101. A Call of Love (8 page)

When they went to bed, Lord Kenington said,

“Now don’t be frightened. I will be listening in case you need me. But I am quite sure, as there has been no sign of that unpleasant man anywhere today that he is licking his wounds in his own cabin.”

“I am certain you are right. He was bleeding after you struck him the second time and I am sure he is badly bruised.”

“There is no reason to feel sorry for him. Just lock your door and go to sleep.”

Aisha hesitated for a moment and he asked,

“Are you still nervous?”

“Would you think it very stupid of me if I asked you to look in my cabin first to make quite sure that no one is hiding there?” Lord Kenington smiled.

“Of course I will. I must say that I am glad you are feminine enough to be afraid of a mere man, when you associate with Gods and Goddesses and doubtless angels and archangels!”

Aisha laughed and retorted,

“Now you are poking fun at me and I will not tell you any more secrets of the universe. I will just gossip, as most people do, about everyone else!”

After Lord Kenington had found that no one could possibly be hidden in her cabin and had gone to his own, he thought over what she had said.

He decided that it was regrettably the truth.

Of course people gossiped about one another and they talked about what they had done or had not done and seldom gave a thought to anything more important.

He could hardly believe their conversation today when they had talked of Tibet and of the strange beliefs that in some countries were called religions, especially of the
Third Eye
, which the Pharaohs had proclaimed to the world by having it emblazoned on their headdress.

Lord Kenington thought that he had never expected to discuss such subjects with anyone except maybe a monk or a philosopher.

‘She is really extraordinary,’ he told himself, as he wondered if he could ever learn to read someone else’s thoughts.

*

The ship stopped at Naples, but they were told by the Captain that they would not stay long.

He was anxious to make this voyage in a shorter time than any other P & O Liner had made it before and so he would only pick up any new passengers.

Those who had wanted to go ashore for sightseeing would unfortunately not be able to do so.

“Some people are very disappointed,” Aisha said and Lord Kenington agreed with her.

“I had hoped to have a quick glance at Pompeii,” she sighed. “I have read everything I can find about it.”

“I am finding it very hard to believe you,” he said jokingly. “I don’t think you are old enough to have read all the books about Greece and Rome, besides those on other countries.”

“Now you are stating that either I am a liar or I am boasting, my Lord, but I am a very quick reader and am lucky in that I can remember most of what I have read.”

“Then you shall tell me what I don’t know about the Gods and Goddesses of Greece when we continue our journey. In the meantime let’s go on deck and see who is arriving and if there is anyone interesting amongst them. I don’t mind betting you there will not be!”

It flashed through Aisha’s mind that perhaps he was bored with her and so was hoping that one of his friends would turn up to make the next part of the journey more interesting for him.

Almost as if she had conjured them up, as they went up on deck, two people appeared who were obviously new passengers.

The woman was very smart and when she saw Lord Kenington she gave a little cry.

“Charles! I did not expect to see you here.”

She moved quickly towards him and he answered,

“It’s a surprise to see you, Mavis. I expected that you would be in London.”

“Harry had to come to Italy and, as I was bored with the Season, I came with him. Now we are going on to India and I shall miss everything including seeing your horse win at Ascot.”

“I will miss it myself,” Lord Kenington sighed.

He shook hands with the man standing beside the lady he had been talking to and said,

“I am on my way to India too. May I introduce Miss Aisha Warde, who is also a passenger?”

As Aisha held out her hand, he finished,

“And this is the Earl and Countess of Dartwood.”

The Countess gave Aisha what she thought was a quizzical look while the Earl said,

“I am not surprised to see you, Charles. You never stay in one place long enough for us to catch up with you.”

“Why are you going to India in the middle of the Season?” Lord Kenington asked him.

“I had a letter from the Colonel commanding our son’s Regiment, inviting us to join him in India,” the Earl replied. “As I had to come to Italy to see my mother, who is living here, I thought we might as well do this part of the journey before we turned for home.”

“It is lovely to see you both and I will tell you that, with the exception of Miss Warde, the company on board this Liner is very limited.”

“I can well believe that,” the Countess said. “That is why it is delightful for us to find you here, dear Charles. I have so much to tell you and I know you will find it all amusing.”

“We had better go and see about our cabins,” the Earl suggested,

Their hand luggage had been brought aboard by what was obviously the Countess’s lady’s maid and the Earl’s valet.

They went towards the Purser’s Office and Lord Kenington said to Aisha in a low voice,

“Now we are in a difficulty.”

Aisha looked at him in surprise.

“Why?” she asked.

He took her arm and then drew her away from the gangway towards the bow of the ship. There was no one at their special place and instinctively they went towards it.

As they sat down, Aisha asked,

“What is wrong?”

“As you are un-chaperoned,” he began, “and we are together, they will assume, whatever we tell them, that we have chosen to travel this way and it will undoubtedly be to the detriment of your reputation.”

Aisha looked at him in astonishment.

Then, as he saw she did not understand, he said,

“They will think we are taking this trip just to be alone together.”

The colour flooded into Aisha’s face and she cried,

“Oh, I did not think of that! How very stupid of me. What shall we do?”

“I am not sure, but I do know that the Countess is a terrible gossip and so is her husband. They call him ‘talkie-talkie’ in White’s Club. He always has far too much to say about everything and everyone!”

“I see what you mean, my Lord, but I cannot think what we can do about it, unless I get off the ship and wait for the next one.”

“You must not do so as you know that I am relying on you to introduce me to your father, but you must not say so in front of the Dartwoods.”

“But what can we do?” Aisha queried weakly. “It would not matter to me what they say, but, as they are your friends, you will not want them to talk about you.”

“They will talk about me whatever I do or don’t do. I am in fact thinking of you, Aisha.”

“I am sorry, very sorry,” she whispered.

“Maybe I am making a mountain out of a molehill,” Lord Kenington said almost angrily. “Equally I don’t want you to be talked about and I have always thought the sort of sniggering remarks that people in the Social world make about someone if they think they are having a love affair is extremely unpleasant.”

He spoke in a way that told Aisha he had suffered from that sort of gossip himself.

It was indeed the truth.

Because he was so handsome and so rich and also a friend of the Prince of Wales, he had only to dance twice with the same woman for the gossip writers to say that he was having an affair with her.

When he did have one, he often felt as if it was proclaimed from the rooftops.

He was not thinking of himself at the moment, but of Aisha because she was so young and so unspoilt.

She had no knowledge of the world he lived in and that consisted of a large number of people, all very like the Earl and Countess of Dartwood.

“What we have to do,” he said, “is to put our heads together and see how we can prevent these friends of mine from chattering. Unfortunately they are bound to do so, not only immediately they arrive in India, but also when they return to London.”

“I don’t really think it will matter much to me,” Aisha said, “if that is what you are saying.”

“But it will. You have not been in London, so you have no idea how the smallest thing is exaggerated, talked about and then exaggerated again until everyone believes what they last heard is the truth.”

Aisha laughed.

“I have read about this sort of thing in books, my Lord, but did not believe it really happens.”

“Well, it does. I would be insulting both you and your father if I did not do something to stop it.”

“So what can we do?” They sat in silence, both of them thinking fervently what they could say.

Lord Kenington was recalling that he had, when he first met the Countess nearly five years ago, thought her very attractive.

And she had flirted with him because he was so handsome. She had invited him at least a hundred times to their house in Berkeley Square and he had danced with her and kissed her in a conservatory.

But it was he, rather than she, who had decided that it should not go any further.

Lord Kenington had become very friendly with the Earl, who had invited him to shoot and also to fish on his river in Scotland.

He did not doubt, now that he was older and wiser, that if he had pursued his friendship with the Countess, it could easily have developed into an
affaire-de-coeur
.

But in those days he had been younger and shyer than he was now.

He had thought of her as a married woman and had no wish to deceive the Earl behind his back and so he had continued to be their friend over the years.

He had been aware at the same time that a number of people complained that they both talked too much.

Many of his friends in White’s had moved away if the Earl sat down beside them.

‘Why on earth did they of all people,’ he asked himself, ‘have to come aboard now?’

He was enjoying himself talking to Aisha and he had no wish to break up their friendship.

But he knew that there had already been a question mark in Mavis Dartwood’s eyes when he introduced Aisha.

Aisha was now very quiet and was staring ahead.

“We have to think of something,” he said. “You are clever. Now think of a way I can be looking after you and protecting you and, as far as they are concerned, have known you for many years.”

“Perhaps I had better get off the ship,” Aisha said. “There is just time for me to pack my clothes.”

“Do you really think I would let you do that?” Lord Kenington asked. “Let them talk and be damned. I would not dream of leaving you all alone in Italy, perhaps at the mercy of men like Watkins.”

He saw Aisha give a little shudder and he knew that she was frightened at the idea and he was quite certain that it would be wicked to leave anyone so pretty alone in a strange country.

“You will do nothing of the sort,” he added. “We will just have to think of something sensible. There must be an answer if we can only find it.”

Even as he spoke, he realised that the gangway was being pulled up and the engines were turning over.

They were pulling out of port.

Now, however difficult it might be, there was a long voyage ahead before they would reach Calcutta.

“Perhaps,” Aisha suggested in a very small voice, “I could go and sit at another table for meals. Not the Captain’s, because Mr. Watkins is there, but perhaps there is a nice woman somewhere amongst the passengers who would be kind to me.”

There was silence and then Lord Kenington said,

“I have no wish for you to do that. I want to go on talking to you on the trip. Besides, as I have already told you the Countess is nosey and she will doubtless very soon learn that we have been together all the time up to now.”

Then suddenly Aisha gave a cry.

“I have thought of something, although you may not think it good enough.”

“Tell me.”

“Well, do you have a cousin or a relative who is about the same age as myself?” Lord Kenington stared at her.

“What are you trying to say,” he asked.

“Tell me first,” Aisha persisted.

“Yes, I have,” he replied. “I do have a number of relations and I can think of at least a dozen cousins.”

“Then suppose I was engaged to one of them and you were kindly taking me out to join him.”

Again Lord Kenington stared at her.

“You are indeed the cleverest girl I have ever met. Of course it would be perfectly acceptable for me to be escorting you to my cousin and we could say a relative of yours, who was coming out with us, was taken ill at the last moment.”

“Surely they could not object to that.” Lord Kenington was thinking.

“I have one cousin, a rather tiresome young man, who is at the moment in the Navy on one of Her Majesty’s Battleships. I think he is somewhere in Africa, but it is not improbable for him to be meeting you in India, especially when I understand we have quite a number of Battleships moving in that direction as a warning to the Russians.”

Aisha gave a sigh.

“Well surely, if I was engaged to him, you would be kind enough to escort me out to meet him, especially as my father is already in India and could not, at the moment, come to England to fetch me.”

Lord Kenington lent back as if in relief.

“The trouble with you is that you are too bright. I am beginning to feel more and more inferior and, by the time we reach India, I may have disappeared altogether!”

Aisha laughed.

“You must remember you are chaperoning me, my Lord. It would be a great mistake to leave me until you hand me over safely to my fiancé!”

Having discussed it all with Aisha, Lord Kenington went down to dinner early to find his friends.

“We must all sit together,” he suggested, “as I feel sure that you don’t want to sit at the Captain’s table.”

“Certainly not,” the Countess replied. “Of course we want to be with you, Charles.”

Lord Kenington lowered his voice.