Love and the Cheetah Read online

  When he saw the Duke, he salaamed.

  “Forgive, Lord Sahib,” he muttered. “Che Che slip by ver-ry quick as I go in pen. I run ver-ry fast but not catch.”

  “He is quite safe here,” the Duke replied. “And I think in fact that he was looking for me and Miss Harle.”

  “Che Che love you ver-ry much, Lord Sahib,” the Indian answered.

  As he was speaking, he clasped a collar round Che Che’s neck and attached to it a leather leading rein.

  “We will come to see you later,” Ilesa smiled, patting Che Che as he was led away.

  “You were quite right,” she said to the Duke. “Che Che knew that we wanted him and he was very clever to find us.”

  “I believe you drew him to you by your magic,” the Duke answered, “just as you have drawn me.”

  They had both risen to their feet.

  The Duke was putting out his arms towards her when he heard someone come into the room.

  As he moved to one side, he realised that it was the butler.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “I thought Your Grace should know,” the butler replied, “that there is bad news for His Reverence the Vicar in the morning newspapers.”

  “Bad news?” the Duke questioned.

  “Yes, Your Grace. The Earl of Harlestone and his only son have been shot in an uprising in India.”

  “Good gracious!” the Duke exclaimed.

  “The Vicar and her Ladyship are in the study, Your Grace.”

  The butler moved away.

  When they were alone in the salon, Ilesa sighed,

  “Oh, poor Papa. He will be so upset.”

  “Of course he will be,” the Duke agreed. “At the same time he is now ‘rich Papa’.”

  Ilesa looked at him and he explained to her,

  “You must realise that your father is now The Earl of Harlestone!”

  “Yes, I suppose so,” Ilesa said in a wondering voice. “Oh, Drogo! That means he can now employ again all the people who were dismissed when Uncle Robert went off to India.”

  There was a sudden lilt in her voice as she spoke and the Duke wondered how many other women would be thinking of those who were unemployed rather than the difference that her father’s position would now make to her.

  “We must go to Papa at once,” Ilesa insisted.

  “Of course,” the Duke nodded.

  They walked from the salon and down the corridor and the Duke opened the door of the study.

  As Ilesa walked in, she saw to her astonishment that her father had his arms round Lady Mavis.

  For a moment she could only stare at them.

  Then before she could speak the Duke said,

  “We have been told, Vicar, that you have had shocking news about your brother. Equally I feel sure that no one else could take over the position he left behind in England better than yourself.”

  “Thank you,” the Vicar re[lied quietly. “I think I should tell Your Grace that I shall be supported in this new position that you should speak by your aunt about.”

  He smiled at Lady Mavis as he spoke and Ilesa thought that she had not seen her father look so happy or so carefree since her mother’s death.

  “Do you ‒ mean, Papa,” she asked, “that Lady Mavis is ‒ going to marry you?”

  “She has done me that very great honour,” the Vicar replied, “and I know how much she will help me with all the difficulties that lie ahead.”

  Ilesa knew exactly what he was thinking about.

  There would be the restoration of the house, the people to be re-employed and the whole estate to be brought back to prosperity again.

  Then the Duke took charge.

  “I want to make some suggestions that I think will be to the advantage not only of his Lordship but to the rest of us.”

  The three people he was speaking to looked at him in surprise and he went on,

  “First I would like the new Earl of Harlestone to marry me to his daughter, Ilesa, within the next few hours.”

  The Vicar gave a gasp, but the Duke continued,

  “I think once we have left on our honeymoon, it would be very wise if my aunt and the Earl were married today as well before they return to Littlestone.”

  It was now Lady Mavis’s turn to look astonished until the Duke explained,

  “If you wait until the family and everyone else learns of Robert Harle’s death, they will know that you are in mourning and that your marriage must be postponed.”

  He glanced at Ilesa before he added,

  “I have heard all about the problems that are waiting for you and I feel that you need the support and assistance of my aunt that she would not be able to give if you were not already married. You can be married perfectly legally simply as ‘Mark Harle’.”

  The Vicar drew in a deep breath.

  “But, of course,” he admitted, “you are so right. Do you agree, Mavis my dear, to your nephew’s very sensible in fact brilliant suggestion?”

  “But, of course I do,” Lady Mavis sighed. “I want to help you. You know I want to.”

  Ilesa knew instinctively by the way she spoke that she was very much in love with her father.

  She thought that nothing could be better. Nothing would make him happier than to have someone so kind, gentle and understanding beside him for all the trials ahead of him.

  As if they had all agreed, the Duke said,

  “Now I will send at once for my private Chaplain and shall we say, Vicar, that you will marry me and your daughter at precisely eleven thirty?”

  Ilesa gave a little cry.

  “I want to marry you. Of course I want to marry you! But have you realised that as your wife I have nothing to wear?”

  The Duke gave a little laugh.

  “In which case, my darling, we will start our honeymoon in Paris. I will dress you in a way that will make your beauty even more overwhelming than it is at the moment. At the same time, as I shall be a very jealous husband, I am rather sorry that I cannot insist on your wearing a yashmak!”

  They all laughed and the Vicar said,

  “I feel as if I am being swept off my feet by a flood tide! But I am not complaining. I am sure, Drogo, that you are right in what you have just suggested.”

  “Now I will put the wheels in motion,” the Duke declared, “and we must drink to our happiness. But, as it is only just after breakfast, a little later in the day.”

  He walked out of the study as he spoke and Ilesa went to her father and kissed him.

  “I am so happy for you, Papa. Now you will have enough money to do all the things you have always wanted to do and we no longer need to know that the cottages are falling down and the people in Littlestone are half-starved.”

  “And I know you, my dear, will be very happy,” the Vicar replied. “I have the greatest admiration for Drogo and Lady Mavis has been telling me how unhappy he was when he was a little boy and lost his mother who he adored.”

  “I will try to make it up to him,” Ilesa promised.

  Both she and her father knew that it was a vow from the depth of her heart.

  When she went upstairs to her bedroom to tell the maid to pack her trunk, she found that the Duke’s news had already percolated through the house.

  The housekeeper and two maids were already packing what clothes she had with her.

  But with the exception, of course, of her mother’s Wedding dress.

  “Am I to wear this dress?” she asked the housekeeper.

  “But, of course, miss,” the elderly woman replied, “and I have the veil that Her Grace wore at her Weddin’. The tiaras have been brought up from the safe. So you can make a choice of which one you think would suit you the best.”

  Ilesa looked a little bewildered and the housekeeper went on,

  “This be a happy day for all of us, miss. We’ve been hopin’ that His Grace would bring home a bride who would fill his mother’s place and we’d all like her.”

  Mrs. Field took a breat
h before she continued,

  “I speak for myself and all the household when I tell you truthfully, miss, that you are just the bride we hoped His Grace would choose.”

  Ilesa was very touched and she replied,

  “Thank you very much, Mrs. Field, I know that you all will try to help me and prevent ‒ me from making mistakes. I have never lived in such a huge mansion as Heron Court before, but I want ‒ to make it a happy home ‒ for my husband.”

  She spoke a little shyly.

  The old housekeeper blinked away her tears before she responded,

  “And now, miss, we have to think of what you can go away in. His Grace told me he was takin’ you to Paris, but you have not much to put on before you gets there.”

  “That is true,” Ilesa said. “It would be very kind if you could again lend me something suitable for the journey.”

  It flashed through her mind suddenly that she might appeal to her sister.

  Then she realised that they had forgotten that it was Doreen who might make difficulties.

  She would certainly not be pleased at her for marrying the Duke and then, because she was so happy, Ilesa tried not to think of Doreen’s disapproval and the anger in her face at her when she thought that she was getting too close to the Duke.

  ‘I am sure she will be happy with Lord Randall,’ she tried to tell herself convincingly.

  But she was still feeling a little apprehensive.

  Mrs. Field found several pretty gowns which, although a little out of date, were certainly very becoming and would suit her very well.

  “I wish we had more time,” she commented. “But His Grace has always been in a hurry ever since I’ve known him. Though I never expected a Weddin’ with literally only a few minutes to spare!”

  Ilesa laughed.

  “I shall be extremely grateful for these gowns, Mrs. Field. They are certainly very much smarter than anything I possess myself.”

  She had in fact hardly looked at the dresses before the maid packed them into her trunk.

  But it was a new one that Mrs. Field had provided for her that really caught her eye.

  It was so wonderful that, after all her anxiety, she could now marry the Duke without feeling guilty and without, she hoped, hurting anyone.

  Finally she was dressed in her mother’s Wedding gown and her hair was arranged in the latest fashion and covered with an exquisite Brussels lace veil.

  Mrs. Field asked her which of the tiaras that had been laid out on the bed she would like to wear.

  She chose the smallest, it was the least overpowering and to her the most beautiful.

  It represented an arrangement of flowers all crafted in diamonds.

  When Ilesa looked at herself in the mirror, she knew that the Duke would approve of what she had chosen.

  To him she was a flower – and she must never fade.

  She knew also that he had placed her in the very special shrine that was hidden in his heart.

  One minute before half past eleven Mrs. Field opened the bedroom door.

  “His Grace’ll be waitin’ for you in the hall, miss,” she said. “May God bless you and bring you both great happiness on this the most important day of your lives.”

  “Thank you! Thank you,” Ilesa cried.

  The maids wished her ‘good luck’ and curtseyed as she walked slowly along the corridor and down the great staircase to the hall.

  The Duke was there waiting for her.

  She thought that she had never seen him look so magnificent.

  The front of his cutaway coat was ablaze with his decorations and he wore The Order of The Garter over one shoulder.

  He waited until Ilesa reached the last step of the staircase.

  Then he put out his hands and took hers.

  “You look, my darling,” he said in a low voice, “exactly as I wanted you to look. Like an angel coming down from Heaven to help, protect and guide me in this life and all our future lives to come.”

  Ilesa’s fingers tightened on his and he went on,

  “This is how I always wanted to be married. Without a crowd sniggering and giggling. With just you and me and the people we love.”

  “I feel I am dreaming,” Ilesa sighed. “Can this really be true?”

  “I will make it true later in the day when you are really my wife,” the Duke replied.

  He picked up a bouquet that was lying on a side table.

  As she took it from him, Ilesa realised that it was composed of the white orchids that he had brought from Singapore.

  She thought that they were not only a sign of his love but had also brought them both the luck that they had never expected.

  If after breakfast they had not gone into the salon to look at the orchids, no one would have known that Che Che had found his way there.

  And Doreen would not have been frightened by him into Hugo’s outstretched arms.

  It was just as if everything that had happened had been directed in some clever and preordained way from Heaven.

  Ilesa then sent up a little prayer of thanks to her mother,

  “Thank you, thank you, Mama, you have brought me the happiness that you had with Papa and I shall always be grateful to you for being so wonderful to me.”

  As they walked along the corridor, the Duke said,

  “Just in case, my darling Ilesa, it might be worrying you, Doreen and Hugo have already left Heron Court.”

  Ilesa looked up at him in considerable surprise and he explained,

  “Hugo is taking no chances! She has promised to marry him and they left for London, driving my new team so that they will get there quickly.”

  “That was very kind ‒ of you,” Ilesa said.

  The Duke gave a little laugh.

  “I would have given Hugo all my horses and half Heron Court itself to know that you were no longer concerned about your sister. She will, I am sure, be very happy with Hugo, who really adores her.”

  “I am so happy that – no one is now – resenting our marriage and I am so – very very lucky that I can – marry you.”

  “And what do you think I feel?” the Duke enquired.

  He looked down at her and then added very softly,

  “I will tell you what I feel later when you are really and truly mine.”

  As they neared the Chapel, there was the sound of organ music being played very softly.

  They walked in through an impressive Gothic doorway.

  Ilesa saw at once that her father, wearing a magnificent vestment, was waiting for them at the Altar.

  She realised too that, in the very short time that had been available, masses of flowers had been brought into the Chapel and there were large bunches everywhere.

  With the candles lit and with sunshine streaming in through the stained-glass windows the whole Chapel was very beautiful.

  There was the Duke’s Chaplain to assist Ilesa’s father in marrying them and the only other witness was Lady Mavis, who was sitting in one of the carved pews at the front.

  Ilesa felt that she had never heard her father read the Marriage Service more movingly or more meaningfully.

  At the same time there was an undoubted happiness in his voice that she had missed for the last two years.

  Then finally she and the Duke knelt at the Altar and he blessed them.

  Ilesa thought that she could hear the angels and archangels singing and that her mother was looking down at them.

  She was smiling because it was what she had always wanted for Ilesa.

  ‘Thank you! Ilesa said in her heart. ‘And thank You – God. Please help me to make Drogo happy and everyone else who I will now be concerned with.”

  It was a prayer that was so intense that it brought tears to her eyes.

  Then, as they rose to their feet, the Duke very gently lifted her veil and threw it back over her head.

  He kissed her.

  It was a kiss of dedication and told her that the vows he had just taken were very sacred.

 
And he would keep them to the end of his life.

  *

  The Duke had arranged that the moment Ilesa had changed her clothes they should leave and not attend her father’s marriage to Lady Mavis.

  “I think they would prefer to be alone,” the Duke said. “Therefore I have given orders that they should have luncheon here and then a carriage will take them to Harlestone Hall.”

  “You have thought of everything,” Ilesa murmured.

  “I have thought of you,” the Duke answered, “and I want to make certain, my precious, that you think of me and only of me, so actually I am being very selfish.”

  Ilesa knew that this was far from the truth.

  She was well aware that it was because he thought of his people, just as he thought of his horses and his animals, that everyone at Heron Court was happy.

  As they drove down the drive, Ilesa said,

  “I think we ought to have said ‘goodbye’ to Che Che and thanked him for being so clever as to reach us just when we really needed him.”

  “We will thank him when we come home,” the Duke replied, “and I think that we should bring back from our honeymoon some additions to the menagerie.”

  Ilesa clasped her hands together and looked at him with shining eyes.

  “What are you thinking of,” she asked.

  “That is something that we can discuss together. I thought when we have bought your trousseau in Paris, my yacht will be waiting for us. We could visit Cairo and perhaps go through the Suez Canal and down the Red Sea to the Gulf.”

  He paused to smile at her before he continued,

  “There are many strange species of animals and birds in these places that I think we should have at home. But, of course, I am prepared to leave the choice to you, my sublime wife.”

  “Oh, Drogo, what a wonderful idea!” Ilesa cried. “It will be very – very exciting to have a menagerie that we can add to whenever we go away and where, of course, Rajah and Che Che will always be there to welcome us home.”

  She sounded so excited and thrilled at the idea and the Duke thought that he had never expected to share a menagerie with his wife.

  No man could be as fortunate as he was.

  They stayed the night in a house that the Duke owned. It was halfway between Heron Court and a quiet cove where his yacht would be waiting for them the following day.