Lucifer and the Angel Read online

  “Don’t forget you are coming to my wedding,” she whispered as she did so.

  “I shall be awaiting your invitation.”

  The two girls smiled at each other in a conspiratorial fashion.

  Then the guests were driving away in the Duke’s comfortable open carriage, while the Duchess, the Duke and Anita waved to them from the steps.

  The Duke gave a sigh that was obviously one of relief before he suggested,

  “I expect you will want to rest, Mama.”

  “I am looking forward to it,” the Duchess replied. “If there is one person who makes me tired it is Edith Clydeshire.”

  “We need not ask them again,” the Duke replied and the Duchess gave a little laugh.

  She started to climb the stairs and, when Anita would have followed her, the Duke said,

  “I thought you would like to see a new orchid that has just arrived for me as a present from Singapore.”

  “A new one!” Anita exclaimed. “How exciting! What colour is it?”

  “Come and see for yourself.”

  Anita looked at the Duchess for permission.

  “Go and look at it, child,” she said, “then you can tell me about it when I come downstairs for tea.”

  Anita smiled at her and, with one of her little skips that showed she was excited, she walked beside the Duke along the corridor that led towards the conservatory.

  He opened the door and now there was not only the warm wave of fragrance to greet them but the whole place seemed to shimmer with a golden light because of the sun shining on the glass.

  They walked in silence until they reached the orchids.

  They all appeared to Anita to be even more beautiful and spectacular than they had the first time she had seen them.

  Almost instinctively she looked for the small star-shaped one that the Duke had sent to her room the first night after she had arrived at Ollerton.

  “They are all so lovely!” she sighed, putting out her hand to touch a petal very gently. “But this one will always mean something very special to me.”

  “Just as you mean something very special to me,” the Duke said softly.

  She felt she could not have heard him aright.

  Then as she looked up at him enquiringly and saw the expression in his eyes, it was impossible to look away.

  “I think you must have forgotten, Anita,” the Duke said, “that I told you never to come to a conservatory alone with a man unless you wanted him to make love to you.”

  “I-I never – thought – ”

  “That it applied to me?” the Duke finished. “Well, it does! That is why, my darling, I brought you here – to tell you that I love you!”

  He saw her eyes widen and a radiance sweep over her face, transforming it.

  Then, as if she thought she must be dreaming, she stammered a little incoherently,

  “What – are you – saying to – m-me?”

  “I am saying it in words,” the Duke said, “but I would much rather say it a different way.”

  He put his arms round her as he spoke and very gently drew her closer to him.

  Then, as she stared up at him as if she could not believe that this was really happening, his lips found hers.

  He knew it was the first time she had ever been kissed.

  He was very gentle and he thought nothing could be more wonderful than the softness, the sweetness and the innocence of a kiss that was different from any other kiss he had ever known.

  Then, because he could not help himself, his arms tightened and his mouth became more possessive, more demanding.

  He knew that this was what he had been seeking all his life and had thought he would never find.

  He raised his head and, when he looked at Anita, he thought that no one who was human could look more beautiful, more part of the Divine.

  “I – love you!” she whispered

  “As I love you. Tell me, my sweet, was your first kiss what you expected?”

  “It was wonderful – marvellous – I did not know a kiss could be like – that!”

  “Like what?”

  “All the things I have dreamt about – like the moonlight – the stars – the sun coming through the clouds – and like Heaven!”

  “My precious, that is what I wanted you to feel.”

  “Was it – like that – for you?”

  “It was perfect and more wonderful than any kiss I have ever known.”

  “Ooooh!”

  He understood that there were no words with which she could express her joy at what he had said and he kissed her again.

  What seemed a long time later the Duke raised his head to look down at the stars in her eyes.

  “I adore you, my precious!” he said in a voice that was curiously hoarse. “How soon will you marry me?”

  To his surprise he felt Anita stiffen.

  Then she said,

  “I – love you – and I did not – know that – love could be so – glorious – but I cannot m-marry you!”

  If Anita had been surprised, it was certainly the Duke’s turn now.

  Never had he imagined that any woman he proposed marriage to would refuse him.

  For the moment he felt he could not have heard correctly what she had just said.

  “I asked you to marry me, my lovely one,” he said after a moment.

  “I know – you did – and I shall always be – very – very – proud,” Anita said, “but I – cannot marry you – you must realise that”

  “Why not? I do not understand!”

  To his surprise, Anita moved from the shelter of his arms and turned away from him towards the orchids so that he could not see her face.

  “Did I hear you say you loved me, Anita?” the Duke asked.

  “You heard me – say so,” Anita replied, “and I never thought – I never dreamt that you would love me. I think now I have – loved you for a very long time.”

  “How long?”

  “I think – really since the first time – I saw you. I thought you were L-Lucifer, but that did not prevent me from loving you – and perhaps really I loved you before that – when I dreamt of you as an Archangel in Heaven and was worried because you fell and were unhappy – amongst the other souls who were – damned.”

  “I am not damned now. I am the most blessed and fortunate man in the world because I have found you. You are everything I have ever wanted and ever longed for. Only I was so foolish in that I did not realise it at first.”

  He paused, then went on with a smile,

  “Then I discovered that you were everything I wanted, everything that was different from any other woman I have ever known.”

  “That is – why I cannot – m-marry you,” Anita said and there was a sob in her voice.

  “Do you really think I would let you refuse me?” the Duke asked. “But you must explain to me why you wish to do so.”

  He turned her round as he spoke and saw the worry in her blue eyes and that the radiance had gone from her face.

  “How can you think for a moment that you would give me up when you have said already that you love me?”

  “It is because I love you so much – that I cannot make you – unhappy.”

  “Unhappy?” the Duke enquired. “Why should I be unhappy?”

  “Because you must see I am – wrong for you – and if we married – I would always be waiting for the day when you would be – sorry you – had done so.”

  The Duke smiled.

  “Do you really believe I could ever be sorry you were mine?” he asked. “I have already told you, Anita, that I love you as I have never loved a woman in my whole life, and never will again.”

  “B-but when you – look at me – you will be – disappointed.”

  “Are you telling me,” he asked, “that you are refusing me because you do not measure up to those absurd nonsensical conditions I set down for the appearance of the Duchess of Ollerton?”

  As if she did not trust her voice, Anit
a nodded.

  “Oh, my darling, my precious little angel,” the Duke sighed, “do you not realise that I was being a pompous fool in thinking for one moment that one could buy a wife, as it were, out of a shop window?”

  “That – is what you – said,” Anita persisted childishly.

  “I did not know then that I would fall in love with somebody so adorable, so sweet that she fills my whole heart, my mind and my soul and I find her completely and absolutely perfect.”

  He saw the sudden light come into Anita’s eyes and for a moment she looked at him as if she reached towards him from across eternity.

  Then she looked away again.

  “I-I could not – wear the sapphire – tiara or the – diamond one.”

  The Duke laughed and it was a very warm and loving sound.

  “That is true, my precious,” he said, “so we will have another one made especially for you, perhaps a wreath of flowers or you may prefer the small halo you wear when you are acting as ‘sentinel for the immortal souls’.”

  Anita gave a little chuckle as if she could not help it.

  “Perhaps if I am – with you, I would not be able to – take it with – me.”

  The Duke laughed before he said,

  “Whether I am in Heaven or Hell, you will be with me. That is one thing you can be absolutely certain about.”

  He pulled her into his arms.

  “Is that your only objection to marrying me?”

  “You wanted someone tall – stately – and beautiful like your – mother.”

  “Instead I have found someone so lovely that she is in my heart and is my heart and nothing else is of any consequence.”

  She gave a little cry and hid her face against him.

  “I love you so – much, I – want to – marry you,” she whispered.

  “And that is exactly what you are going to do,” the Duke said, “and however many excuses you may find for not doing so, I have no intention of listening to them!”

  “Suppose,” Anita said in a very small voice, “I – make you – angry?”

  The Duke put his fingers under her chin and turned her small face up to his.

  “I will tell you why I was angry,” he said. “I was angry that you should have found out, as I should have found out for myself, that the girl I intended to marry was a human being with human emotions.”

  His voice was hard as he continued,

  “When you told me that she was in love with someone else, I was shocked and disgusted that I should have just taken for granted that she would marry me, whether she wished to do so or not, because I am a Duke! I was ashamed of myself, Anita, and as a kind of defensive action I raged at you. Then when you left me, I realised what I had done.”

  With his lips against her forehead, he said very softly,

  “I have said I am sorry and I promise I will never speak to you like that again. Do you believe me?”

  “Are you quite – quite certain you – love me – enough? Perhaps you should – have another look round in case – you find someone – better than – me.”

  “Do you think that possible?” the Duke asked. “I have to make you understand, my sweet love, that it was due to my stupidity and obstinacy, and because I am spoilt and selfish, that I nearly lost you. I will never take such risks again with you or with my own happiness. Do you believe me?”

  “I want to – desperately.”

  “We will be happy, my darling. I promise you that. There are so many things for us to do together – so many things we think the same and feel the same about.”

  The Duke paused and then he said,

  “I know that you are going to inspire me to be a better man than I have been in the past. In fact, my darling, if you will help me, I feel you will not be marrying Lucifer, as you think you are, but an Archangel who has somehow found his way back into Heaven entirely because a small angel has guided him there.”

  Anita gave a little cry of sheer joy.

  “You say such wonderful – wonderful things to me. If you are really certain you want me – then please – I want – to be – with you and to love you forever!”

  “That is exactly what you will be,” the Duke said, “for our love will be Eternal and even when we die we shall be together and nothing will ever separate us.”

  He spoke in a solemn voice that Anita had never heard before and somehow the lines of cynicism had gone from his face and his eyes were no longer mocking.

  In fact he looked very different from the way he had ever looked before and she knew it was because of love.

  The love she felt pulsating through her own body, the love that made her feel as if they were flying towards the sky from where they had come.

  She saw again the shaft of light which had come between the dark clouds that had made her think of Lucifer in the first place.

  But she knew now that instead of him falling down from Heaven, they were both moving upwards towards the light which was all-embracing, all-enveloping.

  Then, because there were no words in which to express her thoughts, she could only reach up her arms towards him, saying as she did so,

  “I love you! I – love you! I will – try to make you – happy.”

  The Duke crushed her against him.

  “You have made me happy!” he exclaimed. “I love you, my precious little angel and, until the stars fall from the sky and the earth no longer exists, you are mine! My angel, who has been sent to bring me a happiness I do not deserve but which I have always longed to find.”

  “Let me – give it to you – please – please!” Anita whispered against his lips.

  Then it was impossible to say any more, but only to feel the sunshine overhead which had become part of them both and was burning fiercely within them, drawing them closer and closer to the heart of love, which is Heaven.

  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 .

  Elizabethan Lover

  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

  Journey to a Star

  THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND

  Barbara Cartland, who sadly died in May 2000 at the grand age of ninety eight, remains one of the world’s most famous romantic novelists. With worldwide sales of over one billion, her outstanding 723 books have been translated into thirty six different languages, to be enjoyed by readers of romance globally.

  Writing her first book ‘Jigsaw’ at the age of 21, Barbara became an immediate bestseller. Building upon this initial success, she wrote continuously throughout her life, p
roducing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years. In addition to Barbara Cartland’s legion of fans in the UK and across Europe, her books have always been immensely popular in the USA. In 1976 she achieved the unprecedented feat of having books at numbers 1 & 2 in the prestigious B. Dalton Bookseller bestsellers list.

  Although she is often referred to as the ‘Queen of Romance’, Barbara Cartland also wrote several historical biographies, six autobiographies and numerous theatrical plays as well as books on life, love, health and cookery. Becoming one of Britain’s most popular media personalities and dressed in her trademark pink, Barbara spoke on radio and television about social and political issues, as well as making many public appearances.

  In 1991 she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to literature and her work for humanitarian and charitable causes.

  Known for her glamour, style, and vitality Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime. Best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels and loved by millions of readers worldwide, her books remain treasured for their heroic heroes, plucky heroines and traditional values. But above all, it was Barbara Cartland’s overriding belief in the positive power of love to help, heal and improve the quality of life for everyone that made her truly unique.

  LUCIFER AND THE ANGEL

  Barbara Cartland

  Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd

  This edition © 2012

  Copyright Cartland Promotions 1953

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