Gypsy Magic

Chapter One 1825-1

Chapter One 1825“It’s no use,” Princess Laetitia said to her sister, “I shall never get this gown to look anything but dowdy!”

“You will look lovely in it whatever it is like,” Princess Marie-Henriette replied.

Laetitia smiled.

“You know perfectly well that whatever we wear will be wrong when Cousin Augustina sees it.”

Marie-Henriette laughed.

“She is afraid that we might receive even one compliment that she thinks ought to be paid to Stephanie! Anyway, she dislikes us all, Mama included.”

Laetitia looked quickly at the door as if she was afraid her mother might overhear. Then she said in a lower voice,

“I know, Hettie, but don’t say so. You know it upsets Mama and she has been very depressed lately.”

“It’s not surprising,” Marie-Henriette replied. “With no money and what one might call the ‘hostilities’ coming from the Palace all the time, I only wish we could go somewhere else.”

“There is no answer to that,” Laetitia sighed, “so we just have to put up with it.”

She laid down the gown she was trying to alter as she spoke and walked to the window to look out onto the courtyard.

Just a short distance from the Palace there were a number of small attractive houses centred round a courtyard.

These were the Grace and Favour houses which were allotted to the Grand Duke’s relatives and Statesmen who had served their country if they were too poor to afford a house of their own.

When Prince Paul of Ovenstadt was killed fighting with his Regiment against an invading army of another country, which was quickly repelled, his family had to leave their home, an attractive house in which they had lived in comfort, and move into a small and rather cramped Grace and Favour house for which they were, however, very grateful.

But what the two Princesses and their brother when he was not with his Regiment, minded was what Marie-Henriette had called the ‘hostilities’ coming from the Palace.

This was not due to the Grand Duke, who had been extremely fond of his cousin Prince Paul, but to the Grand Duchess.

Since the Grand Duke Louis had had an elder brother he had not expected to inherit the throne and he and Prince Paul were brought up together and had always sworn that they would never marry.

However, what happened was that first Prince Paul fell head-over-heels in love with the very beautiful daughter of a Nobleman with Royal blood in his veins, who lived on the other side of the country.

Because the Prince was a comparatively unimportant member of the hierarchy, after some feeble opposition, he was allowed to marry the girl of his choice, the only real protests coming from his cousin Louis who felt companionless and alone for the first time in his life.

Six months later his elder brother died of a fever which the doctors could not diagnose and, as soon as Louis became the Crown Prince, pressure was brought on him to marry.

Unfortunately, because he was a charming and courteous man, he was pressurised into taking as his wife a Prussian Princess who undoubtedly brought some benefits to the country over which she was to reign, but immediately became the dominating partner of their marriage.

As the years passed and she became the Grand Duchess, she asserted her authority to the point where there were numerous jokes both inside and outside Ovenstadt as to ‘who wore the trousers’. They had two children, a son Otto who was spoilt from the moment he was born and became almost as obnoxious as his mother – and a daughter Stephanie who was exactly like her father and therefore loved by everybody who knew her.

Because the Grand Duchess had to have everything her own way and was possessive, acquisitive and extremely jealous, she disliked not only Prince Paul’s lovely wife, Olga, but also her children.

This was not surprising when it was obvious to everybody that Laetitia and Marie-Henriette were becoming more and more beautiful every day.

What was more, their brother, Prince Kyril, was immeasurably better-looking, more intelligent and certainly a better sportsman than the Crown Prince Otto.

The girls in the Grace and Favour house were snubbed by the Grand Duchess on every possible occasion and she made it palpably clear that they were not welcome at the Palace.

She had to invite them on State occasions simply because their father Prince Paul, had been so popular with the Statesmen, the Officials and the people of Ovenstadt that she dare not leave them out.

But, as Laetitia often said, she would have done so if she could.

The two girls, however, often wondered when they were alone what would become of them in the future.

“One thing that is quite obvious,” Laetitia said a dozen times, “is that there is no chance of anybody finding husbands for us until Stephanie has one!”

She paused and went on reflectively,

“Even then I think Cousin Augustina will make every excuse to keep us out of sight of any eligible bachelors unless, of course, there is a chance of one taking us away from Ovenstadt for ever.”

Laetitia did not talk bitterly, but merely as if she was stating a fact.

She usually found it easier to laugh than to cry about it.

At the same time, now that she was eighteen, she resented that there was not enough money for herself and Marie-Henriette, who was sixteen months younger to have pretty gowns and her mother had to scrimp and pinch even to feed them properly.

“How angry it would make Papa!” she would say when they were deliberately excluded from some party at the Palace that they should have been invited to.

She said the same when it was impossible to make the very little money they had go any further and they were unable to offer hospitality to those who invited them to their homes.

Her mother had sighed the last time she had said it to her.

“I know, darling, but I suppose it’s a cross we have to bear.”

“I cannot think why,” Laetitia replied argumentatively. “Papa died for his country and we, apparently, quite unjustly, are being punished for it.”

For a moment Princess Olga sat thinking.

Then she said,

“I know it is tiresome for you, darling, but at the same time, I would not wish to live in the Palace, however comfortable it might be.”

Both Laetitia and Marie-Henriette gave little screams of protest.

Then they were all laughing.

“Can you imagine what it would be like,” Laetitia asked, “with Cousin Augustina coming down to breakfast and starting by telling us we were too early or too late, our hair was untidy, our gowns were incorrectly buttoned and what was more our faces were all wrong?”

“Whatever we do is wrong to her,” Marie-Henriette agreed.

“That is enough, girls!” Princess Olga interrupted. “Whatever we feel about Cousin Augustina, Cousin Louis is very fond of us.”

“That is true,” Laetitia said. “Equally he is too weak to do anything about the way his wife behaves. What a pity it is that Papa’s father did not come to the throne!”

“I suppose second sons since the beginning of time have always complained at not being the oldest,” Princess Olga replied, “but Papa did not mind. He did not wish to be the Grand Duke. He just wanted to enjoy life and be happy with all of us.”

The Princess always looked sad as she spoke of her husband and now on her lovely face there was an expression that made the girls hastily start talking of something else.

They adored their mother and it seemed a perverse cruelty on the part of Fate that their father should have been killed when he was so happily married, while his cousin Louis was stuck for ever with a woman whom, if the truth was known, he actively disliked.

The Grand Duke had therefore withdrawn from a great deal of public life, leaving the Grand Duchess to make decisions for him, to receive Statesmen on his behalf and push him deliberately more and more into the background.

Sometimes when it seemed as if he could bear it no longer he would call at the Grace and Favour house to see Princess Olga.

He would sit in the small sitting room, which was so unlike the huge salons of the Palace, telling her of his troubles.

“I know how much you miss Paul,” he had said the last time he called, “and I too find myself missing him more every day. If he was here, I know that he would help me and prevent me from being so ineffective.”

“You must not talk like that, Louis,” Princess Olga had said in her soft voice. “The people love you.”

“When they get a chance to see me,” the Grand Duke replied, “and I know I am blamed for a lot of laws that were not of my making.”

He paused before he added,

“I suppose you are aware, as everybody else is, that the new Prime Minister is in Augustina’s pocket?”

Princess Olga did not reply. She merely inclined her head and the Grand Duke went on,

“He calls on her every day and does not pay me the courtesy of even pretending to consult me. He shows the State papers first of all to my wife and then, when they have decided what to do, they ask me for my signature on them.”

“Why do you not refuse?” Princess Olga enquired.

“Because I am not man enough to stand up to a scene,” the Grand Duke answered, “and that is where I miss Paul. He always fought my battles for me and without him I am like a man who has lost the use of his right arm. I feel it is not worth making the effort alone and unsupported.”

Princess Olga sighed and then she reached out and put her hand in his.

“I think, Louis dear, you should try.”

“To do what?” he asked. “You know as well as I do that Augustina has taken everything into her own hands. It is she who rules the country and, if I rebelled against her decisions, I should doubtless soon find myself certified as a lunatic or imprisoned in one of the dungeons!”

They both laughed.

At the same time there was, Princess Olga thought sadly, a great deal of truth in what the Grand Duke was saying.

She was quite sure that the Grand Duchess would be utterly ruthless if anybody tried to topple her from the seat of power.

When the Grand Duke left, she had merely prayed that somehow by some miracle he would be saved from what she realised was a life of misery that was almost approaching despair.

Sometimes she thought of appealing to him on behalf of the girl and suggesting that now Laetitia was eighteen a ball should be given for her at the Palace which would give her a chance to meet eligible young Princes from neighbouring countries or at least some of the noble families whom the Grand Duchess seldom invited to the Court.

But she knew that even if the Grand Duke agreed, his wife would be violently opposed to the idea and he would not have the strength to insist on the ball being given.

When she told Laetitia what she thought, her daughter had said,

“You are quite right, Mama. I am quite certain that Cousin Louis would be overruled and nothing would be done. But sooner or later somebody will have to stand up to her, although it cannot be you.”

“If only your father were here,” Princess Olga had sighed.

Then they were both aware that the conversation had gone full circle and nothing would be done about it.

Now standing at the window Laetitia said with her back to her sister,

“I think rather than being faint-hearted because we cannot obtain the things we want, we should perhaps try witchcraft!”

“Witchcraft?” Marie-Henriette exclaimed. “We don’t know any witches.”

“Gypsies can do magic,” Laetitia replied.

“They have little chance to do it here,” Marie-Henriette said. “You know Cousin Augustina has banned them from the Capital and told them to keep to the fields and mountains unless they wish to be expelled altogether from Ovenstadt.”

“That is the kind of thing she would do!” Laetitia answered. “It will only make the people hate her more than they do already. After all there is gypsy blood in a great number of Ovenstadts including us.”

Marie-Henriette laughed.

“You had better not let Cousin Augustina hear you talk about gypsy blood or you will be sent away in case you contaminate her!”