The Winning Post Is Love Read online

  “Now you can turn round. You said the men were carrying guns?”

  “Yes, and one said they were going to shoot anyone who interfered with them, not so as to kill, but to wound them in the arm or leg.”

  “Very well. I feel certain we have enough guns to compete with them.”

  “But you must hurry,” urged Rosetta. “They said they would come at midnight and it must be getting near that by now.”

  As she spoke, she realised that the Marquis had already reached the door.

  As she ran after him, he turned round and took her hand.

  “I might have guessed that if there was trouble, you would save me!”

  “It is what I am trying to do, but we must hurry.”

  The Marquis did not answer.

  Still holding her hand, he hurried along the passage and they ran down the stairs together.

  To her relief there were already half-a-dozen men in the hall. Some of them were scantily dressed and they had clearly come as soon as the footman had roused them.

  “You will want guns, all of you,” the Marquis said sharply, as he jumped down the last steps. “Hurry to the gun room and pick up a gun you can fire and don’t worry about me. I have my revolver with me.”

  Rosetta saw he was carrying it in his other hand.

  The men ran down the passage and for a moment the Marquis and Rosetta were alone in the hall.

  “You must be very careful,” she said. “I think they have come from London and are determined to take your horses to Southampton and sell them for a very large sum.”

  “I promise you they will not succeed!”

  There was the sound of men running back from the gun room.

  “You must stay here, Dolina,” added the Marquis, “and I will come and tell you when it is all over.”

  “I am coming with you,” Rosetta insisted. “You know the horses will be upset at the sound of shots. I will look after them and try to stop them being frightened.”

  The Marquis smiled and whispered,

  “I might have known you would say something like that!”

  There was no chance of saying anything else as the servsnts had now joined them.

  Without giving any further orders, the Marquis ran towards the back of the house, followed by his staff.

  He was holding tightly onto Rosetta’s hand and did not relinquish it until they opened a door at the back of the kitchen.

  She saw that they were now in a narrow path that led to the stables.

  There was no one to be seen and the Marquis then turned round,

  “Move silently in case someone is watching us and don’t speak.”

  He went ahead, taking Rosetta’s hand again.

  They reached the door leading into the stable block.

  It was then the Marquis started giving his orders.

  Without waiting to listen, Rosetta slipped inside.

  The horses she had seen that afternoon were, she thought, even finer than she remembered and she could quite understand any man who valued horseflesh wanting to own them.

  Some were lying down and some were standing up and she went from stall to stall talking to them in a very quiet and reassuring voice.

  She was aware that the Castle staff and the Marquis were now inside the stables.

  However, she was more concerned with the horses and yet she could feel the tension rising.

  Then quite suddenly, so that she started and so did the horses, there came the first shot from the Marquis’s revolver.

  It was followed by a scream and then a fusillade of shots that seemed to boom into the air and make everything seem terrifying and unreal.

  The horses began rearing up at the noise and it was impossible for Rosetta to calm them.

  Then, just as suddenly as the shooting had started, it stopped.

  The Marquis went out into the yard and because she was curious, Rosetta could not help but glance through the door he had left open.

  Then she could see there were ten men lying on the ground, groaning and swearing with fury.

  Just as the thieves had intended to shoot anyone who interfered with them, they had been shot in the same way – either in the arm or the leg.

  The horses behind her were trembling at the noise, but they were no longer rearing.

  Rosetta could not resist going over to the door to see what was happening.

  She heard the Marquis say,

  “Put these creatures into the largest van we possess and drive them to the Police Station. Charge them with attempted burglary and tell the Inspector I will make a full statement in the morning.”

  “Very good, my Lord,” a man replied, who Rosetta felt must be the Head Groom.

  Other grooms now appeared, but the Marquis told them they must attend to the horses and he then sent four of his footmen with the van as well as the Head Groom.

  “If there is any trouble from them,” the Marquis ordered, “shoot them again!”

  “We have already taken their weapons from them, my Lord,” the butler reported.

  “Good man,” the Marquis replied.

  The van started towards the gates at the end of the yard and as they passed by her, Rosetta she could hear the wounded men groaning and shouting inside.

  The Marquis was thanking all his servants who had helped him so courageously.

  “You have all been splendid. I now suggest we go back to the house and then, whilst you bring me a bottle of champagne, open one for yourselves. We have won a great victory tonight and it is all due to Miss Dolina, who came to warn me that this outrage was about to happen.”

  “Then we’ll drink her health, my Lord,” the butler said.

  “And drink your own as well.”

  They were delighted.

  And then, taking Rosetta by the hand, the Marquis walked with her back to The Castle – not the way they had come, but through the front door.

  They went into the Marquis’s study and the butler brought in the champagne and poured it out for them.

  The Marquis did not speak as Rosetta sat down in an armchair.

  Finally when they were alone, the Marquis began,

  “Now tell me why you are here, Dolina, and how you have been so incredibly brave as to save my horses?”

  “I went to pray in the Chapel – ”

  “Why were you not in London, as I was told you were?” the Marquis asked.

  Rosetta looked away from him and she then replied rather shyly,

  “If I tell you the truth, perhaps you will be angry.”

  “Do you think I could ever be angry with you?”

  There was a short silence and then she confessed,

  “I am not, as you think – Dolina.”

  “Then who are you?”

  “I am Rosetta Stourton and my father is Terence Stourton, Professor of Literature.”

  For a moment, the Marquis could hardly believe his ears.

  “ Apparently I look very like Dolina Waincliffe and I was asked by Gordon and Henry to pretend to be Dolina because she insisted on going to London and they were so anxious to persuade you to build the Racecourse, and, as you like pretty women, the boys believed that I would be useful in persuading you to help them.”

  “Which you most certainly did. Now, my darling, what are you going to do about me?”

  Rosetta looked up at him and sighed,

  “And now, Euan, to begin with, you will have be become used to calling me Rosetta and not Dolina.”

  For the first time he saw the look in her eyes he had so longed to see.

  Very slowly, as if he was afraid of frightening her, he put his arms around her.

  “I knew tonight, when I returned to The Hall and you were not there,” he murmured, “that I love you as I have never loved anyone else. I was so desperate because I had lost you and, now you have come back to me, I will never ever let you go, my Rosetta.”

  “Do you really mean it?” she asked. “I knew when I had to run away, I wanted to be with you always.
”

  “Tell me what I want to hear – ”

  “I love you, Euan” Rosetta declared. “I love you as I have always wanted to love someone, but I am frightened I am not grand enough for you.”

  The Marquis gave a laugh.

  “You are everything I ever wanted, and far grander to me than if you were the Queen.”

  He pulled her a little closer.

  “I promise I will never lose you again.”

  He kissed her passionately, at the same time almost reverently as if he was afraid she might vanish into thin air.

  As his kisses became more demanding and more fervent, Rosetta knew that they had found the love they had both sought.

  “I love you. My God how I love you!” the Marquis sighed, “and this, my darling, is real love. I have said it before, but it has never been true, because it did not come from my heart. But I knew when you went out of my life, as I thought, that I could never be the same again.”

  “And I love you,” Rosetta whispered to him. “I have never loved anyone because they always seemed so foolish and so dull. But you are wonderful and I love you as you love me, with my heart, my mind and my body.”

  The Marquis smiled.

  “Only you could put it exactly as I would want to put it myself. I love you, my darling, and we will make the world a better place simply because we love each other.”

  He kissed her again and then he proposed,

  “How soon will you marry me, my precious?”

  “Whenever – you want me to,” she answered.

  “Then we will be married in my own Chapel, for which I do not need a Special Licence and I cannot wait any longer than tomorrow.”

  Rosetta laughed.

  “What about your family?”

  “They can hear about it afterwards, just as Gordon and Henry heard about Dolina when it was too late for them to do anything about it!”

  Rosetta hesitated for a moment.

  “Suppose that your family don’t think I am grand enough for you.”

  “Do you honestly believe that anything anyone else thinks would matter to me? I have been looking for you ever since I can remember and believed you did not exist.

  “I am not taking any chances. You will marry me tomorrow night and then we will go abroad to explore the places you have longed to see that I want to show you.”

  “That will be wonderful, Euan, but before we go can we tell the boys to go ahead with the Racecourse?”

  “You would think of that right in the middle of my being, I reckoned, so unbelievably romantic!”

  “I will be as romantic as you want me to be, but we have to tie up the ends. I am here in your arms because George and Henry wanted a Racecourse!”

  The Marquis drew her closer.

  “The Winning Post is Love,” my darling Rosetta. “I will agree to anything you want – as long as you are mine.”

  Then he was kissing her wildly and fervently.

  Her body seemed to melt into his.

  Rosetta felt they were stepping through the gates of Heaven.

  A Heaven in which the love they both sought was there waiting for them.

  The love that came from God, was part of God and would be theirs for all Eternity.

  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

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  itunes.apple.com - for Apple iOS users

  www.barbaracartland.com - Printed paperbacks