101. A Call of Love (14 page)

“Why can I not come with you?” Aisha asked.

“Because, my darling, even you are not supposed to know the innermost secrets of
The Great Game
, which, of course, is what the Viceroy wants me to give him.”

“And will you, Papa?” The Major laughed.

“Just as much as is good for him and the same will apply to your protector, Lord Kenington.”

“He was extremely kind to me and I could not have managed the voyage if he had not been there.”

“It’s a journey you should not have made.” “I would have gone round the world a hundred times to meet you, Papa. I could not have stayed at home and thought about you waiting for me on the quayside at Calcutta.”

“Which I was unable to do anyway.” “Tell me what happened?” Aisha begged him.

Her father shook his head.

“It’s over and done with. Now I only want to think what we will do when we reach London and where we will find ourselves a nice house that is not too far from the War Office.”

“I hoped I would have you all to myself,” Aisha sighed. “But they will make you work and work and I will be lucky if you come home for dinner.”

“Nonsense! I have done the work that I was really good at. Although I will help the Prime Minister when necessary and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, I have every intention that you and I will enjoy ourselves, especially you.”

“By going to parties? You know, Papa, I would much rather talk to you and indeed to Lord Kenington. I am not interested in young men who have not even crossed the English Channel or are obsessed with horse racing until they can think and talk of nothing else.”

“You cannot be a cynic at your age, my dear. You have to try to enjoy life in a thousand different ways before you finally find the path that suits you best.”

“Now you are preaching to me. I will only listen to you, Papa, if you tell me the things I want to know and not the things I should know.”

Her father laughed.

“I promise you that we will spend as much time as possible together before we return to Calcutta, which will be tomorrow or the day after. But I must go to the Viceroy now.”

“Very well, Papa, I will go and sit where we were this morning and count the minutes until you join me.”

“I should think it will take a thousand of them,” her father replied.

Then he kissed her and walked away.

“Come and watch us play polo,” one of the young men called out as he saw her standing alone.

“It’s too hot,” Aisha called back.

“I will find you a cool place to sit in,” he persisted, “and I am longing to show off how well I can play.”

“I still say it’s too hot on the polo ground and I like being here,” she replied. “The garden is so beautiful and it’s quite cool by the swimming pool.”

“Now you are tempting me,” the young man said. “But I promised to play and therefore I have to leave you.”

“I expect I will still be here when you come back,” Aisha said lightly.

“Well, we are going to dance this evening and I book myself here and now for the first dance and for a great number of others too.”

“I will put it down on my card,” Aisha smiled.

He walked away and she turned to the swimming pool.

She had only gone a short way when an elderly woman who had been at luncheon came walking up to her.

“I am very anxious, Miss Warde,” she began, “for you to tell me about your father. Every time I mention him, people seem reluctant to tell me anything about him. As he is so good-looking and distinguished, I am curious.”

“I believe Papa has a very good reputation as an Officer,” Aisha replied.

“I think it is more than that. Someone whispered to me that he is in the Secret Service.”

Aisha managed to laugh.

“You must not believe all you hear. Papa has done so many things in his life that I think they make up stories about him as if he was a hero in a novel. But I assure you that his heart is with his Regiment and he greatly enjoys being a soldier.”

“I am quite certain it’s more than that,” the lady persisted.

Then much to Aisha’s relief, they were joined by two young men looking for the elderly woman.

“We are going to play tennis, Aunt Lucy,” they said, “and we would love you to come and watch us. Nicholas is a particularly good tennis player, so I am bound to be beaten.”

“I would enjoy that very much,” the lady replied. “Why not come with us, Miss Warde? I am longing to go on talking to you about your father and I am sure, as he is so celebrated, there are marvellous stories for me to hear about him.”

“I am afraid you would find them very dull,” Aisha said, “because, if you think about it, all Regimental service is much the same. Papa has been very lucky to be serving in India where he has so many friends and, unlike most people, he does not mind the climate.”

The tennis players had walked ahead and the lady lowered her voice before she said,

“Oh, do be kind and tell me more about him. I can see you are keeping it to yourself and I am intrigued.”

Aisha wanted to say, ‘and I suspect, very talkative.’

But she merely replied,

“You will have to ask Papa. I don’t suppose he will be very long with the Viceroy. He will be in the drawing room at teatime.”

The elderly woman gave a sigh of exasperation and walked away without saying any more.

Aisha was sure she was one of those busy-bodies who wanted to know all about celebrities so that she could convince her friends that she knew everything there was to know about everybody.

‘She is just like the Countess of Dartwood,’ Aisha told herself, ‘and thank goodness they’ve not arrived yet.’

She thought with any luck that she and her father would have left before they came and she was quite certain that the Countess, if she had the slightest suspicion of what her father had been doing, would chatter about it – or if it was sensational enough, would shout it from the roof-tops.

‘The sooner we get back to England,’ she thought, ‘the better. Then Papa will be free from
The Great Game
, and from the kind of people who suspect something must be happening if they have not been told all about it and therefore they are tiresomely inquisitive.’

She walked away alone to the swimming pool. As she did so, she was saying a heartfelt prayer of thankfulness that her father was safe and now she could be with him alone as she wanted to be.

‘No one has done more than he has for England,’ she mused, ‘and now he will be able to enjoy himself.’

It was still impossible not to feel the shadow of danger and she had been acutely aware of it ever since she had arrived at Peterhof.

However reassuring both the Viceroy and Lord Kenington had been, she knew instinctively that they were extremely worried about her father.

They had only pretended to be confident because they did not want her to feel as alarmed as they did.

‘Now we will go home,’ she thought, ‘and I will persuade Papa to stay at our house in the country until the summer is over. Then, if he has to go to London, we will find a nice little house near the river and there will be no more ears listening at keyholes or a feeling of apprehension every time the door opens.’

When she reached the swimming pool, she was pleased to see that there was no one else there and she sat down in the seat under the trees.

‘I do hope that Papa will not be long,’ she said to herself. ‘I have so much more I want to say to him.’

*

In the Viceroy’s sitting room, Major Warde was telling him and Lord Kenington exactly what he believed were the weak spots in the defences of India and what additional forces and equipment he thought necessary.

The Viceroy was writing it all down, whilst Lord Kenington knew his own memory was the safest place in which to store the secret information he was hearing.

He then asked several questions that the Viceroy thought were extremely intelligent.

Major Warde was able to answer them with copious information and reasons that would undoubtedly support the Prime Minister against the Opposition.

They talked for nearly an hour and then the Viceroy sat back in his seat and said,

“All I can say to you, Warde, is that you have been brilliant, not only in what you have done but in what you have planned for the future. I only wish you would stay here and organise it.”

“It is always wise to know when one should close the door and pull down the curtain,” the Major replied. “As you are aware, my Lord, there are several very weak spots in our defence and I am quite certain Lord Kenington will explain these when he returns to London.”

“I know how grateful the Prime Minister will be to you,” Lord Kenington said. “At the same time everything will be pooh-poohed and talked down by the Opposition.”

“I suppose really that is what they are there for,” the Viceroy replied. “If you ask me, if we did not have a competent Opposition, we would not have even half the resources we have at the moment.”

“That is a paradox but true,” Major Warde said. “When I think how difficult it has been to get anything from England in the past, I am grateful, very grateful, for even what we have at present.”

“Yet you will want more,” Lord Kenington added.

“That might be said of everything in life. If one was completely content with things as they are, we would sink into an apathy that would undoubtedly end in disaster both for ourselves and for the nation.”

He spoke in a way that made Lord Kenington think of Aisha – it was the way she had talked when she sounded more like an elderly politician than a young and pretty girl.

Her father was an exceptionally good-looking man and Lord Kenington could only understand that Aisha had inherited from him not only her beauty but a part of his brain and his superb powers of perception and imagination.

“I am extremely interested in all that you have said today,” the Viceroy said to the Major. “I only hope when you return to England that you will speak out your views and not keep them to yourself.”

“I am retiring into private life, my Lord.” The Viceroy laughed.

“I very much doubt it. You know, as well as I do, it will drive you mad to see people doing things the wrong way and perhaps undoing everything you have created.”

The Major made a gesture with his hands, but the Viceroy went on,

“If you ask me, you are someone who will go on fighting until the last breath. But only when you are dead and buried will they realise how great you really are.”

“I am very grateful for those few kind words, my Lord. It is always wise in life to know when enough is enough. Those who cling onto their careers when they are really finished are usually laughed at.”

“I am sure that is something people will never do where you are concerned,” Lord Kenington said. “When the Prime Minister hears what I have to say, it will merely confirm his thinking that you are the most outstanding and resourceful man who ever fought for India.”

“If I stay here listening to you any longer, I will become conceited,” Major Warde sighed.

He rose to his feet and said to the Viceroy,

“I know you will allow me to leave you, so that I can be with my daughter.”

“Of course,” the Viceroy agreed, “and thank you again for all you have told us.”

Major Warde left the room, but Lord Kenington did not accompany him.

He waited until the door was shut and then he said,

“I suppose the sooner I go back to London and talk to Disraeli, the more you will feel at ease, Robert.”

“I am certainly very perturbed by what Warde has told us,” the Viceroy replied. “I suspected things were bad, but not as bad as they apparently are.”

He gave a deep sigh before he continued,

“Thank God he uncovered the plot before the Fort was set alight. I only hope we can keep it from becoming news. Otherwise there will undoubtedly be those who will panic and expect the same to happen wherever they are.”

“You know Warde will not talk,” Lord Kenington replied, “and at this time of the year there are very few visitors to the North-West Frontier.”

“That is true. Even so I am wondering from where I can move even as little as a Battalion without it being obvious that something is up.”

“I should wait,” Lord Kenington suggested, “until all signs of the threatened disaster have disappeared and that includes Russians who have already withdrawn.”

“That is good advice and I will certainly consider it, but you must admit, Charles, that things are happening in India that make me extremely anxious. And it is appalling to think that the Russians are very much nearer than the authorities at home believe.”

“Nevertheless it would be just impossible without a very large force indeed for them to take over India,” Lord Kenington said. “But we might have to fight to preserve it, and that would definitely mean many more men than we have at the moment.”

“I agree with you and I will leave you to make very clear to the Prime Minister about the urgency of sending us reinforcements immediately. I believe also we are short of long-range guns.”

“Make a list for me,” Lord Kenington proposed, “and I will leave as soon as you want me to, Robert.”

“I have no wish for you to leave as soon as you have arrived,” the Viceroy answered. “You know, Charles, how much I enjoy having you here. It is delightful having someone to talk to who is intelligent and who knows as much as you do.”

He gave a deep sigh before he added,

“If you only knew the idiots I have to put up with, who talk as if they know everything about India, but in actuality know nothing!”

Lord Kenington smiled.

“Perhaps it’s a good thing that they know as little as they do. Otherwise they might panic and you have no wish to cope with that.”

“No wish at all. To be truthful I like my peace and quiet with just a few of my old friends to talk to.”

There was little point, Lord Kenington thought, in saying that he sympathised with the Viceroy.

Having endless parties at Peterhof, because it was traditional, was exhausting and naturally everyone of any significance who came to India expected to be a guest of Lord Lytton.

He was just about to make his friend laugh, when the door opened.