108. An Archangel Called Ivan by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online

moment.
    ‘Please God help me,’ she prayed fervently and felt sure that her prayer would be heard.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER THREE
    Arliva’s alarm that her father had given her a long time ago, which he had bought in France, went off at six o’clock.
    She knew that she had plenty of time before she left because she had everything ready last night.
    At the same time she took a great deal of trouble in dressing herself in her plainest and most ordinary-looking clothes.
    She put on the hat she had worn yesterday from which she had removed the feathers.
    Then she gazed at herself in the mirror and felt that her face looked very young.
    She carefully drew a line under both her eyes with a pencil and was certain that it made her look at least five years older than she actually was.
    She was about to put on her glasses, but thought it might be rather intimidating for the children to see their Governess with huge dark glasses, so she tucked them into her pocket.
    She waited until it was nearly seven o’clock when she knew that the whole staff would be having breakfast.
    Her aunt, because she was not very strong, did not rise early and she usually rang the bell to be called just before ten o’clock.
    So there was no one in the front of the house and when she went to the top of the stairs she saw that the hall was empty.
    She found the case she had packed a considerable amount of clothes into was very heavy.
    But somehow she managed to get down the stairs, open the front door and walk out as quickly as she could manage it into Park Lane.
    She knew there was usually a place where Hackney carriages accumulated and she made her way to it and she was very pleased when she saw ahead that there were quite a number of carriages waiting for passengers.
    Arliva’s arm was by now aching considerably from the weight of the heavy case.
    She stopped at the first one and the driver, who was sitting on the box, turned round to say,
    “Can I take you anywhere, miss?”
    “I wish to go to King’s Cross Station,” she replied.
    “I’ll take you there in a jiffy,” he answered cheerily jumping down from the box and taking hold of the heavy case from her.
    He put it behind his seat and then opened the door for her to climb into the carriage.
    It smelt rather musty after the very smart carriages her father had always used.
    She felt, as she drove away, that she was setting off on a marvellous adventure with golden wings.
    ‘No one will be able to find me for a long time,’ she told herself, ‘and by then I may well have found all that I am seeking.’
    It seemed to her that they reached King’s Cross Station in a very short time because she was so deep in her own thoughts.
    The driver handed her case down to a porter.
    “Where be you goin’, miss?” he enquired.
    Arliva had the directions that Mrs. Hill had given her and she read them to the porter.
    “That ’ere train be in now,” he said. “But it won’t be leavin’ till eight o’clock.”
    “I am quite prepared to wait,” Arliva answered. “So, if you will find me a comfortable carriage, I will be very happy.”
    The porter laughed.
    “It’s what all travellers ’opes they’ll be and many be disappointed.”
    She paid the Hackney carriage driver his fare and it included a good tip.
    He looked at it in surprise and then said,
    “Thank you very much, miss. I ’opes you ’ave a good journey.”
    “That is what I hope myself,” Arliva replied.
    She smiled at him before she turned to follow the porter.
    He was wheeling her case in his trolley and they walked quite a long way until, in one of the platforms, she saw a small train that was obviously the one travelling to Huntingdonshire.
    The porter found her an empty carriage – in fact they were all more or less empty.
    He then put her case in the guard’s van.
    She tipped him and he touched his forelock.
    “That be the first I’ve ’ad today,” he said, “and you