*
The Viceroy’s private train carried the Duke and Duchess of Calverleigh away from Calcutta.
As Willy had said teasingly as they said goodbye, they looked very ‘posh’.
It was an extremely impressive train in white, red and gold and very comfortable.
There seemed to Solita an army of servants to look after them.
They were going to Simla, where the Viceroy had lent them his house, Peterhof, for their honeymoon.
High up in the hills among the trees and brilliant rhododendron bushes, it received the cool air from the mountains around it.
The Duke knew there would be no place in the whole of India so ideal and, where if they did not wish it, no one would disturb them.
He was desperate to have Solita to himself.
Although he tried not to think of it, he felt that every moment they were together was infinitely precious.
He was afraid that the Russian menace might be nearer to them than they suspected.
To Solita the train was a magic chariot carrying them away.
It did not matter where, so long as she was alone with the Duke to tell her of his love.
Because he was so experienced, he knew because she was so young and innocent that he must be very controlled and gentle.
Their marriage had been so different to what either of them might have expected.
The Duke was alive when he might by now be dead or injured.
As they both thought of it, they were swept into a rapture that was indescribable.
They were in the Heaven where Solita believed the Duke had taken her.
He had known that never in his long experience had he felt the ecstasy that Solita gave him.
There was also a reverence for her because she filled a shrine within his heart that had until now been empty.
He could only pray as he had never prayed before in the whole of his life that he would be worthy of her.
They talked together during the day.
Later in the bed that seemed to fill the whole carriage nothing could have been more perfect.
They were safe in the train guarded at every station by soldiers travelling with them and attendants who were completely loyal to the English.
There was so much to look at through the window, but the Duke found it hard to take his eyes off Solita.
She grew more beautiful every day as she responded to his love.
It seemed to make her shine as if there was a hidden light within her.
“I love you! I love you!”
They seemed to say the same words over and over again and yet they were always new.
Just before they reached Simla, Solita gave a little sigh.
“I wish we could travel on this train for ever and ever!” she said.
“That is how I would feel if I did not know that we shall be just as happy and alone at Peterhof,” the Duke replied.
Solita would have thought it was a funny name if she had not felt her heart beating excitedly because she and the Duke would still be together.
No one need come near them unless they wanted them.
It was only then, for the first time, she asked the frightening question.
They were lying in the huge comfortable bed in a room decked with flowers and the moon and stars were shining outside the windows.
“How long – will our honeymoon – last?”
“Until we are ready to return to the world where we both have a part to play,” the Duke replied.
“I feel I shall – never be – ready to do that!”
“That is how I feel too,” the Duke said, “but, my darling, some day we must be brave enough to go back. But for the moment I only want to make love to you. I feel as if we have reached the very edge of the world.”
Solita put out her arms to draw his head down to hers.
“How could – anything be more – enchanting?” she asked, “and if this is a dream – I never want to – wake up!”
“I will make sure you never do. As long as we are together, my darling, the magic will always be there.”
She felt a little throb of fear.
Then because he was kissing her it was impossible to think of anything else but him.
They were no longer two people, but one.
*
As they sat on the balcony having breakfast, the Duke said,
“Do you realise, my darling, that we have been here a week today?”
“It has – gone by too quickly!” Solita replied despairingly.
The Duke laughed.
“That is the sort of compliment I want to hear, even at breakfast.”
“We do not have to leave yet?” Solita asked.
He shook his head.
“I plan to stay for at least another seven hundred years! Or in modern parlance – seven days!”
Solita tried to smile at him, but the fear was back in her heart like a heavy stone.
They were interrupted by a servant bringing them in the mail, which had just arrived.
There was a letter for the Duke and The Times newspaper.
He set the letter down on the table, but Solita did not wish to read it.
England seemed a very long way away and she did not want to think of what might be happening in London or at the castle.
The letter which the Duke was opening looked very impressive and Solita realised it was from the Viceroy.
She must have looked anxious, for the Duke smiled at her before he opened it.
He read it and then in a strange voice he said,
“I want you to listen to this, my darling!”
“What – is it?” Solita enquired nervously.
“The Viceroy writes to me in his own hand – ” the Duke began,
“My dear Hugo,
I have just received The Times from England and hasten to send it to you as quickly as possible by special train. I am sure you will feel as relieved as I do at the news and we can only both thank God that episode is finished.
After you left, I made sure that any cables mentioning what had occurred were destroyed so that there could be nothing in the Indian newspapers. The first anyone will know of it in this country, will be what they read in The Times.
My wife and I send you and your wife our best wishes and once again congratulations on what from the British point of view is a great victory!
I remain,
Your affectionate cousin
Ripon.”
The Duke finished reading and Solita, who had been holding her breath asked,
“What has happened? What has occurred? Look quickly – !”
Because her tone was urgent, the Duke tore the wrapping off The Times and opening the pages saw his name on the centre page.
He then read,
“TRAGEDY AT DUCAL CASTLE
A Joke which turned into a Disaster.”
Solita once again held her breath as the Duke read aloud,
“Princess Zenka Kozlovski and Prince Ivan Vlasov, guests of the Duke of Calverleigh wished to play a joke on him. He was away from home convalescing in France from the recurrence of a fever he had acquired in the East.
The Princess and her brother, however, thought that when he returned to find his family jewels were missing he would be upset until they told him it was only a trick.
They therefore dressed up in masks and burglar-like clothes and crept down to the safe long after midnight. They had the safe open when they were surprised by the Duke’s nightwatchmen who are retired soldiers, specially picked for their task.
The Prince apparently drew out his revolver as the nightwatchmen approached him and his sister and threatened to shoot the men if they came any nearer.
In self-defence thinking the two Russians were criminals, the nightwatchmen shot them both. Prince Ivan died immediately and his sister two hours later, when the doctors failed to save her.
It was a tragic end to what is believed to be a close friendship between the Duke of Calverleigh an
d Princess Zenka Kozlovski who was a well-known beauty.
Both Russians were buried in the Russian Cemetery in London and the wreaths from their many English friends were impressive.
The Duke of Calverleigh was informed of the tragedy, but was not well enough to return from France to attend the funerals.”
The Duke finished reading and gave a deep sigh.
“I cannot believe it!” he said after a moment.
“You said, darling, that the Gods were – working with – us,” Solita murmured.
She rose as she spoke and walked to the Duke’s side.
For a moment he just looked up at her and then he rose to take her in his arms.
“How can we be so incredibly lucky?” he asked.
“And now we are safe – safe for ever and we need no longer be afraid!” Solita murmured.
There was a rapture in her voice, then she asked a little hesitatingly.
“Y-you do not – think?”
“I know what you are going to ask” the Duke said, “but it will be impossible for the Russian Secret Service to have any suspicions or for the Princess to have contacted them. Look at the date. It was the Tuesday after we left.”
“Of course! I see that now!” Solita exclaimed, “and the Princess still believed that you were in France and – loving her.”
Solita’s voice faltered on the last two words.
“I never loved her!” the Duke said passionately, “and that, I swear before God, is true. I desired her, but that is a different thing.”
He pulled her against him.
“The love I have for you, my darling, is part of God, and comes from the stars. That is real love, the love I have sought all my life and thought I would never find.”
“Oh, darling Hugo, that is – what I wanted – you to – say,” Solita murmured.
“I will say it now, and I will go on saying it,” the Duke replied, “but I will not say it in words, I will say it more positively when you are closer to me than we are now.”
She looked up at him, her lips ready for his.
Her eyes were shining and filled with the sunshine that was just coming through the clouds.
The Duke looked at her for a long moment.
“I adore you!” he said in his deep voice, “and there is only one way I can tell you how much.”
He picked her up in his arms and carried her back into their bedroom.
He laid her down on the bed, then as he joined her he knew that his heart was singing and that, as Solita had said, the Gods had been with them and they had won.
“Darling, darling, I am so happy!” Solita whispered. “How could anything be more wonderful than that you are safe and need no longer be – afraid!”
“I am safe with you, as you are safe with me!”
“There is only one thing that still worries me.”
“What is that?” he asked.
As he spoke his lips were moving over the softness of her skin and his hand was touching her body.
“It is,” Solita said in a very small voice, “that you – might find it boring – just to be with me – and not be taking part in all those – dangerous missions – as you have done in the past.”
The Duke looked down at her.
“There are other ways of serving our country, Solita, and those we will do together because I now belong to you and to the children we shall have in the future. I will never again challenge the Russians nor if I can help it become involved with any of them again!”
Solita gave a little cry of happiness.
“That is what I – wanted you to – say. Oh, Hugo, I love you so much! Please show me how to – fill your life so that it is – complete and without danger.”
“It is complete with you!” the Duke asserted firmly.
Then he was kissing her fiercely, passionately, possessively and she knew that it was his relief from the fear that had been inside them and which they were both so afraid to acknowledge.
“I love you! I love you!” Solita said. “Oh, Hugo – love me, my darling, and teach me – how to make you – happy!”
“I am happy at this moment,” the Duke said, “so happy that I feel as if we have reached the top of the Himalayas. We have conquered the world and are now in the Heaven to which you told me we belong.”
“We are – together.”
Then there was no need for words.
They were, as the Duke had said, in a Heaven where there was only sunshine and happiness and no evil or fear could encroach.
They were blessed by God, who would protect them from now until Eternity.
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
THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND
Barbara Cartland, who sadly died in May 2000 at the grand age of ninety eight, remains one of the world’s most famous romantic novelists. With worldwide sales of over one billion, her outstanding 723 books have been translated into thirty six different languages, to be enjoyed by readers of romance globally.
Writing her first book ‘Jigsaw’ at the age of 21, Barbara became an immediate bestseller. Building upon this initial success, she wrote continuously throughout her life, producing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years. In addition to Barbara Cartland’s legion of fans in the UK and across Europe, her books have always been immensely popular in the USA. In 1976 she achieved the unprecedented feat of having books at numbers 1 & 2 in the prestigious B. Dalton Bookseller bestsellers list.
Although she is often referred to as the ‘Queen of Romance’, Barbara Cartland also wrote several historical biographies, six autobiographies and numerous theatrical plays as well as books on life, love, health and cookery. Becoming one of Britain’s most popular media personalities and dressed in her trademark pink, Barbara spoke on radio and television about social and political issues, as well as making many public appearances.
In 1991 she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to literature and her work for humanitarian and charitable causes.
Known for her glamour, style, and vitality Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime. Best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels and loved by millions of readers worldwide, her books remain treasured for their heroic heroes, plucky heroines an
d traditional values. But above all, it was Barbara Cartland’s overriding belief in the positive power of love to help, heal and improve the quality of life for everyone that made her truly unique.
Solita and the Spies
Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
This edition © 2012
Copyright Cartland Promotions 1989
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