Danger in the Desert

CHAPTER ONE 1870-1

CHAPTER ONE

1870The Earl of Hillingwood climbed out of his carriage outside White’s Club in St. James’s Street and walked up the steps.

The Club porter was standing by the door and he bowed politely and greeted him,

“Good morning, your Lordship, it’s very nice to see you back at the Club.”

“I am very delighted to be here, Jasper,” the Earl replied. “London seems at its best this time of the year.”

He did not wait for the porter to say anything more, but walked straight into the coffee room.

As it was fairly early in the day, there were only a few members sitting around talking to each other.

The Earl walked almost to the far end of the room where he found his habitual seat and then settled himself comfortably into it.

He had not been there for more than a few minutes when he was joined by his old friend, Lord Waverstone, who called out as he reached him,

“You are always over-punctual, Edward, and now you will tell me I am late!”

The Earl laughed and countered,

“No, but, as you say, I am somewhat over-punctual and you are exactly on time!”

“I was wondering when I heard from you,” Lord Waverstone said, “why you were coming to London when I am sure that your garden has never looked more beautiful in the spring and your horses are doubtless running faster than ever.”

The Earl laughed again.

“I want to see you, Arthur” he began slowly, “on a matter that deeply concerns me and I think also concerns you.”

Lord Waverstone looked surprised.

But he merely settled down in a seat next to his friend and signalled to a Steward.

When the man reached him, he ordered a large pot of coffee.

“You are very abstemious,” the Earl remarked. “Is this a new departure?”

“No, it is only a precaution,” his friend replied. “I have to go to a large luncheon party today and if I start drinking now I will undoubtedly feel ill this evening, when I have yet another party to attend.”

The Earl smiled.

“You have always been the same, but I am quite certain that, if you are making a speech at both events, you will undoubtedly have to pay for what you eat and what you drink.”

“That unfortunately is the truth,” Lord Waverstone replied. “The trouble is that people today are too lazy to find other performers, so I am continually in demand!”

“Now you are being over-modest,” the Earl chided. “You know as well as I do that no one speaks better than you in the House of Lords. As Queen Victoria said to me the other day, you have a presence which in her opinion most of the young men lack.”

“I am delighted to accept the compliment. Now tell me, Edward, why you have asked me here to meet you? I have a feeling, although I am not sure, that something may well be wrong.”

“Not wrong, but I have been considering for a long time, as I think you know, that it is absolutely essential that Royden, my one and only son and heir, should get married. So I have decided that you are the only person who can help me.”

Lord Waverstone looked at him in bewilderment.

But he then merely asked of his old friend,

“In what way?”

As if he had not spoken, the Earl went on,

“Royden is now twenty-eight and, as I have pointed out continually, it is time he married and settled down and produced an heir, in fact several of them.”

Lord Waverstone had heard this before.

“I know your feelings on this matter,” he replied, “but Royden is a great success in the Social world and his affaires-de-coeur seldom last very long as he much prefers to move from beauty to beauty as if he was a honeybee.”

He paused for a moment before he continued,

“The husbands go fishing or look the other way and Royden can then add another triumph to his considerable collection!”

There was a very distinct touch of humour in Lord Waverstone’s voice as he spoke.

But the Earl did not even smile.

He only parried,

“Let me be frank with you, Arthur, I am not as well as I used to be and I am determined to make sure that my Family Tree does not end abruptly as it might easily do.”

“My dear Edward, I am sure that you are talking nonsense,” Lord Waverstone said. “You are a very healthy man and I can see no reason why you should not live for another twenty years at least.”

The Earl shook his head.

“It’s not as easy as that, I only wish it was. I have been told by the doctors to go steady and as you can guess that means no riding. I will also have to give up my yearly trips abroad which I always find so enjoyable.”

“I am deeply sorry to hear that,” Lord Waverstone answered, “I know how much you enjoy going to France and Switzerland. And I always thought that you came back better for the change of air and even a change of friends.”

“I have no friend I can depend on in the same way as I depend on you” the Earl replied. “Therefore, Arthur, you must help me because what I want more than anything else concerns you as much as it concerns me.”

Lord Waverstone raised one eyebrow.

But instead of asking questions, he suggested,

“Go on, Edward. You know I am listening.”

For a moment there was silence.

And then the Earl said,

“I have begged Royden, almost on bended knee, to marry, but he merely tells me that there is plenty of time for that in the future and he finds young women boring, in fact he dislikes the whole idea of being married.”

As Lord Waverstone knew how handsome Royden was and how easily so many beauties fell into his arms, he could understand why he had no wish to be hurried up the aisle with a young girl.

In a short time he might find that she had nothing new to offer him and would become dull and dreary in his eyes.

However, it was not the sort of comment he could make to his friend.

So he merely replied,

“I am very sorry to hear that you are not as strong as you would like to be, Edward, but take life easy and you will doubtless live to be a centenarian.”

“I am serious, Arthur, in what I am about to say,” the Earl said sharply. “Therefore I want you to use your brain to help me, as I would help you if you needed it in any emergency.”

“Of course I will help you, Edward, if that is what you want, but I doubt if Royden will listen to me any more than he will listen to you. He is enjoying life and who can blame him? It is what we would certainly have done at his age and you and I cannot deny that that is the truth.”

Even as he spoke, he felt that he was being slightly tactless.

His friend’s wife, who, in his opinion, had been a somewhat dull woman, had died four years ago.

She had considerably disappointed her husband in that she was only able to give him one child and that was Royden.

It was rather strange that the two men, who were close neighbours, as their estates bordered each other, had both suffered in the same way over their marriages.

The Earl had married a girl who had seemed, at the time, an exceedingly good choice.

After they were married and had produced the one precious son, she had found it impossible to have another child. She had gone from doctor to doctor, but they could only tell her that there was nothing they could do to help her.

Because he was so close friend of the Earl’s and they were neighbours in the country, he knew, as no one else knew, how much the Earl suffered at the thought of his illustrious family, who had played such an important part in the history of England for the last three centuries, losing their immense influence through lack of an heir.

For the past ten years the present Earl had always been in attendance on the Queen at Windsor Castle.

And only when he had retired to the country did he begin to worry about his son’s marriage.

He had become almost obsessed by the idea that Royden must marry and have a large number of children in case the name died out and the huge ancestral home was empty.

Lord Waverstone drank a little more of his coffee before he observed,

“I cannot believe, Edward, that you have come up from the country especially to tell me what I know already. What other news have you to surprise me with?”

“I have thought it over for some time and I have come to the conclusion, Arthur, that there is only one way to make Royden see any sense. And that is to force him, however unpleasant it may be for him, into marriage.”

Lord Waverstone sighed.

He had heard this before and he was quite certain that Royden would fight every inch of the way to remain single and unattached.

“I have therefore decided,” the Earl said, speaking slowly and distinctly, “that the only possibility of making Royden see sense is to make him marry your daughter.”

Lord Waverstone jumped and for a brief moment his coffee was in danger of being spilt.

As he put it down, he exclaimed,

“Marry Malva! My dear Edward, I am sure it’s the last thing Royden would ever want to do and I am almost certain that Malva would feel the same about him.”

He hesitated for a moment before he added,

“After all she is only twenty. Because my wife was ill for so long she has not really been a debutante in the full meaning of the word. And she has only come to London occasionally instead of having a Season here as she should do.”

“But now poor Edith is dead,” the Earl said, “Malva will undoubtedly come to London and a great number of young men will find her charming and beautiful. Then, as far as I am concerned, she will be lost to both me and my son.”

It suddenly struck Lord Waverstone for the first time that it would be, as far as he was concerned, a perfect marriage if Malva would agree to it.

The two estates would join each other and the estate that had been in the Earl’s family for so many generations was treble the size of Lord Waverstone’s.

Also Hillingwood Towers, which had been in the possession of the family since the reign of Queen Elizabeth was not only magnificent but contained some of the most famous pictures to be seen anywhere in the country.

He could imagine that most girls would jump at the opportunity of being married to Royden however difficult he might be at times.

But Malva was different from other young women.

She had already said to her father that she had no intention of getting married quickly as most of her friends were anxious to do.

She was perfectly content to be at home with him, especially when she could ride his horses and that would please her far more than dancing at endless London parties or trotting up and down Rotten Row in some fashionable and expensive outfit.

Because he so enjoyed the company of his daughter when he was at home and, because she had been so very attentive to her mother until she died, Lord Waverstone had not concerned himself greatly with the thought of his daughter marrying or if she would make a good choice when it came to the point.

Now he could not help thinking that nothing could be so satisfactory as the Royden marrying Malva.

They could then join the two estates together and they would be the most envied couple in the whole of the Social world.

Although Lord Waverstone was well off and had no reason to worry, he was not in the same field as his friend, the Earl of Hillingwood.

He was undoubtedly one of the richest men in the country and his horses, which won so many classic races, were superb.

Yet he had in fact never thought for one moment that his friend’s son, who was the most sought after and educated young man in the whole of London, should marry his daughter.

It was not only the difference in their ages that had blinded him to the fact of how suitable such a marriage could be.

It was also because he had always thought of Malva as a child and he had not really ever considered her to be of marriageable age.