An Innocent in Russia Read online

  “His Majesty is extremely pleased with himself,” the man called ‘Philippe’ replied. “He is quite certain that Charnock has no idea that we are concerned with anything except for Turkey and Persia.”

  “His Majesty is really sure of that?” the Count asked.

  “Quite certain! We can therefore go ahead with our plans to infiltrate into Afghanistan.”

  “Good! That makes everything very much easier than I expected.”

  Because of what was being said by the two of them and because Lord Charnock’s name had been mentioned, Zelina knew that, if the two men were aware that she had overheard their conversation, her life would undoubtedly be in great danger.

  She had the idea that the man who had been addressed as ‘Count’ was Count Karl Robert Nesselrode, the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs and she knew from the way everybody in the party deferred to him that he was without doubt of great standing in the Imperial Court.

  She had an idea, from what she had read in the newspapers, that it was the Count who Lord Palmerston had previously negotiated with.

  But she was so frightened that she did not dare move except very very cautiously to close the panel that opened into the empty bedroom behind her.

  Then she could only stand listening to everything that was said in the bedroom beyond, praying that by no unwary movement or sound would the two men talking suspect that they were being overheard.

  Strangely enough she did not feel suffocated although she was confined in such a small space and she was certain that the hiding places received enough fresh air for whoever was listening to be able to do so indefinitely.

  Only when the Count and Philippe had finally said ‘goodnight’ and Count Nesselrode, if that was who he was, had got into bed and was snoring loudly, was Zelina able to slip from her hiding place back into the empty bedroom.

  She thought that by now, if the Prince had visited her, he would have gone away, but she was far too anxious to risk returning to discover whether or not he had waited for her.

  Instead she locked the outside door of the bedroom she was in and, because by now she was almost dropping with fatigue, she lay down on the bed and tried to sleep.

  It was actually nearly dawn before she managed to drift away into a restless slumber.

  *

  When a little later the sunshine coming through the uncurtained window awakened her, she thought that it would be safe to return to her own room.

  She went back through the secret passage.

  The room looked exactly as she had left it, but all the same she felt that the Prince had been there.

  It was as if he had left an angry frustrated vibration in the air, but because in the daylight nothing was quite so terrifying as it had been the night before, Zelina undressed and climbed into bed.

  She did not ring for her maid until much later in the morning and then, having eaten the breakfast that was brought her on a tray, she rose, dressed and went downstairs.

  She knew that she had to find Lord Charnock and not only relate to him what she had overheard the night before but also inform him that she could not protect herself against the Prince.

  The Palace seemed even larger and more imposing than it had the day before and it was difficult to know where Lord Charnock would be or how she could speak to him alone.

  Now that she knew of the secret hiding places in the bedroom, she was well aware that it would be not be possible for her to talk to him in any of the sitting rooms without the risk of being overheard.

  ‘When I find him,’ she told herself, ‘I must ask him to come with me into the garden.’

  She peeped into one of two of the salons, but they were empty.

  Then, as she stood irresolutely looking at the table covered with newspapers, the door slammed shut behind her and she turned round to see the Prince.

  One look at his face was enough to tell her how angry he was and Zelina could only stare at him, her eyes wide with fearm as he walked slowly towards her.

  “Where have you been?” he asked furiously. “Where were you last night?”

  He put out his hand as he spoke and took hold of her arm above the elbow, digging his fingers painfully into the softness of her skin.

  “If you were with Charnock, I think I will kill you!” he said. “I believed that you were pure and innocent, but now I am suspicious and I want an explanation of where you were hiding from me.”

  With an effort Zelina found her voice.

  “Y-you have no right to – ask me such questions – Your Highness!”

  She tried to speak in a dignified haughty manner, but her voice quivered and, because he was so close to her, she was trembling.

  “I want an answer to my question and you will give it to me if I have to beat it out of you!” the Prince roared. “Where were you?”

  “I was somewhere – safe where you – could not find me and I was – alone.”

  She told herself that Lord Charnock must not be involved in this because the Prince might harm him and she was aware when she said the word ‘alone’ that some of the anger seemed to go from his face.

  Now he was looking at her searchingly.

  “Is that true?”

  He was still holding her arm, but not so painfully.

  “There is no – reason for me to – lie, Your Highness, and if you – came to my room it was a – despicable action and – something you had no – right to do!”

  “I have every right, because I love you,” the Prince replied. “You are mine, Zelina, and I swear that no other man shall touch you!”

  He took his hand from her arm as he spoke, but only so that he could pull her roughly against him.

  She gave a cry of sheer terror and then, as she turned her head away because she thought that he was about to kiss her, she felt his lips, hot and burning, on her neck.

  This frightened her more and more and the insistence of his mouth made her feel as if he had captured her as he intended and she would never be able to escape from him.

  She tried to fight herself free of him, but she was imprisoned in his arms and he went on kissing the softness of her neck and the line of her chin until his lips were on her cheek.

  She knew that, struggle as she might, he would take possession of her lips, when, as she gave a stifled scream, the door of the room opened and one of the Czar’s aides-de-camp came in.

  He was wearing an elaborate red-coated uniform, heavily gold-braided, which the Czar had designed himself. As a soldier, he was too well trained to show any surprise at the scene being enacted before him.

  The Prince, however, raised his head to ask furiously,

  “What the devil do you want?”

  “Your pardon, Your Highness,” the aide-de-camp replied, “but I have been trying to find Miss Tiverton. I have a message for her from Lord Charnock.”

  Because the Prince’s arms had relaxed a little, Zelina was able to extricate herself and she moved quickly towards the aide-de-camp, saying in a voice that did not sound like her own,

  “You – have a – message for – me?”

  “Yes, Miss Tiverton. Lord Charnock asked me to inform you that he is leaving in an hour’s time for St. Petersburg from where he will shortly be returning to England.”

  Zelina gave a gasp and then she moved past the aide-de-camp through the door into the corridor, saying as she went,

  “I must – go to Lord Charnock – at once. Please tell me – where I can find him.”

  She had escaped from the Prince and had proceeded quite a long way down the corridor before the aide-de-camp caught up with her.

  “Where is his – Lordship?” Zelina asked him, her breath coming fitfully from between her lips.

  “I am afraid, Miss Tiverton,” he replied, “ that you cannot speak to his Lordship at the moment because he is in conference with His Imperial Majesty and cannot be disturbed.”

  Zelina stopped.

  “I must – speak to – him!” she insisted, more to herself than to
the aide-de-camp.

  “I am sure you will be able to do so,” he replied. “His Lordship will make his farewells to Her Majesty the Czarina in the salon vert and, if you wait there, there will be no chance of you missing him.”

  Zelina was aware that in these circumstances it would be just impossible to talk to Lord Charnock intimately and without being overheard.

  She wanted to scream to the aide-de-camp that she must see him alone.

  Then she had a sudden idea.

  It took a few seconds for it to formulate in her mind and she saw that the aide-de-camp was waiting patiently and watching her curiously as he did so.

  “Will you tell his Lordship – when you – see him,” she said at length, “that I deeply – regret that I am unable to say – ‘goodbye’ to him and I wish him – bon voyage and a – safe return to England.”

  “I will, of course, convey your message, Miss Tiverton,” the aide-de-camp replied.

  “Thank you.”

  Without saying anything more she turned and ran as swiftly as her feet could carry her back along the corridor and up the stairs to her bedroom.

  It did not take her long to change into her riding habit and, when she was ready, she sent the maid downstairs to order a horse for her to ride.

  “I do not wish to be accompanied when I am out riding,” she said to the maid, “except, of course, by a groom, so please ask for the horse to be somewhere where I am unlikely to be seen leaving the Palace.”

  “I understand, mademoiselle,” the maid replied.

  She came back a little while later to escort Zelina by a devious route to a side door where there was nobody about and only two sentries on guard.

  A magnificent jet-black stallion was waiting outside for her and a groom with another superlative animal, which, like all the horses in the Royal Stables, was trained to move faster than any English horse that Zelina had ever ridden.

  The groom in attendance in his elaborate livery was an intelligent man who spoke a little French, enough at any rate for him to understand where she wished to go.

  Then they set off at a breathtaking pace through the Parkland that encircled The Palace and out into the countryside towards the road that led to St. Petersburg.

  *

  Lord Charnock had spent a restless night thinking how he could leave without causing offence.

  After his long interview with the Czar he decided that there was nothing further to keep him in Russia and he was quite certain that, however long he went on talking and discussing the subject of Persia and Turkey, he would learn no more.

  His perception, which was never at fault, told him that the Czar was keeping back from him the information that Lord Palmerston was so anxious to know.

  Yet he was sure that there was no chance of His Majesty letting slip anything that was not already known to the British and that to continue optimistically hoping for a revelation was a sheer waste of time.

  Lord Charnock also knew that the geniality that the Czar had shown to him so far was quite likely to change at any moment to a very different mood.

  Nobody was more unpredictable or more unbalanced than Czar Nicholas and everybody he talked to made Lord Charnock aware that he walked a tightrope where one unwary step might precipitate him into disaster.

  It was exceedingly important that the Czar’s anxiety to co-operate with the British should not change and Lord Charnock’s instinct told him he would be well advised to leave before his goodwill was exhausted.

  He also had a personal reason for wishing to go and that was a simple one, he was bored with the demands that the Countess Natasha was making on him.

  He was far too astute not to know that what had been originally a job to be done with the expertise that she was famous for had turned into something different for her.

  Lord Charnock was used to the women he made love to becoming infatuated with him, but with the insatiable Countess Natasha it was wilder and deeper than the desire of a woman for a competent lover.

  Perhaps because some of the men she had seduced at the command of the Czar had not been particularly attractive, but she had found Lord Charnock to be so alluring that she had to all intents and purposes lost her head.

  “I love you!” she had said to him a thousand times both in French and English and it had been impossible for him not to pick up the sincerity in her voice.

  He doubted cynically if she knew the meaning of real love, but he could not fail to be aware that she was obsessed with a heart-throbbing and overwhelming passion that for the Russians was something uncontrolled and primitive.

  Because she was very beautiful and skilled at all the exotic arts of lovemaking known to the Orient, Lord Charnock did not find it difficult to comply with her demands.

  But it was with a sense of relief that he had found that the Countess was not included amongst the guests at Tsarskoye Selo.

  Then last night when the Czar was retiring to his bedroom with his birdlike Prussian wife, Alexandra, whom he adored, he had said,

  “If you feel lonely after listening to the gypsy music, tomorrow Natasha Obolensky will be joining us.

  He spoke as if he was presenting Lord Charnock with a special favour and there was nothing that he could do but express his gratitude.

  The Czar had then offered his arm to his wife and escorted her from the salon as the ladies swept down in deep curtseys and the gentlemen bowed their heads from the neck.

  In his own room Lord Charnock was thankful that tonight at any rate he could sleep without being disturbed and any secret entrances to his bedroom would remain closed.

  He had decided that somehow he must find an excuse to leave and it seemed almost like an answer to his prayer when this morning, while he was having breakfast with the gentlemen in the house party, a servant came to his side to inform him that a messenger had arrived from the British Ambassador in St. Petersburg.

  Lord Charnock had seen the man in one of the private rooms allotted for such purposes where he was quite certain that everything that was said would be overheard and written down.

  “His Excellency the Earl of Durham has asked me, my Lord,” the messenger began, “to give this personal letter into your hands and to inform you when you have read it that His Majesty’s ship The Dolphin is in the Harbour.”

  Lord Charnock then looked at the messenger with speculative eyes but said nothing. He merely opened the heavily sealed letter that was handed to him.

  Inside the envelope was another smaller one and, when he had opened it, Lord Charnock recognised the upright, rather large writing of Lord Palmerston.

  He sat down in a chair to read it carefully.

  “My dear Charnock,

  It is with deep regret that I write to inform you that your mother is unwell.

  Her physicians in attendance think it wise for you to return as soon as possible to be with her.

  I can only convey to you my deepest sympathy and I hope that this letter does not arrive at an inconvenient time or interfere with the pleasantries of your visit.

  To make it possible for you to travel as swiftly as possible, I have sent this letter in the care of the Captain of H.M.S. Dolphin, who will await your instructions.

  I remain,

  Yours most sincerely,

  Palmerston.”

  Lord Charnock finished reading the letter and saw that at the bottom there was a ‘P.S.’ in code.

  Because it was the code he most frequently used, he could decipher it easily and he read,

  “Don’t worry unduly about your mother.”

  Lord Charnock knew then that his mother, who he was deeply attached to, was not in any danger.

  However she was never in very good health and this was an excuse that had often been used to facilitate his departure from countries or situations that had become untenable.

  Now he knew with a feeling of satisfaction that this was exactly the excuse he required and he then asked the messenger,

  “What vehicles have brought yo
u here?”

  “Two carriages, my Lord.”

  Lord Charnock smiled.

  He knew that this meant that the Earl of Durham was aware that he would leave as soon as he had read the letter from Lord Palmerston.

  “You had better first have some breakfast,” he said to the messenger, “and we will leave in an hour.”

  “Very good, my Lord.”

  Lord Charnock went to find an aide-de-camp to ask first if he might have an interview with the Czar and secondly to convey a message to Zelina.

  He had not forgotten his promise that he would not leave without telling her.

  However he was annoyed when he learnt that she had just sent him a message of farewell and not come as he had expected to say ‘goodbye’ to him.

  ‘I did want to see her,’ he thought as he drove away from The Palace.

  He was relieved to go, but he was somewhat apprehensive at leaving Zelina behind.

  Then he told himself that there was no need for him to worry about her. After all the Princess would look after her and sooner or later she would have to stand on her own feet.

  Nevertheless he found himself thinking that it was a lesson that would be easier for her to learn in England than in Russia.

  He was frowning as the four horses drawing the carriage he was travelling in gathered speed.

  There was only one road from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo and, because it was used by the Czar and his retinue, it was undoubtedly the best in Russia and very different from the potholed, dusty or muddy tracks in other parts of the country.

  These usually resulted in most travellers being delayed for hours or even days on their journey.

  The countryside in the sunshine was looking particularly beautiful, but Lord Charnock was thinking about Zelina and wondering how she could have been content to let him leave without saying ‘farewell’.

  Her eyes were very expressive and he was too experienced not to suspect that she had begun to feel for him not only because he stood for safety and security but also because she was aware of him as a man.

  Not that he thought for a moment that she was in love with him, but that ever since they had travelled together in first the English ship and then the Ischora he had begun to mean something in her life.