Count the Stars

by Barbara Cartland

  “If it is possible, we would like to stay here with you tonight.”

  “But naturally you must stay,” the Archbishop answered.

  He looked to where the butler was still hovering by the door.

  “Bates, have rooms for my granddaughter and her husband prepared and tell cook they will be here for dinner.”

  “I’ll do that, Your Grace,” Bates said with satisfaction, “and everyone in the house’ll be delighted.”

  “My valet is just behind us with my luggage,” the Duke remarked as the butler left the room.

  Then he turned back to the Archbishop.

  “There is something else I would like to ask Your Grace.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Your granddaughter and I had a very strange kind of marriage this afternoon. It was something that was expedient at the time, but it was not the sort of wedding that we will want to remember in the years ahead. Nor did Valora have the permission of a Guardian. Would it be possible for Your Grace to marry us again?”

  As the Duke finished speaking, he heard Valora give a little gasp.

  Then before her grandfather could reply, she cried,

  “Oh, please Grandpapa, it would be very – very wonderful if you could marry us – properly.”

  The Archbishop smiled.

  “But, of course, my children, nothing would give me greater pleasure.”

  As the Archbishop spoke, Valora felt that her excitement must be shared and she put out her hand towards the Duke.

  He took it in his and, because he sensed the happiness behind such an impulsive gesture, he almost squeezed the blood from her fingers.

  “Now I am sure you would like to go to your rooms,” the Archbishop said. “By the time you have unpacked and changed my Chaplain will have arranged for the ceremony to take place here in my private Chapel.”

  He paused before he went on,

  “You will understand that at my age I go to bed very early before dinner, so if you could be ready in perhaps an hour and a half, that would be the easiest from my point of view.”

  “But, of course, we will be ready, Grandpapa,” Valora said, “and thank you for agreeing to marry us. I know how happy it would make Mama.”

  The Archbishop touched her shoulder affectionately and with the other hand he rang the small bell that stood beside him. The door opened immediately and Bates said in a tone of satisfaction,

  “Everything is arranged, Your Grace, and the luggage is just being carried upstairs.”

  Valora did not understand, but only as they followed the butler upstairs and saw ahead of them two footman carrying a large trunk, did she look at the Duke questioningly.

  “My valet came from London to meet me,” he explained. “He spoke to me while you were having a little trouble with Mercury and some extremely buoyant balloons.”

  Valora laughed.

  “Mercury hates things that float about in the air. If he had not been so tired, he would have protested more violently than he did.”

  “I am sure he will enjoy being in a really comfortable stable for the first time in several nights.”

  As he spoke, the Duke looked with satisfaction at the large bedroom the housekeeper was showing them into.

  “May I welcome Your Grace,” she said as she curtseyed to Valora. “I knew your mother when she was a small girl and it’s a real pleasure to have Your Grace here with us.”

  “Thank you so much,” Valora replied.

  She spoke shyly, the Duke knew, because she had been addressed for the first time as a Duchess.

  Then, as the housekeeper showed Valora the bedroom with its painted ceiling and large bed with gilt posts to support a carved canopy, Bates took the Duke to the room next door where Jenkins was waiting.

  The two footmen were undoing his trunks and his gold hairbrushes already adorned the dressing table.

  Valora, however, was looking rather forlornly at the small bundle that had been brought upstairs from Mercury’s saddle.

  She thought it was the most marvellous idea she had ever heard when the Duke had suggested her grandfather should marry them again.

  He had been right when he said she did not want to think of their marriage service ending with two men being shot in the aisle of the village Church.

  But now, she wanted to look the part of the bride.

  As if the housekeeper, whose name was Mrs. Field, followed her thoughts, she asked,

  “Is that all the luggage you have with you, Your Grace, or have they placed a trunk in the wrong room?”

  “No,” Valora replied, “the only gown I have with me had to be carried on the back of my horse’s saddle.”

  She managed a brave little smile as she added,

  “I am afraid it is rather the worse for wear.”

  As she spoke, the housekeeper was already undoing the bundle and she pulled out the white gown which Valora thought mournfully would certainly not appear very spectacular.

  “Oh dear!” she exclaimed. “I wish I had something prettier to wear for my wedding!”

  The housekeeper looked at her in a puzzled way and Valora explained,

  “I was married this afternoon, but it was a very hurried ceremony in a village Church and my – my – husband has asked Grandpapa if he will marry us again as soon as we have washed and changed.”

  She paused and added sadly,

  “That is all I have to change into.”

  “Well, Your Grace, there is certainly something we can do about that,” Mrs. Field replied.

  Valora looked at the housekeeper as if the darkness of the sky had suddenly opened and there was an unexpected ray of sunshine.

  “Are you saying – are you suggesting that you might have a – gown for me?” she asked breathlessly.

  “If it’s a wedding-gown you’re wanting, Your Grace,” Mrs. Field replied. “I’ve not one, but two!”

  “But how – what do you mean?” Valora enquired.

  Mrs. Field gave a respectful little laugh.

  “Your mother, Your Grace, took her wedding gown away with her, but your Grandmama’s dress is still here, and so is your great-grandmother’s.”

  “Wedding dresses – there are wedding dresses!” Valora exclaimed. “Do you really think they would fit me – and I can wear one?”

  “You leave everything to me, Your Grace,” Mrs. Field said briskly. “Get undressed and have a bath, which the maids have prepared through here.”

  She opened the door on the other side of the room and Valora saw to her surprise that it led into a bathroom built, she thought, into what had originally been thirty years earlier, a powder closet.

  There was no running water, but huge brass cans filled with hot water had been provided from the kitchen and while she looked at the first one, a maid arrived with another can.

  There was a delicious smell of flowers which Valora knew came from something that had been added to the water that was already in the bath.

  Then, as Mrs. Field disappeared, she went back into the bedroom and started to undress.

  As she did so, she knew that she wanted frantically to look attractive for the man she had married.

  They had reached York and he had not left her as she had expected him to. He was with her and, although she could hardly believe it, he was a Duke.

  But, as she took off her riding hat she knew that was unimportant. What really mattered was that he had married her.

  She was not certain whether he had done so just because it was the only way he could save her from being taken back to Heverington Hall or because he wanted her as his wife.

  Then, as she pulled off the rest of her clothes, Valora was praying,

  ‘Please God let him love me – Please God let him really want me as I know now I – want him.’

  Chapter Seven

  Valora looked with delight at her reflection in the mirror.

  She could hardly believe it could have happened that at a moment’s notice she would find a wedding gown th
at was the embodiment of all her romantic dreams.

  Mrs. Field produced the two gowns she had promised her, but the moment Valora saw the one in which her grandmother had been married in 1772 she knew that was the gown which would give her an appearance that she hoped the Duke would think enchanting.

  Made of white satin trimmed with exquisite Brussels lace, the skirts were full, but not so exaggerated as they had been later in the century.

  The square neckline was cut low, revealing her white skin and the sleeves were frilled over the elbows in a cascade of lace.

  What made it so lovely, Valora thought, was that from the shoulders there was lace falling to the ground and ending in a train several feet long.

  Although it was old, it had not yellowed with age and, when Mrs. Field brought a lace veil to arrange over her hair, Valora found it hard to find words to thank her.

  There was a wreath of orange blossom that Mrs. Field said was particularly lucky because not only her grandmother had worn it but also her mother.

  “I wish she was here today,” Valora murmured, speaking really to herself, but Mrs. Field heard her.

  “I’m sure she is, Your Grace,” she said. “We who believe in the afterlife – and who could believe in anything else with your grandfather as near a Saint as anyone on earth – know that those we love are always near us.”

  “Thank you – for reminding – me,” Valora said softly and blinked away the tears that filled her eyes.

  Then she glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece and realised that there was still ten minutes before her grandfather would be waiting for them.

  She had a sudden thought that had not occurred to her previously and she turned to Mrs. Field,

  “I would like to speak to my – my – my husband. Do you think – he has gone downstairs?”

  “In that case I’ll send someone to fetch him, Your Grace,” Mrs. Field replied.

  “No! I would not – wish – ” Valora started to say, but it was too late.

  Mrs. Field had already left the room and she stood indecisive, wondering if she should say what was in her mind or let the arrangements the Duke had made with her grandfather go ahead.

  That he had married her was the most marvellous thing that had ever happened and she had felt as they knelt in front of the altar in the village Church that there were angels’ voices in the air above them and they were receiving the Blessing of God.

  All the same she knew now they had not only been married with a Special Licence which had not belonged to them, but the Duke had given his full name and, as he had said himself, though under-age, she had not the permission of her Guardian.

  ‘It was not a legal marriage,’ Valora thought, ‘and I must set him – free if that is what he – wants.’

  She thought to do so would tear her heart from her body, but what was the point of marrying a man who did not really want her?

  He had only saved her out of kindness as he had saved her once before?

  “I love him!” Valora whispered.

  She felt as if the words throbbed through her whole body despairingly, almost as if she had said ‘good-bye’ to something that was so perfect, so beautiful, that it was as elusive as the sunshine and it could never really have been hers.

  She heard a footstep outside the door and, as the handle turned, she felt herself trembling.

  The Duke came into the room and for a moment Valora hardly recognised him.

  He was dressed in the height of fashion and she drew in her breath at the magnificence of him in his satin knee breeches, black silk stockings and long-tailed coat with several diamond decorations.

  His high cravat, tied in an intricate, complicated style seemed to give him a new dignity, while at the same time with the knots above his chin it accentuated his handsome looks.

  As if he understood why she was staring at him with wide eyes, the Duke smiled as he closed the door behind him and came towards her.

  “If you are surprised by my appearance,” he said gently, “may I tell you that you look very lovely and exactly the bride I always hoped to marry.”

  Valora drew in her breath.

  Then she said quickly, before she might find it impossible to say the words,

  “I-I want to – speak to you about – our – m-marriage.”

  There was a little tremor in her voice the Duke did not miss and he replied,

  “I am listening to anything you wish to say.”

  He was aware that she was perturbed and he saw too that her fingers were trembling.

  “We are already married,” he said soothingly, “in very frightening circumstances, but now there is nothing to make you afraid.”

  “That is – not what I want to – say to you.”

  The Duke did not speak and after a moment Valora went on,

  “I realised when you told Grandpapa that we had been married without the – permission of my Guardian that it was illegal. I think – therefore – if you wish it – that it could be cancelled – or annulled – I don’t know what the right word is.”

  She could not look at the Duke as she spoke, afraid that she might see an expression of relief in his eyes.

  As her voice quavered into silence, Valora felt that he must hear the beating of her heart.

  “Is that what you want?” he asked quietly.

  She wanted to cry out that it was not only what she did not want but also what she dreaded and feared that she might lose him and never see him again.

  Yet because she felt she must give him the chance to escape that he had given her, she said in a voice he could hardly hear,

  “I-I thought perhaps you would want to be – free now that you have s-saved me – and I shall be – safe with Grandpapa.”

  “You are thinking only of me?”

  “Y-yes. It is only right that I should – do so.”

  “And what about yourself? Do you want to be free?”

  He saw her clench her fingers together. Then because she knew that he was waiting for a reply to his question, she managed to say,

  “I-I want you to be – h-happy.”

  “And if I tell you that I am very happy as things are at the moment?”

  “But you are a – Duke,!’ Valora persisted. “There must be many – women you would – rather marry than – me.”

  “I have never asked any woman to marry me, Valora, nor, as it happens, did I ask you.”

  There was a smile on the Duke’s lips as he spoke and Valora answered,

  “There was no time to do so and it was very clever – very wonderful of you to decide so quickly that was how you could – save me. But it nearly resulted in your – death.”

  “If I had died, would you have minded?”

  Valora gave a little cry of sheer horror,

  “How can you ask me such a question? I thought when I saw those pistols pointing at you that you would – die and I knew that – ”

  She stopped suddenly, feeling that what she had been about to say was too revealing.

  The Duke came nearer to her and took one of her hands in his.

  “There is no need for you to finish that sentence,” he said, “and I intend, Valora, to return to this conversation after we are married. Now your grandfather is waiting for us in the Chapel and, as he is an old man, I think we should be on time.”

  He spoke firmly, but, because he was touching her, Valora felt as if her heart turned several somersaults and it was impossible to think of anything but that he was close to her and that she loved him.

  She looked up and her eyes met his.

  Then somehow words were entirely superfluous and she knew that he wanted her as she wanted him and they belonged to each other.

  The Duke released her hand and offered her his arm.

  “Come, my darling,” he said.

  She felt as if they were suddenly enveloped in a celestial light and her heart was singing with happiness, as he led her towards the door.

  *

  Walking back from t
he Chapel, Valora could see through the window where the curtains had not yet been drawn that the sun was sinking in a blaze of glory and she felt as if the beauty of it filled her heart and mind.

  The Service in the little Chapel had been a very short one because, as her grandfather’s Chaplain who had escorted them there had explained, the Archbishop had not been well and on his doctor’s advice took very few Services these days.

  But while he had been assisted by his Chaplain and another Parson it was, Valora thought, her grandfather’s voice that made the words of the ceremony seem so sacred and so moving.

  She had thought when they were married earlier in the day that because she loved the Duke she had, as she repeated her vows, said them with a sincerity that seemed to come from her heart.

  Now she felt as if her very soul was joined spiritually with the Duke’s not only in this life but also for all eternity.

  Her grandfather blessed the ring before the Duke put it on her finger and she saw that it was not the signet ring with which he had married her previously but a gold wedding ring, which she learned later had belonged to her grandmother.

  When it encircled her finger, she knew that he was making her his and she would not only love and obey him but adore and even worship him because he had lifted her from the depths of despair into a happiness that was not of this world.

  They looked at each other and she thanked God passionately in her heart for giving her the love of a man who was so outstanding and very wonderful in every way.

  It was not simply that he was a Duke and of great social importance, but because he was brave, resourceful, kind and considerate.

  He had helped her because she was suffering and, as he had said himself, he could not pass by on the other side.

  They walked in silence towards the drawing room and only when they reached it did the Duke say with a smile,

  “Two weddings in one day! There are not many women who can boast of that!”

  “I shall certainly want to boast about it,” Valora answered. “But I have always heard that men hate weddings, so perhaps you would have preferred only one and a very normal one at that!”

  “What I have always dreaded, apart from being married,” the Duke said, “was the thought of facing a huge congregation of my friends, ushers and bridesmaids and a wedding breakfast at which people invariably make the most inane speeches in extremely bad taste!”