To Brucena the whole idea was an enchantment that left her breathless with excitement.
It was growing late when the train stopped at the small Station where they were to leave it.
William Sleeman s friends who had lent them their bungalow were in Bombay, but their servants had brought a carriage to the Station and they collected their luggage from the guard’s van and their other belongings from the carriage.
They drove in the cool of the evening through a wooded countryside to a white bungalow built on the side of a small lake. It was surrounded with flowers and Brucena gave a cry of delight when she saw it.
Then, as the servants brought them cool drinks, they stood side by side on the verandah. There was the glory of the sunset dyeing the lake and the long sandbanks with gold.
Every tree and canebrake became the colour of a warm glowing apricot, a prelude to the swift opal twilight.
“It is so lovely” Brucena murmured.
“And so are you, my darling,” Ian replied and there was a note in his voice that made her heart beat tumultuously in her breast.
When Brucena went to her bedroom a little later, she found it attractive and very comfortable. The large bedstead in the centre of it, draped with white mosquito curtains, looked like an ancient galleon and made her blush.
She stood for a moment thinking that it was the first time that she and Ian would have together and therefore she must somehow make it personal.
She had already thought of this amidst the thrill of planning her Wedding and in her luggage packed especially for use on the journey she had included a miniature of her mother and a beautifully embroidered bedcover.
This Amelie had made of muslin ribbon and lace and it had been intended, she said, as a Christmas present for someone in Mauritius.
Instead she had given it to Brucena and with it there was a little lace pillow with love-knots in each of its four corners.
When Brucena had arranged these on the bedspread, she felt that it gave the room a touch that was a part of herself.
She also had with her a present that she thought was more precious than anything else that she had received, the carved whistle that Azim had given her just before they left.
She knew that it was his most treasured possession and she therefore must not hurt him by refusing it.
As she laid it beside her mother’s portrait, she told herself that she would keep it all her life and perhaps one day tell her children of how it came to be hers.
She looked round her with a little sigh of satisfaction. Then, because she thought that Ian would be waiting for her, she let the Indian maid help her change into her prettiest evening gown. As she had no jewellery, she arranged a white orchid in her hair.
There was an obvious look of admiration and love in his eyes when she went into the sitting room to find that he had changed into the evening dress of the Bengal Lancers.
“Now I know why I have waited for half a century,” he said, “but it has been worth it!”
“Have I been very long?” Brucena asked. “I wanted to look pretty for you – tonight.”
“‘Pretty’ is a very inadequate word to describe you, my lovely one,” he replied.
The servants were waiting to serve their dinner and so there was no chance for him to kiss her. Yet, as they sat opposite each other, Brucena felt that she was close in his arms and their eyes said all the things that their lips could not say.
What they ate or drank she had no idea. She only knew that she was living in an enchanted world where there were only two people, Ian and herself.
When they went back into the sitting room, the oil lamps filled it with a soft golden light while outside the stars covered the Heavens with a jewel-like brilliance.
There were so many things to talk about, so many things she wanted to know that only Ian could tell her and the time slipped by.
When finally she realised that it was getting late, Brucena found her voice dying away and she knew by the expression on Ian’s face that there was no more need for conversation.
He put out his hands and drew her to her feet.
“It is time you went to bed, my precious one,” he said, “and I told your maid not to wait on you, as I want us to be alone.”
‘That – is what I want – too,’ Brucena wanted to say, but she felt shy.
Instead she hid her face against his neck.
He kissed her hair and then with his arms round her he drew her across the passage and into the bedroom.
Here there was only one little oil lamp burning beside the bed.
It shone on the lace cover and on the small lace pillow perched bravely on the large white linen one.
There was a smile on Ian’s lips as he looked at his wife.
Then he took the white orchid from Brucena’s hair and pulled out the pins so that it fell over her shoulders in a golden cloud.
“That is how I saw you the night you were so frightened when you ran into me in the passage,” he said. “Although you were terror-struck, I thought that no woman could look more beautiful or be so soft and sweet and enchanting in every way.”
“You – kissed me,” Brucena whispered, “without asking if – you might do so.”
“It was very remiss of me,” he laughed, “but I obeyed an uncontrollable impulse, which I have never since regretted.”
“I have – never regretted it – either,” Brucetia murmured, “but I have often wondered if I had not been so frightened at that particular moment – whether you would have kissed me – or have been sure that you – loved me.”
“I was sure of myself but not of you,” he answered. “I thought perhaps you still hated me.”
“I loved you – although I did not – know it.”
“And now?”
“I love you with all my heart!”
“That is what I want you to say.”
Then, as his lips met hers, she felt him undoing the buttons at the back of her gown –
*
Later, very much later, when there was only the music of the night and the beat of Ian’s heart, Brucena asked him,
“Is it – possible to be so – happy and not – die of the wonder of it?”
“You are very much alive, my precious one,” Ian said, drawing her closer and kissing her forehead. “Have I really made you happy?”
“So happy that I am – afraid.”
“Afraid?” he questioned.
“That I shall wake up and find it is – all a dream! “How can all this – be real?”
“It is real, that I promise you.”
“Everything that has happened to us is just like a story in a book,” Brucena sighed. “First, that you should be so brave and so wonderful. Then that you should love me and lastly that we should be married. Oh, Ian, tell me it is true!”
He laughed gently and his lips moved over the softness of her skin.
“I will keep proving my love,” he responded, “until you are absolutely convinced in every corner of your mind that you are mine, completely and absolutely mine. The story of our love is as true as it is true that we are in India and the whole great Continent is ours.”
“Supposing you become too – grand and I – lose you?”
“Do you think that is likely?” he asked. “My darling, you forget that one of the main reasons that I am grander now than I was last month is entirely due to you.”
His mouth moved along her eyelids before he continued,
“They say a successful man always has a woman behind him, pushing him up the ladder of success. And that is what you have done for me.”
“I am glad – so very – very glad.”
Ian turned her face up to his.
“We are neither of us going to get so grand,” he said, “that we grow away from each other or the people who matter. There will always be Azims in India who will need our help and support. There will always be wrongs to be righted and Thugs in one form or another to be suppressed.”
“
You will let me – help you? Brucena asked him quickly.
“I am not only going to let you, but I insist on it,” Ian replied. “Your quickness of thought and your presence of mind has saved me already and will, I just know, save me again.”
‘“I do not – want to think of you being in – danger.”
“It may play a small part in our lives,” he said seriously, “but if you use that special instinct of yours, sweet darling, I would trust you in any emergency.”
“Oh, Ian, I am glad – so very very glad,” Brucena cried. “I want to be the right – sort of wife for you. I want to feel that you can rely on me.”
“I know I can,” he answered.
“Amelie is the right sort of wife for Cousin William. At first I could not understand why she did not fuss and fume every time he left her. Then I clearly knew why when I was waiting for you the other night in that horrible little tent.”
“Why?” Ian asked.
“Amelie believes implicitly,” Brucena answered, “in William and in God and it makes her sure that, whatever danger he is in, he will come back to her.”
She drew a deep breath.
“I will do the same, I believe in you – my marvellous husband and – in God.”
Ian held her very close against him.
Then he said in a voice that told her that he was deeply moved,
“I am – yours – all yours.”
She spoke with a note of passion in her voice because Ian’s hand was touching her and she felt the little fire that he had awakened in her earlier rising again in her breasts.
As if he felt it too, he laid her gently against the pillows so that she was on her back, looking up at him.
In the flickering fight of the oil lamp he could see her eyes wide and excited and, he thought, with a little touch of fire in their depths.
His hand became more insistent and Brucena raised her lips to his, wanting him to kiss her and wanting the closeness that she knew he wanted too.
“You have bewitched me,” Ian smiled a little unsteadily.
Then his lips were on her lips and his heart was beating against her heart.
They were no longer two people but one and there was no more darkness or terror but only the Divine Love that casts out fear.
OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.
Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love, just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.
The Eternal Collection, classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .
Elizabethan Lover
The Little Pretender
A Ghost in Monte Carlo
A Duel of Hearts
The Saint and the Sinner
The Penniless Peer
The Proud Princess
The Dare-Devil Duke
Diona and a Dalmatian
A Shaft of Sunlight
Lies for Love
Love and Lucia
Love and the Loathsome Leopard
Beauty or Brains
The Temptation of Torilla
The Goddess and the Gaiety Girl
Fragrant Flower
Look Listen and Love
The Duke and the Preacher’s Daughter
A Kiss for the King
The Mysterious Maid-servant
Lucky Logan Finds Love
The Wings of Ecstacy
Mission to Monte Carlo
Revenge of the Heart
The Unbreakable Spell
Never Laugh at Love
Bride to a Brigand
Lucifer and the Angel
Journey to a Star
Solita and the Spies
The Chieftain Without a Heart
No Escape from Love
Dollars for the duke
Pure and Untouched
Secrets
Fire in the Blood
Love, Lies and Marriage
The Ghost who Fell in Love
Hungry for Love
The Wild Cry of Love
The Blue-eyed Witch
The Punishment of a Vixen
The Secret of the Glen
Bride to the King
For All Eternity
King in Love
A Marriage made in Heaven
Who can deny Love?
Riding to the Moon
Wish for Love
Dancing on a Rainbow
Gypsy Magic
Love in the Clouds
Count the Stars
White Lilac
Too Precious to Lose
The Devil Defeated
An Angel Runs Away
The Duchess Disappeared
The Pretty Horse-breakers
The Prisoner of Love
Ola and the Sea Wolf
The Castle made for Love
A Heart is Stolen
The Love Pirate
As Eagles Fly
The Magic of Love
Love Leaves at Midnight
A Witch’s Spell
Love Comes West
The Impetuous Duchess
A Tangled Web
Love lifts the Curse
Saved By A Saint
Love is Dangerous
The Poor Governess
The Peril and the Prince
A Very Unusual Wife
Say Yes Samantha
Punished with love
A Royal Rebuke
The Husband Hunters
Signpost To Love
Love Forbidden
Gift Of the Gods
The Outrageous Lady
The Slaves Of Love
The Disgraceful Duke
The Unwanted Wedding
Lord Ravenscar’s Revenge
From Hate to Love
A Very Naughty Angel
The Innocent Imposter
A Rebel Princess
A Wish Comes True
Haunted
Passions In The Sand
Little White Doves of Love
A Portrait of Love
The Enchanted Waltz
Alone and Afraid
The Call of the Highlands
The Glittering Lights
An Angel in Hell
Only a Dream
A Nightingale Sang
Pride and the Poor Princess
Stars in my Heart
The Fire of Love
A Dream from the Night
Sweet Enchantress
The Kiss of the Devil
Fascination in France
Love Runs In
Lost Enchantment
Love is Innocent
The Love Trap
No Darkness for Love
Kiss from a Stranger
The Flame Is Love
A Touch of Love
The Dangerous Dandy
In Love In Lucca
The Karma Of Love
Magic For The Heart
Paradise Found
Only Love
A Duel with Destiny
The Heart of the Clan
The Ruthless Rake
Revenge is Sweet
Fire on the Snow
A Revolution of Love
Love at the Helm
Listen to Love
Love Casts out Fear
The Devilish Deception
Riding in the Sky
The Wonderful Dream
This Time it’s Love
The River of Love
&nb
sp; The Island of Love
Miracle for a Madonna
The Storms of Love
The Prince and the Pekingese
The Golden Cage
Theresa and a Tiger
The Goddess of Love
Alone in Paris
The Earl Rings a Belle
The Runaway Heart
From Hell to Heaven
Love in the Ruins
Crowned with Love
Love is a Maze
Hidden by Love
Love is the Key
A Miracle in Music
The Race for Love
Call of the Heart
The Curse of the Clan
Saved by Love
The Tears of Love
Winged Magic
Born of Love
Love Holds the Cards
A Chieftain Finds Love
The Horizons of Love
The Marquis Wins
A Duke in Danger
Warned by a Ghost
Forced to Marry
Sweet Adventure
Love is a Gamble
Love on the Wind
Looking for Love
Love is the Enemy
The Passion and the Flower
The Reluctant Bride
Safe in Paradise
The Temple of Love
Love at First Sight
The Scots Never Forget
The Golden Gondola
No Time for Love
Love in the Moon
A Hazard of Hearts
Just Fate
The Kiss of Paris
Little Tongues of Fire
Love Under Fire
The Magnificent Marriage
Moon over Eden
The Dream and the Glory
A Victory for Love
A Princess in Distress
A Gamble with Hearts
Love Strikes a Devil
In the Arms of Love
Love in the Dark
Love Wins
The Marquis who Hated Women
Love is Invincible
Love Climbs in
The Queen Saves the King
The Duke Comes Home
Love Joins the Clans
The Power and the Prince
Winged Victory
Light of the Gods
The Golden Illusion
Never Lose Love
The Sleeping Princess
THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND
Barbara Cartland, who sadly died in May 2000 at the grand age of ninety eight, remains one of the world’s most famous romantic novelists. With worldwide sales of over one billion, her outstanding 723 books have been translated into thirty six different languages, to be enjoyed by readers of romance globally.