Their Search for Real Love Read online

  “We will certainly have a big party later on,” Sir John promised him. “Perhaps on my wife’s birthday as you will not want to wait until Christmas.”

  “Certainly not!” the Vicar agreed. “And, of course, we have all been wondering what presents we can give you.”

  “Which we will accept with gratitude and delight,” Sir John told him. “But I want no one except your wife to know about the Ceremony, which will take place tonight in my Chapel.”

  He stopped suddenly and then added,

  “In fact, although I have only just thought of it, we must tidy up our Chapel.”

  The Vicar stared at him.

  “But you have never used it!” he exclaimed.

  “No,” he replied, “because my mother thought that it was a good example to the village if I filled the family pew on Sundays. But this is a very private matter which I don’t want publicised in the Press or even talked about. Therefore, I am asking you to marry my wife and me in the English fashion. We feel that it is far more meaningful to our future life than anything that happened in France.”

  “Then, of course, I am only too proud to know that you trust me on such an occasion,” the Vicar said. “And, if you don’t wish my wife and me to speak of it, we will not say a word to anyone.”

  There was silence for a moment before Sir John said,

  “I think they might be jealous and instead we must have a big party on her birthday or perhaps at Christmas when everyone in the village will be invited after Church to come up to the house and drink our health.”

  “That would delight everyone,” the Vicar replied, “including me.”

  “Then, if you come to us tonight at ten o’clock,” Sir John said, “we will be ready, but most people will be in bed and therefore they are unlikely to see you and will not be curious that you are coming here.”

  “I will look forward to giving you God’s Blessing to your marriage,” the Vicar replied.

  The carriage took the Vicar back to the Vicarage and it was then that Sir John sent for the Head Gardener.

  After speaking to him, he went upstairs to Melita’s room and found her lying on her bed.

  “I am just thinking it over, darling John,” she said. “I cannot believe it is all true.”

  “What is true,” Sir John replied, “is that the Vicar is coming at ten o’clock to marry us and no one is to know, especially anyone who will tell the Press that we are to be married in the Chapel.”

  Melita drew in her breath and then said,

  “The housekeeper showed me only the other day a Wedding dress that was last worn one hundred years ago which she was told that anyone who had worn it down the ages had become exceptionally lucky.”

  “Then, darling, we must get it for you!” he said.

  “I can do that, because I know where it has been put and, as the housekeeper is getting old, she goes to bed early.”

  “Then that is what you must wear, my darling.”

  Melita held out her arms.

  “I am exceptionally lucky to have found the most wonderful man who has ever existed,” she sighed.

  “I wish I was,” he retorted. “But I am marrying the most beautiful girl who ever existed. Someone who has stolen my heart completely and absolutely.”

  “Are you sure of that, darling?” Melita asked shyly. “You were so certain that you wanted to marry someone you loved and – who loved you for yourself.”

  “I know perfectly well that you are not marrying me for my money,” Sir John said, “and I am sure that you can find someone with a better title if you looked round. But that is something I intend to prevent you from doing.”

  Melita laughed.

  “I only want – you,” she murmured.

  She put out her arms and drew him to her.

  He kissed her.

  “I love you,” he asserted. “When we are properly married, I am going to show you how much I love you and it is something I have been wanting to do for a very long time.”

  He kissed her and before she could answer he went to his own room.

  ‘How could I be so happy?’ Melita asked herself. ‘Thank you, thank you God for saving me and for letting me find John.’

  She had the feeling as she was praying that Sir John was doing the same.

  He ordered dinner for them in their boudoir.

  Melita wore a pretty negligee and then went back to her own room to rest, until she knew that everyone in the house had gone to bed.

  At five minutes to ten they went hand in hand down to the Chapel, sure that everyone was asleep.

  They were married exactly as they wanted at ten o’clock that night.

  No one in the village was aware that a carriage had brought the Vicar and his wife to the Chapel.

  Both of them were surprised and delighted to find it ablaze with flowers.

  The gardeners had worked for over two hours on Sir John’s instructions bringing armfuls of flowers from the greenhouses and the garden into the Chapel.

  They had no idea, even afterwards, why the flowers were wanted, except, as Sir John had said, that an artist was coming to paint a picture of the Chapel.

  The simple Service in the Chapel was as moving as anything Melita had longed for.

  She was wearing the lucky Wedding dress that had been worn by members of the family for centuries.

  She wore a diamond necklace and the coronet the Baronet’s wives had worn for years at The State Opening of Parliament.

  It made her hair shine even more beautifully than it usually did.

  The Vicar in his fine vestments read the Marriage Service with a deep sincerity which was very moving.

  When Sir John put the Wedding ring on her finger, Melita knew he was thinking that she would be his for ever and she knew that she would, never in her whole life, love anyone but him.

  As they knelt for the final Blessing, Melita was sure that her mother and her father were smiling on them from above and that the angels were singing.

  The Service ended and Melita really felt that they had received God’s Blessing.

  When they left the Chapel, Sir John, with Melita holding onto his arm, led her along the darkened passages and up the stairs to the first floor.

  “Tonight,” he said when they reached the door of her room, “you come to me. I have been so lonely without you and never again will I allow you to close the door between us.”

  Melita smiled.

  She slipped into her own room.

  She knew that a glorious new chapter in their lives was starting.

  A chapter they had both tried to avoid because it was called ‘marriage.’

  ‘Now we will have a large family,’ Melita thought.

  Not surprisingly Sir John was thinking the same as he undressed.

  Then Melita joined him and climbed into the large comfortable bed which had been used by his ancestors all down the centuries.

  She looked very small underneath the gold dome which had carved cupids on it.

  For a moment Sir John stood gazing at her.

  Then he said,

  “How could I have found anyone so perfect and so wonderful as you?”

  Melita held out her arms.

  “Come close to me,” she whispered, “and I will tell you – what you mean to me.”

  He pulled her close to him.

  And he sighed,

  “How can we ever be thankful enough for having found each other when I thought that it was impossible to ever feel as I am feeling now?”

  “I am feeling the same as you,” she whispered. “I love you, I adore you.”

  “Not as much as I love you. We searched for real love and now we have found it,” he murmured.

  The words sounded like magic.

  As he made her his completely and absolutely and for all time, she knew that they had found Love.

  The Love, which comes from God, is part of God and was theirs for Eternity and even beyond.

  Where to buy other titles in this serie
s

  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