A Duke in Danger (19 page)

They looked out over the lake, which was a pool of silver, and at the great trees in the Park, their leaves shining above their dark trunks.

With a little sigh Alvina spoke for the first time.

“Now we need no
...
longer be
...
afraid.”

“
That is true,” the Duke said. “I will protect and look after you, and as my wife there will be for you no fears, only happiness.”

Alvina gave a little cry that was almost child-like and said:

“Is it
...
true
...
really true that you
...
love me?”

“
It will take me a long time to tell you how much,” the Duke replied. “I know now that you are the ideal person I dream of, and who was always in a secret shrine in my heart.”

He pulled her closer before he went on:

“
I have travelled a long way to find you, my precious one, and now that I have done so, I will never let you go! You are mine!”

She turned her face up to his, and she thought he would kiss her, but instead he said:

You will not go to London, you will not be acclaimed as a Society Beauty. You will stay here with me, and I warn you I shall be very jealous if you want anything else.”

Alvina laughed, and it was like the song of the birds in Spring.

“Oh, darling, wonderful Ivar! You know I want
nothing more than to be here in the Castle with
...
you, but I still cannot believe that you
...
love me.”

“I will make you sure of it.”

“But I do not know how to
...
amuse you like the beautiful women you know in Paris and in London, and perhaps after a little while you will find me very boring.

The Duke smiled, and he knew as he thought back of the women in his life that like Isobel they had always ultimately bored him.

The reason why he always wished to escape from them was that they could not give him what Alvina could.

“Someday,” he said very quietly, “I will make you understand that the love we have for each other is very different from anything I have ever found or known before.”

“Is that true?”

“I promise you it is true,” he said, “and just as when I was a boy, the Castle stood for me for everything that was fine and noble, so I have always thought in my heart that the woman who reigned here with me must be fine, noble, beautiful, and also must love me, but
nobody else
.”

He accentuated the last words, thinking of how he had always loathed the idea of being married to somebody who would deceive him with other lovers.

He had also disliked the knowledge that he was not the first man in their lives, but was probably following a succession of other men who had possessed them.

Because Alvina was so different, he felt frightened that she might change, and pulling her almost roughly against him he added:

“You are mine, mine completely, and if you stop loving me I think I would strangle you, or throw you from the Tower as Jason intended to do!”

He was speaking in a way so unlike his usual iron control that it flashed through his mind that he had frightened her.

Instead, she gave a little laugh and pressed herself
closer to him.

“How can you imagine I could ever look at anybody else besides you?” she asked. “I have not known many men, but I know that nobody could be kinder, or more like the Knights who used to live here in the Castle.” Because she was thinking as he had, the Duke looked at her in surprise as she went on:

“I sometimes think those Knights are still here with us, and when I have been lonely and afraid because Papa was very angry with me, they seemed to be guarding me and telling me that one day things would be different.”

She gave a deep sigh that seemed to come from the very depths of her being as she added:

“Then you came, and you were a Knight in Shining Armour, to kill the Dragon that was destroying everything.”

“I think you did that,” the Duke said quietly, “and it is something, my precious, that you must never tell anybody, or even think about again.”

“I do not think it was
...
wrong of me to
...
kill Cousin Jason,” Alvina said, “because I knew that if he killed you, so many people would suffer
...
perhaps in an even worse way than they did with Papa.”

“We will never talk about it again,” the Duke said firmly. “Instead, I want only to think of you and to kiss you.”

His lips came down on hers, and he kissed her until she felt that the moonlight was not only round them but on their lips, in their hearts, and in their very souls.

She knew that the Duke was right when he had said that together they would make the Castle a place of nobility and hon
o
ur for all those who looked to them for guidance.

Perhaps too it would shine like a beacon of light to help those in other parts of the country who were in desperate need of help.

Alvina felt that the generations of people who had lived in the Castle before them were supporting them and giving them strength in the great task which lay ahead.

Because she had saved the Duke’s life, she no longer felt insignificant or unsure of herself as she had done in the past.

She knew he would always be her master, her guide, and her protector, but she knew too that she had something to give him, and that was love, real love, which he said he had not found in his life until now.

She reached up her arms towards him and did not notice that her shawl fell to the floor.

“I love you ... I love you! Teach me to do
...
exactly as you want me to do, and I know, because God has blessed us
...
that I shall be able to make you
...
happy.”

“I am happy, my lovely one!” the Duke answered. “Happier than I have ever been before and we will express our gratitude by making everybody round us happy too.”

He kissed her forehead, her straight little nose, her chin, and then the softness of her neck.

He felt her quiver with an excitement she had never known before, and knew she excited him to madness.

“God, how I love you,” he said.

His voice was deep and unsteady as he added:

“How soon will you marry me? I cannot wait to make you my wife!”

“I am ready now ... at this moment ... or tomorrow!” Alvina replied impulsively.

He laughed tenderly before he said:

“That is what I wanted you to say, and I will arrange
I
t.
”

“Can we be married here ... in the Chapel?”

He knew she looked at him a little anxiously in case he should want something different, and he replied:

“Of course! I can think of nothing more appropriate than that we should be married, not with a large number of friends and acquaintances to watch us, but with
those who have lived and died in the Castle and are still here, watching over us.”

Because it was just what she thought herself, Alvina made a murmur of joy.

Then she asked:

“How can you think
...
exactly as I do? How can you believe as I
...
believe? And how can you
...
want what I want?”

“
The answer to that is quite simple,” the Duke replied. “We are one person, my precious one, and when you are my wife you will find that our life together will be very full, very exciting, and indeed very satisfying, because together we are complete.”

Alvina gave a cry of sheer happiness.

Then he was kissing her again, kissing her passionately, demandingly, possessively, and she could feel his heart beating frantically against hers.

She knew as the moonlight within them seemed to intensify until it filled the whole world that there was nothing else but their love.

They had passed through great dangers to find each other, and neither of them would ever be alone again.