“Please – please forgive – me for deceiving you,” Claudia begged, “but when you asked me to – live with – you as Mama lived with – Walter Wilton I – knew I could not do so. It would – be wrong.”
“Why did you think it would be wrong?” the Marquis asked gently.
The colour surged into Claudia’s face and she looked away from him.
When she did not reply he asked,
“You thought I did not love you enough. That was what was wrong?”
Claudia nodded.
“You were right,” he said unexpectedly. “Of course you were right! I did not realise at that moment that I loved you so that nothing in the whole world mattered except that I could not lose you.”
He gave a little smile before he added,
“I was determined not to be like Christopher Columbus and lose everything I had discovered!”
“And so – so you followed me,” Claudia said. “How did you – get here so – quickly?”
“I caught the Midnight Express to Ostend,” the Marquis said, “and I reached Tilbury very late last night.”
“H-how did you – find out – where I lived?”
“I went first to my house in Park Lane,” the Marquis replied, “and I told my secretary to obtain a Special Marriage Licence. I also sent a groom to the country to tell my Chaplain to be ready to marry us in my private Chapel as soon as we arrived.”
“But – how could you have known where – I would be?”
The Marquis smiled again.
“I had all night on the train to worry about it – frantic in case something terrible should happen to you or perhaps some man would insult you. Then I remembered that you had been, as I assumed, employed by Lady Bressley.”
“So you went to her house in Grosvenor Square.”
“As soon as I had made all the arrangements for our marriage,” the Marquis said, “I went there expecting to find you. It was her secretary who told me that you had already come here.”
“It all sounds so easy!” Claudia exclaimed. “But I thought – I believed – that I would – never see you again.”
The Marquis put his arms around her.
“How could I lose you, my darling?” he asked.
Claudia put both hands against his chest to prevent him from drawing her too close to him.
“Listen to me – please listen,” she said. “Lady Bressley told me that in Scotland they were – horrified when – Mama ran away and left my – f-father. If you marry me, even though I am my – mother’s daughter – they will still talk – and perhaps it might hurt you.”
The Marquis gave a laugh and it was a very happy sound.
“My precious darling,” he said. “Only you could be thinking of me instead of yourself. If the Scots talk, let them! I was prepared to marry you if you were the daughter of a crossing sweeper and to face any anger or unpleasantness from the whole world rather than lose you.”
He drew in his breath.
“But,” he went on, “as the daughter of the Earl of Strathniven, my family will be delighted to accept you as my wife and, if there are any criticisms, they will certainly not make them to me.”
“Then – I can – marry you?” Claudia asked. “I really can?”
“It is something that you are going to do,” the Marquis said in a deep voice. “My darling, how could you have made me suffer as I have these last twenty-four hours with no one to blame but myself?”
Claudia hid her face against his neck.
“The truth – was,” she said in a whisper, “that I – ran away because – I loved you so much – that I wanted to – agree to what you had suggested.”
“It is something I deeply regret suggesting,” the Marquis said as if he was angry with himself. “You are perfect and only someone utterly unprincipled would spoil you.”
“I shall never – never forget,” Claudia said, still in a very low voice, “that you – wanted to marry me – even though you thought that I was Walter Wilton’s daughter.”
“I understand so well now,” the Marquis said, “why you are as you are. You bewildered and at the same time intrigued me, because you were so innocent, so unspoiled and yet so exquisitely beautiful that wherever you were in the world there would have been men kneeling at your feet.”
Claudia made a little murmur and the Marquis continued,
“I suppose what I ought to do is to let you, as your real father’s daughter, meet people in the Social world and other men, in case you find someone you love more than me.”
Claudia gave a little cry.
“No, no – of course not! How could you – suggest such – a thing!”
“I can assure you,” the Marquis smiled, “it is something I have no intention of putting into practice. You are mine, mine completely and absolutely. I would no more lose you, my precious, than lose my own life!”
Then he was kissing her again.
Kissing her so that she felt that she was completely a part of him and nothing could ever divide them.
*
It seemed a long time before Claudia pointed out,
“We have forgotten Mr. McNiven.”
“Yes, of course,” the Marquis agreed as if he had forgotten him too. “We will send him back to your father to tell him that when our honeymoon is over we will come to Scotland to meet him. He might even give us an invitation to stay during the Grouse Season!”
Claudia laughed.
“That may be something I can give you. You already possess everything else.”
“It is something quite different that I want from you,” the Marquis said softly.
They looked into each other’s eyes.
Then, as if he pulled himself to attention, he said,
“Come along, we have a great deal to do. I suggest, my darling, that you put on your hat and I will send the servants to take your luggage, which I suspect is as yet unpacked, downstairs.”
“It’s in the next room,” Claudia answered him.
The Marquis took her hand and they walked down the stairs side by side.
The front door was open and Claudia saw the sunshine streaming in in a golden haze.
Only then did she know that she was once again moving in a wonderful dream.
The darkness and misery that had encompassed her since she left Seville had gone for ever.
*
After an early luncheon at the large house in Park Lane they set off for the country.
The Marquis was driving a team of four chestnuts which he told Claudia were his new acquisition.
“When I first saw – you driving your team,” she told him, “I thought what a – brilliant driver you were and it – fascinated me.”
“I intend to fascinate you in a great many ways,” the Marquis replied, “and you must tell me what they are as you discover them.”
Claudia gave a little laugh.
“I am – afraid that will make you more – conceited than you are – already!” she said teasingly.
“I was certainly not conceited last night,” the Marquis replied, “when I boarded the Express in Seville, I lay awake terrified in case you were in danger and I was not there to protect you.”
“I was – so – unhappy,” Claudia murmured, “when I arrived – here this morning in an empty house – and I was afraid because I had so little money.”
“That was another thing that frightened me,” the Marquis said. “How could you have torn up my cheque? How did you think you could manage without it?”
“I-I thought,” Claudia said a little shyly, “that I had not – done what – you wanted.”
“You earned that money a thousand times over,” the Marquis said. “No one could have acted better than you did at the Palace, although, of course, I realise now that you were not acting. You were just being yourself and behaving as your mother would have done.”
“That is – true,” Claudia said. “Mama was very insistent that I should always behave like a lady.”
&nb
sp; “I cannot believe you needed much teaching,” the Marquis said a little drily.
Then he added softly,
“But I have a great many other things to teach you, my darling, and the most important subject is Love!”
Claudia blushed and then she pressed her cheek against his arm.
It was an action that brought the fire to his eyes and instinctively he drove his team a little faster.
They reached the Marquis’s house in Hertfordshire in the record time of two and a half hours.
As they turned into the great gold-tipped wrought- iron gates, Claudia looked ahead.
She saw one of the most beautiful houses that she had ever imagined.
It was very large and the sunshine was sparkling on its windows.
The surrounding gardens were a blaze of colour and it seemed to welcome her in a way that she could not put into words.
As if the Marquis understood what she was thinking, he said gently,
“This is your home now, my precious, but because I want you to myself and I cannot allow you to be spoiled by the Social world, we will spend more time here than anywhere else.”
“I have always wanted to live in the country,” Claudia enthused. “When we used to go somewhere quiet for a holiday, I always thought that it was more exciting than living in London.”
“That is what we will find,” the Marquis said confidently.
They drew up outside the front door.
Two footmen wearing the Marquis’s livery were rolling down a red carpet as the chaise came into view.
The Marquis and Claudia walked up the steps together into an enormous hall.
“Welcome back, my Lord!” the butler said, bowing respectfully.
“Thank you, Dudley,” the Marquis replied. “I hope the instructions I sent down this morning have all been carried out.”
“They have indeed, my Lord, and may I, on behalf of myself and the staff, wish your Lordship and her Ladyship every happiness.”
The Marquis introduced Claudia to the butler who took her upstairs to the housekeeper.
Their luggage had left for the country before they had and was already unpacked.
Her bedroom, Claudia learned, had been occupied by the Marquis’s mother.
The housekeeper, who had been there for thirty years asked,
“What will your Ladyship be wearin’ for the Wedding?”
“I-I had not – thought,” Claudia answered.
Because she was longing to go back downstairs to be with the Marquis, she hastily washed her hands and then left everything to the housekeeper.
They had tea in the drawing room, which was so lovely that she could hardly believe that it was to be her home.
Then the Marquis took her upstairs.
“We are having a very quiet Wedding, my darling,” he said, “but it is something I want you to remember all our lives.”
“How could I ever – forget it when I am – marrying you?” Claudia answered.
“That is what I am saying in my heart,” the Marquis replied. “At the same time you must look beautiful, and that is why you will find in your room the bridal veil that has been worn by every Marchioness for the last two hundred years. There is also a diamond tiara which my mother wore when she married my father.”
He saw the question in Claudia’s eyes and knew what she was asking him without words.
“Theirs was not an arranged marriage,” he said. “They fell in love with each other quite naturally for my mother’s parents lived only three miles from here.”
Claudia laughed.
“Then it is not surprising that they fell in love.”
“They were very happy,” the Marquis assured her, “and that is what we will be, although I fell in love with you in an obscure Spanish inn, when I thought that I was dreaming or that you were just a part of my imagination.”
As he finished speaking, they had reached her bedroom door.
He lifted her hand to his lips and said gently,
“Don’t keep me waiting. I am a very impatient bridegroom.”
Claudia was laughing as she entered her bedroom and closed the door.
The housekeeper was already there and she had spread out on the bed a beautiful white gown.
Lady Bressley had bought it for Claudia, but she had never even put it on.
It had a bustle of chiffon and lace and above the tiny waist the bodice was covered with diamanté and pearls.
Claudia felt that perhaps Lady Bressley had had a premonition that it was what she would need as a Wedding gown.
When she was dressed, the veil was flowing over her gown to the floor.
The sparkling diamond tiara that held it in place made her look, she told herself, like a Fairy Princess.
She knew that the Marquis would be waiting for her in the hall.
A footman had brought her the message at the same time that he carried in a bouquet of white orchids and lilies-of-the-valley.
Claudia went down the wide staircase with its carved and gilded balustrade.
She saw the Marquis and realised that he was looking as smart as she was.
The breast of his cut-away coat was covered in decorations and he wore the Order of the Garter across one shoulder.
As she joined him, they just looked at each other and there was no need for words.
She saw the love in his eyes.
She knew that no one could be luckier than she was at this very moment.
It was a long walk to the Chapel.
It had been built at the back of the house when it had been renovated by the Adam brothers in 1750.
As they reached the door, Claudia could hear the organ softly playing.
There was no one inside except for the Chaplain dressed in his white vestments and the Marquis’s secretary who was to be their witness.
The Service was very simple.
But Claudia felt sure that her mother was near her and that the angels were singing.
When the Marquis had put the ring on her finger, they both knelt for the Blessing.
She knew then that God had blessed her and she could never express her gratitude in words.
‘Please,’ she prayed, ‘let my husband – love me for ever. Let me – help him to bring – happiness to other people – and please, God, let me give him – sons as wonderful as – he is.’
It was a prayer that came from the very depths of her heart.
Then the organ was playing The Wedding March and the Marquis escorted her from the Chapel.
They received the congratulations of the staff before they went upstairs to take off their Wedding garments.
“I have arranged,” the Marquis said, “that we will have supper alone in your boudoir. So for now, just put on something comfortable, which I am sure will be waiting for you.”
His idea of ‘something comfortable’ was a very attractive negligée that had been in one of her trunks.
She had never worn it before.
It covered her diaphanous nightgown, but she felt very shy.
Her hair was still arranged as it had been for the Wedding.
Otherwise, she told herself, she was ready for bed.
She went into the boudoir, where the Marquis was waiting for her.
He was wearing the same dark robe he had worn when he had come to her bedroom in the Palace.
Their supper was laid on the table, but there were no servants in attendance.
“I am going to serve you,” the Marquis said, “and kiss you, my darling, between every course.”
Claudia gave a little cry of delight.
“That is – all I want,” she said. “To be – alone with you.”
“By a strange coincidence,” the Marquis replied, “that is just what I want too.”
He kissed her and, knowing that she wanted him to go on kissing her, he said,
“If you excite me, my darling, we will go to bed hungry. Sit down at the table. We have done so much today and I have to look after you and
make sure that you take good care of yourself.”
Claudia laughed.
“That is what I should be – saying to you – and it is something I shall – always do in the future.”
What they ate Claudia had no idea.
She only knew that because the Marquis was with her it tasted like ambrosia.
They toasted each other in champagne.
She could see only the sparkle in the Marquis’s eyes and she knew how much she excited him.
When supper was finished, he took her into the bedroom.
The curtains were drawn and there were only two candles flickering by those that hung from a golden corolla over the bed.
The Marquis took the pins from Claudia’s hair and it fell over her shoulders nearly to her waist.
“That was how you looked,” he said softly, “when I came to your room in the Palace. I can never tell you what an agony it was not to touch you and to keep my promise that I would not embarrass you.”
“I did – not know – then,” Claudia whispered, “how wonderful a – kiss could be.”
“It was a kiss that I had never given or received before,” the Marquis said. “When I left you, I cursed myself for making a promise I had to keep!”
He gave a short laugh.
“Now there are no promises and I can tell you how much I love you!”
They gazed into each other’s eyes.
Then picking Claudia up in his arms, he carried her to the bed.
He put her down gently with her head resting against the pillow.
As he joined her, Claudia felt a wild excitement sweep through her.
She knew now that this was what she had been longing for, but what she had thought she would never find.
“I – love – you,” she whispered, “I love you – so much that I – have no words with which to express what – I feel.”
“There is no need for words,” the Marquis said in a deep voice.
His lips were seeking hers, his hand was touching her body and she knew that he was right.
She was thrilled with an ecstasy that was beyond anything that she had ever known or imagined.
It swept her up into the sky.
She knew that this was love.
The real love that she had longed for and was the treasure that everybody seeks and hopes one day to find.
The Wonderful Dream Page 10