Call of the Heart by Barbara Cartland Page B

of Astrology and Medicine.” “How fortunate that he wrote it down!” Lalitha exclaimed.
    “During the Civil War he fought on the Parliamentary side and was wounded in the chest,” the Herb-Woman explained. “He cured himself and he thought if he had died his secrets would have died with him.” “That would have been a terrible loss!”
    “It would indeed! So while he treated innumerable patients in Spitalfields he still found time to describe the medicinal properties of herbs and the directions for his compounds in what he called his ‘Complete Herbal.’ ” “Please, one day could you let me see it?” Lalitha begged.
    “Certainly,” the Herb-Woman replied. “I will let you see it when you come to visit me, and as you are interested you can see the herbs growing, inspect those I have dried ready for Winter, and speak to my bees!” “Speak to your bees?” Lalitha exclaimed in astonishment.
    “They like those they heal to speak to them,” the Herb-Woman said. “I talk to them, tell them what is happening, and explain to them what their magical honey has to do.”
    She added simply:
    “They never fail me!”
    It seemed to Lalitha as if every moment she was at Roth Park there were new things to see and to learn about.
    When she dressed, with Nattie’s help, the Nurse brought from the wardrobe a gown she had never seen before.
    She had worried as to what she would wear when she went downstairs, aware that the dress she had worn to go to the Church would seem very out of place in the beauty and luxury of Roth Park.
    The gown Nattie held out for her to see was very lovely.
    It had the boat-shaped neckline which was so fashionable, and
    the huge sleeves which ended tightly at the wrist would hide the thinness of her arms.
    The skirt was full and ornamented round the hem with soft ribbons which somehow bespoke the magic word “Paris.”
    “Is that for... me?” Lalitha asked, wide-eyed.
    “His Lordship has had a number of gowns sent down from London,” Nattie answered. “I burnt those rags you were wearing the night I first saw you.”
    Lalitha blushed.
    “They were all I had,” she murmured.
    “Well, you have a great deal more now,” Nattie said. “But I do not wish you to tire yourself by looking at them.”
    “Can I have just one look?” Lalitha begged.
    Humouring her as if she were a child, Nattie opened the doors of the wardrobe and Lalitha saw that there were more than a dozen gowns of soft, muted colours very unlike the striking hues that had become Sophie’s brilliant pink, white, and gold beauty.
    “How did he know I would look best in the very soft shades like Mama?” Lalitha asked herself.
    She thought that he must have a fantastic instinct for such things.
    Certainly her dress of a soft shade of blue which reminded her of “love in a mist” flattered her slight body and seemed to accentuate the faint colour that had come into her face since she had taken the Herb-Woman’s mixtures.
    Nevertheless as she went down the stairs she felt apprehensive.
    Supposing after all he had done for her Lord Rothwyn was disappointed?
    A liveried footman led her across the Hall and opened the door to what Lalitha saw at a glance was not the Grand Salon she had rather dreaded but a much cosier, smaller room.
    It was filled with flowers and decorated with brocade-panelled walls and pictures of children.
    Standing in the window which opened into the garden was Lord Rothwyn.
    He turned, stood for a second looking at her, and then smiled.
    For the moment she was no longer frightened and she moved confidently towards him.

Chapter Four
    Lalitha came down the stairs with a lilt in her step followed by a small black-and-white dog.
    Every day she had been at Roth Park had been full of discovery and delight!
    First she had been shown over the house that had been built in the reign of Charles II and added to by every succeeding generation of Rothwyns.
    She could not imagine that anything so large and imposing