Read 101. A Call of Love for Free Online

remarked. “I do hope your library will last me the whole voyage.”
    “My library here is rather limited by lack of space. Therefore I propose that you don’t gobble up my books, but read them slowly, otherwise they will not last.”
    Aisha laughed.
    “It’s impossible to read slowly when one is reading something so exciting that one feels one must reach the end to see what happens.”
    “I have felt like that myself, but I have learnt that if I am to absorb every word I have to do so fairly slowly. Otherwise my poor brain cannot catch up.”
    “I don’t think we need worry about your brain, my Lord. I know you are very very clever and will take back from India exactly the information you have come to find.”
    “I can do so only if your father helps me and others who are working in the same field as he is.”
    “I have met some of them, but they would not talk to me in the same way as you and I are talking now.”
    “Why not?” Lord Kenington asked.
    “Because Papa would not allow it,” Aisha replied. “He has said to me, ‘I will not have you mixed up in this. Therefore you must not show any interest in the work of the men you meet with me and on no account are you to question them in any way that might make them think that you and I have discussed them behind their backs’.”
    “I think your father is very wise. As he holds his life in his hands, the least talk there is the better.”
    “That is the sort of thing I have been told ever since I was small,” Aisha said. “But I am anxious, as you are, to know what is happening and whether those in The Great Game are being as successful as they want to be.”
    “I think it is more than likely that they are. I can only beg you to be kind and help me if you can without being indiscreet. I am sure your father would not mind our being frank with each other.”
    “I am not so sure about that, but, because you have been so kind to me, I must repay my debt. I promise that if I think of anything that might be of assistance to you, I will tell you about it, my Lord.”
    “Thank you, thank you very much indeed. And as I have already said I am greatly looking forward to meeting your father.”
    *
    The day seemed to pass quickly.
    When it began to grow dark, they went to their own cabins to read.
    As she lay on her bunk, propped up against the pillows, Aisha thought just how lucky she was to have met Lord Kenington.
    She now felt safe, as she would never have been able to do if she had been alone.
    ‘He is now next door,’ she thought, ‘and however much Mr. Watkins wants me, he will be far too frightened of offending Lord Kenington to knock on my door.’
    Before she went down to dinner, she put on one of the prettiest dresses she possessed.
    She had not meant to take it out of her trunk until she reached Calcutta, but, because Lord Kenington was so distinguished, she wanted to look her best for him.
    She could not help hoping that at the various ports of call on the way to Calcutta, none of his friends would come aboard.
    ‘If he has someone else to talk to, he will not want to talk to me,’ she told herself modestly.
    She felt glad that at the moment there was no one of any particular interest amongst the passengers.
    At dinner Lord Kenington amused her by telling her of the Cities he had visited recently and the differences he had found in the characteristics of different races.
    “The Germans are aggressive,” he said, “but I have to say that for amusement and charm it is impossible to beat the French.”
    “You are so very lucky to have been to so many different Capitals in Europe,” Aisha said. I have longed to explore the Far East and I would love to go to China and Japan.”
    “Japan is extremely beautiful and I think you would appreciate, as I did, their Monasteries and the amazing intelligence of their menfolk.”
    “While the Japanese women are so pretty and very feminine.”
    Lord Kenington smiled.
    “That is true. They set themselves