This was love as she had always longed for it – love as she had always believed it could be in all its perfection.
Then, as the Marquis carried her up to the stars that seemed to encircle his head, she knew that she had found the love that she had always known was different and which she had searched for in her dreams.
*
A long time later the stars had faded, the moon had vanished and the pale fingers of the dawn sun were sweeping away the dark of the night.
The sky outside the window was the colour of Elmina’s hair.
The Marquis, feeling it soft beneath his hand, said,
“Dawn has broken, my beautiful one, and I think we both know it is the dawn of a new life for both of us.”
“Is that why you – pulled back the – curtains?”
“I want you to feel that you belong first to the stars, then
