The sun was still very hot, but she knew that when dusk fell the cold from the snows would be sharp and invigorating and she could almost feel it now sweeping away her fatigue and everything except for a strange excitement that seemed to be rising within her.
‘It is because I am seeing the Himalayas,’ she told herself.
But she knew, if she was truthful, that it was because she was with Lord Branscombe and she had the feeling that they were going somewhere where they might be alone and where he had no official business.
Still they went on climbing and now the silver of the mountains had changed to gold and pink and she knew that soon the sun would be sinking.
Then suddenly ahead she saw a bungalow, white and newly painted, gleaming against the mountainside almost as vividly as the snows high above it.
The flowers all round it were even more beautiful than those they had passed on their ride upwards and, as they drew nearer, Latonia saw two Himalayan pheasants, the most spectacular birds in the world, scuttle away into the bushes.
They reached the bungalow and three servants came hurrying out to greet them.
There were two men and a middle-aged woman wearing a crimson sari and they were bowing, smiling, and salaaming towards Lord Branscombe.
Then servants appeared and took their horses and they walked up some steps into one of the most attractive rooms that Latonia had ever seen.
The walls were white, with native woven rugs in brilliant colours on the floor.
There were flowers on the tables and there were chairs which were large and low and which obviously, she thought, had been designed for comfort.
Lord Branscombe was talking to the servants in their own language and then, as Latonia stood looking round her, he said,
“It is getting late and I expect you would like a bath. As soon as you are ready, we will have dinner, for I know that you have eaten little all day.”
He was thinking of her and she felt a warm glow sweep over her because he was speaking as if he really cared about how she was feeling.
“That would be lovely!” she replied. “But please tell me – who does this lovely house belong to?”
“It belongs to me!” Lord Branscombe answered. “I have owned it for some years and I always come here whenever I have a holiday”
“It is very beautiful!” Latonia sighed, but now she was looking through the window at the mountains, which were no longer gold and pink but had turned to lilac and lavender in the dusk.
“I will tell you all about it later,” Lord Branscombe said with a smile.
Because she knew it was what he wanted her to do, she followed him as he led her from the sitting room into a bedroom, which seemed surprisingly large for such a small bungalow.
There was a bed that looked like a galleon at sea, with a mosquito-net, which was quite unnecessary at this time of the year, draped like sails over the top of it and there were curtains at the windows which were the blue of the sky when she had first seen the mountains silhouetted against it. Surprisingly, there was a fireplace and a fire had just been lit.
The woman in the red sari was waiting to attend to her and Latonia saw that some of her luggage had already been brought into the room.
“Your bath is ready, Lady Sahib,” the woman said.
When Latonia answered her in Urdu, she smiled delightedly and chattered away quickly and Latonia found it difficult to follow all she said, but managed to understand the gist of it.
The delicious bath, which was scented with a fragrance that Latonia knew could only have come from the flowers that grew in such profusion round the bungalow, swept away the last of her fatigue.
Now the excitement she had been feeling ever since she awoke seemed to grow and intensify until it vibrated within her like music.
By the time she had finished her bath, she found that the rest of her luggage had been brought to her room and the woman was unpacking it, filling a cupboard in the wall, which stood open, and Latonia could see some of the pretty gowns that Toni had given her.
As Latonia began to dress, she was drawn irresistibly to the window, which looked out on the mountains.
Now they were in darkness except that the stars were coming out in the sky and she thought that later there would be a moon.
She turned back to find that the woman had taken from the cupboard a very elaborate gown, which Latonia, when she had found it amongst her things, had not expected she would ever be able to wear.
It was really a ball gown, and with Lord Branscombe punishing her on board by keeping her in her cabin and telling her that there would be no social engagements for her in India, she had thought it would be a gown that would remain unused on its hanger.
Now it struck her that it was very suitable for a bride and, although she dared not formulate it to herself, the obvious question seemed to be whether her husband would think of her as one.
She did not protest when the Indian woman helped her into it.
She had the feeling that it had been chosen not because it was white, which in India is worn only by widows, but because the tulle which decorated the hem and the décolletage sparkled with little drops of diamanté like tiny stars.
Latonia felt that they would echo the stars that were coming out in the sky and there was a shining belt to encircle her small waist.
When she looked at herself in the mirror after she was dressed, she thought that in reality she should be wearing a tiara on her head and a necklace of diamonds at her throat.
As if the woman knew what she was thinking, she said in Urdu, “one moment, Lady Sahib!” and went from the room,
Sitting in front of the mirror, Latonia wondered where she had gone, but a few moments later she returned carrying in her hand some small buds of scented petals, which Indian women wear at the backs of their heads.
Latonia had always admired them and thought that they made all the women look attractive and very feminine.
Arranged skilfully in her own hair, they gave her a finish and what she felt was an attraction that she had never had before.
“Thank you, thank you!” she enthused.
The Indian woman smiled, saying,
“Lady Sahib very beautiful and Lord Sahib very handsome. Both blessed by God Krishna.”
“I hope so,” Latonia murmured beneath her breath.
Then, feeling very shy, she went from the bedroom into the sitting room.
As she expected, Lord Branscombe was waiting for her.
He was wearing the evening dress of the Bengal Lancers and in some way he reminded her of the beautiful Himalayan pheasants she had seen hurrying away as they approached.
She walked towards him, meaning to say something light and amusing to relieve what she felt might be an awkward moment.
Then her eyes met his and it was impossible to speak, and, as if he felt the same, neither of them moved but just stood gazing at each other.
A voice from the door made them start.
“Dinner is served, Lord Sahib!” a manservant announced and they both looked as if it was an effort to remember what they must do.
Lord Branscombe offered Latonia his arm.
They walked into a small attractive dining room that was decorated with Rajput paintings, which Latonia felt were not only beautiful but very valuable.
But for the moment she could not look at or think of anything except Lord Branscombe and, as they seated themselves at the table, she saw that it was decorated with white flowers and she knew that she had been right in wearing the gown that complemented them.
Later, it was difficult to remember what they had eaten, except that it had been delicious.
After the food on the train, which was always exactly the same, she thought that the trout must have come from a mountain stream and the rest of the dishes were all food that could be obtained locally and was fresh.
There was mango juice to drink first, which Latonia thought was more delicious even than the wine that followed it, and which, surpr
isingly, was champagne.
Then, as Lord Branscombe raised his glass, she knew that it was the inevitable drink for occasions such as they were celebrating and she felt herself blush as he said,
“I want to treat this as our wedding day and forget last night.”
He paused before he added,
“Shall we drink to happiness? I think it is something we both want.”
Latonia picked up her glass.
Because her heart was thumping so violently she felt that it would be impossible for her to reply, but somehow in a voice a little above a whisper she managed to say,
“I-I hope I may make you – happy.”
“That is really what I should say to you,” he answered, “but, as we feel the same, shall we drink to it together?”
“Y-yes – of course,” Latonia answered.
He touched her glass with his, then, as they both sipped their champagne, Latonia felt her breath coming quickly and once again it was impossible to meet Lord Branscombe’s eyes.
When dinner was finished, she rose to go back into the sitting room and he followed her.
As if somehow someone had anticipated it was what she wished, the curtains were only partly drawn over the window, which seemed to fill the whole of one wall and now she looked out at the beauty before her, which for the moment swept everything else from her mind, even Lord Branscombe himself.
The moon had risen and everything was enveloped with a light that seemed to come from the Gods themselves. The stars glittered in the darkness of the sky and the peaks of the mountains glowed with brightness that made them seem almost as if they were alive and were in fact part of the Divine.
“It is so – lovely!” Latonia murmured.
“And so are you!” Lord Branscombe replied softly.
She was so surprised by his answer that she turned her face to look up at him.
As she did so, she felt his arm go round her as he added,
“This is where I thought you would want to spend your honeymoon.”
“M-my – honeymoon?” Latonia faltered, feeling it was a word that she had never expected to hear him say.
“The honeymoon that would never have happened,” he said, “if you had not warned me as you did last night. It was very brave and very clever of you and all today I have been thinking how lucky it was that you are with me.”
“Do – do you – really mean that?” Latonia questioned.
She was feeling strange sensations pulsating through her because Lord Branscombe’s arm was round her and he was close to her.
Then she said,
“Are you – safe – really safe now that we are here? You don’t – think they will – follow you?”
Her voice for a moment held a frantic note.
Then she felt Lord Branscombe’s arm tighten before he said,
“When you speak to me like that you make me feel as if you really care what happens to me.”
“But of course I do!” Latonia said quickly, without thinking. “I have never been through such – agony as today when I thought on the way to the station they would – shoot you.”
“I thought perhaps you were feeling like that,” he said. “Was that why you nearly fainted when we reached the train?”
“Of course it was,” Latonia replied, “but now you are safe! Please – you must be careful – very – very careful in the future – because – I – ”
She was about to say, ‘I could not bear to lose you’, then thought that it might be too revealing.
Her voice died away and after a moment Lord Branscombe said very softly,
“Will you finish that sentence?”
She shook her head.
Then he said,
“I thought you hated me because I was punishing you, thinking that you were Toni. You certainly appeared to dislike me until last night when I kissed you and then I had an entirely different impression.”
He felt Latonia tremble in his aims and saw the blush rise in her cheeks.
She made as if to hide it from him and, after a moment, he said very gently,
“When I kissed you, Latonia, I thought that no woman’s lips could be so soft, so sweet, unless she felt what I felt.”
Latonia stiffened, then she said in a voice he could barely hear,
“What – did you – feel?”
“What I have been feeling for a long time,” Lord Branscombe answered, “and, although I fought against it and was horrified at the idea of it, I found it inescapable. Then last night I admitted it was – love.”
His voice deepened on the word and Latonia asked,
“Are you – saying that you – love me – a little?”
“I love you as I have never loved anyone before,” Lord Branscombe replied. “Do you not understand the agonies you have made me suffer?”
She looked up at him enquiringly and he said with a somewhat wry smile on his lips,
“I thought that you were my niece. I was horrified at the feelings I had for you – and shocked.”
Latonia drew a deep breath.
“You – loved – me?”
“I fell in love with you when I was teaching you Urdu and found how quick-brained and intelligent you were. Your mind excited and inspired me every time you talked to me.”
“I thought you – despised me.”
“I tried to feel for you what I felt for Toni when I heard of the way she had behaved with young Luddington and other men – but I failed!”
“I am – glad,” Latonia said. “I wanted so – much that you should – admire me and – like me.”
“How could I know that?” Lord Branscombe asked. “All I could think was that because of my feelings, I must send you out of my life and yet every instinct in my body wanted you to stay. Oh, my darling, how could you have done this to me?”
The way he spoke and the endearment made Latonia turn her face to hide it against his shoulder.
His arms still held her very close and she felt his lips on her hair before he said,
“Long before last night I knew I loved you and, when you came to me so bravely to save my life and behaved with courage and intelligence such as only one woman in a million would have shown, I knew I had found the perfect wife I have always been seeking.”
“Y-you really – mean that?”
“Let me convince you.”
As Lord Branscombe spoke, he put his fingers under her chin and turned her face up to his.
For a moment he looked down at her as if he must impress her beauty on his mind for all time, then his lips were on hers.
As he kissed her Latonia knew that this was what she had been wanting and longing for.
Now his kiss was even more wonderful than it had been the night before and she felt that the flowers and the mountains, the moonlight and the stars, even the Gods themselves came down from their hiding places and made both her and Lord Branscombe part of themselves.
He kissed her until she was no longer herself but his.
Then there was nothing else, not even the moon and the stars, but only his arms and his lips –
*
A long time later Latonia whispered against Lord Branscombe’s shoulder,
“I – love – you!”
He held her a little closer and in the firelight, which cast a golden glow over the room, Latonia could see his eyes looking at her with an expression of so much love that she wanted to cry out at the wonder of it.
He swept her hair back from her forehead with his free hand before he said,
“How can you be so perfect? I keep trying to find a flaw in your perfection, but it is impossible and now I know that I am the most fortunate man in the whole world because you belong to me”
“It is – true – it is – really true?” Latonia asked. “I am your – wife – but – I shall always be afraid of – losing you.”
“Because I would not have you worried,” Lord Branscombe replied, “I will not undertake any more investigations like the one I have
just done.”
“You – promise me that?”
“It is an easy thing to promise,” he answered, “because I happen to know that the Viceroy has a very different task for me in the future.”
“What is that?” Latonia asked apprehensively.
“I am to be made a Governor,” Lord Branscombe explained, “and I know that no Governor will have a wife who is more suitable and more helpful to him than you will be to me, my darling.”
“Is that true – really true?”
“When our honeymoon is over, we will go down to Calcutta and you will know then that what I am telling you is the truth.”
“I am glad – very glad. I love you so desperately! I don’t think I could bear to go through the agonies again that I went through today.”
“Now you know what I have been feeling for weeks.”
He pulled her a little closer to him before he said in a voice that she found hard to recognise,
“If I had been obliged to lose you, then I think I would have welcomed the ‘apple of death’ rather than go on living alone.”
“You must not say – such things!” Latonia cried. “You are so wonderful – so magnificent in every way, that whether I was in your life or not, there would always be work for you to do and I am quite certain that India could not do without you.”
“I am not concerned with India at the moment,” he answered, “but with you and I know, my precious, that neither of us can do without the other. How, here in the shadow of the Himalayas, could we not be aware that this is not the first time we have met and our love is ageless?”
“That is what – I feel too. Papa used to talk to me about reincarnation and I always prayed that I would meet someone whom I had loved before and who had loved me.”
She gave a little sigh of exasperation as she said,
“I am so angry with myself that I did not feel that you were that person from the moment I saw you.”
“I ought to have felt the same,” Lord Branscombe admitted, “but it was not long, my sweet, before I felt the magnetism about you holding me compellingly captive, however hard I fought against it.”
“I am so – glad you felt like – that.”
Punished with Love Page 14
