The Island of Love (Camfield Series No. 15) Read Online Free Page A

repeated too often for Sir Robert not to become suspicious.
    “I do not want a lot of excuses,” he had said finally. “You will go to see your mother every day, and that is an order!”
    “Very well, Papa,” Heloise agreed demurely. When he had gone from the room she had stamped her foot and said petulantly to Lydia:
    “What a bore Papa is! I cannot think why he does not leave me alone! He must realise if I were ill I would not want to see him.”
    “But he would want to see you, Heloise, because he loves you,” Lydia said. “And I am sure your mother feels neglected, and that is unkind of you.”
    “I cannot help it,” Heloise replied crossly. “You go and see her!”
    “You are her daughter, and she loves you,” Lydia protested.
    “Well, I do not love her!” Heloise snapped. “People who are ill make me feel sick! I hate illness! I want to enjoy myself, and if Mama dies, that will stop me from doing so.”
    She ran out of the room with a defiant gesture, slamming the door behind her.
    Lydia knew that her Stepmother was very hurt by her daughter’s neglect, but although she tried to make Heloise more sympathetic she had no success.
    Now as her thoughts went back to the Earl she wondered if he was like Heloise and had never really cared for anybody.
    Was he without a heart? Was that the reason why he had broken so many and apparently been unaffected by the suffering of his victims?
    ‘If that is true, then they are well suited to each other!’ she thought.
    At the same time, as she waited at the top of the stairs in order to watch the Earl leave, she hoped the servants were not aware of what she was doing.
    Her father saw him to the front door, but Heloise remained behind in the Drawing-Room.
    As they walked across the Hall and the Earl took his hat and gloves from the Butler, Sir Robert said: “We will see you tomorrow, Royston, when we can go into further details of the trip. It certainly sounds extremely interesting.”
    “I hope you will think so,” the Earl replied. “By the way, I have a horse I would like to show you, a most amazing animal...”
    Their voices died away as they walked down the steps to where the Earl’s Chaise was waiting.
    Lydia wondered what her father had meant about a ‘trip.’
    Because she was curious she ran down the stairs into the Drawing-Room.
    Heloise was standing at the window looking out into the garden.
    She turned as Lydia came into the room and threw out her arms.
    “I am engaged! I am engaged!” she cried. “And we are to be married, but not until we return from some extraordinary place where the Earl insists on taking me.”
    “Where is that?” Lydia asked as she walked towards her.
    “Honolulu!” Heloise answered. “And I have not the slightest idea where it is!”
    chapter two
    Lydia could only stare at her sister in astonishment.
    Then as her father came into the room she remembered that Honolulu was the capital of Hawaii—a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean.
    She thought Heloise must have got it wrong, for it seemed impossible that the Earl of all people should want to go to such a strange, far-away part of the world.
    But her father was able to explain the situation to them.
    Two years previously King Kalakaua, he told them, had ascended the throne of Hawaii, and because he had a flourish and style which made him very different from all the previous Kings, he was determined to fashion his Kingship on the traditions of Western Monarchy.
    He immediately began building himself a grand Palace and also planned a trip round the world which would make him the first Monarch to circumnavigate the globe.
    “He organised gala horse-races, gave grand Balls and old-style Hawaiian feasts,” Sir Robert related, “and entertained his many friends and visitors most extravagantly at the tax-payers’ expense.”
    Lydia laughed.
    “That is nothing new, Papa, where Monarchs are concerned!”
    “It certainly earned the King the reputation of being Hawaii’s