“I love you!” Honora cried. “I love you – love you! You are everything I dreamt of and thought I had lost for ever – when I had to – marry you.”

“Are you sorry or glad?” the Duke asked.

She gave the little chuckle that he loved.

“How can you ask such a – ridiculous question? Very very – glad!”

Then she gave a cry.

“Supposing because I was so afraid of you and you – hated me, I had become a – nun?”

The Duke did not reply, he only kissed her fiercely and insistently as if he was afraid of losing her and was making doubly sure he had not done so.

Then, as if what they wanted was quite unnecessary to put into words, they moved towards the door and went up the stairs, hand-in-hand.

When they reached Honora’s bedroom, they just looked at each other with a smile and again they knew without speaking what the other wanted.

The Duke went to his room where his valet was waiting and Honora went to hers.

Because she thought she was tired and did not wish to talk, Emily undressed her quickly and in silence.

When the maid left her, Honora lay back in the large bed to wait for the communicating door to open.

Now she felt a strange excitement that was like little shafts of sunlight seeping through her body and they seemed to move to music that was playing all around her.

It was part of the music she had already composed, but now there was a new melody sounding through it, a melody that was a paean of joy and wonder that seemed to reach towards the stars in the sky outside.

The door opened and the Duke came in.

Honora could feel the moment she saw him how much he wanted her, how much he loved her and yet at the same time she knew that he was afraid of frightening her.

For a split second she felt almost protective towards him and she held out her hands saying,

“I was – waiting for – you.”

The Duke closed the door and came towards her.

“That is what I hoped you would say, my darling. Last night after you had played to me it was an agony I can never express not to come through the door and tell you how much I wanted you.”

“Why – did you not – do so?”

“Because I thought it was too soon and you would feel that we had jumped too quickly from hating what we had to do to finding after all, how very wonderful it was.”

“It is very – very – wonderful for – me.”

The Duke sat down on the bed and looked at her.

Because Honora felt a little shy she asked after a moment,

“What – are you thinking?”

“I am wondering why you are different from any woman I have ever known before,” he said. “You are beautiful, exquisitely beautiful, but it is not only that.”