There was also a large pot of what smelt like cheap and unpleasant coffee and a number of cups without saucers.
The girls and women, who were a miscellaneous collection, were all grabbing at the loaves of bread. They were pulling rather than slicing pieces of them.
They seemed to Norina like animals and then she realised that they were hungry. Like animals they had to fight for every crumb to assuage their hunger.
She made no effort to compete, but Claire snatched a piece of bread and divided it.
“Here you are,” she said. “It will have to last you until luncheon time. Let’s go and grab a cup of coffee while we have the chance.”
Norina took the bread and, as she was about to put it into her mouth, she asked in a whisper,
“You don’t think it is poisoned?”
“No, no, they will not kill you until you have signed the documents,” Claire answered.
It was cold comfort and Norina ate the bread.
Then she managed with Claire’s assistance to obtain a quarter of a cup of coffee, which was all that was left.
As she was looking at the girls, wondering if she should speak to those who were French, a man dressed as a monk came to her side.
“Come with me,” he said curtly in French. “The Prior wants to see you.”
Norina gave a frightened glance at Claire, but she knew that she had to obey the order.
The man walked ahead, his heavy shoes clattering on the stone floor.
As she followed him, Norina could see that the Convent had once been a fine building and was undoubtedly ancient. It was now, however, very dilapidated.
Stones had fallen from the walls, and the square that was surrounded by cloisters was thick with weeds around a statue of St. Francis and it was obvious that nothing was being done to preserve the place or even keep it tidy.
The man ahead of her stopped and opened a door.
As Norina walked into the Prior’s room, she could see that he, at any rate, lived in comfort.
There were deep armchairs, a fine writing desk, pictures on the walls and heavy, rich velvet curtains at the windows.
The Prior was waiting for her with his back to a Mediaeval fireplace.
He looked, Norina thought, exactly as she might have expected.
He was a large portly man and what hair he had, which was very little, was grey and she thought she would have recognised him anywhere as being a criminal.
His eyes were shrewd and his lips were set in a hard line.
She could feel every instinct in her body shrinking from any contact with him.
The man who had brought her there did not speak, but merely withdrew, closing the door behind him.
Norina stood looking at the Prior.
“Good morning, Norina!” he said, speaking in good English. “Welcome to our Convent! I know that you are waiting to discover why you are here.”
“I have some idea already,” Norina replied.
“That makes things easier,” the Prior answered. “I have some documents for you to sign on my desk and I expect you have already been told the penalty for disobeying my orders.”
Norina felt a little tremor of terror run through her, but she lifted her head proudly.
“I can hardly believe,” she replied, “that, as you pretend to be a man of God, you would really do anything so appalling, so unmerciful and wicked!”
The Prior laughed and it was a very unpleasant sound.
“As you knew before you ran away, your stepmother requires your money and, of course, this Convent is a very expensive place to keep up.”
Norina did not answer and he said in a jeering tone,
“Come along, my dear, give up your worldly goods to God and you will, of course, receive your reward in Heaven!”
He looked towards the desk as he spoke and Norina saw on it some official-looking papers.
She realised that he would force her to sign them.
If she did so, she reasoned, then undoubtedly she would die as quickly as it could be arranged and then he would not have the expense of keeping her.
Somehow she recognised that she had to play for time.
Then, almost as if a voice, and perhaps it was her mother’s, prompted her, she gave a little groan and collapsed slowly onto the floor.
Her eyes were closed and she lay there motionless.
The Prior swore and they were French words that Norina had never heard before, but she knew that they were lewd.
Then he went to the door and shouted,
“Henri! Gustave!”
Two men came running into the room.
“She has collapsed or fainted,” the Prior said in a tone of disgust.
“Shall we slap her back into consciousness?” one of them asked.
“No, take her away. Put her in her room and give her no food. She will be amenable enough when she is hungry!”
The two men lifted Norina from the floor and she forced herself to be completely limp.
She kept her eyes closed and hardly breathed as they carried her back the way she had come, along the passages and up the staircase that led to the room she had slept in the previous night.
They threw her down on the bed rather roughly and yet she managed not to make a sound.
She merely lay where she had been thrown, one arm hanging over the side of the bed.
“We’d better lock her in,” one of the men said. “That’s what the Prior said.”
“What about the other English girl?”
“Oh, she’ll have to sleep somewhere else. There’s plenty of beds available for them as can pay for them!”
The other man laughed as they went out of the room and locked the door.
Norina waited until she was quite certain that they had gone and then she went to the window.
If only there were someone she could signal to!
If she could wave, they might realise she needed help.
But there was only the Madonna-blue of the sea, which, now that the sun had risen, reflected the sky overhead.
Once again she realised that there was nothing she could do but pray.
*
The day passed very slowly.
As it grew dark and no one came near her, Norina wished that Claire was with her. At least she would have somebody to talk to and she was now growing hungry.
‘I suppose I shall have to sign the papers,’ she thought desperately.
Darkness came and the stars filled the sky. There was a moon, not full but a half-moon, which turned the sea to a silver enchantment.
Norina lay on her bed.
She had taken off her robe because she felt that it was unclean. Fortunately it was not a cold night and there was no wind.
She was praying, at the same time thinking of the Marquis and how much she loved him.
‘He will never – know when I am – dead that I have – given him my heart,’ she thought.
She was so carried away by her thoughts that she did not at first hear a faint sound at the door.
It was now too dark to see clearly, but she thought it opened. She was instantly afraid, but in a different way from before.
Supposing one of those rough men had come not to kill her, but for a very different reason?
Because she was so frightened, she could only lie still. She was filled with a sudden terror because somebody was in the room and coming slowly towards her.
Their feet made no sound, but she knew that they were there.
They reached the bed. Then, when she would have opened her mouth to scream, her lips were captive and two strong arms enfolded her.
She felt a sudden rapture streak through her whole body.
It was the same sensation that she had felt when he touched her before and she knew instantly who it was.
Then the Marquis said very very softly so that she could hardly hear,
“Don’t make a sound. You have to be very brave.”
She wanted to tell him that she loved him. In
stead, she could only put out her hands to touch him and to make sure that he was really there.
He lifted her off the bed and to her astonishment took her to the window.
She wanted to tell him that there was no possible escape that way.
Then she realised that he was putting a rope around her, which in some strange way was attached to him.
Yet she could only think that he was beside her.
Nothing else in the world mattered.
The rope had come not from inside the room but through the window. Before she could wonder how, the Marquis whispered,
“Now must be brave. Shut your eyes and hold on to me. I promise that you will not be hurt.”
She looked up at him and for the first time saw in the faint light of the moon that his eyes were unbandaged.
“You – can – see!” she murmured.
He put his fingers on her lips and she felt ashamed that she had spoken.
Then he put one leg out of the window and because she was tied to him, she was obliged to do the same.
“Shut your eyes,” he whispered again.
She felt a pull on the ropes he had attached to her as they were lifted over the sill.
She knew a moment’s panic as she realised that they were swinging in air, at the same time being lowered into the sea below.
Then the Marquis’s arms enfolded her and she could hide her face against his shoulder. She told herself that, if she died now, she would die with him.
They were lowered slowly clear of the rocks. At last two men were holding first their feet, then their bodies and guiding them into a boat.
It was quite large and the men removed the rope from the Marquis and herself.
Then the boat was moving away and Norina found that she was sitting in the stern with the Marquis’s arms round her.
He did not speak, but they were rowed very swiftly out to sea.
It was a little later that Norina saw the Marquis’s yacht looming up above them.
She was helped aboard and, as the Marquis joined her, he took her through a door and inside what she guessed was the Saloon.
There were no lights anywhere and Norina recognised that it was because everything had been done in secret so that they would not be seen.
Then, as the Saloon door closed behind them, she was in the Marquis’s arms.
“You have – saved – me,” she whispered, “you have – saved me, how – can you have – done so? I thought – I was going to – d-die.”
It was then, because she could not help herself, that she burst into tears.
The Marquis picked her up in his arms and sat down on a sofa. He held her across his knees as if she was a child.
“It’s all right, my darling,” he said gently, “you are safe and this shall never happen to you again.”
It was the way he spoke as much as the endearment that made Norina forget her tears.
She raised her face to his.
“H-how you – could have – come – like an archangel from – Heaven – and taken me – away from that e-evil place?”
Her words were almost incoherent.
At the same time she was looking up at him as if he was in fact not human, but a messenger from God.
“I had to save you,” the Marquis answered, “not only because I could not let you die, but because you are too precious to lose and I love you!”
As he finished speaking, his lips found hers.
He kissed her until she thought that she must have died and reached Heaven.
His love swept over her like a wave of the sea.
Yet there were stars in her breast and the light of the moon or perhaps it was the Light of God that dazzled her eyes.
The Marquis kissed her until they were both breathless.
Then she said in a little voice he could hardly hear,
“I – love you – but I never – thought – you would – love me!”
“I have loved you for a long time,” the Marquis replied, “but I wanted to see you with my eyes as well as with my heart before I told you so.”
“And now – you have – saved me!”
Norina realised that, while they had been talking, the engines had started up and the yacht was moving.
“You have – saved me!” she said again. “But there is another – English girl – there and many – others. How can we – save them?”
“It is all arranged,” the Marquis replied. “The Police are moving in at dawn and three gendarmes are already on the roof. They let us down. Because I would not have you involved in all that cruelty and wickedness, I persuaded them to let me spirit you away so that you will not have to appear at the inquiry.”
“H-how – can you – have been so clever?” Norina asked.
“I was thinking about you, my darling,” the Marquis said, “and also, of course, of myself. Don’t forget that we are both in hiding.”
She put her hand to his face.
“Your bandage has – gone and you are – just as I thought – very very – handsome!”
“I have to wear glasses in the daytime,” the Marquis replied, “but not for very much longer.”
His lips were very near to hers as he added,
“I would be prepared to become completely blind rather than allow anyone to rescue you except myself!”
His arms tightened.
“I was so desperately afraid that there would be a mistake at the last moment or that I would not be in time.”
“H-how – did you – know – how did you – guess where I had gone?”
“I found your ring,” the Marquis replied. “It was clever of you, my precious, to leave it for me and I also knew what had been in your telegram.”
“And you – thought the monk from – whom I was warned to hide – must have come from the – island?”
“The Police have been suspicious for some time of the men who have taken over the ruined Convent, but, as no one had made any complaint, there was nothing they could do.”
“And you gave them the excuse they needed to enter it.”
“You did that,” the Marquis replied, “but I will not have you having to face all that unpleasantness, so we are going away, my darling, on a very long honeymoon!”
Norina gave a little cry.
“How can – you think of – anything so wonderful? But – please – are you quite – quite certain that you – want to m-marry me?”
“I am certain,” he said, “because I can fulfil all that you demanded!”
His lips moved against the softness of her cheek as he said,
“I love you with my mind, my heart and my soul – and also, my precious, with my body, and of course, my ‘inner eye’.”
“That is – how I – love you,” Norina whispered.
The Marquis did not answer.
He was kissing her again, kissing her until she felt little flames rising within her to answer the fire on his lips.
Then she was aware, a little belatedly, that she was wearing only her nightgown.
She made a little murmur and hid her face against his neck.
Her heart was beating tumultuously and she could feel his doing the same.
“You must go to bed,” the Marquis said, “and now that we are away from the island, we can put on the lights, but I feel it will make you shy to be seen as you are now.”
Norina slipped off his knees and he put his arm round her to help her to the door and down the companionway.
He took her to the end of the passage and opened a door of what she was sure was the Master cabin. It was so large it filled the whole of the bow.
“I must – not take – this cabin – it is yours,” Norina said quickly.
“Tomorrow night it will be ours,” the Marquis answered. “We are being married, my darling, on French soil and, because I am a Frenchman, there will be no difficulties. After that we can go anywhere in the world you like.”
“Anywhere – will be – Heaven if I am – with you,”
Norina answered.
He put his arms around her.
Then, instead of kissing her passionately as she expected that he was going to do, his lips were very gentle.
“I love and adore you,” he said, “but I know, my sweet, that you are very innocent and I have no wish to shock you.”
He lifted her into the big bed and pulled the covers over her.
Norina caught hold of his hand.
“Promise me that – I am not – dreaming,” she pleaded, “and I will – wake up to find I am still a – prisoner.”
“You are my prisoner now,” the Marquis answered, “mine – from now until eternity – and I will never and this is a vow, my love, lose you or let you go.”
“That is – what I – want to be,” Norina said, “but – will you promise me – something?”
“What is it?”
He sat down on the edge of the bed and bent towards her.
“I am so afraid – that I will – bore you,” she murmured, “like – those other – ladies who write to you.”
The Marquis would have spoken, but she continued slowly,
“Will you – teach me how to – keep you happy and content so – that I do not – lose you?”
He could hardly hear the words, but he smiled.
“You have already told me how to do that,” he answered.
She looked up at him in surprise.
“Have you forgotten,” he asked, “my château in the country and how you said I ought to settle down and produce a large family?”
Norina made a little murmur. His arms were round her as once again his lips were very near to hers.
“I have a great deal to teach you,” he said, “and it will be the most exciting thing I have ever done in my whole life! You are mine, my lovely Norina, as I am yours and nothing will ever divide us.”
He gave a deep sigh before he added,
“I suppose all my life I have been searching for love – the real love that you understand – and now, my precious, we have both found it and this is where the real adventure of life begins – our life together!”
Then his lips were on hers and Norina knew that he was right.
They had found the only thing that mattered – what all men sought, fought for and died to find.
It was the love of the mind, the heart and the soul, when two bodies were joined together as one.
They had passed through dangers, wickedness and evil, yet by the mercy of God they had survived.
Too Precious to Lose Page 12
