The Duke was aware that Solita was not only perfectly capable of handling Jupiter, but that she was an exceptionally good rider.
It was something he had not expected when he had first seen her.
Then he remembered, as Willy had, that her father had been an outstanding horseman and so it was what he might have expected.
Because she had been living in Italy, he had somehow connected her more with Italian interests and not those that were peculiarly English.
Then she took the high jumps as well as he and Willy could do and she also raced with them across the fields and there was little to choose between the speed of the three horses.
He told himself that Solita was very different to most women he knew.
Many of those with whom he had engaged himself recently rode well and a number of them hunted, but there was something definitely different about the way Solita rode.
It told him that she had an affinity with her horse that was rare.
He saw that she talked to her horse.
She bent forward after they had jumped a high fence to tell Jupiter how well he had done.
By the time they rode back to The Castle, Willy was paying Solita expansive compliments and she was no longer so pale.
Her cheeks were flushed from the exercise.
The Duke knew from the way her eyes were shining and the happiness in her smile that there was another reason besides riding for her elation.
He thought it extraordinarily touching in a girl of her age.
She should be thinking of her beauty and the Social world, in which she would undoubtedly shine, instead of minding so intensely about what was happening in India.
When they returned to The Castle it was still early.
They breakfasted alone, although the gentlemen were expected downstairs by nine o’clock.
Before they had finished, the Duke was aware that Solita was looking at him pleadingly.
“You will find the newspapers in the morning room,” he said to Willy. “I have something to say to Solita in my study and I will join you later.”
“Very well,” Willy replied, “but remember I want to know what your plans are for today. If it is a question of being paired off with one of your guests, my choice is Solita!”
“I will think about it,” the Duke replied enigmatically.
He walked towards the study with Solita at his side.
He closed the door of the study behind them, then as if she could wait no longer, Solita asked,
“It really was all right – and you don’t think that she – hypnotised you while you were – asleep?”
She spoke in a low voice as if she was afraid of being overheard.
The Duke walked to the fireplace before he replied,
“You were quite right, Solita, she tried, but she failed!”
Solita gave a little cry of relief.
“I was afraid, terribly afraid,” she exclaimed, “and I prayed that you would believe me.”
“I did believe you. You must forgive me for seeming incredulous, but it was something I did not expect – in England!”
He saw the expression on Solita’s face and said,
“Don’t rub it in! I realise I was wrong to trust a Russian and I promise you it is something that will never happen again!”
He paused and then he said,
“At the same time we have to be very careful, you and I.”
She looked up at him in surprise and he explained,
“Now we know, thanks to you, that the Princess and her brother are spying on behalf of the Russian Secret Service you realise that not only my life but also yours is in danger?”
Solita looked at him in surprise.
Then she said,
“I am not important – but you are!”
“We are both important to ourselves and to each other,” the Duke replied, “and you are intelligent enough to know that if they had any idea we had discovered their secret, we may both of us be quietly eliminated.”
Solita would have given a little cry of fear, but she stifled it with her hand on her lips.
“You must be very very – careful,” she cautioned.
“And so must you,” the Duke answered. “That is why, Solita, you have to act as you have never acted before until the Princess and Prince Ivan leave The Castle, as we will do.”
Solita raised her eyebrows.
“As we will do?” she repeated.
“I have the idea and it has only just come to me,” the Duke said quickly, “that before you start to enjoy the London Season with my grandmother, you are begging me – and I have agreed, to take you to India to visit your father’s grave!”
Chapter Five
Solita’s face, the Duke thought, was radiant.
He looked at her for a long moment before he exclaimed,
“For God’s sake be careful! If you look as you do now, it would make anyone suspicious that you had been given the keys to Heaven!”
“That is exactly what you have given me,” Solita replied, “and the idea of going to India is the most thrilling thing that has ever happened!”
“We shall have to plan it very carefully. In the meantime, today is Saturday and the Russians will not think of leaving until Monday at the earliest.”
Solita looked worried.
“S-suppose she – tries again – tonight?” she suggested hesitatingly.
“I have already thought of that,” the Duke replied. “Leave everything to me, but be prepared if the worst comes to the worst, to leave without any warning.”
Solita looked at him in a bewildered fashion and he added quickly,
“It is always a great mistake to do things in too much of a hurry.”
“I know that,” Solita replied, “at the same time – ”
The Duke put his fingers to his lips.
“Remember you saved me by eavesdropping. If you can do it, other people can do the same.”
“Yes – yes – of course,” Solita agreed .
At the same time she felt as if the Russians were encroaching on them and lurking behind every curtain and piece of furniture.
The Duke smiled at her and said,
“Now we start, both of us, showing our intelligence by concealing it!”
Solita gave a nervous little laugh.
“The more we do and the less we say the better and thank you, Solita, for saving my life as well as many other people’s.”
As he spoke, he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it.
She drew in her breath because she was so surprised, for at the touch of his lips she felt a strange sensation she had never felt before.
“Now that is settled,” the Duke arrirmed in a different tone of voice, “and we will go and tell Willy our plans for today.”
He opened the door as he spoke and they walked side by side down the passage to the morning room, where Willy was sitting reading The Times.
“Have you finished?” he asked as they walked in. “Several of your guests, Hugo, have come down to breakfast, if you want to see them.”
“For the moment I want to talk to you,” the Duke said, “and plan how we shall spend the day.”
As the two men sat discussing the programme, Solita was aware that the Duke was making it very difficult for the Princess or any other woman to have a tête-à-tête with him.
With Willy’s help they planned a picnic lunch at the famous folly which had been erected by one of his ancestors.
Then a visit to the hothouses, which Solita learnt for the first time were famous for their special orchids.
Then, if there was time, those who were not too tired would ride late in the afternoon over the Duke’s private Racecourse .
“Please may I do that too?” Solita asked, speaking for the first time.
“Of course, if you want to,” the Duke replied, “but I think you should have a rest before dinner. On Saturday night we are traditionally late.”
It flashed through her mind that i
f that was so, the Princess would not expect him to go to her bedroom. Then she had the uncomfortable feeling that the Princess would have very strong ideas about what she wanted.
It would not be easy for the Duke to escape her.
‘Supposing she tries again?’ Solita said to herself, ‘and this time the Duke is unable to prevent her learning his secrets?’
She felt herself tremble at what this involved.
As if what she was feeling communicated itself to the Duke, he turned his head to say,
“I think, Solita, you should go and change. We shall be driving to the folly and I hope you will accompany me and I also intend to ask Georgina Dudley to travel in my new phaeton.”
“Which is surely meant for two people!” Willy remarked dryly. “I wonder who is chaperoning who?”
“We are all slim enough not to feel crushed,” the Duke responded firmly. “Who do you want with you, Willy?”
“I suppose, unless you want her to tear out Solita’s hair,” Willy said, “I had better escort the Princess!”
“That is what I was about to suggest to you,” the Duke said.
“Thank you for nothing!” Willy exclaimed, somewhat sharply.
Listening to this exchange between the two friends, Solita thought with a warm feeling in her heart, that Willy, at any rate, was not deceived by the Princess’s beauty nor by the seductive way she spoke to every man.
She knew instinctively that he disliked the Russians and she thought it was what she might have expected in someone who had admired her father.
Obediently, because the Duke had told her to do so, she went upstairs to change.
Emily was waiting to help her and was very chatty.
“The Princess was having a fair old ‘argy bargy’ with that there brother of hers just now!” Emily was saying.
Solita knew it was wrong, but she could not help asking,
“What about?”
“’Er lady’s maid tells me as ’ow the Prince was findin’ fault with her over somethin’, and she spat at him like a tiger-cat and said it wasn’t ’er fault!”
“I wonder what could have upset him?” Solita asked vaguely.
“Who knows with ’em foreigners,” Emily replied, “goes off the rails at the slightest thing, they does!”
Solita thought Prince Ivan must have been very annoyed with the Princess for failing to achieve their hoped-for results with her hypnotism.
“I am sure she will try again,” she said beneath her breath.
She prayed that the Duke would make some excuse for not being alone with her.
When she had changed and gone downstairs, it was to find that most of the members of the house party were assembled in one of the magnificent salons.
They all seemed to be holding a glass of champagne in their hands and the Duke had apparently suggested it would be a good start to the expedition.
The ladies were looking very beautiful.
They were all wearing hats which, even though they were fastened down with large hat pins, looked as if they might blow away at even a breath of wind.
Solita was amused to notice as they moved into the hall that first they covered themselves with what was known as a ‘dust coat’.
Then they put a chiffon scarf over the top of their hats to tie in a bow under their chins. And they did in fact look very alluring.
Solita thought her own hat, which was trimmed with small flowers rather than feathers, as was suitable for a young girl, seemed dull by comparison.
She, however, forgot about herself when they set off in the Duke’s phaeton drawn by two magnificently matched chestnuts.
The Countess of Dudley was a great beauty and also very kind-hearted.
Although she might have been disappointed at not being alone with the Duke, she was pleasant to Solita. She pointed out to her, even before the Duke could do so, several of the landmarks they were passing.
To Solita the countryside itself was a joy with its green meadows, thick woods and silver streams.
They drove quite a distance on a flat part of the Duke’s estate and then the two horses started to climb up a hill to where at the top Solita could see the folly.
It was quite a large one with a high tower, reminiscent of a minaret and it rose from the strange building that had a Moorish influence in its design.
“My ancestor,” the Duke explained, “was an inveterate traveller and brought back many treasures to The Castle. He also built some strange buildings, each one reminding him of his travels.”
“This one is certainly unique!” the Countess laughed.
“But very convenient for picnics,” the Duke smiled.
‘A very luxurious picnic,’ Solita thought .
The servants had gone ahead to lay a long table down the centre of the Moroccan building.
Although the food was called a ‘cold collation’, there were a dozen different dishes, each more delicious than the last.
There was wine in strangely fashioned goblets that the Duke’s ancestor had brought back from Hungary.
The sunshine coming through the unpaned windows seemed to invest everything with a golden glow.
Solita would have found it all very enchanting if she had not been aware that as soon as they arrived the Princess went to the Duke’s side.
She then refused to leave him.
“You may sit where you like,” the Duke informed his party, “but naturally, the ladies must divide themselves amongst the gentlemen.”
Before he finished speaking, the Princess had seated herself in a chair beside his at the top of the table.
To her consternation Solita found Prince Ivan beside her.
“Now tell me about yourself, Miss Gresham,” he began in a very beguiling voice.
She realised as she looked at him that he was in his own way extremely handsome and she thought that, if she had not known so much about him, she might have been captivated by the way he talked to her during the meal.
He paid her compliments and was amusing and witty.
At the same time she was aware that he was curious as to who she was and why she was with the Duke.
Solita deliberately made herself sound very young and very girlish.
She told him how she had been brought up in Italy by a cousin of the Duke’s after her parents had died and she enthused over the youthful parties she had attended, the beauty of Rome and the music that was so much a part of Italian life.
He appeared to be interested in her conversation.
Yet she had the uncomfortable feeling that his eyes were looking at her penetratingly.
She thought he was questioning as to whether she was as ingenuous as she appeared.
She therefore talked of how exciting it was to be in England and how the Duke was arranging for his grandmother to present her at a Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace.
“It will all be very wonderful,” she sighed, “and I am only afraid that I might make some mistakes.”
“I am sure you will never do that!” Prince Ivan said, “and your Guardian will of course protect you from becoming enamoured with the wrong sort of man.”
Solita contrived to look surprised.
“I do not think – His Grace – will worry about me,” she said in a shy girlish voice, “he has – so many other things to do.”
“And what do you think of him?” the Prince enquired.
“I think he is – very kind to worry about anyone as unimportant as me,” Solita said with a little giggle, “but of course, I hope I shall soon make friends of my own age.”
She knew as she spoke that the Russian was trying to find out if she was already in love with the Duke.
It was actually something that had never crossed her mind.
She thought that if the Prince asked her the question point-blank, she would truthfully be able to say ‘no!’
It was only then a new idea struck her.
If the Duke had done the things the Russians suspected, he was really very differ
ent from how she had thought him to be.
She had hated him when she was in Italy where he paid no attention to her.
He had forgotten her and his cousin and when he became a Duke she imagined him attending receptions and balls in London every night.
He would she thought be present at every race meeting and not giving a thought to those he had known when he was an unimportant soldier.
Now, if he had been engaged in The Great Game he was in her estimation a hero.
It was the son of one of her Aunt Mildred’s friends who had told Solita most indiscreetly about The Great Game.
He was a young Englishman who had travelled a great deal abroad because his father was a diplomat.
Clive was nineteen, rather conceited and intended writing a book of his travels.
“It would,” he boasted, “astound the world!”
Because Solita was prepared to listen to him talking about himself, which was his favourite subject, he spent quite a lot of time with her.
While his mother and Mildred Leigh were gossiping together about ‘the good old days’ when they were young girls, Clive talked.
It was exciting for Solita, who was always curious about India, to hear about his visit to that country.
He told her about the importance of the Viceroy, the beauty of the Palaces of the Maharajahs and the strange customs of the Hindus.
“Are you going to put all this in your book?” Solita had asked.
“And a great deal more,” he said, “but I found out something when I was in India, which has never been written about!”
“What is that?” she enquired.
“It is an espionage the English have invented,” he replied.
He lowered his voice as he went on,
“I found out about it quite by accident and was told never to mention it to a living soul!”
“But please tell me!” Solita begged, “I swear I will not tell anybody.”
Because he was a talker, the young man told her of what he had learnt about The Great Game.
“Think of it,” he said excitedly, “there are men all over India, some English, but most of them Indian, fighting secretly against the Russians!”
“It sounds thrilling!” Solita cried.
“It is to those who take part in it,” was the reply, “and I only wish I was one of them!”
Solita and the Spies Page 8