Love Rules

CHAPTER ONE ~ 1845-1

CHAPTER ONE ~ 1845Paulina Handley, driving in a carriage over the long dusty roads to The Palace, wondered why Princess Margarita had sent for her.

They were great friends and were continually together but, as she had seen the Princess only yesterday, it seemed strange to receive such an urgent summons to visit her again today.

Ever since Sir Christopher Handley had been appointed to be British Minister to the small Royal Duchy of Altauss, Paulina had been very grateful that the Grand Duke Louis’s daughter was the same age as herself.

Her father had been so depressed at being posted to Altauss that Paulina had expected to find herself isolated in a dull and regimented country with no friends.

Instead, from the moment she had seen Altauss, she had thought how pretty it was with its high mountains bordered on one side by Prussia and on the others by Saxony and Austria.

What was more the people of Altauss were charming, good-natured and apparently very content with their Ruler, the Grand Duke.

This was something that both Paulina and even more so her father had not expected.

“We are being exiled to the back of beyond!” he had grumbled. “We shall have to do nothing but bow and curtsey to a set of stiff-necked and disagreeable minor Royalty, who will think they are God Almighty and are detested by the populace they rule over.”

Paulina, who loved her father, was both sorry for him and very understanding in regard to the predicament that he had landed them both in.

The fact was, as she had told herself before, her father could not help being so handsome that he was irresistible to women, so that wherever he went there was always a chance of his affaires de coeur causing gossip and scandal, which was frowned on by the Foreign Office in England.

Sir Christopher, who had been Number Two to the Minister in Rome, had hoped that he would be appointed British Ambassador to Paris.

Unfortunately a beautiful and alluring Italian Contessa had proved irresistible and so her husband had not only challenged Sir Christopher to a duel but had caused so much trouble in Diplomatic circles that he had to be posted to a more obscure part of Europe.

It was severely unfortunate that, after so many tempestuous and fiery love affairs, when approaching the pinnacle of his career, he should be punished for what he considered a very minor crime.

He was in fact so depressed that Paulina found it hard to comfort him, thinking as she had thought so often before, that none of this would have happened if her mother had not died.

She had never known two people so happy and so much in love with each other as her parents had been and, when her mother had been carried off by a fever within a week, she had thought that her father would never recover from the blow.

At first he had seemed but a shadow of his usually buoyant self. Then when another man might have turned for consolation to drink, Sir Christopher allowed the lovely women who had always before pursued him hopelessly to try to make him forget with the softness of their arms and lips.

Paulina, brought up in the Cosmopolitan atmosphere that was inevitable for a Diplomat’s daughter, had understood that no woman could take the place of her mother whom he had really loved.

But to be posted to the Grand Duchy of Altauss had been, as far as Sir Christopher was concerned, to move into exile and was as depressing as being sent to Siberia.

Paulina discovered, however, it was no punishment for her father when he found that the Grand Duke Louis was a most intelligent man with a sense of humour and the Nobles who surrounded him were not only sportsmen, hard riders and excellent shots but also as cultured as he was.

While Sir Christopher made a number of friends, Princess Margarita offered Paulina a close friendship that she had never had in any other country where they had been posted.

The Princess was very pretty with dark hair, sparkling eyes and a grace that came from her Polish mother, while her expertise as a horsewoman was undoubtedly inherited from her Hungarian grandmother.

And Paulina admired her wholeheartedly.

They also had a bond in common in that Paulina’s mother had Hungarian blood in her veins, which accounted for the fact that she too could ride in a superb way that evoked the admiration of every man who saw her and the envy of every woman.

Because Paulina had travelled with her father since she was small she had become fluent in many languages.

As Princess Margarita had the same proficiency, they talked with each other in French or Italian, German or Russian, thinking it amusing that other people present understood little of what they were saying.

In fact the Princess would often say something outrageous just to make Paulina laugh and she would say to her afterwards,

“You must please be careful, Your Royal Highness! You know as well as I do that, if your Statesmen think I am laughing at them, I shall be in as much disgrace at home as poor Papa is at the moment.”

“I don’t believe that your father could be in disgrace with anybody,” the Princess replied. “He is so handsome and so charming that whatever crimes he may have committed he would undoubtedly be forgiven immediately.”

That might be true, Paulina thought wryly, if the Foreign Office consisted of women rather than stern and disapproving men, who took a very serious view of the complaints that reached them from Europe.

Yet after five months in Altauss, Paulina was beginning to hope that the reports wending their way by devious routes back to Whitehall would be so complimentary about her father that any past sins would soon be committed to the archives and forgotten.

At the same time she personally was in no hurry to leave Altauss.

There were plenty of tall, handsome young men with whom to dance, there were picnic parties in the foothills of the mountains and now that the weather was growing warmer she was sure that, although it seemed very daring, she and the Princess might be allowed to swim in one of the numerous beautiful lakes that the country abounded with.

‘I like being here,’ Paulina told herself as the horses moved swiftly despite the fact that the ground rose sharply as it led up to The Palace.

It was a Fairytale building standing high above the valley, which was filled with the pink and white blossom of fruit trees and the alpine flowers that grew in profusion at this time of the year.

Looking up at the blue sky above The Palace, Paulina was not aware that the blue was reflected in her eyes.

She took after her father in colouring.

Her hair was the pale gold of ripening corn, her skin translucently pink-and-white and her eyes that seemed to fill her small heart-shaped face were fringed with long lashes, which dark at the base were tipped with gold.

Sometimes those who admired her thought that she looked like a lovable and very young child, but she was too intelligent to leave this impression in anybody’s mind for long.

There was also something very attractive in the way that her expression would become mischievous and two provocative little dimples would appear on either side of her mouth.

“You have a naughty face!” the Princess had said once.

“I hope not,” Paulina replied, “and I think it is unkind of you to say so.”

“I do not mean wicked,” the Princess protested, “I just mean that you look as if you might be up to mischief of some sort. It is really very alluring.”

Paulina had laughed and she well knew that the Italians in Rome who paid her fulsome compliments had said much the same thing.

“I think you are an angel in front of whom I should kneel and burn candles,” one of the young men had said. “But when you laugh at me, I know you are a little demon sent from Hell to torment me!”

Paulina had laughed at him again, but she remembered that her Nanny had always said that everybody had two sides to their character.

“There be an angel sittin’ on your right shoulder,” she had said when Paulina was old enough to understand, “and a little devil sittin’ on your left. They are both whisperin’ in your ear and it’s up to you as to which one you listens to.”

Paulina had often sat very quietly listening to what the ‘angel’ and the ‘little devil’ were saying to her and she had the suspicion that what the ‘little devil’ said was more exciting!

The carriage had now reached the great ornamental gates of The Palace and the sentries standing outside their boxes, which had been painted with pink and white stripes, presented arms.

Paulina had seen them often and so she now bent forward to wave her hand and smile, recognising the two young soldiers on guard duty and thinking how smart they looked in their red and white uniforms.

She was met at the door of The Palace by a servant who led her through the impressive hall with its statues of former Grand Dukes and portraits of their plump Duchesses, up the red carpeted staircase and along a wide corridor to the Princess’s rooms.

Paulina, who had been there so many times before, could so easily have found her own way.

But she knew that to suggest such a thing would offend the protocol of The Palace and the servants would not understand why she should wish to dispense with their services.

Accordingly, as she had to follow behind a fat middle-aged manservant with his white wig causing beads of sweat on his forehead, she had to move a great deal more slowly than she would have done had she been alone.

But eventually they had reached the apartments in the West wing that were the Princess Margarita’s and the manservant knocked on a large door painted artistically with the wild flowers of the district on a background of peacock blue.

It was opened by one of the Princess’s maids, who dropped Paulina a small curtsey.

“It is very good to see you, gracious Fraulein,” she said. “Her Royal Highness has been asking over and over again how it is possible for you to take so long in coming to her.”

“Long?” Paulina queried. “I came immediately I received Her Royal Highness’s note and the horses moved as if they had wings on their feet.”

“That be what we’ll all need before we are finished,” the maid said almost beneath her breath.

She opened a door and announced,

“Fraulein Paulina Handley, Your Royal Highness.”

With a cry of delight the Princess sprang up from the chair that she had been sitting in, upsetting a large number of articles that had been in her lap as she did so.

“Paulina! Thank goodness you have come!” she exclaimed in English. “I began to think you had deserted me.”

“Deserted you?” Paulina exclaimed in surprise. “Why should I do that?”

“I had to see you. I have so much to tell you and you must help me.”

The maid had closed the door behind her and they were alone and the Princess, taking Paulina by the hand, pulled her towards the sofa.

“What do you think has happened” she asked.

“I cannot imagine.”

The Princess drew in a deep breath.

“I am to be married!”

This was most certainly not what Paulina had expected and so she looked at her friend in astonishment.

“But – to whom?”

As she spoke, she thought of all the young men who had been in attendance at the balls, and could not imagine that any of them were particularly suitable husbands for the Princess Margarita, however well they might qualify as dancing partners.

The Princess did not reply for a moment and then, holding Paulina’s hand tightly in hers, she said,

“Will you promise me on everything you hold sacred that you will do what I ask?”

Paulina smiled.

“I cannot promise that unless I know what you want me to do.”

“It is quite simple,” the Princess replied. “I want you to come with me to Russia.”