The Marquis released her lips and now he was kissing her eyes, her cheeks, her small chin and then again her lips.
It was difficult to breathe as something warm and marvellous moved from her breasts into her throat so that she could no longer speak.
The whole room seemed to be filled with an unbelievable glory and she only knew that, if this was love, it was perfect and ecstatic as she had always known it must be.
Then the Marquis raised his head to look down at her and he breathed in a voice that she found hard to recognise,
“I love you! I suppose I might have expected this to happen when you came here hating me. But I love you and there is nothing I can do about it except tell you so.”
Valeta’s eyes seemed to fill her whole face and the Marquis went on with a smile,
“I think I know
