Chapter Seven
For a moment they were both still as if turned to stone.
Then with a little cry like that of a child, who finds safety after a frightening experience, Roxana ran straight into the Count’s arms.
He held her close against him and then he was kissing first her lips, then her wet eyes, the tears from her cheeks and then her lips again.
She felt as if her prayers to the Gods had been answered.
She had died and was in a Heaven so perfect and so wonderful that she was no longer breathing.
He kissed her until it was impossible to think but only to feel that he was there and that everything had changed, she was no longer alone or unhappy but a part of him as she had been before.
At last he raised his head to look down at her face radiant with a beauty he had never seen before,
