She opened the door and let herself out into the passage.
She walked down it and came to the hall. The servant who had shown her in picked up her suitcase.
“The Memsahib will require a taxi?” he enquired.
Karina shook her head and took the suitcase from him.
“I will – walk,” she managed to say, her voice broken with tears.
She made no attempt to wipe them away. It did not seem to matter any more. She walked out into the hot sunshine, past the brilliantly coloured flowers, down the shady drive and onto a road lined with trees.
She had no idea where she was going. She only wanted to get away from Garland. She felt it would break her heart if she had to hear his voice speaking to her again with that tone of contempt.
Every word had been a stab of pain. Every word only twisted her heart the more thoroughly because she loved him so deeply.
The suitcase was heavy and it was very hot.
She walked on. She saw some cars and carriages ahead of her, wondered why they were stationed there and looked up to see a notice, The Taj Mahal.
A sudden flicker of interest aroused her and came like a shaft of light through her misery.
Whatever happened to her, she must see the Taj Mahal before she left India.
She remembered how as a child she had pored over the pictures of it, how she had read about its beauty and thought that perhaps one day she would be able to visit it. Here, to her was the most beautiful building in the world. She would not go without seeing it.
Nobody took any notice of her as she walked up the steps and through a gateway. There were Indians selling postcards and small replicas, there were a few tourists and many visitors from other parts of India.
But no one spoke to her or worried her as she pushed her way through the crowd.
And then quite unexpectedly she saw the Taj Mahal.
It was even more beautiful than she had imagined. Pink and opalescent against the blue sky, it seemed as if it was just about to take off on a magic carpet.
She went down the steps towards it.
There was the long row of cypress trees reflected in the water which, with its fountains, carried the eye towards the perfection of the Taj Mahal itself.
She did not go straight towards it. Instead she turned aside, finding a seat on the green lawn that lay on either side of the cypress trees.
She sat down and stared at the round dome and the exquisite minarets.
‘It was built for love,’ she told herself.
And she knew that it would always remain to her a memory of her own lost love – a love that was unattainable for her as Mumtaz Mahal had been to Shah Jahan who had built this wonder as a memorial to her.
It was so beautiful that the very beauty of it seemed to seep into Karina’s whole being. It was so glorious that she felt herself a part of its beauty and its sorrow.
Then, because she could bear neither its beauty nor her own unhappiness any longer, she began to cry.
She had covered her face with her hands and the tears were trickling through her fingers, when suddenly she heard someone say her name.
“Karina!”
She did not move. She did not even look up.
Then she felt him sit down beside her and his arm go round her shoulders.
“Don’t, Karina. Don’t cry like that.”
“I c-cannot help – it,” she murmured in a sobbing childish voice. “It’s so – so – b-beautiful and he must – have been so – unhappy – as unhappy as – I am.”
“Who?” Garland asked.
She answered,
“He – loved her and – and he lost her.”
Her tears broke out afresh.
Somehow nothing seemed to matter now but her own unhappiness and the sadness of the Taj Mahal.
“Stop crying! Stop!” Garland cried. “I cannot bear it. Karina, don’t cry like that, I beg of you, or you will make me cry too.”
She was so incredulous at what she heard that she opened her eyes and looked up at him, the teardrops glistening on the end of her eyelashes and her mouth quivering with the intensity of her grief.
She saw then that his face very close to hers and realised almost with a sense of shock that she had been talking to him almost without realising who he was.
“Oh, you baby, you child!” he exclaimed. “How could I be unkind to you when I love you so utterly?”
‘It is all a dream,’ Karina thought. ‘He cannot be saying these things. It must be something to do with the magic of the Taj Mahal.’
She was hypnotised or caught up into another world. Perhaps she was dead and she didn’t know it.
“I love you!” Garland asserted again. “You have driven me mad. Do you think I have not been thinking of you and Jim together every moment since I left England? I have tortured myself with visions of him kissing you and being so gay and amusing. And then, when you came here just when I was thinking of you, praising him and telling me how much he has done for you, I lost my temper.”
He smiled as he continued,
“Forgive me, Karina. It was good and brave of you to come all this way to tell me what had happened. I wanted to thank you, but somehow this damned temper of mine always makes me do the wrong thing.”
“Y-you – love me?”
She could hardly say the words and yet they were said and he heard them.
“Of course I love you,” he replied with something of his old arrogance. “I have loved you since I first saw you, since that night on the balcony in Belgrave Square when I tried to find out who you were and nobody could tell me.
“But I know what you think of me,” he added with a rueful smile. “ – The last man on earth whom you would ever marry.”
He gave a deep sigh.
“It’s all right, Karina, I did not mean to worry you. But you looked so pathetic sitting there crying and it all came out before I could stop it.”
“You – love – me!” she repeated.
“Yes, I love you,” he answered. “So much so that if you look at me like that I cannot hold myself responsible for not going on telling you so or from trying to kiss you, Karina, as I kissed you once before.”
“Why – did you not – tell me?” she asked.
“Would it have made any difference?” he replied. “It’s Jim you are fond of, isn’t it?”
She shook her head.
The tears still in her eyes, they seemed to make a rainbow over his head, which also encircled the domes and minarets of the Taj Mahal.
“No – she whispered. “I told Jim that I did not love – him. He knows that – I-I love – y-you.”
She felt Garland stiffen beside her.
She felt him hold his body rigid.
“Say that again,” he commanded. “Say it in case I did not hear it aright. I warn you, Karina, if you are not telling me the truth, you are playing with fire.”
She put her hands out towards him.
“It – it is the – truth. I did not – know it, but I have loved – y-you for a long time. But I-I – thought that you would never love – anybody, least of all – m-me.”
“My darling, my little one! I was waiting for you. That is why I could not love anybody else.”
He pulled her almost roughly towards him and then it seemed as if something broke within him and, in a voice shaken and quite unlike his usual self, he said,
“Be kind to me, Karina. I have never known real love and tenderness and I am afraid of it.”
She had no words to answer this.
She could only put up her little hand and touch the side of his face.
He covered it with his own, kissing her palm passionately, lingeringly, with lips that seemed hungrily possessive.
Then he looked down at her again.
“I have imagined you here,” he sighed. “Imagined you in India ever since I arrived. I thought that perhaps one day I might be able to bring you here as my companion, as my secretary, in some way or another. I
never thought that you would come as my wife.”
“Oh, Garland!”
The words were only a murmur.
“You will marry me, Karina?” he asked. “Now, at once. Why should we wait?”
“There are a – lot of – things to do first,” she replied. “All – that trouble – waiting for you at – home.
“What trouble?” he asked. “Oh yes, of course! Well, I have just heard something that I think solves everything.”
He spoke impatiently, as if it was really of no account and he could hardly waste the time talking about it.
“What have – you – heard?” Karina asked.
“Just after you left me,” he said, “ – oh, Karina, how could you run away like that? – my host came in to say he had heard on the radio that there had been an air disaster to one of the planes travelling from Zurich to London. He thought that I might be interested as there were several important British people aboard. Among them was a man called ‘Eric Cowley’.”
“He was – killed?” Karina enquired.
“They were all killed,” Garland answered. “That only leaves me Felix Mainwaring to deal with.”
There was something in his voice that made Karina say quickly,
“Don’t be – cruel to him. If he cannot hurt you – what does it matter? There has been so much unhappiness – and greed and cruelty around us, don’t add to it.”
“It shall be as you say,” Garland said quite humbly. “Don’t you understand, Karina? I only want to do what you want. If you want me to let him go, I will do so. He can even keep the things he has stolen for Cowley. But he cannot have the pink elephant because you brought it to me. You brought me back my luck, Karina. You have brought yourself, which is all that matters.”
“I cannot – believe it’s – true,” Karina said wonderingly.
She still felt as if she must wake up. She could not really be sitting here with Garland’s arms around her in this beautiful peaceful garden, the Taj Mahal just in front of them. It still seemed to glow like a pearl, but it was no longer sad.
The message it gave her now was one of happiness.
“You are so sweet,” she heard Garland say and she looked up at him.
“Is it really – true?” she asked. “You do – love me? We are – together? This isn’t a – dream?”
“It is a dream we will go on dreaming for the rest of our lives together,” he answered.
She felt his arms tighten about her.
She felt his hand underneath her chin, lifting her face towards his.
Then his lips were on hers, his mouth no longer brutal and rough as it had been before, but gentle, tender and passionate with a new love and a new understanding.
She felt a sudden flame shoot through her body.
She felt as if he drew her like a magnet into his keeping.
“I love you” Garland said triumphantly, “And I will never leave you! You are mine, Karina, mine. Tell me again that you love me. I cannot believe it. I am so afraid of losing you!”
She was trembling, but her face was radiant.
So softly, so that he could hardly hear her, she whispered,
“I love – you – I love – you – with all – my heart.”
She felt him draw her closer still, until they were one, indivisible – one heart, one soul, one love in all Eternity.
OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.
Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love, just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.
The Eternal Collection, classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .
Elizabethan Lover
The Little Pretender
A Ghost in Monte Carlo
A Duel of Hearts
The Saint and the Sinner
The Penniless Peer
The Proud Princess
The Dare-Devil Duke
Diona and a Dalmatian
A Shaft of Sunlight
Lies for Love
Love and Lucia
Love and the Loathsome Leopard
Beauty or Brains
The Temptation of Torilla
The Goddess and the Gaiety Girl
Fragrant Flower
Look Listen and Love
The Duke and the Preacher’s Daughter
A Kiss for the King
The Mysterious Maid-servant
Lucky Logan Finds Love
The Wings of Ecstacy
Mission to Monte Carlo
Revenge of the Heart
The Unbreakable Spell
Never Laugh at Love
Bride to a Brigand
Lucifer and the Angel
Journey to a Star
Solita and the Spies
The Chieftain Without a Heart
No Escape from Love
Dollars for the duke
Pure and Untouched
Secrets
Fire in the Blood
Love, Lies and Marriage
The Ghost who Fell in Love
Hungry for Love
The Wild Cry of Love
The Blue-eyed Witch
The Punishment of a Vixen
The Secret of the Glen
Bride to the King
For All Eternity
King in Love
A Marriage made in Heaven
Who can deny Love?
Riding to the Moon
Wish for Love
Dancing on a Rainbow
Gypsy Magic
Love in the Clouds
Count the Stars
White Lilac
Too Precious to Lose
The Devil Defeated
An Angel Runs Away
The Duchess Disappeared
The Pretty Horse-breakers
The Prisoner of Love
Ola and the Sea Wolf
The Castle made for Love
A Heart is Stolen
The Love Pirate
As Eagles Fly
The Magic of Love
Love Leaves at Midnight
A Witch’s Spell
Love Comes West
The Impetuous Duchess
A Tangled Web
Love lifts the Curse
Saved By A Saint
Love is Dangerous
The Poor Governess
The Peril and the Prince
A Very Unusual Wife
Say Yes Samantha
Punished with love
A Royal Rebuke
The Husband Hunters
Signpost To Love
Love Forbidden
Gift Of the Gods
The Outrageous Lady
The Slaves Of Love
The Disgraceful Duke
The Unwanted Wedding
Lord Ravenscar’s Revenge
From Hate to Love
A Very Naughty Angel
The Innocent Imposter
A Rebel Princess
Haunted
Passions In The Sand
Little White Doves of Love
A Portrait of Love
The Enchanted Waltz
Alone and Afraid
The Call of the Highlands
The Glittering Lights
An Angel in Hell
Only a Dream
A Nightingale Sang
Pride and the Poor Princess
Stars in my Heart
The Fire of Love
A Dream from the Night
Sweet Enchantress
The Kiss of the Devil
Fascination in France
Love Runs In
Lost Enchantment
Love is Innocent
The Love Trap
No Darkness for Love
Kiss from a Stranger
The Flame Is Love
A Touch of Love
The Dangerous Dandy
In Love In Lucca
The Karma Of Love
Magic For The Heart
Paradise Found
Only Love
A Duel with Destiny
The Heart of the Clan
The Ruthless Rake
Revenge is Sweet
Fire on the Snow
A Revolution of Love
Love at the Helm
Listen to Love
Love Casts out Fear
The Devilish Deception
Riding in the Sky
The Wonderful Dream
This Time it’s Love
The River of Love
A Gentleman in Love
The Island of Love
Miracle for a Madonna
The Storms of Love
The Prince and the Pekingese
The Golden Cage
Theresa and a Tiger
The Goddess of Love
Alone in Paris
The Earl Rings a Belle
The Runaway Heart
From Hell to Heaven
THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND
Barbara Cartland, who sadly died in May 2000 at the grand age of ninety eight, remains one of the world’s most famous romantic novelists. With worldwide sales of over one billion, her outstanding 723 books have been translated into thirty six different languages, to be enjoyed by readers of romance globally.
Writing her first book ‘Jigsaw’ at the age of 21, Barbara became an immediate bestseller. Building upon this initial success, she wrote continuously throughout her life, producing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years. In addition to Barbara Cartland’s legion of fans in the UK and across Europe, her books have always been immensely popular in the USA. In 1976 she achieved the unprecedented feat of having books at numbers 1 & 2 in the prestigious B. Dalton Bookseller bestsellers list.
Although she is often referred to as the ‘Queen of Romance’, Barbara Cartland also wrote several historical biographies, six autobiographies and numerous theatrical plays as well as books on life, love, health and cookery. Becoming one of Britain’s most popular media personalities and dressed in her trademark pink, Barbara spoke on radio and television about social and political issues, as well as making many public appearances.
In 1991 she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to literature and her work for humanitarian and charitable causes.