“He has changed everything,” he said in an almost strangled voice. “But one thing he cannot alter. I love you and I want you more than I thought it possible to want any woman. I worship you, Carina. But I can offer you nothing, save a little comfort in the few years that I might be Dipa’s Guardian and then poverty, perhaps in an obscure cottage somewhere on the estate.”

His voice ceased and there was a sudden dejection about the stance of his figure as if he thought that she must refuse him.

Carina did not answer.

Instead she rose from her seat by the fire and moved silently across the carpet towards him.

He had not anticipated her coming and gave a start as he found her at his side, her little hand on the arm of his coat.

“Do you really think that matters?” she asked. “I love you – I think I have loved you since the very first moment I saw you. I thought then that I hated you intensely – but I did not listen to what my heart was telling me. Do you think that money, position, a title – anything – is of importance, except that I am yours –yours to follow you wherever in the world you may care to go?”

He stared at her as if he could hardly believe what she was saying.

And then, his eyes blazing and the sound of sheer triumph bursting from his lips, he took her into his arms.

He kissed her at first gently, but then wildly, passionately, as if the hunger in his heart could no longer be controlled.

He kissed her lips, her eyes, her cheeks, her forehead and the little pulse that hammered in the whiteness of her neck. Then his lips were once more on hers, demanding her whole being, as if he wanted not only her love but her soul and life in his keeping.

“I love you, Carina,” he breathed. “God, how I love you! And I will make you mine – mine for ever.”

Neither of them heard the door open.

They did not see a footman enter, look at them with astonished eyes and retire to knock loudly on the door.

The sound made them spring apart and Lord Lynche called out “come in” in a voice deep and hoarse with emotion.

As the footman entered, Carina was moving towards the fireplace tidying with fingers that trembled the tumbled curls around her flushed cheeks.

“What is it?” Lord Lynche asked testily.

“I’m sorry to disturb your Lordship,” the footman answered, “but there be a man here askin’ for Lady Lynche. When I informed him that her Ladyship was dead, he said that it’s imperative that he should speak with your Lordship.”

“Tell him to come back tomorrow,” Lord Lynche commanded.

“He be a foreign gentleman,” the footman said doubtfully. “In fact I understood him to say he had come from Java.”