There was something in the way he spoke that made Baptista say,
“Have you really learned – something about Mama?”
“She is in Africa,” the Earl answered, “which means that it is impossible for us to reach her. So I am prepared to look after you, my lovely one, and the best way for me to do that, is to become your husband.”
Baptista clapped her hands together.
“That means that even if Papa finds out where I am, he will have no – power over me!”
“No, I am going to have that myself,” the Earl replied.
Baptista gave a little cry of happiness before she pleaded,
“Tell me – please tell me – not once but a dozen times – that I can really be with you – and love you and I need never be afraid again.”
“We will be together,” the Earl answered, “from now until eternity. But first we have to leave this house with dignity.”
“I will be very careful,” Baptista promised, “but you must not come too near me! Otherwise because I love you so – desperately I am afraid it will – show in my – eyes.”
“In mine too,” the Earl smiled, “so I will speak to you sharply as if I was angry, as indeed I am.”
“Not – really angry?” Baptista questioned apprehensively.
“Perhaps it is jealousy I am feeling,” the Earl said, “but I assure you it is extremely uncomfortable. It is something I have no wish to feel in the future, but I have the suspicion that it might occur again and again.”
“How could you possibly be jealous when there is no other man in the whole world – but you?” Baptista asked.
“Make sure that is what you always think.”
The Earl’s hand went out towards her as he spoke and then he forced himself to think of their immediate predicament and rose to his feet.
“Go upstairs and have your clothes packed,” he said. “I am going to make the legal arrangements regarding our marriage. We will then be able to be married at the first English Church we come to outside Paris.”
“Will it be – difficult to find – one?” Baptista asked anxiously.
The Earl shook his head.
“There will be one in nearly every large town attached to the British Consulate.”
“Then please – let’s find one very – quickly.”
“Are you still afraid your father might catch up with us?” the Earl asked with a smile.
“No – only afraid you might – change your – mind.”
He laughed.
“I assure you that is as unlikely as that the moon should fall out of the sky. I love you, Baptista. I want you and if you are in a hurry to marry me, it is nothing to the urgency where my feelings are concerned.”
He thought as he spoke that it would be an indescribable agony to wait to make her his, to awaken her, as he longed to do, from her innocence to womanhood.
He knew it would be the most thrilling and the most wonderful thing he had ever done in his whole life.
He was aware that with his usual amazing luck he had found somebody so unique, so different from all the other women he had ever known and so perfect in every way, that he was in fact, the most fortunate of men and his gratitude was a prayer of thankfulness within his heart.
“I love you, Baptista!” he said. “Now go upstairs and be ready to leave in two hours’ time. In fact immediately I send for you.”
“I will be ready!”
She jumped to her feet and then, as if she could not help it, in one swift movement she was close to him and her face was lifted to his.
He kissed her wildly, until as her lips still clung to his, he took his arms from her, turned her round and pushed her gently in the direction of the door.
“Go and get ready,” he said and his voice was unsteady, “or we will not be able to be married before nightfall and I have no wish to shock you!”
She smiled at him and he saw her dimples.
Then he was alone, trying to collect his scattered thoughts and also what he could say to sound convincing to his friend the Vicomte.
*
The Earl and Countess of Hawkshead walked slowly through the garden of the hotel where they were staying.
The hotel stood on the banks of a small river, the gardens of which had once been the pride of a noble owner and were redolent with the fragrance of flowers and beautiful in the light of the setting sun.
Baptista slipped her hand into the Earl’s.
“It is so lovely here with you,” she said in a low voice, “but I am certain I am dreaming.”
“I will persuade you that I am very real, my darling,” the Earl answered. “I too feel that this is part of a dream, but you really are my wife and now I need not be afraid of losing you.”
“You will never do that,” Baptista said. “I am yours and all I want to do for the rest of my life is to be with you and love you and for you to teach me how to make you happy.”
“You have already done that,” the Earl replied, “and, my precious, I was thinking when we were being married how lucky we were that you were involved in an accident on the road from Calais.”
Baptista’s fingers tightened on his and she gave a little cry as she said,
“If we had not run into the diligence I would at this moment have been in the House of Penitence – being beaten as Papa used to beat me – only perhaps it would have been worse!”
There was a little tremor in her voice which the Earl did not miss.
“You promised me to forget the perils of the past,” he said, “and, as only a few hours ago you promised to obey me, I insist that you do not think of it again.”
“I don.t want to think of anything but you,” Baptista said passionately.
The Earl looked at her and he knew that he was already surprised by the depths of her feelings and also by the note of passion that he heard in her voice when she spoke of him.
He had always believed that young girls had very little feeling, but he knew already that was not true.
It was only that Baptista in her innocence did not understand and was still unawakened, even though she instinctively responded to his desire for her.
Against a background of flowers with the last rays of the sun illuminating her fair hair like a halo the Earl knew that everything about her was beautiful and part of the Divine.
He vowed to himself that in the future nothing ugly, sordid or vicious should ever touch her or make her afraid and he would protect her for the rest of her life.
He had never felt like this about a woman before and he knew that it was not only Baptista who was being awakened to love but he himself was finding it different in a thousand ways from what he had ever felt or known in the past.
They went in to the hotel through the garden door and passed through the tastefully decorated passages and up an ancient oak staircase to the first floor.
Their suite which Mr. Barnard had ready for them on their arrival overlooked the garden and the river.
When they entered the sitting room, Baptista walked to the window to stand for the moment looking out before she turned to say,
“It is so beautiful and yet it is part of our love, a very small part because you fill everything else.”
The Earl put his arms around her and then, when she lifted her lips for him to kiss her, instead he laid his cheek against hers.
“What is there about you that make you so different in every way from every woman I have ever known before?” he asked.
Just for a moment he had a vision of Lady Marlene and wondered how he had ever thought her beautiful, or anything but crafty and deceitful.
“You are – quite sure you – like me?” Baptista asked.
“Not like, but love!” the Earl corrected, “or shall I say that I adore you, my precious darling, and you are perfect in a way that I did not know even existed.”
“That is what I want you to think,” Baptista said. “Please – please – go on thinking it and, my darling wonderful husband, I
have something to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“Will you – teach me to do all the things you want me to do to make me love you. I want you to feel the rapture you give me – the ecstasy I feel when you – kiss me – but because I am so ignorant you must – tell me what to do.”
Her words were very moving and the Earl found himself feeling as if his love for her was almost overwhelming.
He knew because she was so young and inexperienced that he must keep himself tightly under control and, as she said, teach her above love, but gently and very tenderly.
He looked down at her thinking that in the dying light of the sun she was like a flower he had brought in from the garden and that it would be as easy to bruise her softness as it would be easy to bruise the petals of a rose.
“I will teach you about love, my adorable little wife,” he said and his voice was very deep, “but I also have a lot to learn because the love you have given me is so new that I must not hurt it or you in any way.”
“It is the love that comes from God,” Baptista said, “and I knew it when we were being married in that dear little Church and the Priest blessed us.”
“I thought the same,” the Earl answered and knew surprisingly that it was true.
He had not thought very much about God since he had grown up and no longer had to attend Church Services as he had done when he was at school.
He knew in his heart that he had always wanted to marry a woman who was good and to have his children brought up in the Christian faith with the ideals that each of them must contribute something to the world and in their own way to be good.
That was what he wanted, even if he himself had lost the way in the glittering Society world in which he moved.
But now he knew, with Baptista beside him, that his life would be very different.
There would be work for him to do in the House of Lords, but otherwise they would live at Hawk and they would have their horses to amuse them and people who worked for the great estates to look after and in the future, please God, a family would carry on his name and make the great house a place of happiness.
It all seemed to flash through the Earl’s mind like a series of pictures.
And he knew it was Baptista who had brought him back to the ideals that he had known long ago and that she would, as he had told her, be one of those women who inspired a man to do great deeds and incite in him high ambitions.
He drew her a little closer and then he said,
“We have both had a very exciting day, my precious one, and we were also late last night. We will go to bed and tonight, as you have no lady’s maid, I am going to undress you and look after you in this and every other way.”
He saw first an expression of delight in her small face and then a blush of shyness.
He knew that, as she had not been shy with him before, she now felt different because she loved him and because he was a man.
He drew her from the sitting room into the bedroom that adjoined it and there was only the light of two candles burning beside the muslin-canopied bed.
There was the fragrance of roses and night-scented stock coming through the open window and, because one of the curtains was not drawn, they could see the translucence of the sky where the light of the sun had vanished and now there was the first twinkling star.
The Earl felt as if he had suddenly stepped into a new and unfamiliar world that was a Fairyland of magical delights that he had never even dreamed existed but yet had been there like Baptista, waiting for him for a long time.
He put his arms around her and, as he kissed her, he felt her body trembling against his, but it was not from fear.
“I love you, oh my wonderful – husband, I love you but – you make me feel very – strange,” she whispered.
“What do you feel?” he asked.
“As if there was a leaping fire under me and it is – burning its way – up my throat to – my lips – and I want you to kiss me – more and more – and for us to be – closer and closer – ”
There was a breathless passion in Baptista’s voice, which the Earl knew she did not understand but which excited him almost uncontrollably as he had never been excited before.
Then, as the pressure of his lips deepened on hers and he undid the buttons at the back of her gown, he knew that they were both starting out on a mystical voyage of discovery.
It was signposted by love and it was love that would show them the way to new horizons, where happiness reigned supreme.
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
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
The Devil Defeated
An Angel Runs Away
The Duchess Disappeared
The Pretty Horse-breakers
The Prisoner of Love
Ola and the Sea Wolf
The Castle made for Love
A Heart is Stolen
The Love Pirate
As Eagles Fly
The Magic of Love
Love Leaves at Midnight
A Witch’s Spell
Love Comes West
The Impetuous Duchess
A Tangled Web
Love lifts the Curse
Saved By A Saint
Love is Dangerous
The Poor Governess
The Peril and the Prince
A Very Unusual Wife
Say Yes Samantha
Punished with love
A Royal Rebuke
The Husband Hunters
Signpost To Love<
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THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND
Barbara Cartland, who sadly died in May 2000 at the grand age of ninety eight, remains one of the world’s most famous romantic novelists. With worldwide sales of over one billion, her outstanding 723 books have been translated into thirty six different languages, to be enjoyed by readers of romance globally.
Writing her first book ‘Jigsaw’ at the age of 21, Barbara became an immediate bestseller. Building upon this initial success, she wrote continuously throughout her life, producing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years. In addition to Barbara Cartland’s legion of fans in the UK and across Europe, her books have always been immensely popular in the USA. In 1976 she achieved the unprecedented feat of having books at numbers 1 & 2 in the prestigious B. Dalton Bookseller bestsellers list.
Although she is often referred to as the ‘Queen of Romance’, Barbara Cartland also wrote several historical biographies, six autobiographies and numerous theatrical plays as well as books on life, love, health and cookery. Becoming one of Britain’s most popular media personalities and dressed in her trademark pink, Barbara spoke on radio and television about social and political issues, as well as making many public appearances.
In 1991 she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to literature and her work for humanitarian and charitable causes.
Known for her glamour, style, and vitality Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime. Best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels and loved by millions of readers worldwide, her books remain treasured for their heroic heroes, plucky heroines and traditional values. But above all, it was Barbara Cartland’s overriding belief in the positive power of love to help, heal and improve the quality of life for everyone that made her truly unique.
Signpost To Love
Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
This edition © 2014
Copyright Cartland Promotions 1980
eBook conversion by M-Y Books
Signpost To Love Page 14
