Fragrant Flower (23 page)

There were underclothes of such fine silk they could have been passed through a ring, which had been embroidered by skilful Chinese fingers to make each garment a work of art.

When Azalea had put them on she arranged her hair and was glad to think that the postulant’s veil had prevented it from getting dirty as she had crawled along the pipe.

Then she stepped into the lovely rose pink gown and found that it fitted her perfectly.

‘How could he have known? How could he have guessed?’ she wondered.

She thought perhaps Lord Sheldon had somehow saved from the burning junk the gown she had worn before she had changed into the Chinese garments provided for her by Kai Yin Chang.

When she was ready she stood for a moment looking at herself in the mirror.

The deep pink of the gown made her skin look like the blossom of a magnolia tree, and there were blue and purple lights in her hair.

Her eyes were shining like stars and there was an indescribable aura of happiness about her as she opened the door and went back into the cabin.

Lord Sheldon was standing looking out of the porthole as Macao faded away into the distance.

He turned round as Azalea entered. Their eyes met and it was impossible for either of them to move.

At last Azalea said a little unsteadily,

“Am I – dreaming?”

Lord Sheldon walked towards her and put his arms round her.

“I shall have to convince you that this is real.”

“How did you – find me? How did you – learn where I – was?”

He did not answer her question, he merely bent his head and his lips found hers.

She felt a thrill more insistent and more wonderful even than she remembered run through her.

This is what she had dreamt of – this is what she had thought never to know again.

She was safe! She was free!

She loved him so overwhelmingly that she felt as if she became a part of him. Her lips were his and belonged to him like her heart.

Lord Sheldon raised his head and gave a deep sigh.

“I do not think I have ever been so frightened in my life as I have been these past two hours, wondering if I would really get you away, or whether plans would be changed at the last moment and you would not walk in the courtyard as you have done every other day.”

“How did you – know? How did – you find – out?”

He smiled and drew her down onto a comfortable sofa.

“We have so much to tell each other,” he said, “but let me say first that I love you and that the only thing I want is that we should be married as quickly as possible!”

“How can – we do – that?”

She felt a sudden tremor of fear that they might be going back to Hong Kong and that Lord Sheldon intended to defy her uncle.

As if he knew what she was thinking he said quietly,

“We are on our way to Singapore, my darling. We will be married the moment we arrive. I cannot wait any longer to make sure you belong to me!”

“Can we be – married?” Azalea asked nervously. “What about my – Guardian’s – permission?”

“The Bishop of Singapore is an old friend,” Lord Sheldon answered. “You are an orphan, my precious, and I know when I tell him what has occurred he will only be too willing to marry us.”

“But Uncle Frederick – ” Azalea faltered.

Lord Sheldon smiled.

“Once you are my wife, do you really think that the General will try to interfere or oppose our marriage? On what grounds? Unless he is prepared to state publicly that he does not consider you a suitable bride on account of the secret he has been at such pains to hide.”

Azalea felt herself tremble and her fingers tightened on Lord Sheldon’s.

“The – secret – ” she faltered.

“Which is no longer a secret as far as I am concerned,” Lord Sheldon said gently. “I know, my precious darling, how your father died.”

“How – could – you know?” Azalea asked in a low voice.

“I suspected, when you told me he had died of typhoid, that it was not true.”

He smiled and added,

“You are not a very convincing liar, my dearest love, and may I say that I am glad about that?”

“B – but how could you – have found out – the truth?”

“I think both you and your uncle forgot that it is very difficult to keep anything secret in India,” Lord Sheldon answered. “Travelling with us on the
Orissa
were the wife and children of a Company Sergeant-Major of my Regiment.”

He paused.

“Their little boy of four and girl of three were among the children you entertained so cleverly during the storm at sea.”

“I – remember – them,” Azalea said.

“Sergeant-Major Favel was, I knew, stationed in the same part of India as your father’s Regiment. He told me there was a sepoy in Hong Kong who had served under your father.”

Azalea’s eyes were raised to Lord Sheldon’s as he went on,

“The sepoy told me how much your father was loved by every man in the Regiment. He informed me that Colonel Stewart’s foul behaviour was well known in the Bazaars. He also thought it strange that Major Osmund should have had a shooting accident while hunting a wild animal. He said: ‘The Major loved animals and I have never known him to shoot one, however ferocious, all the years I served under him.’”

Azalea made a little inarticulate sound and hid her face against Lord Sheldon’s shoulder.

“It was not very difficult, my darling, for me to realise what had happened,” he said. “Your father was obviously a very gallant gentleman. And your uncle had absolutely no right to treat you as he did.”

Azalea heard the anger in his voice and she whispered raising her head,

“I still cannot – believe that I have – escaped from that – horrible – frightening prison!”

“You must not thank me,” Lord Sheldon answered, “but Mr. Chang.”

“Mr. Chang?”

“It was he who found out that you had been taken to the Convent at Macao and who discovered that one of a gang who had been imprisoned for tunnelling into his warehouse had served his sentence and been released.”

“I remembered when I was crawling through the tunnels,” Azalea exclaimed, “how Aunt Emily had heard that Chinese robbers had managed to break into the vaults of the Bank and the Merchants’ ‘go-downs’ by using the storm water drains!”

“Mr. Chang was sure it was the only way we could get you away from the Convent,” Lord Sheldon said. “The difficulty was to know when you would take exercise, and if you would be alone.”

“How did you discover that?”

“No one noticed a small Chinese boy lying flat on the roof,” he replied. “He watched you for two mornings, and we could only pray that you would not have your place of exercise changed, and that you would be alone.”

“It was very clever of you!” Azalea cried. “When I heard the Chinese man calling me, I could not believe it was true! How did you remember that
‘Heung Far’
meant ‘Fragrant Flower’?”

“To me you will always typify everything that is beautiful in a flower,” Lord Sheldon answered, his voice deepening. “You were aptly named, my darling, and ‘Fragrant Flower’ is how I shall always think of you. My flower! Mine now and for all time!”

There was a fire behind his eyes and in the deepness of his voice which made Azalea quiver.

Then she said,

“Tell me the – rest. I have guessed that Kai Yin told you the correct size for my gowns.”

“She gave me your dress which was rescued from the fire on board the junk,” Lord Sheldon answered. “She helped me to choose the colours which we knew would become you best, and the pure Chinese silk you should always wear next to your skin.”

“If you only knew how wonderful it feels after the horrible calico nightgown I had to wear,” Azalea said. “It was like an instrument of torture against my back the first night I was in the Convent.”

She spoke without thinking, then because of the note of anguish in her voice she saw the look of enquiry in Lord Sheldon’s expression, and blushed.

“Why did your back hurt?” he asked.

“U – Uncle Frederick – beat me,” Azalea replied hesitatingly, “to – to make me write – that letter to – you.”

“Damn him! His behaviour is intolerable!” Lord Sheldon ejaculated. “I knew you could not have written it of your own free will, but I did not realise that he would go to such lengths. How could he beat anything so exquisite?”

“I tried to – defy him,” Azalea said, “but I am a – coward.”

“You are the bravest person I have ever met,” Lord Sheldon contradicted her. “I know of no other woman, and I mean this, Azalea, who would have behaved as you did after you were captured by the pirates, or would have been courageous enough to crawl down through that tunnel and down the storm-water pipes, as you did today.”

He kissed the softness of her cheek, before he said,

“All the unhappiness, the misery you have suffered is over. I shall make you happy, my darling, and you shall look as I want you to look – untroubled and unafraid – ”

“ – and wildly – crazily – wonderfully happy!” Azalea finished.

“Do you mean that?” he asked.

“You know I mean it,” she answered. “When I was in the Convent, I wanted to die – but only because I thought I should never see you again.”

“I love you as I never thought it possible to love anyone!” he said.

His arms tightened around her.

“We have so many things to do together.”

He smiled and added,

“Will it please you to spend part, at any rate, of your honeymoon in India? I have been asked by the Prime Minister to make a report on some of the Princely States.”

He saw a sudden light in Azalea’s eyes and he went on,

“It means staying with a lot of Maharajahs, Governors and people of importance, but I think we could also get away by ourselves and I want to see your namesake growing in the foothills of the Himalayas. Would you like that?”

Azalea gave a little cry of joy and put her arms round his neck.

“Everything that I do with you will be marvellous and perfect!” she said. “I was so cold and unhappy in England. It will be like Heaven to be in the sunshine – and safe – with you!”

“You will always be safe with me,” Lord Sheldon said. “That is why, my precious, I am very impatient for this ship to reach Singapore for me to be able to make quite certain that you are my wife!”

His lips were very near to hers and Azalea wanted the touch of them more than she had ever wanted anything in her life.

At the same time she hesitated.

“Are you – sure – quite sure – that I am really the person you should marry?” she asked. “You are so important and so clever – I am afraid of – failing you.”

“You will never do that, my lovely one,” he answered, “and there is no question whether you are the right or wrong person. You are mine, all mine! We were made for each other, Azalea, and I think we both knew it that night when I first kissed you in your uncle’s Study.”

“It was the most – wonderful thing that ever happened to me,” Azalea whispered.

“And to me,” Lord Sheldon answered, “but I assure you, my Sweet, it was only the beginning. There is so much more for us to learn, so much more for us to discover about each other. The sort of love that we have found grows and expands until it fills our whole world – yours and mine.”

Azalea drew in her breath.

She felt herself vibrate to everything he said and she knew too there was a deep meaning behind his words – something which the Chinese would call ‘the world behind the world.’

For a moment her eyes looked into his, then she said very softly,

“I love you! I will spend all my life – trying to be as you – want me to be.”

“I love you!” Lord Sheldon answered. “And I will spend all my life making you happy, my darling – my precious fragrant flower, who has always been there in my heart!”

He pulled her close and his mouth was on hers.

There was at first something reverent and spiritual in his kiss. Then as he felt her quiver against him, as she drew his head closer to hers, a fire leapt within them both and burned through their bodies, rising until it touched their lips.

It was an ecstasy, a rapture, a joy beyond words. Something so perfect, so miraculous, that it was beyond thought. It was interwoven with the wonder of the sea, the blue of the sky and the glory of the sun on the mountains.

It was theirs and they were a part of it; part of the whole wonder and perfection of love.

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES

The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.

Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love, just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.

The Eternal Collection, classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .

1. Elizabethan Lover
   
2. The Little Pretender
   
3. A Ghost in Monte Carlo
   
4. A Duel of Hearts
   
5. The Saint and the Sinner
   
6. The Penniless Peer
   
7. The Proud Princess
   
8. The Dare-Devil Duke
   
9. Diona and a Dalmatian
   
10. A Shaft of Sunlight
    
11. Lies for Love
    
12. Love and Lucia
    
13. Love and the Loathsome Leopard
    
14. Beauty or Brains
    
15. The Temptation of Torilla
    
16. The Goddess and the Gaiety Girl
    
17. Fragrant Flower
    

THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND

Barbara Cartland, who sadly died in May 2000 at the grand age of ninety eight, remains one of the world’s most famous romantic novelists.  With worldwide sales of over one billion, her outstanding 723 books have been translated into thirty six different languages, to be enjoyed by readers of romance globally.

Writing her first book ‘Jigsaw’ at the age of 21, Barbara became an immediate bestseller.  Building upon this initial success, she wrote continuously throughout her life, producing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years.  In addition to Barbara Cartland’s legion of fans in the UK and across Europe, her books have always been immensely popular in the USA.  In 1976 she achieved the unprecedented feat of having books at numbers 1 & 2 in the prestigious B. Dalton Bookseller bestsellers list.