169. A Cheiftain finds Love (The Eternal Collection)

by Barbara Cartland

  “I think it would be impossible,” the Duke replied, “and anyway, I could not allow you to spoil your teeth.”

  Isa laughed and it was a very pretty sound.

  “You are thinking of – my teeth,” she asked, “while we lie here in – the dark and will – perhaps never – see the light again?”

  “And let Talbot win?” the Duke asked. “Damn him! I will have my revenge on him for this if it takes a hundred years!”

  That was what it might take, Isa thought miserably.

  She was aware now as she tried to move how the men, and she was sure that they were sailors, had tied them very securely.

  She thought that it would be impossible to escape without a sharp knife to cut them free.

  Then there were the chains around their legs, which Talbot McNaver had fastened with padlocks and taken away the keys.

  ‘He was very – certain we would – die here,’ she told herself and shivered.

  Her shoulder moved against the Duke’s, but he was deep in his thoughts and did not notice.

  Then he said,

  “I wonder if we rolled ourselves towards the cascade and shouted whether anyone could hear us.”

  “We might – try,” Isa replied.

  She feared nevertheless that the roar of the water would prevent their voices from carrying.

  Alternatively, as the Duke had already said, if they threw themselves into the cascade, the force of their fall could render then unconscious.

  They would be swept over the cliffs and drowned before any one would see them.

  ‘What can – we do? What – can we – do?’ she asked herself in a sudden panic.

  Then in a voice that she strove to keep low and quiet she said gently,

  “You know – I will do anything you – suggest.”

  “What I cannot understand,” the Duke replied, “is how Talbot discovered this cave in the first place. I have lived here all my life and had no idea of its existence.”

  “Rory must have found it when he was searching for the treasure,” Isa suggested. “Perhaps in the old days – there was a huge stone sealing the entrance they came through and – perhaps now it is concealed under a number of stones or a cairn.”

  “I suppose that is the explanation,” the Duke said, “but it does not help us at the moment.”

  “You don’t – think,” Isa said hesitatingly, “that you could – stand up and – force open the – entrance?”

  “With my head?” the Duke asked.

  She knew then that she had been thinking that he could push it with his arms, but it was impossible.

  Also the weight of what Talbot and his minions might have placed on top of the entrance would preclude his doing anything except hurting himself.

  “No, no!” she said quickly. “That would only give you a headache or, worse still, perhaps – injure you – and I should have – no one to talk to.”

  “As I want to talk to you,” the Duke said, “and most of all, to kiss you! But we have to be sensible. We have to find a way of escape.”

  “I am praying – I am praying with – all my heart that we will find one,” Isa cried.

  “I am prepared to believe that your prayers will be answered, Isa, and I will certainly add mine to them.”

  The way he spoke told her that he was quite sincere and she said impulsively,

  “I cannot – believe God will let you – die when you are so – essential to the – Clan and to Scotland.”

  “No man is indispensable,” the Duke replied a little cynically.

  “You are not an – ordinary man,” Isa said. “You are our Chieftain, our guide, our shepherd. Think what would happen if you don’t return and – your cousin takes – your place!”

  “Blast him!” the Duke stormed furiously. “May he rot in Hell for what he has done to us, and most of all, my darling, for what he has done to you.”

  “I am not – afraid because I am with – you,” Isa sighed.

  Although it seemed incredible, she knew that it was the truth. She was with the Duke and for the moment nothing else seemed to matter.

  Then her common sense told her that soon they would be getting hungry.

  When night came, trussed up as they were which prevented the blood from flowing freely, they would be very cold.

  ‘Please – God – please!’ she prayed in her heart, ‘how can You let this – happen to us?’

  She could visualise all too clearly how by now the household would be beginning to wonder what had happened to them.

  She had an idea that it was long after luncheontime and Harry would have returned from the river.

  He would wait, wondering what they were doing and perhaps thinking that they had gone from the garden onto the moors.

  Aloud she asked,

  “How long do you think it will be before Harry wonders if something has happened to us?”

  “Knowing what Harry feels about Talbot,” the Duke replied, “I think he will be apprehensive when we are not there for luncheon.”

  “What will he do?”

  “He knows the cascade, which we used to visit together when he first stayed with me during the holidays from Eton. But it never struck either of us that we could go behind it.”

  The Duke was reminiscing as if he looked back into the past and he continued,

  “Otherwise we would certainly have hidden in here from the Tutor who was supposed to look after us in the holidays.”

  “It is – my fault,” Isa said in a low voice. “If I had not gone – behind it into the cave – we should have been – perfectly safe in the garden.”

  “For how long?” the Duke asked. “I am sure that Talbot had the idea of capturing me sooner or later, bringing me here and leaving me to die. I have to admit that it is more intelligent than most of the things he does.”

  The Duke spoke contemptuously, but Isa thought what was the use? Talbot had won! He had captured not only the Duke but her as well.

  Although the whole Clan might search for them, it would never strike any of them that they were hidden so hear to The Castle.

  The hours seemed to drag by, the Duke kissed her again and she knew that every kiss he gave her was more rapturous than the last.

  She was aware, although neither of them said so, that already they were both hungry and thirsty.

  Eventually kissing would not appease the pangs of hunger, and perhaps in his agony the Duke would hate her.

  Her prayers intensified.

  ‘Please – God – please hear us and – let us be found – please God – tell Harry– where we are!’

  She felt as if her whole being went up to the sky in waves of prayer and that she must storm the Heavens to save the Duke.

  ‘If I die it is of little or no consequence,’ she said in her heart, ‘but the Duke is – needed. How can You allow – anyone so utterly– despicable as his cousin to – take his place?’

  She felt the Duke’s lips on her hair and then he asked,

  “Are you praying, my precious?”

  “I am praying for you. It is so – important that– you should live.”

  “If you think I want to live without you, you are very much mistaken. I want you and I am not prepared to die.”

  He paused for a moment then suggested,

  “I think what we should do is to move into the cave beside the cascade. Perhaps someone will come searching the garden for us and if we shout for help our voices might be heard.”

  “It’s an – idea,” Isa agreed. “Let’s do it!”

  She sensed that inaction was unbearable for him.

  While in a way she was almost content to be beside him, she knew that they must make every effort to escape.

  She had the feeling, however, that like her he could think of no possible way that they could save themselves.

  He started to move first and she followed him.

  It was agony rolling over the rough stony floor and she thought that after more than an hour they had
made very little headway.

  Yet they had moved from the cave where they had been left to the back of the cave behind the cascade.

  Now the roar of the water was almost deafening.

  It told Isa more clearly than words that, however loudly they shouted, it would be a miracle if anybody heard them.

  The sun was still shining and as Isa looked at the golden veil ahead she was certain that when darkness came it would be very cold.

  However close they might huddle together, she and the Duke would soon be shivering.

  It was best not to think about it, but to follow him painfully.

  She felt the rocks bruising her knees and her arms even through the thickness of her tartan skirt and her velvet jacket.

  Ahead of her the Duke lay still and after a moment she asked anxiously,

  “Are you – all right?”

  “I am exhausted,” he groaned. “I suggest we rest for a while, but not against the sides of the cave which I can see are damp.”

  He had stopped in the centre where the wall was very rough, but Isa thought comparatively dry.

  Only with a great deal of difficulty did the Duke manage to edge himself up until he was in a sitting position.

  Then, as she rolled over and over to reach him, there was a tender expression in his eyes that was different from how he had looked before.

  She moved up beside him, trying to catch her breath after so much exertion and then he said,

  “Now I can see you, and you are even lovelier than I remember!”

  “How can you say that?’ Isa asked. “I must look – awful.”

  Her hair had become loose as she had rolled over and was falling over her shoulders.

  She managed to shake it away from her cheeks and he said,

  “I love you not only because you are beautiful but because you are so brave. Any other woman I know would have been screaming and crying by this time.”

  “What would be – the point?” Isa asked. “In any case I am with – you!”

  “As I am with you,” the Duke replied. “If we have to die, I would rather it was this way, because we are together, than any other.”

  “Do you – really – mean that?”

  “I don’t think that this is a moment when either of us would lie.”

  He kissed her gently and then they both stared ahead of them at the falling water.

  Neither of them said so, but they were aware that the sun was sinking.

  “Save us – oh – God – please – save us!” Isa murmured.

  She felt her prayer was lost in the roar of the water and the walls of the cave seemed to close in on them.

  They were buried.

  Buried as completely and absolutely as if they had both been laid in their coffins in the graveyard and the soil shovelled on top of them.

  She looked at the Duke and saw the agony on his face and knew that he was thinking as she was.

  “The only thing to do,” he said suddenly, “is for me to throw myself into the cascade and pray that I shall survive long enough to tell them where you are.”

  Isa gave a little cry of horror.

  “How can you think of – doing anything so cruel – so wicked – as to leave me here all – alone?” she asked. “If you died – trying to save me – do you think I would – want to live?”

  “I can think of no other way, my darling.”

  “Then we will die together. I am not – afraid as long as you are – beside me.”

  “I think mine is the better way.”

  “But supposing you are unconscious – as you probably will be – then you will be – swept down the burn into the river and – drowned before you – reach the sea. What good will it have done?”

  He did not answer and she added,

  “I shall die – very slowly and agonisingly – and then your cousin will – come to take away – my ropes.”

  The Duke’s lips tightened and she knew that he was biting back the fury he wanted to denounce his cousin with.

  “We will be – together,” Isa whispered, “and now – because the only thing we can do is to pray that by a miracle of God’s mercy – somebody will find us – I am going to – sing to you!”

  She did not wait for him to answer, but sang very softly in her unique and beautiful voice Over the Sea to Skye.

  As she sang, she thought that her voice had never sounded better and that every note was a prayer that would reach Heaven.

  Only when she had finished did she turn to look at the Duke.

  He had an expression of love in his eyes that made her heart turn over in her breast.

  “Could anything be more beautiful?” he asked. “And, my darling, I cannot believe that such beauty can be lost and forgotten.”

  The way he spoke was so moving that she reached forward to lift her lips to his.

  Then, as he kissed her, she was suddenly aware that the light from the cascade was not so bright and there was a dark shadow over it.

  As the Duke released her lips, Isa gave a cry of horror because they were no longer alone in the cave.

  Coming from the cascade, silhouetted against the falling water, somebody was slowly approaching them.

  For a moment, with a contraction of her heart, Isa thought that it was Talbot McNaver.

  Then a voice called out,

  “Bruce! Are you there?”

  The Duke gave a cry that seemed to echo round the whole cave.

  “Harry? Thank God – it’s Harry!”

  He came further towards them.

  “You are here! I can hardly believe it. I never knew there was a cave behind – !”

  He reached them and saw the ropes around their bodies and the chains on their ankles.

  “Devil take it!” he exclaimed. “What has happened to you?”

  “You can see for yourself,” the Duke answered.

  “You mean – Talbot has done this?”

  “Who else?”

  “He thought – nobody would ever – find us,” Isa told him, and her voice quivered on the words.

  Harry crouched down on the floor beside them.

  “It’s a miracle that I have!” he said in a serious voice. “I have been desperate, absolutely desperate, knowing that some accident must have happened and everyone in The Castle is searching for you.”

  “But you are here,” the Duke said.

  “How did you guess – how did you know this was – where we would– be?” Isa asked.

  Harry felt in his pocket and said,

  “You have to thank something very small and insignificant.”

  He held something up between his finger and thumb and for a moment the Duke and Isa stared at it, not knowing what it was.

  Then the Duke understood and looked down at his sporran.

  “Exactly!” Harry smiled. “The eye of an otter. When I saw it glinting at the side of the cascade I thought that it must be a jewel, perhaps something that Miss McNaver had dropped.”

  “And that saved us!” the Duke exclaimed.

  For a moment he closed his eyes and Isa thought that he was saying a prayer, as she was, of utter thankfulness.

  “I knew that there must be some reason for it to be there,” Harry went on, “and I found the opening behind the cascade.”

  Then, as if he was aware of how emotional the moment was, he put the little artificial eye from the Duke’s sporran back into his pocket and rose to his feet.

  “Now stay here while I go and fetch help,” he said, “and don’t run away!”

  “If you are laughing at me,” the Duke said, “I will knock you out as soon as I have the use of my arms!”

  He was laughing as he spoke.

  But Harry was already leaving the entrance to the cave and was squeezing himself carefully through it.

  When he had gone, Isa gave a sigh that came from the very depths of her being.

  “God has – answered our – prayers and we are – saved!”

  “That is just what I was
thinking,” the Duke agreed. “But I am sure that it was your prayers, my darling, that made Heaven aware of us and brought Harry to our rescue.”

  “It was the – eye from your – sporran,” Isa said beneath her breath. “You must have – scraped it off as you – edged your way – into the cave.”

  “It is a miracle we shall neither of us forget.”

  His lips sought hers and he kissed her passionately and now that their crisis was over Isa felt as if she wanted to faint or cry tempestuously.

  As if the Duke was aware of what she was feeling, he suggested gently,

  “Wait until I can hold you in my arms. You have been brave until now and I would not want any of the Clan to see a McNaver in tears!”

  She knew that he was joking to keep her from breaking down.

  She gave a shaky little laugh and knew, as he had asked her to do, that she would wait until they were safe inside The Castle.

  By the time Harry had summoned two of the servants who could be trusted not to say too much and they had cut the ropes off the Duke and Isa, it was dusk.

  There had been a great deal of difficulty in trying to unlock the padlocks to release the chains that encircled their ankles.

  As they went back across the garden, Isa was carried by Harry because it was quite impossible for her to walk.

  Yet she felt as if there were fireworks flaring in the sky and the whole Castle was emblazoned with light.

  But all she could think of was that the Duke was alive and so was she. And for the moment nothing else mattered.

  They reached The Castle, and she was carried to her bedroom.

  When she had washed, rested and changed from her dusty and stained clothes into a pretty gown, Isa limped to the breakfast room.

  There was food for them to eat and champagne to drink.

  Both men rose as she entered the room and she thought that the Duke looked even more handsome and attractive than he ever had before.

  “I have, with remarkable self-restraint,” he said, speaking lightly, “waited for you, but I don’t mind saying that I am extremely hungry!”

  “You must be starving,” Harry said as they sat down at the table.

  It flashed through Isa’s mind how terrible it would have been to have gone for days without food until finally, thin and emaciated, they would have died in a coma.

  As if he knew what she was thinking, the Duke put out his hand and laid it over hers.