101. A Call of Love by Barbara Cartland

life in his hands.
    At the same time Major Warde had a tremendous reputation and was very experienced. He would obviously not take unnecessary risks, especially at a time when he was expecting to welcome his daughter.
    The General came back into the room
    “I am afraid I have no news,” he said, “either good or bad. Your father, Miss Warde, went off on a special mission three weeks ago and we have been expecting to hear from him ever since. It was not a very difficult one and they are confident that he will turn up at any moment.”
    “Thank you for finding that out,” Aisha said. “But what am I to do in the meantime?”
    “One suggestion,” the General replied, “is that you go straight to Simla, because that is where your father will go if he has the information we expect from him.”
    “You mean he will need to report to the Viceroy?” Lord Kenington asked.
    The General nodded.
    “The Viceroy and, as it so happens, one of our Staff Officers, who knows more about this mission than anyone else does, is actually with the Viceroy at this moment.”
    “Then that is where we are going,” Lord Kenington replied. “It will be very easy for me to take Miss Warde with me.”
    “I thought you would say that, my Lord, it certainly saves my having to find someone to chaperone and look after her, which of course she must have.”
    He thought for a moment and then he added,
    “I think it would be best for you and Miss Warde to stay here until nine o’clock this evening when you can then take the night train to Simla. That train is certainly the most comfortable way of going there.”
    “I agree with you,” Lord Kenington replied, who had been on the night-train before. “Of course we will be very grateful for your hospitality until we leave.”
    “Luncheon will be ready in about half-an-hour,” the General said. “In the meantime any luggage you require can be taken up to a bedroom so you can rest afterwards. Or, of course, if you prefer, go sightseeing.”
    “I think we would be happy to stay in the garden if it is not too hot,” Lord Kenington answered. “I would also like a swim.”
    “The swimming pool is there waiting for you,” the General smiled. “I hope Miss Warde will ask for anything she requires from my housekeeper, who I may say is a very reliable woman who has looked after us all for years.”
    Aisha was pleased to find a comfortable bedroom that looked out over the garden.
    When she went down to luncheon, it was to meet a large number of soldiers most of them Majors or Colonels and there were a few distinguished Indians present.
    And she was quickly surrounded by men who were, Lord Kenington noted, overcome by her beauty.
    She certainly looked very lovely and He thought that she would find in India, as he had prophesied, many men who would lose their hearts to her.
    Lord Kenington swam in the afternoon, but, as it was very hot, Aisha just watched him.
    Then they had a short rest after tea before an early dinner at Government House and leaving for the station.
    The station at Calcutta had always seemed to Lord Kenington to be one of the most extraordinary sights in the world.
    It amused him, as it amused Aisha, to see people sleeping on the platform as they waited for a train going the following day. Many of them were accompanied not only by their children but by their animals.
    There was a continual roar of trains coming in and going out and bands that apparently had nowhere else to practise were also on the station.
    British travellers, who seemed rather out of place, shouted at their bearers if they did not get exactly what they wanted the moment they asked for it.
    Even to look round was to see life in a completely different aspect from how it was in England.
    Lord Kenington watched Aisha taking it all in and then he said,
    “I knew this would delight you. The first time I came here it looked like a pantomime I had seen as a child, but more spectacular than anything staged at Drury Lane