Secret Harbor by Barbara Cartland Page A

something and realising at once that it was human, she gave a little scream of fear.
    But even as it left her lips she knew who it was.
    “Save ... me! Save ... me!” she begged frantically, speaking only in a whisper for fear her voice would be overheard.
    “What has happened? What has upset you?” the Comte asked.
    For a moment Grania was too breathless to speak. She was only aware that she was close to the Comte and without really t hinking of what she was doing she moved closer still hiding her face against his shoulder.
    Slowly, almost as if he tried to prevent himself from doing so, he put his arms around her.
    To feel him holding her was an indescribable comfort and after a moment she managed to say:
    “He has ... come to fetch me ... away ... I am to be ... married tomorrow ... and I thought I would ... never escape.”
    “But you have,” the Comte said. “My look-out saw lights in the windows of your house and I was coming to investigate in case something was wrong.”
    “Very ... very wrong,” Grania replied, “and I thought I could not ... get away ... but Abe ... carried me out in a ... washing-basket.”
    She thought as she spoke it ought to sound amusing, but she was still so frightened and so breathless with the speed at which she had run that what she said was almost incoherent.
    “Is Maigrin in the house?” the Comte asked.
    “He is ... waiting for ... me.”
    The Comte did not reply, he merely turned her round so that she faced in the direction of the ship and with his arms round her shoulders he led her through the trees to the harbour.
    Because he was with her and was actually touching her she felt her agitation gradually subside.
    At the same time she felt too limp and weak to think for herself any longer.
    As if he understood, when they reached the gangway the Comte steadied her on it then walked behind her with his hands on her arms in case she lost her balance.
    They stepped on deck and for a moment Grania thought there w as no one about.
    Then she saw a man halfway up the mast and supposed he was the look-out of whom the Comte had spoken.
    Now she was on deck she turned to look back at the house and realised that the trees and shrubs made it completely invisible. Only the man on the mast could have seen the lights in the windows which had made him alert the Comte.
    They went down the steps to the cabin and she saw that when this had happened he was already in bed.
    The sheets were thrown back and she saw now by the light of a lantern that he was wearing only a thin linen shirt open at the neck and dark pantaloons.
    He stood looking at her and for the first time she was conscious of her own appearance and that her hair was hanging loose over her shoulders. She had made no effort to tidy it when she had dressed on Roderick Maigrin’s instructions.
    The Comte did not speak and Grania said the first thing that came into her mind.
    “I ... I cannot ... go back!”
    “No, of course not. But where is your father?”
    “He was not ... well enough to ... come with Mr. Maigrin.”
    She did not look at the Comte as she spoke, but they both knew it was because the Earl was drunk that he had stayed behind at Maigrin House.
    “Sit down,” the Comte said unexpectedly. “I want to talk to you.”
    Obediently and also gladly because her legs felt as if they could no longer support her, Grania sat down in one of the comfortable armchairs.
    There were two lanterns hanging in the cabin and she saw that the port-holes were covered by wooden shutters that she had not noticed earlier in the day, and she knew that no light could be seen from outside.
    The Comte hesitated a moment. Then he said, still standing looking down at Grania:
    “I want you to think seriously of what you are asking me to do.”
    She did not answer. She only looked at him apprehensively, afraid he would refuse.
    “You are sure,” he went on, “there is not somebody else on the island with whom you could hide from your father? And