As she spoke, Alisa made a little sound because she was upset and Penelope said quickly,
“I am sorry, dearest, I should have asked you first if I might tell Jimmy, but I cannot have any secrets from him. Forgive me.”
“It is all – right,” Alisa answered.
It was impossible, however, for her to look at James Coombe, thinking that Penelope must have explained why the Earl had given her such a large sum of money.
Which was something she had hoped nobody would ever know.
As if to save her from being embarrassed, the Earl suggested,
“As I understand that Penelope said at the time, it was a gift from the Gods and so we must therefore thank them, because in some obscure way of their own, which undoubtedly the Duke has found extremely regrettable, it has brought you two together.”
“Of course, a gift from the Gods!” Penelope exclaimed, “and the gift I have received is Jimmy.”
“I shall always be extremely grateful,” James Coombe said, “and we must, my darling, make a proper thank-offering, whatever that may be.”
“I can think of quite a number I would accept,” Penelope said, looking at him from under her eyelashes and for the moment they both seemed to forget that there was anybody else in the room with them.
The Earl pushed back his chair.
“If you two are going shopping,” he said, “I will order my carriage for you and I think that you should leave immediately, before Bond Street becomes too crowded and your secret will be out before your relations have time to assimilate the good news.”
“Yes, of course,” James agreed, rising to his feet. “Come along, my beautiful, I intend to chain you to me with a ring that symbolises that you will be mine tor Eternity!”
“That will not be long enough for me!” Penelope answered.
She linked her arms through Alisa’s and they walked from the dining room together.
“Did you hear from the Duke this morning?” she asked as they walked down the corridor.
“Some flowers – arrived just before we – left,” Alisa replied hesitatingly.
“Good! That gives me an excuse to write to thank him and tell him about Jimmy and me. There is nothing more infectious than the engagement of somebody one knows and I am quite certain that he will call this evening and propose to you.”
Alisa did not reply.
She knew that, if she told Penelope that the Duke had already proposed and she had actually written a letter refusing him, there would be a scene.
They went to the library, where Penelope had left her bonnet, which she had taken off before luncheon.
She put it on in front of the mirror and James tied the ribbons under her chin.
As he did so, she looked so lovely that, as if he could not help himself, he kissed her on the lips.
Then he said to the Earl,
“We will not be long. Look after Alisa until we come back!”
“Yes, do that,” Penelope echoed. “And try to persuade her to be sensible, for at the moment she is being very foolish!”
“In what way?” the Earl enquired.
Penelope smiled.
“She has to make up for my shortcomings where our plan is concerned.”
She did not say any more, but left the room with James and the door shut behind them.
Now that she was alone with the Earl, Alisa felt shy and at the same time, because he was near her and because he looked so handsome, she felt her heart begin to beat frantically.
She could not help remembering that it was in this room that he had kissed her.
It was in this room that she had realised that a kiss could give her a rapture that made her feel as if her feet no longer touched the ground and her head was among the stars.
Because she was frightened that he would guess what she was thinking, she walked to one of the bookcases to look at the books as she had done the first time she had come to his house.
“I presume the plan that your sister was referring to,” he said behind her, “is that you should be, as she put it, the Gunning sisters, up to date”.
“That – was what – Penelope meant us to – do,” Alisa agreed, “but she has fallen in – love.”
There was silence.
Then the Earl broke it,
“Are you telling me that neither of you are aware that Penelope is in fact following very closely in the footsteps of Elizabeth Gunning?”
Alisa turned round.
“She would have done so if, as she had intended, she had married the Duke,” she replied. “But, having fallen in love with an ordinary soldier, she realises that he can give her much – more than a coronet.”
There was a faint smile on the Earl’s lips as he replied,
“James has been more astute than I gave him credit for. He has always hoped to be loved for himself and that is what he has achieved.”
“Of course and, although they may be very poor, they have the only thing that – really – matters.”
There was a little tremor in Alisa’s voice as she said the last words.
Then, looking puzzled, she asked,
“I don’t understand what you mean when you say that Penelope has followed in the footsteps of Elizabeth Gunning.”
“That is something that your sister will undoubtedly learn when she meets James’s mother, but I will tell you what you obviously do not know,” the Earl said, “which is that James is the heir presumptive to the Duke of Roehampton!”
Alisa stared at him as if she could not believe what she had heard.
Then she enquired,
“If that is true, why did James not tell Penelope?”
“The truth of the matter is that I don’t think he is particularly interested in his prospects,” the Earl said. “The present Duke is very old and in ill health. He is unmarried and his brothers produced only daughters, with the result that James’s father, who was a distant cousin, had he lived would have come into the title. But now it will be James’s in the not-too-far-distant future.”
Alisa clasped her hands together and gave a little cry of delight.
“That will be wonderful for Penelope and now – I need not – ”
She stopped, realising that what she had been about to say in her excitement was something that she should remain silent about.
“I should be interested to hear the end of that sentence,” the Earl suggested.
Alisa turned round again to the bookcase and her back was towards him.
“It was – not important.”
“I think it was!”
She shook her head and then realised that he had come nearer to her before he demanded,
“Turn round. Alisa! I want to know what you were about to say.”
“It is – nothing to do with – you.”
Then she gave a little gasp as she felt the Earl’s hands on her shoulders, turning her round.
He gazed down at her and she was aware that his eyes were looking at her in that penetrating manner that always made her feel shy.
At the same time, because he was touching her, she felt a thrill go through her and she thought wildly that, if he would kiss her once again, it would be the most wonderful thing that could ever possibly happen.
“I want you to answer me truthfully,” the Earl said. “Are you intending to accept Exminster?”
Because he sounded grim and his fingers tightened painfully on her shoulders, Alisa felt herself tremble.
“Penelope – told me I – had to – so that I could help her.”
“So you have said ‘yes’!”
“No – no!” Alisa cried. “I – cannot – marry him and I have – written to – tell him so.”
The Earl’s fingers relaxed and she was free.
“And when Penelope marries,” he asked, “what do you intend to do with yourself?”
“I will – go home and be with – Papa.”
“And that will make you happy? After all, Exminster is not the only man in the world, although I doubt
if you will receive a better offer.”
“I could not – marry anybody unless I – loved him in the – same way that – Penelope loves Jimmy.”
“And you think it might be impossible for you to find such a man?”
Alisa drew in her breath.
She wondered what the Earl would say if she told him that she had found somebody she loved overwhelmingly completely, with all her heart and with all her mind, and that it was impossible for any other man to mean the same.
“I – shall be – all right.”
“That is not what I asked you.”
She could not answer him and, after a moment, he said,
“What has made you decide that you will not marry Exminster?”
That was an easy question to answer, Alisa thought, and she replied,
“I do not – love him!”
“How do you know that?”
She glanced up at him in surprise because the question seemed rather foolish.
Then, because he was looking at her in a strange way, she felt the blood rising in her cheeks.
“When I kissed you the first time you came here,” the Earl said, “I realised that you were very inexperienced and very innocent. I was quite sure that you knew nothing about men and even less about love.”
“That – was – true,” Alisa murmured.
“And yet now you know you don’t love one of the most eligible men in the Beau Monde. How do you know that?”
Alisa made a helpless little gesture with her hand.
“Answer me!” the Earl insisted.
“It is – difficult to explain,” she faltered, “but I don’t – want him to touch me – and I know that if he – did, I would not – feel like I – did – ”
She stopped, aware that what she was going to say would be very revealing.
“ – like you did when I kissed you,” the Earl finished and his arms went round her.
She made a little sound, but she did not struggle and he said,
“Shall we find out if the second time we kiss each other is as wonderful as the first?”
He did not wait for her answer, but his lips were on hers and Alisa knew at the first touch of them that this was what she had been longing and yearning for and believed that she would never know again.
The strength of his arms holding her against him and the wonder of his kiss brought the rapturous feeling that she had known before, moving through her breasts, up her throat and onto her lips.
Then he was carrying her into the sky and they were one with the stars.
She felt thrill after thrill rippling through her until her whole body quivered with an ecstasy that was so intense that it was almost a physical pain.
He drew her closer and still closer until the feelings he was arousing in her were so glorious, so incredibly marvellous, that Alisa felt that she must have died and reached Heaven.
Then he raised his head and said in a voice that sounded strange and a little hoarse,
“Is this the sort of love you want?”
Because she was bewildered, bemused and radiantly happy, Alisa could no longer think but only stammer,
“I – love you – and I – could not – marry anybody – unless he could – make me feel like this.”
Then the Earl’s mouth held hers captive again and she wished she could remain in the Heaven he had taken her to and never return to Earth.
A short time, or a long time, later, it was impossible to judge, the Earl looked down into her shining eyes and at her lips, red and soft from his kisses.
“You are so ridiculously beautiful,” he said unsteadily, “and somebody has to look after you.”
It flashed through Alisa’s mind that he was going to make the same proposition to her that he had made the first time he had kissed her and she stiffened.
Knowing what she was thinking, he laughed gently before he said,
“You are aware that Maria Gunning married an Earl and we must follow her story exactly.”
“M-marry?”
It was hard to say the word and she was not certain whether she said the word aloud or her lips only mouthed it.
“Must I ask you properly?” the Earl enquired. “Will you, my lovely little Alisa, marry me? It is the least you can do, after haunting me until it is impossible for me to exorcise you from my thoughts. You are always in my mind, my heart and my eyes.”
“Did you – try to – forget me?” Alisa whispered.
“You disappeared and I thought that I would never find you again.”
“But you – tried?”
“I sent half-a-dozen women to ask Mrs. Lulworth for the creams you had sold to Madame Vestris.”
“She did not – know who – I was.”
“Nor did I.”
“And you – really minded?”
“I wanted you and I intended to have you!” the Earl said. “If you feel you cannot marry a Duke, I assure you that ever since we met I have been unable to see, hear or realise that there is any other woman in the world.”
His lips twisted for a moment in the mocking way she knew so well as he asked,
“What have you done to me, my darling? I would have bet my entire fortune that no woman would be able to make me feel as I do now.”
“You – really – love me?”
“I adore you! I cannot live without you! Is that what you want me to say?”
“I cannot – believe it. I-I have – loved you ever since you first – kissed me, but I never – thought you would – love me.”
The Earl did not answer.
He merely kissed her again.
When finally he set her free, Alisa’s cheeks were flushed and she felt as if her whole being had come alive, yet she was no longer herself but a part of him.
“How can – everything be so – wonderful?” she cried. “Penelope has found – somebody to love, and you – love me!”
“I am sure we can explain it all as a gift from the Gods,” the Earl said, “but it is a gift that I shall treasure, protect, love and be extremely jealous of for the rest of my life.”
As he spoke, he drew her almost roughly back into his arms and continued,
“How dare you ever consider marrying the Duke? You are mine as you were meant to be since the beginning of time. If I had had any sense, I would have kept you prisoner the first day you came into this room and never let you go!”
The masterfulness about the note in his voice and the way he was holding her made Alisa feel thrills like shafts of sunlight running through her.
The Earl was exactly as she had always dreamt a real man would be, authoritative, commanding and yet at the same time kind and understanding and when necessary a haven of security.
“You are so – wonderful!” she sighed. “How can I have been so – lucky as to – find you?”
“In a very unlikely place,” he replied a little drily.
She knew he was thinking of Madame Vestris’s dressing room, and she said,
“If it had not been for three pots of face cream, I would never have gone – there and I would never have found – you. How – extraordinary that such little things should lead to anything so – utterly and completely marvellous.”
“I am deeply grateful to those three pots,” the Earl answered, “but selling them and visiting actresses is something you will never do again.”
“It is – all like a – Fairy story.”
“Which one day we will tell our children.”
He watched for the colour that flooded into Alisa’s cheeks.
Then he smiled and with a note of unmistakable triumph in his voice said,
“A gift from the Gods and that, my precious one, is the love which we shall never lose and is ours today, tomorrow and for the rest of Eternity.”
Then he was kissing her, fiercely, passionately, possessively, until Alisa knew they were no longer human but one with the Gods themselves.
OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
The Barbara Cartlan
d 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
Pure and Untouched
Secrets
Fire in the Blood
Love, Lies and Marriage
The Ghost who Fell in Love
Hungry for Love
The Wild Cry of Love
The Blue-eyed Witch
The Punishment of a Vixen
The Secret of the Glen
Bride to the King
For All Eternity
King in Love
A Marriage made in Heaven
Who can deny Love?
Riding to the Moon
Wish for Love
Dancing on a Rainbow
Gypsy Magic
Love in the Clouds
Count the Stars
White Lilac
Too Precious to Lose
Gift Of the Gods Page 14
