The King Without a Heart Read online

  THE KING WITHOUT A HEART

  Copyright © 2008 by Cartland Promotions

  First published on the internet in February by

  Barbaracartland.com

  The characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any real person or actual happening.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher.

  eBook conversion by M-Y Books

  THE KING WITHOUT A HEART

  Titania was miserable.

  The following day the King did not come riding with her and she rode alone with Darius and she did not like to ask him why the King was not there at seven o’clock as he usually was.

  She enjoyed being mounted on a very spirited horse she had not yet ridden, but it was not the same as when she was with the King.

  In the afternoon when Sophie had gone out, Darius took her to the library and it was unoccupied.

  Titania selected several books to read, thinking they would be exciting, but somehow her mind kept going back to the King.

  She kept wondering how she had offended him.

  It was just the same the next day and that night she was forced to admit to herself that she missed the King unbearably.

  It was with the greatest difficulty she did not burst into tears.

  ‘I want to be with him, I want to talk to him,’ she kept thinking. ‘There is so much I can remember, which I am sure will help him with his book.’

  But it was no use telling the darkness.

  The King seemed to have disappeared!

  THE BARBARA CARTLAND PINK COLLECTION

  Barbara Cartland was the most prolific bestselling author in the history of the world. She was frequently in the Guinness Book of Records for writing more books in a year than any other living author. In fact her most amazing literary feat was when her publishers asked for more Barbara Cartland romances, she doubled her output from 10 books a year to over 20 books a year, when she was 77.

  She went on writing continuously at this rate for 20 years and wrote her last book at the age of 97, thus completing 400 books between the ages of 77 and 97.

  Her publishers finally could not keep up with this phenomenal output, so at her death she left 160 unpublished manuscripts, something again that no other author has ever achieved.

  Now the exciting news is that these 160 original unpublished Barbara Cartland books are ready for publication and they will be published by Barbaracartland.com exclusively on the internet, as the web is the best possible way to reach so many Barbara Cartland readers around the world.

  The 160 books will be published monthly and will be numbered in sequence.

  The series is called the Pink Collection as a tribute to Barbara Cartland whose favourite colour was pink and it became very much her trademark over the years.

  The Barbara Cartland Pink Collection is published only on the internet. Log on to www.barbaracartland.com to find out how you can purchase the books monthly as they are published, and take out a subscription that will ensure that all subsequent editions are delivered to you by mail order to your home.

  If you do not have access to a computer you can write for information about the Pink Collection to the following address :

  Barbara Cartland.com Ltd.

  240 High Road,

  Harrow Weald,

  Harrow

  HA3 7BB

  United Kingdom.

  Telephone & fax: +44 (0)20 8863 2520

  Titles in this series

  1. The Cross of Love

  2. Love in the Highlands

  3. Love Finds the Way

  4. The Castle of Love

  5. Love is Triumphant

  6. Stars in the Sky

  7. The Ship of Love

  8. A Dangerous Disguise

  9. Love Became Theirs

  10. Love Drives In

  11. Sailing to Love

  12. The Star of Love

  13. Music is the Soul of Love

  14. Love in the East

  15. Theirs to Eternity

  16. A Paradise on Earth

  17. Love Wins in Berlin

  18. In Search of Love

  19. Love Rescues Rosanna

  20. A Heart in Heaven

  21. The House of Happiness

  22. Royalty Defeated by Love

  23. The White Witch

  24. They Sought Love

  25. Love is the Reason for Living

  26. They Found Their Way to Heaven

  27. Learning to Love

  28. Journey to Happiness

  29. A Kiss in the Desert

  30. The Heart of Love

  31. The Richness of Love

  32. For Ever and Ever

  33. An Unexpected Love

  34. Saved by an Angel

  35. Touching the Stars

  36. Seeking Love

  37. Journey to Love

  38. The Importance of Love

  39. Love by the Lake

  40. A Dream Come True

  41. The King without a heart

  NEW - Audiobooks

  Barbaracartland.com is proud to announce the publication of ten new Audio Books for the first time as CDs. They are favourite Barbara Cartland stories read by well-known actors and actresses and each story extends to 4 or 5 CDs. The Audio Books are as follows :

  • The Patient Bridegroom

  • The Passion and the Flower

  • A Challenge of Hearts

  • Little White Doves of Love

  • A Train to Love

  • The Prince and the Pekinese

  • The Unbroken Dream

  • A King in Love

  • The Cruel Count

  • A Sign of Love

  More Audio Books will be published in the future and the above titles can be purchased by logging on to the website www.barbaracartland.com or please write to the address below.

  If you do not have access to a computer, you can write for information about the Barbara Cartland Pink Collection and the Barbara Cartland Audio Books to the following address :

  Barbara Cartland.com Ltd.

  Camfield Place,

  Hatfield,

  Hertfordshire AL9 6JE

  United Kingdom.

  Telephone: +44 (0)1707 642629

  Fax: +44 (0)1707 663041

  THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND

  Barbara Cartland who sadly died in May 2000 at the age of nearly 99 was the world’s most famous romantic novelist who wrote 723 books in her lifetime with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages.

  As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays, books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She also found time to be a political speaker and television and radio personality.

  She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and this was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback and was translated into 6 different languages. She wrote continuously throughout her life, writing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States, where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author.

  Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for
her wonderful romantic novels, so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world.

  Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her good looking and dashing heroes and above all her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone’s life.

  “Everyone, but everyone can enjoy the rapture and joys of love, from the King himself to the lowest in the land.”

  Barbara Cartland

  CHAPTER ONE 1888

  The Duke of Starbrooke finished the family prayers and the servants filed out of the dining room.

  When they had gone the family moved to the table where breakfast was waiting for them and the butler and two footmen began to serve them.

  As they did so the door opened and a young girl came nervously into the room.

  She was small, slight and very pretty, but the expression on her face at the moment was one of anxiety.

  She walked up to the Duke and bent to kiss his cheek.

  “Why were you not at prayers, Titania?” he asked sharply.

  “I am sorry, Uncle Edward, but I was delayed when I came back from riding.”

  “Delayed?” questioned the Duchess of Starbrooke from the end of the table. “That is only a word to cover up your carelessness in not noting the time.”

  “I am sorry, Aunt Louise,” murmured Titania. “

  So you should be,” replied the Duchess. “If I have any more nonsense I shall tell your uncle to forbid you to ride each morning. It is a waste of time anyway.”

  Titania gave a gasp.

  Yet as she sat down at the breakfast table, she knew it was her own fault.

  It had been a lovely morning and as she had ridden through the woods that she loved, she had forgotten everything and for the moment she was feeling happy.

  She reached a pool in the woods which was her favourite place, because she believed that the water nymphs lived there.

  It was then that she realised that time was marching on and if she was late for prayers she would be in trouble.

  She had ridden Mercury back as quickly as she could.

  Even so, when she had changed her clothes and run downstairs the dining room door was closed.

  She could hear her uncle’s stentorian voice reading a prayer and those who had been listening to him intoned a respectful amen.

  Then as the servants began to move out, she hurried in knowing that she was in trouble.

  However, to her relief there was no long lecture, which she would normally have received on such occasions.

  The Duke, in a surprisingly good humour, was looking down at his letters, which had been placed as usual beside his plate, after having been carefully sorted by his secretary.

  Bills and requests for money were dealt with in the office and only the private letters were taken to the Duke. There was one which he had opened first and he was reading it with a faint smile on his hard lips.

  From the end of the table the Duchess was watching him quizzically, but she was far too controlled to ask him the contents of the letter before he was ready to tell her.

  Sitting opposite Titania on the Duke’s right was her cousin Lady Sophie Brooke, who had just enjoyed a Season in London and undoubtedly had been one of the most important debutantes of the year.

  The Duke had given a ball for her and was planning another a little later in the summer to take place here at Starbrooke Hall.

  All the notable neighbours in the County would be invited and Titania was wondering if there was any chance of her being allowed to attend this ball.

  She had not been taken to London when the first ball was held, the excuse being that she was still in mourning for her father and mother. This was not strictly true as the twelve months, which was considered the correct period for mourning, had been over for three weeks.

  Titania had been sensible enough to face the truth that her uncle did not want her at the London ball!

  It was not only because he was ashamed of her mother, but because she was so much prettier than her cousin.

  Titania was not in the least conceited, but she recognised that she closely resembled her mother and while the Starbrooke family had been excessively rude to her father, Lord Rupert Brooke, everyone else had spoken about his wife’s beauty.

  They understood exactly why Lord Rupert had fallen in love with her.

  The Duke of Starbrooke was like his father.

  The fifth Duke had been determined to keep the blood of the Starbrookes as blue as it had been for the last two hundred years and had arranged his son’s marriage with Princess Louise of Hughdelberg.

  It was not a particularly important Principality, but there was a distant connection with Queen Victoria and no one could say Princess Louise was not the perfect wife for the next Duke.

  Unfortunately the second son, Lord Rupert Brooke upset his father’s plans.

  He had insisted on marrying a commoner.

  He had gone to Scotland for the salmon fishing and was staying with a distinguished friend, where he always enjoyed a freedom he did not have at home.

  If he wanted to go riding, he rode, without there being a fuss about it. In the same way if he wanted to go fishing he would leave the castle and just walk down to the river.

  He did not have to be accompanied by ghillies or anyone else unless he particularly asked for them.

  As it happened, Lord Rupert liked to be alone, especially in Scotland, as he found it a tremendous relaxation after the pomp and ceremony observed in his own home. And indeed for that matter in most of the great ancestral houses in which he stayed as a visitor.

  “You can do as you please, Rupert, whenever you stay with me,” his friend had said.

  Lord Rupert often thought it was the one holiday in the year when he could really enjoy himself.

  His friend, the Chieftain of a famous Clan, was fey because he was a Scot. He could understand people’s inner feelings far better than any Englishman could possibly do.

  This year, when Lord Rupert had come to stay, there were no other guests in the castle and he and the Laird spent the evenings discussing the issues that interested them both and it was what they had always done when they were at Oxford together.

  Next morning Lord Rupert went down to the salmon river alone. He was carrying his own rod and a landing-net in which, when he had hooked and played his fish, he would take it from the river.

  He had caught two salmon, when to his astonishment he hooked a really big fish.

  It was bigger than any salmon he had ever seen in the river and he was determined not to lose it. He played it firmly but not roughly, knowing that because it was so heavy he must be careful not to snap his line.

  The fish had come straight from the sea and fought like a tiger to regain its freedom.

  It was a fearsome battle which Lord Rupert relished and he was equally determined to take home this great fish as a trophy for which he would certainly be congratulated.

  The huge fish jumped and jumped again and as Lord Rupert let out his line, he was beginning to fear that the fish would get away.

  He needed to find a way to lift it out of the water as the net he had brought with him was far too small and he had very stupidly left his gaff on the bank.

  It was then to his relief, he realised that he had attracted an audience.

  Coming down a path which led to the part of the river where he was standing was a young woman. He was not able to look at her, although one glance told him that she was present.

  Instead he raised his voice,

  “Can you help me, please?”

  “Yes of course,” the young woman answered.

  “You will find my gaff on the bank.”

  “Yes, I can see it.”

  Now he had secured some help, it was only a question of a few minutes before he could bring the salmon in.

  The girl gaffed it and then handed the fish to him to lift out of the river as it was far too heavy for her.

  It was
an extremely large salmon and would, Lord Rupert thought, weigh over twenty pounds and he was certain that his host would be delighted, as it was unusual to find such a large fish in this part of the river.

  Then he looked at the girl who had helped him and was astonished.

  Smiling at him, because he had been so successful, was the most beautiful young woman he had ever seen.

  She had a beauty that was different from any of the many lovely women whom Lord Rupert had associated with in London.

  Because he was so handsome and the son of a Duke, he was invited to every party and every ball as well as to every alluring candlelit dinner given in Mayfair.

  But of all the women he had pursued and who had pursued him, he had never seen anyone quite so lovely as the girl he was looking at now.

  It was difficult for him to explain her difference from the others.

  Her heart-shaped face was very young and innocent.

  There was nothing flirtatious or provocative in the way she was looking at him with her large grey eyes, which seemed to fill her whole face and there was something magical about them.

  In the same way she seemed to belong to the river and the moors rather than to the world in which he lived.

  She was simply and correctly dressed, but Lord Rupert could see that her hair under her bonnet had touches of red that proclaimed to him her Scottish ancestry.

  Yet he had never seen a Scot who looked like her and he wondered if she was real.

  It was later when he came to know her that he believed she was in fact part of a dream that had always been in his heart, but he thought it was something he would never find.

  As Lord Rupert looked at Iona, Iona looked at him.

  Something passed between them that was beyond words and was indeed inexplicable.

  Quite simply they fell in love at first sight.

  There was no question of Lord Rupert thinking again, as his father had begged him to do, nor would he postpone the date of their marriage.

  He and Iona had found each other and nothing else in the world mattered.