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    They Ran Away
    They Ran Away
    They Ran Away
    Ebook176 pages3 hours

    They Ran Away

    By Barbara Cartland

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    About this ebook

    Colonel Storton has set his mind on his beautiful daughter, Alvina, marrying a man with money and a grand title. When Lord Hillborough became their next door neighbour in the country, the Colonel considered him to be an excellent husband for Alvina, but she found him repulsive and could not bear even to be touched by him. She therefore decided to leave her home and run away to avoid having to marry a man she did not love and could never love. When she saw a large and impressive yacht at a nearby Port, she went aboard and hid as a stowaway. She hoped that the yacht was going to France where she had a friend from school who she could stay with. When the owner of the yacht, the Earl of Penwood, came aboard, he found her in his Master cabin, but instead of being angry and throwing her off at the next stop, he told her that he also was being forced to marry someone and perhaps they could both assist each other. Alvina helped the Earl in solving his problem by successfully pretending to be his wife and he was delighted. It was while they were anchored at the quay in the Port of Gibraltar that Alvina mysteriously disappeared. How she found herself in Morocco on the other side of the Mediterranean. How the Sultan was attracted by her fair hair and blue eyes and sent men to kidnap her and then she was in his Palace where he intended to marry her and join his many other wives. And how she was saved and found the love that she had been seeking is all told in this exciting and romantic novel by BARBARA CARTLAND.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBarbara Cartland Ebooks ltd
    Release dateDec 12, 2016
    ISBN9781782139553
    They Ran Away

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      Book preview

      They Ran Away - Barbara Cartland

      Cartland

      CHAPTER ONE ~ 1860

      The road was rather twisty.

      After they had gone a little way, Alvina turned to the coachman driving her to say,

      We must look out carefully for the next turning on the left.

      He nodded his head and she continued,

      We are late, but I hope that I will catch the ship which leaves from here every morning to go further along the coast.

      I don’t think it be every day, the coachman then answered her brusquely.

      He was young, but good with the horses.

      Alvina’s father, Colonel Storton, had taken him on, expecting him to be a failure.

      But he had found out that he was much better at his work than some of the older men.

      Alvina had risen very early so as to leave the house before her father came down for breakfast.

      Bobby was thankfully the only one out early in the stable and she managed to drive off with him before the grooms who saw to the other horses appeared.

      She was thinking now that only by a miracle had she been able to escape without her father seeing her.

      She was fervently praying that the miracle would continue and she would get away before he realised that she had gone.

      It was last night that the bomb had gone off, she felt, when her father came back to the house soon after she had finished tea.

      She had realised that he was going to luncheon with Lord Hillborough.

      She had a feeling, although she was not certain, that somehow she was involved in what Lord Hillborough had to say.

      Then she thought that perhaps she was exaggerating her own significance.

      When she had danced with Lord Hillborough at the parties in London, she had found him most unattractive and dull.

      She had indeed managed to avoid sitting next to him at several of the parties where they had eaten dinner before the other guests had arrived and then an excellent supper was served before everyone departed.

      Alvina had considerable suspicions that her father’s meeting with Lord Hillborough involved herself even more than she might have expected.

      In fact before he left her father had said,

      I might bring Lord Hillborough back with me.  If he does come, mind that you wear your prettiest dress and make yourself more agreeable than you did the last time he called.

      She had not answered, knowing that it was useless to say that she disliked Lord Hillborough even if her father favoured him.

      But she told herself that she would most definitely see as little of him as was possible.

      She did not know why, but she had taken a dislike to him almost as soon as he had appeared.

      It had been annoying to find that her father was delighted that he was a near neighbour and was ready to entertain him on every possible occasion.

      ‘I cannot think,’ she said to herself, ‘why Papa is so thrilled with a man who I really think is not only ugly and inclined to be disagreeable but also has nothing of interest to say.  When he talks, it is always about himself and the position he has recently taken over from his grandfather.’

      He now owned his grandfather’s title and the large estate which marched with her father’s land.

      He will be a great asset to the County, her father had said when they first heard of his arrival.

      After the Colonel had called on him, as was correct, he came back full of enthusiasm for their new neighbour.

      He is not only rich but the house is even better and bigger than I expected it to be, he told her.  Also as it has not been lived in for many years, Lord Hillborough intends to do it up completely in the very latest fashion.  He is even thinking of adding a Racecourse to his estate.

      It most certainly sounds extremely grand, Alvina replied.  But surely Lord Hillborough will find it lonely living in that big house all by himself, even though it will certainly be more attractive when it is renovated.

      Her father had not answered.

      When she looked at him, she thought that he had an expression in his eyes that meant that he was thinking of something very significant, but he was not intending to say it aloud.

      Then yesterday, just before he had left to see Lord Hillborough, he had said,

      If I bring his Lordship back with me, you will be more polite and more encouraging than you were the last time he called.  In fact I thought that you were almost rude to him.

      Alvina had looked at her father in some surprise.

      I was most certainly not rude to him, she retorted.  But I did think him to be rather a bore.  When he was talking about his horses, he was boasting in a way which seemed to imply that you and I had never had fine horses and were ignorant of what we should best ride.

      There had been a poignant silence for a moment.

      Then the Colonel had responded,

      I cannot imagine why you should be so critical.  After all he is new to our County, new to us and we are very lucky to have anyone so rich and of such standing next door.

      He had paused rather irritably before adding,

      What you have to do, Alvina, is to make yourself more agreeable than you were before.

      Her father had spoken so violently to her that she had looked up at him in surprise.

      Then a sudden idea had come into her mind, which made her, after a moment, say in a small hesitating voice,

      Why are you so interested in his Lordship?  After all he surely means nothing to us.

      Again there was silence before her father had said,

      I have always been a good father to you.  When I see you looking so pretty and dressing in exactly the way your mother would have wished you to do, I am naturally thinking of your future and who you should marry.

      Alvina had drawn in her breath.

      At the same time she had felt as if she had suddenly been hit with a sharp stone.

      She knew without her father saying anything more, exactly what he intended to do.

      He had said when she first left school and became a debutante,

      I am very proud of my pretty daughter.  I know that you will make an excellent and important marriage.

      Alvina had laughed at the time.

      You are going too fast, Papa.  I have only just left school and I have no intention of marrying anyone until I am very much older and know a great deal more about the outside world than I do at present.

      Her father had not answered.

      But she had always known at the back of his mind that there had been the idea that she should marry someone of high social standing.

      In fact she must bring into the family the title that he had always wanted for himself.

      When her father had left the room, her mother had said,

      He is disappointed that he was not given a large Command in the Army and, of course, the title that usually goes with it.

      Alvina, who had been young at the time, replied,

      But surely, Mama, my Papa has not done anything very brave nor outstanding.  Those are the things that the Queen gives a man a title for, not just because he has done his duty.

      There was silence for a moment.

      Then her mother had said,

      Your father did his best for the Regiment, but he is an ambitious man and I would have loved him to have been able to have what he wanted.

      Alvina had bent forward and kissed her mother.

      He has you, Mama, and no man could be luckier than that!

      Her mother had smiled.

      "Thank you, darling.  At the same time I want your father to have everything he wants, just as I hope when you are a little older that you will have what you want."

      Alvina had always been touched by the way that her mother had arranged her first ball, which was given when she was just eighteen and the huge amount of trouble she had taken over it.

      In fact looking back she had often wondered at the enormous amount of energy that her mother had put into the ball, which had been given in her honour.

      And the large house party that had filled their house and the houses of two of their closest friends.

      It was soon after that that her mother was taken by an illness that the doctors found difficult to recognise and even more difficult to cure.

      When her mother died suddenly and unexpectedly, Alvina thought that she must do everything in her power to make her father happy.

      She knew that it was what her mother would have wanted.

      She tried to take over all the things concerning the house that her mother had done so skilfully.

      It was just unfortunate, she thought, that instead of the friends they had always had filling up her father’s days with plenty of hunting, shooting and fishing that he always enjoyed, his interest was now with the newcomer who had moved into the large estate close to theirs.

      She had found Lord Hillborough almost repulsive the moment they had met.

      She felt that his whole attitude towards life made her feel that he was actually condescending to everything and everyone around him.

      This made her avoid him whenever she could.

      Then last night, when her father had returned from being with Lord Hillborough, the bomb had exploded.

      I now have his Lordship coming over to us for luncheon tomorrow, he told her.  Afterwards I want you to show him the garden.  The roses are coming into bloom and I feel that nothing could be more magnificent or make a more romantic background for you.

      Alvina laughed.

      I most certainly have no wish to look romantic for Lord Hillborough, she replied.

      The expression in her father’s eyes almost made her shiver with fear.

      She had expected that this would come sooner or later.

      Yet even though he did not say it aloud, she knew that he intended to marry her off to Lord Hillborough.

      ‘How can I marry a man I hate?’ she asked herself.  ‘How can I make Papa finally understand that I find him repulsive?’

      Her father had said nothing more on the subject.

      When she then went up to her own bedroom, she thought perhaps that she was imagining the whole scenario.

      Yet, as she lay awake tossing from side to side, she knew that, by luck or by her Guardian Angel in Heaven her mother had always told her was looking after her, what her father intended.

      ‘I would rather die than marry Lord Hillborough,’ she told herself.

      At the same time she was afraid, desperately afraid that her father would not only welcome Lord Hillborough with open arms as his son-in-law but would insist, whether she wanted it or not, that she became his wife.

      Her father could be most aggressive when he did not get his own way.

      She had always felt sorry for those in the Regiment who opposed him.

      Her mother had often protected her from her father when he was in one of his tempers.

      She knew that her mother had also prevented her father from doing many things he had wanted to do, which would have upset or disturbed those who had to obey him.

      She remembered her mother saying to her once,

      I cannot understand it, but your father invariably gets his own way sooner or later.  I am always sorry for those who cannot stand up to him!

      Tossing restlessly in her bed last night, Alvina had remembered her mother saying that and then she wondered if she herself had been able to stand up to him.

      How could she make him understand that, although he might think Lord Hillborough socially desirable, she would rather die than allow him to kiss her or to touch her?

      "I hate him!  I hate him! she cried to herself.  If Papa says that I have to marry him, I would much rather die."

      So many people she had met in London had asked her to go and stay with them whenever she could.

      It was only because her father wanted her with him in their country house that she had been obliged to refuse nearly all the invitations.

      Now, she thought, the best thing she could possibly do was to escape and hide before Lord Hillborough said those terrifying words,

      ‘Will you marry me?’

      ‘The answer

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