Part 25 (1/2)
He marched his daughter back to the study. The rest of us followed. When the door was shut behind us the king spoke coldly.
”The truth, Maria. Is that boy in the castle? Have you dared to see him again?”
”No, Father,” Matty said. ”Georgiana misunderstood.”
”I saw him,” I said. ”I'm sorry, Matty, if it weren't a question of murder I wouldn't have betrayed your secret, but it is. And your bridegroom has a right to know that you tried to kill him.”
”What?” Matty shrieked. ”No, that's quite wrong. I told you Vlad is sweet. He'd never kill anyone.”
”And what about you?” I said. ”You dropped enough hints that you didn't want to marry Nicholas, that you were being forced into it when you loved someone else.”
”You think that I put poison in Nicholas's gla.s.s?”
”One moment, if you please.” Patrascue stepped between us. ”I do not understand. It was a Bulgarian field marshal who was poisoned. This I was told. Is it not true?”
”The poison was intended for me,” Nicholas said. He was staring at Matty with horror and disbelief on his face. ”Pirin was a peasant. He had no table manners. He grabbed the nearest full gla.s.s and it was mine.” He shook his head. ”I can't believe this of you, Maria. If the idea of marrying me was so abhorrent to you, why didn't you tell me? I would never have expected you to subject yourself to a life of unhappiness.”
”No, Nicholas.” She went over to him and put her hand gently on his arm. ”You are not abhorrent to me. You are a kind, decent person and I should not object to spending my life with you. I just happened to fall in love with someone else. Someone beneath me whom I could not marry. But I swear that I didn't try to kill you. Neither did Vlad.”
”Then you admit he was here?” Patrascue threw himself into the fray. It was almost like watching a play.
”All right. I admit it. But he just came to say good-bye to me, that's all.”
”Where is he now?” Patrascue asked.
”Gone. Long gone.”
”How could he leave the castle when we are snowed in?”
”He had skis with him,” Matty said. ”He left before that man was poisoned.”
I didn't believe her for a minute and neither did Patrascue.
”You say that you saw him, Lady Georgiana?” he asked, spinning sharply to address me. ”When was this?”
”On my first night here he came into my room by mistake. He thought that it was Princess Maria's room. And someone else spotted him, observing the banquet-Miss Deer-Harte, the English lady who is now also dead, whom we can conclude was pushed from a staircase as she was snooping at night.”
”So, it is a question of two murders, not just one?” Patrascue asked.
”The English lady could have fallen,” Siegfried pointed out.
”She would not have been going down those stairs if she had not been following somebody,” I said. ”She was determined to catch the man she had seen.”
”I can prove to you that Vlad had nothing to do with this second death,” Matty said. ”All right, he is not long gone. He was with me all night. He didn't leave my side once.” And she tossed her head defiantly.
”Maria!” The king opened his mouth in horror. ”You do not announce this shameful conduct to the world. Do you think your bridegroom would want you now that you have told the world you are no longer a virgin?”
Matty looked across at Nicholas. ”I'm sorry, Nicholas. I never wanted to embarra.s.s you or put you in this awkward position, but I can't let the man I love be accused of a crime I know he didn't commit.”
Nicholas nodded. ”I applaud your bravery, Maria,” he said.
”Then how do we know that the man this English lady saw was not Mr. O'Mara?” Patrascue asked. ”I am still not satisfied that we have not all been barking up the wrong tree, since Lady Georgiana made these accusations against the princess. I think she was trying to throw us off the scent.”
”As to that, I'm afraid I have the same alibi as Princess Maria,” Darcy said. ”At the time the poor woman was being pushed down the stairs, I was in bed with Lady Georgiana.”
Of course I turned scarlet as I felt all those eyes on me.
”Then this is true?” Siegfried asked me. ”You do not deny it?”
”I'm afraid it is true,” I said. ”Darcy was with me when we heard the screams from down below.”
”But if these people have an alibi for the second murder, what then?” Patrascue said. ”I would like to discount one of these alibis but I see from the guilty looks on the faces of these young highnesses that their stories are true. Is the murderer someone quite different? Someone we haven't considered until now?”
Someone behind me cleared his throat and Dragomir stepped forward. I hadn't noticed him in the room until that moment. His cloak swirled rather impressively around him. ”Your Majesty, this has gone on long enough. I do not wish to put your daughter through any more pain. I should like to plead guilty to the murders.”
The king stepped toward him. ”You, old friend? You tried to kill Prince Nicholas? But why? Why would you do this?”
”I have my reasons,” Dragomir replied. ”Let us just say that this is my ancestral home and I am avenging the ghosts of my ancestors for the wrongs done to them.”
The door behind us was thrown open, letting in a great gust of cold wind. ”Don't be ridiculous, Father,” said a voice and the elusive Vlad stepped into the room. By daylight he was even more handsome than his portrait, but there was something wild about his eyes and in his right hand he held a gun.
”Father? He called you Father?” the king stammered.
”That's right,” Dragomir said. ”He is my son. I couldn't marry his mother because of her lowly rank but I have done my duty by him. I paid for his schooling and sent him off to study in Paris. And I love him as any father loves his only child.”
”And now he's trying to show his n.o.bility and take the blame for something he didn't do,” Vlad said. ”I attempted to poison Prince Nicholas. I put a gelatin capsule containing cyanide into his red wine at the start of the meal. I planned to be well away by the time it acted. I was not about to let him have the woman I love. I am just angry that I failed. I shall not fail a second time.”
”Vlad!” Matty ran toward him. ”How could you? I trusted you. I loved you. I never thought for an instant . . .”
”For you, Maria,” Vlad said. ”I did it for you. I didn't want you to be condemned to marrying someone you didn't love, when you loved me.”
”We went through that before,” Matty said. ”I told you that my duty to my family came first and always will come first. Now put that gun down. You're not going to shoot anyone.”
”Stand aside, Maria.” Vlad prodded her with the barrel of the pistol.
”You'll have to shoot me first,” she said, eyeing him calmly and defiantly.
”Of course I don't want to shoot you.” His voice had risen dangerously.
”I'm not going to let you shoot Nicholas,” Matty said, ”or anybody else.”
”Why do you always have to be so b.l.o.o.d.y n.o.ble?” Vlad demanded.
”Because I was born to it,” Matty said.