76. Love is Dangerous - The Eternal Collection

Barbara Cartland

Description

Employed by the beautiful but mean Mrs. Schuster as a lady’s companion on her trop to Morocco, Melina Lindsay is thrilled to at last visit the beautiful land of which her late father had talked with such fondness. But when , jealous of the attention Melina’s beauty and youth attract, Mrs. Schuster peremptorily sacks her, she finds herself her alone and helpless in a strange country . Suddenly, a dashing stranger disguised as an Arab appears on her balcony seeking refuge. And, when Melina hides him from his murderous pursuers, it transpires that he is an English agent on a desperate mission to save a young boy who has been kidnapped by evil subversives and whom they will surely murder. Joining the handsome Bing Ward on his perilous mission, she puts her life in his hands and very soon he will also possess her heart – but only if they survive! "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: 01 août 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781782134398
• Langue: English

Extrait

Chapter 1 1949
"You are both incompetent and impudent!"
Mrs. Schuster rose as she spoke and crossed the room to the writing desk by the window.
"Here is a week’s wages and your hotel room is paid for the next two days."
Melina could not help thinking that Mrs. Schuster was giving a fine theatrical performance. This was not the spontaneous impulse of the moment, but a carefully thought-out preconceived action.
Then, as she took the envelope automatically and felt it heavy with coins to make it exactly the right amount, she knew that whatever she had said or done that particular day the ultimate result would have been the same.
Yet because she was so desperate she had to argue.
"I don’t understand," she said. "I am sorry if you did tell me to be back by two o’clock, but I certainly don’t remember you saying so and, as to bringing you a particular book from the English Library, I’ve never heard you mention it before."
"You don’t listen, that is what’s wrong with you," Mrs. Schuster retorted. "I did tell you to be back at two and I did ask you to bring me Rom Landau’s book on Morocco. However, there is no point in going over this again. It’s only typical of several incidents in the last fortnight and I’m afraid I cannot put up with it any longer. When I brought you here, I was looking for someone who would consider me and my interests."
"Mrs. Schuster, that’s not fair!" Melina broke out. "I have considered you in every possible way. You asked me to come with you to Tangier to drive your car and to do any secretarial work that was required – "
"You can’t say there’s much of that!" Mrs. Schuster interrupted.
"No, not a lot," Melina admitted. "But there have been other things."
She was thinking, although it was hardly worth saying so, that Mrs. Schuster had used her in a great many capacities besides that of secretary-companion. She had acted as lady’s maid for one thing, pressing Mrs. Schuster’s clothes, packing and unpacking for her, carrying parcels up and down stairs and doing dozens of small things that should have been done by the hotel servants.
At the same time, Melina knew, everything had been perfectly all right until Ambrose Wheatley arrived. His appearance had been unexpected, but it had been quite obvious that Mrs. Schuster was not only delighted to see him but found that another woman making the party à trois was not at all to her liking.
Melina had not been so stupid as not to realise that Lileth Schuster wanted Ambrose to herself, and she had been as self-effacing as possible, making excuses to go out at lunchtime to see the museums and slipping away upstairs as soon as dinner was over so as to leave them alone.
That might have worked if Ambrose Wheatley had not shown her such marked attention.
"Let’s drive along by the sea this afternoon," Mrs. Schuster would suggest. "It’s a lovely day and I adore the way you drive, Ambrose dear."
"Of course," he would answer. "And what about Melina? She must come too."
He would smile at Melina and, as he did so, she would see Mrs. Schuster’s eyes darken.
It was annoying enough for her employer that the young man of her choice should call her secretary by her Christian name while she kept very strictly to the formal, ‘Miss Lindsay’. But that he should wish to include her in the party was intolerable and she let Melina know it in no uncertain manner.
‘It’s hopeless,’ Melina thought now, ‘and there’s no point in arguing. The break was inevitable.’
With a little gesture of pride she straightened her shoulders.
"Very well, Mrs. Schuster," she said. "I accept a week’s notice – but – but what about my fare back to England?"
"I cannot remember that we made any arrangements about that when I engaged you," Mrs. Schuster answered coldly.
Melina was so astonished that she could not speak.
"I am afraid that I cannot take any responsibility for you other than to pay you for a week’s work you did not do," Mrs. Schuster went on. "Mr. Wheatley and I are leaving tomorrow for Marrakesh and so, Miss Lindsay, I’m afraid you must look after yourself."
So this was her revenge, Melina thought. She knew well enough what it would mean to the girl to be left alone in Tangier without the money to return home.
She had thought Lileth Schuster to be pretty unscrupulous on several occasions, but now she knew her to be utterly and completely despicable. It was a shoddy and dirty action and one that only a woman of her calibre would attempt.
"You know as well as I do," she said aloud, "that the arrangement was that I should go with you to Tangier for your holiday and go back with you to England."
"I cannot remember saying anything of the sort," Mrs. Schuster replied. "Just as you, Miss Lindsay, cannot remember my instructions to you to return at two o’clock."
"And what do you suggest I do?" Melina said. "Because, quite frankly, I do not have my fare back to England."
Mrs. Schuster shrugged her shoulders.
"I believe the British Consulate can provide for British subjects stranded in such a manner," she said. "But anyway, I am afraid I cannot concern myself with it. Perhaps you can find a job out here. I’m sure some of the rich Moroccans would be only too delighted to employ an attractive English girl!"
There was an unpleasant insinuation in her voice that made Melina long to throw her paltry week’s wages at her feet and then march out of the room. But as she realised that such a dramatic gesture would only hurt herself, she merely walked towards the door, pausing as she opened it to say,
"Goodbye, Mrs. Schuster, and thank you for bringing me to Tangier."
She could not help feeling, as her late employer did not reply, that she had scored points in dignity if nothing else, but that in itself was cold comfort as she took the lift to the top floor where her bedroom was situated.
She had not, as they say, ‘taken to’ Mrs. Schuster at their first interview, but she had wanted, above all else, to go to Tangier.
When she had seen the advertisement in The Times asking for a driver-secretary-companion she had made up her mind that whatever the hardships of the journey she would put up with them just for the joy of seeing the country she had always longed to visit.
Then, having obtained the job after being interviewed by Mrs. Schuster in her luxurious flat in Grosvenor Square, she had thought herself the luckiest person in the world. It was only after they had crossed the Channel and were motoring through France and then Spain that the first doubts began to creep in.
She had learned in the first twenty-four hours of her acquaintance that Mrs. Schuster was exceedingly mean. She always had the best naturally, but Melina, as a matter of course, had also to put up with the worst.
She had the worst room looking out on to the little, hot, airless courtyard or over the kitchens of the hotels. She ate with her employer, but while Mrs. Schuster chose caviar, oysters and every possible expensive dish from the menu, Melina ate the table d’hôte meal and even then Mrs. Schuster tried to bargain a cut price for it.
"It’s nonsense for people to say that the water in France isn’t good," she would say. "The whole idea is fostered by the hoteliers who wish to sell their mineral waters."
It was very likely true, but Melina could not help wondering why her employer did not feel uncomfortable as, having said that at least once on every day of their journey, she ordered herself wine or half a bottle of champagne and the inevitable demi-Evian .
It was quite obvious from the outset that she had to have her pound of flesh where Melina was concerned.
"If s not worth sending these things to the laundry," she would say, producing an armful of underclothes, blouses, gloves, stockings and handkerchiefs. "Just wash them out, there’s a good girl. You can hang them by your window as everything dries so quickly in this wonderful air."
She always spoke of the air and the sunshine as if she had given them as a special present to Melina and expected her to thank her for them.
But Melina had not minded all these things. There was always the excitement of knowing that Morocco lay ahead.
She would dream about it at night, making pictures in her mind of what it would be like, remembering all the illustrations she had seen of Tangier, Marrakesh, the Atlas Mountains and the golden shores of Casablanca. They were names to conjure with, names that seemed to her to glitter almost like diamonds every time she thought of them.
And now, after she had been in Tangier only six days, this had happened. She came out of the lift on the fifth floor and walked down the narrow passage to her room.
The room itself was small and unpretentious and yet it had something that meant more to Melina than the luxurious suite on the first floor occupied by Mrs. Schuster.
It had a balcony! It was small and square between high walls on either side so that she was secluded from the occupiers of the next rooms, but there was a window-box filled with brightly coloured geraniums and over them Melina could see the flat roofs of Tangier, dazzling white against the vivid blue of the sea.
She had never expecte