A Sacrifice for Love Page 2

  The two girls kissed and Henriet exclaimed,

  “It’s angelic of you to come at once, I was so afraid that you would refuse and I want you so desperately.”

  “Of course I will always come when you want me,” Caterina replied. “What has happened? What is wrong?”

  Henriet looked over her shoulder and replied,

  “Don’t say a word until we are alone. I told Papa I wanted to give a party and have asked you to come to help me to choose the guests.”

  Feeling a little bewildered, Caterina said nothing more until they were in Henriet’s private rooms.

  They were at the far end on the first floor and it was a very comfortable suite with large bow windows looking out over the garden on one side and the lake on the other.

  The sun was streaming in through the windows and because Caterina knew it so well she felt almost as if she had come home.

  Henriet had followed her into the room and was now closing the door.

  Then, as she walked towards her, Caterina asked,

  “What has upset you? I can see you are worried.”

  “I am very worried and I thought, dearest, that you would be the only one who would be able to help me.”

  “Of course I will help you if I can. But what has happened?”

  Henriet paused for a second and then said almost in a whisper,

  “I am in love.”

  Caterina gave a little cry.

  “Oh, Henriet, how exciting, it is just what I hoped would happen to you. Who is it?”

  “That is the whole point,” Henriet replied.

  “Why? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing is wrong except that he is not important and I know that Papa will never let me marry him.”

  “Who is he?” Caterina enquired breathlessly.

  Henriet again looked over her shoulder at the door and then whispered,

  “He is Fritz Hofer. He is a Major in Papa’s own Regiment.”

  Caterina knew who he was. In fact he was a very handsome and impressive-looking man and she was not in the least surprised that Henriet, who had obviously seen him often, was in love.

  But she knew only too well that Henriet’s father, Prince Adolphus, would not allow his daughter to marry an ordinary soldier.

  “I am sorry, dearest,” she said, “I can see it is going to be difficult.”

  “It is worse than that – ”

  “In what way?” Caterina asked.

  “There is someone else Papa wants me to marry.”

  Caterina’s eyes opened even wider, but she waited without asking the obvious question.

  “He is an Englishman, a Duke.”

  “A Duke!” Caterina exclaimed, “but surely your father will want you to marry Royalty.”

  “Well the Duke is Royal in that his mother was Princess Lillian of Saxe-Coburg and a very close friend of Queen Victoria.”

  Caterina remembered that Queen Victoria had been married to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and the Duke was therefore related to the Queen.

  “And the Duke wants to marry you?” she asked her, trying to clarify the whole story in her mind.

  “I have not met him yet,” Henriet said, “but it has all been arranged by the Emperor who is very anxious for us to have a close tie with Great Britain.”

  “Have you been told that you must marry him?”

  “He is on his way now to stay with us and Papa told me last night that he is going to propose to me.”

  Henriet gave a deep sigh before she went on,

  “Both the Emperor and Queen Victoria think that it would be an excellent match, forming a tie between the two countries.”

  “But you are in love with someone else,” Caterina said softly.

  “I love Fritz. I love him with all my heart,” Henriet murmured. “And he loves me.”

  Caterina looked at her without asking her any more questions.

  Then Henriet continued,

  “We meet each other secretly at night in the garden and sometimes when it has been safe in parts of the Palace where no one goes after dark.

  “Fritz loves me because I am me and not because I am a Princess. I love him because he is the most charming, handsome and wonderful man in the whole world!”

  She clasped her hands together and looked towards Caterina as she pleaded,

  “Help me, Caterina. What can I do? How can I marry anyone else when I really love Fritz?”

  Because Caterina loved Henriet, she kissed her very gently and said,

  “I will help you in every way I can. But for the moment I cannot think of a solution. I suppose there is no chance of your being allowed to refuse the Duke?”

  “As far as I can make out, the Emperor has already told him that he is really delighted at the idea and he will do everything he can to put my country, by this marriage, under the protection of Great Britain.”

  “I suppose the real reason behind all this,” Caterina said, “is that they are frightened of the Russians who are making so much trouble in the Balkans. Also I suppose Germany is now so strong and perhaps dangerous since the unification of all its small Kingdoms and Principalities.”

  Henriet, who had never been particularly interested in politics, said,

  “I don’t care what they do about the country. It’s me I am worrying about.”

  “Of course you are, dearest, but I cannot think for the moment what you can do.”

  There was silence and then Caterina enquired,

  “Have you told your father that you have no wish to marry anyone you have never even met and know nothing about?”

  “Papa was totally elated at the suggestion of this marriage which he received from the Emperor himself. As you can imagine, he did not even ask me what I felt about it, let alone ask for my consent.”

  “Oh, poor Henriet. I have always understood that Emperors and Kings do behave like this, but never thought I would actually see it happening in our lives.”

  “Well, it’s happening in mine! Oh, Caterina, you have to help me! I cannot marry this man! I would rather kill myself.”

  “You are not to talk like that. You know how much you mean to me and so many people love you.”

  “So does Fritz,” Henriet cried, “and I love him too with all my heart and soul. No other man could ever mean anything to me.”

  Caterina sighed.

  “But, my dearest, you will have to try to like your husband, whoever he is.”

  “If he is not Fritz, I will hate him and I will do everything to make him hate me, so that he does not want to touch me.”

  She then jumped up from the sofa where they were sitting and walked towards the window.

  “How can I let any man touch me except Fritz? As he has said, we belong to each other so closely that we are already one person.”

  Caterina could not help thinking that was exactly the way people should feel when they were in love and, of course, that was exactly what every woman would wish her husband to say to her.

  “What shall I do? What shall I do?” Henriet asked wildly.

  “When is the Duke arriving?” Caterina asked.

  “Tonight! He is coming here to dinner and he has already told Papa that he would like the marriage to take place as soon as possible – as he has many important duties to perform in England. The Queen finds him so useful that he has promised her that he will be away for as short a time as possible.”

  “So he intends to marry you at once,” Caterina said, feeling it could not be true.

  “From what Papa has said, I have only a few days to put my trousseau together before leaving with the Duke for to England. Oh, Caterina – what can I do? Where can I run to – where they will not find me?”

  She then threw herself down beside Caterina on the sofa and burst into tears.

  Caterina put her arms round her.

  “It’s no use crying,” she said. “We have to think of some clever way to save you, but you realise what that will mean?”

  “It will mean,
” Henriet sobbed, “that I – will surely be thrown out of the Palace – and made an exile. But – I don’t care.”

  Her tears choked her for a moment and then she went on,

  “Fritz is rich and we will not starve. We will have – to live in another country, but that does not worry him.”

  “But you cannot do it, you just cannot. Think of the scandal it will cause and all the trouble there will be.”

  “I will not marry this English Duke. You must tell me how I can escape with Fritz before the ring is actually – on my finger.”

  Caterina looked at her and held her closer.

  “It’s no use crying, dearest, it’s no use making wild statements. We have to think of this quietly and seriously to see what we can do.”

  “What can we do?” Henriet sobbed. “If I tell Papa – I will not marry the Duke, he will force me to do it – somehow. I am sure – he will.”

  Caterina took her arms from round her friend and rose from the sofa. She walked over to the window and looked out at the garden.

  The flowers were very beautiful, but she thought that however beautiful the surroundings were, it was cruel to force someone as sensitive as Henriet to marry a man she had not even seen.

  Not only to Prince Adolphus but to the Emperor, it was the country that counted. Women were just pawns in their hands to be manipulated so they could win the game.

  And what the poor pawn felt was of no relevance whatsoever.

  Yet, because she was so well read, Caterina could understand the situation.

  Balkan rulers were continually appealing to Queen Victoria to send them a bride who would enable them to fly the Union Jack and they could then defy the Russians!

  Now almost the same applied to Austria.

  The Russians so far had left her alone, but they were extending their Empire and they were already on the frontier of much of Austria.

  Austria had gained a certain amount of territory in the past years, but at this very moment Russia undoubtedly presented a menace they could not ignore.

  From what she had read, Caterina was aware that the Russians had no wish to fight Great Britain. In point of fact they could not afford to do so.

  That was why each endangered Balkan Principality begged Queen Victoria to save them and this Her Majesty could do by sending them a British Queen to fly the Union Jack beside their flag. Even the Emperor of Austria had encouraged nearby small Principalities to do the same.

  It was no use, Caterina thought, explaining all this to Henriet as she would not listen.

  She was in love and because Caterina knew her so well, she was sure that it was no passing fancy and that everything Henriet did she did wholeheartedly and with her mind, her body and her soul.

  That was very obviously how she loved Major Fritz Hofer.

  “Are you really certain,” she asked, “that, if you quarrel with your father over this, Major Hofer will still love you and want you?”

  “Of course he will. He has already begged me to run away with him, but I am so afraid that, as he is in the Army, he will be dragged back and certainly arrested, if not shot as a deserter.”

  Caterina drew in her breath.

  This would be a terrible thing to happen and it would destroy Henriet’s happiness for the rest of her life.

  There really seemed no alternative to her accepting the decision of the Emperor and her father, but she felt that the way they were handling it was positively brutal.

  ‘The country may mean everything to them,’ she mused, ‘but surely they cannot expect Henriet to feel the same as they do about it?’

  Henriet was wiping away her tears.

  “What am I to do – Caterina?” she asked again in a broken little voice. “I never thought – anything like this would ever happen to me.”

  “I did not expect it to happen either,” Caterina said. “All I can suggest is that you meet the Duke and perhaps you will find him not as horrible as you think he will be.”

  “If he was the Archangel Gabriel,” Henriet replied, “he would still not be Fritz and Fritz is the only man who has ever mattered or will ever mean anything in my life.”

  She spoke sincerely and Caterina knew it was true.

  At the same time she was thinking wildly how she could possibly help her friend.

  How she could prevent her, as she feared she might do, from trying to commit suicide rather than marry the Duke. She was quite certain, because she knew Henriet so well, that it was something she really might do.

  Other people would talk about dying, but had no intention of killing themselves.

  But Henriet was impulsive and she had given her heart and, as she said, her soul to Fritz Hofer.

  She was therefore perfectly capable of dying rather than lose him by being forced to marry the Duke.

  ‘What can I do to help?’ Caterina asked herself.

  There seemed to be nothing, but nothing she could do and then, as Henriet continued to cry, she suddenly sat up,

  “I think I know what we can do.”

  “What is that?” Henriet asked weakly.

  “We must meet the Duke and see if there is any chance of his being on your side rather than your father’s. We will not have to ask him questions, we will know when we meet him what kind of man he is.”

  “You think he might agree that we are not suited to each other and might then return to England without me?” Henriet asked hopefully.

  “It’s just a chance. If you like, I will talk to him and tell him that you are in love with someone else.”

  “Oh, Caterina, if you did that, perhaps he will agree and make his excuses to the Emperor.”

  Caterina thought that this was most unlikely, but it would give her time to think and plan some other way out.

  Although so far it seemed impossible, there could be one and she could not leave her friend so unhappy.

  Or risk her taking her life, as she might easily do.

  ‘I can only pray,’ she thought to herself, ‘that I can find some way out of this. I am sure there must be one.’

  She walked to the window again as if the flowers in the garden below somehow gave her strength.

  But she knew that what she was up against was almost insoluble.

  If the Emperor had decided to accept the Duke and so did Prince Adolphus, then no pleadings, no arguments and certainly no threats would move them.

  Her father had often laughed at the pomposity of those in authority and he had at the same time admitted that they were right in doing what was best for the country, even though a great number of people thought differently.

  “If you don’t have strong Rulers who are firm and determined when it comes to diplomacy,” he said, “you can be quite certain that their countries will either fade into insignificance or be conquered by someone tougher than they are.”

  Caterina would often argue with him because they both enjoyed what her father called ‘a duel with words’ and yet she had to admit that he nearly always won.

  She knew that he, like a great number of others who were regularly at Court, was extremely worried.

  The behaviour of the Germans and Russians was completely unacceptable and it spelt danger to their weaker neighbours.

  On more than one occasion Prince Otto had been proved right in saying, ‘only a strong arm would make the Russians behave themselves’.

  He had been proved right when the Russian Army was within six miles of Constantinople and Queen Victoria had sent six Ironclads up the Dardenelles into the Sea of Marmara.

  On that occasion Britain had made her stance very clear that, if the Grand Duke Nicholas went any further, he would be obliged to fight the British as well as the Turks.

  The Grand Duke on being forced to turn back had said miserably,

  “The British have cost me one hundred thousand trained men and more than that in money. There is one thing I am quite certain of, I am unable to fight them.”

  It was obvious, Caterina thought, that under the circum
stances, Austria would welcome British support and if the great-niece of the Emperor was married to a relative of Queen Victoria, what could be a better way of warning the Russians to go no further?

  She could see it all happening.

  But the one who suffered most would be Henriet.

  ‘I just have to do something for her,’ Caterina told herself. ‘I have to.’

  But for the moment she could think of nothing but what she had just suggested and not very confidently.

  The girls sat talking until one of the equerries came into the Princess’s sitting room.

  “I am sorry to disturb Your Highness,” he began, “but the Duke of Dunlerton is expected to arrive in a quarter-of-an-hour. His Royal Highness asks if you will be in the hall to greet him.”

  Then he saw Caterina and smiled,

  “I did not know Your Highness had arrived,” he said, “but it’s very nice to see you again.”

  “I am delighted to be back at the Palace,” Caterina replied.

  As soon as he had left the room, she said to Henriet,

  “Now come along. You have to look your best and behave as if nothing has happened to upset you.”

  “Why should I do that?” Henriet asked.

  “Because if your father should suspect that we are plotting against the Duke and trying to fight him, it will be impossible for us to do anything, although at the moment I have no idea what that can be.”

  Henriet was sensible enough to realise that this was true and then she replied,

  “All right, I will change and wash.”

  “And wipe away your tears,” Caterina suggested. “Be smiling and look pleased to see him.”

  “But I hate him! I am not pleased to see him!”

  “I know that,” Caterina answered. “But if he is at all suspicious, then everyone else there will be suspicious too and it will make it impossible for us to do or plan anything to avoid your marriage.”

  Henriet realised that this was common sense.

  “All right, Caterina, I will do exactly as you tell me, but I warn you I will want to scream when I see him and run as fast as I can to find my beloved Fritz.”

  “If you do anything like that Fritz will undoubtedly be arrested and thrown into prison.”

  Henriet stared at her in dismay.

  “If there is the slightest suspicion that you are even flirting with him, he will then be posted away somewhere miles away and perhaps you will never see him again.”