Danger in the Desert Read online

  “I was talking absolute nonsense,” Royden replied. “No, my precious one, we are going to get married so that wearing my ring no man will dare touch you. If he does, as I have already said, I will kill him.”

  Malva hid her face against his shoulder.

  “I am so happy,” she exclaimed, “after being so frightened, that I feel I must be living in a Divine dream.”

  “We will dream on together. I am going to tell the Captain that, as soon as we are on board, he is to move the yacht down to Dakar.”

  “Shall we be safe there?” Malva asked nervously.

  “We will not stay there for more than one day,” he replied. “And, as soon as we are married, we will leave.”

  “Married!” Malva exclaimed.

  “You don’t think I could live with you now and not make you, as I long to do, my wife,” he said. “We both know that have come away pretending to be married so as to avoid our relations nagging at us.”

  He paused before he carried on,

  “But now they will think that we have been very clever because when we return home we will be already married and there will be no wedding reception waiting for us. Only a small party or maybe a ball to celebrate our homecoming, so that then our marriage could be officially announced without anyone knowing exactly where it took place.”

  There was silence for a moment.

  Then Malva asked him,

  “Are we really to be married in Dakar?”

  “I cannot think of a better place where no one will be that interested and the Priest will know our names but not our titles,” Royden answered.

  Malva moved a little closer to him.

  “You think of – everything,” she sighed.

  “I think of you,” he replied, “as I do now and will always do in the future. But we will leave here tomorrow and have our honeymoon in other parts of the world where golden-haired women are not so valuable.”

  Malva laughed.

  “You make it sound so funny, but I was absolutely petrified.”

  “Of course you were, my precious darling,” Royden sympathised. “If I had not been able to rescue you, I think I would have killed that ghastly Vizier.”

  “I still cannot believe it that you deceived him so cleverly,” Malva said. “Where did this marvellous carriage come from and your clothes? I only looked at you once, but I had no idea that it was you.”

  “You have to thank the friend of mine who runs the Museum of Dakar. He lent me the clothes, the covering on the carriage and knew exactly where I could hire the horses and their attendants. He is called Valerian Fitzgerald and he is a delightful fellow.”

  Royden laughed as he went on,

  “As I pretended to come from the Sultan, I had to look particularly impressive and I hope you admired my clothes and my extravagant jewels, which were all exhibits from the Museum.”

  Now it was Malva’s turn to laugh.

  “How could you be so clever? I just cannot think of anyone else who would possibly, and in such a short time, conceive of anything so spectacular to deceive the Vizier with.”

  “I am only sorry I cannot see his anger when you are not returned to him tomorrow morning,” Royden said, “and he realises that he has been taken for a mug.”

  Malva did not have to answer him, because at that moment they arrived at the bay and she could see a number of the crew waiting for them on top of the cliff.

  She looked out of the carriage window and waved.

  When they could see that she was there, the men all cheered knowing that Royden had left in disguise to rescue her.

  The men who had driven the horses were delighted with the money Royden gave them and then they drove off waving to the seamen who cheered as they went.

  Very soon when everyone was back on the yacht, the Captain had his orders to sail away and the engines began to turn.

  Malva went straight to her cabin.

  And when Royden joined her a little later, she had pulled off the gown she had been dressed in and was now wearing only her dressing gown which was of a soft blue that accentuated the gold of her hair.

  Later when Royden came into the cabin, he carried a bottle of champagne in his hand,

  ”I am bringing you a drink, my darling,” he said. “I think that we not only both deserve it but we must drink to the future when I swear that you will never be frightened again.”

  “I was very very scared,” Malva whispered. “But you saved me and no one could have been more wonderful than you.”

  She looked up at him with an expression in her eyes that he had always wanted to see in a woman.

  This was real love.

  The love he had been seeking all his life, but had never found until now.

  For a moment he could only stand gazing at her.

  Then very gently his lips found hers.

  “I love you, I adore you,” he breathed, “and I had no idea that love was so wonderful.”

  Malva gave a laugh and then put her arms round his neck.

  “I talked such nonsense when I said I would never marry,” she sighed.

  Royden’s arms tightened round her.

  “You are incredibly beautiful, my darling one,” he murmured.

  He kissed her.

  Then they remembered the champagne and they sat down on the bed to drink each other’s health.

  “They drugged me when I arrived at the Palace,” Malva told him. “I slept for several hours so it was only when I finally woke that I became so very frightened and wondered desperately how I could kill myself.”

  “Forget it, darling. We are not going to think about it again. Only about the future and how happy we will be when we get back to The Towers and make it the most perfect place for our children.”

  Malva blushed and he added,

  “Does that make you feel shy, my darling one? I know I talked rubbish when I said I did not want to be married. I want a wife and I want an heir to follow me and a fair-haired daughter as beautiful as you and perhaps two or three sons to play cricket with and to ride my best horses on the Racecourse.”

  Malva gave a little cry.

  “You go too fast! How can we possibly have all that so quickly?”

  “There is no hurry,” he answered. “But it is what I want and look forward to in the future and I want you, my precious one, to look forward to it too.”

  “All I want,” Malva replied, “is to be with you and to talk to you and to love you even more than I love you now, which I think is impossible!”

  “I thought when I first realised that I was falling in love with you,” Royden said, “that it might be impossible to make you love me. You were so very positive in saying that you would never marry anyone and I believed you.”

  “I believed myself, which was very silly of me. I might have known that it would be impossible for anyone to be with someone as clever, charming and amusing as you and not fall in love with him.”

  “That is just what I was going to say about you,” Royden told her. “It’s going to be difficult to find enough words to tell you just how magnificent you are.”

  As he spoke, he put his arms around her.

  Then he said,

  “I am going to leave you now, my darling, but I do so want you to enjoy every moment of our wedding day which is tomorrow.”

  “Can we really be married so quickly without any difficulty?” Malva asked.

  “I happen to know a Priest who I met in Dakar. Because he was tremendously interested in the research I was doing at the time, we met several times and I know that he would oblige me by marrying us secretly and then making it certain that the news does not reach the English Press until we ourselves announce it on our return.”

  “That is one fence we have jumped safely,” Malva said. “I want very much to be your wife whatever you may be disguised as and however long we have to remain in hiding.”

  “We are going to hide until we can announce our marriage without shocking the Queen. But, as it will be o
ur honeymoon, I am going to take you to all the beautiful places I have visited in the past and I know they will seem even more glorious to me because you are with me.”

  “Where shall we start?” Malva asked eagerly. “I want to get away from here and not see an Arab again for a very long time!”

  “As I want you to feel completely and absolutely safe, I think we will visit Greece. It has always been the land of love and I will tell you on Mount Olympus that to me you will always be the Goddess of Love.”

  Malva gave a cry.

  “Oh, I would so love that. I would adore to see Olympus and, of course, the other parts of Greece I have read so much about. To me you will always be the King of Love – Apollo.”

  Royden laughed.

  “I will not attempt the impossible, but I do promise you, my darling, that I will love you for the rest of my life and I know instinctively that our love will grow and grow year by year as we become older and wiser.”

  Then before she could answer him, he was kissing her.

  *

  The next day they woke up to find that they were approaching Dakar.

  Royden insisted that they went first to the Museum.

  All the costumes he had borrowed from his friend, Valerian, especially the jewellery, had been very carefully packed by his valet.

  They hired a carriage and set off for the Museum which Malva found fascinating and Royden’s friend was charming.

  “I know without you telling me that you have been successful,” Valerian said as they appeared.

  “All of it thanks to you,” Royden replied, “and the wonderful advice you gave me.”

  He turned to Malva as he said,

  “May I introduce my future wife, who is as anxious as I am to thank you for all you have done to help us?”

  “Your future wife!” Valerian exclaimed. “Now I can see why you were so anxious not to let anything so sublime and so beautiful be stolen from you.

  “Now you are making me blush,” Malva responded. “But thank you so very much for all you did for Royden and for me.”

  “I am delighted to know that he was successful,” he replied, “and I hope you admired him when he was dressed in those flamboyant clothes that have not been worn by anyone for almost a century.”

  “They have been packed up carefully and nothing has been damaged,” Royden assured him. “And you must certainly add to the book you are writing that even after being on show in your Museum for so long, they still had the power to make me successful as you said I would be in such a disguise.”

  “I am sure that they were so delighted to have the opportunity of showing themselves off on a human being rather than just being here in this building,” Valerian said. “Even so it will add to the stories of the many artefacts that are here, some of which have caused the death of a great number of people. While others, like the clothes you wore last night, have saved someone as ethereal as the lady you tell me will be your future wife.”

  Malva felt that the way he was speaking was very endearing.

  She thanked him profusely for helping Royden to deceive the Vizier.

  “You must not talk about it,” Valerian said, “or you will get me into trouble. When it is discovered that you were merely taking back what they had stolen from you, they will lose face and then the Vizier will be extremely angry at having been deceived.”

  “That is why we are leaving almost immediately,” Royden replied. “I am hoping that I can somehow return the kindness you have given me in some practical manner.”

  “You can do that quite easily,” Valerian said, “if you can send me something from England which is unique and will not be anything I could possibly find myself from any collection in this part of the world.”

  “I promise,” Royden assured him, “that you will have either a painting or something really special from my collection at Hillingwood Towers.”

  Valerian Fitzgerald looked delighted.

  When they shook hands, he said again,

  “It has been a great pleasure and a great delight to see you, Royden, and you must not forget your promise as it will be something I will not only show to those who visit me but enjoy myself.”

  “I swear to you it will be the first thing Malva and I will do when we reach England, but we will not be back at home until the autumn.”

  “I think that I can just manage to wait that long,” Valerian smiled with a twinkle in his eyes.

  *

  After they left him, Royden took Malva through the narrow streets and the poorer part of Dakar.

  Situated close by the Port was a little Church that Malva thought was more likely to be used by seamen than anyone else.

  It certainly seemed to fit in with the Port itself and she was not surprised when she entered to find that there were fishing nets suspended from the ceiling.

  The Church was very old and must have been built before the Port itself was opened.

  As they entered, they saw that kneeling in front of the altar there was a white-haired man.

  They walked silently up the aisle until they reached him.

  As he rose to his feet and turned round, he looked at Royden and gave a cry of delight.

  “Royden, is it really you after all these years?” he asked.

  “Yes, it is me, Father, and I have come here to ask you to perform a very special ceremony for me,” Royden replied.

  “What is that?” the Priest enquired.

  “I wish to be married secretly and I have brought you my future wife knowing that you will be as kind and as welcoming to her as you have always been to me.”

  The Priest held out both his hands to Malva and said,

  “I cannot imagine anything that I would enjoy more than marrying my dear Royden to someone as beautiful as you, my child.”

  Malva smiled and blushed a little.

  “Thank you,” she murmured. “Royden has told me how kind you have always been to him.”

  “He has been very good to me and we have often talked of his future,” the Priest replied. “He has always told me that he would never marry anyone, but now I have seen you I know why he has changed his mind!”

  Malva smiled.

  “Thank you for the nice things you are saying and Royden will explain why we are being married secretly.”

  Royden told the Priest that it was because Malva was in mourning and Queen Victoria would insist on them waiting for far longer than they wished to do.

  “If we can be married secretly,” he said, “we can spend our honeymoon exploring exotic places that Malva has never seen and which I know she will enjoy as much as meeting you, Father.”

  “It will be a great joy and delight to me,” the Priest said, “to marry you both and, of course, I will keep your secret as you have asked me until you are free to let Her Majesty appreciate that love is more important in life than anything else.”

  “That is exactly what we have found and what we believe,” Royden agreed. “Therefore, Father, we would like to be married at once if it is possible for you to do so.”

  “I will go and put on my vestments. As it is to be a secret marriage, if you will close the door and bolt it, there will be no one here until the ceremony is over.”

  He walked to what was obviously the Vestry door as he added,

  “I suggest you light all the candles on the altar and those at the side.”

  He disappeared through the Vestry door.

  As Malva hurried down the aisle to close the door of the Church and lock it, Royden lit all the candles he could find.

  The light from the candles made the small rather dark building seem even more attractive than it had been before.

  As Malva knelt to pray, she was thinking of how many other people must have knelt and prayed here in this serene little Church and received comfort and blessings.

  Wives, before their husbands had gone out to sea, praying that they would come back safely.

  Perhaps the men themselves knowing the dangers that lay ahe
ad had asked God’s help to save and protect them.

  She thought it was very typical of Royden to have made friends with a man who she realised at one glance was not only holy but had an exceptional personality which one seldom found anywhere.

  ‘What I must pray for,’ she thought to herself, ‘is that I must be clever enough to keep Royden’s love and make absolutely sure that he never regrets having given up the freedom he used to value so highly.’

  The Priest came back in his vestments which were very old and beautifully embroidered with sacred images.

  Then, as Royden knelt beside Malva, she knew that this was one of the most significant days of her whole life.

  It was something that she would always remember.

  The Marriage Service was short, but the Priest said it with such sincerity that Malva felt that every word was blessing them both.

  When they left, they would have gained something new that had never been there before.

  Something that came from God Himself and which now joined them with Him.

  The prayers the Priest said over them made her feel that every blessing was pouring from him into them.

  Because of the holiness that enveloped them, they would take with them for ever the eternal blessing and the nearness of God which he was giving them when he joined them together as man and wife.

  When the Service was over, they rose from their knees.

  Royden gave the Priest a large sum of money to go to the poor of the City.

  “You have made both of us very happy, Father,” he said. “I can only thank you from the very bottom of my heart.”

  “It has been one of the most delightful days of my life to unite you as man and wife,” the Priest replied. “Of course you will always be in my prayers from now until I die.”

  It was impossible to think of anything else as they walked hand in hand out of the beautiful Church into the brilliant sunshine outside.

  They stepped aboard the yacht, which was waiting for them at the other side of the Port.

  As soon as they were on board, the engines began to turn.

  As they went further out to sea, Malva knew that they were now leaving the desert for ever.