Rivals for Love

by Barbara Cartland

  Below decks there was a large Master cabin where the Duke normally slept, but now it was decorated with flowers and he told Elva that it was for her use.

  “But I cannot turn you out of your own cabin – ” she began to protest.

  Then without the Duke having to remind her, she remembered they were supposed to be sharing the Master cabin and blushed.

  “I am – sorry,” she murmured. “I – forgot.”

  “Which is something you should not do again,” the Duke scolded her sternly.

  He then showed her the yacht’s four other elegantly furnished cabins that were decorated in different colours – pink, blue, green and yellow.

  “That was such a clever idea!” cried Elva, hoping the Duke was not still angry with her.

  “I thought it was rather unusual,” the Duke said in a lofty tone, “but so far these cabins have not been used very much as I prefer going to sea alone.”

  Elva thought he was making her even more aware than she was already that she was an encumbrance to him. She continued to admire everything he showed her.

  There was one large and comfortable Saloon where they would take their meals, but what delighted her most was to see that there were two large bookcases packed with books.

  “This is just what I was hoping you would have aboard,” she sighed.

  “I did not forget that Cousin Violet said you were a great reader,” answered the Duke. “There are three books on Russia that I hope you will find interesting.”

  “Oh, how kind of you to be so thoughtful! I found one volume on Russia in Uncle Edward’s library, which I pushed into my luggage when no one was looking.”

  “Mind you remember to replace it when you return!”

  “Of course I will do so, if we ever do return!”

  The Duke laughed.

  “I do not think our adventure will be as bad as that. It is not a question of life or death, but more to do with my reputation – and of course yours.”

  Elva noticed a short pause before he remembered to add her reputation, but she merely commented,

  “We have been sent off with so much goodwill and with so many people believing we will be successful that I think we would be very very stupid if we fail.”

  “I agree with you, Elva, and with no reservations.”

  She then took a quick glance over the rest of the ship below decks, where the twenty seamen who manned the ship slept and ate.

  It was all very clean and tidy and Elva thought it was typical of the Duke that he would look after the men who all served him so well. He not only made them comfortable with exceptionally good quarters, but also pleased their eyes as well as their bodies.

  ‘I think,’ she told herself when they went back on deck, ‘that he is exceedingly kind as well as being astute.’

  At the same time she recognised that she was still rather frightened of him.

  She soon learnt as the day passed that the Duke had a habit of detaching himself from the person he was with.

  It meant she was at any moment non-existent and he was almost in another world.

  She could not explain it to herself and yet she felt that he had now just left her behind and disappeared off adventuring on his own without even moving away from her side.

  On Aunt Violet’s advice Elva tried very hard not to make any demands on the Duke nor to stay with him if he seemed to want to be alone.

  Once they were out in the North Sea the weather became rather rough and the Duke suggested that she rest below decks.

  He was expecting her, Elva knew, to be seasick, but she was delighted to find that she was a good sailor.

  She found herself to be more excited and delighted by the rising waves than upset by them.

  *

  They moved at a good speed for the first two days of their voyage as the wind was with them, although when it did drop a little the waves were still breaking over the bow.

  Now they could not travel as quickly as the Duke wished.

  However rough it was, Elva was delighted that she did not miss a single meal.

  Of course the Duke had engaged an excellent chef, who was, of course, French and the cuisine was delicious despite the roughness of the sea.

  During the first meal Elva thought that the Duke was somewhat reserved and determined not to answer any of her questions, so wisely she did not ask any.

  Because she considered it tactful, she retired to bed very early, taking with her one of the books on Russia.

  She did not feel sleepy until long after midnight and she did not think that the Duke was aware of what she was doing.

  Later she guessed he was told by his valet who was acting as her lady’s maid and he was much more efficient, she decided, than any of the servants at home.

  His name was Danton and when she quizzed the Duke about him he told her that Danton had been with him ever since he had left Cambridge.

  “He travels everywhere with me, looks after me and at times saves my life. I could not be without him.”

  “I thought it would have been something like that,” remarked Elva. “He is so kind and so helpful to me, but I do not think he is entirely English.”

  “No, he has both French and Egyptian blood in his veins, which makes it easy for him to pick up languages wherever we travel. I usually find that by the end of a journey, Danton has become my interpreter!”

  “You are so very lucky to have found someone like him.”

  “I do know it,” agreed the Duke, “and I must be honest with you and admit that Danton is the only person besides your aunt and the Prime Minister who knows the truth about us.”

  Elva had already guessed instinctively that Danton would be better informed than anyone else.

  She appreciated that he was indeed very special and that he could be useful to her as well as to the Duke.

  By the time of their seventh day at sea Danton was, she concluded, completely indispensable.

  He was even helping her with her Russian which she was now trying hard to improve.

  “I can understand a certain amount of Russian,” he said, “so you can talk away, Your Grace, and I’ll tell you when you’re wrong.”

  He did so as he was preparing her bath or helping her dress by doing up the gowns and she found him to be a tremendous help.

  Sometimes she would puzzle over a Russian word she had discovered in one of the books and Danton always knew what it meant, even though he could not pronounce it properly.

  They had now moved into calmer waters and were enjoying an exceedingly good dinner when the Duke said,

  “I must congratulate and thank you, Elva, for the way you behaved during that unpleasant stormy weather.”

  “It did not worry me at all.”

  “It would have worried any other woman I might have brought aboard, I can assure you. Not only would she have been seasick, but she would have complained all the time until I was tired of hearing her.”

  Elva laughed.

  “I was told that you never take a woman aboard the Sea Horse if you can possibly help it.”

  “I suppose Danton told you that,” smiled the Duke. “No woman looks her best when she is being seasick!”

  Elva laughed again.

  “Then you are sensible enough to leave them ashore and set off on your own.”

  “That is indeed true and it is why I must thank you for being so very tactful. I realise now, when you retire to your cabin every afternoon, it is not because you need to lie down, but because you do not wish to intrude on my space.”

  “I really do not want you to find me a bore, Cousin Varin, I have been so fortunate in finding that Danton can answer most of the questions I might have bombarded you with.”

  “Danton always comes to my rescue, but now you have been so good I am waiting to answer anything you may wish to ask me.”

  “Which perversely means,” giggled Elva, “that for the moment I cannot think of anything I want to ask you!”

  “You are really one of
the most remarkable women alive!” exclaimed the Duke. “I have never met a woman yet who did not want to know something I did not want to tell her or to be given something she did not already possess.”

  “I am sure that what has happened in your life is that you have been pressurised by Society women like the ones I met when I was with my Cousin Muriel. It was not only the debutantes that I found boring but the famous London beauties as well.”

  The Duke looked surprised.

  “Why were you so bored with them, Elva?”

  “Because when they were not showing themselves off in front of the gentlemen they were just endlessly catty about each other and concerned only with their looks.”

  “That is a very sweeping statement, Elva.”

  “You only see them at their very best. They look at you with glowing eyes and you think how much they are admiring you when what they are actually doing is making sure you admire them.”

  The Duke chortled.

  “That is certainly very scathing and, if you talked to the famous beauties like that, I cannot believe they felt much affection for you.”

  “I only hope they disliked me as much as I disliked them,” stated Elva. “And I am never, never going back into that Social world again!”

  The Duke looked surprised.

  “But you will be certainly forced to sooner or later. Eventually you will be required to marry a suitable young gentleman and, if he is someone your father approves of, he will undoubtedly be from what you so scathingly call the ‘Social world’.”

  “As you know, I have no intention of marrying anyone,” responded Elva firmly. “Least of all one of those smarmy men who spend all their time pursuing brainless women just because they are pretty to look at!”

  “I think that is all that most men ask of a woman,” came back the Duke deliberately to be argumentative.

  “If that is all he asks, then he must be half-witted himself and obviously a crashing bore!”

  The Duke threw back his head as he laughed.

  “You certainly do hold very strong feelings on the subject and, as it is something I have often felt myself, I find I can only agree with you.”

  He paused before he added in a different tone,

  “But you do realise my dear pretty little cousin that sooner or later you will need a man to look after you and of course you will want children.”

  Elva was silent for a moment.

  “That is just a point you could not miss making because it is so obvious,” she said. “Eventually I suppose I will bear children, preferably a large number of sons who will ride as well as – as – my father does.”

  “You very nearly said as well as you do,” the Duke interposed.

  “All right, I am not ashamed of riding well and my children shall learn to ride as soon as they can walk.”

  “You will need to have a husband first to produce them!”

  Elva sighed.

  “That of course is the one snag. All the men I have met so far are so dim-witted that I would either run away before my honeymoon was over or find some subtle way of disposing of them!”

  “All I can say,” said the Duke after a moment’s silence, “is that you frighten me and I am only hoping that you will not push me overboard!”

  “Now you are being really silly. You know quite well that you are very intelligent and I find everything you say so interesting when I can persuade you to talk to me.”

  “I suppose I should accept that as one of the best compliments I have ever received,” responded the Duke sarcastically.

  “But it is a genuine one, Cousin Varin.”

  Because he was amused by her strong feelings, the Duke deliberately provoked an argument when they dined together later.

  Soon they were sparring with words at every meal and Elva found everything he said not only controversial but stimulating.

  By this time they were moving slowly up the Gulf of Finland.

  The voyage was coming to an end and there would be no further chance for Elva to duel with the Duke with words.

  It was on the fifteenth day of their voyage that the Duke said when it was time to retire to bed,

  “We will arrive tomorrow. I have told the Captain not to tie up alongside until midday and I would hope that there will be someone from the Embassy to meet us on the dock and will inform us as to where we are to stay in St Petersburg.”

  “And if no one appears,” enquired Elva, “what do we do then?”

  “We shall have to go to the British Embassy to find out what has been arranged, but I think we will find there will be someone to meet us.”

  “I feel sure there should be,” commented Elva. “I do not believe that the Russians have many such important visitors as the Duke and Duchess of Sparkbrook arriving here every day.”

  “They have been fighting violently with Sweden for the last few months, Elva, and your aunt told me that the Empress could even hear guns when she was in residence at her Palace.”

  “I would have thought it could have been very dangerous for her,”

  “Apparently she was extremely brave and refused to move away from St. Petersburg. She may have faults, but she is a very courageous woman.”

  Elva smiled.

  “I think it was Voltaire who addressed her as, ‘the great man whose name is Catherine’.”

  The Duke’s eyes twinkled.

  It always amused him when Elva came up with a quick witty remark in response to anything he said.

  “I expect they are now preparing the terms of the Treaty with Sweden, but where you and I are concerned, Elva, it is a case of ‘let the battle begin’.”

  Elva looked at him.

  “We shall win,” she mused. “I feel it in my bones, as my Nanny used to say.”

  “I shall feel it will be true when we rejoin the Sea Horse and sail home with all our flags flying, hopefully not at half-mast!”

  “Danton tells me,” added Elva confidentially, “that you are always a winner and however difficult the task you undertake, you always pull it off.”

  “Danton or no Danton,” the Duke insisted, “this is a somewhat different task from anything I have yet to undertake. Quite frankly, Elva, we will have to use our brains with every breath we breathe.”

  “I know that,” replied Elva quietly. “But I am sure once a winner always a winner, which particularly applies to you.”

  The Duke smiled but he did not answer.

  She sensed that he was inwardly a little nervous of whatever they were going to encounter when they reached St. Petersburg.

  *

  The next morning Elva stood on deck and watched as the Sea Horse moved slowly along the river Neva. As they had sailed up the Gulf of Finland she had seen the Kronstadt in the distance seeming to rise out of the sea.

  Ahead there was an enormous grand harbour and a range of tall ships with the sun shining on the smooth blue sea covered with vessels, which Elva was sure were now at sea as for the first time for months they had not been confined to port while the armies of Sweden and Russia fought it out on the battlefield.

  There were guard ships, frigates and small vessels of all sizes moving over the calm sea.

  It was all very colourful and beautiful and Elva felt that they were entering an enchanted land.

  Equally Russia was an Empire that was puzzling and alarming to everyone in Europe.

  The Sea Horse came alongside a pier and almost immediately a smartly dressed Englishman obviously from the British Embassy came aboard.

  The Duke was waiting for him and he bowed very politely as he introduced himself,

  “I am Harold Barnier, Your Grace, First Secretary in charge of the British Embassy in St. Petersburg as Mr. William Falkner, our Ambassador, has left for Turkey.”

  “It is most kind of you to meet us at the quay. I must admit I had no idea that Mr Falkner would not be in residence.”

  “He has only just departed, Your Grace, with Mr. Whitworth, the Envoy Extraordinary and British
Minister Plenipotentiary on a special mission, so I am now in charge.”

  “I hope you will not find your duties too arduous,” observed the Duke. “Allow me to present my wife.”

  Elva who was standing a little way from him came forward.

  She shook Mr. Barnier’s hand and he bowed to her very politely saying,

  “The Prime Minister informed us, Your Grace, that you have just been married. May I therefore offer you our warmest congratulations on behalf of the British Embassy in St. Petersburg?”

  “Thank you so much,” replied Elva, but the Duke quickly intervened in the conversation.

  “I am sure the Prime Minister will have informed you that our marriage is to remain a complete secret until my wife is out of mourning. There is no need at all for the Russians to know that she has been recently bereaved, but in England they would think it very unfeeling of her if she had come on our honeymoon when she was still in deep mourning.”

  “I fully understand, Your Grace, and I can assure you that we will be very discreet in the matter.”

  “I hope you have found us somewhere comfortable to stay – I expect St. Petersburg is very busy at present.”

  “It is indeed,” replied Mr. Barnier, “and that is why when I received my instructions from the Prime Minister, I consulted the Palace.”

  There was a pause before the Duke quizzed him,

  “What was the reply?”

  “The Empress sent special instructions that you are to be accommodated at the Winter Palace.”

  As Mr. Barnier spoke, Elva realised that the Duke had stiffened before he answered,

  “This is a very great honour. But I have no wish to be an encumbrance on Her Majesty.”

  “I am sure she will not feel so, Your Grace. But as you have just intimated, the City is indeed overcrowded at present owing to the many festivities Prince Potemkin is arranging in honour of the Empress.”

  “Prince Potemkin!” exclaimed the Duke. “Can he be here in the Capital?”

  “He has returned to St. Petersburg unexpectedly.”

  “But I thought he was dealing with the troubles in the South?”

  Mr. Barnier threw up his hands.

  “We are all aware that the war against the Turks has reached a critical phase,” he said, “and they are in fact weakening.”