They had managed to go away relatively unscathed, but other people might have had their houses burnt down and save nothing from the destruction and so had nowhere to go.
“I think it is very clever of you,” she said aloud to her brother, “to have found a house so quickly. That will save us money as I am sure the hotels are very expensive.”
“As I have already told you we have enough money and enough items to sell to keep us for at least a year in great comfort,” he replied sharply. “If by that time we have not found all that we are seeking, then we will be very stupid indeed.”
Weena knew he was thinking that they must both marry money.
She felt herself shudder at the idea.
Then she thought about how David had saved her from the man who had tried to kiss her and how if he had not been there the man would have done so.
She knew she would have been not only shocked and upset but disgusted because there was something very unpleasant about him.
It now struck her for the first time that perhaps Ivor would insist on her marrying someone who was rich but for whom she had no feeling and someone with whom she had nothing in common.
She might even be repulsed by him.
Because she was very innocent and her knowledge of the world relied entirely on the books she had read, Weena knew little or nothing about men.
She had no idea what she would feel if a man made love to her.
She only knew that the man who had tried to kiss her had seemed repulsive.
She would always be eternally grateful to David because he had saved her from the horror of it.
But David had gone and now she had to face the Social world which she knew nothing about.
According to her brother’s instructions she had to marry someone who might be as unpleasant and repulsive as the man who had tried to kiss her on the ship.
Going to London had seemed very exciting until now and the thrill of it had been very much the same as being told that she was going to India, China or Paris.
Now she was suddenly afraid of what she would find in London and what the future would hold for her if she obeyed her brother.
‘How can I marry any man just because he is rich?’ she asked herself, but there was no answer.
There was no one she could discuss what she knew was one of the largest and most intimidating projects she had ever encountered.
The ship came to a halt by the Tower of London.
There were quite a number of people to go ashore and most of them were ready to leave the ship the moment the anchors went down.
Ivor, however, insisted that there was no hurry as he wanted his precious possessions taken ashore with every possible care and to make certain that nothing was broken.
They therefore waited until almost every passenger had left before Ivor’s treasures were taken out of the hold where they had been housed.
They were stacked onto a carriage and they took up so much room that a second carriage had to be ordered for him and Weena.
The agent was to travel with them and they set off first with their possessions following behind.
“You will find everything you need in the house except servants,” the agent was saying. “But you must not be too depressed at the state it’s in, having been empty for over two years.”
“I am surprised no one has taken it,” Ivor answered. “But, of course, as I have already told you, I want only the best.”
“Houses in Park Lane are hard to come by,” the agent informed him. “And the same applies to Grosvenor Square and other fashionable parts of London.”
He paused and smiled as he added,
“Of course you could go to Islington or somewhere like that, but they are not so smart and that, I understand, is what you want.”
“Now we have left the ship,” Ivor said, “I will let you into our little secret. My sister and I are deliberately travelling incognito so that people will not take too much notice of us.”
“Incognito!” the agent then exclaimed. “And why should you do that, sir?”
“Because we are actually Russian Royalty and we were told before we left that it was a great mistake for us to give our Royal names on the ship so that we were made not only a great fuss of but were charged at least double.”
The agent laughed.
“That be true. They put the prices up for anyone who they think can afford it and I wondered myself when you asked me for a smart house how you would pay for it.”
“You need not worry about that,” Ivor told him in a lofty tone. “Actually, now that we are clear of the ship, I will introduce myself as Prince Ivor and my sister’s name is Princess Alweena Kerlensky.”
The agent stared at them for a moment.
Then he said,
“Well, I can understand, Your Highness, why you did it and it’s very clever of you too, if I might say so.”
“Thank you,” Ivor said. “I feel I am very fortunate in being able to obtain this house from you, if it pleases my sister and, of course, we will pay what you asked before you knew who I was.”
The agent laughed.
“You have been very astute indeed, Your Highness. I would certainly have doubled the rent if I had known who you were. Not that we expects the Russians as a rule to be as rich as them Americans be!”
“Are the Americans very rich?” Ivor enquired as if it was of no consequence.
“They’re rich enough,” the agent replied. “Most of them throw it all about in the wrong way. It seems such a waste in my opinion.”
“I am sure it would be in mine too,” Ivor answered. “Let me assure you that things are not very stable now in Russia, which is why my sister and I have come away. We have no wish to waste what money we have. So please do not tempt us into spending unnecessarily.”
“You can trust me, Your Highness. I can assure you my Company is one of the best in London. In fact, to be honest, I were expecting you to say you wanted something small and cheap.”
Ivor chuckled.
“As it is,” he said, “it is something large and also cheap!”
“That is exactly what I am offering you,” the agent replied. “When you see it, it may look a bit dusty, but that can soon be cleaned up. If you ask me it’s a snip. If you don’t agree with me, I’ll be really disappointed.”
He spoke so earnestly that Weena laughed.
But she knew that her brother was delighted with the fact that they were to have a house in the smartest and most fashionable part of London.
It was, in his opinion, exactly the right way to start them off on their voyage of discovery.
CHAPTER FIVE
After spending some time knocking on the door of the house, it was opened by an elderly man with white hair.
When he saw who accompanied them, he said to the agent.
“Oh, there you be Mr. Jones. I’m sorry I kept you waitin’, but we were in the kitchen havin’ trouble with the stove and I didn’t hear the door at first.”
“It’s all right, Brownlow,” the agent replied. “I’ve brought two potential customers who I hope will be taking over the house.”
It certainly was dusty, as the agent had told them, and the windows needed cleaning.
As they went round, Weena could see that it was just the sort of background her brother needed if he was to impress English Society.
The rooms were large and had obviously been well furnished before they became unused and therefore had a run-down appearance.
But Weena was certain that the colour would come back on the covers and the curtains once the accumulated dust was shaken off them.
On the ground floor there was a very nice drawing room, a study that she was certain her brother would want to use and a music room with an ancient grand piano.
To her delight there was a library and books filled the shelves right up to the ceiling.
She thought with joy that even if she was not going to be a success in Society, she would at least have plenty to re
ad.
They only had a quick glance at the rooms before the agent hurried them upstairs to see what he insisted were the very best rooms.
The drawing room was indeed double the size of any other room they had seen.
When it was first in use, it must have been most impressive, but now it looked somewhat dingy.
But Weena thought that it would not be too difficult to bring it back to perfection.
The drawing room was located on the first floor and so were the best bedrooms.
The Master bedroom, which she knew her brother would want to occupy, had an enormous bed with a canopy and curtains of red velvet.
It was essentially a man’s room and opening out of it was a boudoir which the agent explained was used by the Master and Mistress of the house.
It had a very fine French secretaire by the window and leading off the boudoir there was a pretty bedroom with a four-poster bed carved in gilt with curtains in yellow chintz.
There was a dressing table with a muslin petticoat round it and a gold mirror ornamented with golden cupids.
Weena did not have to tell Ivor how delighted she was with the house and she knew from the expression on his face that it was exactly what he desired.
But he was very determined to rent it as cheaply as he possibly could.
“I will certainly rent the house,” he said, “but you will have to let me have it somewhat cheaper because there is so much work to be done before it is useable.”
He saw that the agent was about to refuse and went on,
“I intend to entertain the most important people in Society here, who I already have an introduction to from my friends and, of course, from the Czar of Russia. When I vacate it, you will obviously get double or treble what you are asking now because I will have spent so much time and money on it.”
He saw that the agent was taking in what he was saying.
After a considerable pause, he replied,
“I will let Your Highness have it very cheaply for the first six months, after that it would be only fair for us to double the price we are asking.”
Watching her brother, Weena was quite certain that he would achieve his ambition in the first six months.
After that the money would be of no interest.
She could not help but think that he was gambling in a somewhat reckless manner, but at the same time they had nowhere else to go.
Again a feeling of misery swept over her because she had lost not only her father and her lovely home but also the beauty of their surroundings.
Nowhere in the world, she had always been told, were the trees as magnificent or as beautiful as they were in the Caucasus and it was doubtful if she would ever see them again.
Then she told herself that it was no use looking back, she had to look forward.
Forward meant helping Ivor in his plans for them both to marry money so that they would be sure to be safe and comfortable for the rest of their lives.
Ivor was, in fact, already sitting at the secretaire near the window and signing the contract that the agent had taken from his pocket.
“Now perhaps, Your Highness,” he suggested, “you would wish to stay for a night or two in a hotel while this house is readied for you.”
“That would surely be a needless extravagance,” he replied somewhat harshly. “We will stay here and work, I can now assure you, far harder than anyone else, to make this place spick and span before I ask my friends to visit me.”
He finished signing the cheque which he had taken from his briefcase.
He handed it to the agent saying,
“All I want you to tell me please is where I engage servants and, of course, a cleaner to clear up this mess.”
“You won’t have to look far, Your Highness,” the agent replied. “Brownlow will be able to tell you that the best Domestic Agency in London is just round the corner in Oxford Street. I’m sure they’ll be only too pleased to send you anyone you require.”
“Thank you,” Ivor said, “it’s all I need to know. I am very grateful to you for your help and it was extremely fortunate for me that we were on the same ship together.”
“I am the one who is the most fortunate!” the agent exclaimed. “We’ve been trying to get rid of this house for over a year. There’s always been the same excuse from those we take round it. It’s too big and too dilapidated.”
“Well, I am the exception,” Ivor laughed. “I hope you will call and see us when we have transformed it into what we want it to be.”
The agent thanked him again.
Having shaken hands both with him and Weena, he hurried downstairs and left the house.
Ivor walked into the drawing room and then stood looking at it as if he was calculating exactly what had to be done to make it presentable.
Because she felt she must encourage him, Weena slipped her arm through his.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she said. “There is inches of dust on everything which makes it all look drab. But the carpets are in a reasonably good condition and so is the furniture and the covers on the sofa and the chairs.”
Ivor now seemed to be making up his mind about something.
Then he said,
“Come downstairs. I want to talk to that man who let us in. If he has been a butler here, he is exactly what we want.”
Weena had hardly noticed the man except that she had seen that his hair was white and he was getting on in years.
He had been poorly dressed with an apron over his trousers and she wondered why Ivor seemed so interested in him.
However, she followed her brother downstairs.
When they reached the hall, Brownlow was closing the door having let the agent out.
He was about to speak when Ivor said,
“I want you to come with me into the study as I have a number of instructions to give you.”
“You mean me wife and I can stay on – ?” the man asked impulsively.
Then as an afterthought, as if he remembered what the agent must have told him, he added,
“ – Your Highness.”
“I understand from the man who just left, that you used to be the butler here,” Ivor began.
“Indeed I were,” Brownlow replied. “And me wife was the senior cook with three scullions under her. The gentleman who employed us, Lord Malmesbury, died and we’ve been here as caretakers ever since always hopin’ that someone like yourself would come along and open up the house again.”
“That is exactly what I am going to do,” Ivor told him. “So let me sit down while I talk to you.”
He walked ahead with Weena beside him into the study.
He opened the window to let in some fresh air and sunshine and then he sat down at the writing desk.
As he did so, he passed his hand over the blotter and a cloud of dust rose from it.
Because it seemed so funny, Weena gave out a little laugh.
But her brother merely indicated a chair in front of the fire and she sat down.
Brownlow had followed them into the room and now he closed the door.
“What I want you to do,” Ivor said, “is to go to the Domestic Agency, which I understand is near here and ask them to provide exactly what staff is necessary to put this house in running order as quickly as possible.”
Brownlow stared at him.
“You really mean me – to do it, Your Highness!” he spluttered.
“Of course,” Ivor replied. “I am a Russian from the Caucasus and I had a big house in the country. But I have not dealt with English servants who I am sure are different in every way from the Russians.”
“I’m afraid they be very different, Your Highness.”
“That is why I need to leave it all in your hands to provide us with two or three footmen, however many staff your wife requires in the kitchen and some housemaids to clean up the house and make the rooms ready for me to entertain and have people to stay if necessary.”
Watching Brownlow as her brother was spea
king to him, Weena thought that with every word he seemed to grow younger and to change from an old man, who no one wanted, to the efficient and respected butler he had been in the past.
When he spoke, his voice seemed clearer than it had been when he had been talking to them upstairs.
“I knows exactly what you want, Your Highness, and I’ll go immediately and find out who’s available.”
“The sooner the better,” Ivor replied. “My sister and I will stay here and perhaps, when you return from the Agency, your wife and you will be kind enough to make up the beds in the Master’s and Mistress’s rooms comfortable enough for tonight.”
“You leave it all to me, Your Highness,” Brownlow said. “I’ll do everything I can and I know the Missus will start right away cleanin’ up the room for Her Highness.”
“Thank you. That is all I want and I am content to leave it in your experienced hands.”
It seemed to Weena as if Brownlow had suddenly grown a foot taller.
As he walked to the door, he turned and asked,
“Will Your Highness be dinin’ here tonight?”
“I think it would be asking too much of you,” Ivor answered. “So if you can recommend a good hotel or a restaurant nearby, we will dine out.”
“That be ever so considerate of Your Highness,” he replied, “and I can assure you my wife’s an excellent cook when she’s got the right ingredients.”
When he had finished speaking, Brownlow bowed and left the room.
As they heard him hurrying off down the passage, Weena laughed and said,
“You have made one person very happy, Ivor. He seemed to become at least twenty years younger when you had finished speaking to him.”
“It was obviously a comedown for him to be only the caretaker here,” Ivor replied. “But I expect like us they have nowhere else to go.”
Weena walked to the window.
“Can we really afford to stay in this lovely house,” she asked, “and to entertain as you have said so often that I have begun to believe it?”
“That is what we have come here for. I intend to entertain the best Nobility in England, also, as you already know, to find a wife for myself and a husband for you.”
Weena gave a shudder.
She thought again, although she did not say so, that it would be terrifying and perhaps repulsive to marry a man she did not love simply because he had money.
Rescued by Love Page 8
