Valeta gave a little choked laugh.
“You are going too – quickly,” she tried to protest.
“There will be plenty of time for us to consider such things,” the Marquis replied, “but there is one thing I am not going to wait for and that is our Wedding Day.”
He kissed her again before he went on.
“Nicholas’s father and mother will doubtless stay here tonight and tomorrow I will find another chaperone for you. But I want you to myself alone and it would be a bore to have other people with us.”
“I too want to be alone – with you,” Valeta whispered.
“As you are in mourning and I suppose I am too as far as the world is concerned, shall we just be married very quietly and secretly?”
“Could we – do that?”
“If you agree and if you are prepared to be married without our friends gaping at us and
