Rivals for Love (8 page)

“Oh, but why?”

“Because of the dreadful weather, thousands died from sickness and the cold following the Czar's atrocious demands. He was completely ruthless, but his grand design for the new City made everyone who saw it gasp.”

Elva was listening eagerly as her aunt continued with her fascinating tale.

“The Czar consulted his architectural advisers, but always made up his own mind. He was just determined, whatever anyone said, that the South bank of the River Neva was to be the most prestigious and that was where he built the Winter Palace in 1711. The Great Squares, the Palaces and the Avenues will all astonish you when you see them.”

“I cannot wait,” enthused Elva, “and when I come home I will write down everything I have seen so that I shall never forget it.”

“That is an excellent idea, but I have a suspicion that when you do return you will be too busy riding your horses!”

Elva laughed.

“I only want to return so that I can go away again. Perhaps by yet another miracle, just like this one, I shall get a chance of going to Africa or Egypt.”

“Now you are going much too fast,” Lady Violet cautioned her. “Be content with what you have at the moment. Do not forget that you are going to visit one of the most interesting, beautiful, yet dangerous Cities in the world.”

“I cannot think there will be much danger for me,” sighed Elva. “After all I am of no particular importance. They might try to kidnap the Duke, or perhaps the Empress will want to marry him, if she is not really already married to Prince Potemkin.”

“You are not to talk like that,” Lady Violet scolded her. “Someone might overhear you and do not forget that when you arrive in St. Petersburg even all the walls have ears.”

Elva looked at her wide-eyed.

“Are you really saying that the Russians would deliberately listen in to my conversations with the Duke?”

“It might happen,” answered Lady Violet. “Either because the Empress wants to know what you are saying in private or perhaps by chance, just as you listened in to my conversation with the Duke.”

Elva laughed.

“I cannot deny it. But it makes me nervous that if you say anything we do not want the Russians to know, they may be listening.”

“As I have told you, the walls have ears. You will have to be very careful not to say anything which could possibly be used against you or, more importantly, against the Duke.”

She now put out both her hands to touch her niece affectionately.

“You are a very intelligent young lady, Elva, and remember that men often take unnecessary risks and it is our job as women to protect them from themselves.”

“I thought they were there to protect us, Aunt Violet!”

“That is what they like to think and believe, but a clever woman can indeed protect a man. She often knows instinctively when danger is looming while he takes things entirely at their face value.”

“I understand what you are saying, Aunt Violet, but I never imagined I might have to look after someone so prestigious and so resourceful as the Duke.”

Lady Violet smiled.

“Even the most powerful man was a little boy at one time and he never really grows up. If you are a true woman, you are always there to comfort and make a fuss of a man when he most needs it.”

Elva gave a little laugh.

“I just cannot imagine the Duke turning to me for comfort,” she said. “He is only too well aware of his own position in the world, and I am quite certain he thinks that like the Czar Peter he always knows best.”

“Well, in the case of St. Petersburg the Czar was surely right. So I can only hope that Cousin Varin will be the same. But remember that
your
job is to look after him and make him happy. Just as his job is to protect you from any physical danger.”

“I certainly hope he will do so,” cried Elva. “I do not want to be shot by mistake, shut up in a fortress or tortured until I tell the Russians what they want to know.”

“I can only pray that nothing like that happens. In the meantime, dearest, be on the lookout and trust no one. If it comes to that – not even your own shadow.”

“No, it is becoming a real adventure with Russian dragons lurking round the corner to eat me up! Doubtless robbers, highwaymen and pirates are planning how they can capture and hold us to ransom!”

“Once again, my dear, you are turning it all into a fairy story.”

“
But
,” emphasised Elva, “you have forgotten that
my
fairy story, as you called it, has come true. I am going abroad and I am going to visit at least one City I have always wanted to see.”

She gave a deep sigh.

“A week ago it all seemed impossible, but now the impossible has become very much the possible. How could it be anything but a miracle?”

She spoke with a joy and excitement in her voice that was very moving.

As Elva rushed from the room, Lady Violet looked worried.

‘She is so young and impetuous,' she pondered. ‘I do hope she will not come to any harm or be disappointed in any way.'

As she walked slowly from the room after Elva, she was quietly wondering even at this eleventh hour, if she should prevent this young girl from going on such an adventure. If not properly handled it might easily cause a scandal or end in disaster.

Upstairs in her bedroom Elva was supervising her packing.

She thought the dresses she had bought to wear for
debutante
balls were reasonably attractive, but they would surely be somewhat unsuitable for any party given in the Winter Palace or in any of the other great Palaces in St. Petersburg.

However, the clothes she and her aunt had bought that morning in Bond Street were all in bright colours and much more suitable for a young married woman.

They were, as the vendeuse had informed them, the very latest designs and the height of fashion.

Because Elva was so slim, the models, which had really been made entirely for show, fitted her perfectly.

It meant she had to pay a little more for the dresses than they would have paid if the gowns had been replicas for sale.

But Elva could not wait.

“We shall have a great deal of trouble replacing all these designs,” grumbled the vendeuse.

“I am sure that you will be able to manage somehow,” replied Elva, “and I need all of them for some very special occasions.”

She then felt she had been a bit indiscreet and added,

“I am a
debutante
this Season, as you may know.”

“Yes, of course, my Lady, and very lovely you'll look in these pretty gowns. I hope you'll come to us when you will be requiring your wedding gown.”

It was with some considerable difficulty that Elva prevented herself from saying that would be a very long time away.

Instead she replied,

“I am in no hurry and I am sure you have a good number of wedding dresses already on order.”

“We have indeed, my Lady,” she gushed. “Three of this Season's
debutantes
are already announcing their engagements in the next few weeks and I am sure their weddings will be very smart and impressive, just like your Ladyship's will be when the time comes.”

Elva wanted to say it was the last thing she wanted.

Her aunt, who had been talking to the manageress of the salon about the bill, joined her, so there was really no need to say anything further.

As they drove away Lady Violet looked worried.

“I do so hope we have thought of everything. Can you think of anything we have forgotten?”

“I really cannot, Aunt Violet. I have now acquired enough clothes to stay in Russia for at least a year!”

“I am sure that is the last thing you want to do, my dear, although it would be interesting perhaps to see the rest of the country which I have never done.”

“Did you really enjoy Russia?” asked Elva.

“I was fascinated by the beautiful Palaces and your uncle and I made some very good friends, but I would have no wish to live there. Everything seems to revolve around the Empress and as she is unpredictable, one never knows from one day to the next what will happen.”

“Of course she and most of her family,” observed Elva, “are really Prussians and not Russians.”

Lady Violet put up her hand.

“That is true, but it is something you must not say in public.”

“Why not?” enquired Elva.

“Because they think of themselves as Russian and as they rule the country, they obtain what they want from the people serving them.”

“And from visitors like you and me?”

“I would certainly not wish to oppose the Empress in any way. She is too powerful and very sure of exactly what she requires and what she intends to receive.”

Lady Violet paused for a moment.

“Make no mistake, she is extremely clever. She is ruling the country with great strength of will, and no one, however strong could possibly ever oppose her. When she came to the throne, the diplomats in St. Petersburg gave her six months, but she has now reigned for twenty-eight years.”

“It will be very exciting to meet her,” commented Elva, “but a little frightening.”

Then she asked,

“What I would really like you, Aunt Violet, to do is tell me is something about Prince Potemkin.”

She thought her aunt was going to refuse.

Then Lady Violet remembered that Elva had heard a good deal about the Prince by listening in when she was talking to the Duke in her study.

It would be best, she reckoned, if the information Elva required came from her rather than from anyone else.

“He is a most unusual person,” she began slowly, “and it is so difficult to describe him in just a few words. People have variously called him a troubadour, a satyr, a warrior, an organiser and a Statesman. He is actually a man overburdened with talent and eccentric charm.”

Elva giggled.

“He sounds truly fascinating!”

“He is in a way. He is also strong-willed, restless, impulsive, romantic and a visionary. When he was a boy, he decided to become a monk.”

“A monk!” exclaimed Elva. “That calling sounds very different to everything he is now.”

“He studied at University,” resumed Lady Violet. “Then he joined the Horse Guards and journeyed to St. Petersburg.”

“And how did he meet the Empress?”

“It was one of those strange occasions which I am sure you would now call a miracle. Catherine had not yet become the Empress because the two Orlov brothers were conspiring to depose her husband, Czar Peter III, and place her on the throne of Russia.”

“It must have been a most dangerous scenario,” murmured Elva.

“She was prepared to lead the Guards to Peterhof, wearing a borrowed uniform. As she was having trouble with the knotted sash that held her sword and scabbard in place, Potemkin, a new upstart young Officer, impulsively rode to her side and gave her his own sword knot.”

“That was certainly a brave action to take.”

“It undoubtedly must have caused a good deal of comment as he remained close to her all through the ride and later fell in love with her. She was then actually in love with Prince Gregory Orlov, but Potemkin's peculiar magnetism had already begun to work its magic and he was constantly in her mind.”

“How old was he then?”

“He was just twenty-three, ten years younger than Catherine. Very tall and with a large heavily muscled body. He sported black curly hair which framed his face, flashing dark eyes and an aquiline nose.”

Elva grinned.

“He does sound rather frightening.”

“When Catherine was crowned Empress of Russia six months later in Moscow and distributed honours to her supporters,” Lady Violet continued, “there was a special award for Potemkin. She gave him ten thousand roubles, an estate with four hundred serfs and a double promotion in rank. Most of the Officers in the conspiracy were raised by one grade.”

“What happened next?” asked Elva breathlessly.

“The Empress often heard stories about him from the Orlovs, who found him witty, amusing, a wonderful mimic and a born actor.”

“In what way?”

“One night the Empress asked him to do some of his imitations. On an impulse with supreme impertinence, he imitated Catherine's own voice speaking Russian with her German accent. For a moment everyone stiffened and so did Catherine. Then she laughed. She was enchanted.”

“And what happened?”

“The Empress's fondness and admiration for him only increased. Naturally the two Orlov brothers became jealous. They invited him to their Palace, provoked a quarrel and beat him up so badly that he had to be carried away and was left permanently blind in his right eye.”

“How cruel!” exclaimed Elva.

“His eye was totally lost,” Lady Violet went on, “and the Orlovs were now venomously hostile to him. He departed from St. Petersburg and entered a monastery. He might even have stayed there had not the Empress written him friendly letters and shown interest in him. He decided after a year and a half to return to the Russian Court.”

“That was brave of him.”

“The Empress was becoming rather bored at that particular time and she wrote a letter to Potemkin full of compliments. So he realised that she still felt more than just friendly towards him. She ended by stating that he was a very powerful man and could be the second most powerful force in all the Russias.”

“He must have been thrilled!”

“Potemkin recognised just what the situation had to offer him. He owned many splendid military uniforms and at times he would wear all his medals and decorations together and walk about as brilliant as a rainbow!

“More often when he entered the Winter Palace to visit the Empress, he wore a monkish khalat. His hair was tousled and his feet sandaled or bare. He disdained not only the formalities of Court life, but the disapproval of Ambassadors and Palace servants.”