The Price of Power Part 41

"Ah!" she exclaimed, "I see you know him. Well, at the moment I was not at all alarmed, but next day I received an anonymous letter telling me to exercise every precaution. There was a revolutionary plot to kill me. It was intended to kill both d.i.c.k and myself. I showed him the letter. At first he was puzzled to know why the revolutionary party should seek to a.s.sa.s.sinate a mere girl like myself, but again he accepted my explanation that it was in revenge for some action of my late father, and eventually we resolved to disappear together and remain in hiding until you returned. Then, according to what Marya de Rosen had told you, I intended to act."

"Alas! I learnt nothing."

"Ah!" she sighed. "That is the unfortunate point. I am undecided now how to act."

"Explain how you managed to elude Dmitri's vigilance in Eastbourne."

"Well, on that evening in Eastbourne I induced Miss West, Gladys Finlay and Dmitri to walk on to the station, and I entered a shop. When I came cut, d.i.c.k joined me. We slipped round a corner, and after hurrying through a number of back streets found ourselves again on the Esplanade.

We walked along to Pevensey, whence that night we took train to Hastings, and arrived in London just before eleven. At midnight we left Euston for Scotland, and next morning found ourselves in hiding here. I was awfully sorry to give poor Miss West such a fright, and I knew that Hartwig would be moving heaven and earth to discover me. But I thought it best to escape and lie quite low until your return. I telegraphed to you guardedly to the British Consulate in Moscow, hoping that you might receive the message as you pa.s.sed through."

"I was only half an hour in Moscow, and did not leave the station," I replied. "Otherwise I, no doubt, should have received it."

"To telegraph to Russia was dangerous," she remarked. "The Secret Police are furnished with copies of all telegrams coming from abroad, and Markoff is certainly on the alert."

"No doubt he is," I said. "As you well know, he is desperately anxious to close your lips. Now that poor Marya is dead, you alone are in possession of his secret--whatever it may be."

"And for that reason," she said slowly, her fine eyes fixed straight before her across the blue waters of the loch, "he has no doubt decided that I, too, must die."

"Exactly; therefore it now remains for Your Highness to reveal to the Emperor the whole truth concerning those letters and the secret which resulted in Marya de Rosen's arrest and death. It is surely your duly!

You have no longer to respect the promise of secrecy which you gave her.

Her death must be avenged--and by you--_and you alone_," I added very quietly and in deep earnestness. "You must see the Emperor--you must tell him the whole truth in the interests of his own safety--in the interests, also, of the whole nation." My dainty little companion remained silent, her eyes still fixed, her slim white fingers toying nervously with her skirt.

"And forsake d.i.c.k?" she asked presently in a low voice which trembled with emotion. "No, Uncle Colin. No, don't ask me!" she urged. "I really can't do that--I really can't do that. I--I love him far too well."

I sighed. And of a sudden, ere I was aware of it the girl, torn by conflicting emotions, burst into a flood of tears.

There, at her side I sat utterly at a loss what to say in order to mitigate her distress; for too well I knew that the pair loved each other truly, nay, madly. I knew that the love of an Imperial Grand d.u.c.h.ess of the greatest family in Europe is just as intense, just is pa.s.sionate, just as fervent as that of a commoner, be she only a typist, a seamstress, or a serving-maid. The same feelings, the same emotions, the same pa.s.sionate longings and tenderness; the same loving heart bests beneath the corsets of the patrician as beneath those of the plebeian.

You, my friendly readers, each of you--be you man or woman, love to-day, or have loved long ago. Your love is human, your affection firm, strong and undying, differing in no particular to the emotions experienced by the peasant in the cottage or the princess of the blood-royal.

I looked at the little figure on the rustic seat at my side, and all my sympathy went out to her.

I have loved once, just as you have, my reader; and I knew, alas! what she suffered, and how she foresaw opened before her the grave of all her hopes, of all her aspirations, of all her love.

She was committing the greatest sin p.r.o.nounced by the unwritten law of her Imperial circle. She loved a commoner! To go forward, to speak and save her nation from the depredations of that unscrupulous camarilla, the Council of Ministers, would mean to her the abandonment of the young Englishman she loved so intensely and devotedly--the sacrifice, alas! of all she held most dear in life by the betrayal of her ident.i.ty.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

REVEALS THE GULF.

Having been introduced to Mrs Holbrook--a pleasant-fated old lady in a white-laced cap with mauve ribbons--I made excuse to "Miss Stebbing" to leave, and took train a quarter of an hour later back to St Fillans.

From the village post-office I sent an urgent wire to Hartwig to go again to Lower Clapton, see Danilovitch, explain how Her Highness had discovered the plot against her, and a.s.sure him that if any attempt were male, proof of his treachery would be placed at once before his "comrades."

I called at the hotel and inquired for Mr Gregory, but was informed that he was out fis.h.i.+ng. But though I lunched there and waited till evening, yet he did not return.

So again I took train back to Lochearnhead, and with the golden sunset flas.h.i.+ng upon the loch, climbed the hill path towards Glendevon House--a nearer cut than by the carriage road.

Suddenly, as I turned the corner, I saw two figures going on before me-- Natalia and Richard Drury. She wore a darker gown than in the morning, with simple, knockabout country hat, while he had on a rough tweed jacket and breeches. I drew back quickly when I recognised them. His arm was tenderly around her waist as they walked, and he was bending to her, speaking softly, as with slow steps they ascended through the hill-side copse.

Yes, they were indeed a handsome, well-matched pair. But I held, my breath, foreseeing the tragic grief which must ere long arise as the result of that forbidden affection.

Standing well back in the hedge, I gazed after their as with halting steps they went up that unfrequented Scotch by-way, rough and gra.s.s-grown. Suddenly they paused, and the man, believing that they were alone, took his well-beloved in his strong embrace, pushed back her hat, and imprinted a warm, pa.s.sionate kiss upon her white, open brow.

Perhaps it was impolite to watch. I suppose it was; yet my sympathy was entirely with them. I, who had once loved and experienced a poignant sorrow as result, knew well all that they felt at that moment, especially now that the girl, even though an Imperal Princess, was compelled to decide between love and duty.

Unseen, I watched them cling to each other, exchanging fond, pa.s.sionate caresses. I saw him tenderly push the dark hair from her eyes and again place his hot lips reverently to her brow. He held her small hand, and looking straight into her wonderful eyes, saw truth, honesty and pure affection mirrored there.

They had halted. While the evening shadows fell he had placed his hand lightly upon her shoulder and was whispering in her ear, speaking words of pa.s.sionate affection, in ignorance that between them, alas! lay a barrier of birth which could never be bridged.

I felt myself a sneak and an eavesdropper; but I a.s.sure you it was with no idle curiosity--only because what I had witnessed aroused within me the most intense sorrow, because I knew that only a man's great grief and a woman's broken heart could accrue from that most unfortunate attachment.

In all the world I held no girl in greater respect than Natalia, the unconventional daughter of proud Imperial Romanoffs. Indeed, I regarded her with considerable affection, if the truth were told. She had charmed me by her natural gaiety of heart, her disregard for irksome etiquette and her plain outspokenness. She was a typical outdoor girl.

What the end of her affection for d.i.c.k Drury would be I dreaded to antic.i.p.ate.

Again he bent, and kissed her upon the lips, her sweet face raised to his, aglow in the crimson sunset.

He had clasped her tenderly to his heart, holding her there in his strong arms, while he rained his hot, fervent kisses upon her, and she stood in inert ecstasy.

Soon the shadows declined, yet the pair still stood there in silent enjoyment of their pa.s.sionate love, all unconscious of observation. I drew a long breath. Had I not myself long ago drunk the cup of happiness to the very dregs, just as d.i.c.k Drury was now drinking it--and ever since, throughout my whole career in those gay Court circles in foreign cities, I had been obsessed by a sad and bitter remembrance.

She had married a peer, and was now a great lady in London society. Her pretty face often looked out at me from the ill.u.s.trated papers, for she was one of England's leading hostesses, and mentioned daily in the "personal" columns.

Once she had sent me an invitation to a shooting-party at her fine castle in Yorks.h.i.+re. The irony of it all! I had declined in three lines of formal thanks.

Ah! yes. No man knew the true depths of grief and despair better than myself, therefore, surely, no man was more fitted to sympathise with that handsome couple, clasped at that moment in each other's arms.

I turned back; I could endure it no longer, foreseeing tragedy as I did.

Descending the hill to the loch-side again, I found the carriage road, and approached the big white house.

I was standing alone in the long, old-fas.h.i.+oned drawing-room, with its bright chintzes and bowls of potpourri, awaiting Mrs Holbrook, when the merry pair came in through the long French windows, from the sloping lawn.

"Why, Uncle Colin!" she gasped, starting and staring at me. "How long have you been here?"

"Only a few moments," I replied, and then, advancing, I shook Drury's hand. He looked a fine, handsome fellow in his rough country tweeds.

"So glad to meet you again, Mr Trewinnard," he said frankly, a smile upon his healthy, bronzed face. "I've heard from Miss Gottorp of your long journey across Siberia. You've been away months--ever since the beginning of the winter! I've always had a morbid longing to see Siberia. It must be a most dreadful place."

"Well, it's hardly a country for pleasure-seeking," I laughed; then changing my tone, I said: "You two have given me a nice fright! I returned to find you both missing, and feared lest something awful had happened to you."

"Fear of something happening caused us to disappear," he answered; then he practically repeated what Natalia had told me earlier in the day.

"My aunt very kindly offered to put Miss Gottorp up, and I have since lived down at St Fillans under the name of Gregory."

I told him of the search in progress in order to discover him. But he declared that a Scotch village or the back streets of a manufacturing town were the safest places in which to conceal oneself.

"But how long do you two intend causing anxiety to your friends?" I asked, glancing from one to the other.

Natalia looked at her lover with wide-open eyes of admiration.