Fragrant Flower by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online

in full sail.
    She told the Purser condescendingly that she was prepared to look at the State Rooms that had been allotted to her and hoped that they would be to her satisfaction.
    She then asked if Lord Sheldon was on board, and was annoyed to find that he had not yet arrived.
    “The Commander-in-Chief himself has requested his Lordship to look after us,” she told the Purser. “Kindly ask his Lordship to notify me as soon as he comes aboard.”
    “I’ll do that, my Lady,” the Purser replied.
    He went on to ask about Lady Osmund’s other requirements in such a mollifying and pleasant manner that her Ladyship finally condescended to accept the State Rooms without comment.
    As soon as the luggage was brought aboard, knowing what was expected of her, Azalea took off her jacket and bonnet and started to unpack.
    She arranged her aunt’s clothes first, hanging them neatly in the fitted wardrobe and placing her tortoiseshell toilet set with its golden initials on the built-in dressing table.
    This took her some time, and after she had called for a steward to remove the empty trunks, she began to unpack for the twins.
    They had gone on deck to see the ship sail, and soon there was the blowing of whistles, the clanging of gongs and the music of the Band vibrating above the ‘chug’ of the engines as the ship began to proceed slowly from the quay and out into the river.
    Azalea would have liked to go on deck too, but she told herself it would undoubtedly annoy her aunt and it would be best for her first to finish hanging up the twins’ evening gowns.
    “I shall have a chance to explore the ship later,” Azalea told herself and wondered what books would be available in the Library.
    She had scoured the General’s study at Battlesdon House before she left, and had discovered only one small volume on Chinese art written some years earlier.
    Greatly daring, she had packed it in her own trunk so that she would be able to read it while they were at sea.
    On the way back from India she had had a great deal of time on her hands during the twenty-four days’ journey. But she then had had nothing else to do but feel miserable and try to make herself realise that her father was dead, and that her home in the future must be with her uncle of whom she was afraid.
    Now she was quite certain that with three of them to look after she would be kept busy.
    At the same time she was going back to the sunshine, to the East which for her would always be home, and she knew there was so much for her to learn if she was to understand and appreciate Hong Kong.
    It was to be expected that Azalea should be very quick at learning languages.
    She had spoken Russian with her mother, and as a baby, she had been sung to sleep with Russian lullabies. She could both read and speak French. She had conversed with the Indian servants in Urdu since she could first talk.
    Her father had been criticised in the Regiment because he could speak to his sepoys and the coolies in their own language.
    “Let them learn English!” his fellow officers had said, but Derek Osmund had paid no attention. Besides, which was unusual in an Englishman, he positively enjoyed speaking languages other than his own.
    “I must learn Chinese,” Azalea told herself.
    But she was not quite certain how to go about it, and was sure that if her aunt heard of her intention, she would be forbidden to do anything of the sort.
    When Lady Osmund and the twins came to the cabin after Azalea had nearly finished emptying the very last trunk, they were obviously all in good humour.
    “It is a lovely ship, Azalea!” Violet exclaimed, “and there are lots of exciting people on board.”
    “I would not go so far as to say that,” Lady Osmund said reprovingly, “but Lord Sheldon is a passenger and you will both make yourselves very pleasant to him.”
    The twins giggled and Azalea turned her head aside in case her aunt should notice the colour rising in her cheeks.
    She had not faced asking