Alita gave a little sigh of excitement.
“I have always wanted to go in a private train. Papa told me about them many years ago, and I was so jealous when I heard that you had sent one for Nellie Farren and Miss Wadman.”
“Is that the only thing that made you jealous?” Clint asked.
She moved a little closer to him, resisting an impulse to put her cheek against his shoulder.
“Miss Wadman is a – fellow-countrywoman,” she said hesitatingly, “and so very – attractive.”
“So is Nellie Farren,” Clint said with a smile. “But I had fallen in love with a little thoroughbred who wanted grooming and I found it hard to think of anything else!”
“I think I am – dreaming,” Alita said, “and at any moment I am going to wake up to find that only the – horses care if I am alive or dead.”
“As I have already said,” Clint replied quietly, “that is all in the past. There are going to be a great many other interests for you in the future. More horses, of course, and most important, as far as I am concerned. Me!”
Now Alita could not resist pressing her cheek against him with a little gesture that he found very moving.
“There is – nothing else but – you,” she whispered.
*
Alita came slowly back to consciousness to find that she was riding, riding very smoothly and effortlessly. She thought that she must be mounted on a strange horse that had a different stride from any she had known before.
Then she became aware that she was not riding but lying on a soft bed, and beneath her she heard the rumble of wheels.
Even as she was aware of where she was, two strong arms drew her close and a voice said,
“Are you awake, my precious?”
“Oh, darling Clint.”
She felt her love for him surge over her in a manner that made her reach blindly towards him, knowing that she must reassure herself that he was really there.
“The train has just started,” he said. “It is still very early, but we want to arrive at Holyhead at about noon.”
Alita was listening, but at the same time her heart was singing to the voices of angels, because she was married.
She was Clint’s wife and they were together in a private train that was carrying them away from everything that was depressing, unpleasant and disturbing.
She still could not believe that her whole life had changed since yesterday morning, when she had found Clint waiting for her in the drawing room of The Castle.
They had driven nearly three miles to the nearest Station and there, waiting in the siding, was a small private train that had an air of exclusiveness, which proclaimed that it was used only by the very important and the very rich.
To Alita it was like being given a doll’s house and she explored it excitedly.
She loved the flower-filled drawing room carriage with its comfortable brocade-covered chairs and the bedroom, which, she saw with a blush, was furnished with a brass bed that was big enough for two.
There was another room in the same coach, which Clint was to use as a dressing room and she found that the next carriage contained a single compartment for his valet and one for the maid he had engaged to look after her.
In another carriage was a kitchen and other compartments for the rest of the staff.
It was so fascinating – and even more exciting were the new clothes that Clint had provided her.
The maid told Alita that there were dozens of round-topped leather trunks in the guard’s van.
“How could you think – how could you know – that I would ever – wear the clothes you had – ordered for me?” she asked Clint.
“I made up my mind to marry you,” he answered, “and I could not really think of anything that would prevent me from getting my own way!”
“Supposing – after all the trouble and expense, you had – decided that you did not – want me?”
“I told you that if you had committed a murder I would protect you and seeing the way you looked, I thought it unlikely that you had robbed a bank and I really could not imagine any other other crime you could be involved in.”
“You are not real!” Alita cried. “A man like you does not exist outside story books.”
“I will prove I am real, my darling,” he replied, “but I think we should get married first!”
She blushed and hid her face against him.
Then she moved quickly away as the servants, wearing the livery of their noble Master, brought in luncheon and champagne, which Clint said was obligatory on such occasions.
The food was delicious, although it was hard for Alita to realise what she ate.
She could only look into the blue eyes of the man who sat opposite her and feel herself thrill to every word he spoke.
Almost as soon as they had boarded the train, she had changed into a gown that became her as much as the one she had worn last night.
It was not the conventional white that she should have worn as a bride, but instead it was the very soft blue of the mists hanging round the trees in the morning.
It made her think of Clint riding towards her, making her feel as if he came from another world.
It was an exquisitely fashioned gown, swept into a bustle at the back, and with a close-fitting little jacket that revealed the soft curves of her figure and the tininess of her waist.
After her new maid had arranged her hair, she had gone into the drawing room coach, and standing in front of him she had asked shyly,
“Do I – look all right?”
There was a note in her voice and a look in her eyes that told him how important the question was.
“You look, my precious, very beautiful and even lovelier than I knew you could look!”
“You – are sure?”
He rose and put his arms round her.
“You will grow very conceited,” he said softly, “when I tell you over and over again that you are not only beautiful to look at but irresistible to touch and very exciting to kiss.”
He looked at her for a long moment before he kissed her eyes, her cheeks, the corners of her mouth and lastly, as her breath came quickly between her parted lips, he held them captive.
She was wearing a small feather hat with a short veil, and Alita knew when Clint gave her a bouquet of star-shaped white orchids that she not only looked like a bride but felt like one.
He had two presents for her, which he gave her before they left the train.
One was a huge sapphire engagement ring surrounded by diamonds, the other a two strand necklace of perfect pearls.
He clasped the pearls round her neck and then kissed first her lips and then the little pulse that was beating excitedly just below her chin line.
As he did so, she felt the quicksilver that had run through her when he had first kissed her dart through her whole body and end in a response from her own lips that made her feel as if they were united by a burning flame.
“I love – you,” she sighed. “How can I thank you – except by saying over and over again, I – love you.”
“I will answer that question a little later,” he replied and his voice was very deep.
He kissed her again, passionately and compellingly, as if he could not help himself.
Then they stepped out onto a small wayside Station, which Alita knew was a Halt used by the owner of some big estate.
A carriage was waiting and they drove off towards a small village.
As Alita saw a Church ahead of them, she looked at Clint and he explained,
“I thought that as essentially you belong to the country, you would prefer to be married in a country Church.”
“It is not only what I would like,” Alita said, “but I want to be – alone with you – without a lot of people staring at us.”
“That is what I want too,” he said. “The Earl of Derby arranged everything when I told him what I required. He also offered us the hospitality of his house, but I refused.”
“
I am so glad – I just want to be with – you,” Alita said and he kissed her hand as the carriage drew to a standstill
The Church was massed with white flowers, many of them orchids to match Alita’s bouquet. There were also huge bowls of Madonna lilies, which scented the whole building with their unforgettable fragrance.
The Parson was waiting for them at the altar and the Service was very quiet and very moving.
There was a solemn note in Clint’s deep voice as he made his vows, a note that Alita thought she had never heard before, while her own voice sounded a little shy.
She prayed fervently that he would love her forever and that she should be exactly the wife he wanted.
The Parson blessed them, they signed the book in the Vestry and then they left the Church and drove back the way they had come.
Alita held on tightly to Clint’s hand.
“Am I – really your wife?” she asked. “Are you – sure that – nobody can say it is – illegal or stop me – from belonging to you?”
There was just a touch of fear in her voice, because it was hard to believe that, after all she had suffered in thinking that no man would ever want her, she was now actually married.
“You are my wife,” Clint said positively, “and the first thing I will teach you, my darling, is to believe that we will never lose each other and nothing shall ever come between us.”
“That is – all I want,” she murmured.
She wanted to add that she was wildly in love with the most attractive man she had ever seen.
They reboarded the train and, when they were alone and Alita had taken off her hat and her little jacket, he kissed her until she felt as if he drew her heart from her body.
Then, as they sat together on a sofa at the end of the carriage, she said,
“When you – first kissed me, I wanted to – die, but now I want to live.”
“That is why I am going to make sure that you not only live but are happy,” he answered. “You have, my adorable little wife, a great deal of time to make up.”
He kissed the finger that wore his ring and added,
“There is so much I have to teach you and I know it will be more exciting than anything I have ever done before!”
“More exciting than – winning a race?” Alita teased him.
“That is what I have just done,” he replied. “It has been a race for love, my precious, but I have passed the Winning Post and all you have to do now is to award me the prize.”
“Is – that – me?” she asked shyly.
“Could it be anything else? It is difficult to tell you, my sweet life, how much and how uncontrollably I want you.”
The passion in the way he spoke and the fire in his eyes made her hide her face against his chest.
Then in a voice that he could barely hear, she whispered,
‘Teach – me, please teach – me to love you – as you want to be – loved.”
*
Soon after dinner the train drew into a siding so that they could spend a quiet night.
Later, very much later, Alita said softly,
“I am – so happy – that I want to – cry.”
“If you do I shall be angry,” Clint replied. “There are to be no more tears, only smiles and laughter.”
“I thought that was what you would want when I was at that marvellous party you gave for Nellie Farren.”
“I want other things as well,” he said, “but I can never allow you again to look so unhappy as you did when I first knew you.”
“I did not – think you – noticed me.”
“How could you imagine that I would not notice anyone who rode as well as you?”
“It is a different thing from noticing my face and the real me.”
“I soon found the real you!”
“I wish I had known,” she said with a sigh. “I was so convinced that – nobody would ever – notice me that I took no – trouble over myself.”
“I am aware of that,” Clint said in an amused voice.
Alita clung a little closer and then she turned her head to kiss his shoulder.
“How could – you have been so – clever as to realise that I could look – very different?”
“I looked at you not only with my eyes,” he answered, “but with my heart.”
“Please always do – that,” she begged, “and then your heart will tell you how – much I love you.”
“Are you sure of that now?” he enquired.
“I did not know I could – feel as if we flew on wings high into the sky or dived deep down into the sea. It was so perfect – so divine.”
“That is what I always want to make you feel.”
Alita put her hand against his neck as if to pull him even closer to her and then she said in a very small voice,
“There is – something I want to – say to you.”
“What is it?”
“I want to – make sure you – believe me.”
“I have always believed what you have told me in the past.”
“But what I have to say now – is something – different.”
“Then tell me,” he said.
She felt his lips against her hair and, because he was so gentle and so strong, so tender and yet so possessive, she felt herself thrill and her body quivered against him.
He drew in his breath, but, as if he knew that what she would say was important, he asked quietly,
“What is it you want to tell me?”
“I want you to – believe that I would – love you – just as I love you now – if you did not – have a penny in the world.”
She paused before she went on, still in an intense little voice,
“It is – wonderful to think of all the things we can – have, horses, private trains and houses anywhere we want, but – none of that really – matters. I love you – because you are – you, because you are the most marvellous – wonderful man who ever – existed. But I am so – afraid that you do not – understand that that is – how I feel.”
He turned towards her so that his heart was beating against hers and his arms were round her and his lips very close to hers.
“I adore you, my lovely one, for what you have told me, but at the same time I knew it.”
“How?”
“I knew it when I kissed you in the carriage.”
“How did you – know?”
“You gave me your soul on your lips and I knew that that was what I had always been seeking.”
“Oh, Clint!”
“I have always,” he went on, “longed to find a woman who would love me for myself and not be influenced by the fact that I could buy her anything she desired.”
“You knew that I never – dreamt you would – give me – anything.”
In the faint light coming through the curtains that covered the windows of their carriage, Alita saw that he was smiling as he said,
“I had the greatest difficulty where you were concerned to get you to accept a new habit and it required all my ingenuity to ensure that you had a trousseau.”
“I still feel – ashamed that you – should have – bought that.”
“You have just told me,” he answered, “that such things are unimportant, that it is only our love that counts.”
“Only our – love,” Alita repeated. “And I thought – when we were in the – dark and you loved me – it did not matter how rich or how poor you were – no money could buy what you made me feel.”
“You are my wife and that is what matters,” Clint said. “My wife – mine! Tell me that is what you are – completely and absolutely!”
“You – know I – am yours.”
He gave a little laugh and it was very tender.
“Mine, despite a great deal of opposition, but I told you that I always get what I want in the end!”
“I know – that – now.”
“And you shall never escape!”
Then he was kissing her, kissing her demandingly, fierce
ly and passionately.
His hand was touching her body, making it quiver against him. He was the victor, the conqueror, the man who had won the race for love.
Quicksilver was running through Alita’s body and the flames that rose in them both became a burning fire.
It was impossible to think of anything but love – love – love –
The rumble of the wheels beneath the carriage seemed to be echoing the same word over and over again,
Love – Love – Love!
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
The Race For Love Page 15
