103. She Wanted Love

by Barbara Cartland

  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?”

  “Duke?” the Marquis questioned.

  Eleta laughed.

  “I have only just remembered you don’t know my name!”

  “I cannot really believe that you are related to that ghastly man who has just left – ”

  “He only married my Mama after my father died.”

  “And who was your father?”

  “He was the Earl of Stanrenton,” Eleta replied.

  The Marquis stared at her and then he laughed.

  “I don’t believe it! My relations have been telling me for a long time I should marry ‘someone suitable’. Of course what they really meant was the daughter of a Peer, and that, without any prompting from them, is exactly what I have done. I remember your father’s name because my father knew him well.”

  “I was very young when my father died, so I have never known much about his friends. My mother was a wonderful person, but very lonely after my father’s death. That is why she married that horrible Cyril Warner.”

  “I thought he was extremely unpleasant, especially the way he talked about you.”

  “He wanted the Duke of Hazelware, who is well over fifty, to marry me and then be Chairman of one of his businesses. He is a ship-builder.”

  “Well, as far as I am concerned,” the Marquis said, “he can take his ships to ‘Nowhere Land’ and stay there. All I want, my darling, is that you and I should be married at once and the one person who will be most delighted is of course Pepe. She will have the mother she has never had.”

  “I love Pepe,” Eleta sighed.

  She moved closer to him before she whispered,

  “Of course I know that you want a son and I hope I can give you a lot of sons as handsome and as marvellous as you.”

  The Marquis could not find words to answer.

  He just kissed her.

  He kissed her until Eleta thought that they were no longer two people but one.

  *

  When Pepe returned a little later, they were sitting on the sofa holding hands.

  She burst into the room saying,

  “He has gone! He has gone! He tried to talk to Harris, but he saw me listening and went outside. Then, when he turned back, I glared at him from the top of the steps. So he got into his carriage and drove away!”

  “I hope he went down the drive without stopping.”

  “I watched until he drove out through the gates and now he has gone, Miss Lawson can stay with us!”

  “She is staying with us for ever,” the Marquis said.

  Pepe gave a leap of joy.

  “For ever and ever. In fact the only way I can keep her is by marrying her immediately before Cyril Warner finds out that I was telling a lie!”

  “Please can I come to the wedding?” Pepe asked.

  “But, of course, and you will be the most important person there. And, as we are to be married this evening, I think you ought to rest this afternoon, otherwise you will fall asleep in the Chapel.”

  “I will not do that because I will be too excited,” Pepe enthused. “Oh, it’s wonderful, wonderful – ”

  Then she stopped.

  “If you are my Daddy and you marry Miss Lawson, then she will be my Mummy. And I have always wanted a Mummy.”

  “Of course I will be your Mummy, even though I will be a Step-Mummy,” Eleta said. “But we will all be very happy, I promise you.”

  “Very very happy,” Pepe sighed, “and even though you love Daddy, you will still love me too.”

  “You have a very special part of my heart and your father has another special part, so it is quite fair.”

  “I will do the same with my heart, half for you and half for Daddy!”

  “If you add it up,” the Marquis said, “it only makes one complete heart and that is what will make this house a very special home and a very special happy place.”

  Pepe put her arms round his neck and kissed him.

  “Thank you, thank you, Daddy, for saving Eleta, as I now can call her, and keeping her here with us for ever.”

  “For ever and ever,” the Marquis sighed.

  As the Marquis kissed Eleta again, the door opened and Harris spoke up,

  “There’s someone to see Miss Lawson, who says she’s come all the way from London.”

  To the Marquis’s surprise, Eleta exclaimed,

  “From London? I know who she is. Bring her in, I want her Ladyship to meet her.”

  “Very good, miss.”

  As he left the room, the Marquis looked at Eleta questioningly.

  “Who is this?”

  “She is someone very important who I want here, especially after what you have just said.”

  The Marquis did not understand.

  But before he could say anything, Bates announced,

  “Miss Betty Ludlow.”

  As she came into the room, Eleta jumped up and ran towards her and threw her arms round her.

  “Betty, dearest,” she cried. “I am so glad to see you. In fact I was just going to get in touch with you.”

  “I came to warn you,” Betty said, “that the Master’s found out where you are, but, as I passed by his carriage comin’ through the village, I knew I were too late.”

  “You are not too late for me, Betty, I want you to meet the Marquis.”

  She turned towards him to say,

  “Betty was my mother’s lady’s-maid and, since her death, she has looked after me. And she is the kindest and dearest person I know.”

  She smiled before she added,

  “It was her idea that I should go to the Agency and find somewhere to hide. That is how I came here in the first place.”

  “I am very delighted to meet you,” the Marquis said holding out his hand to Betty, “and I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart, because she has altered our whole lives and made us happier than I could possibly tell you in words.”

  “So your stepfather has gone away?” Betty asked. “I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw him leavin’ alone. I thought you would have had to be
with him.”

  “I would have been,” Eleta said, “but I am going to be married this evening to his Lordship.”

  Betty clasped her hands together.

  “So you have found someone to love! It’s what I prayed and prayed you would find and it makes me happier than I can possibly say.”

  “And I am indeed the luckiest man in the world,” the Marquis said. “So I hope Betty, if my wife wants you, you will stay here with her.”

  “Of course I will,” Betty answered.

  “I have been thinking, Eleta said, “that if we do have a short honeymoon, Betty will look after Pepe for us. She knows marvellous stories, even better than the ones I have told Pepe.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Betty replied, “but I knows some stories this young lady would enjoy.”

  “I love stories,” Pepe exclaimed.

  She had obviously taken to Betty, Eleta thought, because she was looking up at her with wide eyes.

  “Well, I am thankful you are here, Betty, and of course Pepe will show you where we are sleeping and I am certain you can have a room near us.”

  She glanced at the Marquis as she spoke in case he objected, but he merely remarked,

  “If Betty is kind enough to help you look after Pepe that will give me a little more time to be with you.”

  “I knew you would understand.”

  *

  That night after Eleta and the Marquis had been married in the Chapel with Betty and Pepe as witnesses, the whole household drank their health in champagne.

  Monsieur Téyson promised them a proper wedding cake the next day, but, at a moment’s notice, he produced one made of ice-cream with a candle on top of it and with a mass of petits fours round it to please Pepe.

  It was certainly, Eleta thought, happier than any wedding celebration she had ever attended.

  *

  When Pepe had been put to bed, she lay in the big canopied bed waiting for the Marquis.

  Her prayers had been answered.

  She could hardly believe it possible that she could be so deliriously happy.

  The Marquis came in and, taking off the dark robe he was wearing, climbed into the bed.

  He took her in his arms.

  “Is this really happening to us?” he asked. “I just cannot help thinking that I will wake up and find it is all a dream or part of my imagination.”

  “I only know I love you,” Eleta answered, “and everything that has happened to us seems as if one of the stars has fallen down from the sky.”