The Gates of Paradise (11 page)

The Lord Chamberlain nodded and then sat down.

“You may have heard of him, but he is known as a mischief-maker, and the last thing we want at this moment is him sneaking round to find out what is going on.”

“Who can it be?”

“Prince Hans von Vechtel,”

The name meant nothing to her, so she commented,

“The name sounds German.”

“He is German in a way, although he tends to vary his nationality to suit whichever country he is in.”

Narina gave a laugh.

“He sounds rather amusing.  Tell me about him.”

“It is not very amusing to us, because we have to be even more careful than we are at the moment not to let him know that Their Royal Highnesses are not here.”

“You mean that I must not see him – ”

“No, that is not important,” the Lord Chamberlain said.  “He has never met Princess Louise, because the last time he came to stay was over two years ago when she and the Prince were on their honeymoon in the Summer Palace and naturally they received no visitors.”

“So why are you upset that he is here now?  After all, he cannot see His Royal Highness.”

“But he will undoubtedly try and even so it would not matter particularly, as he has not seen Prince Rudolf for many years and therefore would not suspect that Michael Ward is impersonating him.”

“Then I don't understand, Lord Chamberlain, why you are so worried about this visitor.”

He settled himself more comfortably in the chair.

“He is, as I have already said, a trouble-maker.  He goes from country to country finding out their weak spots and talks about them to other countries, often amusingly, but invariably dangerously.”

“And why should he do that?”

“Because he wants to be thought important.  His is a small Principality on the borders of Russia and Germany.

They argued about which country his Principality belonged to when Bismarck created the German Empire.  As far as I know, they are still arguing about it!”

“It sounds too extraordinary.”

“What you will find more extraordinary or perhaps, like most women, exciting, is Prince Hans himself – ”

“Tell me about him, please,” begged Narina.

“Well in the first place, you will certainly find him very good-looking and to all intents and purposes he is an amusing guest.  But I am quite convinced in my own mind that he has come here so that he can tell the Russians why there is not yet an heir to the throne.”

Narina gave a cry of protest as he continued,

“If he thinks there is any other reason for it except a natural one, he will undoubtedly make a good deal out of it and have the Czar listening to every word he has to say.”

Narina started to realise that the Lord Chamberlain was not exaggerating that Prince Hans was dangerous.

After a moment she remarked,

“Surely, as far as he knows, Prince Rudolf cannot meet him and I am constantly at his bedside.  Therefore he cannot expect to meet him or me.”

“That is what I would like to say, but it would be a mistake.”

“Why?” enquired Narina.

“Because he would then be quite sure that there was something odd going on.  We can say, as we have already, that Prince Rudolf has had an accident which has affected his sight, but you are hale and hearty and so you can hardly refuse to entertain such an important guest as the Prince.”

Narina would have protested, but he carried on,

“You are the only person who can reassure him that there is nothing unusual happening here at present.”

“Suppose he does not believe me?” Narina asked in a very small voice.

The Lord Chamberlain smiled.

“You are very beautiful, as you must realise, and the Prince has a distinct penchant for beautiful women.  You merely have to flatter him a little and tell him how pleased you are to meet him.  Do that and I would not mind betting quite a considerable sum that he will be at your feet!”

“But suppose he insists on seeing Prince Rudolf?”

“If we are forced to take him into the sick room and the Prince is asleep with the sunlight excluded, he cannot think there is anything unusual or suspicious about that.”

“I do see your point, Lord Chamberlain, but you are quite certain that I must entertain him?”

“Of course you must.  I have arranged for a dinner to be held in the Palace tonight to which I have invited the Prime Minister and his wife, as well as a young Statesman with his very pretty wife he married only a short time ago.”

“Is that all?”

“It is quite enough.  I don't want to include a large number of guests, who might by some mischance just say something which would make him suspect that things are not as entirely peaceful in this country as we pretend.”

Narina looked at him in a startled way.

“Are you saying the Russians are creating trouble?”

“Not openly, but there are rumours that in outlying villages they are trying to stir up dissatisfaction.  Although we cannot pinpoint it, we are aware that it is happening.”

“And you think that this Prince Hans will report to the Russians that their agents are being successful?”

“Undoubtedly, if he thinks it is significant enough.  As you must know, Russia has, for a long time, wanted Alexanderburg to be joined to them.”

“It is most unfortunate that you actually border on Russian territory,”

“That is what I have often thought myself, but there is nothing we can do about it except fight desperately with every possible weapon to retain our independence.”

He spoke with a tone in his voice that told Narina how much it meant to him.

She knew if anyone had to sacrifice his life to save Alexanderburg it would be the Lord Chamberlain.

“I will do everything you want me to do, but please don't let me make mistakes. It would be ghastly if I was responsible for letting the enemy into our midst.”

“That is what I often feel myself, so I want you to be as pleasant as you can manage to Prince Hans tonight.  He will flirt with you, as he always flirts with every pretty woman he comes into contact with.”

“How old is he?” enquired Narina.

“Getting on for thirty-five.  I believe he was a terror when he was a child and has not changed much since he grew up.  He is a gossip-monger who loves to stir up trouble, but it would be dangerous to underestimate him.”

“What does he gain by behaving like this?”

“Power and influence.  He adores both and he has in his own peculiar way made himself quite important to a number of countries.  I am told that the Czarina dotes on him and makes a huge fuss of him whenever he visits St. Petersburg.”

“And you think he has a special reason for coming to Alexanderburg now?”

He paused before responding,

“Perhaps I am being imaginative and ultrasensitive, but he is the very last person I would welcome to the Palace now.  Yet it is impossible to keep him away.”

“I promise you I will do my best to help.  Just tell me what I must do and I will be very careful what I say.”

“The one thing he is
not
to find out, is that you are taking the place of Her Royal Highness and that Michael Ward, of all people, is actually in Prince Rudolf's bed.”

He gave a laugh with no humour in it.

“It would be a tale to sweep across the dinner tables of Europe and the Russians would use it as a key to open the door and let themselves into this country.”

“So what do you want me to do, Lord Chaberlain?”

“I want you first to come downstairs for luncheon, at which there will be no guests and then you can talk to Prince Hans, or rather listen to him without interruption.”

“You are quite certain he has never seen Louise?”

“He has never set eyes on her to my knowledge, but he does know that she is English and will therefore not be suspicious that you are play-acting.  What he really wants to know is why you have not yet produced an heir to the throne, and if our Army is as small and as ineffective as it is reputed to be amongst some of the other Balkan States who are jealous of us.”

“Surely, Lord Chamberlain, you can easily increase the size of your Army.”

She was thinking of the large number of men she had seen walking in the streets not in uniform as she drove into the City.

Now she thought about it, very few of the women she had talked to had said their husband was a soldier.

“I have been advocating for some time that all the young men in the country should be encouraged to join the Army, if only for a few years so that they would learn to fight, which might in time be very necessary.”

“So who is preventing it?”

“The Prime Minister for one.  He is persuading the Cabinet and Members of Parliament that if we have a large Army we might seem to be aggressive and our neighbours might believe that we are threatening
them
.”

“But surely they do understand that the real threat comes from Russia?” exclaimed Narina.

“They believe all they want to believe and they are completely and absolutely certain that, as we are now ruled by an English Princess, we are perfectly safe.”

Narina gave a deep sigh.

“I appreciate all you are feeling.  It's just what my father has told me happened in India.  For a long time they refused to believe that there was any threat from the Russians.”

“Exactly, and I'm told their defences are still not as complete as they should be.”

“If they were, we would not need men like Michael Ward to risk their lives in
The Great Game
.”

“No, of course not.  I only wish we had something like that here.  The majority of the people are complacent and convinced that we need not be afraid.”

“Then that is just the sort of thing that Prince Hans must not find out.”

The Lord Chamberlain nodded.

“What you have to do,” he suggested, “is keep his mind on a more attractive subject, namely
yourself
.”

“I will do my best,” smiled Narina.

After the Lord Chamberlain had left her, she longed to go into the closed bedroom and tell Michael Ward what was happening.

When she asked Paks, he insisted that he was still asleep and under no circumstances should he be disturbed.

Narina changed her gown.

She chose one of the prettiest and most fashionable belonging to Louise.  She added some attractive jewellery and put two strings of pearls round her neck.

There were pearl earrings to match and a diamond bracelet narrow enough not to seem ostentatious in the daytime.

Then feeling her heart was beating rather heavily in case she made a mistake, she walked down the stairs.

She entered the reception room in which she was to meet Prince Hans before luncheon.

She learnt from one of the
aides-de-camp
that the Lord Chamberlain and the General commanding the troops had been showing Prince Hans the best horses in the Royal Cavalry stables.

Narina was certain this was an astute way to show him something of the Army itself, but she merely smiled and asked the
aide-de-camp
,

“Was His Royal Highness driving particularly fine horses?”

“Very fine indeed, Your Royal Highness,” the
aide de-camp
replied with a note of envy in his voice.  “Prince Hans does everything in style, bringing extra horses with him in case any should go lame and an attendance of eight servants.”

Narina laughed as she thought it so funny.

She could scarcely imagine any Englishman going about with such pomp and ceremony.

From the way the
aide-de-camp
spoke she was sure it all made Prince Hans, in other people's eyes, much more impressive than he actually was.

She had not been in the reception room for more than a few minutes before the
aide-de-camp
accompanied by Prince Hans entered the room.

“You must forgive us, Your Royal Highness,” he said to Narina, “if we are late, but His Royal Highness has been making an inspection of our Cavalry horses and has been most complimentary about them.”

“I am delighted to meet Your Royal Highness, and to welcome you to the Palace,” Narina addressed him.

She held out her hand and Prince Hans raised her hand in the French fashion and murmured,

“Your Royal Highness is even more beautiful than I was told you were.”

“I am only glad to see that Your Royal Highness is not disappointed,” Narina managed to reply.

When they went into luncheon, two equerries, who had met the Prince on his last visit, joined them and he was most gracious to them.

As luncheon began, he started talking and Narina could see why in many ways he was almost hypnotic.

He was amusing, witty, and at the same time he had a sharp dig at everyone and everything he spoke about.

Yet because it was like learning history that was not in books, she found the conversation fascinating.

He paid Narina endless compliments in between all the catty remarks he was making about other Rulers, even the Czar himself.

Alexander III was already being talked about as one of the most frightening Czars Russia had ever produced.

Narina had heard her father expound the theory that although the Balkans had been frightened of Alexander II, he possessed many of the attributes of a fine Ruler.

On the morning of his death he was working on a reform to launch Russia irrevocably into the modern world – the granting of a Parliamentary Charter.

When he was later murdered, every house, balcony, window and lampstand was draped in black.

Narina could recall that the first act of the new Czar, Alexander III, was to tear up the unfinished manifesto lying on his father's desk.

She had learnt since she arrived in Alexanderburg that Alexander III was already more feared by the world than any other Czar before him.

If the Russians had been frightening before to their victims, they were doubly terrifying now.