“My precious!” the Marquis murmured in his deep voice.
Then, as if he could not bear there to be a table between them, he stretched out his hands to draw her to her feet.
They walked from the dining room where they had sat for a long time and up the twisting oak staircase to the old-fashioned bedroom with its oak four-poster bed.
The room was lit only by three candles on a small table beside the blue-curtained bed and Kistna was aware that neither her maid nor the Marquis’s valet was waiting up for them.
As the Marquis closed the door behind him, she felt an excitement seep over her, which he thought once again gave her a beauty that was so exquisite and so spiritual that it could only be part of the Divine.
Then, as his arms went round her and his lips sought her, he knew that their love was very human.
He kissed her passionately and demandingly before he said,
“I adore you! But I will try to remember how young you are and I must not frighten you, my precious little love.”
“I shall never be frightened by you except when you are – angry with me,” Kistna answered. “You love me and I know that everything you do is perfect and part of God.”
“My darling, my wonderful little wife, I adore you.”
Then the Marquis was kissing her until there was no need for words and the Light of Love enveloped them until they were dazzled by the glory of it.
*
A long time later, when the candles were guttering low, Kistna said,
“I have just remembered something!”
“What is it, my precious?” the Marquis answered.
Then, as he looked at her lying against his shoulder, he put out his hand to touch her hair.
“How can you be so beautiful?”
“You are – quite sure you still – think so?”
He smiled.
“Every moment I am with you, every time I touch you,” he answered, “you seem more beautiful, more adorable until I am afraid.”
“Afraid?” she asked.
“That you might tire of me!”
She gave a little laugh of sheer happiness.
“That is the most marvellous compliment you could pay me and, when I think of how I looked when you rescued me, words like that are a present of the stars, the moon and the sun and no woman could ask for more.”
“There are so many things I want to give you,” the Marquis said, “but I agree that they could not compare with the stars, the moon and the sun!”
He pulled her closer and, with his lips against the softness of her skin, he said,
“I love you, everything you say, your quick little mind, your soft voice and your eyes! And as Peregrine said once, you have the most adorable small nose.”
“Peregrine said that?” Kistna enquired.
“He said a great many things about you,” the Marquis replied, “but, if you allow him to flirt with you or you become too fond of him, I shall be jealous.”
“There is – no need for you to feel jealous of anyone,” she said and now there was a passionate note in her voice. “I love you – and now that you have taught me how perfect and beautiful love can be, you can understand there is – no other man in the whole world – but you.”
The Marquis would have kissed her, but she went on,
“I was telling you what I have remembered and it is something I must do on my Wedding Day.”
“What is it?”
“I promised Mama that when I was married I would open a letter she gave me.”
“A letter?” the Marquis questioned.
Kistna’s voice was low as she continued,
“I think Mama had a presentiment that she and Papa might die from the cholera.”
The Marquis pulled her closer to him as she carried on,
“There were only a few cases at first, but the authorities were worried and, of course,. Papa insisted on doing everything he could to help.”
Kistna paused as if she was looking back into the past.
“One day Mama sat for a long time writing at her desk. Then she said to me, ‘bring me your Bible, the one Papa gave you!’ I fetched it from my bedroom and she very carefully opened the leather cover where it was attached inside.”
“Why did she do that?” the Marquis asked.
“She slipped the letter she had written into it and sealed it,” Kistna answered. “Then Mama said, ‘I do not want you to read this or even think about it until you are married. Then, on your Wedding Day, open it, unless I have told you in the meantime what the letter contains’.”
“You must have been curious,” the Marquis remarked.
“I was in a way,” Kistna answered, “but it did not seem very important and Mama – never spoke of it again.”
“But the Bible has always been with you.”
“I told you, it is the only possession I have.”
“Very well,” the Marquis said. “Open it now, before I prevent you from doing so.”
He kissed her shoulder as he spoke and she pushed the curtain aside and reached out to take her Bible, which was on the table beside the candles.
Then she sat up in bed and the Marquis lay back against the pillows watching her.
He thought it would be impossible to find anyone so lovely and so ethereal, at the same time so completely unselfconscious and so sensitive.
He knew that it was not only her love but also an intuition that most young girls did not have, which made her responsive to everything he asked of her.
He realised when he made love to her that he had found in one very young woman the completion of himself.
Because he loved her and was thinking more of her feelings than his own, they had both been aroused spiritually as well as physically to an ecstasy that was to the Marquis an experience he had never known and which seemed to him perfect in every way.
He knew now that his love for Kistna, which he had been so stupid not to recognise at first, had already deepened and developed until he was confident that he would make her as happy as she made him.
Never had he thought as he looked at her that any woman could arouse him as she did.
Nor had he known before a physical satisfaction combined with a spiritual rapture that ignited within him ideals and new ambitions that he was aware would, in the future, enrich his life.
Kistna had now drawn the closely written sheets of paper from the cover of her Bible.
She opened the folded sheets and the Marquis saw that there was an expression of sadness in her eyes as she thought of her mother.
He felt as if she moved away from him and instinctively he put out his hand to touch her.
As if she understood, she turned her head and smiled at him.
“Shall I read you what Mama says?” she asked. “I want to share this with you as we share everything else.”
“Of course, my precious.”
Kistna held the letter so that the light from the candles shone on it and in her soft musical voice she read,
“My dearest, most beloved daughter,
Just in case anything should ever happen to me I want to tell you a secret that I have no wish to speak to you about at the moment. And especially in front of Papa.
You know how happy we have been together, your father and I, and how I am the most fortunate woman in the world to love and be loved by a man who is so wonderful in every way that he could only have been sent to me by God. But, Kistna, to marry your father I had to do what most people would have said was a very reprehensible act, although it was a courageous one.
I have never talked to you about my family because it was too dangerous for Papa’s sake for me to do so.
Had my father been able to find him I know, because he was a very powerful and in many ways a vindictive man, he would have made us both suffer and perhaps have even destroyed Papa.”
As if she was astonished by what she had just read, Kistna looked quickly at the Marquis as if the very sight of him gave her comfort and a fe
eling of security.
“Go on, my precious one,” he said gently and she continued,
“My father was in fact, the seventh Earl of Branscombe! I was his younger daughter and I think without conceit he was fonder of me than of any of his other children. He was therefore very proud when Prince Frederick of Melderstein asked for my hand in marriage.
Needless to say I was not consulted as to whether or not I wished to marry him. I was just told how fortunate I was and that I should be overwhelmed with gratitude at the thought of wearing a Royal crown.
I too might have thought it would be an advantageous position in life had I not already fallen in love so overwhelmingly and so completely that for me there was no other man in the whole world.”
Kistna gave a little cry.
“That is what I feel for you,” she said to the Marquis.
“I will tell you what I feel for you, my lovely one,” he replied, “but finish the letter.”
Kistna continued,
“I had met your father when I was arranging the flowers in the Church. It was something I did every Saturday and it was one of the tasks that had been allotted to me for severed years.
He introduced himself as being the new Curate and we talked and after that we met every week, although, of course, my father and mother had no idea of it.
And because, as you yourself see, he is so handsome and so very very lovable, I fell wildly in love with him and I knew, although he said nothing, that he loved me too.
When I was told that my father had agreed that I should marry Prince Frederick, we both broke down and confessed what we felt for each other, but we knew that it was hopeless.
Your father said he could not bear to stay in Europe when I was married to the Prince, so he arranged through one of his relatives in the East India Company to go out to India as a Missionary.
It was known that the ban on Missionary work in India was to be lifted and, because your Papa was so eager to get away his relative agreed to help him with the fare so that he could go before the other Missionaries had their passages arranged for them.
It was not of your father’s choosing, but he learned that the ship he was to sail in would leave Tilbury the morning of my Wedding Day.
By the time I was beside myself at the thought of losing your father and being forced to marry the Prince, I found it impossible to take any interest in my trousseau, the presents or the expensive preparations that were being made for my Wedding.
Then, when the moment came to say ‘goodbye’, I knew that it was impossible for me to live without your father and, if I could not be with him, I would rather die.”
Kistna glanced at the Marquis and she knew what they were both thinking.
Then she went on reading,
“We met in the Church, which was already decorated with white flowers for my Wedding Ceremony the next day. Your father was dressed in his travelling clothes and he was to catch the stagecoach that stopped at the crossroads near the village at five o’clock that evening.
When we met, I knew that I could not let him go. ‘Take me with you,’ I begged. ‘Please take me with you! If you leave me behind, I will kill myself, because I cannot marry anyone but you!’
For a moment your father did not believe me. Then, when he realised that I spoke the truth from the very depths of my heart, he put his arms around me and I knew that I need no longer be afraid and that the future was ours!
I went with your father on the stagecoach just as I was. I did not go back to the house for anything in case they should stop me from leaving. We were married early in the morning by a very old Parson who fortunately, when I told him that I was older than I was, was too blind to see clearly.
We went aboard the ship together and nobody troubled about two unimportant Missionaries.
We learned a long time later that there had been a terrible commotion over my disappearance on the night before the Wedding and that it was suspected that I had been murdered. I was only glad that everyone should think that and not search for me, for otherwise your father might have been accused of abducting a minor or, worst of all, my father might have tried to annul the marriage.
When you read this, dearest little Kistna, it will mean l am no longer with you. But remember that I have been the happiest woman in the world because I was married to the man I loved, who loved me and who gave me the crown of love, which is more valuable than anything else.
Bless you, my darling, and I hope that, as this is your marriage night, you will find the same happiness that I have had, the same marvellous love that will keep and protect you all through your life.”
Kistna’s voice broke on the last words.
Then she put down the letter and the Marquis pulled her into his arms.
“Your mother and father loved as we love each other,” he said, “and we will be as happy as they were.”
Vaguely at the back of his mind he knew that the revenge he had wanted on the Earl of Branscombe was complete and that, because he could prove that the money the seventh Earl had settled on his daughter was now Kistna’s, he would remain financially handicapped until he could find another heiress.
It was poetic justice, but it did not matter and the Marquis knew that his revenge was quite unimportant.
What mattered was that he had found Kistna and love.
She had changed his life and he knew that he was not the same man nor would he ever revert to being hard, ruthless and, as Peregrine had said, ‘a monster’ again.
He was wildly deliriously happy and he wanted other people to be happy too. Not perhaps the Earl, that was too much to expect!
But at least he no longer felt vindictive towards him nor would he allow him to sour his feelings in the future as he had in the past.
As far as he was concerned, the only thing that mattered was Kistna’s happiness and that he knew because she loved him thatit was in his power to give it to her.
There were tears in her eyes now because she had been so moved by what she read and the Marquis kissed them away.
Then he kissed her little nose and her lips.
He kissed her until her sadness vanished and he knew that the fire that was rising within himself had ignited a flame within her that had flickered when he had made love to her.
Now it was more intense and, as his lips moved over the softness of her neck, he knew that, as she quivered against him, he evoked in her new sensations that she had not experienced before.
“I love – you,” she whispered breathlessly, “and you – excite me.”
“As you excite me,” the Marquis replied. “I want you – God, how I want you!”
“I am – yours – oh, love me – love me!”
Then, as his hands touched her, his lips held hers once again captive and, as his heart beat against hers, he knew she believed that he was St. Michael carrying her up towards the glory of Heaven.
He felt as if they touched the stars, the sun was burning within them and a light enveloped them.
Then there was only Love and they were one.
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
From Hell to Heaven Page 15
