“What – happened?”
“Can you not guess the rest?” the Duke asked mockingly. “I came to London because I was now my own Master. Society welcomed a wealthy Duke with open arms.”
“It must – have been – enjoyable,” Shimona said in a low voice.
“It was like coming out of the darkness into the light, but I had no power of discrimination, no standards by which to judge the people I met, nothing to guide me but a wild desire to make up for the time I had lost.”
“I can – understand that.”
“I wanted to do everything that I had not been allowed to do in the past. I wanted to race my own horses, shoot, fence, fight, do all the things which every young man of my age had grown up doing.”
The Duke’s lips twisted a little cynically as he added,
“And naturally I wanted to meet women!”
Shimona pressed her fingers together.
She felt a sudden stab of jealousy that was like a dagger piercing her heart.
“My father considered that women were the invention of the Devil,” the Duke went on. “So for me they had an attraction that drew me to them like a magnet.”
Looking at his handsome face as he spoke, Shimona was well aware that women would have found him as attractive as he found them.
“Again I had no discrimination,” he said, “and, as I started my life in the Beau Monde at Carlton House, the Prince Regent’s more disreputable friends were the ones who introduced me to the amusements they were all too familiar with.”
The Duke’s voice was bitter as he said,
“You can imagine what happened. I was like a small boy let loose in a sweetshop. I gorged myself greedily and in consequence earned very aptly the title I have been given.”
His lips curled,
“‘His Disgrace!’ I was quite proud of it. At least no one would be likely to accuse me of being a ‘Praying Duke’!”
He drew in his breath.
“Then I met you! When you came into the room at Ravenstone House, I knew you were everything I always wanted and dreamt of and had never found.”
“I-I too felt – something happened when we – met,” Shimona murmured.
“We recognised each other,” the Duke said. “We belonged and there was no need for words.”
He turned his face to look at her and she saw the pain in his eyes.
“When I kissed you, I knew that after all there was a God and I believed in Him.”
Shimona felt herself quiver as his words seemed to vibrate through her.
Then he rose to his feet.
“But because you are everything that is pure and good,” he said harshly, “and because I am what I have made myself, I still have enough decency left not to drag you down to my level.”
He gave a deep sigh before he said very quietly,
“I shall love you all my life and, because I love you, I shall send you away tomorrow to your grandparents where you will be safe. Perhaps one day you will find happiness with a man who is worthy of you.”
Shimona was very still.
She understood so many things that had not been clear before.
She too had known a life without companions, she too had known the loneliness of being kept apart from the world.
The Duke’s prison had been a cruel and hard one. Hers had been comfortable and she had been encircled with love.
But the enforced segregation had left its mark on both of them.
That was why she could understand exactly what he felt and also why he had behaved as he had.
She knew that he was waiting for her to speak and she rose from the chair to stand beside him.
She had a feeling that he was tense.
Yet she knew by the firmness of his chin and the hard line of his lips that he meant what he said and that he was sending her away so that they would never see each other again.
She moved a little nearer to him and raised her face to his.
“I-I have always heard,” she said softly, “that if you – save someone’s life – you are – responsible for them – forever!”
The Duke did not move, but she felt him stiffen.
“I – belong to you,” Shimona went on. “I may be a nuisance – and an encumbrance – but I will not – leave you. I will follow you – and sit on the doorstep of Ravenstone House until you let me – in.”
The Duke made a little sound that was half a laugh and half a sob and then he put out his arms to draw her against him.
“Do you know what you are saying?” he asked. “Do you really mean that you will stay with me? That you will marry me?”
“I love you!” Shimona answered. “I love you so – agonisingly that if you – send me away – I swear I shall die!”
“Oh – my darling – ”
His voice broke as his arms tightened and he was kissing her cheeks with hard rough kisses as if he had lost control of his actions.
Their lips met – then there was the tenderness and gentleness that she had known before.
It was as if their two beings merged into each other and there was no longer any division or any barrier between them.
They became part of one another and once again there was the rapture and wonder of a Divine ecstasy.
They clung together as if they had passed through a tempestuous and dangerous sea and had reached a harbour of safety where they need no longer be afraid.
Shimona felt as if her eyes were blinded with glory and her whole being vibrated to music that came from another sphere.
The Duke raised his head and looked down at her face. He had not known a woman could look so radiantly happy and at the same time so spiritual and he felt as if he must kneel before her.
“I love you! My precious, my darling, my perfect little love!” he said brokenly.
Then, with his face hidden against the softness of her neck, he whispered,
“Help me to be – as you want me to be – because I could not bear to – disappoint you.”
“I want you just as you have always been to me,” Shimona replied, “kind and gentle – considerate and everything that is – fine and noble.”
He raised his head.
“Do you mean that?”
“You know I mean it.”
They looked into each other’s eyes and the world seemed to stand still.
The Duke sat down in the armchair and drew Shimona into it beside him.
There was room for them both if he held her close in his arms.
“You must not – do too much,” she said anxiously.
“You are not to worry about me.”
“Can you expect me to do – anything else?” she asked, “when I thought I might have – lost you?”
There was a sob in her voice and then suddenly she hid her face against his shoulder.
“You are crying,” the Duke said in a voice of consternation. “My precious darling, what has made you cry?”
“It is – because I am so – happy,” Shimona sobbed. “I have been so – afraid that I would not be able to – stay with you – that you would not – want me.”
“Not want you?” the Duke exclaimed. “Do you know what I have been through? Thinking about you, knowing that I must send you to your grandparents and wondering how I could live through the rest of my life when you were no longer there.”
“How could you – think of anything so – cruel?”
“I was thinking of you,” he said. “I still am and I know that if I did what was right I would let you go.”
“I have – already told you that I will not – let you do – that,” Shimona replied, “and besides – I think you worry too much about your reputation. I do not know what terrible things you are supposed to have done – ”
“And I pray that you never will!” the Duke interposed.
Looking at the tears still wet on her cheeks, he asked,
“What were you going to say?”
“You – may not agree,” Shimona said hesitatin
gly, “but I – thought that if we could – leave London for a little while and live in the country – in your house with the beautiful gardens, people would soon – stop talking about you and perhaps instead they would begin to talk about the – good things that you are doing.”
The Duke put his fingers under her chin and turned her face up to his.
“Is that what you would like?” he asked. “Tell me honestly. Would you be content with living in the country with me instead of going to balls and Receptions and all the parties that you could enjoy in London?”
Shimona gave a little laugh.
“Since I have never been to any balls and parties, I certainly would not miss them! Besides, I would much rather be – alone with you than at the most splendid ball that was ever given! I can imagine nothing more wonderful than to be in the country and be able to ride – and plan the gardens – so long as we do it – together.”
The Duke pulled her closer against his heart.
“Together! That is the important word!” he said. “And there is in fact a lot for us to do at Ravenstone Hall.”
“What sort of things?” Shimona asked curiously.
“My father, because he disapproved of them, had every picture, however valuable or beautiful, that depicted women, especially those who were dressed or should I say undressed like Goddesses, removed to the attics.”
He smiled as he went on,
“With them went all the furniture that was carved with hearts or cupids and a number of beds and sofas that he considered too comfortably luxurious to be anything but an invitation to indolence.”
“It must have made your house very – austere.”
“It is! That is why I have hardly lived there since I inherited the title,” the Duke replied. “But we can restore it to its previous glory, put it back as it was when my grandfather rebuilt the house and brought treasures from Italy and France, which are now heirlooms.”
“I would love to do that.”
“We will do it – together,” the Duke answered.
“It sounds so – wonderful – so perfect!”
“And that is what you are!”
The Duke took his soft linen handkerchief and wiped the tears from her eyes, then he kissed them one after the other and his lips lingered on the softness of her cheeks.
Then he pulled her even closer against him and found her mouth.
He kissed her passionately, fiercely, possessively and there was a fire burning in his eyes, but she was not afraid.
“I – love you!”
Shimona was not certain if she said the words aloud.
Her whole body vibrated with the wonder of him and the wild sensations he aroused in her.
They were no longer two people but one.
This, she thought, was what she had always wanted. This was what she had missed, a sense of belonging, of not being the ‘odd-person-out’.
The Duke’s hand was on her head, smoothing her hair.
“You are so beautiful!” he said hoarsely. “You will be the loveliest of all the Duchesses of Ravenstone.”
“We will have our – portrait painted – together?”
He laughed.
“Why not and it will be entitled, ‘Her Grace and His Dis – ’”
Shimona put her fingers up to cover his lips.
“You are not to say it. That is all in the past – it is forgotten – and any wrong that resulted has been forgiven.”
“How can you be sure of that?” the Duke enquired.
“There is something in the Bible,” she answered, “about being ‘purified by fire’. That is what you have been because you were so brave, because you saved me. We have started a new life – you and I – and never after today will we talk about the past.”
She put her arm around his neck and drew his head a little closer to hers.
“I know that the consequences of what we will do – together – will ripple out and bring – blessings and happiness to many, many – people.”
“My precious,” the Duke said. “I love you! I adore you! I worship you!”
Then he was kissing her until again he swept her up into a boundless sky brilliant with stars where they were alone with their happiness and very near to God.
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
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
THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND
Barbara Cart
land, who sadly died in May 2000 at the grand age of ninety eight, remains one of the world’s most famous romantic novelists. With worldwide sales of over one billion, her outstanding 723 books have been translated into thirty six different languages, to be enjoyed by readers of romance globally.
Writing her first book ‘Jigsaw’ at the age of 21, Barbara became an immediate bestseller. Building upon this initial success, she wrote continuously throughout her life, producing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years. In addition to Barbara Cartland’s legion of fans in the UK and across Europe, her books have always been immensely popular in the USA. In 1976 she achieved the unprecedented feat of having books at numbers 1 & 2 in the prestigious B. Dalton Bookseller bestsellers list.
Although she is often referred to as the ‘Queen of Romance’, Barbara Cartland also wrote several historical biographies, six autobiographies and numerous theatrical plays as well as books on life, love, health and cookery. Becoming one of Britain’s most popular media personalities and dressed in her trademark pink, Barbara spoke on radio and television about social and political issues, as well as making many public appearances.
In 1991 she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to literature and her work for humanitarian and charitable causes.
Known for her glamour, style, and vitality Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime. Best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels and loved by millions of readers worldwide, her books remain treasured for their heroic heroes, plucky heroines and traditional values. But above all, it was Barbara Cartland’s overriding belief in the positive power of love to help, heal and improve the quality of life for everyone that made her truly unique.
The
Disgraceful Duke
Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
This edition © 2014
Copyright Cartland Promotions 1976
eBook conversion by M-Y Books