Rivals for Love Read online

  “Are you really suggesting,” said the Duke slowly, “that I find someone to come with me to St. Petersburg as my wife? But who will actually be a Nanny to prevent me from getting into trouble?”

  “That is certainly an idea. And if you did arrive as the Duke and Duchess of Sparkbrook, no one would query it.”

  “Then you must find me someone suitable to take with me, dear Violet, as I cannot imagine anyone of my acquaintance who could play the part without talking about it, and without, if I was not careful, taking me up the aisle immediately we return home, because I had ruined her reputation!”

  “I am sure that is all true. Oh, poor Varin, I am so sorry for you, but I am afraid you will just have to tell the Prime Minister he must find someone else to do his spying for him.”

  Before the Duke could reply the door opened and the butler entered.

  “Excuse me, my Lady, but Lady Maekin is here. Her Ladyship says you promised you would donate some objects to be auctioned at the Charity Ball she is hosting this evening.”

  Lady Violet put her hands to her forehead.

  “Of course I did and I had forgotten all about it. I am sure we can find something we don’t particularly like, but which would fetch a good price.”

  She rose from her chair.

  “Forgive me, Varin. I will not be a moment longer than I can help, but Lady Maekin is an old dear friend.”

  “There is no hurry,” the Duke assured her. “I will read the newspapers I see on the table. I did not have time to read them before I left this morning.”

  “I will just be as quick as possible,” promised Lady Violet, “but I have to find at least three things which are saleable.”

  She was still speaking as she walked out of the room.

  Elva had heard every word of their conversation.

  She pushed the books she had been holding in her hands back into their places on the shelf.

  Then she ran from the library into the study.

  As she rushed in closing the door behind her, the Duke was standing by the fireplace, holding The Morning Post in his hands and he looked up in surprise.

  Elva walked towards him.

  “I am your cousin Elva!”

  “But of course,” replied the Duke. “It is delightful to see you again, but you have grown a great deal since we last met.”

  Elva laughed.

  “I think that is true. I must have been about eight years old at the time!”

  She glanced over her shoulder as if to be certain the door was closed.

  “Now listen for a moment,” she began. “I have something to suggest to you which I think will solve your problem.”

  “My problem?” queried the Duke.

  “I have been listening while you were talking to Aunt Violet.”

  “Listening! How could you do that?”

  “I was in the next room and when I took some books down from a shelf, I could hear quite clearly what was said in this room.”

  “But you had no right to listen – ”

  “I listened in because your conversation with Aunt Violet really interested me,” Elva interrupted him, “and now I think I can help you.”

  The Duke looked at her.

  He considered that she certainly had grown into a beauty since he had last seen her, but he was certainly not interested in young girls. They were always being paraded in front of him by their ambitious mothers like spring foals at a Horse Fair.

  “I know from what Aunt Violet was telling you,” Elva was now saying, “that it would be unwise of you to go to Russia alone. However, you have already had opportunities to see the world, which I have not yet been allowed, so I will come with you as your wife!”

  “My wife!” cried the Duke, thinking he could not be hearing right.

  “It will only be pretence. I will just be acting the part and let me assure you that I have no wish whatsoever to marry you or anyone else for that matter. And from what I have heard you have no wish to be married either.”

  “That is perfectly true,” agreed the Duke. “I do not intend to be married until I am very much older. Then I will settle down in the country, which will undoubtedly be extremely boring.”

  “Not if you own the right horses,” quipped Elva. “But what concerns us at the moment is that you want to go to Russia – and so do I. I will go with you and pretend to be your Duchess, just as long as we are there. When we come home, I promise never to tell anyone, except Aunt Violet, what we have done.”

  The Duke smiled.

  “It is a very attractive idea and bright of you to think of it. But you know as well as I do that the family would be extremely shocked if they knew you had gone anywhere with a man – any man – without a chaperone.”

  “I have thought of that too. What we can do, if we are clever, is to tell Aunt Violet and make her swear she will never tell anyone else, that I am travelling to St. Petersburg with you pretending to be your wife.”

  Elva paused for breath.

  “You will tell her that you can provide a chaperone who will be only too delighted to accompany us as she has been recently bereaved and you want to cheer her up when she is so depressed.”

  The Duke laughed as if he could not help it.

  “Do you really think anyone would believe that cock and bull story?”

  “I think you are being rather stupid,” replied Elva. “I expect you will be going to Russia by sea, which is now possible if their war against Sweden is finally over.”

  “How do you know about the end of that war?” asked the Duke sharply.

  “I heard Uncle Edward telling Aunt Violet he had just heard the news at the Foreign Office yesterday. I expect if he has been told the war is over, it really is.”

  The Duke reflected that it was extremely tiresome that this girl should be listening at doors and keyholes. She knew secrets known only to those actively involved in affairs of State.

  However, before he could say anything Elva went on,

  “If you collect me either late at night or early in the morning, no one will see us go on board your yacht. You will tell Aunt Violet that you are picking up your aged friend at Tilbury.”

  The Duke did not speak and Elva smiled before she added,

  “Later if there is any enquiry and there is no reason why there should be, we merely say she did not turn up and as it was too late then to alter our plans, we simply went ahead.”

  The Duke was just about to complain that Elva was talking nonsense and say that he would never dream of becoming involved in any such foolish venture.

  Then it struck him that she might have a point.

  After all she was his cousin and he could therefore trust her. It would be madness to take anyone else who sooner or later would be bound to talk.

  Any scandal would surely do him immeasurable harm and in addition it could damage diplomatic relations between England and Russia.

  As if she knew what he was thinking, Elva blurted out,

  “You do see that, whilst you can trust me, you would be extremely foolish to trust anyone else.”

  “How do I know I can trust you?”

  “First of all I am your relation, and I can assure you that I don’t want any scandal in our family any more than you do. And there would be a scandal if it became known that you had taken even a pretend wife with you to Russia.”

  “That is why I cannot do it, Elva.”

  “In which case you cannot go as I am convinced that Aunt Violet has told you the truth. I have read about Russia and heard about the Empress’s behaviour and nothing would surprise me.”

  The Duke could not help admitting to himself that she was making sense, but all the same he longed to tell her it was all nonsense.

  He strode across the room and back again.

  Then Elva said,

  “Of course we could go to Russia without telling Aunt Violet. But if I did suddenly disappear overnight, there would be a hue and cry. If you think it out, there is no reason why you, as a kindly
and much older relation, should not take me on a trip.”

  She paused for a moment, but the Duke still did not speak, so she continued,

  “It is a trip which most young women would enjoy, because as well as the beautiful Palaces to visit there are doubtless, in Russian Society, as many balls and parties as there are in London.”

  The Duke remained sullen and she exclaimed,

  “Oh, come on, Cousin Varin, make up your mind one way or the other! I promise I will behave extremely well and do exactly what you tell me to do. It is really a case, as you well know, of me or no one.”

  As if he could not help himself the Duke chuckled.

  “You are incorrigible and I believe that Cousin Violet will forbid me to do anything so outrageous as to carry you off to Russia.”

  “Very well then, if she does, you will just have to find someone else or make up your mind to enjoy being with the Empress and having to comply with whatever she suggests.”

  Despite himself the Duke felt himself shudder.

  He was exceedingly fastidious about himself and he always made every woman he made love to feel that she was most fortunate in being able to capture his attention if only for a short time.

  He was not aware of it, but behind his back even his friends laughed at how quickly his love affairs came and went. Some of them coming to an end even before the gossips realised that they had even begun.

  The Duke often thought he was probably very foolish, but the slightest thing could put him off.

  He had ceased to be enamoured of one outstanding beauty just because she constantly fidgeted with her rings, turning them round and round on her fingers. This habit irritated him and he left her.

  Another used far too much scent and he felt almost asphyxiated by it. Yet another lisped her words which he found annoyed him.

  The mere idea of having to make love to a woman of sixty, whoever she might be, made him shudder again.

  He did not question for a second that his Cousin Violet’s warning was indeed the truth. She would know better than anyone else how vitally important it was for him to do whatever the Prime Minister required of him.

  If he was going anywhere else, he knew quite well that she would encourage him, finding out for him all the information he needed to know.

  No one understood the protocol of the Diplomatic Service better than Violet did. Her husband Edward was an extremely clever man and he would never have reached the top so quickly if it had not been for his intelligent, sympathetic and beautiful wife.

  The Duke was still hesitating when Lady Violet came back into the room.

  “I am sorry to have been so long,” she began and then noticed Elva in the room.

  “Oh, I am so glad you are here, Elva, and that you have met your Cousin Varin again. It must be a long time since you last saw each other.”

  “We have been talking about that,” said the Duke.

  “I have also,” Elva joined in, “found a solution to his problem.”

  Lady Violet looked towards her niece in surprise and Elva explained.

  “I am sorry, Aunt Violet, but this is something you should know because it might be dangerous. I could hear everything you and Cousin Varin said while I was in the library.”

  Lady Violet gave a little gasp.

  “I remember now,” she said, “I meant to have the wall between these two rooms properly blocked up, but I forgot about it while I was away.”

  “Well, having overheard you both, I have now told Cousin Varin how he can go to St. Petersburg and avoid becoming involved with the Empress.”

  “What I said,” protested Lady Violet sharply, “was certainly not for your ears.”

  “I know,” admitted Elva, “and you must forgive me for overhearing your conversation. But you know how much I want to get away from London and to travel. This is the miracle I was hoping would happen and it will not only help me, but Cousin Varin as well.”

  Lady Violet looked at the Duke.

  “What has she suggested?” she asked him suspiciously.

  “It is that she should travel to Russia with me and to protect me from the Empress we will pretend that she is my wife. Of course we should have a chaperone with us, which as it happens I am able to provide.”

  Lady Violet sat down on the sofa.

  “You take my breath away. I know Elva wants to travel, but I never in my wildest dreams thought of her travelling with you!”

  “I promise I will look after her,” volunteered the Duke gamely.

  “And it is not as if we are going away for a very long time,” added Elva. “I want to journey all over the world, but it will be very exciting to visit St. Petersburg first and, although my Russian is not perfect, I could learn a great deal more than I know already before we arrive.”

  “You speak Russian!” quizzed the Duke.

  “Not nearly as well as French and German, but I can make myself understood and I can follow most of what anyone is saying to me.”

  “That is certainly an asset,” mused the Duke. “I am afraid my Russian is rather feeble. I have only spent a short time in the Caucasus and that is all.”

  “Oh, I have read about the Caucasus. It must have been an enthralling trip.”

  “It was, but you would have certainly found it most uncomfortable and at times extremely dangerous.”

  “I should have loved every moment of it!” declared Elva enthusiastically.

  She smiled before she added,

  “Just as I know I shall love visiting St. Petersburg and helping you discover everything you want to know about Russian intentions in the Black Sea.”

  Lady Violet stretched out her hands.

  “Stop! Stop!” she called. “You are going too fast. I just cannot believe that either of you think this ridiculous idea is feasible. How can you, Varin, possibly arrive in St. Petersburg with your wife when no one knows you are married?”

  “But no one in England knows I am going to St. Petersburg,” retorted the Duke. “And I do not suppose they will know in Russia if I am married or not.”

  He paused for a moment.

  “What I have actually organised with the Prime Minister is that I will travel by sea in my yacht to the Gulf of Finland, and when I arrive I will ask for the privilege of conveying to the Empress a message of goodwill from the King of England.”

  “What will that be?” asked Lady Violet.

  “I think from what I have just gathered that His Majesty should be pleased that the war with Sweden has come to an end. It was in many ways interfering with our shipping in the North Sea.”

  Lady Violet nodded as if she thought this at least was a good idea.

  Then she said,

  “Are you really prepared to look after and, I must say, control Elva? She knows that I love her very much, but she is very impulsive and she has an obsession that she must travel the world. I am only frightened that when you reach Russia, you will find her persuading you to go down to the Black Sea or to join in the Turkish war!”

  “I promise you she will do none of those things as long as she is with me,” asserted the Duke. “She has also assured me that if I do take her she will do exactly what I tell her.”

  Lady Violet glanced at Elva as if she thought this was most unlikely.

  But Elva came in quickly,

  “I promise, I swear I will keep my promise. Oh, please, Aunt Violet, do let me go! I will never again have the chance of going to Russia, for I am sure Papa will only be interested in travelling to European countries.”

  “The whole idea is just completely and absolutely mad,” insisted Lady Violet. “But if, Varin, you really do believe this will help you and Elva promises to behave herself, it would at least save you from what I feel might become an exceedingly uncomfortable situation when you reach St. Petersburg.”

  She spoke a little hesitatingly.

  She considered it regrettable that Elva should have overheard everything she was telling the Duke privately about the Empress and her lovers.


  But now that Elva had indeed listened in, there was nothing she could do about it.

  She could only be thankful that the Duke would not be finding himself in a completely impossible position, such as she happened to know other men had experienced when they visited Russia.

  She had fortunately not said as much as she might have done about the Empress’s obsession for young men.

  Everyone in St. Petersburg was gossiping about her behaviour. There were jokes about her and just before she and Edward left the City, one of her friends had told her that Prince Potemkin was returning to St. Petersburg.

  He was most distressed and upset by Catherine’s obsession for Platon Zubov.

  In the Russian language zubov is the word for tooth and according to Lady Violet’s friend, Potemkin had written to the Empress telling her he was returning as soon as possible to see her and ‘extract a painful tooth’!

  The Empress apparently ignored the pun, but had not believed it was possible for him to leave the Army at such a crucial time.

  Yet Lady Violet did consider, however successful Potemkin was in Kiev and the Crimea, that he would have no wish to lose the Empress and there was no doubt in the Palace that Zubov had a far greater hold over the Empress than any of his predecessors.

  She had been silent now for a few moments and watching her Elva felt it was impossible for her to breathe.

  She felt as if her whole life depended on her aunt’s decision.

  To her the situation seemed very simple indeed. If she and the Duke were intelligent about it, no one would ever know the truth.

  Because the Duke was waiting too, Elva felt she could bear the suspense any longer.

  “What you must say to Papa, Aunt Violet, is that I am going abroad with some friends and staying with them in either Portugal or Spain for just a few weeks.”

  She saw her aunt was listening to her intently.

  “Papa will think they are friends I have met while I have been in London and will not ask any questions. If he does, you do not know the answers. But by the time he is becoming worried or upset by my disappearance we will doubtless be back home.”