108. An Archangel Called Ivan (16 page)

Now she left it lying wet on the floor and ran from the bedroom into the kitchen.

Ivan, dressed as he had been when he had spirited her away from The Castle, said,

“You are very quick for a woman! Now we must say goodbye to the place where I at least have been very happy.”

“And I have been happier than I can possibly put into words,” Arliva answered.

“You are adorable,” he replied, “but then, if I start kissing you, we might be interrupted, so we must leave at once.”

“Yes, yes of course,” Arliva agreed nervously.

They went to the stables.

Although Arliva had said nothing, as she thought it a mistake to ask any questions, she wondered why the team that had driven them from The Castle had mysteriously disappeared after they had arrived early the next morning.

There was now only the chaise and two horses to draw it.

Ivan attached them to the chaise and then, having locked the front door of The Lodge, they set off down the narrow lane at the side of the wood.

They were now driving away from The Lodge and Arliva thought that they were escaping once again from the evil and cruel Countess, because even to think of her made her afraid and so she moved a little closer to Ivan.

“It’s all right my darling,” he whispered. “No one will hurt you. We will be married as soon as I can arrange it so then you need never be frightened of anyone again, except of course me!”

He was joking, but Arliva put her hand on his leg as she said,

“I love you. I love you, Ivan. Are you quite sure that will be enough for you for the rest of your life?”

“For the rest of my life and, when I reach Heaven, you will still be completely and absolutely mine and I have been looking for you all my life and now, thanks to God, I have found you.”

“Do tell me all about it,” Arliva begged him.

“Now I have to concentrate on driving, my darling, just in case the Police are still lurking somewhere in the neighbourhood and stop us.”

As he spoke, he drove down another narrow lane.

Arliva knew that he was avoiding the main roads in case the Police were somewhere about.

She felt herself tremble, but she knew it would be a mistake to tell Ivan how afraid she was.

They had not been driving for very long when she had a glimpse of a very large and impressive house.

She was just about to ask him who lived there when he turned in at the lodge gates and down a drive with trees on either side of it.

“Why are we going in here?” she asked somewhat anxiously when she realised that the house she had just glimpsed was straight ahead of them.

“It’s a place where we will be completely safe,” Ivan replied.

The horses were moving quickly and they passed over a stone bridge with a stream below it.

Then the ground moved upwards into a courtyard.

The house at the end of it was even grander and more magnificent that when she had first seen it.

As the horses came to a standstill, a groom came running from the side of the house and went to their heads.

Ivan said nothing.

He merely jumped down and walked round to the other side of the carriage and helped Arliva to alight.

They went up the steps to the front door, which was opening as they appeared.

Arliva felt too nervous to ask questions.

She could only hope he was right in saying that they would be safe here.

A butler was standing at the door and behind him were three footmen in a very smart livery.

“Good morning, Your Grace,” the butler addressed Ivan. “I was hoping that you would soon be coming back to us.”

“Well I am here, Watkins,” Ivan replied, “and I have a very special visitor with me, so I wish to see Mrs. Schofield as quickly as possible.”

He paused before he added laughingly,

“But, having had a very scanty breakfast, we would first like coffee and something to eat in my sitting room.”

“Very good, Your Grace,” the butler affirmed.

Arliva said nothing.

“Ivan put his arm round her and drew her down a passage with some very fine paintings and some extremely beautiful antique furniture.

He opened the door of a room and Arliva saw that it was obviously a gentleman’s sitting room.

At the same time there was a profusion of flowers that scented the air.

Ivan closed the door.

Before she could speak, he put his arms round her and was kissing her passionately.

It was impossible to think of anything else but his kisses and how much she loved him.

Then he raised his head and declared,

“Now you know that you are safe and never need worry about anything again.”

“I will never worry again if I am with you,” Arliva murmured, “but the butler referred to you as ‘Your Grace,’ so who are you?”

Ivan laughed.

“I thought that we would both have to answer that question sooner or later. But as it is ladies first, I think that you should tell me who you really are.”

There was a little pause before Arliva whispered,

“My real name is Arliva Ashdown, not Alma.”

Ivan stared at her.

“You mean
you
are the young woman all London is talking about, who I was told a thousand times I ought to meet.”

“I ran away because people never noticed me, only my money,” Arliva replied. “So I disguised myself as a Governess and was with some adorable children for several weeks before the Countess of Sturton kidnapped me and took me away so as to force me to marry her son.”

Ivan’s arms tightened round her.

“How could any woman do anything so cruel and so despicable to you?” he questioned. “I had no idea when I told you that I loved you for yourself that anyone could be so utterly and completely adorable and exactly what I have been seeking all my life.”

“I would be quite happy to stay with you in that darling little house and cook your meals if that was what you wanted,” Arliva pointed out.

“What I want is you and only you,” Ivan replied. “But you will have a very different life to live here and, of course, in the other houses I own.”

He smiled as he added,

“But when we become bored we will go away alone just as we have been this past week and only be interested in each other.”

“I have never been so happy as I have been with you,” Arliva sighed. “It is wonderful! Wonderful!! My Archangel. But you have still not told me who you are.”

“I am the Duke of Hungerford. And now I think about it I remember once meeting your father and hearing people say how clever he was in accumulating such a huge fortune when he had started his life as a diplomat.”

“He was indeed very clever,” Arliva said. “But the money he left me when he died made me feel that no one would ever love me for myself. In fact I heard two people who were obviously very much in love with each other saying goodbye because he felt that the only way he could save his estate was to marry me.”

“No one is going to marry you except me,” Ivan asserted. “I don’t need your money as I have plenty of my own and so I expect we will find people we can help who will benefit by it.”

“Oh, darling, darling Ivan, that is just what I want you to say,” Arliva cried. “I hate my beastly money and we will give it away to poor people. I just want to be with you.”

“That is exactly what you are going to be,” Ivan promised. “Now we have found each other, nothing else matters.”

They moved apart as they heard the door open and Watkins came in carrying a tray followed by two footmen each with trays.

As they sat down to eat and drink the coffee, Ivan said,

“We have got to find you something to wear, my darling. I am sure that my housekeeper has a great number of things tucked away that you can borrow until we send for your clothes wherever they may be.”

“They are in London at my father’s house,” Arliva replied. “I think that we will have to tell my aunt Molly who is chaperoning me and who by this time will be very worried about me, where we are and what we are going to do.”

“We will tell the world as soon as we are married,” Ivan replied. “But I just want to be alone with you until the crowds arrive to congratulate us, shake us by the hand and, of course, be envious that I have married the most beautiful girl in the world.”

“I expect, actually, they will only be thinking of my money,” Arliva countered.

“You are not to become so cynical. I have just as much to offer as you. Therefore we can forget everything except that you have eluded the fortune-hunters.”

“They will be disappointed,” she muttered.

“What we have to find you at the moment,” Ivan went on, “is a gown that you can be married in and I am sending for my private Chaplain, who fortunately lives in the village, to marry us this evening.”

He smiled at her as he continued,

“No one will know anything about it until we have had at least two or three weeks honeymoon alone.”

Arliva clasped her hands together.

“That is exactly what I would really like,” she cried excitedly.

“Are you sure that you don’t want a big wedding with everyone shaking you by the hand and being envious that we have found each other?” Ivan asked jokingly.

“You know that I only want to be alone with you,” Arliva replied. “I would hate a grand wedding. It will be lovely to be married secretly and to be together for as long as possible before the world outside finds out just what has happened.”

“Then that is what we will do, my darling. Because I want you to look even more beautiful than you do at this moment, I am going to send for my housekeeper. I am sure she has the glorious wedding gown worn by my mother, my grandmother and indeed my great-grandmother stored away somewhere in this house. So tonight we will be resplendent to impress each other and no one else!”

“I love you, I adore you,” Arliva said. “No one but you could understand just how agonising it has been when people have been running after me and asking me to marry them simply because they wanted my money and not me.”

“I do know exactly what you mean,” Ivan agreed. “Every
debutante
is told that if she is a sensible girl she will marry a Duke. They have all tried to get me, but not one has cared about me, only my title.”

“I only love you because you are you, Ivan,” Arliva murmured. “I promise you if I find you being told over and over again how grand and important you are, I will suggest that we go back to that adorable little lodge and stay there entirely alone together.”

“The trouble with you,” Ivan retorted, “is that you are perfect and I find it impossible to find anything wrong with you.”

“Please don’t look too hard,” Arliva begged, “but there is one thing that I want to do and I know you will understand.”

“What is that?” Ivan asked.

“I want to give a big thank offering to God who answered my prayers and who I know sent you to me to be my Archangel when I was so completely and so absolutely desperate.”

“I just knew when I saw you that you are the most beautiful girl I had ever seen,” Ivan answered. “At the same time there was something about you which told me at once that you are very special.”

“That is what I felt when I looked into your eyes. Oh, darling, Ivan, it’s so sublime that we are together and we will never lose this perfect Heavenly love that God has sent us and which, when we are married, will make us one person.”

As if he could find no words to answer her with, Ivan kissed her.

After that it was impossible to think of anything of importance to say.

*

They were married late that evening.

Arliva was wearing the loveliest wedding gown she had ever seen. It was embroidered all over with diamanté and trimmed with exquisite lace.

Round her neck she had a diamond necklace which Ivan had given her just before they went downstairs.

“You look so lovely,” he said, “that no diamonds or pearls could make you any more beautiful than you are already.”

She did not answer and he went on,

“But I want you to shine at your wedding because it is a moment neither of us will ever forget.”

“And how could I ever forget you, even if we were separated for a thousand years?” Arliva asked.

There was a note in her voice that made Ivan draw in his breath.

Then he kissed her very gently and they then went downstairs hand in hand.

She found that the Chapel, which was at the far end of the great house, had been filled with flowers that were all white.

The Duke’s private Chaplain, who was an oldish man, was waiting for them.

As he began the Marriage Service, Arliva knew that every word he spoke came from his soul.

They were being blessed by him as well as by God who had brought them together.

After the ceremony was over and Arliva was now wearing Ivan’s mother’s wedding ring on her finger, they went to the housekeeper’s room where everyone employed was waiting to congratulate them.

They were nearly all of them old servants who had been with Ivan’s parents and they had served happily in the house for many years.

There was sincerity in the way they gave their good wishes which Arliva did not think would be the same if it had been a Society wedding.

Then everyone would have been calculating how much money she had, while the young women would have been jealous because she had married a Duke.

‘I have married the one man in the world who was meant to be mine,’ Arliva thought to herself.

She knew that Ivan was thinking the same.

They left the housekeeper’s room after Watkins had said on behalf of the staff,

“God Bless you both and may you always be as happy in the future as you are today.”

They went upstairs together and Ivan explained,

“I told the housekeeper that we wanted to be alone. I feel that I can undo your dress for you far better than any maid can.”

“You think of everything,” Arliva sighed, putting her arms round his neck. “Oh, Ivan, is it really true that we are married and that I never need to be frightened again that someone will carry me away just because I am rich?”

“You are mine, completely and absolutely mine,” Ivan replied.

Then he was kissing her wildly, passionately and compellingly.