Fortunately the snow had stopped falling well before dawn and there was no frost and the roads therefore were not dangerous.
As they sped through a white world, the Duke thought that it looked as pure as Lavela herself.
“I love you, my darling,” he sighed.
“As I love you ‒ ”
She spoke in the same rapt little voice with which she had made her responses in the Marriage Service.
Very gently the Duke took off the small hat she was wearing and put it down on the seat beside them.
Then he pulled her close against him and said,
“We have run away, we have escaped! Now nobody can prevent us from being together and I no longer have to be careful how I look at you.”
Lavela laughed.
“I was so afraid that people would see me looking at you and know that I was longing to be close as we are now.
