Alnina felt as if a cold hand gripped her heart.
It told her that the Duke was looking elsewhere.
She had lost him for ever.
“What I am trying to say,” the Duke went on very quietly, “is that, while I have lost the mountain, I have found something so wonderful that I cannot believe that I would ever be lucky enough to obtain it.”
“And what – is it,” Alnina managed to say.
The Duke smiled.
“Surely, my darling Alnina, you must have realised by this time that it is – you.”
She looked up at him in sheer astonishment.
Then, as she saw the vivid expression in his eyes, she knew that was what she had wanted all along and what she had sought.
“I love you, Alnina,” the Duke said slowly. “I love you and I know there is nothing else in my world of any consequence except you!”
“Is – that rea
