“We’re not out of the wood yet, Miss Vida,” Margit warned.
She spoke in English and, as if her words made her realise that they were still in Russia, Vida said quickly,
“Be careful!”
Margit put her hand up to her lips.
“I keep forgettin’. All I can think of is thankin’ God that the Master be with us.”
“That is what I have been doing,” Vida said with a smile. “But remember, Margit, I am a Countess and not until tomorrow when cross into Hungary can I be myself.”
She spoke in a whisper while concentrating on her face before she went down to dinner.
There was fortunately nobody else staying in the house and the dinner was a delicious meal of good food, good wine and stimulating conversation.
The Prince made them laugh with stories of his travels in different parts of the world and some of the strange characters he had met in Monte Carlo.
But he was very careful, Vida noticed, not to talk about the Czar or St. Petersburg or even of what was happening in his own castle.
“We live very quietly here,” his hostess said, “and I cannot tell you how thrilling it is, Your Highness, to be able to entertain you.”
“I have been very remiss not to have paid you a visit for the past five years,” he replied, “but, as soon as I return home, you must both come to stay with me.”
Her excitement at the invitation and the expression in her eyes told Vida all too clearly what she was feeling.
She suddenly thought that the sensations the Prince had aroused in her were probably felt by every woman he met and therefore to him must seem very commonplace.
Fortunately the lights in the dining room were dim, for she was finding it difficult to smile, let alone laugh.
‘He makes love to every woman who attracts him,’ she told herself, ‘and, when he has left us in Hungary, I don’t suppose that we shall ever see him again.’
As she went up to bed, there was a heavy feeling in her breast, as if there was a stone there.
It persisted even after she had kissed her father good night and had said over and over again how happy she was to know that he was sleeping in the next room.
“I am looking forward to a comfortable bed,” Sir Harvey admitted. “I assure you that the monks have a pallet that is as rough and stony as the path to Heaven!”
Vida laughed.
“Oh, Papa, I promise you that from now on you shall always have a feather bed which will be as comfortable as a cloud.”
“I shall be looking forward to it,” her father replied.
He kissed Vida again and added,
“I am very touched and very proud, my dearest, of what you have done to save me. But it is something I will never let you undertake again.”
“Then you must not get into any more trouble, Papa, otherwise you know that I shall always attempt to rescue you, however difficult it may seem.”
“Now you are definitely blackmailing me!” Sir Harvey protested.
He kissed her once again before he went to his own room.
Vida sent Margit to bed because the old maid looked very tired.
She undressed herself, brushed her hair until it seemed to dance with an electricity of its own, then, wearing one of her pretty lace-trimmed nightgowns, she slipped between the cool linen sheets.
*
Vida was so tired after such a long day of combined fear and excitement that she fell asleep immediately and only awoke when her father came into the room.
He was wearing a silk dressing gown, which he had obviously borrowed from the Prince and he said,
“It’s still very early, my dearest, but I know the Prince intends that we should leave immediately after breakfast and I wanted to have a talk with you first.”
“What about, Papa?”
Her father sat down beside the bed and said as if he was a little embarrassed,
“Well, actually, it is about His Highness.”
Vida sat up, patting the pillows up behind her.
There was a little silence and then he began,
“You are very young, Vida, and, although we have done many things together and travelled in a lot of different countries, I know that you have never met a man like Prince Ivan Pavolivski before, for the simple reason that he is unique.”
“That is what I thought, Papa.”
“But because he is unique, because he is one of the most intelligent, as well as one of the most handsome men I have ever seen,” Sir Harvey went on, “I do not want you to lose your heart.”
It was not what Vida had expected him to say and, as she looked at her father in surprise, she was annoyed to feel the colour coming into her cheeks.
“And you think that – is what I might do – ?” she asked defensively.
“Yes, because it is what happens with every woman the Prince meets,” her father told her.
He gave a little sigh before he continued.
“There is something magnetic about him. He is a Pied Piper and I have never known a woman who did not find him irresistible.”
That was what Vida had thought herself, but she had no wish to admit it.
“I was thinking only last night, Papa, that it is very unlikely that we shall ever see His Highness again after we reach Hungary today, as we hope.”
“That is what I myself expect,” Sir Harvey replied. “But it is quite obvious to me that Prince Ivan admires you, and therefore I can only beg you, my dearest, to remember that he is a will-o’-the-wisp, a man who will sweep into your life like a meteor passing through the sky and disappear just as quickly.”
There was a worried note in Sir Harvey’s voice that Vida thought was rather touching.
“I understand exactly what you are saying, Papa,” she said, “and I promise you that I will not only be on my guard but will make quite certain that I recognise the Prince for what he is.”
There was a little pause before Sir Harvey said,
“I know that you will not mind my saying this to you, my dearest. It is, after all, what your mother would say to you if she was alive. But I could not bear, after all we have been to each other, that you should be unhappy over a man who never in any circumstances could mean anything in your life.”
“Of course not, Papa,” Vida agreed. “He is Russian and one place I will never visit again is Russia!”
She thought as she spoke that they might meet the Prince in Monte Carlo, Paris or perhaps London and then told herself that was irrelevant.
Her father was right – he was a meteor flashing past them and the sooner she forgot the sensations he aroused in her the better.
But at the back of her mind was a question she could not dismiss, which was,
‘How will you forget the first kiss you ever received?’
Having said what he had come to say, Sir Harvey started to talk of other things, suggesting to Vida that they might visit her mother’s relatives when they had crossed the border into Hungary.
“I think, Papa, that is a wonderful idea – !” Vida was saying when suddenly the door opened and to her surprise the Prince came into the room.
One look at the expression on his face made the words she was saying die on her lips.
“The Secret Police are here,” he said in a low voice. “Get into the wardrobe, Sir Harvey!”
There was a large carved wardrobe on one wall of the room and, with the swiftness of a man who was used to facing danger, Sir Harvey moved across the room almost before the words had been spoken and disappeared inside it.
Then to Vida’s astonishment the Prince threw off the silk robe he was wearing and even as there was the sound of footsteps in the passage outside he got into the bed beside her.
Before she could even look at the Prince, let alone ask what he was doing, his arms went round her and he pulled her close against him.
As the door opened, his lips came down on hers.
At first she was terrified at what was happening.
Then, as
she felt the hard pressure of the Prince’s mouth and the closeness of his body, she was more vividly aware of him than of the danger they were in.
It must have been only the passing of a few seconds and yet it seemed like an interminable passage of time before, as if the Prince was suddenly conscious that there was somebody in the room, he raised his head and looked towards the door.
Standing in the doorway were three men and, as Vida looked at them too, she thought that if she had seen them anywhere she would have suspected they were Secret Agents.
With their sharp features, their thin lips and their suspicious eyes they might, in fact, have stepped out of a caricature.
Without taking his arms from around Vida, the Prince said in Russian as if he was both astonished and angry,
“What the devil do you think you are doing, coming in here?”
As the man who was standing in front of the two others advanced towards the bed, he obviously recognised the Prince.
“Your Highness!” he exclaimed.
“Never mind that,” the Prince snapped. “Let me ask you again why you are bursting into a private bedroom in a private house in this astonishing way?”
“We are looking for a man, Your Highness.”
“I guessed as much,” the Prince replied, “but as you can see he is not here, kindly conduct your investigations somewhere else!”
Almost as if the Prince had told her what to do, the moment he had begun speaking Vida had hidden her face against his shoulder, as if she was shy.
All the Secret Agents could see was that she was in the Prince’s arms, they were in bed together and her red hair was falling over her shoulders.
“I am sorry, Your Highness,” the man in the doorway said apologetically, “but we were informed that a man we are seeking was here with a lady who had been taken ill.”
“Well, you are mistaken!” the Prince asserted.
“I realise that now, and please forgive us, Your Highness.”
“There is no other man in my party except for my own servants for whom I can vouch and Count Rákŏczi, an old friend whom I am conveying to his house in Hungary. He has his papers with him, if you wish to see them.”
“There is no need, Your Highness,” the man replied. “We are not seeking a Hungarian.”
“Very well,” the Prince said, “and perhaps now we can be left alone.”
The man who had been speaking glanced at Vida with a faint smile on his thin lips.
Only when he would have withdrawn, one of the men behind him bent to whisper something into his ear.
Instantly he turned and said,
“Excuse me, Your Highness.”
The Prince was already looking down at Vida as if he had forgotten the whole episode and looked up again.
“What is it now?” he asked irritably. “Really, I should have thought that you could have had a little more tact!”
“I can only apologise once again, Your Highness, but I had forgotten something very important.”
“What is it?” the Prince asked impatiently.
“We received instructions from our superior last night that if, as was rumoured, you were somewhere in the vicinity, we were to give Your Highness a message from His Imperial Majesty the Czar.”
“A message?” the Prince asked. “Then why was I not given it at once?”
“We – we did not expect to find you here, Your Highness,” the man stammered, “and it had therefore slipped my memory.”
“What is the message?”
“His Imperial Majesty is in Kiev and he asks that Your Highness will proceed there immediately and bring with you the Countess Kărólski, who has been staying with you at your castle.”
The Prince did not reply and the man went on.
“I understand, Your Highness, that somebody has already gone to your castle in order to convey the message to you and to any other place where you are likely to be.”
“Thank you,” the Prince said. “Inform your superior that I shall certainly obey His Imperial Majesty’s command and be with him as soon as is humanly possible.”
“I thank Your Highness.”
The man bowed low and the two men behind him also bowed.
Then the door was shut, but the Prince did not move.
Vida knew, because his whole body was alert, that he was listening intently and she did not speak but listened too.
After what seemed a long time there was just the faint sound of footsteps moving away from the door.
Still Sir Harvey did not come from the wardrobe.
It was only after the Prince had climbed out of the bed and put on his robe that he exclaimed,
“This is intolerable! Completely intolerable!”
It was then that the wardrobe opened and Sir Harvey stepped out into the room saying as he did so,
“It was fortunate, Your Highness, that you saw those men arriving.”
“As they did not ask to see you,” the Prince said, “I think that they were satisfied, but one never knows.”
“They were obviously not the same men who might have been watching us at Lvov.”
“No, I realise that,” the Prince said. “Equally their report will go back to their superior as you heard and we must take no chances of your being interrogated before you leave the country.”
“Oh, please,” Vida cried, “we must get him away, we cannot – lose him now!”
The Prince looked at her and then he said,
“There is only one way we can make certain that he is safe.”
“What is that?” Vida asked.
“That you come with me to Kiev. If I go alone, having received what is virtually an Imperial order, they will be sure that there is something suspicious, not only about your father but also about you.”
“I see no reason – ” Sir Harvey began.
Then he paused and added,
“Yes, of course, you are right. Vida is supposed to be Russian and is therefore not interested in your Hungarian friend.”
There was a silence as all three of them were thinking over what had been said and it was Vida who spoke first.
“Then, of course, I must come to Kiev with you,” she said to the Prince, “if by doing so I can ensure that Papa escapes into Hungary.”
The Prince walked across the room to stand at the window.
Vida knew that he was thinking and, after a moment looking down below him, he said,
“The three men are leaving in a troika drawn by two horses. It will, I hope, take them some time to reach their superior, whoever he may be. You, Sir Harvey, must be over the border before there is any chance of their thinking that they should have seen you before they left.”
“I understand,” Sir Harvey replied.
“The quickest way, of course, would be to ride. Do you think that would be too much for you?”
Sir Harvey’s eyes twinkled.
“No worse, I imagine, than a hard day’s hunting.”
The Prince laughed.
“Very well. I will send you on one of my best and fastest horses accompanied by two of my men who are, I assure you, crack shots in an emergency. If you travel as the crow flies, you will be in Hungary far quicker than by following the road which from here twists and turns and is especially hard going when you reach the mountains.”
“I will go to get ready,” Sir Harvey said, “and I trust you with Vida who, as you know, is very precious to me.”
“As soon as we have paid our respects to the Czar,” the Prince said, “we will return to The Castle. From there I will take her to Sarospatak.”
Sir Harvey nodded.
“I will wait until I hear that you are over the border with the Rákŏczis. They are very hospitable and will, I know, welcome me as their guest.”
“Then that is settled,” the Prince said, “and for God’s sake hurry! Vida and I will make our way leisurely towards the nearest railway station.”
He went from the room as he spoke without saying any more and Vid
a was left alone to lie back against the pillows, feeling that it was impossible to realise what had happened or what the future held.
She was, however, so frightened for her father that she felt that nothing else was really important.
At the same time she could not help feeling a thrill that she would not be leaving the Prince today as she had expected, but would still be with him for a few more days, perhaps even longer.
‘I must remember what Papa said to me,’ she told herself, but she knew that it was going to be difficult.
She had only just begun to dress and was sitting in front of the dressing table with her hair still falling over her shoulders when Sir Harvey came back into her room.
He was wearing the ordinary clothes of a gentleman going riding and she jumped to her feet, ran to him and put her arms around his neck.
“Promise me, Papa,” she urged him, “that you will ride as quickly as possible, for only when you cross safely into Hungary will the Czar’s men be unable to harm you.”
“That is what I intend to do,” Sir Harvey said. “It would be a terrible waste of your’s and the Prince’s efforts if I failed you both now.”
“I am sure Mama is looking after you,” Vida said in a soft voice, “and you know that I shall be praying for your safety.”
“I am only ashamed of having involved you in this mess,” her father replied. “But His Highness is right, it would not only look suspicious if you travel with me instead of with him, but it would certainly slow me down and I can go faster on my own.”
“I will join you as quickly as I can,” Vida promised, “and then, Papa, we will never come back again to this horrible and menacing country.”
She drew in her breath before she asked,
“How is it possible that the Secret Police can burst into private rooms without permission?”
“That is the least of what they do,” her father frowned, “but we will talk about it another time. I must go now, my dearest.”
“You have everything you want?”
“Everything except you,” he answered. “Take very great care of yourself and do exactly what His Highness tells you. He is clever enough to be the Czar’s ‘pet’, so you will come to no harm there.”
“No, of course not,” Vida agreed a little doubtfully.
Princes and Princesses: Favourite Royal Romances Page 41
