The Gates of Paradise Read online

  Outside she found Paks.

  She told him that His Royal Highness, as Mr. Ward was now to be called, was to sleep until dinner time.

  “He’s had a real hard time, that gentleman,” Paks muttered. “He’s got some nasty gashes on his back and I’ll treat them as soon as I can get at him.”

  “There will be plenty of time for that if he has to stay in bed. If he walks about, someone is bound to see him and think he is well enough to come downstairs and then they will recognise him as not being Prince Rudolf.”

  “You’re so very right, Your Royal Highness, and I thinks that already. If you asks me, it’s a gift from Heaven having him turn up when I were beginning to think it were dangerous having no one in that bed.”

  “I thought it was all arranged so that no one would ever know?”

  “That’s what we planned, but there’s always those who be so very curious about a Royal personage and them housemaids who think he’s wonderful are always sneaking up hoping to take a peep at him.”

  “Now they will at least see someone in his bed, so perhaps Mr. Ward is a blessing in disguise.”

  “If you asks me that’s what he be.”

  Narina went into the sitting room.

  As she did so, she realised she had left behind in the garden the book her father had given her to read.

  ‘I will go and fetch it,’ she decided.

  Then suddenly she was afraid.

  Those Russians, who had been just behind Michael, would have guessed that he had disappeared into the Palace and they might even have seen her taking him in.

  If they took her prisoner, thinking that she was Louise, they could make life incredibly difficult and Prince Rudolf would not be there to negotiate for her or to lead the Army of Alexanderburg against them.

  ‘I will send Maria out for it later,’ she told herself.

  As she sat down at the desk in front of the window of the sitting room, she could not help feeling that it was rather exciting to have Michael Ward to talk to.

  Maybe he would be clever enough to come up with new ideas that were badly needed in Alexanderburg.

  She had not yet met the Prime Minister, but she had a feeling, from what she had heard, that he was rather like the Mayor.

  He wished to keep things as they always had been rather than to introduce new ideas into the country.

  ‘I am quite sure,’ she thought, ‘that Michael Ward, as he has been so very successful in The Great Game, will think of new ways for Alexanderburg to save itself.’

  It was an exciting idea and she glanced at the clock.

  She was hoping that the hours would pass quickly so that she could talk to Michael at dinner.

  Time did pass slowly before Maria came to tell her that her bath was ready and as before, arranged by the fireplace.

  Tonight she went to the wardrobe herself to choose the gown she would wear.

  And though it was obviously wrong to wear one of the more elaborate ones that hung there, she found a gown that was, she thought, very attractive. It was more suitable for a dinner á deux than if she had been dining in the Royal banqueting room.

  Again Maria arranged her hair in the same way that Louise wore it, although it did pass through her mind that it would be more flattering to look like herself.

  Yet it was likely that the Lord Chamberlain would drop in after dinner, and she felt that she must play her part in pretending to be Louise exactly as she had promised to do before the Royal couple had disappeared in the dark of the night to Constantinople.

  Paks had orders to wake Mr. Ward, but before he went to do so he said to Narina,

  “I ain’t allowing that Ward gentleman to get up for dinner, Your Royal Highness. He has to stay where he be until them wounds on his back have been properly treated.

  There be no point in him a-getting up and finding them starts to bleed again.”

  “No, Paks, you are quite right, and if he wants to go on sleeping I will understand. Otherwise I suggest you put a table by the bed and I can sit on one side of it.”

  It was the way she had eaten meals with her mother when she was ill, and thought it was a cosy and delightful way to share dinner with someone in bed.

  She waited until Paks came to the sitting room to announce rather pompously,

  “Dinner be served, Your Royal Highness.”

  Narina jumped up and went into the bedroom.

  The curtains were drawn although it was still fairly light outside and candles were lit.

  Narina knew that everything that happened upstairs was promptly reported and commented on downstairs.

  If there were too many candles being lit, they would never believe that Prince Rudolf was in the darkness the doctors had ordered for him.

  There was, however, just one small candelabrum on the table and Narina was not surprised to find that it was composed of the same cupids with stars at their feet that she had noticed before on the bed and mirror.

  The tablecloth was of very fine lace and Paks had arranged bright flowers from the garden on the table.

  Michael was sitting up in bed with his hair neatly brushed and wearing a silk scarf round his neck.

  He looked, she thought, very much better than he had before he had gone to sleep.

  He smiled as she walked across the room.

  “I must tell you,” he said as she sat down, “that you look exceedingly beautiful and very smart. As this is the first decent meal I have had for many months, I am going to enjoy every mouthful. But most of all I will appreciate the beauty I will share it with.”

  “That makes it exciting for me too,” Narina replied, “and if you are looking forward to dinner then so am I. I have found it very gloomy eating alone and having no one to talk to except for Paks.”

  “He is exactly the sort of servant who should be in charge of a Royal Prince. He made me laugh even when he was hurting me when treating my wounds.”

  “Are they still very uncomfortable?”

  “I am not going to think about that while you are here. I want you to tell all me about yourself and how you could turn up so unexpectedly when I would expect you to be at home helping your father to teach the children their Catechism.”

  Narina laughed.

  “I don’t have to do that, but I am alone with Papa most of the time. He is a wonderful companion when he is not too busy to attend to me.”

  “So then you were unexpectedly caught up in this wildly dramatic adventure, because, I would guess, you are a friend of Princess Louise and also resemble her.”

  “That is very astute of you. We were always taken for twins at school, although actually we are not related. When Louise asked me to come out here at a moment’s notice, I came with pleasure although I had no idea what was expected of me.”

  “I think it is very brave of you – ”

  “It is the most exciting and thrilling thing that has ever happened to me except when someone like you comes out of the blue and scares me half to death!”

  “I am sorry if I scared you, but you were just like an angel delivering me from the devil and carrying me on winged feet to safety.”

  Narina giggled.

  “You will really have to write a book about it one day including all your own adventures in India.”

  “I have thought of that, but actually it will not be very long before I am forced to retire.”

  “Forced!” exclaimed Narina.

  “For family reasons for one thing, and for another, as you have learnt today, I am now recognised by too many people. However well I disguise myself, the Russians soon will no longer be deceived.”

  “What disguise were you in when you came here?”

  “When I left India from the North-West Frontier, I was a Holy Man. When I came further West, I was a native selling horses, having picked up the two I had with me on a battlefield.”

  “I think it is all so very very brave of you,” Narina remarked admiringly.

  “It is very thrilling, exciting and us
ually terrifying, especially when I wonder how many minutes I have left to live.”

  Narina drew in her breath.

  “How can you be so brave as to go on fighting what might easily be a losing battle?”

  “I am well aware of that possibility, but at the same time I am pitting my brains against the Russian brains and I like to think mine are sharper than theirs.”

  They both laughed at his unexpected explanation.

  “You must be very glad that at least tonight you can sleep without being afraid.”

  “It is even better to have met you,” replied Michael. “I am still thinking of you as an angel sent from Heaven to save me, and I am quite certain that for the moment at any rate, looking as you do now, you are not acting a part.”

  Because he spoke so seriously, Narina blushed.

  She had no idea how exquisitely and delightfully lovely she was looking as she did so.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The next morning Paks knocked on Narina’s door to say that he wished to speak to her.

  She told him to come in and he then announced,

  “Mr. Ward be not very well today. The exhaustion after what he’s been through has caught up with him.”

  “Oh, is he ill?” Narina asked apprehensively.

  Paks shook his head.

  “Not really ill. He just needs to sleep and that’s a better medicine than any doctor can give him.”

  “Absolutely, Paks. I remember my father saying, when he had been climbing a mountain or something like that, he would sleep and sleep until he felt himself again.”

  “That, Your Royal Highness, is precisely what our patient be doing. You see he’ll come bouncing back and be himself again in a very short time.”

  “His wounds are now healing?”

  “They be better, but they be painful when he thinks about them.”

  He picked up Narina’s breakfast tray and took it out of the room.

  As she could not ride in the mornings as she did at home Narina found it easier to stay in bed for breakfast and dress afterwards.

  She still felt nervous about going into the garden.

  Although she laughed at herself for being scared, she could still see the blood on Michael’s face as he came out from the trees.

  The Lord Chamberlain assured her the guard round the Palace had been doubled with more sentries posted at night, as well as Officers keeping watch for any Russians who might be lurking about.

  Even so Narina could not help feeling worried.

  She thought it so sensible of Michael to sleep away his fears and stress.

  It had, however, left her with little to do, so once again she turned to her father’s book for consolation.

  She was reading by the open window in her sitting room when the Lord Chamberlain entered.

  She jumped up eagerly to welcome him.

  “I was hoping you would come to see me today, as our patient is asleep and I have no one to talk to.”

  “Well, now you are going to hear some rather bad news,” the Lord Chamberlain responded.

  Narina looked at him anxiously.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  It flashed through her mind that perhaps it was bad news from Constantinople.

  Had Prince Rudolf’s operation not been a success?

  It was almost a relief when he replied,

  “We have an unwelcome visitor.”

  “Unwelcome?” queried Narina.

  The Lord Chamberlain nodded and then sat down.

  “You may have heard of him, but he is known as a mischief-maker, and the last thing we want at this moment is him sneaking round to find out what is going on.”

  “Who can it be?”

  “Prince Hans von Vechtel,”

  The name meant nothing to her, so she commented,

  “The name sounds German.”

  “He is German in a way, although he tends to vary his nationality to suit whichever country he is in.”

  Narina gave a laugh.

  “He sounds rather amusing. Tell me about him.”

  “It is not very amusing to us, because we have to be even more careful than we are at the moment not to let him know that Their Royal Highnesses are not here.”

  “You mean that I must not see him – ”

  “No, that is not important,” the Lord Chamberlain said. “He has never met Princess Louise, because the last time he came to stay was over two years ago when she and the Prince were on their honeymoon in the Summer Palace and naturally they received no visitors.”

  “So why are you upset that he is here now? After all, he cannot see His Royal Highness.”

  “But he will undoubtedly try and even so it would not matter particularly, as he has not seen Prince Rudolf for many years and therefore would not suspect that Michael Ward is impersonating him.”

  “Then I don’t understand, Lord Chamberlain, why you are so worried about this visitor.”

  He settled himself more comfortably in the chair.

  “He is, as I have already said, a trouble-maker. He goes from country to country finding out their weak spots and talks about them to other countries, often amusingly, but invariably dangerously.”

  “And why should he do that?”

  “Because he wants to be thought important. His is a small Principality on the borders of Russia and Germany.

  They argued about which country his Principality belonged to when Bismarck created the German Empire. As far as I know, they are still arguing about it!”

  “It sounds too extraordinary.”

  “What you will find more extraordinary or perhaps, like most women, exciting, is Prince Hans himself – ”

  “Tell me about him, please,” begged Narina.

  “Well in the first place, you will certainly find him very good-looking and to all intents and purposes he is an amusing guest. But I am quite convinced in my own mind that he has come here so that he can tell the Russians why there is not yet an heir to the throne.”

  Narina gave a cry of protest as he continued,

  “If he thinks there is any other reason for it except a natural one, he will undoubtedly make a good deal out of it and have the Czar listening to every word he has to say.”

  Narina started to realise that the Lord Chamberlain was not exaggerating that Prince Hans was dangerous.

  After a moment she remarked,

  “Surely, as far as he knows, Prince Rudolf cannot meet him and I am constantly at his bedside. Therefore he cannot expect to meet him or me.”

  “That is what I would like to say, but it would be a mistake.”

  “Why?” enquired Narina.

  “Because he would then be quite sure that there was something odd going on. We can say, as we have already, that Prince Rudolf has had an accident which has affected his sight, but you are hale and hearty and so you can hardly refuse to entertain such an important guest as the Prince.”

  Narina would have protested, but he carried on,

  “You are the only person who can reassure him that there is nothing unusual happening here at present.”

  “Suppose he does not believe me?” Narina asked in a very small voice.

  The Lord Chamberlain smiled.

  “You are very beautiful, as you must realise, and the Prince has a distinct penchant for beautiful women. You merely have to flatter him a little and tell him how pleased you are to meet him. Do that and I would not mind betting quite a considerable sum that he will be at your feet!”

  “But suppose he insists on seeing Prince Rudolf?”

  “If we are forced to take him into the sick room and the Prince is asleep with the sunlight excluded, he cannot think there is anything unusual or suspicious about that.”

  “I do see your point, Lord Chamberlain, but you are quite certain that I must entertain him?”

  “Of course you must. I have arranged for a dinner to be held in the Palace tonight to which I have invited the Prime Minister and his wife, as well as a young Statesman w
ith his very pretty wife he married only a short time ago.”

  “Is that all?”

  “It is quite enough. I don’t want to include a large number of guests, who might by some mischance just say something which would make him suspect that things are not as entirely peaceful in this country as we pretend.”

  Narina looked at him in a startled way.

  “Are you saying the Russians are creating trouble?”

  “Not openly, but there are rumours that in outlying villages they are trying to stir up dissatisfaction. Although we cannot pinpoint it, we are aware that it is happening.”

  “And you think that this Prince Hans will report to the Russians that their agents are being successful?”

  “Undoubtedly, if he thinks it is significant enough. As you must know, Russia has, for a long time, wanted Alexanderburg to be joined to them.”

  “It is most unfortunate that you actually border on Russian territory,”

  “That is what I have often thought myself, but there is nothing we can do about it except fight desperately with every possible weapon to retain our independence.”

  He spoke with a tone in his voice that told Narina how much it meant to him.

  She knew if anyone had to sacrifice his life to save Alexanderburg it would be the Lord Chamberlain.

  “I will do everything you want me to do, but please don’t let me make mistakes. It would be ghastly if I was responsible for letting the enemy into our midst.”

  “That is what I often feel myself, so I want you to be as pleasant as you can manage to Prince Hans tonight. He will flirt with you, as he always flirts with every pretty woman he comes into contact with.”

  “How old is he?” enquired Narina.

  “Getting on for thirty-five. I believe he was a terror when he was a child and has not changed much since he grew up. He is a gossip-monger who loves to stir up trouble, but it would be dangerous to underestimate him.”

  “What does he gain by behaving like this?”

  “Power and influence. He adores both and he has in his own peculiar way made himself quite important to a number of countries. I am told that the Czarina dotes on him and makes a huge fuss of him whenever he visits St. Petersburg.”