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  Prince Vladimir kissed his wife’s cheek.

  “You always say the right thing, my darling,” he told her. “Linetta has said the same to our two guests. In fact I am not exaggerating when I say that the Count, who is the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for Samosia is captivated by her.”

  Linetta, who had been listening, laughed,

  “I am so glad that someone is and, of course, what they hope is that the Prince of Samosia will be enchanted by me and me by him.”

  “Naturally that is what we all want,” her father answered. “But I am astonished, my precious, that you should have been so clever and thought out what you could accept so quickly.”

  “I only hope that I will be able to play the piano and teach the Count’s children as well as Mama has taught me,” Linetta said.

  “You play beautifully and you will certainly have a far bigger audience to applaud you than you have here.”

  Before Linetta could answer her father, her mother said in a low and rather frightened voice,

  “You are quite certain that she will be safe in the Balkans? I have read about the fighting that there has been there and the way the Russians have conquered so many Principalities by the most unfair and unpleasant means.”

  “She will be absolutely safe just as long as she is entitled to fly the Union Jack,” he replied. “You are not to be frightened, my darling. I promise you if there is one country the Russians fear it is Great Britain. In fact they just cannot afford to fight us more than they have done already.”

  He paused for a moment before he went on,

  “I should not be surprised if, after Linetta marries the Prince of Samosia, they are asked to St. Petersburg to meet the Czar!”

  Linetta gave a little cry.

  “That is one thing I would adore. At the same time he might easily poison me if I have prevented him from conquering Samosia!”

  Her father smiled.

  “You can be certain that he would not do anything that would make Queen Victoria angrier with the Russians than she is already.”

  “I will have a gown made entirely of Union Jacks,” Linetta laughed.

  Her mother gave a little cry.

  “One thing we have to think of quickly,” she said, “is Linetta’s trousseau. Everyone knows that, if she is to leave at once for Samosia, she will most certainly need a great number of new dresses both for the daytime and the evening.”

  She paused before she questioned her husband,

  “And how are we to going to buy them sitting here without a shop capable of providing an ordinary trousseau let alone a Royal one?”

  “I can tell you what we will do,” he said hurriedly. “If we have a week in which to follow Linetta, we will start off as quickly as possible in a yacht that I know I will be able to borrow from a friend of mine who lives just outside Plymouth.”

  “I know who you mean,” his wife replied. “I am sure that he will be only too pleased to let us have his yacht just as long as we don’t run it aground or sink it by some means!”

  “I hope that we will do neither, but we can stop in France on our way to the Mediterranean.”

  There was silence for a moment.

  “I am sure at Marseilles,” Prince Vladimir went on, “we will find a great number of gowns which will enhance our daughter’s beauty and, of course, make her look the part she is to play as the Prince of Samosia’s wife.”

  “You are going much too fast, Papa,” Linetta said quickly.

  She smiled as she added,

  “I have to be quite certain that I want to marry the Prince. If you buy me an expensive trousseau and I decide against it, I will only have the horses, the pigs and the dogs to admire it when I wear it at home!”

  “I am sure that they would be most impressed!” her father answered laughingly. “At the same time, my darling, I am banking on the fact that you will sit on the throne of Samosia.”

  He smiled at her as he continued,

  “Your mother and I will find it entrancing to watch you gaining the hearts of your people and making them the envy of all the other Principalities in the Balkans.”

  Linetta laughed.

  “You are asking too much, Papa, but I will do my best as you well know. As your daughter I have a very good start when the race begins.”

  “Your mother and I are so very proud of you,” he told her. “Now we really must go back and entertain our guests before they start their journey back to London.”

  His wife nodded.

  Then Prince Vladimir said,

  “I think that the Count has arranged for the ship in which he came to England to sail as quickly as possible to Plymouth.”

  His wife stared at him.

  “Are you now suggesting that they are to stay the night?” she asked.

  “I don’t think the ship will be here until very late,” he replied. “They will therefore have to stay with us and leave tomorrow.”

  “Do you mean that they will be taking Linetta with them?” Crystal demanded.

  “I am afraid so,” he replied quietly.

  For a moment it seemed as if his wife was about to protest.

  Then, as she met his eyes, she realised that he was thinking it would be a mistake for Linetta to have time to think too much about her position and perhaps change her mind.

  Having made the decision it was so vital that they should carry the plan out immediately.

  Otherwise, in a very human fashion, doubts would step in and other options would seem better.

  And then the whole business would have to start all over again.

  Because she knew exactly what he was thinking, Crystal said,

  “All right, darling! It will be a bit of a rush, but I daresay we will manage. As you say when we join Linetta we can take her some of the beautiful dresses that France makes automatically and which no one else can equal.”

  Again Prince Vladimir kissed his wife’s cheek.

  He knew because they were so close and because their thoughts were always readable by the other, that she was doing what he wished without any argument simply because she loved him and wanted to go along with his and Linetta’s decision.

  And not to think of herself at all or in this case of her daughter.

  ‘If only Linetta will be as lucky as I have been,’ he thought to himself.

  Taking his wife by the hand, Prince Vladimir drew her back into the drawing room to where the guests were waiting for them.

  *

  It was late that night and long after their guests and Linetta had gone to bed that Crystal slipped into the large four-poster bed where her husband was waiting for her.

  “I have now turned out every single cupboard in the house,” she said, “to find dresses that would be suitable for a Governess.”

  She paused before she carried on,

  “Because Linetta is so beautiful and I have always dressed her to please you rather than spend time choosing the long-lasting clothes that most girls wear in the country and she will, I believe, Governess or no Governess, look very lovely.”

  “You are so marvellous, my darling,” he said. “No one else could be as clever as you have been. I have an idea that any other mother would be screaming hysterically by now or protesting violently against the speed, which is unfortunately very necessary.”

  Crystal laughed.

  “We want our darling daughter to do us credit,” she replied. “As she is representing Great Britain as well, what she wears is very important.”

  “Has there ever been a woman who has not thought that clothes matter more than anything else?” he asked.

  His wife moved closer to him and his arms went round her.

  “Every time you come this close to me,” he said, “I think I love you more than I loved you five minutes ago and certainly a year ago and the year before that.”

  “I know what you are saying,” his wife answered. “You know that I love you so much. You fill my whole world and there is no one else but you
.”

  She gave a little sigh before she added,

  “At the same time, darling, we do want Linetta to be happy too. But how can she be happy with a man she has never seen before?”

  “I am just praying that like us she will see him and fall in love as I fell in love with you the very moment you appeared on the stage and played the music that seemed to capture my heart completely.”

  “I love you when you say things like that,” his wife answered. “It all happened a long time ago and now, my precious husband, we have to think of our children and pray that they will be as happy as we have been.”

  She looked up at him as she asked,

  “Did you ever regret giving up your prime position in London Society and being feted by those distinguished people?”

  It was a question he had heard many times before.

  And Prince Vladimir replied,

  “I just don’t believe that there is another man in the whole world who has been as happy as I have been. All I can ask God is that Linetta finds the real love as we found it the moment we met.”

  His arm round her tightened as he went on,

  “I knew then that I could not live without you and the years that we have been here seem to have flown past simply because we have been so happy.”

  “It has been like Heaven to be with you,” Crystal answered. “There have just been a few times when I have thought that perhaps my talent at playing so successfully as I did in London has been wasted.”

  She paused before she said,

  “But now I know it is that same music which will perhaps enter the heart of the Prince of Samosia and make him fall in love with Linetta in the same way as you fell in love with me.”

  “It was not only your music,” he breathed. “It was your lovely face, your perfect eyes and your soft lips.”

  He kissed her as was speaking.

  Then, as they clung closely together, there was no need for words.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  They left very early in the morning and found the Samosian ship waiting for them at the Port of Plymouth.

  When they went aboard, Prince Vladimir looked to see whether the cabin that his daughter was to occupy was comfortable.

  He found it excellent in every possible way.

  He shook hands with the ship’s Officers and the crew.

  When they reached the Saloon, Linetta clung to her father and said,

  “I do wish you were coming with me, Papa, but you promise, on your word of honour, that you will not be very far behind.”

  “I was thinking it over in the night,” he said, “and I have decided that we will be at the Port that is nearest to Samosia in a shorter time than you would be expecting. We can easily wait on board, but you may not be able to meet us.”

  He smiled affectionately at his daughter before he went on,

  “But remember that within three days at the most we will be waiting for you if you join us or if you come and tell me that I am to come ashore with you and present you to the country as the relative of Her Majesty.”

  Linetta hid her face against her father’s shoulder.

  “I hate leaving you, Papa,” she whispered. “But I feel I had to do the right thing.”

  “You have done exactly the right thing,” her father replied, “and what I would expect of someone with Royal Blood in her veins. And remember that I love you very much and always will. I am so very proud of my beautiful girl.”

  There were tears welling up in Linetta’s eyes when she said her goodbyes to her father before he finally went ashore.

  But she stood on deck waving to him as the ship moved away from Plymouth.

  She knew that he would not only keep his word in coming to Samosia as soon as possible but he would also be praying that they would save Samosia and the Russians would be forced, once they knew that the country had the Queen’s blessing, to retreat.

  Linetta waved to her father until they were well out into the open sea and she could see him no more.

  Then she went to the Saloon where she knew that the Count would be waiting for her.

  She had also been informed by a Steward that their breakfast was ready.

  They had been in such a hurry to leave that she had barely had time to kiss her mother tenderly.

  Then she had to hurry herself to the carriage that was waiting for her, drawn by four of her father’s finest horses.

  Her mother had refused to go to Plymouth and see her leave.

  “It is always upsetting,” she said, “to say goodbye to people, especially those you love. Therefore I am letting you do it one at a time rather than Papa and I together to kiss you goodbye.”

  Linetta knew exactly what her mother meant.

  She merely held her very closely and said,

  “You promise you will come with Papa to Samosia. If things go wrong I will feel so much happier if you are there to support me.”

  “I will be praying that everything will go right,” her mother replied. “As you know, my darling one, you can always rely on me. And I will be bringing with me all the prettiest and most attractive clothes that you could possibly desire for your trousseau.”

  It was impossible for Linetta to answer because she was close to tears.

  But she forced herself not to cry.

  She walked resolutely to the carriage where her father was waiting for her.

  He was driving himself and did not speak to her until he knew that she had composed herself and was no longer feeling tearful.

  Now that the ship was finally out of sight, he turned away and walked slowly back to where his carriage was waiting.

  He was asking himself, as he had asked a thousand times throughout the night, whether he was doing the right thing in allowing his daughter to go to Samosia alone.

  But he was confident that the Count would look after her and she would be with his family, which he was certain were as charming as he was himself.

  When breakfast was over and Linetta had managed to talk quite sensibly to the Count about what lay ahead, she said,

  “Now we have to get down to work. Although I am afraid it will be boring for you, we have very little time to do all I want.”

  The Count looked at her with surprise.

  “I don’t know what you mean, Lady Linetta,” he asked. “What work do we have to do?”

  Linetta laughed.

  “You don’t suppose,” she answered, “that I intend to walk ashore at Samosia and not be able to talk to the Prince or any of his people in their own language?”

  The Count stared at her and then admitted,

  “Of course it is extremely remiss of me not to have realised that. I will teach you all I can in the short space of time we have to do so.”

  “I don’t think that it will be as difficult as all that,” Linetta replied. “Papa sent me to Berlin for six months so I speak perfect German.”

  She paused a moment before continuing,

  “I also spent a few months in Italy and much longer in Greece because I was so entranced with all the Gods and Goddesses after I had read dozens of books about them before I actually arrived.”

  The Count stared at her again.

  Then he enquired,

  “Are you telling me that you can speak Greek as well?”

  “Yes, I speak Greek quite fluently,” Linetta replied, “although I don’t like the language as I find it rather too emotional.”

  “Then there is really no need for me to teach you anything,” the Count said. “As I expect you know already, Lady Linetta, the Balkan languages are a mixture of all the countries that border them, but most especially Greece and Austria.”

  “I expect they have little twiddly-bits of their own,” Linetta laughed. “I think from this moment that we must speak your language and nothing else.”

  “I do admire you as one of the most sensible young women I have ever met in my whole life,” the Count said in his own language. “I can only hope that I am as good a conversationalist a
s you are a pianist!”

  “Thank you for the compliment, Count, and let me add I cannot have too many!”

  They were both laughing as they started her first session.

  Fortunately the Count had some interesting books with him that Linetta said she would like to read quietly on her own.

  She promised that she would make a list of all the words that she did not understand.

  When they retired to bed that evening, the Count, having conversed fluently at dinner, thought that he had been most fortunate in having the company of anyone so clever, as well as so lovely as Linetta.

  He could not help feeling that Prince Ivor would be blind, deaf and dumb if he did not fall in love with her the moment he met her.

  But there had, of course, been some very attractive visitors to The Palace of Samosia in the past.

  Although it was not in his nature to pry or to ask awkward questions, the Count could not help being aware that there had been several charming and attractive women the Prince had rather obviously been somewhat infatuated with.

  But none of them had lasted very long.

  Although there had always been new faces to take their place, the Prince had been extremely careful never to cause a scenario that the Russians could make a scandal over.

  *

  Before they reached the end of the Mediterranean and they were travelling very fast, the Count thought that Linetta was not only the prettiest girl he had ever seen in his life but also the most intelligent.

  She insisted on talking only in his language.

  After the first day on board she was making very few mistakes and by the end of the second day hardly any at all.

  ‘I would not believe it if I had read it in a book,’ the Count thought to himself as he went to bed.

  He was now aware, if he had not known it before, that Linetta had her father’s brain as well as her mother’s beauty and musical talent.

  When they arrived in the Aegean Sea, it was with the greatest difficulty Linetta did not beg the Count to let her stop for a short while to explore the Greek islands, particularly those that were connected with the Gods and Goddesses she had always admired so much.

  “It is agonising,” she said to the Count, “to pass the Island where Apollo was born which I am told still has a number of fine statues to see that came from the Temple erected to him.”