The Breadth of Heaven (2 page)

“
Poisoned
her?” Kathy’s eyes flew wide open, and her cheeks grew several shades paler. “But who ... are you sure? We must get a doctor—and tell the manager! And the police
...”
She darted towards
the pale cream telephone which graced the writing-table, but once aga
in
the other woman’s voice rang
out to stop her.

“No, please! No one must know. That is, no one whom I am not absolutely certain I can trust.
”

The telephone receiver, already at Kathy’s ear, was slowly permitted to fall back on to its rest. “Why—why not? I don’t understand.”

“No, of course you do not, Miss Grant. But listen to me—you see, I know what I have to do.”

The little girl began to cry loudly, and Kathy walked back across the room and knelt down in front of the Princess.

“Let me look at her,” she suggested gently. “I know something about first aid, and—and children s ailments. At one time I thought I wanted to be a nurse, and I had some training. Perhaps I can tell—it might not be anything
...”

But Natalia shook her golden head slowly, and seemed to cling a little more tightly to the child.

“No, thank you. You are kind, but she must see a doctor. I would never forgive myself if—if she were not properly treated. But the doctor must be someone who is completely safe. Someone whom
you
know, Miss Grant.”

Kathy thought desperately. “But I don’t know any doctors in London,” she objected. “There is a doctor whom the manager usually calls if anyone is ill here
...
but I don’t know his name. I’d have to ask Mr. McArthur.”

“That is of no use. Oh, please
think
.
You must know a doctor who is near, and who would come.”

“But I don’t! At least
...
”
A sudden thought occurred to her. Doctor Harding
...

She spoke swiftly. “There is a doctor ... a very well-known doctor. He is staying in the hotel. He has never attended me personally, of course, or anything like that, but I do know something about him
...
that is to say, he often stays here. He lives in the North of England, and he is quite important, I believe—he’s supposed to be very clever. I’m quite sure he’s absolutely
...
safe
...
” Her voice trailed away as she realized with a feeling of increased bewilderment that she still didn’t know exactly what the Princess considered ‘safe’ and what she considered ‘unsafe’.

Natalia looked as if she were trying to come to an agonizing decision.

“This doctor,” she said anxiously, “he is English? And—and what do you say
...
respectable?”

Kathy felt an outrageous desire to laugh. “Why yes,” she said, “I’m sure he’s perfectly respectable.”

“Then you will call him, please.” As she spoke, she drew a quivering sigh of resignation, and stroked the dark hair back from her daughter’s damp forehead. “We must take the risk.”

“Well, I don’t know—that is, I’m not certain that he’s in. But I’ll go and find out.”

As she hurried along the silent corridors of the hotel, Kathy felt as if she might possibly be dreaming. When she left the Tirhanian Princess had been white with apprehension and crooning a little pathetically over her child; and she herself felt that her mind was numbed and bewildered by the Alice in Wonderland situation into which she had allowed herself to be drawn. She was still not at all sure whether or not she ought to contact the manager without delay, and put the whole problem in his
unquestionably capable hands. But when she thought of the appeal in the eyes of Natalia Karanska, and when she realized the extent of the confidence which that evidently rather nervous young woman was prepared to place in herself, she knew that she would have to go through with the thing precisely as the Princess wanted her to.

When she reached Doctor Harding’s door she was slightly out of breath, for she had been hurrying and the royal suite was some distance away. She had really made up her mind that the doctor would almost certainly be out, and so it came as a considerable surprise to her when the door opened almost immediately in response to her light knock, and the doctor himself appeared on the threshold.

“Doctor,” she said, swallowing rather hard, “can you come with me ... to see a patient? I think
y
ou ought—I really think you ought to!”

CHAPTER TWO

Doctor Harding
was easier to persuade than Kathy had dared imagine he would be, and although he was clearly surprised and intrigued by the situation in Suite Number One his professional discretion soon asserted itself, and he approached the task of examining the small Princess Nina as coolly and matter-of-factly as if she had been a patient in any ordinary children’s hospital.

She was an extremely attractive child ... as Kathy had noticed earlier, quite unlike her mother, but no less strikingly beautiful, although in quite a different way. The Princess Natalia owed her looks to a pair of wonderful brown eyes and a cloud of soft pale hair, but her daughter’s hair was black and shining, like sable silk, and her eyes were very nearly as dark. The only thing the two appeared really to have in common was the alabaster quality of their skin, and this, it seemed fairly certain, must have been passed on from mother to child.

Dr. Harding spent about five minutes examining Nina, during which time the Princess Natalia remained seated a short distance away, her eyes staring thoughtfully into nothingness, and her elegantly manicured hands clasped tightly in her lap.

Then the doctor straightened himself, and picked the whimpering child up. He walked across the room, and returned her to her mother.

“An upset stomach,” he said shortly. He looked thoughtfully at the slim young woman to whom he had surrendered his patient. “Has the little girl eaten anything unusual today,
m
adame?” he enquired.

The brown eyes were moist. “It is as I told Miss Grant—she has been poisoned. Her nurse—but what will, you do, Doctor Harding? She will be all right? You will tell me, please?”

“Madame, she will be perfectly all right.” The doctor was not yet very old, but in the course of his highly successful career he had already acquired a considerable amount of experience. His words carried conviction, and he was skilled in the art of reassurance. Natalia plainly relaxed a little, and she even achieved a small smile.

“You are most kind,” she said. “I am grateful to you. If he were alive, my husband would be grateful to you, but
...
”

Her lower lip began to quiver again, and Kathy was afraid that they were about to be treated to another hysterical outburst, but the doctor was not paying a great deal of attention. He was frowning, and after a moment or two he said abruptly:

“You will forgive me, Princess, but this situation is, you will agree, rather strange. Do I understand you to say that you seriously suspect someone of having deliberately poisoned your daughter?”

“But yes, I know it, monsieur.”

“She is not very ill, you know. She may have eaten something that didn’t altogether agree with her, but a child’s digestive system is quite easily upset. I’ll give her some capsules, and within twenty-four hours she’ll probably be fine. Not a very thorough attempt at poisoning, and in any case, surely no one—”

“You do not understand, monsieur.” The Princess looked from the doctor to Kathy, and appeared to reach a decision. “I wish to tell you everything,” she said. “You, Doctor Harding, and Miss Grant. You have been kind, and very useful to me, and I wish you to understand everything. But first I will put my Nina to bed, and you, monsieur, you will fetch the tablets, if you please. You have some with you?”

“As it happens, madame, yes, I have.”

“But I must go back to my desk!” Horror-stricken, Kathy suddenly remembered that she had abandoned her post more than twenty minutes earlier. Telephones could be ringing unanswered, angry guests waiting in the hall to raise some point with her—to collect their keys, even. “I am sorry, Your Highness but I simply can’t stay!”

“But you must! Miss Grant, you must stay! You cannot leave me. Monsieur—Doctor Harding, you will tell Miss Grant, please, that she cannot leave me?”

The doctor raised his eyebrows, and cast a faintly sympathetic look in Kathy’s direction.

“Miss Grant is employed in this hotel,” he observed gently. “If she stays too long up here when she should be on duty she could lose her job.”

“Then she shall have another job
...
with me!”

“But, Your Highness
...”
Kathy stared at her. “I’m sure you don’t ... I mean
...
”

“You are sure I don’t mean it? But I do mean it!” The slightly childish face took on a look which was almost happy, as if its owner had made up her mind that her bright new idea would make a very considerable contribution to the easing of her troubles. “Today I lose my lady-in-waiting, my secretary, my children’s nannies, my detective and my chauffeur, because I do not trust them. I am alone with my little boy, who is five, and my little girl, who is only three, and I am frightened, because, you see, I have so many enemies. And then I send for you, Miss Grant, and you are very kind. And you are English, and one can see quite plainly that you are not at all likely to be here to spy on me. So, if you please, you will take the job, and I will pay you a very high salary. You will be useful to me, I think, because you see I must have someone to write my letters for me.”

Kathy was dumbfounded. At least half a dozen objections to the scheme occurred to her, but when she finally found her voice the only thing she could find to say was:

“I don’t speak your language.”

“It does not matter. You will learn, and in any case it really is not in the least important, because you see I am not going back to Tirhania. I shall never go back. I shall settle in England, and—”

“And will no doubt spend your days writing letters to
The Times
on the subject of the unhappy situation prevailing in your homeland. A charming plan, Natalia. I have every sympathy with you.” The Princess gasped, and like both the other adults in the room she swung round to face the man who had just silently pushed the door open and made his way, unannounced, into the room.

“
Leonid!
”
She sounded completely flabbergasted, and her cheeks turned a shade paler. In a voice that was scarcely more than a whisper, she said: “I did not know
...
I did not think
...
that you were in London.”

“I do not suppose you did, Natalia.” Gravely, he gestured towards Kathy and the doctor. “May I be introduced to your friends?”

“You had no right to follow me here. Or to burst into my apartment in such a way. You are not my guardian, Leonid ... I am a widow, and independent.”

The stranger sighed, and inclined his head, as if in complete agreement. “You are perfectly right, my dear.” He was quite a young man, Kathy noticed—perhaps not more than twenty-nine or thirty—but there was a profound weariness in his remote dark eyes, and his thin, aristocratic features wore a look of slight strain. “Nevertheless,” he added, “I think you have not many friends in London, and I had anticipated some such situation as this. Not, of course,” permitting his completely expressionless gaze to fall once again upon Kathy, “that I can pretend to understand this situation. When I entered, this lady, I believe, was protesting that she did not speak our language, and you were endeavouring to convince her that this fact did not matter in the least. Am I correct in supposing that you were offering her some form of employment?”

Kathy felt totally unable to speak, and Natalia looked rebellious. “If I wish to employ Miss Grant,” she said, “you cannot prevent me.”
-

“Naturally I cannot.” The almost black eyes were wearier than ever. “Then this, I suppose, is Miss Grant.” He accorded Kathy the merest trace of a continental bow. “And the gentleman
...
?”

“My name
is Harding. I’m a medica
l
practitioner, and I was summoned by Her Highness for the purpose of examining her daughter.” The doctor seemed to feel that it was high time he himself explained his presence, since nobody else seemed likely to do so, and this autocratic young man appeared to feel that it required an explanation. “And I don
’
t think, he added, turning to the Princess, “that it will be necessary for me to stay any longer. I will have the capsules brought to you, madame. Two every hour for twenty-four hours, and I hope the little girl will feel better in the morning. Good-night, Madame. Goodnight, Miss Grant.”

He cast another half sympathetic glance in Kathy’s direction, and then retreated from the room before the Princess had had very much of an opportunity to realize what he was doing, and by the time she came to herself sufficiently to dash to the door and call him to return, he was already out of sight and earshot. She came back into the sitting-room slowly, and when she had closed the door she leant against it. She had left Nina established on one of the deep, comfortable settees, and the child was beginning to cry again. Kathy, who felt decidedly in the way, and had been about to make good her own escape, impulsively moved across to soothe the little girl, and the stranger looked rather wryly from her to the young woman by the door.

“It seems,” he observed, “that I have come at quite the wrong time, Natalia. Is my niece ill? And if so, why did you call in that Englishman? There are excellent doctors at the Embassy—”