, and sent for his physician, it was well after midnight.”
Safina felt her father’s fingers tighten on hers as he said,
”I then went to my own house.”
“They did not expect you, Papa?”
“There was no opportunity of informing anyone of my return nor did I think that it was necessary,” the Earl replied.
The Duke was watching the Earl as he spoke and was already anticipating what had happened.
“There is no need for me to go into detail,” the Earl went on and now his voice was harsh and hard.
There was also an expression in his eyes that made the Duke feel very sorry for him.
“What – happened – Papa?
” Safina asked in a bewildered voice.
“I turned your stepmother and the man who was with her out of my house and I told her that, as I did not want a scandal, I would give her five thousand pounds a year as long as she lived abroad.”
He paused to cough and then went on,
“If she ever returned to England, I would immediately institute divorce proceedings against her, citing the man who was with her as co-respondent.”
Safina gave a little gasp.
“Do you think that she will obey you, my Lord?” the Duke asked.
“I think that she will do anything to avoid being ostracised completely by everyone in Society,” the Earl replied. “The man I could name as co-respondent has an influential position at Court and is married with several children.”
Safina gasped again.
She knew that her stepmother was wicked, but not as wicked as this.
Then, in a very small voice, she enquired,
“What did Stepmama – say or do when – you turned her out?”
“She cursed me,” the Earl replied, “cursed me and you with the vocabulary of a Billingsgate fishwife. I was humiliated and ashamed that I had ever put such a vulgar woman in your mother’s place.”
As he spoke, Safina looked at the Duke.
She knew at once that it was her stepmother’s curse that had sent her to him last night.
Then, as she saw the love in his eyes, she knew that however evil the curse might be, it could not touch her now.
She put her cheek against her father’s shoulder.
“I am so – sorry, Papa,” she said softly.
“First thing this morning,” her father said in a different tone of voice, “I went to the London office of my Solicitors and was fortunate enough to find Metcalfe himself there.”
“So he told you about us?”
“He told me what had happened,” the Earl said, “and I knew that I must come at once and tell you that it is quite unnecessary for you to raise the loan that Metcalfe told me he had arranged for you.”
“But, Papa – ” Safina began.
“I directed him to transfer to your account half of your mother’s fortune,” the Earl continued. “It will amount to nearly half a million pounds, which I hope will be enough to restore Wyn.”
For a moment there was silence and then Safina said,
“It is – too much, Papa, and – you may – need more yourself.”
“If you are implying,” the Earl replied, “that I may marry again, I know now there is ‘no fool like an old fool’ and I am not so foolish as to make the same mistake twice.”
Unexpectedly he smiled.
“If you two are happy, as you have just told me that you are, then I will concentrate in the future on my grandchildren.”
Safina blushed and looked shy.
The Duke wanted to put his arms around her and tell her how lovely she was.
Instead, he said,
“That is very generous of you, my Lord, and it is difficult to know how we can thank you.”
“There is no reason to thank me,” the Earl replied. “It is Safina’s money and I am quite certain that Your Grace will know how to look after it as well as her.”
“I will certainly do my best,” the Duke replied, “and I can only say how deeply sorry I am, my Lord, that your life should be so upset.”
“I fortunately still have many things to do,” the Earl replied, “and I am most interested in seeing what you are doing here.”
“Then I have a suggestion to make,” the Duke replied.
Safina wondered what it could be and she realised that he was looking at her while speaking to her father.
“As you will understand, my Lord, I would like to take my wife away on a honeymoon, where we could be alone.”
He smiled at Safina before continuing,
“So I am just wondering if in our absence you would supervise, which I think is essential, the restoration we are making to the house here and see that the workmen don’t waste their time.”
The Earl stared at him and then he laughed.
“Of course I will!” he said. “Actually there is nothing I would enjoy more.”
“Oh, Papa, it sounds wonderful!” Safina cried.
“May I suggest,” he continued, “that you start your honeymoon at my house in Newmarket. Safina has not been there for many years and you will be comfortable there and I think you will both enjoy seeing my racing stables. I will moreover give you half of my horses as a Wedding present.”
The Duke gasped.
“Do you really mean that, my Lord?”
“I think it is a mistake for your colours to be in abeyance and it would be amusing to challenge you on a Racecourse.”
“It’s a marvelous, marvelous idea!” Safina exclaimed. “I cannot tell you how much we both want horses here.”
“Then from Newmarket,” her father said, “you can go on to Wick Park. The stables are heavily overstocked and I suggest that you remove all the horses you require into the stables here.”
Safina jumped up and put her arms around her father’s neck and kissed him.
“You are the kindest man in the whole world,” she enthused.
“You know as well as I do,” the Earl replied, “that your mother left me a great fortune and now I am determined that half of everything I have shall be yours.”
He looked at the Duke and said,
“I remember that, when you were in the Cavalry, your Commander-in-Chief telling me what a good rider you were and I have always thought it sad that since you inherited your title you have not been able to hunt or take part in the County Steeplechases.”
“We must make certain that he wins every one of them in the future,” Safina added.
“I have another idea,” the Earl remarked.
Safina and the Duke were both listening and he went on,
“It has always been the ambition of my life to breed the winner of the Derby. As our estates are near to each other and you are now my son-in-law, why do we not go into partnership? We might even try for the Grand National Steeplechase and make it a double!”
For a moment there was silence and then the Duke said,
“I don’t really know what to say. This is so overwhelming that there are no words that will express my feelings, except to say that from the moment Safina became my wife she brought me luck.”
“It was the Magic Tree,” Safina muttered.
“It was – you!” the Duke insisted.
Their eyes met and for a moment they both forgot everything – the horses, the money with which to restore the house and the glory of winning a Classic race.
There was only one thing that mattered.
Their love.
A Love that came from their hearts and made them not two people but one.
One person enveloped with the Divine Light of real Love, which comes from God, belongs to God and is for ever God.
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
Punished with love
A Royal Rebuke
The Husband Hunters
Signpost To Love
Love Forbidden
Gift Of the Gods
The Outrageous Lady
The Slaves Of Love
The Disgraceful Duke
The Unwanted Wedding
Magic From the Heart Page 11
