Two days later, the ugly bandages having been removed from my head,
Natalia was seated in the afternoon in my den.
Exquisitely neat in her dead black, with the long crape veil, she
presented an altogether different appearance to the radiant girl who had
sat before me on that fatal drive. Her sweet face was now pale and
drawn, and by the dark rings about her eyes I saw how full of poignant
grief her heart had lately been.
She had taken off her long, black gloves and settled herself cosily in
my big armchair, her tiny patent-leather shoe, encasing a shapely
silk-clad ankle, set forth beneath the hem of her black skirt.
"I was so terrified. Uncle Colin, that you were also dead!" the girl
was saying in a low, sympathetic voice, after I had expressed my deepest
regret regarding the unfortunate death of her father, to whom she had
been so devoted.
"I suppose I had a very narrow escape," I said cheerfully. "You came
out best of all."
"By an absolute miracle. The Emperor is furious. Twenty of those
arrested have already been sent to Schusselburg," she said. "Only
yesterday, he told me that he hoped you would be well enough in a day or
two to go to the Palace. I was to tell you how extremely anxious he is
to see you as soon as possible."
"I will obey the command at the earliest moment I am able," I replied.
"But how horribly unfortunate all this is," I went on. "I fully
expected that you would be in England by this time."
"As soon as you are ready, Uncle Colin, I can go. The Emperor has
already told me that he has placed me under your guardianship. That you
are to be my equerry. Isn't it fun?" she cried, her pretty face
suddenly brightening with pleasure. "Fancy you! dear old uncle, being
put in charge of me--your naughty niece!"
"His Majesty wished it," I said. "He thinks you will be better away
from Court for a time. Therefore, I have promised to accept the
responsibility. For one year you are to live _incognito_ in England,
and I have been appointed your equerry and guardian--and," I added very
seriously, "I hope that my naughty niece will really behave herself, and
do nothing which will cause me either annoyance or distress."
"I'll really try and be very good, Uncle Colin," declared the girl with
mock demureness, and laughing mischievously. "Believe me, I will."
"It all remains with you," I said. "Remember I do not wish it to be
necessary that I should furnish any unfavourable report to the Emperor.
I want us to understand each other perfectly from the outset. Recollect
one point always. Though you may be known in England as Miss Gottorp,
yet remember that you are of the Imperial family of Russia, and niece of
the Emperor. Hence, there must be no flirtations, no clandestine
meetings or love-letters, and such-like, as in the case of young
Hamborough."
"Please don't bring up that affair," urged the little madcap. "It is
all dead, buried and forgotten long ago."
"Very well," I said, looking straight into her big, velvety eyes so full
of expression. "But remember that your affection is absolutely
forbidden except towards a man of your own birth and station."
"I know," she cried, with a quick impatience. "I'm unlike any other
girl. I am forbidden to speak to a commoner."
"Not in England. Preserve your _incognito_, and nobody will know. At
His Majesty's desire, I have obtained leave of absence from the service
for twelve months, in order to become your guardian."
"Well, dear old Uncle Colin, you are the only person I would have
chosen. Isn't that nice of me to say so?" she asked, with a tantalising
smile.
"But I tell you I shall show you no leniency if you break any of the
rules which must, of necessity, be laid down," I declared severely. "As
soon as I find myself well enough, you will take Miss West, your old
governess, and Davey, your English maid, to England, and I will come and
render you assistance in settling down somewhere in comfort."
"At Eastbourne?" she cried in enthusiasm. "We'll go there. Do let us
go there?"
"Probably at Brighton," I said quietly. "It would be gayer for you,
and--well, I will be quite frank--I think there are one or two young men
whom you know in Eastbourne. Hence it is not quite to your advantage to
return there."
She pouted prettily in displeasure.
"Brighton is within an hour of London, as you know," I went on,
extolling the praises of the place.
"Oh, yes, I know it. We often went over from Eastbourne, to concerts
and things. There's an aquarium there, and a seaside railway, and lots
of trippers. I remember the place perfectly. I love to see your
English trippers. They are such fun, and they seem to enjoy themselves
so much more than we ever do. I wonder how it is--they enjoy their
freedom, I suppose, while we have no freedom."
"Well," I said cheerfully, "in a week or ten days I hope I shall be
quite fit to travel, and then we will set out for England."
"Yes. Let us go. The Emperor leaves for Peterhof on Saturday. He will
not return to Petersburg until the winter, and the Court moves to
Tzarskoie-Selo on Monday."
"Then I will see His Majesty before Saturday," I said. "But, tell me,
why did Your Highness write to me so urgently three days ago? You said
you wished to see me at once."
The girl sprang from her chair, crossed to the door, and made certain it
was closed.
Then, glancing around as though apprehensive of eavesdroppers, she said:
"I wanted to tell you, Uncle Colin, of something very, very curious
which happened the other evening. About ten o'clock at night I was with
Miss West in the blue boudoir--you know the room in our palace, you've
been in it."
"I remember it perfectly," I said.
"Well, I went upstairs to Davey for my smelling-salts as Miss West felt
faint, and as I passed along the corridor I saw, in the moonlight, in my
own room a dark figure moving by the window. It was a man. I saw him
searching the drawers of my little writing-table, examining the contents
by means of an electric-torch. I made no sound, but out of curiosity,
drew back and watched him. He was reading all my letters--searching for
something which he apparently could not find. My first impulse was to
ring and give the alarm, for though I could not see the individual's
face, I knew he must be a thief. Still, I watched, perhaps rather
amused at the methodical examination of my letters which he was making,
all unconscious that he was being observed, until suddenly at a noise
made by a servant approaching from the other end of the corridor, he
started, flung back the letters into the drawer, and mounting to the
open window, got out and disappeared. I shouted and rushed after him to
the window, but he had gone. He must have dropped about twelve feet on
to the roof of the ballroom and thus got away.
"Several servants rushed in, and the sentries were alarmed," she went
on. "But when I told my story, it was apparent that I was not believed.
The drawer in the writing-table had been reclosed, and as far as we
could see all was in perfect order. So I believe they all put it down
to my imagination."
"But you are quite certain that you saw the man there?" I said, much
interested in her story.
"Quite. He was of middle height, dressed in dark clothes, and wore a
cloth peaked cap, like men wear when golfing in England," she replied.
"He was evidently in search of something I had in my writing-table, but
he did not find it. Nevertheless, he read a quantity of my letters
mostly from school-friends."
"And your love-letters?" I asked, with a smile.
"Well, if the fellow read any of them," she laughed, "I hope he was very
much edified. One point is quite plain. He knew English, for my
letters were nearly all in English."
"Some spy or other, I suppose."
"Without a doubt," she said, clasping her white hands before her and
raising her wonderful eyes to mine. "And do you know, Uncle Colin, the
affair has since troubled me very considerably. I wanted to see you and
hear your opinion regarding it."
"My opinion is that your window ought not to have been left open."
"It had not been. The maid whose duty it is to close the windows on
that floor one hour before sunset every day has been closely questioned,
and declares that she closed and fastened it at seven o'clock."
"Servants are not always truthful," I remarked dubiously.
"But the intruder was there with some distinct purpose. Don't you think
so?"
"Without a doubt. He was endeavouring to learn some secret which Your
Highness possesses. Cannot you form any theory what it can be? Try and
reflect."
"Secret!" she echoed, opening her eyes wide. "I have no secrets.
Everybody tells me I am far too outspoken."
"Here, in Russia, everyone seems to hold secrets of some character or
other, social or political, and spies are everywhere," I said. "Are you
quite certain you have never before seen the intruder?"
"I could only catch the silhouette of his figure against the moonlight,
yet, to tell the truth, it struck me at that moment that I had seen him
somewhere before. But where, I could not recollect. He read each
letter through, so he must have known English very well, or he could not
have read so quickly."
"But did you not tell me in the winter garden of the Palace, on the
night of the last Court ball, that Marya de Rosen had given you certain
letters--letters which reflected upon General Markoff?" I asked.
She sat erect, staring at me open-mouthed in sudden recollection. "Why,
I never thought of that!" she gasped. "Of course! It was for those
letters the fellow must have been searching."
"I certainly think so--without the shadow of a doubt."
"Madame de Rosen feared lest they should be stolen from her, and she
gave them over to me--three of them sealed up in an envelope," declared
my dainty little companion. "She expressed apprehension lest a
domiciliary visit be made to her house by the police, when the letters
in question might be discovered and seized. So she asked me to hold
them for her."
"And what did you do with them?"
"I hid them in a place where they will never be found," she said; "at a
spot where nobody would even suspect. But somebody must be aware that
she gave them to me for safe-keeping. How could they possibly know?"
"I think Your Highness was--well, just a little indiscreet on the night
of the Court ball," I said. "Don't you recollect that you spoke aloud
when other people were in the winter garden, and that I queried the
judiciousness of it?"
"Ah! I remember now!" she exclaimed, her face suddenly pale and
serious. "I recollect what I said. Somebody must have overheard me."
"And that somebody told Serge Markoff himself--the man who was poor
Madame de Rosen's enemy, and who has sent both her and Luba to their
graves far away in Eastern Siberia."
"Then you think that he is anxious to regain possession of those
letters?"
"I think that is most probable, in face of your statement that you
intend placing them before the Emperor. Of course, I do not know their
nature, but I feel that they must reflect very seriously upon His
Majesty's favourite official--the oppressor of Russia. You still have
them in your possession?" I asked.
"Yes, Uncle Colin. I feared lest some spy might find them, so I went up
to my old nursery on the top floor of the Palace--a room which has not
been used for years. In it stands my old doll's house--a big, dusty
affair as tall as myself. I opened it and placed the packet in the
little wardrobe in one of the doll's bedrooms. It is still there. I
saw it only yesterday."
"Be very careful that no spy watches you going to that disused room.
You cannot exercise too much caution in this affair," I urged seriously.
"I am always cautious," she assured me. "I distrust more than one of
our servants, for I believe some of them to be in Markoff's pay. All
that we do at home is carried at once to the Emperor, while I am watched
at every turn."
"True; only we foreign diplomats are exempt from this pestilential
surveillance and the clever plots of the horde of _agents-provocateurs_
controlled by the all-powerful Markoff."
"But what shall I do, Uncle Colin?" asked the girl, her white hands
clasped in her lap.
"If you think it wise to place the letter before the Emperor, I should
certainly lose no time in doing so," I replied. "It may soon be too
late. Spies will leave no hole or corner in your father's palace
unexamined."
"You think there really is urgency?" she asked.