Fragrant Flower Read online

  She knew it was a precaution and a disguise against anyone who might be watching for her from the land. She looked back from under the brim of her hat and saw the Convent, gaunt, grey and frightening, standing high on the hill above them.

  There were few people in sight.

  The sampan was rowed past several others and a dozen fishing vessels moored against the sea-wall, and they were out in the open sea.

  It was then Azalea saw ahead of them a steamship and realised that the sampan was moving towards it.

  Her heart leapt with excitement, but while she felt an inexpressible joy, she wondered whether a British Captain would feel in honour bound to return her to her uncle.

  Even as the thought came to her, she saw that the flag being flown from the steamship was not British.

  It was Chinese!

  It was a large ship and Azalea could hear its engines throbbing as they drew nearer.

  There was a rope ladder hanging over the side, and as she looked at it she knew there was no other way she could climb aboard.

  The Chinese in the sampan were smiling as they drew alongside.

  “Thank you!” she said in Cantonese. “I am more grateful than I can ever say! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”

  The two men who had lifted her into the boat bowed. Azalea knew which one had been her guide in the tunnel and the storm-water drain because his face, hands and clothes were dirty with earth and she saw as she looked down that her habit was in the same state.

  But there was no time to worry about her appearance! She pulled off her coolie hat and took the blue cotton material from her shoulders.

  The two Chinese helped her onto the rope ladder and she found it difficult in her thick shoes to keep her balance with the sampan moving beneath her, but somehow she managed it, clinging with desperate fingers to the rope as she climbed upwards.

  Sailors leant over the side of the ship to assist her aboard. Without speaking, a Naval Officer gesticulated to her to follow him and they walked quickly along the deck. Azalea knew it was the First Class deck and after walking for a little way the Officer opened a cabin door.

  Azalea entered.

  Standing inside was Lord Sheldon.

  For a moment she could hardly credit that he was there and that she was not dreaming!

  Then, as the door shut behind her, he held out his arms and she ran towards him.

  As she hid her face against his shoulder she felt the tears come into her eyes and begin to run down her cheeks. There was a paean of happiness inside her, but she could not control the tears which seemed for the moment to shake her whole body.

  “It is all right, my darling! It is all right! You are safe!”

  As Lord Sheldon spoke he undid the veil that she wore over her hair and threw it on the ground.

  “I – I am – so dirty!” Azalea said somewhat incoherently.

  “It would not matter to me if you were covered in mud from head to foot!” Lord Sheldon said. “But I know you want to wash and change. You will find, I think, everything you require in the next-door cabin, and then, my darling, we can talk to each other.”

  She lifted her face to his. The tears were wet on her cheeks and on her long eyelashes, but her lips were smiling even while they trembled.

  “I love you!” he said quietly, then drew her across the cabin to open a door.

  “Do not be too long,” he added as Azalea closed the door behind her.

  The cabin was well furnished in European style, although the designs on the walls were Chinese.

  There was a dressing table fitted to one wall with a large mirror. Azalea looked into it and gave an exclamation of horror.

  Her face was dirty and her hands were indescribable. Her habit was covered with earth and dried leaves. The hairpins had become loosened beneath her veil and her dark hair was trailing over her shoulders.

  Quickly, because she could not bear to look at herself, Azalea pulled off the garments she had hated and which in themselves had been a penance.

  Naked, she went to the washing stand, where she found hot and cold water waiting for her.

  The ship had started to move almost as soon as she came aboard and she knew now they were steaming away from Macao and the prison that she had thought would be hers for life.

  When she was clean and had dried herself, Azalea looked round the cabin.

  Lord Sheldon had said she would find everything she needed.

  Hoping there would be a gown in the wardrobe, she opened it and gave a little gasp of astonishment.

  There were three gowns hanging there. One was of deep rose pink with a skirt that swept to the back in frill upon frill of soft crepe, ornamented with a big satin bow of the same colour.

  Another gown was of jade green, which reminded her of Mr. Chang’s jade treasures; and the third an evening gown – the loveliest she had ever seen – was the colour of the blue magpie.

  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?” A
zalea 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 n
o 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.

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