“Of course I want to marry you, but I am frightened to ask the question in case you say ‘no’. But I want you, I need you and I am never going to lose you!”
He was then kissing her again.
Kissing her until she felt her body melt into his and they were flying into the sky and touching the stars one by one.
Only when he raised his head did she ask,
“How could you have driven so far? How did you find me?”
The Earl laughed.
“I started off on Monday as soon as the Inspector, who had come down from London, disappeared. Newman told me in a whisper not to mention that you were in the house or had ever been present.”
He smiled at her before he continued,
“He had already told me that it was you who had saved my life and that he was to take the blame for the shooting.”
As he was speaking, the Earl sat on a small sofa and pulled Iona down beside him.
With his arms round her it was impossible for her to move.
“I followed you, my precious darling, as I knew instinctively that you would go South. I had a feeling that it was the North that intimidated you for some reason.”
Iona thought just as she had felt things about him which were fey that he felt the same about her.
“I then followed you from place to place,” he said, “after all, a girl as young and as beautiful as you, moving about the country and driving without a groom would be sure to be noticed.”
Iona grinned.
“I did not think about that.”
“Did you think about me?” the Earl asked.
“Of course – I did.”
Even as she spoke, she was thinking how wonderful it was that he loved her.
He did not know who she was or where she came from.
He just loved her because she was herself.
Then, as he knew what she was thinking, he said,
“We have so much to tell each other, but the only issue that really matters is that you love me. I knew it when you talked to me when I was unconscious.”
Iona gasped.
“I knew it,” the Earl went on, “when you massaged my head and I felt your fingers putting your life force into my body.”
“You are not really well enough to travel so far, so quickly,” Iona pointed out.
The Earl chuckled.
“I felt you would say that. But you can be certain that I will stay here tonight and tomorrow and then we will be married.”
There was a moment’s silence.
Then Iona, hiding her face against him, murmured,
“It is not as easy as that.”
The Earl stared at her.
“What can you mean by that? You are not already married?”
“Of course not!” she replied. “It is just that I am not who you think I am.”
“I know everything about you that I want to know,” he told her, “and I love you just as you are. If you commit murder or steal a fortune, it’s of no interest to me. What I want is you! You are tied to me as my wife for the rest of our lives.”
He spoke almost sharply and in a different tone he added,
“I believe, my precious one, that we will be very very happy.”
“I know we will,” Iona said, “and I think it is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened that you love me for myself, knowing nothing about me.”
“I know all I want to know,” the Earl repeated. “You are beautiful, you are perfect and you belong to me. There is nothing else that could matter to either of us.”
Iona thought of her large family and then she said in a rather small voice,
“If we are to be married – I must tell you – who I am.”
“Does it matter? You will take my name and that is what I want you to do. Quite frankly I am not interested in anything else.”
Iona laughed simply because it was all so unusual.
She felt that they were riding on a cloud and the world beneath them was, as he had said, of no significance.
She put her head against his shoulder and asked,
“Can this really be happening to me? I was just so miserable at leaving you because I believed that I would never see you again.”
“How could you have done anything so cruel?” the Earl said. “When I heard that you had gone, I nearly went mad.”
“Did you really think you would find me?”
“I thought, or perhaps you inspired me to think, that you would go South. When I came to the first place where you had stayed, they recognised you as the lady who had come alone and so the publican had taken you to his wife.”
“They were very kind, but I was apprehensive.”
“Of course you were. Did you really think that you could go about alone, unchaperoned and unprotected?”
“I had to go – away,” Iona said again.
“And leave me?” he questioned. “Why should you want to do that unless there is another man in your life?”
Now there was a harshness in his voice and he was staring at her as he had when he had first arrived.
“No! No! There is no one else. At least, I suppose in a way there was, because I promised to marry him and then found out that he loved someone else and was only marrying me for – ”
She stopped for a moment before she whispered,
“ – my fortune. I am very rich.”
The Earl stared at her and then he laughed.
“I don’t believe it! How can you be very rich and be working as my cook?”
“It was such a perfect way to hide,” Iona replied. “My wedding was planned for the day I ran away.”
“Did you love this man?” the Earl enquired.
“Not as I love you,” Iona answered truthfully. “In fact I did not know love could be so overwhelming and so different to anything I have ever felt before.”
The Earl pulled her closer to him.
“You are mine, mine completely and, my darling, I will teach you about love, the real love that you and I have for each other.”
He gave a deep sigh and added,
“That is why I nearly went mad when I found that you had gone and Newman had no idea where you were.”
“I ran away because the Police were coming and I thought that the newspapers would take up the story and the fact that, if they discovered that I was your cook when I had run away on the day I was supposed to marry someone else, it would make such a story that it would be headlines in every newspaper.”
“Of course it would,” the Earl said. “But you have still not told me who you are.”
“I don’t suppose you would know if I do tell you,” Iona replied. “Perhaps you will not want to marry me – ”
The Earl laughed and drew her a little closer.
“I want to marry you if you have committed every crime in the book and, even if you are a criminal, I will somehow get you reprieved.”
“I am not quite that bad! “But I learnt on the day before I was to be married that the man who was to be my husband was marrying me for my money, but was really in love with someone else who he could not marry because he was so poor.”
“So you ran away,” the Earl observed.
Iona nodded.
“I came to you because you wanted a cook and I felt that no one would ever find me if I was buried in your kitchen.”
“That is certainly true, but I still don’t know your name.”
“You may well have heard of my father,” Iona said, “who was Lord Langdale. He was very important in the Government. My real name is Iona Langdale.”
She sighed before she continued,
“When Papa died, he left me an enormous fortune and I have always been afraid that someone would marry me, as John was trying to do, for my money.”
“Well, I have no need of your money, Iona. Thanks to you I can spend my own. One thing we have to do is to put the house back as it should be, although I think I hate it for all the misery and unhappiness it has caused me these past
years.”
“Then I would like you to see my house,” Iona answered. “Although I don’t have such a fine collection of antiques and pictures as you have, I think you would enjoy the stables and the horses that my father left me.”
The Earl laughed.
“I just don’t understand this conversation,” he said. “Here I have been starving myself for years, living in utter discomfort and misery and now between us we have almost too much to cope with!”
“For you to cope with,” Iona corrected. “After all I want my husband to run the place, while I just try to look beautiful for him.”
The Earl laughed again.
“There will be certainly no difficulty about that and how quickly, my precious Iona, can we be married before anyone tries to snatch you away from me?”
“I don’t want anyone to know we are married until we actually are. I could not bear a grand Reception with everyone whispering that I had thrown over John, who is really a very nice man, because I wanted a better title.”
“That is just the sort of thing they would say,” he said, “and one we must avoid. I had already planned what I would do when I found you and that I will put into action tomorrow long before anyone finds us or even begins to look for us.”
“Please explain what you mean?” she begged.
“I thought and I admit it was because I did not want my relations to think that, because you were a cook, you were not good enough for me. So to save any trouble and also to avoid having to obtain a Special Licence that we would be married at sea.”
“How could we do that?” Iona asked.
“Very easily now that you have found my fortune for me. I have a good friend who has been pestering me for ages to buy his yacht as he wants a new one. Actually it is extremely comfortable as I found on several journeys abroad with him.”
“So we will be married at sea,” Iona reiterated. “That is very clever of you.”
“We will be married at sea and no one will know we are married until we come back from our honeymoon. As you know, a marriage performed at sea by the Captain of the ship is totally legal. If you want a big Reception when we return, you shall have it.”
“I don’t want anything – but to be alone with you,” Iona whispered.
He held her so tightly that it was almost painful and then she said,
“I am sure that this is all too much for you in one day. If we are to be married tomorrow, then I suggest that you go to bed now in case you collapse and I have to nurse you all over again.”
“The doctor said that I was perfectly well as long as I ate plenty of good food and did not exert myself, but you made me exert myself to find you and now you have to look after me and make me strong enough to keep you my prisoner for all Eternity!”
Iona smiled.
“A very willing prisoner. Oh, Michael, I love you so much. It was agony leaving you.”
“It was agony for me finding that you had gone and it must never happen again. Just promise me one thing, my darling, that you will never love anyone but me and we will be happy with our children for ever and ever.”
He spoke so seriously that Iona replied,
“Of course I promise all those things. Our children will have two enormous homes to enjoy themselves in.”
“That is just what you would say and I admire you for saying it. But, my beloved, we will, neither of us, ever be bored. I am certain that everything which matters to us will always be unexpected, will always be an adventure and eventually a happiness that will carry us into a perfect Heaven of our own.”
Iona put her arm round his neck.
“How could you say anything so wonderful? It is exactly what I want to hear. I love you, I adore you and, as you say, I know that we will be very happy and it will all be marvellous.”
The Earl rose to his feet and pulled her to hers.
“We will go to bed,” he said, “and tomorrow we will travel to my friend at Bournemouth and go onto his yacht. He wrote to me a week ago to say it was available if I ever wanted it.”
He paused before he went on,
“I thought then I could not even afford the expense of reaching him. Now, with the vast fortune you found for me, the world is ours and we will be married tomorrow as soon as we are at sea. Then my darling, I will teach you about love.”
Iona drew in her breath and hid her face against his shoulder.
“It is all too marvellous to be true,” she sighed. “I feel so happy I think I must have reached Heaven already.”
“I will make you happier still,” the Earl promised. “Now, my darling, you need your beauty sleep.”
“That is what I should be now saying to you. Oh, Michael, is this really happening or am I dreaming?”
“I will tell you tomorrow morning,” he answered.
He took her hand in his and drew her from the little room and up the stairs.
She found that his bedroom was next to hers and she could see a large trunk that Newman must have packed for him.
He took her to the door of her room and kissed her very gently.
“I love you and adore you,” he said. “But tonight I know that I have to be well for tomorrow, which will be the most important day of my life. So I am going to bed to dream about you, but tomorrow night will be very very different.”
He kissed her again gently.
Then before she realised just what was happening he had gone into his room and closed the door.
She went to her room and saw that the bed had been turned down and her nightgown laid out for her.
Before she began to undress she went down on her knees.
In a prayer that came from the depths of her heart she said,
‘Thank you, God! Thank You! I have found him and he has found me and we will be unbelievably happy.’
Then because everything was so wonderful and so perfect, she felt the tears come into her eyes.
Only now they were tears of love.
The Love that comes from God, belongs to God and would be theirs for all Eternity.
Where to buy other titles in this series
The Barbara Cartland Pink collection is available for download at the following online bookshops :-
www.barnesandnoble.com - epub format for the Nook eReader
www.whsmith.co.uk - epub format for the Smiths/Kobo eReader
www.firstyfish.com - epub format
ebookstore.sony.com - epub format for Sony eReaders
www.amazon.co.uk - For UK Kindle users
www.amazon.com - For international Kindle users
itunes.apple.com - for Apple iOS users
www.barbaracartland.com - Printed paperbacks
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