Royal Blood (18 page)

“He’s not?”

“Siegfried told me. He said that was why he hadn’t risen higher in Romanian government. He comes from a border area that has changed hands several times. He could be in the pay of another government.”

Darcy’s eyes lit up. “He certainly could be. Good thinking, old bean.”

I had to laugh.

“What?”

“I didn’t know you thought of me as ‘old bean.’ I’d hoped for something a little more romantic.”

He moved closer to me and slipped his arms around my waist. “I’ll reserve those words for the bedroom at some more opportune moment,” he said and then he kissed me. “Mmm, what deliciously cold lips. They need warming up.” The second kiss was not so gentle and left us both breathing hard. “I suppose I should be getting back to help Nick and Anton,” Darcy said, releasing me with reluctance from the embrace. “Any minute now their father is going to want to visit the field marshal’s bedside. I’ve no idea how we’re going to pull this off, and I just wish that I had something concrete to tell them about Pirin’s death. I can ask Siegfried about Dragomir, but again I can’t find out much more about him until the telephone service is restored.”

“And Siegfried will want to know why you are interested in Dragomir’s past,” I said. “He may be obnoxious but he’s not stupid. He wanted to go up to the field marshal’s room to check on him last night, and I had to dissuade him with my feminine wiles.”

Darcy burst out laughing. “I don’t think that feminine wiles work particularly well on Siegfried,” he said.

We started to walk back up the slope to the castle.

“Siegfried talked about marriage again last night,” I said.

I’d expected him to find this amusing. Instead he said, “Perhaps you should accept. You might not get a better offer. Princess Georgie, maybe Queen Georgie one day.”

“Don’t say that, even in jest,” I said. “You wouldn’t wish me married to Siegfried, would you?”

“I’m sure he’d let you keep a lover, since his own interests lie elsewhere.”

“He actually said that. I suppose it’s the way it’s done in royal circles, but it’s not for me.”

I felt Darcy’s grip tighten on my hand. “Georgie, you know I’m a rotten catch,” he said. “I have nothing to offer a woman. I don’t even have a nice little castle in Ireland any longer. I live by my wits and I can’t see how I’m ever going to support a wife. So maybe you should think more sensibly and forget about me.”

“I don’t want to forget about you,” I said shakily. “I don’t need a castle.”

“I can’t see you being happy in a little flat in Putney,” Darcy said. “And I don’t think your family would be too happy either. But anyway, I’m not ready to think of settling down yet. I have to make my mark in the world first, and you have to experience more of life.”

We walked the rest of the way in silence. Would I be happy in a little flat? I was thinking. Would I be able to fit into a world I didn’t know, living a life only just getting by, with no luxuries, and with a husband who couldn’t tell me about his career but who disappeared for long periods? I decided to put the future on hold for now.

Chapter 21

As we approached those formidable gates I looked up at the castle and a thought struck me. “Darcy, that man I saw climbing up the wall—the one who came into my bedroom. You don’t think he had anything to do with Pirin’s death, do you? You don’t think he was sent here with that mission?”

Darcy frowned. “I don’t see how any outsider could have administered the poison. As I said, death is usually almost instantaneous. And I discount your theory of vampires.” He glanced at me and saw my mouth open, about to speak. “That man bending over you . . . who knows, maybe one of Nicholas’s groomsmen took a fancy to you. Or more likely someone got the wrong room. It’s easy to do in a place like this.”

“I know,” I said, remembering with embarrassment. “I went to Siegfried’s door by mistake. His room is next to mine.”

Darcy laughed. “Well, that explains everything, doesn’t it? I’ll wager the young man was paying a nightly visit to Siegfried. No wonder he was shocked to see you instead.”

I considered this as we went back up the steps. It did seem a likely explanation and one that I liked better than anything supernatural. It didn’t get us any closer to solving who killed Field Marshal Pirin, but at least it made sense.

The door guards stepped forward smartly to open the castle doors for us. They saluted although their expressions betrayed that we were mad for trying to venture forth on a morning like this. In the entry hall we encountered Lady Middlesex and Miss Deer-Harte, dressed in their overcoats.

“Oh, there you are. We’ve been looking all over for you. Where have you two been?” Lady Middlesex demanded.

“Just for a quick hike over the pass,” Darcy said.

“Rubbish,” Lady Middlesex said. “Nobody could go far in this sort of snow.”

“We went for a little walk,” I corrected.

“Oh, so a walk is possible after all. These stupid people are telling us that the snow is too deep to go anywhere and they didn’t seem to understand when we asked them for snowshoes,” Lady Middlesex said. “Really these foreigners have no stamina at all.”

“It is deep, actually,” I agreed. “We only walked in the tracks the tires made.”

“Dashed annoying,” she muttered. “It seems that none of the drivers are prepared to drive us back over the pass yet. They say that it was bad on the way here and they’re not going to risk it again yet, with the promise of more snow. So it looks as if we’re still stuck. But at least we can be useful in your investigation into that man’s death. When do we have our first council of war?”

“I’m going to find Prince Nicholas this very minute,” Darcy said. “I’ll let you know later.” We left them and walked up the stairs to the main floor. “Those women are going to be trouble,” Darcy muttered to me. “Poking their noses in and saying the wrong thing at the wrong minute. Can’t you do something to distract them? Or better yet find a suitable dungeon and lock them in it?”

“Darcy.” I laughed.

“I’m sure a castle like this must have an oubliette,” he went on, chuckling now.

“You are terrible. And I don’t see what I can do to distract them. I don’t even know my own way around.”

“They’re going to ruin everything if they are left loose,” Darcy said. “For God’s sake try to keep an eye on them.”

“I will,” I said.

“Oh, and Georgie,” he said, reaching out his hand to me as I turned away. “Take care of yourself. Someone in this castle has already been killed.”

I considered that statement as I went slowly down the hall to my room. Someone in this castle was a ruthless killer. Not that the killing affected me in any way. It had to be of a political nature, carried out by someone who either wished to cause trouble between Balkan states or was a communist or anarchist. Maybe our own government suspected that trouble was likely and that was why they had sent Darcy—one never knew with him. But such a killer wouldn’t pose any threat to someone like me, who was only thirty-fourth in line to a distant throne. But I had been threatened in a different way, hadn’t I? The vampire bending over my bed. The strange man in Queenie’s room. I didn’t see how the two could be related. If vampires had wanted to kill Field Marshal Pirin, I imagined they would have done a far more impressive job of it—hurled him from the battlements or sent a great statue crashing onto his head, or even bitten his neck and turned him into one of them. Poisoning with cyanide was all too human a crime. . . .

I was startled from my thoughts by the figure with the raised arm until I realized it was just the suit of armor that had frightened Queenie. Really it was almost as if someone had arranged this castle to provide the maximum amount of shocks to visitors!

In my room I found Queenie, sitting on my bed with a cup of tea in one hand and a biscuit in the other. She didn’t even have the grace to jump up when I came in.

“Whatcher, miss,” she said, attempting feebly to brush the crumbs from the front of her uniform.

“Queenie, you really will have to learn how to address your mistress properly,” I said. “The correct thing to say is, ‘Hello, my lady’ or ‘Welcome back, my lady.’ Is that really too hard to learn?”

“I do try,” she said, making me wonder whether she was a secret bolshie and doing this deliberately to let me know that she was my equal. This then started a whole train of thought in my mind. How much did one really know about servants? She had just shown up on my doorstep and I had no way of knowing who she really was. While I didn’t think that anyone could pretend to be as stupid as she was, maybe the same circumstances were true for other servants in the castle. Maybe one of them had come here with the express purpose of killing Pirin.

“You can help me off with my coat and boots, Queenie,” I said.

“Bob’s yer—yes, me lady,” she said. Maybe there was hope after all.

“Oh, by the way,” she added as she took my coat, “there was a message came for you from the princess. She hoped you were feeling all right because she hadn’t seen you this morning and to remind you that you were supposed to be meeting the other bridal attendants for a dress fitting at ten thirty.”

I glanced at my watch. Ten forty-five. “Oh, golly,” I said. “I’d better get going then. Oh, and give me that dress you scorched. Maybe one of the dressmakers can fix it for me if she has a moment.”

I went back down the various staircases as fast as I dared because the steps were worn and smooth and the going was treacherous. In the great hallway at the bottom I encountered Lady Middlesex and Miss Deer-Harte, still wandering around in their coats.

“We thought we might follow your example and go for a little stroll,” Lady Middlesex said. “Since the snow was apparently not too deep for you.”

“It was lovely out there,” I said, trying to convey enthusiasm. “A walk is a good idea. Good fresh mountain air.” I didn’t add the word “freezing” to that sentence. At least I’d done what Darcy had asked and sent them out of the way for a while. I didn’t think even someone as hearty as Lady Middlesex could take that kind of cold for long, however.

At the doorway to the salon I heard the sound of girlish laughter and I paused, my mind racing back to that disconcerting moment when I had stumbled upon Matty the evening before. I had seen her with blood running down her chin and she had begged me not to tell anybody. She couldn’t help it, she had confessed. Was it too improbable to believe that she had been bitten by a vampire and had become one of them? Darcy had been so amused by my stories of vampires that I hadn’t even mentioned Matty to him. I suppose it did sound ridiculous to anyone who hadn’t experienced it personally. I would have thought it ridiculous myself if it hadn’t happened to me. My nightly visitation could be explained by a case of mixed-up rooms, but then a normal room-hopper would not need to climb up walls—let’s face it, would not be able to climb up walls. And where could an outsider have come from with the pass closed and no habitation nearer than that inn, and snow too deep to walk through? I am normally a sensible person, I told myself, but the things I had witnessed defied rational explanation.

I took a deep breath, opened the door and went in. Matty rose from the sofa near the fire and came to meet me. “My dear Georgie,” she said. “Are you well? I was worried when nobody had seen you this morning.”

She looked and sounded completely normal, but she was wearing a scarf around her neck that would hide any bite marks.

“I’m quite well, thank you,” I said. “Darcy O’Mara and I went for a little walk.”

“Nicky’s groomsman? Ah, so that’s where your interests lie. Poor Siegfried, he’ll be devastated.”

That’s when I remembered that I had actually not discouraged Siegfried the night before. Oh, no, Siegfried didn’t really think I had changed my mind, did he?

“Of course, you’re lucky,” she said. “Nobody would mind whom you married. It wouldn’t make any difference to world peace.”

“My sister-in-law is keen for me to make the right match, and I think the queen expects me to cement ties with the right family,” I said.

“It’s such a bore being royal, isn’t it?” She slipped her arm through mine and led me over to the other young women at the fire. “I’m really becoming convinced that communism is a good idea. Or maybe America has it right—choose a new leader every four years, from among the people.”

“America maybe,” I said, “but look at the mess in Russia. Communism doesn’t seem to have made life for the ordinary people better there.”

“Who cares, really.” Matty gave one of her slightly fake laughs. “So no more talk of politics or any other boring subject. We are all going to be happy and enjoy my wedding. I could have killed that awful man for spoiling the evening last night.”

“I don’t think he intended to have a heart attack,” I said cautiously.

“Maybe not, but I’m still angry with Nicky for inviting him. This morning Siegfried was muttering about trying to send one of the cars to Bucharest for the royal physician and Mama and Papa were distressed to hear that one of our guests had become sick.”

“I don’t think it was Prince Nicholas’s choice to bring Pirin along with him,” I said. “He’s a powerful man in that country. I rather suspect he does what he wants.”

“Well, I certainly didn’t invite him to my wedding,” she said. “He invited himself. I rather wish he’d hurry up and die and then we could all stop worrying about him. It’s like a cloud of gloom hanging over us, knowing he’s lying up there.”

I didn’t like to say that her wish had been granted. She turned to the other girls and obviously repeated what she had said in German, as it produced a titter of nervous laughter. I observed her critically. She was so different from the needy, unconfident girl I had known at school. I was almost prepared to believe she wasn’t the same person. I’d already been fooled by one imposter this year, so surely two was a little much. And her parents obviously recognized her as their daughter, so she had to be Matty, but she had certainly grown up in a hurry. The couturiere approached, clapping her hands as if she were directing a flock of chickens.

“Highnesses, we have no time to waste. So much work to be done. Now, who is ready to volunteer to be first today?”

I was anxious to get out of there and find out what was happening with Nicholas and Darcy. I was also uneasy in Matty’s presence. “I will, if you like,” I said.

The dress was fitted with nods of satisfaction. “This young lady has no curves, like a boy,” our couturiere said to her assistant in French. “On her the dress will look right.” I wasn’t so sure that having no curves and looking like a boy was a compliment but I took it for one, especially as she had very little to do in the way of pinning and altering. When I glanced at myself in those walls of mirrors a tall, elegant creation stared back at me. I noticed that the room was suddenly quiet and saw that the other girls had stopped talking and were now watching me.

“Georgie, I did not think that you would grow up to be so chic,” Matty said. She came to stand beside me and put her arm around my waist as we stared at ourselves in the mirrors. “Wouldn’t Mademoiselle Amelie and the other teachers be surprised if they saw us now. What a shame we are wasted in a remote castle in Romania. We should be on the French Riviera, or in Hollywood, flirting with all the men-about-town, don’t you think?”