A Royal Rebuke Page 5

  “I know that – of course I know that!” the Princess said. “But I am frightened now when I – think about it.”

  “Of course you are, ma’am,” Lord Victor agreed, “but you have to remember that what is of first importance is the safety of thousands of people who will suffer if their country is overrun by an enemy and the one person who can prevent that from happening in Zararis is you!”

  “I know that,” Princess Sydella said. “As my grandfather explained it all to me – I am really only a political pawn. But I still breathe and – feel like any other girl!”

  “That is true,” Lord Victor agreed. “At the same time you are a very special person and that is why you have to think in a totally different way from how you have done before.”

  “I am trying to do that,” the Princess said, “but I cannot – change the way I feel and – I know that what I really want – and what perhaps I shall never be allowed to have is – love.”

  Her voice was very soft and she almost whispered the word.

  Lord Victor was thinking despairingly that there was absolutely nothing he could do to help her.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The sea had subsided and the sun was shining brightly.

  The roughness and turmoil of the Bay of Biscay was almost forgotten.

  Princess Sydella stretched out her legs in the place that Lord Victor had found her on the windward side of the Battleship.

  “Do you think they would be very surprised,” she asked him, “if I took off my stockings?”

  “Took off your stockings?” he repeated in a surprised voice. “Why should you want to do that?”

  “I like the sun on my skin,” she said, “and it’s very hot here.”

  “I think your Ladies-in-Waiting would be extremely shocked at such an exposure,” Lord Victor said, but his eyes were twinkling.

  The Princess sighed.

  “It is always the same when it is anything I want to do,” she said. “It used to be ‘a lady does not do that’, now it will be ‘a Queen does not do that’, which will be even worse!”

  “I am sure it will,” Lord Victor said sympathetically, “and certainly as a Queen you must not shock anybody.”

  “Do you like seeing people who are not wearing a lot of clothes?” Princess Sydella asked unexpectedly.

  “What do you mean by that?” Lord Victor asked her.

  She did not answer immediately, but after a while said,

  “Tell me, I am interested. It is what the Ladies-in-Waiting were saying when they thought that I could not hear. They were saying that you are very infatuated with a beautiful lady in Paris and, when you went to visit her, she was only wearing a pearl necklace.”

  The Princess dropped her voice at the last words as if she too was rather shocked.

  Lord Victor could not help smiling to himself.

  He recalled the incident all too well, although he could not imagine how it reached the ears of the aged Ladies-in-Waiting.

  Then he remembered that some of his friends with him were members of White’s.

  If there was one place where the gossip went from mouth to mouth and ear to ear it was the White’s Club in St. James Street.

  What had happened just two months ago as Lord Victor told Queen Victoria, he had gone to Paris.

  There had been six of them and they went over especially for a party given by one of their friends who was celebrating his fortieth birthday.

  He had chosen what was usually a conventional family affair to go to Paris as a bachelor and he had invited a number of his men friends to accompany him.

  They knew more or less what to expect.

  When they arrived in Paris, they found that their host was giving a large dinner party in the house of one of the most famous cocottes in the City.

  The house was an extremely expensive one just off the Champs Élysées.

  The female guests were all famous courtesans of the day and they were exquisitely dressed and Lord Victor thought somewhat wryly that they would also be exceedingly expensive clothes.

  It was obvious that the dinner itself was the very finest a French chef could produce.

  There was pâté and caviar which had been brought from Russia for the occasion to start with. The truffles were the finest in France and the wines were all of the very best vintage.

  Lord Victor was not surprised to see that on every lady’s place at the table there was a delicately laundered table napkin and each one contained a banknote of one thousand francs.

  It was amusing to observe the way that the banknotes disappeared almost as soon as they were discovered.

  Yet undoubtedly they encouraged the conversation to be warmer and more animated from the moment they were received.

  It was a party that would have scandalised Queen Victoria, but one that Lord Victor knew he would always remember.

  Several of the women guests danced the can-can to amuse the men while they were still sitting at the table.

  It was certainly an elaboration of the can-can that Lord Victor had seen on the stage in Montmartre and it would by the way it was performed have been banned in any public place.

  It was received with noisy applause by the diners who embraced the dancers when it was finished and they plied them with more champagne as they sat on their knees to swill it down.

  Lord Victor remembered arriving back to where they were staying long after dawn had broken and he had slept until luncheon the following day.

  He thought that without exception that it was one of the most amusing if somewhat outrageous parties that he had ever attended.

  He did, however, remember that he had made an appointment for three o’clock that afternoon.

  It was with the charmer who had been sitting on his left hand side at the wild party and she had told him where her house was situated just off the Bois de Boulogne.

  When he was dressed, he felt more like himself and he then thought that it would be interesting to see if she was as beautiful in the daylight as she had seemed yesterday evening.

  The majority of his friends who had come from London with him had also made appointments and they had every intention of keeping them.

  Lord Victor set off on his own to drive to Madame Mimi’s house.

  He timed it so that he would arrive at exactly the time he had promised her that he would call.

  The house was small but from what he had heard last night, Madame Mimi could choose from among the richest men in Paris to be her protectors.

  When the door was opened by a very smartly dressed maid, he could see that the furniture was antique and in excellent taste and the pictures on the wall were all worthy of being in the Louvre.

  His top hat and his cane were taken from him and he was escorted up an attractive staircase to the first floor.

  The maid paused at the door of a room that Lord Victor thought would open onto a garden at the back.

  When the maid stood aside, he entered the room and heard the door close softly behind him.

  For a moment he thought that the room was empty.

  Then, at the far end in the sunshine streaming through the window, he saw that Madame Mimi was waiting for him.

  She was standing poised against a magnificent arrangement of yellow orchids, which must have cost a fortune. It was a superb background for her black hair, huge dark eyes and most of all for the whiteness of her skin.

  She was waiting for him and wearing only one piece of clothing and that was around her long neck.

  It was a perfect pearl necklace!

  As it flashed through Lord Victor’s mind, he realised that Princess Sydella was waiting for his answer.

  Choosing his words carefully, he said,

  “I admire beauty wherever I find it and beautiful women are invariably a joy to behold.”

  “I cannot understand,” the Princess replied, “why the lady was wearing only a necklace.”

  “You know as well as I do, ma’am, that the conversation was not meant for your
ears and let me say once and for all the ladies that you have heard about in Paris would not be accepted in your mother’s drawing room and certainly not in yours when you are the Queen.”

  “What I find difficult to understand,” the Princess retorted somewhat petulantly, “is that they can do all sorts of extraordinary things while you say it would shock people on board this ship if I just took off my stockings.”

  There was something very childlike in the way that she was arguing and Lord Victor thought for the thousandth time how difficult it would be for her in the future.

  How would she cope with the protocol and pomp that was inevitable in any Palace however small?

  Aloud he said,

  “What Your Royal Highness has to do is to enjoy yourself as much as you possibly can. You will be living in a very different world to the one you know already, so you have to accept what occurs and try not to let it upset you or in any way undermine you as the Queen.”

  “I cannot believe that I shall be upset or undermined,” the Princess said, “and I am much more likely to die of boredom than anything else.”

  “Now that is being very pessimistic,” Lord Victor said. “I am sure there will be many things to interest you that you have never seen before. There will be unusual people and I hope intelligent ones who will explain to you how you can help the country and, of course, the King.”

  There was silence and then she said,

  “Suppose the King – prefers ladies – like you visited in Paris and – finds me very – dull?”

  “I am sure that would be impossible,” Lord Victor replied. “No one could possibly call Your Royal Highness dull.”

  “Well that is one point in my favour. But – suppose – find him – very dull?”

  She spoke in a low voice as if she was worried about being overheard.

  Lord Victor thought that this was extremely likely, but there was nothing he could say and so he thought that his best course of action was to change the subject.

  The Princess was obviously intrigued by what she had heard had happened in Paris and before he could think of a subject they could discuss without embarrassment, she quizzed him,

  “Did you love the lady in Paris who was wearing only pearls around her neck?”

  “That is a question you must not ask me,” Lord Victor asserted.

  “Why not!” the Princess enquired.

  “Because that concerns my private life. Also, as I have already explained, the ladies at that particular party would never be accepted by your mother. And most certainly would never be referred to by Queen Victoria. In fact, if their names were mentioned at Windsor Castle, everyone would pretend that they did not exist.”

  “They – existed to – you,” the Princess insisted.

  “That is different,” Lord Victor replied.

  “Why is it different?”

  “Because I am a man.”

  “So men are allowed to meet strange ladies wearing no clothes, while women must just pretend they are not there.”

  “Now you have it exactly right,” Lord Victor said. “You must understand, Your Royal Highness, that at this moment we cannot discuss the subject any further.”

  “If I cannot discuss it with you or with anyone else, how am I going to learn about such things,” she asked.

  “There are many other subjects for you to be interested in, ma’am, that are not so improper for a Princess.”

  “Do you think I could persuade the King when I am married to him to take me to Paris?”

  “If you went to Paris, you would find it very dull,” Lord Victor said. “You would very likely be staying at your own Embassy and you would be allowed to dine at the British Embassy, the French Embassy and the Italian Embassy, but Montmartre and doubtless more amusing theatres would be banned to you, although you might be allowed to go to the Opera.”

  “Then it’s not fair,” the Princess retorted.

  “I think actually you will enjoy life in different ways without coming into contact with people who would mean absolutely nothing in your world or you in theirs.”

  It was difficult, Lord Victor thought, to try to explain to this child who was so innocent, the amusement of Paris for a man.

  It would never be tolerated by any of his womenfolk and he thought that it was typical of the old women to talk about it in front of the Princess.

  If they heard about such things as he supposed was inevitable, the least they could do was to keep their mouths shut.

  “Now let’s talk about something more interesting,” he suggested.

  “But I am interested in you,” the Princess protested. “I want to know what sort of women you think attractive and why you have never married anyone?”

  Lord Victor thought that he could answer the second question quite easily.

  He did not have enough money to get married and in addition he had not yet met anyone he wished to spend the rest of his life with.

  Almost as if she read his thoughts, the Princess enquired,

  “You must have been in love at some time or another or were the women you met just in love with you?”

  Lord Victor thought that the conversation was becoming far too intricate.

  Yet he did not see how he could stop it without being unkind.

  He therefore replied,

  “I hope I shall get married one day. But I shall not marry unless I fall very much in love.”

  The Princess gave a little cry.

  “So you were not in love with the woman wearing only a pearl necklace?”

  Lord Victor realised that he had fallen into that trap.

  It was difficult to explain to this impulsive child that he had in point of fact hardly given a thought to Mimi after he left her.

  If he went to Paris again, he would not make any effort to call on her.

  She was indeed very experienced in every action that would attract and inflame a man, but it was all somehow very artificial and he frankly was not at all interested.

  It was easier for him to remember Nancy Weldon, who was responsible for him being in this ship with the Princess.

  “You are thinking of someone very nice,” the Princess remarked suddenly.

  Lord Victor looked at her in astonishment.

  “How could you possibly know that?”

  “I was watching your eyes,” she said. “When you are interested in something that is said, they are alert, but when you are thinking of something nice, they are softer and kinder.”

  “Now you do surprise me,” Lord Victor said. “What do you think I should see in your eyes?”

  The Princess laughed.

  “Curiosity. I am curious about you, because I have never met anyone quite like you before.”

  “But you must have met a great number of men who stayed with your grandfather and, of course, with your father and mother.”

  “Papa’s friends were the nicer,” Princess Sydella answered. “Grandpapa’s were rather old and pompous. They talked to me as if I was a small child they would like to give some sweets to.”

  “Now I think you are being rather critical,” Lord Victor said.

  “Papa taught me to be that,” the Princess answered. “He said that when you meet people, do not take them just at their face value. Look deeply into them to see what they are really thinking. Sum them up so that you are never deceived by those who put on an act simply to impress you.”

  “That is very good advice,” Lord Victor said approvingly. “I am sure that is what you will do when you are on the throne.”

  “When I am on the throne,” the Princess replied, “it will not be the same as sitting here talking to you.”

  That was true and he could not deny it.

  After a silence he commented,

  “You will have the advantage of meeting a very varied collection of people you would never meet if you remained at home or became a debutante.”

  “There would have been no likelihood of that,” the Princess said. “I think that I would
have stayed buried in the country if Queen Victoria had not sent for me.”

  “You ought to be very grateful,” Lord Victor remarked.

  “I am in a way, but at the same time I am – frightened.”

  Lord Victor thought quickly that this could be dangerous ground.

  “Don’t think anymore about it,” he said, “forget tomorrow and concentrate on enjoying yourself today.”

  “That is what I am doing with you,” the Princess said. “It is so exciting to have someone young and interesting on board with me instead of having to listen to those old women telling me what I should and should not do with the Ambassador continually talking about Zararis as if it was something he was selling me cheap off a barrow!”

  Lord Victor could not help laughing.

  “You do say the most extraordinary things,” he said, “especially for a young woman who tells me that she has been brought up quietly in the country seeing no one.”

  “I have seen the people on the estate and, of course, the horses,” the Princess replied. “And when I talk to them I am sure that they understand everything I say and would tell me very exciting things if they could only talk.”

  “I have often thought that myself,” Lord Victor agreed. “At the same time I have heard strange stories from people who I never thought had done anything in their lives but just plod along. I have been bored by brilliant people who I expected would thrill me, but who did the exact opposite.”

  The Princess laughed and it was a very pretty sound.

  “It is wonderful being able to talk to you,” she said. “Tell me more about yourself and why you were sent to escort me to Zararis instead of the old Statesman I was expecting?”

  Lord Victor knew that was something he could not possibly tell the Princess.

  After a moment he responded,

  “I think Queen Victoria, who is my Godmother, was being kind to me and also the Prime Minister, the Marquis of Salisbury, who thought I might be useful.”

  “Useful?” the Princess enquired.

  “Finding out what exactly happens in Zararis with regard to the Russians who are all over the Balkans. They are only kept under control because they are afraid of Great Britain.”