73. A Tangled Web
Page 12
Mary-Lou gave a little cry of protest.
“We have no intention of waiting until the automobiles arrive in England!” she asserted, “and if you want to attend the wedding, you will have to come to America next month!”
“So soon?” the Duke exclaimed in surprise. “What has our Chairman to say about that?”
The Marquis merely made an expressive gesture with his hands.
“When two people are in love,” he declared, “time stands still!”
“We are being married in New York,” Mary-Lou announced, “and Poppa is going to give us the biggest wedding and before it takes place the largest ball that New York has ever seen!”
The men laughed and throughout the meal offered suggestions and new ideas not only for the honeymoon but also for the ceremony.
When Carola and Mary-Lou went into the drawing room, Carola put her arms around her and said,
“I am so happy for you and Peter!”
“He is the most wonderful man I have ever met,” Mary-Lou smiled, “and I assure you we are going to be very very happy!”
“Of course you are!” Carola agreed.
“He told me,” Mary-Lou went on, “that he had no intention of marrying anyone, least of all an American, but as soon as he saw me he knew that I was the girl he had been waiting for and he’s not going to risk losing me!”
“I have known Peter for many years,” Carola said quietly, “and I have never seen him in love before, as he is with you.”
“I will look after him,” Mary-Lou affirmed, “and once we are married we are going to live in England at the house that means so much to him.”
“That will be lovely for you both.”
As she heard the men coming towards the drawing room, she said to Mary-Lou,
“Tell them I have gone to bed.”
As she spoke, she slipped out of the room through one of the long windows that opened into the garden.
She hurried across the lawn until she was out of sight of the house and then went more slowly.
The moonlight turned the garden to silver and the sky was bright with stars.
It was so beautiful that it seemed wrong to Carola that instead of lifting her heart as it had last night before the Duke had come into her room, as far as she was concerned the whole world was dark.
She was thinking that first, because Peter would take Mary-Lou after their marriage to Greton House where she herself had been very happy, there would be no place for her.
Secondly, and this was frightening, there was the question of how Alton Westwood was to be told she was not Peter’s cousin but his sister.
Lastly, sooner or later, he would have to learn that the Marquis was not married.
All these problems seemed to raise their heads like ogres threatening the future for the Marquis and Peter.
At first she was too apprehensive to even begin to think of a solution.
Then, as if the answer came to her through someone outside herself, she knew that the only thing she could do which would ensure everybody’s happiness but her own, was to disappear.
And the Marquis could inform Alton Westwood once he was back in America, that she had died.
That way there would be no reproaches and no recriminations.
‘This is what I have to do,’ she told herself, ‘and the only question is – how soon?’
She had at least a little time left, because Mary-Lou was first going back to America and Peter was going with her.
It would merely be a question of the Marquis and the rest of the Board of Directors going over there with him.
Reasoning it out she thought it would be best if she ‘died’ before they went so that there would be no uncomfortable questions as to whether the Marquis was married or not.
Anyway the business could be put in hand long before they went, in fact as soon as they reached London tomorrow.
‘I must try and think where I can hide myself,’ Carola thought frantically.
It would be best, she determined, if she left the country altogether and she tried to think of one of her friends who lived in France or in any other part of Europe.
She walked on a little further to where, behind some bushes that were in blossom, there was a wooden seat where she could sit down.
She had a view of the top of the house with the moonlight shining on the statues on the roof.
There was the Marquis’s standard flying high above them like a sentinel and she thought when she had to go away tomorrow it would be a sight she would never see again.
She knew that she could not bear to ride past it as she had done before, knowing that she could no longer enter through the front door.
She could never again hear the Marquis talking to her in his caressing voice and no longer be aware of him as he stood beside her.
‘I love him! I love him!’ she whispered to herself and felt the tears begin to roll down her cheeks.
She closed her eyes at the intense pain of it.
Suddenly a voice beside her said gently,
“Not crying, Carola?”
He must have come to her side over the lawn.
She gave a little start and put her fingers up to her eyes.
The Marquis sat down beside her and taking a handkerchief from his pocket wiped her cheeks and then her eyes.
“There is nothing to cry about,” he said softly.
“B-but – there is!” she answered through her tears. “I have been thinking about the – tangle we are in – and I know the only – thing I can d-do is to – disappear!”
“Disappear!” the Marquis asked.
“You can – s-say I had died,” Carola replied a little incoherently. “It would be – best for me to have – d-died before the – wedding.”
The words seemed to choke in her throat and once again the tears filled her eyes.
Because she was angry with herself for being so unrestrained, she took the handkerchief out of the Marquis’s hand and wiped her eyes roughly.
“You really think that I should say you are dead?” he asked very quietly.
“There is – nothing else you can do,” Carola muttered, “and – sooner or later – you will have to tell Mr. Westwood that – P-Peter is my – brother and not my cousin – which was one lie – and I am sure he must – never – never know that we were not really m-married – he would be terribly shocked.”
“I am aware of that,” the Marquis told her.
“S-so you – do see it is the only – solution to everything that I should – disappear and you become a – widower?”
There was silence for a moment.
Then the Marquis asked,
“Is that what you want?”
It was such an absurd question that Carola longed to tell him it was the last thing in the world she would ever want.
To be exiled from everything that was familiar, and most of all from him, would be an unbelievable hell.
Instead she replied briefly,
“It is the – only thing we can do.”
“And you planned all this without consulting me!” he enquired.
“I was – thinking of you,” she answered, “and you will have the Chairmanship without any trouble.”
“Does this matter?” the Marquis asked.
“It matters to you and – it matters to your friends – and, of course, it matters to Peter.”
“You are very unselfish and very sweet,” the Marquis sighed, “but also very foolish.”
“I-I don’t know why – you should say that,” Carola stammered.
“Do you really think that I would let you sacrifice your whole life just because I wanted money and the position whereby I can make it?”
“I-I will be – all right.”
“But I will not!” the Marquis answered. “At the same time it is very wonderful of you to think of me and I am deeply touched, Carola.”
“Then – you will do as I suggest?” she asked.
“I will most certainly not
!”
Carola stiffened.
“But you must – you must understand – ”
“I do understand,” he said, “and you have answered the one question I was going to ask you when we had the chance to be alone.”
“The – question?”
“It’s quite simple. I need to know, Carola, what you feel about me, not as somebody who is helping Peter and, of course, myself – but as a man!”
Carola stared at him.
She thought in the moonlight that he was looking very handsome and it made her heart beat very much faster because he was there.
His arm was lying across the back of the seat behind her.
Then, as she tried to think of an answer to his question, she said a little hesitatingly,
“I – admire you – I think you are very – clever and – of course – you have a solution to everything – but there is no other solution except mine – to this problem.”
“That is where you are wrong!” the Marquis contradicted. “My solution is far better than yours. As I have said, you have already given me the answer to the question I would have put to you.”
Carola did not understand and she looked at him enquiringly.
“I think,” the Marquis said slowly, “if you are honest and truthful, you will admit that you love me a little.”
Carola started.
It was not what she had expected him to say and she felt her cheeks burn as she turned her head away from him.
She could think of nothing more humiliating than for him to think that she loved him and be sorry for her because he loved somebody else.
“It is important for me to know the truth, my precious,” the Marquis said, “because, although I have been afraid of frightening you by telling you so, I love you very much!”
For a moment the whole world turned upside down and Carola thought that she could not have heard him aright.
Then, as she tried to ask him what he was saying, thinking it could not possibly be true, his arms went round her.
He pulled her against him, then even before her lips parted to speak, his mouth held her captive.
He kissed her gently, yet at the same time possessively.
Carola felt that she must be dreaming.
It was what she had longed for ever since the first time he had kissed her.
Now his kiss was very different and she knew that he had taken her heart from her body and made it his.
Now her love welled up within her, seeping through her body with an inexpressible ecstasy into her breasts and then to her lips.
It was a wonder beyond any wonder she could ever imagine.
As the Marquis drew her closer and still closer, she thought that if she died now she would have known the glory and perfection of Heaven whilst still on earth.
Only when he raised his head did she manage to murmur incoherently,
“I – love you – of course I love you – but I never thought that – you could possibly – love me!”
“I have loved you since the first moment I saw you,” the Marquis asserted. “I could not believe that anyone could be so lovely. But, my darling, I was so afraid of frightening you, as the Duke so stupidly did.”
“I was – never afraid of you – once I knew you,” Carola whispered.
“I will never let you be frightened by anyone again!” the Marquis promised.
His lips were on hers and he kissed her until Carola was sure that they were both flying in the sky and the stars had moved into her body.
Only when they were both breathless did the Marquis say, as she put her head on his shoulder,
“My sweet, my darling Carola, is there anyone more perfect? How can you make me feel like this?”
“Y-you – do love me – really – love me?” she asked. “But – I thought you – l-loved – ”
He put his fingers over her lips.
“I have never loved anybody but you, my darling,” he assured her.
He could see the lovelight in her eyes as he continued,
“There have been women in my life – of course there have – with whom I was infatuated and who delighted me because they were beautiful. But what I feel for you, my sweetheart, is completely different.”
“How – different?” Carola asked him.
“It will take me a long time to tell you how different,” he answered, “but it will be easier after tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow night?” she asked in a puzzled tone.
“We are being married very quietly and very secretly here in the Chapel, as soon as I return from London.”
Carola felt that she could not be hearing aright.
“M-married?” she murmured.
“I told you that my solution was a better one than yours,” the Marquis smiled, “and I have planned it all out.”
Carola gave a choked little laugh.
“I might have guessed you would!”
“You should have trusted me,” he said, “and in fact it is something I have been planning ever since I realised that I could never lose you. And however long it took, I would eventually make you my wife.”
“I want – to be your wife – I want it desperately!” Carola sighed, “but – are you sure that that I am the – right person for you? Also – how can we be married without Mr. Westwood being – aware of it?”
“I have told you to trust me. I have arranged with the Vicar, who is also my private Chaplain, that we will be married at six o’clock tomorrow evening. Nobody except Dawkins will have the slightest idea of what is taking place and he will be on guard to prevent anybody from interfering with us or kidnapping us!”
“Please make sure they don’t do that!” Carola exclaimed.
“I will make sure of everything,” the Marquis assured her, “and I have already thought of an explanation for pretending to Westwood that you were Peter’s cousin, rather than telling him that you were really his sister.”
“What is that?” Carola enquired.
“I shall say – after everything is signed and sealed, of course – that I did not wish him to think I was pushing my relatives upon him when I suggested that Peter should join the Board of the Company.”
Carola made a little murmur but did not interrupt as the Marquis went on,
“I am sure that Westwood will accept it at its face value and also he will be delighted that Mary-Lou is more closely linked with my family, as you will be her sister-in-law.”
Carola laughed.
“I am sure he will. You think of everything, Alexander!”
“Ever since we first met I have been unable to think of anything but you!” the Marquis said, “and what I will not have is you worried, upset or frightened!”
“I love you, I adore you,” Carola murmured.
“I want to hear you say that over and over again,” the Marquis insisted, “and it is what I know you will say when we are on our honeymoon.”
“Can we really – have a honeymoon?” Carola asked.
“I have every intention of having one and after we are married tomorrow, while Stevens, who wants to stay with me, arranges some permanent staff for the house, you and I are going to my hunting lodge in Leicestershire.”
He paused a moment to smile at her before he continued,
“We shall have few neighbours to disturb us at this time of the year, my precious, and I will have you alone to tell you how much you mean to me, how much I love you and how you are more beautiful than any woman I have ever seen!”
“Do you – mean that? Do you – really mean it?” Carola asked eagerly.
She was thinking of the beautiful Lady Lucas and being afraid that she would compare with her unfavourably.
“I swear to you on my life, which I hold sacred,” the Marquis said, “that you are more beautiful than any woman I have ever known and I want, as I have never wanted anything in my life, to own you, to possess you and to be certain you are mine alone.”
Carola came a little closer to him.
“It is what you will be,” he answered, “and, darling, there are a great many things we will be able to do together. Most important, we will start by improving the house and the estate so that it will be as it was in my grandfather’s time and make the people who live on it happy and prosperous.”
“I want to do that,” Carola said a little breathlessly.
“There are many other things for us to do, not only in the Social world but also in the political world where I know we can help a great many causes which I will now be able to do more efficiently in Parliament and I will be able to afford not only time but also money to alleviate distress and neglect.”
“I would love to help you in all of them. You are so wonderful – so clever!” Carola cried.
“And you must not forget that I am magical,” the Marquis said, “and, darling, it is a magic that we will give to everyone who comes near us. It’s the magic of love – the love I have dreamt of and longed one day to find, but thought totally impossible.”
“Now – I can give it to you,” Carola murmured.
The Marquis did not answer in words.
He kissed her until they were both trembling with the wonder and ecstasy of it.
The moonlight enveloped them and the stars seemed to twinkle excitedly in the sky.
As the Marquis held Carola closer and closer, she knew that they were no longer two people but one.
One indivisibly joined together from now until Eternity.
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