The Gates of Paradise (7 page)

“Can you fetch me some honey?” she asked.

“Honey!” he exclaimed.

“Yes please, honey and a teaspoon.”

He sent a servant off to find the honey.

In a few moments the servant came hurrying back with a comb of honey on a plate and a small teaspoon.

Narina scooped up some of the honey that had run out of the comb and put it gently on the baby's lips.

For a while he went on crying and then as he tasted the honey, he began to enjoy it.

He sucked away at what was already on his tongue until Narina placed more honey in his mouth.

“Now he will go to sleep,” she told his mother.

“I never thinks,” replied the woman, “of giving the baby honey.”

“Honey is quite wonderful for children.  My mother always gave it to me when I was small.  It is very useful if you are travelling and small children are upset by bumping over rough roads and therefore cry.”

There was a murmur of appreciation in the hall.

“Give them honey.  I promise you, if they wake up in the night and it annoys your husband, give them a little honey to suck and they will soon go to sleep again.  And if you are lucky, they will not wake up until the morning.”

There was another murmur of interest.

Just as she completed her tour around the room, the Lord Mayor announced that tea was ready and although it was a tight squeeze, he felt sure that everyone would find enough for themselves and their children to eat.

He took Narina into his private apartment where tea was served for her and the Councillors.

“I am very certain, Your Royal Highness,” the Lord Mayor said, “that all these women will have something to talk about until next year.”

Narina laughed.

“It always surprises me that people in the country, although they do keep bees, are not aware of the wonderful properties of honey.  They make jam, which is not half as good for them as honey.  Mohammed once said, ‘
Honey is the food of the body and the soul
'.”

She spoke as she would have spoken to her father and then she saw surprise in the Lord Mayor's eyes.

Only then did she remember that Louise, much as she loved her, was not as well read as she was.

Tactfully she changed the subject to ask what was happening in the City.

There was a moment's hesitation before the Lord Mayor replied,

“Everything is pretty quiet, Your Royal Highness, but I have a suspicion that there are intruders from outside who join the men in the evening when work is done.  From all I hear they are trying to unsettle them in various subtle ways that is impossible for us to control.”

“Then what is the answer?” enquired Narina.

“I think that what Your Royal Highness has done this afternoon has been of great help.  The women are very delighted with you.  It will give them much to talk about and they will not be so attentive to their husbands tonight.”

“Are you suggesting, Lord Mayor, that the people are being made to feel misgoverned and oppressed?”

“Only in certain districts at the moment, but we are always afraid that the situation might grow worse as it has in other Balkan countries.”

“What I feel is important,” asserted Narina, “is that they should see much more of my husband and me in the future.  I had the feeling when I was talking to the women just now that either most of them were newcomers to the country or else I had missed them on past occasions when I have appeared in public.”

“You were unable to grace this meeting last year.  And also the previous year, which was just after you were married, as you were away on your honeymoon.”

“That, naturally, was a good excuse for not being present, but before I leave I would like once again to talk to the women who are having tea in the other room.”

The Lord Mayor was obviously surprised.

“I think we are asking too much of you, Your Royal Highness.”

“Not at all.  I talked, as you saw, to a great number of them, but I did not reach them all and some may feel neglected.”

Despite the Lord Mayor's rather feeble protest, she insisted on doing as she wished.

She walked into where the women were finishing their tea and some of them were already putting coats on their small children.

Before the Lord Mayor was aware of what she was intending to do, Narina stood up on one of the chairs.

The women looked up in anticipation as she raised her voice and began,

“I have come back not only to say goodbye to you but because I have an idea that I think you will all enjoy.  In two months' time, when the weather will be warmer, will you try to come back again?  But before you do so will you please send in a drawing or a toy that your children have made themselves.

“There will be a good number of prizes, including for the funniest exhibit and the most imaginative, as well as for those which are outstandingly clever.”

“I am sure that the Lord Mayor will give us a date before you leave and the exhibition will, I am quite certain, be of considerable interest to the many tourists who will be visiting Alexanderburg in July and August.”

There was a distinct gasp of excitement and then all the women started to clap and cheer.

Narina's idea had very obviously appealed to their imagination and they were thrilled at the idea of showing how clever their children were.

Helped by the Lord Mayor, she slipped down from the chair and started talking to them individually.

“That be something so new, Your Royal Highness,” one woman said, “and as I've five children, they'll all be hoping they can win a prize!”

“I hope they will too and I promise you there will be plenty of prizes.  In fact my husband and I will work out exactly how many different ways they can compete so that no one is left out.”

She shook hands with one mother after another.

When finally she left long after the Lord Mayor had expected her to do so, they all cheered her, not only in the City Hall but outside as she stepped into her carriage.

Then they waved until she was out of sight.

When she was alone with the equerry, he said,

“If you will excuse me, Your Royal Highness, that was an absolutely brilliant idea of yours.  I have often felt that the women are neglected and forgotten.”

“I think if nothing else it will give them something new to talk about,” added Narina.

“And I am certain there will be a big rush for honey after all Your Royal Highness has said.  Actually the honey in this country is exceptionally good.”

“I look forward to enjoying it myself.”

She realised that she had spoken as if she had not tasted Alexanderburg honey before.

Quickly, to cover up what she knew was a definite
faux pas
, she added,

“I think in the Palace the cooks believe that honey is too simple and do not provide it as much as I would like.  They prefer to send it up for only breakfast.”

She was speaking as her mother might have spoken.

Then she thought that perhaps the women she had just left might think it rather strange that while she was so interested in children, she still had none of her own.

Almost instinctively she found herself praying that Prince Rudolf's trip to Constantinople would be successful and that there would soon be an heir to the throne.

As they neared the Palace, the equerry piped up,

“Would it be forward of me, Your Royal Highness, to say how much I have admired you this afternoon?  And how impressed I was with the way you handled not only the women but also the Lord Mayor?”

Narina gave a little laugh.

“Did I handle him?” she quizzed.

“Your Royal Highness did indeed.  He is so much a stickler for everything being done exactly as it has always been done before.  I saw his surprise when you insisted on going into the ladies' tea room.”

“I can see that he is rather a fuddy-duddy.  We shall have to teach him that the Palace requires everything to be new and exciting for those we reign over.”

“Your Royal Highness has certainly struck the first blow this afternoon and the City will be talking of nothing else before they go to bed.

The Lord Chamberlain also praised Narina when she arrived back at the Palace.

He had been told what had happened and came up to the sitting room where she was reading.

“I hear that you burst a bombshell under the Lord Mayor this afternoon, Your Royal Highness!”

“I hope I did not do anything wrong – ”

“No, you were completely and absolutely right.  It's something we should have thought of before and I blame myself for not doing so.”

He was smiling as he shook his head and went on,

“To be honest, I have forgotten how important the women are. But you have brilliantly created a new defence against the Russians that has not entered our minds.”

“If in a small way,” Narina answered him, “I have forged a new weapon against them, I shall be very proud.”

“You have every right to be.  I was so stupid not to realise that women have a tremendous influence over their husbands.  Every husband when he goes to bed tonight will have to listen not only to how charming you are, but how you have given an important incentive to their children.”

“I am very glad that you are not angry with me for interfering, but it seemed sad for those women, who had come long distances just to have a brief glance at who they thought was their Princess and then go home with nothing else to talk about.”

“You were absolutely right,” the Lord Chamberlain replied.  “And now they will talk incessantly for the next two months about their children and the prizes they hope they will win.”

“There must be lots of prizes.  It would be a good idea if every child took something away, even if it was not a first or second prize, when they leave the City Hall.”

“It is certainly a great idea – ”

“Perhaps it could be a tiny book or for the smaller children a little doll.  I am sure it must be possible to give a prize to those who are really outstanding, and at the same time to give the others something to take home with them.”

“I have always heard,” said the Lord Chamberlain, “that your father is an exceedingly clever man and I now realise that you have followed in his footsteps.”

“I like to think I have in a small way.  It is terribly sad that Papa did not have a son.  It is what he would have loved above all else.  But it has meant that I have spent a great deal more time with him than I would have done if I had not been an only child.”

“The one thing I am quite certain about is that we are extremely fortunate to have you here and if you go on springing surprises on us as you have today, I think that Their Royal Highnesses when they return here will be most grateful to you.”

“I am praying very hard that their secret departure will give them what they really want.”

“An heir to the throne will give us the security we don't have at the moment, but in the meantime you have erected a new wall of defence that I and all my colleagues are extremely grateful for.”

*

When she climbed into bed that night, Narina found herself thinking over what the Lord Chamberlain had said.

She reflected that it was a bit of good luck that she should have to take Louise's place because the date of the meeting had been overlooked.

‘There must be other ways,' she thought to herself, ‘to make it more difficult for the Russians to intervene.'

But for the moment her mind was blank.

However she felt certain that she would be guided, as she had been this afternoon into saying the right words at the right moment.

She longed to tell her father all that had happened.

She was sure that when she did, he would believe it was due to his prayers and hers that she had been guided in how to help Louise on her first day of impersonating her.

Because she was supposed to be with her husband, Narina had eaten dinner alone in her sitting room.

The food was brought upstairs by footmen and Paks and Maria took it from them in the doorway.

The Palace chefs naturally sent up dinner and every other meal for two people and as the plates had to go back empty, both Maria and Paks protested they were putting on weight!

“What we don't eat, Your Royal Highness, we then gives to the birds in the garden,” Paks told her.  “There's double the number waiting there now.  It's an ill wind that blows no one any good!”

Narina laughed, but she had to admit the food was delicious and she herself was eating more than she would have done ordinarily.

“Are the Palace staff very curious about His Royal Highness's illness?” she asked Maria.

“Paks has told them that his eyes be getting better, but the doctors insist his room's kept dark and no sunshine allowed in for fear it strains his sight.

“Paks also tells them that His Royal Highness hurt his head when he fell and he therefore has to be kept as quiet as possible.”

Narina was aware that Paks and Maria had made it impossible for anyone to guess that there was actually no one in the Royal bedroom.

She knew that Paks locked the door at night and it was widely reported that the doctor had said that His Royal Highness must not be disturbed by any noise.

None of the housemaids were allowed into the three private rooms where Narina spent her time.

*

The next day Narina realised she had nothing to do.

Therefore she took one of the books her father had given her out of her trunk and after locking it again, she put the key into her handbag where no one would find it.

Then she told Maria she was going into the private garden to sit in the sunshine.

“You'll be safe there, Your Royal Highness, and no one'll interrupt you as His Royal Highness decreed some time ago that he and his wife must have somewhere they could sunbathe and not be seen by prying eyes.”

“That was indeed sensible of him.”