Free Fragrant Flower by Barbara Cartland Page B

that she should take Jam Kin into the Sitting Room so that his mother could go to sleep, Mrs. Chang had been horrified at the idea.
    “Jam Kin disturb Honourable husband,” she said. “Velly important have no noise while work.”
    Azalea privately thought that Mr. Chang was having a quiet rest by himself, but she did know that a Chinese wife was subservient and self-effacing, and that everything appertaining to her husband’s comfort was of more consequence than herself or her children.
    She therefore thought she would take Jam Kin away from the cabin and play with him in the Saloon.
    As they went, moving slowly because it was difficult not to be thrown down by the violence of the ship’s tossing, Azalea noticed all the other children playing noisily in the passage.
    They were running in and out of their cabins shouting, screaming and squabbling with one another.
    She started to talk to them and when they gathered round her she told them a story to which they listened with rapt interest.
    A stewardess came by.
    “I wondered what was keeping everyone so quiet,” she remarked.
    “I am afraid we are rather in the way,” Azalea said. “Is there a room where we could go?”
    Finally the stewardess had decided that Azalea might use the Writing Room in the Second Class, even though it was against the regulations for the Third Class children to encroach upon their betters.
    “You won’t say anything about it, will you, Miss?” the stewardess asked.
    “No, of course not,” Azalea answered and added, “and I hope none of you will mention to my aunt what I am doing.”
    She had said the same to the stewardess on her own deck.
    “Don’t you worry, Miss, we won’t get you into any trouble,” the woman answered. “That ‘Soothing Syrup’ of the Doctor’s keeps her Ladyship so sleepy she wouldn’t worry about you, even if you were up on the bridge with the Captain!”
    “I can assure you that is most unlikely!” Azalea smiled. She could not help wondering about Lord Sheldon.
    She had the feeling that he would not be seasick as everyone else aboard seemed to be.
    Once she had opened the door onto the deck because she felt stifled for want of air, and she had seen him leaning in a sheltered spot watching the waves break over the bow.
    She had gone away quickly. She had no desire to see him again, she told herself, and yet when she thought about it she knew it was not strictly true.
    She could not prevent herself from thinking about him and remembering that he had kissed her.
    “How can I be so foolish?” she wondered when she was lying awake in the narrow bunk in her small cabin. Foolish or not, it was impossible to forget what had happened and the feeling he had aroused in her.
    Besides, she was honest enough to admit he was one of the best-looking and most attractive men she had ever seen in her life.
    There had been many handsome officers in the Regiment and, although she had been too young for them to pay any attention to her, she had noticed how well they rode and how fine they looked when they were on parade.
    Her father had been good-looking and there had been an irresistible glint of admiration in her mother’s eyes when he appeared in full Regimentals or wore his colourful mess jacket.
    “You do look smart, my darling!” Azalea had heard her say once. “There is no one as fascinating as you!”
    “You flatter me!” her father answered, “and you know what I think you look like.”
    He kissed her mother, but when he had gone Azalea heard her sigh as if she was lonely without him.
    ‘Will I ever fall in love?’ Azalea reflected as the Orissa rolled creakingly from side to side.
    Then as she asked herself the question, she remembered her uncle saying, “You will never marry!”
    That had been two years ago and she wondered if he still believed that she was so singularly unattractive that it was unlikely that any man would wish to make her his wife.
    Azalea knew she had altered. She was not beautiful