The Power and the Prince Read online

  They illuminated walls lined with gold silk that were covered with icons.

  At a first glance Alana knew that they were very old and very beautiful. There were literally hundreds of them stretching from the floor almost to the ceiling, some of them primitive and faded, others set with precious stones that glittered in the candlelight.

  There were also several that were of enamel on pure gold and she thought that, while they were not the most colourful, they were probably the most valuable of them all.

  She stood looking round and felt almost as if the icons spoke to her. There seemed to be a radiance from them or rather a vibration that had been in them all through the centuries.

  She believed that it was the faith that had been poured into them by those who worshipped and prayed to them until they had become vessels through which the power of God could flow back to those who needed it.

  She sensed it and she felt the power and force of it until she forgot everything else, even the Prince standing beside her.

  For a moment she felt as if she was swept on a strong wave of pure faith towards God Himself.

  This was what she tried to find in her prayers and which she had always known was there. The irresistible radiance of the Divine.

  She wanted to fall on her knees, but the Prince’s voice broke the spell that bound her as she heard him say very softly,

  “Tell me what you are feeling.”

  With an effort she took her eyes from the icons to look at him and she thought in the candlelight he seemed to be taller and even more vibrant than he had before.

  Then, as if she was compelled to answer him, she said,

  “You know there are no – words, but you – feel the – same. That is why you brought me here.”

  “I want you to tell me.”

  Alana looked again at the icons and answered in a voice that he could barely hear,

  “How can I describe the revelation of beauty to the mind? How can I explain a vibration that touches the soul?”

  She paused and then went on slowly and almost inaudibly,

  “God speaks – here and I know you – hear Him too.”

  She turned her face towards the Prince and asked,

  “How can it be – possible that you – feel as I – do?”

  “That is something that there is no answer to.”

  Alana gazed again at the icons.

  “This is what I have – always sought and now that I have – found it, I know that there are no horizons – only infinity.”

  The Prince did not speak, but he took her hand and drew her from the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

  In the corridor he said,

  “I think, for some reason that I cannot comprehend, we are both bewitched. I do not wish to talk about it tonight.”

  Almost briskly he started to walk back the way they had come and in a few seconds they heard the chatter of voices and the music of an energetic polka.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  As Charlotte and Alana went upstairs after tea to rest, as Lady Odele had ordered them to do, Charlotte said,

  “Come into my room. I want to talk to you.”

  As soon as they were both inside and the door was closed, she exclaimed,

  “Alana, I am frightened! Aunt Odele would not let the Prince leave my side all today and I feel sure that at any moment – he will ask me to marry him. And then I am – lost!”

  Alana sat down in a chair, knowing that Charlotte was not exaggerating when she said that Lady Odele had kept her and the Prince together almost by compulsion.

  There had been no mistaking the anger in Lady Odele’s eyes when last night she and the Prince had returned to the ballroom and even though the Prince immediately danced with somebody else, Alana knew that the suspicion was there and that nothing she could say or do would change it.

  When Alana had eventually gone to bed, she had lain awake for a long time in the darkness, even though it was so late, thinking over what had happened and finding it all very difficult to understand.

  It was not only the strangeness of her own reaction when the Prince had taken her to the room with the icons, but she had been aware that what she had felt in their presence was exactly the same emotion as they aroused in their owner.

  She had no idea how or why she knew this, she only knew that what she had said when he asked her what she felt had come to her lips spontaneously. She had had no time to think and it was as if he had forced her to tell the truth.

  That he should have such an intriguing room hidden away in Charl Castle was astonishing in itself.

  It did not fit in with his reputation of being a rich man in search of pleasure or with the picture of the brilliant intelligent Cosmopolitan whom Politicians and Statesmen admired.

  Never in all the gossip about him or stories in the newspapers had there been any reference to a spiritual side of his character or that he was in any way religious.

  ‘I just don’t understand,’ Alana said to herself.

  She thought then that hundreds of women must have said the same thing and that he was an enigma like the Sphinx.

  Even stranger was the fact that today he was obviously avoiding her.

  What they had experienced in the room with the icons had not drawn them closer together, but had seemingly divided them sharply.

  She felt the difference as soon as they all met in the morning when Lady Odele had already decided what they should do during the day.

  “I thought this, morning,” she said, “that you would all like to visit the fascinating old Priory, which is on the outskirts of His Highness’s estate.”

  She glanced out the window and declared,

  “It’s a fine day and I know that you, Charlotte dear, would like to ride with His Highness.”

  The Prince, who had come into the room while she was speaking, had his eyes on Lady Odele’s beautiful face and she flashed him an intimate little smile as she added,

  “You will appreciate, Your Highness, how well Charlotte rides, and I know that she will wish to see the finest horseman in Europe on your famous black stallion.”

  Lady Odele looked from the Prince to Shane.

  “And you, Shane,” she said, “will drive your cousin in one of His Highness’s latest carriages, which are built for speed, while I shall ask you, Richard, to be my escort.”

  It was all cleverly contrived, Alana knew, so that Charlotte would be alone with the Prince.

  When an hour later they started off from The Castle, she thought that Charlotte looked so attractive in her well-cut riding habit that it would be difficult for any man not to admire her.

  Shane must have thought the same thing, because as soon as they set off down the drive and Charlotte and the Prince had galloped away over the Park, he muttered in a bitter tone,

  “What chance have I against a man like that?”

  Alana looked at him in surprise.

  “You cannot doubt Charlotte’s love for you?”

  “She is very young,” Shane replied, “and look what he can give her! I thought last night that the sooner I went back to Ireland the better it would be for everybody.”

  “I cannot believe you really mean that.”

  “Oh, God, I don’t know what I mean,” Shane cried.

  “I have known Charlotte for some years,” Alana said quietly, “and I am sure that she loves you with her whole heart, as she has always loved you. You are part of her life and, if she lost you, I think it would be like losing an arm or a leg besides destroying her only hope of real happiness.”

  “Do you really mean that?”

  He let the horses move more slowly, but, as Richard and Lady Odele had driven on ahead, Alana thought that there was no hurry.

  What she and Shane were discussing was very important.

  “I have been thinking,” she said, “that you and Charlotte are facing this crisis in the wrong way.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” Alana replied, “that e
ven if the Prince does not ask her to marry him, there will be other men, her father and mother will see to that.”

  Shane turned his head for a moment to look at her and she saw the misery in his eyes.

  “What are you suggesting?” he asked.

  “I think you will have to be brave and make a decision about yourself one way or the other,” Alana answered. “What we are trying to do now may come off, but I know that you will still be tortured when Charlotte goes to London to attend the balls and parties that had been planned for her before Lady Odele produced the Prince.”

  “What have I to offer her,” Shane asked, “even if it was possible for us to be married, which I very much doubt?”

  “I am not going to make suggestions,” Alana said quietly. “What I am going to say to you is that you must believe in yourself. My father always said that, if we want something badly enough, we can get it and it is not a question of what we do but what we think.”

  As she spoke, she remembered the icons last night and the feeling they had aroused in her and so she added gently,

  “Although perhaps it will embarrass you to speak of it, there is always a Power that can help us when we are desperate.”

  Again Shane glanced at her as if in surprise and then after a moment he said,

  “I know what you are saying and you are right I have been faint-hearted and have not had faith either in myself or in Charlotte.”

  Alana smiled at him and suggested,

  “Once you have decided exactly what you want of each other and exactly where your real happiness lies, then any obstacles are worth surmounting and any difficulties worth fighting one’s way through.”

  “You are right – of course you are right!” Shane cried.

  The light had now come back into his eyes and he squared his shoulders.

  Then, as if he must express his feelings by action, he drove the horses faster until they had caught up with Richard and Lady Odele.

  The ancient Priory was little more than a ruin and, although there were some matters of interest in its antiquities, Alana knew that visiting it had only been an excuse for the Prince and Charlotte to ride together while the rest of them must keep to the roads.

  When they returned to The Castle for luncheon, there were a number of people who had arrived with their horses to spend the afternoon trying out the new Racecourse that the Prince had built on the estate and the jumps that only he seemed able to take effortlessly and with tremendous style.

  “I hope that you have told His Highness how much you admire the way he rides and how well he handles a horse,” Alana heard Lady Odele say sharply to Charlotte.

  “Yes, of course, Aunt Odele,” Charlotte replied submissively.

  “Remember, all men, however important, like appreciation, Lady Odele admonished. “Go and tell him now how brilliantly you thought he took that last fence.”

  Charlotte walked obediently towards where the Prince was riding his horse in from the Racecourse.

  But before she could reach him she saw Shane talking to her brother and she lingered with them for so long that the Prince had dismounted and was busy inspecting several other horses that he wished to ride.

  Alana saw Lady Odele’s lips tighten and she was obviously angry.

  As if she had to vent her rage on somebody, she said to her in her iciest tone,

  “I would hope, Lady Alana, that, as you have known my niece for so many years, you will do your best to contribute to her happiness and not attempt to prevent it.”

  Alana knew what she meant but looked surprised and merely answered quietly,

  “I assure your Ladyship, the one thing I want is Charlotte’s happiness.”

  “If that is true,” Lady Odele came back coldly, “then I hope you will not again try to monopolise His Highness’s attention as you did last night. For your own good I must tell you that I consider your behaviour extremely fast and not what one would expect of a girl of your age.”

  She did not wait for Alana to reply, but walked away, looking, as she did so, extremely beautiful despite the expression of anger in her blue eyes.

  When they returned to The Castle from the Racecourse, their guests left and Lady Odele seized the opportunity, because she herself wished to rest, to virtually order Charlotte and Alana that they must do the same.

  The Prince had already disappeared and again Alana had been aware, as she had at luncheon, that he was deliberately avoiding her and had not spoken a single word to her the whole day.

  “You must try to keep the Prince away from me, Alana,” Charlotte was saying now. “I dare not be alone with him.”

  “It’s not easy.”

  “Why not? He was obviously interested in you last night.”

  “I think he regrets what happened last night.”

  “Regrets?” Charlotte asked, “What do you mean by that? What did he do?”

  Alana felt she could not tell anyone, not even Charlotte, that the Prince had taken her to the room with the icons.

  Instead she replied,

  “We talked on rather serious subjects and I felt, in fact I knew, that for the moment he was interested in what I was saying. But now I am sure that he feels he must keep to his original intention of marrying you,”

  Charlotte gave a cry of sheer horror.

  “You cannot – mean that! Oh, Alana, that must not – happen.”

  “It will not happen,” Alana said quietly, “I am only telling you what I am sure the Prince is feeling.”

  “Whatever – happens,” Charlotte said desperately, “I must not be – alone with him”

  “I think that is wise,” Alana agreed, “but I don’t know quite how we can prevent it.”

  “If he suggests it, I suppose I can – refuse?”

  Charlotte was obviously very agitated and walked up and down the room as if she could not keep still.

  “I want to talk to Shane,” she said after a few minutes, “I want to tell him what I am feeling,”

  “Shane knows, because he is feeling the same himself,” Alana observed. “But you must be careful, Charlotte. If your aunt becomes aware of what you feel for Shane, I am sure that she will make a fuss to your father and mother. Then they will not have him to stay with you and it would be difficult for you to see him anywhere else.”

  “You said you would save me – you have to – save me,” Charlotte insisted anxiously.

  “I will try, I will really try,” Alana promised her.

  “Come and choose another gown,” Charlotte said, “and make yourself look so beautiful that he cannot help gazing at you.”

  They went into the dressing room where Charlotte’s clothes were arranged in cupboards all round the room.

  She pulled open the doors.

  “There must be something here that you will look outstanding in and different from everybody else.”

  Alana did not say so, but she knew that it was going to be difficult.

  Tonight the party was to be bigger than that of last night and she had learnt that tomorrow Lady Odele had arranged a large ball, which was to be held in the huge ballroom.

  If on those two occasions Lady Odele was determined to keep her in the background, she might easily pass unnoticed, especially if the Prince was in his present mood of being determined to avoid her.

  The more she thought of his strange behaviour, the more she was certain, with the same inner perception she had had before where he was concerned, that he was regretting the impulse that had made him take her into the room with the icons.

  He was fighting against believing that they were indisputably attuned to each other in a way that was difficult to explain.

  Last night she had known what he felt and he too had been fully aware that the icons would mean to her what they meant to him.

  Such an idea would seem incredible, Alana thought, to someone like Lady Odele and to most ordinary people.

  But the Prince was not an ordinary man and she knew from past experience that in many ways sh
e was not ordinary either.

  ‘He has turned away from me,’ she told herself. ‘He does not want to know any more – or to probe any – deeper.’

  She remembered how he had said that she had secrets in her eyes, but Alana knew, almost as if he told her so, that he was determined to marry an English girl like Charlotte, who had no hidden depths or unaccountable perceptions.

  She gave a sigh.

  How could she compete with the rigid self-control that the Prince obviously had over himself and a power that it was possible to use either for good or for evil?

  “There must be something here that will make you look different – and attract his attention,” Charlotte was saying desperately.

  Alana looked at the long line of white evening gowns in tulle, satin, crêpe and lace, all of which were virgin-white although some were decorated with coloured flowers and ribbons.

  Then she remembered the ribbon that she had worn round her neck.

  “Where is your gown decorated with Parma violets?” she asked.

  “I bought that one in the spring when I was in mourning for my Grandmama,” Charlotte replied. “But I told the maids at home to pack everything I possessed and they obeyed me.”

  She opened another cupboard and Alana could see hanging there several gowns of pale pink, blue and mauve.

  She looked closer, saw that there was one that was black and lifted it out of the cupboard.

  “Mama had that made for me for the first month that I was in mourning,” Charlotte explained, “but after that I was allowed to wear mauve or white.”

  “It’s a very pretty gown,” Alana commented reflectively.

  It had been made for a young girl and was not the sombre black that was connected with grief and tears.

  Of fine net embellished with lace and black velvet ribbons it was swept round in the front in the fashionable folds that accentuated the smallness of the waist and the largeness of the bustle.

  At the back there was frill upon frill of net surmounted by a huge velvet bow.

  Alana’s eyes suddenly had a sparkle of mischief in them.

  “I am going to wear this,” she said. “It will certainly be a surprise and I also have an idea.”