Moonflower Madness Read Online Free PDF

a dark, magical quality about her that aroused him deeply. He saw her eyes widen. Eyes so startlingly violet against her night-black hair that their beauty took his breath away. He wondered what her ancestry was. Her eyes, and the creamy whiteness of her skin, were obviously the legacy of her English father, but her mother must have been Irish, or Italian perhaps, to account for the glossy darkness of her brows and lashes and the unbelievable blue-black lustre of her hair.
    â€˜Oh!’ For one devastating moment, Gianetta was certain that all her plans were in vain, and then she knew that time made no difference. She needed only a mule, some provisions, and detailed knowledge of the route Lord Rendlesham and Mr Cartwright were to take. The mule could easily be borrowed from the Residency stables, and so could the provisions, from the Residency kitchens. The only item she lacked was information.
    â€˜How far do you hope to travel on your first day?’ she asked.
    He smiled, his warm blue eyes crinkling attractively at the corners. ‘I’m afraid you will have to ask Zac that question. He has far more knowledge than I have about how far we might be expected to travel in one day.’
    Unwillingly Gianetta transferred her attention to Mr Cartwright. ‘How far do you expect to travel tomorrow, Mr Cartwright?’ she asked coolly.
    He gave a barely discernible shrug of his broad shoulders. ‘Possibly to Fu-tu Kwan,’ he said laconically.
    She had heard of Fu-tu Kwan. It was a small, walled town some fifteen miles to the north.
    â€˜And then, after Fu-tu Kwan?’ she asked with studied carelessness.
    Again there was a slight lifting of his shoulders. ‘It isn’t possible to say with any certainty. Kaingpeh maybe, or Lingtao.’
    â€˜I do not understand why you t’avel by’oad and not’iver,’ the Viceroy said, breaking his self-imposed silence. ‘It much easie’to t’avel by’iver.’
    â€˜If the plants we find on our way to Fu-tu Kwan are disappointing, then we will alter our plans and travel the rest of the way, as far as Peng, by river,’ Zachary Cartwright said, and Gianetta was intrigued to note that there was a pleasant courtesy in his manner towards the elderly Chinaman that had been lacking in his previous, brief conversation with her uncle and aunt.
    â€˜You speak Manda’in?’ The Viceroy asked him suddenly, leaning towards him, his robe of brocaded silk shimmering in the lamplight.
    Zachary Cartwright nodded. ‘Yes, Your Excellency. And Cantonese.’ There was no boastfulness in his voice. It was merely a statement of fact.
    â€˜Then you will have no p’oblems in Szechuan or Kansu,’ the Viceroy said. ‘It is only people who have no love or Chinese cultu’e or unde’standing of the Chinese people, who have p’oblems.’
    His eyes flicked momentarily towards Lord Rendlesham and then towards his host. Although his face was impassive, Gianetta was sure that both gentlemen fell into the Viceroy’s category of men who had no deep understanding of his country.
    â€˜I cannot envy you the inns you will have to stay in en route to Kansu,’ her aunt said to Lord Rendlesham with a shiver of distaste. ‘I am sure that the Viceroy will be in agreement with me when I say that the local inns leave much to be desired.’
    She was being polite. The local inns were lice-infested horrors no European willingly entered.
    Gianetta felt her stomach muscles tighten. She had not thought about where she would sleep at night. The inns were not only lice-infested, they were rat-infested as well. They possessed no fresh water and had no sanitary arrangements.
    â€˜We shall very seldom be using inns,’ Lord Rendlesham said reassuringly. ‘So far, unless we have been on board a boat, we have slept out in the open.’
    â€˜Umph,’ Gianetta’s uncle grunted disapprovingly.