The Marquis did not waste any time.
He related to the Foreign Secretary the whole story of exactly what had happened from the time he had danced with the Contessa.
He listened intently until the Marquis finished by explaining,
“I told the Duty Officer at the Port of London Authority that everything must be kept completely secret until such time as he receives instructions from you.”
“I can always trust you, Rake, to do the right thing and I know the Prime Minister will be most insistent that there is no scandal.”
He paused for a moment before continuing,
“The Conté and the Contessa will be told first thing tomorrow morning to leave the country. If he comes back, he will be arrested on a charge of abduction and theft.”
The Marquis smiled.
“I would like my brooch back safely. As you may be aware, it belongs with my family jewels.”
“That I can promise you,” replied Lord Salisbury.
The Marquis rose to his feet.
“I am sorry to have interrupted your dinner, but I felt you should know the complete story as soon as I could convey it to you.”
“You were quite right, Rake, and I will now set the wheels in motion. Can I offer you a drink?”
“I have Lanthia Grenville outside in the carriage.”
“Then of course you must look after her. I expect the poor girl is most upset, but I am sure you will be able to comfort her.”
There was a twinkle in Lord Salisbury’s eyes.
They left the study and shook hands in the hall and the Marquis hurried outside to his carriage.
Lanthia was waiting for him and she was no longer crying.
And as the horses drove off again, the Marquis put his back arm round her.
“Everything is settled,” he told her quietly. “The Conté will be told to leave tomorrow morning and never to set foot in England again!”
“Oh, I am so glad!” cried Lanthia. “That means he can no longer hurt you.”
The Marquis considered it very touching that she thought of him rather than herself.
Yet he understood without her saying so, that she was wondering if it was possible for the Conté to learn tonight that she had escaped from his clutches.
While the Marquis was talking with Lord Salisbury, she had been thinking that his kisses were undoubtedly the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to her.
She had never known such a sensation of ecstasy as she had felt at his first kiss.
Then as he had gone on kissing her, she felt as if she was no longer in a world of darkness, fear and terror.
She was enveloped by a blazing light, which could only have come from God.
While she was alone in the carriage, she had been thanking God for saving her and sending the Marquis to her so quickly.
She never believed that her prayers would be answered, or that she would be able to escape from the terrible death the Conté had intended for her.
‘Thank you, thank you, God,’ she prayed. ‘I want to live and I want the Marquis to be safe too.’
She remembered how she had called out to him to save her, feeling that he must hear her cry.
He had told her that he had heard her.
She could hardly believe it was true, yet he had said so.
Now because she felt shy that he had kissed her so passionately, she did not want to ask him any questions.
The Marquis was thinking the same.
He kissed her lips again, but very gently as if he appreciated that she was very precious and delicate.
It did not take them long to reach The Langham as by now there was little traffic in the streets.
As they drew up outside the front door, the Marquis took his arms from around Lanthia and helped her out of the carriage.
“Wait until I send you some instructions,” he said to the coachman.
He and Lanthia now walked up the steps and into the hotel and the Marquis guessed that because she was moving quickly with her head down that she did not wish to be seen.
However, the porter saw them and enquired,
“Are you all right, my Lord?”
“It was just a stupid joke that misfired. Please will you send a bottle of Dom Pérignon champagne up to Miss Grenville’s sitting room and tell the Head Waiter I want to order dinner.”
“Very good, my Lord.”
They took the lift to the second floor in silence.
He put his arm round Lanthia as they walked down the corridor and held her to him closely.
He was conscious as they passed Room 200 that a sudden shiver shot through her.
Once again she was afraid.
The Marquis did not say anything, but when they entered her sitting room, he closed the door behind them.
“Go and wash away all your tears,” he suggested, “while I order dinner and you shall have a large glass of champagne as soon as it arrives.”
“What about your party tonight?” asked Lanthia.
“They will have to do without me, because I am not going to leave you.”
He saw the relief in her eyes.
Then as if she was ashamed of her appearance, Lanthia disappeared into her bedroom.
The champagne arrived and the Marquis ordered it to be opened. While the waiter was doing so, a clerk from the hotel reception desk knocked on the door.
“What is it?” enquired the Marquis.
“The manager asked me to inform Miss Grenville that the gentleman in the room next door left unexpectedly this evening. It is therefore possible for Mrs. Blossom to move into it as soon as she wishes.”
“Thank you,” answered the Marquis. “When you go downstairs please ask my coachman to come to this room immediately.”
The clerk bowed and left, whilst the Head Waiter arrived with the menu.
The Marquis was ordering the dishes he considered Lanthia would enjoy most when his coachman came into the sitting room.
The Marquis gave him instructions and he hurried away to carry them out.
In her bedroom Lanthia washed her face and hands, feeling that she was washing away the horror of the tight gag over her mouth and the pressure of the ropes round her wrists.
Then, although she felt it would be rude to keep the Marquis waiting, she took off her plain muslin dress.
In the wardrobe were hanging the two pretty gowns she had bought that morning just in case the Marquis asked her out to dinner.
‘I would like to look pretty for him,’ she decided.
It was difficult for her to think straight because she was still reeling from the wonder of his kisses.
They had taken her into a veritable dreamland from which she was frightened she might suddenly awake.
‘It is something really wonderful and I shall always remember that magical moment,’ she thought.
She looked in the mirror to see if her face had changed from feeling such ecstasy.
She thought that, despite the tears, if she tidied her hair she would be happy for the Marquis to see her.
The gown she had chosen was a very soft pink, a colour he had not seen her in before.
When she was ready, she stood in front of the long mirror with her heart beating so violently she was afraid he might be hear it!
‘He has kissed me because he was sorry for what I had just suffered and wanted me to stop crying,’ she told herself. ‘I must not behave like all those other women who try to attract him.’
However she realised that it would be very difficult to walk into the next room and not let her eyes betray her inner feelings.
She knew now that she loved the Marquis and she longed for him to kiss her again.
But, she told herself, everything had returned to normal, and she should behave as her mother would expect her to do.
She opened the door and as soon as she appeared the Marquis held out a glass of champagne.
“I have waited for you,” he said, “so that we can drink to our success to
gether. And what could be more successful than outwitting Satan himself?”
Lanthia laughed as he had meant her to do.
He clinked his glass with hers and as she sipped the champagne, she exclaimed,
“I cannot believe that all this has happened.”
“That is just what you must think, Lanthia. It was only a nightmare you have now woken up from. We are going to enjoy a delicious dinner together this evening and forget that it is unavoidably a little late!”
As he spoke, two waiters arrived with their first course and they sat down at the table that had already been laid for them.
Four candles had been lit and in the centre of the table Lanthia saw a very pretty basket of pink roses.
“What lovely flowers!” she exclaimed, “and they match my gown.”
“They are what brought me to The Langham on my way out to dinner. As I handed them in I learned that you had been told I had suffered an accident.”
“So that is how you saved me,” exclaimed Lanthia.
She thought it a strange coincidence that she should have chosen to wear a gown of the same colour as the first flowers the Marquis had given her.
But then everything that was happening to her was strange.
Nothing could be more exciting than having dinner with him alone.
Deliberately and in order to take her mind off her ordeal, the Marquis told her what he knew she wanted to hear.
All about his visit to Tibet and how he had visited several old monasteries, where he had been allowed by an Abbott to see some of the special treasures that had been collected by the monks over the centuries.
The Marquis knew as he spoke that Lanthia was visualising every detail he told her about his journey.
He described a long trek he had undertaken in the North African desert to search for a particular tribe, which had not been discovered by any other explorer.
“And you found them?” she asked him in an awed voice.
“I found them, but there were very few tribesmen left and the carvings they created had deteriorated over the years. At the same time my discovery was of considerable interest to the Royal Geographical Society.”
“Oh, do tell me more!” begged Lanthia.
They talked on until dinner was finished.
It was then that Lanthia remembered that the Marquis would be leaving her soon and she would be left alone.
She tried not to think that the Conté was still on the same corridor, but yet the thought kept recurring to her.
Perhaps he would learn somehow that his yacht had been apprehended and that she was free.
She would, of course, lock her door and yet because he was so frightening, she felt that a locked door would not prevent him from attacking her if that was what he was still determined to do.
The Marquis could now understand her thoughts and fears.
He waited until the waiters had cleared the table and they were alone in the sitting room.
“You are not to worry, Lanthia, about being here alone tonight. I am going to stay here and protect you from anything that might happen, although I am almost certain that nothing will.”
He saw Lanthia’s eyes light up.
“I don’t want to put you to any trouble,” she said, suddenly shy.
“It is no trouble at all! I intended to sleep on the sofa, but while you were in your bedroom the manager sent up to say that the room next door has been vacated and Mrs. Blossom can move in whenever she wishes.”
“I think perhaps I should go home tomorrow,” sighed Lanthia, a little wistfully.
“I thought that was what you would wish to do, but the bedroom next door will be more comfortable for me tonight than the sofa!”
Lanthia gave a little cry.
“Of course I would not have allowed you to sleep on the sofa. You could have had my bed, because as I am much smaller I could curl up on the sofa quite easily.”
The Marquis smiled.
He knew it had never crossed her mind, as it would any other woman’s, that they might share a bed.
She was, he pondered, exactly as she should be – innocent, pure and so totally unlike anyone else he had ever known.
Aloud he said,
“I have already sent for my valet to bring me what I shall require for tonight and my clothes for the morning.”
He had been standing and he now sat down beside her on the sofa.
“There is one question I want to ask you, Lanthia.”
“What is it?” she enquired.
“Do you think,” he began slowly, “that I in any way at all resemble the invisible man who rides with you in the woods and who listens carefully as you do to the goblins digging under the trees and the nymphs and fairies hiding behind them?”
Lanthia stared at him in astonishment.
“How can you say that to me?”
The Marquis put his arms round her.
“I know what you are thinking and I know that is what you have always felt, because it is exactly what I felt myself when I was young. I have never told anyone about it, as I thought they would laugh at me.”
It was at that moment Lanthia knew that he was the man who had ridden beside her and who had been in all her dreams.
Because she was too shy to say so, she merely hid her face against his shoulder.
“What I am really asking you, my dearest darling,” the Marquis said, “is if you will marry me? I want you and I know we shall be very happy if we can explore the world together.”
Lanthia stared up at him and he thought no woman could have looked more radiant and ethereal.
At the same time her eyes searched his as if she was unable to believe what she had just heard.
“Are you really asking me,” she whispered, “to be your wife? But you said you would never marry?”
“I said I would never marry, because I had not met you. I love you as I have never loved anyone in my life, and I can tell you quite truthfully I shall never love anyone else. You are all I have ever dreamt about and thought I would never find. That was why I was determined to be a bachelor.”
He paused to kiss her gently on the cheek before he continued,
“I think that the more we are together the more we will find that we think the same, feel the same and are the same.”
“It cannot be true,” cried Lanthia. “I love you, of course, I love you. When you kissed me, I knew it was everything I ever thought a kiss would be like only much more wonderful.”
“I will teach you all about love, my precious, and it will be the most exciting and thrilling adventure I have ever undertaken.”
Then he pulled her against him and kissed her until her whole body quivered.
Her heart was beating as violently as his.
“I love you, I love you,” Lanthia whispered.
“That is all I ever want to hear you say,” the Marquis answered, “but I am still afraid in case what you spoke of as missing is still missing.”
Lanthia hid her face again.
“I know now what was missing,” she murmured.
“Tell me, my darling,” he smiled at her encouragingly.
“It was love. I realised that after you kissed me, I knew that what I was feeling for you was love, but I never believed you would feel love for me.”
“Now you know I do?” queried the Marquis.
“It is so wonderful that I am afraid I may lose it,” answered Lanthia dreamily.
“You will never do that,” he promised.
She moved a little closer to him and said,
“My Papa told me once that Russians love not only with their hearts but with their souls. That I know is the way I love you.”
“It is such a good description of what I too feel. Never before has my soul been touched by anything I have felt for a woman. I have found them attractive, exciting, and in some ways I have been infatuated for a short while. But that, my darling, is not what I feel for you. This is all so very very different.”
He
was speaking as if he was working it all out for himself.
Then as if he could find no more words to describe what he meant, he kissed her again.
He kissed her tenderly until they were breathless.
Then he said,
“I must send you to bed, my lovely one. You have been through a terrible experience and I don’t want you to be tired tomorrow.”
Lanthia looked at him questioningly and he said,
“Tomorrow I am going to drive you to the country to tell your father and mother that we love each other and I want to be married at once!”
“At once!” exclaimed Lanthia.
“We will be going on a very long honeymoon, my darling and it will be a honeymoon of exploration!”
Lanthia looked excited.
“Where are we going?” she asked, thrilled.
“We are going to explore ourselves first. There is a great deal that I wish to learn about you, and I hope there are things you want to know about me. I thought we might start in Greece, where I am certain you will discover much about the Goddesses that you have inherited from them.”
“How can you possibly think of anything just so wonderful?” she asked.
“After that, we might go on to Egypt and see if we can solve the many secrets of the Sphinx and if we are still looking for more excitement, I am already intrigued by the mountains of Turkey.”
Lanthia put her arms round his neck.
“How can you suggest anything so marvellous and so perfect, because we can do all these travels together?”
“It will be a new experience for you and also for me, because you will be with me all the time. I have a feeling, my darling, you will find out many things I have failed to see in the past, because you live partly in another world which is not visible on the surface, but, as you have just said, is deep down within our souls.”
He was speaking with great sincerity.
Because it was so different from what she thought she would ever hear, tears came into Lanthia’s eyes as she said,
“I love you, I adore you, I love you, until it is impossible to put into words what I feel. You are exactly the man I have always wanted to find! I never thought he could appear in human form, only as the invisible man I talked to when I was in the woods!”
“And I thought there could never be a human being who was like you,” the Marquis told her. “So, my dearest, we have a great deal of exploring to do and, of course, we must one day write a book about everything we have both discovered to help other people who are not so fortunate as we are to have found each other.”
Lovers in London Page 13
