101. A Call of Love (10 page)

When they arrived and Lord Kenington said who he was, they were taken at once to the Officer in command of the troops in Calcutta who was a General.

He greeted Lord Kenington with delight.

“We knew that you were coming out, my Lord,” he said. “But unfortunately I was not told which ship you would be on.”

“Actually I was not certain myself until the very last moment, but I knew it would be easier to come here first to you and find out how soon I can see the Viceroy.”

“That means going up to Simla, as you probably expected, my Lord,” the General declared.

“Well, at least I am here and now may I introduce Miss Aisha Warde, who was expecting her father, Major Warde, to be meeting her on the quay.”

The General stiffened.

“Is Major Warde your father?” he asked Aisha.

“He is and he promised to meet me here. I had a telegram from him saying that he would be on the quay at Calcutta as soon as the P & O Liner reached Port.”

They were in the General’s private room and there were two desks and a man was seated at one of them.

The General walked across and spoke to him in a low voice so that Aisha did not hear what was said.

The man immediately went from the room, closing the door behind him and the General indicated a sofa and comfortable armchairs on one side of the room.

“I have ordered you something cool to drink,” he said, “which you will certainly need in this climate. I have also asked my assistant to find out the latest news of Major Warde.”

Aisha gave a cry.

“You mean he is out on a mission?” she asked.

“I really don’t know what he is doing,” the General replied. “But they expected him back at the Regiment several days ago.”

Aisha did not speak, but Lord Kenington knew just what she was feeling.

He put out his hand and took hers.

“It may be only a slow train or a lazy mule that has delayed your father,” he said. “So don’t panic before we know exactly what has happened.”

“I will try not to,” she answered nervously.

Her fingers trembled in his and he did not release her hand.

A servant brought the cool drinks and, while they were sipping them, the General left the room.

“What can have happened to Papa?” Aisha asked when they were alone.

“Now you must not get upset,” Lord Kenington replied. “You know as well as I do that things are very different in India. There are a hundred ways he could be delayed and not one of them what you might expect.”

“Of course I expect it to be something frightening. You know, as well as I do, that Papa takes risks that no ordinary man does.”

“As he is brave, you have to be brave too. I am quite certain that it is nothing really concerning.”

Even as he spoke he knew that any man who played
The Great Game
held his life in his hands.

At the same time Major Warde had a tremendous reputation and was very experienced. He would obviously not take unnecessary risks, especially at a time when he was expecting to welcome his daughter.

The General came back into the room

“I am afraid I have no news,” he said, “either good or bad. Your father, Miss Warde, went off on a special mission three weeks ago and we have been expecting to hear from him ever since. It was not a very difficult one and they are confident that he will turn up at any moment.”

“Thank you for finding that out,” Aisha said. “But what am I to do in the meantime?”

“One suggestion,” the General replied, “is that you go straight to Simla, because that is where your father will go if he has the information we expect from him.”

“You mean he will need to report to the Viceroy?” Lord Kenington asked.

The General nodded.

“The Viceroy and, as it so happens, one of our Staff Officers, who knows more about this mission than anyone else does, is actually with the Viceroy at this moment.”

“Then that is where we are going,” Lord Kenington replied. “It will be very easy for me to take Miss Warde with me.”

“I thought you would say that, my Lord, it certainly saves my having to find someone to chaperone and look after her, which of course she must have.”

He thought for a moment and then he added,

“I think it would be best for you and Miss Warde to stay here until nine o’clock this evening when you can then take the night train to Simla. That train is certainly the most comfortable way of going there.”

“I agree with you,” Lord Kenington replied, who had been on the night-train before. “Of course we will be very grateful for your hospitality until we leave.”

“Luncheon will be ready in about half-an-hour,” the General said. “In the meantime any luggage you require can be taken up to a bedroom so you can rest afterwards. Or, of course, if you prefer, go sightseeing.”

“I think we would be happy to stay in the garden if it is not too hot,” Lord Kenington answered. “I would also like a swim.”

“The swimming pool is there waiting for you,” the General smiled. “I hope Miss Warde will ask for anything she requires from my housekeeper, who I may say is a very reliable woman who has looked after us all for years.”

Aisha was pleased to find a comfortable bedroom that looked out over the garden.

When she went down to luncheon, it was to meet a large number of soldiers most of them Majors or Colonels and there were a few distinguished Indians present.

And she was quickly surrounded by men who were, Lord Kenington noted, overcome by her beauty.

She certainly looked very lovely and He thought that she would find in India, as he had prophesied, many men who would lose their hearts to her.

Lord Kenington swam in the afternoon, but, as it was very hot, Aisha just watched him.

Then they had a short rest after tea before an early dinner at Government House and leaving for the station.

The station at Calcutta had always seemed to Lord Kenington to be one of the most extraordinary sights in the world.

It amused him, as it amused Aisha, to see people sleeping on the platform as they waited for a train going the following day. Many of them were accompanied not only by their children but by their animals.

There was a continual roar of trains coming in and going out and bands that apparently had nowhere else to practise were also on the station.

British travellers, who seemed rather out of place, shouted at their bearers if they did not get exactly what they wanted the moment they asked for it.

Even to look round was to see life in a completely different aspect from how it was in England.

Lord Kenington watched Aisha taking it all in and then he said,

“I knew this would delight you. The first time I came here it looked like a pantomime I had seen as a child, but more spectacular than anything staged at
Drury Lane
.”

“Everything seems to be happening at once,” Aisha remarked. “But you can understand why to the Indians it is a real adventure to travel by train.”

“Let’s hope it will be an adventure for us as well,” Lord Kenington commented.

Because he was such an important visitor, they had a private drawing room attached to the train to take them to Simla.

It consisted of two bedrooms, a drawing room with comfortable chairs and a small pantry that contained all the drinks and food they would require on their journey.

Aisha explored it with delight.

“It’s like a doll’s house,” she enthused. “Papa told me a little about the trains in India, but he did not mention this to me.”

“This is because we are deemed so important and I am delighted. But I doubt I would have been given one, if you had not been with me.”

“You cannot expect me to believe that even though they are obviously impressed by Papa.”

“Shall we say it is a combination of your father and the Prime Minister?” Lord Kenington mused. “At least we can be comfortable and have some time alone.”

“Now I can ask you all my questions,” Aisha said. “Perhaps I will have to keep you awake all night!”

“I warn you that after a good dinner and, I hope, some excellent wine, I will just agree to everything you say,” Lord Kenington replied teasingly.

“That would be most unkind of you. Does that mean you will not answer my questions after I have been so patient and did not bother you after the Dartwoods came aboard?”

“It is something you were unable to do anyway and I am thankful that we have left that chatterbox behind us, although regrettably she will be joining us in two or three days at Viceregal Lodge.”

“I will have left by that time with Papa. He has promised me that he will show me India and I have made a list of the places I want to see. So we will not be staying with the Viceroy, I hope, for more than a night or two.”

“I have a feeling you are being very selfish. I want to talk to your father and I want to talk to you and I very much doubt if I can do it in two days.”

“You might have to try, my Lord.” He threw up his hands as if in despair.

Before the train, after a great deal of puffing and blowing, steamed off, a Steward came to see what was in the pantry and to bring them any drink they fancied.

As they had already dined in Government House, neither of them was hungry, but they gladly accepted long iced drinks.

Finally, when the train, making much ado about it, moved out of the station, Aisha felt a feeling of joy.

Now at last she was on her way to her father and she felt that it was reasonable to believe that he would be at Simla.

His mission was in that direction, but the only issue that seemed a little disturbing was that he had not arranged for anyone from Government House to meet her.

That meant he had been quite certain he would be there himself and would have time to come to Calcutta after having seen the Viceroy.

‘I am sure he will be there,’ she told herself again reassuringly.

As once more Lord Kenington was reading Aisha’s thoughts, he said,

“Of course he will be. Stop worrying and enjoy India. Let’s count our blessings that we are doing it so comfortably.”

“I will try to do so, my Lord, and now let’s talk of other things. I want you to tell me, as you promised to do, but we did not have the time, about the special Monasteries you visited in Nepal.”

Lord Kenington laughed.

“Have I come all this way,” he asked, “entirely to improve your geography?”

“That is not geography, it is food for the mind or perhaps I should say, for the soul. After all, you have had your dinner, so I am entitled to mine.”

“I might have guessed you would have a very good excuse for making me talk. I really was thinking of resting until I had to meet the Viceroy.”

“Another thing you can do, which might be easier at the moment, is to tell me about him,” Aisha suggested.

“I will tell you one story which will amuse you. Thirty-six years ago, in fact in 1840, when Disraeli was a young man, he visited one of the private schools and, when he was there, he gave a small boy a half sovereign. It was the first he had ever received.”

“Then he must have been delighted. I suppose you are going to tell me it was the Earl of Lytton.”

“It was, and Disraeli said later, ‘now I have tipped him again and this time put a crown on his head’.”

Aisha laughed.

“I am sure that that is something Lord Lytton will always remember.”

“I think that you will find him charming,” Lord Kenington said. “He has been a great success so far in this country. I will be interested to know, as you have not met him before, if you find him not only handsome but with a charm that few Englishmen possess.”

“My father said the same sort of thing about him.” “Your father is not the only person and nor am I. The Queen found him delightful and said ‘he is a man full of feeling’.”

“I suppose that is high praise,” Aisha said, as she thought it over. “It is usually left to the women to do the feeling in a family!”

Just to be argumentative Lord Kenington took the opposite view and once again they were off on one of their duelling conversations that they both found so fascinating.

It was when they made the next stop and looked out at the darkness that Lord Kenington said,

“I think now I must send you to bed. You will find that in India people wake very early. In fact they usually get up with the first rays of the sun. You will doubtless be woken long before you wish to from the delightful dreams you will undoubtedly have because you are in India.”

“I dream almost every night,” she admitted. “That is another subject I have to talk to you about.”

“Well, we have all tomorrow, but now, as you must get your beauty sleep before Viceregal Lodge, you must go to bed as soon as the train starts again.”

A Steward was already on board preparing more cooling drinks for them. There were also delicious biscuits to eat if they felt hungry during the night.

When the Steward had left and the train started off again, Aisha commented,

“This is certainly comfort in a very big way. I cannot think why our trains in England are always over-crowded and so much less comfortable.”

“In England we would not have our own drawing room to ourselves. So you must thank your lucky stars for being amongst the Rulers of this country and thus being treated like a Queen.”

“That is one thing I have never wanted to be.” “But why” Lord Kenington asked, “I thought it was every woman’s dream.”

“Of course not, a Queen is always in the public eye and people criticise almost everything she does. It must be frightening waking up every morning knowing it would be fatal not only to yourself but to many other people if you made a mistake.”

“I did not think of it like that. The funny thing about you, Aisha, is that you always think of something new and unexpected to say! I think you should be paid for being a ‘Master of the Mind’.”

Aisha laughed.

“That will be the day, when any woman has a job like that. Even you automatically said, ‘Master of the Mind’ and not ‘Mistress of the Mind’. You instinctively think of anyone in authority as being male and not female.”

“I think I was speaking about Her Majesty, Queen Victoria.”

“But she is an exception to every rule as you well know. There is not another Queen who has ever been so magnificent or has ruled over so vast a territory. Yet she is a woman, which is perhaps why we have to work even harder to keep places like India under the Union Jack.”