Secret Love Read online

  As the last of the guests drove away down the drive and Wenda was waving them all goodbye, she found the Marquis standing beside her.

  “I have just told Banks,” he said, “that I want my carriage brought round immediately so that we can set off as soon as you are ready.”

  Wenda looked up at him.

  “Is this really happening?” she whispered. “I feel you are taking my breath away.”

  “That is just what I want to do, my angel.”

  Somehow because she was looking up into his eyes and he was looking into hers they said a great deal more than words.

  Wenda realised that she must not keep him waiting and as she hurried up to her room a footman was already carrying her case down the stairs.

  “I’ve put in all your best things, Miss Wenda,” Mrs. Stevenson said, “and if you get the chance, you must buy yourself a new riding habit not to mention a dress or two.”

  She thought now with the large amount of money Robbie had given her she could spend a little on some new clothes. She felt uncomfortable at looking like a beggar-maid most of the time.

  As if she had spoken aloud, Mrs. Stevenson said,

  “I thinks your evening gown be a bit shabby, Miss Wenda, so I puts in some of your mother’s dresses which are as fresh as the day she bought them. I’ve kept me eye on them and I thinks you’ll find they won’t look so out of fashion even now.”

  Wenda remembered that her mother had had one or two very pretty evening gowns which she had worn for the Hunt Ball and dinner parties. They had been put away and she had never thought of wearing them herself.

  Indeed she had often felt as if her mother’s clothes were too sacred to be worn by anyone else, but now she felt that they would be the blessing she badly needed.

  “Thank you for organising it, Mrs. Stevenson. It is something I did not think of myself.”

  “You deserve a nice bit of fun, Miss Wenda, for all you’ve done. And now that things have changed for his Lordship this be a very happy house.

  “His Lordship, before he left, said he couldn’t do without me and I promised him I’d stay here and help her Ladyship until she could manage The Court as well as you’ve always done.”

  “That is wonderful news!” exclaimed Wenda.

  Just before she went downstairs Banks came up to see if the footmen had taken down everything she required.

  “You have been marvellous, Banks,” she said, “and His Royal Highness claimed he had never enjoyed himself more.”

  “That is just what his Lordship has told me and I understand that you’re leaving us too, Miss Wenda.”

  “I am going to stay with a relative of the Marquis. I am not sure how long I shall be away, but I expect his Lordship told you that when you have spent all the money I am giving you now to pay the wages and buy food, you just have to be in touch with me.”

  She handed him an envelope in which there was a thousand pounds.

  “Thank you, Miss Wenda. I’ll pay all the workers weekly.”

  Then because she wanted to be with the Marquis she ran down the steps.

  Outside drawn by four superb black horses was the smartest open carriage she had ever seen.

  There was a seat behind for the groom, but when she got in she found that the turned-back cover completely obscured him. Nor would he be able to hear what she and the Marquis said to each other.

  Banks waved them off.

  As they trotted off down the drive with the Marquis driving, Wenda said a little nervously,

  “Are you quite sure that your grandmother will be pleased to see me? After all you cannot have let her know that you are bringing me with you.”

  The Marquis waited until they had passed through the iron gates before he replied,

  “My grandmother, Wenda, will welcome you with open arms. She has been begging me for years and years to get married, but I have always refused until now.”

  Wenda turned to look at him in sheer astonishment.

  He looked back at her before he added,

  “Surely you realise that you are what I have been searching for all my life but was certain did not exist!”

  “I really – don’t understand,” Wenda whispered a little incoherently.

  “I think you knew,” said the Marquis, “when I first saw you and thought you were an angel, that having found you I would never lose you again.”

  “I never thought – of such a thing,” Wenda tried to say.

  “I realised next morning that we enjoyed the same pursuits and that you were so completely and absolutely the angel I was always told as a child looked after me and loved me.”

  Wenda drew in her breath.

  Then, as the Marquis drove on down the road, she murmured in a voice he could only just hear,

  “I thought – I would never see you again after the wedding.”

  “You are going to see me for the rest of my life,” the Marquis replied, “and we are going to be married just as soon as you have met my family. Unlike your sister-in-law, I don’t want you to start off on the wrong foot.”

  “I am sure that the Duc and Duchesse will forgive Josofine when they realise how happy Robbie and she are.”

  “They will forgive her because she was given away by the Prince of Wales,” the Marquis added, “but they will always regret she is not a reigning Princess, however don’t let’s worry about them. I want you to think of me and only me.”

  “I have found it difficult to think of anything else,” Wenda said, “ever since I first saw you from the minstrels’ gallery.”

  The Marquis laughed.

  “So you peeped at us from up there. I might have guessed that is what you would do. But I did not know until I went into your bedroom by mistake that an angel had come down from Heaven especially for me. Now my life will never be the same again.”

  “How can you be certain that when you know me better you will not be disappointed?” Wenda asked him.

  “When I first saw you my heart turned a somersault and it has never gone back to its normal place. Every time I have seen you I have fallen more deeply in love than I have ever been in my whole life. I have never known a love like this, which I have read about and dreamt about, but which I believed would never happen to me.”

  “How can that be true,” asked Wenda shyly, “when you are so handsome and so important.”

  “Is that why you love me?” the Marquis demanded.

  “No, of course not,” Wenda said without thinking.

  Then she blushed again and looked away at the road ahead.

  “So you do love me,” he added quietly. “I thought you did, and when you locked your door last night, I was quite certain of it.”

  Wenda looked at him in surprise.

  “Why do you say that?” she asked.

  “Because if you were flirting with me, you would have left the door open and let me come to talk to you. But I think, my darling, you were afraid of yourself.”

  Wenda knew this to be true.

  She wanted him, but she knew it was wrong for her to do so. She had been afraid of her own feelings.

  There was no need for her to answer the Marquis.

  As she looked towards him, he saw the expression in her eyes and exclaimed,

  “You love me, I just know you love me and I can promise you, my dearest darling, we are going to be very very happy.”

  Wenda moved a little closer to him.

  “I was thinking that when Robbie came back from his honeymoon with Josofine they would not want me at The Court and I wondered where I could go.”

  The Marquis did not answer and she went on,

  “I wanted to be with you, but I never thought you would want me.”

  “I want you as I have never wanted any woman before, Wenda, and we are going to be married just as soon as my family has met you. Then I intend to teach you, my darling one, all about love – the love I have never known myself until now.”

  “It is so wonderful!” Wenda murmured, “that I
am quite certain this is all a fantastic perfect dream.”

  “That is what it is going to be for the rest of our lives. My darling, there are so many things we are going to do together which I have been too lazy to do before, but which I will do now simply because I know that they will please you. We will enjoy making our part of the world, even if it is a small part, more perfect and an example to others.”

  He spoke very quietly and Wenda could not help moving a little closer to him.

  “I love you, Victor” she whispered, “but I do know very little about love and you will have to teach me to love you in the way you want to be loved.”

  “You just have to be yourself. Don’t forget you are an angel sent specially down from Heaven to me and that is how I first saw you sitting up in your bed. From that moment it has been impossible for me to think of anything else.”

  “I will try to be the angel you want me to be, but you will have to help me and teach me and of course go on loving me.”

  She spoke the last few words a little wistfully and he knew she was apprehensive.

  “I will love you as long as I live,” he declared, “and I believe when we die we will still be together just as we have been together before so often and have been searching for each other ever since.”

  “I am sure that is true,” Wenda murmured.

  As the Marquis drove the horses on, the sunshine seemed to envelope not only themselves but their hearts.

  Wenda knew she had found something so perfect and so sublime that never again would she be afraid or lonely.

  ‘Thank You God, thank You,’she prayed silently.

  Then as the Marquis turned to look at her she knew that he was saying the same prayer as she was.

  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