101. A Call of Love (5 page)

“Don’t pay any attention to me. It is because you have such a strong personality that you stand out amongst other people. I expect too that a large number of women have told you that you are very good-looking.”

Lord Kenington smiled,

“You are going to catch me out and accuse me of being conceited if I answer that question!”

“But, of course, you are good-looking, my Lord. In a way it is an asset you should be grateful for and cherish.”

He felt he had never in his life had such a strange yet intriguing conversation with a young girl.

Aisha was talking to him as if she was either a male contemporary or, if a woman, much older than he was and at the same time he told himself she was obviously being completely frank.

It was good for him to be aware what other people thought, especially at this very moment, when he wanted to extract the truth from a large number of them.

If they were to be frightened of him, they would undoubtedly say what they thought he would want to hear, regardless of whether it was true or not.

“I suppose,” Aisha said, as if she was following her own thoughts, “that we all appear different to the different people we meet.”

As Lord Kenington did not reply, she went on,

“I am always surprised when people who know my Papa expect me to be as clever as he is, while other people, because I am young, are almost rudely astonished when I show any sign of being intelligent or well read.”

“And you are both.” “Thank you kindly, sir!” she said mockingly. “Of course all compliments are gratefully received.”

“I was not meaning to pay you a compliment, but ever since we met, Aisha, I have been astonished at some of the things you say and also at what you enjoy reading.”

“I am finding the book that you lent me absolutely fascinating,” Aisha remarked. “I do hope your library will last me the whole voyage.”

“My library here is rather limited by lack of space. Therefore I propose that you don’t gobble up my books, but read them slowly, otherwise they will not last.”

Aisha laughed.

“It’s impossible to read slowly when one is reading something so exciting that one feels one must reach the end to see what happens.”

“I have felt like that myself, but I have learnt that if I am to absorb every word I have to do so fairly slowly. Otherwise my poor brain cannot catch up.”

“I don’t think we need worry about your brain, my Lord. I know you are very very clever and will take back from India exactly the information you have come to find.”

“I can do so only if your father helps me and others who are working in the same field as he is.”

“I have met some of them, but they would not talk to me in the same way as you and I are talking now.”

“Why not?” Lord Kenington asked.

“Because Papa would not allow it,” Aisha replied. “He has said to me, ‘I will not have you mixed up in this. Therefore you must not show any interest in the work of the men you meet with me and on no account are you to question them in any way that might make them think that you and I have discussed them behind their backs’.”

“I think your father is very wise. As he holds his life in his hands, the least talk there is the better.”

“That is the sort of thing I have been told ever since I was small,” Aisha said. “But I am anxious, as you are, to know what is happening and whether those in
The Great
Game
are being as successful as they want to be.”

“I think it is more than likely that they are. I can only beg you to be kind and help me if you can without being indiscreet. I am sure your father would not mind our being frank with each other.”

“I am not so sure about that, but, because you have been so kind to me, I must repay my debt. I promise that if I think of anything that might be of assistance to you, I will tell you about it, my Lord.”

“Thank you, thank you very much indeed. And as I have already said I am greatly looking forward to meeting your father.”

*

The day seemed to pass quickly.

When it began to grow dark, they went to their own cabins to read.

As she lay on her bunk, propped up against the pillows, Aisha thought just how lucky she was to have met Lord Kenington.

She now felt safe, as she would never have been able to do if she had been alone.

‘He is now next door,’ she thought, ‘and however much Mr. Watkins wants me, he will be far too frightened of offending Lord Kenington to knock on my door.’

Before she went down to dinner, she put on one of the prettiest dresses she possessed.

She had not meant to take it out of her trunk until she reached Calcutta, but, because Lord Kenington was so distinguished, she wanted to look her best for him.

She could not help hoping that at the various ports of call on the way to Calcutta, none of his friends would come aboard.

‘If he has someone else to talk to, he will not want to talk to me,’ she told herself modestly.

She felt glad that at the moment there was no one of any particular interest amongst the passengers.

At dinner Lord Kenington amused her by telling her of the Cities he had visited recently and the differences he had found in the characteristics of different races.

“The Germans are aggressive,” he said, “but I have to say that for amusement and charm it is impossible to beat the French.”

“You are so very lucky to have been to so many different Capitals in Europe,” Aisha said. I have longed to explore the Far East and I would love to go to China and Japan.”

“Japan is extremely beautiful and I think you would appreciate, as I did, their Monasteries and the amazing intelligence of their menfolk.”

“While the Japanese women are so pretty and very feminine.”

Lord Kenington smiled.

“That is true. They set themselves out to amuse and fascinate men and they do so with tremendous skill.”

“Did you fall in love with a Japanese Geisha girl?”

“That is the sort of question I never reply to. I will just say that they make every effort to please a man, while an Englishwoman expects a man to please her!”

His eyes were twinkling as he spoke and she knew that he was just teasing her.

“I can see I must take lessons in Japan if I am going to be a success,” she said.

“I don’t think you need any lessons. Most men you meet will like you just as you are.”

He thought as he spoke how very unspoilt she was and he was sure it was because that when she was at home she spent most of her time in the country.

Although she had travelled a little with her father, she had apparently either been well protected from making contact with many young men or was too pre-occupied. In fact she was completely unspoilt and everything she said and thought came naturally and spontaneously to her.

‘She is certainly unique,’ he reflected. ‘I only hope that the Subalterns of the Army in India don’t spoil her.’

When they went to their cabins after dinner, it was still quite early and Lord Kenington wanted to make notes of what he had heard from Aisha without her being aware of it.

They said goodnight outside the door.

“Thank you so much for a lovely day, my Lord, I have enjoyed every moment of it.”

“Tomorrow we will be at Gibraltar,” he replied, “and I will take you ashore. You will see the monkeys that everyone wants to view and the shops, which I am always told are more attractive to women than anywhere else.”“I think actually I will prefer the monkeys,” Aisha replied, “but being greedy I want to see both.”

Lord Kenington laughed and then he said,

“Goodnight, Aisha, sleep well and don’t ruin your eyes by reading for too long.”

“I will try not to and the same advice, of course, applies to you, my Lord. Goodnight and God bless you, as Mama used to say.”

She entered her cabin as she spoke.

Lord Kenington remembered it was what his Nanny had always said to him when he was a small child.

He admitted to himself that he had enjoyed the day enormously and, if Aisha had not been there, he would have found no one to talk to and would doubtless have spent the day reading.

‘She is very intelligent,’ he told himself. ‘At the same time she has told me a lot of I wanted to know about her father. It will be easy when we reach Calcutta to get him to tell me a great deal more.’

In her cabin, Aisha looked at herself in the mirror on the dressing table before she undid her gown.

Lord Kenington had not complimented her on it, but she was sure by the way he looked at her when they met before dinner that he was impressed.

He had not paid her any particular compliment and she was not certain what he thought where she herself was concerned.

‘I am very very lucky to have him being so kind to me.’ she thought. ‘I must be careful not to bore him or to cling to him so that he thinks that I am a nuisance.’

He certainly seemed, she reflected, to have enjoyed her company today.

Their conversation had been extremely interesting and she could only think with a shiver how different the day might have been if Mr. Watkins had been pursuing her.

Slowly she took off her gown and slipped it onto its padded hanger that she had left on one of the chairs.

She crossed the cabin to where in the corner there was a curtained place for longer gowns.

Her day clothes fitted well into the cupboard which was on one side of the dressing table, but the curtained corner was, she had decided, best for her evening gowns as well as her overcoat.

Then, as Aisha pulled back the curtain to place the hanger onto the rail, she gave a scream of horror.

Hiding behind the curtain was Arthur Watkins!

He stepped out smiling and crowed,

“You thought you were free of me, pretty lady, but I don’t give up so easily.”

As he spoke, he seized her arm.

Then he placed one hand over her mouth so that she could not scream again.

Arthur Watkins had actually been thinking all day of how he could be in touch with what he had decided was the prettiest girl he had ever seen.

He had always moved in a Society where money was much more important than breeding or education and, because he was so rich, he was used to having any interest he showed in a woman reciprocated.

Because Aisha had avoided him, she had set him a challenge and a challenge was something that he had never refused or ignored in his busy and successful life.

In fact, because he was so successful, he had found life sometimes boring. There had not been the excitement of fighting to gain what he desired.

Usually that had been a woman and she had fallen into his arms before he had actually invited her to do so.

He did not for a single moment believe he would not overcome Aisha’s fear of him and that he would be triumphant however hard she attempted to resist him.

That she had deliberately sought the company of Lord Kenington did not deceive him and because she was travelling alone and was clearly of no social consequence, he was sure that Kenington’s interest in her would not last longer than the time they were at sea, if as long as that.

Arthur Watkins was not quite certain whether, as many women did, she travelled on the P & O Liner alone because it was the easiest way to find a man – one who would spend money on her and make her at the end of the voyage far better off than when it had started.

It had not struck him for a moment that Aisha was a lady by birth and thus someone who should be avoided by a man like himself.

‘She’s playing hard to get,’ he thought, ‘but it’s all part of the game and I don’t give up so readily.’

He had thought that Lord Kenington, being such an important individual, would soon find her a nuisance and she would then be looking round for another man.

He supposed that he had perhaps rushed his fences too quickly when he had first met her and, if she was not as experienced as most women travelling on their own were, he might have scared her.

All the same he was not completely convinced that it was not a clever move on her part.

However, as the day passed he found himself rather bored.

He looked round at the rest of the passengers, but he could see no one of any interest to him. There were a few younger women, but they were all with their husbands and children and the rest in First Class were middle-aged.

They were accompanying their husbands, who were doubtless in trade, back to India for another year or more to pass before they could go home again.

Arthur Watkins decided that he was not prepared to wait around until Kenington was bored. He would make it clear to Aisha that he would be far more generous in what he gave her than any Statesman would be.

The difficulty, he thought at dinner, was that for the moment Aisha and Lord Kenington were talking away to each other animatedly and it would be impossible for him to interrupt them.

Then, as he left the Saloon before they did, he had an idea.

He had found out earlier in the day that Aisha had changed her cabin and moved to the other side of the ship and he knew those cabins were expensive and he imagined that, by the end of the voyage, she would be wondering how she could pay for it.

‘That’s where I come in,’ he told himself, but he was not prepared to wait.

He was bored and boredom was something Arthur Watkins was not accustomed to endure.

When he came out from dinner, he walked towards the side of the ship where he knew Aisha’s cabin now was.

As he did so, he saw that her cabin door was open.

He stood still and a Stewardess came out and then, leaving the door ajar, she went down the passage.

Arthur Watkins guessed it was to collect a fresh bottle of water that Aisha would require during the night.

As the Stewardess disappeared, he slipped into the cabin and looked round for a hiding-place.

The curtain that covered the corner and the hooks on the wall was half open.

It took him only a moment to slip behind it and pull the curtain to so that he could not be seen.

He heard the Stewardess come back into the cabin and put something down and then, turning out the light, she left, closing the door behind her and locking it.