A Princess Runs Away, page 12
As he reached the hall he glanced at the grandfather clock. It was now two o’clock and the Equerry had been here for quite a considerable time.
‘Let him wait,’ Kelvin thought savagely.
But he knew that the man was not to blame. He was only obeying the orders he had been given.
With some effort he walked into the sitting room to find the Equerry sitting in a comfortable armchair reading a newspaper.
He started to rise as Kelvin came into the room.
“Don’t move,” Kelvin said. “I am afraid you have a somewhat long wait in front of you. But first I would like to know how you became aware that the Princess was here.”
“I think that we should never have found her,” the Equerry replied, “if it had not been that, on Her Majesty’s command, the Lord Lieutenant of every County adjacent to Windsor Castle was immediately informed of Her Royal Highness’s disappearance.”
Kelvin was listening and the Equerry went on,
“The Lord Lieutenants were told to make as wide enquiries in their County as they could. If they discovered anyone who could be Her Royal Highness, they were not to say anything to her personally, but to notify the Officer in charge at Windsor Castle.”
Kelvin nodded.
Now he understood how it had happened.
The Lord Lieutenant, having only a brief glimpse of Vasila, had conveyed his suspicion as to who she was.
The Equerry rose from his chair and said,
“I was wondering, Major Ridge, if you have read the newspapers this morning?”
“I think that they arrived while we were out riding,” Kelvin replied.
“Then if you have not seen this notice,” the Equerry said, “I think it concerns you.”
He passed Kelvin the newspaper.
As he took it, he thought that no news, however, dramatic, would be at the moment of any interest to him.
Then he saw that The Times was open at the page which contained the main news of the day.
Without much interest he read,
“CATASTROPHE IN BLANKET FOG CAUSES DISTINGUISHED CASUALTRIES.
The yacht belonging to the Duke of Longridge was last night involved in a collision with a large Steamer in the open sea outside The Wash.
The two ships were unable to see each other in time and collided as dusk was falling. The Steamship ‘Rosyth’ had nearly fifty people on board. But only two passengers and three seamen were injured.
Unfortunately, the yacht, ‘The Thistle’, owned by the Duke of Longridge was badly damaged by the impact and the Duke, his two sons and four seamen including an Officer were killed.
The Duke was a large landowner in Yorkshire and his ancestral home is one of the finest in the country. He was fifty-five and his two sons, the Marquis of Long and Lord Charles Ridge, were twenty-four and twenty-two.
Further details of the collision will be known later today. The relatives of those who died have been informed and the new heir to the Dukedom, Major Kelvin Ridge, is at present serving with his Regiment in India.”
Kelvin read the notice.
Then, as if he found it impossible to take it in, he read it again.
He put it down on the table and without a word to the Equerry walked out of the room.
He then went up the stairs at twice the pace he had descended them and opened the door into Vasila’s room.
She was lying exactly where he had left her crying helplessly on the bed.
Then, as he walked over to her, she raised her head and he could see the tears in her eyes and on her cheeks.
He stood for a moment looking down at her before he said,
“I have just one question to ask you, my darling. How soon will you marry me?”
Vasila gave a little cry.
“What did you say to me?”
“I asked you to marry me.”
As if it was impossible to say anything more, he put out his arms and pulled her against him.
He lifted her off the bed and her feet did not touch the ground as he kissed her wildly and passionately.
For a moment she was too surprised to respond.
Then her arms went round him and she was kissing him as he was kissing her.
They both felt as if they were being swept up into the sky and flying past the stars.
“I love you, I love you,” Kelvin managed to say. “Now, my darling, you are going to marry me.”
“But how? I don’t understand,” Vasila murmured.
At the same time her whole face was illuminated as if a light was shining inside her.
“God has heard our prayers,” Kelvin declared.
“I thought He had forsaken us,” Vasila whispered.
“And I thought the same,” he answered. “Instead He has given us His blessing and now, my precious one, although it seems incredible, I can marry you.”
There were a million questions that Vasila wanted to ask, but Kelvin was kissing her again.
And kissing her so passionately and demandingly that her whole body responded to him.
She knew that this was the love she had longed for and thought she would never find.
The love that came was not only from the heart but from the soul.
She wanted to tell him that it was what she felt and that she was his completely.
Her heart, her soul and her body.
But there was no need for words.
She knew without being told that he felt the same.
As he kissed her and then went on kissing her, she felt that they had already found Heaven together.
Nothing could be more perfect.
CHAPTER SEVEN
It took Kelvin and Vasila some time to come back to reality.
When eventually they did, he said,
“Now, my darling, we have to think very seriously of what we have to do.”
“I still don’t understand,” Vasila asked. “How can you now say you will marry me when you were so certain – that you could not?”
She was looking radiant, but she hesitated over the words and Kelvin knew she was terrified that it was all an illusion.
“I have just learnt,” he said quietly, “that my uncle, the Duke of Longridge and his two sons and heirs, have all been drowned and I am now the sixth Duke.”
“A Duke!” Vasila exclaimed. “Oh, my darling, just how wonderful! And that is why you now think you can – marry me.”
“There is a great difference,” Kelvin said, “between being asked to be the wife of a penniless soldier and the Duchess of Longridge.”
“I don’t care who you are or what you are as long – as I can marry you,” Vasila said.
Kelvin kissed her again and then he rose reluctantly to his feet.
“I will have to go now and make the arrangements. And, of course, you must pack everything that Nanny can find for you.”
“Where are we going?” Vasila enquired.
“To Windsor Castle,” Kelvin replied.
She gave a little cry.
“No! We cannot go there!”
She would have said a lot more, but Kelvin put his arms round her and held her close.
“You have to trust me. I appreciate that this is the greatest and most difficult problem I have ever faced. I am sure I can solve it, but I need your help.”
“I will do anything you want me to do,” she said. “Oh, Kelvin, I love you. How much I love you!”
“You are not to look at me like that. If you do, I shall be kissing you again and we will never get started.”
She gave a little laugh as he put her to one side and walked towards the door.
“I love and adore you,” he breathed as he reached it. “Now do as I say and send for Nanny.”
He went down the stairs slowly, thinking out as he went what he should do.
He realised only too well, as he had said to Vasila, that it was the biggest problem he had ever faced. But now he had, he reflected, a weapon to solve it with and that was his new position.
He found the Equerry still in the sitting room and when he came in, he rose to his feet and said,
“There is a little more in The Morning Post than in The Times and I expect, Your Grace, the whole story will be in the other newspapers tomorrow morning.”
“And by that time,” Kelvin replied, “we shall be at Windsor Castle.”
He saw the Equerry look at him enquiringly and he said,
“What I want you to do is to go ahead and book for us a dinner and bedrooms at the large Posting inn called Hunting Hall, which is about three hour’s drive from here.”
“So do you intend, Your Grace, to drive the chaise that you borrowed from Windsor Castle?”
“That is exactly what I wish to do,” Kelvin replied. “I want you when you arrive at the inn to book a private room where Her Royal Highness and I will dine and, of course, the best available bedrooms in the whole inn.”
He could see that the Equerry was hesitating as to whether he should insist that he or the Officer should travel with them in case they ran away again and disappeared as the Princess had done before.
Kelvin smiled.
“I assure you that I will be just behind you and I am as anxious to go to Windsor Castle and speak with Her Majesty as you are.”
The Equerry looked a little awkward knowing that Kelvin had read his thoughts.
“Of course, Your Grace, I will do what you ask and you will understand that I was most embarrassed at having to come here, but I had to obey the Queen’s orders.”
“As we all do. Now I suggest that you go ahead as you will not wish to drive your horses too hard and I will follow you as soon as Her Royal Highness is ready.”
The Equerry, a little nervously, walked towards the door and Kelvin followed him.
When they reached the hall, the Equerry enquired,
“What time, Your Grace, shall I order dinner?”
Kelvin looked at the grandfather clock by the door.
“I think, as we will want to leave early tomorrow morning so as to reach Windsor Castle after luncheon, we should dine at seven-thirty. Of course, see that a bottle of their best champagne is put on ice.”
“I will do that,” he said and hurried down the steps.
Kelvin took a look at the Equerry’s closed carriage that they had intended to take Vasila away in.
He knew that, if he had had to watch her go, he would have felt as if his heart was being drawn from his body.
By a miracle that still seemed to him unbelievable, he was now in a very different position.
He had never been to Longridge Castle, which was in the far North of Yorkshire, but his father had very often described it to him and he had seen pictures of it.
It had been in the Ridge family since the thirteenth century and was one of the finest Castles in England.
Surrounded by a very high wall it had not become dilapidated over the years as many Castles had, but instead it had been carefully preserved and extended.
As far as he could recall, the Duke of Longridge owned something like fifty thousand acres of land and was exceptionally rich and Kelvin had already seen his house at Newmarket where he kept his racehorses and they had run very well last Season.
With his father he had visited Longridge House in Park Lane in London. It was very large and impressive and it had a ballroom which he had twice danced in when his Regiment was in England.
It never occurred to him at any time in his life that there might be even the slightest chance of his becoming the Duke.
His father was a first cousin and the Duke had a great number of relations, but as he and Kelvin’s father had few interests in common they seldom met.
‘It had always,’ Kelvin thought, ‘been a question of money.’
His father had been comfortably off, but he could not afford to run racehorses. He was content in having half-a-dozen good horses when he hunted with the local pack of foxhounds.
Looking back, Kelvin remembered that, when the last Duke’s mother died, his father had gone to the funeral. He had then been at school and there was no question of his taking any particular notice of it.
In fact to be truthful he very seldom thought about the Duke of Longridge nor did he bother to impress people with his relationship to anyone so consequential.
Yet now when he had least expected it he had come into the title.
How could he ever have imagined that the Duke’s two sons would have been drowned with him?
Or that there was no nearer relative than himself to become the sixth Duke.
This was all passing through his mind and he was considering every detail that could concern Vasila.
What he needed to concentrate on was somehow to sweep away any opposition to her becoming his wife.
He was well aware that it would not be easy.
Yet he knew that the late Duke had been very close to Queen Victoria and his wife had held the position of Lady of the Bedchamber to Her Majesty, which had been traditionally held by the wife of the reigning Duke.
He was making up his mind what he would do if the worst came to the worst.
If the Queen would not grant her blessing to their marriage, then he would be forced to elope with Vasila and he would marry her before he could be stopped.
It would undoubtedly cause a great commotion, but while Major Ridge could be sent to The Tower for such an action, it would be quite impossible for the Queen to treat the Duke of Longridge in the same way.
Kelvin, however, was really determined that such a situation should not arise.
He hoped with the help of God to get his own way without making the Queen angry or creating a scandal.
As soon as the Equerry had driven off, he went to the stable and found Carruthers taking care of the horses and told him he wanted the chaise round in ten minutes.
“Are you leaving us, sir?” Carruthers asked him.
“I am afraid so,” Kelvin replied. “But we will come back and I have good news for you.”
The old man looked up at him and then Kelvin said,
“The small wage I have given you and your wife for all your kindness and help in looking after the cottage will be trebled. I will tell my Solicitors to put five hundred pounds at your disposal for anything you feel you need or for you when you have no further wish to do any work.”
Carruthers stared at him as if he could not believe what he had heard.
Then, as he wanted to say something, Kelvin added,
“You will hear fairly soon that I have come into a title through the unexpected death of three relations. The great satisfaction it gives me is that now I will be able to reward people like you and your wife who have befriended me ever since I was a child.”
He left the stable before the old man could say very much and walked back to the house.
He went upstairs to find, as he had expected, voices coming from Vasila’s room and knew that she and Nanny were deciding what she should take with her.
He opened the door and Nanny, who was kneeling on the ground by an open trunk, looked up.
“The good Lord has heard my prayers,” she said. “I always thought you was a-wastin’ your time in foreign parts when you should’ve been here guardin’ us.”
Kelvin laughed.
“That is just what I expected you to say, Nanny, and, as I have told Carruthers, I can now help those who have helped me in the past.”
“You won’t be sellin’ the cottage?” Nanny asked.
He knew that it was already worrying her.
He glanced at Vasila before he answered her and he knew without her saying a word that she loved the cottage and would hate to lose it.
“It is your home, Nanny,” he said, “as long as you live and wish to stay here. But you will find that when my wife and I get tired of the pomp and circumstance which will surround us from now on, we will come back here to be alone with you and our dreams.”
He saw at once by the expression on Vasila’s face that he had said exactly what she wanted him to say.
She put out her hands towards him and he knew that it would be impossible not to kiss her.
He kissed first one hand and then the other before he urged her,
“Now hurry. The Equerry and the carriage that they hoped to take you away in are already on their way.”
“They have left!” Vasila exclaimed.
“On my instructions,” he explained. “We are going to stop the night at one of the large Posting inns that we avoided on our way down here. I want to arrive at Windsor Castle at exactly three o’clock tomorrow afternoon.”
He saw Vasila give a little shiver and then changed the subject.
“Put in the prettiest gown you can find, Nanny,” he said, “and I would like it to be white.”
“The only one I can think of,” Nanny said, “is your mother’s Weddin’ gown. It’s still as beautiful as it was when she wore it and, as she was a little thinner then than she was later, it should fit Miss Vasila as if it had been made for her.”
“Then put it in, Nanny, and hurry because we have a long way to go and I don’t want to push the horses.”
He smiled at Vasila and went to his own bedroom to collect the clothes that he himself would need.
It was a great relief to find that Nanny had kept everything he had ever owned and also most of his father’s clothes. There was a frock coat that was almost new and Kelvin packed nearly the entire contents of the wardrobe.
Some were his and some were his father’s and at least for the moment he would not be bothered by having to go to his tailor.
The trunks were carried downstairs and they made a little extra weight on the chaise.
Kelvin decided that tomorrow he would make the Equerry take them in his carriage for the last part of their journey.
By the time that Vasila was ready it was still a few minutes before the time that Kelvin had intended to leave.
They both kissed Nanny goodbye and shook hands with Carruthers.
“We will be back here, of course we will,” Vasila asserted impulsively.
“I’ll miss you,” Nanny said, “and you take care of yourself, Master Kelvin, we can’t allow anythin’ to happen to you.”
“I will be looking after him, I promise you,” Vasila said.
They drove away and Nanny and Carruthers waved until they were out of sight at the end of the drive.
