Lord Arkley smiled.
“I think you are flattering me. At the same time I suspect that you have read the same book that I have. I think that your guide or Master need not necessarily be a person.”
He saw that she looked puzzled and went on,
“Help can come from all sorts of different places, some people find it in Church, some on the top of a mountain and others in a row boat on a lake like the one we have just left.”
“Of course,” Mariska exclaimed. “Why did I not think of that before?”
Then shyly she added,
“But I still believe that you were – sent to – help me.”
“I hope that is true,” Lord Arkley replied and they rode on towards the Weimar Hotel.
It was not quite nine o’clock as Mariska went rapidly upstairs.
She opened the door of the suite and saw with a sudden sinking of her heart that Prince Friederich was up, dressed and having breakfast in the sitting room.
He always ate a huge meal and was demolishing a plate of sweetbreads. As she entered the room, he raised his head but made no comment and went on eating.
“Good morning, Friederich,” Mariska began. “It was very kind of you to let me ride with Lord Arkley and I enjoyed the exercise.”
She thought as she spoke that it was a tactless thing to say when her husband could take no exercise.
Equally if she did not mention it he might make it an excuse that, as she had obviously not enjoyed herself, there was no point in her riding again another day.
“Will Your Royal Highness have something to eat?” Josef asked as he hurried to draw out a chair from the table.
“I would just like some coffee, please,” Mariska replied, thinking that it would be a mistake to refuse everything.
She felt that she could not bear to tell Friederich how she and Lord Arkley had sat in the lovely little café by the lake.
It was a secret place, a place where they had been alone together, and even to speak of it to someone else would somehow spoil the mystery that surrounded it.
Prince Friederich pushed his empty plate away from him, then looking at Mariska he asked,
“Well, what did you say to him?”
“To – Lord Arkley?”
“Who else? You were riding alone, were you not?”
“We did not talk a great deal.”
“What did he say? I have asked you to tell me what he said. Did you speak of King Edward?”
“Yes. Lord Arkley said – what a kind person he was.”
“What else?”
“That he enjoyed good food.”
“Everybody knows that. What else did he say to you?”
“He – he told me some amusing little – anecdotes about the King’s different visits.”
“Did he speak of Germany?”
“No.”
“Of France?”
“Only about his visit to – Paris with King Edward two years ago.
There was silence for a moment. Then suddenly, so suddenly that it made Mariska jump, Prince Friederich brought his clenched fist down hard on the table.
The plates, cups and saucers rattled.
“You are being deliberately obstructive,” he shouted. “If I let you ride, I want to hear what happened. God knows, I have few pleasures in life. I might as well try to live vicariously in yours.”
Mariska’s heart was touched.
“I am sorry, Friederich. I did not think that what Lord Arkley and I talked about would – interest you.”
“Well, it does interest me, so talk and keep on talking.”
Frantically Mariska tried to remember what they had said about anyone except themselves and because she was nervous she had no time to choose her words.
“I said I had – heard that – King Edward was called the ‘Uncle of Europe’,” she faltered, “and Lord Arkley said that it was a – very good name for him because if anyone could – keep the – peace it would be the King.”
“Keep the peace!” Prince Friederich snorted contemptuously. “Do you imagine that is what he is trying to do while he is inciting France against Germany?”
“I do not think he means to do that.”
“You do not think! What do you know – a nit-witted fool like you?” Prince Friederich sneered. “Bülow spoke of King Edward’s ‘Continental dagger’. That is what I want to hear about. That is what you want to ask Arkley to explain.”
He was still shouting his words and Mariska could only hope that Lord Arkley could not overhear him in his own suite next door.
It suddenly struck her that, if he thought that she was trying to obtain information out of him to relate to Friederich, he would never speak to her again.
At the same time she realised that perhaps someone else besides Friederich might be interested in what they had talked about.
Then she told herself that it was an absurd idea.
Lord Arkley was far too experienced in the Courts of Europe to say anything to her that could be of any possible interest to someone like General von Echardstein or Admiral von Senden.
She dismissed the whole idea from her mind and told herself that Friederich was just being difficult and perhaps in some obscure way, although he hated her, he was jealous that any other man might find her interesting.
She tried to remember anything else that Lord Arkley had said about the King, but there was really nothing more to relate.
Because Friederich was glowering at her and she did not understand why she had not only annoyed but disappointed him, she rose to her feet.
“I must go and change,” she said. “I don’t wish to keep you waiting when it is time to go to the Kreuzbrunnen.”
“If you are not ready, I shall go without you,” Prince Friederich said automatically.
Then, as she walked across the room, he said,
“I presume you will be riding with Arkley again tomorrow morning?”
Mariska stopped.
“I would like to do so – if you will give me permission.”
“I will allow you as long as you bring me back something more interesting than you have done today. God knows what I have to suffer stuck here with only your inane conversation to listen to day after day. When you get the chance of talking to a man of the world, you might as well use what brains you have in trying to remember what he said to you.”
“I will – do my best, Friederich,” Mariska said, “and thank you for saying I can – ride again.”
She slipped away from the room aware that her heart was singing and scarcely able to believe that once again she could escape.
It was true, she thought, as she changed her clothes that Lord Arkley had guided her into a magical world that she had never known before.
She felt as if she had been drowning in a slough of despond and suddenly he had reached out a hand and drawn her not only out of it but up into the sky.
“He is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful,” she whispered to herself.
She started to count the hours and the minutes that must pass until she could see him again.
*
Lord Arkley, as he changed his clothes with the help of Hawkins, was thinking of Mariska and the expression in her eyes when he talked to her about the secret world.
‘How did I know that was the right thing to say to her?’ he asked himself. ‘How did such words come into my mind? I swear I have never thought of them before!’
Yet, even as Mariska had, he too thought that the mist at the end of the lake, the beauty of the pine trees and the shimmer of the clear water at their feet had an inexpressible magic he had never noticed before.
‘She is different from anyone I have ever known,’ he told himself and knew that he was hoping with an intensity that was unusual that she would be able to ride with him tomorrow morning.
“There’s a message from His Majesty, my Lord,” Hawkins said breaking in on his silence.
“What is it?”
“His Majesty would like you to
go to his suite when he returns from the Kreuzbrunnen.”
Lord Arkley looked at the clock.
“He will be back by now,” he answered. “Did you say I was riding?”
“Yes, my Lord.”
Lord Arkley picked up his hat and stick.
“I will go to His Majesty at once.”
He sighed, thinking that he would have liked to have opened his letters first and read the newspapers. But he was well aware that, if the King wanted his presence, it would irritate him if he was not available.
As he walked along the corridor to the other end of the hotel, he found himself remembering the way that Prince Friederich had sneered at the King for being a slave-driver, while Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman had referred to the exhaustion of being in his circus.
It was in effect true, except that those who served the King did so willingly and with their hearts. But it could indeed be very fatiguing.
He found the King, when he reached his suite alone in the sitting room and knew that he was waiting for him.
“Good morning, Arkley,” he began. “I hear you have been riding.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Alone?”
The question was asked in such a way that Lord Arkley was quite certain that the King already knew the answer.
It would, however, have been against the rules for him to show it.
“Prince Friederich asked me to escort the Princess Mariska and I could hardly refuse such a request.”
“Having, of course, no idea why it was made.”
“None, sir.”
He was quite determined that there should be no suspicion about Mariska, whatever anyone might think about the Prince.
The King smiled.
“She is very attractive. I thought so when she was a child and, if she was rid of that drunken brute, she would be a great beauty.”
Lord Arkley agreed, but he thought it politic not to say so.
The King was silent for a short moment before he said,
“Sit down! Have you any idea why Echardstein was in Marienbad the day before yesterday? And why he called on Prince Friederich?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You have?” the King asked in surprise. “Then, why?”
“I think, although I may be mistaken, sir, that the German High Command are anxious first to know what reports I have brought from Germany and secondly they are still undecided about Your Majesty’s hospitality towards the French Fleet at Spithead.”
This had taken place only a few weeks ago and had been entirely the King’s idea.
Before the row over the German efforts to make trouble in Morocco, an official invitation had been delivered in March for a detachment of the French Fleet to visit Spithead.
It had naturally been accepted and two weeks later the First Sea Lord, Admiral Fisher, had started discussing plans not only for the visit to Spithead but for a visit of the Atlantic Fleet to Brest After the trouble that resulted from the German behaviour in Morocco, the King himself had taken personal charge of a programme that was to be a major political demonstration of Anglo-French friendship.
England and France were not yet fully pledged allies, but like England and Russia, were moving closer to each other.
No foreign sailors had ever had a welcome to British shores to compare with that given to the Officers and men of the six French Cruisers and six Destroyers in command of Admiral Caillard.
They had anchored at Portsmouth during the first week in August when Lord Arkley was in Germany.
But he had heard how the King had boarded the French ships to lunch with the Captains, conferred instant honours and proposed toasts to France and especially to his good friend the President.
It was not surprising that the Germans became agitated at what was occurring and grew more fearful than ever that secret pacts were being made behind their backs.
“Admiral von Senden is also in Marienbad,” Lord Arkley went on. “He is supposedly taking the cure!”
“I heard that and you think it significant that he arrived at the same time as yourself?”
“I think it is merely another straw in the wind, sir.”
“I don’t trust them and I don’t trust my nephew,” the King asserted.
Lord Arkley waited as he knew that the King was thinking things out.
“What I am afraid of,” he said at length in a quiet voice, “is that Wilhelm will be urged into war by his General Staff. They will call on him to draw the sword. He will not have the courage to talk some sense into them, but will obey them cravenly instead. It is not by his will that he will unleash a war, but by his weakness.”
“Do you really think that?” Lord Arkley asked.
“I can only pray I am wrong,” the King answered. “God knows no one wants war, but we have to face facts, Arkley.”
“Which are?”
“That the Kaiser believes that he was ordained to be the greatest Sovereign on Earth with a divine mission to make Germany the greatest power!”
Lord Arkley sighed.
“If anyone can circumvent it, sir, it will be you.”
“I may be lucky enough to do so,” the King replied, “but I cannot help wondering what will happen after I am dead.”
Chapter Five
Josef came into the sitting room where Mariska was waiting.
“His Royal Highness is asleep, Princess.”
“You are quite certain he will not want me, Josef?”
“No, Your Royal Highness. The doctor’s treatment today was very strenuous.”
He paused and sighed before he carried on,
“But I’m afraid, Your Royal Highness, it’ll do little good.”
“I think we are both aware of that, Josef,” Mariska replied. “At the same time as long as His Royal Highness believes it is helping him, it is essential that he should continue with it.”
The servant looked at her with understanding in his eyes. He knew better than anyone else that if Prince Friederich was not kept occupied by treatments, by consultations with doctors and by drinking the Spa waters his rages would increase.
The two people who would suffer most would be the Princess and himself.
Josef never spoke to anyone of the injuries he received when he was dressing the Prince or getting him to bed when he was too drunk to know what he was doing.
But despite the fact that he was not very tall Josef was an exceedingly strong man. He had grown adept at avoiding blows aimed at his head and in keeping out of the way when the Prince tried to strike him in the chest.
The fact was that Prince Friederich, drunk or sober, was astute enough to realise that he could not do without Josef’s services.
Despite the fact that he was a bully he respected courage and his servant’s refusal to kowtow to him.
Where Mariska was concerned it was a different thing.
She was a woman and as such should be humble and subservient and, Prince Friederich thought savagely, penitent. It was because he had married her that he was crippled.
“If you are quite sure that His Royal Highness will not miss me,” Mariska said in a low voice, “I will visit the Duchesse.”
Josef glanced at the clock.
“If you're back by five o'clock, Your Royal Highness, when I prepare tea, that’ll be in plenty of time.”
Mariska smiled at him and went from the room.
Today she felt happy despite the fact that Friederich had been very rude and disagreeable at luncheon.
For the first time his insults and barbed words did not seem to hurt her and she thought that in some way she was still in the magical world on the other side of the mist.
While Prince Friederich was having his treatment after they had visited the Colonnade, she did not read but had sat in the ugly, austere waiting room seeing only the shimmering water of the lake beneath her and Lord Arkley’s eyes looking into hers.
It seemed impossible that she had been able to talk to him in a way that she had never been able to ta
lk to anyone let alone a man.
Tomorrow she was to ride with him again and she knew that, whatever he might say about living for today she was living until she could ride beside him and know that they were alone and enchanted.
She reached the Duchesse’s suite and when the maid opened the door she knew with delight that the Duchesse was alone.
There were no gentlemen’s hats and sticks in the small hall and no murmur of voices in the salon.
“Her Royal Highness Princess Mariska,” the servant announced and the Duchesse gave a little cry of welcome and held out her hand.
“Ma petite. How lovely to see you!” she exclaimed. “I was hoping that you would be able to come to me.”
Mariska walked across the room and then, as she bent to kiss the Duchesse’s cheek, the old woman said,
|“You look very lovely, my child, and different.”
Her shrewd eyes searched Mariska’s face and then she asked,
“You are happy! What has happened?”
Mariska laughed.
“It is impossible to hide anything from you. I am happy and I have had a very wonderful morning.”
“Riding with Lord Arkley?”
“You knew!”
“Of course I knew. You don’t suppose that anything escapes notice in this hotel? As a matter of fact my servant, Henri, was taking my little dog for a walk and saw you ride away.”
“It was so wonderful to be on a horse again – ”
“And to be in the company of a very attractive man,” the Duchesse finished.
Mariska blushed and the Duchesse continued,
“I will not tease you. I am so glad that you have been allowed to go off duty for a little while.”
“I was astonished, absolutely astonished when Friederich suggested it,” Mariska said. “I wanted to come and tell you yesterday, but I was afraid even to speak of it before it had actually happened.”
“In case Friederich changed his mind,” the Duchesse remarked dryly.
Mariska nodded.
“I cannot imagine who put the idea into his head, but all that matters is that I was allowed to ride today and he said that I could do so again tomorrow.”
The Duchesse said nothing for a moment. Then, almost as if she chose her words with care, she asked,
Princes and Princesses: Favourite Royal Romances Page 54