When the hairdresser came to arrange her hair in the very latest fashion, she told herself that she was being stupid.
What she had to do was to relax and enjoy herself.
As her brother had told her, she must find herself a husband as soon as possible so that their debts would no longer be a threat.
She could not imagine anything more humiliating than having to ask the man she married to pay her bills almost before she bore his name.
At the same time she tried not to go into details of what Ivor was doing, but to believe that he knew it was the only possible way to live in the future as he wanted to live.
When finally her hair was arranged and she was dressed in a very pretty gown that her mother had bought for her, she thought that at least Ivor would not be ashamed of her.
“You look lovely, really lovely, Your Highness,” the hairdresser cooed. “I can only say that at your first ball in London you will undoubtedly be the belle of it!”
“I do hope so,” Weena replied, “and thank you very much for doing my hair so beautifully. I would love you to come again.”
“I expect you’ll be wanting me every day and every night,” the hairdresser answered. “I will be very surprised if I’m not right in what I foretell for your future.”
“I will be very sad if I disappoint you, so thank you again for making me look so good.”
She knew that Ivor had given money to Brownlow to pay the hairdresser, but was horrified to learn how much he charged.
“He be the very best in Mayfair, Your Highness,” Brownlow explained. “It were only by tellin’ him you had a title that he agreed to come to you tonight.”
“I only hope I do him credit,” Weena sighed.
She need not have worried.
It was with a certain apprehension that she walked up the steps of the grand house in Pall Mall the carriage took them to.
There was a red carpet to walk on and oil lamps to reveal the steps up to the front door.
The footman, who had opened their carriage door, was wearing an elaborate and intricate uniform.
As soon as they entered the house, she just knew at once that its owners must be very important and very rich.
Lady Carstairs was receiving her guests in a room massed with flowers and lit with dozens of candles.
When their name was announced in stentorian tones by a butler who in many ways resembled Brownlow, Lady Carstairs gave a cry of delight and held out both hands to Ivor.
“I am so charmed to meet you, Your Highness. Our dear friend, Prince Feodor, would, I know be delighted that you are here with me.”
“Both my sister and I are not only thrilled but very grateful for your kind welcome to London,” Ivor replied.
He was looking exceedingly smart as he always did in his evening clothes.
Weena realised that there was a glint in the eyes of every woman who looked at him.
Now, as he bent over to kiss his hostess’s hand, she realised without being told by anyone that her dear brother, Ivor, would undoubtedly be a huge success in the London Society.
If she was also one as well, it would be entirely due to his cleverness and most of all to the titles he had given them.
CHAPTER SIX
After dinner, during which Weena had sat next to two rather elderly and not particularly interesting men, they moved into the music room where they were to dance.
She was instantly pursued by a number of young gentlemen who were smartly dressed and obviously excited by the idea of someone new.
She accepted the first one who asked her to dance.
As he took her round the ballroom to the tune of a dreamy waltz, he said,
“You are very lovely and look very different from the English girls. I am sure you will be the belle of the ball at every ball you attend.”
Weena smiled.
“That is just what my brother who brought me here hopes. But, of course, I am much too modest to think of anything like that.”
The man she was dancing with laughed.
“Tell me about Russia,” he suggested. “It’s a place I have never visited, but have often thought that it would be interesting to do so.”
“Where we lived,” Weena answered him, “is very quiet and in the depths of the country. But I am sure that you would enjoy St. Petersburg and all the parties that are given there.”
“I think perhaps that I would be more amused with you in the country,” he replied, “especially if your horses are good.”
“I can answer you truthfully, they are just superb,” Weena asserted. “The one reason I hated coming away is because I have had to leave my horses behind.”
“If you feel like that I am sure that I will see you in Rotten Row tomorrow morning,” her partner smiled.
“It depends on if my brother can find horses that he thinks are good enough for us.”
He laughed.
“I can assure you in London we have the best that are available and, as I have just said, I will be looking for you tomorrow morning.”
She danced every dance and every partner without exception congratulated her on her looks.
They all said that they were interested in Russia although none of them had ever been there.
It was much later in the evening that the Prince of Wales arrived.
Lady Carstairs hurried forward clearly delighted at his appearance.
“I promised I would come if I could get away from my boring dinner party,” the Prince of Wales said. “Now show me all the beautiful girls. A dance will certainly be a change from the long and gloomy speeches I have had to endure for the last three hours.”
Lady Carstairs then looked round the room and saw that Weena was not far away.
“Come and meet the very latest visitor to Mayfair,” she trumpeted. “Her brother, Prince Ivor, was a friend of our beloved Prince Feodor. As they have only just arrived, he and his sister are new faces for us to admire and talk to.”
The Prince of Wales chortled.
Weena, who had only just finished dancing, looked round in surprise as they approached her.
“His Royal Highness,” Lady Carstairs began, “was saying very charming things about our dear Prince Feodor who we miss so very much.”
It took a second or so for Weena to realise that the Prince of Wales was standing in front of her.
Then, as she swept to the ground in a deep curtsey, the Prince suggested,
“As I have been deprived of beautiful ladies all this evening, I hope you will dance with me to make up for the time I have missed at this delightful party!”
Only as he swung her around the room did Weena realise that all the girls present were looking at her with envy.
She was not aware that the Prince of Wales seldom paid any attention to young women. He liked them older and usually married.
After the Prince of Wales’s arrival, the dance floor was crowded with guests who wished to gaze at him and if possible attract his attention.
“Tell me why you are here?” he asked Weena.
“It was my brother, Ivor, who wanted to come to England, Your Royal Highness. As our parents are now dead, he reckoned that I was wasting my time just sitting under the trees in the Caucasus.”
The Prince of Wales guffawed.
“Of course your brother is quite right. We are the lucky ones to benefit from Russia’s loss!”
Weena thought him delightful and more than kind to her.
She did not realise what a disturbance she had just caused until going home in the carriage when Ivor piped up,
“If I had planned it myself, it could not have been a better entrée into London Society.”
“You mean dancing with the Prince of Wales?”
“Of course I mean it. Do you realise that he never dances with debutantes or young girls? And his love affairs are always with older beauties who are usually married or widowed.”
“I thought that he was very charming,” Weena said, “and I am glad for your
sake that I was a success.”
“For both our sakes. Don’t forget you have to be married and, as my wife, when I find her, will obviously not want to keep you for long in the manner I want you to shine at, but have not had the chance until now?”
Weena did not answer as she hated to think that she would be married hastily to someone she did not love.
When she retired to bed, she found herself thinking and longing for David Hart.
‘How could he have possibly gone without saying goodbye to me?’ she asked herself again as she had already asked a million times. ‘I wanted to tell him that when he returns to England he must come and see us wherever we might be. But obviously – he was not interested.’
When she thought about all the young men she had danced with this evening, she knew that, smart and dashing though they might seem, they did not do the strange things to her heart which had happened when she had been with David.
‘It’s no use my loving him – ’ she mused.
At the same time she fell asleep thinking of him and he was her first thought when she awoke the following morning.
*
When she went down to breakfast, her brother had already made plans as to what they should do that day.
“The first thing,” he said, “is that I must have more money. I managed to find out last night from one of the older members of the party that the man who is most likely to help me is called Simpson, who has a very large antique shop in Bond Street.”
Weena was listening intently and he went on,
“Apparently he is well known both in England and on the Continent. Those who want particular pictures or a unique piece of furniture always consult him.”
“Ant you have plenty of them!” Weena exclaimed.
“I know and the sooner I can begin selling them the better. One thing no one expects or appreciates in London is people who don’t pay their bills and then cannot give the sort of parties like the one we attended last night.”
“Would it cost so very much to throw a big party?” Weena asked Ivor seriously.
“Of course it would,” he answered her impatiently. “The band is not cheap and we were drinking the very best champagne at dinner and afterwards which needless to say is not given away with a pound of tea!”
Weena was now looking worried.
But before she could speak, he continued,
“We need horses and, of course, I would like to buy my own rather than hire them.”
He paused for a moment before he added,
“I have learnt that everyone expects the Russians to be extravagant simply because the tales of the Palaces and parties at St. Petersburg lose nothing in the telling.”
“You are frightening me again,” Weena replied.
Ivor smiled.
“If we can obtain good prices for our pictures and all the other items we have brought with us, the money will last, as I have already said, until you find a husband and I a wife for myself.”
Weena wanted to say outright that she did not want to be married, but knew it would only annoy her brother.
So she said nothing and went upstairs quickly after breakfast to put on her hat so that she could go with him to Mr. Simpson’s shop in Bond Street.
By the time she came downstairs, he had ordered a carriage which was outside.
He was waiting for the servants to bring him one or two of the pictures that had been placed in the Gallery where he intended, once they were framed, to hang them.
When he told Weena what he was doing, she said,
“I think that this is a mistake. You should talk to Mr. Simpson first and ask him to come to you rather than you go to him with what you have to sell.”
Her brother looked at her at first in surprise.
Then he gave a loud exclamation.
“You are quite right! Of course the man must come to me and I should behave in all ways as a grandee. In fact I will pretend at first that I am a buyer rather than a seller.”
“I am sure that is best,” Weena said. “I remember when Papa was visiting a shop that contained anything he was interested in to add to his collection, they bowed again and again to him. They were so excited by his appearance that I used to laugh and tell Papa that they stumbled over their words as well as over their feet!”
“That is what they must do to me,” Ivor said. “It was very stupid of me not to think of it myself.”
“I am quite certain that if you want to get a really good price for anything you have,” Weena said, “you have to pretend that you are selling it reluctantly rather than that you are eager to do so.”
“I know exactly how I shall behave now you have told me. I cannot think why I was so stupid as not to have thought it out myself.”
They drove off in the carriage.
Then Ivor said,
“You were a great success last night, Weena. I am quite sure by the time we go home there will be a number of invitations for us from other hostesses. In fact at least three of them told me last night that they will be sending us an invitation and that was well before you danced with the Prince of Wales!”
“It was certainly lucky for me that he did so. I had hoped that I would catch a glimpse of him while we were in London, but never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be privileged enough to dance with him.”
“But you did and everyone was surprised because he pays no attention to debutantes or young girls. If one thing is certain, it is that we will not have to pay for our dinner for the next few weeks!”
Weena laughed as he had meant her to do.
“If I was a success then I am sure you were too, Ivor.”
“I sat next to a very attractive young girl at dinner,” he replied. “Obviously I could not ask too many questions, but I found out that her name is Mavis Campbell. I think that her father is a Lord although I am not certain.”
“Is she pretty?” Weena asked.
“She was not only beautiful but she had a way of saying things that were witty and I found her enchanting. But unfortunately, as there were so many at the party, I only managed to dance with her twice.”
“I expect you will meet her again. You can look for her at the next few parties.”
She wondered as she spoke if she had any chance of meeting David in the same way.
Maybe he was not smart enough to go to the parties like the one last night and so she was not likely to run into him as she hoped to do.
It did not take them long to reach the shop in Bond Street.
Weena noticed at once that there was a very grand and fashionable carriage waiting outside.
It was drawn by two perfectly matched grey horses and the coachman and the footman were in very elaborate uniforms.
She thought that their employer must be Royalty or at least a gentleman of great riches.
They entered the shop which was very large and the walls were filled with many excellent pictures from floor to ceiling.
Besides tables on which were displayed all sorts of delightful pieces of china, there was a collection of snuff boxes that rivalled those Ivor had brought from their home.
As they went into the shop, a young man who was obviously an assistant bowed politely and said,
“The Proprietor is, at the moment, showing some pictures which have just arrived, to a gentleman. But I am certain that he will not be long before he attends to you. If you would like to walk round, sir, I will tell him that you are here. May I please have your name?”
“My name is Prince Ivor Kerlensky,” Ivor said in a lofty manner. “As you have suggested, my sister and I will look round while we are waiting.”
Everything in the shop was clearly worth looking at, but Weena was convinced that it was all very expensive.
They were both viewing a picture by Van Dyck that was undoubtedly in a very good condition when there was the sound of voices.
A man who was clearly the Proprietor accompanied by an older man and a young woman were walking along the passage
and into the main part of the shop.
As they did so Ivor gave an exclamation and moved towards them.
He held out his hand to the girl walking behind the older man and said,
“I have been thinking about you and cursing myself in being so stupid as not to ask you for your address.”
The girl gave a little laugh and replied,
“It’s very nice to see you again. I would like you to meet my father, Lord Campbell.”
The older man held out his hand.
“My daughter has been telling me that she met you at a recent party and your sister created a sensation when she danced with the Prince of Wales. May I say that I am delighted to meet both you and your sister?”
He shook hands with Ivor and then held out his hand to Weena.
As he did so, she was looking at the young girl and thinking that her brother was undoubtedly right.
She was certainly very beautiful and different in a way from the other girls who had been present at the party yesterday evening.
“I have heard,” Lord Campbell was saying, “that Russia has more treasures than any country in Europe. So I cannot believe that you have come here as a purchaser as I have.”
“What is your Lordship buying?” Ivor asked, “if it is not a personal question.”
“It is one I am delighted to answer,” Lord Campbell replied. “In fact I am always trying to add more to my various collections.”
He turned to the Proprietor and went on,
“He has found me a Titian which I am thrilled to obtain.”
Ivor gave an exclamation.
“That is strange,” he said, “because I have two in my collection as I was coming here to ask the Proprietor where I can best have them framed. As you can imagine, I brought a number of pictures with me, but without frames, as that would have made them heavy and cumbersome.”
Lord Campbell stared at him.
“Are you saying that you have several pictures by Titian?”
Ivor nodded.
“If you are collecting Titians, my Lord, then you must certainly come and see mine. I think it is some of his early work, but all the same they are excellent examples of the Master’s art, even though I say so myself.”
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