“You are very young and there is plenty of time for you to visit the whole world if you wish to. It is wanting to that matters. So many people are content to sit at home and then never see and appreciate the beauty and delight of foreign lands.”
“You are so fortunate to be able to travel,” Weena replied. “I have had to be content with just reading books about them. There is so much I want to see that this trip in itself, simply because we are here in the Mediterranean, is an excitement that I have never experienced before.”
She thought as she spoke that she was on dangerous ground.
It would be a great mistake to let anyone know exactly where they had come from or why they were going to England.
So she changed the subject by saying quickly,
“Tell me, which the most exciting country you have visited and why?”
David smiled.
“That is certainly a difficult question to answer,” he replied. “I have travelled a great deal and enjoyed every minute of it. My family keeps saying that I should settle down and get married.”
“But you want to see all the world before you do so,” Weena remarked.
“How do you know that?” he asked.
“Because there is a note in your voice when you talk about travelling,” she answered, “which tells me how much it means to you.”
“Well, I have been very lucky,” David admitted. “I have seen most of the East and I would love to show you some of the beauties of India and those of Siam.”
“I have read about them both,” Weena replied. “I also know how beautiful everyone found them.”
“I think most girls of your age are worrying about how many proposals of marriage they have had and which of the men they have danced with is more attractive than the others.”
Weena laughed.
But she did not tell him that she had never had a proposal of marriage nor had she been to many dances.
There had naturally been dances at Christmas time in the Caucasus, but their neighbours lived some way away from them.
And after their father became ill their mother had no wish to stay away even though most hostesses expected her to stay with them if the party did not end until late.
There was silence for a moment.
Then David said,
“I suppose if I was really gallant, as I should be, having saved you from a villain, I would stay aboard until you reach England to make sure you are safe from other dangers as well as being a stranger in a strange land.”
“It is very kind of you to think of it, David,” Weena replied. “But, of course, I could not be so cruel as to take you away from your exploration of enchanting lands which I have not been able to see.”
She was speaking lightly as she was quite sure that he was only teasing her and he really had no intention of staying aboard the ship to protect her.
After all she had only just met him and had been fortunate that he had saved her in Athens and now again at sea.
As if he knew what she was thinking, David said,
“I suppose being so beautiful that you will get into trouble wherever you go.”
As no one outside her family had ever called her beautiful before, Weena stared at him for a moment.
Then she told herself that she must not take him too seriously.
“I promise you,” she said, “I will try to keep out of trouble especially the sort you have just rescued me from.”
“And I have done so now for a second time,” David remarked, “what would you do if I am not here?”
“I suppose I should pray that an angel would drop down from Heaven or perhaps a ‘merman’ will come out of the sea to protect me,” Weena replied.
David chuckled as she meant him to do.
She thought to herself again that it would be a great mistake to be too serious and he was really only teasing her in saying that he had better stay and protect her.
Quickly, because she was afraid that he might think she was clinging on to him or being tiresome in some way, she said,
“What you must do if you have not done so already, is to write down your travel experiences as they happen. Eventually you will put it all into a book which everyone who has never had your good luck will want to read.”
“Actually I have thought about that already,” David replied unexpectedly. “But I decided it would be a waste of time now when I might be exploring. I will therefore keep my adventures in my mind until I am too old or too tied down to continue them.”
“What do you mean by ‘tied down’?” Weena asked. “Is there something in England which will one day keep you from going abroad?”
For a moment there was silence.
Weena felt that by mistake she had asked a question that he had no wish to answer or which embarrassed him.
‘He might be married and perhaps have a number of children,’ she thought to herself.
Because she had no wish for him to think that she was prying on him, she rose to her feet.
“I really think I must retire to bed,” she said. “I am very tired. I would be grateful if you would walk with me as far as the companionway in case I encounter that man you knocked down.”
“Of course I will accompany you if that is what you want,” David replied. “But I rather hoped we could go on talking here. I am travelling alone, as I usually do, but I seldom find someone as congenial as you are to discuss the journey with or who is as interested as you are in the places I have already visited.”
“I want you to tell me about all of them,” Weena said. “But I think I should go to bed now.”
David rose to his feet.
As they walked side by side along the deck, Weena thought that she was being very silly in leaving him when he obviously did not want her to do so.
She was not certain how soon they would arrive in Gibraltar, but she had a feeling that it would be perhaps late tomorrow or the next day.
Then she would never see him again.
As they reached the door that led into the ship, she longed to say that she had changed her mind and wanted to stay with him.
Then she felt that it would seem uncomfortable if she did so.
So she merely said,
“Goodnight, David, and thank you very very much for being so kind to me.”
Before he could answer her, she then ran down the companionway that led to her cabin.
*
The next day Ivor had no wish to play deck tennis so he took Weena on an exploration of the ship.
He showed her the top deck and the lower deck and they went down to the engine room.
She was fascinated by it all.
But she could not help wishing that she was with David and talking to him about the beautiful sights to be found in foreign lands.
After luncheon, which was drawn out because two of the men Ivor had played bridge with came and talked to them, Weena went on deck hoping to find David.
But he was nowhere to be seen.
After looking round for a while, because she was afraid of running into the dreadful Cyril Bates again, she went to her cabin.
She lay down on the bunk bed and read the book she had taken from the library.
It was quite interesting, but not so well written as the books that had been in her father’s library.
Later that night there was to be a performance after dinner given by a travelling group of musicians and Ivor agreed to go and, of course, his sister accompanied him.
It was a very good performance as the musicians were well known in a great many Capitals of Europe.
At the same time she could not help but wish that she was talking to David, but there was no sign of him at the concert.
*
The next day they arrived at Gibraltar.
Weena thought with a strange feeling that she had not felt before that she was losing something very precious.
It was here that David was to leave the ship.
Whatever happened she was determined to
say her goodbyes to him.
She went up on deck to watch the other people who were disembarking, but David was not amongst them.
She learnt from the Purser that they would not be staying very long in Gibraltar, but would be leaving in the afternoon.
She was afraid that David would get off at luncheon time or perhaps earlier and she would miss him altogether.
‘I wonder where he could possibly be?’ she asked herself, but could find no answer to her question.
Then just as the ship seemed to be on the verge of leaving and the gangways were being pulled up, she saw with a thrill in her heart that David was coming aboard.
It was with difficulty that she did not run towards him and throw her arms round him and she told herself that she must behave properly.
It was disgraceful for a young woman to run after a man and she was expected, as her mother had always told her, to behave like a lady.
Therefore she moved a little further along the deck.
She felt her heart leap when he stepped aboard, but he did not go below as she thought he would do.
Instead of which he came towards her.
Despite her effort not to show what she was feeling, as he reached her, Weena heard herself saying,
“I thought you had left without saying goodbye.”
“I only went ashore to cancel the arrangement I had already made,” he replied, “and to buy you a small present. I thought that you deserved one as, although the ship was staying here for a short time, you were not able to explore Gibraltar yourself.”
David handed her a parcel as he spoke.
“A present!” Weena exclaimed, “how very kind of you. Of course I would have loved to have seen Gibraltar properly, but Ivor did not want to go ashore and I was too nervous to go alone.”
“I would have taken you,” David said, “but I had a great number of matters to see to, so I left the ship very early.”
He paused before he added,
“Now open your present and see if it pleases you.”
Weena then undid the wrapping which was not very strong.
She found that he had given her one of the beautiful Chinese shawls she had heard were obtainable in Gibraltar.
It was embroidered with pink and blue flowers and she thought that it was the loveliest shawl she had ever seen.
“Is it really for me?” she asked, “how very kind of you, David. Thank you, thank you a thousand times!”
“I thought you would like it. It will remind you of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean and, of course, how we met each other in Greece.”
“It’s absolutely lovely!” she cried, touching the silk roses with her fingers. “How could you be so generous?”
“You should always have a souvenir of every place you visit,” David told her. “Maybe one day you will come back and see the monkeys and, of course, the shops which are filled with attractive objects from China.”
“I don’t know how to thank you,” Weena sighed.
“I think you will need it tonight and every night because, as we sail nearer to England, then it will become colder. So it is a practical as well as a pretty present.”
“Of course it is and easily the prettiest one I have ever had. I have read about the beautiful embroidery that comes from China, which no one except the Chinese can work so well or so expertly.”
”That is right,” David agreed. “Now I will tell you a little more about China. It is one of the countries that I visited two years ago.”
They sat down in their usual place in the helm.
As the ship began to move slowly out of the Port of Gibraltar, Weena held the beautiful shawl on her lap and listened intently to everything that David had to tell her.
*
They met there again the next day and then the sea became very rough and the ship was tossed from wave to wave like a feather duster.
It was just impossible for Weena to leave her cabin. She wanted to do so, but Ivor was firm about it.
“You don’t want to break your leg just as we are arriving in London,” he admonished her. “There is nothing more dangerous than walking about when the sea is really rough. You are to stay here and I will fetch any books you want.”
He paused for a moment before he added,
“I want you to look really beautiful when we arrive at London and not be hobbling about on one leg!”
Because she had to obey him, Weena tried to do so with a smile.
She felt she was missing something very precious in not being able to talk more with David and not to be able to show him how becoming his Chinese shawl was on her.
The ship called briefly at Lisbon, but there was no time to go ashore and explore the City.
Later it seemed as if the time they spent pitching and tossing in the storm was endless.
She reckoned that there would only be two days after the sea became calmer for her to leave her cabin and find David.
She wondered if she should write him a short note.
Then she decided that the least she could do was to send him a letter of thanks for the wonderful present he had given her.
Because she thought it was correct to only write a very conventional letter to someone she hardly knew, she merely thanked him for the marvellous present.
She said how sorry she was that she could not wear it at the moment because the sea was too rough for her to leave her cabin.
It was only when she had finished the letter and signed her name did she put as a PS,
“I am wrapping your present round my shoulders and telling myself a Fairy story about it!”
She thought that he would understand and not think that she was too pushy or trying to obtain another present from him.
Then the ship was pitching and tossing violently, so that it was impossible for her to even get out of her bed.
When finally the sea did calm and they reached the English Channel, she climbed out of bed and hurried up on deck.
It was a day with little sunshine and everything was damp because it had rained during the night.
And she hoped, however, that she would see David waiting for her somewhere near the helm.
But no one was there.
When she went back into the ship he was not, as she hoped, in the library or in the Saloon.
Nor was there any sign, and she was very glad, of the unpleasant man who had tried to kiss her.
She then learnt that Ivor had made new friends at the bridge table.
Finally, because she wanted to see David so much and also because there was still no sign of him and she was afraid that he might be ill, she went to call on the Purser.
“Is a gentleman by the name of David Hart still on the ship?” she enquired.
The Purser looked down at the papers he had beside him.
“Hart? Hart?” he asked himself beneath his breath. “Yes, here we are, that gentleman left the ship at Lisbon. I ought to have remembered as he was the only passenger who left us at that Port.”
Weena gave a deep sigh.
He had gone and she had not said goodbye to him.
At least he had her letter saying how grateful she was, but she wanted to see him in the flesh.
And to talk to him as they had before about the wonderful places he had visited which she was sure now she would never see.
“We will be in Port the day after tomorrow,” her brother said that evening, “and then we will really start our adventure.”
“Yes, of course,” Weena replied unenthusiastically.
She wondered why she did not feel as thrilled about it all as she had before.
The weather was warmer and the sun was shining brightly as they steamed up the Channel and into the North Sea before they found the opening into the Thames.
Weena realised that her brother was becoming more excited with every hour that passed.
“We have had a major stroke of luck,” he told her the night before they arrived.
“What is that, Ivor?” she asked.
“I found that one of the men on the ship is an agent for houses to be sold or rented in London.”
“Is that what we are going to do?” Weena enquired.
“Yes, of course. I have told you before that I intend for us to descend on London as rich and important people and naturally we have no wish to go round begging to be put up.”
He spoke quite crossly and Weena said,
“I am sorry but you did not tell me exactly where we will be staying in London and I did not want to worry you by asking silly questions.”
“It’s not a silly question but a sensible one,” her brother answered. “I think this man has the very thing we want.”
“What is that?” she asked.
“He told me that he has on his list of houses to be rented or sold, one in Park Lane which is, of course, one of the most prestigious streets in London.”
Weena was listening to him, but she did not like to ask questions.
Then her brother went on,
“It overlooks Hyde Park and it is very unusual for any of the houses to be empty. The one he has available is in bad disrepair but, because it needs a great deal of money spent on it, the rent is cheap. But it still makes anyone who is living in it of Social significance.”
“Can we afford the rent for it?” Weena asked.
“We can afford it and it will make us noticed which is the right way to start. Besides which, as you well know, I have the list of Prince Feodor’s friends to write to, to tell them how eager we are to meet them.”
“They might easily think us rather pushy,” Weena commented.
“Not the way I will word it,” her brother replied. “With our titles and an excellent address to introduce us, we will soon be riding high in English Society.”
He spoke with such enthusiasm in his voice and in such a positive manner that Weena could only hope that he was not exaggerating the situation.
And that he was in fact doing the right thing rather than playing a game of pretence or what her mother would have thought to be a series of lies.
Yet what was the alternative?
They had no home to go back to.
Maybe already many of their friends were suffering in the same way as they had suffered.
Rescued by Love Page 7
