A Virgin Bride Read online

  Venetia drew in her breath.

  “Alone! Is the horse damaged in any way?”

  “No, ’e don’t appear to ’ave ’ad a fall, but perhaps His Grace be struck off ’im by a low bough or somethin’ like that.”

  “Then we must find him at once – ”

  “I’ve already sent out four men, Your Grace. We don’t know in which direction His Grace went, but they be goin’ on what we knows be His Grace’s usual rides.”

  “Bring me a horse,” Venetia cried. “No – I’ll come with you to the stables.”

  She did not wait for him to answer.

  She set off at a run to the stables they had visited yesterday.

  It only took the Head Groom a few minutes to bring out one of Rock’s best stallions.

  Venetia was waiting at the mounting block.

  She picked up the reins and rode to the back of the house towards the artificial lake.

  She did not quite know why, but, as they had seen it together last evening, she was convinced that was the way Rock had ridden.

  Then, as she rode along the lake, she looked ahead.

  She saw again the roof of the tomb Rock’s ancestor had built for himself.

  She felt almost as if the Temple was calling to her, begging her to come closer.

  She passed through the trees at the end of the lake and then she saw that the Temple was on higher ground with rhododendrons encircling it.

  It was somewhat larger than she had expected and she could see through the bushes that it was of solid stone painted green but without windows or doors.

  Yet she felt that in some way she could not explain it was connected at this critical moment with Rock.

  Then an idea came to her mind, which she felt she should have thought of before.

  The Earl of Darran had sworn to have his revenge.

  Had he been waiting for Rock to return from France to carry out his threats to shoot him or injure him?

  Rock had never spoken of the Earl all the time they had been in Paris together and she had almost forgotten his existence and that he was the reason for their being married so hastily.

  There had been so much for her to think about and enjoy that the Earl had slipped completely from her mind.

  Now she was suddenly afraid.

  Supposing he had shot at Rock when he was riding over his own land early this morning?

  Rock would have been unaware that there was anyone lurking behind the trees or in the bushes.

  The Head Groom had said the horse had not fallen and it was very unlikely that Rock would have dismounted and let the horse run away.

  Surely if anything unusual had happened someone on the estate would have seen it?

  She was now all alone at the weird Temple erected by Rock’s ancestor and it still seemed to be calling her.

  Then, as she rounded the Temple, she saw to the left a little below her that there was a small cottage.

  It stood by itself and was not a part of the village, which was on the far side of a hill.

  On an impulse, knowing there was nothing else she could do, Venetia rode down to the cottage and, as she drew nearer, she saw it was very quaint with a thatched roof.

  Sitting outside the door was an elderly man with white hair.

  One of his legs was stuck out in front of him proclaiming, without Venetia looking at the crutch beside him, that he was crippled.

  He looked up at her as she approached. She bent forward to speak to him and, as he put his hand up to his ear, she realised it was unlikely he would hear her.

  So she dismounted and attached her horse’s bridle to a post.

  The small gate was open and a path led her to the old man.

  “Good morning,” Venetia began, “let me introduce myself. I am the new Duchess of Rockinston.”

  She held out her hand and the old man took it.

  “I ’ears about you,” he said, “and they says you be pretty as a picture.”

  “Thank you for the compliment. What I have come to ask you is if you have seen anything strange happening here. His Grace went out riding early this morning and his horse has come back to the stables without him.”

  She spoke slowly and carefully so that the old man could hear her.

  She thought it was very unlikely that he would have seen Rock, but at least he was someone to question.

  “The Duke’s ’ad a fall, ’as ’e? That not be like ’im, ’e be a fine rider, as we all knows.”

  “He is indeed and that is why I am worried. You have not seen him?”

  The old man shook his head.

  “And there has not been anyone else here?”

  “There be some men up at that tomb earlier this mornin’. I could see one of the ’orses, but they ain’t there now.”

  “No, I have just come past it and there is no one about. Are you quite certain they were by the tomb?”

  “I ’ears a noise, but me ears ain’t what they were.”

  “Can anyone get inside the tomb?” asked Venetia.

  “They be cursed if they does – ”

  “I know that, but you thought someone was making a noise by the tomb. What sort of noise?”

  “They be bangin’ and I thinks there were voices though I couldn’t ’ear what they was a-sayin’.”

  “Is there any way I can look inside the tomb? I have a distinct feeling there is someone in there.”

  The old man was silent and then he chuckled.

  “There be only one person who’s been in that there tomb since it were closed up and that be I.”

  “You have been inside!” exclaimed Venetia.

  “I ’ave, though I’ve never told anyone, and I ain’t been cursed unless you count this leg of mine which be real bad with arthritis.”

  “How did you get into the tomb, if it is all sealed up?”

  “That be a secret,” the old man replied.

  “If you can tell me how I can get into the tomb, I will give you anything – anything you want.”

  “Do you mean that?”

  “I mean it,” Venetia promised. “And what is more I will find someone to heal your leg.”

  “I doubts if you can do that. What I wants be one of them wheelchairs you can go about in. Me daughter brings up food from the village, but I’d like to go down to the pub and ’ave a drink as I used to do.”

  “Were you living here when you were young?”

  “Yes, that’s right. Me father built the cottage when ’e retired from looking after the ’orses at the ’all and I ’elps ’im. I were about fifteen at the time. We built it between us and very comfortable I was after ’e’d gone till me leg made me a prisoner.”

  “And at the time you were building the house, you managed to find a way into the tomb. How did you do it?”

  The old man put his finger up to his nose and then looked round to make sure that no one was listening.

  “You’ll not tell anyone ’cos they’ll think I mad.”

  “I will tell no one, but please tell me how I can get in as you did. Please! I am sure that if you do, you will be helping someone in danger.”

  The old man hesitated and then he responded,

  “It be ’ard to say no to such a pretty lady as you. If you wants the truth, I were that curious when no one were allowed in the tomb ’cos the Duke lay there, that I wanted to be sure of that for meself.”

  “But how did you manage it?” Venetia persisted.

  It was taking a long time to obtain the information she wanted, but she recognised that she must not hurry him in case he refused to say any more.

  The old man pointed at the Temple.

  “You see that yon ledge on the corner there, well I moved the stones ’neath the roof till there were an ’ole big enough for I to squeeze through. It takes ages as I could only do it after dark when me Ma thinks I were asleep.”

  “But you did it?” Venetia asked him feverishly.

  “I did indeed – and then I puts back them stones so no one w
ould notice they be not cemented down as the rest were.”

  “I want to look for myself. Tell me what to do.”

  The old man chuckled again.

  “I climbed up the outside wall and no one noticed the stones I put behind them rhododendrons.”

  “It was at the far end?” enquired Venetia.

  He nodded.

  “You’ll spoil your pretty skirt climbin’ up there.”

  “Oh, that does not matter.”

  “You’ll find the stones where I put them up one by one. Then I pulls away the smaller ones and only put them back so there were no ’ole. Not that anyone goes near it.”

  “But you thought you heard voices and noises this morning?”

  “Ah, that were on the other side. I thinks perhaps they were after a fox. It didn’t go on for long.”

  “They have gone now – ” Venetia murmured more to herself than to the old man. “Will you please look after my horse while I go up and try to enter the tomb the same way as you did?”

  She took off her riding coat as she spoke and put it down beside him.

  “Now just you be careful, Your Grace, as it be very dark inside.”

  Venetia had not thought of that.

  “Do you have a lantern?” she asked him.

  “There be one in the kitchen. All you’ll see be a coffin lyin’ on the floor and a lot of things as they says ’e took from the ’all circled around ’im.”

  He found he was speaking to himself as Venetia had already run into his cottage.

  She found the lantern by the kitchen window. It was the usual candle lamp that most cottagers used when they went out at night.

  She picked it up and lit it from the fire burning in the grate.

  All the while a voice from the Temple seemed to be calling out to her louder and louder.

  It was then as she finished lighting the lantern, she had an idea.

  She looked first at the table then into one of the drawers for a sharp knife and found one that was obviously used for carving and was sharper than the rest.

  She went outside.

  “I have borrowed your lantern and a sharp knife,” she called to the old man. “Please look after my horse for me and I will not be longer than I can help,”

  “You be careful of yourself,” the old man warned, “and don’t be too afraid of that there curse! It did nowt to I.”

  “You have been very kind and I promise you shall have the wheelchair you require whether I find what I am seeking or not.”

  She did not wait for him to answer, but hurried up the hill and pushed her way through the rhododendrons.

  Then she saw a pile of stones at the far end of the Temple and, as they had been there for many years, moss had grown over them and they were rather slippery.

  She climbed up them very carefully.

  Then, as she looked up, she saw the hole the old man had made when he was a boy and she could see where the bricks had been replaced but they were loose.

  She began to pull them out one by one and they came away, although on some she had to scrape away the moss that made them stick to the next brick.

  ‘It’s extraordinary,’ she thought, ‘that no one has ever noticed the entrance he made.’

  Yet she could understand why the villagers, who were always superstitious, were terrified of going near the tomb.

  But now in her head it was Rock pleading with her to hurry into the Temple to rescue him from a terrible fate.

  It took some time to pull out all the bricks and then she had to push the lantern and the knife in as far as she could.

  At last she started to climb into the Temple herself.

  She had climbed trees as a child and she therefore knew how to pull herself up without slipping back as so many women might have done, hurting themselves as they did so.

  The inside of the Temple was dark, yet there was a faint light and she supposed some air must be coming in from where the roof joined the walls.

  The heavy silence she realised was due to the bricks on each side of the building that were especially thick to make it stand forever, regardless of age or storms.

  No one would be able to hear her from the outside she was certain.

  When she crawled through the hole, she found herself on a platform at least three feet wide that surrounded the centre of the building.

  She edged forward, pushing the lantern in front of her.

  As she looked down, she could see the coffin, decorated with gold handles and an ornate lid.

  For a moment she stared at it, suppressing a shudder, and seeing it was resting on a stand at least a foot high.

  As her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, she looked round and drew in her breath.

  On the far side of the coffin a man was lying on the floor.

  She knew at once it was Rock.

  She swung herself down from the platform onto the floor of the Temple.

  Reaching up, she collected the lantern and the knife.

  She thought when she first saw him lying prostrate that Rock must be dead and the full horror of it was almost impossible to bear.

  Then when she reached him, she saw that he was breathing but bound and gagged.

  She could see his eyes gazing at her.

  She put the lantern down on the floor and picking up the knife, she very gently cut away the gag that was tied at the back of his neck.

  It had made it impossible for him to cry out and it must have been very painful.

  As she cut it away and pulled it very gently from between his lips, he exclaimed hoarsely,

  “Venetia! How did you find me here?”

  “I heard you calling me – ”

  “I was thinking of you desperately all the time and praying that you above everyone would realise what had happened to me.”

  Venetia was cutting away at the rope that bound his arms to his body.

  “How could anyone possibly do this to you?” she asked feeling tearful.

  “You know the answer to that. The Earl of Darran told me I would die here slowly and no one would find me. Even if they thought I might be here, they would be too afraid to look for me.”

  “I felt sure when your horse returned without you that something terrible had happened. As he had not fallen, I was convinced that it was the Earl who was venting his revenge on you in some way.”

  “How could you have thought of this place?”

  “First it was the Temple calling to me and then it was you – it was so strong, it was out of this world.”

  Now Rock was shaking the ropes from his hands.

  When he was free, he took the knife from her to cut the ropes that bound his legs.

  He had been tied up so tightly, Venetia saw, that it would have been just impossible for him to free himself however hard he had tried.

  “How did you manage to get inside?” Rock asked. “I was always told the place was impregnable and when the Earl’s men put back the bricks, I was certain that they cemented them in place, just as they had been before. No one would think that they had violated this sanctuary.”

  “We were very very lucky, Rock. There is an old man who lives in a cottage near here who told me he had broken in as a boy. When he told me how he had done it, I knew I would find you.”

  Rock pulled the rope from his boots and stood up.

  For a moment he was a little unsteady and then he stretched out his arms.

  “He did not hurt you?” Venetia asked breathlessly.

  “No. He told me I would die slowly – very slowly. And he added jeeringly that I would have plenty of time to think of all the beautiful women I have seduced!”

  He looked down at Venetia.

  She was still kneeling, as she had been when she cut away his ropes.

  “But you saved me,” he murmured softly. “I know now that as you heard me calling you, we belong to each other wholly and absolutely – ”

  As he spoke, he pulled her up from the ground and put his arms round her.
r />   Then he kissed her.

  It was a kiss first of wonder and happiness because he was free and because she had found him.

  Then, as his lips met hers again, he found the kiss he was giving her was totally different from any other kiss he had ever known.

  It seemed in some way to be part of the tomb they were in and part of the wonder of her finding him.

  Above all he knew now that he loved her as he had never loved any woman before.

  He kissed her endlessly until Venetia felt she was melting into him and they were not two people but one.

  His kisses then became more possessive and more passionate.

  She felt that this was what she had always believed love would be like and that he was carrying her up into Heaven itself.

  Only when he raised his head, did he say in a deep voice that seemed unlike his own,

  “My darling! My sweet one! How could you have been so brilliant as to save me?”

  He kissed her again.

  “I love you, Rock,” Venetia mumbled. “But let’s leave here, I am so afraid your great-great-grandfather will be angry with us and curse us for being here.”

  “I think he will understand we have not come here deliberately – ”

  He picked up the knife and lantern and they walked round the coffin to the wall Venetia had climbed down.

  Rock pushed her up to the top of the wall and then he climbed up himself.

  She crawled to the hole and let herself down onto the bricks below, leaving marks on her riding skirt.

  Rock handed the knife and lantern down to her and then followed her.

  They pushed their way through the rhododendrons.

  As Venetia looked towards the cottage, she saw one of the grooms talking to the old man.

  They walked towards him and the groom shouted,

  “You’ve found ’im! Are you all right, Your Grace? We was scared in case you’d ’urt yourself.”

  “Her Grace found me and I am not hurt. What I would like is to ride your horse home and, if you hurry back, you can tell everyone the good news before we arrive.”

  The groom dismounted quickly and Rock told him to tie his horse up beside Venetia’s.

  Then, as he walked to the front door of the cottage, he saw that Venetia was holding the old man’s hand.

  “Thank you, thank you,” she was saying. “It is all due to you that I could save His Grace’s life. He had been shut up in the Temple and he would have died there if you had not been brave enough to tell me how to enter it.”