The Queen Wins Read online

  “I should like that,” Tarena sighed.

  There was a short silence before she said in a small voice,

  “But I have not yet met Prince Igor.”

  “He will, I am sure, be waiting for you when you arrive tomorrow afternoon.” “As soon as that? It may seem wrong of me, but I don’t want to leave The Royal Sovereign so quickly. I do wish we could go on perhaps into the Black Sea or better still to India, which I have always wanted to visit.”

  “I have been there, Your Royal Highness, and I know you would find it as fascinating as I did.” The Count paused before he said in a voice she could hardly hear,

  “Perhaps one day we can go there together.”

  “But, of course, why not?” Tarena cried. “A Royal Visit with these delightful people we have on board now. I am sure the Viceroy would be only too pleased.”

  The Count did not answer her and she mused that perhaps he had been thinking of a less formal visit.

  ‘It would be such fun,’ she thought, ‘if it was at all possible. Yet perhaps Prince Igor, whatever he is like, would refuse to leave Karlova.’

  She had wished when they departed from Athens that they had been able to stop at all the Greek Islands, but the Ambassador had insisted again how vital it was that they should arrive as rapidly as possible.

  There was no chance of Tarena going ashore at Delos where Apollo had been born.

  She had read everything she could find about the Greek Islands and to her they were the most glamorous and exciting islands in the whole world.

  But she only had a brief glimpse of some of them as they steamed past.

  She had thought that perhaps one day she would be able to come back and then go ashore and muse of what they meant to the Greeks in their literature and in their imagination.

  After a moment, as the anchor ran down and The Royal Sovereign came to a standstill, Tarena sighed,

  “As we are now approaching Karlova, this is the last night when I will be able to look up at the moon and the stars as I am doing just now and talk to you, Count Vladimir.”

  “I would hope you will often want to talk to me, as I am in charge of your Royal Bodyguard at the Palace, but perhaps it will not be in such a private place and we may never be alone.”

  Tarena looked at him and then she said quickly,

  “You are not suggesting that I will have to take a Lady-in-Waiting with me everywhere I go or that it would be wrong for you and me ever to be alone together?”

  “It is something I want more than I want anything in the whole world. But protocol is protocol in the Palace. For the Queen to be found alone with the Captain of her Bodyguard would undoubtedly cause undesirable gossip and speculation.”

  “But you are my cousin, Count Vladimir, and when my Uncle Richard goes home, there will be no one I can confide in to if I am not able to talk to you.”

  “You will have your husband,” the Count replied in a hard voice.

  “But it would not be the same as talking to you,” Tarena protested. “After all, we are blood relatives and there is no one else I can speak to as freely as I have been able to talk to you ever since we met.”

  She gave a little laugh before she added,

  “I feel as if I have known you all my life.”

  “And I feel the same, but because you are to be Queen and I am of no consequence, I must not do anything that will seem wrong in the eyes of those who are watching you constantly.”

  “Watching me?” Tarena questioned.

  “Just remember that if you need me, I am always there,” he continued as if she had not spoken. “And if I am not at your side, as I long to be, it will just be because I am putting my duty in front of my adoration for you.”

  “Now you are frightening me, Count Vladimir. Oh, why must I be placed on a pedestal and not allowed to be human any longer?”

  “You will be Queen, and Queens do not, if they are wise, spend any time with insignificant young men. Above all, you must not tempt me. You know I want to be with you and we have a great deal to say to each other, but when we arrive, I must sink into the background and you have to pretend that you don’t notice me.”

  Tarena gave a little cry and turned away to lean over the rail once again.

  “Now you are being cruel and unkind. Of course, I am intimidated by what may lie ahead, but I am trying to be brave about it. At the same time I very much wish that we could turn round and go back to England – now.”

  The Count came nearer to her.

  “I don’t want you to feel like that,” he said. “I want you to feel it is a great adventure and that you are doing something noble in helping people who are really helpless against the Russians, unless they are led and given the will to fight for their rightful independence.”

  “I want – to do that,” Tarena murmured. “But you are the only one when Uncle Richard goes home who will understand what I am feeling and realise how difficult the whole situation is.”

  “I will be there,” the Count persisted. “But I am trying to make you realise that your husband must come first in your thoughts, your feelings and your heart.”

  There was silence for what seemed a long time.

  Then Tarena stuttered in a repressed voice he could hardly hear,

  “Suppose – I do not – like him.”

  “But you will, you must! Karlova has to have a King and there is no one else.”

  “Why is there no one else?” Tarena asked.

  “Because, as you well know, your father and Queen Catrina did not produce any children and with the one exception of Prince Igor of Dubnik himself there is no other Royalty in the whole country.”

  “What about your family?” The Count smiled.

  “I wish I had one. My father, who was of course a Sazon and went to England on a visit when he was a young man, actually found some gold in our mountains which has never been developed.”

  Tarena was listening wide-eyed as he continued,

  “I have mentioned it once or twice to members of the Cabinet, but they have always claimed that it was not worthwhile investigating the find further.”

  “But I feel strongly that it should be investigated,” Tarena asserted. “After all, if the country had more money they could expand and re-equip the Army and Navy and put up a really strong resistance against the Russians.”

  “Exactly what I said, but no one listened to me.”

  “So after your father left England, he came home?” Tarena questioned the Count.

  “Yes. He fell in love with a girl who belonged to one of the oldest and most distinguished families in the country, which has now dwindled away over the years until I am almost the only member left.”

  “But a very nice member and a very kind member – who will look after me – ”

  “I promise I will and perhaps one day we will go exploring and find the gold my father discovered and use it to make Karlova a far more prosperous country.”

  “That is a wonderful idea, which I will not forget. We must talk about it, so you will have to come and see me regularly even if I am sitting on an uncomfortable throne!”

  The Count chuckled.

  “I will try to make it comfortable for you, though I don’t think that gold is particularly nice to sit on!”

  They both laughed and then the Count suggested,

  “You will have to look really beautiful tomorrow, especially when you make your all-important speech to all those who are welcoming you. Therefore I think that you should retire now, Your Royal Highness.”

  Tarena sighed.

  “I would so much rather stay here talking to you. Promise me by everything you hold sacred that you will not disappear when we arrive at Karlova, but will stay by me and watch over me.”

  “I swear to you on my honour that I will do so until you are married to Prince Igor. Then, if I find that life has become unbearable for me, I will go gold-digging on my own.”

  “You are not to,” protested Tarena. “It would be unfai
r. You have told me about it and if ever you do go gold-digging then I want to come too!”

  “It would not be very easy for a woman to take part in it. Anyway this is only dream-talk. We would need so much money to invest. In fact I know that it cost my father almost everything he possessed. But the sheer realisation that he had found gold was always the delight and triumph of his life.”

  “Promise you will not go without me – ”

  Tarena looked up at him as she spoke.

  As their eyes met again, they were both very still.

  Then, as if he forced himself to do so, the Count took her hand and raised it to his lips.

  “I promise you anything and everything you could ever possibly desire – Your Royal Highness.” Without waiting for a reply, the Count walked away leaving her alone in the moonlight.

  She watched him until he was out of sight.

  It was only when she climbed into bed that Tarena mused that their conversation had been a very strange one.

  It was one she did not really understand.

  She only knew she was now more frightened of what lay ahead than she had been at the beginning of the voyage.

  It was not at what had been openly said, but she knew that after stopping at Athens her uncle had spent a long time with the Ambassador.

  She had then known instinctively, because they had always been so close, that he was extremely worried.

  The newspapers had made it very clear that she was going into danger.

  It had been one thing to read all about the Russian’s dastardly interest in the Balkans when she was so far away in England and it had nothing to do with her.

  Now it was very different.

  Tomorrow she would enter a country that was high on the Russian’s list for taking over and exploitation.

  The mere idea that she – a young girl – could keep them at bay was really laughable.

  In fact it seemed incredible that Queen Victoria and anyone else in England had thought it at all possible.

  Tarena had always prayed with her uncle and the God he worshipped had always seemed very real to her.

  So before she got into bed she prayed fervently that life in Karlova would not be as terrifying as looked likely at the moment.

  She was not really afraid of dying.

  She believed, as her uncle did, that her mother and father were waiting for her in Heaven.

  She had been sent out to save the people of Karlova from the Russians, but she was afraid of being completely ineffective and letting the country fall into their hands.

  ‘Help me, God. Oh, please, help me,’ she prayed. ‘Make the Count see that he must be with me, because if he is not, I will have no one to talk to. No one will understand as he does why I am here and why I am trying to do what my father did for his people who all trusted him. Please, please help me.’

  When she finally climbed into her bed, she found it impossible to sleep.

  She lay thinking how beautiful the moonlight had been and the kind words the Count had said to her.

  She could not help feeling that he too was suffering in some way.

  She had a sudden feeling of horror about tomorrow and the people who would be waiting to meet her when she arrived.

  They could hardly expect a young girl of eighteen to be their bulwark against the sturdy Russian guns, the Russian intrigues and the Russian Secret Service.

  She could feel them all rising up like ogres in front of her and there was only herself with her small hands to prevent them from conquering the country and making it part of their great Empire.

  ‘I cannot do it, I will fail utterly,’ she thought again frantically.

  Then, just as she had felt when she had made the decision to go to Karlova, she sensed that her father was calling to her again and so was her mother.

  They were standing hand in hand and smiling in a radiant light that seemed to envelope them.

  They were telling her gently not to be afraid.

  They were both watching over her and she was not alone.

  ‘Help me! Please help me!’ she wanted to cry out again to them.

  Already they were saying, she realised, that she was under their protection now and for always.

  And, although it seemed incredible, that she would win the great battle she was setting out to fight.

  No one, not even the Russians would be able to stop her.

  When she finally fell asleep, she slept peacefully and dreamlessly.

  *

  When she woke up in the morning, she remembered exactly how she had felt the night before.

  How she had been made to feel completely certain that her father and mother were with her.

  She was interrupted in her reveries by the Baroness who opened the door of her cabin and called out,

  “I don’t want to hurry you, Your Royal Highness, but the Captain tells me that we will be in Port within three-quarters of an hour and your breakfast is waiting for you.”

  Tarena jumped out of bed.

  “What did I decide I was going to wear today?” she asked more of herself than the Baroness. “I want to look pretty but impressive. I just cannot remember which dress I chose.”

  “Let me help you,” the Baroness offered. “You are quite right, Your Royal Highness has to look particularly splendid today. But I am sure you will find the whole City is waiting to welcome you and longing for you to be as good a Queen as your father was our King.”

  Tarena did not answer.

  She was recalling again how her father had come to her last night and she was sure whatever she said or did he would be helping and guiding her.

  She found the dress she had chosen the day before hanging up in the corner of the cabin and the rest of her clothes had already been packed.

  She dressed quickly and when she appeared in the cabin where the rest of the party were breakfasting, her uncle exclaimed,

  “You look lovely, Tarena! That dress and hat are exactly what I would have chosen if you had asked me!”

  “I remember now, although I had forgotten it this morning, that you particularly admired this dress when we bought it together in Bond Street, Uncle Richard.”

  “Did your charming uncle really help you with your trousseau?” the Ambassador’s wife asked.

  “He chose most of it for me, insisting that he knew exactly how I ought to look, while I was too modest to manage it myself.”

  They all laughed and Tarena continued,

  “I personally thought I would look more impressive if I arrived wearing my wedding dress and a grand tiara, but I will keep that for the next step, which I am hoping will not happen too quickly after I arrive.”

  She caught an expression on the Ambassador’s face and knew that was what he was intending.

  ‘I will not do it, I will not!’ she said to herself as she sat down at the table. ‘I only hope that Prince Igor is thinking the same as I am, and is determined that we will become friends before we are made man and wife.’

  It was something she dared not say aloud.

  As the Ambassador’s wife and the Baroness talked excitedly of what had been planned for them tonight, she was silent.

  It was only about a quarter of an hour later when one of the Officers came into the room, saluted stiffly and announced,

  “The Captain has asked me to inform Your Royal Highness that we will be moving into Port in the next ten minutes.”

  The Ambassador’s wife and the Baroness jumped to their feet. They had come down to breakfast without their hats and they ran to their cabins to retrieve them.

  Tarena was completely ready. She had only to pick up her handbag before she stepped ashore.

  “You are not scared, my dearest?” her uncle asked her in a whisper.

  She slipped her hand into his.

  “I am terrified that I will do something wrong, but I am so happy that you are here and so I am not alone.”

  “You know I would not allow that, Tarena.”

  “Do you th
ink Prince Igor will be waiting for me as we dock, Uncle Richard?”

  “I have no idea, but I expect the Prime Minister will be there and the most senior Members of the Cabinet. He will make a speech, which I hope you will understand and I expect Count Vladimir has told you how to thank them.”

  “Yes indeed, he has helped me write my speech in Karlovan and I do want to say goodbye and thank you to his soldiers before we go ashore.”

  “I think that will be difficult, because they will land before we do to take up their positions round the platform where you will be speaking.”

  As Tarena was about to protest, he added,

  “Don’t forget you will see them later at the Palace, where they are posted with many other troops to look after you and guard you under the Count’s command.”

  Tarena did not answer.

  She thought to herself that everything would be all right and safe if the Count was there.

  If she failed to carry out all the instructions he had given her, he would be on hand to prompt her.

  “You are not to be frightened, my dearest Tarena,” her uncle was insisting. “After all, these people loved your father and I am absolutely certain they will love you too.”

  “I hope so, Uncle Richard,” Tarena sighed.

  Then she slipped her hand into his as the Battleship shuddered to a halt on the dockside.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Tarena’s heart was beating violently as she walked onto the deck holding her uncle’s hand tightly.

  Just below she could see a huge crowd of people.

  At the front of the quay there was a small platform with a number of men standing on it.

  They were all smartly dressed for the occasion and she guessed that they must be the Prime Minister and other officials.

  There were only men on the platform. And there were mostly men in the crowd.

  They did not cheer.

  As she then reached the platform and its occupants bowed to her, a band she had not noticed before burst into the Karlovan National Anthem.

  Everyone stood to attention.

  Then the man she gathered was the Prime Minister asked her to move forward and she and he stood for a few moments at the front of the platform so the crowd could see her.