The Breadth of Heaven (5 page)

And then the majority of the staff were being shepherded into taxis which were to take them to the airport ahead of their employers, and finally the moment arrived when Natalia herself, in response to some sort of signal, moved towards the doorway. Kathy had been told that she herself was to travel in the same car as the Princess, and so, still carrying Nina, she fell into line behind her.

At the door, Mr. McArthur bowed respectfully over Natalia’s hand, and then shook Kathy’s with an enthusiastic cordiality which embarrassed her. Outside, they turned down the steps to a waiting grey Bentley, while camera lights flashed all around them, and a voice shouted: “Look this way, Princess!” Once, a camera was pushed close to Nina’s face, and instinctively Kathy put up a hand to protect the child. By the time they reached the shelter of the car she was shaking with fright, and as the commissionaire closed the door upon them, and they drew slowly away from the kerb, she gave a sigh of relief.

Joachim, who was ensconced between her and his mother, looked up at her, and his huge dark eyes expressed a kind of precocious amusement.

“Don’t you like reporters, mademoiselle?” he asked conversationally, in excellent English, but before Kathy could say anything his mother turned to him, and ruffled his hair.

“Hush,
ch
e
r
i
.
You must not worry Miss Grant.” She added something in a language that was unfamiliar to Kathy, and the little boy subsided, and even closed his eyes so that he appeared to be asleep.

Throughout the journey to the airport Natalia chattered more or less incessantly, and during their brief wait in the V.I.P. lounge she continued to talk. In Paris, she stated, they would have a wonderful time. Leonid was prepared to allow them two days there—she didn’t appear to mind having her entire life organized by her brother-in-law
—
and they would simply wander from one
couture
establishment to another. And then in Rome, apparently, they would do very much the same thing, and the result would be that by the time they reached Tirhania they would both be superbly equipped. She seemed to think that her own wardrobe was quite as desperately in need of refurbishing as Kathy’s could be, and looking at her full-length sable coat, and the elegant wool dress underneath it which had obviously been the work of a top couturier, the English girl was rather touched by her
naiveté
. She herself was still wearing the russet suit, together with a lightweight tweed coat which had already served her for three winters, and she couldn’t have denied that the prospect of buying new clothes was exciting. But the Princess’s almost feverish absorption with the subject seemed scarcely natural, and Kathy sensed that it was simply part of an effort to help herself forget the other things that preyed on her mind.

They did not see very much of Leonid, who had driven to the airport in a separate car, and it was not until they were about to mount the steps of the airliner that he rejoined them. Natalia smiled at him as if she were glad to have him beside her, and for the first time Kathy found herself wondering exactly what sort of bond existed between them. It seemed to her that the Prince did considerably more than was strictly necessary when it came to looking after his sister-in-law, and although Natalia had not appeared exactly pleased to see him when he first came into her sitting-room at Ransome’s the night before, in general she certainly seemed happier when he was close to her.

It was a bitterly cold December day, and the sky over London Airport was grey and lowering. As Kathy climbed the gangway an icy wind struck her face, and for the first time it occurred to her that it really was very pleasant to be flying off to Paris, Rome
... and Tirhania. Down on the tarmac a television
cameraman
was desperately trying to film them, but now they were almost out of reach—at least for an hour or so.

In the warmth and quiet of the great aircraft Kathy sank gratefully into her seat beside the Princess, and felt excitement surging through her. She had never flown before, and she felt a little nervous, but a stewardess helped her to fasten her safety belt, and as the engines roared into life she forced herself to sit back and relax. Soon the airport buildings were racing past the windows, and everything seemed to be shuddering gently. They were leaving England—for Kathy it was the first time she had ever been out of her own country since that schoolgirl trip to Switzerland years ago and she couldn’t resist craning her neck to see the last of the tarmac, and the houses, and the grey December landscape.

And then they were airborne, soaring into the leaden clouds over London, and she knew that what she had done was now irrevocable
...
there was no turning back.

CHAPTER FOUR

It
was early afternoon when they arrived in Paris, and the sombre rain-clouds which had hung over London brooded also over Orly. Kathy felt stiff, and Nina woke up crying and caught one of her fingers in her safety belt. When the doors were opened the atmosphere, if anything, was colder than it had been in London, and passengers buttoned their coats and pulled up their collars as they hurried down the gangway and across the tarmac to passport and Customs control.

As far as the royal party was concerned, all formalities were made miraculously smooth, and within less than ten minutes Kathy found herself once again sitting beside the Princess in a car—this time heading towards the centre of Paris, and the exclusive, internationally famous hotel at which suites had been reserved for them. Kathy felt a little tired, and as the weather in the French capital was hardly enticing she would gladly have spent the rest of the day indoors, savouring the delights of the luxurious rooms—a bedroom, a bathroom and a sitting-room—which had been assigned to her. But they hadn’t so much time to spare in Paris that Natalia was prepared to waste an hour of it, and so after only a very brief rest the two young women set out to visit Her Highness’s favourite couturier.

Despite her enormously increased salary the products of the foremost fashion houses of Paris were still naturally rather beyond Kathy’s reach, and so she only sat and watched while the Princess chose dress after dress from the current collection of
Mari
e
re, and the obsequious vendeuses bustled round them in droves, but as soon as Natalia had satisfied her own immediate requirements she turned to the English girl with a brilliant smile and suggested that they should now go on a tour of the shops.

“You wish the whole new wardrobe, yes?” she said, her magnolia-smooth cheeks glowing with pleasure. “Dresses and coats and suits ... yes, and sports clothes, and hats and handbags, too, I think.”

“I—I must only spend so much,” Kathy began, remembering everything she had ever heard about Paris prices, and thinking that it would hardly do to be too extravagant with her first month’s salary.

“Miss Grant, if you are to be my secretary you must be beautifully dressed, or you will be miserable. So many smart women
...
” She waved one slim hand in an expressive continental gesture. “And besides, you are so pretty—really quite lovely—and you have to make a splendid marriage!”

Kathy flushed, but Natalia didn’t notice. “All women should have husbands,” she said. Their car had started to move off down the Champs Elysees, and she seemed to be staring rather blindly through the window at the passing shops and cafes. “The world is very lonely and frightening if you have no one to protect you.”

Realizing that she was now thinking mainly of her own position, the other girl felt an uprush of sympathy. “Surely,” she said gently, “you have someone to protect you? Prince Leonid
...”

“Yes. Yes, Leonid is very kind.” Her whole face seemed to lighten, and she smiled at Kathy. “And you, you are very kind. I shall find you a charming
Tirhanian husband, and you will live close to the Schloss Zaarensbrucke, which is where I live, and you will be my best friend! And now here we are at the boutique of Madame Remier, and you can choose
some suits.”

Madame Remier, an elderly and impressive French-woman, was clearly delighted that anyone as influential as the Princess Natalia of Tirhania had seen fit to recommend her to a friend, and she was also extremely helpful. Having taken one look at Kathy she declared that mademoiselle’s colour was obviously blue, and seating her clients in a magnificent powder-pink fitting-room produced model after model for the approval of the English girl. They were all so staggeringly perfect, and she was so completely bewildered, that she was hard put to it to say which she liked best, and she was grateful for Natalia’s invaluable advice and guidance. With unerring skill and taste, the Princess helped her to select all the items which suited her best and would be most useful to her, and by the time they returned to the car she had become the slightly dazed possessor of three enchanting suits—one in misty blue wool, one in a heavy champagne-coloured silk, and one in a tweed so darkly blue that it matched almost exactly the deep wood-violet hue of her own rather striking eyes.

From Madame Remier’s they went on to an establishment which specialized in evening dresses, and Kathy stared in fascination as some of the loveliest gowns she had ever seen in her life were paraded for her inspection. The Princess, it seemed, would have liked her to purchase half the shop, but she insisted that she could not at the moment afford more than one evening dress, and eventually decided on a subtly spectacular creation in midnight-blue tulle, with a draped bodice and a spreading ankle-length skirt which seemed to float about her like an undulating haze. When she put it on and studied her own reflection in a looking-glass she was barely able to recognize herself, for it did such strangely breathtaking things to her skin and eyes that the young woman who had helped her into it permitted herself a small gasp of approval, and Natalia, standing behind her, clasped her hands together and gave vent to an exclamation in her native tongue.

“But you are entirely enchanting!” she said, tilting her head on one side. “Tonight we shall go to the theatre, and all the French gentlemen will stare at you.” The big brown eyes twinkled. “And now we will go and do the rest of our shopping.”

The rest of the afternoon, as far as Kathy was concerned, resembled a rather confused dream, and when, shortly before six o’clock, they finally arrived back at the hotel, all she could really be sure of was that in addition to the three suits and the evening dress she was now in possession of several attractive day dresses, a bewildering variety of shoes and other accessories, and a mountain of extremely glamorous lingerie. She was still vaguely certain that the total cost of her new wardrobe was considerably more than she could really afford, even now, and it worried her a little that in almost every case the garments had been placed temporarily, to Natalia’s account. But when she ventured to protest the Princess rebuked her by saying that her secretary must dress well, and that she could repay the money gradually. When she still gave indications of being
unhappy about the situation Natalia evinced slight but unmistakable signs of being surprised and just a little cross, and Kathy realized that to persevere with the question at the moment would simply look like arrogance.

In the foyer of the hotel the Baroness Liczak was awaiting them. She was not, as Kathy had already discovered, a particularly expansive person, and as the English girl came through the swing doors in the wake of their mutual employer she knew that the Baroness was watching her with cold disapproval in her light grey eyes.

She spoke to the Princess in their own tongue, and her voice was prim and remote. As she listened to her the smile faded on Natalia’s lips, and with a consciousness of foreboding Kathy saw her push back her silver-blonde hair in the nervous gesture which meant that something had upset her.

She seemed to be asking questions, rapidly and disjointedly, and the Baroness answered in the same coldly respectful manner. Then Natalia turned to Kathy, and her face was small and forlorn.

“The Baroness says that Leonid—that the Prince has left. He has gone on to Tirhania ahead of us. There is something
...
something that he has to attend to.” She stared absently at the two porters who were bringing Kathy’s purchases in and stacking them in the lift. “I wish he had not gone,” she said, and all the gaiety of the afternoon was banished from her face.

The Baroness stood by impassively, like an automaton awaiting instructions, and Kathy felt more than ever irritated by her. Several people were staring at them, for although they had not been pursued in Paris as they had been in London, certainly there could be no one in the hotel who did not know the identity of the fair-haired young woman with the magnificent fur coat and the air of being rather lost.

“I think,” said Kathy quietly, “that perhaps we ought to go upstairs.”

“Yes
...
yes, of course.”

They started to move towards the lift, and the Baroness Liczak moved with them. She was speaking again, and something she said seemed to upset the Princess, who stopped in her tracks and uttered an exclamation, followed by a protesting torrent of words. But the Baroness, as imperturbable as ever, seemed to pacify her fairly quickly, and she fell silent, though her mouth was set in resentful lines, and on the way upstairs she hardly spoke at all. At the outer door of the royal suite the Baroness left them, but Kathy was urged to accompany her employer inside, and when the door was closed behind them Natalia flung her coat over a little gilt-legged chair, and wandered over to the window. Outside a fine rain was falling, and the sound of hissing tyres came up very clearly from the brightly-lit street below. Kathy took the sable coat into the bedroom and put it away. Then she came back, and picked up the telephone.

“I think you ought to have something,” she said. “Shall I order you a drink?”

“Yes, please.” The voice was quiet, and suspiciously husky. “A gin and orange. And order something for yourself.”