17. Fragrant Flower - The Eternal Collection

Barbara Cartland

Description

In the loveless household of General Sir Frederick and Lady Emily Osmund and their empty-headed twin daughters, begrudgingly adopted niece Azalea is little more than a wallflower. And all because her kind, heroic and beloved father died in a manner they wrongly consider scandalous – and because her mother was Russian! ‘You must pay the price of your father’s sins and what happened in India you will take to your grave with sealed lips’, her uncle says, as if to seal her fate.When the General is posted to Hong Kong, Azalea is thrilled but there, as always, she is cast aside and abused. Only the handsome, dashing but imperious Lord Sheldon shows any interest in her – until to her aunt and uncle’s disgust she’s befriended by a kind Chinese family. But her joy at learning of their culture and customs is short-lived. Kidnapped by pirates, she faces death and worse. Is there any hope now that she’ll find true love and a life of her own ? "Barbara Cartland was the world’s most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages.As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery.She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation.Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world.She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author.Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed.Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone’s life."

Sujets

• Downton Abbey
• Mills & Boon
• Thomas Hardy
• Jane Austen
• Harlequin

Informations

• Publié par: M-Y Books
• Date de parution: 14 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781782130673
• Langue: English

Extrait

Author’s Note
The controversy over the Regimental Band was a burning problem in Hong Kong in 1880. The
descriptions of the poisoning of the bread and the way the thieves used the storm-water drains are
authentic.
An exhaustive report on the origin and characteristics of Chinese slavery and domestic servitude
in Hong Kong was reviewed in a debate in the House of Lords on June 21st, 1880.
It was stated that the Attorney General had been wrong in his exposition of the law, but that, on
the other hand, the Chief Justice had rushed into wild exaggerations.
Sir John Pope-Hennessy was the first Governor of Hong Kong who treated the Chinese as
partners. He took the first steps to translate into reality the ideal of non-discrimination between the
races which had appeared on the Governor’s instructions in 1886 and in British Colonial Policy much
earlier.
In this enlightened policy he was in advance of his time but he was, however, a poor
administrator and an impossible man to work with. He quarrelled with all his officials and was
distrusted by the Colonial Office.
He left Hong Kong in March, 1882 for the Governorship of Mauritius where again he aroused
intense hostility. He had the right ideas but went about them in the wrong way.
This book is dedicated to my friends in Hong Kong, and especially to George Wright Nooth, for
many years Deputy Chief of Police, who showed me the New Territories and took me to the Red
Chinese border.
To the Mandarin Hotel, which in my opinion is not only the most glamorous in the world but
also has the best service, and to their sweet, delightful Assistant to the General Manager, Miss
KaiYin Lo, who introduced me to her charming family and the superlative Chinese food one finds only in
a private house.“Fragrant Flower” - 1880
“There, Miss Azalea, I’ve finished the Master’s sandwiches and now I’ll see if I can find Burrows to
take them along to him.”
“Do not worry, Mrs. Burrows,” Azalea replied. “I will take them. Sit down and rest your legs.”
“I don’t mind telling you, Miss Azalea, my legs feels as if they don’t belong to me and me back’s
broken in two places.”
“Do sit down!” Azalea begged. “It has been too much for you!”
That, she knew, was the truth, but it would have been useless to tell her aunt so.
It seemed to Azalea real cruelty to have made an aged couple like the Burrows undertake a party
that her uncle, General Sir Frederick Osmund, and his wife were giving before they left England.
The Burrows were now very old and had served the General’s father until his death. Then they
had lived in the house in Hampstead as caretakers, and Azalea was sure they had not expected to be
required to go on working at their age.
But the General, with his wife, twin daughters and his niece, had moved into Battlesdon House
for two months before leaving for Hong Kong.
Although a number of extra servants had been engaged, it was the Butler, Burrows, who coped
with cheap, untrained footmen in the front of the house, while Mrs. Burrows, who was nearly eighty,
did the cooking.
Used to Indian servants who obeyed their slightest wish and cost very little either in wages or
food, Lady Osmund had made no effort to adjust herself to English conditions. When the General had
been at Camberley it had been easier, because he had soldier-servants who attended to him, and wives
from the married quarters who were only too glad to earn some extra money.
But in London, because Lady Osmund was cheeseparing when it came to wages, they could
engage only the youngest and most inexperienced girls who, as Mrs. Burrows said over and over
again, were more trouble than help.
It had been inevitable, Azalea thought when the party was proposed, that she, who had made out
the lists and sent out the invitations, should be relegated to the kitchen.
“Mrs. Burrows will never manage, Aunt Emily,” she had said to Lady Osmund. “The new kitchen
maid is really half-witted and I think the scullery maid should be in an asylum.”
“The two daily women will come and help with the washing up,” Lady Osmund replied.
“There is all the cooking for the dinner party and for the supper later at the Ball,” Azalea pointed
out.
There was a pause. Then, with an unpleasant look in her eyes which Azalea knew only too well,
Lady Osmund said,
“As you are so anxious about Mrs. Burrows, I am sure you would wish to help her, Azalea.”
After a short silence Azalea asked in a small voice,
“You do not wish me to be – present at the – Ball, Aunt Emily?”
“I consider it quite unnecessary for you to appear on such an occasion,” Lady Osmund replied. “I
thought your uncle had made it clear to you what your position in this house should be, and you will
continue to keep your place, Azalea, after we reach Hong Kong.”
Azalea did not reply, but she was conscious of a sense of shock that her aunt should express her
dislike so forcibly. After two years’ experience she had come to expect the treatment she received, but
it still had the power to hurt her. Nevertheless she bit back the protest which came to her lips for the
simple reason that she had been afraid, or rather terrified, when she learnt of her uncle’s appointment
to Hong Kong, that they would not take her with them.
She longed with a yearning that was inexpressible to be in the East again, to feel the sunshine, to
hear the soft singsong voices, to smell on the air the fragrance of the flowers and spices, dust and
wood smoke – most of all to know that she was no longer shivering from the cold of England.
Hong Kong would not be the same as India, but it was East of Suez, and as such was permeated
in Azalea’s mind with the golden glow of a sunlit Paradise.It seemed more like a century than only two years ago that she had been sent home from India,
stunned into an inarticulate misery at her father’s death and the events which followed it.
She had been so happy with him, looking after him after her mother’s death, acting as hostess for
him in the Army bungalows he was allotted in the various parts of the country in which the Regiment
was stationed.
When they had gone to the North-West Provinces Azalea had been thrilled, even though it
meant her father often had to leave her alone for months on end when he was serving on the Frontier
and there was trouble amongst the tribesmen.
When things were quiet she was able to accompany him. But when, as so often happened,
women were excluded and sent back to a safe base, she was still content because she was with
soldierservants who had served her father and mother for many years.
There were also wives and mothers of other officers in the Regiment ready to take pity on what
they thought was her loneliness.
Azalea did not say so because she was too tactful, but in fact she was never lonely.
She loved India – she loved everything about it, and her days seemed to be full with all she
wanted to learn, the lessons she arranged for herself with various different teachers, and self-imposed
tasks she performed in whichever bungalow she and her father occupied.
She had, of course, met her father’s much older and most distinguished brother, General Sir
Frederick, on various occasions, and she had thought both him and his wife to be stiff and pompous.
It was only later that she was to learn how little they had in common. She found that her uncle’s
character and personality in no way resembled her adored father’s.
Derek Osmund had always been gay and carefree except as far as his Regimental duties were
concerned.
He enjoyed life and he made everyone around him enjoy it too, and yet there was nothing raffish
about his gaiety. He was a great humanitarian, and Azalea could not remember a time when he had
not been concerned with the sufferings of some unfortunate family.
Often when he returned from the parade-ground there would be half-a-dozen Indians waiting
for him, some with cuts and bruises, others with eye complaints, festering sores or a sick baby.
He had little medical training, but his sympathy, his understanding and the manner in which he
laughed at their fears and gave them new hope for the future sent them away happy as no doctor was
able to do.
“He made it all such fun!” Azalea would often remind herself.
It was something her mother had said over and over again in the years when they had all been
together.
“Papa has a holiday,” she would say to Azalea. “Now we can have some fun together! What about
a picnic?”
Then they would all three ride off to picnic beside a river, on the top of a hill, or in some ancient
cave which would turn out to be part of the history of India.
Looking back on her childhood, Azalea would feel there had never been a day when the sun was
not shining, never a night when she had not gone to sleep with a smile on her lips.
Then suddenly, out of the blue, had come disaster!
“How could it happen? Oh, God, how could You let it happen?” Azalea had cried wildly into the
night on the ship which carried her away from India to the cold and what seemed to her the
impenetrable darkness of England. Even now she could hardly believe that it was not part of some