The Peril and the Prince Page 13

  “His valet tells me,” Margit went on, “that Princess Eudoxia has been determined to marry him for the last year, ‘chasin’ him as if he was a wild stag’, was how he put it.”

  “I don’t wish to hear about it,” Vida murmured.

  “All right, have it your own way,” Margit said. “But as you well know, no Nobleman of any rank in this country can marry without the Czar’s permission and if on the other hand His Majesty says they’re to marry, there’s no question of anyone sayin’ no to him.”

  “I am aware of – that.”

  Vida felt as she spoke that her voice was coming from a long distance away.

  A little later she pulled herself out of bed and, after she had had a bath, she felt a little better.

  She washed her face, then put on the cosmetics she used as the Countess Kărólski, thinking that it was for the last time.

  She did not put on the spectacular travelling gown she had worn to arrive in, but wore instead one of her own pretty gowns which had a light coat to go over it and a bonnet trimmed with flowers rather than feathers.

  “You look strange in those clothes with your face painted like an actress!” Margit remarked.

  “I know,” Vida said. “As soon as we go on the train, I shall wash it off and be myself. I am sick of deception and lies and being afraid to speak.”

  “So am I,” Margit agreed. “The best thing we can do, Miss Vida, is to go straight back to England and make the Master behave himself!”

  Vida laughed.

  “We should have to work very hard to do that! Don’t forget, Margit, he is to be our Ambassador in Paris, so that we will be in a very gay City and doubtless one full of intrigues.”

  Margit sniffed.

  At the same time Vida knew she was thinking that France was a very different place from Russia and at least they would not be afraid every moment of encountering the Secret Police.

  Thinking there was no point in going downstairs if everybody staying in the house was out to luncheon, Margit had the food brought to the boudoir next to her bedroom.

  It was quite appetising, but Vida felt as if every mouthful would choke her. Only out of politeness did she help herself to a little of what the footmen offered her and took a few sips of wine.

  When it was time to go, she walked down the stairs followed by Margit and found as she expected a closed carriage waiting for them.

  One of the Prince’s aides-de-camp saw her off and she asked him to thank His Highness for his hospitality and to say how much she had enjoyed herself.

  Then she and Margit drove away and they had hardly spoken a word before they reached the railway station.

  Vida knew when they saw the Prince’s magnificent white and red train waiting for them that Margit was delighted to travel in such style.

  The ordinary trains in Russia, unless there was a special coach attached for them, were reputedly uncomfortable and often dirty.

  Henri was waiting on the platform with some Palace officials and there were, of course, the usual number of the Prince’s servants wearing his livery.

  There was everything to make Vida comfortable and, as soon as she sat down in the drawing room car, she was offered champagne and caviar, both of which she refused.

  It seemed a long time before they started and Henri explained that, as the Prince’s train was unscheduled, they had to wait for the line to be clear before they could leave.

  When at last the engine puffed slowly out of the station, the servants from the Palace bowing as they left, Vida went to the bedroom she had used before to remove her bonnet.

  As she told Margit she would do, she washed her face, feeling, as she did so, that she was washing away the last evidence of the wild adventure which had brought her to Russia to rescue her father.

  She had succeeded – of course she had succeeded, but at the cost of losing her heart and loving a man who she knew had spoilt her for every other man in the world.

  ‘I suppose now I shall never marry,’ she thought wistfully.

  The train gathered speed and with every throb of the wheels she felt that her heart was saying goodbye to the Prince.

  She must have looked very pale and drawn, for Margit insisted that she should lie down on the bed and rest.

  “There’s nothin’ for you to do but look out of the window,” she said, “and the landscape isn’t any different from how it looked when we came here yesterday.”

  “Was it only yesterday?” Vida murmured.

  She was thinking that centuries might have passed since she had sat in the drawing room car and felt herself thrill at everything the Prince said to her and known a wild excitement from the touch of his hand.

  “I will lie down, Margit,” she said hastily, thinking perhaps she would sleep and that way have some peace.

  She took off her slippers and lay down on the bed.

  But it was impossible to sleep and she found herself seeing with closed eyes the Prince’s face and hearing his voice.

  She thought over every word he had ever said to her.

  Then she felt his lips against hers and wondered wildly why she had been so foolish as to send him away from her bedroom when he had wanted to make love to her.

  ‘At least I would have had that to remember,’ she thought now.

  Then she was ashamed of forgetting her principles, her mother’s teaching and her belief in what was right and wrong.

  “It’s over! It’s over!” she could hear the wheels clanking, as if they must keep repeating the words to impress them on her memory.

  *

  Vida must have dozed for a while, for she was awoken by Margit standing beside the bed saying that the servants were wondering if she was ready for dinner.

  “Is it really as late as that, Margit?” Vida asked.

  “It’s getting’ on, Miss Vida, and if you’ll take my advice, you’ll have somethin’ to eat and then let me put you to bed. We’ve a long way to go, so the Stewards tell me.”

  Vida wanted to ask which town in Hungary they were going to.

  She knew that the Russian trains did not go to Sarospatak. Otherwise she would have taken a train to the Prince’s castle rather than travel by carriage.

  It was too much trouble to work it all out and she merely agreed to what Margit advised and went into the drawing room car.

  The Prince’s servants brought her a really delicious dinner.

  But again she was not hungry, although rather than disappoint the chef, who she was sure had made a great effort on her behalf, she tried to eat a little of everything she was offered.

  Darkness came swiftly and the curtains were pulled over the windows, so that she could no longer see whether they were still in wooded country or passing over the flat fertile ground that the Prince had pointed out to her on their way to Kiev.

  But she was not really interested and, when Margit helped her to undress, without thinking she put on one of her pretty nightgowns and her negligée and sat down beside the bed.

  “Now, go to sleep, Miss Vida,” Margit said. “I’m going to my own carriage and, if you’re not tired, I am!”

  “You look tired,” Vida said, “so don’t worry about me. Think about yourself for a change.”

  “I’ll do that when we’re safely over the border!” Margit retorted.

  Strangely enough, when Margit had left her, Vida did not get into bed.

  Instead, she went back into the drawing room car and sat down on the sofa.

  It was where she had sat with the Prince, and she felt almost as if he was there beside her and she could tell him what she was feeling.

  Once again she was thinking back over the things he had said to her, the feelings he had evoked in her and it was some time later that she realised that the train had come to a standstill.

  She supposed that once again they were waiting until the line was clear or perhaps a train travelling towards Kiev had to pass them first.

  But when the train had stopped she no longer felt haunt
ed by the sound of the wheels.

  The lights in the car had been dimmed before the servants left, but it was still easy to see how tastefully it was furnished and how luxurious it was.

  ‘It is part of the perfection he is always seeking,’ Vida thought with a faint smile.

  It was at that moment that she heard the sound of horses galloping and thought it was strange that anybody should be in such a hurry.

  The sound came nearer and then stopped abruptly outside her carriage.

  It was then with a sense of fear that she wondered if it was the Secret Police who had just arrived.

  Could the Princess Eudoxia, in her jealousy of her, have perhaps discovered in some way that she was not who she appeared to be?

  Had the Secret Police decided that she should be subjected to one of their interrogations?

  The terror of it struck through Vida like a flaming sword.

  She heard voices, but she could not move. Anyway, if she wished to hide, there was nowhere she could go and she clasped her hands together until the knuckles showed white.

  Then she heard the outer door of the drawing room car open and footsteps in the passage that led to the inner door.

  Somebody came into the car and for a moment she dared not look – she dared not even breathe.

  Then, as if she were forced to turn her head, she looked round.

  Standing looking at her was the Prince!

  For a second Vida thought that she must be dreaming. Then, as he came towards her, she gave a little cry that seemed to be strangled in her throat.

  He drew nearer still, and now, as if she suddenly came alive, Vida rose to her feet.

  “You are – here!” she managed to say in a voice that did not sound like her own. “B-but – why have you – come – ? Is something – wrong?”

  As she spoke, it flashed through her mind that perhaps he had come to tell her that her father had been arrested.

  But he was smiling as he put his arms around her and drew her close against him.

  “I have come, my darling, for you!” he said and his lips came down on hers.

  Vida did not understand, but as he kissed her, streaks of lightning flashed through her body.

  A wild, irresistible ecstasy seemed to rise like a flame that burnt against the fire on the Prince’s lips.

  He kissed her until she felt as if her whole being merged into him and she was no longer herself, but his and they were one.

  Then, as she felt the train begin to move and the wheels turn over on the rails beneath them, the Prince drew her down onto the sofa, still holding her closely in his arms.

  Only when he was kissing the softness of her neck as he had done before, did she ask,

  “Why – are you here? Oh, Ivan – what has happened?”

  “My darling, my sweet!” he said. “My heart, my life! Did you really think I could lose you?”

  “What – are you – saying?”

  “I am saying, my precious, that I am endangering your life and mine in a mad gamble and we must start praying that we will not be caught.”

  Vida put her hands flat on his chest, pushing him a little away from her.

  “Tell me – explain to me – what you are saying,” she begged. “I-I cannot understand.”

  He smiled at her before he replied,

  ‘There is only one thing to understand, which is that I love you!”

  “And I love you,” Vida replied, “but – I thought I should – never see you – again.”

  “I knew you were thinking that, my precious little love, but there was no way I could ask you to trust me.”

  He would have kissed her again, but Vida said,

  “I still don’t – understand.”

  The Prince pulled her close to him and said,

  “We are running away, my lovely one and, as I have already said, we must pray that we will reach the frontier without being apprehended.”

  “You mean – you are coming with – me?” Vida stammered.

  “I mean that I am going to marry you the moment we are out of Russia.”

  Vida drew in her breath and stared at him as if she thought that she could not have heard him aright.

  “M-marry me?”

  “You made it very clear that you would not accept my love any other way,” the Prince said with a hint of laughter in his voice.

  “But – you are to marry the – Princess Eudoxia!”

  “That was her idea, not mine.”

  “But – the Czar – ?”

  “The Czar will be very angry,” the Prince replied, “very angry indeed! However, once we are out of the country there is nothing he can do about it.”

  Vida stared at him in bewilderment.

  “But still I don’t understand. Surely he will confiscate – your castle, your estate – ?”

  “He is welcome to them!” the Prince said. “The only thing I want, my beautiful soul of my soul, is you!”

  “You – cannot be – serious!”

  “I am very serious,” the Prince answered.

  Vida felt the tears come into her eyes.

  “How can you do anything so wonderful – so marvellous?” she asked brokenly. “At the same time I cannot let you – do this for me.”

  “I think you will find it very hard to stop me.”

  “I love you. You know that I love you,” Vida declared, “But suppose you regret giving up all your – possessions – your wealth?”

  The Prince looked at her for a long moment.

  Then he said,

  “Are you afraid of being poor with me?”

  “No – of course not!” Vida replied. “I love you so overwhelmingly that if we had to live in a tent on the Hungarian steppes or in a little cottage in England, I would be supremely – blissfully – happy to share it with – you.”

  She spoke with a passionate note of sincerity in her voice that brought a look of tenderness to the Prince’s eyes that few people had ever seen.

  “I believe you really mean it!” he said slowly.

  “You know I mean it! But you have never been poor and, although Papa may spare me a little money, you would have to give up so many luxuries that I cannot believe that – any woman would be – worth it.”

  “Any woman would not be worth it! The only thing I am not giving up is you. You are different, my darling, and it is going to take me a lifetime to tell you how different you are.”

  “That is what I want you to say,” Vida said, “but I still think you don’t – understand.”

  “What do I not understand?”

  “That if we live like ordinary people you will not be important as you are now and you will not be able to enjoy the – perfection that you are – always seeking.”

  She gave a little cry and then said,

  “I have to make you – think of this before you do anything – irrevocable, something you may – later regret.”

  She moved a little way from the Prince and added, not looking at him,

  “Have you thought of what – life would be like without so many – servants – without your outstandingly beautiful horses – without your private train?”

  She drew in her breath before she went on.

  “You have always been able to entertain your friends in unsurpassed luxury, travel wherever you want to go and do a million things which I told you once made you – seem like a – genie.”

  Her voice dropped a little lower before she asked,

  “Can you – really be sure – that I am – worth all that?”

  The Prince reached out his hand to turn her face towards him and cried,

  “Look at me, Vida! Look into my eyes!”

  She thrilled at his touch and obeyed him.

  As her eyes met his, she could feel their vibrations joining in that inexplicable and magnetic way that they had joined before.

  It told her that whatever happened she would never find another man to take his place.

  “I love you,” the Prince said in
his deep voice, “and you love me! Do you think anything in the world could matter beside what we feel for each other?”

  “Not – where I am – concerned,” Vida whispered.

  He did not speak, but merely pulled her roughly against him and now he was kissing her with a fire that seemed to burn through her whole body.

  It was like diving into the heart of the sun.

  He kissed her until she felt that even if she died at this moment she would have touched perfection and nothing could ever be so wonderful again.

  Only when they were both breathless did the Prince say,

  “Do not argue with me any longer! I have no intention of listening! I know what I want, I know what I intend to have, and that is you!”

  “I love you – I love you!”

  He kissed her and then with his arms around her he said,

  “Say that again and again. It is all I want to hear.”

  For a moment Vida just closed her eyes because she felt moved by the glory of their love.

  Then she asked,

  “Tell me – exactly how you – got away and what is – happening.”

  “I only want to kiss you and go on kissing you,” the Prince replied, “but I understand you are curious.”

  “Very curious!” Vida whispered. “I still find it hard to believe that you are – really – here.”

  “I am here! I am not a genie and I am real!”

  His lips moved over the softness of her cheeks before he said,

  “After we are married, my darling, I will prove to you how real I am so that you will never doubt it again.”

  He kissed her straight little nose, each corner of her mouth and then when he would have kissed her lips she put up her hand to prevent him.

  “I am still – curious.”

  Even as she spoke, he felt her quiver against him and smiled.

  “You are trying to prevent me from doing what I want to do, which is to kiss you.”

  Then, as if he felt that that he had teased her enough, he said,

  “When the Czar told me I was to marry Eudoxia, I realised that she had set a trap for me and I was extremely angry!”

  “I knew – that.”

  “She has wanted to marry me for quite a time,” the Prince went on, “but very stupidly I did not take her seriously.”