Lord Mere nodded in agreement and the Prince said tentatively,
“I am afraid it will be very expensive!”
“That is of no consequence,” Lord Mere replied, “I recognise that it will make you all happy to know that the necklace is returned to its proper place and will be there for Antonio to hand down to his children.”
The Prince was very moved and put his hand on Lord Mere’s shoulder.
“I thank God every day in my prayers that we ever met you,” he said quietly.
Lord Mere reached London at nine o’clock and drove immediately to his brother-in-law’s house in Park Lane.
As he expected, he was told on arrival that her Ladyship was not up yet but his Lordship was in the dining room.
For a moment Lord Mere considered saying that he would go straight to his sister’s bedroom. Then he thought that would be a mistake.
Instead he went into the dining room where the Marquis was having breakfast with a dozen silver entrée dishes arranged on a sideboard.
He looked up in surprise at Lord Mere and exclaimed,
“Good gracious, Ingram! I was not expecting you! I heard you were abroad.”
“I have just returned,” Lord Mere said, “and I want to see Jennie.”
“She is still in bed,” the Marquis replied. “Sit down and have something to eat.”
Out of politeness more than the fact that he was hungry, Lord Mere helped himself from one of the dishes on the sideboard and accepted a cup of coffee that was poured out for him by the butler.
“Was your visit to Paris successful?” he asked.
He knew as he spoke that the Marquis would give him a voluble, lengthy and undoubtedly somewhat boring account of his visit.
He was not mistaken and when at length he came to the end the Marquis added,
“I was very tired by the time I returned home. I am getting too old for all these visits abroad, the long discussions and the even longer meals they entail!”
Lord Mere looked at him in surprise.
“Are you not well, Arthur?” he enquired.
“I have not yet told your sister,” the Marquis replied, “but I saw my physician on my return and he has warned me that my heart is not in good shape.”
“I am sorry to hear that!”
“He has advised me to take things easy, but my position at Court makes that difficult.”
“You must tell Her Majesty the truth.”
“If I do, I doubt if she will listen,” the Marquis said grimly. “Like all women when she wants something Her Majesty expects one to obey and at the double!”
“I am sure that is true,” Lord Mere smiled, “but it would be a mistake to take risks and I am sure that Jennie would tell you so too.”
“I don’t think that I will even mention it to her,” the Marquis said. “Personally, I find ill health a bore and I don’t want to talk about it.”
Lord Mere drank his coffee and rose from the table.
“I will go up and see Jennie now,” he said. “I am sorry to hear what you have told me, Arthur. My advice is to refuse to take on anything that you think is too much for you.”
But Lord Mere knew as he left the room that his brother-in-law would not listen to him.
He enjoyed his position of power in Court circles and Lord Mere had the feeling that he would do his duty, however much it cost him, to the end of his life.
When Lord Mere walked into his sister’s bedroom, he was struck even more than he had been in the past by the vast difference in age that there was between his sister and her husband.
Jennie had obviously not been awake long, but she looked very fresh and young with her hair falling over her shoulders and her pink-and-white complexion clear in the sunlight, which seemed also to be caught in her eyes when she saw who her visitor was.
“Ingram!” she exclaimed. “You are back! Oh, dearest, I have been thinking about you!”
“As I have been thinking about you,” Lord Mere said.
He put the package he was carrying in his hand down in front of her on the sheet.
For a moment she did not touch it, but looked at it fearfully as if she did not dare to believe what she hoped.
“Is it – is it really – ?” she faltered.
“It is your necklace!” Lord Mere said sitting down on the side of the bed.
“Oh, Ingram, you have brought it back to me!”
The tears were in her eyes as she held out both hands to him saying,
“How can you have been so clever? How can I ever thank you?”
Lord Mere kissed her and then glanced across the room to make sure that the door was closed.
“I have a long story to tell you, Jennie, about the necklace and why it was taken from you.”
Her eyes dropped before his and the colour rose in her cheeks and he knew that she felt embarrassed at remembering what had happened.
Very quietly Lord Mere told her the whole story of what had occurred since his leaving for Florence on her behalf.
As he spoke, Jennie’s eyes were raised to his and, as she listened to the whole extraordinary story, her eyes seemed to grow wider until they filled her whole face.
Only when he told her how he had brought the Soginos back with him and that the Prince, Florencia and Antonio were now at Mere Park did she give a little gasp.
“They are here – in England?”
“It was essential that they should get away before the announcement of Vincente’s death,” Lord Mere said, “and also I intend to marry Florencia as soon as possible.”
“Marry her?” Jennie exclaimed.
“I have fallen in love,” Lord Mere explained quietly, “and I do not intend to wait while she pretends to mourn a man who should have been killed years ago for his crimes against young girls.”
“And you say it must be a secret marriage?”
“Just for the time being,” Lord Mere said. “You will be the only member of our family who will know what has happened for at least three months!”
He paused before he added,
“That is why I am asking you to come with me this evening or, if you prefer, tomorrow morning. Florencia and I will be married on Thursday.”
Jennie did not answer for a moment.
Then she said,
“You know, Ingram, dearest, I want you to be happy, but I am – shy at the thought of meeting – Antonio.”
“As he is shy of meeting you,” Lord Mere said. ‘That is why, if you can arrange it, I think it would be best for you to come back with me this evening. Then you can have all tomorrow to make explanations to one another before creating a further problem for me and upsetting my Wedding day.”
Jennie laughed.
“Oh, dearest, of course I would not wish to do that!”
She hesitated for a moment.
Then she commented,
“Actually, I feel so much happier now that I know the real reason why Antonio took the necklace! I had felt so ashamed and – humiliated to think that he had – made up to me simply because he was a – thief!”
She did not have to say any more. Lord Mere understood exactly what she was feeling.
When they travelled back together later in the day, he knew that the sudden silences between them and the look on her face when they reached Mere Park were due to her feeling as shy as any young girl might be on encountering her lover again.
But they had both underestimated the tact and charm of the Italians.
Antonio greeted Jennie so naturally and unaffectedly that it swept away her embarrassment and, after she had been introduced to the Prince and Florencia, he made some excuse to take her out through the open French window of the drawing room onto the terrace.
Lord Mere had not missed the expression in Antonio’s eyes when he saw Jennie and, when a little later they came back into the drawing room and they all had a glass of champagne before going upstairs to dress for dinner, he thought that he had never seen his sister look so pretty or so radiant.<
br />
It was then for the first time an idea came to him that was to be substantiated later in the evening.
They had finished dinner and had sat down to talk over their precipitate journey from Florence.
Florencia had told Jennie how thrilled she had been to travel in Lord Mere’s train and, looking at Jennie, Lord Mere thought at that moment that she looked no older than Florencia.
Then the two girls went hand-in-hand up the stairs together alone.
The Prince followed them soon afterwards leaving Antonio with Lord Mere.
“You will have a drink before you go to bed?” Lord Mere asked.
“No, thank you,” Antonio replied. “But there is something I wish to say to you.”
“What is that, Antonio?”
It seemed for a moment as if the young Prince was finding it difficult to put his feelings into words.
Then Lord Mere prompted him by saying,
“Is it about Jennie?”
“You may think it is too soon,” the Prince said, “and you may, of course, disapprove, but I love your sister and I know she loves me too.”
For a moment Lord Mere was startled.
It was what he had suspected, but did not anticipate that it would be put so bluntly.
“I have decided that however long it takes, I am going to wait for Jennie. I know that her husband is far older than she is. Perhaps Fate will be as kind to me as it has been to you,” Antonio said, “and one day we will be able to be together.”
The way he spoke with an undeniable note of sincerity in his voice was very moving and Lord Mere said,
“I love my sister and I can only hope that she will be permitted to be as happy as I am.”
“Thank you,” Antonio replied. “I don’t want you to think that I would do anything wrong behind your back, but Jennie has told me that she has not lived a normal married life with her husband for some years, which means that I don’t feel I am in any way behaving wrongly in telling her of my love.”
“I can only say again that I hope you will both find happiness,” Lord Mere said.
When he went upstairs to bed, he went first to his sister’s room to say goodnight to her.
Once again he thought, as he had this morning, how young she looked.
As he sat down on the bed to take her hand in his, he knew that the Marquis had left her unawakened to the joys and glory of love.
He did not speak for a moment and her eyes were on his face. He knew that she was wondering what Antonio had said to him.
Then she asked in a low voice,
“Are you – shocked, Ingram?”
“No, of course not,” he said. “All I want is for you to be as happy as Florencia and I will be.”
Jennie gave a little cry.
Then there were tears running down her face and she was kissing Lord Mere over and over again as if it was the only way that she could express her gratitude and happiness.
*
When Lord Mere and Florencia drove away on their honeymoon, he felt that he had tied up all the problems and left everything neat and tidy for his return.
He was taking Florencia to a hunting lodge he owned in Leicestershire where he intended that they should stay for the first part of their honeymoon.
He would then take her to another house that be belonged to him and was situated in Cornwall.
He felt that it would be a mistake to expect her to travel too long a distance after all she had been through in Florence.
He was driving a team of four of his finest horses and his chaise seemed almost to fly over the ground.
They had been married in the small Roman Catholic Church that Lord Mere thought would have looked very unattractive if he had not had it massed with lilies.
But there were so many that they hid the bare walls, the rather ugly pillars and made the whole place a bower of beauty.
He thought that the white lilies were a perfect symbol of Florencia when she became his wife.
As there had been no time to order an elaborate Wedding gown, hers was very simple, but she wore over it the very exquisite, fine Brussels lace veil that had been in the Mere family for generations.
On her head she carried a glittering diamond tiara, which was part of the collection of family jewels although Lord Mere felt that it would have been more appropriate if it had been shaped as a halo.
She looked so lovely and so Saint-like as the Prince brought her up the aisle that Lord Mere thought she should have been standing in one of the alcoves with candles burning below her.
The Service, because it was a mixed marriage, was a short one, but he knew that Florencia felt as if God blessed them through the Priest, as they had been blessed already.
They drove back to Mere Park where they toasted each other with champagne and, after a light luncheon, Florencia changed and they drove off together with only Jennie and Antonio to shower them with rose petals.
“It was such a lovely Wedding!” Florencia enthused. “Just the way I wanted to be married!”
“You are sure that is what you wanted?” Lord Mere asked. “I was afraid that you would miss having bridesmaids and a large congregation of admiring friends.”
“All I wanted was to be – alone with you and – God,” Florencia said simply. “And how did you guess that I love white lilies more than any other flower?”
“That is because you look like one,” Lord Mere replied, “or rather I thought when I saw you in Church that you looked like a Saint and perhaps I should be worshipping you instead of marrying you!”
Florencia gave a little laugh and laid her hand on his knee.
“I am not – really very saintly,” she said, “and I know that – my love for you is very – human.”
She said the words a little shyly and they brought the fire into Lord Mere’s eyes as he said,
“I will teach you, my beautiful one, how to be human when it is easier to touch you than it is at the moment.”
Florencia gave a little sigh of happiness and moved closer to him.
He thought as he drove on that no man could be so happy and still be on earth.
*
Later that night when the only light in the room came from the stars shining through the uncurtained windows, Florencia with her cheek against Lord Mere’s shoulder whispered,
“Do you – still love me?”
He drew her closer before he answered,
“My darling, that is a ridiculous question! If it should be asked at all, it is I who should be asking you.”
“You know that I love you,” Florencia said. “I had no idea – until now that love could be so – glorious, so exciting and so – wonderful!”
“That is what I want you to feel,” Lord Mere said, “and it is what I have felt ever since I first met you.”
Florencia gave a deep sigh.
“How – when love is – like this could anybody marry – without love?”
There was a little touch of horror in her voice that he did not miss.
“That is something,” he said, “you are never to think about again! You are married to me and you love me as I love you.”
“I know,” Florencia said, “and it has only been possible because you saved me and swept away everything that was dark and frightening – and that made me want – to die!”
“And what do you feel now?”
“I want to live and love you for a thousand years!”
He laughed before he said,
“That would not be long enough for me! We will be together for Eternity, my precious, because we are no longer two people, but one, and nothing can ever divide us.”
Florencia gave a cry.
“Do you really believe that is true? I think it must be, because when I first met you I knew that you were the man who had been in my dreams.”
“Just as I knew that I had loved you in the portraits I had seen of you painted by Raphael nearly four hundred years ago, but I had no idea that you were alive!”
&n
bsp; “But – I am!” Florencia said.
“I have to convince myself it is true.”
His lips were very close to hers and his hand was moving over the softness of her body.
“You are quite certain you will not suddenly vanish?” he asked. “You will not go back onto the canvas on the wall so that I shall be left yearning for you and finding every other woman disappointing because she is not you?”
“I am human! I am human!”
The way Florencia spoke made his lips find hers and he kissed her at first very gently, as if she was infinitely precious.
Then, as he felt her quiver against his body and he knew that he was awakening a little flame within her, his kisses became more insistent and more demanding.
When he released her lips Florencia said,
“I never guessed that – love was like – this!”
“Like what?”
“So – overwhelming – so strong and also like a – burning fire.”
“Real love is like nature itself,” Lord Mere said a little unsteadily, “like the leaves on the trees, the snowy peaks of the mountains and the deep green depths of the sea. It is also the burning sun that runs through our bodies like fire.”
“That is what – happens to me when you – kiss me,” Florencia whispered, “and, when you – love me, the flames seem to – consume me completely so that I want to be part of you – ”
Lord Mere drew in his breath.
Then he was kissing her again, kissing her until the fire blazed in them both.
He could feel her heart beating beneath his and knew that she wanted him as he wanted her and they were neither of them complete without each other.
Then, as the flames within them swept them up into the sky, they became one with the burning sun, while the stars still twinkled around them.
Lord Mere knew that he had found in the woman, who belonged to him and who was his wife, the beauty that he had sought and which moved him so deeply besides the faith that had guided him, inspired him and helped him when he most needed it.
This was love in all its glory, the love that is eternal and which is life itself.
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Miracle For a Madonna Page 13
