“What do you mean you cannot marry me?”
She did not answer and he asked,
“Tell me, my darling, what is wrong? Why do you say that you cannot marry me?”
Devona hid her face against his shoulder.
“I have done something very wrong and you will no longer want to marry me.”
“I cannot imagine anything that would ever stop me wanting to marry you,” the Earl said. “In fact, I intend to marry you at once and I fervently believe, my precious, that we will be very happy together.”
“But I have – lied to you,” Devona muttered, “and when you know why – you will no longer want to marry me.”
“I think that’s impossible. I cannot believe that you could do anything that would stop me loving you.”
He spoke very firmly, but he was wondering what could have upset her.
What could she have done to make her tremble so?
He could feel her body quivering against his.
“I lied – to you,” Devona said in a voice he could hardly hear.
“About what?” the Earl asked.
There was silence and then Devona whispered,
“I burnt your uncle’s will.”
The Earl looked astonished.
“His will!” he exclaimed. “Do you mean there was one?”
Devona nodded her head as if she could not speak.
The Earl pulled her even closer to him.
“What was in the will,” he asked, “that made you tear it up?”
Again there was silence.
Then, as if she forced herself, Devona replied,
“He had said that all the money – he possessed was to be – buried with him.”
For a moment the Earl could hardly believe what he had heard.
Then he ejaculated,
“Buried with him! Then it was the best and wisest thing you could do.”
Devona raised her head.
“Do you – really mean that?”
“Of course I mean it. We might have been able to contest such an absurd will, but it could have taken years and, of course, a great deal of money.”
He smiled before he added,
“Don’t look so unhappy, my darling. I can only say that you are just as clever as I thought you to be and, if you did destroy anything quite so ridiculously unfair and cruel to his family, it was very good of you.”
Devona drew in her breath.
“Do you really – mean it?”
“I really mean it and it is something we will both forget and no one but you and I will ever know about it.”
He felt a sigh of relief go through Devona’s body.
“Now,” he said, “I will ask you again, will you, my lovely darling, marry me?”
Devona looked down.
“There – is something else – I have to tell you.”
It seemed as if the words would not come to her lips.
“Tell me what it is that is worrying you,” he asked.
“I lied again – and it was very wrong – of me.”
Her words seemed to fade away and then she said impulsively,
“Please kiss me – again. Kiss me in case, after you have heard what I have done – you will not want to kiss me anymore.”
“I can assure you that is impossible,” the Earl said. “I intend to kiss you and go on kissing you for the rest of my life.”
He held her still closer to him than she was already.
He bent and kissed her, not gently but wildly and possessively.
He kissed her as if he was afraid of losing her.
As he felt her response, he knew that they belonged to each other already. Whatever happened and whatever was said, nothing would ever separate them.
They were one.
Devona was the other half of himself that he had thought was an old Greek legend and a Heaven he would never find in this world.
“I love you. I adore you,” he said when he raised his head.
His voice was deep and unsteady.
Devona did not speak and he went on,
“Now tell me, darling, what is frightening you?”
“I lied to you – a second time,” Devona whispered. “It was wrong of me – when I told you – that I was your uncle’s daughter.”
The words came out jerkily and the Earl stared at her in surprise.
“Forgive me, please forgive me,” Devona pleaded. “It was because I thought – you would be like your uncle and send me away – and leave me to starve. I thought if I was one of the family you would feel obliged to look after me – just a little.”
“Then, if you are not my uncle’s daughter, who are you.”
“My father was – Colonel Euan Campbell. He was wounded in the War and, when he was better, we were so poor he wanted to find a job – looking after horses.”
The tears overflowed from her eyes and ran down her cheeks.
“I was just thirteen – when your uncle gave Papa a job looking after the horses and the cottage to live in.”
She shut her eyes as if it was difficult to think of it.
Then she said,
“Papa was killed because your uncle bought a horse that was – dangerous but cheap. Then because we had no money and nowhere to go – he took Mama and me into the house where we had to help the servants but – of course he did not pay us.”
Her voice died away.
She was afraid to look at the Earl in case he no longer loved her and then she gave a little sob and hid her face against him.
The Earl felt a relief beyond words.
He knew at the back of his mind, much as he loved and adored Devona, he would always be afraid that some part of his cruel and unpleasant uncle might develop in her.
Now she was everything he wanted as a wife and his family would be only too glad to accept her.
“If you have told a lie, my darling,” he said, “it was a very sensible one.”
“Do you – really think so?”
“Of course I do, my precious. I think that it was very clever and you are quite right I should, as one of the family, feel obliged to look after you as I intend to do.”
“And do you now mind – that I am not a Brooke?” Devona asked.
“I am very impressed that you are a Campbell,” the Earl answered. “I know that all the Campbells in Scotland belong to the Clan of the Duke of Argyll.”
“I never met any of Papa’s Scottish relations – as we lived in the South. I think – although I am not certain, that Papa’s great-grandmother was a sister of the reigning Duke and Chieftain at the time.”
The Earl did not say so, but he knew that this would please all his relations and would make them treat Devona with even more respect than they would do anyway.
“Do you realise, my glorious one,” he said, “that you have now swept away the last cloud that might darken our future. The sun is shining and the world is ours.”
“You are not angry?” Devona asked. “Promise you are not angry – because I lied to you?”
“It was a golden lie,” the Earl said. “Golden not only because it gave us all the money to help other people but golden because our happiness now is as bright and as clear as the sunshine.”
He thought as he spoke that he had never been so happy in his whole life.
As the horses turned into the drive gate, he said,
“We are going to be married as quickly as possible. Then, while the house is being completely restored, we will go on our honeymoon. I am going to take you, darling, to at least one place that you have always wanted to visit.”
Devona’s eyes were shining as she waited to hear where that was.
“To Greece,” he told her. “You have read about it and, as you said, it was the Greeks who taught us to think and, of course, what we both enjoy – to argue.”
Devona laughed and threw her arms round his neck.
“I love you. I love you,” she said. “And now you have forgiven me – I am so happy I am only a
fraid I shall float up into the sky!”
“That is one thing I shall certainly prevent you from doing!” the Earl said. “I will be very angry if you even try to!”
“I want to be – with you,” Devona murmured.
The carriage came to a standstill outside the front door of The Hall.
Two footmen started to run the red carpet down the steps and the butler was waiting for them.
“There is something very important I want to tell you,” the Earl said. “So please go into the drawing room as quickly as you can.”
Devona wondered what it was.
She got out of the carriage and walked up the steps.
The Earl stopped to give Tom ten pounds and told him to find something to eat in the kitchen.
Then he walked into the hall. Devona had gone, as he told her, into the drawing room.
“There has been a misunderstanding,” the Earl said to the butler. “Miss Campbell and I have not yet had any luncheon. Will you ask chef to prepare something for us immediately?”
“Yes, of course, my Lord. We’ll have it ready as quickly as we can.”
The Earl smiled.
Then he walked into the drawing room.
Devona was waiting for him and she ran to him as he stood in the doorway.
“What do you want to tell me?” she asked. “And why is it so important?”
The Earl put his arms round her.
“I want to tell you, my darling, that I love you as I have never loved anyone in my whole life. I want you as my wife as soon as it is possible for us to be married.”
“That is what I want too,” Devona sighed.
Then he was kissing her, wildly and passionately.
Her body melted into his and he knew that she was giving him not only her heart but her soul and herself.
“I love you, God how I love you!” he exclaimed.
Then he was kissing her again.
Kissing her until they were part of the sunshine.
They were in a Heaven of their own, which would be theirs for the rest of their lives and into Eternity.
Where to buy other titles in this series
The Barbara Cartland Pink collection is available for download at the following online bookshops :-
www.barnesandnoble.com - epub format for the Nook eReader
www.whsmith.co.uk - epub format for the Smiths/Kobo eReader
www.firstyfish.com - epub format
ebookstore.sony.com - epub format for Sony eReaders
www.amazon.co.uk - For UK Kindle users
www.amazon.com - For international Kindle users
itunes.apple.com - for Apple iOS users
www.barbaracartland.com - Printed paperbacks
A Golden Lie Page 14
