“I am afraid I cannot bring you any good news.”
“She is – dead?”
“Yes, Bertilla. She is dead. I don’t think that she suffered, not for long at any rate.”
He had no intention of telling Bertilla the details of how the soldiers searching the jungle round the Mission House early this morning had found Miss Alvinston’s body.
The Dyaks must have carried her off with them when, having broken down the Mission door, they heard the soldiers running and retreated into the jungle.
Her body had been found lying on the track that their feet had made beneath the trees.
They had taken nothing from her pockets nor even removed the cameo brooch she always wore at the neck of her gown – but her head was missing.
It was what was to be expected, Lord Saire thought, but there was no need for Bertilla to know anything except that her aunt was dead.
She did not speak for a moment.
Then, as if she knew that he did not wish to discuss it further, she said,
“Why – are you here? You said you might come to Sarawak and I was so hoping you would do so – but I did not expect you so – soon.”
Lord Saire smiled and then he released her hands.
“That is what I want to talk to you about.”
She looked at him questioningly and after a moment he said,
“When you left the Henderson’s home with such unnecessary haste, I knew that there was only one thing I could do and that was to follow you.”
Still she did not answer, but he saw the colour rise in her cheeks.
“You see, darling,” he said very softly, “I realised when you were gone that I could not live without you.”
She looked at him incredulously.
“It is true,” he said as if she had asked the question. “I love you, Bertilla. I need you and want you as I have never wanted anyone before in all my life.”
There was a light in her eyes that seemed to come from within her and it illuminated her whole face.
In a whisper that he could hardly hear she murmured,
“I – think I must be – dreaming.”
“It’s no dream,” he answered, “it is fact. I love you, my darling, and we will be married as soon as it can be arranged.”
She held her breath in sheer astonishment at his words.
Then Lord Saire bent forward, put his arms round her and his lips were on hers.
“This is what you want, isn’t it, my darling?’ he asked, suddenly unsure of himself.
In response she gasped and gazed back into his eyes, the love glowing deep within them.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He kissed her and as he did so he wondered if it would be possible for any kiss to be as wonderful as it had been the first time their lips met.
Then, as he felt Bertilla’s mouth soft beneath his, as her hands fluttered towards him almost like the movement of a butterfly and her whole body seemed to vibrate to his touch, he knew once again that incredible ecstasy.
It joined them as it had before, only now it was even more intense and more wonderful.
It was a long time before he took his lips from Bertilla’s to say, his voice deep and moved,
“I love you, my precious heart, I love you. And this is the truth, I have never felt like this before in the whole of my life.”
She gave a little cry that was half a sob before she whispered,
“I love you, I have loved you, I think, from the first moment I saw you, but I never thought – never imagined that you would love me.”
“We belong to each other,” Lord Saire sighed.
Then he was kissing her again, frantically, wildly, passionately, until her body moved against him and her eyes seemed to hold all the sunlight there was in the garden.
*
It was a long time later that the intensity of their feelings for each other allowed the laughter to come back into Lord Saire’s voice.
“You know, my darling, that I am called ‘the Love Pirate’,” he said. “Well, let me tell you that this pirate has struck his flag and he will no longer roam the seas. He has found the treasure he always sought and he is utterly and completely content.”
“How can you be sure – I will be – enough for you after all the – beautiful clever women you have – known?” Bertilla asked, her face hidden against his shoulder.
“They always disappointed me,” he said frankly, “and through the years I have grown very disillusioned. That is why I intended never to marry.”
She looked up at him swiftly and he saw a sudden fear in her eyes.
“Until I met you,” he smiled, “then I knew, although not at once, that you were the ideal I had kept hidden in my heart but never thought to find.”
“You are so – magnificent – so important,” Bertilla said. “I am – afraid I might fail you.”
“You could only do that if you did not love me enough,”
“It would be – impossible for me not to – love you for ever,” she whispered.
“That is all I ask for in the future,” Lord Saire said, “that we should be together to discover and develop our love for each other until there is nothing else of any consequence in our lives”
“There has never been anything of – consequence for me except you,” Bertilla said passionately. “I knew when you were so kind to me at the Railway Station that you were someone I had dreamt of but thought never to meet.”
“And I was certain that you did not exist except in my imagination,” Lord Saire replied. “But you do and, my darling, I cannot imagine that anyone could be more perfect, more lovely in every way, not only in your exquisite little face but also inside in your heart and in your mind.”
As he spoke, he thought that this was what had always been missing before, an inner loveliness which was spiritual and without which no woman could be really beautiful.
He put his fingers under her chin and turned her face up to his, looking at her searchingly.
Bertilla blushed.
“You are making me – shy,” she protested.
“I adore you shy,” he answered, “but I am looking to see why you are so lovely.”
“Don’t look too closely and find all the – flaws.”
“Are there any? I love your honest worried eyes and never again will I see fear in them.”
Lord Saire kissed her eyes before he went on,
“I am entranced by your small straight nose, but most of all I am held captive by your lips.”
Bertilla waited for him to kiss her, but he moved his fingers lightly over the outline of her mouth.
It made her thrill in a strange way and, as he felt her quiver and saw the colour rise in her cheeks, he laughed very tenderly.
“My precious darling, I have so much to teach you.”
“There is so – much I want to learn,” Bertilla replied. “Please – please – make me do all the things you – want and which will make – you happy.”
He kissed her with a passion that left her breathless and pulsating in his arms.
“I have a suggestion to make,” he said at length,
“What is that?” she asked.
“You are officially in mourning, my sweet little love, and even though I think it would be hypocritical for you to mourn your aunt, if we are married immediately in Singapore it might make people think you are somewhat heartless.”
Bertilla looked at him apprehensively as he went on,
“I am therefore going to suggest, if you will agree, that we be married by the Captain of the gunboat which brought me here yesterday.”
He saw the excitement spring into Bertilla’s eyes as she asked, stammering with sheer joy,
“C-can we – really – do that?”
“It is perfectly legal, every Captain of a ship can, by the power vested in him by the Queen, marry anyone at sea.”
“Then let us be – married like that – if you are sure – really sure that you wish to marry someo
ne as – unimportant as me.”
“You are very very important and very precious as far as I am concerned,” Lord Saire said, “and I thought, if you agree, once we are married that we will continue together my planned visits to the islands.”
He paused to say as if he had just thought of it,
“We can travel in the gunboat and perhaps in a month or two, maybe longer, return to Singapore.”
“It sounds too wonderful – too perfect! I cannot find words to tell you what it would – mean to me.”
“It will be a somewhat unusual honeymoon,” Lord Saire said, “but we can make arrangements at every place we stop at for them to allow us some days off and I am quite certain that there will be people willing to lend us a house where we can be alone.”
“Now I know I am dreaming!” Bertilla cried. “To be in this unbelievably beautiful part of the world and to be with you – this could never happen in real life.”
“It is happening,” Lord Saire said.
He kissed her until his lips gave her sensations she had never known existed and she wanted him to go on touching her in a way which in her innocence she did not understand.
*
They had forgotten time and everything else when a servant came to tell them that the Rajah was waiting for them to join him for luncheon.
Lord Saire rose from the chaise longue to say,
“Shall we tell them what we have decided?”
“I shall feel – embarrassed,” Bertilla answered.
“Leave everything to me,” Lord Saire declared.
“That is – what I want to do for always,” she told him. “I have been so afraid and so lonely and this last week I have been wondering who I could talk to and tell them that I thought Aunt Agatha was going a little mad.”
She gave a deep sigh and went on,
“But no one came to the Mission and there was no one there except my aunt who could speak English.”
He knew by her voice what she had suffered and, as the servant had gone ahead of them, he put his arms round her as they stood out of sight behind a great bush of crimson and white rhododendrons.
“You will never be alone again,” he vowed. “I should never have left you, never let you out of my sight, but I promise you in the future that we will always be together.”
“I love you!” Bertilla answered. “I love you until I feel as if I was – made of love, that everything I am is yours, completely and absolutely.”
“That is what I want,” he answered.
Then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her until the garden seemed to whirl round her.
The colours, the scent of the flowers and the flight of the butterflies seemed to mingle with the love filling her heart and mind until she became a part of him and they were indivisible.
There was only love – a love that was part of the Divine, sacred and unspoilt, true and faithful between one man and one woman now and for all Eternity.
“I love you! God, how much I love you!” Lord Saire asserted hoarsely.
Faintly against his lips Bertilla echoed his words,
“I love you – I love you with – all of me!”
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
Pure and Untouched
Secrets
Fire in the Blood
Love, Lies and Marriage
The Ghost who Fell in Love
Hungry for Love
The Wild Cry of Love
The Blue-eyed Witch
The Punishment of a Vixen
The Secret of the Glen
Bride to the King
For All Eternity
King in Love
A Marriage made in Heaven
Who can deny Love?
Riding to the Moon
Wish for Love
Dancing on a Rainbow
Gypsy Magic
Love in the Clouds
Count the Stars
White Lilac
Too Precious to Lose
The Devil Defeated
An Angel Runs Away
The Duchess Disappeared
The Pretty Horse-breakers
The Prisoner of Love
Ola and the Sea Wolf
The Castle made for Love
A Heart is Stolen
The Love Pirate
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 and 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.
The Love Pirate
Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
This edition © 2013
Copyright Cartland
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