104. A Heart Finds Love (13 page)

“Thank you,” Alnina said, “and thank you again for everything. It is all even more wonderful than I expected.”

“That is exactly what I wanted to hear you say.”

He left the room and closed the communicating door between them.

Alnina began to undress.

She could not help thinking it was all very strange and she felt all the time that they were acting on a stage rather than living in real life.

Of one thing she was quite certain.

If the Prince managed to find out that the Duke was not married, he would certainly make every possible effort to marry his daughter to him.

‘She is a nice girl, but very Russian,’ she thought, ‘not only to look at but to hear her talking. I doubt if she would make the Duke happy.’

As she climbed into bed, she thought how thrilling everything was.

She had never expected to find herself in a Palace and how different it was from her own house where she was selling everything that was worth any money.

‘I will be able to look back on this and feel quite sure that it was just my imagination,’ she told herself.

Then, because it had been a very invigorating but tiring day, she fell asleep.

The next morning the Duke was determined to have a word with the Prince about the mountain he wanted to buy.

And then he had decided that he and William would visit it to make quite certain that the place where he had originally seen the gold had not subsequently been mined.

He had not said a word to anyone at the time, but he was sure that, if there had been further exploration and development, he would have heard about it in one way or another.

The Duke went to the Prince’s private sitting room immediately after breakfast.

The Prince was waiting for him.

“I have been wanting a word with you, my dear Duke,” he said, as soon as they had sat down, “about my daughter, Natasha.”

“I have been thinking about her,” the Duke said quickly. “My wife and I would suggest that you send her to London and I will find her a delightful and influential chaperone to stay with.”

Before the Prince could answer, the Duke went on,

“Now I have something to ask of you. When I was here last, I was very taken with the mountain right at the end of the Caucasus range. It is, of course, on your land. I have had an ambition ever since to own a mountain and I would very much like to buy that one from you.”

The Prince looked at him in surprise.

“You want to buy it!” he exclaimed.

The Duke nodded.

“I suppose every man dreams of owning something unique and different and I want you to make my dream come true.”

“You
really
want my mountain?”

It was as if he could not believe what he had heard.

“I just want a mountain that is mine,” the Duke said firmly. “No mountain I have ever seen is quite as beautiful and striking as that one.”

There was silence and then the Duke added,

“It would make me exceedingly happy to own it.”

“It is something I must think about seriously,” the Prince said. “The mountain has belonged to the Palace and my family for many centuries and it might upset our people to let someone who is a foreigner become the owner of it.”

“I see your difficulty, but I am prepared to pay a good price for it and, of course, as I can hardly take it away with me, you will have the pleasure of looking at it in the future just as you do today.”

He thought the Prince would feel reassured by that statement, but he merely answered,

“I must think about it. I must consider your idea very seriously!”

“Of course you must,” the Duke said. “Meanwhile I would like to take William and look more closely at the mountain than I was able to do when I was last here.”

“I can understand that,” the Prince remarked, “and I will tell my overseer to take you there and show you the best way into the large cavern, which I think you found when you were here before.”

“I want to go inside and explore it again and, when I come back, I will make you a very large offer for it.”

The Duke smiled before he continued,

“It will certainly pay for the beautiful gowns your daughter will require when she takes London by storm.”

The Prince smiled and replied,

“I was expecting that to be expensive!”

“It will be, but she will look very lovely and will doubtless enchant a great number of distinguished young gentlemen.”

He thought that the Prince was pleased at the idea.

Then, as he was in a hurry to see the mountain, he left the Prince and went to find William, also the overseer who was to escort them there.

As soon as they had left, the Prince went to find Alnina.

She had been told by the Duke what he was going to do and so, having finished breakfast, she had gone into the garden.

She would have liked to go with him, but he had not invited her and she knew instinctively that he wanted to go alone with William as he had before. They wanted to make certain that there had been no development in the large cavern and that the gold was still actually there.

Alnina found herself a comfortable seat among the flowers.

She was thinking how beautiful they were when she saw the Prince standing outside the Palace.

He was looking round the garden and she hoped that he would not notice her, as she wanted to enjoy the serenity of the flowers alone.

But when the Prince saw where she was, he came walking towards her.

Alnina rose and curtseyed.

“I thought somehow that I would find you here,” he said, “and that my flowers would attract you.”

“They are lovely, perfectly lovely,” Alnina replied. “I wish I could have a photograph of them.”

“I never thought of having them photographed, but I will certainly have it done especially for you.”

Alnina smiled at him.

“Thank you very much, as it will be something to remember when it is raining in England or very cold. Then there is nothing in the garden but weeds.”

She made it sound very pitiful, spoken in French, and the Prince laughed.

Then he said,

“I think it would still be beautiful if you were there,
madame
.”

“I enjoy your compliments, Your Royal Highness, and, as you well know, no one can pay them better than the French and that is why they always sound so right in that language.”

“I would rather say them in Russian, but I feel you might not understand them.”

Alnina was about to say that she spoke Russian and then she thought it would be a mistake. It was a language few women in England would ever learn and therefore he might think it odd that she could speak it and somehow connect it with her presence here with the Duke.

There was no doubt that the Prince was very acute.

She had realised last night when sitting beside him at dinner that he was very interested in English social life.

She suspected that he read the English newspapers whenever they were available and so he might suspect that the Duke was not married, even though she had arrived here as his wife.

“What I am wondering now,” he was saying while she was ruminating, “is would you be interested in coming with me to see the Caucasus Mountains?”

Alnina turned to him with a murmur of excitement.

“Not the one that your husband is interested in,” he went on, “but a little further up where the mountains are staggeringly high above a vast ravine.”

“Oh, do take me there,” Alnina cried.

“I am sure you would find it not only beautiful,” the Prince said, “but unique in that nowhere else in the world are there mountains like ours.”

He spoke with a note of pride she did not miss and she was afraid that, if he felt like that, he would not want to sell his own mountain to anyone.

However it was an invitation she could not refuse and she said,

“Of course I would love to come with you and see the mountains. I was thinking about them all the time we were coming here.”

“Then I will order a carriage,” the Prince said, “and I expect that you will want to put on a hat.”

“I would rather take a sunshade, but then you might be ashamed of me, driving out beside you without being properly dressed.”

“You look breathtakingly lovely just as you are.”

Again in French his compliment sounded far more sincere than it would have done in English.

Carrying her sunshade and with only a small bow of ribbon in the front of her long fair hair, Alnina climbed into the open carriage.

It was to take them through the town and up to the place where the Prince told her that the mountains were most beautiful.

As they drove off, the Prince began,

“This is a range that I think is the most exquisite of all the mountains and I have, as you can imagine, visited them hundreds of times since I was a little boy.”

“This is very very exciting for me,” Alnina replied. “I have read that the forests are particularly extensive on the Southern slopes of the Caucasus range.”

“That is true, but first I would like you to see how charming our little town is. People come from all over Georgia to buy our jewellery and the embroidery made by our women.”

Alnina did not say that she had read all about it in her books, but instead asked him questions and the answers she found more interesting than anything she had read.

She saw the vineyards as they passed them and the large orange groves and, when they came to the bazaar, the Prince ordered the driver to go very slowly.

Alnina could see the Persian jewellers with their jewels glittering in the sun.

She longed to stop and buy some silk garments, but the coachman had his orders and they moved out of the bazaar and into the countryside.

As the carriage drove on, the Prince pointed out the rooftops where in the evening the Georgian beauties took the air.

“They fan themselves,” he told her, “and eye the swaggering warriors who prowl about in their soft leather boots.”

“I am told they are very dangerous fighting men – ”

“You only have to read our history to know that, by hook or by crook or rather by gun and dagger, we always get what we want.”

He spoke in a way that sounded rather threatening and she quickly turned the conversation to other matters.

She watched the children, who looked well fed and were running beside the horses.

Then they were free of the town and now she could see the mountains rising higher and higher on one side of her, the trees closing in on the other.

They drove a long way before the Prince ordered the carriage to come to a standstill.

Then he helped Alnina out of the carriage and they walked on a narrow path above a deep ravine.

On the other side were mountains reaching up so high into the sky that Alnina felt she was in darkness.

Yet here there were trees and more trees and the sun caught the leaves and turned them to gold.

It was now that Alnina felt fully conscious of the entrancing atmosphere she had read so much about.

She was being drawn by it up onto the very top of the mountain and from there she would be able to see the whole world beneath her.

She stood gazing at it all and knew that she was completely enchanted by the majestic view.

She had no idea that the Prince was looking at her with a strange expression in his eyes.

Finally after what seemed like a century of time had passed, he led her back to the carriage.

She had one last look at the mountains and in the far distance she could see that the peaks were higher still with snow lingering on the very tops.

Then, as she sank back into the carriage, the Prince put his hand over hers.

“I know what you were feeling,” he said. “It’s what I felt myself when I first stood in that particular spot and saw the mountains soaring above me.”

“You are very fortunate,” Alnina replied, “to have anything so beautiful and so moving right here on your doorstep.”

“And the Duke is extremely lucky to have you as his wife. Have you been married for long?”

“No, only a very short time. My husband has with him photographs of our wedding and I know he is anxious to show them you.”

The Prince did not speak and Alnina went on,

“This is our honeymoon, as, owing to mourning, our marriage had to be delayed.”

She was saying the first thought that came into her head.

The Prince’s hand was still on hers and he was now looking at her in a way that she felt was embarrassing.

“You are very beautiful,” the Prince murmured.

Lifting her hand he kissed it.

As they were speaking in French and it was very much a French gesture, it was of no significance.

But still feeling rather uncomfortable she continued to talk about the Duke.

She was trying to impress the Prince by enthusing about his great estate in Scotland.

“He also has a charming house in London,” she said, “which is very convenient when we want to visit my home which is only a short distance out into the country.”

“And your mother and father?”

“They are dead and my brother died tragically in an accident.”

“So you have no one to live in your family home?”

“That is indeed true. There is no one to take over the house.”

“And you have no other brothers?” he enquired.

Alnina shook her head.

“No, and I have not yet discovered any relation to inherit it.”

She thought as she spoke about the family treasures she had left behind which she hoped were being sold while she was away.

Because she looked worried, the Prince said,

“So what has upset you? What are you thinking about? Let me banish it from your mind so that you look happy again.”

“I am happy,” Alnina insisted, “very happy because I am here.”

Remembering that she was supposed to be on her honeymoon, she added,

“I am only sad when I think about my brother and how much he would have enjoyed, as I have myself, your glorious mountains.”

“I want you to be happy,” the Prince said. “When a woman is happy she looks much more alluring than at any other time.”

Alnina smiled.