Walking to Wonderland E-Book

Barbara Cartland

• Herausgeber: Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: The Eternal Collection
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 201

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Handsome, distinguished and decidedly dashing, Theo, the Duke of Eaglefield, has the world, and most of its women, at his feet. But he takes all this attention for granted and is becoming tired and bored by it all. In fact his friend, Harry Hampton, tells him that he has no concept of the challenges and complexities faced by the ordinary man and that the people he encounters see only his riches and rank rather than the man himself. Protesting that this is untrue, Theo accepts Harry's challenge to walk the fifty miles from Brighton to his house, Eagle Hall, in Berkshire incognito and mixing with commoners along the way. He stands to lose his finest pair of horses should he fail and so he sets forth, leaving behind the glamour of Brighton's Beau Monde. The second morning of his pilgrimage, Theo comes across a beautiful young girl, Alysia, standing precariously at the edge of a deep pool next to a weir. She seems to be praying and, instinctively, he knows that she is about to plunge to her death in the river. After leading her to safety he hears all about her cruel and grasping stepfather who murdered her mother and who is now bent on seizing her sizeable inheritance by marrying her off to his friend, Lord Gosforde with whom he will share the spoils. Theo is transfixed by Alysia, thinking it quite 'impossible for anyone to be so beautiful'. Almost instantly he finds himself falling in love with this 'very young angel who has fallen out of Heaven by mistake' and he decides to take her on his journey on foot. But can he keep Alysia away from her murderous stepfather and be able to reach the safety of Eagle Hall unscathed?

Leseprobe

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

A Wish Comes True

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

Love in the Ruins

Crowned with Love

Love is a Maze

Hidden by Love

Love is the Key

A Miracle in Music

The Race for Love

Call of the Heart

The Curse of the Clan

Saved by Love

The Tears of Love

Winged Magic

Born of Love

Love Holds the Cards

A Chieftain Finds Love

The Horizons of Love

The Marquis Wins

A Duke in Danger

Warned by a Ghost

Forced to Marry

Sweet Adventure

Love is a Gamble

Love on the Wind

Looking for Love

Love is the Enemy

The Passion and the Flower

The Reluctant Bride

Safe in Paradise

The Temple of Love

Love at First Sight

The Scots Never Forget

The Golden Gondola

No Time for Love

Love in the Moon

A Hazard of Hearts

Just Fate

The Kiss of Paris

Little Tongues of Fire

Love Under Fire

The Magnificent Marriage

Moon over Eden

The Dream and the Glory

A Victory for Love

A Princess in Distress

A Gamble with Hearts

Love Strikes a Devil

In the Arms of Love

Love in the Dark

Love Wins

The Marquis who Hated Women

Love is Invincible

Love Climbs in

The Queen Saves the King

The Duke Comes Home

Love Joins the Clans

The Power and the Prince

Winged Victory

Light of the Gods

The Golden Illusion

Never Lose Love

The Sleeping Princess

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Heracles founded the Olympic Games and fetched from the source of the Danube the wild olive tree whose leaves should crown the victor.

Mankind’s first means of transport was by foot and walking races were organised in the Olympic Games held in Athens.

In 1896 a ‘Marathon’ was run to commemorate the legendary feat of a Greek soldier, Philippedes, who, in 490 B.C. ran from Marathon to Athens, a distance of over twenty-two miles.

He did so to warn his countrymen that the Persians had landed a strong force of Cavalry, Infantry and archers in Marathon.

In this battle, due to the Greek soldiers, the Greeks were victorious.

Marathons have become a modern road race and thousands of people take part in them in aid of charity.

They are very popular in England and, when I was in India recently, the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was taking part in a Marathon in Delhi.

CHAPTER ONE ~ 1827

The Duke of Eaglefield walked out through the long window of the Banqueting Room and into the garden.

He moved some distance away so that the music he had left behind him was only faint and fading.

Then he sat down on a garden bench and looked out to sea.

The stars were beginning to come out overhead and the moon was rising up the sky.

In the silver light everything looked very romantic.

The Duke, however, was not looking at the beauty around him.

Sitting there on a wooden seat he was thinking that he had escaped from the Festivities.

They entranced the King so much that he gave party after party in the Chinese Pavilion at Brighton.

For most people the edifice itself looked fantastic if out of place in a town like Brighton.

The contents, valuable though they might be, were definitely inappropriate for England and a number of them had come down from Carlton House, the King’s London Palace.

They had been discussed, criticised and laughed at ever since, as the Prince Regent, he had spent a fortune on them.

Now, having turned his attention to his house in Brighton, he had spent over one hundred thousand pounds on it already and he had not finished yet.

The banqueting room, however, where he was entertaining lavishly tonight, had been a new addition.

Only the Prince Regent, the Duke thought, could have imagined anything so fantastic as the enormous chandeliers shaped like waterlilies and the outside of The Chinese Pavilion was supposed to resemble the Kremlin in Moscow.

In the Banqueting Room, spreading fruity palm trees had a silver dragon peeping through them.

They only resembled, the Duke now thought, the dream of somebody who was ‘not quite right in the head’.

He had suddenly felt the heat in which the King always kept his rooms.

Besides which the chatter and laughter of the women and the incessant intrusion of the orchestra was more than he could bear.

He therefore escaped when he hoped that no one would be looking in his direction.

Now he drew in several deep breaths of the salt air coming from the sea on a light wind.

If he wanted to be alone, however, he was to be disappointed.

There were then footsteps behind him and he stiffened, feeling angry at the unwanted intrusion.

Then a voice came,

“I thought I saw you slip out, Theo. What are you doing here?”

The Duke gave a sigh of relief. The intruder was only Harry Hampton, his oldest friend, for whom he had a deep affection.

He and Harry had grown up together and they had played frequently as children.

They had gone to Eton in the same term and, after leaving Cambridge University, where they were at the same College, they both joined the Household Brigade.

The Duke had ceased soldiering, however, after he had inherited the Ducal title.

But, because he had missed Harry, he had insisted on him resigning from the Household Brigade.

Harry sat down on the seat beside the Duke.

Anyone watching them would have thought that they were the two best-looking young men they had ever seen.

The Duke, particularly, was outstandingly handsome and he had dark hair brushed back from a square forehead and classical features.

Harry was fair, but the two men were almost the same size.

Because they were both extremely athletic, there was not one ounce of surplus fat on either of their bodies.

“What made you come out here?” Harry asked. “Was Lady Antonia being tiresome?”

“I was bored,” the Duke replied, “bored to tears by the same jokes, the same food, the same music and, if you want the truth, the same faces!”

Harry laughed.

“I see what you mean,” he sighed. “At the same time what is the alternative?”

“That is just what I have constantly been asking myself,” the Duke answered.

“Somebody must have upset you for you to feel so strongly about it,” Harry observed ruminatively. “I saw Lady Antonia being flirtatious with that long-nosed man whose name I cannot remember.”

“She is trying to make me jealous,” the Duke said, “because she has set her heart on my giving her the pair of chestnuts that I bought a week ago from Penny Wakehurst.”

“But you have only driven them once to my knowledge.” Harry exclaimed.

“I know that,” the Duke replied, “but you know what Antonia is like when she clutches out her greedy claws. She never rests until she has her own way!”

Harry pressed his lips together to prevent himself from saying what he thought of Lady Antonia.

She might very easily be the most beautiful woman in the Beau Monde, but she was also undoubtedly one of the greediest.

He heartily disliked his friend being so involved with her,

He had, however, long ago learnt that the Duke never listened to criticism of someone he was enamoured with.

Harry therefore decided that the only thing he could do was to wait for the attraction to wear off.

This, where Theo Eaglefield was concerned, invariably happened very much sooner than later. At the same time he well knew that Lady Antonia was, in his own words, bleeding Theo white.

He disliked her, although it would not be a wise thing to express openly in Society.

Aloud he now said,

“I often think that Ladies of Quality are more demanding than the pretty Cyprians. What has happened to Cleone?”

There was a pause before the Duke replied,

“She is sulking because, after I gave her a diamond necklace three weeks ago, I have not yet added the bracelet to match it!”

“Oh, my God!” Harry exclaimed. “Are women never content with what they receive?”

“But not where I am concerned,” the Duke answered. “I was thinking just now that all women are interested in is what I can give them.”

Harry nodded.

“I would suppose that this is the truth.”

The Duke turned to look at him in some surprise.

“You think so too?”

“Of course I do,” Harry answered. “You have to admit, Theo, it is part of the penalty for being who you are.”

“I don’t know what you are saying,” the Duke replied.

“Well, I have thought for a long time,” Harry said, “that the penalty you pay for being a rich Duke is that the people you meet see only the trappings and not the man beneath them.”

The Duke frowned.

“Can that really be true?”

“Of course it is,” Harry insisted. “What it amounts to, Theo, is that you see life not as it is but through a glass window.”

The Duke made an impatient gesture with his hands, but he did not interrupt.

“How people see you,” Harry went on as if he was searching for the right words, “is in a different way from how they see me or any other ordinary man.”

“I don’t believe that,” the Duke countered. “Explain yourself.”

“It is quite easy,” Harry continued. “They see you through the glass window by which you are protected as someone who is enormously important, who owns everything they want for themselves, position, money, houses and estates, there is a whole long list of them.”

“Is that really a fact?” the Duke pondered.

“I am afraid so,” Harry said. “It is impossible for them to realise that beneath all that there is an ordinary person with feelings like everybody else. And as far as I am concerned, one of the nicest and kindest men in the world.”

The Duke’s lips twisted into a wry smile.

“Thank you, Harry,” he said, “but what you are saying to me is cold comfort.”

“Of course it is,” Harry admitted. “Unfortunately, Theo, instead of you accepting it all, you are clever enough to realise that you are missing something really important.”

“What is that?” the Duke asked.

“Knowing the people you meet on equal terms for one thing.”

The Duke stared at him and he then went on,

“I have noticed that people talk to you in a different voice from the way they talk to me. How often do you meet anybody who is brave enough to contradict you or tell you that what you are doing is wrong?”

“Why should I be doing anything wrong?” the Duke asked aggressively.

“No one can be right in everything they think and everything they do,” Harry answered. “But where you are concerned they agree with you to your face and then grumble about you behind your back.”

“I just don’t believe it,” the Duke replied.

“Think it out for yourself,” Harry went on. “Is there anybody else you know who would dare to speak to you as I am doing now?”

There was silence until the Duke said,

“Supposing I admit that you are right and, incidentally I am not convinced that you are, what do you suggest I do about it?”

“That again is something that I have thought about,” Harry replied, “but I would not have raised the subject unless you had told me how bored you were with women who treat you like a bottomless cornucopia and men who envy you for what you possess.”

The Duke threw up his hands.

“All right,” he said, “you need not say anymore. I accept that what you are saying has some foundation in fact. But we still get back to the same question of what can I do about it?”

“I have been thinking,” Harry said, “that you are bored because you are actually always with the same people. If we don’t meet them here with His Majesty, then we can find them at almost every house at which we are guests in London or when you entertain them in yours.”

“That is true,” the Duke conceded somewhat doubtfully.

“On the Racecourse you are with the same members of the Jockey Club. If we go to a mill at Wimbledon, we know exactly who will be there and the same thing applies to your shooting in the autumn.”

The Duke did not reply.

He knew as Harry spoke that he invariably invited the same guns to shoot at Eagle Hall and, if anyone was left out, he would be either hurt or affronted or both.

“What is more we hunt with the same pack of hounds,” Harry was saying, “and it is well known that if we go to one of those maisons de plaisir around St. James’s, the prettiest and most attractive Cyprians are reserved for you.”

“Dammit all!” the Duke swore suddenly. “You are now making it sound as if my life is not worth living!”

“Of course it is worth living,” Harry argued, “but what you are lacking in your daily curriculum is variety.”

“Very well,” the Duke said sharply, “you provide it. I don’t know how to begin.”

“As I have been talking to you,” Harry said, “I feel as if I was being guided into how I should help you.”

“By whom?” the Duke asked cynically.

“I have no idea,” Harry said, “but you know how we have often talked of the importance of using one’s instincts.”

Looking back the Duke remembered that it was one of the subjects on which as students they had argued about fiercely at Cambridge.

The Duke had, as it so happened, always prided himself on having an instinct where the servants were concerned.

If he engaged a man as his secretary or his Manager, he thought that he knew when he first talked to them what they were like. It was far more reliable than if he had studied their references however fulsome.

It was also said of him, when he was in the Army, that he had an instinct for what was right and what was wrong.

It was something that would surely help him if ever he had to face danger.

He had always thought it unfortunate that when he and Harry had joined the Household Brigade the War was over.

They heard the older men talking of the battles like Waterloo in which they had taken part.

He had felt in some strange way that he had been deprived and war, however unpleasant, was something that would have been important to him in his life.

Aloud he said,

“All right, Harry, I admit I have an instinct where people are concerned.”

“That is what is happening now,” Harry said, “and your instinct is telling you that Lady Antonia is just out for everything she can possibly lay her hands on, while Cleone is merely greedy because it is her profession to be so.”

“And do you really imagine,” the Duke asked sarcastically, “that any of the women we have met tonight in that ridiculous Chinese edifice would be any different?”

“Not all that lot,” Harry replied scathingly. “They are all the same. To them you are a rich Duke and a very handsome and attractive man. Put those two things together and why should they bother to look any further?”

The Duke laughed as if he could not help it.

“Very well, Harry,” he said, “you win. But what do you expect me to do? Explore the world, where I expect once I arrive anywhere things will be pretty much the same as they are in England, only more uncomfortable?”

He paused before he added,

“I could retire like a hermit, to Eagle Hall and contemplate my navel in the forlorn hope of spiritual salvation!”

“I have a better idea,” Harry piped up.

There was a note of excitement in his voice that the Duke did not miss.

“It has just come to me again, if you like, through the guidance of your Guardian Angel, or perhaps a lucky star is shining on you. I now know what you are to do.”

“What is that?” the Duke asked suspiciously.

He told himself it was certain to be something unpleasant and that this was a ridiculous conversation anyway.

At the same time he had to admit that he was somewhat intrigued by it.

“I think, in point of fact, I must make it a bet,” Harry proposed slowly.

“Make what?” the Duke enquired.

“Your chance of meeting ordinary people on an equal footing as a man and not a Duke.”

Turning round on the seat the Duke gazed at him.

“What are you suggesting?” he quizzed him.

Vaguely, at the back of his mind, he was thinking that if he had to leave England at this particular moment it was something he had no wish to do.

He had a number of horses at Eagle Hall that he wanted to break in.

He also thought about the pretty woman he had sat next to at dinner and she had flirted with him in an experienced manner that deserved further exploration.

If he finished with Lady Antonia and he was really sick of her everlasting demands on his purse and then there was a new face waiting for him.

What the Duke enjoyed in a love affair was the chase.

And he had found from long experience that the end was always the same and inevitably after a very short while he became bored.

He just hated to admit it, even to himself, but women said the same, thought the same and behaved in the same way.

Once they were his he could anticipate every word they were about to say before they even spoke.

Every glance they gave him from under their mascaraed eyelashes he had seen before.

What was fun was the first approach to a pretty woman, who was inevitably married.

The needle question was whether it might be too dangerous to go any further in case her husband created a scandal and threatened a duel?

Unfortunately this question, like so many others, was answered far too quickly.

Lady Antonia had a husband who preferred the country to London and he was very often away in the North of England where he owned some property.

Looking back the Duke could remember that all the women he had bestowed his favours on had the same comfortable arrangements.

There was no question at all therefore of a duel being fought at dawn and no question of a jealous husband having him set on by paid assailants.

“What I am doing,” Harry was now saying slowly, “is to bet my most treasured black stallion you have always admired against your chestnuts, which would be wasted on Lady Antonia, that you could not walk from here to Eagle Hall as just an ordinary man and meet ordinary people on the way.”

The Duke stared at his friend in astonishment.

“Did you say walk?” he demanded finally.

“I said ‘walk’!” Harry repeated, “And, while it is something you have not done seriously since we were at Cambridge, you will recall that you did manage to reach the top of Snowdon in rather better trim than anyone else.”

“Walk!” the Duke exclaimed. “Why the devil should I do that?”