The moonlight invested the promontory with the Palace above it and the sea shimmering away to the horizon with an enchantment that was like music that lifted the heart.
There was the scent of mimosa and night-scented stock, while the stars seemed to gleam, Craig thought, like the Countess’s eyes.
He knew that their beauty was like the feelings within his heart, which he still questioned because they were so improbable and unpredictable.
But he knew irrefutably that what he felt was love and, because it was not in the least like anything he had felt before, his instinct recognised it and it was something he could not deny.
‘She is beautiful – desirable as a woman and that is what I feel about her,’ he tried to tell himself, but he knew he lied.
The feelings surging within him were as intimate and genuine as the power he knew he could call on in an emergency and which had guided him ever since he had first been aware of it long ago in India.
He knew it was the same power that Randall Sare believed in and, almost without being aware of it, he sent out his thoughts and vibrations to the man he now knew was a prisoner on one of the yachts he could see below him.
As he had said to the Countess, the transference of thought was something in which every Indian believed and which they were taught by their Gurus.
He was aware now that he knew where Sare was that he could reach him, sustain him, give him hope and by a miracle be able to rescue him.
‘Help me,’ he pleaded. ‘You have been in this game longer than I have and you must tell me what to do.’
He knew as he spoke the words in his mind and sent them speeding out into the night that they came from the life force within him and that he would surely receive some response.
Then, as he waited, almost as if there was a voice from Heaven, he knew the answer. It was there in his mind as if somebody was telling him what he should do and all that remained was to carry out his instructions.
Just for a moment Craig felt as if the very air around him was filled with invisible wings and that, while he could not see or hear them, every instinct in his body was acutely aware of them.
Then, as he tried to grasp at what he was feeling, they were gone, but the plan was still there and that was all that mattered.
He had had the same experience before when he had been in a tight corner and on one occasion on the very edge of destruction, but not so vividly nor so completely as now in reaching Randall Sare who had responded to him.
He stood on the terrace for a long time thinking until, aware his body was feeling the chill of the night, he went back into the over-heated gaming room.
He saw, as he entered, that the table at which the Countess and Lord Neasdon had been sitting was now empty and, as his anxiety for her returned, he felt his fists clench at the thought that Neasdon might be forcing himself upon her against her will.
He found it impossible to stay any longer in the Casino and moved without hurrying down the room, stopping at table after table so that he could be seen speaking to a man here, a lovely lady there.
Then finally and unobtrusively he faded away without anybody being particularly aware of it.
He walked across the Square where fairy lights were twinkling and up the steps through the brilliantly lit door of the Hotel de Paris.
He went up to his own floor, finding it quiet and with nobody in sight.
He hoped therefore that the Countess had not allowed Lord Neasdon to escort her to the door of her suite, in which case he would have been aware that there was no party taking place on that floor.
Craig went into his own rooms and because his valet was waiting for him, undressed as he always did with his help.
Then when he was wearing a long dark robe, he settled himself in a comfortable chair with the latest edition of The Menton and Monte Carlo News.
This was a newspaper which was first published in 1897. From a modest four pages it had developed into twenty-eight or more and was now the main source of information on the Social life, sport and entertainment of the Principality.
It also listed the new arrivals at the hotels or villas at which they were staying.
As he turned over the pages, his valet piped up,
“I see, sir, there’s a lot more important guests arrived today.”
Craig made a sound of annoyance.
“There are too many people here already,” he said, “and I think we might be more comfortable and certainly quieter aboard The Mermaid.”
The valet looked depressed and Craig was aware that both the men he had brought with him preferred it when their master was ashore, finding the unpredictability of the sea something that inevitably interfered with their duties.
Then, as the valet was tidying the room, he added,
“Pack my clothes first thing tomorrow morning in case I decide to run down the coast for a day or so. If I change my mind they can always be unpacked.”
“Very good, sir,” the valet replied in a voice that conveyed no enthusiasm at the idea.
Craig waited until he was alone, then putting down the newspaper he rose and locked the door of his bedroom which led into the passage and opened the door into his sitting room.
He passed through it and into the empty room on the other side.
Switching on only one light, he crossed to the door which communicated with the Countess’s suite.
As he put out his hand to open the door he had unlocked previously, he knew that he was holding his breath in case he should hear Lord Neasdon’s voice, then mocked himself.
In the past he had not only never felt jealous about a woman, but he had laughed at the men who suffered in that way.
Yet he knew now that if he heard Neasdon with the Countess he would, whatever the consequences, throw him violently out of her room and save her, as he knew she wished to be saved.
As the door opened, there was only silence. Then with a leap of his heart he saw something white beneath lying the door.
He bent down and picked up the piece of paper and saw written in a handwriting that he instinctively knew expressed her personality,
‘Please, I must speak to you.’
As he read the words, he felt not only relief but a feeling of indescribable happiness that she wanted him and needed him.
Quickly and skilfully he managed with the instrument he had concealed in the pocket of his robe to open the door, and, as he heard the lock click into place, he knocked very gently.
Instantly, so that he knew she must have been waiting for him, she pulled it open.
There was only one light in her room and, silhouetted against it, she seemed to Craig like a vision that had always been in his imagination and, although he had not been aware of it, in a special shrine in his heart.
She was wearing a white negligee that flowed softly around her and her hair was loose, falling pale silver so that it seemed to be part of the moonlight over her shoulders and down her back almost to her waist.
For a moment they just stood staring at each other as if they had met across Eternity and found each other after a very long time.
Then – and afterwards, Craig could never remember how it happened – either she or he moved, his arms were round her and her face was hidden against his shoulder.
He could feel she was trembling, but at the same time knew it was the most perfect thing that had ever happened to him.
This was what he had sought, but never found.
There was no need for words, for their closeness told them that all they needed was to be together.
Then the Countess said in a whisper that was hardly audible,
“Help me – please – help me – I don’t know – what to do – and I am so desperately afraid!”
As she spoke he could feel the fear surging through her and her whole body was trembling almost uncontrollably.
He tightened his arms, knowing instinctively that the strength of them was what she needed and then he said very quietly,
&nb
sp; “I am here and there is no need for you to be frightened.”
He heard the Countess draw in her breath, and he went on,
“I think you would be happier and more sure that no one could hear what you have to tell me if you come into my sitting room.”
She raised her head then and looked towards the outer door and he thought he had never seen such terror in any woman’s eyes and that, if it cost him his life, he would somehow save her as she had begged him to do.
She made no reply and he pulled her gently through the door he had just opened, closing it behind them.
He drew her across the empty room and into his sitting room where there were shaded lights, flowers and his personal effects scattered around, which made it somehow seem a haven of security.
He did not take his arm from her, but drew her towards a comfortable sofa. Then before he sat down he looked down at her, thinking how lovely she was and at the same time with her hair falling over her shoulders she looked very young, little more than a girl.
She looked up at him and he felt she was questioning whether she was right to be where she was and close to him, but knew it was something she could not help.
“I told you to trust me,” he said very gently, “and now there is a very good reason why you should do so.”
He did not wait for her to ask what it was, but added,
“I love you! I was aware of it just now when I saw what was happening in the Casino and because I love you I swear I will save you and you shall never again be as frightened as you are now.”
She made an inarticulate little sound and her eyes filled with tears.
Slowly Craig bent his head and very gently his lips found hers.
He kissed her because he could not help himself.
At the same time, while he loved her, he did not desire her passionately, but somehow spiritually because she was part of the vibrations he had felt outside the Casino and the power he had evoked within himself on her behalf as well as from Randall Sare.
Then, as he felt her lips quiver beneath his, he found they were innocent, inexperienced and very soft.
His kiss became more insistent, more demanding, and he pulled her still closer to him.
He was aware, as he did so, that this kiss was different from any other he had ever given or received in the past.
He could not explain it, he only knew that she had walked into his heart and now she was a part of him, for all time.
Only when he felt they were at one with the stars and the moon, and at the same time enveloped by a glory that was not of this world, did he raise his head and she said in a whisper he could hardly hear,
“I love – you! I did not – know I – loved you – and yet I have thought – about – you ever since we – first met.”
“You thought of me – in what way?” Craig asked in a voice that was very deep.
“I knew you were the – only person I could trust when – everything else was – horrifying and – evil.”
“And now you know that what you felt was love?”
“I love you – I love – you – and I ought not to bring you into this – ghastly situation which is – very dangerous – but there is no one – else I can turn to.”
“You must tell me all about it, my darling,” Craig said, “but first I must kiss you again and, because we love each other, we will find a solution to your problem. I know it!”
He kissed her until he was aware that she had forgotten her fear and what she was feeling was something very different.
As her body quivered against his, he knew it was from the rapture of love and that the sensations he gave her were ones she had never experienced before.
Then, as he drew her down onto the sofa, he asked her in a voice that was strangely unsteady,
“There is one thing I must know before anything else – are you really married?”
“No – no – it was just – part of the – disguise.”
His relief made him feel as if the whole room was suddenly lit with a celestial light and he said as if he must make certain of the truth,
“And you have never been kissed?”
“Only – by you.”
“My darling, I was sure of it when I touched your lips and now I understand why, if no man has possessed you, you could not allow Neasdon to touch you.”
The Countess gave a little cry.
“You – saved me – tonight. He was too – afraid to come upstairs when you said there was a – party on this floor, but they will be so angry – because they told me – ”
She stopped and, as if she was afraid to say any more, she hid her face against Craig’s shoulder.
“They told you what?” he asked, “and I know now who you are talking about – the Russians!”
The shudder that ran through her confirmed his words and she said after a moment,
“If I do not – allow Lord Neasdon to – become my – lover – they have said that they will take Papa away to Russia – and I shall never – see him again.”
Craig stiffened.
Then he said,
“Your father, Aloya? You cannot be Randall Sare’s daughter!”
As he spoke, he thought he had been very obtuse not to have realised this before.
Aloya raised her head.
“You – know Papa?”
“Of course I know him, although I have only just learnt that the reason for his disappearance is that the Russians have taken him aboard the Baron’s yacht.”
She turned to him questioningly.
Then she asked,
“H-how can you – know this? How can you be – aware of it – when it is not known to – anybody else in Monte Carlo?”
Craig’s arms tightened around her as he said,
“There are a lot of explanations to be made, but first I want to hear about everything that has happened to you. Then I will explain why I am here.”
“It is a reason that – concerns Papa?”
“Yes.”
She gave a little cry.
“Now I know why I was so sure that – you would help me. I felt sure there was something about you that was different from anyone – else!”
Her eyes were shining as she added,
“Papa has always told me to trust in my intuition and he was right.”
“Of course he was right and that is why I felt that you were not what you pretended to be.”
She gave a little sigh and he said,
“It is hard to express how glad I am that you are not the Countess Aloya Zladamir.”
“It was the name they gave me,” Aloya said, “because it sounded impressive and they thought that Lord Neasdon would find it easier to spend his time with a married woman than with a young girl, because of course as a girl I should have a proper chaperone.”
“I understand their reasoning, although I suppose it was the Baron who thought out the somewhat complicated plot.”
“Y-yes – the – Baron! He is – wicked – evil! If Satan is a man – then he is the Baron!” Aloya replied passionately.
“Were you with your father when he was captured by them?”
As if she knew she must tell him the whole story Aloya put her head on Craig’s shoulder.
At the same time she moved a little closer to him and his arms tightened around her.
Because he could not help himself, he kissed her forehead.
Then he said,
“Start from the beginning. I had no idea, and nor has anybody in England, that Randall Sare is a married man.”
“He kept it a secret because he thought that those who trusted him would find it hard to continue to do so if he had a wife who was what they thought of as a Russian.”
Craig asked her to explain and she continued,
“Mama is actually Georgian, and my grandfather, Prince Volvershi, was very powerful in Georgia before it was annexed by the Russians.”
Craig knew only too well how this had happened, but he did not interrupt and A
loya went on,
“Mama fell in love with Papa when he came to Georgia, intending to move from there into Afghanistan, to find out what was being planned for rousing the tribesmen against the British.”
She smiled as she said,
“He loved Mama the moment he saw her and they knew that nobody else would ever be of any importance to either of them.”
“That is how I feel about you.”
“And it is the way I love you,” Aloya answered. “I have always prayed that I would find a man to whom I could belong and Mama knew as soon as she saw Papa that he had always been in her dreams.”
Craig kissed her forehead again, but he knew he must hear the whole story and Aloya carried on,
“In spite of my grandfather’s opposition, they were married very quietly and secretly because, as Papa explained, the Foreign Office in England and those who trusted him in India would not understand that the nationality of his wife would not interfere with his work for them.”
She made a little gesture with her hands before she said,
“No one who comes from Georgia thinks of themselves as Russian, although we dare not say so if they are listening.”
“I know that.”
“Because Mama had no wish to spoil Papa’s life, which he loved and in which he was so useful to those with whom he worked, she never interfered.”
She paused before she went on,
“After I was born at home in Georgia, we joined him whenever it was possible, sometimes in strange places on the plains of India, sometimes in the foothills of the Himalayas or in dark bungalows where we would go for days, sometimes weeks, without seeing anybody.”
Craig understood now where Randall Sari had been many of the times when he had disappeared and no one had any news of him.
“Then Papa would have another assignment,” Aloya said, “or a message from those in authority and usually he would send us home, or we would go to one of the big towns like Bombay or Calcutta and live there very quietly so that nobody paid any attention to us or had any idea that we even existed.”
“A very strange life!” Craig remarked.
“Fortunately we had plenty of money and Papa was insistent that I should be well educated and have the very best teachers available. When he was at home, he taught me his own beliefs and that is the only reason why I have not been more frantic about him than I am at the moment – but time is running out.”
Mission to Monte Carlo Page 10