Pray For Love Read online

  A footman hurried to open the door of the carriage and there was no chance of saying any more.

  As she was about to step out, Galina knew that she wanted to go on talking to Lord Bramton.

  In fact she was so anxious to do so that she became suddenly frightened that she might not see him again.

  Without even thinking what she was saying, as they walked in through the front door, she whispered,

  “Please do not disappear. There is so much I want to say to you.”

  For a moment their eyes met.

  Then he said quietly,

  “That is exactly what I wanted you to say.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  The Duke of Bedford’s house was impressive, but Galina thought it not as well furnished as theirs.

  It was a large party and the Duchess, looking very attractive in white, was receiving her guests, most of them young, as her daughter had been presented at the same time as Galina.

  The moment Galina moved into the large ballroom, a number of men hurried towards her to ask for a dance.

  She introduced them to Ellie-May, who was beside her and she was glad that they were obviously delighted to ask her to dance too.

  Ellie-May’s dance card was quickly filled up.

  It was then that Galina found herself dancing with one the young gentleman who had already proposed to her.

  “I have been thinking of you all day,” he enthused, “and I cannot think how I could be so lucky as to have the first dance with you.”

  “As a matter of fact I do believe we started dancing without you even asking me!”

  “I had to snatch my opportunity rather than leave it to fate,” he replied.

  “Do you usually do that?” enquired Galina.

  He shook his head.

  “Fate is not always kind to me and, like you, usually prefers to wait before she gives me a reply to my prayers.”

  Galina realised that he was going to propose to her again, so she quickly changed the subject,

  “I want you to be nice to Miss Farlow, who I have brought with me tonight. You might know that she is the daughter of the American oil multi-millionaire everyone is talking about. I think you will find her very charming.”

  “I don’t want Miss Farlow, I want you.”

  It was no use trying to talk to him about anything else and as soon as the dance had ended, Galina was glad when another young gentleman claimed her.

  He said that she had promised him the first dance when she came back to London.

  “I cannot remember and I am sure it is untrue,” Galina answered him, firmly.

  “It is true, Galina,” he insisted, “and, as I have been deprived of the first dance, I insist on having the second.”

  There was no chance for her first partner to protest that she should stay with him until the music started, as the second young man swept Galina away at the first note.

  She saw that Ellie-May was not only dancing but also talking animatedly, so she need not worry about her.

  Ellie-May certainly looked exceedingly attractive in her new dress with her hair so beautifully arranged by the famous Monsieur Hemes.

  Galina was quite certain that Ellie-May would not be a wallflower.

  Galina had danced four dances when, as it was very hot, she went into the garden for a breath of fresh air.

  “Would you like something to drink?” her partner asked.

  “I would love a glass of lemonade,” replied Galina.

  He looked round and saw there was an empty seat under a tree decorated with Chinese lanterns.

  “Wait there, and I will be as quick as I can.”

  He went away.

  Then, to Galina’s surprise, Lord Bramton appeared apparently from nowhere.

  “I have been waiting,” he began, “to find you alone. Now come quickly because I do want to talk to you.”

  Galina realised she was behaving badly in running away from her partner, but she really could not resist Lord Bramton’s invitation.

  Almost before she could guess what was happening her hand was in his and he was leading her quickly through the trees.

  He took her to a part of the garden that was not lit with fairy lights.

  There was, however, a pale moon coming out in the starlit sky and it enabled Lord Bramton to find a seat in a group of rhododendrons that would hide them from other people wandering about.

  As they sat down, Galina piped up,

  “I suppose you do know you are making me behave badly. In fact, I am being very rude to my last partner.”

  “It was the only chance of getting you to myself,” Lord Bramton muttered, “and you know that we have not yet finished our conversation.”

  “That’s true, but we will have to think of some very good excuse as to why I vanished.”

  “If he has any sense, he will believe you have gone back to Olympus from whence you came!”

  Galina laughed.

  “I am quite prepared to be a Goddess, but I would like to be one of the better behaved ones!”

  “I am very certain that nothing you did could ever be wrong – ”

  Galina laughed again.

  “That is just the sort of compliment I like, but I only wish it was true.”

  “I have been looking for you for a long time,” Lord Bramton breathed, “and when I saw you tonight I could not believe you were true.”

  He spoke seriously and for some reason she could not understand she felt as if her heart gave a little quiver.

  “I don’t think – I understand what you mean.”

  “Why should you, dear Galina? But it happens to be true that you are even more beautiful than you were in my imagination and when I talked to you at dinner, I knew that I no longer had to go on dreaming of the impossible.”

  Because he spoke so fervently, Galina could not for the moment think what to say.

  Again she could feel that strange sensation within herself.

  “I will now tell you the answer to your question of why we have not met before. It is because I cannot afford to come to London and, as I cannot offer my friends any hospitality, I do not accept theirs.”

  Galina looked at him in astonishment.

  “Are you saying, in a rather strange way, that you are very poor?”

  “That, if anything, is an exaggeration. I am almost penniless and I cannot think what I can do about it.”

  Galina drew in her breath.

  “But Georgie has told me that you have one of the most famous and beautiful houses in England.”

  “That is true, but I have no way of keeping it up. I think I shall just have to close the doors and live in one of the cottages.”

  “But you cannot do such a thing! There must be some way that you can sell something even if it’s a piece of the estate.”

  She was thinking of hers and Georgie’s problems as she spoke.

  Lord Bramton shook his head.

  “No! As I expect you understand, I personally own nothing, not even a picture or one inch of land, because it is all entailed.”

  Galina recognised at once it was the same problem facing her and Georgie.

  Yet her brother believed he had a chance of making some money by going to America, but that was something she could not say to Lord Bramton.

  “I am sorry, I am desperately sorry for you, but I do understand because everything Georgie owns is entailed too.”

  “I know, because I have often talked about it with him and wondered if there was any solution – ”

  “There must be something you can do.”

  “If there was, I am sure I would have thought of it.”

  There was silence for a moment and then he said,

  “Now, to make me even more miserable than I am already, I have found you!”

  Galina looked at him and then looked away.

  Even in the moonlight she could see only too well from the expression in his eyes what he was feeling.

  “You are so exquisitely beautiful,” Lo
rd Bramton was saying in a deep voice. “And when we met I thought there was a celestial light behind your head and you were not human but divine.”

  “You must not say such words to me – ”

  “Why not?” he asked. “I have nothing else to offer you and perhaps after tonight we will never meet again.”

  Galina gave a little cry.

  She did not know why, but she wanted to meet him again.

  It seemed so extraordinary she should feel like this, but then it was so extraordinary that any man she had just met should speak to her as Lord Bramton was doing.

  “It’s not just because of your incredible beauty,” he was saying, “but I feel when I touch your hand, as if I was joined to you spiritually and that nothing can divide us.”

  Galina drew in her breath.

  She felt as if her heart reached out towards him.

  She understood, although she did not really want to, exactly what he was saying.

  Looking away from him, she mumbled,

  “You must not think about me, but of some solution to your problem.”

  “I have thought and thought,” he answered, “and I swear there is no solution.”

  There was silence for a moment, then he remarked,

  “Of course, I suppose I could cheat and try to sell things that are entailed and hope no one will find me out.”

  He paused, sighed and then continued,

  “But if they did, I would be disgraced and even if I got away with it, I should be ashamed of myself and the family whose name I bear.”

  “No, of course, you cannot do anything crooked any more than we can. We have been brought up to be ladies and gentlemen and that is just what we have to be, however much we may suffer.”

  Lord Bramton smiled sadly.

  “I knew that you would understand, as no one else would.”

  Galina suddenly gave a little cry.

  “I have thought of a solution, but you may not like it. However, it would save you and your house, those who belong to you and your children when you have them.”

  Lord Bramton stared at her.

  “You have a solution!” he repeated as if he could not believe what she had just said. “What is it?”

  “You must marry Ellie-May. Her father wants her to marry someone with a title and although you are only a Lord, no one has a house to compare with yours.”

  “I have no wish to marry anyone except you,” Lord Bramton exclaimed.

  Galina looked horrified.

  There was a poignant silence and then he blurted out passionately,

  “How could I marry anyone when I love you?”

  “How could you ever say that when you have only just met me?” she asked with a puzzled look on her face.

  Lord Bramton looked up to the sky.

  “I swear to you on everything I hold sacred that I have never been in love until this very minute. When I saw you tonight with that celestial light behind you, I knew it was a miracle and I had found what I have been seeking.”

  “How can you say that?” Galina asked him again.

  “I can say it because it is true, Galina. Of course, I have had the opportunity of marrying young girls who have come to admire my house and whose parents have thought it would be very pleasant for them to own it with me.”

  “I think people have felt the same about Georgie.”

  As if she had not spoken, Lord Bramton continued,

  “In the back of my mind I have always realised it would be quite wrong to marry without love – the real love I have certainly never felt for any of the women who have tried to flirt with me.”

  “But how can you be sure that what you feel for me is not just a passing fad? Like something that comes to you after a good dinner.”

  “Give me your hand, Galina – ”

  Because it seemed to be a command, rather than a request, she put out her left hand and he took it in both of his.

  His fingers closed over it.

  She then felt – although she thought that she must have been imagining it – another even stranger vibration running through her entire body.

  It was a sensation that seemed to become a thrill.

  It touched her heart and then her lips.

  Lord Bramton did not speak, but just looked at her.

  Then unexpectedly he took his hands away.

  “Now you understand!”

  “I do not!” Galina protested. “How can you do that to me?”

  Lord Bramton smiled.

  “You are feeling just what I am feeling and perhaps because you are so young, you have not yet recognised it as love – the true love we all seek.”

  Galina did not say anything and he went on,

  “We were made for each other and I do believe we have been together in another life.”

  He paused and then he murmured in a voice of deep emotion,

  “Now I have found you again and there is nothing I can do about it.”

  It was impossible for Galina to speak.

  She was so astonished at the way she had just felt.

  “I love you,” he breathed. “I know if it was at all possible for us to be together, we would be supremely and divinely happy.”

  “If you feel like that,” said Galina in a very small voice, “there must be something you can do about it.”

  “There are only two things I can do. One is to take you in my arms and kiss you until you love me as much as I love you, or secondly to disappear so that you will never see me again.”

  “But I do want to see you again – ”

  It was something she had not meant to say.

  Yet somehow the words came into her lips and she could not prevent herself.

  “My darling, my sweet one. You are everything I knew you would be if only I could find you. But now I know if I was to behave properly, I would go away and you would never have to think about me again.”

  “But where would you go and what would you do?”

  “Does it really matter? As far as I am concerned, the sooner I am dead the better!”

  “That is a wicked thing to say,” she asserted, “and I am surprised you can be so faint-hearted.”

  He looked at her in astonishment.

  “Faint-hearted!” he exclaimed.

  “If you really love me as you say you do,” Galina answered him, “I am sure there is something we can think of together that will save your house and you.”

  Lord Bramton reached out and took her hand back into his and kissed it.

  At the touch of his lips on her skin, she felt a strong heat course through her.

  She sensed, although it seemed unbelievable, that he was right and that they were really meant for each other.

  “I just worship and adore you,” Lord Bramton said, “and now because I feel you have more commonsense than I have, tell me what we must do.”

  It then flashed through Galina’s mind that he could appeal to Mr. Farlow for help.

  But that might in some way upset Georgie’s plans.

  She was not certain how, but it would be a mistake for too many plots to be going on at the same time.

  “There must be some way that you could find help. I am sure if we pray very hard an idea will come to us. But while we are waiting for an answer to our prayers, we must not do anything foolish.”

  “Are you suggesting that I should stay in London and see you?” he asked.

  “Why not?”

  “I am staying at my Club, but I cannot really afford it anymore.”

  “Then what you must do is to move into Ranmore House!”

  Lord Bramton stared at her.

  “Do you really mean it?”

  “I can see no reason why you should not. Georgie is going away for a short time. Anyway there is plenty of room and everything is paid for by Mr. Farlow.”

  As she spoke, she felt certain that Mr. Farlow would undoubtedly be delighted to entertain any young gentleman with a title.

  Something else passed through her
mind.

  Perhaps if he was there and seeing Ellie-May every day, Lord Bramton might think after all he should marry her and forget his dreams of perfect love.

  Even as she was mulling over the idea, he shook his head.

  “That will not happen, Galina.”

  “You cannot be reading my thoughts!”

  “I can read your thoughts just as if you tried to, you would find you could read mine. We belong to each other, my beautiful Goddess, and whatever happens in the future we will still belong even if fate takes us from each other.”

  “If you really do believe that, and somehow you are making me feel it is true, then I feel sure that we shall find a solution to your problem and to Georgie’s. At least we can try.”

  “Of course we can,” Lord Bramton agreed, “but it is going to be hard, very hard not to tell you how much I love you and make you love me as I want you to do.”

  “I know just what you are saying, but do you think it would be somewhat unfair to make me love you when you cannot afford to marry me?”

  “Now you are reading my thoughts, Galina, and if I do come to stay at Ranmore House, it will be hell for me to behave as you want me to, although at the same time it will be Heaven to be near you.”

  “Then let’s try it,” Galina pleaded, “and perhaps as you believe we have been so lucky to find each other, then why should not God, who is guiding us, be kinder still?”

  “We can only pray He will, but you are asking too much of me as a simple human being – ”

  Galina spread out her hands in a little gesture.

  “There is nothing to stop you from walking out and going back to the country and looking miserably at your house!”

  Lord Bramton laughed.

  “I love you when you are being sensible. Just as I love you whatever I hear you say. You are so perfect – the ideal I was quite certain can never exist in this world.”

  “Now you are frightening me,” exclaimed Galina. “Perhaps it is a test and when you get to Ranmore House, you are disillusioned and you will only blame yourself for asking too much.”

  “I just adore everything about you, Galina. You are unique and because I feel as if an angel has been sent down from Heaven to guide me, I shall do exactly as you tell me to do.”

  Galina gave a little cry.

  “That is unfair. If things go wrong, you will blame me rather than yourself.”