The Duke Is Deceived

CHAPTER ONE 1875-1

CHAPTER ONE

1875Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein was busy in his sitting room in the Schloss Vaduz.

The pile of papers in front of him was gradually decreasing and yet, as he gazed forlornly at them with a sigh, he realised that there were still very many of them. He was still tidying up the mess that had been left, he ruminated, by the German Confederation.

The Monarchy of Liechtenstein was hereditary in the male line only and Johann had succeeded his father as Prince four years earlier.

The Liechtensteiners were intensely proud of their Ruler when so many other countries, like Switzerland, had become Republics.

The Schloss Vaduz looked like a cross between a Medieval fortress and a granary, so the wits joked, but the interior was very different.

The Prince’s collection of paintings, to which he was always adding, was priceless and the object of great envy in other Monarchies.

The Schloss Vaduz was enormous and, although his family was small, there were a good number of rooms in use.

And the Schloss was certainly the most luxurious building of the century and the Prince was very proud of it.

He signed his name with a flourish on a particularly bureaucratic letter from the German Chancellor’s office.

Then, as he pushed to one side the rest of the papers in the pile, one of his equerries appeared.

Prince Johann looked up, feeling irritated because he disliked being interrupted.

“I apologise for disturbing Your Royal Highness,” the equerry said, “but Princess Zelda of Brienz has called to see you.”

The Prince looked astonished as the Princess lived in Switzerland with her family, who did not often come to Liechtenstein.

“Show Her Highness in,” he ordered and rose from his writing desk.

The equerry bowed and hurried away.

A few moments later he returned and announced,

“Princess Zelda, Your Royal Highness.”

Into the sitting room came an extremely attractive, in fact very beautiful young woman.

The Prince had not seen her for nearly two years and now he reckoned that she must be nearly twenty.

She had become a great beauty, as her mother had been. Her heart-shaped face and clear complexion made her outstandingly attractive and her long golden hair was more likely to belong to an angel from Heaven.

She stood for a moment in the doorway, looking to make sure it was him and then she ran towards the Prince.

“I thought that you would be surprised to see me, Cousin Johann,” she began. “But I need your help and it is far too long since I last saw you.”

“Just what I was thinking myself,” he replied to her. “You are now even prettier, dear Zelda, than you were that Christmas when you fascinated everyone in the country.”

“Now you are flattering me. But I enjoy that and now I have come to ask for your help. You are the one person I would trust to give me the right answer.”

The Prince smiled.

“In other words the answer you want yourself!”

“Exactly,” Zelda replied.

“Well, first we must have a glass of wine,” he said. “As you must be tired after your long journey, I suggest you take off your hat and cape.”

As she stood in front of him, he thought that her figure was just as perfect as her complexion and she was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful young women he had seen for a long time.

As if he knew what to do, a servant came hurrying in with a bottle of the best Liechtenstein wine.

The Princess, having accepted a glass, sat down on the sofa and the Prince sat in a chair near her.

As the door closed behind the servant, he enquired,

“Now what has happened? What is the trouble?”

“Need you ask?” Zelda exclaimed. “Papa is trying to marry me off to another Ruler. This time he comes from the Balkans and is even more unpleasant than the last one he chose for me!”

The Prince knew his cousin was determined that his only precious child should marry at the very least a ruling Prince and produce a large family.

And it would make his position in Switzerland even more influential than it was already.

In 1848 Switzerland had received a completely new constitution, but it was still a Republican country without a Royal Ruler and had in the last several years enjoyed an exceptional political stability with its mixture of Canton and Federal Governments.

But the older families who had always supported their Royalty were, as Prince Johann knew, determined to be respected and venerated as they had been in the past.

His cousin, Zelda’s father, however, had suffered a severe blow when he was a young man.

He had been the victim of an avalanche that had crippled him and the doctors had pronounced that it would be impossible for him ever to be the father of children.

He had very recently married an extremely pretty woman – Princess Lois, and it seemed such a tragedy that the two young people could not complete their happiness by bringing a child into the world.

Then unexpectedly, when Princess Lois was thirty, by what appeared to the people around them as a miracle, she produced a daughter as beautiful as herself.

Prince Johann thought that he would never forget the excitement in the family and the emotional celebrations that took place at the Christening.

It seemed as if Zelda had brought light and laughter to her parents.

As she grew up and became as stunningly beautiful as her lovely mother, it was obvious that her father was determined she should make a grand marriage, if possible to a reigning King.

And there were quite a number of them available.

Although they lived quite a distance apart, Prince Johann was well aware of his cousin’s ambition and he was not really surprised that Zelda should turn to him for help.

“Now tell me exactly,” he said, “what your father is doing to force you into marriage even though you don’t like any of the potential bridegrooms.”

“‘Like’ is too mild a word for those who have been produced so far,” Zelda replied. “The last one was twenty years older than me and had nothing to talk about except his horses, which I gather are not that well-bred. I suspect the same might be said of their owner!”

Prince Johann laughed.

“That’s certainly a very scathing condemnation,” he remarked. “But I can understand your father’s anxiety. You know as well as I do that our family has always been respected in Switzerland as well as here in Liechtenstein.”

“I have heard that you are doing brilliantly, Cousin Johann, but then you are really Royalty, whilst we have nothing to commend us except a large house and an estate that cannot be called a Kingdom under any circumstances.”

“But that is how your father likes to think of it.” He paused before he went on slowly,

“I suppose he is thinking that if you produce several sons one of the younger ones could then inherit your Swiss estate, while the eldest would obviously follow his father onto his non-existent throne.”

Zelda held up her hands.

“You are going much too fast, Cousin Johann,” she protested. “How can you possibly talk about my having all that number of children when I have not yet found a man I could tolerate for two minutes as my husband?”

“I cannot believe that you are as difficult to please as that, Zelda. After all there are handsome and attractive men in every part of the world. Although I admit they are not always Royal.”

“Papa has insisted on a grand marriage. It was after I had seen the last unbelievable horror from the Balkans that I ran away.”

“So you have run away,” Prince Johann exclaimed, “and what am I supposed to do about it?”

“I will tell you exactly what I want,” Zelda replied. “I want to go to England.”

“To England! But why? It’s a country your father has shown no interest in and has never even been there.”

“You know the answer to that as well as I do.” The Prince stared at her.

“What exactly do you mean by that?” he asked after a moment’s silence.

“Do you really think,” she asked, “that I could have remained ignorant for ever over what happened?”

There was silence before the Prince asked,

“Who told you the tale you must be referring to?”

Princess Zelda laughed.

“I think it must have been whispered over me in the cradle. By the time I could think for myself, I could see almost everyone who came to our house looking at me in an enquiring manner and whispering to one another that I definitely resembled the Earl.”

Prince Johann sat upright in his chair.

“Are you telling me,” he asked, “that you believe that fantastic story?”

“Of course I believe it,” Zelda flashed back. “You know just as well as I do that everyone in Switzerland and doubtless in Liechtenstein too knows it is the truth.”

The Prince gave a deep sigh.

For a moment he could not think of anything to say, as he had never imagined that the rumour about her birth would have reached her tender ears – or, if she had heard it, she would take it seriously.

Of course people were astonished when after nearly ten years of marriage, Princess Lois had become pregnant and given birth to a baby daughter.

It was only the close members of the family who suspected that the Earl of Milver, an extremely handsome Englishman, who had been staying at Brienz nine months earlier, had been infatuated by the lovely Princess Lois.

The doctors had been completely certain that his cousin could never father a child.

Therefore naturally Prince Johann, like the rest of the family, had been astonished when the baby was born.

However, he had determinedly pooh-poohed any suggestions made to him about the Earl of Milver.

When he had met the Earl later in Paris, he realised how good-looking he was and he could easily understand that everywhere he went he would be gossiped about and undoubtedly pursued by endless beautiful women.

There was no doubt as the years passed that the rumour had spread and refused to be suppressed.

It was all the more plausible when Zelda showed so many characteristics that were definitely English.

Her pink and white complexion for one thing was a characteristic everyone recognised as being English.

So was her fair hair – it was the colour of the sun rising over the mountains in the morning.

She was also extremely intelligent. In fact so much so that it was one of the first attributes that people found strange and her father and mother, charming though they were, were not notable for their brains.

The Earl of Milver had, as far as Prince Johann was aware, never returned to Switzerland.

He later became the fourth Duke of Milverden, but was killed in a riding accident when he was still unmarried.

The Dukedom had gone to a cousin who, Prince Johann calculated, must be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight by now.

He had not met him and as far as he was concerned, he had no wish to discuss the Milverdens whether of the present or the past.

Yet now, to his astonishment, Princess Zelda was saying that she wished to go to England.

Choosing his words carefully, the Prince declared,

“I suppose, if you do have a great ambition to visit England, it would be possible. But I see no reason for you to do so.”

“I have every reason,” she replied. “After all, if the late Duke was my father, I have a right to see what the rest of the family are like.”

The Prince said nothing and she went on,

“I feel certain they must be superior to the ghastly creatures my father wishes me to marry simply because they have a crown or a coronet on their heads.”

“And what good will it do? If you find the Duke is as unpleasant as those whom your father favours, will you come back and accept one of the suitors who has laid his heart at your feet?”

Princess Zelda laughed.

“There is nothing like that about it. They behave as if they are doing me a great favour and are then absolutely astonished when I refuse them!”

Prince Johann’s eyes twinkled.

“I just cannot believe that’s true. At the same time, because I have always been so fond of you since you were a baby, I would very much like you to marry a man you love and who loves you.”