Then there was a sound.
It was only very faint, but unmistakably a sound in the courtyard.
Athina strained her ears to hear what was going on and then the sound came again, this time a little louder.
She was aware that the Marquis had drawn in his breath.
Although he had not moved, she knew that he had heard, as she had, the sounds coming from outside.
Now they came nearer and nearer still.
Somebody was moving stealthily and with covered shoes over the gravel outside.
Before she had expected it, so that she almost gave out a scream, there was a large dark figure in front of the window.
It was undoubtedly Lord Burnham and he was wearing black and this seemed to make him appear even more menacing.
There was a hood of some sort pulled over his head.
She thought too, although she could not see it clearly, that he wore a mask.
Now Athina saw that he held something white in his hand.
He looked up at the window as if he was appraising it.
Then, putting the hand that held whatever it was that was white, he put his leg over the sill.
As he did so, there was a sudden ominous growl and then a sharp bark.
Flash then rushed from behind Athina towards the window.
She had had no idea that he had left Peter and followed her and the Marquis downstairs. So he must have left her bedroom when she did.
Now he was barking furiously at Lord Burnham.
He threw his leg back sharply, dropping inside the room whatever it was he carried.
He staggered for a second outside the window.
Then, as Flash stood up on the sill barking at him, Athina heard him hurrying away.
He was no longer treading softly as he went, but half-running, half- stumbling.
The Marquis ran quickly to the window and leant out, watching Lord Burnham make for the shrubbery.
Athina bent down to pick up what he had dropped.
It appeared, when she looked at it, to be a white linen face-towel.
Then she was aware that there was something thicker inside it.
As she bent her head to inspect it, she noticed a strange smell and, before she could understand what it meant, the Marquis ordered her in a low voice,
“Put it down! He has saturated it with chloroform. It would have rendered Peter unconscious, then I imagine he would have suffocated him with a pillow.”
Athina gave a cry of horror.
She dropped the towel as the Marquis had told her to do and then she bent forward to look out of the window.
Lord Burnham was obviously finding it very difficult to go back to where he had left his horse.
There was a delay of several minutes before he rode out from the shrubbery and proceeded towards the bridge.
As he did so, Athina became suddenly aware that the Marquis had gone down on one knee.
He was aiming his rifle at Lord Burnham.
It flashed through her mind that it would be very dangerous for him to shoot Lord Burnham.
Although he was an intruder and disguised, he was his brother-in-law and it would undoubtedly cause a tremendous scandal.
The Marquis would be involved in a Court case and might even be convicted of manslaughter.
She wanted to beg him not to do it.
And yet, even as she parted her lips to speak, she found it just impossible to do so.
Lord Burnham had now reached the narrow bridge.
As he did so, the clouds that had obscured the moon moved away completely.
The moonlight shone dazzlingly on the lake.
It lit the ancient bridge and the man in dark clothing approaching it on horseback.
“Don’t shoot!” Athina started to cry out.
Then to her surprise she realised that the Marquis was pointing the rifle not at Lord Burnham but at the bridge itself.
It had been built in Elizabethan times and was made of bricks that had mellowed with age like the house itself.
At each end of the bridge there stood a small statue and, with the passing of the years, they had become somewhat worn and battered.
Now it was difficult to tell what they had originally represented.
The Marquis’s father had always refused to have them renewed or even repaired.
The Marquis was now aiming at the statue at the far end of the bridge and Athina was puzzled by what he was doing.
She was aware that on the parapet of the bridge itself there were a number of birds. There were ducks and moorhens perched there for the night.
She remembered vaguely having noticed them before when she looked out of the window.
Now, as Lord Burnham’s horse stepped gingerly onto the bridge, the Marquis took careful aim.
He fired at the statue beyond where the birds were roosting.
The explosion and the shattering of the stone caused them to fly squawking with fear and resentment across the bridge and onto the bank on the other side of it.
The horse, frightened by the sudden sound and the movement of the birds, reared up.
Lord Burnham, who was very obviously somewhat insecure in the saddle, was thrown.
He landed on the parapet of the bridge where he lay sprawled for a few seconds.
Then, because he was clearly too heavy and too much fuddled with drink to save himself, he slipped slowly backwards into the lake.
The last that Athina saw of him before he disappeared were his polished riding boots shining in the moonlight.
His horse bolted into the Park, its stirrups jangling as it vanished amongst the trees.
Athina watched as if spellbound and unable to move or make any sound.
The Marquis put down his rifle and rose to his feet.
“That is the end,” he declared with considerable satisfaction. “The water is very deep there and anyway he was in no condition to swim.”
He spoke like a man who had found the answer to a problem that had threatened to defeat him.
It was then that Athina gave a gasp.
The horror of all that she had just witnessed made her feel as if she was going to faint.
Hardly knowing what she was doing, she then moved towards the Marquis.
As he then put his arms around her, she hid her face against his shoulder.
Without even realising that she was crying the tears were running down her cheeks.
The Marquis held her close against him.
Then he said,
“It’s all right, my darling! It is now all over and thank God that Peter is safe.”
Startled at the way that he had addressed her, Athina raised her head to look up at him.
The moonlight coming through the window shone in her eyes, still wide and terrified.
Tears glistened on her cheeks and for a moment the Marquis just looked down at her.
Then he bent his head and his lips found hers.
Athina could not believe that it was happening.
As the Marquis’s mouth held hers captive, she felt as if the stars fell from the sky and moved into her breast.
The Marquis’s kiss lasted for what seemed an Eternity before he said,
“This is what I have been looking for. This is love, my precious.”
Then he was kissing her once again, kissing her demandingly and possessively until she was no longer herself but a part of him.
It was impossible to think and impossible to breathe.
At last the Marquis said in a strange deep voice that sounded a little unsteady,
“I love you! I love you, Athina, and I had no idea that I could feel as I do at this moment.”
“Y-you – love me – you really – love me?” Athina whispered.
“I adore you and I worship you! You are everything I have always wanted and the reason why I had no wish to marry anyone was that I did not believe that anyone like you really existed in this world.”
He kissed the tears away from her eyes before
he asked her,
“Now tell me that you love me too.”
“I did not – know what – love would be like,” Athina sighed. “But now I know – that it is glorious and wonderful. And – how – could I not – love you?”
“You told me I was the last man in the world you would marry,” the Marquis reminded her, “but you are going to marry me, my lovely one, because I cannot live without you.”
“I-I thought I – hated you,” Athina confessed, “because you had neglected Peter – but now I know how wonderfully clever and kind you are – and I love – you more – than I can ever say.”
“And I love you,” the Marquis asserted. “My darling, how could we imagine that we would find each other in such a strange fashion?”
She knew that he was thinking that, if she had not been obliged to stay at the Posting inn, they might never have met.
If she had not befriended Peter, who happened to be in the room that communicated with hers, she would not have known that he was the Marquis’s nephew.
It all seemed like a weird and complicated puzzle. Yet Fate had brought two people together who had both loathed the idea of being married.
The thought passed through both their minds.
Then the Marquis asked,
“How soon will you marry me? I have no intention of waiting. I want you now, at once, and I am so desperately afraid of losing you, my darling one?”
“You will – never lose – me,” Athina said, “and I will – marry you – whenever you wish.”
The Marquis pulled her closer to him before he answered.
“I would marry you at this very moment if I could.”
The bright moonlight shone on her face and he looked down at her lingeringly before he said,
“How can you be so utterly beautiful? But it is much more than that, you are everything I want in a woman, everything I dreamt a woman should be like. But I was convinced that she existed only in my imagination.”
“I-I am so – afraid I might – disappoint you,” Athina whispered. “I knew when I – came to your room – tonight and – saw you asleep that – you were not only the most – handsome man I have – ever seen but also too – marvellous to be human.”
The Marquis laughed.
“I assure you, my darling, I am very human when I kiss you and want you to be mine. And we each recognise in the other something that is different.”
He paused for a moment.
Then he said quietly,
“I believe God made us for each other and that is why our love is different from what it would ever be with anybody else.”
“How can you – say such – marvellous things – to me?” Athina asked. “Things I have – thought in my heart – but never – imagined a man would ever – say them to me.”
The Marquis drew in his breath.
“We have a great deal to learn about each other,” he said, “and therefore the sooner we are married the better.”
Athina moved a little closer to him.
“Could we,” she asked hesitatingly, “just be – married here in the country? Either in the village Church where I was – baptised – or perhaps in your private Chapel, which I have not yet seen ‒ although I know that you must have one.”
“Would that make you happy?” the Marquis asked.
“I would be happy – anywhere with you,” Athina answered, “but I am afraid that what we feel now is just – part of the – moonlight and a wonderful – wonderful dream.”
She hid her face against his neck again as she added,
“I have lived quietly in the – country and – know nothing – of London. I am– afraid of your – smart friends. If they – laughed or sniggered – it would – spoil what we are – feeling for each other now.”
She spoke so softly that the Marquis could hardly hear what she was saying.
Then his arms tightened around her and he said,
“You are quite right and that is what I feel myself. We will be married here in my private Chapel by my Chaplain, who is also the Vicar of the Parish.”
He smiled at her before he went on,
“And the only witnesses to our Wedding will be Peter and Mrs. Beckwith.”
“Peter will be so thrilled,” Athina enthused.
Then she gave a little exclamation.
“Oh, Denzil, is it true – really – true that we need no longer be – afraid for – him? I know it is – only a matter of days – but I feel we have been – fighting for him for – years. Because you are the Knight of Chivalry who I thought existed only in books, is he now – safe and need never be – afraid again?”
She felt as if the words tumbled from her mouth and she had no control over them.
The Marquis did not answer.
He merely kissed her until once again they were flying past the stars and no longer on earth.
He knew that it had been a very long search to find a woman who could take his mother’s place at Rock Park.
Athina filled the shrine in his heart that he had hesitated to admit was there, even to himself.
He had found her.
She was young, unspoilt and very innocent.
Their love, he knew, was ageless and came from Eternity and would go on to Eternity.
It was the glory and wonder that he had been sure he would never find however hard he looked.
“This is love,” he repeated again as he carried Athina up into the sky.
OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.
Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love, just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.
The Eternal Collection, classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .
Elizabethan Lover
The Little Pretender
A Ghost in Monte Carlo
A Duel of Hearts
The Saint and the Sinner
The Penniless Peer
The Proud Princess
The Dare-Devil Duke
Diona and a Dalmatian
A Shaft of Sunlight
Lies for Love
Love and Lucia
Love and the Loathsome Leopard
Beauty or Brains
The Temptation of Torilla
The Goddess and the Gaiety Girl
Fragrant Flower
Look Listen and Love
The Duke and the Preacher’s Daughter
A Kiss for the King
The Mysterious Maid-servant
Lucky Logan Finds Love
The Wings of Ecstacy
Mission to Monte Carlo
Revenge of the Heart
The Unbreakable Spell
Never Laugh at Love
Bride to a Brigand
Lucifer and the Angel
Journey to a Star
Solita and the Spies
The Chieftain Without a Heart
No Escape from Love
Dollars for the duke
Pure and Untouched
Secrets
Fire in the Blood
Love, Lies and Marriage
The Ghost who Fell in Love
Hungry for Love
The Wild Cry of Love
The Blue-eyed Witch
The Punishment of a Vixen
The Secret of the Glen
Bride to the King
For All Eternity
King in Love
A Marriage made in Heaven
Who can deny Love?
Riding to the Moon
Wish for Love
Dancing on a Rainbow
Gypsy Magic
Love in the Clouds
Count the Stars
White Lilac
Too
Precious to Lose
The Devil Defeated
An Angel Runs Away
The Duchess Disappeared
The Pretty Horse-breakers
The Prisoner of Love
Ola and the Sea Wolf
The Castle made for Love
A Heart is Stolen
The Love Pirate
As Eagles Fly
The Magic of Love
Love Leaves at Midnight
A Witch’s Spell
Love Comes West
The Impetuous Duchess
A Tangled Web
Love lifts the Curse
Saved By A Saint
Love is Dangerous
The Poor Governess
The Peril and the Prince
A Very Unusual Wife
Say Yes Samantha
Punished with love
A Royal Rebuke
The Husband Hunters
Signpost To Love
Love Forbidden
Gift Of the Gods
The Outrageous Lady
The Slaves Of Love
The Disgraceful Duke
The Unwanted Wedding
Lord Ravenscar’s Revenge
From Hate to Love
A Very Naughty Angel
The Innocent Imposter
A Rebel Princess
A Wish Comes True
Haunted
Passions In The Sand
Little White Doves of Love
A Portrait of Love
The Enchanted Waltz
Alone and Afraid
The Call of the Highlands
The Glittering Lights
An Angel in Hell
Only a Dream
A Nightingale Sang
Pride and the Poor Princess
Stars in my Heart
The Fire of Love
A Dream from the Night
Sweet Enchantress
The Kiss of the Devil
Fascination in France
Love Runs In
Lost Enchantment
Love is Innocent
The Love Trap
No Darkness for Love
Kiss from a Stranger
The Flame Is Love
A Touch of Love
The Dangerous Dandy
In Love In Lucca
The Karma Of Love
Magic For The Heart
Paradise Found
Only Love
A Duel with Destiny
The Heart of the Clan
The Ruthless Rake
Revenge is Sweet
Fire on the Snow
A Revolution of Love
Love at the Helm
Listen to Love
Love Casts out Fear
The Devilish Deception