Masked Ball at Broxley Manor (4 page)

“Very well,” my cousin’s voice said and an extravagant birdlike Venetian mask was removed to reveal the Prince of Wales.

Before any more masks could be removed there was a deep boom outside the building. The French doors blew open, a great gust of wind rushed in and the whole house shook. People jumped to their feet, alarmed. A couple of women screamed.

“What is it? What’s going on?’ a woman shrieked.

“Stay put, everyone,” Lord Merriman said in a commanding voice. “Nobody go anywhere. We’ve got police around the building. I’m sure we’re quite safe in here if we stick together. I’m going to see what’s happening.”

“Do you think they’ve bombed Broxley, Podge?” Lady Merriman asked. “Bombed our lovely house?”

“I’m sure everything’s all right, Dottie. You keep our guests entertained.”

“All right, but take care, won’t you?” Lady Merriman called after him. She turned back to us and tried to manage a bright smile. “On with our game and off with the motley. Who is next, Prince Otto?”

“Where is Prince Otto?” a woman’s voice said. “I don’t see him. Oh my God. They haven’t killed Prince Otto, have they?”

My heart had almost stopped beating. That blast had come from outside the French doors and that was exactly where Prince Otto had gone. It was all I could do to force myself to stay seated.

“I’m sure Prince Otto is just fine,” Lady Merriman said.

“Here I am. Quite safe. No cause for alarm,” said a voice by the door, and a man in a devil’s costume stepped out among us. “Please do not worry. I am sure your excellent police will soon have apprehended the man who tried to harm us.”

He came into the light and I stared hard at him. It was the same costume all right, but there was something different about him. Even the voice was different—higher and with a slight foreign accent.

“It is my turn to remove the mask, nicht wahr? Very well. I shall have a devil of a time doing it.” And he laughed as he pulled off the red mask and black cap. I found myself looking at a chubby and rather silly face with a weak chin. He had fair hair and blue eyes that drooped a little at the corners. He was definitely not the same person I had danced with.

“Go and sit next to lady Georgiana, Otto,” Lady Merriman said. “She looks quite upset.”

She led Otto to the seat beside me. “Your turn, I believe,” he said. He reached across and removed my mask. “Ah, yes,” he said. “My dear cousin Georgiana. I am so sorry you were frightened by the explosion. But you have had a pleasant ball so far, I hope. You enjoyed the dancing?”

“Yes, thank you,” I mumbled. I could hardly get out the words. My mind was reeling. My partner had told me he was an interloper, a gate-crasher, and obviously it was true. But who was he, and why had he gate-crashed the ball disguised as Prince Otto? And then my brain took this supposition one stage further. Was it possible that he was perhaps the anarchist himself, in cahoots with the man who put poison in a drink intended for me? After all, the explosion had happened soon after he went outside, through those French doors. I didn’t want to believe that of him. It was breaking my heart, in fact.

Otto was chatting on. “I am so sorry that I missed the reception that the king and queen gave for me the other day. I understand that you were there. I was unavoidably detained with friends in the country. A spot of motorcar trouble, you know.”

His English was fluent but clipped and Germanic.

The company had recovered from shock and other people were now removing masks to expressions of surprise and laughter. Lady Merriman had just suggested that we go in to supper when the French doors opened again and Lord Merriman came in, accompanied by a young bobby.

“It’s all right,” he said. “They caught the blighter. Some foreign chappy trying to bump off Prince Otto, from what we can gather.”

“Really, it is too bad that one can’t feel safe in England anymore,” Lady Merriman said. “Did he do any damage to our house?”

“No, luckily the bomb was wrenched away from him and hurled away from the house before it could explode,” Lord Merriman said. “It has blown a crater in one of the lawns, that’s all. Easily remedied. So sorry, everyone. Let’s put it out of our minds and go in to supper, shall we? We’ll show these foreign blighters that they can’t scare us.”

Prince Otto rose to his feet and offered me his arm. I took it and allowed myself to be led through double doors to a dining room where a magnificent spread awaited us on long, white-clothed tables. We ate very frugally at home, as Fig was in full economy mode, so on any other occasion I would have been thrilled to see whole smoked salmons, cold chickens, plates of oysters, mounds of caviar, lobsters, cold venison and all the foods I dreamed of when we were forced to face baked beans yet again. But I wasn’t used to eating this late and my stomach was tied in knots. I couldn’t stop thinking about my mystery man. I wondered if I should say anything to Lord Merriman, to tell him that my dance partner had been a gate-crasher at the party and had claimed that someone tried to poison our drinks. But if they had already caught him, his fate was sealed anyway. A wave of overwhelming sadness enveloped me. For the first time in my life I had met a man with whom I could really fall in love, and he had turned out to be a fake. Perhaps his kisses had been fake too—a pleasant way to pass the time until he went outside to detonate the bomb that would have killed us all.

“You do not eat,” Prince Otto said. His own plate was piled high. “Not good to starve yourself. You need more meat on your bones. Here, let me give you this good venison.”

I looked at the small foreleg in horror. All I could picture was a fawn standing in the forest. When Otto wasn’t looking I put down that plate, picked up another and served myself a little caviar and a fruit jelly. Otto escorted me back to the gold salon where he procured two chairs in a corner. “Zis is cozy,
ja
?” he said. “Now we get to know each other better and you tell me amusing stories of your royal relations.”

There was no way I wanted to tell him amusing stories. Actually, I didn’t want to sit beside him, so I said, sweetly, “You were a little late in coming to the party, weren’t you, sir?”

“Me?” he gave me a long look of innocence. “But I have been here all the time. You must be remarkably unobservant because I believe I danced with you.”

I didn’t feel like taking this any further. I wanted to get away, to be among people with whom I felt safe. “Oh, yes,” I said. “So you did.”

“And I hope I was a good dancer?” he teased.

“The best,” I said.

The Prince of Wales, with the Simpsons in tow, came up to join us.

“Ah, so you’ve finally met young Georgie, have you, Otto?” The prince pulled up a chair beside us and Mrs. Simpson sat in it, giving him a dazzling smile of gratitude. Mr. Simpson grunted and loitered in the background.

“I have, and your mother was right. She is quite charming,” he said.

“Then at least one of us had better do the right thing and get married,” my cousin said.

“So my father keeps telling me,” Otto replied. “But I do not see why I have to do the right thing any longer. It is not as if we have a dynasty to continue. We are no longer in power. We are passé, has-beens. So why not just amuse ourselves and to hell with duty?”

Conversation was broken off as a plainclothes officer stepped into the room. “You will be pleased to know that the man who tried to commit this heinous act is currently being driven to Southampton in a police motorcar. Our men have searched the grounds and found no accomplices, so I’m happy to tell you that it is quite safe to carry on enjoying your evening.”

Lady Merriman got up. “Thank you, Inspector. And if your men would like to come in for some supper in the servants’ hall, they would be most welcome.”

“Good of you, my lady,” he said, “but I think they should stay on duty around the house at least until it’s light. Just in case. We can’t be too careful where these foreign assassins are concerned, can we? Look what started the Great War.”

“Then I’ll have some food sent out to them,” Lady Merriman said. “Tell me, do they like smoked salmon? Maybe pasties would be safer. And are they allowed to drink on duty? We’ve a very innocuous punch.” And she went out of the room before the stunned man could answer any of these questions.

Before he could leave the room, I went over to him. “Tell me, Inspector,” I said. “What did this man you arrested look like?”

“Nasty, foreign-looking chap,” he said. “Unshaven. Big dark fellow. Shabbily dressed. He put up a good fight too, when our lads brought him to the ground. Biting and snarling like some kind of wild animal, he was.”

Now I was even more confused. That didn’t sound like my dancing partner either.

Prince Otto had now come to join me. “Do not concern yourself,
liebchen
,” he said. “I am sure we are safe and all is well. Listen. The music has begun again. Shall we go and dance?”

I could hardly refuse as other couples were now making their way back to the ballroom. As we walked he said to me, “I have been thinking. You seem to be a pleasant young woman. It is true you are not a great beauty, but you look wholesome and healthy enough. If I really must marry, then I could do worse. It will stop the family from constantly reminding me of my duty.” Then to my horror he slipped his arm around my waist and drew me closer to him. “And you would have an agreeable life with me. Berlin is a delightful city with many amusements. And I would allow you much freedom. You would even be free to take a lover, providing you were discreet.”

“And you would be free to take a mistress?” I asked innocently.

He chuckled. “But of course. That is how it is done with our kind of people. But at least a marriage fits the bill, so to speak, doesn’t it? It cements family ties across Europe. It provides each of our countries with a valuable connection.” I was about to remind him that his grandfather the kaiser and our King George were first cousins but it hadn’t prevented the worst war the world had ever known. But I decided there was no point. Otto went on cheerfully, “Everyone would be happy.”

“Not me,” I said and was amazed at my bravery. “I wouldn’t be happy, Otto.”

He stopped and looked stunned. “You do not like me?”

“Oh, I’m sure you’re very nice,” I said, “but I don’t know you. And I certainly don’t love you. When I marry, it will only be for love.”

He laughed. “You are still young and inexperienced. I understand this. When you grow older you will realize that marriage is only a formality, designed to keep wealth and power among the right families. And to produce an heir. Love does not come into this.”

“Well, it should,” I said. “I do not wish to spend my life with someone I don’t love, watching him sneak off to be with his mistresses. That’s not for me. I want to marry for love and live happily ever after.”

“Your trouble is that you have too much of your great-grandmother Queen Victoria in you,” he said.

“You’re right,” I said. “I’m proud to be like her. And until I find my Prince Albert, I shall remain fancy-free.”

“Your king and queen will not be pleased about this.”

“I think they’ll understand,” I said. “And if they don’t like it—I’m only a very minor member of the family. Of no consequence at all. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m feeling very tired.”

I pulled away and gave him a polite sort of bow and went upstairs. I was feeling rather proud of myself by the time I located the room I had changed in and took off my costume. I had turned down my first real proposal. I had not let crowned heads of Europe push me around. I had stood up for what I believed in. I was not a child anymore. Before I fell asleep I conjured up the strong jaw and lovely smile of the man who’d danced with me, and I heard his voice in my head. And I wondered if I would ever see him again.

* * *

I awoke to the sun streaming in through long windows, and came downstairs to find guests at breakfast, still in their costumes. I didn’t feel like joining them and being jolly all over again. I found Lady Merriman and asked if I could be driven to the station.

“Are you not feeling well, my dear?” she asked. “You are looking pale. Too much champagne last night, maybe. Tell me, did you sleep alone?”

I blushed. “Of course.”

“I thought as much. Otto was in a bad mood. I gather you turned him down.”

I nodded. “I can’t agree to marry someone I’ve never met before.”

“I quite agree. And you’re far too young.” She patted my hand. “Travel the world. See life and then marry. That’s what I did and I am blissfully happy with my dear Podge.”

I tried to phrase the question in my head. “Tell me, Lady Merriman, was there another guest wearing a devil’s outfit last night?”

“Were you seeing double? All that champagne, honey. No, you two were the only devilish pair.”

And so I left, not knowing, believing I should never know the truth. When I arrived home that afternoon Harrison met me in the front hall and helped me off with my coat.

“Did you have a delightful time, my lady?” he asked.

“It was very grand,” I said. “All a little overwhelming.”

“I understand, my lady. Always better to be among one’s own kind, I think.”

I nodded.

“Their graces have gone out, so you have the house to yourself,” he went on. “Should I have some tea sent to the drawing room for you?”

“Thank you, that would be lovely.”

“And a note came for you, my lady. Delivered by hand earlier today.” He held out the salver to me and I took the letter, addressed in strong black script.
To a fallen angel
.

I rushed into the drawing room, sat by the fire and opened it.

My dear fallen angel,

I am sorry that I had to run off like that last night and we never had a chance to say good-bye. Maybe it’s better that way. Did you accept Prince Otto’s proposal? He told me he intended to propose.

I told you I was a gate-crasher and it was true. I was not on the guest list. I came only to do my friend Otto a favor. You see, there is a certain married woman of whom he is rather fond. She finds it hard to give her husband the slip, so I was brought in to be the decoy while they were dallying upstairs. I hope this doesn’t shock you too much. It’s the way of the world, I am afraid. Although I am sure that you will never dally. When you have made your choice, you will be faithful forever.