Love Wins (eBook)
298 Seiten
Barbara Cartland eBooks Ltd (Verlag)
978-1-78867-091-3 (ISBN)
Barbara Cartland was the world's most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels 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 and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation. Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world. She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven. 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, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed. Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone's life.
On his return after six years' fighting with the Duke of Wellington in the Napoleonic Wars, Colonel Romney Wood, who has just become Lord Heywood, is horrified at the state of the country he left behind, where agricultural labourers are now starving, food shops are bare and Luddites lay waste new agricultural machinery. Worse still his own estate is almost bankrupt and he has to find something to sell to save it and his loyal staff from penury.He is considerably hampered because his grandfather has legally entailed everything of value onto future generations of Lord Heywoods and so he cannot dispose of virtually anything without the Trustees approval, which he knows will not be forthcoming.Scouring Heywood Abbey, his country home, for possible items to sell, he is astonished when he stumbles across something he is soon to prize beyond price a beautiful, fawn-like young girl with deep blue eyes in a white diaphanous nightgown. She is an interloper and a runaway, hiding from her wicked uncle, who is forcing her into marriage with a man she despises. Her name is Lalita. But more than that she will not tell Lord Heywood. Yet slowly she reveals more of herself to him and with each revelation the bond between them grows. And in spite of himself Lord Heywood is falling in love. They are two people with nothing left to lose and maybe only love to win.
CHAPTER TWO
There was silence as Lord Heywood was too astounded to reply.
Then he enquired,
“As your host, I should be asking you those questions.”
The blue eyes opened, if possible, wider than ever.
“My – host? You really – cannot be – Lord Heywood! He is – abroad.”
“I have returned,” Lord Heywood replied, “at what appears to be an inconvenient moment.”
His visitor considered this for a moment and then she answered,
“It will certainly be – inconvenient if you are – ordering me to – leave, which is something I – cannot do – immediately.”
“That is obvious,” Lord Heywood remarked dryly.
He glanced, as he spoke, at her nightgown, which was fine enough to be very revealing.
He could see the curves of two very young breasts and, as if she was suddenly aware of it, she quickly pulled the sheet higher.
Lord Heywood noticed as she did so that the sheet, edged with lace, bore his mother's monogram and the pillowcases as well with a frill of real lace were as he remembered them.
“You have certainly made yourself very comfortable,” he remarked sarcastically.
“There was – nobody to – stop me and the caretakers, if that is what those two old people are, never come – higher than the ground floor.”
Lord Heywood moved a little way from the window towards the bed, but not near enough to frighten this strange young woman.
Now he could see her more clearly he realised that she was very lovely, in fact far too beautiful to be wandering about apparently alone and sleeping in a strange house without anybody else’s knowledge of it.
“Suppose we start at the beginning,” he suggested. “As you know who I am, please tell me your name and why you are here.”
There was a distinct pause and he knew from the expression on the girl’s face that she was thinking.
He waited until she said a little hesitatingly,
“My – name is – Lalita.”
Lord Heywood again waited and, as she said no more, he asked,
“And your other name?”
“As far as you need be – concerned my name is Lalita – and that is all.”
“I suspect you have run away and are hiding from someone or something.”
She gave him a flashing smile.
“That is intelligent of you.”
“Thank you, but the information you have given me is too scanty.”
“That is all I can – tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because, as you so rightly surmised – I have run away and as there was nobody living in this lovely house it seemed a – perfect place for me to – hide.”
“From whom?”
Again she smiled and there was a hint of mischief in her blue eyes.
“That, as you must be aware, is a question that – I must not answer.”
“Very well,” Lord Heywood said. “As you are determined to be mysterious, will you tell me why you are hiding?”
Lalita put her head a little on one side and he realised with amusement that she was considering whether she could trust him or not.
After a moment he added,
“Shall I promise you that nothing you say at the moment will be used in evidence against you?”
She gave a little laugh and he thought that it was an unexpectedly joyous sound.
“You are not a bit like I expected you to be. I looked at all those pompous old ancestors of yours on the stairs and in the dining room and I thought that you would be just like them.”
“I always believed that there was a distinct family resemblance.”
“It is very slight and you are much more handsome than I expected. And younger.”
“I would accept that as a compliment if I did not think it was simply a means to an end.”
Again she laughed.
“Of course it is! I want you to help me – by letting me stay here.”
“You must realise that is impossible.”
Because he wished to see her better than he could at the moment Lord Heywood turned to draw back the curtains from one of the other windows.
Now the sunshine seemed to fill the room with a golden haze and he thought as he looked back to the bed that against the white linen and lace and the blue curtains Lalita was like a Princess in a Fairytale.
She looked somehow insubstantial with her fair hair and blue eyes and what he could see now was a flawless pink-and-white skin that made him feel that she was a figment of his imagination and had stepped out of a dream.
He deliberately sat down in one of the chairs with a gilt frame that was covered in blue brocade.
Then, as he crossed his legs and appeared to be very much at his ease, he said,
“If you want my help, then at least make your plea for it sound convincing.”
She gave him a little glance from under her eyelashes, which he realised curled back from her blue eyes like a child’s and were gold at the roots becoming naturally dark at the tips.
“I suppose that is the way,” she said, “you behave to your poor soldiers when they are up in front of you for being late on parade or some other dastardly crime.”
“They usually have a very plausible excuse.”
“Very well, I will tell you mine – I have run away because my Guardian is trying to marry me to an – imbecile.”
Lord Heywood looked at her incredulously.
“It is true,” she insisted defensively.
“And why should your Guardian wish to do that?”
“Because the imbecile is his son!”
“I find that assertion hard to believe.”
“So I suspect would everybody else,” Lalita replied. “But I refuse, utterly and absolutely refuse, to marry a man who is what the servants call ‘touched in the attic’, who slobbers at me and has wet flabby hands.”
The way she spoke sounded so like a small animal spitting at its pursuers that Lord Heywood could not help laughing.
“It may seem funny to you,” Lalita retorted, “but it was a case of either doing what my uncle wanted or running away.”
“So it is your uncle who is your Guardian,” Lord Heywood said quietly.
“Now you are being sneaky and trying to get things out of me,” Lalita countered, “but I can promise you one thing, if you try to make me go back I shall either escape or drown myself in the lake.”
“Very dramatic!” Lord Heywood exclaimed. “But you sound somewhat hysterical and that weakens your case.”
Lalita gave a sound that was one of exasperation
“Why did you have to come back?” she complained. “I found this a perfect place to hide in and it is in fact very comfortable.”
“How do you feed yourself?”
She looked at him in a way that made him know that she was deciding whether or not to tell him the truth.
Then she responded,
“It has been somewhat of a monotonous diet. The caretakers keep hens, which lay all over the place and there are plenty of vegetables – in the garden.”
Lord Heywood’s lips twitched,
“I see you are very resourceful.”
“Actually I am a good cook when I have the ingredients, but when I ran away I had no idea where I was going and so I did not think of taking food with me. ”
“You must have had some idea where you were heading.”
“I did think of going to France. Perhaps you could help me to go there.”
“I don’t think that France is at all the right place for you at this moment,” Lord Heywood asserted firmly,
“Why not? The War is over – and I am not only very proficient in French but Mama had a close friend there called the Duchesse de Soissons, who I am sure would be glad to see me – if I could find her.”
“Are you really contemplating wandering about France alone, looking for a Duchesse who may be dead for all you know?”
“I think it would be rather – exciting!”
“You don’t know what you are talking about.”
Lord Heywood thought as he spoke of the chaos in the country that he had just left.
There were still deserters from the French Army pillaging and looting when they had the chance and the peasants were desperately poor after the privations that they had endured during the fighting. There was also as usual an enormous amount of corruption.
He could not imagine anything nearer to madness than that a young woman alone and as pretty as Lalita should travel anywhere in France.
There was now a thoughtful expression on his face and after a moment she said,
“Well, if you will not let me go to France – the alternative is to – stay here.”
“That, as I have already said, is impossible,” Lord Heywood replied.
“But why? The house is big enough and, if you feel that your friends might notice me, 1 could hide away in some small attic.”
“I certainly don’t mean to entertain.”
“Why ever not? There must be plenty of people willing to welcome you after being away for so long now that you have returned home.”
“A home I cannot afford.”
He had not meant to say anything so intimate, but the words had come bitterly to his lips before he could prevent them.
“Are you saying that you are in the same position as all the other men – who have come back from the War?” Lalita asked him.
“It depends what you mean,” Lord Heywood said cautiously, wishing that he had not been so outspoken.
“But you must be aware,” she replied, “that most of the men recently demobilised from the forces are desperately poor, many of them in rags, and they returned to find their homes with leaking roofs, their children hungry and needless to say...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 31.8.2018 |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Historische Romane |
| Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-78867-091-4 / 1788670914 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-78867-091-3 / 9781788670913 |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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