169. A Cheiftain finds Love (The Eternal Collection) Read online

  When Isa opened the porthole, there was a taste of salt on the breeze.

  The Duke went to the cabin next door and she undressed quickly putting on a pretty and diaphanous nightgown that she had made herself, but had thought it rather revealing.

  At the time she had supposed that nobody would see it.

  Now because it made her feel shy she slipped quickly into the big bed.

  She could feel her heart beating as she heard the door open and the Duke came in to stand for a moment just gazing at her from across the cabin.

  She was sitting up against the white linen pillows, which bore his insignia embroidered in the corner.

  Her red hair fell over her shoulders.

  The Duke knew that he had never seen anything so beautiful as it glinted in the light and seemed almost to have a life of its own.

  Her eyes were very wide in her heart-shaped face and he thought that no woman could be so lovely.

  At the same time there was something spiritual about Isa that he had never known in another woman.

  He moved slowly towards her thinking that now at last there was no need for hurry.

  They had their whole lives in front of them and he could savour this moment so that it would always remain in his memory.

  He sat down on the side of the bed facing her.

  “Have you any idea how beautiful you are?” he asked in a low voice.

  “I-I want you to – think so,” Isa replied.

  “How can I think anything else?” he replied. “The only thing that is hard to believe is that you are mine.”

  “You are quite – sure I am – what you want?” she teased.

  “I want you in a way that there are no words for,” he answered. “Perhaps it can only be expressed in music.”

  She gave him a little smile.

  “I will sing to you tomorrow.”

  “I shall never forget the beauty of your voice as you sang to me in the cave,” the Duke answered, “and I shall always want you to sing to me when I am not kissing you.”

  “My song was – a prayer,” Isa said softly.

  “I know that,” the Duke answered, “and if I never believed in prayer before, I am now utterly convinced that our prayers were heard in Heaven and that made Harry find the small glass eye that saved our lives.”

  Isa gave a deep sigh.

  “Supposing he had not – seen it? Supposing the – sun had not been – shining?”

  “These things are pre-ordained,” the Duke said, “and because we have been through so much together, it must in some strange way enrich our lives.”

  Isa gave a little cry.

  “That is just what I want you to think and feel. Because we have suffered agonies, we shall understand other people’s troubles and be more qualified to help them.”

  The Duke bent forward to push her back against the pillows.

  She thought that he was about to kiss her lips and they were ready for his.

  But he looked at her and asked,

  “How is it possible that I could find anyone so perfect and so exactly what I wanted in my wife?”

  “You have never – told me why you have not married before.”

  For a moment the Duke did not move and she wished that she had not asked the question.

  Then he said,

  “It is something that I would have told you before we married, if everything had not been in such a rush.”

  “I don’t want you to tell me, if you would rather – keep it a secret.”

  “There are no secrets between us,” the Duke said firmly, “and what I will tell you will explain why you thought I looked contemptuous, although actually I was thinking how beautiful you were!”

  “Then – tell me.”

  To her surprise the Duke did not answer at once.

  He took off the long robe he was wearing and climbed into bed beside her.

  She felt her heart throbbing and a little wave of excitement seemed to rise up into her throat so that it was difficult to speak.

  The Duke did not touch her, but merely lay beside her and began,

  “Soon after I was twenty-one, the family began to plead with me to find a wife. Although I had no idea of it, they were already aware of how unprincipled Talbot was! They therefore wished me to start a family as soon as possible as a precaution against him inheriting.”

  Isa thought that since he was now thirty-three there had been many years for the family to be perturbed at the idea of Talbot succeeding him.

  She did not speak, however, and the Duke went on,

  “My mother continually invited marriageable young women to The Castle, but I found none of them matched up in any way to the ideal woman I had in a secret shrine in my heart. I therefore refused even to consider becoming engaged to any of them.”

  He hesitated as if he was feeling for words.

  “When I was in London aged twenty-three, I was introduced to Mavis, who was the daughter of Lord Templeford, and from the point of view of the family was a very suitable wife.”

  “Was she – very beautiful?” Isa asked.

  She could not help a feeling of jealousy sweep over her, knowing that somebody else had captured the Duke’s heart.

  “I thought at the time that she was the loveliest girl I had ever seen,” the Duke said.

  Isa wanted to beg him not to tell her anymore because she felt that she could not bear it, but he was already saying,

  “There was no need for her beauty and her desirability to be impressed on me by my relations, I was aware of it for myself.”

  Isa wanted to put her hands over her ears.

  Yet she knew that she had to go on listening, even though she felt every word was like a dagger being plunged into her breast.

  “I thought that Mavis found me as desirable as I found her,” the Duke continued. “She certainly accepted eagerly every invitation my relatives gave her and my mother and father came down from Scotland to open our house in London so that they could entertain her.”

  Isa clenched her fingers together and the Duke carried on,

  “Naturally, you will understand, she was strictly chaperoned, so that I was hardly ever alone with her. We danced together, sat next to each other at dinner and it would have been impossible for any man not to be fascinated by her beauty.”

  Unexpectedly there was silence.

  Then Isa asked in a voice that trembled,

  “W-what – happened?”

  She had a sudden fear that Mavis might have died, in which case she would be enshrined in the Duke’s heart forever.

  “Lord and Lady Templeford,” the Duke went on at last, “gave a huge house party at their ancestral home in the country. It was quite obvious to me and to everybody else that this was the moment when I must propose to Mavis.”

  His voice changed as he added,

  “Then our engagement would be announced at the dinner that was to take place before the ball. After that it was only a question of setting the date for the Wedding.”

  “What – happened?”

  Isa asked the question because she felt that she could not bear the story to go on any longer.

  She was aware that the Duke’s voice had altered and there was now a note of hardness in it.

  Although she did not look at him, she suspected that the expression on his face was as contemptuous as it had been when she first met him.

  “The day before the ball I arrived with my parents to stay with the Templefords,” the Duke said, “and Mavis greeted me with a smile and whispered so that only I could hear her, ‘I am so excited that you have come’.”

  He paused for a moment to clear his throat before continuing,

  “I was excited to be there and, as we sat together at dinner, I managed to whisper some intimate things under my breath, which she reciprocated in a way that made me believe that she was as much in love with me as I was with her.”

  Isa closed her eyes.

  She was asking herself if she really wished to
hear all this on her Wedding night.

  She felt now that Mavis would always hold some special place in the Duke’s affections that she could never reach.

  “After dinner we young people,” the Duke was saying, “played some childish games and there was no chance of my talking to Mavis alone. Only when we said ‘goodnight’ did her fingers tighten on mine as she said in a whisper, ‘let’s ride alone before breakfast tomorrow morning’.”

  He paused again before he said,

  “I knew then that she had chosen the place and the time. I went to bed with my head in the clouds and found it impossible to sleep. All I could think of was Mavis, her eyes looking into mine, and tell myself how lucky I was that she would be my wife.”

  Isa wanted to cry out that she would hear no more, but the Duke’s voice went on relentlessly,

  “Finally, because I was so restless I got up, dressed and slipped out of the house by a side door so that the night-footman did not see me. I thought that I would saddle one of my horses and go riding. So I went to the stables wishing that Mavis could be with me.”

  There was a long drawn out pause before the Duke said slowly,

  “The stables were in darkness, but it was not dark in front of the house because there was a moon. As I walked across the garden towards the stables, I thought that everything seemed enchanted.”

  He stopped as if he was reliving what he felt.

  “Then, just before I reached the entrance to the stable yard, I saw two people standing under the trees. They were out of sight of the house and if I had not taken a detour to avoid being seen in the moonlight, I would have gone directly to the stables and missed them.”

  Unexpectedly he added,

  “I can only thank God, who has always protected me, that I went the way I did!”

  “But – why?” Isa asked.

  “Under the trees just outside the stable yard I saw Mavis being passionately kissed by a man! ”

  Isa opened her eyes wide in surprise.

  “My first impulse was to rush and protect her,” the Duke said. “Then, as he raised his head, I recognised him.”

  “He was – one of your – friends?”

  “No,” the Duke said harshly, “it was the Templefords’ Head Groom who I had discussed the stabling of my horses with when I arrived.”

  Isa gave a gasp.

  “For one moment,” the Duke continued, “I still thought that Mavis needed my protection and that he was assaulting her, but, as I watched them, she put her arms around his neck and drew his head down to hers. He kissed her again and then, as if they had agreed on something, he drew her into the stables.”

  His voice sharpened as he finished contemptuously,

  “Without following them I knew why they had gone there, doubtless into an empty stall where they would not be disturbed!”

  Now the Duke’s voice was as raw as if the memory of what he had seen still angered him.

  “I-I cannot believe – it!” Isa whispered beneath her breath.

  “Now you understand why if I thought that anyone was lying to me or if I suspected I was being deceived, I looked what you called ‘contemptuous’. ”

  “You must – have been – deeply hurt,” Isa said softly.

  “It not only hurt me, it also humiliated me so much that I swore that no other woman would ever humiliate me again, for I would never again trust one.”

  “I don’t – want to think – about you being – unhappy.”

  The Duke turned round so that he could look at her.

  “You understand?”

  “Of course I understand – and, my darling husband – I will try and – make it up to you.”

  “You have done that already,” the Duke replied, “and now instead of feeling bitter I can only thank God that I found out about Mavis in time.”

  He drew nearer to Isa and put his arms around her.

  “Suppose I had married her,” he said, “and then, which I think was inevitable and pre-ordained, met you?”

  Isa smiled.

  “You are – always saved at the – last moment.”

  “I knew you would say that,” the Duke said. “Oh, my precious, how can we ever doubt that we were meant for each other since the beginning of time and now nothing and nobody shall ever separate us.”

  Isa put her arms around his neck.

  “I love you,” she sighed, “and all I want is that my love shall be enough for you to forget – everything that has – happened in the past.”

  “Everything!” the Duke asserted firmly.

  She knew as he spoke he included his cousin Talbot in that word.

  “You are mine,” he said. “Now all the ghosts are swept away, all the horrors are forgotten and the only thing we have to think about, my precious, is the future.”

  “I-I will – try to make – you happy,” Isa said. “Please love me – I know if you should ever – desire anybody – else I would want to die!”

  “Do you think that is possible?” the Duke asked. “I told you that I thought myself in love with Mavis, but it was only a boy’s infatuation for a pretty face. What I feel for you is quite different.”

  He drew his lingers down her cheek.

  “You are beautiful, my darling, more beautiful than any woman I have ever seen, but there is so much more.”

  He kissed her forehead before he said,

  “I adore your courage, your intelligence and there is so much I want to talk to you about and find out if we think the same.”

  He kissed her eyes and said,

  “When I look into your eyes, they tell me that your heart is mine and that it is kind, compassionate and understanding. What man could ask for more?”

  Isa laid her cheek against his as he went on,

  “You are so soft, feminine and sweet, which is everything I have ever wanted in the mother of my children.”

  Isa gave a little murmur and he said gently,

  “Does that make you shy, my precious? But what could be more wonderful than for me to see you holding my son in your arms?”

  She knew that the idea excited him and he went on,

  “There is something else that I love about you and that makes you different from any other woman I have ever known.”

  “What – is – that?”

  “It is what you call your soul. You believe in God, you pray, and I know you are intrinsically pure and good. That is what I have always wanted in my wife and thought that I would never find.”

  “How can you say such – wonderful things – to me?” Isa asked. “Suppose I – fail you?”

  “You will never,” the Duke answered. “We are both Scots and are therefore ‘fey’. So we both know that we are one person and have been since the beginning of time.”

  He gave a deep sigh.

  “You are what I have always been looking for and now I have found you, You are mine. Mine, my precious one, and I could no more lose you than lose my life.”

  His lips were very near to hers as he said,

  “I have told you what you mean to me, but there is one more thing. It is not yet mine and I want you to give it to me.”

  “What – is that?”

  “Your beautiful adorable body! I worship you my perfect little wife. At the same time I want you.”

  “Oh, darling I am – yours.” Isa answered. “And thank you for all the wonderful things you have said to me, which I will – never forget.”

  “I have a great many more to say,” the Duke answered, “but most important of all is that I love you! Tell me you love me too,”

  “I love you– I adore – you!”

  The words came from the very depths of her soul.

  The Duke kissed the softness of her neck, giving her strange sensations that she had never known before.

  His lips went lower and kissed the hollow between her breasts and she felt herself thrill.

  Shafts of fire were running through her body and flicking in her throat and it was so rapturous that it
was almost a pain.

  “I love you, my darling, my adorable, perfect little wife and you are mine,”

  The Duke’s voice vibrated with passion.

  Then his lips were on hers and he knew as he kissed her and went on kissing her that he was carrying her up into the sky as he had done before.

  The Gates of Heaven were open and a Divine Light enveloped them with an ecstasy and wonder that came from God.

  It was part of the glory of Scotland, its history, its courage and its hope for the future.

  Like the magic of the moors, the beauty of the sea and the music of the birds, it was all theirs.

  As the Duke made Isa his, she knew that they had found the priceless treasure of real love, which was both spiritual and human and was theirs for all Eternity.

  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 .

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  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