A Change of Hearts Read online

  “What she needs, and what I hope she will find, is a man who really loves her for herself and who will help her to direct her wealth into projects that will benefit the whole community.”

  She took a deep breath.

  “Children, old people, those who are sick, all need help, as well as all those who are clever but who have no chance whatsoever of getting what they have invented or written brought in front of the public.”

  Now Sir Peter was staring at Neisa.

  “All that is required is someone with imagination and brains to do this for Carol, so that she can concentrate on what she loves and what she really wants out of life.”

  “And what does she want?” he asked in a voice that sounded a little unsteady.

  “Carol told me this morning that what she desires more than anything else in the world is to have a beautiful house like yours where she can make a wonderful home for her husband – and her children.”

  She spoke the last words rather breathlessly.

  Sir Peter rose to his feet and Neisa thought he was going to stump out as she had advised.

  He walked across the room to the door and turned back to face Neisa.

  “You said the summer house is at the bottom of the garden?”

  “As far as you can walk – ”

  She thought he smiled at her and then he was gone.

  For a moment she felt exhausted with the effort of speaking to him.

  She was uncertain as to whether he was horrified at what she had said or had understood and accepted it.

  She could only pray that if he loved Carol enough, he would ask her to marry him.

  Money or no money, it would be a triumph for love that she had always believed conquered all obstacles.

  She now went into the hall, feeling that she must busy herself rather than sit wondering what was happening.

  She put on an apron over the front of her dress and started to brush the carpet as it was stained with mud from her father’s boots.

  She brushed it away and created rather a dust as she did so.

  Then once again there was a knock on the door.

  She opened it a little impatiently.

  To her utter astonishment it was not the postman as she had expected.

  It was the Marquis.

  He was standing there looking very handsome and somewhat overpowering in his riding clothes.

  It took her a second to realise that the old groom was leading another horse away from the front door to the stable.

  “Good morning,” the Marquis began. “You look a little surprised to see me.”

  “I – am very – surprised.”

  The Marquis walked into the hall.

  He put his riding whip and his hat down on a chair.

  As he did so, Neisa pushed the broom in her hand into the corner and took off her apron.

  Then she turned and walked ahead of the Marquis into the sitting room knowing that he would follow her.

  She saw him glance round.

  Because she felt so nervous, her voice trembled and she stuttered a little as she asked him,

  “W-why are y-you h-here?”

  “I came here to see Neisa – and I was not in the least surprised when Neisa opened the door!”

  Neisa stared at him.

  “Why do – you call me – that name?”

  “Because I realised directly after you left that I had been stupid. I had thought it strange that your cousin Carol could speak Arabic.”

  He paused for a moment.

  “But it was only when Aunt Sarah was telling me how much she had enjoyed Neisa’s father’s book, Journey’s End, that I realised. He spent a long time in Africa with his wife and young daughter and she would recognise a Berber when she met one and also understand what he was saying.”

  Neisa, now having difficulty in breathing, replied in a jerky little voice,

  “So then – you guessed that – Carol and I – had changed places.”

  “I also realised that only someone who had moved amongst the opium smokers in the East would recognise a drug addict.”

  “Please try to understand, my Lord, that I have been extremely angry with myself – for being so foolish. I am so sorry we deceived you. It was only because – Carol was so upset by everyone making such a fuss about her money and men asking her to marry them, not because they loved her but because they wanted to get their greedy hands on her millions.”

  “I can now appreciate why you so enjoyed dancing so much on Saturday night! I think, perhaps, that you have not been to many balls?”

  “It is – the very first ball – I have ever attended,” she murmured, blushing.

  He smiled.

  “Then it must certainly not be the last!”

  Neisa made a helpless gesture with her hands.

  “If you have read Papa’s book, my Lord, you will be aware of how poor we are and how impossible it would be for me to go to any ball. Even if I was asked to one, I could not afford a gown. The clothes I was wearing when I was staying with you were given to me by Carol.”

  “I noticed that too, and because you were pretending to be her, you were more dressed up than you need to have been. I like you just as you are now.”

  Neisa gave a little chuckle.

  “This dress is also one Carol has given me. It was one of hers that she had no further use for.”

  “You look very lovely in it, but now I have another thing to tell you which is why I came here today.”

  “What is that?” Neisa asked nervously.

  “I think it is something that will be as much of a relief to you as it is to me.”

  The Marquis spoke very seriously.

  Neisa looked at him wide-eyed.

  “Early this morning the two men I sent to London to escort Randolph abroad returned to Denholme Park. I was surprised to see them back so soon as I had given them strict instructions to travel with him to Rotterdam. And to stay with him even longer if he was not capable of looking after himself.”

  “What – happened?”

  Neisa feared that Randolph had escaped and once again he would be trying to murder the Marquis.

  “When they arrived at Tilbury, Randolph was still only semi-conscious, but they managed to drag him to his feet and he walked with them on board. They booked three cabins adjacent to each other. One of my men was paying for them when Randolph suddenly spoke up more or less coherently.

  “‘Where are we going’, he asked. ‘We are going to Rotterdam, sir,’ the man replied, ‘and from there you can go anywhere you wish in the world – as long as you don’t ever return to England.’”

  The Marquis paused for a moment.

  “I was told that Randolph stared at him as if he finally understood that he was being sent permanently into exile. Then, unexpectedly, he dashed out of the Purser’s Office and onto the deck.”

  Neisa was listening breathlessly.

  “It only took a second or two for my two men to follow him and they saw him thrust something into his mouth. Then as one of them put out his hand to pull him back inside the office, he jumped over the railing and into the sea!”

  Neisa gave an exclamation of horror.

  “It was then they realised he had taken the poison pill he carried in his pocket and which had been intended for me. He had taken his own life. It took some time to retrieve the body.

  “Even if Randolph had not taken the pill, it is likely that he would have drowned anyway.”

  The Marquis finished speaking and Neisa gave a little cry.

  “It – sounds a wrong thing to say,” she murmured, “but I am very glad that I need no longer – be afraid that he will come back and try to kill you,”

  “I must admit,” said the Marquis quietly, “that he will not be missed.”

  “Now you will – be safe, and that is what – really matters.”

  “I hoped you would feel like that, but please tell me why.”

  Neisa did not understand his question and looked
up at him in confusion.

  “I was going to ask you, Neisa, to look after me and to protect me from Randolph. Now I know I want you for a very different reason.”

  He gazed tenderly into her eyes as he spoke.

  “What can – that be?”

  “I want you with me. To talk to me, to inspire me and to make me happy.”

  The Marquis spoke quietly and for a moment she did not understand.

  Then he smiled.

  “I am now asking you, my dearest darling one, to marry me. For I know in my heart that I just cannot live without you.”

  “It – cannot be true – ” whispered Neisa.

  “Let me explain it in a different way – ”

  The Marquis put his arms around her as he spoke and drew her close to him.

  Then his lips were on hers.

  At first it was the same gentle kiss he had given her the night he thanked her for saving his life.

  When once again as he could feel the innocence and sweetness of her lips, a feeling he had never experienced in his life swept over him.

  He knew that this was everything he had ever been seeking and what he had been longing to find.

  It was the purest love that Neisa had shown him, and it came from the heart and the soul.

  It was something so precious and so wonderful that he knew it was more important than all the treasures and riches of the world.

  He went on kissing her and felt her body melt into his.

  He knew they were now one person rather than two and he would never lose her again.

  Neisa felt as if the skies had opened and the sun and the moon had fallen at her feet.

  The Marquis’s kiss was as unbelievably wonderful as she remembered it and a thousand times more.

  It made her feel as if he was carrying her into the burning heat of the sun.

  The Light of Love was shining within both of them and she was sure it came from Heaven itself.

  When the Marquis raised his head, she murmured,

  “I love you, I adore you, but I thought I would never see you again.”

  “Why should you think so?” asked the Marquis and his voice was a little unsteady.

  “How can you marry the daughter of a Vicar? You ought to marry someone much more important.”

  “There just could never be anyone more important in my life than you, my darling Neisa, and that is the truth. I have been searching for you all my life, but I believed I would never find you.”

  He kissed her forehead tenderly.

  “I want you, my lovely one, not only to protect me from any more harm I may come to, but to make our lives together perfect and exquisite.”

  Neisa made a little murmur of happiness.

  “Even to see us,” he added, “will make other people feel happier and make them want to do more for the world around them.”

  He drew in his breath.

  “No other woman has made me feel like this, but you are so different. I think in all sincerity that God has brought you to me.”

  “I am sure that’s true,” Neisa whispered, “and I am so incredibly lucky to have found you as you are the most glorious, marvellous man that ever existed.”

  The Marquis laughed.

  “I hope you will always think so – I will try very hard to live up to what you think of me.”

  He kissed her again.

  Now his kisses became possessive and passionate. He knew, as he felt her whole body respond, that there was so much he had to teach her about love.

  They both realised that their love was Divine.

  It was completely different from the love that most people found in their lives.

  As the Marquis now looked down at Neisa’s sweet, unspoilt and untouched beauty, he knew how supremely fortunate he was.

  And how few men ever found the true ‘ Holy Grail’ they all seek, that is the love that can only come from God.

  It was a long time later that Neisa sighed,

  “I wonder what Sir Peter has said to Carol.”

  “Is Peter here?” the Marquis asked. “I thought it was where he might be. When he learned this morning that your cousin had left, I have never seen a man look more worried and concerned.”

  “So you told him where you thought Carol would be?”

  “He was asking for ‘Neisa’, but I was determined to keep that particular young lady for myself!”

  Neisa slipped her hand into his.

  “Yours completely and absolutely,” she murmured. “But I am still afraid I am dreaming.”

  “We will dream together, my darling. Shall we go and look for the young lovers or just leave them where they are?”

  Neisa smiled at him.

  “I want to be alone with you and I am sure that, if Sir Peter was leaving Carol because he could not cope with all the money she has, he would have gone by now.”

  “He would be a big fool to do anything so stupid. If you owned all the riches in the world, I would still want nothing but you – and you alone.”

  “And that is what you have. Just me – I am very poor!”

  “That’s just your description, but to me you are the richest person in the world because of your brain, which is so quick and perceptive and has saved me twice. And your heart, which is larger than anyone else’s I have ever known and will embrace not only me but everyone you come into contact with.”

  He stopped speaking to smile at her lovingly.

  “Last of all my precious Neisa, you have a soul. A soul that is beautiful, inspiring and perfect. To me you are not only a woman but an angel come down from Heaven.”

  There were tears in Neisa’s eyes as she flung her arms around his neck.

  “I love you, I adore you!” she cried. “Please go on loving me like this forever and ever.”

  He smiled, and lovingly smoothed a tendril of her lovely auburn hair back from where it had fallen during their passionate embrace.

  “That is a promise I am happy to make, my darling. Forever.”

  Where to buy other titles in this series

  The Barbara Cartland Pink collection is available for download at the following online bookshops :-

  www.barnesandnoble.com - epub format for the Nook eReader

  www.whsmith.co.uk - epub format for the Smiths/Kobo eReader

  www.firstyfish.com - epub format

  ebookstore.sony.com - epub format for Sony eReaders

  www.amazon.co.uk - For UK Kindle users

  www.amazon.com - For international Kindle users

  itunes.apple.com - for Apple iOS users

  www.barbaracartland.com - Printed paperbacks