He gave a sigh before he added,
“At least now there need be no more secrets between us. But we have no time to do anything but leave as they think we have already done.”
He moved ahead of Giovanna, climbing down the secret stairway and opening the panel into the bedroom so that she could see her way more clearly.
At the same time he helped her, putting each of her small naked feet on the rungs of the ladder until as she stood beside him he held her against him and kissed her gently.
“I love you,” he sighed, “and love is stronger than evil and invincible even against the most unpleasant thugs I have ever encountered.”
“Can you – really save – Grandmama?”
She spoke in little gasps and the Duke knew that it was because she was pulsating from his kiss and in the light from the fire he could see that her eyes were shining and seemed to fill her whole face.
He took her back into the bedroom and, pulling open the bedclothes, lifted her into it.
“Now stay there and rest,” he ordered, “while I set the wheels rolling. As you are well aware, they have to roll very quickly.”
Giovanna looked at him and there were no words to express what she was feeling.
He wanted to kiss her to reassure her that they would win, but he knew that time was important and without saying anything more he went from the room to ring the bell for Ross and start dressing.
Because both the Duke and Ross were used to emergencies when a few seconds could mean the difference between life and death, they actually drove away from The Castle only an hour and a half later.
Mrs. Sutherland had produced some clothes for Giovanna to wear, which the Duke knew had belonged to his aunt.
She had fortunately been a small woman and, although the clothes were simple and suitable to be worn only in Scotland, the Duke reckoned that it was of primary importance that Giovanna should be clothed somehow.
What Mrs. Sutherland did produce in case she was cold was a slightly old-fashioned but very beautiful sable fur coat that the Duke’s aunt had worn in the last years of her life.
It was, he thought, a very sensible garment that would protect Giovanna from the cold.
He thought too he could wrap her in it so that she could sleep as much as possible on what was going to be a very arduous journey, even for someone in good health.
Ross, of course, was invaluable and it was he who alerted the coachman and got the travelling carriage drawn by four horses ready in record time.
It was the Duke who suggested that they should leave from the stables rather than from the front door, just in case Kane Horn’s men were still watching The Castle, even though he thought it unlikely.
Actually he was certain that by whatever means they had arrived from Dalbeth House, they would now have returned and would be making their plans to leave as they were for Italy.
Whatever way they travelled, whether by sea or by road to the nearest Railway Station, he and Giovanna must get ahead of them.
He knew now he had been right in thinking that Kane Horn was Italian.
He may have been living in America, but it was obvious from what he had said that his home was in Italy, doubtless in Naples itself.
The Dowager Countess would have told him of the immense fortune that Jane had inherited, but he might have also heard it talked about and exclaimed over locally.
There was a great deal that the Duke wanted to know and to understand and some of his questions would obviously be answered when he could talk to Giovanna.
However for the moment all that mattered was speed.
He had to make arrangements to see that he had enough money for the journey and also to make some explanation to the Clan.
Hastily, while Ross was packing, he sat down at his desk and wrote to Sir Iain McCaron.
He told him that he had been sent for by the Secretary of State for India to give an account of what had happened on the Northwest Frontier just before he came home.
“You will understand,” he wrote in a neat upright hand, “that it is a request I cannot refuse, as officially I am still a Serving Officer. I will, however, return as soon as I possibly can, but, as I know you are aware, these enquiries, which incidentally are Top Secret, often take a long time.
Will you therefore make my apologies to the Dowager Countess whom I invited to stay this coming weekend and also her stepdaughter? Tell the elders of the Clan that I am in my absence leaving everything in your hands.
Go ahead with the repairs that are of immediate necessity and I enclose a cheque for the wages and any urgent demands that have to be met before my return.”
He then wrote a cheque, which he knew would, together with the money he required for the journey, use up his entire bank balance and leave him in debt for the future, but it seemed of little importance.
It was not money that worried him at that moment, but lives, the most important being Giovanna’s.
He finished his letter to Sir Iain and, as he sealed it, he thought that not only was he engaged in one of the most dangerous exploits he had ever undertaken, he had also, although he could hardly believe it himself, fallen wildly and head-over-heels in love.
It seemed impossible that it should have happened so quickly.
Yet his instinct, which he never denied, told him that what he was feeling now was not only different from anything he had ever felt before for a woman, but was something so fundamentally wonderful that it marked the beginning of a new life that he had never dreamt of or expected.
Carrying the letter to Sir Iain in his hand, he went from his desk to find, as he expected, the Steward in charge of the household waiting for him outside.
“I understands Your Grace has to go South,” the old man remarked.
He was obviously a trifle bemused at being woken so hastily in the middle of the night.
“It is something I have to do, Donald,” the Duke replied. “I know that you will look after everything while I am away. What is important is that I want nobody outside The Castle itself to know that we left during the night. Instead, if you are asked, will you say I drove away late in the afternoon.”
The Steward looked surprised, but he replied stolidly,
“You can rely on me to say what Your Grace wishes.”
“Thank you, Donald, and the less it is talked about the better. Of course, as Mrs. Sutherland will tell you, no one except those you can trust must be aware that there was a young lady with me.”
“I’ll see to it, Your Grace.”
The Duke did not say any more, but quickly ran down some stairs and along a passage, which carried him through a side door that led directly to the stables.
The carriage was ready and he found Ross and Mrs. Sutherland had already taken Giovanna downstairs and she was waiting for him in the carriage.
He thought, as he gazed at her in the light of the stable lamps, that she looked very lovely enveloped in his aunt’s sable coat and with a little sable-trimmed bonnet on her fair hair.
“Now you take care of yourself,” Mrs. Sutherland was saying, “and drink your milk at least three times a day. Promise me.”
“I will do my best,” Giovanna answered. “And thank you, dear Mrs. Sutherland, for being so kind.”
There was a little sob in her voice as she spoke and the Duke had the feeling that she was afraid that she was saying goodbye, not only to Mrs. Sutherland but also to The Castle.
He touched Mrs. Sutherland on the shoulder as he climbed into the carriage.
Then, as the wheels started to move, he knew Ross that had jumped up onto the box and the luggage they were taking with them was already on top of the carriage and strapped on behind.
He took Giovanna’s hand in his and said,
“Now we are off on the last lap of our adventure and, as we are going together, I hope that you think it is rather exciting!”
She turned her face towards him.
As it was not yet dawn, although the moonlight and star
s were fading from the sky, he could not see the expression in her eyes.
But there was a little catch in her voice as she asked,
“You – are not angry – with me for not – telling you who – I was?”
“I wish you had trusted me,” the Duke answered, “but at the same time I guessed.”
“How could you – have guessed?”
“I think the most convincing thing was that you kept your own name.”
He felt her fingers stiffen in surprise before she asked,
“You knew that Giovanna means ‘Jane’ in Italian?”
“I am not entirely an ignoramus!”
“No, of course not,” she replied, “but few people would have known and I told Papa in a letter that it was what the girls called me at the Convent.”
“So your stepmother told you that you were to be ‘Giovanna’.”
“Yes.”
He saw a little shiver go through her as she spoke of her stepmother and he said quickly,
“We are not going to talk about it now because there is a long journey in front of us. It is a story I want you to tell me to pass the hours, but I don’t want it to upset you.”
“How can I – help being – upset when I have involved – you in something so – terrible.”
“I think you know I love you and I would loathe and detest not being involved in anything that concerns you.”
He felt her fingers cling to his as she said,
“Only you would say – something so – wonderful, and if you – love me – I have loved you from the very first moment I looked at you after you had – taken me away from the cascade.”
“We are not going to talk about the cascade,” the Duke said, “for the simple reason it frightens me to think that I might have lost you. All I want to talk about now is our love and to tell you that I have been looking for you all my life. But I had become convinced that you did not exist, when suddenly, like a miracle, you are here!”
He paused for a moment before he added, his voice very deep,
“You are mine, Giovanna, and I will never lose you!”
Chapter Six
As the French train left Calais the Duke heaved a sigh of relief.
At the same time he could not help feeling a little amused that in his new position life was smoothed for him in a manner that he could hardly have believed possible.
When they reached Inverness Station, he had sent a number of telegrams from the Station Master’s Office asking for a Courier to meet him in London and for arrangements to be made for his journey to Naples.
The Station Master was obviously impressed with the stature of the Duke of Invercaron.
When he and Giovanna were escorted by several officials into two reserved sleeping compartments with Ross in an adjoining compartment, he thought that it was very different from the way he had had to scramble for a seat in the past.
Giovanna was already tired and the Duke had a sleeping berth made up and insisted on her lying down.
She had, as he knew, been nervous that something might happen to her on the journey and, although he had promised her that it was perfectly safe once the train was moving, he realised that when night came she would be terrified to be alone in the dark.
He was also half-afraid that by some unfortunate coincidence Kane Horn might board the same train.
He therefore had the second bunk in Giovanna’s compartment made up and he lay on it without undressing.
He saw that because he was with her, for the first time since leaving The Castle, she fell into a deep sleep.
He was sure that because she loved him she would not be as agitated as she would have been otherwise.
He was certain of this when they sat talking together in a private cabin while they crossed the English Channel.
He was half-afraid that she would be upset by the sea, but he had the feeling, although he did not mention it, that because she was so happy to be with him and to know that he loved her, she was hardly aware of anything else.
The Courier, who had been engaged for him by the Railway Authorities at St. Pancras Station was a competent man who spoke, he assured the Duke, both French and Italian.
As soon as he understood exactly what was required, he sent urgent telegrams to all the necessary authorities with the result that not only did they have a private cabin on the ship, but also, which the Duke had never enjoyed before, a private coach attached to the Express waiting at Calais.
Giovanna was delighted.
“I have always heard that the Queen travels like this,” she smiled, “but now I know that a Duke is just as Royal!”
The Duke laughed.
“Not exactly,” he said, “but I am pleased that you will be more comfortable than you might otherwise have been.”
Their coach was very luxurious and there were two sleeping compartments with brass bedsteads in them and everything else fitted to the walls.
“It’s like having a little house all to ourselves,” Giovanna exclaimed.
“That is what we will have very soon,” the Duke said quietly.
She looked up at him and he saw the happiness in her eyes, which was then replaced by an expression of apprehension over what lay ahead.
The Duke took off the bonnet she had travelled in and unbuttoned her coat, but he did not remove it in case she should feel cold.
“Come and sit down,” he suggested. “As soon as the train starts, Ross is going to serve us with dinner, which I have ordered ahead and I think that we both need a glass of champagne.”
“All I want is that the train – should go very very quickly,” Giovanna replied.
The Duke knew that she was frantic in case Kane Horn should arrive in Naples before they did.
To reassure her he said,
“I am prepared to bet a large sum of money, which I do not possess, that we are way ahead of our enemies and remember that they will not have the same ‘Royal’ facilities as we have.”
He thought that she was reassured and knew it would be a mistake to go on talking of what lay in the future, about which he was extremely apprehensive.
On his instructions the Courier had already sent telegrams to the Chief of Police in Naples, but, knowing how indolent the Italians could sometimes be, the Duke wondered if his title would carry as much weight in a foreign country as it did in England.
He was also worried about Giovanna in case she should collapse on such an arduous journey, being still so weak.
There was, however, nothing he could do about that except cosset her in every way he could and Ross was even more insistent than he was that she should rest.
They ate a delicious meal provided, the Duke was aware, by the best hotel in Calais, which therefore cost a considerable sum of money.
When it was finished, Ross urged Giovanna,
“Now come along, miss. You know what Mrs. Sutherland’d say if she was with us, that you mustna dare open your eyes until it’s daylight.”
Giovanna laughed and the Duke thought that it was a very pretty sound.
“I think you are bullying me,” she protested, “but I admit I am actually very tired.”
Ross went ahead to open the door that led into her bedroom and she looked at the Duke.
“I will come and kiss you good night,” he said, “but now you must do as Ross says.”
She gave him a little smile and walked slowly, holding onto the chairs as she passed them, through the open door.
After a short while Ross came back.
“Now dinna you worry, Your Grace,” he said. “Her Ladyship’ll be fine.”
It was the first time that he had referred to her in her rightful style and the Duke looked at him reflectively before he asked,
“You are aware, Ross, who Miss Giovanna really is?”
“I had my suspicions, Your Grace, from the very beginnin’,” Ross replied, “but I didna want to have my head snapped off, if I had suggested it to you.”
The Duke smiled and asked
,
“What made you suspicious?”
“The way that young woman at Dalbeth House looked the first night we dined there,” Ross answered. “I saw her coming down to dinner after you went into the drawing room and I said to meself, ‘she’s not a Scot or I’ll eat me bonnet!’”
“That was very clever of you,” the Duke said. “I did not at the time suspect that she was an impostor, but merely oversophisticated and overpainted in a way that would certainly shock our Clansmen.”
“She shocked the Macbeths right enough,” Ross said. “You should have heard what they said aboot her in the servants’ hall!”
The Duke could imagine how horrified the old servants would have been that any girl so young and also their Chieftain should be powdered and painted in a manner that they would have expected of a harlot.
“I saw the men, Your Grace,” Ross said as he took the glasses from the table, “and we’ll have to have our wits aboot us to cope with them.”
“I know that,” the Duke agreed quietly, “but whatever happens we must avoid upsetting Lady Sinclair who, I understand, is in very delicate health.”
He knew by the expression on Ross’s face that he thought this might be an impossibility, but he did not say anything before retiring to the small kitchen that lay at the other end of the coach.
There was a folding bed in it and the Duke was glad that Ross was near him and did not, as often happened, have to get off at the first stop in order to transfer to one of the Third Class carriages.
The Courier, however, had been clever enough to ensure that they were attached to an Express and there was actually only one stop between Calais and Paris.
They reached Paris early in the morning. Although the Duke was up and dressed he did not disturb Giovanna and, when later he peeped into her compartment, she was still asleep.
She had in fact been almost asleep when he went, as he had promised, to say good night to her.
He had therefore kissed her only very gently.
Because she was looking so lovely with her fair hair falling over the pillow he longed to stay talking to her and kissing her.
But he realised that she was completely exhausted and, almost before he left, her eyes were closed and she was drifting away into unconsciousness.
The Devilish Deception Page 10