The Peril and the Prince Page 14

“You mean – so many women have wanted the same thing that you – thought it was – unimportant!”

  “I did not intend to marry anybody,” the Prince replied, “until I met you.”

  “Oh, Ivan, do you – really want to marry me?”

  “I knew from the very first moment I saw you that you were different from anybody I had ever met before, and that you attracted me almost unbearably.”

  He smiled down at her and went on.

  “If I had known that you were your father’s daughter, I think I would have asked you to marry me on the first night you came to The Castle!”

  “But instead – you suggested something – very different!”

  “That was your fault, pretending to be a widow and an experienced woman, even though my instinct told me otherwise. That made me think I could make you mine and still remain free.”

  “But – why do you not want – that now?”

  “Because you are my ‘Dream-Come-True’, the woman I have always wanted as my own, the woman to whom, strange though it may seem, I shall be faithful for the rest of my life.”

  The way he spoke made Vida feel as if he was enveloped by the Divine Light she had seen around him before.

  All she could do was to make a sound of utter happiness and put her head against his shoulder.

  “When you closed the Gates of Paradise against me,” the Prince said, “I knew I could never lose you.”

  “So, after I had – gone away, you – followed me.”

  “I followed you and I also wanted to rescue your father. Apart from adoring you and worshipping the ground you stand on, I am also very proud, very proud indeed, to marry the daughter of a man I admire more than any other man I have ever known.”

  Vida felt the tears come into her eyes.

  “How can you say anything so – marvellous,” she asked, “and which makes me so – happy?”

  The Prince kissed her forehead before he said,

  “I feel that I have fought a million battles for you. I can never begin to describe what I felt when the Czar announced his permission and approval for my marriage to Eudoxia.”

  “You did not think that it was – something you – should do?”

  “I knew it was something I had no intention of doing,” the Prince answered sharply. “But, my precious, my only chance of escaping and, incidentally, yours, was for me to pretend to agree and to make myself pleasant to Eudoxia. As you must realise, as a Romanov, she can be very vindictive and also very dangerous.”

  Vida gave a little shiver.

  “Do you mean – she might injure – me?”

  “If she even thought that there was any likelihood of my being here at this moment,” the Prince said in a hard voice, “she would undoubtedly have you killed and I should be on my way to Siberia!”

  Vida gave a cry of horror.

  “Suppose – suppose that – happens to you – now?”

  “That is what we have to avoid,” the Prince said in a quiet voice.

  “Tell me – tell me – exactly what you have planned.”

  Vida knew as she spoke that once again she was almost frantic with terror, not for herself, but for the Prince.

  For the moment she could think only of him, of him dying in the salt mines or being tortured by the Czar’s Secret Police.

  It made her feel that to give him up when she loved him so much was a sacrifice she must make, whatever the cost to her.

  “I-I cannot – allow you to do this!” she said.

  “It is too late now to stop me,” the Prince replied. “As you must have guessed, my precious, while the train carried you away from the station at Kiev so that the Palace officials were able to tell Eudoxia that you had left, you were actually only five miles outside the city.”

  “Then you rode home,” Vida said, following what he was saying. “Did no one see you leave the Palace?”

  “My men were waiting for me as I had arranged and they had told the grooms in the stables that they had been ordered by me to go on special night manoeuvres to test themselves and their horses in the dark.”

  Vida was listening intently as he went on.

  “When I joined them, enveloped in a military cloak, I looked just like them and the grooms had no idea that I was not an ordinary soldier.”

  “Then you came to me here.”

  “I had given my orders where the train was to wait. It is an isolated place where it is very unlikely that anybody will report its presence.”

  Vida gave a sigh.

  “You make it sound so easy,” she said, “but what happens – now?”

  “Now we are making for Cernauti,” he said, “which is the nearest foreign frontier town to Kiev.”

  “That is in Rumania.”

  “What does it matter where it is so long as it is out of Russia?” the Prince asked. “Unless we are delayed, we should cross the frontier tomorrow about noon and I reckon we have a start of at least seven or eight hours before anybody realises that I am not asleep in the Palace.”

  “Oh, darling,” Vida cried, “I am praying that yet another of your plans will work out perfectly and this time it is rather more important than any of the others.”

  “Very much more important!” the Prince agreed.

  “When we reach Rumania, where are we going?”

  “I will tell you a little later how we are to cross the frontier,” he said, “and after that we are going to another of my castles, which I hope you will appreciate. It is in the centre of Hungary and is where my horses come from.”

  Vida looked up at him and exclaimed,

  “I had forgotten you had other houses! I remember now you have a villa in Monte Carlo.”

  “I have a castle in Hungary,” the Prince said, “which is, or will be, in many ways as beautiful as the one I am leaving behind in Russia.”

  He knew what she was feeling without her saying so and he asked her gently,

  “Does it make you happier to know that I am not going to be as poverty-stricken as you thought?”

  “Very – very – happy!”

  “I will let you into a secret. I have been expecting something like this to happen for some time.”

  “You have?”

  “Not that I should marry anybody as wonderful, as beautiful, as perfect as you are, my angel, but there was always the chance that in the course of my various activities with your father and others like him, I should be caught out and discovered.”

  He paused and Vida asked,

  “What did you do?”

  “The moment the Czar told me I was to marry Eudoxia,” the Prince replied, “I sent a message to put into operation the removal, as I had planned it, of my treasures from The Castle.”

  Vida looked at him wide-eyed as he went on.

  “Vans have been travelling all day, taking them over the border into Hungary.”

  “I don’t – believe it!”

  “It is true,” the Prince smiled. “Of course not everything will be saved, but I hope to have got away the most valuable of my pictures, my icons, ivories, porcelain and the gold plates and goblets that have been in my family for generations.”

  Vida gave a cry of excitement.

  “It is so like you and I am glad, so very – very glad! I shall – not feel so – guilty for allowing you to – elope with me.”

  “I do not feel in the least guilty,” the Prince insisted. “I think, my precious, it is a very exciting way to start our life together and something we shall always remember.”

  “I shall always – remember what you have – given up for me,” Vida said softly.

  She felt that the Prince did not understand and went on.

  “You are Russian and are giving up your country you love and your position at Court which I well know to every Russian is of great importance.”

  “It is, of course, very important,” the Prince agreed, “except for one thing.”

  “What is that?”

  “Love is more important than anything
else, the love that all Russians seek in their souls, but so seldom find.”

  He spoke very solemnly as he continued,

  “My love for you is totally different from what I have felt for any other woman and, as you are aware, there have been many of them. I have enjoyed them, they have attracted me, charmed my eyes, my mind and sometimes my heart. But not one of them and this is the truth, my lovely Vida, has touched my soul.”

  He gave a very soft laugh as he said,

  “I began to think that such a thing was impossible and that I would never find the woman whose love would make me feel as if she was enveloped with the Light of the Divine, because she came from God.”

  Vida knew that this was what she had felt about him.

  What he said made her so happy that she could only stretch out her arms and pull his head down to hers.

  Once again he kissed her and carried her up towards the stars.

  Then they talked until dawn came.

  After that the Prince insisted that Vida go to bed and rest.

  “We have things to do later in the day,” he said, “for which we must have all our wits about us and therefore you must rest, my precious.”

  “I don’t want – to leave you,” Vida whispered.

  “Once we are married, as I intend we shall be by tomorrow evening,” the Prince replied, “or at the very latest the following day, then you will never leave me for one moment. Go to sleep for a few hours, my darling, and dream of me, as I shall be dreaming of you.”

  He drew her into the bedroom and waited while she climbed into bed, then he tucked her in and kissed her very gently on the lips.

  “I love you! I adore you! I worship you!” he said. “Now and for all eternity!”

  *

  Vida was awoken by Margit bringing her a cup of coffee and saying,

  “His Highness is waiting for you in the drawing room car.”

  “Why did you not tell me sooner?’ Vida asked. “I might have been with him!”

  “He’s been asleep, just as you have, Miss Vida,” Margit replied.

  Suddenly there were tears in her eyes.

  “Oh, Miss Vida, His Highness says you’re to be married and I don’t know if I’m on my head or my heels!”

  “Yes – we are to be married,” Vida said, “and I am happy, Margit, so very very happy.”

  “I never thought it’d happen, not in a million years! But he’s everythin’ a woman could want in a man and there’s no denyin’ that.”

  “No, Margit, and I shall not attempt to deny it!” Vida laughed.

  She got out of bed and washed, then, as she looked for her clothes, Margit brought her a peasant dress.

  She looked at it in astonishment and Margit explained,

  “His Highness said you are to put this on and I’m to do your hair in two plaits as if you were a young girl of about sixteen.”

  “I-I don’t understand.”

  “I expect His Highness will tell you his plan,” Margit said, “but remember, we all have to get across the frontier.”

  Vida suddenly felt afraid again.

  They might be prevented from leaving Russia, at least held in custody until instructions arrived from the Czar’s Secret Police.

  She put on the peasant clothes, which were not new. They had been patched in places, and the blouse had been skilfully darned where there were tears on the sleeves.

  There was a woollen shawl to go round her shoulders and it had obviously been washed a number of times.

  There were rough shoes for her feet and socks instead of stockings for her legs.

  She felt a little shy and very unlike herself as she went into the drawing room car, where the Prince was waiting for her.

  He smiled at her appearance and, as he rose, Vida ran towards him to say,

  “What is this all about? Why do you want me to dress like this?”

  He pulled her down on the sofa beside him.

  Then he said,

  “We have made very good progress, my darling – in fact, I have never known my train to go so fast. But we have to be very careful, as you will doubtless understand.”

  “Of course,” Vida said, “but what are we to do?”

  “When we have had our luncheon,” the Prince answered, “we shall arrive at a small station which is about five miles short of the border.”

  Vida listened as he went on.

  “We are going to get out there and we will wait for the ordinary afternoon train which goes to Cernauti. After we have passed into Rumania, my own train, which will be waiting in a siding, will follow us. If it is searched, as I expect it will be, there will be nobody on board except for the attendants.”

  “Do you think they will let it through?”

  “I am sure they will,” the Prince said. “They will have no excuse not to, for they will be told it has been sent to collect a number of my guests who are coming to stay with me at my castle.”

  “It sounds a – very clever plan,” Vida said, but there was a tremor in her voice.

  She felt afterwards that she had underestimated the Prince by being in the least bit nervous.

  A quarter of a mile before the station he had spoken about, which was situated in a wooded part of the country, the Prince’s train came to a halt and there stepped out an elderly farmer – Henri, his wife Margit, and their daughter, Vida.

  They set off to walk towards the station, appearing a little tired after what had been an excursion into Russia to see some friends and relatives.

  When they arrived on the platform, there were a number of young Hungarian Hussars returning from Russia to their own country in a train which passed through the North of Rumania and from there into Hungary.

  The Hussars were wearing somewhat worn uniforms, but the Officer in charge looked very elegant with his coat, as was traditional in Hungarian uniform, hanging over one shoulder.

  He also wore a curly black moustache and except that she vibrated towards him, Vida would have found it hard to recognise him as the Prince.

  The soldiers were all laughing and talking and making jokes and the few Russians in charge of the station took no notice of the farmer with his wife and daughter who sat down on a wooden seat to await the arrival of the train.

  When it came in, it was already filled with a miscellaneous collection of passengers – Ukrainians, Russians and quite a number of Bulgarians.

  The soldiers piled into the cheapest carriages, which already seemed overcrowded.

  The Officer travelled alone and the farmer and his wife and daughter occupied the next carriage, which was slightly more expensive than the one the soldiers were travelling in.

  The train started off again and fifteen minutes later they were at the frontier.

  There were a number of soldiers on the Russian side to inspect the papers of the travellers, but being mostly Ukrainians they looked at them in a perfunctory manner.

  They were far more pleasant, Vida was sure, than the Russians would have been in the Balkan States.

  At the same time she felt tense and afraid until the papers Henri handed to the soldier were returned and he climbed out of the carriage, slamming the door behind him.

  A few minutes later they were over the border.

  The inspection in Rumania was very casual, in fact the soldier inspecting the travellers merely looked through the windows and never even asked for their papers.

  As the engine gathered speed, Margit leaned back and exclaimed,

  “Thank God! We are free, and I wouldn’t go back even if somebody gave me a million pounds!”

  Vida slipped her hand into the old maid’s.

  “You have been wonderful, Margit dear,” she said, “and now all we have to do is to find Papa and live happily ever afterwards.”

  When a half hour later she joined the Prince on the station platform of a small town, she felt as if they were both enveloped by a rainbow.

  They did not say very much. He stood beside her and ten minutes later the white and
red train with his Coat of Arms emblazoned on it came puffing towards them.

  When they had stepped into the drawing room car and the train had started off again, he pulled off his moustache, threw his Hussar’s hat onto the floor and took Vida in his arms.

  Then he kissed her wildly, passionately, and with an intensity that told her, despite his outward confidence and calmness, he had been desperately afraid that at the last moment his plan might have gone wrong.

  “We have – won! We have – won!” the Prince cried. “The only thing that really matters, my precious, is that you are safe and, although it may not be possible for us to be married tonight, we will be married first thing tomorrow morning, when we reach my castle.”

  “We must let Papa know where we are.”

  “I have already sent a telegram to tell him to join us,” the Prince replied.

  “You think of everything!”

  “I think of you,” he answered, “and, as you want what I want, that is not very difficult.”

  He kissed her again.

  They had a delicious dinner and when the table was cleared away they sat on the sofa and Vida put her head on the Prince’s shoulder and said,

  “How can all this have happened? If I had not defied the Marquis of Salisbury by going to Russia to find Papa, we would never have met.”

  “I think these things are ordained,” the Prince said, “and, my beautiful one, we have been journeying towards each other since the beginning of time. Tomorrow we will be one person and nothing will ever separate us again.”

  “Are you – sure of that?” Vida asked. “Even now I am – afraid that at the last moment – something may happen.”

  “It is too late for fears, doubts, or anything else except love.”

  He held her against him and said,

  “I love you! God, how I love you! If you ever tried to run away from me again, I think I would kill you!”

  She laughed up at him but she knew from the deep tone of his voice and the expression in his eyes that he meant what he said.

  “I could never leave you,” she sighed. “I will love you and look after you and prevent you from going into danger – and of course – try to make you happy.”

  “That is all I want you to say. In the meantime, we will start a new life in Hungary or if you prefer it we could go to France.”