The Golden Cage Read online

  Then he bent forward and to her surprise undid the ribbons of her bonnet, which she had tied under her chin and, taking if off, he threw it onto the floor.

  He put his arms around her and drew her close against him, saying,

  “I cannot think why we are arguing about something that is not of the least importance, when I might be kissing you.”

  He did not wait for her reply, but his lips were on hers.

  He kissed her possessively, passionately, demandingly, until it was impossible to think, impossible to know anything but the sense of rapture and ecstasy he always evoked in her.

  She felt thrills like little shafts of lightning running through her and her whole body wanted to melt into his.

  Because she had been so frightened, because she had thought that she was going to be taken back into captivity by Mr. Metcalfe and mostly because she had thought that she would have to lose him, the tears ran down her cheeks even while her whole being pulsated with the wonder of his kisses.

  He raised her face up to his and then, seeing her tears, he wiped them away very gently.

  “There is nothing to cry about, my darling,” he said softly.

  “I-I thought – as you could not love me – that I would never – see you again.”

  “Do you really think I could lose you?” he asked. “How dare you doubt my love?”

  “I-I could not believe – after all you said – that when you knew the truth about me – you would go on – loving me.”

  “Now you know that nothing matters in my life but you and nothing else ever will.”

  He kissed her again, then as she put her head on his shoulder she said,

  “Those men called you ‘Lord Hawthorpe!’ Why did you – not tell me who you were?”

  “I was travelling, as you very likely understand by this time, on a very delicate mission and also a very dangerous one. I had to leave America in a hurry because I had been wounded and when, as Kermynski had disappeared, I thought that I would do no good by staying, especially as I could not see.”

  Crisa made a little sound of horror.

  “Instead of having a false passport made,” he went on, “and, anyway there was no time for that, I used the one I had before I came into my father’s title and hoped that Kermynski, who was a very unpleasant and dangerous man, would not be able to find me.”

  “But he did!”

  “But thanks to you, my darling, he will not trouble me or anybody else in the future.”

  Crisa gave a cry.

  “I have been so selfish – thinking about – myself,” she said, “that I have not – worried about you. There is not going to be any – trouble in Paris?”

  “Not trouble, but a great many congratulations,” Adrian said. “It is you who should be the one to receive them, not me!”

  “No, of course not! You know I would not want – anybody to know I was – involved.”

  “As my wife,” Adrian said, “you will not be involved in anything of this sort again nor in the future will I.”

  His arms tightened around her as he said,

  “I am afraid, my precious, you may find it very dull living in the country and looking after the people who have been employed on my estate for generations and, of course, opening the Flower Show and being a very important lady in the County.”

  The way he spoke, with a mocking note in his voice, made Crisa give a little watery laugh before she said,

  “You know all I – want is to be – with you.”

  “As you will be,” Adrian said. “But first, my lovely one, we will be married and have the honeymoon I promised you in Greece before we take up our duties in England.”

  Crisa looked at him enquiringly and he said,

  “Don’t worry about what will happen in Paris. I suspect secretly and behind closed doors I shall have to tell Monsieur Jules Méline, the Prime Minister, how I disposed of Kermynski, but no one else will ever know exactly what occurred.”

  “There is – no question of your having to stand – trial?” Crisa asked in a low voice.

  “None at all,” Adrian replied. “Kermynski’s body was secretly committed to the ocean without anybody being aware of it the night after it was found in his cabin and, if his confederates in various parts of the world are waiting for him, they will wait in vain!”

  “And no one – else will – threaten you?”

  “I was not threatened in the first place,” Adrian answered. “The man who was threatened was the Président of France, Monsieur Félix Faure, and Kermynski very nearly managed to murder him. However, he failed and, when the Sûreté very foolishly let him escape, he fled to America.

  “It was then, because I have been successful in the same sort of situation in the past, that they asked me to find Kermynski and make sure that he could not attack the Président or anyone else of equal importance again.”

  He smiled as he said,

  “As you know, I failed, but a very lovely young woman posing as my secretary succeeded and I am only sorry that I cannot tell the world how brave as well as beautiful she is.”

  “No, no!” Crisa begged. “I could not – bear it! I don’t want anyone to know – where I am or – who I am.”

  “All the world is going to know that I am married to a very beautiful woman,” Adrian said. “She is English and comes from a very old and respected English family.”

  Crisa looked at him in surprise.

  “H-how did you know that?”

  “Mr. Metcalfe told me that your father was the late Sir Robert Royden and in fact I knew him.”

  “You knew Papa?”

  “I met him several times at Tattersalls when I was selling or buying horses and I thought that he was not only charming but very knowledgeable. I might have guessed that his daughter would be exactly the same.”

  “I know nothing except about living in the country and leading a very quiet life,” Crisa said.

  She moved a little closer to him as she sighed,

  “I am frightened that I shall – bore you – and you will find me very dull and – ignorant.”

  “At the moment,” Adrian said, “I find you very exciting, very intelligent and very innocent, qualities, my beautiful little Goddess, that enthral and captivate me and which I feel will keep me enchanted for the next ten thousand years!”

  Crisa laughed, but she was very near to tears as she said,

  “Is it true – really true that I can marry you and you really don’t mind that I m-married Silas Vanderhault? It was the – only way I could – save Papa from being bankrupted and perhaps sent to prison.”

  “I guessed that might be the reason,” Adrian said quietly. “Mr. Metcalfe told me how your husband collapsed on your Wedding night and I knew when I kissed you that you had never been kissed before.”

  “How can you be so wonderful?” Crisa asked. “But there is – still that money – which they will – not let me give away.”

  “Mr. Metcalfe also told me that you tried to do so, but I feel that together we can think of ways of disposing of it, or rather, preventing it from troubling us in the future.”

  “H-how can we do that?” Crisa asked. “The Vanderhaults are quite fanatical when it comes to money and they wanted me to – marry a horrible man called Thomas Bamburger, who is the Managing Director of their railway, just so that I could never – escape from them and from the – millions of dollars that Silas left me.”

  “They will have no hold over you once you are married to me,” Adrian said firmly, “and what I am already planning is that we will create various Trusts, my darling, which cannot be rejected, as your offer was, by the Vanderhault’s Trustees, because they will be for the good of the community.”

  “Do you really mean that?” Crisa asked.

  “As I cannot have a wife with so many dollars attached to her,” Adrian smiled, “I have every intention of setting up on your behalf a Trust for the development of new inventions and new ideas. I think too we could have a Trust for t
he Arts and another for destitute children, besides various other charities, who invariably need millions of dollars a year and never have enough.”

  He laughed as he added,

  “In fact, darling, you will soon find that you have to rely on your husband for every gown you buy and for every pair of shoes you wish to put on your tiny feet.”

  “That is exactly what I want,” Crisa cried. “I want not only to rely on you, but to be with you and love you – and have nothing and nobody interfering.”

  “I will make certain of that.”

  Then Adrian was kissing her again, kissing her with a determination and a passion that told Crisa that she need no longer be afraid and no longer feel that she was caught in a golden cage from which there was no escape.

  “I love you! I love you! I love you!” the wheels of the train were saying beneath them all the way to Paris.

  *

  Lord and Lady Hawthorpe left Paris two days later, after their marriage had taken place before the Mayor, as was compulsory in France, following which they had a quiet Ceremony in the British Embassy Church.

  “There are a great many things, my beautiful, adorable wife, that I want to show you in Paris,” Adrian said, “and a great many things I want to buy you. But inevitably, since one can never keep anything completely quiet in France, our marriage is bound to be reported in the newspapers and I will not have you worried or upset by journalists or by anybody else for that matter.”

  “If we are going to Greece,” Crisa enthused, “I cannot imagine anything more wonderful!”

  “Of course we are going to Greece,” he replied. “I want to see you in your proper environment. I want you to stand in Crisa, where your mother first thought of your name, and look up at the Shining Cliffs of Delphi and pray that the Gods will go on being as kind to us as they have been up to now.”

  “They could not have given any woman a more – wonderful husband,” Crisa whispered.

  “And I could not find anywhere in the world a more beautiful, adorable and enchanting wife.”

  Once again, because the Président was so grateful, he had lent them his private coach attached to the Express that was taking them to Marseilles, where they would board Adrian’s private yacht to sail from there to Greece.

  “A private yacht!” Crisa exclaimed when she heard of it. “Are you really so rich as to possess one?”

  “Are you worried, after having disposed of your money in so many different ways, that you will find I am poverty-stricken?”

  “No, of course not!” Crisa replied. “I sometimes wish that you were as poor as I was with Papa when I used to worry about how to pay the bills and could not afford any luxuries. I would then look after you and you would know how – very much I – love you.”

  “I know that already,” Adrian said, “but, as you have refrained from being inquisitive about my private affairs, I am prepared to tell you that I am in fact a rich man and I intend to keep my promise, my darling, when we return home, to wrap you in sables and cover you in diamonds.”

  Crisa laughed.

  “I want none of those things. I want good horses to ride with you and a home where I can look after you and – ”

  She paused and hid her face against his chest.

  “And?” he asked.

  “ – and perhaps – one day we can have – lots of children who will – not be as lonely as I was.”

  She knew by the way Adrian’s arms tightened that what she had said excited him.

  Then, as she felt his arms around her, his lips on hers and his heart beating against her breast, she told herself that she would pray to give him sons as handsome as he was and as kind and understanding.

  *

  After they had dined on the delicious food that had been served to them on the train, Crisa found the Président’s bed, which was very large and almost filled the whole compartment, very comfortable.

  She was, however, thinking only that this was her Wedding night.

  When they had knelt in front of the altar at the British Embassy Church, she had thought that the whole place was filled with the presence of those she had loved and the celestial voices of angels.

  She felt sure that her father and mother were beside her and that they were happy that she had found the same love that they had and it would sustain her all her life.

  She thought that other people who had married and prayed in the Church, had left there the vibrations of their faith, which came towards her now in the form of a Blessing.

  She hoped that Adrian could feel it too and, as he put the ring on her finger and repeated the responses after the Clergyman in a firm sincere voice, she was sure that he was as moved as she was.

  This was the supreme moment of their lives when, as he had said, he had found her again and she had found him, and they would be together for all Eternity.

  Now, waiting for him with one light glowing beside the bed, she felt her love for him sweeping over her.

  She knew that never again would she be frightened as she had been when she married Silas P Vanderhault and again when she had thought it impossible to escape from his relatives in New York.

  ‘Thank You, God, thank You!’ she prayed fervently.

  As she was praying, Adrian came into the room.

  He was wearing a long dressing gown with his initials surmounted by a coronet embroidered on the pocket.

  She knew that no man could look so attractive and so distinguished without the smart clothes and decorations he had worn when they were married.

  He sat down on the bed, gazing at her.

  Then he said,

  “This is how I have wanted to see you. Your hair is just as lovely as I expected it would be and your face is even more beautiful.”

  “That is – what I – want you to think,” Crisa whispered. “Oh, darling, teach me how to – make you – happy and not to fail you in – any way.”

  “How could you possibly do that?”

  He kissed her hands, one by one and then pressed his lips on her palms.

  Then, as he climbed into the bed, he said,

  “Perhaps it seems rather strange to spend our first honeymoon night on a train. But everything we have done up to now has been both unconventional and original, so I suppose we should just accept it!”

  He moved closer and took Crisa in his arms.

  “What does it matter – where we are?” she asked. “When I was terrified on board ship, I used to pretend that I was lying like this against you and I knew then – although it did not seem possible – that somehow you would – save me.”

  “I have saved you and you are never to be terrified of anything again!”

  “I should be devastated if you were ever – angry with me – or if you wanted to – leave me.”

  He laughed and it was a very happy sound.

  “Do you think that is possible? I feel I have fought a great number of unseen forces to make sure that you are mine. You see, I knew, my precious little love, because I could read your thoughts and because I love you, that something was wrong. Of course I could not guess what it was. How could I have imagined anything so fantastic? I just know that I had to make you trust me, to make you sure that we belonged to each other and that our love is greater than anything else in the whole world.”

  “I was – stupid to be – afraid and supposing I had run away – and you could – never find me?”

  “I would have found you!” Adrian asserted firmly. “I would have found you if you had gone down to Hell itself and now, my darling, I will never lose you and there is nothing and nobody to make you afraid.”

  Then he was kissing her – kissing her at first very gently, as if he wooed her, then a little more demandingly until she felt little flashes of lightning moving through her body and turning into flames.

  It was so thrilling and so marvellous that she said incoherently,

  “I – love you. Oh, my marvellous husband, teach me – about love – I am – frightened of doing som
ething – wrong.”

  “All you have to do, my precious, is to love me, but I am afraid of scaring you.”

  “How could I be – scared of you – since when you touch me – and kiss me it is like being in – Heaven?”

  “That is what I want it to be, my darling.”

  Then, as his kisses became more passionate and more demanding, Crisa felt her heart beating wildly and it all seemed so incredible and sublime that the tears flooded into her eyes.

  “You are not crying, my sweet?” Adrian asked, his voice deep and a little unsteady.

  “Only because I am so rapturously – happy,” Crisa answered. “I thought that no one would ever love me – because I was me.”

  Adrian drew her closer still as he murmured,

  “Now you know that I love you just as you are. All of you is mine, mine completely, and I have never owned anything so marvellous and so perfect.”

  As he spoke, his hand moved over her breast and she felt the flames become more intense until she was burning with a fire that seemed to consume them both.

  Then as their love carried them into the sky, they were enveloped with the Light of Apollo and, as Adrian carried her up to the Shining Cliffs they were no longer human but one with the Gods themselves.

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  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.

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