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  He gave a little laugh before he added,

  “Certainly where money was concerned. Those he helped or who worked with him never thought of him as anything but a leader and a King over his own people.”

  “So you can understand how much I admired him,” Melita said. “When I learnt that he was my father, I was delighted to have someone who had meant so much to me and who had been so kind to me, when for the rest of the time I was encircled only by women.”

  “Of course I do,” Sir John replied. “I can honestly say that it never troubled me that he had coloured skin. What is so amazing is that you are the image, I understand, of your mother and no one for a moment would ever think that your skin is not as white as snow.”

  “That is more or less what Papa said to me,” Melita answered. “As he wanted to leave me all his money, he was terribly afraid that I would be not only be pursued by fortune-hunters but that my family would not protect me as they should, simply because they would be surprised and horrified by the truth.”

  “I think that is a slight exaggeration. At the same time I will not pretend that they would not prefer all their relations to be pure English.”

  “One thing Papa wanted to prevent was me being married for his money, which is now mine,” Melita said. “It was, he told me, because he had no wish to die without my knowing the truth and he did not want me to hear it from anyone else except him.”

  “And now you know it, do you mind?”

  Melita gave a little laugh.

  “No, of course not. He was the most charming and delightful man I have ever met. Although I admit I have not met many. But he made me very happy all through my childhood and since I have grown up.”

  She paused for a moment and then, as Sir John did not speak, she said,

  “Equally I would want to choose my own husband and, of course, he would have to be someone who loved me for myself and not for my money.”

  “That is what your father said to me,” Sir John told her. “He was speaking the truth when he stated that a girl like you could be hunted, run after and even kidnapped by those who were thinking of your bank balance rather than you.”

  “That is more or less what he said to me,” Melita agreed. “It was only when I had time to think it over and, of course, I suppose like all girls I have always thought how exciting it would be to fall in love, to marry someone and have a large family that we would both love as much as we loved each other.”

  There was a throb in her voice as she spoke and Sir John knew that it was something she had thought about and was quite certain would happen one day.

  There was a long silence between them until at last Melita said,

  “I have thought of something which I think would make us both happy and avoid the fear of what eventually might be the truth of us hating each other because we were forced into marriage.”

  “I quite agree it is something we would not have chosen,” Sir John said slowly. “At the same time I have given my word to your father that I would marry you. As you have given your solemn word to him as well, how can we possibly break what is to all intents and purposes a sacred vow?”

  “I agree with you,” Melita said. “That is why I want you to understand what I am suggesting. I feel that it is the solution for both of us.”

  She paused and Sir John said quietly,

  “I am listening, Melita.”

  “Well, I was thinking last night,” she began, “after I realised that Papa was dead and you were coming here, that he was afraid I would be married for his money which I am quite certain is a very large amount and that you were the sort of gentleman he would like me to marry.”

  She gave a little laugh as she went on,

  “Obviously many men would be put off if they had the slightest idea that I was not indeed the daughter of an Englishman but a half-caste.”

  Sir John gave a gasp for he had never thought of his friend Gavron in that way.

  But he had to admit to himself that it was the truth.

  “What I am now suggesting for you to think over,” Melita said, “is that we contact my family, as my father wished me to do and let them meet you as my father’s friend, who was so fortunately in Paris and was with him when he died.”

  She took a deep breath,

  “So we would arrange, which we feel would have delighted him, that we should get married as he wanted us to do.”

  She paused.

  “But we had a horror of the commotion,” she went on, “which would be reported in the newspapers of the huge fortune he had made for himself which to everyone’s astonishment he had left to the daughter of a friend who had lived abroad for the last twenty-one years. Someone who none of her family had any knowledge of until now.”

  She smiled and continued,

  “We must both of us keep our word, but instead of arriving in England to meet my family, who will welcome me with open arms as they think I am laden with gold, we say that we have been married privately and secretly here in Paris.”

  Again she paused.

  “So there will be no big Wedding with invitations flying out and the congregation wondering how they could benefit from what we possess between us.”

  Sir John looked puzzled.

  “You want to be married in Paris!” he exclaimed.

  “What I had said was,” Melita explained, “that my family would learn that I had been married in Paris.”

  “I don’t understand what you are saying,” Sir John replied.

  “It’s not surprising as it is rather complicated,” she admitted. “What I suggest is that we tell your family we are married and, as there are a great number of Churches here in Paris, it will not be too difficult for us to find one that is hidden away if we are pressed into revealing its name, but actually we will remain single as we are at the moment.”

  Sir John stared at her.

  “But we promised your father that we would marry each other.”

  “Perhaps we will one day if we do fall in love with each other,” Melita replied. “But we will not be forced up the aisle chained to each other for life!”

  She smiled at him.

  “If I had had time to discuss it with my father as I wanted to do,” she continued, “I would have asked him to wait perhaps for a year or two in case I met the man of my dreams. A man who would tell me truthfully that he had been looking for me ever since he grew up.”

  Sir John sighed.

  “That is the love we all seek. We all hope we will find what the Greeks call the other half of ourselves. But unfortunately in real life it does not happen. As I promised your father I would marry you, that is what I am willing to do.”

  “You still don’t understand why I have thought out something simple as my father would have done,” Melita said. “We return to England and I say, as he told me to do, that I am the daughter of Captain Compton who was killed before I was born.”

  She smiled at Sir John.

  “Because I was looked after and protected all these years by Gavron Murillo, who was a friend of his and who greatly admired my mother, he had only been waiting until he was sure that I wanted to return to England to take me back there to my family.”

  She stopped for a moment to draw breath before she continued,

  “But unfortunately, as he had been so ill for the last year, Gavron had not been able to do so and now he is dead. I came to Paris and I met you, not for the first time because you had been to the Convent on several occasions when Gavron was visiting it.”

  Sir John gazed at her but he did not speak.

  “We say you did in fact fall in love with me, but thought it a mistake to say so. But Gavron was clever as he had always been and guessed that we were two people who loved each other on sight and who were admirably suited. He had therefore divided his money between us.”

  She paused for a moment and then continued,

  “No one is going to count it up exactly because it is spread in so many directions. And because we know it is wha
t he wanted and what we want ourselves, we have been married.”

  Sir John gave a start, but he did not interrupt and Melita went on,

  “When I have met my family, I will move into your house. What we know, but no one else does, is that actually we are free.”

  Sir John was listening intently, but he did not speak and she told him,

  “If after some years we have not found the person who is really the other part of ourselves somewhere in this great wide world then, as I want children, as I am sure you do, we could be married.”

  She smiled again.

  “But until then,” she continued, “we will just move about together searching for love. That is the real love that Papa has talked about but which he had never known until he met my mother.”

  As she was speaking, Sir John had been staring at her, his eyes widening at almost every word.

  Then, as she lapsed into silence and looked at him questioningly, he thought that Gavron Murillo had been right when he had said that she had her mother’s looks and his brain.

  No one but Gavron could have thought of anything so complicated.

  Yet at the same time so credible.

  He looked up at her and she was gazing at him.

  “I certainly think you are very clever,” he said. “It is something I did not think of myself. But I think if we act it as well as you have recited the plot, we shall succeed in making people believe that we are married and, as you quite rightly say, give each other a chance to make certain that we are right for each other.”

  He paused before he added,

  “And there must be no difficulties if we fall in love with someone else.”

  Melita gave a sigh of relief.

  “I knew you would understand,” she said. “Papa has often spoken of you and said how brilliantly clever you are. I always thought that was high praise from Papa, who was so brilliant himself.”

  “One thing is quite obvious,” Sir John replied. “If we do this, we must do it so subtly that no one is the least suspicious.”

  “Of course,” she agreed. “If they were suspicious, I am sure that they would blackmail us for at least half our fortune.”

  “I can see that the fortune is going to play a big part in this comedy,” he replied, “for it cannot be anything else. Although it will be us who are laughing while the others are glaring at us with envious eyes!”

  “Now you know what to do,” Melita said, “and I thought you would be astute enough to realise that it was the only real possibility for both of us not to be shackled so that we cannot escape. But be bright enough to act a part which will deceive everybody, except of course ourselves.”

  “I have to admit that it is something I did not think of myself,” Sir John replied. “And I was just wondering if you would resent being forced on me.”

  “Also to resent me for being very angry,” Melita chimed in, “because you are forced on me.”

  They both laughed.

  “We will have to be very very clever about this,” Sir John warned, “otherwise your family may well smell a rat.”

  He smiled at her.

  “I think mine will be so thrilled that I am marrying at last,” he continued, “after they have begged me, almost on their knees, for the last five years to hurry up the aisle, so that everyone will commend us and my family will be counting the months until there is an heir.”

  “If they are disappointed, then they will only have themselves to blame for interfering in affairs which are not theirs,” Melita said lightly. “While we can laugh and have the fun of getting to know each other without feeling that we are crippled.”

  “I suppose that is how you would feel, but if I was paying you compliments as I should be doing, I would tell you that you are very lovely. As far as I can see any man would be delighted to have such a pretty wife.”

  “That is just the sort of thing you should say, Sir John. If you say it with real sincerity, no one will doubt for a moment that we are tied to each other for Eternity!”

  Sir John sighed and then he said,

  “One thing is absolutely obvious, we must not be caught over this. Because we are both almost millionaires and we both have titles, the whole thing is bound to be front page news in the newspapers.”

  “We could hide in the country or travel round the world,” Melita suggested, “but for the moment if I can say what I really want, it is to visit England.”

  She smiled a beguiling smile.

  “I long to see the people my mother belonged to,” she went on. “To see their homes and the way they live and naturally, as you are my husband, to see the house which is yours and which you are prepared to share with me.”

  “You have put all that very nicely,” Sir John said approvingly. “What I will do now is to see your father’s Solicitor in Paris, who is waiting, I understand, to show me Gavron’s will and while I am doing that I think you should be looking for the Church where we are supposed to have been married and, of course, as you are a woman, buying your trousseau.”

  Melita threw back her head and laughed.

  “Now you are entering into the spirit of the game which I was afraid you would not do.”

  “How could I do anything but try to please you?” Sir John replied. “Let me tell you quite truthfully that you are even lovelier to look at than I had expected. I am quite certain that not only your family but all the fortune-hunters your father was so afraid of will descend on you once you reach England.”

  Melita laughed.

  “Now you are frightening me. I am determined to see England without being prejudiced and without being afraid and most of all not resenting people who would, if he had not been rich considered my Papa of no importance because his skin was not the same colour as theirs.”

  “To that speech,” Sir John replied, “which is I think typical of your father’s daughter, I can only say ‘Amen’.”

  He laughed as he spoke and then he was aware that Melita was laughing too.

  *

  On the next day they had a most interesting dinner together and talked until it was nearly midnight about their previous lives.

  Sir John found it extraordinary that, having been only in the Convent and seeing few people outside, Melita was an extremely well educated young woman.

  She had, it was true, learnt half-a-dozen languages especially those, on her father’s strictest instructions, that were European and all other countries where he had made money.

  She had also, Sir John found, spent a great deal of time reading and with her knowledge of languages this was certainly unusual for a woman.

  In fact he had found amongst the women he had amused himself with in London that only a few of them spoke French.

  The rest considered languages to be of little interest simply because they were not often to be found in the whirl of the Beau Monde in London.

  While she had been living in the Convent, Melita had in her mind travelled to almost every country in the world.

  Although she had not actually seen them, talking to her Sir John felt as if he himself was the pupil while she was the teacher.

  There were also a great number of other matters for them to discuss.

  Most important was whether they would keep the house in the Champs Élysées or, as they were not likely to spend much time in it for the next few years, whether they would either sell or let it.

  “I think we should keep it,” Melita said, “because, if England becomes intolerable to me, I can run away here, while you can escape from the boredom of talking to the woman who is supposed to be your wife and come here to be amused amongst all the alluring women who are always waiting eagerly for a man like you.”

  “How could you know something like that coming straight from a Convent?” Sir John asked.

  “Papa told me just what Paris was like,” Melita told him. “As you well know he was most voluble when he wished to be.”

  She coughed.

  “He made everything he talked about seem
to come to life,” she went on, “and you felt as if you had really been a part of Paris, Rome, Constantinople or London because you were talking to him and he was explaining what had happened there.”

  “You are fantastic!” Sir John exclaimed when the evening had ended. “I feel as though I have been travelling instead of just listening to a young girl who I expected would know little more than the Lord’s Prayer.”

  Melita laughed.

  “You can thank Papa for telling me about the world outside Thailand and also the books which he provided the Convent with, which were, of course, intended for me.”

  “Now I understand,” John said. “I always thought that your father was a most fascinating man. I used to sit listening to him talking to my father and not realising I was having an exclusive and very special education which few boys were lucky enough to acquire.”

  “Now you will have to teach me all the things I should know,” Melita replied, “which, of course, I had to imagine while I was in the Convent.”

  “If your body was there, that was one thing!” Sir John exclaimed. “But your brain was outside and I do not know anyone who knows as much of the world as you do. You now have to make it all come to life.”

  Melita clapped her hands.

  “That is exactly what I want,” she said. “Don’t let us be in a hurry going back to England. Let’s see a little of the world outside and you cannot possibly argue by saying we cannot afford it!”

  “That is certainly true,” Sir John agreed.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The first gift that Sir John bought for them both was a yacht.

  “It will make us independent,” he said, “otherwise when we are most enjoying ourselves we will have to hurry to catch a ship to take us to the next Port of call. Then we may miss something very significant.”

  “I have always wanted to travel on a yacht,” Melita replied. “Papa talked about his, but I am sure you are right in thinking that it is rather out of date. Our new one will be very modern in every possible way.”

  Sir John found exactly the yacht he wanted when they moved from Paris down to Marseilles.