A Kiss In the Desert Read online

  She kissed his cheek and ran towards the door.

  “I will pack everything which might be useful,” she said. “But I am afraid there is not much and you may have to spend a fortune to gain a fortune.”

  “I will manage somehow,” Charles replied.

  But already she was running down the passage towards the stairs.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The Earl had given a sigh of relief when Charles set off for the country. He had been concerned in case his friend would let him down at the last moment.

  He felt sure that Charles’s sister would enjoy the journey to Syria if nothing else. He therefore gave his valet instructions as to what to pack.

  He sent a messenger to the Captain of his yacht to say that they would be leaving on Thursday morning.

  He knew that the crew of the Sea Serpent would treat his orders as good news, as they had complained when his father was ill that they had nothing to do.

  It was lucky, the Earl thought, that he had just arranged for the yacht to be overhauled and a great many new gadgets had been installed which had been introduced since his father had last put to sea.

  There was only one matter left which compelled his attention and that was Irene.

  He felt depressed at the very idea of telling her he was going away and he wondered how he could deceive her into thinking it was for only a short while, perhaps just a week.

  He had however already planned to meet some of his friends at White’s that evening, so he therefore postponed seeing Irene until the following day.

  He realised that she expected him to visit her that very evening as she had said in her letter that Lord Grantham had left for Windsor Castle.

  ‘We shall be alone, my darling,’ she wrote, ‘and that as you know is all I could ever desire and is the most wonderful thing that could happen to me. Edward will not be back until Friday because there is to be a dinner party for some European dignitary. That means we can be together for three whole nights which is my idea of Heaven.’

  She carried on to write a great many more indiscreet words which made the Earl feel uncomfortable.

  He had always thought it was for him to compose words of love and affection and certainly not the woman he was wooing.

  He was acutely conscious that by this time Irene was indeed wooing him and everything that could be said about love she had already written in her letters.

  He therefore decided that he would not tell her he was sailing away until the very last moment and that meant tomorrow evening and not tonight.

  He enjoyed himself with his friends at White’s Club and even won a little money on the gambling tables.

  When he finally climbed into bed he felt he needed his sleep and all his wits about him.

  If Charles returned from the country to say that his sister would not agree to the plan he had suggested, then he would have to think of someone else.

  At the moment his mind was blank.

  He had arranged an appointment with his Solicitors for the next morning and when he returned home for luncheon, he saw with a leap of his heart that Charles’s travelling carriage was standing outside the door.

  It was with difficulty that the Earl managed to ask in an ordinary calm manner of his butler,

  “I think Captain Kenwood is here.”

  “Yes, my Lord, the Captain and his sister are in the library.”

  The Earl wondered why they were there as he hurried down the passage to the library which was at the far end of the house.

  Both Charles and Vanda were resting open books on their knees as he entered the room.

  “Oh, here you are, Favin,” Charles greeted him. “We wondered when we arrived what had happened to you.”

  “I was seeing my Solicitors,” the Earl answered, “but I am delighted you have returned and have brought your sister with you.”

  Vanda put down the book she was holding, rose to her feet and held out her hand.

  “Charles has told me that you will take me to Syria,” she enthused, “and it is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me.”

  She paused and then asked the Earl,

  “Are you sure he is not pulling my leg?”

  “I can assure you that it is a very genuine invitation and if you accept the situation I am offering you, I will be more grateful than I can say.”

  Vanda gave a little laugh.

  “I am only terrified that I shall fail you and you will be ashamed of me.”

  “I promise you that I will not be and I think it is very sporting and brave of you to undertake what your brother and I think is a very important mission.”

  “A mission to find the most fantastic Arab horses I will ever see?”

  “That is indeed true,” the Earl said. “When you see them you will realise they are far superior to any horse you have ever set your eyes upon.”

  “I can hardly believe that you will really take me with you,” Vanda breathed.

  “We have so much to do immediately we have finished luncheon,” Charles said before the Earl could answer. “I am hoping you can give us the name of the best shop where we can purchase all we require.”

  “I have already written it down for you and I am sure that Madame Yvonne, who is French, will provide exactly what you need.”

  He was talking to Charles and at the same time he was looking at Vanda with astonishment.

  He expected that she would be pretty from his memories of her as a child, but he had certainly not anticipated she would be so lovely!

  Far lovelier than any woman he had seen for a long time.

  She was, he thought, beautiful in a very different way from the beauties who were so admired and praised in the London social circles. He thought it was because she was small and slim and in a way more like a child than a woman.

  Vanda had pulled off her hat when she and Charles were in the library as living in the country she seldom wore one.

  The sun coming through the library windows turned her hair to gold and seemed to accentuate the perfection of her features which were almost classical.

  Equally the fairy-like mystery of her blue eyes intrigued the Earl.

  He thought himself somewhat of a connoisseur in women, but he had never seen eyes which seemed so mysterious and yet showed the clarity and purity of someone very young and innocent.

  ‘She is certainly unique,’ he thought to himself.

  He noticed that Vanda’s clothes looked as if they came from the country and obviously did not do justice to her figure.

  The butler announced that luncheon was served.

  In front of the butler and two footmen they discussed any subject except the one that really filled their minds and which was now more important than anything else.

  Vanda talked of the improvements which Charles had made on their estate since he had left the Army.

  The Earl told them all he had achieved since he had taken over the management of his ancestral lands and about the houses he owned in different parts of England.

  “I have not touched the house we have in Newmarket yet,” he said to Charles, “but I am hoping it is a place we shall need in the near future.”

  “I am sure we will,” Charles replied, “but I am still keeping my fingers crossed.”

  “And I am doing the same,” the Earl agreed.

  Vanda thought that listening to their conversation was extremely interesting.

  When they left the dining room she said,

  “Now Charles and I must busy ourselves. Otherwise I am frightened you may leave without us.”

  “I would certainly not do so, but I should like to be away at the very latest tomorrow afternoon.”

  He was thinking as he spoke that their departure would prevent him having to be with Irene.

  Charles gave a cry of horror,

  “Come on, Vanda. We cannot stop here talking. Collect your hat and, Favin, please tell one of the footmen to call us a Hackney carriage.”

  While Vanda was puttin
g on her hat, the Earl handed Charles an envelope.

  “I thought it best,” he whispered, “for you to pay in cash so that there would be no need for the shop to know who you are or to be curious about Vanda. A great number of fashionable ladies patronise Madame Yvonne. So she is inevitably one of the greatest gossips of Mayfair.”

  “We will be most discreet,” Charles promised. “I can only hope that you will not be disappointed.”

  He tucked the envelope containing the money into his coat pocket.

  A few minutes later they were driving away from Brackenshaw House.

  When the Earl was on his own, he found that there were two letters in sky blue writing paper waiting for him. There was no need for him to question who they were from or what they may contain.

  He merely sent a footman with a brief note to Irene telling her that he had returned to London, but he had guests staying with him and he therefore unfortunately could not go to see her this afternoon, but would call tomorrow morning about noon.

  It was a brief formal note which if read by anyone but her would not cause any comment, but he was mistaken if he thought that Irene would accept such a plan.

  An hour later as he was answering a number of letters with his secretary which had to be finished before he left England, when a note arrived from Irene which required an immediate answer.

  She told him that even if he had all the Archangels in Heaven staying with him, she still intended to see him this evening.

  ‘Come to me as soon as your guests have gone to bed,’ she wrote. ‘I shall be waiting for you. If you do not come to me, I will come to you. I am sure the night footman will let me in.”

  There was nothing the Earl could do but reply that he would pay her a visit as soon as dinner was completed. He did not dare make the assignation any later because undoubtedly the servants would talk.

  He only hoped that Lord Grantham would not be told he had called at his house in his absence.

  *

  Vanda and Charles arrived at Madame Yvonne’s emporium in Bond Street to find that it was even more luxurious and enticing than they expected.

  Vanda had never seen such superb clothes and even Charles was forced to admit that they were smarter than anything he had seen on the famous beauties at London parties.

  Because Vanda was so slim she fitted into a number of the model dresses, which came from Paris and were not usually sold to customers.

  “We must not be too extravagant,” Vanda murmured to Charles as Madame Yvonne was finding the clothes they had asked for.

  “They are all a present from Favin,” Charles told her. “You know I could not afford even one of them.”

  “He must be very rich,” Vanda ventured. “At the same time we do not want to be too indebted to him.”

  “He thinks he is indebted to you, so you must look your very best and that cannot be achieved cheaply.”

  Vanda was delighted when Madame Yvonne showed her three new models which she said had just arrived from Paris.

  They made her look, Charles thought, even more beautiful than she was already.

  Finally they decided on four evening gowns and five different day dresses.

  “Surely we shall not be staying as long as all that,” Vanda muttered to her brother.

  “I do hope not, but we must be prepared and after all a Royal Princess is a Royal Princess!”

  Vanda giggled as she could not help it.

  Charles insisted on buying a wrap for her to wear in the evening and a very smart coat in case it was cold when they were at sea.

  Lastly, but most important were two riding skirts, which were very smart and French, more suitable, Charles considered, for the Pretty Horsebreakers.

  However he felt that they would impress the Bedouins, so said nothing.

  After the dresses they moved to the hat department.

  Vanda looked so pretty in every hat she put on that finally Charles insisted on buying eight.

  “They may not notice if you do not change your dress,” he said, “but a hat is bound to attract attention.”

  By this time Vanda, who had never possessed more than one dress at a time and that was made by the village seamstress, was too bewildered to argue.

  She convinced herself that the reflection she saw in the mirror could not really be herself.

  Finally everything they had bought was packed up in neat parcels.

  When Charles paid for it in cash, Vanda looked the other way as she did not want to be embarrassed by thinking how grateful she must now be to the Earl. Worse still how humiliated she would be if she was exposed.

  It was getting on for six o’clock when they drove back to Park Lane.

  Charles threw himself back in the Hackney carriage saying,

  “If you are not exhausted, I am! I am so sorry for women that they have to endure all that dressing up.”

  “If you were a woman you would find it very stimulating,” Vanda countered. “I still cannot decide if I am on my head or my heels or flying in the sky on a cloud!”

  “You are going to have to work hard for everything you now possess,” Charles warned her. “Do not forget for a moment that you are extremely important and you do not permit any impertinence from underlings like me!”

  “It is going to be difficult, but I am sure I shall enjoy it.”

  It was not until later when they were waiting to go into dinner that Charles asked,

  “Have you done anything about Ladies-in-Waiting or a chaperone? I forgot to ask you earlier. We cannot arrive in Syria just as we are.”

  “I have thought of everything,” the Earl replied in a somewhat lofty tone. “The Captain of my yacht has a very pleasant wife whom he has wanted to take on voyages with him and the same applies to the Senior Steward. I have therefore told them to bring their wives with them tomorrow and that they are to act as Ladies-in-Waiting to Her Royal Highness who will be joining us.”

  “That is very bright of you,” Charles admitted. “Have you told the Captain and the rest of the crew that Vanda is Royalty?”

  “Of course I have. You know how servants talk especially when they are at sea. The Captain believes that Princess Vanda of Thessaly is coming aboard with us.”

  “Why Thessaly?” Charles enquired.

  “Because I have told the Captain and also sent a messenger ahead of us to Syria, that I am bringing with me Princess Vanda, the daughter of the late Prince Nikos of Thessaly. Her mother, Princess Louise, is English and a cousin of Her Majesty Queen Victoria and enjoys the privilege of a Grace and Favour house at Hampton Court.”

  Charles put his hand to his forehead.

  “Really Favin, you should either be a best-selling author or a diplomat!”

  “It took me a little time to work it all out but, as you know, Grace and Favour houses are mostly allocated to impoverished Royalty and diplomats. I have always thought they are treated very much as poor relations by Her Majesty.”

  “Of course it is doubtful if anyone knows who they are or where they come from,” Charles added as if he was speaking to himself.

  “That is indeed true, but you must make it clear to your sister that from the moment we leave this house tomorrow morning she is no longer herself.”

  When Vanda joined them the Earl repeated what he had already told Charles.

  “I am so glad you left me with my own name,” Vanda said. “It would be awful if you spoke to me and I thought you were talking to someone else.”

  “I have tried to make it as easy for you as I can and anyway I think Vanda is such a pretty name that it is indeed suitable for a Princess.”

  “That, sir, I consider a compliment,” Vanda smiled, “and I only hope that I can live up to the part you have created for me. It will be terrible if I make any mistakes.”

  “The first point is that Charles and I have to treat you with great respect and not forget to say, ma’am, every other word.”

  Vanda laughed.

  “Charles will not like it –
he is more used to saying I am a silly little idiot or ruffling my hair with his hand.”

  The Earl gave an exclamation of mock dismay.

  “We have to be careful, all of us,” he cautioned. “You will find your Ladies-in-Waiting very self-effacing and they will only appear when you want them.”

  Dinner was served and as soon as it was finished the Earl left them.

  Despite the fact that Irene worried him by being so indiscreet, he still found her alluring.

  She greeted the Earl wearing a diaphanous gown which revealed more of her perfect figure than it concealed.

  He found it impossible not to respond to her passionate kisses and she lured him artfully into her bedroom almost before he was aware of it.

  It was some hours later before the Earl said somewhat sleepily,

  “I ought to be going home. You know as well as I do that the servants will talk if I stay too late.”

  Irene laughed and it was a very pretty sound.

  “They are too frightened of me to talk about us,” she answered.

  “You can never be certain and just in case your husband returns from Windsor earlier than you expect, I will not be dining with you tomorrow night. Actually I am going abroad.”

  “Going abroad!” Irene cried and now her voice was sharp.

  “Only for a short while, but I need to approve some innovations on my father’s yacht and the Captain insists on running it across the Channel before we pay a very large bill for the alterations.”

  “But surely you can do that on Friday night after Arthur has returned,” Irene pouted petulantly.

  “I did suggest it, but unfortunately the man who installed them and who of course has to be on board, has another engagement.”

  Irene put her arms around him.

  “I cannot let you go Favin,” she purred. “You know how precious the few hours we spend together are and I want you to be with me tomorrow night.”

  “As I want to be with you, but alas, my dear, it is impossible.”

  “Nothing is impossible and if the worst comes to the worst I will come with you on your yacht.”

  “That is something you cannot do,” he frowned. “You know as well as I do that someone will find out and it will cause a scandal.”