The door of her room was open, hanging drunkenly on its hinges, as though it had been kicked in.
Inside was a sight that filled him with rage.
Lexia was lying on the bed, fighting a man whose face the Marquis could not see. Already he had her partially undressed.
“Leave her alone, damn you!” he roared.
Seizing the man by the back of his collar, the Marquis pulled him from the cabin and into the corridor.
He was struggling but a punch to his chin made him crash onto the floor. Instantly the Marquis hauled him up and for the first time he had a good look at his face.
“You!” he exclaimed as he saw it was Storton. “Then where – ?”
He dropped Storton, who fell into a crumpled heap and ran back to Lexia. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding her torn dress, which Storton had pulled from one shoulder, and weeping with shock and fright.
The sight enraged him.
He sat down beside her and pulled her quickly into his arms.
“It’s all right, my darling,” he murmured. “It’s all right. I am here and I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
“Oh, Frank – Frank.”
“Yes, yes, Frank’s here and he’ll look after you as much as you’ll let him.”
“Never leave me,” she cried passionately.
“I never will – until you say that you want me to.”
He folded her in his arms, rocking her back and forth.
“Whatever happened?” he asked tenderly. “Where is Freeman? I thought you left with him.”
“I did, but Harriet Grant was with us. Her father is a diplomat at the Embassy and he wouldn’t let them marry, although they’re terribly in love.”
“They’re in – ?”
“Yes. Wayne begged me to help him, because we have always been such good friends, so of course I said I would. Harriet slipped out of the Embassy with me and Wayne was waiting for us.
“Everything went beautifully until that horrible man forced his way into the carriage with us. When Wayne and Harriet got into another carriage, I thought I could cope with him, but I think he must have been drunk.
“He followed me down here and tried to force his way into my cabin. I managed to lock the door against him, but he battered it down and thank goodness you came when you did.”
She shuddered and nestled closer to him.
“But what are you telling me? You helped them elope? You don’t mind that Wayne loves her?”
“Of course not. I am very happy for them.”
“But you told me – ”
“Wayne and I flirted a bit once, but there was never anything in it. Then Pa came down on us and said he would never let us marry. We didn’t want to marry, but he wouldn’t believe it.”
“But didn’t you tell him that you would marry Wayne or die?”
“Certainly not,” she retorted indignantly. “I would never say anything so spineless.”
“But when you saw him, you threw yourself into his arms.”
“Of course. I am very fond of him, but that’s all. He’s like a lovely big brother.”
“I am supposed to be your brother. But oh, my darling, I don’t feel at all brotherly towards you.”
On those words he tightened his arms and kissed her fiercely, allowing her no chance to refuse.
But she did not want to refuse. This was not the lofty Marquis – it was her darling Frank, kissing her as though he had longed to kiss her forever and nothing was going to stop him now.
She knew exactly how he felt because she was not going to be prevented from kissing him too by any power on earth. It was only now that she knew how badly she had wanted him, longed for him, dreamed of him.
As the Marquis’s lips met hers he became conscious of a strange feeling within him, which he had never felt before. His kisses deepened and he realised joyfully that she was kissing him back.
He was possessed by a delight that he had never known before.
For Lexia it was what she had always wanted, but thought she would never find.
The Marquis’s arms tightened round her and his lips became very demanding.
It may have been only a short time or a long time. Neither of them could remember.
But when the Marquis raised his head, he said in a voice which did not sound like his own.
“I love you! I love you and I know I have loved you for a long time.”
He did not wait for an answer, but kissed her again.
It seemed to him a long time later that, still with his arms round her, he raised his lips from hers and said again,
“I love you! I know now this is what I have searched for all my life.”
“I – love – you too,” Lexia whispered so he could hardly hear her.
“You love me?” he exclaimed in astonished delight.
“I have loved you for ages,” she managed to say, “but I thought you would never love me.”
“I tried to tell you of my love yesterday, but then you saw Wayne Freeman and were so overjoyed that I was convinced that I had no hope.”
“Was that what you were trying to say to me?” she asked in wonder.
“Of course it was, but I had to be careful about approaching you. I knew you trusted me and if you did not care for me, then I would have betrayed your trust and made it hard for you to travel with me.”
“I was so jealous when you were with the Señora,” she confessed.
“Do you think I could look at another woman once I had found you? Tell me that you love me and let me hear you say it.”
“I love you,” she said simply. “I love you with all my heart.”
She hid her face against his shoulder and he tightened his arms.
“Are you absolutely sure,” she asked, “that I am really the woman you want?”
“I adore you!” the Marquis replied firmly. “I know this is love. When your lips touched mine I felt as though I had come home to the place where I truly belonged and, my darling, we are going to be very happy together.”
He kissed her again.
“I love you! I worship you!” Lexia murmured. “I did not know love could be so wonderful and so perfect.”
“Tell me that you’ll marry me quickly,” he begged. “Here. Immediately.”
Lexia looked up at him.
“Marry you – here?”
“If we go home there will be such a lot of people talking about us, saying they had always known we were suited to each other and that we really should be grateful to them.”
Lexia gave a laugh.
“That does sound a bit like our friends and my father!”
“So we are going to avoid all that,” said the Marquis. “If you agree we will be married here.”
“That would be wonderful. Oh, but Frank – how can we marry here? We’re both travelling with false passports. How can we prove our identities?”
“The Ambassador knows me and I think he will accept my word for who you are. We can be married in the Embassy and will spend our honeymoon in Greece, seeing the Gods and Goddesses, who perhaps played their part in bringing us together.
“Then I can teach you about love and we will be the happiest couple who ever existed. We have been seeking love without realising that it was so close to us.”
He paused and smiled as he added,
“We will be joined even closer to each other once we are married.”
“I think I must dreaming,” sighed Lexia. “This cannot be true. Oh, Frank darling, I have loved you for so long, but would not admit it even to myself. Now I will do everything in my power to make you happy.”
“You are making me happy already, just by loving me,” said the Marquis. “I love you from the top of your head down to your little feet. I worship you and I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you happy.”
“I was so afraid that some other woman would snatch you away and you would forget about me.”
“I will never forget about you. Instead we
will become nearer and nearer to each other until we are one person. Nothing and no one will ever separate us.”
“I just cannot believe it. Is it really true or am I just dreaming?” asked Lexia.
Then the Marquis was kissing her.
Kissing her so that it was impossible for her to speak or to think.
*
The following morning they left the ship and drove to the British Embassy where, as he had foretold, Lord Symons welcomed them and made no problems about their marriage.
They were married by the Chaplain in the Embassy Chapel.
“Do you know,” Lexia whispered to him later that night, as they lay in each other’s arms, “during the service I had the strangest feeling that unseen presences were watching us.”
He held her close to his heart.
“I sensed them too,” he said.
They smiled, each knowing who their guests had been.
Wise Athene. Apollo, the Sun God. Eros and Aphrodite, the Gods of Love.
They would be blessed and blessed again for Eternity and beyond.
The Waters of Love Page 14
