A Teacher of Love Read online

  “Did I hear you asking my Tasia to marry you as I came into the room?”

  “If she is working for you, then I am afraid I must take her away.”

  “Working for me!” Lord Salwicke exclaimed. “It is something she has always done, but I gather you want her in some other capacity – ”

  “I intend to marry her,” the Earl stipulated firmly. “And nothing and no one will prevent me from doing so!”

  He spoke in a hostile tone, as Lord Salwicke merely smiled and walked further into the room.

  Tasia ran to his side.

  “We have not discussed it since I have came back, but when I left you, I was working for the Earl of Linsdale as a Tutor to his sons.”

  Her father looked surprised for a moment and then he laughed.

  “That is certainly something original and naturally I would never have thought of looking for you there. But now he is saying he wants to marry you?”

  “And I intend to do so at once,” the Earl interposed. “And if Tasia has a contract of any sort with you, I am of course quite prepared to buy her out of it.”

  Lord Salwicke laughed again.

  “My dear boy, you are barking up the wrong tree. Tasia is working for me because she is my daughter and I must say an extremely clever and resourceful one.”

  “Your – your daughter!” the Earl cried out in sheer astonishment. “I had no idea!”

  He looked at Tasia.

  “Forgive me, Tasia, I have made a mess of it once again.”

  “It is quite all right. I ran away from Papa because he wanted me to marry a man I did not know. It was on an impulse that I walked into Mrs. Lines Domestic Agency and asked if she had an original and unusual job for me and she sent me to look after Peter and Simon.”

  “You taught them so much and changed them from two truculent boys into two delightful sons who now, I think, love me as much as I love them,” the Earl insisted.

  “I am sure they do,” agreed Tasia. “And, as I love them too, I don’t think they will mind my being your wife.”

  “They were crying their eyes out when they thought they had lost you.”

  He turned to Lord Salwicke, who was listening to their conversation with an amazed look on his face.

  “I had no idea, sir, that Tasia, who came disguised as a Tutor, could possibly be your daughter. But I hope you know I have the greatest admiration for you and I will be honoured if you will now agree to be my father-in-law.”

  Lord Salwicke laughed and placed his hand on the Earl’s shoulder.

  “I know of no other young man I would be more delighted to have as a son-in-law than you.”

  “So let’s arrange the wedding immediately, as I am so afraid that Tasia will disappear back into the fairy world she has come from and I will not be bright enough to find her another time.”

  “How did you find me?” asked Tasia. “I thought I had covered my tracts very carefully.”

  “You did indeed, but it was really Simon who told me to come here.”

  “Simon?” Tasia queried in astonishment.

  “Once when you were bathing a very dirty Jimbo, you gave Simon his collar to hold.”

  Tasia gave a little cry.

  “And it has this address on it just in case he was ever lost.”

  “Exactly, Tasia, but I had no idea that 22 Grosvenor Square was Salwicke House.”

  He paused for a moment before he added,

  “I realised when I returned to London that I knew you only as ‘Tasia’ and I did not want to ask Mr. Seymour, who I now understand engaged you in the first place, who you were.”

  “I thought no one would ever be able to find me, but I think, as Jimbo has played such a big part in our lives, it was sheer magic that he brought you here.”

  “Of course it was, my darling, and he will be the most important guest at our wedding.”

  “You are going too fast and I am bewildered,” Lord Salwicke looked perplexed.

  Tasia moved towards him and put her arms round his neck.

  “I do love him, Papa, and I know you will love him and his children. Please can we be married quickly as I am so frightened that something might separate us again?”

  “I am frightened that if I lose you there would be no one to take your place,” her father muttered.

  “We will make sure,” the Earl answered him before Tasia could, “that you have plenty of grandchildren, and I should be very grateful if in the meantime you will help me with my two sons. I know they will be thrilled to hear about all you have achieved. It will be something new and exciting for them and, I hope in time, to emulate.”

  “I still think you are going too fast, but I suppose we all have to move with the times. Thus just as we are now increasing our speed with trains and steamships, and doubtless very shortly with electricity, I must arrange your marriage quickly and the only thing you have to decide is where you will be married. In London or the country?”

  “Oh, the country,” the Earl and Tasia chorused.

  Then they both laughed.

  “We are saying that because the horses can come,” she sighed, “and not half as many people as we would have to invite if we were married in London!”

  “Very well, the country it will be,” Lord Salwicke concurred.

  “And I only hope, Linsdale, we can between us devise some new and up-to-date means to reach our homes more quickly.”

  “Of course we will, sir.”

  Then they were all laughing again.

  *

  The Earl stayed to dinner and after they had eaten Lord Salwicke said he was retiring and left them alone.

  “Will you be going back to the country tomorrow?” Tasia asked the Earl.

  “Do you honestly think I would go away and leave you? I am sending a carriage to The Court immediately after breakfast to tell the boys that I have found you and to bring them here to see you.”

  “I would love that.”

  “I think we will keep them busy for a few days in London while you acquire your trousseau, then I am going to suggest that, when we go off on our honeymoon, we leave the boys with your father. I think that he will enjoy having them and so they should not miss us. I must have you to myself for at least a little while.”

  “And where are we going?”

  “It will be a secret voyage, my darling Tasia. But I know as you speak the language you will be able to tell me a great deal that I missed on my last visit there.”

  Tasia guessed that they were going to Greece and knew she would enjoy visiting there more than anywhere else.

  At the same time she did not want to spoil his plan that it should be a surprise for her.

  “Wherever we go,” she murmured softly, “we will be very happy. I love you and it is impossible for me to be happier than I am at the moment.”

  “I feel the same and I am well aware that Heaven on earth is waiting for me when you belong to me. And I will teach you, my precious darling, all about love.”

  Tasia blushed and hid her face against his chest.

  “I admit – I am very ignorant on the subject.”

  “That is what I thought and that is why it will be the most thrilling and exciting lesson I have ever taught. At the same time I think you have so much to teach me.”

  She looked up at him questioningly and he added,

  “It is you, Tasia, who have taught me that love is more important than anything else in the whole world and that everyone of any age needs love. The love that you have given me, my darling, so generously, but which for other people is often in short supply.”

  Tasia moved closer to him.

  “I love you, Leopold, and I adore you, forever and beyond forever until it is impossible to say anything more.”

  “And I worship you, my darling, with all my heart and with all my soul and it is a love we shall never lose, however old we become.”

  “Of course not and when we die we will take it with us into Eternity.”

  “If that is w
hat we both believe, then that is exactly what will happen, my dearest darling Tasia.”

  Then he was kissing her again.

  Kissing her until it was impossible to say anything or think of anything but the wonder of his kisses.

  They told her better than any words.

  It was Love, Love, LOVE.

  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