Sailing to Love
Page 13
It seemed to her that a long time passed before the cannon fell silent. Gradually the rattle of the rifles slowed down.
But what did it mean?
‘Where is he? Where is he?’ she asked herself. ‘Is he all right? Dear God, don’t let him be hurt. Don’t take him from me now, just when we have begun to find each other.’
Even as she was saying the last prayer from the depths of her heart, the door opened.
The light of the candles, which Venetia had left burning for him, showed her it was the Earl.
He pushed open the door with his hand. As she saw it was covered with blood, she gave a scream.
“You have been injured, you are hurt!” she cried.
“No, Venetia, truly I am unhurt.”
“But you’re bleeding. Oh God!”
“It isn’t my blood. A man attacked me and I killed him.”
“I’m glad,” she said fervently. “I’m glad you killed him if he dared to attack you. I wish I had killed him myself.”
“What a little warrior you are!” he said admiringly. “I’m safe now, my darling. They have started to withdraw. It’s nearly over.”
She burst into tears.
“There,” he said, drawing her into his arms. “You have been so brave, and I’m proud of you. My darling, my darling – don’t cry.”
“I can’t help it,” she sobbed. “I love you so much and I was terrified in case I lost you.”
He put his fingers under her chin.
“Did you say that you love me?” he asked in a tone of wonder.
“Of course I love you,” Venetia whispered. “If you had died in the battle, I would have wanted to die too.”
“My darling, my precious,” the Earl said, “that’s all I need to know. I have longed to tell you that I love you, but I didn’t know how. I hardly dared to hope that you loved me.”
“I have loved you for a long time,” Venetia whispered, “but I was afraid of admitting it in case you didn’t care for me.”
“I have loved you from the first moment I saw you,” the Earl told her. “But I wanted my wife, if I ever had one, to love me as much if not more than I loved her. Now at last I have found what I have been seeking.”
They clasped each other in a long embrace. Then, suddenly they both stood still, listening, hardly daring to believe what they heard.
The guns were silent at last. The battle was over.
Soon it would be their time. Until then, Venetia could wait, knowing that now the wait would not be long.
*
There was no doubt about the victory. Not only had the British soldiers overcome their enemy, but they had taken several prisoners.
The following morning Venetia proved her worth again by helping the Colonel question them. There was no doubt that Kelton was the traitor, and had been promised a handsome payment for delivering his compatriots to the Russians.
“I am so grateful for your help,” the Colonel said to her at last, “and now I can release you from active service. Devenish is recovering fast and can be our interpreter again. The important thing now is for the two of you to return home and report on the situation to Her Majesty.”
“I promise to tell her everything that has happened and to make her aware of your needs,” the Earl said.
“I understand that Lord Anthony will not be travelling with you?” the Colonel enquired.
The Earl grinned.
“He has declared his intention of remaining here in India. He seems to think that life in England will not be exciting enough after all this.”
“He’s welcome to stay,” Colonel Arkwright replied, also grinning. “He’ll get bored after a while and then I’ll send him home.”
“I’ll just wait for you to write your report,” the Earl said, “and then we’ll start the journey back to Bombay to board the ship for home.”
On the next day they were ready to leave. Everyone turned out to see them off, including Anthony, now turned brown by the sun and full of the excitement of his new life.
“Goodbye, old fellow!” the Earl said. “I’ll see you back in England some time, I dare say.”
“I’m not sure you will,” came the spirited riposte. “This life suits me.”
“Goodbye, Anthony dear,” Venetia said, and kissed him.
“I say!” he said.
Travelling first on horseback and then by rail, it took them three days to reach Bombay, where the ship was waiting.
“Let’s depart as soon as possible,” the Earl told the Captain. “We want to get home.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
In the years to come, Venetia was to remember that voyage of love and happiness as one of the most exciting and thrilling times of her whole life.
The Earl loved her as she had always wanted to be loved, and in return she gave him the love he had told her he thought he would never find.
They were blissfully happy in their suite and seldom went anywhere else while they were on board.
“I love you, I love you,” Venetia found herself saying over and over again.
The Earl’s love for her seemed to increase every day they were at sea.
“I suppose I must admit that you did me a huge favour when you took Mary’s place at the altar,” he said to her once.
“Mary is a nice girl but I did not find her interesting. We would never have had a happy marriage. But you and I understand each other. We even share the same sense of humour and you will keep me fascinated all my days. My love, I could never, never find you boring.”
“But perhaps I will be the bored one,” she teased him.
“I shall have to make sure that you are not,” he said, taking her into his arms.
As they neared home she said, a little sadly,
“I suppose that this has been our honeymoon. It seems to have slipped by as if it was flying.”
“We are going to have a hundred honeymoons, the Earl told her. “But I think it is only right to return home first and give our report to the Queen, before we forget that anyone else exists in the world except two people who love each other as we do.”
“While you are seeing the Queen, I’ll go home and find out what’s happened to Mary and David.”
“I will hate every moment I am away from you,” the Earl answered. “But I must not keep Her Majesty waiting for my report. You must come back to me quickly.”
“I will do that,” Venetia promised. “Because I too will be counting the minutes until I see you again.”
“And then we’ll continue our honeymoon and be even happier than we are now.”
“I don’t think that is possible,” Venetia replied. “I am so happy and I love you with all my heart, in fact all of me does.”
“And I love you with all of me,” the Earl said, “and that is something I have never said to a woman before.”
“I love you,” Venetia whispered.
Then it was impossible to say any more.
She knew that her husband had his duty to do, but she still longed for the journey to last as long as possible.
But all too soon it came to an end. The ship docked, they took the train to London and on to Mountwood House in the heart of the most fashionable area.
Venetia was longing to see the house that would be her new home. She had heard of it as a magnificent residence, fit for noblemen. As the great doors swung open, she saw the whole staff gathered to welcome their new mistress.
When she entered, the housekeeper and all the maids curtsied and the butlers and footmen bowed low.
The butler rose and cleared his throat.
“Welcome to Mountwood House, your Ladyship,” he said solemnly. “On behalf of all the staff, allow me to express the hope that you will be happy here.”
She thanked him and took the Earl’s arm to step over the threshold and be introduced to every member of the household. There were over a hundred of them, and she grew dizzy.
The last was a severe elderly lady with a rigid expression that ba
rely concealed a look of anxiety. This was Miss Angleton and the Earl had prepared Venetia to meet her.
“She was my mother’s dresser,” he had said. “After Mama died I kept her on because she had nowhere else to go, and she’s always looked forward to my marriage so that she could dress another Lady Mountwood. The decision is yours of course –”
Looking now at Miss Angleton’s face Venetia knew that she too would find her impossible to dismiss.
“I will rely on you to help me,” she said, embracing her warmly. “You’ll probably think I’m a little country mouse.”
“You are Lady Mountwood,” Miss Angleton said in a voice that settled all questions.
“I’ve never been put in my place so firmly,” she chuckled to her husband over dinner that night. “But she took charge of my luggage very efficiently and had two maids scurrying around while she barked out orders.”
“Only two?” he asked scandalised. “My mother had three. Four if it was a great occasion.”
“Well, you can tell Miss Angleton that you think she isn’t paying enough attention to my dignity,” Venetia told him.
He shuddered.
“Heavens no! She terrifies me. Besides, she’s already started to make you look like a Countess.”
It was true. Miss Angleton had brushed Venetia’s hair fiercely before taking out a pair of curling tongs and setting to work. The resulting creation was the last word in elegance and fashion.
“You are going to take your place in High Society, my darling,” the Earl told her. “With your beauty and Miss Angleton’s skill, you will take London by storm.”
Venetia’s eyes gleamed.
“I should like that,” she said.
The following morning the Earl left the house early to see the Queen at Buckingham Palace, where she had moved, after leaving Windsor Castle.
Venetia caught the train to Fenway, the nearest town to her old home. There she hired a cab.
Everything seemed quiet as she drew up outside the house. But then she saw a curtain move upstairs and Mary’s face was looking out.
Mary gave a shriek as she recognised her and came flying down to greet her.
“It’s you, it’s you,” she cried. “You’re really here at last. We wondered if we’d ever see you again.”
She flung her arms about Venetia, who hugged her back, laughing. Then David appeared and stood looking bashful until the two women released each other and turned to him.
“This is David,” Mary said proudly.
“I remember seeing you,” Venetia said.
“But you haven’t met properly before,” Mary said. “Now he is my husband.”
Venetia shook David’s hand. Then she impulsively kissed him on the cheek, while Mary looked on, smiling with happiness.
Afterwards they all sat in the drawing room together, and Mary said,
“Tell us everything. What has happened to you?”
“Why, I married Lord Mountwood,” Venetia said impishly. “But you knew that.”
“Venetia!”
“And we went to India for our honeymoon and now we are home.”
“But was he very angry when he found out?”
“He wasn’t very pleased for a while,” Venetia said, choosing her words carefully. “But we came to understand each other and now he’s quite reconciled to having to put up with me.”
“You mean he’s madly in love with you?” Mary giggled.
Venetia just smiled.
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?” Mary said.
“I will tell you that everything worked out for the best,” Venetia said. “And that is all you need to know.”
She smiled again, and there was something about her mysterious smile that told Mary everything.
“How have you managed here?” Venetia asked. “Has your father found out the truth yet?”
Mary exchanged a glance with David and replied,
“We’ve been very clever while you have been away. No one in my family knows we are here.”
“But you have been happy?” Venetia enquired.
“We have been very, very happy,” Mary answered, “and I have something else to tell you. David has set up a practice here and the local people are flocking to him.”
“That’s wonderful news,” Venetia exclaimed.
“We are looking for a small house,” Mary said, “so that we can live there and be independent. That’s important, because I’m sure when Papa knows we are married he will be so furious that there will be no use asking him for any help.”
“I rather suspected that,” Venetia replied. “That is why I have a plan. I want you to stay here and live in this house. I won’t be needing it for a while and I would not want my house to be used by anyone except you.
“I will only want it when my eldest son, if I have one, is married. Then I would like to think he would live here in the home which has belonged to my family for so many years.”
Mary stared at her.
“Are you saying we can stay here?” she asked.
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”
“We would love to live here,” Mary answered excitedly. “We have said over and over again how happy we have been, since we came straight from the wedding in through this front door.”
“Well now I’m married to Ivan,” Venetia replied, “I shall be living in his home.”
“You mean homes,” Mary said. “Everyone knows that he has Mountwood House in London and Mountwood Castle in the country, and that they are both extremely luxurious.”
“Well, they could have been yours,” Venetia said impishly.
“No, thank you,” Mary said promptly. “You have a coronet, but I have David and he is worth more than anything.”
David smiled, clearly finding this reply very acceptable.
“And I have something else just as important,” Mary said excitedly. “I really am carrying a child and it’s going to be twins. I have been longing to write and tell you about it, but I had to wait until you came home.”
“I am absolutely delighted,” Venetia replied. “I hope I can be a Godmother to both of them.”
“That is exactly what I said to David,” Mary answered with a laugh. “I believe that when Papa knows he will no longer be angry, but will simply want to enjoy his grandchildren.”
“I am sure he will,” Venetia agreed. “I’m so pleased that you are as happy as I am.”
“Are you really happy,” Mary asked, “or are you just telling us so?”
Venetia smiled.
“I am telling you and it is the absolute truth that I have been blessed by God. I have found the man I love with all my heart and he loves me more than any woman has ever been loved before.”
She spoke in a way which made Mary bend forward and kiss her.
“I am so very glad, darling,” she said. “You have always been so wonderful to me. David says he blesses you every day for making it possible for us to marry each other.”
“Then what more can we ask?” Venetia answered. “Now I must go back to London because my husband will be home soon and will be waiting for me. He has gone to see the Queen today and I am longing to hear how Her Majesty has reacted.”
Mary’s hands flew to her mouth.
“Oh, she will be so angry!”
“I don’t think you should worry,” Venetia said. “If she is angry, Ivan will talk her out of it using all his charm.”
All the way home she was willing the train to move faster and take her back to her beloved.
To her delight she learnt as soon as she arrived, that the Earl was back from Buckingham Palace. She ran into the sitting room and the moment she opened the door, he held out his arms.
“You are back!” he exclaimed. “I was feeling worried in case I had lost you.”
“You will never lose me,” Venetia replied.
He kissed her as they sat on the sofa.
“I have missed you,” she said. “What happened with the Queen?”
“But does she know exactly which lady you have married?” Venetia asked warily.
“I did tell her what had happened.”
“Was she angry?”
“I am not quite sure,” he said slowly. “She didn’t say very much.”
“Ivan how can you be so provoking? She must have said something.”
“She said, ‘well I never!’ Then she said, ‘well, well, well!’ Finally she said, ‘who would have believed it?’ Oh yes, and she also added, ‘I never heard of such a thing.’”
“But what does all that mean?”
“I think it means she’s trying to decide whether she’s angry or not. She wants me to return on Friday, taking you and both your friends to meet her.”
Venetia’s hands flew to her mouth.
“Then Mary was right. She said the Queen would send for them. I reassured her that that would not happen. Oh, whatever are we going to do?”
“We’re going to obey the Queen,” he said. “There is no question of doing anything else.”
“I thought you could charm her out of her anger.”
“You overestimate my charm,” he said dryly. “Not everyone sees me through your eyes. The Queen likes to be obeyed.”
“But her order is nonsensical.”
He grinned.
“I hope I’m there when you tell her so.”
“Oh, you’re impossible.”
“I suggest you invite Mary and David to London to stay with us for a couple of nights. Then we all can travel to the Palace together.”
She despatched a letter the next morning, and on Thursday afternoon Mary and David, both extremely nervous, arrived at Mountwood House.
The huge Mountwood carriage was waiting for them, drawn by four white horses. In a few minutes they were on their way to Buckingham Palace.
As the magnificent gates opened to admit them, Mary became distinctly nervous, but the clasp of David’s hand steadied her.
Venetia realised that she too was nervous. She tried not to show it, but she could not help twisting her hands together.
“Surely you’re not scared?” Ivan teased her. “Is this the woman who took on the Russians?”