The Island of Love Page 12

  “I hope your orders are carried out, Mary. That ghastly girl must not be allowed to upset her sister more than she has done already.”

  “I could not have believed that any lady could behave in such a disgraceful manner!” Mrs. Wodehouse answered. “If you ask me, James, the Earl is well rid of her!”

  Mr. Wodehouse smiled.

  “That is exactly what I thought myself.”

  *

  Left alone in the drawing room Sir Robert said to Heloise,

  “Are you mad? How could you be so rude to Royston?”

  Heloise was actually feeling somewhat abashed by the way that first the Earl and then everybody else had disappeared, but she tossed her head defiantly.

  “You know as well as I do, Papa,” she replied, “that he should have come with us last night and taken care of me!”

  “You were quite safe,” Sir Robert replied.

  “He was not to know that! And how dare he spend the night alone with Lydia and without a chaperone?”

  Sir Robert laughed, but there was no humour in the sound.

  “I don’t suppose they chose to be capsized in a stormy sea,” he replied. “In fact Mr. Wodehouse was saying, if you had listened, that they were extremely fortunate not to have been drowned.”

  “If they had been with us, they would have been perfectly all right, as we were,” Heloise objected.

  Sir Robert was too tactful to remind his daughter that she had behaved hysterically all the time they were in the boat, clinging to him convulsively and reiterating over and over again that they would die.

  Instead he said dryly,

  “If you have lost Royston, I think I shall wring your neck! You are not likely to give me another son-in-law who is so distinguished and so rich.”

  “Oh, he will soon be back,” Heloise said complacently, “and will apologise abjectly to me for his neglect, which is something I am not used to.”

  “Oh, for Heaven’s sake, Heloise,” Sir Robert said crossly, “try to understand that Royston has more women running after him than he has horses, which is saying a great deal and, as you have been stupid enough to throw him over, he is not likely to come crawling back!”

  “You are quite wrong, you will see!” Heloise retorted airily. “Now I must go to get ready for the Coronation and Lydia must do my hair.”

  She walked up the stairs, but, when she tried to go into Lydia’s room, the Hawaiian housemaid stood in front of the door and refused to let her enter.

  When Heloise raged at her and insisted that she must speak to her sister, the other maid went to fetch Mrs. Wodehouse, who hurried up the stairs and said,

  “I cannot believe, Miss Westbury, that you are not aware that your sister is in a delicate state of health after her terrible experience of last night. Besides which, when you struck her she fainted.”

  There was a note of condemnation in Mrs. Wodehouse’s voice, which for once made Heloise ashamed of the way she had acted.

  “I can hardly go to the Coronation with my hair as it is at the moment!” she replied. “Perhaps you could send for a hairdresser.”

  “I think it unlikely that one will be available at such short notice,” Mrs. Wodehouse replied, “but my head maid is very skilful with hair and all the Hawaiian girls have theirs beautifully arranged at festivals.”

  There was nothing Heloise could do therefore but accept the services of the Hawaiian maid who actually arranged her hair very prettily.

  Heloise, however, made it perfectly clear that she would expect Lydia to wait on her before the ball that was to take place that night.

  “When you see my sister,” she said coldly when she was dressed and ready to leave, “will you please inform her that I expect her to be up by the time I return.”

  “I will see if I consider her well enough to rise,” Mrs. Wodehouse replied. “Otherwise, Miss Westbury, I am afraid that you will have to manage without her.”

  Just after Lydia’s arrival with the Earl, the luggage had been brought to the house, having been retrieved from HMS Victorious.

  Heloise had made a great fuss over which gown she was to wear but thanks to Lydia’s forethought in listing what was in every trunk, everything she required was found comparatively easily.

  Mrs. Wodehouse did not miss the fact that, while Heloise had more than a dozen trunks, Lydia had only one and, after what she had seen and heard in the drawing room, her kind heart went out to somebody who, she thought, was being extremely badly treated by her relatives.

  When she was driving with her husband to the Royal Pavilion especially built for the Coronation, she said to him,

  “I cannot understand Sir Robert treating one of his daughters so differently from the other and I am already convinced in my mind that poor Cinderella is much the nicer of the two.”

  “I think the same,” Mr. Wodehouse said, “but it is no use your interfering, my dear, you will get no thanks for it.”

  It was not surprising that Lydia, lying in bed feeling limp and listless, was depressed at missing the Coronation ceremony.

  When the King had decided to have a Coronation such as no King of Hawaii had ever had before, he ordered a Royal Pavilion to be built in front of Iolani Palace.

  A covered amphitheatre surrounded it on three sides and provided seating for thousands of spectators.

  Octagonal, the domed pavilion symbolised the Crown and its eight Grecian columns represented the eight inhabited islands of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

  Inside the Royal Pavilion the Chief Justice of the Kingdom placed the Royal Mantle, the large feather cloak of Kamehameha I, on the King’s shoulders and handed him a Royal Sceptre.

  The Princess Poomaikelani, his sister-in-law, presented him with a pulo’ ulo’u Rapu stick and a whale tooth pendant suspended from a necklace of woven human hair.

  Besides this he also received a Royal feather standard.

  The Coronation’s greatest moment, however, came when one of the Princes stepped forward with the crowns, which had been made in England.

  As the choir sang, “Almighty Father we do bring gold and gems for the King,” King Kalakaua took his crown, placed it on his head and then placed a smaller similar crown on the head of Queen Kapiolani.

  The choir then sang, “Cry out O Isles with Joy!”

  Cannons on land and at sea fired a salute after which the Royal Hawaiian Band played a spirited Coronation March.

  Then the general festivities started and Sir Robert thought that King Kalakaua certainly lived up to his reputation as a ‘Merry Monarch’.

  The whole populace was dressed in their best and Honolulu seemed to be turned into a funfair of beautiful girls dancing, every kind of sideshow and sport taking place as well as the beach being crowded with surf- bathers.

  The gaiety of it was so irresistible that the Earl, who had been treated as a Royal personage, kept thinking of how much Lydia would have enjoyed it.

  He had a special place in the Pavilion, to which he had been escorted by the Lord Chamberlain and until he was seated everybody stood.

  The King singled him out for a special greeting so that the people could understand that he was embracing the Queen of England in the personage of the Earl.

  At the Royal Banquet that followed the Coronation the Earl was given the Seat of Honour.

  Heloise was seated a long way away from him. He deliberately did not look in her direction and there was no question of either her or Sir Robert speaking to him while the ceremony and the banquet were taking place.

  On the way back to the British Consulate Heloise grumbled all the way.

  “You would think, Papa,” she said, “that after his disgraceful behaviour that Hunter would have made some effort to speak to me and apologise.”

  “You will be lucky if he comes near you!” Sir Robert replied.

  He was actually very perturbed by the way that Heloise had behaved.

  Although it was something that he and Lydia were used to and they seldom took seriously anything th
at she said when she was in a tantrum, he was sensible enough to be aware that to the Earl it must have been an unpleasant ‘eye-opener’.

  Then, because he always tried to avoid disagreeable facts, Sir Robert told himself he was quite certain that the Earl was deeply in love with Heloise and bemused by her beauty.

  He would therefore forgive her, even though such a vulgar exhibition should never have taken place in front of the British Consul and his wife.

  There was, however, no point in saying so and taking the line of least resistance Sir Robert said,

  “I am sure that tonight you will be dancing with Royston at the ball. But don’t expect him to grovel because no man likes doing that!”

  Heloise did not answer.

  She merely swept into the house and told the servant that she was going to her room to rest and wanted her sister to come to her immediately.

  She, however, received a message from Mrs. Wodehouse saying that Lydia was still asleep and a maid would prepare her bath in an hour’s time.

  Heloise was therefore forced to explain to a strange maid how to undo her gown and to find in her innumerable trunks the one she intended to wear at the Palace.

  *

  Lydia awoke feeling that she had slept for a very long time and finding that she had now recovered from the strain and fatigue she had felt when she gone to bed.

  She had eaten what the maids had brought her, but she was hardly aware of what she was doing.

  Then she had drifted away into a delicious sleep in which she felt that the Earl’s arms were around her, his lips were near to hers and she could hear his deep voice saying that he loved her.

  “I love you!” she found herself whispering as she opened her eyes.

  As she did so, she realised that the sun was sinking low over the sea and the sky was a vision of loveliness.

  ‘I have missed the whole day!’ she thought with a little pang. ‘How could I have done anything so stupid when I can sleep at home?’

  However, she felt immeasurably better and, because it was difficult to think of the Coronation or anything else except the Earl, she knew that the only thing that mattered was that she should see him again.

  Then she remembered vaguely hearing Heloise screaming at her. She had seen him drive away and thought that he was going out of her life forever.

  She felt the pain of it stab through her and told herself severely that she would have to be sensible.

  What had happened on the island where they had been marooned was something that would never happen again.

  It had been so perfect, so exquisite and such an ecstatic memory that nothing must ever spoil it.

  ‘It is in my heart and in his,’ she thought, ‘and will be ours for all Eternity.’

  She climbed slowly out of bed and started to dress herself, thinking all the time of the Earl and finding it extraordinary that, while she had been with him on the island wearing nothing but a nightgown, she had not felt shy.

  She had not been embarrassed until the Hawaiian boat had arrived to rescue them.

  She knew the explanation was that she had felt she belonged to him and therefore everything they did together was right and perfect.

  “I love him! I love him!” she said to the sunset and felt that the crimson and gold wonder of it brought her the light of hope.

  Because she was not certain if she was to be allowed to go to the ball tonight, although she knew her father had intended taking her to the Coronation, she merely put on one of her simple white evening dresses, which was less elaborate than any gown she would have worn to attend the ball.

  She quickly arranged her hair at the back of her head and opened the door of her bedroom.

  The maidservant outside in the passage smiled at her and said,

  “You wake, lady. That good! Why you not call?”

  “I managed by myself, thank you,” Lydia replied. “Will you show me the way to my sister’s bedroom?”

  The maid led her across the landing and, as she went in, she saw that Heloise was dressing herself and looking exceedingly sulky.

  “Can I help you?” Lydia asked.

  “It’s about time you did!” Heloise answered. “And you will have to hurry! Papa sent a message to say that he will be leaving in half-an-hour.”

  “In half-an-hour?” Lydia exclaimed. “Where is Papa? I want to ask him if I am to come with you.”

  “Come with us?” Heloise questioned. “Do you think I would want you there after the way you behaved? You will do my hair and help me dress and then stay here and try to behave yourself until we get back!”

  The way she spoke was so rude and so peremptory that Lydia was quite certain that if she asked her father he would say that she was not to upset Heloise and must therefore stay behind.

  She was disappointed.

  At the same time, knowing it was what she might have expected would happen, she merely arranged Heloise’s hair in silence, helped her into her gown and fastened round her neck the jewels that belonged to her mother.

  Then without saying thank you Heloise swept towards the door and down the stairs with Lydia following her.

  Her father looking very smart and wearing his decorations on his evening coat was waiting in the hall.

  As Heloise appeared, he pulled out his watch and said,

  “Come along! Come along! We are late! I have already had to apologise to our host and hostess, because we are travelling with them in their carriage.”

  As he spoke, Mr. and Mrs. Wodehouse came from the drawing room.

  They looked at Lydia as she descended the last steps of the staircase and Mrs. Wodehouse asked,

  “Are you feeling better, my dear?”

  “Yes, thank you,” Lydia replied. “You have been so very kind and I am exceedingly grateful for all you have done for me.”

  “It has been a pleasure,” Mrs. Wodehouse said warmly, “and now I hope you will enjoy the ball.”

  “It is very kind of you,” Lydia said, “but if it will be no trouble, I think I had better – stay here.”

  She glanced nervously at her sister as she spoke and almost as if she had asked the question Heloise said,

  “My sister is too tired and exhausted to attend any ball!”

  As she spoke, she handed the wrap she was carrying on her arm to her father who put it round her shoulders.

  “You had better go to bed, Lydia,” she added. “I will wake you when I come back so that you can undo my gown.”

  Mrs. Wodehouse looked from one girl to the other and then said,

  “I think it is very disappointing for Miss Lydia, having missed the Coronation today, now to miss the ball. I suggest she comes with us, at least for a little time. After all it is almost a Royal Command!”

  As she spoke, Lydia saw the anger in Heloise’s eyes and quickly put her hand on Mrs. Wodehouse’s arm.

  “It’s better if I stay behind,” she said in a low voice, “but I hope it will be no trouble for your household.”

  Her fingers told Mrs. Wodehouse better than what she said that it would be a mistake to argue.

  But she gave Heloise a hard look as she walked ahead of her towards the front door, pausing to say to the servant who was seeing them out,

  “Miss Westbury is staying behind, look after her and give her something to eat before you all join the festivities as you have been told you may do.”

  “We do that, mistress,” the servant said with a smile.

  Then the Wodehouses, Sir Robert and Heloise all climbed into the closed carriage that was waiting for them and drove off.

  Lydia watched them go and then she went into the drawing room to stand looking out into the garden that lay on one side of the house, while there was a view of the sea on the other.

  She watched the sunset, feeling that she was again on the island where the Earl had kissed her and told her he loved her.

  ‘An Island of Love,’ she whispered in her heart and knew that she would never forget it.

  *r />
  The servants came in to tell Lydia that there was a meal waiting for her in the dining room.

  She sat alone at the large table where the British Consul and his wife entertained their guests.

  She did not really envy Heloise at the ball, except for thinking how delightful and interesting it would be if she could sit next to the Earl and hear him talking to her.

  It would not be about themselves since they were in public, but about Hawaii and its long complicated but exciting history.

  When the simple meal was finished, she went back into the drawing room, not feeling tired enough to go to bed but reliving her own love story, which perhaps would never have another chapter.

  Now the sun had sunk in a blaze of glory and with the swiftness that the night came in the tropics the stars were coming out overhead.

  There was the same moon that had shone on them last night, but the sea beneath it was calm and there were no waves except ripples at the edge of the sand.

  It seemed impossible that the scene had been so violent and dramatic only the night before.

  Now, as the moonlight turned the ocean to silver and the palm trees were silhouetted against the stars, Lydia felt that her whole spirit was uplifted by beauty and love.

  It made her think of the Lei that had been placed around her neck when she arrived as an offering of love and she imagined that at this moment she was holding up a Lei towards the stars and prayed that she might know again the happiness that had been hers last night.

  She was concentrating so intently on her thoughts that it was quite a shock when the door opened and a very old servant, who had obviously not gone with the rest, announced,

  “Gentleman see you, lady!”

  “A gentleman?” Lydia asked in surprise.

  She rose to her feet realising that the room was in darkness except for the moonlight coming through the window.

  Then, as she went from the drawing room into the hall where the lights had been lit, she saw outside the door that there was a carriage and to her astonishment the Earl jumped out of it and came up the steps.

  She ran towards him and, as she reached him, she saw how magnificent he was looking with the Order of the Garter across his white evening shirt and several decorations glittering with diamonds pinned to his evening coat.