“An upset stomach,” he said shortly. He looked thoughtfully at the slim young woman to whom he had surrendered his patient. “Has the little girl eaten anything unusual today, madame?” he enquired.
The brown eyes were moist. “It is as I told Miss Grant—she has been poisoned. Her nurse—but what will, you do, Doctor Harding? She will be all right? You will tell me, please?”
“Madame, she will be perfectly all right.” The doctor was not yet very old, but in the course of his highly successful career he had already acquired a considerable amount of experience. His words carried conviction, and he was skilled in the art of reassurance. Natalia plainly relaxed a little, and she even achieved a small smile.
“You are most kind,” she said. “I am grateful to you. If he were alive, my husband would be grateful to you, but ...”
Her lower lip began to quiver again, and Kathy was afraid that they were about to be treated to another hysterical outburst, but the doctor was not paying a great deal of attention. He was frowning, and after a moment or two he said abruptly:
“You will forgive me, Princess, but this situation is, you will agree, rather strange. Do I understand you to say that you seriously suspect someone of having deliberately poisoned your daughter?”
“But yes, I know it, monsieur.”
“She is not very ill, you know. She may have eaten something that didn’t altogether agree with her, but a child’s digestive system is quite easily upset. I’ll give her some capsules, and within twenty-four hours she’ll probably be fine. Not a very thorough attempt at poisoning, and in any case, surely no one—”
“You do not understand, monsieur.” The Princess looked from the doctor to Kathy, and appeared to reach a decision. “I wish to tell you everything,” she said. “You, Doctor Harding, and Miss Grant. You have been kind, and very useful to me, and I wish you to understand everything. But first I will put my Nina to bed, and you, monsieur, you will fetch the tablets, if you please. You have some with you?”
“As it happens, madame, yes, I have.”
“But I must go back to my desk!” Horror-stricken, Kathy suddenly remembered that she had abandoned her post more than twenty minutes earlier. Telephones could be ringing unanswered, angry guests waiting in the hall to raise some point with her—to collect their keys, even. “I am sorry, Your Highness but I simply can’t stay!”
“But you must! Miss Grant, you must stay! You cannot leave me. Monsieur—Doctor Harding, you will tell Miss Grant, please, that she cannot leave me?”
The doctor raised his eyebrows, and cast a faintly sympathetic look in Kathy’s direction.
“Miss Grant is employed in this hotel,” he observed gently. “If she stays too long up here when she should be on duty she could lose her job.”
“Then she shall have another job ... with me!”
“But, Your Highness ...” Kathy stared at her. “I’m sure you don’t ... I mean ...”
“You are sure I don’t mean it? But I do mean it!” The slightly childish face took on a look which was almost happy, as if its owner had made up her mind that her bright new idea would make a very considerable contribution to the easing of her troubles. “Today I lose my lady-in-waiting, my secretary, my children’s nannies, my detective and my chauffeur, because I do not trust them. I am alone with my little boy, who is five, and my little girl, who is only three, and I am frightened, because, you see, I have so many enemies. And then I send for you, Miss Grant, and you are very kind. And you are English, and one can see quite plainly that you are not at all likely to be here to spy on me. So, if you please, you will take the job, and I will pay you a very high salary. You will be useful to me, I think, because you see I must have someone to write my letters for me.”
Kathy was dumbfounded. At least half a dozen objections to the scheme occurred to her, but when she finally found her voice the only thing she could find to say was:
“I don’t speak your language.”
“It does not matter. You will learn, and in any case it really is not in the least important, because you see I am not going back to Tirhania. I shall never go back. I shall settle in England, and—”
“And will no doubt spend your days writing letters to The Times on the subject of the unhappy situation prevailing in your homeland. A charming plan, Natalia. I have every sympathy with you.” The Princess gasped, and like both the other adults in the room she swung round to face the man who had just silently pushed the door open and made his way, unannounced, into the room.
“Leonid!” She sounded completely flabbergasted, and her cheeks turned a shade paler. In a voice that was scarcely more than a whisper, she said: “I did not know ... I did not think ... that you were in London.”
“I do not suppose you did, Natalia.” Gravely, he gestured towards Kathy and the doctor. “May I be introduced to your friends?”
“You had no right to follow me here. Or to burst into my apartment in such a way. You are not my guardian, Leonid ... I am a widow, and independent.”
The stranger sighed, and inclined his head, as if in complete agreement. “You are perfectly right, my dear.” He was quite a young man, Kathy noticed—perhaps not more than twenty-nine or thirty—but there was a profound weariness in his remote dark eyes, and his thin, aristocratic features wore a look of slight strain. “Nevertheless,” he added, “I think you have not many friends in London, and I had anticipated some such situation as this. Not, of course,” permitting his completely expressionless gaze to fall once again upon Kathy, “that I can pretend to understand this situation. When I entered, this lady, I believe, was protesting that she did not speak our language, and you were endeavouring to convince her that this fact did not matter in the least. Am I correct in supposing that you were offering her some form of employment?”
Kathy felt totally unable to speak, and Natalia looked rebellious. “If I wish to employ Miss Grant,” she said, “you cannot prevent me.”-
“Naturally I cannot.” The almost black eyes were wearier than ever. “Then this, I suppose, is Miss Grant.” He accorded Kathy the merest trace of a continental bow. “And the gentleman ...?”
“My name is Harding. I’m a medical practitioner, and I was summoned by Her Highness for the purpose of examining her daughter.” The doctor seemed to feel that it was high time he himself explained his presence, since nobody else seemed likely to do so, and this autocratic young man appeared to feel that it required an explanation. “And I don’t think, he added, turning to the Princess, “that it will be necessary for me to stay any longer. I will have the capsules brought to you, madame. Two every hour for twenty-four hours, and I hope the little girl will feel better in the morning. Good-night, Madame. Goodnight, Miss Grant.”
He cast another half sympathetic glance in Kathy’s direction, and then retreated from the room before the Princess had had very much of an opportunity to realize what he was doing, and by the time she came to herself sufficiently to dash to the door and call him to return, he was already out of sight and earshot. She came back into the sitting-room slowly, and when she had closed the door she leant against it. She had left Nina established on one of the deep, comfortable settees, and the child was beginning to cry again. Kathy, who felt decidedly in the way, and had been about to make good her own escape, impulsively moved across to soothe the little girl, and the stranger looked rather wryly from her to the young woman by the door.
“It seems,” he observed, “that I have come at quite the wrong time, Natalia. Is my niece ill? And if so, why did you call in that Englishman? There are excellent doctors at the Embassy—”
“The Embassy!” The Princess’s eyes flashed, and she swept across the room to confront him. “The Embassy is full of spies and assassins—Anton’s hirelings, who hate me and both my children, just as they hated Vasilli!”
“Be quiet, Natalia!” The words were almost hissed at her. “I sympathize, of course, with your reluctance to offend Miss Grant by conversing in her hearing in a language whi
ch she does not understand, but if you must speak in English I think you ought to refrain from discussing matters which are so essentially personal.”
“There is nothing ‘personal’ about it.” Natalia seemed to clench her small white teeth. “Everyone knows that—”
“Cherie, you are overwrought.” He took a step towards her, and placed a lean, well-formed hand on her shoulder. “Where is the Baronin?”
“I ... I dismissed her.” The Princess’s voice had suddenly grown small and very slightly apologetic.
“You dismissed the Baroness Liczak?” The man’s black eyebrows shot upwards. “In what way has she offended you?”
“I ... thought I couldn’t trust her. I don’t trust anyone. Oh, Leonid, I am so frightened, and so tired of being frightened!”
Her face crumpled, and she began to cry again. Rather surprisingly, the man whom she had addressed as Leonid took the child out of her arms and looked towards Kathy.
“If you would be kind enough to hold my niece for a moment, mademoiselle ...”
His dark eyes were coldly distant as he moved towards her, and when, feeling slightly hypnotized, Kathy had taken the little girl from him, he turned back to Natalia.
“You should have a glass of brandy, petite,” he said, and his voice was amazingly gentle. “It has all been too much, I think. I will ring—”
“No, no, please. I don’t want any brandy, Leonid. And I don’t want to see anyone—except you, and Miss Grant. Tell Miss Grant she has got to stay with me! I should feel so much safer!”
At this point Kathy decided that it was high time she intervened personally. “I’m very sorry, Your Highness, but I simply couldn’t just abandon my job here and start working for you. I mean,” she went on, swallowing in sudden nervousness as the mysterious Leonid turned very slowly to look at her, “I mean, I would have to give notice, and—and that sort of thing, and besides ...”
“And besides, from all that you have gathered tonight of my sister-in-law and the situation in which she finds herself, you don’t feel that the job would be either congenial or particularly safe?”
“Of course I didn’t mean that. I—”
“I am certainly not blaming you, mademoiselle. Your feelings are perfectly reasonable, for a young woman of your type. The Princess Natalia, however, apparently feels that in you she has found something in the nature of a sister. As you see, she is quite distraught, and since I have—as you say in England—her best interests at heart, I can only say that I hope you will accept this rather generous offer of a position in her service. You are not, of course, the sort of person whom I myself would have chosen as a companion for her, but—”
“Leonid!” From the direction of the settee, a soft voice interrupted him. “You must not be rude to Miss Grant. She has been very kind to me. She—”
“Yes, yes, Natalia, I understand. Miss Grant, do you feel able to accept the position, or don’t you? I assure you, you have no need to worry about your present employer. I myself will arrange matters with him. As to the question of salary ...” His expression grew colder, and something like contempt appeared in his eyes. “As to the question of salary, which is no doubt of paramount importance with you, I think you will find that any remuneration offered to you by my sister-in-law could hardly be bettered. And,” drily, “despite any impression you may have received this evening, my family’s employees do still receive fairly punctual payment of their salaries.”
“I ... I don’t know ... Kathy hesitated, wondering what to say. She felt deeply sorry for the Princess, but her brother-in-law’s arrogance and obvious contempt for what he clearly regarded as a very ordinary little English secretary had irritated her to such an extent that she felt her own rarely aroused temper struggling to get the upper hand. On the other hand, the job itself undeniably possessed enormous attractions—would certainly tempt any young woman who had never even dreamt that such an opportunity could come her way. And then there were the children ... Nina and her brother, undoubtedly a pair of pathetic babies whose lives were at present dominated by an obviously neurotic mother—for whatever reasons Princess Natalia might have for her nervousness it was quite clear that she exaggerated the danger ... at least a little.
Kathy looked down at Nina, whom she was still holding in her arms, and found that she had fallen fast asleep. Then she looked up again, and saw that across the room Princess Natalia was watching her with a look of desperate anxiety in her amazing golden-brown eyes. The man called Leonid produced an elegant gold cigarette-case, flicked it open, and held it towards the English girl.
“You will smoke, mademoiselle? A cigarette may help you to make up your mind.”
This time his tone was careless and totally indifferent, and she knew that her eyes flashed resentfully as she shook her head.
“Thank you, I don’t smoke, monsieur ...” Her voice trailed away pointedly.
He made a small sound which could possibly have been apologetic.
“I beg your pardon. But as my sister-in-law neglected to make a formal introduction ...” He glanced at Natalia, who for the first time looked faintly amused.
“Don’t be absurd, Leonid. You could perfectly well have told Miss Grant who you were yourself. Did you expect me to present her formally? Miss Grant,” turning to Kathy, “this is my brother-in-law, Prince Leonid of Tirhania. And it is quite clear,” mutinously, “that he has been sent by my other brother-in-law, the King—”
“Natalia, that is definitely enough!” Prince Leonid’s voice was once again as sharp and biting as the crack of a whip, and not for the first time in the course of the last twenty minutes Kathy was conscious of amazement at the speed with which his mood could change. Only a very short time ago his manner towards his sister-in-law had been gentle and solicitous—almost affectionate; now, as he gazed towards her, his face looked coldly angry, and Natalia flushed painfully, and bit her lip.
Kathy felt a sudden rush of sympathy for her, and in that moment she reached a decision.
“Very well, if you really want to employ me, Your Highness ...”
“You will work for me?” Instantly the Princess’s expressive face lit.
Feeling suddenly shy, Kathy said: “It’s very kind of you to offer me the job. I don’t know that I’m really suitable, but I’m quite good at secretarial work, and”—glancing down at the sleeping Nina—“I’m very fond of children.”
“Thank you, thank you! It is such a relief to me! I shall be able to talk to you ... I am sure we shall get on so very well together. And now that I have dismissed all my staff I shall have to have someone!” Throughout this interchange Prince Leonid had been standing by the flower-filled fireplace smoking a cigarette, his expression utterly unreadable. But as his sister-in-law’s final remark caught his attention he looked up abruptly.
“You have dismissed all your staff, Natalia?”
“Yes, every one of them!” Natalia was obviously summoning all her courage. “They were spies!”
“Even the children’s nursemaids? You have dismissed them?”
“Do not talk to me of those nursemaids!” Her voice ascended hysterically. “They tried to poison Nina!”
He looked frowningly at the child, and then at his sister-in-law.
“That is a serious accusation. The doctor—the Englishman whose services you engaged—he did not believe Antonina to be in any danger?”
“They made a mistake. They must have poisoned her food, but not enough. They—”
“And Joachim?” he asked sharply.
“He is quite all right. He is asleep.”
“Then I imagine there is little basis for your suspicions. Where are these people now? Did you pay them before you dismissed them?”
She looked slightly conscience-stricken. “I—I asked the Baronin to pay them. They did ask whether they would have to leave this hotel immediately, and of course I said no, I would pay for them to stay on until they had found somewhere else to go.”
“How extremely gene
rous,” he murmured. “Did you ask the Baronin to pay herself as well?”
Natalia flushed. “Well, she could do so. She has the right to sign cheques ...”
Prince Leonid stubbed out his cigarette. “I will attend to her,” he said briefly. “But first, mademoiselle,” looking at Kathy, “I will speak to your employer. And you will come with me, if you please.
“Yes, of course.” Instinctively, Kathy felt nervous at the prospect of facing her employer under such circumstances; but on the other hand, she knew quite well that Mr. McArthur would be extremely unlikely even to show slight displeasure in front of Prince Leonid.
As they made their way down in the lift she felt too shy to say anything, but just as they reached ground floor level the Prince suddenly spoke.
“You do realize, Miss Grant, that the Princess Natalia is a very neurotic young woman, and that you may occasionally find her unmitigated society a little ... trying?”
“I don’t think she’s neurotic,” said Kathy impulsively. “I think she’s simply rather nervous—especially about her children. She may have good reason to mistrust all those people.”
“I don’t think you are in a position to judge,” said Leonid coldly. “However, I am glad that you seem likely to regard her with sympathy. You must always remember that she is an important person, and that she has to be protected at all times. Her upbringing has not been such that she is able to, as you would say, fend for herself. She has very little understanding of the world, and is quite incapable of looking after her own interests. She has”—smiling urbanely—“none of the toughness of character which is such an advantage to young women like yourself.”
Kathy felt definitely staggered, and only just succeeded in preventing herself from retorting that in sacking her entire staff on the spot Her Serene Highness had exhibited a good deal more toughness of character than she herself would ever be likely to muster.
All she said, however, was: “I’ll do my best to protect Her Highness’s interests.”
The Breadth of Heaven Page 2