The Karma of Love (Bantam Series No. 14) by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online

the General and then walked around the table to Lady Critchley.
    “How nice to see you, Major,” she said in her usual cold voice. “I do not know whether you have met Colonel and Mrs. Onslow who are travelling to Alexandria?”
    Major Meredith shook them both by the hand and was then introduced to Colonel McDougal.
    It gave Orissa time to convince herself that, if she only kept her head and behaved quite ordinarily, Major Meredith would not recognise her.
    “And this is Mrs. Lane,” Lady Critchley said almost as if it was an after-thought, “who is travelling to India and has very kindly consented to look after little Neil, my daughter’s child, whom we are taking back with us to Bombay.”
    Orissa bowed her head but did not attempt to put out her hand. Major Meredith bowed in response.
    His face was quite expressionless. There was not the slightest gleam of recognition in his grey eyes.
    ‘I was right!’ Orissa thought elatedly. ‘He has not recognised me!’
    “Sit down, Meredith,” the General commanded, “and tell me the latest news from Khartoum.”
    “There was none when I left London,” the Major replied.
    He had a very strange voice, Orissa decided. It was different from any other man’s.
    It was very deep. It seemed, too, to have a resonance that awoke some chord of memory which she could not quite place, and then she told herself she was being imaginative.
    “And what news from India?” Lady Critchley asked. “We seem to be out of touch ever since we have been home.”
    “That is what we all feel when we are away,” Major Meredith replied.
    “I see there is more trouble on the Frontier,” Colonel Onslow remarked.
    Major Meredith smiled.
    “Is there ever anything else?”
    “But they say that Russia is only waiting for a suitable moment to march into Afghanistan and capture Herat.”
    “We cannot allow that!” the General said positively.
    “Of course not, Sir,” Major Meredith agreed.
    “I thought we had settled the trouble with Afghanistan several years ago,” Mrs. Onslow remarked plaintively. “I cannot understand why we must have one alarm after another.”
    “I will explain it quite simply,” Major Meredith answered. “In the North West the savage, aggressive tribesmen he in ambush behind every rock and every wadi, the Afghanistans brood behind the tribesmen, and behind them both stand the Russians!”
    The General laughed.
    “That is good, Meredith. Very good! I must remember that!”
    “But what does Russia want?” Mrs. Onslow enquired.
    “That is simple to answer,” Major Meredith replied. “The prize is India!”
    “Do they really think they can conquer us?”
    “They would certainly attempt to do so if they got the chance,” he said. “Geographically there is a protective mountain barrier round the North and West face of India—the Karakorums, the Pamirs, and the Hindu Kush.”
    “Well, then?” Mrs. Onslow questioned.
    “Russia is greedy. We have no desire to advance from India against Russia because that would be beyond the range of our sea power, but Russia, as you well know, can make things very difficult for us and has already done so for the last ten years by stirring up trouble in Afghanistan.”
    “I did hear,” Colonel Onslow said, “that General Komaroff has sixty thousand men only a day’s march from Herat. If that is true, though it may be a rumour, we should have to fight . ”
    “We are always fighting to prevent Russian infiltration, Russian aggression, Russian influence on the tribesmen,” Major Meredith said quietly, “and I do not think that things are more explosive at this moment than they have been in the past few years. Nevertheless we shall learn more when we reach Bombay.”
    Orissa had listened fascinated by the conversation. Now she felt that she must have out-stayed her welcome and as Major Meredith turned to say something to Colonel Onslow, she bent forward to murmur in Lady Critchley s ear:
    “I think I should go and see if