“No, no,” he said swiftly. “I don’t mean that! I am asking you to come as my wife.”

For a moment she was very still and then she responded, looking away from him,

“It is kind and – generous of your Lordship to offer me – marriage. I well understand that you feel – you are obliged t-to do so because of what has – occurred and because – people are gossiping. I would not impose on your – generosity to such an extent. I shall manage by myself, I promise – you.”

“And suppose I tell you that I am not being kind or generous,” the Marquis reacted. “That I really want you to come to Stade Hall.”

He saw the sudden quiver of her lips, the trembling of her fingers and then she said a little unsteadily,

“If you – want me, that is a different thing. But please there is no need to – marry me.”

He would have spoken impetuously, but she checked him.

“Let me say it,” she whispered. “When you suggested before that you should be my – protector, I was so stupid and ignorant that I did not understand – w-what you meant. And now I do – understand, and if you would protect me from all the – things that frighten me, then I would like above all things to come to you. For I think, my Lord, I should always feel – safe and unafraid with – you!”

Her voice died away and then she gave a little gasp.

The Marquis had put out his hand and, taking her chin between his fingers, had turned her face towards his.

“Look at me, Gretna,” he demanded. “Look into my eyes and listen to what I have to say. I knew that night at Stade Hall that I loved you. I knew it, but like you I was stupid and ignorant and I did not understand. What I offered you then was an insult, not only an insult to you, my darling, but an insult to the love that we feel for each other, which has been there in our hearts since that very first moment. I knew it that night when I looked into your eyes and we both knew it when we were joined together for one ecstatic moment on the balcony at Carlton House. Why do we waste time in fighting each other?”

She closed her eyes for a moment as if she could not bear to look at him, to feel herself tingling with excitement and to feel herself thrilling because of what he was saying.

And then she opened them again and the world was even more glorious than it had been a moment before.

“Do you really think,” the Marquis asked, “that I should want you in any other way save as my wife? I want to own you, to possess you, to know that you are mine and no other man may touch you or look at you because you belong to me.”