Read 101. A Call of Love for Free Online Page B

her arm.
    Then he placed one hand over her mouth so that she could not scream again.
    Arthur Watkins had actually been thinking all day of how he could be in touch with what he had decided was the prettiest girl he had ever seen.
    He had always moved in a Society where money was much more important than breeding or education and, because he was so rich, he was used to having any interest he showed in a woman reciprocated.
    Because Aisha had avoided him, she had set him a challenge and a challenge was something that he had never refused or ignored in his busy and successful life.
    In fact, because he was so successful, he had found life sometimes boring. There had not been the excitement of fighting to gain what he desired.
    Usually that had been a woman and she had fallen into his arms before he had actually invited her to do so.
    He did not for a single moment believe he would not overcome Aisha’s fear of him and that he would be triumphant however hard she attempted to resist him.
    That she had deliberately sought the company of Lord Kenington did not deceive him and because she was travelling alone and was clearly of no social consequence, he was sure that Kenington’s interest in her would not last longer than the time they were at sea, if as long as that.
    Arthur Watkins was not quite certain whether, as many women did, she travelled on the P & O Liner alone because it was the easiest way to find a man – one who would spend money on her and make her at the end of the voyage far better off than when it had started.
    It had not struck him for a moment that Aisha was a lady by birth and thus someone who should be avoided by a man like himself.
    ‘She’s playing hard to get,’ he thought, ‘but it’s all part of the game and I don’t give up so readily.’
    He had thought that Lord Kenington, being such an important individual, would soon find her a nuisance and she would then be looking round for another man.
    He supposed that he had perhaps rushed his fences too quickly when he had first met her and, if she was not as experienced as most women travelling on their own were, he might have scared her.
    All the same he was not completely convinced that it was not a clever move on her part.
    However, as the day passed he found himself rather bored.
    He looked round at the rest of the passengers, but he could see no one of any interest to him. There were a few younger women, but they were all with their husbands and children and the rest in First Class were middle-aged.
    They were accompanying their husbands, who were doubtless in trade, back to India for another year or more to pass before they could go home again.
    Arthur Watkins decided that he was not prepared to wait around until Kenington was bored. He would make it clear to Aisha that he would be far more generous in what he gave her than any Statesman would be.
    The difficulty, he thought at dinner, was that for the moment Aisha and Lord Kenington were talking away to each other animatedly and it would be impossible for him to interrupt them.
    Then, as he left the Saloon before they did, he had an idea.
    He had found out earlier in the day that Aisha had changed her cabin and moved to the other side of the ship and he knew those cabins were expensive and he imagined that, by the end of the voyage, she would be wondering how she could pay for it.
    ‘That’s where I come in,’ he told himself, but he was not prepared to wait.
    He was bored and boredom was something Arthur Watkins was not accustomed to endure.
    When he came out from dinner, he walked towards the side of the ship where he knew Aisha’s cabin now was.
    As he did so, he saw that her cabin door was open.
    He stood still and a Stewardess came out and then, leaving the door ajar, she went down the passage.
    Arthur Watkins guessed it was to collect a fresh bottle of water that Aisha would require during the night.
    As the Stewardess disappeared, he slipped into the cabin and looked round for a