A Dangerous Disguise (15 page)

She could not believe it was really happening. Yet when she tried to free her hands, it was impossible to do so. Terrified, she realised that she was being taken away from Buckingham Palace.

She could neither move nor breathe easily. She was completely and utterly helpless.

They seemed to be moving at great speed. She thought they must be out of the Palace grounds and on a more or less empty road. Ola had the horrifying sensation of being carried into nowhere.

It was so hard to breathe that she was afraid she was becoming unconscious. So she tried to keep still and breathe slowly, enough to keep her conscious.

'Please God save me!' she cried inwardly. 'Where am I going? What is happening?'

Although it was difficult to hear clearly, she thought she heard the two men speaking in a language that she did not understand.

Perhaps, it was Russian?

She could only guess, but if they were speaking Russian, then she knew the worst.

The Russians had been baffled by her presence in England, when they thought they had the whole Oltenitzan royal family imprisoned. Clearly the news of the rescue had not reached them, and they had seized her to find out who she really was.

And what would they do when they did find out?

She shuddered.

She was almost unconscious when the carriage came to a standstill and she felt herself being lifted from the seat by the two men. She was still completely covered and unable to move as they carried her from the carriage, then downhill.

Then, by the sudden swaying, she knew that she was on board a ship.

'I'm a prisoner and John will never find me,' she thought frantically. 'If they are taking me to Russia, I'll doubtless be killed or imprisoned as a spy. They will never return me.'

Suddenly they stopped, and she was thrown down on something, perhaps a bunk.

The men were talking again. A third man joined them, speaking loudly, also in the language she thought must be Russian.

'They are taking me away,' she thought in despair, 'and I will never see John again.'

At the thought of him, every nerve in her body seemed to cry out for him to save her.

"Help me! Help me!" she wanted to cry.

But she knew no one would hear her, least of all the Duke.

'Only God can save me now,' she thought.

But it seemed that heaven was far away and perhaps no one, not even God and His angels, would hear her cry for help.

Suddenly the rugs which covered her were pulled off. When she opened her eyes she saw that she really was in a ship, lying on a bed in rather a large cabin. There was only one light and it was a very small one.

The three men were walking out of the room. They did not look back or speak to her but shut the door behind them, and she heard a key being turned in the lock.

For a moment she felt so limp and faint from lack of air that she was unable to move. She shut her eyes and tried to breathe deeply. Slowly she began to feel a little stronger.

'I am right,' she thought, 'they are taking me to Russia. There is no hope for me.'

When the Duke returned he would find the place where she had been sitting was empty and no one would know what had happened to her.

It was then she realised with a feeling of horror that the engines were turning. Soon they would travel down the Thames to the sea, and then to Russia.

'Oh, God,' she thought, 'why did this have to happen to me? Why am I being taken away from everything that I belong to and from the man I love? Will I ever see him again?"

*

The Duke hurried to where the Queen was seated. She was so intent on the fireworks that she did not hear him arrive at her side.

After a moment he bent down and said,

"Your Majesty sent for me and I am here."

She looked up and smiled.

"I want your help badly," she told him.

"What is it ma'am?" the Duke enquired.

"I have just learnt that Prince Victor Paskevich has arrived unexpectedly and uninvited from Russia. I have no wish to talk to him. Please make certain he cannot approach me. He's a drunkard and a boor, and I really can't face listening to any more of his stories about his great grandfather and Ivan the Terrible."

She was speaking in almost a whisper. The Duke could not help laughing.

"You are quite right, ma'am," he replied, "and I will do my best to keep him away from Your Majesty. Do you happen to know where he is at this moment?"

"Wherever there is strong drink, probably."

The Duke started his search in a huge, decorated tent just behind the royal dais. It was set aside for distinguished visitors, and Prince Victor had no business being there. But, as the Queen had guessed, he had taken up position in the centre of a few other men who had also made an early start on the refreshments.

The Duke did not speak to him because he had a better idea. He knew that once he obeyed the royal command to remain with the Prince, he would never get away from this tedious man.

His salvation came in Teddy and Rick, two brothers in their twenties, whose elder brother had been his friend at school. The Duke had visited their country home, and knew the lads well.

Strictly speaking they, too, should not have been there, but they had gravitated to where the best brandy was to be found.

He went up to them and drawing the elder on one side said, "Teddy, old man, I need your help, and I need it badly. Yours too, Rick."

Teddy regarded him with a look of surprise on his amiable, slightly foolish face.

"What can we do?" he enquired.

"I want both of you to keep Prince Paskevich of Russia from being a nuisance to Her Majesty. That's him over there. Just fill him up with drink. Keep him quiet and keep him occupied."

At that moment a blast of raucous laughter came from Prince Victor, shaking the whole tent.

"Well, keep him occupied, anyway," muttered the Duke.

"Sounds like a good fellow," said Rick, who was deep in his cups.

"Well, he drinks a lot if that's what you mean," the Duke confirmed.

"Prince – what?" Teddy enquired.

"Prince Paskevich."

"Why isn't he with the other royals?"

"He's not royal. In Russia, Prince is just a title, like Duke."

Rick considered this with tipsy gravity.

"Do you mean we don't have to curtsey?" he asked.

"I should strongly advise you against curtseying," said the Duke. "And you address him as Your Excellency. Oh lord, he's on the move."

The Prince had started making his way out of the tent. The Duke managed to intercept him, saying,

"It is splendid to see you here, Your Excellency, and I do beg of you to come and have a drink with two young men who are very anxious to meet you."

The red faced Prince shook him by the hand "A drink is always welcome as you well know," he bawled.

"I do indeed," the Duke replied. "Come to the back of this tent where there is some excellent brandy, which I can thoroughly recommend."

The Prince laughed.

"Then I will certainly sample it. As I am sure the fireworks will go on for hours, there is no reason to hurry."

"No reason at all," the Duke agreed.

He drew him to the back of the tent and introduced him to Teddy and Rick. At once the Prince, delighted to have found a new audience, began to talk very loudly. The more he talked the more they filled his glass, and the more they filled his glass the more he talked.

The Duke heard the words 'Ivan the Terrible', and made a hasty exit, grinning. At last he was free to hurry back to where he had left Ola, and the true start of their life together.

At last all misunderstandings between them were swept away. The future would be what they would make it, one of joy and happiness, where they gave each other nothing but love day after day.

'She is mine and I am hers,' he said to himself, smiling. 'And nothing can part us now.'

As the Duke made his way back to his beloved Ola, he knew that he was a totally happy man for perhaps the first time in his life.

But when he reached the place where he had left her, to his astonishment he saw that her seat was empty.

"I wonder where she can be?" he thought. "Perhaps she went to look for me."

He addressed the elderly lady in the next seat.

"I am sorry to bother you, madam, but I left my friend here a short while ago and now she has disappeared."

The woman smiled.

"Oh, after you had gone an elderly man came up and told her that the Queen wanted to see her."

"Are you sure that was what she was told?" the Duke asked in surprise.

"I am almost certain that was what the man said. But he had a strange accent and was definitely a foreigner, so I might have been mistaken."

The Duke drew in his breath sharply. Suddenly he was full of fear. He knew that Ola had not approached the Queen.

The next moment someone came flying towards him. It was Mildred, one of his 'spies'.

"Your Grace," she said breathlessly, "they've taken her away."

"Who?" he demanded sharply.

"After you left she looked in our direction, and it seemed that she was coming to talk to us."

"I'd just told her who you were," said the Duke.

"And I think she'd recognised us from outside the hotel. Anyway, she was just heading our way when two men pounced on her. They hustled her into a cab before we could stop them. Joan and I ran after them, but they were going at a terrible rate."

The Duke stared at her, full of horror. Who would want to kidnap Ola?

But he knew the answer. It was there in his deepest fears.

The Russians would snatch her to find out how they had been tricked. Prince Paskevich was almost certainly part of the plot. He had not been expected tonight. Nobody had even known that he was in the country, which suggested that he had only just arrived.

He had come straight here in search of Ola, intending to snatch her away and take her thousands of miles away to a wild country.

She was gone, and he might never see her again.

He forced himself to speak calmly but it was very hard through the turmoil inside him.

"Did you notice which direction they took?"

"There was a bicycle leaning against the wall by the gate. Joan took it and went after them as fast she could. She'll be back when she knows more."

"Excellent. Wait here for her. I'll come back."

He started to run back towards the Royal tent. A glance inside told him that Teddy and Rick were still playing their part well, and the Prince was still present, getting drunk.

Then he approached the Queen. As soon as she saw his distraught face she turned to her eldest son, sitting beside her, and said, "Go away, Bertie."

With a grin, the Prince of Wales rose to his feet obediently and vanished.

"What is it John?" the Queen asked. "I can see that something has happened."

Briefly he told her everything, including his fears, and the Queen went pale.

"Get her back," she said at once. "Take whomever you need to help you, but find her. If that brave girl has come to any harm I shall blame myself."

There were several military men present tonight, in glittering dress uniforms, most of them the Duke's friends. He approached two of them, young men with reckless faces whom he knew to be game for any lark.

"Anthony, Jack," he murmured.

It took only a few words to make Major Anthony Hawkins and Captain Jack Estey bid their friends farewell and follow him across the park to where the carriages stood.

The officers went to their own carriages to fetch the pistols they kept under the seats, 'just in case'. They had to leave their weapons there, for they could not have come into the Queen's presence if they were armed.

When they rejoined the Duke he was talking to two middle aged women, one of whom was breathless but doing her best to speak.

"Steady, Joan," the Duke was saying.

"They went along Grosvenor Place and then turned into Birdcage Walk," she gasped. "After that I lost them, they were going so fast."

"Heading for the river," said Jack at once.

"It looks like it," said the Duke. "Joan, Mildred, thank you both. Now gentlemen, it's best if you get into my carriage. You won't be seen in there and we can take them by surprise."

The two men climbed in. "Take us to the river, and fast," said the Duke to his coachman.

Fortunately at that time of night the roads were not busy, and they drove towards the embankment at a speed which would have been impossible by day.

Inside the carriage the Duke said, "At this moment Prince Paskevich has no idea we are suspicious of his sudden appearance. That works in our favour, but we haven't much time."

"Are we going to get a good fight out of this?" Major Anthony wanted to know.

"A damned good fight," the Duke confirmed.

The two young officers spoke with one voice.

"That's all right then."

At last they reached the embankment, where they could see ships of every sort on the river.

Many people from foreign countries had come to enjoy the Queen's Jubilee and they all seemed to be flying their flag. But for the first half mile or so there was no sign of a Russian one.

Then suddenly the Duke, leaning against the window, saw the Russian ship. He could hear the engines turning, but the ship itself was still.

Fortunately it was close to the side of the embankment and it would be easy to get on to it.

He told his driver to stop and began to walk towards the ship followed by the two soldiers. As they did so, the Duke was praying that Ola was aboard this ship as he believed her to be.

As they stepped on to the gangway, a Russian appeared who, from his shabby attire, seemed to be a servant.

Sharply the Duke said,

"I wish to speak to the Captain."

As he saw the man had difficulty in understanding what he was saying, he said slowly and emphatically:

"The – Captain - tell him - I am – here- "

Then the Captain himself appeared on deck. He stared at the Duke in surprise, also at the two soldiers behind him, both with pistols in their hands.