Journey to love Read online

  “We can do that later,” the Marquis replied. “And I thought you would like to visit Venice before we sail on to Greece.”

  “All I hope is that there are plenty of books in your library about every place we are visiting. It is all so exciting and I do not want to miss anything either in what I see or what I read.”

  The Marquis smiled.

  To her surprise they went into the Master Cabin.

  As soon as they entered Shana realised that it was to be hers because it was decorated with flowers, which were arranged on the furniture and in every type of available vase.

  “Is this to be my cabin?” Shana asked as she looked around.

  “It is to be ours. Now my darling, I cannot wait any longer to kiss you and to tell you how much I love you.”

  He pulled her against him as he spoke.

  Then as the ship swayed a little on the waves he sat down on the bed holding her like a child across his knees.

  Then he was kissing her, kissing her as if for the first time, wildly, passionately.

  Shana felt her heart leap upwards to him and her body melted into his.

  “I love you. I love you,” she whispered.

  “As I love you,” the Marquis murmured in a deep voice. “And my precious, I want to be closer to you than I am now and very much closer than I was last night.”

  Shana blushed and hid her face against his.

  “I have so much to teach you about love,” he continued, “and you have a great deal to teach me.”

  She looked up in surprise.

  “How can I possibly do that?”

  “I will tell you,” he said. “And because it is precious and secret between us, I want you to get into bed.”

  He kissed her again.

  Then as she felt her lips respond to his, she wanted him to go on kissing and kissing her forever.

  He gently lifted her to one side.

  “I will return very shortly,” he said. “I have waited too long already. It seems like a thousand years.”

  He left the cabin as he spoke and Shana smiled.

  Because she knew she must obey him she undressed.

  While they had been having luncheon, Curtis had unpacked her clothes and he had left her nightgown and dressing-gown on a chair.

  She put on the nightgown trimmed with lace and blushed because it seemed rather transparent.

  She had not been lying on the bed for more than a few minutes when the door opened and the Marquis entered.

  The sunlight was pouring in through the portholes and the whole cabin glistened with the gold which shone in Shana’s hair.

  The Marquis threw his robe down onto a chair.

  Climbing onto the bed he pulled Shana into his arms.

  “My darling, my sweet, my loveliest one,” he said. “This is really happening to us and I thought night after night when I slept here alone that my wish would never come true.”

  “Did you wish for me – in the fountain?” Shana asked.

  “How could I have wished for anything else?”

  The Marquis was kissing her as he spoke.

  At first very gently then more possessively, until his lips became even more passionate.

  Shana felt her excitement turn into a flood of sensation she had never felt before.

  It was like the sunshine coming through the portholes.

  It was like the scent of thousands of beautiful flowers. It seemed to invade her entire body and soul.

  It was so exciting and so different from anything she had ever experienced, she could hardly believe it was true.

  At the same time it was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to her.

  This was love, the love she had wished for and prayed for.

  ‘I love you, I adore you,’ she wanted to say, but there was no need for words.

  The Marquis was holding her closer and still closer.

  They were both part of the sunshine and the glory of it made it impossible to think – only to feel.

  As the Marquis made her his, they were both in the burning heart of the sun.

  They had found each other, as the Greeks believed, after years or perhaps centuries when they had been apart.

  Now they were no longer two beings but one.

  *

  It was later in the afternoon when Shana, with her head on the Marquis’s shoulder, asked,

  “You have not yet told me, my wonderful husband, what you meant when you said I could – teach you.”

  The Marquis smiled.

  “I have taught you, my darling, adorable little Goddess, a little about love and there is a great deal more for you to learn.”

  “It was – wonderful, too – wonderful for – words,” Shana murmured.

  “But you have to teach me,” the Marquis continued, “how I can make the best of myself and therefore worthy of you. I know you are going to demand a great deal, but because I love you so completely, I will try to do what you ask of me.”

  Shana thought that no one could say anything more marvellous to her.

  “You are also,” he added, “in your innocence and your purity utterly different from any woman I have known. You have therefore, my darling, to teach me so much, which you know instinctively is pure and perfect and part of God Himself.”

  He paused for a moment.

  “It is what I need and I know that you will give it to me and it is what you must give to our children.”

  He spoke so seriously and his words were so moving that Shana felt tears come into her eyes.

  “I adore you,” she sighed, “you are so magnificent yet so understanding.”

  “We understand each other,” the Marquis told her, “because now we are inseparable. No one can ever part us and our journey to love is only just beginning.”

  Then he was kissing Shana once again.

  They were enveloped in the light from the sun.

  And at the same time in the Divine light which comes from God and is Love.

  The Love which is Eternal and lasts forever.