“Do you really think you could get away with it?”
“Of course I will, Harry, I had enough Governesses myself to know how they behave and you cannot say my English is anything but perfect.”
“I will grant you that.”
“Thank you, my dearest brother. I won three prizes for English Literature.”
“I’m only teasing.”
“Well, stop being funny and help me. I must look demure, but not too dull – ”
Latasha paused for a moment and then suggested,
“I think my father might be a retired Colonel who has fallen onto hard times. I am therefore prepared to go temporarily to Oldessa because I want to see the world, but cannot afford to travel and pay for myself.”
“You may find yourself in a great deal of trouble.”
“What do you mean?” his sister enquired.
“I have always been told that pretty Governesses are ‘fair game’. As you are extremely pretty, you may find it hard to keep the smart young men of Oldessa at bay.”
“I think you may remember I am a very good shot,” she countered. “Papa taught me, as he taught you, and you know how good he was.”
“I have been told that by every single person on the estate and every one of his friends. I am always hoping for a few compliments for myself!”
Latasha giggled.
“You do receive quite enough compliments already from beautiful ladies telling you how wonderful you are!”
Latasha was well aware that he could have married any number of pretty young women of her age or a little older.
Their pushy mothers had been particularly anxious to capture him, not only for his title, but because he had excellent manners and outstanding possessions.
The Duke, however, had said firmly he was in no hurry.
He would marry when he had met the right person, which he had not done so far.
That suited Latasha, who liked having her brother to herself.
As soon as their mother died she had played hostess for him whenever he entertained at Norlington Park.
“I think,” she now said, “I can look after myself. If I fail to do so, I shall be very disappointed.”
“I don’t think you can travel to Oldessa without a chaperone,” the Duke objected.
Latasha laughed scornfully.
“Don’t be so absurd! How can a Governess have a chaperone? I will require someone to escort me there, of course. But I expect that if you inform Prince Kraus what a suitable Governess you have found for his sister, he will send a courier who is reliable and who will bring enough money so that I can afford the Orient Express.”
“I can see you intend to do it in style. At the same time if you are really ready to undertake such a strange adventure, it would certainly make my answer to Kraus a good deal easier.”
“All you have to tell him is that you are trying to find someone to marry his tiresome brother. And that you are hoping to find an experienced Governess before long and just don’t mention me at all.”
“I don’t like it, Latasha. I am sure it is something I should not allow you to do.”
“If I do get into trouble, I will just come home. If anyone assaults me or is threatening me, I will shoot them. Not to kill, but I might make them lame for a year or so!”
The Duke laughed as he could not help it.
“I think you are crazy and I think I am mad to abet you. If you desire an adventure, what you are undertaking definitely is one.”
“I do think it is something I will enjoy, and what is more, if they are not standing up to the Russians, I will just tell them how cowardly they are and how important it is for them to set an example to the rest of the Balkans instead of going whining to Queen Victoria.”
The Duke chuckled.
“Now I am feeling sorry for my friend Kraus. He has no idea what is going to strike him. I am quite certain, my beautiful little sister, you will be more dangerous than any cannonball fired into the Palace!”
CHAPTER TWO
They sat talking and laughing for a little longer.
Then the Duke proposed,
“Now let’s be sensible. I have been thinking while we have been making a story of all this, that quite frankly the answer is a big no! You are not going to Oldessa as a Governess. You either go as yourself on a visit with me or as the future bride of Prince Stefan.”
The way he spoke was quite different from the way he had been talking a few minutes earlier.
Looking at her brother, Latasha realised he really meant it.
“I think you are being very tiresome, Harry, and not very helpful to your friend. But if you are absolutely intent on refusing to allow me to go as a Governess, I will think of another way.”
The Duke groaned.
“I think all your ideas are crazy and I am not going to listen to them.”
“Well just listen to this one, as I think it is rather clever.”
The Duke sighed, but he was listening intently as she proposed,
“I think perhaps you are right that I should not go as just an ordinary Governess, because I might then be kept upstairs in a dreary schoolroom and be unable to see much of Prince Stephan or anyone else.”
“That is about the first sensible thing you’ve said.”
“So why,” Latasha went on as if he had not spoken, “should I not go as someone who is important enough for the Court to be pleased to entertain, but who is not Royal enough to marry the Prince?”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s quite simple. You write to Kraus and say that it is most difficult at the moment to find an experienced Governess and it will take time. But a great friend of ours who lives near us is anxious to see Oldessa after all she has heard about it.
“And she would be pleased to be invited to stay for a while and give the Princess English conversation lessons while she is there.”
The Duke stared at Latasha.
“Who are you suggesting should go?” he enquired.
“Do not be silly, Harry, it will be me, but I will not go as myself. Now let me think.”
She paused for more thought.
“I will be Gloria which sounds like the sort of name that should impress the Oldessans. Lady Gloria Ford, the daughter of the Earl of Ranford, who is a great friend of yours!”
“I think you are getting madder every moment. Do you really think you can get away with a false title?”
“Of course I can. Do you really suppose they have nothing better to do than to sit and look up my antecedents in Debrett’s Peerage? If you recommend the daughter of the Earl of Ranford, why on earth should they be anything but pleased to accept her?”
The Duke put his hand to his forehead.
“I am trying to think clearly and it is very difficult while you are making mad suggestions one after another!”
“But it is not mad,” she insisted, “and I should have thought of it before. Of course you are right – if I go as a Governess I might be ignored completely, except for when I am teaching the child.”
“I think that’s a certainty.”
“Very well, you are right, in which case I will go as someone who is almost the equivalent of myself, someone who is of good birth, but not Royal and therefore will be of no use to your Princely friend, except that I speak perfect English and will converse with his sister while I am having a good pry around to see what else happens in the Palace.”
The Duke felt he had to admit that there was some common sense in this proposal.
“You still cannot travel alone,” he persisted, as if he was determined to find fault in her scheme.
“No, of course not, Harry. Lady Gloria will travel with her lady’s maid and a very respectable courier. Two, if you prefer.”
“And who will be your lady’s maid? You do know how servants gossip. I would not mind betting that within half-an-hour of your arrival at the Palace, they would know that you are an imposter and in fact my sister prying into their affairs. I
am not having that!”
“Now you are being stupid in order to get your own way. I have no intention of taking my present lady’s maid, who I do admit is a tremendous gossip. I shall take Nanny. You know we can trust Nanny with our lives. She would do anything for us just because she loves us.”
The Duke lapsed into silence.
He knew that Latasha was speaking the truth.
Nanny would do anything for him or for any of the family.
She had been with them ever since Helen was born and it was impossible to think of the house without her.
“I suppose that Nanny would not mind going,” he queried a little doubtfully.
“She would love it. She was saying only the other day she was sorry she had not travelled more in her life. I actually promised her that the next time I went to Paris or anywhere else on the Continent, I would take her with me. I was thinking of just a short visit, while this venture might take a little longer.”
She looked at her brother defiantly before adding,
“On the other hand if I find it is too horrible, I will return home at once. You can always send me a telegram to say that one of the family has died and I have to attend the funeral!”
The Duke threw up his hands.
“The whole thing is getting too complicated for me. I think the best thing would be to tell Kraus straight away that I cannot help him.”
“Harry, you know you have no intention of doing anything of the sort. Prince Kraus has always been one of your best friends and you cannot let him down. Equally you know as well as I do that the right sort of Governess would be hard to find and we do not want to send a dud.”
“Are you really expecting me,” the Duke enquired, “to look for this Governess while you go gallivanting off to Oldessa incognito?”
Latasha clapped her hands.
“You have got it right at last! But you do see that this is the solution both to your problem and to mine?”
There was silence before the Duke remarked,
“I suppose it’s just possible that you could pull it off, if you don’t make a total mess of it.”
“I am not likely to make a mess of it when there is so much at stake. I mean it is my predicament.
“If Prince Stefan is as charming as you make out, then I might consider marrying him. But if, as I suspect, he will be very like Helen’s husband – perhaps not quite as bad as he is not a German – then I will just come home and go on praying that Her Majesty the Queen forgets my very existence.”
“I think that is likely, but the Marquis of Salisbury is a clever sharp-brained man. I am certain he goes to bed at night wondering who else is available for the Balkans. It is only a question of time before he thinks of you.”
“You make it sound even more unpleasant that it actually is,” complained Latasha.
She spoke in a different voice from the one she had used earlier.
“Forgive me, my dearest Latasha, I am really very worried and you know, however much we joke about it, I want your happiness above everything else in the world.”
“Then you do understand that I cannot be pushed off onto a man I have never seen. It might be easier for me to marry Prince Kraus, who at least I do know something about because you have spoken of him so often.”
“I see your reasoning, Latasha, and in my opinion Kraus would be a perfect match for you. He is one of the nicest men I have ever known.”
“But he is preparing to die and that does not help things, does it?”
The Duke walked across to the mantelpiece, then back again.
“I suppose,” he conceded reluctantly, “I will have to agree to your optimistic plan to pose as a friend of the family.”
“They will believe me, of course, they will believe me and I promise you that if I go as Lady Gloria Ford and find I do like Prince Stefan, I will accept him. It would be better than to come home feeling terrified every time there is a knock on the door in case it is a letter from the Marquis of Salisbury.”
“If so, it will be to instruct me to come to Windsor Castle and then it will be most difficult to say I have no beautiful sister who is of marriageable age.”
“You are very lucky that there are no thrones in the Balkans occupied by fat ugly women who require a nice English husband. The whole scenario is grossly unfair, but now that we have thought of a solution for the moment at any rate, sit down now and write the letter to Prince Kraus while I go and talk to Nanny.”
She rose as she spoke.
Then walking to her brother she put her arms round him and kissed his cheek.
“You have to help me over all this, Harry. Heaven knows how the story will end, but at least we have each other.”
The Duke held her close to him.
“You know I would do anything for you, Latasha.”
She kissed him again.
She went upstairs to the old nursery where Nanny had slept and lived ever since they were small children.
Even though she was over sixty, Nanny still looked comparatively young and she was always very interested in anything that her ‘babies’ did.
Latasha knew, although she did not say so, that she was afraid of the day when she would be married and left Norlington Park.
When she walked through the nursery door, Nanny looked up.
She was crocheting some lace to go on the ends of face towels, which she did very expertly.
“I was a-wondering when you’d be coming to see me,” she muttered before Latasha could speak.
“I am so sorry, Nanny, I have rather neglected you in the last few days,” replied Latasha, “but you know the reason.”
“I know it right enough, dearie, yet another horse! What it should be at your age is not a horse, but a young man.”
“That is just what I have come to talk to you about, Nanny.”
She sat down in the armchair beside Nanny and told her the whole story from beginning to end.
Nanny listened attentively to her and said nothing until Latasha had finished.
“What I am suggesting, Nanny dear, is that you and I go and have a look at this young man. You are a better judge of people than I am. If he’s not what we want, we will just come back again with no bones broken.”
Nanny did not speak at once and Latasha looked at her anxiously. Then she said,
“It’s just like you to think up something fantastic. It’s a very clever idea. No one can ever say it isn’t and it’s worth giving it a try.”
Latasha gave a shout of joy.
“That is so very you, Nanny, and I knew you would understand! I think the sooner we get it all over with the better.”
“I agree with you there, dearie, specially if it’s true that His Grace may be sent for to go at once to Windsor Castle – ”
She made a sound which was more of a sniff than a sigh and added,
“That usually ends in trouble!”
“You are quite right, Nanny. We will be leaving in a few days time and if everything in Oldessa is horrible, we will come back as quickly as we went.”
Nanny looked towards the door.
“Now you be careful,” she cautioned, “when you’re a-talking to His Grace or anyone else. Everyone has long ears in this house and it’d be a great mistake for anyone to know you weren’t going to this strange place in Europe as yourself.”
“I know it. Again you are quite right, Nanny. We must not talk about it. Anyone might be listening and on no account must Harry tell his valet.”
“That man has a very long tongue, dearie. He’s amusing, I grant him that, but it’s usually at someone else’s expense.”
Latasha knew there was an age-old battle between her brother’s valet and Nanny.
Because Harry had been her baby, she thought she should always have the last word in everything he needed and anything new at the Park. Harry’s valet quite naturally resented her interference and they were both invariably at daggers drawn.
Latasha rose to her feet.
“I am
going now to see that Harry has written the letter to Prince Kraus and has made it clear that I am Lady Gloria Ford, who will soon be arriving in Oldessa with her lady’s maid, who is you.”
“It won’t be anything new for me to look after you, dearie – it’s what I’ve done for the last eighteen years.”
Latasha laughed.
Nanny always had the last word and of course what she said was absolutely right.
“You are an angel to agree, Nanny,” she said as she walked to the door. “Even Harry has to admit I could not have a better chaperone.”
“From what I hears in going to them foreign parts, you’ll jolly well need one!”
Latasha was giggling as she walked down the stairs.
When she went into the study, she found that Harry had finished his letter and he had written exactly what she wanted.
“All I need to add,” he said, “is the actual date you leave.”
“Oh, as soon as possible, I hate feeling it’s hanging over my head.”
“Very well, Latasha, I would suggest you go next Tuesday. That gives you three days to pack, which should be enough for any woman.”
“Fortunately I don’t need any new clothes. When we go to London on Monday, the courier, whom of course you must engage for Lady Gloria, can then meet us at the Railway Station. It would be a mistake for him to come to Norlington House.”
“Yes,” agreed the Duke. “I will indeed write off at once and as I always patronise the same agency, I always get their best courier.”
“You must say it is for a friend and not one of the family,” Latasha warned him.
“I am not a fool,” her brother retorted.
She left the room wending her way to the stables.
If she had to leave home, the thing she would miss more than anything else was the horses.
Of course there would be plenty of good horses in Oldessa, which doubtless would have come from Hungary.
But she loved those in their own stables, especially the ones she regarded as her own and rode more often than the others.
A little later she was riding through a nearby wood.
As she did so, she wondered how she could bear to go away from England and live in another country.
Wanted a Royal Wife Page 3
