Love and Apollo (2 page)

As it was, the Queen had sent for Lady Rose with a very different proposition.

The political situation in the Balkans had been very unstable for some years.

It had now become even worse since the accession of Czar Alexander III to the throne of Russia.

He burned with indignation that Russia had not yet fulfilled her mission to dominate the Balkans and to seize control of the Dardanelles, which would give the Russians access to the Mediterranean.

Stubbornly and surreptitiously he pursued the same goals as the previous Czar and he was clearly determined to establish Russian-dominated Governments in Serbia and Greece.

The reports flowing into the British Foreign Office were particularly worrying.

It seemed that the Russians were secretly acting as
agents provocateurs,
stirring up endless trouble in the established regimes of the Balkans.  Undercover agents were posing as icon-sellers, as Russian Embassy officials paid crowds of people to stir up riots.

Every report sent back to England was worse than the last.

The climax of continuing horror was reached when Prince Alexander of Battenburg, the Ruler of Bulgaria, was abducted and forced at gunpoint to abdicate his throne.

There was only one country that Russia was afraid of and that was Great Britain and the Czar could not afford a war against Queen Victoria.

As soon as this was realised by the Queen and her advisers, she arranged marriages for the Kings and Princes of many Royal Principalities in the Balkans.

Several of her relatives were already sitting on foreign thrones and once the Union Jack was seen to be flying over a small country, the Russians quietened down or withdrew.

Her Majesty the Queen, however, was by now to all intents and purposes running short of supplies, because her remaining few relatives were either too young or already married.

When King Phidias of Larissa sent an Ambassador with a most urgent appeal to Her Majesty for help, she had thought she would have to refuse his request.

It was the Earl of Rosebery, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who suggested Lady Rose Combe.

The Queen had quite forgotten that the late Duke of Inchcombe was married to one of her distant cousins, who had been dead for over fifteen years.

The present Duke was surprised when the Queen sent for him for a private audience.

He was told firmly by Her Majesty that she wished to send his sister, Lady Rose, to Larissa.

“I will inform her, ma'am, what you suggest,” said the Duke. “At the same time I feel sure she will not wish to leave England.”

“Lady Rose must put her country first,” the Queen instructed.  “And as she has Royal blood in her veins, she will be aware of where her duty lies!”

The Duke considered that it would be a mistake to argue further with the Queen.

On his return home he was not surprised when his sister was horrified at the proposal and at first she insisted that she had no intention of obeying the Queen.

“Why,” she demanded hotly, “should I be sent to marry some obscure Balkan King who no one has ever heard of?”

“I made a few enquiries,” replied the Duke.  “He is in fact quite an important King, although unfortunately not very young.”

“What do you mean,
not very young
?” Lady Rose exploded.

“He is over fifty.”

“And they expect
me
at
my
age to marry a man of
that
age?”

“Larissa is an important country, although I did not realise that until just now, Rose.  It has vital access to the Mediterranean, which is, of course, what the Russians want and they are striving by every possible means to acquire.”

“Well they will not acquire it through me,” retorted Lady Rose stubbornly.

There was a pained silence, yet the Duke persisted,

“Now listen for a moment, Rose.  I know you are in love with Gerald and he with you, but there is not a chance in hell of your ever being able to be married.”

Lady Rose walked to the window and he knew that she was fighting against tears.

“It is
so
cruel,” she moaned, “wicked and cruel that Gerald should be so tied up to this woman and there is no escape.”

“I know that,” the Duke sympathised.

“From what I have been told,” his sister continued, “she might live for ever.  After all she is still quite young and there is nothing wrong with her body.  Only her mind is drastically affected.”

“I know, I know, it is terribly hard and everyone who knows Gerald is very sorry for him.  But what can we do?”

The Duke recognised without having to say it that a divorce was impossible.

The Marquis could not divorce his wife unless she was unfaithful to him and even then, it would need a special Bill to go through Parliament.

And that would inevitably take a long time and also would cause a great deal of talk and scandal while the case was being heard.

But there was no provision in the divorce laws for a man to be rid of his wife because she was mad or unable in any way to perform the duties of a wife.

Even if he raised the matter in the House of Lords, it was impossible that any good would come of it.

However cruel it might be, the Marquis was in fact married for life to a young woman who did not even know who he was, but who bore his name.

“If you stay here,” the Duke told her quietly, “and go on seeing Gerald as you do now, sooner or later people will notice it.  Servants talk and, although Gerald is known to be my friend, women who are jealous of your beauty will soon begin to think it strange he is with us so much.”

“But I must see him,
I must
,” Lady Rose insisted.

“That is the whole point, Rose, it is torture to you to know he is in London when we are in London, and in the country when we are in the country and not be able to see him.”

Lady Rose did not speak and after a moment the Duke went on,

“I honestly think, although you will not believe me at the moment, that it will be better for you to go away altogether.”

“I would rather
die
than marry any other man,” she screamed violently.

“As you cannot marry Gerald, does it really matter who you marry?  If it had to be an arranged marriage, it might as well be to a King as anyone else!”

Lady Rose walked backwards and forwards across the room before she could reply to him.

She knew in her heart that she was fighting a battle she could never win.

It was really completely impossible, although they did not admit it in words, for either of them to refuse what the Queen was asking.

It was in effect a Royal command.

Finally Lady Rose sank herself down on the sofa and moaned helplessly,

“Very well, I will accept Her Majesty's suggestion on the one condition that Gerald is appointed to escort me to Larissa.”

The Duke stared at her in astonishment.

“Do you think that wise, Rose?”

“I don't care if it is wise or not,” she answered.  “I want to be alone with Gerald before I finally leave him for ever.  As you know, someone of importance from the Palace will be sent to escort me and represent the Queen.  It is something Gerald has done several times in the past when other members of the Royal Family were pushed off to save the Balkans.”

The Duke knew that this was true.

“I will try to arrange it and as Her Majesty knows we are great friends, she might accept the idea and say that I have to go too.”

“But of course you must come with me, Arthur.  I am not going to be left with any tiresome old courtier who will be very suspicious of Gerald and me from the moment he steps on board.”

“Very well,” he muttered, “I will try to arrange it.”

He put out his hand and touched his sister's.

“I am so sorry, old girl, that this has happened.  I would give everything I possess if I could help you.”

“I suppose we shall somehow survive without each other, but it's not going to be easy.”

“I think you are being very brave, my dearest Rose, and I am very proud of you.”

Then in a different tone altogether, he added,

“Now that Sarah has died so unexpectedly, we shall have to find someone else to be your Lady-in-Waiting.”

Lady Rose realised that he was right.

The Duke had suggested to the Queen that his sister would like to take her aunt, Lady Sarah Warren, who was a widow, to accompany her to Larissa.

The Queen had agreed, so there was no difficulty about the idea, but sadly Lady Sarah had died unexpectedly from a heart attack.

“Who can I have?” she asked.  “It cannot be any of my own friends if Gerald is with us.”

“No of course not that would be disastrous.”

The Duke suddenly gave an exclamation.

“Who have you thought of, Arthur?”

“I have just remembered that at yesterday's funeral, there was another relation, Princess Louise of Piracus.”

Lady Rose thought for a minute.

“Yes, I believe she was a very distant cousin of our Mama.  I do recall her staying with us once in the country about six years ago.”

“She is now living in a Grace and Favour house at Hampton Court and she has her daughter with her who is, I gather, just eighteen.”

Lady Rose did not speak, so he continued,

“I feel that, as they are extremely hard up, I ought to do something about them.  The next time I have a party in the country I will ask them both of them to stay.”

“That will be very nice for them,” she pouted, “but
I
shall not be there.”

“I know, but I thought Valona, which is the girl's name, might be a good choice as your Lady-in-Waiting.”

Lady Rose stared at him.

“It's not a bad idea.  If she is living in a Grace and Favour house at Hampton Court, she is not likely to have heard any rumours about me and Gerald.”

“She is also very young and I should think has no knowledge at all of the Social world.  Certainly of nothing that might happen at Windsor.”

“I have always been told that Her Majesty is rather mean to her Royal relatives for whom she has no particular use.  But I am a bit surprised that she has not yet found a husband for Valona.”

The Duke laughed.

“I think if the truth were known, Her Majesty has forgotten about them.  I have never heard them mentioned when I have been at Windsor.  Princess Louise is in fact a distant relative also of the Queen and a quite unobtrusive woman who would not have made any claims on her.”

“Well, as we shall be doing her a kindness as well as making use of the girl, you had better suggest that she takes Sarah's place,” proposed Lady Rose.

“It seems a great deal more satisfactory than having anyone who would be suspicious the moment she saw you and Gerald together.”

“What do you mean?  We are very discreet,” Lady Rose riposted sharply.

“You may be able to control what you say, Rose, but you cannot control your eyes too.  Anyone at all observant and perhaps a little suspicious, would know by the way you look at each other that you are both in love.”

“A lot of good it's doing us,” she grated bitterly.  “Oh, Arthur, how
can
I leave him?  How could I possibly marry another?  And how do you think I can live in a far off country where I will never even see him?”

There was a note in her voice that made her sound very pitiful.

The Duke put his arm round his sister protectively.

“I know just what you are feeling, Rose, it is not a question of how you can live elsewhere without him, but how you can just remain here without causing an appalling scandal that would hurt him abominably and undoubtedly would upset the whole of our family.”

Lady Rose was silent for a moment before saying,

“You are right, of course, you are right, Arthur.  I shall have to go and, if things are worse than I think they will be, I can always drown myself in the Mediterranean!”

“You are not to talk like that,” he told her sharply.  “Perhaps by some amazing miracle something will happen that will make things better than they are at this moment.”

He was thinking that perhaps his sister would fall in love with someone else as he was certain that when she and the Marquis were apart for long enough, the agony would not be so intense.

They might even forget each other.

“When do I have to leave for this horrible hell of a place where I shall be utterly and completely miserable?” squawked Lady Rose.

“In ten days time and if you agree, I shall go and call on Princess Louise tomorrow and suggest that Valona accompanies you to Larissa.

“The girl's father was a Greek, so she will be able to speak the language.  I believe that, like all the Balkan countries, Larissa contains a great deal of Greek in its own language.”

“You had better arrange that there is someone to come with us,” added Lady Rose, “who can at least tell me how to say ‘good morning' or ‘good night.'  That is going to be difficult enough as I have never been any good at foreign languages.”

“Valona will be able to help you a great deal, Rose, and I really think we have made an excellent choice where she is concerned.”

As he left his sister he was only hoping there would be no difficulties and that Princess Louise would allow her daughter to travel to Larissa.

He could see no reason why she should object and it could not be very much fun for a young girl to be living at Hampton Court in one of the Queen's Grace and Favour houses.

Ancient diplomats occupied the houses or minor Royalty exiled from their own countries, who relied on the Queen of England to save them from starving to death.

The Duke drove to Windsor Castle the next day and asked for an audience with the Queen.

He told her that Lady Rose was deeply grateful to Her Majesty for her kindness and that she would consider it a great privilege to marry His Majesty King Phidias.