Chapter 38

Mark knocked on Victoria's door at half past eight the following morning.

"Come in," she called. She was dressed and sitting in front of the mirror brushing her hair. Her face lit up with happiness. "Hello, Mark darling. Did you sleep well?"

"Like a log."

"Me too."

He walked over to her and kissed her forehead. "I couldn't wait any longer," he whispered.

She grabbed his head and pulled it down giving him a full-blown kiss on the lips. "And I couldn't wait for that," she replied.

He smiled lovingly down at her.

"Oof!" thought Victoria. "When he looks at me like that I become complete jelly."

"So what's the plan?" she asked.

"Nothing very exciting but, if we get away by about ten, I thought we'd drive up to Dallowgill Moor and ride there. We can leave the horsebox at Skell Beck and ride to Wath. It's a bit boggy in places but there are some areas where we can let the horses out. There's a pub at Wath which I hope will feed us on a Sunday. Then we can make our way back as we will."

"That sounds fine."

They were on the road by ten and on horseback twenty minutes later. The sun shone and there was a gentle breeze: ideal conditions. They did indeed have a couple of exhilarating gallops but mostly they walked their horses riding knee-to-knee and talking. Inevitably the subject of the ball came up.

"Did you think that's what Charles was going to do?" she asked.

"I considered it as a possibility. What had me really worried was what he might do when the band stopped playing and there was no excuse for me to be around. I'd planned to hand Serena over to your parents to take home and then skulk around. When you told me of your ultimatum though I thought he'd probably act early if at all and he did. Bloody man. At least he made it easier for me to rescue you."

"Do you really think he spiked my drink?"

"Yes, darling, I do although I find it extraordinary that a fellow officer would behave like that. I think your ultimatum infuriated him and wounded his pride. He'd planned to seduce you and he was going to have you one way or another."

Victoria shuddered. Mark leant over and pulled her to him.

"Don't worry about it anymore, darling," he said. "It's over and in a fortnight's time he'll be back with his unit and well away from you."

"But can you prove he did it?"

"I think so. In the relatively short time I've been at Tidworth I've got to know a lot of people who I get on well with. One of them is Mike Rawlins, the commander of the Royal Military Police detachment. Your glass with about half an inch of your drink is sitting in the Mess Secretary's safe and tomorrow I shall be taking it over to Mike for analysis. I shall also be asking Edward Jones, the Mess Secretary, to question his bar staff about Master Fitzmaurice ordering strange drinks. Then, if the results are as I think they'll be, he'll be on his bike within forty eight hours of our getting back from leave."

It was Victoria's turn to lean over and pull him into a kiss. Luckily their horses were in step.

"I'm a very, very lucky girl," she said thoughtfully. "I have emerged unscathed from a potential rapist and it's all due to the man I love. Darling, thank you again, so very, very much."

They rode on in silence for a while. Suddenly Victoria turned to Mark. "Make sure," she said, "that you have a witness when you collect my glass who can verify that you didn't spike it on the way to the police."

Mark stared at her in admiration. "You clever girl," he said. "I hadn't thought of that. Brilliant! Of course! You bet I will."

That led to another kiss and then they had to have another gallop to relieve their emotions.

They found the pub and were reluctantly given bread and cheese to eat. There was even lager for Victoria. Afterwards they rode in a leisurely loop back to the horsebox. They talked happily about everything and nothing. There were a few silences but they short and unstrained. They were very comfortable with each other.

They arrived home around four, rubbed their horses down, fed them and watered them. They were just in time for tea after which Anthony, Frances and Rupert departed.

Selena whipped Victoria away up to her room. David went off for a walk round the farm and Mark joined Elspeth as she prepared supper in the kitchen.

"Well, that was a lot of fun," said Elspeth. "I hope that now they're back in England that we're going to see a lot more of them."

"I'm sure you will," replied Mark, "particularly if you produce dinners like last night's. Golly, it was good."

"Thank you, darling. It's rather fun to push the boat out now and again. Did you and Victoria have a good time today?"

"Super. We never stopped talking."

"Not even to kiss her?"

Mark blushed and Elspeth chuckled. "You're quite right, you know," she went on. "She really is stunningly beautiful and full of fun. I think you may have found a winner there."

"I hope so. I'm absolutely mad about her and I think she is about me.

"No doubt about the latter."

"But we must be sure it's not just infatuation before we go any further."

"How long's that going to take?"

"I don't know, Mum. I see her every day now and then I'm going to see even more of her on the German trip in October. Maybe that'll be the make or break. The trouble is we've only really got to know each other again in the last few weeks."

"I don't think there's any doubt in her mind. From what Frances and Selena tell me she's been planning to marry you for the last four years."

Mark smiled. "I know but I really think I have to discount that as a schoolgirl crush."

"I wouldn't be too sure. She can't have not met other young men over the last couple of years. She'll have compared them all to you and found them wanting and then, having spent time with you again, found that you still measure up to her expectations and possibly exceed them."

Mark looked thoughtful. That was a new way of looking at things. "That still leaves me though, Mum. I love being with her. There's nothing she's not prepared to talk about. She makes me laugh. And she's full of life and sparkle. She also arouses the most enormous lust in me and that's what really worries me: that my physical desire for her may be overruling my other senses."

Elspeth grunted. "I doubt that will lessen until you've slaked your thirst and with a beautiful, sexy little creature like that it'll take a lot of slaking."

"You're pushing me, Mum, aren't you?"

"No, darling, merely trying to help you overcome your innate caution. You're your father's son. Sure, he will take risks but they're well calculated ones."

"Was he too slow asking you to marry him?"

Elspeth threw back her head and laughed. "Much!" she exclaimed.

Mark had a lot to think about. He wandered off to the drawing room and absent-mindedly started to play the piano. He kicked off with Bach's Prelude No1 which he played in chords. Next, as his fingers loosened up, he played it properly. He moved on to the Moonlight Sonata. Next came his favourite, Chopin's Nocturne in E Flat Minor. At the end he let his hands fall and gazed through the big bow window oblivious to the world his mind full of Victoria.

"That was beautiful, darling," she said quietly putting her hands on his shoulders which made him jump. She held him down on the piano stool. "I had no idea from what you said that you could play like that. I think you might have brought tears to Chopin's eyes the way you played that Nocturne."