Count the Stars Read online

  Valora laughed as he had intended her to do and the Duke said,

  “Now I suggest we have something to eat because I have a feeling it is a very long time since we lingered by that enchanted stream.”

  “How could we have guessed when we – left it what was going to – happen?” Valora asked.

  “I suppose we might say,” the Duke replied, “that it was Fate that Mercury should cast a shoe, Fate that a wedding was taking place in the village Church and Fate that Walter should have found us at exactly the right moment when Thornton and I could deal with him.”

  “Thornton?” Valora questioned. “Surely you mean Travers?”

  “That is another of today’s surprises,” the Duke said. “Shall I tell you about him at dinner?”

  The butler offered them glasses of champagne and, as they sipped the golden wine, he announced that dinner was served.

  Once again the Duke offered Valora his arm and they walked down a different passage until a footman opened the door of the dining room.

  Valora saw a table lit with golden candelabra waiting for them and she asked,

  “What about Grandpapa? Should we not say goodnight to him?”

  “He told me before he went to the Chapel,” the Duke answered, “that he wished to spend a little time praying for our happiness and then retire. He said that he would see you in the morning.”

  “I understand,” Valora replied.

  She moved ahead of the Duke towards the table, conscious as she did so that the whole room was a setting for them both – for her in her exquisite gown, still wearing her wreath and veil, the Duke looking as if he had just come from attendance on the King.

  As if by right he sat in the high-backed chair at the top of the table with the Ecclesiastical arms, which was usually occupied by her grandfather.

  The table was decorated with white flowers and the servants brought them delicious food on priceless silver dishes that were part of the treasure owned by successive Archbishops.

  But Valora was only conscious of the Duke. For the first time in his presence she felt shy and it was not so easy to talk to him in the academic manner in which they had argued on their journey.

  Now she was acutely conscious of the look in his eyes that she had not seen there before and a caressing note in his voice that made her feel she wanted to touch him.

  When the servants withdrew, the Duke sat back, a glass of brandy beside him and she thought how different this meal had been from those they had eaten in the country inns at which they had stayed on their wild dash to York.

  As if once again he read her thoughts, the Duke said,

  “You and I were victorious, which I always felt in my heart we would be!”

  “I wanted to think that too,” Valora said, “but I was afraid of being over-confident.”

  “Is it necessary for me to tell you how splendid you were?” the Duke asked. “I had no idea any woman could be so brave or so controlled.”

  She knew he was thinking of that terrifying moment in the Church when Walter had fallen dead from the highwayman’s bullet and when the Duke had saved himself from death by a split second.

  “That is a moment I think we both want to forget,” he said quietly, “except that one day it will be a splendid tale to tell our children and our grandchildren.”

  As he spoke, he watched the colour rise in Valora’s cheeks and thought it was like the dawn lighting up the darkness of the world and was the loveliest sight he had ever seen.

  “It served its purpose,” he went on, “and like spring following the darkness of winter it gave our friend and benefactor, William Travers, a new life.”

  “You called him ‘Thornton’ just now,” Valora queried in a puzzled voice.

  “That is something I want to explain to you,” the Duke replied,

  He told her in a few words how he had made the highwayman empty Giles’ pockets and replace them with the book which bore his name.

  “When the two bodies are taken from the porch and examined,” he continued, “there will be no reason for anyone to suspect their identity.”

  “It was clever, so very clever!” Valora gasped.

  “What is more,” the Duke said in a tone of satisfaction, “it is unlikely that anyone will connect the wedding that took place ostensibly between the Honourable George Hughes and Charlotte Mayhem with ours.”

  He put his hand over Valora’s as he said,

  “That is another reason I wished your grandfather to marry us, although the first and most important one was that there could be no possible question of your not being my legal wife.”

  “You – really want – me?” Valora asked breathlessly.

  “In a very short while I intend to tell you how much,” the Duke answered, “but I do not wish you to remain curious about our friend – William Thornton.”

  “You said he was going South.”

  “I have sent him to Hurst Castle,” the Duke said, “your future home, my precious, with instructions to my Agent that he shall set up schools, if they are not already there, for the children of my employees. He will be in complete charge and, if necessary, engage more teachers.”

  Valora gave a little cry.

  “How could you do anything so marvellous? Nothing – nothing could make me happier or please me more!”

  “That is what I thought you would say,” the Duke said, “and when Thornton has completed his task at The Castle I have a number of other estates in other parts of the country where he can carry on his good work.”

  Valora clasped her hands together.

  “He will be so happy,” she said, “and you could not have rewarded him in a better or more practical fashion.”

  “That is what I thought,” the Duke agreed, “and as William Travers is dead, I think perhaps with your and my help William Thornton will become very much in demand as an advisor, because I am certain I can persuade quite a number of my friends to follow my example.”

  Valora looked at him with so much gratitude and happiness that her eyes seemed brighter than the light from the candles.

  The Duke smiled.

  “You once said to me that knowledge was like looking up at the sky and trying to count the stars.”

  “You remember I said that!” Valora exclaimed.

  “I remember everything you have said to me,” the Duke replied. “Now I want you in the future to help me count the stars in a different way.”

  Valora looked puzzled and he explained,

  “You have so much to teach me, my darling, so much knowledge to impart to me of issues which I have never thought about until now.”

  “I wish – that was true.”

  “It is true!” the Duke insisted. “You see everything that happens in a way that is different from other women. You make the simplest things in life seem beautiful and exciting, you show kindness and understanding to people who until now had never come into my life and nor have I been aware of their problems.”

  As the Duke spoke, he thought how pleased Freddie would have been at what he was saying and he knew that he had not yet told Valora of the reason for his journey to York.

  “If I could – help you in any – way,” she was saying, “it would be very very wonderful for me, but you are so wise, so clever, that I feel I shall never learn all the things I want you to – teach me.”

  “There is one lesson,” the Duke said, “which will thrill me more than anything else.”

  “What is that?” Valora asked.

  “I think you know the answer,” the Duke replied. “It is love, my beautiful wife, and since, from what you said to me when we sat by that stream, I know that on that subject you are very ignorant, we will have to start from the very beginning.”

  He waited for the colour to rise in her cheeks and he thought that the shyness in her eyes was so alluring and so lovely that the emotions she aroused in him made it hard to breathe.

  Then, as she did not speak, he said,

  “I think we shou
ld go into the drawing room.”

  “Yes, of course,” Valora said quickly. “Should I have retired and left you to drink your brandy – alone?”

  As if she felt that she had made a social error, she added,

  “I am afraid, because on other nights I have not done so, that you must think me ignorant in my social behaviour as well as in other ways.”

  “I think you are utterly and completely adorable!” the Duke replied, “but it is easier to talk without a table between us.”

  Valora looked shy as she rose and it was impossible for her eyes to meet the Duke’s as they crossed the room to the door.

  They walked slowly along the corridor hung with portraits of previous occupants of the Palace, including Cardinal Wolsey and Kneller’s picture of Archbishop Lamplugh.

  When they reached the drawing room with its delicious softly coloured Gothic ceiling, it was fragrant with the scent of flowers.

  Although the candles were lit, one window was left with the curtains parted and a French window was open into the garden.

  Instinctively Valora crossed the room to stand at the open window looking out.

  The sun had now sunk below the horizon, but there was still a translucent glow in the sky in which the first stars were coming out one by one.

  She looked up at them and the Duke watched the graceful column of her neck and the exquisite straight line of her little nose against the darkness of the trees.

  “Count the stars, my lovely,” he said very quietly, “and when you tell me how many there are, I will tell you how many more there are to find.”

  “You are laughing at me,” Valora accused, “because I told you I was only interested in knowledge and nothing else was important.”

  “And now perhaps you have found that you were wrong,” the Duke suggested.

  “You – know I have,”

  “Will you tell me what you have found?”

  As if she was suddenly conscious of the closeness of him, the insistent note in his words and the enchantment sweeping over her, her voice seemed to have died in her throat.

  And yet, because he was waiting she knew that she had to answer him as if he had given her the command to do so.

  “You are making me – shy,” she whispered.

  “I adore you when you are shy,” the Duke said. “At the same time I want an answer to my question.”

  “It is difficult to say – because it is something you have – not said to me.”

  The Duke smiled as if he appreciated the way she was evading him and he thought too that because she was elusive she attracted and enthralled him in a manner he had never known before.

  “I think you have forgotten,” he said, “that twice today you promised to obey me.”

  “I have – not forgotten,” Valora replied, “and you also made some very – special vows – ”

  “Shall I say them for the third time?” the Duke enquired.

  His question made her turn her eyes from the stars to look at him and he said very softly,

  “‘To have and to hold from this day forward’ and that is what I mean to do, Valora!”

  As he spoke, he put his arms around her and drew her close to him and as he did so he felt the quiver that went through her and he knew that he too was quivering because she was so soft and sweet and he had controlled himself for so long.

  Then he remembered how brave she had been and how, although it seemed a long time, it was only a day or so ago that she had told him that she would never marry.

  He thought she had changed her mind, but he had to be certain and, while he drew her still closer to him, he did not kiss her, but instead he said,

  “Listen to me, my precious little wife, I have something of importance to say to you.”

  “What is it?” Valora asked.

  There was a sudden note of fear in her voice as if she thought something had gone wrong.

  “It is nothing frightening,” the Duke said, “it is just because I love you so much and because I want your happiness more than I have ever wanted anything for myself.”

  He paused before he went on,

  “I am aware that everything that has happened has been unprecedentedly hasty. It was something that neither of us could have avoided and once again you can attribute it, if you like, to Fate.”

  He was aware that Valora had stiffened in his arms while she was listening.

  “What I am trying to say,” he continued, “is that if you wish to wait a little while until we know each other better before I make love to you, as I wish to do, before I teach you the lesson that is more important than any other to us both, then I will agree, and we will go on being friends until you are ready for me.”

  When he had finished speaking, he felt the tenseness go out of Valora’s body and he thought that she moved a little closer to him, although that was difficult as they were so close already.

  He waited.

  Then she said in a very low voice he could hardly hear,

  “I understand what you are – saying to me – and now I can answer your question – I love – you!”

  The Duke put his fingers under Valora’s chin and turned her face up to his.

  “Do you mean that?” he asked softly.

  “I love you!” Valora repeated, “and I have been afraid – so desperately afraid – that, when we reached here, you would leave me and I would never see you again.”

  The pain her words evoked was very obvious.

  “My precious!” the Duke murmured.

  “I love you – I adore you!” Valora said again. “Please – teach me about love – because I want to make you – love me.”

  “I do that already,” the Duke said. “And my lovely darling, how can I be so fortunate as to have found you?”

  As he spoke, his mouth found Valora’s and there was no further need for words.

  Her lips were just as he had thought they would be, soft, sweet, innocent and unsure and he knew it was what he had been seeking all his life, although he had not been aware of it.

  Then, as he realised that she was not afraid and he felt they were joined spiritually as well as physically by a rapture that seeped through them both, his kisses became more demanding.

  Time stood still and for Valora it was as if the stars had fallen from the sky to envelop them both in a light that was part of her heart and her mind.

  “I love you! I love you!” she wanted to shout out over and over again, and she knew that all the knowledge she ever needed lay in the Duke’s arms, his lips and in him.

  When he finally raised his head, she was trembling with the wonder of it and she felt that he was too.

  “My wife! Mine!” he exclaimed as if they were the only words that could express his feelings.

  A long time later, when they lay in the big four-poster bed, Valora realised that the Duke had pulled back the curtains so that they could see the stars shining in what was now the darkness of the sky.

  She moved a little closer to him and he asked with an inexpressible tenderness in his voice,

  “Are you happy, my precious one?”

  “I am so – happy,” Valora answered, “that I think I am no – longer on earth, but on one of the – stars which we can see out – there.”

  “That is what I feel too,” the Duke said, “and we are there together, my darling, and that is the only thing that matters.”

  Valora lifted her face towards his.

  “I was thinking,” she said, “how foolish you must have thought me when I told you I would never fall in love and had no wish to be married.”

  “I was just as foolish myself,” the Duke replied. “I had no wish to be married because I thought it would be impossible to find a woman who would not bore me and with whom I would not feel restricted or imprisoned.”

  “Supposing – I should bore you – in time?”

  “That would be impossible,” he answered, “first because we still have a thousand subjects to discuss and argue about and secon
dly because I have never before met anybody who inspired me to change my way of life.”

  He kissed her hair before he went on.

  “You have found me important things to do, things which will take up a great deal of our time.”

  “Have I – really done that?”

  “Beginning with our protégée, William Thornton,” the Duke said. “I am certain both you and he will want me to take up the cause of education for the masses in the House of Lords and from what I know of it already, which is little, it is a subject which will mean a hard fight and a campaign in which we shall need not only to use our intelligence but recruit a great number of other people to support us.”

  “It would be a wonderful thing to do!” Valora cried. “At the same time I am still afraid that because I am so ignorant on the subject of – love you may find somebody much more experienced to amuse you.”

  The Duke looked back over the years and knew he had found a great number of women who were sophisticated and experienced, but who had always left him dissatisfied and eventually no longer interested.

  With Valora it was different and he said,

  “You have forgotten one thing – we agreed that human beings have to find the other part of themselves and I am completely and absolutely convinced that I have found mine.”

  Valora gave a cry of happiness.

  “How can – I be sure of – that?” she asked.

  “By loving me,” the Duke answered.

  He turned so that he could hold her closer still and his lips moved first over the softness of her forehead, then he kissed her eyes.

  “I adore you!” he sighed. “You excite me so madly, my darling, that I am afraid it is you who will grow bored with me.”

  “I will never do that,” Valora answered, “because I know now how wrong I was when I said I did not want love. It is the most wonderful perfect sacred thing that could happen to anyone!”

  She spoke in a passionate little voice, which brought a hint of fire to the Duke’s eyes and then unexpectedly she hid her face against him and said in a whisper,

  “Now you have taught me how a woman – starts a baby I know that it is the most glorious and beautiful star of the night.”