The Lioness and the Lily Read online

  ‘Thank you, God – thank You – thank You for saving me and please let the Earl be – glad.’

  It only took them ten minutes to ride back to the house to find Nanny fussing over her and scolding her at the same time.

  There was a hot bath that she could soak away the cold in that seemed to have seeped into her very bones and a warm bed besides hot soup that Nanny insisted on feeding her as if she was a baby.

  “No more, Nanny, please – no more,” Purilla pleaded.

  “There be a dinner for you in a moment,” Nanny replied, “and you will eat sensibly. What you wants is food after an experience like that.”

  “I want to have dinner with his Lordship.”

  “His Lordship’s dinin’ in his own room and Mr. Bates has insisted on his havin’ a hot bath in case he should be stiff after not havin’ ridden for so long.”

  “His Lordship would hate being an invalid again.”

  “If he takes risks with himself, he must take the consequences,” Nanny replied, “and you’ll be lucky if you escape pneumonia with nothin’ under that thin gown!”

  “I am warm now,” Purilla answered, “and instead of grumbling you should be thankful I was not left there all night.”

  Nanny made an exclamation that was almost a cry of horror.

  Dinner arrived and Purilla ate the delicious dishes provided even while she missed being with the Earl.

  She wanted to be with him, to hear him talk and watch the expression in his eyes. Most of all, if she was honest, she wanted to know if he was really glad that he had been able to rescue her.

  When she had finished and Nanny was taking the tray away, she asked,

  “Will his Lordship be coming to see me?”

  “I expects so.” Nanny replied. “I’m goin’ down the stairs now to have my own supper. Is there anythin’ more you wants?”

  “No, nothing,” Purilla replied.

  Nanny looked around the room as if she thought that she must have forgotten something, but everything was in its place. The curtains were drawn over the long windows and the candles were lit on the dressing table by the bed.

  Oil lamps were used downstairs except in the great crystal chandeliers, but the bedrooms were lit by candles, which Purilla thought made the rooms look beautiful and romantic.

  They had already discussed whether the Earl should put in gas lighting.

  “It seems a pity to change anything,” Purilla had confessed.

  “If we are to move with the times on the estate,” the Earl replied with a smile, “I think we must also do so in the house.”

  “It is so lovely as it is.”

  “We will not be in a hurry,” the Earl replied. “We will listen to the experts before we make a final decision.”

  Purilla had thought her bedroom with its painted ceiling and gilded cupids flying on the canopy over her bed was perfection as it was.

  But she was concerned at the moment with looking at the communicating door, which had not been opened since she had come to Rock Castle.

  She did not know why but she felt that tonight, after what had happened, the Earl might come from his bedroom into hers through that special door.

  And yet she told herself despairingly that now he knew that she was back at home he might be no longer interested in her.

  Then, as she lay back on her pillows looking at the door, she saw the gold handle being turned and felt her heart leap.

  The door opened and the Earl was there.

  She had expected stupidly that even when he dined alone he would be in evening dress.

  Instead he was wearing the long blue velvet robe that he had worn when he was at The Manor and had first been allowed to get up and sit in the sunshine in the bedroom window before he was strong enough to do anything else.

  Because Purilla was so thrilled to see him, his face seemed to swim in front of her eyes and it was hard to focus on him clearly.

  He closed the communicating door quietly behind him and locked the one into the passage and then walked slowly towards the bed.

  She sat up straight clenching her fingers together, her fair hair falling over her shoulders with her blue eyes very large in her small face.

  The Earl came nearer and now everything she had meant to ask him seemed to fly out of her mind and instead she said,

  “You – came when I – called you. I was so – afraid you might not hear me but you came! How did you – know I was in – danger?”

  The Earl smiled and stood beside the bed looking down at her.

  The candlelight seemed to make her head shimmer with gold and he thought that there was a light behind her eyes that came from her heart, her heart that he realised she had sent out towards him and which had told him so clearly that she needed him desperately.

  He did not answer for a moment.

  Then he said,

  “I think, Purilla, as we both have a lot to tell each other and a great deal to talk about, I should, if I am to obey the doctor, Nanny and Bates, rest as you are doing.”

  For a moment Purilla did not understand what he meant.

  Then she said quickly,

  “Y-yes – of course you must – you should not have been riding – I do realise that.”

  “I have come to no harm,” the Earl said, “but I am sure that it would be sensible not to take any further chances.”

  He walked round to the other side of the bed as he spoke, took off his robe, threw it on a chair and, pulling back the lace-edged sheets, climbed into bed.

  For a moment Purilla could hardly believe what was happening.

  Then, as the colour rose in her cheeks, she felt her heart begin to thump frantically in her breast.

  The Earl lay back against the pillows and said quietly,

  “That is better. Now I shall not have to listen to Bates scolding me as I am sure Nanny scolded you.”

  Purilla managed to give a little laugh.

  “She is quite – certain I shall die of – pneumonia and that you will be crippled from doing too much too – soon.”

  “I am tired of their croaking,” the Earl said, “let us talk about ourselves. I want to say, Purilla, that if I had not found you I should have been absolutely desperate by now with anxiety as to what had happened.”

  “Did you – really – worry?” Purilla whispered.

  It was the question that she had not meant to ask, but somehow it came to her lips before she could prevent it.

  “I will answer that in a moment,” the Earl replied, “but first I want you to tell me why you went for a walk when you knew that we had planned to explore the house together.”

  She turned her face away from him and he thought that her small straight nose and her soft lips silhouetted against the candlelight were the loveliest that he had ever seen.

  Because she could not find words to reply to him, he said after a moment,

  “I think perhaps you heard what the Duke said to me.”

  “I-I did not – mean to eavesdrop,” Purilla stammered.

  “You heard what I realised afterwards I should have told you myself and now rather belatedly I will explain.”

  “There is – no need,” Purilla said. “I – wondered why you – wanted to marry me so quickly – and I know now that it was – because you did not wish to – marry Lady Louise.”

  Her words seemed to fall over each other.

  Then, before the Earl could reply to him, she said,

  “I-I cannot understand why you did not wish her to be your – wife. She is so beautiful and lives in the same world you do – and she must be – just the right sort of wife you – should have.”

  The Earl reached out his hand and took Purilla’s in his.

  He felt her tremble because he was touching her, but his fingers merely tightened on hers and he said quietly,

  “You are the ‘right sort of wife’ I have always envisaged bearing my name and being beside me for the rest of my life.”

  He felt Purilla stiffen.
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  Then she said,

  “Is that true – really – true?”

  “I swear it is,” the Earl answered, “and, although I have known a number of charming ladies who have been kind enough to show me their affection, I have never until I met you asked one to marry me.”

  “But – but you only – married me,” Purilla said in a very small voice, “so that you did – not have to marry – Lady Louise.”

  “I think that even if there had been no Lady Louise in my life,” the Earl said, “Fate would have brought us together somehow. I should have known that you were my Golden Fleece, who I have been searching for although I was not really aware of it until now.”

  “Do you – mean that?”

  He could hardly hear the words and yet the expression in Purilla’s eyes as she gazed at him spoke more eloquently than anything she had said.

  For a moment the Earl seemed to be trying to find the right reply.

  Then he answered her,

  “Because it is important in our married life that we should be honest with each other, I thought when I first saw you that you were one of the most attractive women I had ever met. But I believed that what you wanted and what you told me everyone sought for, as if it was the Golden Fleece, was beyond my capabilities.”

  Purilla did not speak, but he felt her fingers move beneath his and he went on,

  “Then, as we talked together on subjects I never expected to discuss with a woman, when every day I was at The Manor I realised how sweet, pure and lovely you were and while I was still trying wildly to escape from the trap Lady Louise had set for me, simply because I had inherited my uncle’s title and estate, I knew that you would make me exactly the wife I really wanted.”

  The Earl’s voice was harsh as he added,

  “She had no real interest in me while I was just an Officer in the Grenadiers and I doubt if she would ever have given me a thought if we had not met casually in one of the Royal Residences.”

  He saw that Purilla was listening intently as he continued,

  “I shrank in horror from the idea of having a wife who wanted to marry me merely because of my social position and my possessions. Then Fate sent you to save me at almost the eleventh hour.”

  “I am – glad I – could do that,” Purilla murmured, “but I wish you had – told me the – difficulty you were in.”

  “I meant to do so sooner or later,” the Earl answered, “but it did not seem particularly important and I thought it might spoil your happiness and perhaps destroy the love I thought you were beginning to give me.”

  He spoke very gently and knew that he startled her and once again she blushed and turned her face away from him.

  “Even when we were married,” the Earl said, “I knew that the Duke, on the instigation of his daughter, could make things very difficult and unpleasant for me and perhaps for you.”

  “That is why you – pretended we had been – married before you – inherited the title,” Purilla said.

  “Exactly,” the Earl agreed, “and, now that the Duke has accepted our situation, there will be nothing he can do to discredit me. So now we can start off our married life without there being any unpleasantness.”

  The Earl thought as he spoke that it would be difficult to explain to Purilla how different he felt about everything.

  He felt that his whole outlook had changed since he had watched the Duke and Lady Louise drive away and knew that they were driving out of his life forever.

  Now he could start a new chapter of his new life and, holding Purilla’s hand as they lay in the candlelit bed, he knew that it would be the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him.

  Aloud he said,

  “Now that is out of our way, I want you to tell me how you managed to make me aware what had happened to you.”

  “You really – knew I was in danger?” Purilla gasped turning her face to him again.

  “I was certain of it in my heart,” the Earl replied.

  “It worked – it really worked!” Purilla murmured as if to herself.

  “Tell me exactly what happened.”

  Purilla told him how Jason had chased a rabbit into the cave and, because he did not hear her calling him, she had gone into the cave herself to try to make him come out.

  “Then the chalk fell down and blocked up the entrance,” she said, “so I knew that we were trapped.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I was frightened – very frightened,” she replied, “and I thought perhaps you would never – find me and Jason and I would die of the – cold.”

  There was a little throb in her voice which made him know that she was not far from tears.

  He moved nearer to her and put his arm around her as he had done when he had carried her home on the front of his horse.

  He felt her quiver, then her head fell back against his shoulder and he was aware that her heart was beating frantically.

  “Go on with what you were telling me,” he suggested.

  “I remember – how we talked of the Indians having – supernatural ways of – communicating with each other, and Richard had told me that he had seen evidence of it amongst the men he – commanded.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “I – called to you and – prayed for you to – come and rescue me.”

  The Earl drew her a little closer still.

  “I heard you,” he said. “I could feel you beside me, pleading with me, telling me something and I knew that you were in danger.”

  Purilla gave a sigh of happiness.

  “It is so – wonderful to think that I could get in – touch with you like – that and I felt as if I was sending you a message – on wings.”

  “And you were certain that I would hear you.”

  “I was sure you would – I believed that if I could – reach you – you would understand.”

  “Did you ask yourself why I should understand?” the Earl enquired, “as perhaps no other man would have been able to?”

  Purilla raised her face to look at him in a puzzled manner and he said very softly,

  “I think what you are saying is that you sent me your love.”

  Her eyes fell before his and she would have turned her head away if he had not held her chin captive with his freehand.

  “You spoke to me with love,” he said, “and I listened with love. That is why I was able to save you, my darling glorious lily.”

  “With – love?”

  He could hardly hear the words and yet he knew as her lips moved just what she was saying,

  “I love you, my darling! I was so foolish not to have told you so before, but I did not realise myself how much you meant to me or how much I loved you until I knew that you were in danger.”

  “Y-you – love me?”

  He saw the radiance in her eyes and heard the lilt in her voice.

  “I love you in exactly the way you want me to,” the Earl said. “I have found my Golden Fleece, Purilla, and I understand all the things you have been trying to tell me, which I was too obtuse and too stupid to comprehend. Now nothing else is of any significance.”

  As he spoke, he pulled her nearer still to him.

  He was very gentle and he knew as his lips touched hers they were exactly as he had thought they would be, soft, sweet and innocent like the petals of a lily and just as lovely.

  The Earl knew that the reason why he had been so slow in recognising that in Purilla he had found the woman he wanted as his wife, was that his feelings for her were a rapture and a glory that he had never known before.

  What he felt for Purilla was like the emotions that were aroused on hearing Celestial music or looking at the beauty of the sun.

  Then because she was so lovely and he knew that the sensations he aroused in her were an ecstasy that came from Heaven itself, the Earl knew that he was blessed as few men were in finding perfection.

  His lips became more possessive, more insistent and, as he knew that Purilla respon
ded not only with her body but with her heart and soul, he told himself that he would love and protect her from everything that was ugly and unhappy for the rest of their lives.

  He raised his head to look down at the happiness that had transformed her face so that she radiated a beauty that was unbelievable.

  “I love you!” he said. “Now tell me what you feel for me.”

  “I-I love – you, love – you!” Purilla cried. “I have loved you from the first moment I – saw you – and I knew that you were the man who had – always been in my – dreams.”

  “My darling! That is what I want you to say,” the Earl replied, “and I will love you from now until Eternity and perhaps in a million lives that will come after this one.”

  “I cannot – believe that you really – love me,” Purilla whispered.

  “Then that is something I shall have to prove to you and to myself,” he answered, “because until I met you, I never knew that love was like this or that it could be so wonderful.”

  “It was – love that made you – hear me when I called you and you do believe – now that such things are – possible?”

  “I not only believe,” the Earl said, “but you and I will explore them, believe in them and, where it is possible, try them for ourselves.”

  Purilla gave a little cry of delight and he added,

  “I knew you were in danger and, when I reflect that I might not have found you, it makes me afraid to ever let you out of my sight again.”

  “It was – foolish of me not to have anticipated that the cave ‒ might be dangerous,” Purilla admitted. “At the same time in a way I am glad it happened because now we know we can – reach each other even when we are apart and that our love is – stronger than – time and space.”

  “I know it now,” the Earl said, “and because I believe, my precious one, as you do, that our love comes from God, we will work to use our instincts and happiness to help other people. That is something you have already shown me is important.”

  “How can you be quite so marvellous?” Purilla asked. “I am happy – so very – very happy and I will thank God every minute or every day of my life that you are my – husband.”

  The last word was lost against the Earl’s lips as he was kissing her once again.