“That isn’t the end of the story, is it?”
“No,” Bing answered. “Lileth asked her price for the information she was prepared to give me.”
“Which – was?” Melina’s voice was hardly audible.
“That I should go back to her,” Bing said.
“But you can’t!” Melina cried, jumping to her feet. “You cannot do that, Bing! It’s wrong! It’s wicked! It’s immoral! You don’t love her, you love me. She cannot make you go back to her in those circumstances.”
She moved to him, her little hands reaching up to catch hold of the lapels of his coat, her head flung back, her eyes looking up into his.
He firmly loosened her fingers.
“I gave my word,” he said and his voice was dead and empty as if he had received the sentence of death.
“Let me go to her,” Melina protested. “Let me plead with her – she cannot understand that we love each other – that I belong to you – ”
She stopped suddenly, her voice dying away on her lips.
She knew how empty her words were. She knew that none of the things she was saying would count in the least with Lileth Schuster.
She wanted Bing and she meant to have him.
“It’s cruel!” Melina stormed. “It’s cruel and wicked! Isn’t there – anything we can do?”
“Nothing, my darling,” Bing answered. “I love you and I know I will love you until my dying day. But I promised and so I shall go back. If Moulay Ibrahim kills me, it won’t matter very much, because without you I have no particular desire to go on living.”
“Oh, Bing, perhaps something – will happen. Perhaps she will grow tired of you. Perhaps – she will see that you no longer love her and get bored – ”
As she spoke, Melina knew that it was no use. None of these things would happen. Lileth Schuster would hold on to Bing because she wanted him and nothing anyone could say or do would persuade her to let him go.
She closed her eyes, forcing herself to be silent, knowing that hysterical protests would only make it worse for Bing and could do no good anyway.
“We are going to say goodbye now,” she heard Bing say. “When you wake in the morning, I will not be here because I am going back to Marrakesh tonight.”
‘Please – don’t! Please stay here with me,’ Melina wanted to say, but the words were choked in her throat. She wanted to offer herself to him – to tell him that she was his whether they were married or not.
She belonged to him and that, even if he must live with another woman, she would be his, both now and for eternity.
But her lips could not move and, as if in some frightful terrifying dream, she felt his arms go round her and knew that it was for the last time.
He did not kiss her passionately as he had done before, but laid his cheek against hers and said, so softly that she could hardly hear it,
“Goodbye, my little love – my only love.”
Just for a moment they clung to each other like children frightened in the dark, then Bing set Melina free and said in a voice deep and raw with agony,
“Go now! Go quickly while I can let you.”
She turned obediently to obey him, too numb, too utterly devastated to say anything more, knowing only that in a few seconds the tempest of her tears rising within her would choke her voice and blind her from finding her way to the door.
Then, as she moved away from him, someone came into the room.
“Monsieur Ward,” a voice said, “I have important news for you!”
They both looked at the newcomer. He was a young man whom Melina remembered seeing at the airport and whom she guessed was an aide-de-camp to the Minister.
“What is it?” Bing asked.
“Moulay Ibrahim is dead.”
“Dead!”
Bing ejaculated the word and for a moment Melina forgot her own sufferings in surprise at the announcement.
“How did he die?” Bing asked before the aide-de-camp could speak.
“As far as we can ascertain his car, which was travelling at well over a hundred miles an hour, had a burst tyre. It was caused, we believe, by a bullet.”
“Where was this?” Bing asked quickly.
“Near the village of El-Guelb.”
Melina looked across the room at Bing. So Ahmed’s cousin had helped them as he had promised.
“The car turned over several times and crashed down an embankment at the side of the road,” the aide-de-camp went on. “The driver was flung clear. He is in hospital. Moulay Ibrahim, I understand, was killed instantly.”
There was something like elation in his voice as he said the last words.
He turned towards the door.
“I must go and find His Excellency and tell him the good news,” he said with a smile on his face.
Then he paused.
“Oh, by the way, there was someone travelling with Moulay Ibrahim – an American lady. The Police tell me from her passport that her name was Schuster – Mrs. Lileth Schuster. She was killed too.”
The aide-de-camp went out of the room closing the door behind him.
For a moment Melina and Bing stood staring at each other, then suddenly the space between them was no more and she was in his arms.
He kissed her desperately as if they had both come back from the dead and the tears came running down her cheeks as she whispered over and over again,
“I love you! I love you! I love you!”
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
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
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 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.
Writing her first book ‘Jigsaw’ at the age of 21, Barbara became an immediate bestseller. Building upon this initial success, she wrote continuously throughout her life, producing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years. In addition to Barbara Cartland’s legion of fans in the UK and across Europe, her books have always been immensely popular in the USA. In 1976 she achieved the unprecedented feat of having books at numbers 1 & 2 in the prestigious B. Dalton Bookseller bestsellers list.
Although she is often referred to as the ‘Queen of Romance’, Barbara Cartland also wrote several historical biographies, six autobiographies and numerous theatrical plays as well as books on life, love, health and cookery. Becoming one of Britain’s most popular media personalities and dressed in her trademark pink, Barbara spoke on radio and television about social and political issues, as well as making many public appearances.
In 1991 she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to literature and her work for humanitarian and charitable causes.
Known for her glamour, style, and vitality Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime. Best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels and loved by millions of readers worldwide, her books remain treasured for their heroic heroes, plucky heroines and traditional values. But above all, it was Barbara Cartland’s overriding belief in the positive power of love to help, heal and improve the quality of life for everyone that made her truly unique.
Love is Dangerous
Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
This edition © 2013
Copyright Cartland Promotions 1963
eBook conversion by M-Y Books