A Royal Pain (28 page)

“Anyone feel like a game of billiards?” Lord Cromer-Strode asked. “Colonel? What about Edward? Where has the damned boy got to now?”

Fiona was staring at the French doors, stony-faced. “He’s taking a walk. It is rather hot in here,” she said.

“How about whist?” Lady Cromer-Strode sensed tension in the atmosphere. “Anybody for whist, bridge if you’d rather, or what about pontoon?”

While tables were being set up, I took the opportunity to creep up to my room. Once there I stood staring out of the open window into the night, trying to come to terms with what had just happened. How could I have been so stupid to have encouraged Gussie? And why did Darcy take the trouble to explain his actions to me, only to run off after Hanni again? Nothing about men made sense. Why had we wasted time at school on deportment and French and piano when what they should have done was to give us lessons on understanding male behavior. Perhaps it was beyond comprehension.

A woman’s laugh floated across the lawns, setting my imagination running riot again. How long did the queen expect me to stay here? I wondered. Could I now conclude that Hanni was well settled and flee back to London? At this moment I longed to be sitting in my grandfather’s little kitchen while he made me a cup of tea so strong that the spoon almost stood up in it.

“Forget the lot of ’em, my love,” he’d say. “They ain’t worth tuppence.”

“My lady, I am so sorry,” said a voice behind me. I leaped a mile. It was Mildred of course. I had completely forgotten about her again. What was it about her that made her so un-memorable? Maybe that I was wishing she didn’t exist?

Now she came scuttling into the room, looking flustered and embarrassed. “I had no idea that you would wish to retire so early, my lady,” she twittered. “I thought the young folk were still downstairs. I gathered there was a gramophone and dancing, so naturally I assumed—”

“It’s quite all right, Mildred,” I said. “I can’t expect you to stand to attention waiting for me at all hours.”

“Oh, but you can, my lady, and you should. What use is a lady’s maid if she is not available and ready for service at all times? I was having a nice chat with Lady Cromer-Strode’s personal maid. We knew so many people in common, you see, and then a footman came into the servants’ hall and said that he’d seen you going upstairs. My heart nearly stopped, my lady.” She put her hand to her chest in impressive fashion. “I ran upstairs as fast as my legs could carry me. Please say you’ll forgive me.”

“I do forgive you, Mildred. Now if you like, you can go back to the servants’ hall and your nice little chat.”

“Are you not feeling well, my lady? May I have some hot milk sent up? Some hot Bovril? Some iced lemonade?”

“I am perfectly well, thank you. Just tired, and I wish to be alone.”

“Then let me help you out of your garments and you’ll be ready for bed.”

“No—thank you.” I blurted out the words more fiercely than I intended, remembering the unhooked brassiere and those grass stains. Mildred wouldn’t comment. Maids didn’t, but she’d notice and she’d gossip. “I’d rather be alone tonight, thank you, Mildred. Please leave me.”

It was the closest to my great-grandmother, Empress of all she surveyed, that I had ever come. It produced an immediate effect. Mildred actually curtsied and backed out of the room. Most satisfying, in fact the one satisfying thing in a long and annoying day. I undressed, feeling hot with shame as I wrestled off the remains of my brassiere and noted my crumpled dress. What would Mildred think?

I lay in bed, feeling very alone and empty. Darcy was now with another woman. He had come to my aid, but only because he pitied me. I lay for a long time, watching the moonlight stream in through the long windows. It shone full onto a painting on the far wall. It was a painting of the Alps and reminded me of my happy schooldays in Switzerland. What’s more, I recognized the mountains. “Jungfrau, Mönch, Eiger,” I murmured to myself and felt comforted having a familiar sight looking down on me. Then something nagged at my brain. I heard Hanni’s voice saying something about her beloved Bavarian mountains. “The Zugspitze and the Jungfrau,” she had said. But the Jungfrau was in Switzerland.

Chapter 28

I woke with early morning sun streaming in through my window and a dawn chorus of birds that was almost deafening. A cool, fresh breeze was blowing in through my open windows. I no longer felt sleepy so I got up. It would be hours before breakfast was served and even an hour or so before I could expect Mildred with the tea tray. I decided to go for a walk. I tiptoed down the main staircase and let myself out through the front door without encountering anybody. The lawns were heavy with dew. The rosebushes were strung with spiderwebs on which the dewdrops glistened like diamonds. A low strand of mist hung over the ornamental pond. As I started walking I began to feel better. I had been cooped up in London for too long. I was a country girl at heart. My ancestors had tramped those Scottish Highlands. I strode out, arms swinging, and started to hum a tune. Soon this whole Hanni business would be just a bad dream. She’d be back in Germany, breaking a succession of hearts. I would be back at Rannoch House. I might even go home to Scotland until I was summoned to Balmoral.I’d ride my horse every day, avoid Fig and visit Nanny.

I had crossed the lawn and moved into the shade of a stand of trees. Suddenly I froze. Someone was moving through the rhododendron bushes. My mind went instantly to his lordship’s antics but surely even someone as lusty as he couldn’t be at it at six in the morning. Then I caught a glimpse of a figure all in black. So at least he or she was fully clothed, whoever it was. That should have been a relief, but the way that figure was skulking immediately made me suspicious. A poacher, maybe? Perhaps it would be wise to reveal my presence and thus not startle the person.

I coughed loudly. The effect was instant. The figure spun around and I was amazed to see that it was Irmgardt, Hanni’s maid.

“Irmgardt, what on earth are you doing?” I asked, before I remembered that she spoke no English.

“Die Prinzessin,”
she said,
“macht Spaziergang.”

This much German I could understand. So the princess was out walking early.

“Where is she?” I asked.
“Wo?”

Before she could answer there was a tramping through the bracken and Hanni appeared, looking red cheeked and ridiculously healthy.

“Oh, Georgie, you are awake too. It is lovely day, is it not? The birds made so much noise that I could not sleep, so I go for walk. At home we walk much, up mountains. Here there are no mountains,” she added regretfully then glanced at Irmgardt, who was still following us. “But my maid does not allow me to go alone. Go back, Irmgardt. I do not need you.” She repeated this in German, shooing her away like a duck or a chicken. Irmgardt retreated reluctantly. “Old broad make her follow me,” Hanni muttered to me. “She does not trust me to go out alone no more. Now I’ve got two pain in necks.”

At that moment we heard the thud of hoofbeats and Edward Fotheringay came riding toward us on a fine bay.

“Morning, ladies,” he called, reining in his mount. “Lovely day, isn’t it? I’ve just been for a good gallop. Old Cromer-Strode keeps a fine stable. Where are you two off to?”

“We both woke early and are taking a stroll,” I said.

“Why don’t you come for a ride with me?” Edward said. “I’ll go and see about some mounts while you go and change.”

Actually I was dying to get on a horse again but Hanni said, “I do not like to ride horses. I do not like my clothes to smell of horse sweat. But I would like to go for a ride in your new car, like the American girls. That would be real swell. I never went out alone in a motorcar with a man.”

“Oh, right-o,” Edward said. “Always happy to put my new machine through its paces for a pretty girl. Give me a few minutes to take the horse back and change my clothes and then we’ll be off.”

He urged his horse to a canter, leaving us to walk back to the house together.

“Your baroness is not going to be happy about this, Hanni,” I said. “She won’t allow you to go out unchaperoned in a young man’s car.”

“I do not care what she thinks or says.” Hanni tossed her head defiantly. “She is here as my companion, not as my mother. Besides, I do not wish to be with the baroness. She is in bad mood.”

“Why is that?”

“She says she is treated like servant here. Her rank is higher than theirs but they make her stand at back of line and they seat her with not important people like a bad married priest.”

“I expect they didn’t realize who she is,” I said. “They probably think of her as just your companion.”

“She says I must tell them and demand that she is treated with respect,” Hanni said. “But I do not wish to do this. It is rude, don’t you think? It is not my fault that she is old and ugly.”

“Hanni, you really mustn’t talk like that, even when we are alone. You are a royal person. Whatever you say will be made public, you know.”

“I know you won’t tell anyone because you’re my pal.”

“But I really can’t let you go out alone with a young man,” I said.

“You can come with us. You can watch me.”

Did I really want to watch Hanni and Edward making cow eyes at each other, and more to the point, would they want me sitting there in the backseat watching them? But then a thought struck me. I was supposed to be doing a spot of sleuthing. In fact it was rather important that I begin sleuthing as soon as possible. Sometime within the next week there would be an inquest into the death of Sidney Roberts. Our involvement in that death would be made public. A royal scandal would ensue, Germany would react with horror, diplomatic messages would fly across the Channel and if we were really unlucky, a new world war would break out. I couldn’t turn down such a perfect opportunity to question Edward, away from the bustle of Dippings.

“All right,” I agreed, “I’ll come along and play gooseberry.”

“Play gooseberry?”

“Another silly English term,” I said.

“English is very silly language,” Hanni said.

I had to agree with her.

Edward didn’t seem to mind too much that I was being brought along. “The more the merrier,” he said. “So where do you want to go? Anywhere in particular? We could make a day of it.”

A brilliant idea came to me. Cambridge—it seemed to be the one link between Edward and Gussie and Sidney Roberts. I couldn’t see how I’d find any clues there—no dropped note in the cloisters saying,
Meet me by the river. Drug shipment due at dawn,
but it would be interesting to observe Edward in his old habitat.

“I think the princess might enjoy seeing Cambridge,” I suggested. “If it’s not too far to drive.”

“Not at all. Always glad to show off the old college,” Edward said, smiling at Hanni.

We made our getaway from Dippings before the general populace had stirred. The butler kindly arranged for some tea and toast so that we didn’t depart on an empty stomach, and the cook hastily made a hamper for the journey. It was all very civilized and a jolly day seemed to be ahead of us—if one didn’t count poor Sidney Roberts. Hanni seemed to have completely forgotten about him. He hadn’t come up once in conversation. Nor did she seem to have any worries about an upcoming inquest and the public attention that it would generate. Perhaps she wanted to be in the spotlight. It certainly went with her personality. She sat in the front seat of Edward’s natty little sports car, occasionally glancing up at him with obvious delight that she was finally (almost) alone in a car with a boy.

“I bet your baroness wasn’t too pleased about this.” Edward turned to her with a wicked grin.

“I did not wake her,” Hanni said. “She does not like to be awoken too early. Irmgardt will tell her where I have gone.”

“You’ll probably be sent straight back to the convent when you get home,” Edward teased.

“I have proper English lady, relative of king, in the backseat,” Hanni said. “She will make sure you behave well.”

“Ah, but what about you?” Again Edward’s grin was flirtatious. “Can she succeed in keeping tabs on you? Not an easy task, I fear.” He glanced back at me and winked.

I smiled back. “I’m really looking forward to seeing Cambridge,” I said. “I’ve never been there.”

“Never seen Cambridge? Then you haven’t lived. It’s quite the most beautiful city in England. Far superior to Oxford, of course, which is nothing but a bustling country town.”

“I detect prejudice.”

He laughed. He had a most appealing laugh. I could see why the girls were drawn to him. I was a little drawn myself, but since I was clearly fourth in line after Fiona, Belinda and Hanni, not to mention my mother, there was no point in pursuing this. I wondered about Edward and Fiona. Did he know he was engaged to her, or was it one of those things that families arrange on the birth of their children? I could see the way he was looking at Hanni, and I had also seen him follow Belinda into the garden last night. Men who followed Belinda had only one thing on their minds.