The Marquis Is Trapped by Barbara Cartland Page B

watched him until he reached his bedroom.
    Then he walked towards his own room and opened the door.
    He turned round to close it and then, as he moved a little further into the room, he came suddenly to a standstill.
    He stared in front of him in sheer astonishment.
    His large four-poster bed had a large ornate canopy over it.
    Beneath it sitting up against the pillows was Celina!
    For a moment the Marquis could not move and was speechless.
    Then Celina spoke in a little voice that was hardly audible,
    “I am sorry – I am – terribly sorry.”
    “What on earth are you doing here , Celina?”
    “I am so sorry,” she whimpered again, “and please, please – please don’t be angry.  It is not – my fault.  I knew you would be horrified, my Lord.”
    “I am not horrified, Celina, just astonished.”
    “I thought you would be, but – she made me and I had to do – what she said.”
    The Marquis now reached the bed and sat down at the end of it.
    He realised, as he did so, that Celina, who was only wearing a thin transparent nightgown, shuddered.
    She seemed in the light of the candles to have gone even paler than she was already.
    Deliberately keeping his voice as low and calm as possible, the Marquis enquired,
    “Now, tell me from the beginning why you are here and why you have been frightened of me ever since I came to stay at the Castle.”
    “I was frightened,” she answered, “because I knew just what she was going to do – and why she had asked you to come.”
    “I suppose you are referring to your stepmother?”
    “Yes – and I so wanted to warn you, my Lord – but I could not do it once you had arrived.”
    “Now tell me what your stepmother wants and why you are here,” the Marquis asked her very quietly.
    “It is because tomorrow she will force Papa – to say that you have to marry me – and I know you don’t want to marry anyone – least of all me .”
    “Are you saying that your stepmother plotted this?  And I was invited to stay here at the Castle, just so that I should have to marry you?”
    He was thinking the whole scenario out in his own mind as he spoke.
    He was not surprised when Celina answered,
    “My Stepmama is determined to get rid of me!  When she received a letter from London – telling her that someone called Isobel wanted to marry you – she made Papa invite you to stay here for the fishing.”
    The Marquis was just beginning to realise what had happened, but he managed to enquire in a very quiet tone,
    “Why does your stepmother want you married?”
    “She wants to be rid of me, because, as Papa does not have a son, in Scotland the title and the estate can go in the female line.”
    “Yes, I know that – ”
    “Stepmama wants Papa’s money – and she thinks if I am married off to a rich aristocrat, then Papa will leave her everything which is not entailed.  Meanwhile he wants his money to be spent on the estate when he is dead.”
    “So your stepmother wants to get rid of you?  Is this her first attempt?”
    Celina shook her head.
    “No.  She told me that I had to marry Mr. Ignatius Hambleton, who lives on the other side of the County.”
    “Why did you not marry him?” asked the Marquis.
    He saw Celina shudder.
    “She had pushed him into proposing to me, but then I had heard how – cruel he was to his horses.  Then when I saw him, he was old – and repulsive.  When he asked me to marry him, as Stepmama had arranged, I told him I would – rather die than be his wife!”
    She spoke in a way that told the Marquis without words how horrified and terrified she had been by the man.
    “So Mr. Hambleton went away and what did your stepmother do then?”
    “She beat me,” whispered Celina shyly.  “My back was agony for weeks.”
    She gave a little sob.
    “When she told me – that I had to marry you – I knew I could not bear it all to happen again.”
    “Why did you not tell your father?”
    “That is what I wanted to do,” replied Celina.