He did not kiss her, he only looked down at her face, holding her closely against his breast.

“Are you ready to hear my plans, my precious?” he asked.

“You know I will listen to everything you have to tell me,” Yamina answered. “At the same time I do not promise to agree to them if they should harm you in any way.”

“It depends what you mean by harm!” Lord Castleford said. “The only thing that could really harm me is if I should lose you!”

She did not answer, but he sensed that she was tense until he said very quietly,

“That is why, my darling, we will be married as soon as I have sent in my resignation.”

Yamina looked up at him, her eyes very wide and dark.

“No!” she said sharply. “No!”

She pulled herself from his arms and, walking away from him, stood holding onto the back of a chair as if she needed support.

“Do you think I would really let you resign?” she asked. “Give up your career for me?”

“It is what I intend to do,” Lord Castleford replied with a note of authority in his voice. “And I do not need your permission on that question, only as to whether you will honour me by becoming my wife!”

“Listen – please listen to me,” Yamina pleaded frantically. “How can you even consider a step that would destroy everything you have worked for – everything you have been trained for these past years?”

“I used to think that my career was the most important thing in the world,” Lord Castleford said, “but you have shown me that I was mistaken. I have never known happiness until this moment, Yamina. Do you imagine that I would throw it away wantonly and destructively?”

“Life is not like that,” Yamina said. “To me love is everything – you are my whole world! But for a man it is different.”

“Most men think that happiness lies in their work,” Lord Castleford answered. “That is what I believed myself until I met you. Now I know that work and success, the crowns of glory one achieves, are only a pale imitation of the happiness that comes from love.”

“But supposing you did give up everything for me?” Yamina said. “And then if you found it was not enough, what would there be left? Misery, frustration – and an unavoidable bitterness.”

“That might be true where most people are concerned,” Lord Castleford replied, “but you and I are different, Yamina. This is not, as we both know, a transitory affection which, as you said yourself, is like a fire that bursts into flame, then dies away as quickly leaving nothing but ashes. This is very real, my darling.”

“How can you be sure of that?”

“Are you not sure?”