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

hysterics about it, is not going to make him any more anxious to give up a day’s hunting or shooting, to dance attendance on her!”
    Lydia sat down on a chair beside the desk.
    “Are you saying, Papa, that Heloise has not seen the Earl since she came home from London?’
    “No, she has not! I told you, he is busy!” Sir Robert snapped.
    Lydia could understand how annoying it must be for her sister, having returned especially to see the Earl to find there was nobody there to amuse her.
    If she had stayed in London there would always have been admirers who could be invited to dinner or hostesses who would have been delighted to entertain her as the fiancée of the Earl of Royston.
    She knew how difficult Heloise could be in such circumstances, and taking her cape and gloves from the chair she said:
    “I will go and talk to Heloise, Papa. I presume she will see the Earl tonight as you are dining with the Marquess before the Ball?”
    “Of course she will see him!” Sir Robert said. “And you had better tell her not to make a scene. Royston will not stand for any woman ranting at him—I am quite certain of that!”
    Lydia was certain of it too.
    She went upstairs to her sister’s bedroom and found her resting.
    She was looking exquisitely beautiful with her hair which had been washed earlier in the day falling over her shoulders, and wearing a negligee.
    She was lying on a chaise longue in front of the fire, an ermine rug over her legs.
    “So you are back!” she said in the same aggressive tone that her father had used. “I wasted my time coming home. I might just as well have stayed in London with you.”
    “You would have found it very tiring,” Lydia replied. “I must have had nearly a hundred fittings on your behalf, but the gowns are lovely!”
    “What is the point of having lovely gowns with nobody to admire them?” Heloise pouted.
    “I have brought the white lace with me and it looks absolutely wonderful!” Lydia said. “If you wear your mother’s diamond necklace with it you will undoubtedly be the best dressed and loveliest woman in the Ball room!”
    “I shall be very angry if I am anything else!” Heloise replied sulkily.
    Lydia looked at the clock.
    “You should have your bath in another hour-and-a-half,” she said. “I will just go and take off my bonnet and be ready to do your hair.”
    As she walked along to her own bedroom she thought she was very tired and what she would really like was a cup of tea.
    She found one of the housemaids unpacking her trunk and asked her to order it from the kitchen.
    She then sat down in front of her mirror, thinking it was a good thing that she was not going to the Ball tonight.
    “I would be much too tired to enjoy myself,” she told her reflection.
    Then she wondered if that was true.
    She was tired of being fitted for gowns she would never wear, tired of trying to keep her sister in a good mood.
    If only she could be allowed just for once to be herself, to be an individual, who was not just a shadow in her sister’s life, she was sure she could enjoy herself.
    Then almost as if the sun was shining through the window or the lights all suddenly came on at once, she remembered she was going to travel across the world to an exotic land.
    And she would be accompanying, whether he was aware of it or not, the Earl of Royston.
    The following day Heloise when she awoke was all smiles.
    It was not difficult for Lydia to know that the Earl had been charming and very apologetic for being so neglectful.
    “He said he had thought that I was going to be in London until yesterday,” Heloise said, “and as he was going away so soon he had planned every minute of his time and would have found it difficult to make so many cancellations, even though he was longing to see me.”
    Lydia smiled to herself and thought the Earl had certainly been very tactful.
    Her father too told her that the Ball had been a great success.
    “Your sister outshone everybody!” he said