104. A Heart Finds Love (7 page)

She had taken a great deal of trouble in putting on the amazingly decorative wedding dress. It was just as she thought her mother must have worn it all those years ago.

She had found the wedding veil, which had been in the family for years. It had taken her some time and the wreath of white roses on her head was exquisitely made and exceedingly becoming.

She only had a small necklace of her own pearls to wear round her neck, as her mother had worn a diamond necklace.

It made Alnina look young and more beautiful than if she had been loaded down by too many jewels.

There were quite enough on the dress and it was shining in the sun pouring in through the open windows.

With the background of flowers she looked, the Duke thought as he walked towards her, as if she had just stepped out of a Fairy tale.

William had by now set up his camera.

As the Duke took Alnina’s hand in his, William thought that it would be impossible to find a more good-looking pair anywhere in the world.

Although he did not say so, he thought they must have stepped out of a dream and could not be real flesh and blood.

“Thank you for all the trouble you have taken,” the Duke was saying.

“I hope you are pleased, Your Grace. I was afraid that there would not be enough flowers for the background you required. But I found them in the end even though it was a somewhat lengthy search.”

The Duke smiled.

“No one,” he said, “will look at the background when they can look at you.”

“I hope that you are right. My wreath was another formidable task, but I managed it and I also made myself a bouquet.”

“You have thought of everything and I cannot tell you how grateful I am.”

“Now let’s get on with the photographs,” William said. “I am sure the sun is giving us exactly the right light and you never know when it might go behind a cloud.”

“Heaven forbid!” the Duke exclaimed. “The sooner you photograph us the better.”

He moved quickly in front of the flowers.

Then Alnina said a little shyly,

“Do you think I should put my hand on your arm?”

“Yes, of course. And I should have thought of that myself. If we had only just been married, we would hardly stand far apart from each other.”

“It all depends who you married,” Alnina replied. “But I think, as you are so smart, and I must commend you on your decorations, they would expect us to look happy and be quite near to each other.”

”Yes, of course,” the Duke agreed.

He stood with his back to the flowers and Alnina put her hand on his arm, holding her bouquet with the other one.

It was only when he had looked through his lens that William gave a cry.

“You have forgotten something,” he cautioned.

“What is that?” the Duke asked.

“The bride is showing her left hand and there is no ring on it.”

“How stupid of me!” Alnina cried. “I had thought of it. I have Mama’s ring upstairs, but I forgot to put it on my finger.”

The Duke took off his signet ring.

“If you turn this round the other way,” he said, “it will save your going upstairs or sending your man to fetch it for you.”

“Of course. I told him we were doing this to show abroad how people dress for balls at Buckingham Palace. So we were quite right to make it look glamorous.”

“What about your veil?” the Duke asked.

“Your friend will tell you I put it on after Brooks left the room,” Alnina said. “All he saw was the wreath and after all a great number of women wear a wreath when they don’t have a tiara.”

The Duke laughed.

“That is very true. But what woman does not prefer diamonds to flowers?”

“I for one. I love flowers and, although I admire diamonds, I cannot say I love them.”

“Then you are indeed unique. I have never known a woman who did not wish to cover herself with gems and who did not prefer to wear something that glittered rather than flowers that scent the air.”

“Now if you will both stop talking like characters on the stage at Drury Lane,” William piped up. “I want to get this photograph taken.”

“It is my fault we have been delayed,” Alnina said. “I should have remembered the ring. It was clever of you to notice it.”

“Now smile and look happy,” William ordered and then he was peering into his camera.

They heard the clicks as he took several exposures.

Then he suggested, as he pulled off the velvet hood that covered his head,

“I think we should have one now with you looking at each other.”

“Do you think that is really necessary?” the Duke enquired.

“I think it is a wise move to make it clear that your heart is in England, even if your body is walking about in Georgia.”

“All right then, but hurry up. If there is one thing I really dislike, it’s being photographed.”

“Don’t think of it like that,” Alnina said. “This is a theatrical performance and we have to make it a success!”

She paused for a moment before she added,

“Otherwise you may be sorry you have bought the wedding dress.”

“I will be delighted to add it to the collection of robes of every type in the family mansion,” he asserted. “There is a whole room full of them, but none are as fine or as beautiful as your wedding dress, Miss Lester.”

“I am glad to hear that,” Alnina said. “It is exactly the sort of home I want it to have, because my mother was so proud of it.”

“That is not surprising. It certainly is unique and my only trouble is that it will attract a great number of my family who will all want to come and stay with me.”

The Duke laughed before he added,

“Not because they find me charming, but because I have such a beautiful wedding dress for which they will try to persuade me to find a bride!”

“That should not be difficult!” Alnina responded.

“Let me tell you it is impossible, because I intend never to marry anyone. I have an uncomfortable feeling it will make those who continually pester me that much more voluble than they are already.”

”I am not surprised. All Dukes need to leave an heir behind them.”

“Oh, there will be plenty of those,” the Duke said. “The only difference is that they will not be my sons.”

There was silence for a moment.

Then Alnina said,

“I think that is rather sad.”

”Now come on,” William interrupted. “All I want you to do is to look at each other and appear loving, even though you feel that this is a confounded bore.”

Alnina laughed and turned to the Duke,

“Mr. Armstrong is quite right. We should get down to business and I will look up at you affectionately.”

She threw back her head as she spoke.

As the Duke looked down at her, he thought that it would be very difficult to find another woman anywhere in the world who was quite so attractive.

‘What I have to do,’ he thought, ‘because I knew Charles and because she has been so kind to me is to find her a really nice husband. I just wonder if she would fancy William?’

“Now,” said William, almost as if the Duke had spoken his thoughts aloud, “don’t move and for Heaven’s sake look affectionate.”

The Duke bent his head a little nearer to Alnina.

She stared up at him.

Their eyes met and then she felt a little feeling run through her that she had never felt before.

They both stood very still, almost as if mesmerised.

William once again threw off the velvet cloth and declared,

“Excellent! Really excellent! If it does not come out exactly as you looked, I will be furious and sue the man who sold me the camera!”

“I am sure it will be perfect,” the Duke said. “Now if you have finished, I will go and change.”

“And I will do the same,” Alnina added. “Then I am sure that Brooks has tea ready for us all in the study.”

“I will look forward to that,” William said. “I think I deserve it after all the trouble I have had in taking these photographs.”

“It has been far worse for us,” the Duke protested. “After all, we have had to dress up and obey commands. And that is something I have managed to avoid up to now, even though we have known each other for years.”

“That is certainly true enough,” William replied. “You always think that you know best, so I have given up arguing with you.”

The Duke laughed and countered,

“I have not noticed much difference.”

“Perhaps you will in the future. Now ostensibly you are a married man and I have proof of it!”

“You are scaring me, William, and before you say any more I am going upstairs to change and be again, as I have always been and always intend to be, a very sensible bachelor without a heart.”

He had left the room before William could answer.

Alnina, who had been putting her bouquet in water so that the flowers would not die, turned round.

“Why is your friend, the Duke, so determined not to marry?” she asked him. “And everyone will expect him to, although I quite understand that he has no wish to marry this Princess from another country.”

William glanced at the door, almost as if he felt the Duke was still there listening to him.

“He was very badly treated by someone he loved and whom he had asked to marry him,” he said. “But don’t tell him I have told you so.”

“Oh, how sad! Did she jilt him?”

“Yes, she did and only a few days before they were due to be married.”

Alnina stared at him.

“How terrible! How could she do such a thing?”

“She did it because she wanted a title. She married instead a Viscount who will become an Earl. Little did she know, if she had waited long enough, she would have been a Duchess.”

Alnina was silent for a moment and then she said,

“I suppose many women would think it important. Yet when they marry it should be the man himself who counts and not that he has or has not a title to his name.”

“If they are honest,” William replied, “most women dream that a Duke will drop down the chimney and ask them to be his wife. They are therefore disappointed when he is just Mr. Snooks or Captain Know-all!”

Alnina laughed.

“You are funny, but it’s true. Yet I don’t believe that all women are so avaricious.”

As William was silent, she went on,

“Personally I think that if I was married to someone very grand, it would be such a bore to entertain people who came not because they were real friends, but because they wanted to say they had dined with the Duke of ‘This’ or the Earl of ‘That’.”

William was amused and responded,

“You are different from most people. But I have never found a woman yet who was not anxious to have a title and go into dinner in front of her friends.”

“Well, now you have met me,” Alnina said. “I can assure you that when I marry it will not be because the man in question is important, even if he is the King of Sheba. It will be because I love him and he loves me.”

“That is exactly what you should feel, but I cannot believe that dressed up as you are now you will not expect a God from Olympus or perhaps an archangel from Heaven to be kneeling at your feet.”

Alnina walked towards the door, saying,

“Now you are putting ideas into my head. So I am going to change and just be a plain young woman who has no aspirations beyond paying her brother’s debts.”

She had gone before William could think of a reply, but he was chuckling as he packed up his camera.

He was reflecting that Miss Lester was far more amusing than most young women he had met and she was certainly different from any
debutantes
who giggled when he spoke to them and had nothing to say for themselves.

The Duke came down first and found William in the study.

“I hope,” he said, “those pictures are good. You have certainly taken a great deal of trouble over them.”

“They will be fantastic. I can promise you that. I will have them developed and printed off by the day after tomorrow.”

“Then we can start to make our plans as to when we can leave for Georgia,” the Duke said with satisfaction.

“There is one thing that is worrying me, John.”

“What is that, William?”

“If you really buy this mountain on which you have set your heart, how are you going to give your orders to the men who will be working for you?”

The Duke looked at him.

“What do you mean by that?” he asked.

“Well, neither of us speaks Russian and, although the Prince speaks French, as do all aristocratic Russians, the workers will speak only Russian and not particularly cultured Russian at that.”

“I suppose I will have an overseer and someone in charge who will give them their orders,” the Duke replied. “And, of course, once it has been organised, you and I can go back to England or anywhere else we fancy and merely pick up the gold on our return.”

“That all sounds very easy, but you know that in Georgia, as in Russia, you cannot trust anyone unless you are there yourself giving the orders.”

He saw that the Duke was listening and went on,

“You are going to find it hard to find an overseer who is honest and also speaks French and will not put your gold into his own pocket.”

There was silence and then the Duke said,

“You always produce the most irritating stumbling blocks when I least expect them. Of course you are right, but I suppose with my usual good luck I will find someone I can trust and hope for the best.”

“If you ask me, that is not good enough,” William answered. “Before we go and buy this ridiculous mountain you have set your heart on, we must both learn Russian.”

The Duke laughed.

“I wonder how long it would take us. It’s the most ghastly language I have met on my travels. If you recall, when we were in Tiflis before, you complained that, unless we were conversing with the High and Mighty, you never understood a word that was said to you.”

”That is exactly what I am saying to you now.”

They were walking along the passage and came to the study where Brooks was holding the door open.

“Tea is ready, Your Grace,” he said to the Duke, “and I do hope you enjoys the cake my Missus has made especially for you.”

“That is very kind of her. Please thank her. I am sure it will be delicious.”