The Marquis Is Trapped (19 page)

Then he saw Celina’s face looking down at him.

“We’ve done it!  
We’ve done it
,” she whispered.

The Marquis bent down to pick up her clothes and handed them to her, as he became aware that she must have been wearing very little when she climbed up the roof.

“Give me a few minutes,” she murmured.

He smiled, wondering how many other women of his acquaintance would be so modest.

But he recognised that as Celina was so young and innocent, he must be very careful not to shock her in any way.

He pulled one of the chairs onto the table, as when she was ready, it would make it easier for him to join her.

She did not take too long in dressing.

“You can come up now, my Lord,” she called out.

He stood on the chair and then with no difficulty at all he pulled himself through the opening.

The top of the tower was, just as he expected, much smaller than the room below.

The roof was shattered so there would have been no difficulty for Celina in entering it once she had reached the top of the turret.

As he stepped onto the floor, Celina was standing looking at him.

Without thinking what he was doing and because he had been so desperately anxious about her, he pulled her into his arms.

His lips came down on hers.

For a moment she seemed to stiffen a little.

Then the kiss he had meant to be so gentle became very much more demanding.

For what seemed like a long time they were joined together.

The Marquis was aware that it was not merely a kiss of relief and congratulations, but it was something very different.

As he set Celina free, she slipped her hand into his and drew him towards the door.

It struck the Marquis for the first time that perhaps the door might be locked – in which case all they had done would have been useless.

To his relief it was not locked and they both walked cautiously through it into the passage.

The stairs were in darkness and, still holding Celina by the hand, the Marquis started to inch down them very very slowly.

It was essential, he knew, that they should make no noise.

In addition he was banking on Celina’s suggestion that the pirates would be eating at this time of the night.

It seemed to him a long way down to the last step.

They paused for some minutes before they reached the ground and both the Marquis and Celina listened intently.

Then suddenly they heard a man’s laugh, but it was some distance away and next another man spoke, although they could not hear what he was saying.

It was quite obvious that the pirates were together in a room in the Castle, but it was actually a little distance from the turret.

The Marquis remembered the door where they had entered the Castle.  Taking hold of Celina’s hand, he walked very quietly towards it and opened it gently.

To his relief, he could see several low bushes just outside, so they slipped behind them.

He had already thought it would be a great mistake to cross directly to
The Neptune
the way they had come, as there was nothing to give them cover growing on the rough ground in front of the Castle.

They could easily be seen by anyone looking out of the Castle, so he deliberately turned to the left behind the bushes – then straight down a deep drop in the land and up again on the other side.

Now they were much nearer to the woods and the Marquis considered it unlikely that they could be seen as it was now almost completely dark.

The sun had disappeared and the moon had not yet risen.

The shadows were deep and, once they were safely in the wood, the Marquis knew that they were out of danger.

However, it would be very stupid to take any risks.  There was just a chance that the pirates might think of giving them something to eat or even just check up on them.

They were now well to the North of
The Neptune
, but the Marquis did not hurry down to the cliff edge.

Instead he kept among the trees until they were as near as possible to the small bay where
The Neptune
was anchored.

Still he and Celina walked on and then at last, with the woods between them and the Castle, he stopped.

Now it was just about possible to see the top of the yacht’s mast.

It was then that he let go of Celina’s hand and drew a deep breath.

“We have done it!”

They were the first words he had spoken since they left the turret.

“I was praying,” Celina mumbled, “that they would not follow us.”

“Your prayers were answered, Celina, and now we are going to sail away and forget what has happened today and it is all due to
you
that we can do so.”

“And you,” she whispered.

The Marquis put his arms around her and drew her close to him.

“No one could have been more marvellous.”

Then he kissed Celina again.

Now he was aware that her lips were very soft and sweet beneath his.

Her arms went round his neck and he could feel her trembling.

He went on kissing her.

At first gently, then more fervently.

He became acutely conscious as he did so that his whole body was filled with a rapture he had never known before.

It was not just the fierce fire he had so often felt for other women.

It was something more perfect and ethereal and in a way almost sacred.

He could not explain it to himself.

He only knew that the feeling Celina had aroused in him was something different.

Something inexplicably wonderful.

Only when they were both breathless did he release her.

Taking Celina’s hand he walked to the edge of the cliff and, as he had expected, the boat was on the beach and with it were two sailors.

Followed by Celina, he walked very carefully down the cliff path.

The sailors leapt out of their boat and were standing waiting for them when they reached it.

“We was wondering what’d happened to you, my Lord,” one of them piped up.

“The Captain were thinking of sending some of us over to see if your Lordship was in any trouble,” intoned another.

“We have indeed been in a great deal of trouble,” replied the Marquis, “but you will hear about it later.  All her Ladyship and I want now is to go back on board as fast as we possibly can.”

He lifted Celina into the boat and as they sat side by side, the sailors rowed them out to
The Neptune
.

When they climbed aboard, the Captain was there waiting for them.

“Whatever happened to your Lordship?” he asked.  “I was very worried as you have been away for so long.”

“I was pretty worried myself, Captain, but we will tell you about it later.  All you must do now is move away immediately and quietly.  There are pirates on shore, but I am not sure how many there are or what danger they can still be to us.”

The Captain did not waste any more time and he hurried away to the bridge.

Celina ran below as the Marquis stopped to give the Steward instructions to have dinner ready as quickly as the chef could manage.

Then he went to his own cabin where Gilbert was waiting.

“Your Lordship’s given us all a bit of a turn here,” he cried.  “We was wondering what had happened.”

As the Marquis changed into his evening clothes, he told Gilbert what they had been through.

“Well, all I can say, my Lord, is her Ladyship should receive a medal for what she’s done.  Them pirates can be really nasty I hears, if they don’t get what they wants.”

“That is just what I was afraid of, Gilbert.”

*

The Neptune
was well under way by the time the Marquis had changed.

He went onto the bridge to have a few words with Captain Gordon and then he joined Celina in the Saloon.

She was looking, he thought, very lovely in a pretty dark blue evening gown.

When their eyes met, it was impossible for him to look away.

For a moment there was nothing to say.

It was the Head Steward who broke the spell.

“Dinner is ready, my Lord.  I hope you enjoy it.”

He and Celina sat down and the Stewards hurried in with the first course.

There was champagne, which the Marquis said they not only needed but richly deserved.

They were both hungry and still feeling the effects of shock from all they had been through.

Therefore they hardly spoke during the meal.

Only when the Stewards had gone and the Marquis had insisted on their both drinking a liqueur did he say,

“Now, my darling, we can talk about ourselves.”

Celina’s blue eyes widened and she blushed deeply at his endearment.

In a very soft voice, she murmured,

“We are safe and that is all that matters.”

“There is no one to thank except you and I find it difficult to put what I feel into words.”

She knew from the way he spoke he was thinking once again of kissing her.

Again she blushed and it made her look even more exquisite than before.

Then the Marquis said very quietly,

“How soon, my precious one, will you marry me?”

Celina stared at him in astonishment.

It had never occurred to her that he would say such a thing.

The Marquis waited.

“But,” Celina now hesitated, “you have no wish to – marry anyone.”

“I have no wish to marry anyone but
you
.  I knew when I was praying you would not fall to the ground, that, if you did do so, I would lose something so precious and so perfect and that it was someone I could never find again.”

Celina drew in her breath.

“I love you,” she sighed, “but I
cannot
marry you.”

The Marquis stared almost as if someone had struck him an unexpected blow.

He had been pursued by so many women and had been forced to run away from Isobel to escape being forced into marrying her.

It had never occurred to him that anyone he asked to marry him would refuse.

“I don’t understand, Celina, I thought when I kissed you, you would realise, as I did, that you love me as much as I love you.”

“I
do
love you, but so much – I cannot marry you.”

“Why!  Why!” the Marquis demanded.

She looked down a little shyly and, as he waited, she suddenly looked up again.

He could see love in her eyes.

“You do love me,” he cried out, distraught.  “Then
why
, my darling, will you not marry me?”

There was silence as if she was choosing her words carefully.

“Because I love you
too much
.  If I did marry you and you became bored with me as you have been with so many others, it would be like being shut out of Heaven and I could never bear it.”

The Marquis smiled and put his hand over hers.

“I know just what you are saying and I do understand.  But what I feel for you, my precious one is entirely different from anything I have ever felt before.   I swear to you, on the Bible, that is the truth.”

Celina did not reply and he continued,

“I know exactly what I really want.  It is to live in the country with you and hopefully one day with our children.  We will devote ourselves to my estate and concentrate on our horses and all the other sports we both enjoy.  Together we will be as happy as I have been these last few days.”

Still Celina did not say anything, but he sensed that she was listening and he carried on,

“I have never been with a woman before who made me so absorbed by a thousand different interests, which I have never connected with women, only with men.”

He smiled as he added,

“We will climb the Himalayas together, my darling.  Not only physically but metaphorically as well, because we both understand our respective urges to reach the top.”

“And you really think that I will be enough to keep you – happy?” Celina asked him in a small voice.

“I will be miserably unhappy without you, Celina.”

“But you may think I have trapped you – ”

“
I am trapped
, but not by you, my adorable one – ”

Celina looked at him, not quite understanding, and he said quietly,