The Dare-Devil Duke
Page 11
“I read your code,” he replied.
“I prayed you would understand.”
“I did,” he said briefly, “and it was what I expected from you.”
There was a depth in his voice that made her blush.
Suddenly, as if after all he was in a hurry to get back to the Castle, the Duke spurred his horse and rode a little faster.
When they reached the stables, it was to find that not only the grooms, but almost everyone in the Castle, who had been left behind was there.
As they appeared a little cheer went up.
It was so sincere that Kasia felt the tears come into her eyes.
Someone lifted Simon off his horse.
He saw Nanny, ran to her, and she put her arms around him.
Kasia could hear him telling her excitedly what had happened.
She was then aware that the Duke was standing beside her, waiting to lift her from the saddle.
“I have brought you home,” he said so that only she could hear.
“You were – wonderful!” she whispered.
When they went into the Castle there was food waiting for them in the dining room.
Simon announced that he was very hungry.
“I will join you in a few minutes,” Kasia said to the Duke.
She thought as she ran up the stairs that she could not bear him to see her looking so dishevelled and dirty.
The wagon had been none too clean.
The floor on which she and Simon had been obliged to sit was thick with dust.
She washed and one of the housemaids helped her to put on a fresh gown.
It took her less than ten minutes and she had no wish to linger because she wanted to be with the Duke.
When she joined them in the dining room, Simon already had a bowl of soup in front of him.
“I insist first that you have a glass of champagne,” the Duke said as she appeared. “You have not only been through a very frightening experience but we are also celebrating your return to civilisation.”
“It was frightening,” Kasia agreed, “but Simon was very brave. You can be proud of him.”
“I am,” the Duke replied.
“If I had had a gun,” Simon said, “I would have shot them like you shot that horrid man called Bill.”
“He will be in pain with that arm for some time,” the Duke said, “and he will have a long prison sentence to go with it!”
“I am glad they are going to prison,” Simon said. “They are very wicked men!”
“I think what frightened me more than anything else was knowing that you were in the watch tower,” the Duke said. “I had been told over and over again that it was unsafe and might collapse at any moment.”
“And yet – you climbed up – it!” Kasia said softly.
“To be with you,” the Duke replied. “It was no worse than climbing mountains in Portugal or the Pyrenees.”
Kasia guessed that these were two of the places where he had won medals for gallantry.
“If I had a medal, I would give it to you!” she said.
“We will talk about that later,” the Duke replied, and his eyes were on her lips.
It seemed to Kasia as if she was moving in a dream.
She had no idea what she ate or drank.
Nanny came to collect Simon and he got up from the table and put his arms around Kasia saying,
“I was brave, was I not, and I did try to protect you.”
“You were wonderful!” Kasia said.
“Next time I will shoot those wicked men with my gun!” he said firmly.
He moved to the Duke and to his surprise hugged him.
“Nanny says you are a dare-devil, Uncle Darcy. I am going to be just like you and you must teach me how to shoot.”
“I will do that, the Duke said, “but of course you realise that if you are going to be like me you will have to read.”
He paused a moment and then went on,
“Otherwise I could not have read Miss Watson’s letter, and I would never have known where you were.”
Simon thought this over for a moment. Then he said,
“All right. I will read, if I can shoot.”
“That is a deal!” the Duke replied.
Simon hugged him again, then ran off with Nanny.
He was talking about what wicked men he would shoot when he had bullets in his gun.
The Duke looked at Kasia with a smile.
She was thinking he would be as clever with his own children when he had them.
Without speaking, they went into the drawing room.
He stood looking at her and she wondered what he was about to say.
Their eyes met, he moved towards her and she was in his arms.
As she waited, her lips raised to his, he said, “How can you be so lovely, so incredibly beautiful, that it is impossible to live without you?”
Then he was kissing her, not gently, but wildly, fiercely, passionately, as if he defied Fate to take her from him.
To Kasia, it was as if Heaven’s doors had opened and she had flown inside.
She was no longer human, but one with the angels.
The Duke’s kisses made her feel as if the moonlight was shining through her.
At the same time, she was his and they were no longer two people, but one.
She knew then it was how she had felt since the first day she had met him.
Although she had not understood it, her heart had spoken to his heart and her soul to his soul.
“I love you!” the Duke was saying. “God, how I love you!”
Then he was kissing her again.
Only when Kasia thought it was impossible to feel such ecstasy and not die from the wonder of it, did the Duke ask,
“How soon will you marry me? I cannot wait and I am desperately afraid that someone might take you from me.”
“I – I love – you,” Kasia answered.
“Then that is all that matters,” the Duke said.
He kissed her until they were both breathless, then he drew her down onto the sofa.
“We must make plans, my darling,” he said. “I could not face again what I faced today, when I thought those devils might have hurt you, or that I might not be able to find you.”
Kasia gave a little sigh.
“You mean – when they had the money – they might have – left us – to starve?”
“They might have done anything!” the Duke said hastily. “That is why I want you with me every day and every – night.”
There was a little pause before he said the last word.
Then he added,
“I have lain awake wanting you until I thought I would go mad!”
“I thought and prayed for you,” Kasia said, “and what was so wonderful was that you understood where we were. Simon and I both prayed that you would understand my code.”
“I thought you were telling me where to look,” the Duke said simply, “and just as I have been able to read your thoughts, I was able to read what you were trying to convey to me.”
“I think – that is what – Love means,” Kasia murmured.
“You have not answered my question,” the Duke said. “When will you marry me?”
“Are you really asking me to be your wife, not knowing who I am?”
“You were very positive you would not tell me,” the Duke said with a smile, “but now, as your future husband, I feel I am entitled to be let into the secret.”
Kasia felt he was feeling for words.
Then he said,
“I have just thought of something – when you wrote your name at the bottom of the note, I presume from dictation – I seemed to have heard of the name ‘Kasia’ before. Now I remember where!”
He got up as he spoke and went to the stool in front of the fireplace.
Kasia was aware that, just as her father had them, the newspapers were laid out on it.
The Duke picked up the Morning Post.
He brought it to her, pointing out
an item in the ‘Wanted’ column.
Kasia took it from him and following the direction of his finger, she read,
“Kasia, forgive me, and come home. I miss you!
R. R. “
She read the message, then gave a little cry.
“I have won! I have won!”
“You have won – what?” the Duke enquired.
“The battle with my father,” she answered.
“It was from him you ran away?”
Kasia nodded.
He gave a deep sigh.
“If you knew the agony I have been through imagining that it was from a husband, or a lover.”
Kasia looked at him in astonishment.
“How could you – think such – a thing?”
“I love you and I want you, and I promise you I shall be a very jealous husband.”
“There will be no need for you to be jealous of anyone!” she said softly.
“I thought today that I was the first person who had ever kissed you,” the Duke said. “Is that so?”
“Of course it is! No one has kissed me – except you.”
The Duke would have pulled her against him, but she said,
“Let me tell you why I ran away.”
“Why did you?”
“Because my Father, whose house is on the other side of Berkeley Square from yours, told me I was to marry an elderly Peer called Lord Stefelton!”
“Marry him? Why should your father have wanted that?”
Kasia hesitated for a moment. Then she said, “Papa is very rich – and he is so – afraid I will marry a fortune-hunter.”
The Duke laughed.
“So that is why you ran away! My darling, I may be many things, but I am not a fortune hunter!”
“I know that,” Kasia said, “and I was determined I would not marry any man I did not love. Papa said it was utterly impossible for me to earn a penny piece for myself!”
“Well, now you can tell him he is wrong,” the Duke said. “You have earned a week’s wages, not once, but a thousand times, and I will pay you in any coinage you like.”
“I would – prefer it in – kisses,” Kasia said, “and you do – understand that if you will – marry me, I shall – marry the man – I love.”
“I am going to marry you as quickly as possible. Apart from anything else, there is a great deal to do here, and you know that, like me, Simon cannot do without you.”
“I love Simon, I love the Castle, and I love you!” Kasia cried.
The Duke knew there was a little note of passion in her voice he had never heard before.
It brought the fire into his eyes.
Then he was kissing her with long possessive, passionate kisses.
They changed the moonlight that was still within Kasia into little flames of fire.
She did not understand what it meant.
She only knew that once again the Heavens opened.
The Duke was carrying her into a world of such beauty, light and love, that she knew what they had found together was what had always been in their hearts.
“I love – you! I love – you!” she murmured.
Then as the Duke drew her closer still, she knew that the wonder and glory of it was there for all Eternity.
OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
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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
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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.
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THE DARE-DEVIL DUKE
Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
This edition © 2012
Copyright Cartland Promotions 1996
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