"I can see you have been well trained as an explorers wife!"
She looked up at him with a serious expression on her face.
"Y .. you ... need not ... marry me ... if you do not ... want to."
"And always be afraid of losing you? You will marry me immediately! We are due in Paris in four days tune."
"Oh ... Vulcan ...!"
It was a cry of sheer delight, then as he kissed her holding her close against him, she could feel his heart beating against hers.
His kisses became more demanding,. more pa.s.sionate and she stirred beneath the touch of his hand.
"Do I excite you?" he asked.
"You ... know you ... do. I love you.... Oh Vulcan ... I love you !"
"Not as much as I want you to love me."
"Then ... teach ... me."
"That is what I intend to do my precious, my adorable little G.o.ddess."
There was a deep note in Vulcan"s voice and a fire in his eyes which thrilled her wildly.
She threw back her head to look up at him.
"This is ... true? I am not ... dreaming?"
"No, my sweet love this is real."
"I am so ... happy ... so crazily, unbelievably happy after being so miserable."
"Forgive me."
Vulcan kissed her eyes, then he moved his lips sensuously over the softness of her cheeks, so that she quivered.
As if she aroused him, he lifted her a little higher in his arms and kissed her neck until the breath came quickly through her parted lips.
"I ... love ... you . . I ... love ... you."
It was difficult to say the words.
The door opened and Lionel came into the room.
Vulcan looked up but he made no attempt to release Astara and she hid her blushes against his shoulder.
"What have you done with that swine?" he enquired.
"He is having to stay in bed until his clothes are dry," Lionel replied.
"You told him we intend to take his Phaeton?"
"I did, and said you would leave him your horse." " He did not object?"
"He swore at me with a fluency which would have been envied in the Sergeant s Mess, but there was nothing he could do."
"No, nothing!" Vulcan said firmly, "And the sooner we get back to Uncle Roderick the better!"
"Uncle Roderick!" Astara exclaimed as if she had just remembered his existence. "How did you know where to find me?"
"You have Lionel to thank for that," Vulcan answered. "
"Tell me, " Astara begged.
"It was really just luck," Lionel replied.
He was looking at her in Vulcan"s arms and she saw the pain in his eyes. He walked across the room and poured himself a gla.s.s of wine from a decanter which stood on the table.
"When you and William drove off," he said after he had taken a sip from the gla.s.s, "I walked towards the stables thinking as I had nothing to do I would inspect the horses. Sam was there and I remarked to him what a very fine team of bays William had.
"They be th" best-matched ones Oi"ve seen for many a year, Cap"n! " Sam replied. "But they be over fresh not havin" been out for a day or so an" Oi "opes "is Lordship"ll drive careful-like. "
"That is exactly what I told him, " I remarked.
"Well, a long drive"s wot they needs, " Sam said.
"A long drive? " I exclaimed. "But His Lordship and Miss Beverley have to be back here in an hour to ride with Sir Roderick. "
"Sam looked surprised.
"" ""is Lordship tells Oi hed not be back 61 to-morrow."
" "Are you certain?" I asked.
" "Quite certain, Capn !" Sam answered.
"I was astonished and dismayed," Lionel said, "and walked into the house wondering what to do. It was then I remembered that before you came downstairs I had seen William going into the Library with something in his hand."
He took another sip of wine and continued: "I thought it was a note. I went into the Library and found what he had carried lying on Uncle Roderick"s desk. I had no compunction about opening it. "
"That was sensible of you, Lionel," Vulcan remarked.
"I really did not stop to think," Lionel replied. "I just had a feeling that William was up to one of his tricks."
"What did he say in the note?" Astara enquired.
"He said that he had decided to take matters into his own hands and that when he brought you back you would be his wife, and he felt sure it would meet with Uncle Roderick"s approval."
"I have an... uncomfortable feeling that Uncle Roderick might have been pleased," Astara said in a low voice.
"I doubt it, " Vulcan replied. "I do not believe that he has ever cared for sneaks and cheats."
"That is exactly what William was doing," Lionel said. "He always cheated at Eton when he wanted to get a prize."
"So what did you do after you read the note?" Astara asked.
"I went back to the stables," Lionel answered, "and told Sam to saddle a horse for me and one for himself and we went to Little Milden."
"To find ...Vulcan?"
"I knew I could not cope with William alone. He had always been able to beat me at everything. If I tried to fight him I knew he would knock me out in a few seconds. "
Lionel finished his wine then exclaimed with the enthusiasm of a school-boy: "How on earth did you do it, Vulcan? I have never seen anything so quick or so neat. G.o.d, I wish I could fight like that!
"As William said, it is not in the Queensberry rules."
"Then what method was it?"
"Kung Fu," Vulcan answered. "I learnt it when I was in China."
"Imight have guessed it!"
"And so might I," Astara agreed. "I could hardly believe it when I saw William fall down almost before the fight began."
"I have had the opportunity of a "foreign" education," Vulcan smiled.
"And so ... have I," Astara said.
"I know that now," he answered.
For a moment they looked into each others eyes, then Astara thought they were being unkind to Lionel.
He loved her in his own way, and she knew what she would have felt if she had been forced to watch Vulcan holding another woman in his arms.
She got off his knees.
"I am sure my clothes will be dry by now," she said, "and I think we ought to go home."
"That is what we will do," Vulcan answered. "We will go home."
He accentuated the last word.
Astara went to Lionel"s side.
"Thank you! Thank you for saving me ... but you have not told me yet how you ... knew where William would have ... taken me."
"I guessed he would have come here," Lionel answered. "It is one of the places he frequents with ..."
He stopped suddenly as if he was going to say something indiscreet, and Astara knew there was no need to add any more. It was what she had suspected about The Kind Dragon" in the first place.
"Thank you, dear Lionel," she said, "and although I love and admire Vulcan more than anyone else in the world, there will always be a place in my heart for you."
As she spoke she stood on tip-toe and kissed his cheek. "
Then without waiting to see Lionel"s confused gratification or what she suspected would be a scowl on Vulcan"s face, she ran from the room.
"Good-bye, dearest Uncle Roderick!" Astara said putting her arms round his neck. "We will write to you whenever it is possible and I will send you reports on all Vulcan"s discoveries. "
"Do that, and I will see they are copied and sent to the a.s.sociation and the Societe," Sir Roderick replied. He turned to Vulcan and added: "I was very impressed by those I read of your last trip when I was in Paris."
"You ... read Vulcan"s reports?" Astara cried. "You never told me!
"I had my reasons for not talking too much about Vulcan," Sir Roderick replied.
Astara looked at him a little anxiously.
"But you are ... glad I have ... married him now? You ... wanted me to be ... happy."
"I allowed you the judgement of love, Sir Roderick said, "and I promised that I would not prevent you giving the golden apple to the man of your choice. "
"That is what Vulcan is," Astara said softly with a smile.
She looked up at the picture over the mantelpiece and taking her arms from Sir Roderick"s neck, said: "Do you realise, Uncle Roderick, that I have made exactly the same choice as Paris did?"
Sir Roderick raised his eye-brows and she explained: "Hera, who is William, tried to bribe me with a great social position. Athene, who is Lionel, offered me the spoils of battle, but Paris chose Aphrodite. Do you remember why?""
She did not wait for him to reply, but went on: "Aphrodite offered him nothing but love, and that is what Vulcan is ... giving me."
As if she could not help herself she put out her hand towards him. He took it and kissed it. Then he said: "We should be on our way if we are to reach Dover before nightfall."
"I am ready."
Astara turned again to Sir Roderick.
"It will be so exciting to come back, Uncle Roderick, and see all the improvements you have made."
"Do not forget they are for you, my dear, and your husband."
"But not for many, many years. We have so many countries to explore, so many books to write and Vulcan has so many lectures to give. "
She smiled radiantly, then she said in a different tone of voice: "There is only one ... thing we thought we ... might do, Uncle Roderick, if you agree."
"What is that?" he enquired.
"We will not only send you and bring you back from time to time Vulcan"s pictures and his books ... but we ..."
Astara- stopped and blushed a little, then she finished almost in a whisper: "... we thought we ... might also ... leave any babies we happened to have with you until they were old enough to ... travel with ... us. "