104. A Heart Finds Love by Barbara Cartland Page B

go back to nice old comfortable and safe England.”
    “It all happened a long time ago,” Alnina said, “and I ought not to frighten you with it. But I must add that the women also knew how to fight and beneath their veils they often wore a dagger.”
    “I certainly don’t blame them with that lot about!” William exclaimed.
    “They were actually very brave. When they were besieged by the Russian Army in 1837, the women fought beside the men. When their ammunition was spent, they then flung rocks down on the attacking troops and, when there were no more rocks, the men hurled themselves to their deaths.”
    The Duke was listening intently and, looking at him with questioning eyes, Alnina finished,
    “When the men were gone, the women flung down their children as missiles and leapt after them.”
    “I had no idea when William and I were there that all this had happened,” the Duke remarked.
    “It was all a long time ago,” Alnina replied. “But it is interesting to know how brave the Tiflian women were and how much they valued their freedom. And they have always been very ferocious people.”
    The Duke then asked her,
    “Well, you must tell us the rest, you have made my flesh creep as it is!”
    Alnina smiled.
    “One Chieftain found his son dead. He then cut his body into small pieces and sent his horsemen across the mountains, each one with a fragment to be given to his kinsmen.”
    “What happened then?” William enquired.
    “For each piece an enemy’s head was returned to him and his son’s death was avenged.”
    “I only hope they have quietened down by now,” the Duke said, “or we will never get home!”
    “Of course they have,” Alnina told him soothingly. “At the same time I still think they were very brave.”
    “Let’s hope that the future will be less violent, but I am glad I have brought my revolver with me.”
    “That is slight comfort, John,” William added, “but I can readily assure you, unless my friend who told me about Prince Vladimir was lying, an English Nobleman is more valuable to him than a Prince from another country.”
    “Then let’s hope he looks after us and makes us comfortable while we are bargaining with him,” the Duke murmured. “Perhaps if he values us as much as that, he might reduce the price or even give me the mountain as a present!”
    William laughed.
    “Only if you marry his daughter and that you have made certain you cannot do.”
    “Certainly not while I am there at any rate!” Alnina exclaimed. “I am sorry to have frightened you, but I think it’s very interesting to know how brave the Georgians have been in the past.”
    They then talked about other matters.
    When they finally went to bed, she thought that she had never enjoyed herself more.
    It was fascinating to be able to talk with two such intelligent men and to discuss many subjects when recently she had had no one to talk to except Brooks and his wife.
    She said a special prayer of thankfulness when she climbed to bed in the very comfortable cabin she had been allocated.
    The Duke had, of course, taken the Master cabin, but she realised that hers was the best of the others.
    It was decorated more prettily than even the Master cabin and it never struck her, although it had the Duke, that her cabin was the one always used by the Marquis’s most favoured beauty.
    He was noted for his affaires de coeur with a large number of the most acclaimed ladies in Society.
    He was able to enjoy himself because his wife had been crippled after a fall out hunting and was obliged to live in the country. And, because she was having special treatment from the local doctor, she did not accompany her husband when he went to sea.
    Alnina had led a very sheltered life, first at school and then with her father and therefore it did not strike her that her cabin was especially feminine.
    “The curtains are such a lovely shade of pink,” she said at dinner when they were talking about the yacht, “and I love