160 Love Finds the Duke at Last

by Barbara Cartland

He smiled as he added,

  “I believe that it would make you look even more important that you do already, especially at a meeting such as we both attended last year.”

  Just for a moment the Sultan hesitated.

  Then as if the lure of the beautiful necklace was too much for him to resist, he said,

  “You must be very much in love, my dear friend, if you would sacrifice anything quite so sublime in return for a woman.”

  Very slowly the Duke took the necklace off himself and, bending down, he placed it on the Sultan’s shoulders.

  “Now you will be the envy of everyone you know,” he said. “But all I can do is to beg you to see that it is carefully looked after, so that it cannot be stolen. It is unique and no one else has ever found so many opals or to my knowledge had them encased in a necklace.”

  “You are right, it is unique,” the Sultan agreed. “I can only hope, my dear friend, that your sacrifice for this woman will make you happy.”

  “At the next Conference that we attend, I will look forward to seeing you wearing this necklace,” the Duke replied, “and thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me what I am really anxious to have. That is a wife who loves me for myself who will give me sons to carry on my name when I die.”

  “I really cannot believe that any woman, however beautiful, is as valuable as this necklace,” the Sultan said, speaking as if to himself rather than the Duke.

  Looking up at the Duke, he added,

  “The woman you speak about must be special and different from all the others either of us have met. Perhaps I am making a mistake in losing her.”

  “And you would be making an even bigger mistake if you lose the necklace, which I hope when you die you will leave to your eldest son and your successor in Istanbul. He will wear it until he can pass it on to his son.”

  “You are right,” the Sultan murmured. “There is no one else who will have anything so stupendous to wear.”

  “You will be much admired, much envied and, of course, they will try to copy you,” the Duke said. “But they will find it very difficult. Those sort of stones do not exist today or, if they do, you and I have not found them.”

  He had not sat down again and now he held out his hand.

  “Goodbye, my friend. I am most grateful to you and you have done me a great service. If ever you want me, I will, of course, come at once.”

  “I am grateful to you,” the Sultan replied covering the Duke’s hand with both of his. “If you will tell me when your Wedding will be, I will send you a Wedding present although it will not be a necklace as wonderful as this.”

  “Any present you send me, Your Highness, will be received gratefully and will be much admired.”

  There was a pause before he added,

  “Goodbye again and may you one day discover the same happiness that I have found, although, as you know only too well, it is a difficult thing to find.”

  The Sultan laughed.

  “Goodbye, Your Grace, and I will tell my Equerry that the last arrival from England is to return with you.”

  “I am more grateful than I can say in words,” the Duke responded.

  He then bowed, as was expected of him and walked to the door.

  It was opened by the Equerry and the Duke said,

  “His Highness has some instructions for you.”

  He went into The Palace without looking back and waited until the Equerry returned.

  “I will tell the English lady,” he said, “that you are waiting for her.”

  “We have to leave in a hurry,” the Duke answered.

  Without replying the Equerry then hurried down the passage.

  The Duke drew in his breath.

  He realised that he had achieved the impossible in getting Devinia freed once she had actually been accepted into the Sultan’s Palace.

  Yet as he waited he glanced at the closed door into the garden in case he was being too optimistic and things were not as easy as he thought they were.

  Finally he heard voices and knew that Devinia was coming to him.

  He looked out and saw that his carriage had been brought round to the front door and was waiting outside.

  Everything was going smoothly.

  Yet the Duke knew that no one could be certain of anything in the East. Rulers like the Sultan changed their minds as swiftly and as often as the air changed.

  Then, when he was becoming somewhat anxious that something had gone wrong, Devinia appeared.

  She was wearing the clothes she had been dressed in to meet the Sultan.

  Although they were very pretty and colourful, they hardly covered her body.

  They were, the Duke knew, deliberately seductive to accentuate the fairness beneath them.

  Even though she was looking extremely pretty, the Duke knew by the expression in her eyes that she was very frightened.

  As she saw him, she gave a cry which seemed to come from the very depths of her soul.

  She ran towards him and threw herself against him.

  “Ivan, it is you, it is you!” she cried. “I just cannot believe it.”

  The Duke put his arm round her.

  “We are in a hurry,” he said loudly enough for the Equerry to overhear, “and we have to leave immediately. The carriage is outside.”

  Even as he spoke, the double doors were opened up and then, taking Devinia by the hand, he drew her down the steps.

  He pushed her into the carriage and told the driver in his own language to go to the Port as quick as possible.

  Then he shook the Equerry by the hand and got into the carriage pulling the door closed behind him before the servant could do so.

  As the carriage then started to move, Devinia flung herself against him.

  “You have come! You have come!” she cried out breathlessly. “I never thought – you would find me. Oh, how are you – here?”

  There were tears in her eyes and at the same time they were shining.

  As the Duke put his arms round her, she seemed to melt against him.

  Then, as his lips found hers and he kissed her, he knew, as he did so, that this was the greatest moment of his life.

  He loved her as he had never loved anyone before.

  They had gone quite a way before Devinia gave a gasp and whispered,

  “You have come and – I thought I was lost – for ever.”

  “Of course, I followed you once I knew what had happened,” the Duke replied. “Now you are safe and I will never let you go again.”

  “Hold me,” she cried. “I have been – so frightened and so terrified and now like a miracle you are here! How can you be so clever? How could you have saved me when I thought that – no one would be able to do so?”

  She was speaking excitedly and was almost in tears.

  As he had no words to express his own anxiety, the Duke could only kiss her and keep on kissing her so that neither of them could speak.

  Only as they reached the Port did Devinia say,

  “I must look very strange, but you do realise that I have no clothes except these I am wearing.”

  “We will buy you plenty of clothes when we reach Athens,” the Duke promised.

  “Are we going to – Greece?” Devinia asked him excitedly. “I would love that!”

  “I thought that you would want to be married there rather than anywhere else,” the Duke said quietly.

  Her eyes opened wide and she stared at him.

  “Married!” she whispered.

  At that moment the carriage came to a standstill on the quay and the Duke’s yacht was there waiting for them.

  The Duke stepped out of the carriage and paid the driver and, when he was ready to board, he helped Devinia out of the carriage and up the gangway.

  The Captain was waiting for them on the deck.

  If he was surprised at Devinia’s appearance, he was too polite to show it.

  “Move out to sea as quickly as you can,” the Duke ordered.


  “Aye, aye, Your Grace”, the Captain saluted.

  Devinia, more to hide her appearance than because she wanted to sit down, had moved into the Saloon and the Duke followed her.

  “Is there anything I can get you, Your Grace?” one of the Stewards asked him.

  “We would both love a glass of champagne,” the Duke told him. “We have won a great victory and we want to celebrate it.”

  The Steward smiled.

  “Very good, Your Grace.”

  He disappeared and Devinia slipped her hand into the Duke’s.

  “How could you have been – so clever?” she asked. “How could you have been so wonderful as to find me? I prayed all the way here that you would read my thoughts and would know where I had been taken.”

  “Forget it,” the Duke said. “You are free now and you are mine. To make quite certain you cannot escape me again, we are going to be married, as I have already told you, as soon as we reach Athens.”

  “I thought you might have been – joking,” Devinia murmured.

  “I have never been more serious. But there is one thing I want to know. Are you marrying me for my title or because I am me?”

  Devinia wanted to laugh, but instead she replied,

  “I have loved you for a long time, but I thought you did not want to marry – anyone.”

  “I never wanted to marry anyone until I met you. But I can think of no better way of keeping you safe.”

  He smiled at her as he added,

  “Unless you really dislike the idea, I suggest we are married either by the Captain at sea or as soon as we reach Athens.”

  “I love you,” Devinia whispered. “I have loved you for such a long time, but I thought, as we were only having a pretend engagement, you would be angry if I fell in love with you – so I was determined to hide it.”

  “I will tell you about my love, but I want to hear about yours,” the Duke said. “First we need to be sustained after what we have been through. Also we have to drink to the happiness of our marriage.”

  He kissed her cheek before he added,

  “A marriage that neither of us expected, but which I know is going to be a perfect one. A Heaven on Earth.”

  Devinia gave a murmur of happiness.

  As she did so, the Steward arrived with a bottle of champagne and poured out two glasses.

  Then, as he left the Saloon, closing the door behind him, Devinia slipped her hand into the Duke’s again.

  “I love you! I love you!” she sighed. “But I am so afraid I will – bore you by telling you so.”

  “I want you to tell me every moment and I want you just as you are and I love you as I have never loved anyone before. I thought when I lost you that I had lost everything that mattered and nothing I was or possessed was of any consequence because you were not with me.”

  He spoke with a deep sincerity that she could not misunderstand.

  Because she was so happy she hid her face against his shoulder.

  “I love you! I adore you!” she whispered. “I feel that this is all a dream and I will wake up to find I am still a prisoner.”

  “If you wake up anywhere, it will be in my arms,” the Duke answered, “and just as you love me, I love you as I never thought it possible to love anyone. I hope never again to go through the agony I had when I realised what had happened to you and that I might not be able to save you.”

  “I lay awake all last night,” she answered, “thinking how I could die and knowing it was impossible because in the harem they do not even have table knives in case a girl tried to use one – on herself.”

  “Forget it! Forget it!” the Duke said firmly. “It was all a terrible mistake which should never have happened in the first place. But it made me realise now much you meant to me and the only way I can protect you is by making you my wife.”

  “I will try to do everything – you want me to do,” Devinia promised. “But you must not be bored if I go on saying, I love you! I Love you!”

  She just managed to say the last words before the Duke was kissing her again.

  Kissing her until the engines began turning beneath them and she knew that they were leaving Turkey.

  That they were sailing into a Heaven of their own, which would be unlike anything that had ever happened to either of them before.

  *

  When they reached Athens, it was very nearly three o’clock in the afternoon.

  The Duke told Devinia that he wanted her to visit the Church where they were to be married as he knew the Priest in charge.

  “I must have something decent to wear,” Devinia said. “Anyone seeing me would be horrified at the lowness and transparency of this dress I am wearing.”

  “You look lovely,” he told her. “But I understand what you are feeling and we will stop at the shop in the town which has the best clothes in Athens.”

  Devinia borrowed from the Captain a shawl which he had worn when he had a cold and it at least covered her shoulders.

  She and the Duke drove off in a covered carriage and it was not very far to the shop he had told her about.

  The first thing she noticed when she climbed out of the carriage was that in the window they were exhibiting the most beautiful wedding dress that she had ever seen.

  It was on a wooden model and she could not help thinking that it was just by luck or perhaps a gift from the Gods that it should be there at this particular moment.

  As she and the Duke walked to the door, she said,

  “I want that Wedding dress! I want it because it is the prettiest one I have seen and I want you to remember our Wedding as I will for the rest of our lives.”

  “Then, of course, you shall have it,” he replied.

  Inside he told the owner that his fiancée had been unfortunate to have had her entire trousseau stolen while she was in one of the Eastern countries.

  “So we have come here to supply her with a new trousseau and most of all she wants the Wedding dress in the window.”

  The owner was silent for a while and then he said,

  “I will do my very best to supply the beautiful lady with everything she requires, but there is already a lady hesitating as to whether she will buy the Wedding dress or not and she is going to let me know this evening.”

  “I will let you know now,” Devinia said. “If it fits me, which I am sure it will, I will take it with me.”

  And turning to the Duke she said,

  “I think it would be wisest if they took the dresses and the other clothes I need to the yacht tomorrow. I can then try them on without boring you.”

  The Duke smiled and she went on,

  “However I do need a dress to wear now,” and both the Duke and the owner thought that this was an excellent idea.

  The owner took Devinia into a changing room and one of his saleswomen produced three pretty dresses which they were sure would fit her.

  She chose one in a very soft shade of blue because she knew it would match her eyes and make her fair hair look even lovelier.

  She made up her mind quickly and did not bother to try on the other dresses.

  “Please take them to the yacht,” she said. “I don’t want to bore my fiancé by waiting for me while I try on dresses here.”

  She then told them she needed underclothes and pretty nightgowns as well.

  “In fact, a whole trousseau,” she insisted, “as I have nothing except this dress that I wore last night for a Fancy Dress Ball.”

  “I wondered why you were wearing it, madam,” one of the saleswomen piped up.

  “It was only when we arrived back where we were staying that we found everything had gone,” she went on. “You can imagine how upset I was.”

  “So we will make you the most beautiful trousseau any bride has ever had,” the saleswoman promised.

  Devinia, however, was thinking of just how boring this was for the Duke.

  She had known all her life that men always found that women shopping were tiresome.

 
The mere fact they could not make up their mind over which article they were buying made them say, as her father had once, that he would never go shopping again.

  When she joined the Duke, he had actually left the shop and was talking to a man outside about the horses he owned. He was telling the Duke where he had bought them and the price he had paid for them.

  Devinia said quickly,

  “I am finished and I have everything with me.”

  The saleswoman was just behind her carrying the Wedding dress in a large box.

  “Did you put in the veil?” Devinia asked as she suddenly remembered that she had not seen her doing so.

  “Yes, it is there safely and I promise you, madam, you will not be disappointed. It is the most beautiful dress we have ever had in our shop, as quite a number of ladies have told us.”

  Devinia thought that she was extremely fortunate in finding a Wedding dress that she really loved.

  The Duke helped her into the carriage and he told the coachman to take them to the Church.

  As they drove off, the Duke commented,

  “You are the fastest shopper I have ever known and I cannot believe anyone has ever managed to buy an entire trousseau in less than fifteen minutes!”

  “Men are always bored with women who fuss about their clothes,” Devinia said. “That is what Papa told me and Mama was very careful never to make him wait for her if she was out shopping.”

  “As I have thought you have been extremely well brought up,” the Duke remarked. “But I want you, my darling, to have everything you want, even if I do have to wait for it.”

  “At the moment I have you and that is everything I want,” Devinia whispered.

  “And I can say the same. Now, I want you to be as delighted with this Church as I was when I first saw it. I think you will understand how much it means to me when I tell you it was built on a site which once held a Temple of Aphrodite.”

  Devinia gave a cry.

  “She was the Goddess of Love.”

  “That is what I was told,” the Duke replied. I think you will find, as I did, that it is and always will be a place which inspires love.”

  Devinia was fascinated.

  “You must give me a book all about it,” she said, “and, of course, as you told me how much Greece means to you, it is only right that it is where we should be married.”