The Lioness and the Lily Read online

  “We cannot die here – we cannot!” Purilla said, “and if I do perhaps Lady Louise will – insist on the Earl – marrying her.”

  The idea seemed even more horrifying than her own predicament and she knew that it was quite true. That the moment her death was announced Lady Louise and her formidable father would be seeking the Earl again and forcing him into the marriage he had managed to avoid by marrying Purilla.

  ‘I must save him – I must save him!’ Purilla told herself and knew that she could only do so by saving herself.

  She sat and stared at the fallen chalk in front of her as if by sheer willpower she could magic it away.

  Then it struck her that the only thing she had left was the power of thought.

  She had not told the Earl, because she had thought that he would not understand, but she had plied her brother with questions when he was on leave from India about the powers of the fakirs and how they did magic tricks for which no one could find an explanation.

  “A lot of them use hypnotism,” Richard had said, “but they undoubtedly also have a method of communication that is faster and much more effective than anything that the West has devised so far.”

  “What do they do?” Purilla had asked eagerly.

  “It is difficult to explain,” Richard answered, “but they can project their thoughts over a long distance.”

  Purilla waited and he continued,

  “There was a sepoy in my company who came to me and said that his father was dead and asked for leave of absence. As I knew that his father lived nearly three hundred miles away, I asked him how he had heard of the old man’s death.

  “‘He die last night, Captain Sahib,’

  “‘Last night!’ I exclaimed, ‘but it is impossible for you to know that.’

  “‘I was told, Captain Sahib, by my brother and sisters’.”

  “What did you do?” Purilla asked.

  “Of course I refused to let him go on such an obviously false pretext,” Richard replied. “Then two weeks later I learned that his father had indeed died at exactly the time he had said.”

  Purilla told herself now that it was telepathy of some sort and she thought that, unless she was prepared to die in the dark cave, her only chance of survival was to try to communicate with the Earl.

  She knew that very often when they were together she had been able to read his thoughts and at times he appeared to know what she was thinking even before she told him.

  “I must reach him,” she said aloud.

  Closing her eyes she concentrated the love she had for him in her heart and her whole will on trying to make him aware of what had happened to her.

  *

  An hour later the Earl was walking restlessly up and down the salon.

  He had been out to the hall three or four times to ask the footmen if there was any sign of her Ladyship.

  Now in some way he could not understand he was growing increasingly anxious.

  His common sense told him that she had not been away for very long and, if she was upset by what she had overheard, she might stay out as she had when they were at The Manor until quite late in the evening.

  Then he felt almost as if he could hear her calling him.

  ‘I am imagining things,’ he thought, ‘it is not likely she will come to any harm in the grounds.’

  Then insidiously he had a strong presentiment of danger.

  He tried to shrug it away to convince himself that it was just his imagination, but it still persisted until it was impossible to put it out of his mind and he knew that he had to act.

  It seemed then as if he could almost see Purilla’s face lifted to his, her blue eyes beseeching him and her lips moving as if she tried to tell him something.

  “Dammit all, she is in danger. I know it!” he declared aloud.

  He pulled the bell and a footman came running.

  A quarter of an hour later the Earl was in the saddle with three grooms also mounted on horses moving away from the front of the house.

  “Boyd and I will go through the shrubbery,” the Earl said, “one of you go West of the wood in case her Ladyship returns back that way and the other ride through the orchard and cover the East side.”

  The grooms understood and trotted off while the Earl followed by Boyd, his chief groom, rode down the small path that wound between the flowering shrubs and out into the wood behind it.

  It seemed to the Earl as he went that his feeling that Purilla was calling him intensified and now he felt almost frantically that he must reach her and, if he did not do so, he might lose her altogether.

  The idea was not based on logic but on some prompting that seemed to arise in his mind.

  He had the idea that she was praying and it made him quicken the pace of his horse as he rode, looking to right and left for any sign of Purilla’s white gown between the tree trunks.

  But there was only the flutter of pigeons overhead and, when they reached the end of the wood, he saw that the sun was sinking low and he had a sudden agonising fear that he would not find Purilla before it was dark.

  As the trees thinned away at the edge pf a field, he drew his horse to a standstill.

  “Would her Ladyship have come as far as this, Boyd?” he asked, feeling that he must speak to somebody if only to assuage his fears.

  “It’d be quite a step, my Lord,” the groom replied, “but if ’er Ladyship was intent on a long walk ’er might have gone over the chalk hill ahead of us.”

  “We will go and look,” the Earl nodded.

  He rode over the rough ground and up onto the top of the hill that faced them.

  On the other side of it were undulating hillocks for a short distance and then the land plunged down towards a valley that a stream twisted and turned through until it vanished into the blue horizon.

  It was very lovely, but then the Earl was only concerned with searching for one small figure and when there was no sign of anyone, he said in a voice that held a note of despair,

  “What shall we do now, Boyd? Do you think the others may have found her?”

  “If they ’ave, my Lord, I’ve told ’em to blow the ’unting ’orn, which both of them carries.”

  “That was intelligent of you,” the Earl remarked.

  He sat listening, hoping against hope that he would hear the sound of a horn coming from one or the other side of the wood.

  Then, as he lifted his reins preparatory to moving away, Boyd suddenly held up his hand.

  “I thinks I ’ears somethin’, my Lord.”

  The Earl was still.

  “I hear nothing,” he said.

  Then the groom exclaimed,

  “There ’tis again, my Lord. ’Tis a dog barkin’! P’raps ’er Ladyship’s!”

  *

  It had grown very cold in the cave and Purilla knew too that the moisture from the chalk had soaked through her gown to her bare body.

  Because it made her shiver she ceased to lean back against the wall and sat bolt upright holding Jason closely against her, knowing that he was frightened in the dark and also perhaps because her own fears communicated themselves to him as well.

  She had thought and prayed for the Earl until it seemed as if her whole being went out to him.

  It was as if she became disembodied and could send him not only her thoughts but her heart and her soul.

  Her prayers were so intense and so vivid that she felt as if she must reach him and she had the feeling that she had done so and in return he was thinking of her.

  ‘I love him,’ she told herself. ‘I have nothing else to send him but my love. But surely love – even if it is not reciprocated, is stronger than – anything in the – world.’

  She loved the Earl with her whole being and whatever he thought of her nothing could change the fact that she felt as if every breath that she drew had become a part of him and she herself was his completely whether he wanted her or not.

  Now she reached out to him until she flew through the air between
them and she was in his arms and his heart was beating against hers.

  She was just lost in what was her dream so that she started quite violently when unexpectedly Jason barked.

  He gave the sharp and shrill bark that Nanny deprecated and which had made her insist on his being sent to the stables when the Earl was ill.

  It was a bark, Purilla knew, that was not one of joy or excitement but of warning that there was someone about.

  “What is it, Jason?” she asked. “What do you ‒ hear?”

  She could not see him, but she felt that he had his head on one side as if he was listening. He moved a little away from her so that she was now half-afraid that he too would vanish in the darkness and she would be left totally alone.

  Then he barked once again, sharply and noisily, and moved forward to scratch at the barrier ahead of them.

  “What is it?” Purilla asked. “Oh, Jason, perhaps they have found us!”

  She tried to shout for help, but her voice was choked in her throat by tears.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Purilla put up her hands in protest.

  “No, no, I cannot drink one spoonful more.”

  “It’ll keep away the chill, Miss Purilla,” Nanny said firmly. “Heaven knows, you were a frozen icicle when you got back to the house.”

  Purilla gave a weak little laugh.

  “I should certainly have been that if I had had to stay in that cave all night.”

  She saw Nanny shudder and knew that she herself had been desperately afraid until, like in a miracle, she had heard the Earl’s voice.

  “Are you there, Purilla?” he had shouted above the noise of Jason’s barking.

  “I am here – I am – here!” she managed to gasp weakly at first because of her fears and then louder because she was afraid that he would not hear her.

  “You are not hurt?”

  She thought that there was real concern in his voice and it was the loveliest sound that she had ever listened to.

  He minded! He really minded that she might have been crushed by the falling chalk.

  “No – I am all – right,” she managed to answer.

  “We will get you out.”

  She could hear him speaking to somebody, but she did not care who it was or what he was saying. She only knew with an inexpressible relief that her prayers had brought him to the rescue and that she and Jason were not going to die of cold and suffocation.

  Then she started as the shrill note of a hunting horn blared out.

  She could not understand why it was being blown, but she felt that it must have something to do with the Earl having found her.

  Then she could hear him talking near the opening and obviously inspecting the fall of chalk and discussing how they should move it.

  Jason wanted to go on barking, but now with excitement as if he knew that the arrival of the Earl meant they would soon be released from their dark prison.

  Because Purilla thought that it might annoy them, she held him close in her arms to prevent him from making so much noise.

  “We have to be patient,” she said to him, “and wait until they can find some way of getting us out.”

  It actually took a long time.

  She heard the voices of two other men and guessed, because she also heard the jingle of bridles. that they had ridden to join the Earl.

  There was a long consultation before she realised that they were trying to move the boulders at the bottom of the pile.

  She thought this was a strange thing to do before she gathered they were attempting to prop the pile from underneath with large pieces of wood that they must have collected from amongst the trees.

  She then understood that the Earl was afraid that a further fall of chalk might not only make her escape more difficult but might fall on her and Jason and injure them.

  ‘He is so clever,’ she told herself.

  She felt her love surging out towards him like a wave from the sea.

  Then she remembered that he should not be riding since he had been told to rest for another two days and she was sure that the reason he had ridden there was that he had heard in his mind her cry for help and had sensed the danger that she was in.

  Even though she was growing colder every minute she felt a thrill of excitement to guess that the transmission of thought that Richard had told her the Indians used had worked between herself and the Earl.

  ‘It is because I love him,’ she thought, knowing it proved what she had always believed, that love is the strongest and the most vital vibration in the whole of the Universe.

  She would now find out what the Earl felt and whether he was aware that she was praying for him with her whole heart and imploring him to save her.

  Then she remembered that he did not love her and it would be embarrassing to tell him of hers for him.

  ‘He must never know what I feel,’ she decided resolutely.

  Perhaps it would be better if he did not learn that she had overheard what the Duke had said and therefore now realised why he had married her.

  She felt as if the cold of her body deepened until it touched her heart.

  ‘I love him! I love him!’ she whispered to herself as she listened to his voice outside.

  But there was no reason to think that anything was really changed between them.

  Although he had come out to save her, she was still only of use in that she had saved him from having to marry the dreadful Lady Louise.

  ‘How could he have wanted such an unimportant country girl for his wife?’ Purilla questioned, ‘rather than someone beautiful, sophisticated and the daughter of a Duke?’

  It was a question that she had no answer for.

  She only knew that the barrier that she had sensed existing between herself and the Earl was still there and there was no way that she could bridge it.

  The grooms had moved the big boulder that lay at the bottom of the entrance and it was now in an upright position supported by some stout pieces of wood.

  In doing so they had dislodged some lumps of chalk but, while the Earl watched anxiously, the roof appeared to be still firm and so he thought that if they were careful there would be no more falls.

  By now there was an opening about a foot wide and as Purilla saw more daylight coming into the passage, she understood what they were trying to do.

  She watched in silence holding Jason in her arms and now the Earl asked her,

  “You are all right, Purilla?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you see if Jason can squeeze through the hole we have made?”

  “Yes, of course,” Purilla answered. “He has already been struggling to do so.”

  “Then let him go,” the Earl ordered.

  Purilla took her arms from round Jason and then he did not need to be told to run through the hole ahead of him into the light outside.

  He managed it easily and, as she heard him barking excitedly, she knew that he was jumping up at the Earl and delighted at being free.

  Purilla watched the hole and, when they had made it just a little larger, she said,

  “I think I could get through it now.”

  “Are you sure?” the Earl asked from the other side. “You must be careful. If you are rough the chalk might fall in and hurt you.”

  “I will be very careful,” Purilla promised.

  She thought it very fortunate that she was so slim.

  At the same time, as she put first her head and then her shoulders into the hole, she was afraid that if she pushed too hard she might dislodge the wood and the whole weight of the chalk boulders would collapse on her back.

  She had turned her face down so that none of the chalk would fall on it and then she felt the Earl’s hands under her arms, pulling her very gently until first her hips and then her legs were free.

  He pulled her up onto her feet and put his arms around her.

  She could hardly believe it was true that she had escaped and because she was afraid she was going to burst into
tears she hid her face against his shoulder.

  His arms were very strong and comforting as he said quietly,

  “It is all right, you are safe and now I can take you home.”

  “You – came!” she whispered, “I tried to – tell you what had – happened.”

  Her voice was so low and incoherent that she thought he had not heard her for he exclaimed,

  “Your gown is wet and you must be very cold.”

  He took his arms from her and, as she tried to find a handkerchief to wipe her eyes, she realised that he was taking off his coat.

  “No – please,” she protested. “I shall be – all right.”

  He paid no attention to her, but put his coat around her shoulders.

  Then she heard him say to the Head Groom,

  “I will carry her Ladyship on my saddle. Give me your coat to make it more comfortable.”

  “No – no!” Purilla said hastily as the man obeyed.

  “Leave everything to me,” the Earl said and she felt that there was nothing further she could say.

  The Head Groom’s coat and another from one of the other grooms was laid on the front of the Earl’s saddle.

  Then when he was mounted, they lifted Purilla up in front of him.

  Since it was his left shoulder that had been injured, the Earl put his right arm around her and was holding the reins with his left hand.

  She was so worried about him that she wanted to say that it would be quite easy for her to ride one of the other horses.

  But she knew that she was, in fact, so cold that she would find it difficult to hold the reins and keep herself in the saddle without a pommel.

  ‘It is not very – far,’ she thought reassuringly.

  Equally she knew that the Earl should not be taking any risks with his damaged collarbone.

  It was, however, impossible to argue with him and, when he had everything arranged so that she was actually very comfortable on the improvised front of his saddle, they set off moving slowly.

  One groom was sent ahead to warn the household that they were coming while the other two followed behind with Jason excitedly running beside them.

  It was so wonderful to be close to the Earl, to feel his arms around her and to know that she was no longer in a prison that Purilla could only say a prayer of thankfulness secretly in her heart.