Love and the Loathsome Leopard by Barbara Cartland Page A

his.
    “I want to look at you,” he said. “I did not know that anyone could be so beautiful.”
    Her eyelashes fluttered shyly, then were dark against her cheeks.
    Because he could not help himself, Lord Cheriton’s arms tightened and he was kissing her again, kissing her passionately, demandingly, feeling a wild elation as her lips responded to his and her body seemed to melt against him.
    After a long time he said, and his voice was curiously unsteady,
    “I love you! Oh, my precious darling, I love you! How could I have dreamt that this could ever happen to me?”
    “You have not – been in love before?” Wivina questioned in a whisper.
    Lord Cheriton shook his head.
    “Never like this. And what I have felt I have never pretended was love, only something very different.”
    “I have dreamt that someday I might meet someone like you,” Wivina sighed.
    Then she gave a little cry.
    “Suppose it’s too late? Supposing we cannot escape?”
    “It is not too late and we will escape!” Lord Cheriton said firmly. “But, as I have already told you, you have to trust me.”
    “You know I do that. You know I trust you completely and absolutely.”
    There was a little pause and then she added,
    “I love – you!”
    “That is what I want you to say and go on saying so that I am quite sure you are not mistaken.”
    “I am not mistaken, and love is more wonderful – more – glorious than I ever imagined.”
    “We will find love together,” Lord Cheriton said, “but first we have to find safety. I must get you out of this mess.”
    As if his words recalled the horror of which she was so conscious, he felt Wivina tremble again as she hid her face against his shoulder.
    “Supposing,” she said in a voice so inaudible that he could hardly hear it, “he – hurts or – kills you?”
    “You are not to worry,” Lord Cheriton replied. “You have promised that you will trust me. Remember, Wivina, that I am not only a soldier but also a leopard, and the leopards defeated the eagles.”
    She looked up at him and he thought she was even more beautiful than she had been a moment before.
    “My – leopard, whom I – love!” she said very softly.
    He kissed her again, then he said with his arms still round her,
    “I want you to tell me something, darling. Do you think there will be another cargo coming in tonight?”
    Just for a moment her eyes widened with fear, then she answered with a calmness that he admired,
    “I think so. That is why Mr. Farlow hurried away.”
    “I thought that,” Lord Cheriton said. “There must have been one on Sunday night, because he brought you presents on Monday.”
    He was talking to himself and he realised that Wivina was surprised because she had not known that he had overheard.
    “Yes – there was one on Sunday night,” she answered, “and so, as today is Tuesday and the weather is so perfect, I imagine they left early this morning. If not, it will be tomorrow.”
    Lord Cheriton thought for a moment.
    “I want you to go to bed, my darling one, and try to forget everything except our love. Tomorrow I shall make plans, and perhaps I shall make a pretence of leaving. I am not certain at the moment.”
    “What do you intend to do tonight?” Wivina asked anxiously.
    Lord Cheriton kissed her forehead.
    “I am not going to tell you and I don’t wish you to worry about it.”
    “If you spy on them – if you go anywhere near them and they catch you – they will – kill you!”
    She paused for a moment and then she went on,
    “There was a – boy in the village who they thought was an informer – but he was only simpleminded and talked about things he did not understand. They tortured him and when he was found dead, he had both his eyes – gouged out!”
    There was so much horror in her voice that Lord Cheriton pulled her close against him, then he said,
    “Forget all about it! You are not to think of them or of anything they do! Think only of what we mean to each other.