Read Online 101. A Call of Love by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online Page B

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