The Island of Love (Camfield Series No. 15) by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online Page B

which he thought he would never find.
    It is very wonderful for me to be included on such an adventurous journey,” Lydia said demurely.
    Simple enough words, but sharply, as if she thought she was imposing on the Earl, Heloise said:
    “Lydia, my bracelet is undone. Do it up.” Quickly Lydia moved to her sister’s side where she was already seated comfortably in an armchair in the Drawing-Room section of the private coach that was attached to the train which was carrying them to Liverpool.
    She was not surprised to find that the Earl had his own railway coach which he used whenever he travelled any distance.
    She was well aware that many of the rich noblemen had not only their own railway carriages, but even their own trains.
    It was something she had never travelled in before, and once they started off she looked around her in delight.
    There were the Earl’s servants wearing his livery to bring them first coffee or drinks, then as the day progressed there was luncheon, tea, and a light dinner before they finally arrived at Liverpool.
    It was usual, Lydia learnt for the Atlantic Liners to sail at midnight.
    The passengers boarded earlier, unpacked and prepared themselves for what, at this time of the year, everybody anticipated would be a rough crossing.
    Heloise had already been working herself up into a frenzy in case she should be seasick.
    “Even if you are, nobody will see you, except of course, me,” Lydia said consolingly.
    “It sounds so horrid and so common to be sick,” Heloise said. “Oh, why could we not stay at home? I have no wish to go to Honolulu or any other such outlandish place!”
    She had said this so often in the days before they were to leave that Lydia became afraid in case she refused to go at the last moment, which meant that she too would have to stay behind.
    But when Heloise broached the idea to Sir Robert he was quite firm.
    “We have agreed to go and you cannot back out now,” he said. “Besides, you will look very silly if the Earl, while he is away, regrets having become engaged to you and wants to break it off.”
    “I am quite certain he will not do that,” Heloise said.
    At the same time Lydia thought her father had spoken so positively that Heloise was compelled to admit, if only to herself, that it might be a possibility.
    At any rate she resigned herself with a very bad grace, being more than usually rude and disagreeable to Lydia until they had reached London where the Earl was waiting for them.
    Lydia effaced herself as much as she could on the journey North.
    She sat in a far comer of the Drawing-Room and was delighted to find that every newspaper and practically every published magazine was provided by the Earl for his guests.
    Even while she appeared to be turning over the pages and reading she was really watching him, thinking that now she was close to him he was even more attractive than he had seemed at a distance.
    She found it difficult to analyse what it was that made him so different from other men.
    Then she thought that one of the most attractive things she had ever seen in a man was the way his eyes twinkled when something really amused him.
    At other times he would look bored and, she thought, cynical, but when he was laughing his eyes laughed too.
    She found herself waiting to see his face change.
    By the time the long train journey was over and they were boarding the Cunard Steamship Etruria she knew that she was hopelessly captivated by a man who was never likely to notice her existence or to realise that she was anything but a shadow of her sister.
    “I must be content to count my blessings,” Lydia told herself.
    She found when she got aboard that they were quite considerable.
    She had learned because she read the newspapers that the largest ships designed by Sir William Cunard were the Umbria and the Etruria.
    They carried three masts and enough sail to continue their passage should the mechanical power fail.
    They were the first of the large ships