An Introduction to the Pink Collection by Barbara Cartland Page A

the same in his position.
    â€œDo I sound like a madman to you?” he asked anxiously.
    â€œNot at all. I know just what you mean?”
    â€œI knew you’d understand. Anyone else would have me put under restraint for such wild talk, but not you. We’ve only known each other a few hours, and yet already you’re the best friend I have. I can tell you things I could tell nobody else. So, keep your hand in mine, my dear friend, and nothing can defeat us.”

CHAPTER FOUR
    With only time to clean one room they settled on the drawing room. John helped her, and proved more adept than she had feared.
    â€œIt’s being in the Navy,” he said. “A man develops certain domestic skills.”
    He joined her for tea in the kitchen, while she worked out the refreshments she would serve their guests.
    â€œTell me more about Mr Wyngate,” she said.
    â€œHe’s a bit of a mystery man. Nobody knows exactly where he came from, or how he got the money he started with. There’s a rumour that his name isn’t even Wyngate, but nobody knows the truth about that either. However he started, he made a vast fortune in American railroads.”
    â€œYou mean he’s American?”
    â€œNot necessarily. That’s just the first place anybody heard of him. He turned up in America, with money that he invested in railroads, and made a fortune, helped, it is said, by marrying an American lady who had money. She died over there a few years ago.
    â€œThen he came to England and started investing in railways here. He might have been looking for fresh fields to conquer, or he might have been English to start with and returned to his roots, but – ”
    â€œNobody knows,” she finished with him.
    â€œExactly right. He made another fortune here, then took his daughter and went travelling. I met him in India eighteen months ago, when my ship docked at Bombay. He’d taken over the entire Hotel Raj, and was busy competing with the local Maharajah to see who could spend the most money, the most ostentatiously.
    â€œHe gave a ball for his daughter Matilda. I did hear that he’d invited the Viceroy as well, but received a polite refusal, which incensed him. In fact it was rather thin of European guests because nobody liked him very much. He made up the numbers by issuing an invitation to the senior officers of my ship, The Achilles, and that’s how I came to be there.
    â€œHe writes to me as if we’d formed an eternal friendship, but that was my only meeting with him. I’ve heard a lot about him, but it’s the silences that tell the most.”
    â€œSilences?”
    â€œIf you mention his name people go silent, like birds when a hawk has flown over. He’s rich enough to buy anything in the world – or he thinks he is. The trouble is, he’s too often right. So many people will sell if the offer is great enough, and now he can’t imagine anybody saying no.”
    â€œDoes the young woman want to marry you?” Rena asked quietly. “What kind of a person is she?”
    â€œI only met her once, at the ball, and formed very little impression of her personality.”
    â€œIs she pretty?” Rena asked, busying herself with mixing a cake.
    â€œNot really. She’s very quiet, and some men might find that charming. But me – I don’t know – she’s not for me. I like a woman who has more to say for herself.”
    â€œThen you’re different to most men,” Rena observed, smiling. “Most of them like a woman who keeps quiet and lets them do the talking.”
    â€œIndeed?” He raised his eyebrows quizzically. “And may I ask how you obtained this vast knowledge?”
    â€œFrom my mother,” she laughed. “Who obtained it from her mother, doubtless. Gentlemen do not like a chatterbox. Gentlemen do not like a woman who puts forward her opinions, especially if they are contrary to their