“But we are here and I am more grateful than I can possibly say that I am here with you, Galina.”
Then as if he was forcing himself, he looked away from her at the silver water in front of them.
“It’s no use. I try to be sensible, but I find it almost impossible to think of anything but you, you and you!”
Galina drew in her breath.
“And I think of you too,” she said in a small voice.
There was silence for a moment and then he added,
“It’s no use fighting against love, it is stronger than both of us. Shall we be married? I expect that I could find work of some sort if I closed up the house.”
“But you cannot do that!” exclaimed Galina. “And I have to think of Georgie and help him if I can.”
Lord Bramton sighed.
“I know that I am talking nonsense, Galina, but it is hard to think sensibly when I want you so much and God knows how much I need you.”
Galina slipped her hand into his.
“We have to be brave for the moment and see what happens. Perhaps Georgie will come back from America having found an oil well.”
“If he does, then I will go out and see if I can find one too. But it would be a mistake to be too optimistic.”
Galina knew that he was thinking of her rather than himself.
“I just feel in my bones that something will happen to help us, so we just have to be brave until it does.”
Lord Bramton smiled at her and sighed,
“I love you so much, Galina. No one else could be so sensible and at the same time so utterly adorable.”
His fingers tightened on her hand until it hurt.
“We have to believe that our prayers are heard and that things will not be quite as bad as we anticipate. As you say, Georgie may easily find an oil well or perhaps he will find an American millionairess in New York.”
“That is where they are, but equally, I do think he would be much happier with an English girl.”
“I know how unhappy I would be without you.”
“We must not stay here too long, Victor. I joined you as I could see you from the window, but perhaps the Princess would be shocked at my not being chaperoned.”
“I think myself that she would understand a little of what we are feeling, but you are quite right, my darling, we will go back and make ourselves pleasant.”
Galina looked around at the lake and the daffodils.
“This is a fairyland and all we need is a magician’s wand to bring us what we both need – money.
“Not for ourselves, but for our houses that are both a part of England. That is why we have to fight for them even though it is now so difficult for us. Then, at last, we will be free to be together as we wish to be.”
“I know what you are saying, my dearest, and it is just what you would say. I want you so desperately that it is such agony to think that you may never be mine.”
Galina gave a little cry.
“That is what you must not think. You must believe that we will be together and that it will be possible for us.”
Lord Bramton did not reply and she carried on,
“I know now that I love you and I will never be happy with anyone else, but I also believe that, in some wonderful magical way, it will be possible for us to love each other.”
Lord Bramton raised her hand to his lips and softly and gently he kissed each of her fingers.
Then he kissed the centre of her palm.
“You are quite right, my precious, we will not give up hope. It is hard, so very hard at the moment, to face a future which will be unbelievably empty without you.”
As he finished speaking, he rose to his feet and she knew he was making himself do as she had suggested and take her back to the house.
They walked back in silence.
Only when the front door was just in front of them did they look at each other.
There was no need for words.
The expression in Lord Bramton’s eyes told Galina how much he loved her.
She could not prevent a sob coming from her lips as she walked up the steps.
*
In the afternoon they all attended the Flower Show, which the Princess was to open in the Village Hall.
The house party went first and was received by the Lord Lieutenant and the Vicar.
At exactly two o’clock the Princess arrived and was escorted onto the platform.
She was looking particularly stunning in a gown of her favourite blue, which she wore with a very pretty hat decorated with flowers to match it.
She spoke clearly and charmingly as she opened the Flower Show and her speech was greeted with a loud burst of applause from the crowd.
People clapped and continued to clap until the Lord Lieutenant raised his hands for silence.
He thanked Her Royal Highness for coming and he said he was certain that the Flower Show would produce a great deal of money for the local Cottage Hospital.
He requested those present to put what they could afford into a box at the door as they left the room.
He then thanked everyone for their support for the hospital, which served the whole neighbourhood.
Galina glanced in the direction of Mr. Farlow as the Lord Lieutenant finished speaking.
She was not surprised to see him writing a cheque and she thought it was intelligent of him to realise that he would be asked for money during the afternoon.
The Princess moved slowly from the Village Hall shaking hands with a number of people as she did so and then went into the rooms where the flowers were on display.
Mr. Farlow then walked up to the Lord Lieutenant and Galina heard him introduce himself. He gave him the cheque and the Lord Lieutenant thanked him.
And then, as he glanced at the cheque, he was most profuse in his gratitude.
Galina was amused.
She thought that when Mr. Farlow first spoke to the Lord Lieutenant, that he had been polite, yet not particularly effusive, at being spoken to by a man to whom he had not been introduced.
However, he must have appreciated, when he saw the cheque, who Mr. Farlow was.
A few seconds later, she saw him whispering to Her Royal Highness.
It was not until they had returned to the house and were having tea in the drawing room that the Princess turned to Mr. Farlow,
“Thank you so very much for your most kind and generous donation to our hospital. I am so touched by it.”
“I thought that your appeal, Your Royal Highness, was very moving,” he answered.
“Our hospital does a lot of good and what you have given us will make it easier for us, in the coming year, to provide more beds and therefore more patients than we can accommodate at present.”
She was obviously extremely grateful.
Galina felt at least someone had benefitted from the party at Sandringham.
*
The evening passed in very much the same way as the evening before.
As everyone knew each other better, there seemed to be more laughter and there was definitely a more relaxed atmosphere than there had been the previous night.
It was when they were going to bed that the Prince announced unexpectedly,
“As tomorrow is Sunday and we are all going to Church in the morning, I have decided in the afternoon that I would like to visit the famous house of one of our guests. Bramton Priory is, I am told, one of the most ancient and significant houses in England.”
He glanced towards Lord Bramton as he spoke and asked him,
“Is that true?”
“So I have always been told, Your Royal Highness, and it will be a great pleasure for me to show you some of the treasures collected by my ancestors over the years.”
“That is what we are looking forward to,” said the Prince. “We will leave after luncheon. I understand it will not take more than an hour to reach Bramton Priory?”
“It is a great honour and it will be my pleasure to show you around my home
.”
Their Royal Highnesses now retired and Ellie-May started talking about the Flower Show.
“I am going to stage my own Flower Show in New York,” she announced, “and I am certain that everyone will think it interesting, especially the original arrangements.”
Galina thought that Flower Shows were something that only occurred in the country and not in Cities, but she did not want to dampen Ellie-May’s enthusiasm.
She kissed her good night saying,
“We will discuss it in the morning. And I feel sure you will have more to talk about when you have seen Lord Bramton’s house.”
“I have not seen half of this house yet,” Ellie-May protested.
“It is very impressive, but I promise you that Lord Bramton’s will be even more exciting.”
When Galina climbed into her bed, she prayed very hard for a long time.
Maybe something would happen that would enable Lord Bramton to keep his house open and he could afford to live there.
Yet the only practical solution she could think of at that moment and which tortured her to her soul was that he should marry Ellie-May.
There would be no more problems for him, except those that would affect his heart, and it would please Mr. Farlow that they were so close to Sandringham.
Galina knew if he did marry anyone else, it would be impossible for her ever to love anyone in the same way as she loved him now.
‘I love him. I do love him,’ she whispered into her pillow. ‘Oh, please, please God, make it possible for us to be together. Even if we are poor and have to live in a cave, we would still have each other.’
Then because the idea of losing him was so painful, she felt tears running down her cheeks.
*
The next morning, as soon as they had finished breakfast, it was time to go to Church.
There was a special pew for the Prince and Princess of Wales and several others for Royal guests.
The Church was naturally decorated with daffodils and the choir sang extremely well for a village.
The Vicar preached for a little over ten minutes and Galina was certain that he was restricted into giving a short sermon by His Royal Highness.
It was a relief to be driving back to the house well before luncheon.
Galina felt very excited when just after two o’clock they climbed into the Royal carriages again and set off for Bramton Priory.
Travelling with her was Lord Bramton, Ellie-May and Sir Christopher – the two men sitting opposite the two girls.
Sir Christopher remarked,
“I have been looking for descriptions of your house, Victor, in some of His Royal Highness’s books, but so far I have not found an answer to everything I want to know, so I hope you intend to be our guide and informant.”
Lord Bramton smiled.
“As the house has been closed up, I shall have to do all you suggest and much more.”
“But surely,” Ellie-May asked, “you have someone to look after your treasures when you are not there?”
“There is a very old couple who have been with my father for very many years and who have nowhere else to go. They are in charge. I am also very fortunate that so far I have not been burgled.”
Galina gave a little cry.
“That would be a horrible disaster.”
“I know, but it is always dangerous to leave a house of that size without plenty of servants to take care of it.”
He spoke somewhat bitterly and Galina thought it a mistake to pursue the subject further.
Then Ellie-May piped up,
“One old lady last night said she had seen a little of your house because she had bribed the housekeeper!”
Lord Bramton stared at her.
“Who said that?” he asked in a surprised voice.
“The Countess of Overton, yes, that was her name. She said that what she saw was so unique she thought that it should be in a museum.”
“And you say that she bribed the housekeeper? I suppose that must have been my caretaker who took her round.”
“Yes and there was another lady – I don’t know her name – who laughed and declared she had done the same at Marlborough House when the family were away.”
“I can easily understand,” came in Sir Christopher, “visitors from overseas being clever enough to find a way to see round these houses. We have a number of people coming to Sandringham when His Royal Highness is not there, who beg the servants on their knees to be allowed to look inside, but I believe they always refuse.”
“That is what I believed too,” said Lord Bramton.
He did not say anything more, but he was thinking, however, that he could well understand his caretakers, who he could only pay a pittance, being very grateful to receive something however small from passing visitors.
Galina was well aware of what he was thinking and it suddenly occurred to her that he could open his house to the public.
If they paid a fairly substantial sum for the privilege, it would at least make it possible for him to keep the house in good order and he could pay servants to look after it.
‘I must talk to Victor about my idea,’ she thought.
She wondered as they drove on if he would think it a good one, but she had the uneasy feeling that he might think it sacrilege to his ancestors and the collection itself.
‘I cannot think why, because it is something to be proud of and there is no doubt that all visitors to England expect to find ancient monuments to interest them. Just as if one goes to America, like Georgie, one expects to find new ideas and inventions.’
They drove on and then turned eventually through some gates, which looked rather dilapidated. The lodges on each side were empty and in great need of repair.
The drive was lined with ancient oaks, which were beautiful, but they had not been attended to and several branches had fallen to the ground.
As she saw the house ahead, Galina gave a gasp.
It was beautiful in the sunshine, a perfect example of medieval architecture.
She could well understand why Lord Bramton was so proud of his ancestral home.
There was a large lake in front of the house and an old bridge over it that desperately needed repairing.
As they drove nearer to the house, Galina could see that a number of windows were cracked or broken.
The courtyard had not been brushed and required fresh gravel. There were weeds growing in the steps that led up to the entrance.
The carriages drew up and Lord Bramton opened the front door that on his instructions had been unlocked.
“I am afraid, Your Royal Highnesses,” he said to the Prince and Princess, “you will find things are dusty, as I have not been able to afford any servants for a long time.”
Dusty or not it was a vast hall that they walked into where the ancient monks had received travellers or anyone who sought their help and blessing.
There were priceless pictures on the walls, which immediately commanded the Prince of Wales’s attention.
Then Lord Bramton led the party through several rooms where there were many collections of pictures and furniture.
Every chair and every table was valuable.
In one room there was a large collection of Dresden china that made the Princess exclaim with excitement. Another room that contained a huge collection of ivory equally enthralled her.
Amongst this was a carving of a Sumo wrestler and a carved ivory okimono of a farmer with a bamboo pole and an old carving of a Chinese scholar and a monkey with a toad on his back!
Then Lord Bramton took them to his collection of jade and these as well were fantastic. Their colour and the exquisite carving was, Galina considered, something that anyone would be exceedingly proud of.
She was thrilled with a striding dragon, whilst the Princess said what she liked more than anything else was a green jade rectangular box with dragonhead handles.
“It goes all the way back the Qing Dynasty,” Lord Bramton said, “and is, I bel
ieve, extremely ancient.”
They viewed other rooms and next Lord Bramton guided them into a room that Galina knew he was longing to show her.
It contained his collection of statues that had been brought by his great-great-grandfather from Greece.
As soon as she glanced at them, she realised why, although it seemed conceited, he compared her to them.
Some of the Goddesses, although they had lost their arms, were undoubtedly exquisitely lovely. There were no sculptures in the world as beautiful and artistic as those the Greeks had produced thousands of years ago.
They enchanted the Prince and Princess.
“Oh, look at this one, Edward!” the Princess kept exclaiming. “Have you ever seen anything so wonderful? And this! And this!”
She ran from one statue to another.
Finally when they had just about exhausted all their exclamations of delight at the Greek statues, Lord Bramton took them all into the Chapel, which did not appear to have suffered so much from neglect.
A gold and bejewelled cross on the altar with six gold candlesticks beside it was a very fine piece of work.
The altar itself was of carved marble and sculptured by a master hand and was more magnificent than anything Galina had seen in any Church.
Some stained glass windows had been broken, but the sunshine coming through those intact seemed to cast a magic light over the Chapel.
It was different to anything Galina had ever seen.
‘It is beautiful, it is Holy and it is blessed by God,’ she sighed to herself.
Even as the words came to her, she glanced at Lord Bramton and she realised that he was thinking the same.
She knew, too, that he wanted to kneel in front of the altar beside her while a Priest blessed their marriage.
Because the Chapel had such a spiritual atmosphere, everyone seemed to sense that the tour was over.
They returned to a huge reception room almost in silence and then the Prince and Princess walked to their carriage and the party followed them.
Only, as Galina brought up the rear, was she aware that Mr. Farlow was not with them.
Lord Bramton came to her side.
“Now you have seen my home, Galina!”
“It is beautiful, Victor, so beautiful that I know now that you must save it and somehow we have to find a way.”
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