Maria dropped her voice on the last words and even as she spoke, the door opened and Michael came in.
Narina jumped to her feet.
“You are all right? You are not hurt?” she asked him anxiously.
“Only because you were clever and brave enough to save me. It is most important that the people chattering downstairs and making a noise like a peacock’s pen should not get a closer look at me.”
Narina smiled.
“Go into your bedroom,” she suggested. “I am sure that Paks will keep them out.”
Michael crossed the room rapidly and opened the communicating-door.
Narina heard him speaking and was sure that Paks must have been waiting for him.
“He’ll be all right,” Maria added, as if she realised Narina was worried. “And they’ll be talking too much of what’s happened to have noticed any difference between him and His Royal Highness.”
“I hope you are right, Maria, it was just unfortunate that the man was waiting for him so close to the Palace.”
“If you asks me, them sentries aren’t doing their job as well as they should.”
Narina thought the same, but realised that it would be meaningless to say so.
She merely took off her hat and tidied herself.
Then she knocked on the communicating-door and Michael called out for her to come in.
She entered to find the room darkened as it usually was and Michael already in bed.
“It is only me,” Narina breathed.
“You are the one person I now wish to see – and no others. Keep them all out, Paks.”
“I’ll do that right enough for you,” Paks muttered.
“But you’ve given them a lot to gossip about and you can bet your last penny they’ll want to come here and talk and talk about it to you.”
“Then they are not going to do so. In fact, as I am feeling so ill, the only person allowed to see me now is Her Royal Highness.”
Paks grinned.
“Leave it to me then and I’m a much better guard than them soldiers who gives themselves such airs.”
He walked from the room, Narina laughed and then she asked Michael,
“Who is the man who was trying to kill you?”
“I think he must be part of a separate Russian plot to assassinate Prince Rudolf and create a vacuum for them to walk into. But there is no point in discussing it now. I want to tell you just how wonderful I think you are and how brilliantly you saved my life. Who taught you to shoot as well as that?”
“My father – and he will be so delighted that I was able to protect you as he taught me to protect myself.”
“How can you look like you do and be so accurate with a firearm?” quizzed Michael.
Narina chuckled.
“It sounds so funny when you say it like that, but I have always believed in being a ‘Jack of all trades’, and I have most certainly tried some new trades here that I never anticipated would come anywhere near my life!”
“What did you think of my speech, Narina?”
“You were really brilliant and it was exactly what was needed. Above all you gave Prince Hans something different to think about other than he intended.”
“I was well aware of what he intended and it would have been totally disastrous. Now the Russians will find it impossible to get any of the Alexanderburg people to listen to them when they try to stir up trouble.
“And unless Prince Rudolf on his return reverses all I have suggested, I am very certain that Alexanderburg will become a boom-town and thousands of tourists will flock in year after year.”
“I pray you are right and I can only hope that Prince Rudolf will carry out your ideas as stringently as you have thought them out yourself.”
“He can hardly expect me to remain here and just organise a Pleasure Garden. In point of fact, as it happens, there are a great number of other things I would very much like to discuss with you.”
Narina felt a thrill of excitement go through her.
“Oh, please tell me about your ideas, Michael.”
At that moment the door opened.
“The Lord Chamberlain is here to see Your Royal Highness,” announced Paks.
He entered the room and walked towards the bed.
“Are you all right?” he asked Michael.
“I have survived a rather alarming experience, Lord Chamberlain, but I am totally unscathed thanks entirely to Narina.”
“I am aware of her unbelievable bravery,” said the Lord Chamberlain, “and I don’t know how to thank her.”
He paused for a moment before he added,
“Well, I have news for both of you that is of great significance and I only hope that you, Michael, are not too tired to hear it.”
The Lord Chamberlain looked down at a piece of paper he held in his hand.
Almost as if he was frightened of his own voice, the Lord Chamberlain looked over his shoulder before he sat down in a chair beside the bed.
“I have just now received an urgent coded message from Constantinople.”
“From Louise?” Narina asked. “Has anything gone wrong?”
The Lord Chamberlain shook his head.
“No, nothing has gone wrong. In fact the operation has been a complete success and Their Royal Highnesses are returning tonight!”
Narina stared at him.
“Tonight,” she said in a voice he could hardly hear.
“The message they have sent me is in a code, which only I know. It informs me that they are arriving tonight and landing at the Summer Palace, where you, Narina, are to meet them.”
He was silent for a moment before carrying on,
“Naturally they have no idea that Michael is here, but it is essential that he should go with you and that you both should leave on the same Battleship that brought you here from London.”
Narina thought miserably that this was the end.
It was just what she had anticipated, when she had realised without being told that it would be impossible for her to stay in Alexanderburg once Louise had returned.
Naturally that now concerned Michael as well and it flashed through her mind that he might want to return to India.
“So we have to leave this evening,” said Michael in a quiet controlled voice.
“I am afraid so. We cannot risk anyone seeing you together and it was astute of His Royal Highness to think of the Summer Palace.”
No one spoke and he continued,
“I was thinking on my way up here that it would be best for me to announce that His Royal Highness has gone there for a few days’ rest after the terrible shock of being nearly killed after the Parade – and his wife is by his side.”
“Do you really think I must leave at once?” Narina asked. “I did want to spend a little time with Louise.”
“I think under the present circumstances it would be a grave mistake. We have not only had Prince Hans nosing about to find out our secrets, but there will now be a real host of busy-bodies wanting to discuss with His Royal Highness the various ideas you have both put forward, for which I am extremely grateful.”
“I thought you would be. It was really your being so depressed over the situation and Narina’s interest in the flowers that made the idea come to me.”
“You are the sort of man that every country needs at this moment, especially those in the Balkans. I only wish by some magical way we could keep you here. But I think we can make you a promise that you will both come back next year or the year after. Also it would be only right for Her Royal Highness to ask you to be Godparents to the heir to the throne who I am very certain will now be the result of their visit to Constantinople.”
“I have been praying that it would be,” said Narina.
“I am sure your prayers will be answered.”
“How soon do you want us to go?” Michael asked the Lord Chamberlain.
“I think that you should leave as soon as it is dark. The only question is whether you would prefer
to travel on horseback or in a carriage driven by Paks.”
He looked at Narina and then at Michael and added,
“You do understand that the only two people who can go with you are Paks, to valet His Royal Highness, and Maria to maid Princess Louise?”
“I personally would wish to ride,” replied Michael.
“And I know where the Summer Palace is because I passed it when I was coming here to be saved by Narina.”
“And I too would rather ride than anything else,” concurred Narina. “It is the one thing I have missed and it had been sheer agony seeing those magnificent horses in the stables and not being able to ride any of them!”
“It will not take you long, but I suggest you have something to eat and drink before you go, although there are servants in the Summer Palace who will be providing supper for Their Royal Highnesses when they arrive.”
“Do the servants know that they have travelled to Constantinople?”
“No, of course not, they will think they have merely been inspecting the Battleship and it will be of no interest to them that two people who have been staying here in the Palace should leave Alexanderburg by sea.”
Narina laughed.
“I see you have it all beautifully worked out, Lord Chamberlain, and I must certainly congratulate you on the way you have managed to keep our secret so well, although I thought several times it would prove impossible.”
“Cross your fingers tightly till you actually leave,” replied the Lord Chamberlain. “I can only thank you both for everything you have done and insist that it was not only a magnificent effort but a triumphant victory!”
“That is just what we feel ourselves, and I warn you I intend to come back next year and see if you have carried out my ideas. I shall be disappointed if you have not!”
“As they are just what was required for our country and as the Prime Minister believes that it is Prince Rudolf himself who has suggested them, it is going to be seriously difficult for anyone not to do as they are told.”
Narina clasped her hands together and cried,
“I am glad, so very very glad.”
“I am going to send you up a bottle of the very best champagne,” said the Lord Chamberlain, rising to his feet, “and I will come back to talk to you before you leave. But now I must go downstairs and assure them that His Royal Highness is fine, but a little shocked by his experience and I can say the same of Her Royal Highness as well.”
Before he closed the door he looked back,
“Thank you, thank you both again, you have been magnificent. There is no other word for it.”
And then he was gone.
Narina gave a little laugh.
“Well, at least we made one person happy. I can see how frustrating it has been for the Lord Chamberlain until now when everything that he has suggested has either been turned down or ignored.”
“I think it is people-power that will do it,” Michael added. “They were all entranced by the idea of the Pleasure Garden and I’m sure that the young men of Alexanderburg have all been wanting for a long time to join the Army.”
“The Rifle Range was a very good idea and that in itself will make them keen.”
“I hope they will all be good shots like you, Narina!”
“I don’t want to think about it, but if Maria had not shown me the revolver and told me that Louise had always carried it in her pocket when outside the City, we might not be talking to each other at this moment.”
“Would that have worried you?”
Michael spoke very quietly.
And it seemed to Narina that the answer she should give him was being repeated loudly in her mind and in her heart.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The horses were ready.
They had been brought round to a side door where Paks took them over, which meant that no one saw Narina and Michael off.
She had spoken to Maria and told her not to forget any of her belongings or to pack by mistake those that were Louise’s.
Maria did point out that she had not yet unpacked any of her clothes!
As Narina walked slowly downstairs, she knew that she was miserable at having to leave and at having to leave so abruptly.
She had been so happy at the Palace and it was sad to think that she must leave now and perhaps never see it again.
Then she told herself that she was being unnecessarily sensitive and, of course, she would return one day.
But she realised that what really saddened her was the thought that if she did come back, Michael would not be here.
When he appeared in a very smart riding jacket that belonged to Prince Rudolf, he was looking very handsome.
There was a sudden agony in her heart because she had to leave him behind.
He would return to India where he was needed and perhaps be killed because she was not there to protect him.
She wanted to beg him to come to England where he would be safe, but he would only laugh at her and tell her how much he enjoyed the adventure and excitement of The Great Game.
Michael lifted her up gently onto the side saddle of her mount and once again she felt that strange feeling she had felt before at his touch.
She really could not explain it to herself, but it was something that was half agony and half ecstasy.
“I will see you later, Paks,” Michael called out as they rode off.
It was already dusk and the first stars were coming out in the sky.
As the Lord Chamberlain suggested, they had already eaten and had drunk the delicious champagne he had so kindly provided for them.
Narina could not help thinking that she must talk to Louise and stay for an hour at least at the Summer Palace.
It was only as they were both riding away that she suddenly remembered that they had not said goodbye to the Lord Chamberlain.
She had been so bemused talking with Michael and drinking champagne that she had not been able to think of anything else.
Now she turned to him, half reining in her mount,
“We didn’t say goodbye to the Lord Chamberlain!”
“I know, Narina, because he has changed his mind at the last moment. As we are riding there, he is driving with Paks and Maria to the Summer Palace.”
Narina gave a sigh of relief.
She had no wish to seem in any way rude to a man that had been so considerate to her ever since her arrival.
Secretly she thought if he were going to the Summer Palace, he would be able to tell Prince Rudolf better than Michael could about what had been arranged for him and Louise in their absence.
They rode for a little while in silence.
Now the full moon was rising high in the sky and the stars were growing brighter by the second.
“It’s so lovely here,” sighed Narina to Michael. “I really don’t want to go away.”
“England can be lovely too, you know, Narina.”
She agreed. Nothing was more glorious than the garden at her home, and she was always riding in the woods alone except when her father found the time to join her.
But there would be no one for her to talk to, not as she had been able to talk to Michael.
*
They rode on.
Now they were near the sea and the moonlight was glittering on the waves as they rolled in below them.
Then to her surprise Michael suggested,
“We will now turn to the left here at this wood and I would like you to follow me, please.”
“But surely the Summer Palace is right on the sea,” murmured Narina.
“I am taking you somewhere else first – ”
She was surprised, but obviously there was no hurry.
Paks was driving a slow old-fashioned carriage and he would have to stay on the road that ran along the top of the cliff.
And anyway riding as they were on soft ground, it seemed better to delay their arrival for a little while so that the Lord Chamberlain arrived before them.
It was very dark in
the wood and, as woods always did, it felt an enchanted place to Narina.
Impulsively she exclaimed,
“When I ride out in the woods at home, which I do every day, I have always wished there was someone with me who felt the same as I do.”
“I feel the same as you do,” replied Michael. “And that is why I have brought you this way – ”
“You love gardens and flowers. I thought therefore you must love the little red squirrels that climb up the trees, and the goblins and hobgoblins who live beneath them.”
“I used to listen to them when I was a small boy.”
“I guessed that you did, Michael, and I have always been absolutely certain there are water nymphs in the little pool in the wood and I used to sit by the water often and watch and watch hoping that one would pop out.”
“I think one did come out for me,” sighed Michael. “But when I saw her in the sunlight, she turned out to be an angel!”
Narina blushed in the darkness, but she knew that he meant that she had saved his life and she said quickly,
“You must be careful when I am not around. After all it was chance or perhaps the hand of God that I was looking for you in the garden and – ”
“Please forget it!” Michael cried, interrupting her.
“I really don’t want you to dwell on what happened then. You saved my life twice – and there must not be a third.”
“That is what I am trying to make you understand,” replied Narina. “If I am not there, those dreadful men who have been pursuing you may still catch up with you.”
There was a note of horror in her voice.
She thought that Michael was going to reply to her, but instead he quickened his pace a little.
Now he was riding ahead of her.
As the track through the wood was dark and narrow it seemed sensible to ride in single file.
At the same time it was strange that he wanted to ride through the trees when they would be able to see more clearly outside on the cliff.
Then she suddenly felt afraid that there might be an enemy lurking ahead and he was unaware of any danger.
She wanted to call out to him to be very careful and to let her go first – just in case there was someone hiding behind the trees.
Then unexpectedly just in front of them she saw a clearing.
The Gates of Paradise Page 12
