Danger in the Desert Read online

  “Doubtless they will be discussing the enormous number of presents we will be receiving and the fireworks which are to be set off at night to make sure that the stars appreciate us as much as the villagers and the others who will be watching them on the lawn at The Towers.”

  Malva laughed.

  Then she said,

  “I do hope we are not caught out in this. We will look very stupid if they realise that we are acting out a lie.”

  “We must avoid that at all costs,” Royden replied. “Now come along. I suggest that we ride towards the lake and then cut down into the large wood and hide where no one will find us.”

  As it all seemed absurd and almost childish, Malva laughed again.

  But she realised that she and Royden would be in deep trouble if their parents suspected that they were being deceived.

  “What have you done,” she asked as they rode off, “about the marriage documents that you thought you could obtain?”

  “I have them,” he answered. “There is a Chapel in Mayfair where people are still married without a Special Licence.”

  “Oh, yes, I have heard about it. Did you go there?”

  “No, I obtained a Special Licence that can be used in our own private Chapel at The Towers,” he replied.

  “I had forgotten about that. Because it is never open, which I would like so it to be, I was not aware that people could be married there.”

  “If I ever do marry, I will be married in the Chapel where I was actually Christened,” Royden said.

  Mala had often thought it was a pity that, after his wife died, the Earl had put her body in the family vault and closed the Chapel door so that no one could go into it

  She remembered as a small child being taken there and thinking how pretty the Chapel was with its coloured glass windows and very beautiful altar.

  Now she thought it was very sensible of Royden to want to be married in his own Chapel rather than a Church which seemed much less personal than if it was part of the great house.

  “What did you find?” she asked aloud.

  “I found two printed forms that are given to people who are married there. On them are printed the words,

  “The Chapel to Saint Michael and All Saints at Hillingwood Towers.”

  Malva was listening intently and was about to ask what they should do about it when Royden went on,

  “I cleverly erased that inscription and left a blank so that when my father asks me, which he obviously will, where we were married we will say it is a secret because no one must know we have been married until later when we return and announce our marriage to the world.”

  “So we now have two forms saying we are legally married and signed by a Priest,” Malva said as if she was thinking it over.

  “Actually they were signed by me,” Royden said. “But I have put in a name that sounds not only clerical but someone of high rank in the Church hierarchy as if he was a Cannon.”

  He spoke so seriously that Malva could not help laughing.

  “You certainly do these sorts of things thoroughly,” she said. “I am sure most people would not have thought of anything so complicated.”

  “We have to be quite certain that our fathers are convinced we are actually joined in wedlock,” Royden told her. “So that it will be an even greater shock when we tell them we want a divorce!”

  “In real life it would be an outrage that they would never allow,” Malva murmured.

  “It is something they could not prevent,” Royden answered. “I have gone into this matter thoroughly and if two people really want to have a divorce and, as you know it would have to go through Parliament and would prove expensive, there is no doubt that it would be impossible for anyone to stop them doing so.”

  Malva thought that, because it would cause a great deal of adverse gossip besides being printed in every paper, she was quite certain that the Earl and her father would do everything in their power to prevent it.

  When they eventually found it was all unnecessary and they were not married after all, it would be quite obvious that they would feel relieved rather than angry at her and Royden at being deceived.

  At least she hoped so.

  They rode on through a field and then dipped down into the leafy wood and finished up looking over the wild undeveloped part of the County.

  “No one will see us here,” Royden suggested. “So we may as well enjoy the ride while we have the chance.”

  “I am delighted to do so,” Malva agreed. “I seldom have the opportunity of going so far from home. We could not ask for a sunnier day.”

  “Everything is in our favour. So we must be very careful not to make a mess of things.”

  “I am quite prepared to let you do the talking,” Malva said. “I will merely look goofy and say nothing.”

  Royden laughed.

  “You look very pretty and that is more important than making remarks that afterwards you might wish you had not said.”

  “That is exactly what I am afraid of. We have to be convincing otherwise all this will be in vain and we will be back arguing day after day and night after night as to why we have no wish to be husband and wife.”

  “It is impossible for both of us. By the way I have done something rather clever, Malva, that I think you will approve of.”

  “What is that?” she asked a little nervously.

  In fact she could not help wondering what else he was going to spring on her.

  “I have just bought,” he announced grandly, “a new yacht.”

  “A new yacht!” Malva exclaimed. “But you have only had your other one for two years.”

  “I know that,” he replied, “but I thought it would be a mistake to hide in it for the simple reason that at least two of my yachtsmen have relations in the village – ”

  “ – and they might talk,” Malva finished for him.

  “Of course they will. They will be thrilled that two people they know so well have been married. Naturally their mothers and fathers and half a dozen of their friends will want to know where we are spending our honeymoon and if we are supremely happy as they will be certain we are.”

  “I did not think of that,” Malva admitted. “You are clever. But it must be a tremendous extravagance for you to buy another yacht.”

  “Actually it was not as expensive as I expected it to be. It is French and has a French crew.”

  “You really are very astute!” Malva exclaimed. “I should never have thought of that. So, of course, they will not be especially interested in you and me as those working on your other yacht would be.”

  “Exactly. And I have already told them that I will be travelling with my sister.”

  “I feel I should curtsey to that, but it’s impossible to do it when I am riding side-saddle!”

  “I will accept your compliment without any extras attached to it!” Royden smiled.

  While they were talking, they had travelled some way into the wilder part of the countryside.

  Because the sun was hot Malva insisted on riding into a small group of trees for shade and Royden agreed with her.

  Dismounting, he let his horse drink at the stream that was running through the copse.

  Malva felt that she should do the same and took her horse there as well.

  Then they sat down on a fallen tree and discussed how long their supposed honeymoon should take.

  “What is much more important than anything else,” he said, “is to make it absolutely clear to our fathers that they must, on no account, tell anyone we are married or where we have gone.”

  “I know,” Malva agreed. “But you must give them an alternative answer to the obvious questions they are then bound to ask.”

  She hesitated for a moment before she added,

  “Your friends in London will surely be wondering what has happened to you. While I don’t suppose anyone in the country will be in the least curious as to why I have disappeared.”

  “I think my father will prefer to stay
here in the country and it is only yours who will be bombarded as you say with questions and find it difficult to answer them.”

  “I am sure he will be intelligent enough to keep people from being too curious,” Malva replied. “And you know how many people Papa sees one way or another at his meetings and in his Club.”

  “Your father is indeed certainly a most intelligent gentleman whom I have always admired. I think that we can trust him not to confide in anyone.”

  “I hope so,” Malva sighed. “Otherwise it will be very difficult for both of us when we return.”

  “Everything is difficult whichever way we look at it. More than anything else our real difficulty will be to make them fully aware that we have absolutely proved that marriage is quite impossible for both of us and therefore we have to remain single.”

  He stopped for a moment before he added,

  “At least I have to.”

  “So do I,” Malva countered. “I am determined not to marry until I fall in love. I will certainly not have the opportunity of doing so when we are sailing over the seas to a strange and not at all well-known country with only you and your French crew to talk to.”

  “You sound as if you think it will be very boring.”

  “On the contrary, I am looking forward enormously to seeing parts of the world I would never be able to see if you did not take me there. I am certain that we will find all sorts of dramas that we could never even imagine.”

  They sat talking on in the copse until it was twelve o’clock.

  Then they rode quickly back to The Towers.

  Their fathers were sitting expectantly in the study.

  Each had a glass in his hand as Royden and Malva entered.

  “Oh, here you are!” the Earl exclaimed. “I was just beginning to wonder if you had forgotten we were having luncheon today.”

  “No, we have not forgotten, Papa,” Royden said. “And, as I am sure you will agree, this is a very important occasion.”

  The two elderly men looked at them questioningly.

  Then Royden continued,

  “You wanted us to be married and you, Papa, made it quite clear that I was not only upsetting you but I was killing you because I would not do so.”

  The Earl said nothing, but frowned as his son went on,

  “We also believed that, however much you begged us to do so, it was impossible for us to get married until Malva had come out of her period of mourning because, as no one knows better than Lord Waverstone, Her Majesty the Queen would be horrified at us breaking her rules especially where I was concerned as I am her Godson.”

  Malva, who had forgotten this, looked at him in surprise but said nothing.

  Then he carried on,

  “We have therefore, because I am worried about your health, Papa, and the feeling of uncertainty Malva and I have caused you both, been married secretly in a Chapel where we were not forced to produce a Special Licence.”

  Both fathers sat up and stared at Royden as if they could not believe their ears.

  Lord Waverstone spoke first.

  “You have been married!” he exclaimed. “I don’t believe it!”

  “I have two documents to prove it,” he replied. “But as you will understand it is absolutely imperative that no one, and I mean no one, including the servants, should realise that this ceremony has taken place. If it does and Her Majesty hears about it, she will be extremely annoyed and particularly because I happen to be her Godson, I will be in disgrace and so will you, Papa.”

  “So will my father,” Malva joined in. “He is often at Windsor Castle and no one knows better than he how the Queen expects to be obeyed implicitly especially when it concerns marriage.”

  Both the elderly men seemed for the moment to be shocked into silence.

  Then Royden carried on,

  “What we plan to do, my wife and I, is to go abroad immediately for our honeymoon. It will then be up to Lord Waverstone to convince everybody that Malva is staying away with her friends preferably in the North where they cannot be in communication with them. We will not return home until Malva is no longer in deep mourning and it is then that you can begin to plan the firework display and all the other festivities you connect and, quite unnecessarily I may say, with marriage.”

  “And you were really married in this extraordinary way?” the Earl asked.

  Royden handed him the two forms which he had shown to Malva.

  He looked first at one and then the other.

  Then he exclaimed,

  “This does not say where the marriage took place!”

  “As you can see, I have arranged it,” Royden said, “just in case the forms are left lying around and someone takes the trouble to see if we really went there and asked questions as to where we have gone.”

  He paused for a moment before resuming,

  “I have no wish for anyone to hear of our marriage and least of all to know where we are on our honeymoon. You know that Her Majesty would think it exceedingly wrong of us to have disobeyed her orders. I have no wish when we return to find that we are barred from Windsor Castle!”

  “I am sure you will never be,” Lord Waverstone said. “At the same time I think it is extraordinary of my daughter to get married in such an odd manner and without my being present.”

  Malva went to his side.

  “You would have argued, Papa, against us doing so. But you know as well as I do that if you kept talking about us getting married it would leak out sooner or later. Then there would be too many curious people for us to be able to keep it a secret.”

  “But we meant you to have a very large Reception here,” the Earl said. “In fact, Arthur and I were talking it over before you arrived.”

  “That is exactly what I was afraid of,” Royden said. “As you well know everyone has ears in this place where it concerns you and me. It would only be a question of time before the gossips in London would be chattering behind their hands. The fact that we were to be married would be no longer a secret, but doubtless anticipated with glee in every newspaper.”

  There was silence around the room.

  Then after a moment he continued,

  “Malva was very anxious, if we did marry, to have a very quiet wedding as her mother could not be present and I was concerned that, as Papa was worrying himself over it so much, he might make himself really ill and that has to be avoided at all costs.”

  He thought as he spoke that his father looked rather guilty because of his exaggerated play of ill health when they had discussed his marriage earlier.

  “What Malva and I are determined about,” Royden went on, “is that, when we do return, you give us time to breathe before we have a large wedding party here with, of course, fireworks for the villagers and barrels of drink for those who are working on the land.”

  He spoke almost scornfully as he added,

  “Then all of those who are curious will come to stare at my bride and those who chatter too much will give you a list of the ladies who will be disappointed that now I am a married man.”

  The Earl laughed as if he could not help himself.

  “I am quite certain there will be plenty of those,” he agreed, “all the more reason why you should get rid of them in one fell swoop and then they will have nothing to talk about for some time.”

  “When is all this to take place?” Lord Waverstone wanted to know.

  “As soon as we return, but I cannot tell you at the moment exactly when that will be. We are going to explore a little of the world I have not seen for several years and which will be something new and intriguing for Malva.”

  He paused for a moment before he said,

  “All you have to do in our absence is to explain that we are on holiday with friends, but not mention the word ‘marriage’ until we actually meet up with you again in this room.”

  There was more silence.

  Then, after a while, the Earl said,

  “Well, you have certainly taken my breath away. This i
s something I never expected.”

  “Nor did I until you put the idea into my head,” his son replied. “If you are both shocked and surprised, then just remember that it is a complete and absolute secret and no one must know, however curious they may be, what has really happened.”

  Lord Waverstone chuckled.

  “I might have guessed, Royden, that you would do something original. This is certainly a novel way of setting out on the biggest enterprise any man could take in his life – and that is marriage.”

  “And particularly when he has a father,” Royden said, “who persuades him it is essential that it should take place immediately. That is indeed exactly what Malva and I have done.”

  “I thought I should be blamed sooner or later,” the Earl remarked. “As I said, you have taken my breath away and this is something I never expected even in my wildest dreams.”

  Royden glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece.

  “Luncheon should be ready now,” he said. “I told the servants when I came back to the house that we would go into the dining room when we were ready as I had a few matters to discuss with my father before we did so.”

  “Then we will go into luncheon,” the Earl agreed, “and I suppose not one word of what has happened here must be said at the table.”

  “As I have said already,” Royden asserted, “there are ears everywhere and tongues who want to chatter about us. What Malva and I have done this morning must not be mentioned to anyone until we return from our honeymoon. Incidentally we are leaving for London as soon as luncheon is finished.”

  Lord Waverstone put his hand up to his forehead.

  “I cannot believe this is really happening,” he said.

  “I agree with you,” the Earl sighed. “I have never known the ceiling fall in when I least expected it.”

  “Well, just think about it, Papa,” Royden said, “you have achieved exactly what you asked for, only it has come to you in my way rather than yours!”

  “You are a most tiresome boy,” the Earl replied. “At the same time I must tell you how grateful and how glad I am you that have at last understood the importance of marriage where you are concerned and how delighted I am that the family name will continue for at least, I hope, the next one thousand years.”