Part 41 (1/2)
”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.