She glanced for a moment at him in surprise.
Then she asked,
“How did you know that?”
“You must be aware that ever since I learnt this morning that you had run away I have been grasping at every clue that might tell me where you had gone. As it so happened, Lord d’Arcy Armitage remembered that your mother was a Calvert.”
For a moment a faint smile flickered on Ilitta’s lips as she said,
“It was stupid of me not to call myself Smith or Brown or something ordinary like that.”
“Did you really wish never to see me again?” the Duke enquired.
“I thought as you were only being – kind to me, I was becoming somewhat of an – encumbrance.”
“That might have been true the first night we met at the inn,” he said, “but I think, after what we suffered together at the hands of the Fox, the Ferret and the Baboon and you slept all night in my arms, our relationship became rather different.”
He saw the crimson flood sweeping over her cheeks and thought that it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
He knew too that for the first time she was acutely conscious that when she had slept so trustingly beside him he had been a man and her feelings for him now were very different from what they had been then.
Unexpectedly, because it was in his mind, the Duke asked,
“What is the scent you use?”
“Scent?”
She was so astonished that she turned her eyes towards his and then found it impossible to look away.
“My – scent?” she repeated as if it was hard to understand what they were talking about.
“It has tantalised me because I cannot find a name for it.”
“It is white lilac. My mother taught me how to distil it and we used to make it together, but this is the first time I have made it myself.”
“It suits you.”
He thought as he spoke that he had not been imaginative enough to realise that as she was the personification of purity there could be no flower that would suit her better than the sweetness and spring-like quality of white lilac.
“Your scent has haunted me just as you have,” he said, “and I want to know what you intend to do about it!”
He saw a little tremor run through her because of the way he spoke.
Then she said quickly,
“You have asked me to help you – and please – although I will do so if you are in danger – I don’t want – my Papa to know that you are here.”
“You father was expecting me, as you well know, a few nights ago, so I cannot believe he will refuse to receive me, even if I have arrived a trifle late!”
“It is – not that.”
The words seemed to be strangled in Ilitta’s throat and, as if she was afraid to be near the Duke, she walked away from him to stand against the window looking into the sunlit garden.
“What is worrying you about my being here?”
He moved nearer to her as he spoke and felt that she wanted to run away, but was unable to do so.
He waited for an answer to his question and after a long pause Ilitta said,
“I – don’t – want to – tell you!”
“Why not?”
“Because – ”
Her voice died away and he knew that she was feeling it was impossible to tell him what he wanted to know.
Instead she turned towards him to say pleadingly,
“Please – go away – and forget me – you were so kind – so very kind – but I don’t – belong to your world – and you have women like the Comtesse to amuse you – I am only somebody who – came into your life in the fog.”
“Do you really think that what happened that night at the inn,” the Duke asked in his deep voice, “and the night we were together in the attic and our escape from either being starved to death or forced to surrender ignominiously is something that either of us can ever forget?”
“You have – so many other things in – your life.”
“But now I have something which is so important and so vital that it has always been out of reach.”
“What is that?”
She asked the question automatically.
There was a pause before the Duke said very softly,
“Love!”
For a moment Ilitta was very still.
Then, as if she was frightened by what she had heard, she said quickly,
“I-I don’t know – what you are – saying.”
“I think you do,” the Duke answered softly. “Look at me, Ilitta!”
It was an order and, as if it was impossible to resist him, very slowly she turned her face towards his. Her eyes looked up at him and he saw that, while they were apprehensive and a little perplexed, there was something else, something which he believed was what he was seeking.
For a moment they just stared at each other.
Then he said,
“I thought with your perception and your instinct for seeing beneath the surface that you would have known by this time that I love you!”
“It – cannot be – true!”
Her voice was almost inaudible.
Then, as if she saw the answer in his eyes, the expression on her face changed and a radiance that was unlike anything the Duke had ever seen transformed her.
It made her so ethereal that he felt she must be unreal and that such beauty could only be found in the sunshine.
Then slowly, as if they both moved to music, they seemed to melt into each other without conscious thought, drawn by a magnetism that came from their hearts and souls and was not really human.
“I love you, Ilitta,” the Duke whispered.
Even to himself his voice sounded strange.
He bent his head and touched Ilitta’s lips gently with his own as if she was a flower.
Then, as he felt her softness, her sweetness, her innocence, his arms tightened.
His kiss became more insistent, more demanding and yet at the same time gentle because she was so precious and he was afraid of frightening her.
To Ilitta it was as if the sky opened and she was suddenly transported into a Heaven that she thought she had lost when she had ridden away at dawn from Lord d’Arcy Armitage’s house.
She had awoken during the night to think that the Duke had not come to see her as she had asked him to do. She was sure that it was the Comtesse who had detained him, a beautiful sophisticated woman who had made it very clear that she was attracted to him.
Then, at that moment, as if it was written in fire in the darkness, Ilitta had realised that she loved the Duke.
She loved his face, his eyes, the twist of his lips, his deep voice, the strength of his arms, his heart she had felt beating all night against her own heart.
It was only later that Ilitta realised that it was because of her ignorance of men that she had not recognised earlier her love for the Duke. It had been a strange joy to be with him, even while she had been desperately afraid of what Captain Daltry might do.
She knew, thinking back, that when she had looked down at him through the open trapdoor and saw the expression of delight on his face because she had returned, her heart had turned a dozen somersaults.
She had wanted to throw herself into his arms and for him to hold her close and safe against him.
It was love and yet because she had been so childishly foolish she had merely thought how exciting it had been to tell him how she had found the old man and that they could escape from the Baboon and Captain Daltry’s threats.
Then in the comfortable curtained bed she had thought how the Duke had made her lie beside him to keep warm and how happy and secure she had felt in his arms.
Looking back, she realised how miserable she had been ever since her mother had died and her father had not ceased to bully her into doing what he wanted and to be utterly indifferent to her feelings and her sense of loss and loneliness.
He had ridiculed her paintings, telling her to occupy her time in a
more sensible manner and there had been nobody to talk to in the big house except the servants.
Because they were in deep mourning nobody came to call except men who wanted to talk to her father about horses.
She had drifted around the empty rooms missing her mother unbearably and, because she had been still a schoolgirl until the beginning of the year, receiving no invitations and meeting nobody of her own age.
‘How could I have known that there are men in the world like the Duke?’ she asked herself, ‘and that he would be so different from what I expected? And how could I have been so foolish as to fall in love with him?’
She had seen the Comtesse talking to him provocatively invitingly and looking so exotically alluring as she did so that Ilitta could understand the Duke being fascinated by her.
How could she think of herself except as a tiresome young girl who had forced herself on him, when there were women like that fawning on him and obviously wildly attracted by him?
Ilitta was so innocent that she had no idea exactly what a man and a woman did when they made love.
When she stayed upstairs for dinner because she was afraid one of Lord d’Arcy Armitage’s guests might recognise her, she had been tortured by pictures flashing before her eyes of the Comtesse gazing at the Duke.
She could see her hands with their long sharp nails reaching out to touch him and her red lips obviously inviting his kisses.
That, Ilitta told herself, was the reason why the Duke had not come to say goodnight to her as she had expected.
He had been too busy kissing the Comtesse, kissing her and perhaps he had gone to her bedroom instead of coming to hers.
It was then that she knew she could not endure the pain in her breast any longer.
Nor could she possibly face the Duke the next morning, knowing he had no wish to be with her, but preferred to be with the Comtesse.
‘I must go away at once,’ she had told herself.
That was the moment when she knew that the only thing she could do was to return home.
She made her plans carefully, thinking that the Duke would be pleased to be rid of her and would never guess that she was the Marquis of Buxworth’s daughter.
She had written a letter to him which she had left on her dressing table and, ringing for the maid, asked her if she could borrow a riding habit belonging to Lord d’Arcy Armitage’s younger daughter whose clothes she had already found fitted her reasonably well.
“You’ve got a huge choice, my Lady,” the maid had answered. Lady Maureen’s always buyin’ herself new habits because she’s so keen on ridin’.”
Ilitta was not listening and merely hurried into the habit the maid brought her, promised to return it later in the day and went to the stables.
Lord d’Arcy Armitage’s groom showed no surprise at her request to borrow a horse, but thought it strange that she should ride alone.
“I have not far to go,” Ilitta told him.
Then, when she had tipped him, he asked no more questions.
Only as she rode away did she feel as if she was leaving behind a part of herself and knew that it was her heart.
Now, as the Duke kissed her, she felt as if the sunshine was not only a dazzling light in their eyes, it was also lighting a light that came from their souls.
Nobody, she thought, could feel such ecstasy and not die of it.
Then, as the Duke kissed her and went on kissing her, she wanted to live and to capture the wonder and glory he was giving her, making it hers forever.
Finally he raised his head to say in a voice that was hoarse and unsteady,
“My darling, my sweet, how could you have run away from me? I thought I had lost you!”
“I – love you!”
“That is what I wanted you to say, but I was so afraid that I would frighten you if I told you of my love.”
“I could – never be frightened of – you!”
“And I will make sure that nobody else frightens you ever again,” the Duke vowed.
Then he was kissing her until the whole world seemed to swim dizzily around them.
When at last they came back to earth, Ilitta said,
“You – asked me to – help you.”
“I wanted you to find for me somebody who is so precious, so incredibly wonderful, that I know I cannot live without her.”
“You said you were – desperate!”
“I was desperate when you disappeared. It would have driven me mad if you had not been here as I prayed you would be.”
“I never thought for – one instant that you would – find me!”
“But I have found you and I will never lose you again!”
He smiled as he said more lightly,
“Never again, my darling one, will you do anything so outrageous as to travel about the countryside alone.”
Ilitta made a little murmur and hid her face against his shoulder.
“How could you take such risks with yourself?”
“I-I had to get – away!”
“But, why? I don’t understand!”
Ilitta trembled and, although it excited him, at the same time he was puzzled.
“Why did you run away in the first place?” he asked.
Ilitta’s voice was very low as she whispered,
“P-Papa told me – that the – Duke of Marazion was coming to – s-stay!”
“And that upset you? But why?”
“Papa said he was – sure it was not because you were interested in his stables – having so many horses yourself – but because you – intended to – m-marry me!”
The words were almost incoherent and for a moment the Duke stared down at Ilitta as though he could not believe what he had heard.
Then he laughed and it was a sound of genuine amusement before he said,
“That is the last thing that would have entered my mind! But, my darling, what has happened proves that your father was being prophetic, for I have every intention of marrying his daughter!”
He paused and then added,
“If, of course, she will have me!”
She looked up into his eyes, and then drew in her breath.
“I – love you,” she sighed, “but I never thought of being married to the – Duke of Marazion!”
“When did you first know you loved me?”
“I-I did not realise it until yesterday – when you became the – Duke – then there was the – Comtesse.”
“Whom you saw as a cobra,” the Duke finished, “and you were quite right, my darling. That is exactly what she is and I have an aversion to snakes. I very skilfully prevented myself from being involved with her.”
“Is – that true?”
“I promise you it is. When I came up to bed, I came straight to your bedroom to say goodnight to you, but you were asleep.”
“You – came? You really – came?”
“I came!” the Duke repeated, “and because I was thinking of you, my precious little love, I merely kissed your hair and went away.”
Ilitta’s eyes shone like stars as she said,
“I never imagined that you had done that!”
“I went to bed,” the Duke said, “and lay thinking about you until I fell asleep.”
“I wish I had – known.”
“I cannot think what has happened to your intuition if you were not aware of what I was feeling for you and how much I wished I had not brought you to Lord d’Arcy Armitage’s house.”
“It was very stupid of me to let you do so,” Ilitta answered, “but after we were free all I could think of was that I wanted to be with you and escape from those horrible men.”
“I was thinking the same,” the Duke admitted, “and that is why I did not tell you my real name.”
“I never dreamt – I never imagined for one instant that you could be the Duke I had – run away from!”
“And I never dreamt that was the reason why you had left home!” the Duke laughed.
“I had always sworn to m
yself that I would never ever marry any man unless I loved him,” Ilitta said, “and I had the terrifying feeling that any husband Papa chose for me, as he was determined to do, would look like some unpleasant animal and I would therefore hate him!”
“I wonder whether, if you had met me in the ordinary way, I should have appeared to you as a Royal,” the Duke pondered, “or, as you say, something very unpleasant.”
“You are no longer an – animal,” Ilitta said quickly, “but a God who has come down from Olympus and I cannot believe it is possible that you – love me.”
“I will make you sure of that,” the Duke replied, “and, darling, I intend to marry you immediately! But first you must meet my mother. She has been praying for years that I should find a perfect wife and will be very thrilled that her prayers have been answered.”
“I would love to meet her,” Ilitta sighed, “and I think you are very lucky that your mother is still alive.”
“I know I am,” the Duke agreed. “Now let’s make plans, my precious one. First, how we can go away together tomorrow morning without your father thinking it a very strange thing for us to do?”
Ilitta thought it over.
Then she said,
“Are you suggesting – really intending that we need not tell – Papa what we feel about each other?”
“My instinct,” the Duke replied, “makes me feel sure that it will upset you or at least be something that will embarrass you, if your father thinks that he is negotiating our marriage and takes all the credit for it.”
“That is so clever of you! It would somehow – spoil what we feel for each other and my marriage would seem exactly as if he was selling one of his horses to the highest bidder.”
The Duke laughed.
“I am certainly prepared to pay anything he asks,” he said, “but I know exactly what you are saying, my dearest heart, and so I have an idea!”
Ilitta put her cheek against his shoulder.
“I love you and because I love you I am so happy that I am quite certain I am dreaming.”
“I am sure I am too,” the Duke said. “But this is true, my darling – I have never in my life felt about any woman as I feel about you.”
“How – do you feel?”
“Very excited and so elated that I have found you that I feel as if I am jumping over every fence of the Grand National with a foot to spare!”
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