“Are we – going straight – to Greece?” Ursa asked.
The Marquis shook his head.
“I am planning something very special in my mind, which I think, my darling, will make you happy, but we will talk about it later. Now I want to go home where Grandmama is waiting to tell you that you are the answer to her prayers.”
He kissed her again before she could speak and then she left him to go upstairs to her bedroom.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Marquis looked around the room where they had been together.
He saw the books that belonged to her father and thought that if a woman could understand them, the more ordinary problems of everyday business should be easy.
‘She is unique.’ he told himself. ‘I know that loving her is going to make my life very different in the future to what it has been in the past.’
He could not help thinking that what he had done in India and in Greece seemed satisfactory.
Yet quite a large part of his life had been spent in pursuing beautiful women.
He had been aware since he had been at school and University that he was brighter than most of his contemporaries.
He thought now that Ursa would inspire him to achieve more than even he expected in his wildest ambitions.
It did not seem possible that anyone so beautiful should also be so clever.
He knew instinctively that he was not mistaken and that the future ahead of them was paved with gold.
When Ursa came downstairs, she went first into the kitchen and told the old couple that she was going to Charnwood Court.
“That’ll be real nice for you, Miss Ursa,” they said.
She also told them that her father was married.
They were extremely surprised.
At the same time they were not as nervous of having a new Mistress as she was afraid they might have been.
“Papa will be returning here sometime,” she said at length, “and so will I. I know you will look after everything for us and I will arrange to send you wages every week.”
“It sounds as if you too are going abroad, Miss Ursa,” the old man servant said.
“Well, I may do,” Ursa replied. “If you need anything or anything goes wrong, then tell the Vicar. You know he will help you in any way he can.”
“Nothing’ll go wrong while we’re in charge!” the couple said in unison.
A few minutes later Ursa drove away with the Marquis and they waved to her quite happily.
They did not resent her leaving as she was afraid they might have been.
The Marquis had his magnificent team to drive.
Every time he stole a quick glance at Ursa he thought she looked more beautiful than the time before.
She was in feeling that he was carrying her away from all the loneliness and unhappiness she had been so afraid of.
He was taking her to a paradise that she had imagined was only in her heart and thought would never actually be hers.
“I love – you, I love – you,” she wanted to say to the Marquis over and over again.
Because she was concerned that he might think it over demonstrative, she only sat a little nearer to him.
Occasionally she put her hand on his knee.
As they were travelling so fast, they did not talk very much.
Finally Charnwood Court came in sight.
It looked even more like a Fairy Palace, Ursa thought, than the first time she had seen it.
‘Is it really possible?’ she asked herself as they drove under the old oak trees, ‘that I am to be married to a Fairytale Prince?’
He was in a way still as unreal as if he had stepped out of a picture book.
Because he knew what she was feeling, the Marquis did not say anything until the horses came to a standstill outside the front door.
Then he said very softly,
“Welcome home, my darling.”
She smiled at him.
Then, as the grooms came running from the stables, the footmen opened the door of the chaise.
They stepped out to walk up the red carpet and in through the front door.
“Is her Ladyship downstairs?” the Marquis asked Hutton, who was waiting for them.
“Yes, my Lord, her Ladyship is in the drawing room.”
Taking Ursa by the hand, the Marquis walked into the room.
As Ursa expected, the Dowager was sitting in the window with the evening sun shining on her white hair.
They were not announced and only when they were halfway across the room did Lady Brackley say,
“Is that you, Guy?”
“It is Grandmama and I have brought Ursa back with me.”
The Dowager rose to her feet and held out her arms.
“I am so glad, so very glad.”
The Marquis kissed her and then Ursa did the same.
“You have something to tell me?” the Dowager enquired.
“We are to be married as quickly as possible, Grandmama,” the Marquis replied.
“That is what I have prayed for. I know that Ursa is exactly the wife you should have.”
Because she spoke with such sincerity, Ursa felt the tears come into her eyes.
“I never thought when I came – here that – this could – happen,” she stammered.
“I know that, dear child,” the Dowager said. “But, as you told me, people who are blind have a perception that those who can see do not have. I knew from the moment you came here pretending to be your sister that you were very different to her.”
She smiled and then said softly,
“Then I grew to love you and thought that perhaps you were the person God had sent for my favourite and most beloved grandson.”
“You were quite right Grandmama,” the Marquis said, “and now you must help us plan our wedding so that there is no talk, no scandal and no one need know anything about it until we are on our honeymoon.”
“That should not be too difficult for three minds that think alike,” the Dowager smiled.
They had a delicious dinner, the Marquis making them laugh with stories of his adventures in India.
He persuaded Ursa to relate all the places she had been with her father.
She told them about the unusual food she had enjoyed with different tribes in Africa and other parts of the East.
When finally the Dowager retired to bed, Ursa lingered in the drawing room for a few minutes.
“Are you happy?” the Marquis asked.
“So happy it is – impossible for me to put it – into – words,” Ursa replied,
“Then tomorrow you must play the piano for me,” he suggested.
It was something he had not mentioned until now.
“I want to listen to you and it makes it easier not to keep kissing you as I want to.”
“Easier?” Ursa asked rather surprised.
“I love you so overwhelmingly,” the Marquis said, “that I don’t want to frighten you as I did the other night, so I must wait until you are my wife to tell you how much I really love you.”
He knew as he spoke that Ursa did not really understand.
He was so thrilled by the fact that no other man had made love to her.
She had no idea how wildly and desperately he wanted her.
At the same time her purity and innocence were exactly what he had always desired in his wife.
He knew that no man could be more fortunate than he was in finding someone who was, as Ursa thought herself, another part of him.
Finally he took Ursa upstairs and kissed her gently before she went into her bedroom.
He walked to his own room, thanking God as he did so that she was so utterly and completely different from the women he had had fiery affairs with that had soon faded away.
It was difficult even after a short time to recall their faces and their charms.
As he climbed into bed, he was thinking of how he would make Ursa’s wedding so beautiful so that they would both remember it for the rest of th
eir lives.
To Ursa every day was more like a Fairytale.
The Marquis consulted his grandmother and then he said,
“I want to send a messenger to the best shops in Bond Street.”
He wrote down exactly what he required and also his housekeeper took Ursa’s measurements.
The next day what seemed to Ursa a mountain of clothes arrived escorted by a very intelligent and skilled vendeuse.
On the Marquis’s instructions she was helped into the dresses one after the other.
She then paraded in the boudoir opening out of her bedroom.
The Marquis could see what she was wearing and he described it to his grandmother,
He was very firm in what he favoured and the way he wanted her to look.
Once or twice, because the gown she was wearing seemed to her so beautiful, she wanted to argue with him.
When he shook his head, she knew that he was not thinking of the gown itself.
He was deciding whether it was the right frame for her looks, her hair and her figure.
‘Nothing really matters,’ she told herself, ‘as long as he admires me and thinks I am beautiful.’
She was still afraid that she might wake up and find it had all been a dream.
She worried that the Marquis really admired women like her sister and she had just been deceived into thinking that he worshipped her.
Finally the dresses were all chosen and the special licence, obtained from the Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived.
Ursa was told that they were to be married the following morning and would then set off on their honeymoon.
“Where are we going?” she asked the Marquis.
“That is a secret,” he answered. “But I think, my darling, you will find it very exciting.”
“All I – want is to be – with you,” Ursa said simply.
He gave a little laugh and then replied,
“Strangely enough that is what I want too.”
They looked at each other and, although he did not move, Ursa felt that he was kissing her.
At the same time she knew that his love for her like hers for him deepened every time they were alone together.
When she went to bed that night, she prayed very hard that God would bless their marriage.
She prayed that she would never lose the Marquis and he would go on loving her as he did now.
‘Please God, help me,’ Ursa prayed. ‘I know so little about his world and I cannot lose him.’
When finally she got into bed, she felt as if the stars shining outside the window were telling her that her prayers had been heard.
The help she needed was there whenever she asked for it.
The Marquis had arranged that they were to be married at ten o’clock, which was not too early for his grandmother.
He had chosen for Ursa a very beautiful white chiffon gown.
It clung to her body until it reached her waist.
Then it swung out into a very full skirt with frill upon frill trailing behind her.
It was simple and yet it made her look translucent.
At the same time she looked spiritual as if she had just stepped down from the clouds.
The lace veil in her hair was very fine and the Marquis gave her a diamond tiara that belonged to his mother to wear over it.
“It was something I always hoped my wife would wear on my wedding day,” the Marquis said. “And now at last, my darling, you shall have your engagement ring, which I should have given you before.”
The ring had a diamond shaped like a heart.
It had been fitted for the third finger of her left hand.
First he kissed her hand and then the ring before he put it on.
“I know that it will bring us both luck,” he said, “and luck as far as we are concerned is something called love.”
“It is beautiful,” Ursa cried. “Thank you – thank – you.”
Also to wear on her wedding morning was a diamond necklace and two small but very attractive diamond earrings.
When she was ready, the Marquis was waiting for her in the boudoir.
When she came in, he just stood and looked at her.
“That is exactly how I want you to look,” he said, “and how I shall think of yon for the rest of our lives together.”
She thought he would kiss her, but instead he handed her a bouquet that was made entirely of white orchids.
He offered her his arm.
They went from the boudoir and down the staircase that avoided the servants in the hall.
It took them directly to the Chapel at the back of The Court.
It was a very beautiful Chapel, exquisitely painted.
The sun shone through a number of stained glass windows in a golden haze.
The candles were lit on the altar and there were flowers everywhere, all of them white.
They had been chosen, Ursa knew, because the Marquis believed that they resembled her.
The Chaplain was waiting and the Dowager Lady Brackley was sitting in the front pew.
The organ, which was hidden at the back of the Chapel, was playing very softly.
But it was impossible to see who was playing it.
Because the marriage was secret, the Marquis had no Best Man and the only witnesses were to be his Chaplain and his grandmother.
The Chaplain read the Marriage Service with a deep sincerity.
It made Ursa feel that every word was a blessing from God Himself.
When they knelt again and the organ was still playing softly, she felt as if the angels were singing overhead.
She and the Marquis were under the partition of Heaven.
When they rose from their knees without speaking, the Marquis took Ursa out of the Chapel and up the stairs they had just come down.
When they entered the boudoir, he took her to the communicating door to her bedroom.
He stopped and raised her hand to his lips.
First he kissed the finger which encircled his wedding ring and then her hand.
“We depart as soon as you are ready, my precious,” he breathed.
Then he left her.
The maids, who had waited on her before she went downstairs, helped her change into a travelling gown with a cloak over it.
She had a very attractive bonnet that would not blow too much in the wind as she knew that they would be travelling in the Marquis’s open chaise with his fastest team to draw it.
Although she did not know yet where they were going.
When she went back down the stairs, he was already changed and waiting for her.
Both he and his grandmother had a glass of champagne in their hands.
“We are drinking your health, dearest,” the Dowager said. “And you too must drink to what I am sure will be the happiest day of your life.”
“It is already,” Ursa said. “I have never been so happy and I think Guy is happy too.”
“I will tell you how happy I am when we reach our destination,” the Marquis replied.
Ursa still did not know what this was, but she knew that she must not ask questions.
Instead she drank a little champagne.
She kissed the Dowager goodbye.
“I shall miss you,” Lady Brackley said. “And, when you come home, I hope that you will ask me to stay here unless you would like to stay with me.”
“We will do both,” the Marquis said, “and we will write to you, Grandmama, and you must ask someone to write for you and tell us what you are doing.”
“I will do that,” the Dowager promised.
The Marquis kissed her and walked ahead and, as she kissed Ursa, she said,
“I cannot tell you, my dear, how delighted I am to have you in the family and to know that my precious grandson has found real happiness at last.”
“Thank you, that is a lovely thing to say,” Ursa said, “and I promise I will look after him.”
“Don’t forget, my dear,” the Dowager smiled.
Ursa said again,
“I will give him all my heart, now and for ever.”
She ran after the Marquis and he helped her into the chaise.
They set off with only a groom behind them on the back seat.
They drove very fast.
Only when they stopped for lunch at a large Posting inn did Ursa say a little tentatively,
“You know I am dying with curiosity to know where we are going.”
“You have not guessed?” the Marquis asked.
She shook her head.
“Well, my yacht is in Dover harbour,” he remarked.
She gave a little cry.
“We are going in a yacht? That is something I will really enjoy. When Papa and I went to a great number of places by ship, we always wished that we had a yacht of our own.”
“Well, that is what you have now,” the Marquis answered. “I have changed its name to The Sea Nymph.”
Ursa knew that that was what her name meant in Greek.
She thought it was very touching that he should have renamed it.
The Sea Nymph was certainly a surprise.
It was much larger than Ursa had expected.
She learnt that the Marquis had it built originally so that he could try out on it the new ideas that he had thought up for Battleships.
“I will tell you all about it later,” he said as they went aboard. “And now I am going to concentrate on one thing and one thing only and that is my wife.”
They had dinner in a house just outside Dover belonging to the Marquis.
It was what he sometimes used when he was going on a long journey that started early the following morning.
Alternatively he used it when he came back to England and it was too late to return home.
It was only a small house but beautifully furnished.
The servants were delighted that their Master was honouring them by his presence and cooked a very special dinner.
The dining room was decorated with flowers.
When they went aboard The Sea Nymph, Ursa found that the Master cabin, which filled the whole of the bow, was a bower of roses, lilies, orchids and every other white flower obtainable.
The Duke Is Deceived Page 11
