Forced to Marry

by Barbara Cartland

  “A – solution?”

  Now the tears were once again running down her cheeks.

  Lord Locke then took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped them away.

  “Yes, I have a solution,” he said, “but I am rather afraid to suggest it in case it is something you would dislike.”

  “I-I don’t – understand.”

  He paused for a moment.

  Then looking into her eyes he said,

  “I think, Gytha, that if you were really worried over your cousin killing or maiming me, that you must like me a little.”

  “Of course I like you!” Gytha replied. “You are so wonderful – so magnificent – and only you could have – saved me.”

  “And you like me just for that or is there any other reason?”

  Her eyes were held by him and she could not look away.

  He thought that nothing could be more revealing.

  No woman could look at him more adoringly.

  “Tell me what you feel,” he asked softly.

  She was then aware of what he was thinking, her eyelashes dark against her cheeks.

  With a little murmur she hid her face again.

  Lord Locke’s lips rested on her forehead as he breathed,

  “I think, darling, you love me a little.”

  He felt her quiver and then she whispered,

  “Of course I – love you! How could I not – love anyone so – wonderful – but I did not want you to – know about it.”

  “I cannot help knowing since I love you too!”

  For a moment Gytha was still.

  Then she raised her face to look at him incredulously.

  “You – love me?”

  The words were almost inaudible.

  “I love you!” he asserted firmly. “I have loved you for a long time, but I would not acknowledge it to myself.”

  His voice dropped a little as he went on,

  “Then when those devils took you away, I knew that if I lost you, I would lose something so perfect and so precious that my life would never be the same again.”

  Gytha gave a little cry.

  “How – can you – say such – things to me? How can you – think them?”

  “I can think them and I can say them because I love you,” Lord Locke insisted, “and I want to go on and on telling you of my love.”

  He smiled.

  “So, my darling, to make it easier and to make quite sure that you are safe and can never be spirited away from me again, we are going to be married tonight!”

  Gytha stared at him as if she could not believe what she had heard.

  “I will have to change the name of the bridegroom on the Special Licence,” he continued, “that your cousin Vincent obtained.”

  He smiled at her and then added,

  “The Archbishop of Canterbury when he was a young man was my father’s Chaplain at Locke Hall, so I feel certain that he will understand the necessity for it.”

  “Then – you can – marry me?” Gytha whispered.

  “I am going to marry you and then there will be no more dramas with your cousins or dubious Wedding presents that have to be exterminated.”

  “How – can you be – sure of that?”

  Gytha’s voice trembled.

  He knew that once again she was frightened.

  He pulled her a little closer to him before he said,

  “The first thing we are going to do tomorrow morning before we leave on our honeymoon is – ”

  “Honeymoon?” Gytha murmured.

  “ – before we leave on our honeymoon,” Lord Locke repeated, “is to send for my Solicitors. You and I will sign a deed giving your cousins each five thousand pounds a year and a house in London for our lifetime.”

  His voice was stern as he finished,

  “If either of us dies, the benefit to them will cease and the house will revert to my estate.”

  Gytha gave a little cry.

  “That is brilliant – very – very clever!”

  “I think that will ensure that the Sullivan brothers will be only too eager to protect rather than assassinate us.”

  “You – are so – wonderful!”

  “As for our other enemy,” Lord Locke continued, “if anything should happen to my wife, I would be in mourning for a year and a year is a long time in any young woman’s life.”

  Gytha understood exactly what he was implying.

  And again she said,

  “How can you be so – clever – so marvellous? Now I can be – happy and no longer – afraid.”

  “I will not allow you to be afraid and I want to show you how to be happy.”

  As he spoke, he put his fingers under her chin.

  He turned her face up to his.

  Then slowly, as if he savoured the moment, his lips took possession of hers.

  To Gytha it was as if the sky had opened.

  He swept her up towards the stars.

  He kissed her, at first gently and very tenderly, then more possessively.

  She knew that this was the love that she had always longed to find.

  Incredibly the hero of all her dreams was kissing her.

  She was his, completely his, as she had always wanted to be.

  “I – love you! I love – you!” she sighed.

  His arms tightened as he added,

  “How can you make me feel like this?”

  “Like – what?”

  “Different in a way that I have never felt before. You excite me, my darling, but it is much more than that. You are everything I ever wanted in a woman and most of all in my wife.”

  Then he was kissing her again.

  Kissing her so that it was a shock to both of them when the carriage came to a standstill and they realised that they were back at Locke Hall.

  Perry was waiting for them.

  As they entered the hall, he said teasingly,

  “How can you have taken so long?”

  Then when Lord Locke would have answered, he added,

  “I have given all your orders, so you should be grateful that I managed to get here so quickly.”

  “I am very grateful,” Lord Locke replied, “and now, as we are all hungry, the sooner we have dinner the better.”

  He took his evening cape from around Gytha’s shoulders and urged her,

  “If you are going to tidy yourself, please hurry, because we have so much to celebrate.”

  She gave him a radiant smile.

  Then she ran up the stairs to where Mrs. Meadows was waiting on the landing.

  “Whatever happened to you, miss?” the housekeeper asked. “We’ve all been that worried ever since you was carried off like that!”

  “His Lordship rescued me,” Gytha replied, “and now everything is wonderful – very – very – wonderful.”

  She went towards her bedroom as she spoke.

  She wanted to hurry back to Lord Locke.

  She grudged even the time it took to make herself tidy when she might have been with him.

  They ate a delicious dinner, although Gytha had no idea afterwards what she ate or drank.

  She could only gaze at Lord Locke.

  It was impossible to believe that he had really said he would marry her.

  She thought that she must have dreamt it.

  All the while Perry was talking and making them laugh she kept meeting Lord Locke’s eyes.

  It made it impossible to think of anything but his kisses.

  Her love seemed to well up inside her and flow towards him like the rays of the sun.

  ‘No man could be more handsome! she thought. ‘No man could be more attractive or more – masculine!’

  She blushed at the thought.

  It made her look so lovely as she did so that Lord Locke found it difficult to take his eyes from her.

  When dinner was over, he said gently,

  “Go now and get ready, my darling. We are going to be married in the Chapel and my Chaplain is waiting for us.”r />
  Gytha drew in her breath.

  “Are you – quite certain – this is what you – should do?”

  “It is what I am going to do,” he replied, “and I will kill anyone who tries to stop me!”

  Because of the way he spoke, Gytha felt as if shafts of lightning were seeping through her.

  She had no words to answer him.

  He could see, however, by the expression in her eyes what he had made her feel.

  Then without saying anything more she ran up the stairs to her bedroom.

  Mrs. Meadows was waiting for her.

  On the bed was a lace veil that had been in the Locke family for many centuries. It was of the finest lace and it might have been made by fairy fingers.

  Mrs. Meadows arranged it on her hair.

  It fell over her shoulders to the ground and flowed out behind her.

  Then there was a diamond tiara.

  Mrs. Meadows told her that it had been worn by Lord Locke’s great-grandmother and, fashioned of stars, Gytha thought that it might have fallen from the sky especially for her.

  Also waiting for her was a small bouquet of orchids.

  When she was ready, Mrs. Meadows and two housemaids, who had come to admire her, told her how beautiful she looked.

  They wished her luck and she went down the stairs to where Lord Locke was waiting.

  It was difficult to descend slowly.

  She wanted to run down to him, but she managed to walk with dignity.

  As he met her at the foot of the stairs, she realised how magnificent he looked.

  He had changed into knee-breeches and silk stockings.

  He was wearing his decorations on his long-tailed coat and the cross that he had been awarded for gallantry was on a ribbon round his neck.

  He took her hand in his.

  As he felt her fingers quiver, he said in a quiet voice,

  “You look exactly as I want you to and, when we are married, I will tell you how much I love you.”

  She drew in her breath.

  But it was impossible because of her happiness to speak.

  He gave her his arm and covered her hand with his.

  They walked down the passage towards the Chapel. It was at the back of the house and very old.

  It had been built when the foundations of Locke Hall were first laid.

  There was the sound of the organ playing before they reached it.

  Then they entered the small Chapel.

  Gytha realised that while they were having dinner a profusion of flowers had been arranged on the altar and there were flowers on the sills of the stained-glass windows.

  She learnt later that the hothouses of Locke Hall had been emptied.

  Every vase of flowers that had been arranged in the house had also been carried to the Chapel.

  The air was filled with the fragrance of them.

  Instead of the conventional white lilies and carnations there was a mass of colour from dahlias and early chrysanthemums as well as orchids and many other hothouse flowers.

  Perry was, of course, Lord Locke’s Best Man.

  The Chaplain, a grey-haired man, began the Service in great solemnity.

  Gytha remembered how only a few hours ago she had heard the same opening words.

  She had thought then that they were a death blow to her happiness and perhaps her life.

  Now she was marrying the man she loved and who loved her.

  God would bless them and she felt too that her mother and father were near her and they were part of her happiness.

  Lord Locke made his responses in a deep sincere voice.

  It made the tears prick Gytha’s eyes.

  She had admired him from afar for so many years when he was out riding or hunting.

  She knew now that, while she admired him for his magnificence, there was something spiritual about him as well.

  It drew her soul from her body and made it his.

  ‘He is different from all other men,’ she told herself.

  She thanked God that she had found him.

  When the Service was over, Lord Locke took Gytha from the Chapel and she supposed now that they would receive the congratulations of the staff.

  They would drink a glass of champagne with Perry and the Chaplain.

  However, to her surprise, there were no servants in the hall.

  Lord Locke took her upstairs and along a silent corridor to her bedroom.

  The lights were burning by the bed and there was no one in the room.

  She looked around her in surprise as he quietly closed the door behind him.

  Then he said,

  “I want you to myself. We have had more than enough of talking and coping with other people. But now, my darling, we are alone.”

  She wanted him to kiss her.

  But first he lifted the diamond tiara from her hair and took off her veil.

  He put it down on a chair.

  Then he pulled her into his arms.

  As he kissed her, she thought that this was different from the kisses he had given her before.

  Now there was something reverent and sacred in it and the Service that they had just taken part in was still in both their minds.

  As if he was afraid to frighten her, very gently he undid the buttons at the back of her gown.

  It slithered like a sigh to the floor.

  Gytha felt herself trembling but not with fear.

  An excitement that was a rapture was rising within her.

  It was moving like sunshine through her breasts and up into her throat.

  It touched her lips that were still held by Lord Locke’s.

  He lifted her into the bed and laid her back against the pillows.

  She felt her heart beating frantically.

  There was now an ecstasy in her breasts that seemed to grow more and more intense.

  A few seconds later Lord Locke joined her.

  He put his arms gently around her.

  Then, as she felt as if her body melted into his, he asked,

  “Now, my precious little wife, I can tell you how much I love you.”

  “I am – dreaming – I know I am dreaming!” Gytha cried. “I have – loved you for so many years but – I never thought – that I would never know you – and when I did – I never imagined it would be – possible for you to love me.”

  “I love you, for I know that you are exactly what I have been seeking all my life and thought I would never find.”

  His lips moved over the softness of her skin as he added,

  “At the same time, my precious, if you want me to wait before I make you mine completely and absolutely, so that we are not two people but one, I will do so, although it will be very hard for me.”

  Gytha gave a little laugh.

  Then she hid her face against his neck.

  “How can you – imagine that I would – want to – wait for your love?” she asked. “I have waited so long – already and when today I thought I had – lost you for ever – the whole world was – dark and empty.”

  She paused to smile at him lovingly before she added,

  “I knew – that I had no wish to – live if I could not see you.”

  “That is what I wanted you to say,” Lord Locke said. “I want your love, I want it desperately.”

  His hand touched her hair.

  “My precious, I will try to make up to you not only for everything you have suffered this past week but also for the years with your grandfather and for the loss of your father and mother.”

  Gytha drew in her breath.

  “How can you – think of such – marvellous – fantastic things to say to me?”

  “I have known ever since you came to me,” Lord Locke replied, “that I had to protect you and to repay the debt I owed your father.”

  His voice deepened.

  “Then because you were so pathetic and at the same time so brave, I fell in love.”

  Gytha made a little murmur and he said,


  “That is true! I know of no woman who would have behaved as you have done in such terrifying and horrible circumstances.”

  His lips moved over the softness of her cheeks and he went on,

  “You are very beautiful, my darling, but I adore your character, besides being overwhelmed by your personality. How can you have so much in one small person?”

  “I want to be – everything you – want me to be,” Gytha answered, “so will you please – teach me how to – love you so that I can make you really – happy and not do anything that you – dislike or makes you angry?”

  “I have sworn not only to protect you,” Lord Locke replied, “but to worship and adore you for as long as we both shall live.”

  Then he was kissing her, kissing her demandingly.

  It was as if he asked something of her.

  And she was not quite certain what it was.

  Yet she wanted to give him herself.

  Instinctively she moved closer and still closer to him until she could feel his heart beating against hers.

  She knew that she had excited him.

  There was a fire burning fiercely in his kisses.

  She could feel her whole body responding to him.

  Now little flames flickered through her.

  They made her think that the sunshine and lightning were moving together in her body.

  Then up into her lips.

  “I-I love you – I adore – you!”

  He was kissing her eyes, her neck and her breasts.

  An ecstasy that she had never dreamt possible was a blazing light.

  It was so perfect and so glorious.

  It could have come only from God.

  “I love – you with all – of me,” she murmured aloud.

  “I worship you,” he answered, “my precious, perfect little wife, but I want you as a woman. Oh, God, I want you!”

  Lord Locke made her his.

  They became one person and Gytha knew that this was the love that she had always dreamt about.

  Only it was far more wonderful.

  Far more miraculous than she could ever have imagined.

  It was the Glory and Blessing of God.

  He had saved them from evil and protected them.

  He had given them the true love that was clear and pure.

  It was theirs now – and for all Eternity.

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