104. A Heart Finds Love (14 page)

“Then, of course, I will try to look happy all the time I am with you and it’s not very difficult for me when you have such beautiful surroundings to live in and above all your magical mountains.”

“Now you are looking happy again.”

To her surprise the Prince kissed her hand again.

They arrived back at the Palace to find that the Duke and William were already there.

They were, in fact, having a glass of champagne when Alnina and the Prince arrived.

Alnina walked towards the Duke and he then bent forward and kissed her on the cheek.

For a moment she was almost startled and then she realised that, as the Prince was standing just behind her, it was exactly what he should do.

“Have you enjoyed yourself,” the Duke asked.

“It was wonderful, the most majestic and exciting scenery I have ever experienced,” Alnina replied.

She longed to ask him if he had felt the same, but the Duke was now saying to the Prince.

“Thank you for being so kind to my wife. I knew it was something that she must see before we left. But I too, have enjoyed my trip with William to the special mountain that belongs to you.”

There was a meaning behind his words and the Prince replied,

“I am so glad that you have enjoyed yourself.”

Then he walked away as if he had no wish to have a further conversation about the mountain.

*

Alnina had only just enough time to tidy herself before luncheon.

Quite a number of people had been invited to meet them.

They all spoke French and there was no question of a Russian word being heard in the dining room.

When luncheon was over, they went out into the garden to admire the flowers.

By now the sun had grown so hot that Alnina was glad of her sunshade.

It was impossible to have a private word with the Duke and she was really longing to know what they had discovered while she had been away with the Prince.

William was deeply engaged in conversation with Princess Natasha and they were laughing together.

Alnina was sure that they had found nothing wrong, for if so, William would be looking depressed.

The people who had come to luncheon stayed for a long time and some of them, who had come from a long distance actually stayed for tea.

Being aristocrats they spoke French and behaved in the French manner and they had no wish for the tea which was supplied for Alnina and the Duke because they were English.

It was certainly not a very English-looking spread, but Alnina was glad of the tea in the cups without handles and the small pieces of
pâté
that went with it.

Yet it was a relief when tea was over and, as the guests disappeared, she then hurried upstairs to her room, feeling sure that the Duke would follow her.

Very soon he knocked on the door and came in.

“I thought we would never be able to be alone,” Alnina said. “I am dying to know if you found things as you hoped they would be.”

“The mountain seems to have been untouched since we last visited it,” the Duke replied, “but William and I could not find the traces of gold we had seen on our last visit.”

“Have they been removed?” Alnina asked.

The Duke shook his head.

“No, what seems to have occurred is that moss and other vegetation that grows thickly over the mountain have covered the places we had investigated.”

“How amazing!” Alnina exclaimed.

“Although we said we preferred to be on our own,” the Duke continued, “the overseer who had been ordered to take us to the mountain never left us.”

”How infuriating. So you have no idea if the gold is still there.”

“I think it must be although we could not find the traces of it that we did before. But we can always go back tomorrow and perhaps the day after and somehow contrive to be alone.”

As he spoke, he took some small implements from the pocket of his coat.

He had intended to use them, but they were still clean and dry and it was quite obvious that he had not even taken them out of his pocket.

Alnina gazed at them thinking that they were very small.

Then the Duke explained,

“We have brought bigger and better tools here with us, but needless to say we could not have made use of them if in fact the Prince was informed, as he would have been, of what we were doing.”

“I am very sorry for you,” Alnina sighed. “As I enjoyed my expedition very much.”

“I will indeed speak to the Prince again and perhaps tomorrow we can go there alone.”

“I hope so for your sake. It must have been very upsetting for you, but I am sure you will win in the end.”

The Duke smiled.

“You are always very consoling and you make me believe that everything finally will come right.”

“Of course it will. It will be a tragedy if you don’t possess the mountain you have loved so much for so long.”

“I think really the luckiest thing that has happened was my finding you and you have undoubtedly been a huge success. The Prince would, I am sure, have married me off to his daughter if you had not been here.”

“He is absolutely determined,” Alnina said, “to find an English husband for her. But I cannot help feeling, as things are at the moment, it will not be easy.”

“No, of course not. When Queen Victoria is furious with the Czar because of his behaviour in the Balkans, she is obviously not going to encourage an aristocrat to marry a Russian Princess.”

There was silence for a while and then Alnina said,

“She is a very pretty girl and I can see that William finds her quite delightful. As this is Georgia and not really Russia, perhaps you made a mistake in avoiding marrying her?”

“If I married her, it would be the biggest mistake any man could make,” the Duke replied seriously.

He spoke so positively that Alnina was silenced.

Then to change the subject she asked,

“When are you going to your mountain again?”

“Tomorrow morning and, if the Prince still insists on sending a nosy-parker like we had with us today, I think it might be wise if I suggested that you come with us.”

“I think that the Prince will want to take me driving again. He did talk about another place where there was an even better view of the mountains than this morning’s. But it is further away.”

“Whatever that view is like, I still want to buy this mountain,” the Duke persisted. “I will talk to him about it this evening if I get the opportunity. Keep him amused and keep him happy. Then maybe he will think it an attraction to have us on his estate.”

As the Duke finished speaking, he walked into his own room.

Alnina wanted to query the word ‘us’, but thought it best not to do so.

She then started to undress, hoping a servant would bring her a bath before dinner.

There were more guests who arrived before Alnina went downstairs and the Duke had gone ahead of her.

She was wearing yet another beautiful gown that she had bought in Bond Street.

She received some delightful compliments from the visitors as well as one from the Prince.

Again she was sitting on his right at dinner and he said to her quietly as they sat down,

“You grow more ravishing every time I see you.”

“And you become more magnificent,” she replied, “when I think of your wonderful mountains and, of course, your exquisite garden.”

The Prince laughed.

“You are very English,
madame
. Only the English think that their gardens are more important than anything else.”

“Who told you that?” Alnina enquired.

“I think it was an English lady who came here last year and, like you, went into ecstasies over the garden. In fact, it impressed her even more than the mountains.”

“That is why I am different. Your mountains come first for me and then your garden.”

“And where do I come in?” the Prince asked.

“Where else could you possibly be, except on the top of everything? And that is where you must stay!”

She was thinking that in some way the Czar might dispose of him in the same way as he had disposed of the Balkan Principalities as the Russians took them over.

Then she realised that the Prince had taken it as a personal compliment.

She therefore added,

“No one could ask for more than to live in such an enchanted land, where I am sure that even the eagles wear coronets!”

The Prince laughed.

Glancing down the table she felt the Duke would be pleased that she was keeping him in such good humour.

‘Surely as they are so friendly, he will let John have what he wants,’ Alnina said to herself.

However she was not quite certain. Anything was possible in this strange and unpredictable world.

She could understand that the Duke and William were feeling frustrated.

After dinner they danced again.

Alnina learnt that the band belonged entirely to the Palace. It was available when the Prince desired music at any time of the day or night.

The new guests danced better than those who had been there the previous night.

Alnina found herself dancing with one man after another until the Prince protested,

“I do want to dance with you, but someone always snatches you away,” he said. “Now I must insist on having my favourite waltz played and now we will dance for a long time.”

Alnina smiled at him.

“We must not be too tired for our new expedition tomorrow,” she said. “I want you to show me a great deal more of your fantastic country.”

“That is what I am anxious to do,” the Prince said, “and by the way, today you did promise to show me all the photographs you have with you. I am very interested in photography which I know very little about and I would like more than anything else to have a photograph of you.”

“Of course you will have one,” Alnina said, “and we brought some taken at our wedding especially to show you.”

That she thought was very true.

As she preferred telling the truth to acting a lie, she told the Prince the trouble William had in taking them.

“Professional photographers in the country are few and far between,” she said. “But William brought his new camera down to my house and I am sure you will think that John and I looked very smart.”

“I am sure you looked lovely,” the Prince said.

Because she thought it would interest him, she told him about her special wedding dress.

“My father bought it in China for my mother,” she said, “but it fitted me extremely well.”

“You must not forget to give me a photograph of you in it,” the Prince said.

“I promise I will give you one.”

It was one o’clock in the morning before the guests finally said goodnight and the band retired.

“We all need our beauty sleep,” the Duke declared.

But he and William drank a nightcap before they went upstairs.

The Prince had already said goodnight and gone to his own room.

The Duke said to William,

“We will be off early tomorrow morning and try to make sure that what was in the mountain is still there. We will also make it quite clear that we want to be alone.”

He was speaking in a very low voice.

Yet Alnina was sure the equerry who was waiting for them to go to bed could not understand English, but she did not think he was as ignorant as he pretended to be.

“Come along,” she said, “the sooner we go upstairs the better.”

“I am only too willing,” the Duke replied. “I am tired and I expect you are too.”

“I have enjoyed dancing, as I have not danced for a long time.”

“Very well, I will give a ball for you, Alnina, when we return to England,” the Duke suggested.

“I only hope you will keep your promise,” Alnina said. “You know that I would enjoy it more than anything else.”

“And I say the same,” William came in. “So don’t worry. I will keep him up to scratch.”

They walked upstairs and then William went to his room and Alnina and the Duke to theirs.

The Duke she thought seemed rather tired, but no less enthusiastic than he had been on the previous day.

When they entered the bedroom, he walked towards the communicating door.

“Goodnight, Alnina,” he called out, “do sleep well. You have been splendid all day, absolutely splendid.”

He did not wait for her reply, but went straight into the dressing room, shutting the door behind him.

It was then she saw lying on the table in front of the window the photographs which they had brought in a large envelope.

She had promised to show them to the Prince and she thought after his kindness to her today that it would be a nice gesture for her to give them to him before he went to bed.

If he had left his private room, she would put them where he could see them first thing tomorrow morning.

Picking up the envelope, she opened her door and went down the stairs.

There were no equerries in the hall and the lights were low, although it was easy to see the way.

She went down the passage that led to the Prince’s private sitting room.

As she reached the door, she heard his voice inside and realised that he was not alone.

He was talking in Russian.

She hesitated, wondering if she should knock and give him the photographs or put them on the floor for him to find when he had finished his conversation.

Then she heard him say the Duke’s name.

He pronounced it in a rather strange way so that it sounded somewhat different from how it did in English.

“Burlingford and his friend William Armstrong will be going to the mountain again tomorrow,” he said.

“Why is he so interested in it?” asked the man he was talking to.

He was speaking in Russian as well.

But Alnina knew from his accent that he was not a very cultured man.

“I have no idea,” the Prince then replied, “unless he believed it contains gold or precious stones.”

The other man laughed.

“Your Royal Highness made absolutely sure about that many months ago and, if that’s what the Englishman’s seeking, he’ll be disappointed.”

“Not only disappointed,” the Prince added. “Take him up onto that ledge which should not be difficult and, as many other people have done, he will slip over the edge.”