“His accomplice has also been taken into custody,” the Marquis continued, “and I learnt, which somewhat excused my helplessness in his hands, that he was a pugilist at one time.”
“He – might have – hurt you!” Odela exclaimed.
“He might indeed,” the Marquis agreed, “but actually he is a strange character because he is dumb.”
Odela remembered that the big man had not said a word all the time they were being tied up.
“Apparently,” the Marquis explained, “when he was fighting somebody of his own weight he bit his tongue almost in half. After the doctors had operated on it he was unable to speak.”
“It must have been – awful for – him,” Odela said. “At the same time – because he is – so large he is a very – frightening man.”
“As he will be going to prison with Cotter, I don’t think we need think about him anymore.”
“And they will not be – able to – threaten you again?” Odela said.
“Neither will they frighten you,” the Marquis assured her. “The Chief Constable agreed that your name need not be mentioned and actually, as I do not wish to lie in the witness box, I simply said that you were a friend and he therefore thought that you were a guest of mine from London.”
“Oh – thank you – thank you!” Odela cried. “I was so – frightened that – ”
She stopped.
“Frightened of who?” the Marquis enquired.
“I-I do not – want to – talk about – it.”
The Marquis bent forward in his chair.
“We have just been through a traumatic experience together, Odela. How can you continue not to trust me?”
He paused a moment and then went on,
“You know I would do anything to help you, not only because I am sorry for you but for another reason as well.”
“What is – that?” Odela asked.
As she spoke, her eyes met the Marquis’s.
She felt that he must be aware of how much she loved him as she waited for his reply.
Then before he could speak the door of the library opened.
As it did so, the Marquis, with the quickness of a man of action, rose to his feet.
He realised that Odela was sitting in a high-backed armchair with its back to the door and she therefore would not be seen by anyone who had just come into the library.
It was Newton and the Marquis walked towards him.
“What do you want, Newton?” he asked. “I am busy.”
“I’m sorry, my Lord, to disturb you,” Newton replied, “but a lady and gentleman have just called to see your Lordship.”
“At this late hour?” the Marquis exclaimed. “Who are they?”
“It’s the Countess of Shalford, my Lord, and the Viscount More.”
The Marquis said nothing and Newton went on,
“They says it’s of the utmost importance that they see your Lordship immediately.”
“Offer them some refreshment and say I will join them in a few minutes,” the Marquis ordered.
“Very good, my Lord.”
Newton withdrew.
As the Marquis turned round, Odela rose from the chair where she was sitting and ran towards him.
She flung herself against him saying in a terrified whisper,
“Hide me – please hide me – they have – come for me – but I cannot go – with them! Oh, please – hide me!”
Her voice was pathetic and there were tears in her eyes.
The Marquis put his arms around her.
. “Why do they want you?” he asked.
“The Countess is my – stepmother and she – insists that – I marry – the Viscount and – he – ”
Odela paused and even through her tears she blushed before she hid her face and mumbled,
“is – her – lover!”
The Marquis’s arms tightened.
“But – why?” he asked. “Why should your stepmother want you to do such a thing?”
“Because – Mama left – me a lot – of money – and the Viscount is – poor.”
“I know your father. He is a very distinguished man,” the Marquis said. “Surely he would not allow such a thing?”
“He always – does what – Stepmama wants and – when she is determined – no one can stand up – against her.”
Odela’s voice was now stifled with tears as she said again.
“Please – please – hide me and – quickly. I would – rather die than – marry any man – except – ”
She stopped.
She realised that what she had been about to say was very revealing.
She hid her head against the Marquis’s shoulder and she could feel her whole body trembling.
He could feel her body quivering against him through the thin fabric of her nightclothes.
“Now, listen,” he said quietly, “I want you to stay here where you will be safe and to make sure of it I will lock the door and take the key with me.”
He smiled at her and then continued,
“I will get rid of them and when I come back we will plan how your stepmother cannot do anything so outrageous as to marry you to a man you do not love.”
“You – promise – you will not – tell them where – I am?” Odela asked raising her head.
“Do you still not trust me?” the Marquis asked.
He looked down at her and tears were running down her cheeks and her long eyelashes were wet.
Yet he thought that she was lovelier than anyone he had ever seen before in his whole life.
He bent his head and very gently kissed her lips.
“Wait here,” he said. “I promise you that everything will be all right.”
He took his arm from her and walked towards the door.
When he closed it behind him, Odela heard the key turn in the lock and she then put up her hands to her face feeling that this could not be happening to her.
She wondered how it was possible for her stepmother to have found her.
Then she guessed that it must have been through Fred Cotter.
He knew who she was and, because he had been arrested, the news of it would be all over the County.
And doubtless they were talking about it at Shalford House.
She could not believe that her stepmother was actually here in Coombe Court.
She moved back to the fireplace and sat down not in the armchair but on the sofa that faced the fire.
From there she could see the door.
She thought if anyone tried to come into the library she would hide from them, perhaps behind the curtains.
Because she felt so frightened she started to pray.
Her prayers were even more fervent than when she and the Marquis were tied up in the cellar of the Folly.
At least then they had been together.
If her stepmother took her away now, she would be powerless in her hands and before she could realise what was happening to her she would find herself married to the Viscount.
‘Help me – Mama – help me!’ she prayed, ‘and let me – stay with – the Marquis.’
She thought if she could do so, she would do anything, even to being a servant in his household.
At least if she was under his roof she would feel safe.
“I love – him!” she murmured aloud.
She knew that he would try to save her, but would he be strong enough to defy her stepmother who always got her own way?
It seemed to Odela that a century went by and she was beginning to think that her stepmother must have succeeded in convincing the Marquis that she should go back with them to Shalford Hall.
Then she heard footsteps and sprang to her feet.
Before the key had turned in the lock and the door was opened she had run to the end of the library.
She hid herself behind the crimson velvet curtain that she had watched Fred Cotter through.
The Marquis came into the room and he closed the door behind him and walked to the fireplace.
“Odela,” he called out softly.
There was a little pause and then Odela peeped out from behind the curtain as if to make sure that he was alone.
When she saw that he was indeed alone, she gave a cry and ran towards him.
Before she reached him the Marquis held out his arms.
He pulled her close against him.
Then he was kissing her, kissing her passionately, fiercely and demandingly.
She thought that he lifted her from a hell of uncertainty and fear into Heaven.
Now there were only the stars and a rapture beyond any words.
He kissed her until the library and the house itself seemed to swing dizzily round them.
As he drew her closer and closer still, Odela could feel his heart beating frantically, just as hers was.
Only when the wonder of it was too marvellous to be borne did she give a little murmur and hide her face against his neck.
He carried her to the sofa and sat down.
He cradled her in his arms as if she was a baby and then he kissed her again until they were both breathless.
“Why did you not tell me?” he asked at last. “How can you have let that woman menace you in such a disgraceful manner?”
“Y-you have – sent – her away?” Odela stammered.
“I have sent her away saying that I will bring you to your home tomorrow before luncheon.”
Odela felt as if she was turned to stone.
“You have – told her – that? H-how could you – do such – a thing?”
The Marquis smiled.
“We will call on her, but she cannot make you stay.”
“But she – will! She – will!” Odela cried, “and she will – force Papa to – give his consent to my – marriage to the – Viscount!”
“Unfortunately for him she will not be able to do that,” the Marquis said.
“What – do you – mean? He will – if my stepmother – insists.”
“You are being very stupid, my precious,” the Marquis smiled, “and once again you are not trusting me. I am cleverer than your stepmother!”
“But – how? What – are you – saying? I-I don’t understand.”
“I got rid of them,” the Marquis explained, “by saying that it was too late to disturb you as you slept in the nursery with my niece who is not well.”
Odela thought that this was clever of him, but she did not say so and he went on,
“They had heard that you were here because Fred Cotter had cursed you all the time he was being taken through the village by the Police.”
Odela made a little murmur of horror, but the Marquis continued,
“I assured your stepmother that you were perfectly well and safe and I would bring you to Shalford Hall tomorrow where, of course, she and the Viscount, who professes to be madly in love with you, will be waiting.”
“Then – you believed – what she – told you!” Odela said in a defeated little voice.
“She lied like a trooper!” the Marquis replied, “and I did not believe one word of anything she said.”
“Then – why are you – taking me – back?”
“Because by the time I do so and, of course, I shall be delighted to meet your father again, my precious little Princess – you and I will be married!”
Odela stared at him as if she thought that she could not have heard him aright.
“M-married?” she whispered.
“Married!” the Marquis affirmed. “I have already sent my secretary to tell the Vicar, who is also my Chaplain, that we will be married tomorrow at ten o’clock in the morning here in my own Chapel.”
He smiled.
“After that, my lovely one, we will set off on our honeymoon, stopping only on the way so that you may introduce me to your father.”
“I don’t – believe this!” Odela cried. “Can I – really be your – wife? Do you – love – me?”
The questions seemed to tumble over themselves.
The Marquis pulled her close to him again.
“Do you doubt it?” he asked, “and I promise you, Odela, it is something I shall prove once you are mine.”
He would have kissed her, but Odela hid her face against him again.
“Are you – sure,” she asked in a muffled tone, “really – sure that you –want me? I love you! I love you – with all – my heart and soul, but I do – not want you to – marry me – out of pity.”
The Marquis laughed and it was a very happy sound.
“Do you really think that I would do anything so foolish?” he asked. “If I was just sorry for you, my adorable one, I could spirit you away to any part of the world you wished to go.”
His voice deepened.
“But I want you. I want you as I have never wanted a woman before and I think, after all we have been through together, we shall be very very happy living here with our horses and, of course, our children.”
He felt Odela quiver in his arms, and then she turned her face up to his.
He kissed her very gently at first, as if he dedicated his life to her.
Then his kisses became more demanding and more passionate, but she was not afraid.
She knew that this was the love she had so often prayed for.
The love that was not only soft and gentle but strong, demanding and irresistible.
“I love you! I love – you!” she wanted to call out, but there was really no need for words.
*
Odela awoke and knew that she had been dreaming of the Marquis.
It was eight o’clock and the sun outside was shining brightly.
She could hear the clink of cups and plates, which told her that breakfast was being laid in the nursery.
For a moment she thought that she must have dreamt what had happened last night.
But she could still feel the Marquis’s lips on hers.
At the thought of him her heart throbbed in a very strange manner and a little thrill ran through her body.
She climbed slowly out of bed and, while she was washing, Nanny came in to ask,
“Now, what’s goin’ on, that’s what I wants to know! I’ve just been informed by Mr. Newton that his Lordship wants you downstairs at fifteen minutes to ten and he’s sent you these.”
As Nanny spoke, she put two parcels down on the bed.
Odela guessed what they contained and she finished drying her face before she replied,
“Last night, Nanny, Stepmama came here with the Viscount to take me home.”
Nanny gave an exclamation of horror but, before she could speak, Odela went on,
“The Marquis saved me and they went away again.”
“How did they know you were here?” Nanny asked.
Odela thought that there was no time to tell her about Fred Cotter, so she merely shook her head.
“You said his Lordship saved you,” Nanny queried. “How did he do that?”
Odela smiled.
“You are not – to be angry with me, Nanny. But I have met him several times since I have been here and now – we are going to be married!”
Nanny stared at her for a moment.
Then she gave a cry of delight.
“Married!” she exclaimed. “Well, that’s just what I’ve been wishin’ for you and this house has the best nurseries I’ve ever been in!”
Odela laughed.
At the same time she felt near to tears because it was all so wonderful and beautiful.
Then, as Nanny realised just what was happening, she helped her into a pretty white gown that had been in the saddlebags.
The parcels from the Marquis contained a lace veil that reached from her head to her feet and it also made a small train behind her.
Then there was a diamond tiara set as sprays of flowers.
“You couldn’t look lovelier if you was goin’ to Buckingham Palace!” Nanny remarked when she was dressed.
“It’s far more important that I should be – with the Marquis than wi
th the Queen,” Odela replied. “Oh, Nanny, do you think I look pretty enough – for him?”
She was thinking of Lady Beaton and the other beautiful women that the housemaids had talked about.
“You’re as lovely as your mother was,” Nanny professed. “She was the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen and I can’t say fairer than that.”
“That is all I want to hear,” Odela smiled.
She kissed Nanny before she went downstairs.
“God bless you, my baby,” Nanny said with tears in her eyes, “and may you always be as happy as you look at this moment.”
“I will be,” Odela replied confidently.
She felt as if she had wings on her heels as she went down the stairs from the nurseries.
When she reached the first floor, she walked along the passage until she came to the main staircase.
She knew instinctively that the Marquis would be waiting for her in the hall.
He watched her coming down the stairs towards him and he was so sure that she was everything he had ever wanted, but thought he would never find.
He had known when he first kissed her that she had never been kissed before.
He was the first man in her life and would be the last.
In all his experience with women he had never loved any of them in the same way that he loved Odela.
It was not only her beauty that entranced him or the spiritual purity that came from her.
It was because, just as his instinct told him that she was his, he was aware that hers reacted in the same way.
They were already one person even before they were united by the Sacrament of Marriage.
*
The Chapel at Coombe Court, which had been built at the same time as the house, was consecrated when it had been opened
As the marriage would be performed by the private Chaplain to the Marquis of Trancombe there was no need for any legal formality.
The Marquis gave Odela his arm and they walked down the long passage that led to the Chapel.
As they went, he thought that this was exactly the sort of marriage he wanted.
He had been sure, however, that it was something he would never have.
He knew that for both of them the Marriage Service would be a Ceremony that they would always remember.
There would be no so-called ‘friends’ to criticize, to be envious or to spoil what to Odela would be a Sacred Ceremony.
He realised that she was feeling a little nervous.
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