The Breadth of Heaven (7 page)

And then a voice began to address them over the loudspeaker.

“Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes’ time we shall be landing in Genoa. Please fasten your seatbelts. No smoking will be allowed aboard the aircraft until after we have landed.”

And monotonously, the message was repeated in other languages.
“
Mesdames, messieurs
...” “
Signore, signori
...”
They fastened their safety-belts, and through the windows they began to see the lights of Genoa. On one side Kathy caught a glimpse of
shining
water, and knew that it was the Mediterranean. She wondered how long they would have to wait, and whether they would be asked to leave the aircraft. That wouldn’t be very good for the children.

The plane shuddered to a standstill, and in the sudden silence as the engines were cut only one or two quiet voices could be heard speaking.

And then a stewardess—the same stewardess who had spoken to Kathy earlier—came up to them. She smiled at the Princess deferentially.

“Madame, if you would like to leave the aircraft
...
there is a gentleman
...”

“I will see no one.”

Natalia’s eyes were wide, her face suddenly ashen, and she was so plainly terrified that Kathy felt embarrassed.

“Her Highness does not—” she began, and then she recognized the man who was just entering the plane through a door at the other end of the long cabin. And at the same moment Natalia recognized him also, and Kathy heard her gasp.

“
Leonid
!”
she whispered, and slowly the colour flooded back into her face, until it was deeply, rosily red.

Kathy fumbled with her safety-belt, but she couldn’t undo it. Her fingers seemed numb, and deftly the stewardess helped her with it before stepping back as the Prince walked down the gangway towards them.

“Leonid,
I ...”
Natalia seemed practically incapable of speech. Instinctively, Kathy stood up, and she felt the Prince’s eyes dwelling on her coolly for a moment. Then he bowed, almost imperceptibly, to his sister-in-law.

“It is so fortunate
,
petite
,
that I was able to stop your plane. There is something that I feel you should know. I was sure you would not wish to continue on your way once you had heard my news. A small matter, but it could delay you for a day or two
...”

He was speaking English, probably for the benefit of the stewardess, and one or two of the passengers looked round at him in curiosity. Everybody naturally wondered what was going on, and one or two people called for a stewardess to come and explain the situation. Leonid bent closer to his sister-in-law, and said something softly in a language which Kathy was beginning to recognize as Tirhanian. Natalia swallowed, but her colour was already beginning to return to normal, and she clutched at his hand and spoke rapidly in the same language. He answered in what seemed a decidedly soothing tone, then he straightened and looked at Kathy.

“Her Serene Highness and her children are leaving the aircraft,” he said, and his voice was cold and detached. “They will be spending the night at a villa a few miles from Genoa. No doubt you will be accompanying them.”

He was angry with her. In fact, he was furious. Kathy felt herself swallowing nervously, just as her employer had done. Quietly, she said: “Yes, Your Highness.”

Two stewardesses helped to remove their light luggage from the rack, and meekly Natalia stood up while the Prince placed her coat about her shoulders. Nina was crying again, and Kathy picked her up, then held out her free hand to Joachim, who obligingly grasped at it this time without the smallest hesitation.

All the formalities of landing were, of course, got through with the maximum amount of speed, and outside the airport’s main entrance a long white Jaguar was awaiting them. As Kathy relaxed on the rear seat with Nina on her lap, she realized for the first time that her head was aching, and she was grateful for the darkness inside the car, and for the fact that Leonid was sitting in the front beside the chauffeur, with his back to her. But she could just see the hard, angry outlines of his profile, fitfully illumined by the brilliant Italian street lighting, and it seemed to her that even the set of his shoulders expressed icy displeasure. She looked away from him, and out through the window at the tall white blocks of flats and the brightly lit cafes, and wondered how long she would be in Italy—how long, in fact, she would remain in Natalia’s employment. Leonid was certainly her real employer, and Leonid had quite obviously made up his mind that however much she might please his sister-in-law, she was not a fit companion for a young woman who, as he had once said, required to be ‘protected at all times’, a childlike young woman who was, in his opinion, quite incapable of looking after herself. A young woman who, above all, was his own near relative—his responsibility.

So far, he had explained nothing—or at least he had explained nothing to Kathy—but quite obviously someone had told him about the Princess’s flight from Paris, had managed to reach him, and stop him, before he had got too far on his way to take any personal action. And then he had interrupted his own journey so that he could have Natalia’s plane brought down in Genoa.

Idly, Kathy wondered where they were going now, but she was really too tired, and too bewildered, to feel any very great interest. It was almost impossible to believe that only a little over twenty-four hours earlier she had simply been a receptionist at Ransome’s Hotel in London. Since then so many things had happened to her that her memory was beginning to play tricks on her, and the jumble of impressions which filled her mind was so confused that she found it almost impossible to sort it out. Had she really flown from London to Paris and from Paris to Genoa? Had she really acquired a fantastic new Parisian wardrobe ... a wardrobe which was at this moment lying in one of the most luxurious hotels in the French capital, waiting to be sent on to her? She remembered the midnight-blue evening dress, and wondered whether she would ever see it again. Not that it worried her very much, for the clothes she already possessed were really quite adequate for the sort of life she normally led, and would probably be leading again in a few days’ time, and as she didn’t feel she had any right whatsoever to the enormous salary cheque she had received she didn’t feel she had any right to keep the clothes either.

It had all been a strange, vivid dream—a rather confused dream—but soon it would be over, and she would be back in London, looking for another job. She didn’t suppose she would ever regret what had happened, for after all it had been a marvellous experience, or she supposed it had. But she did hope that it would all be over quickly, and that she would be able to leave for home in the morning.

For about ten minutes the car moved along broad, brightly-lit streets, and across handsome squares, and she supposed that they were travelling through the city of Genoa. Although it was now nearly midnight the streets were still very busy and packed with buses and gleaming Italian cars, but after a time the traffic thinned a little, the noise and confusion grew less, and glancing to her right Kathy saw that they were travelling along by the very edge of the Mediterranean. It was much warmer here in Italy than it had been in Paris, and the sky was clear and star-studded. A slender young moon hung over the harbour, and a ship that looked like a cruising liner lay at anchor a little way out, swimming in the reflection of its own myriad lights. Even above the roar of the car’s engine it was possible to hear the heavy sighing of the waves on the unseen beach, and Kathy felt suddenly, strangely soothed. It was so peaceful, leaning back against the deliciously comfortable upholstery of the car, watching the faintly gleaming sea go by. Perhaps everything would be all right after all
...

She was almost asleep when the car suddenly turned off the road, and as she awoke with a start she realized that they were passing between tall iron gates. Beyond the gates lay a drive, a winding, narrow drive that was bordered by a dense profusion of unfamiliar trees and shrubs, and which climbed steadily for about a quarter of a mile before finally coming to an end in front of a house, a house which was long, and low, and rather Moorish-looking, and which was a blaze of golden light. A flight of steps led from the gravel sweep in front of the house to a doorway which was set rather high up in the wall,
and at the foot of these steps the car came to rest.

Leonid got out. Framed in the doorway at the top of the steps was an elderly woman, and with hands outstretched he walked quickly up to meet her. She was certainly well over seventy, and she leant rather heavily on a thin ebony cane, but nevertheless as the Prince reached her she sank down in a skilfully executed, old-fashioned curtsy, and it was only when he had helped her up and hugged her with surprising enthusiasm that she became less formal, and kissed him on both cheeks.

By this time the chauffeur had opened the rear doors of the car, and Leonid came down to help his sister-in-law alight. She had hardly spoken a word during the journey from the airport, and she looked white and tired. He took her arm and helped her up the steps, and at the top the older woman received them. They all vanished into the house, and Kathy supposed that she and the children had better follow their example. They seemed to have forgotten about the children, both of whom were fast asleep in the back of the car. She lifted Nina out, and the chauffeur, who was middle-aged and kindly, took Joachim. Together they climbed the steps, and at the top Kathy stood still. But immediately a feminine voice uttered an exclamation, then addressed her in the strange tongue which was probably Tirhanian. It was the old lady whom the Prince had hugged, and as Kathy looked at her uncomprehendingly she made a little, clucking sound, and tugged at an old-fashioned bell-rope which hung beside the door.

“But of course, you are English! An English governess, yes? I am sorry, my dear, at first I did not realize
... But one has only to look at you! Come in, come in, and bring the poor little ones. To think I had forgotten them!”

Kathy stepped over the threshold into the warmth and brightness of a large square hall. The floor was of white marble, strewn with colourful rugs, and there was a lot of heavy, ornate furniture about, giving the place rather the look of a museum. Or so it seemed to Kathy, as she stood just inside the doorway, almost swaying on her feet
...
and still holding the slumbrous Nina.

From somewhere at the back of the hall a small, neat maid appeared, and the old lady gestured towards Kathy and the children and said something rapidly in Italian. In English, she added: “Rosa will show you where the children are to sleep. And then, when you have put them to bed, she will show you your own room.”

As Kathy looked faintly bewildered the old lady added: “The Princess has already been taken to her apartments. If you should wish to speak with her, Rosa will show you where she is.”

It seemed utterly pointless to protest that she was not the children’s governess—in any case, as Natalia and Leonid had abandoned them to her care, that seemed to be precisely what she was ... for the time being, at any rate. And somebody had to look after them.

So she thanked the old lady, who said something in Italian to the chauffeur who was still carrying Joachim, and together they followed the maid along endless corridors—there was no staircase, and almost every room in the villa seemed to be on the one floor—until they reached a long, white-walled room which had obviously been fitted up as a children’s night-nursery. It contained three narrow white beds, two of which had been made up and turned down for the night, and the tall windows were guarded by white wooden shutters. A deep, soft ice-blue carpet covered every inch of floor space, and there were little white basket-work chairs, and a bookcase full of gaily-bound children’s books.

The chauffeur gently deposited the sleepy Joachim on one of the beds, and turned to beam at Kathy.

“
Buona notte, signorina
.”
Then he sketched a salute, and was gone.

The maid went round the room testing radiators, in an attempt to make sure that the right amount of heat was being generated, but she need hardly have bothered, for the room was almost oppressively warm, and in fact Kathy felt that she would have liked to throw a window open.

“The Princess
...”
she said. “She is
...
?
”

“At the end of the corridor,
signorina.
Ring, please, when you are ready, and I will come and show you. I will show you your own room also, but you will wish to attend to the small ones first, no?” Her English was surprisingly good.

A little wearily, Kathy agreed that she would ‘attend to the small ones first,’ and that when she was ready she would ring. The maid left the room, and Kathy sank down on one of the children’s beds and gave herself a little shake. She was completely exhausted, and her head ached more than ever now, but she knew that she had to pull herself together, for there was no one else to look after the children, or at least, no one who seemed prepared to look after them. With as much firmness as she could muster, she stifled a slight feeling of resentment which had begun to assail her. All this was a wonderful, fantastic experience, and whatever happened she should be grateful to Leonid and the Princess for having given it to her.