An Innocent in Russia Read online

  ‘That is only because she is so young and the world is such a frightening place,’ Lord Charnock told himself.

  Then he was thinking about the Countess Natasha’s sensuous lovemaking and the way, sinuously like a serpent, she had entwined herself around him and had made him feel that it would be almost impossible to free himself of her clinging arms.

  Now he knew that he would never see her again, at least he hoped not, but the Russians were always unpredictable and, when they were in love, they could behave in an entirely uncivilised manner that there was no precedent for.

  This made him think of the Prince Alexis and there was a heavy scowl on his forehead.

  He thought now that he should have insisted on seeing Zelina and perhaps have waited for her.

  At least he should have told her that, if the Prince became too uncontrollable, she could ask the British Ambassador to arrange for her to return home.

  ‘I suppose she has enough money,’ he pondered and decided that the moment he arrived in St. Petersburg he would write a letter to her telling her what she could do.

  Then he would alert the Ambassador of the situation that she found herself in.

  He did not particularly want the Earl to be aware of his concern about Zelina, but it was extremely important that the child should be looked after and not upset by Prince Alexis, whose name was a byword for indiscretion and impropriety.

  ‘Damn the man!’ Lord Charnock swore beneath his breath. ‘I should have dealt with him before I left.’

  It was then, as he was still berating himself for being so glad to get away and for not troubling about Zelina, that he realised the horses were slowing down.

  As they were in the middle of open country, he thought it decidedly odd.

  Then, as he looked ahead, he saw that the coachman was drawing in his reins because there were two people on horseback in the middle of the road ahead.

  He wondered vaguely what was the matter, until, as the horses finally came to a stop, somebody rode up to the side of the carriage and he could then see who it was.

  “Zelina!” he exclaimed.

  She bent forward from her saddle to say to him,

  “I had to speak to you – alone and this was the – only way I could do it.”

  She was very pale and her eyes, which were unnaturally large in her small face, seemed to be beseeching him.

  Lord Charnock smiled.

  “Of course.”

  He was aware that what she had to say must not be overheard by the coachman or the footman on the box of the carriage.

  It was unusual for any of the servants, except for personal staff and those who were in the employment of the British Embassy, to speak anything but Russian, but one never knew for certain.

  It was quite possible that the footman was trained to listen to what was said behind him in an open carriage and, of course, to report it to the Secret Police who were everywhere.

  “I suggest,” Lord Charnock said, “that we take a little walk. And as it is a nice day, I shall enjoy stretching my legs.”

  Zelina flashed him a smile as if she was glad that he had understood and, as she then dismounted from her horse, Lord Charnock signalled to the footman to open the door of the carriage and he stepped out.

  Zelina went to his side and they walked away through the flower-filled grass towards a clump of trees that would protect them from the sun.

  There they could look back and see the two carriages drawn up one behind the other. The second, containing the messenger from the British Embassy and Hibbert, was closed because Lord Charnock’s trunks were piled on top of it.

  He did not speak until they reached the first trees and then, as Zelina looked up at him nervously, he asked,

  “What is all this about? I wondered why you did not wish me ‘farewell’, with the rest of the house party.”

  “I-I had to see you – alone, my Lord.”

  Her voice was tense and a little hoarse and she asked before Lord Charnock could speak,

  “Is it true that you are – leaving for – England?”

  “I have received a message that my mother is ill.”

  “I am sorry to hear that, but you cannot leave me – here.”

  As she spoke, she saw that this was what Lord Charnock had anticipated that she might say and, as his lips moved and she was quite sure that he was going to tell her that there was nothing he could do about it, she said quickly,

  “The Prince – came to my bedroom – last night!”

  Lord Charnock stiffened and she went on,

  “He had taken away the key and because I was so desperately – frightened, I managed to escape through a – secret panel in the wall into the – next door bedroom.”

  “Are you sure that the Prince took the key from your room?” Lord Charnock enquired.

  “Quite sure,” Zelina answered. “He told me he was – coming to talk to me. Then when I was determined I would – lock him out, I found I was – unable to do so.”

  “This is disgraceful! Despicable!” Lord Charnock expostulated.

  “It was fortunate that my maid by – mistake had shown me a – secret entrance to my bedroom, but to be quite certain that the Prince would not find me, I looked for another in the – empty room next to mine and then – I found one!”

  “That was clever of you,”

  “It saved me,” she said simply, “and, when I was in the second secret hiding place, I overheard a – conversation in the room beyond, which was occupied and it – concerned you!”

  Lord Charnock did not speak, but she saw that he was listening attentively and she said,

  “I think, although I am not sure, that the man who was sleeping in that room was Count Nesselrode and the other man he addressed as ‘Philippe’.”

  “That would be Baron Philippe de Brunnow,” Lord Charnock said. “He is the Premier Redacteur for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,”

  “The Czar sent a message to Count Nesselrode after he had talked to you.”

  “And you overheard what was said?”

  Zelina saw by the sudden alertness in Lord Charnock’s eyes that this was of vital interest to him.

  She nodded.

  “Will you tell me what you heard?”

  “I thought you would want ‒ to know,” she replied, “and I have tried to remember every word.”

  “Thank you, Zelina. Now tell me what it was.”

  Slowly and carefully Zelina repeated the Czar’s message and what Count Nesselrode had said to Baron de Brunnow, especially emphasising their secret interest in Afghanistan.

  Then she went on,

  “They then continued to talk about India.”

  “Go on,” Lord Charnock prompted as she paused.

  “Count Nesselrode related,” she then continued, “‘India is separated from Russia by two thousand miles of territory belonging to Persia, Afghanistan, and the Independent Sikh State of the Punjab. Lord Palmerston is determined to do all he can to prevent this distance from being shortened, but he will be disappointed’.”

  As she spoke, she looked at Lord Charnock and saw his lips tighten.

  Then she ended,

  “They both laughed.”

  There was a moment’s silence before Lord Charnock said,

  “Thank you very much, Zelina. As I am sure you are aware, the information you have given me is of vital importance, but you took a great risk in listening to it.”

  “I thought when I was in the secret place that had been made inside the walls of the room that, if I was – discovered, they might wish to – dispose of me.”

  “I am quite certain,” Lord Charnock said, “that you would have had an ‘unfortunate accident’.”

  “But there is no reason for them to think that they had been overheard,” Zelina said. “At the same time it makes me afraid – but not as – afraid as I am of the – Prince.”

  She clasped her hands together as she pleaded,

  “Oh, Lord Charnock, please – please t
ake me home with you. I cannot – stay behind and know that he is – determined to make me his – mistress.”

  She spoke the last word almost in a whisper and her voice broke.

  It seemed to her so degrading and so humiliating that a man should want her not as his wife but as the sort of woman who her mother would not even have spoken about.

  Lord Charnock was silent and Zelina’s eyes filled with tears as she begged,

  “Please – please – if you are not here – I think it will be – impossible for me to – save myself.”

  Lord Charnock smiled.

  “I think, Zelina, you and I should proceed to St. Petersburg with all possible speed.”

  He saw her stare at him as if she could hardly believe what she had heard and then there was a sudden light in her eyes and the colour came rapidly back into her cheeks.

  “I-I can – come with – you?” she asked, as if she was afraid that she had misunderstood what he had said.

  “I will send a message with your groom to the Prince and Princess Volkonsky.”

  As he spoke, he turned to walk back the way they had come and Zelina came beside him without speaking.

  As she stepped into his carriage, Lord Charnock instructed her groom to return to the Palace, taking with him the horse she had been riding and to inform the Princess Volkonsky that Miss Tiverton was travelling with him to the British Embassy in St. Petersburg.

  The groom appeared to understand and, when Lord Charnock was inside the carriage, he signalled his coachman to move on. The horses started off on the smooth road at a pace that almost blew Zelina’s riding hat from her head.

  She clutched it in one hand and turned to Lord Charnock to say,

  “Thank you – thank you! I was so – afraid that you would – send me back.”

  As she spoke, she slipped her other hand under the rug and into his.

  She had taken off her glove and her fingers were cold. They were also trembling, but he was aware that it was not with fear but with excitement and a happiness that had swept away even the horrors of the previous night.

  Then, as Lord Charnock’s fingers closed over hers, he knew what he must do.

  Because they were travelling so fast it was difficult to speak and only as they reached the traffic outside St. Petersburg did Zelina ask with a note of anxiety in her voice,

  “You – will take me – back to England with – you?”

  “You are quite certain you don’t wish to see any more of Russia?”

  “I don’t even wish to think about the country again!” Zelina answered.

  She tightened her hold on Lord Charnock as if she was afraid that at the last moment he would leave her behind.

  They were now driving alongside the Neva and, as Lord Charnock looked at the shining spires and golden domes ahead, he commented,

  “So much beauty and so much waste and cruelty! A country of violent contrasts.”

  Then he asked in a very much more practical tone,

  “What about your clothes?”

  “I have several trunks at The Palace,” Zelina replied, “and what I will leave behind is of no consequence or perhaps they might send them after me.”

  “I think that unlikely,” he remarked drily.

  He bent forward and gave directions to the coachman, who was now travelling more slowly and a few minutes later they stopped outside the Volkonsky Palace.

  As they did so, Zelina looked up at Lord Charnock enquiringly.

  “What I want you to do,” he said, “is to go in, change and be ready to leave when I return for you.”

  “Y-you will not be – long?”

  “The British Embassy is not far away. I will be less than half an hour.”

  “I will not keep you waiting.”

  She took her fingers from his hand reluctantly as if she was afraid to let him go and said,

  “You are quite – quite certain you will – come back? You will not – change your mind?”

  “I promise I will be here at the time you expect me,” he said quietly.

  “I will be ready.”

  She ran in through the open front door of The Palace as the carriage drove away.

  ‘I must not keep him waiting,’ she told herself as she hurried upstairs.

  She knew that what was really frightening her was the thought that in some unexpected way Lord Charnock would be prevented from coming to fetch her or she would be unable to leave The Palace.

  It was impossible to think how this could happen and yet, Zelina was sure, although she had no logical reason for thinking it, that Prince Alexis in some devious manner of his own would try to keep her in Russia.

  ‘Please, God – look after Lord Charnock and let us get – away safely,’ she prayed again and again.

  Then, as there was no time to lose, she reached her own bedroom and was sending for the housemaids to help her change and to see that her trunks were conveyed downstairs to wait for Lord Charnock’s return.

  “Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!” she cried to the maids and knew that her heart was saying the same thing.

  Chapter seven

  Because Zelina was in such a hurry, she put on the first gown that the maids took from the top of one of her trunks.

  Only when it was being fastened and the bonnet that matched it was brought to her at the dressing table did she realise that it was the smartest afternoon gown she possessed.

  Of pink crêpe it was decorated round the hem with row upon row of lace and there was more lace on the sleeves and round the neck.

  The pink ribbons that crossed over her breasts and matched the ribbons on her bonnet together with the roses on the crown made her look like the English rose that Prince Alexis had called her so often in his endearments.

  For a moment she shuddered at the thought of him and considered changing the gown.

  Then she knew that it was very becoming and it was far more important that she should look her best for Lord Charnock than worry about the dreadful Prince.

  Time was passing and she had the frightened feeling that perhaps, when Prince Alexis found that she had left Tsarskoye Selo, he would follow her to St. Petersburg and prevent her from leaving Russia with Lord Charnock.

  Because the idea terrified her, she left her bedroom and ran down the stairs to see if Lord Charnock had returned yet.

  She knew that it was too soon for him to have done so and yet every minute she was not with him seemed full of indescribable danger.

  Because the servants in the hall looked at her curiously, she went into the nearest salon, and for once the magnificent treasures it contained, the paintings, the objets d’art and the exquisitely painted ceiling were of no interest.

  All she wanted was the security of England and the shabby rooms in what had been her home seemed far more beautiful than anything that the gaudy Russian Palaces could offer.

  Then she thought of Lord Charnock and she was suddenly aware that she had only been thinking of herself and not of him.

  She was not so foolish as not to realise that for him to travel back to England with a young unchaperoned girl would undoubtedly cause a scandal.

  He had been so careful in managing to contrive that she arrived in St. Petersburg with a lady’s maid borrowed from the British Minister’s wife in Copenhagen and he had made it seem to the Russians that his entire interest in her had been that she was English and her uncle and aunt were well known in Society.

  It would be very different if she travelled with him on his return journey without another woman and with no reasonable explanation except that she wished to leave Russia.

  ‘What shall I do? What can I do?’ she asked herself frantically.

  Because she loved him she felt that she must not harm him in any way and she was sure that the whispers of women like her aunt and their unkind laughter would not only be most embarrassing for him but might damage his political life.

  ‘What can I do?’ she asked herself again and thought that, if her love was great enough, sh
e would return to Tsarskoye Selo and face the Prince.

  Even as she knew that if she did so he would force himself upon her and she would be unable to defend herself, Lord Charnock walked into the salon.

  She gave a little cry at the sight of him!

  Then, when she would have told him what was in her mind, she remembered that even in the Volkonsky Palace there would doubtless be spies who would overhear what they said to each other.

  “Are you ready?” Lord Charnock asked.

  “Yes,” she answered, “but there is something I must say to you – but not – here.”

  She saw that he understood what she implied and he merely remarked,

  “A carriage is outside and one for your luggage.”

  Zelina moved ahead and, leaving the salon, walked across the hall to the front door.

  As she walked over the carpet that had now been laid out on the steps to the pavement to where the British Embassy carriage was waiting, she saw her trunks being loaded onto the carriage behind.

  It flashed through her mind that they might have to be brought back again.

  Then, as Lord Charnock sat down beside her, a footman closed the carriage door and the horses moved off.

  The vehicle they were travelling in now was closed and Zelina supposed it was because Lord Charnock did not want anybody to see them travelling together.

  Swiftly she said to him,

  “Before you take me to the ship – there is something I must – say to you.”

  “We are going first to the British Embassy,” Lord Charnock replied, “and then I will listen to anything you have to say.”

  He spoke very gently, as if he knew that she was upset, and they sat in silence as the horses trotted through the wide streets designed by Czar Peter the Great.

  It was only a short distance to the British Embassy and the servants waiting at the front door were obviously expecting them.

  “Will you tell His Excellency that we are here?” Lord Charnock asked the butler. “Miss Tiverton and I would like to wait in the small drawing room.”

  The butler walked ahead of them across the marble hall to open the door.

  The drawing room that they were shown into looked to Zelina very English in its design and furnishings and that in itself was somehow comforting because it was such a contrast to the opulent magnificence of the Russian Palaces.