As he climbed in beside Shana he placed the bouquet on her lap.
“Are these for me?” she asked. “How wonderful! I adore lilies.”
“I always understood that lilies were the correct flower for a bride.”
She looked at him wondering what he meant and he said gently,
“We are going to be married before we leave for our honeymoon.”
Shana stared at him in sheer amazement and then she began to murmur incoherently,
“But you – cannot – marry me – without – ”
Before she could say any more the carriage came to a halt outside the British Embassy and servants ran down the steps to open the carriage door.
The Marquis climbed out.
As he helped her, Shana thought she must be dreaming.
The Marquis was so important and as everyone had said so fastidious.
How was it possible he was planning to marry a woman whom he believed to be of so little social importance that she was forced to earn her own living?
‘I must tell him who I am,’ Shana thought.
Her next thought was that it was the most wonderful thing that could ever have happened to her.
She was marrying a man who loved her for herself.
This was the love she had always dreamt of and had actually wished for as her coin had splashed into the Trevi Fountain.
They walked in through the Embassy door and the Marquis spoke to an aide-de-camp who had hurried forward when he saw them arrive.
“I would like to see His Excellency as soon as possible,” he said.
“We received your message, my Lord,” the aide-decamp replied, “and His Excellency will be ready in a few minutes. The visitor who is with him at the moment is just about to leave.”
He led the way into a very comfortable and well furnished anteroom.
Shana put her lilies down on a table and was just about to sit down when the door at the end of the room opened.
She guessed it led into the private offices of the Ambassador, who emerged in the company of another man.
When he saw the Marquis, the Ambassador smiled and held out his hand.
“I am delighted to see you, my Lord,” he began.
As he spoke Shana gave a little scream.
“Papa!”
She ran across the room and as she flung herself against Lord Hallam, he exclaimed in astonishment,
“Shana! My dearest, what are you doing here? How is it possible you are in Rome?”
He bent to kiss his daughter and her arms were round his neck as the Ambassador and the Marquis stared at them in surprise.
Then as if the Ambassador finally found his voice he said,
“I do not know if you have met the Marquis of Kilbrooke.”
Still with one arm round Shana, Lord Hallam replied,
“We are neighbours and I knew your father for many years.”
“Of course I know all about you,” said the Marquis, “but I had no idea that Shana was your daughter.”
“Yet she is with you?” Lord Hallam queried.
The Marquis looked at the Ambassador.
“I think, Your Excellency, “that as we have a story to tell both to Lord Hallam and to you it would be wise to go into your office.”
“Yes, of course,” the Ambassador agreed. “Please come in and allow me to offer you some refreshment.”
“I think our stories should come first,” the Marquis suggested.
Holding on to her father’s hand, Shana sat down on the chair beside him.
“I have had many surprises in my life,” Lord Hallam said, “but this is certainly one I did not expect. I thought, Shana my dearest, that you were looking after our horses and in my wildest dreams I would not have expected to find you here in Rome!”
“It makes everything perfect that you are here, Papa, but I think perhaps I had better start from the very beginning and tell you the whole story.”
“It is certainly something I would like to hear.”
The Marquis and Lord Hallam had both seated themselves in armchairs and next Shana started in a small voice,
“It all happened because you told me to take – Bob Grimes the tobacco – you had bought for him.”
Her father was listening intently and she went on to relate how Mrs. Grimes had fractured her leg.
In order to help out Bob, who was so excited at having someone as important as the Marquis to patronise the Rose and Crown, she had cooked the luncheon for the shooting party.
Because she felt shy at what she was saying, she did not look at the Marquis, but carried on to explain how the next day she had visited Mrs. Grimes and again she had cooked luncheon, only this time for the two Italians, overhearing their conversation through the false window in the passage.
“When you heard their plot,” Lord Hallam interrupted, “you knew you had to warn the Marquis.”
“I thought it was the only thing I could do,” Shana answered. “At the same time I had no idea then how dangerous they were.”
She shivered as she spoke and the Marquis said,
“I would like, my Lord, to intervene here. The rest of the story is really mine and I will explain why I persuaded Shana to come to Rome with me.”
He paused for a moment before he continued,
“I have already sent a messenger to His Excellency asking him to make arrangements for your daughter and me to be married as soon as I have informed him of what occurred here last night.”
“Married!” Lord Hallam ejaculated.
“I have loved Shana for what now seems a very long time,” the Marquis answered, “and I believe that she loves me. And I have the honour of asking you, my Lord, for your daughter’s hand.”
Shana gave a little murmur,
“I do – love him, Papa, I love – him with all my – heart.”
Lord Hallam was used to the unexpected and in this instance his composure did not desert him.
He nodded his head and there was just a slight pause before he muttered,
“I hope I shall be allowed to give away the bride.”
“Of course you must, Papa,” Shana told him, “and it makes everything so wonderful for me that you will be here. But I have only just been told what has been planned.”
“There is a reason for so much speed,” the Marquis said. “I now want to suggest, because I do not wish Shana to be upset by hearing my report of the events since we arrived in Rome, that with your Excellency’s approval she should adjourn elsewhere until your Chaplain is ready for us.”
The Ambassador understood and rose to his feet.
“I will take the future bride to my wife,” he suggested, “as I know she will not only look after her, but will enjoy the excitement and romance of a wedding here in the Embassy Chapel. We have not had one for quite some time.”
Shana rose and put both her arms around her father’s neck and kissed him again.
“I love you, Papa,” she said, “and please understand that, although what I have done may seem somewhat strange, I thought all the time it was what you would wish me to do.”
She did not wait for her father’s answer, but walked towards the door which the Ambassador opened for her.
As she passed the Marquis he reached out to take her hand and raised it to his lips and she knew as he did so that he was telling her with his heart that he loved her.
The Ambassador led Shana into the private part of the Embassy.
His wife, Lady Matheson, was in the drawing room sitting at her writing table and when her husband came in she rose to her feet.
She looked at the girl who was accompanying him a little questioningly.
“I have brought you, my dear, the bride we spoke about this morning who turns out to be the daughter of Lord Hallam. The Marquis has asked if you will be kind enough to look after her and help her prepare for the wedding.”
“Of course I am delighted to look after her,” Lady Matheson answered.
She was a good-looking
woman of about fifty and there was a friendliness and warmth about her to which Shana immediately responded.
Knowing Shana would be in good hands, the Ambassador returned to his office without further ado.
While he was away, the Marquis had said to Lord Hallam,
“You must forgive me, my Lord, if this comes to you as something of a shock. But I assure you that all I am concerned with at the moment is getting Shana away from Rome. When I tell you and the Ambassador what has happened, you will understand.”
Lord Hallam smiled.
“I understand that you and Shana are in love with each other and that is more important than anything else.”
“I realise now,” the Marquis told him, “that I have never in my whole life been in love before now and I promise you I will make Shana really happy.”
“That is all that really matters.”
“I am afraid that because she admires and loves you so much,” the Marquis added, “she will worry that she has left you alone.”
There was a short pause before Lord Hallam replied,
“I have a solution to that problem. I do not pretend that I would not have found it very lonely if I had returned home, as I intend to do, to find Shana was not there.”
The Marquis did not speak and he went on,
“While I was in Paris these last weeks, I met a friend I had known many years ago who, although it seems unbelievable, has never given her heart to anyone.”
Lord Hallam paused and the Marquis guessed what was coming.
“All I shall say is that I am going back to Paris and, if Shana worries too much about me, tell her you think I shall not be returning to England alone!”
“This news certainly makes matters very much easier than I thought they would be,” the Marquis admitted candidly.
The door opened and the Ambassador joined them again.
“My wife is only too delighted to look after your daughter,” he said to Lord Hallam.
Then turning to the Marquis saying,
“You know as well as I do that I am finding it hard to repress my curiosity about what happened last night.”
The Marquis sat down.
He told Lord Hallam first, as the Ambassador had already heard this part of the story, what had happened at Brooke Hall.
How the thieves had escaped by spraying him and his men with a chemical and had killed the footman they had bribed to let them in and explained how it had been impossible, since Shana was the only person who had ever seen any of the thieves, to refuse to bring her to Rome to meet the Chief of Police.
“She examined hundreds if not thousands of drawings and photographs of known thieves, especially men called Abramo,” he said. “Then last night our carriage was held up in the road and she recognised one of the men who had been at the Rose and Crown coming down the steps of a large house.”
The Ambassador gave a loud exclamation.
“She actually saw him coming out of a house?” he quizzed. “Where was it?”
“The Chief of Police recognised it as Palazzo Labrama.”
The Ambassador stared as if he felt he could not have heard correctly.
“The home of Prince Vasaro!” he exclaimed. “I do not believe it!”
“Unfortunately it is true and the man Shana saw had simultaneously seen her.”
He then recounted what had happened later that night and how only by the mercy of God he had heard Shana calling for him silently.
“I shot the man who was lifting her out through the window,” he said quietly, “and would have shot the other man if he had not fallen backwards and, I gather, broke his neck.”
“I have never heard of anything so fantastic,” Lord Hallam commented.
“You will receive the gratitude not only of Rome, but of museums and collectors of art all over the world,” the Ambassador added.
The Marquis smiled.
“I made a bargain with the Chief of Police that both my name, and of course Shana’s, should be kept out of his report. He will take all the credit and now you will understand why I must leave Rome immediately.”
“You do not trust the Chief of Police?” Lord Hallam asked.
“It is not a matter of not trusting him. He will be put under great pressure by people who cannot contain their curiosity. There is now nothing more that Shana or I can do and I cannot allow her to be upset again as she was last night.”
His voice deepened and he looked at Lord Hallam as he said,
“I know of no other woman I have ever met who would have been so brave after such a terrifying ordeal when she knew, as you and I know, they would undoubtedly have killed her.”
“I am very proud of my daughter,” Lord Hallam sighed. “And you are quite right, you must depart from Rome immediately.”
“I am taking her to Greece where I believe she has always wanted to go. And now that we shall not have to worry about you, my Lord, we will have a very long honeymoon.”
“I know that I can leave Shana safely in your hands,” Lord Hallam smiled.
The Ambassador moved to the door and an aide-decamp spoke to him.
“Everything is ready in the Chapel,” he announced, “and a message has been sent to my wife.”
The Ambassador took the Marquis and Lord Hallam to the back door of the Embassy and just across the courtyard there was the Chapel which had been built over a hundred years earlier.
“I hope, my Lord, you will allow me to be your Best Man,” the Ambassador proposed.
“I shall be honoured, your Excellency.”
He handed the Ambassador his signet ring and they walked towards the Chapel, leaving Lord Hallam to wait for Shana.
She joined him two minutes later holding her bouquet of lilies.
She was wearing a veil which Lady Matheson had worn at her own wedding and to hold it in place there was a wreath of white orchids, which the two women had made quickly.
Shana looked more beautiful than her father had ever seen her and he believed, just as the Marquis had, that there was something ethereal and different about her.
It was something he could not explain in words.
Her veil did not cover her face but fell on either side almost down to the floor.
Her eyes were shining and she looked so very lovely and Lord Hallam thought the Marquis was exceedingly lucky to have such a beautiful bride.
He gave Shana his arm and they walked slowly across the courtyard.
“It makes everything perfect that you are here, Papa,” Shana whispered.
“That is just what I was thinking myself,” her father replied.
The Chapel was small but beautiful and there was an abundance of flowers on the altar.
As the Marquis saw Shana arrive he thought this was exactly the wedding he wanted as there were no friends appraising the bride or giving them presents they did not require.
What mattered was that he had found the woman he did not believe existed, yet who had been part of his dreams for as long as he could remember.
The Chaplain, who was English, married them quietly with a sincerity which was very moving.
When they knelt for the blessing, Shana was sure that God was really blessing them.
The love which she and the Marquis had for each other was Divine.
When they returned to the Embassy the Ambassador and his wife drank their health and Lord Hallam said,
“I know that each of you has found the right person and it will therefore be impossible for you not to be exceedingly happy.”
“I am so happy, Papa,” Shana said. “I cannot believe – that this is all happening to me.”
Still wearing her veil and holding her bouquet of lilies, they walked to the carriage.
They profusely thanked the Ambassador and his wife and Shana kissed her father again and again.
“Take care of yourself, Papa and I shall worry if you miss me when you return home.”
“You will find your husband will give you an answer to that particular
problem,” Lord Hallam twinkled. “Do not think about coming home until you have explored Greece fully and perhaps seen your own face amongst all the Goddesses whose statues you will see.”
“I do hope your wish comes true,” Shana laughed.
As they drove away from the Embassy she slipped her hand into the Marquis’s.
“How could you have thought of such a perfect wedding?” she asked. “Especially with Papa being there.”
“That was a gift from the Gods,” the Marquis replied. “And they have been very busy, as you know, my darling, looking after us ever since we first met in the Rose and Crown.”
Shana grinned.
“Bob will be very surprised when he hears we are married.”
“We will go and tell him the moment we get back, but we have a great many enthralling things to do first.”
“Are we really going to Greece?”
“Where else could I take a Goddess?”
He raised her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers one by one.
Then he kissed the centre of her palm and she felt a little quiver of excitement run through her.
It seemed a long drive to the port of Ostia where the Seashell was waiting for them.
Curtis had gone ahead with the luggage so everyone on the ship already knew that they were married.
As they were piped aboard the crew showered them with rose petals and they walked into the Saloon to find flowers of every shape and colour in profusion.
As soon as they were aboard, the Seashell started to move.
The Marquis felt he would not really feel safe until they had passed out of the port and were in the open sea.
Shana had taken off her veil leaving the wreath of orchids in her hair.
She was still tidying herself in her cabin when a Steward knocked on the door and informed her that luncheon was ready.
She climbed upstairs to find that the Chef had excelled himself and each course was more delicious than the last.
It was however very difficult to think of food as she was so acutely conscious of her husband seated opposite her.
The expression in his eyes made her feel shy.
Luncheon was finished and the Seashell was steaming ahead at full speed.
“I have something to show you below,” the Marquis said.
“I thought you might want us to watch the coast of Italy from the upper deck.”
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