He therefore asked, "Can you manage to dress yourself?"

"Of course," Ula smiled, "it is something I have always done."

"Then hurry," the Marquis said. "When I saw you coming to the house, I sent one of my grooms to tell the Vicar to be waiting for us in the Church and I don't wish him to become impatient."

Ula laughed.

Then, as the Marquis left her alone, she pulled off her gypsy clothing and put on the white gown that was even more beautiful than the gowns the d.u.c.h.ess had bought for her.

It was a wedding dress that any girl would gladly dream of possessing.

Fortunately in one of the cupboards of her mother's room was a mirror attached to the back of the door.

Standing in front of it she was able to arrange her hair with the few hairpins she had left and to cover it with the veil and the orange blossom wreath.

Then, feeling excited, as if the whole world had turned topsy-turvy, but was amazing in a manner that defied expression, she opened the door and started down the stairs.

The Marquis was waiting for her in the hall and, as she looked at him, she knew that he was the most handsome and attractive man she had ever seen.

There was now vibrating from him everything she had wanted from him but which in the past she had missed.

She realised that they were the vibrations that came not only from his mind but from his heart.

Because he was in love everything that had belittled his grandeur and his n.o.bility had disappeared.

Now he was exactly as she wanted him to be.

He was a man who would do great things not only for her but for other people, because, as her father would have said, a Divine Power was flowing through him.

At the moment, although all she wanted to do was to tell him of her love, as his eyes met hers, there was no need for words.

They were already so close and belonged to each other so completely that even the Sacrament of Marriage could not make them any closer than they already were.

Holding her hand, the Marquis drew her through the front door and outside, where she saw his phaeton was waiting.

He picked her up in his arms and lifted her into it.

As the grooms climbed up behind, Ula saw that there were two outriders riding ahead of them to lead them the short distance to the Church.

She thought that they were there not only for protection on the roads just in case they should be held up by highwaymen.

They were also there so that neither the Earl nor the Prince, nor anyone else, could stop the Marquis from marrying her.

There were only a few old villagers to look at them in surprise as they drove up to the porch of the West door.

The Marquis put down the reins and, rounding the phaeton, took her in his arms to lift her down.

"I adore you!" he said in his deep voice. "And when we are married I will be able to tell you how much."

She slipped her arm through his and, as they entered the Church where she had worshipped all her life, she could hear the organ playing softly.

She felt that both her father and her mother were very close to her and she could feel their presence as she and the Marquis were joined together by the beautiful words of the Marriage Service.

When he put the ring on her finger, she felt as if there were angel voices singing a paean of praise, while the Church was filled not with people but with love.

Then as they knelt and received the blessing, Ula told herself that no one could be luckier than she had been.

Not only in finding the man she loved but in knowing that he loved her as her father and mother had loved each other.

'Thank You a oh, thank You a G.o.d!' she said in her heart.

She vowed that her whole life would in future be an expression of grat.i.tude for what she had received.

They walked down the aisle and the Marquis once again lifted her into his phaeton and drove off, but not returning, as she had expected they would, to her home.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

Because she could not help it, she moved a little closer to him so that she could lay her hand on his knee.

He looked down at her with a smile.

She knew he was feeling as she was that they were dedicated in their grat.i.tude because they were together and now no one could ever separate them.

"We are going to spend the night in a house I have been loaned by the Lord Lieutenant, who is a friend of mine," the Marquis replied. "No one can possibly find us there and there will be no disruptions."

He smiled as he went on, "Then tomorrow we are going to my home in Oxfordshire, which will be yours, my precious, in future. After that we are setting out on our honeymoon, which will be a surprise."

"It sounds a too perfect," Ula murmured.

Then she gave a little cry.

"The gypsies! I must let them know what has happened to me."

"I thought of that and, while you were dressing, I sent one of my grooms to tell them you were to be married and also to express your grat.i.tude and mine for their kindness in a more practical manner."

"I hope they will not be insulted that you gave them money," Ula said quickly.

"I told my groom to be very tactful," the Marquis replied, "and I also informed them that any gypsies would always be welcome on any estate I own."

"You could not have given them a better present!" Ula exclaimed.

They drove on and came to the house where the Marquis had been staying while he waited for her.

It was very pretty, beautifully appointed and she learned later that the Lord Lieutenant had been preparing it for one of his relatives who had been abroad for some time.

Everything about it was fresh and bright and, Ula thought, very beautiful, as well as a perfect background for the occasion.

There were discreet servants to wait on them and, when they had finished luncheon, the Marquis took her upstairs.

They went into a delightfully decorated bedroom with a large bed draped with silk curtains, that were as blue as Ula's eyes, falling from a carved gold corolla.

"What a lovely room!" she exclaimed.

"I thought, my darling," the Marquis said, "you would want to change from your wedding gown and your trunk which was brought here while we were having luncheon has been unpacked."

She smiled at him.

"You think of everything!"

"I think of you," he answered. "How can I think of anything else when you are so perfect and exactly what I always wanted my wife to be."

Just for a moment Ula thought of Sarah.

As if the Marquis read her thoughts, he said, "Forget about her! We all make mistakes in our lives and from now on your job, my lovely one, is to see that I make as few as possible in the future."

As he spoke, he lifted her wreath from her head, then her veil and taking out the pins that held her hair in place, let it fall over her shoulders.

"Now you look like the angel you are," he sighed, "my angel, who will guide and inspire me for the rest of my life."

"Can I a really do a that?" Ula asked.

"It is what you have done already," the Marquis replied, "and because of you I am very different from the man I was before."

"I love you a just as you are," she whispered.

Because she could not help it, she moved closer to him.

Then, as he kissed her, she felt him undoing her wedding dress.

As it fell to the ground with the softness of a sigh, he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the canopied bed.

She lay against the soft pillows, feeling as if she was floating on a cloud and that once again she was dreaming.

Then, as the Marquis joined her, she knew it was no dream, but a glorious reality, so that once again her whole being was lifted up in a prayer of grat.i.tude.

But, as she felt the Marquis's lips on hers, his hands touching her, his body hard against the softness of hers, she could think of nothing but him.

"I a love you a I adore a you!" she whispered.

"I worship you," he replied, "and it is something I shall do, my beloved, all my life!"

As he spoke, he felt her quiver from the movements of his hand to a first awakening to sensuousness and thought it the most exciting feeling he had ever experienced.

"You are not frightened," he asked.

"A a little!"

"I will be very gentle."

"I am not a frightened a of you."

"Then of what, my precious?"

"Perhaps you will find me a dull and a disappointing and you a will no longer a love me and I will be all a alone again!"

"My angel, that is impossible!"

"Why?"

"Because I do not love you for your beauty and for your exquisite body only, but I adore your kind heart and more than anything else what is called your soul, which will make me love and worship you for ever."

"How can you say such wonderful a wonderful a things to me?"

The tears ran down Ula's cheeks as she asked, "Do you really think a I have the a Divine Light that Papa said was a so important?"

'To me," the Marquis answered, "you shine like a star in the darkness, a star I will follow all my life."

"Oh, darling a darling a I love a you."

He kissed the tears away from Ula's cheeks.

Then, as he held her closer still, she felt as if there were shafts of light flowing from his body into hers and from his mind into her mind.

She knew it was the Power of Divine Love, which was not, as she had thought, soft and gentle as the moonlight, but burning, as the heat of the sun.

She could feel it sweeping through her and rising from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s into her lips to meet the fire within the Marquis.

She knew then that love was strong, overpowering and an irresistible force that would drive them into doing great deeds and seeking far horizons.

The ecstasy and glory of it was a rapture beyond words.

The Marquis made her his and they became one, not only with their bodies but with their minds and their hearts.

The Divine Power carried them into the Heaven that exists for all those who find the true love which comes only from G.o.d.

It is the beauty and perfection of Eternal Life.

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES.

The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world's most celebrated and enduring romantic author.