Royal Punishment (eBook)

Barbara Cartland (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023
245 Seiten
Publishdrive (Verlag)
978-1-78867-700-4 (ISBN)

Infos

By edict of her Godmother, the Queen, lovely young Clotilda is shipped off to an obscure Balkan nation to marry its sexually depraved and sadistic reigning prince... Her reluctant escort: a dashing and devilish Marquis, loved by London Society's ladies as much as he's loathed by their jealous husbands... As his innocent young charge is attacked and then kidnapped by murderous brigands, he loses his heart... And the Marquis's royal punishment becomes an all-consuming labour of love.

Autor

Barbara Cartland was the worlds 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 and; 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.

Textauszug

Chapter Two

Lady Clotilda rode into the stable yard and dismounting, patted her horse’s neck affectionately.

As she did so an old groom came slowly out of one of the stables to ask,

“’Ad a good ride, Me Lady?”

“Marvellous, thank you, Abbey! I have never known Swallow to jump better!”

“E’ll ’ave to be careful on the ’igh jumps,” the old man said “E’ll ’ave a nasty fall if he ain’t careful?”

“I will be careful,” Lady Clotilda smiled.

She patted her horse’s neck again and turned away, conscious as she did so that she was late, and her aunt would be annoyed.

As she had rode, it had been difficult to think of anything but the joy of being out in the sunshine and free of the gloom which had seemed to envelop Hyde Castle like a fog, ever since her father’s death.

Before, it had seemed to her they were always laughing, and despite the fact that her father had the greatest difficulty in what he called ‘making two ends meet’, he could always joke about it.

It had come as a complete surprise to him when he had come into the Dukedom.

There were two brothers, both older than him, and it had never entered his mind that he might, one day, take his father’s place.

Lord Julian Tevington-Hyde, as he then was, had therefore made the best of the extremely small allowance, which was all he had to live on, by travelling what was called ‘rough’.

He had seen the world in a very different way from those who could afford to travel in the best ships and stay in the most comfortable hotels or, where people of importance were concerned, in the best homes or Palaces.

Lord Julian had however enjoyed life much more than most of his contemporaries did and as he was extremely proficient in languages, he got to know the natives of the countries he visited, as few Englishmen were able to do.

This was because his grandmother had been a Balkan Princess and she had talked to him in her own language when he was small.

This had instilled in him a desire to learn other languages, which indeed he continued to acquire all his life.

Clotilda had found it fascinating to listen to the tales her father told of his travels and later, when he became a widower, actually to travel with him herself.

They visited various places in Africa and in Europe that were certainly not in the accepted curriculum of other girls of her social standing.

“It would be different if you had a son, Julian,” his relatives would remonstrate with him, “but to take Clotilda with you is quite absurd and will certainly spoil her chances of making a good marriage when she is a debutante.”

Lord Julian had laughed.

“I should have thought it would increase her chances of keeping her husband amused and would prevent him from wandering off to look for somebody else more entertaining.”

This reply shocked his relatives all the more. They ceased to argue with him and merely said amongst themselves that Julian had no sense of responsibility and ignored him.

This however they were unable to do once he became the Duke of Hyde.

It seemed an extraordinary coincidence that his two elder brothers should have died within a few months of each other and for quite different reasons.

Henry, the elder of the two, was killed fighting in India while John, the next brother, who was in the same Regiment, contracted yellow fever on his way home and died in Cape Town.

Their deaths came to Julian like a bombshell, so did they to the rest of the family.

“Julian, the Duke? I have never heard of such a thing!” they exclaimed.

Yet strangely enough in a short time he undertook his responsibilities as head of a very large and diverse family, and he became a very good one.

This certainly did not surprise Clotilda, who had always known that her father’s sympathy and understanding of all sorts and conditions of people made him an excellent judge of character and a compassionate landlord.

Unfortunately, he could not always translate this into action by providing the money that was vitally needed by the farmers, the tenants, the pensioners and everybody else on the Hyde estate.

The money was just not there.

Although, in the teeth of opposition from any of the family who knew about it, the new Duke had sold quite a number of items of value in the Castle, they were still hard up and found it more and more difficult to keep up appearances.

This had not affected Clotilda, but when she was eighteen and should have been a debutante and presented at Court, her father had a fatal riding accident, and she was in deep mourning.

It seemed incredible that a man who was so experienced at riding anything from an elephant to a yak should kill himself accidentally jumping over a hedge he had cleared a dozen times before.

And yet when he had fallen the Duke had cracked his spine and the only consolation to Clotilda when he died was that if he had lived he would have been completely paralysed.

‘Papa would have hated that!’ she told herself.

The moment the Duke was dead, another Duke came to take his place.

This was in the person of a cousin whom nobody had ever liked. He was an elderly man, disagreeable by nature, and even more so because he was stricken with an acute form of rheumatoid arthritis that kept him in a wheelchair.

He was in fact disagreeable from first thing in the morning until last thing at night and made his wife’s life a misery, which resulted in her being extremely disagreeable too.

To Clotilda it was such a change from the happiness she had known, first with her mother and father together, then with her father alone, that she could hardly believe it.

As the days seemed filled with darkness, complaints and endless rows over small, unimportant trifles, her only escape was to ride Swallow and remember the past.

Her father had given her Swallow when he was just a foal and because Clotilda had always looked after him herself, he followed her wherever she went and came when she called him.

He had turned into a very fine horse and an excellent jumper, and she was sure that if she entered him in the local point-to-point next year, he would be a winner.

She had not done so before for the simple reason that she had thought it seemed wrong when she was still in mourning for her father.

But she had many plans for herself and Swallow, and she was thinking of him now as she walked in through the side door and up some uncarpeted stairs that led to the centre of the Castle.

It was only as she reached the hall that she saw through the open front door a very impressive carriage standing outside, drawn by four horses.

It was unusual for anybody to be calling at the Castle in the morning, and she stared at the carriage wondering who could have come to see her uncle, and if they would be staying for luncheon.

Then as she was about to ascend the stairs to her bedroom her aunt came from the Morning Room that was always used when they were alone to say sharply,

“Oh, there you are, Clotilda! You are late, as usual!”

“I am sorry, Aunt Augusta,” Clotilda replied, “but it is such a lovely day that I am afraid I forgot the time.”

The Duchess came towards her saying,

“Well, hurry and change your clothes, and be quick about it. It is very important!”

Clotilda, who had reached the first steps of the staircase, looked at her in surprise.

“Important?” she questioned “Why?”

“You will hear that as soon as you are changed, so do as I say, and hurry!”

There was an urgency in the Duchess’s voice which made Clotilda’s eyes widen.

Obediently she ran up the stairs and from there to the end of the corridor where her bedroom was situated.

Because the castle was far too big, when her father inherited, he decided that they themselves should use all the best rooms on the first floor rather than keep them for distinguished guests.

The second floor was therefore to all intents and purposes closed and the servants used the floor above that.

As there were not many of them, a great many of those bedrooms were closed too.

Clotilda entered what had always been known as Charles II’s Room, although it was very doubtful if he had ever stayed in the Castle and began to take off her riding habit.

It was worn and rather shabby and she had in fact in the last two years grown out of it, but there was little likelihood of her having another one.

Therefore, despite the haste she was in, she hung it up in the wardrobe before she changed into a plain cotton gown that had been made for her by a seamstress who came to the Castle two days a week.

She was paid only a pittance for her sewing, though Clotilda often thought she was worth her weight in gold, for without Mrs Geery it was doubtful if she would ever have had anything respectable to wear.

She buttoned her gown and crossed the room to her dressing table to look at her reflection in the mirror.

It was a very pretty, in fact lovely face that looked back at her, with large eyes fringed with dark lashes, which was surprising, considering her hair was very fair.

“You have your great-grandmother’s eyes, Dearest,” her father had said once, “who was considered a great beauty in Romania, but you have the fair hair of the Hydes, which came originally from some Viking ancestor. I have always meant to look him up in the family tree.”

Clotilda had laughed.

“I am quite happy to have hair the same colour as yours, Papa.”

“What it all boils down to,” her father had said, “is that I have a very pretty daughter and I love her...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.6.2023
• Reihe/Serie: The Eternal Collection
• Reihe/Serie: The Eternal Collection
• Verlagsort: Hatfield
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Schlagworte: bridgerton romance • happy ending romanc e • period adventure romance • period romance
• ISBN-10: 1-78867-700-5 / 1788677005
• ISBN-13: 978-1-78867-700-4 / 9781788677004