As Mistral’s voice faltered into silence, Robert, as if he awoke at last from a dream, bent forward and clasped her in his arms.

‘Mistral!’ he exclaimed. ‘I have wanted you so much. I have asked for you, prayed for you, but they told me you had gone away. Do you think I don’t know you were innocent? That I could trust you? Oh, my darling, I must have been mad and crazy to have thought for one moment that you were anything but what you appeared. You are pure and holy – the most perfect woman in all the world. Forgive me, only forgive me, and say that you still love me.’

His words tumbled over one another, his lips were very near to hers, his arms were drawing her closer and closer into his embrace.

Mistral’s head fell back against his shoulder.

‘Forgive me,’ Robert whispered, and now at last she could answer him in three words.

‘I – Oh – I – love you!’

He heard her voice break on the words, and then his lips were against hers. She felt in that moment all the rapture and wonder that had been theirs that moment in the Chapel when they had pledged their troth before the altar, and she knew that this time no evil could ever separate them and take them one from the other. They were one, man and woman joined together in the sight of God, one for all eternity.

‘Oh, my darling, my precious one.’

Robert was murmuring his endearments against her cheek and she looked up to see that there were tears in his eyes. As she drew a deep breath, as she stirred for a moment within the encircling confines of his arms, he said,

‘No no, I cannot let you go. You are mine. I am afraid that you may vanish, and I want you, Mistral. I should never have rested until I found you, but I had no idea where to begin! But you have come back to me and I love you too much ever to let you go again.’

Once more he was kissing her, and this time his kisses were more human, more possessive, more demanding, and she felt a flame of desire rise within herself in response to his. Then the world stood still and they were lost in a heaven in which time ceased to count.

Robert took his mouth from hers and looked down at her.

‘You are so beautiful,’ he said, his voice low and hoarse with emotion. Tomorrow I am going back to England and I shall take you with me. I am going to take you to Cheveron, to my home. We will be married there, or here before we leave if you prefer it.’

‘I am afraid on this question you will have to ask my permission,’ a voice said from the doorway.