Love and Apollo (12 page)

The Duke looked at him in surprise and asked,

“How is it possible that Your Royal Highness has joined us?”

The newcomer smiled.

“I have been watching and waiting for you for what seemed to me to be a very long time.”

“I must apologise for that, Your Royal Highness,” replied the Duke.  “I am afraid that we have taken longer in coming from London than we expected.”

“I was reckoning on your arrival almost a week ago and I have had three ships looking out for you and waiting to flag your approach if it was in daylight or to send a ball of fire into the sky if you came at night.”

He gave a sigh of relief and continued,

“But now you are here – and I can only say how glad and grateful I am to see you!”

As he spoke, Prince Ajax looked towards Valona.

Hastily, the Duke, although still astonished by the Prince's arrival, announced,

“May I please be permitted to present Her Royal Highness, Princess Valona?”

Valona curtsied and the Prince bowed.

“May I offer you some refreshment?”

“I have come aboard now,” he said, “because it is essential that you should understand the situation we are in before you actually arrive in Larissa.”

“Perhaps Your Royal Highness would prefer to sit down,” offered the Duke, indicating the sofa.

Prince Ajax did as was suggested and the Duke sat beside him with Valona in an armchair close to them.

There was silence for a moment and then he looked at the door.

“I presume that no one can hear us and it is safe for me to speak?”

“Quite safe, Your Royal Highness.”

Valona noticed from the expression in the Duke's eyes that he was surprised by the Prince's demeanour.

Again there was a somewhat uncomfortable silence, before Prince Ajax began,

“Perhaps it would be best also for your sister, Lady Rose, and the Marquis of Dorsham, the representative of Her Majesty, to hear what I have to say.”

The Duke held his breath.

“If you would excuse the suggestion, Your Royal Highness,” he replied, “it would be best if the Princess and I heard what you have to say first, in case it is upsetting.”

“Yes, you are right,” agreed Prince Ajax.

Once again he looked towards the door as if he was afraid that someone might be listening.

Then in a low voice, he declared,

“I have come to tell you that my father, the King, is
dead
!”

The Duke started.

“Dead, Your Royal Highness?”

“He died yesterday morning, but, as we have feared for at least a week, there was no chance of saving him.

“You can understand that the situation in Larissa is now more dangerous than ever.  The Prime Minister and the Chiefs of Staff are all convinced that the moment the Russians learn of my father's death, they will begin their move to take over the country.”

Valona clasped her hands together.

After a pause the Duke enquired,

“I presume that Your Royal Highness is now taking every precaution to prevent them from doing so.”

“The only deterrence to really prevent them would have been my father's marriage to Lady Rose.  Now, as I am King, it must be
mine
.”

For a moment the Duke stared at him.

“Yes, of course, I understand.”

“What we are afraid of,” he resumed, “is that they will strike before the marriage actually takes place.  That is why no one else, with the exception of my father's doctor and his valet, knows that he is dead.”

The Duke stared at him.

“Surely it has been very difficult to keep the news a secret.”

“It has been difficult because you did not arrive at the time we expected you.  But now you are here, I have made arrangements to which I hope you will agree.”

“What are they?” enquired the Duke.

“The marriage will take place tomorrow morning and no one in the whole of Larissa will have any idea that my father is not the bridegroom.

“I am fighting for my people's lives and my own and I assure you the only way I can save my country is to make the Russians realise we are now under the protection of Great Britain.”

“So Your Royal Highness will be married in your father's place,” the Duke stated, as if he was determined to clarify the situation completely in his own mind.

“That is correct and immediately that the Marriage Service has ended, I and Lady Rose will be crowned King and Queen of Larissa.”

The Duke could see it was a very astute plan if the Russians were kept in ignorance of what was happening.

But Prince Ajax had referred to his sister, assuming that she was on board.

“I have something to tell Your Royal Highness, but I do not think it will interfere with your plan.”

“What is it?” the Prince asked a little sharply.

It made Valona believe that he was nervous in case his plan, which he had obviously thought out very carefully, could not be carried out.

“My sister was taken seriously ill while we were in Athens and the doctors claimed it was impossible for her to travel any further and essential that she should remain in their care.”

“Are you now telling me that your sister is
not
with you?” Prince Ajax demanded.

There was a note of horror in his voice that made the Duke respond quickly,

“My sister regrettably is not with us, but Princess Valona, the daughter of the late Prince and the Princess of Piracus, is prepared to take her place.  She is in point of fact more closely related to Queen Victoria than my sister.”

The Prince now turned round to look at Valona and he gave her a long searching look.

Then he said in a different tone,

“I can only thank you, Your Royal Highness, and I will be exceedingly grateful if you will take Lady Rose's place.”

“I will most certainly do so,” responded Valona in a low voice, “because I realise it is the only way Your Royal Highness can save your country.”

“It is indeed the
only
way,” he repeated.  “And as I have already said, we must be married tomorrow morning.  No one in the Palace will have the least idea until the very last moment that I am taking my father's place.”

“I do understand,” muttered Valona.

For the first time Prince Ajax smiled at her.

“I believed you would – I remember how bravely your father fought against all the rebels in his country, but sadly they succeeded in throwing him off his throne.”

“And wounding him first,” added Valona, “so that he died soon after we arrived in England.”

“I am sure your father would not want Larissa to be taken over by the Russians.  We therefore have to be very clever and outwit them, although I am afraid it is not going to be easy.”

“Surely Your Royal Highness is ready to thwart the Russians?” the Duke asked.

There was a little pause before he answered,

“I am afraid, as my father had been so ill for some time, that we have been most remiss in not enlarging the Army or bringing it up-to-date with modern weapons.”

The Duke looked worried and Prince Ajax went on,

“I have been travelling abroad as I wanted to see something of the world, and actually you do not remember me, but I was at Oxford University at the same time as you were.”

The Duke looked amazed.

“You were!”

“Yes, but I was at a not very important College, and I was not as skilled as you were on the cricket field, nor did I row in the Oxford boat against Cambridge.”

The Duke smiled.

He had been Captain of Cricket for one season and a keen rower.

“I am sure I would have remembered Your Royal Highness if we had ever met.  But as we both know Oxford is a large collection of men and one is inclined to keep with those in one's own College.”

“But his having been at Oxford,” remarked Valona, “explains why His Royal Highness speaks such excellent English.”

She gave Prince Ajax a little smile as she added,

“I have been struggling to learn your language before I arrived just in case no one could understand what I wanted or what I was trying to say.”

“It will give great pleasure to my people if you can speak to them in our language,” Prince Ajax enthused.  “And I must thank you again for coming to our rescue.”

He rose to his feet and walked to a porthole.

“We shall be coming into port in five minutes time and I have to tell you who will be waiting to greet you on your arrival.”

“That, of course, will be most helpful, Your Royal Highness,” replied the Duke.  “In fact Valona has prepared a little speech in your language if any of your people will be making one to her.”

“The Prime Minister will do that and he will have five or six Members of the Cabinet with him.”

He hesitated for a moment and then he added,

“I think it would be a great mistake to explain that the bride has been changed at the very last moment. Anything unusual happening, when the Russians learn about it, might prompt them to take immediate action.”

The Duke stiffened at the last words.

“So you do expect them to take action?”

“I have tried to take every precaution possible, but what we were really afraid of was that they would attempt to kill my father before he could reach the Cathedral for his marriage.  Once he was dead, their attention would then be turned to me and I would undoubtedly die as well.  As it is, I think the odds against my surviving are pretty short.”

“That is wrong,” exclaimed Valona unexpectedly.  “I know you would love to be the King of your country and make it great again.”

Prince Ajax looked at her in surprise and the Duke explained,

“The Princess herself is half Greek and possesses a unique gift of clairvoyance.  If she makes any prediction it invariably comes true – almost uncannily so.”

He looked at Valona as he spoke and knew that she was thinking of how she had assured Rose that she would eventually marry the Marquis and it had happened so very quickly that they could hardly believe it.

“What you have said is most reassuring,” continued Prince Ajax.  “Equally we must take no chances, so would you mind if my people waiting for you think you are the Duke's sister, which is who they are expecting?

“When we are married, you can use your own name and we will explain later that Rose was the second name you were baptised with.”

“Very well,” she agreed, “but it makes everything seem unreal and I can hardly believe it is all happening.”

As she was speaking, she realised that they would never understand what she had felt at Delos.

It was something she could tell no one and yet to her it had been completely and absolutely real.

Just as this strange and complicated plot was true even though it was hard to comprehend.

“As you can imagine,” the Prince was saying, “my people do not understand English titles and they have been speaking of Lady Rose as a Princess.  I therefore think it is easier, until you later become Queen if I refer to you as Princess Rose.  When the crown is on our heads, we can say you prefer to use your other name of Valona.”

Valona made a little gesture with her hands.

“I will leave it all in the hands of Your Royal Highness and I think we must just pray that our wedding goes off without any interruptions.”

“I have planned it all down to the smallest detail, including a large number of Union Jacks, which will not only decorate the route to the Cathedral, but will also be in the possession of children who will wave them as you pass by.”

Valona realised it would be a great mistake for the people as well as the Russians not to think she was entirely English.

The battleship was now slowing down and Prince Ajax said,

“Now we are moving into the port – are you both ready to come ashore?”

Valona gave a little cry.

“I must put on my hat!”

She hurried into the Captain's cabin to find that her clothes had already been packed by the Duke's valet and taken up on deck.

Her hat was lying waiting for her on the side of the bed and beside it were her handbag and her gloves.

She glanced at herself in the mirror.

As she did so, she thought it was a good thing that her mother did not realise how dangerous her position was going to be in Larissa.

Prince Ajax had not said so, but she was well aware that the Russians might try to shoot her so as to prevent the King from marrying her.

They would do it in some cunning way that would make it appear to have been an accident or indeed she might just disappear.

Whichever way it was, it would prevent the Royal marriage taking place and the patronage of Great Britain.

This was the one outcome that the Larissians were really afraid of.

She felt a little quiver of fear run through her.

‘I have to be brave and resolute,' she told herself.

Then almost as if she could see him, she felt that Apollo was smiling at her.

He was assuring her of her safety.

‘
You will be Queen of Larissa
,' he was telling her, just as she had told the Prince that he would be the King.

The Duke opened the cabin door.

“Are you ready, Valona?”

Valona picked up her bag and gloves.

“Yes, I am ready.”

The Duke took her hand in his, as she realised that Prince Ajax had gone ahead and they were alone.

“Don't forget you are now my sister,” he reminded her, “and let me say I am very proud of you.”

“I hope you will be able to say that again after the wedding is over.”

“At least your bridegroom is going to be a lot more presentable than we could ever have expected.  After all, having been educated at Oxford, he is most charming and, of course, a gentleman!”

Valona laughed as he meant her to.

“I thought we should get back to the old school tie and the Marquis will be very sorry he has missed meeting Prince Ajax.”