Kiss from a Stranger Read online

  The two men shook hands and soldiers took the Comte in one direction and Lucille Gratton in another.

  The Earl ordered his coachman to back the Comte’s carriage into the courtyard.

  He told his men to get into his and drove away.

  By this time, the stars had faded and the first light of dawn was creeping up the sky.

  The Earl drove to Admiralty House.

  The sentries looked at the carriage in surprise, but did not prevent Carter from stepping down from the box and approaching the front door.

  There were two footmen on duty and, when the Earl asked to see Lord Barham, an Officer who was obviously in charge appeared first.

  A few sharp sentences from the Earl sent him hurrying upstairs to wake the First Lord.

  The Earl waited only a few minutes in a room downstairs before Lord Barham joined him.

  He was wearing a long robe over his nightshirt, but he looked alert and despite his age had the same buoyancy about him he had always shown on the quarter deck.

  “Is it good news or bad, Arrow?” he asked as he came into the room. “I know it must be something sensational to bring you here at this hour.”

  The Earl paused for a moment as if to make his announcement even more dramatic.

  “I have just, my Lord,” he said, “taken your First Secretary, the Comte Jacques de Beauvais, to the Tower of London!”

  *

  Because he wanted to go back to Shenda, the Earl did not linger at the Admiralty.

  He merely gave Lord Barham a brief account of exactly what had occurred, then, having promised to return later in the morning, drove his horses to Berkeley Square.

  When he and his servants had entered the house and followed him into the hall, he said,

  “We have tonight struck a blow against the Emperor of France, but as unfortunately there are other spies in our midst, I am ordering you to tell no one of what has happened tonight. Also, say as little about it as possible, even amongst yourselves.”

  He thought the men looked disappointed and he added quietly,

  “You have excelled yourselves and done exactly what I expected, but if we are to do the same again in the future, it would be a mistake if our prey, who I can tell you is more wily than any reptile, escapes before we have a chance of catching him.”

  He saw by the men’s faces that they understood and he went on,

  “I trust you to keep your mouths shut, your ears open and your eyes keen for the sake of England.”

  There was an expression on their faces that told him better than if they had cheered that they would all do what he asked.

  Then he hurried up the stairs.

  As he expected, he found Howkins sitting at the ready with a pistol in his hand outside the bedroom door.

  He did not speak, but merely smiled at the man and opened the door very quietly.

  By the daylight coming through the sides of the curtains he could see that Shenda was asleep.

  She looked small and insubstantial in the great bed and, with her hair falling over the pillows, very young and innocent.

  The Earl stood looking at her for some minutes and then he moved quietly out of the room nd closed the door.

  *

  Shenda woke slowly, feeling as if she had slept for a long time.

  Then she thought of the Earl and was suddenly alert.

  She sat up in bed, knowing as she did so that she was in the Master suite and that the Earl had gone away to tackle the Comte.

  If he had not returned, perhaps the Comte had struck first and the Earl might be injured or even killed!

  Because the idea was so horrifying, involuntarily she gave a little cry and, as she did so, the door opened.

  Howkins put his head inside the room and asked,

  “Are you awake, Miss Shenda? It’s time for your breakfast.”

  “Is – his Lordship – back – or is there – any news of h-him?” Shenda asked breathlessly.

  Howkins came into the room.

  “He’s back, happy as a sandboy at havin’ won a great victory and despite what he tells me, I’m letting, him sleep.”

  Because she was so relieved, Shenda felt the tears prick her eyes, then in case Howkins should see them, she looked at the clock on the mantelpiece.

  “What – time is – it?”

  “It’s nearly ten, Miss, and his Lordship didn’t get in till after seven.”

  “What could he have been doing all that time?” Shenda asked.

  “I ’spect his Lordship’ll want to tell you that himself, miss,” Howkins replied. “I’ll fetch your breakfast.”

  He disappeared and Shenda sank back against the pillows.

  The Earl was safe!

  Whatever else had happened, the Comte had not harmed him and as long as she remained here, she too was safe.

  “I love him!” she whispered. “But – although he – said he loved me – perhaps it was just –because last night I was – so upset and he wanted to – comfort me.”

  At the same time, as Shenda was trying to calm the excitement rising within her, she felt that her heart was singing.

  *

  The Earl awoke, realised that he was not in his own bed and remembered what had happened.

  He had told Howkins to call him at eight-thirty, but he could see by the clock on the mantelpiece that it was after ten o’clock.

  He told himself the man had no right to disobey his orders.

  But he knew that however much he might remonstrate with Howkins, he would insist on doing what he thought was best for his wellbeing.

  He climbed out of bed, pulled the bell violently and, when Howkins appeared, he was carrying a tray with his breakfast on it.

  “I told you to call me at eight-thirty,” the Earl said.

  “There now!” Howkins exclaimed. “I thinks I must have made a mistake. What with keepin’ meself awake on duty, so to speak, while your Lordship was gaddin’ about the town, I must have misunderstood whatt your Lordship says to me!”

  As he finished speaking, he put the tray down on a table in the window and as he did so a footman appeared with a number of other dishes.

  This prevented the Earl from saying any more, but, as he shrugged himself into his robe, he asked,

  “Is Miss Shenda all right?”

  “I’ve just taken in her breakfast, my Lord,” Howkins replied. “Worried, she was, about your Lordship. I reassured the young lady by sayin’ you was home, safe and sound!”

  He went from the room as he finished speaking and the Earl gave up the hopeless task of trying to reprimand him.

  Having eaten a hearty breakfast, by the time he had taken a bath and dressed he learnt from Howkins that Shenda had been shown to a room where she could dress.

  She had expected that there would be nothing for her to wear but the nightgown and woollen robe she had worn when she had run in fear and terror from Lady Gratton’s house to find the Earl.

  When she entered her bedroom, it was to find Mrs. Davison waiting for her and her own trunk half-unpacked.

  “Now, what have you been up to, Miss Shenda?” Mrs. Davison asked. “When I hears that you’d arrived last night, I thought you might have asked for me!”

  “You are here now and that is all that matters,” Shenda said evasively, “but how were you so clever as to get my trunk?”

  “It’s only just arrived, Miss Shenda,” Mrs. Davison said, “and it was Mr. Carter who sent for it, seeing as how without it you’d’ve had nothing to wear!”

  Shenda knew that Mrs. Davison was dying with curiosity.

  She somehow managed to avoid giving her any positive answers to her questions, knowing that she must wait to hear what the Earl would say first.

  She was so eager to see him that it was difficult to understand what Mrs. Davison was saying.

  When she was ready, wearing the pretty gown she had made herself, she hurried down the stairs.

  She was still afraid that what had happened last night was just
an illusion.

  Perhaps today she would face a different reality.

  *

  In a way the Earl was thinking very much the same.

  He knew that last night when Shenda had come to him trembling with fear that he had forgotten everything but her loveliness, the softness of her body and the unusual sensations she evoked in him.

  Now, in the harshness of day, he knew he had to face the question as to whether it was possible for him to marry her, considering that she was in fact only one of his servants.

  Since he had inherited the title, it had been impossible not to realise that, as the Earl of Arrow, he had a great and responsible position.

  The whole family looked to him as their leader and guide in the same way as the men he commanded at sea had done and to do anything that would lower the reputation of a family as important as the Bows was unthinkable.

  Of course, Shenda appeared to be a lady in every sense of the word.

  He had never met anyone so sensitive or who responded so naturally to what he might call the behaviour and instinct of being ‘gentleborn’.

  But in that case, why was she working as a seamstress?

  If she was an orphan, she should be with her relatives and certainly chaperoned by some older woman.

  Yet every nerve in his body told him how much he wanted her.

  The love he had acknowledged to himself last night swept over him like a tidal wave.

  He knew he had never in his whole life felt for any woman what he felt for Shenda.

  He would kill any man who insulted her and yet that was exactly what he would do if he could not offer her marriage.

  ‘Oh, God, what am I to do about her?’ he asked as he finished dressing.

  As he walked down the stairs, he was vividly conscious of the portraits of his ancestors looking down at him from their gold frames.

  He thought that the men of the Bow family would understand what he felt – it was the women who would not only disapprove but denounce the marriage as being a mésalliance.

  He was aware how easily they could make Shenda’s life a living Hell if they treated her as a servant who had pressured her Master into matrimony.

  He crossed the hall knowing that he would find Shenda in the study, where she had come to him last night.

  He asked himself again what he could do about what appeared to be an impossible situation.

  Then, as he opened the door and saw her standing at the window, the sun turning her hair into a halo, he felt his heart turn a dozen somersaults.

  He knew that without Shenda he had no wish to go on living.

  He closed the door quietly behind him and just held out his arms.

  She gave a little cry that was like the song of the birds and ran towards him.

  “You – are – safe! You are – safe!” she murmured.

  “I am safe and so are you,” the Earl said in his deep voice.

  Then he was kissing her and the whole world stood still.

  He kissed her fiercely, as if he was afraid that she might vanish.

  As he felt his heart respond to the wonder of it, he knew it was what Shenda was feeling too and her eyes, when he looked into them, were dazzling.

  Her whole face was transfigured with a beauty that was, the Earl knew at the back of his mind, not human but Divine.

  “I love you!” he said. “My darling, I love you!”

  “H-he did not – hurt you?”

  “No, he did not hurt me.”

  He had no intention of telling Shenda that he had found the Comte in bed with Lucille.

  He thought it would shock her and he himself did not want to remember the degradation of what had occurred.

  “I – prayed and – prayed that you would be – all right,” she was saying in her soft voice, “andthen – and I cannot think how it – happened – I – fell asleep!”

  “You were very tired, my precious, after all you had been through,” the Earl said.

  He looked down at her and then as if he could not help himself, as if his lips said the words for him, he asked,

  “How soon will you marry me, for I know, Shenda, that I cannot live without you.”

  “D-do you – really – want me?”

  “More than I can tell you in words,” the Earl answered.

  Then he was kissing her possessively, demandingly, as if he would never let her go.

  *

  Centuries later or at least that is what it seemed, the Earl drew Shenda to the window and they looked out at the flowers in the garden.

  “We will go back to The Castle tomorrow,” he said and his voice sounded strange even to himself. “We will be married in the Chapel by the new Vicar who, I understand, is moving in today.”

  “How I wish – Papa was – alive,” Shenda said softly. “I know how – proud he would have been – to perform the Service.”

  “Your father was a Parson?” the Earl asked.

  He spoke a little absent-mindedly, because he was still thinking how difficult his relations might be when they knew whom he had married.

  It also flashed through his mind that perhaps he was making a mistake and, because Shenda had worked at The Castle, he should marry her in London, where she was unknown.

  Shenda stared at him and then she said,

  “Have you – really asked me to – marry you – without knowing – who I – am?”

  The Earl pulled her a little closer to him.

  “It does not matter to me who you are,” he said, “or where you come from. I know only that you are mine, Shenda, and that I want you as I have never wanted a woman or anything else in my life before!”

  “When you – speak like that,” Shenda said, “I -I want to – cry. It is how I – always wanted to be loved – as Papa loved – Mama. But I was afraid it was – something that would – never happen to me.”

  “When I kissed you in the wood,” the Earl said, “I thought you were not human but a nymph, a sprite from the magic pool or perhaps a little Goddess who had assumed human form.”

  He moved his lips over the softness of her cheek before he went on,

  “Since then I have thought of you, Shenda, dreamt of you and kissed you, but it never seemed important to know your other name.”

  She gave a little laugh.

  “No one will ever believe that, but let me tell you now that my name is Lynd, and Papa was the Vicar of Arrowhead for seventeen years!”

  The Earl stared at her.

  “If that is true, why were you working in The Castle?”

  “I was – hiding.”

  “Hiding? From whom?”

  “From having nowhere to go when your agent, Mr. Marlow, said he wanted the Vicarage for the new incumbent.”

  “But – how is it that you had nowhere to go?” the Earl asked, feeling stupid because he did not understand.

  “I-I have no – money,” Shenda said simply, “and – when I talked to Mrs. Davison – she let me come to The Castle thinking I-I would be – safe with her – and the new Earl would – never find out that – I was not a – proper servant.”

  “My darling, thank God you came to The Castle!” the Earl exclaimed, “and that I found you in your magic wood!”

  “How could I have – known or guessed that you were the – Earl who nobody had – seen? But – when you kissed me – I thought it was – something I would – never forget.”

  She gave a little laugh,

  “No one would – believe this has all – happened – because I was – kissed by a stranger.”

  “A stranger who fell in love,” the Earl said as he smiled, “and it will be an exciting story to tell our children.”

  Shenda blushed and hid her face against him.

  He thought her shyness so adorable that he kissed her until they were both breathless.

  Then, as he raised his head, the Earl said,

  “We are already one person, my darling, and I have the feeling that no Service can make us belong to each other mo
re than we do already.”

  “How can you – say anything so – wonderful?” Shenda asked. “And it is what I – feel myself – I am yours – as I have really been ever since you – kissed me.”

  “No one could be more brave or have done more than you have,” the Earl said.

  She knew he was speaking of what had just happened and, as he felt her shiver, he said,

  “Forget it and if I have to do anything in the future to help England, you will not be involved.”

  Shenda gave a little laugh and it was a very happy sound.

  “I think – if I am your – wife – it would be very difficult for you to – do anything unless I knew about it – and how could I not – help you and want to be – with you?”

  The Earl pulled her against him.

  “I love you!” he murmured. “But what I have to do now is to see Lord Barham and, as soon as that is settled, if he does not keep me too late, we will leave for The Castle.”

  “And – shall we really be – married tomorrow?” Shenda asked.

  “I suppose, in order to do so, I shall have to obtain a Special Licence,” the Earl said.

  “I think – if we are both residents – in the same Parish – it is unnecessary,” Shenda said hesitatingly, “but you could – ask the Parson to make sure.”

  “I expect somebody at the Admiralty will be able to tell me,” the Earl replied. “It would be embarrassing to have to confess that I don’t even know the name of my own Vicar!”

  Shenda laughed.

  “As long as you remember my name and surname, that will be all right.”

  “You told me it was Lynd,” the Earl said.

  “Shenda Lynd, and Papa used to hunt with the pack of foxhounds your father, the late Earl, supported when he was well enough to do so. In fact he was known as the ‘Hunting Parson’!”

  “I seem to remember people speaking about him when I was a child,” the Earl remarked.

  Then he looked at Shenda and asked,

  “I still cannot understand why, when you were turned out of the Vicarage, you had nowhere to go. You must have relatives somewhere?”

  “My uncle lives in a house in Gloucestershire where Papa was brought up,” she explained, “and although he is Lord Lyndon he is – very poor and has a – large family. I thought therefore that he would not want anybody – extra in the house and of course – with Rufus, that made – two.”