A Dangerous Disguise (7 page)

"I most certainly do not. You're a hardened flirt, drawing moths to your flame, and enjoying every moment of it."

"It's a method of survival, no more. While there are so many, I'm safe, for no woman can accuse me of having paid her particular attention. I developed the idea years ago, when I was little more than a boy and my parents were already pressing 'suitable' brides on me.

"I wasn't in the least interested in filling the nursery. I didn't even want to fall in love. I saw only the disadvantages."

"Which are?"

"Being hung, drawn and quartered," the Duke answered. "Once you're married you can never run away and enjoy yourself. If you do, you know that someone will be hurt and upset simply because you are not there."

"In other words," Ola said, "you don't want to be tied down and you don't want to marry."

"Not until I am so much in love that nothing else matters," the Duke replied.

"And since you avoid being in love, you are condemned to bachelorhood," she said lightly. "I won't say 'a lonely bachelorhood' because it clearly won't be lonely at all. But it will be loveless."

He considered this for a while.

"There have been women in my life, of course there have," he said at last, "but they haven't really meant anything to me. When I said goodbye I found it was easy to forget them."

Ola drew in her breath.

She knew that was what would happen to her.

As he would never see her again, he would soon forget her.

Then he said,

"I am speaking of myself as I was then. Will you believe that - ?"

"Ahoy there! Camborne."

The Duke muttered something impolite beneath his breath as a middle-aged man in military uniform waylaid them. Ola, too, would have wished that this introduction had happened at any other time.

"Introduce me, you dog," the man bawled cheerfully, doffing his hat and bowing at Ola. She inclined her head graciously in return.

"Fraulein, allow me to present General Redbridge. Sir, Fraulein Klara Schmidt."

Ola extended one gloved hand to the General, who bowed low over it. Inexperienced though she was, she had no difficulty in estimating him as a roué.

The Duke seemed to think so too, because he grew increasingly restive at the other man's outrageous compliments. Ola sat there laughing with pleasure, taking none of it seriously.

"If you'll excuse us, General," said the Duke finally. "Fraulein Schmidt has an appointment."

"You're wicked," she teased as they rode on. "I don't have an appointment."

"Yes you do. With me. But not here, because it's too public. Let us complete our ride, and then I'll return you to the hotel to change for our outing this afternoon."

"Where are we going?" she asked eagerly.

"First I'll take you to lunch, and this afternoon we'll do whatever you wish. A shopping trip? Frills and furbelows."

"Oh no! I can shop any time. What I'd really like – " she took a deep breath, unaware that she looked like a bright eyed child, and that the sight filled him with unaccustomed tenderness.

"Tell me," he said. "Anything you want."

"I want to go on the underground."

"What?" For a moment he was completely taken aback. "You've never – ?"

"Oltenitza is a backward little country compared to this one," she said hastily. "Over there we hear of the wonders to be found in England, and when I return they will expect to be told all about everything."

"Very well. That's where we'll go."

They were in high spirits as he delivered her to the Imperial, and left, promising to be back in an hour. During that hour she and Greta squabbled amiably about the rival merits of a walking dress in deep blue bombazine and one in green velvet.

Ola got her way, and finally sauntered down the stairs in blue, wearing a tiny hat with a small black feather over one eye, and dainty black kid shoes.

His eyes spoke of his admiration. He smiled and took her hand, drawing her quickly out to the waiting vehicle.

This time it wasn't his carriage but a hansom cab that he had hired in the street. This was the kind of detail that Ola was enjoying as much as the major novelties. There were no cabs in Ben Torrach.

"It must be wonderful to be able simply to summon something like this," she said.

"You don't have them in Oltenitza?"

"Not near my home," she said, improvising quickly. "The castle is out in the country, with only a small village nearby, and if I wish to travel I go in the carriage."

"With footmen and outriders?"

"Of course," she said, sounding slightly shocked.

"But it's so cumbersome. This is more convenient."

"It must be difficult not being in the city."

"The country is wild and bleak," she agreed. "But very beautiful." She was describing Ben Torrach now. She had heard somewhere that the countryside in the Balkans was savage and lonely, so her home would do very well as a model.

"There are mountains all around," she went on, warming to her theme. "I have learned to climb them. In my own country I am – what is the word? – athletisch."

"Athletic," the Duke replied.

"Ah yes. Thank you. There I am an athletic lady, but not here, because it is not good for ladies."

"English ladies are certainly not expected to be athletic," he agreed. "So, you climb mountains?"

"Oh yes. It is nice to be up so high, where there is wind, and you can get away from people."

"But do you never go into the city?"

"Sometimes, for formal occasions. Sometimes my father goes to see his ministers, sometimes they come to him. Sometimes there are balls and dancing, but too often it is just the same people."

"Do you enjoy dancing?"

"Oh very much. But not when it is so formal. Once I was driving home through the village, and people were dancing in the streets. I forget what they were celebrating, but there was a man playing the violin, and everyone was dancing around him. So I stopped and joined in."

This was all true. Papa had been most displeased.

Suddenly she gasped.

"What is that big, beautiful building?"

"That is Westminster Abbey, where in a few days the Queen will attend a service of thanksgiving for the fifty years of her reign."

The Duke grinned suddenly.

"I'll tell you a secret. There's a huge argument going on in the Palace. Her advisers want her to wear robes of state and a crown. Her Majesty insists on wearing a bonnet. They're all very upset, but she won't budge."

Ola laughed.

"I think she is right to do what she feels is best. She should not let the great men bully her."

The Duke grinned.

"Nobody bullies the Queen. She's a tiny little woman, about five foot one, but everyone is terrified of her."

"Are you terrified of her?"

"Shaking in my shoes," he said immediately. "Ah, we have arrived."

The cab had swung round Westminster Abbey, and reached the River Thames. The Duke handed her down and paid off the driver.

"Let us walk along the river," he said.

It might have been an accident, but as they strolled along the embankment he contrived to take her hand in his. Ola's heart sang. Whatever might happen in the time ahead, she would always have this moment.

She loved him. She could no longer deny the truth to herself. They had only just met, yet she loved him and she dared to hope that he loved her.

She looked out over the broad expanse of water, enthralled by the way the sunlight sparkled on the ripples. She had never seen such a huge river, such great boats.

The Duke took her to lunch at a small open air restaurant, where they could sit and watch the life of the river. For a while Ola sat watching the great ships and the little boats moving up and down.

"Like the rest of London, the Thames has more visitors than usual just now," said the Duke.

"I have never seen anything like this," Ola said. "So many vessels from so many countries. I did not know that ships could be so big."

"Isn't there a port in your country?"

"Oh no. Oltenitza is land-locked," Ola said quickly, for fear of having to invent a port.

"There's a French ship over there," said the Duke, "and the one coming up the centre of the river is Russian."

Ola looked at the ship and thought it was large but not particularly attractive.

"Do you see many Russians at your court?" the Duke asked.

She gave an eloquent little shudder.

"Please, do not let us speak of them."

She thought that if she was who she was pretending to be, she would dislike the Russians.

But, as she had never met one, she thought it was best to avoid a conversation in which she might show her ignorance.

"As you please," he said. "I'm tired of all that kind of thing, court life, titles, power, bowing and scraping. Sometimes I'd just like to be a plain man at home with my horses."

Ola laughed.

"Why do you laugh?" he challenged her. "Don't you believe me?"

"Of course I don't. I will wager that if you had the choice of being plain mister or a Duke, you would still choose to be a Duke. Am I wrong?"

He looked at her wryly.

"I don't want to answer that," he said. "So let us talk about something else. I would rather talk about you."

"And I want to talk about you," Ola replied. "So we will just have to find something which will please us both, although what it will be, I cannot think."

"I can think of a lot of things," the Duke said, "which I long to say to you and I want to hear your answer. You're so different from anyone I have ever met before. Your Highness - "

"Fraulein Schmidt," she corrected. "The Princess does not exist."

He looked at her quickly.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I mean at this moment she does not exist," she amended quickly. "I want to forget her. I wish I'd never – never been born a Princess."

"I wish that too. It's precisely what causes the trouble between us. You see, there's something – no, never mind."

"If it's important, perhaps you should say it now?"

"It is important, but not for my life could I say it now. Later, when we've had a little time together."

He took her hand in his.

"When do you have to return?" he asked.

"When you grow bored with looking after me."

He shook his head, and spoke in a low voice.

"You know that isn't possible. Why do you pretend not to know?"

"Perhaps there are things we cannot know, cannot allow ourselves to know?" she said with a touch of sadness.

The Duke did not speak. He was looking at her in a way she did not understand. She went on,

"The day will come when you'll have to go back to your ancestral home, and I'll have to go back to mine." The Duke nodded.

"That is a problem we will have to face sooner or later. But not just at this moment. Let us put all sad things away, and think only of being happy today."

For the rest of the meal they talked of nothing very much, and drank a delicious wine. Now and then they looked up, their eyes met and they smiled.

"Now we'll travel on the underground railway," he said. "And this evening we will find something else to do."

"Don't you have duties?"

"They don't matter, beside you," he said simply.

It was the most totally happy time Ola had ever known.

It did not occur to her then that a terrible danger was looming close to her. A more worldly wise woman would have thought it strange that he could simply drop all his duties to be with her.

But all she saw was the happiness of being with the man she loved, and the conviction that his feelings for her were the same.

Surely, nothing could be wrong in a world where there was love?

They took another cab to Paddington Station and went down a staircase that felt endless until they came out onto a railway platform.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"A long way beneath the earth," he told her, seeing the alarmed look on her face. "Hold onto me."

His arm was about her shoulder, and she took his other hand, squeezing it hard when a train came thundering out of the tunnel. The din was indescribable, and she began to wonder whether she had fallen into hell.

Then they were inside the train, clattering along through the earth. She tried to talk to him but it was impossible through the noise and at last she gave up.

"Do you want to see any more of the underground?" he asked when they reached a station.

She shook her head. She was beyond speech.

He took her back to Paddington, and they came back up into the light.

"You're looking very pale," he said, looking into her face with concern. "Perhaps I should not have taken you?"

"I wouldn't have missed it for anything," she said. "But I would like a cup of tea."

The Duke chuckled suddenly, and took out a large, white handkerchief.

"I should have said you were pale except for a smut on your nose," he said, rubbing it gently away. "Come now, and we'll find a tea house."

He brought her tea and cream buns, and then they took a cab bank to the embankment.

"I have one more surprise for you," he said. "Look."

She followed his pointing finger to a boat hung with coloured lamps. People were scurrying down the gangway, eager for the treat that awaited them. From somewhere came the sound of an accordion.

"You get a trip up the Thames, supper and a little dancing," said the Duke. "And you'll also meet the real Londoners, because these aren't the kind of people we normally share our pleasures with."

He was right. They were not aristocrats, Ola realised, but shopkeepers and servants. They had worked hard all day, and now they were getting ready to play hard. They looked friendly and happy, and suddenly she longed to be one of them.

"Come on," she said, seizing his hand.

They were the last on board. Then the gang plank was pulled up, the propellers whirred, and they were away, heading down river.

All the tables were taken, and many people were milling around eating from a buffet. The head waiter looked nervously at the Duke's elegant clothes, recognising 'the quality'.