“What is it?” the Duke asked.
Then because he had never known Jackson to lose his pontifical calm, he hurried across the room and following the elderly butler, shut the door behind him.
Alone, Janeta stared after them and then, with a little murmur of fear, covered her face with her hands.
Outside in the passage the Duke said,
“What is it, Jackson? What is all this commotion?”
“I wants Your Grace to come with me,” Jackson answered. “I’ve never known anything like it! Never in all my born days!”
He hurried ahead of the Duke, who followed him to the small pantry on the other side of the corridor which was used for meals when they were carried upstairs.
As they entered it, the Duke saw one of the footmen lying on the floor and the other very pale in the face bending over him.
He stood up as the Duke appeared and then as the Duke went down on one knee to examine the prostrate young man, Jackson said,
“I left James in here. Your Grace, for just two minutes while I went with Arthur to superintend what was left of the dishes served at dinner, returning them by the lift down to the kitchens.”
The Duke knew that this was the usual procedure and was hardly listening.
Undoing the footman’s waistcoat, he inserted his hand onto his chest. His heart had stopped beating and there was no doubt that the man was dead.
The Duke confirmed what he already knew by trying to feel for his pulse and then he asked in a voice that did not sound like his own,
“What do you think happened?”
“I have no idea, Your Grace. No idea at all!” Jackson replied. “One moment he was standing here stacking the plates and, when Arthur and I comes back a few seconds later, he was down on the floor as you sees him – dead!”
It was then that the Duke saw that against the wainscot lay a wine glass.
He recognised it as the one that had been by his side at dinner when Jackson had filled it with port and he knew, as he looked at it, that it could have easily rolled there from the footman’s hand as he fell.
Rising to his feet, he glanced round the pantry and saw the decanter that Jackson had carried into the sitting room was standing at the side of the sink.
He knew that it would be a mistake to draw attention to it, so instead he said,
“I suggest, Jackson, you go to the stables and ask a groom to ride into the village to request Dr. Graham to come here as soon as possible.”
He turned to the footman and said,
“And you, Arthur, ask Mrs. Robertson for a sheet with which we can cover this poor boy and also a pillow for his head. Otherwise he is not to be moved. Do you understand?”
“I understands, Your Grace.”
Jackson and the footman hurried away and the Duke, taking the stopper out of the decanter, poured the contents down the sink.
As he did so, he knew that if Janeta had not saved him, it would have been he who was lying on the floor instead of the footman.
He waited in a state of great agitation until Mrs. Robertson arrived. When he had instructed her to wait until the doctor came and not to move the dead man, he then went slowly back to the sitting room, wondering, as he went, how he would tell Janeta what had occurred.
He knew it would greatly upset her and he thought it was diabolical that this should have happened the first night that they had returned home, when he wanted her to feel happy.
He opened the door of the sitting room and saw that Janeta was standing, as he had left her, beside the window.
Now it was growing dark, but it was not so dark that she could not see his face.
Before he could speak, before he could begin to put into words what he had to tell her, she gave a cry and ran across the room to throw herself against him.
“She – meant to – kill you! I know she meant to – kill you! Suppose you had – died! Oh, God, how – could – this have happened?”
Her voice was almost incoherent because she had burst into tears as she spoke.
Then, as his arms went round her, she looked up at him and in the dying light of the sun he thought that with her huge eyes swimming with tears, her lips parted, her whole body trembling against him, he had never seen anyone so lovely.
Without thinking and without wondering how he could comfort her, his lips came down on hers and held her captive.
For a moment he felt her whole body stiffen in astonishment and then she seemed to melt against him as if it were all the protection and comfort she needed.
Because her lips were exactly as he had expected them to be, very soft, young and innocent, he held her closer and, as he kissed her, he found awakening in himself sensations that he had never felt before.
It was not the violent fiery passion he had known with so many other women and which ended as quickly as it was ignited.
This was different.
So different that for a moment he could hardly believe that what Janeta was making him feel was love.
Then he knew that if he was truthful, he had loved her for a long time.
He had told himself that she was so young that, although he might not attract or amuse him as more sophisticated women had done in the past, he would protect and treat her with every propriety as his wife.
Now he knew he wanted a great deal more.
He wanted her love.
He wanted to know that because she could arouse an indescribable rapture in him, he could arouse the same sensations in her.
It was not entirely physical. Yet, because she was so lovely, so soft and so unspoilt, he wanted her as a woman.
At the same time he knew what she was awakening in him and his whole body throbbed and thrilled in a way he had never known before in an ecstasy that was truly spiritual.
It made him know that what he had found in Janeta was what had always been missing in the other women to whom he had made love.
The emotions they had felt for him and which he had imagined he felt for them had been very earthly, the natural desire of a body for a body, and nothing else.
Now he had an almost intolerable desire not only for Janeta’s body, which already seemed a part of his own, but for her heart and for her soul.
Because she made him feel breathless, he raised his head for a moment.
He felt his whole being vibrate towards her and he knew by the way she instinctively moved a little closer to him and by the brilliance of her eyes that she felt the same.
“I love you,” he said and his voice was very deep and unsteady.
Then he was kissing her again, kissing her with long, demanding, passionate kisses, which Janeta felt drew her heart from her body and made it his.
She had never guessed, never had any idea that anything could be so wonderful as the Duke’s kisses.
She knew now that instinctively it was what she must have wanted from him, but had never envisaged it possible that he might love her.
Yet because they had been so happy together in Paris and, because she had felt so safe and protected even when they had reached England, she had loved him without knowing it.
‘How can I have been so stupid as not to know that what I felt was love?’ she asked herself. ‘Yet could I have imagined that love would be like this?’
She felt his lips become more insistent, more demanding and something very strange and exciting leapt within her.
She wanted to give him what he wanted, although she was not certain what it was. She knew only that she was in a strange Heaven, where everything was so thrilling, so poignant, it was unreal.
‘If I died at this moment, I should have known perfection,’ she thought.
Then she knew that she did not want to die. She wanted to live, she wanted to be with the Duke.
She wanted him to kiss her and go on kissing her and for them to be closer, even closer than they were at the moment.
Only when he kissed her until she felt that she had reached the zenith of happiness that was almost unbearab
le did she give a little murmur and hide her face against his neck.
“My darling, my sweet,” the Duke said. “How could you make me feel like this? How can I love you as I never knew I was capable of loving anyone?”
“I love – you,” Janeta whispered. “I have loved you for a – long time – but I did not know it was – love.”
“I adore you,” the Duke said. “My darling, once again you have saved me from a trap set by your stepmother.”
Janeta raised her face to look up at him. Her eyes were very wide and frightened as he said,
“The port was poisoned!”
“How do you know for certain?”
“It has killed one of the footmen who drank from the glass that Jackson poured out for me and which you prevented me from drinking.”
“Oh, no!” Janeta exclaimed in horror.
“There is nothing I can do,” the Duke said. “But to save a scandal I only hope that the doctor will think it was a heart attack.”
Janeta closed her eyes for a moment and then she said,
“It might – have been – you and then I would have – died too. How can we – live knowing that Stepmama will – try again?”
The Duke pulled her so close against him that she found it difficult to breathe and then she said,
“I am frightened! Oh, darling – wonderful Hugo, I am – frightened that I shall – lose you!”
Her voice broke as she hid her face against his shoulder.
The Duke lifted her up in his arms and carried her across the sitting room into the bedroom. He set her down on her feet beside the bed and took off first her diamond necklace, throwing it casually on the bedside table, then undid her negligée and, while she was still crying, lifted her onto the bed.
She gave a little murmur because she did not wish to leave him, but, as she was still crying, it was impossible for her to speak.
The Duke went to the door and locked it and a few seconds later he slipped into bed and gently pulled Janeta into his arms.
She gave a little gasp of surprise, but she did not say anything and he knew that she had now stopped crying.
The Duke held her very close and then he said,
“Now, listen, my darling, you have to be very clever and sensible about this. We have managed to save ourselves, or rather you have saved me, up to now. We cannot allow your stepmother to defeat us or to make our lives the Hell she intends.”
“She meant to – kill you,” Janeta said in a whisper. “Then I would be – back in her power and she would punish me.”
“Whether I live or the,” the Duke said, “I will make certain that you are not dependent on your father or your stepmother. But that is immaterial, because I intend to live and I intend my adorable little wife to be very happy with me.”
His arms tightened as he went on,
“So let’s think for a moment not of the abominable scheming of your stepmother, but that we have found each other and that I love you.”
“Do you – really love me?” Janeta asked.
“I love you as I have never been in love in my whole life before.”
To make sure that she was convinced, he drew her a little closer as he went on,
“I am not pretending there have not been a great number of women in my life. But what I felt for them was the quite natural passion any normal man feels for a beautiful woman who makes it obvious that she is attracted by him.”
He felt Janeta give a little shiver as if she was shocked and he continued,
“But the feelings they evoked in me were very different from the feelings I have for you.”
“How can they be – different?” Janeta said.
“It is hard to put into words,” the Duke answered. “At first I just wanted to protect you and save you from yourself. Then you crept into my heart and I know it would be impossible for me to contemplate my life without you beside me and without your helping me, stimulating my mind and inspiring me.”
His lips touched her forehead before he went on,
“This is something I have never said to another woman, because they did not mean anything more to me than a pleasure and an amusement that was very expendable.”
His cheek was against hers as he said, his voice very deep,
“I have no wish to live without you. I want you with me by day and by night and, even if you are not there, you will always be in my thoughts.”
Janeta put her hand against his cheek before she said,
“I cannot – believe that you are saying – this to me. I love you until you – fill my whole world, the sea – and the sky! There is only – you, and you are so – wonderful in every way that I thought when we returned to England that I was no longer – frightened of Stepmama.”
“You will not be frightened of her,” the Duke said. “She is an evil that we have to fight. A dragon which I, as your Knight, fortified by your love, will have to destroy.”
He spoke as if he challenged the Devil himself and for a moment Janeta felt a strange elation sweep through her as if she listened to a trumpet call of courage.
Then she said,
“How can we – always be on our – guard? What else can she do to – destroy you and how can we – anticipate it?”
The Duke drew in his breath before he said,
“Because I love you so much, my darling, I know the answer and it is a very strange one for me to give. The fact is I am convinced that the God who has watched over us so far will not fail us in the future. We must have faith. We must trust in a Power greater than ourselves and I think we will find a way out of this mess.”
Janeta gave a little cry,
“Only you could say anything so wonderful! Only you could be so different from what anyone would expect. Oh, Hugo, I love you – I love you, I want to – be with you – I want to be – your wife. I want to give you sons and daughters to live in this marvellous Castle. I am only – frightened I am asking – too much.”
“What you are asking is that I should live,” the Duke said, “and please God, that is what I shall be able to do.”
He kissed Janeta as he spoke and for a moment his lips were not passionate and compelling. It was a kiss of dedication. The kiss of a man who vows himself to crusade against evil.
Then, as he felt her move nearer to him, as he felt the softness of her body against his, he felt himself pulsating once again with that strange awareness of a love that was different.
“I love you, my precious darling,” he breathed. “I could not bear to do anything to frighten you more than you are frightened already.”
“You could never frighten me,” Janeta said. “I am only frightened for you! I love you with every breath I draw and every time you kiss me it is like being taken up to Heaven and I know that our love is – Divine.”
She was unable to finish what she was saying because the Duke’s lips were on hers and his hand was touching her, his lips holding her captive and his heart beating against hers.
He carried her up into the sky and, as she touched the stars and felt the light from them glitter within her and knew that they glittered too within the Duke, they became one.
Together they had found the Love of God which is Divine and all-powerful, against which no evil can prevail.
Chapter seven
The Duke woke with a feeling of extreme happiness.
He lay for some moments with his eyes closed and then was aware when he opened them that it was very early in the morning and the sun was only just beginning to peep through the sides of the curtains.
He turned on his side to look at Janeta and thought that, with her strangely coloured hair spread over the pillow and her eyelashes dark against her cheeks, she looked very lovely, young and vulnerable.
‘I will look after and protect her for the rest of my life,’ he mused.
Then like a dark cloud spreading across the sun, he remembered Olive.
Very quietly he slipped out of bed and left the room without waking his wife.
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He knew that he wanted to be alone to think and to plan, if it was possible, what he could do for their safety.
He dressed swiftly without the help of his valet and went downstairs, where the first housemaids were coming on duty, and walked to the stables.
The sleepy groom who emerged yawning from one of the stalls became more alert when he saw his Master and hurriedly saddled one of his spirited horses.
Then the Duke was off, riding across the Park, feeling the cool wind on his face and all the time thinking frantically of what he could do to protect himself and Janeta.
He had ridden for nearly an hour before he turned around to come home and, riding through a wood on the outskirts of the Park, he found a small gypsy encampment.
He recognised them as gypsies who came to The Castle every year and who, being Romanies, had his permission to camp where they wished.
For a moment as he appeared they stiffened and turned the rather hostile look they had for strangers towards him.
Then, when they saw who he was, their faces broke into smiles.
The Duke moved nearer to them and saw with interest that in the centre of the circle made by their caravans was the most magnificent stallion he had ever seen.
Pure white, without a touch of colour on it, the horse stood proudly with an arched neck, which made the Duke think that he had Arab blood in him.
As he reached the gypsies, their Chief came towards him to say,
“Mornin’ Your Grace. We’re grateful once again for Your Grace’s ’ospitality.”
“It’s nice to see you, Buckland. That’s a very fine horse you have there.”
“Very fine to look at, Your Grace,” the Chief replied, “but I’m contemplatin’ ’ow I can destroy it.”
“Destroy it!” the Duke exclaimed. “What do you mean by that?”
“I means, Your Grace, this ’orse be the Devil’s spawn and not fit to live.”
The Duke was so interested that he dismounted from his own horse, gave it to a gypsy boy to hold and walked over to the stallion.
It was true that he had never seen a finer or more magnificent animal and, when he patted its neck, the horse did not seem to mind but stood proudly, as if completely unaffected by what was happening around him.
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