The Reluctant Bride

CHAPTER 1-2

“You remember that I have often spoken to you, Camilla, of Meldenstein.”

“Yes indeed,” Camilla said, “and the Princess, my Godmama, has remembered my birthday every year since I was a child. Last year she sent me the most adorable lace cloak, most useful for wearing at the opera, but unfortunately I have no chance of attending an opera.”

“That is now changed,” Sir Horace said. “You will need your opera cape, my child, or indeed a far finer one.”

“Why, what do you mean?” Camilla asked.

“I will start at the beginning,” Sir Horace said and then paused as the door opened.

The footman, over six feet tall, wearing a claret-coloured livery with brightly polished buttons, came into the room carrying a tray.

“I thought, sir, you would wish for a glass of wine after your journey,” he said respectfully.

“Thank you, James,” Sir Horace answered and, turning to Lady Lambourn, he said,

“My dear, this is James. I have already informed him that for a few days we shall be short-handed in the house. After that we shall be able to fill all the posts that have been vacant for so long.”

The footman set the salver with the decanter beside Sir Horace, filled the glass and bowing, first to Lady Lambourn and then to Camilla, left the room.

“Excellent fellow,” Sir Horace commented as he closed the door quietly behind him. “He has been in the service of the Duke of Devonshire and is well trained.”

Lady Lambourn said nothing. She merely stared in bewilderment at the door that had closed behind the footman and turned her face towards her husband.

“I will start at the beginning,” Sir Horace began again. “When I reached London, I was in despair. You know, dearest, although I tried to put on a brave face, I felt as though we had reached the end of everything, and there was nothing, nothing I could do to save us all from disaster. I went to my Club as I thought that in White’s there was certain to be one friend who had known me in the past and to whom I might humble myself sufficiently to ask for a helping hand.”

“Poor Papa, how you must have hated the thought of having to beg,” Camilla murmured.

“I was thinking only of you and your mother,” Sir Horace replied. “Well, I saw a few acquaintances but no one I knew well and I was just wondering whether I dare spend the little money I had on ordering dinner when a voice behind me exclaimed, ‘Sir Horace, the very man I want to see!’”

“Who was it?” Lady Lambourn enquired eagerly.

“Do you remember Ludovick von Helm?” Sir Horace asked his wife.

Lady Lambourn wrinkled her brow.

“Ludovick von Helm,” she repeated, “I seem to recall the name. Yes, of course, he was at Meldenstein, a rather ambitious young Courtier. I remember him now.

“His ambitions have been realised,” Sir Horace said, “he is now the Prime Minister.”

“Indeed,” Lady Lambourn remarked. “Is anything left of Meldenstein? I thought Napoleon had overrun all those Principalities.”

“Von Helm tells me that very little harm was done to Meldenstein compared with the other States,” Sir Horace replied. “They made no effort to resist Napoleon and therefore nothing was damaged. They were forced to billet a large number of soldiers as they passed through the country en route to Russia, but, amazingly enough, financially Meldenstein is as rich as she was before the War.”

“How is that possible?” Lady Lambourn asked.

“Because, my dear, as you know, the Princess is an English woman and the State funds were invested in England. They must have had some bad moments during the War when they thought that at any moment England would be defeated by a Napoleonic invasion. Now we are the victors and Meldenstein’s money is not only intact but has multiplied during the War years.”

“Well, I am glad someone could benefit by the war,” Lady Lambourn commented bitterly.

“What was more, Prince Hedwig, you remember him, my dear, was not in the country. Von Helm tells me that he was travelling in the East when the War broke out. Only after the Battle of Waterloo could he return to his own land, which was administered during his absence by his mother.”

“She is English,” Lady Lambourn pointed out. “How could Napoleon tolerate an Englishwoman ruling over a State he had conquered?”

“Apparently the Princess charmed him. The stories of Napoleon’s susceptibility to a pretty woman are not exaggerated. He allowed the Princess to remain, placing, of course, some chattel of his own in supreme command, who was also charmed by our dear friend to grant her and the country many concessions that less fortunate Principalities did not enjoy.”

“I am glad everything has turned out so well for them,” Lady Lambourn said, “and Elaine was always a true friend. But tell me how this affects us.”

“Well, intimately,” Sir Horace said, “for von Helm had come to England with a mission, which was to find me and ask if my daughter, our daughter, my dear, would accept the hand of His Supreme Highness Prince Hedwig of Meldenstein.”

There was a moment’s utter silence after Sir Horace had spoken and then in a very small voice, so low that he could hardly hear it, Camilla asked,

“You mean, Papa, that he wishes to marry me?”

“That it what he has requested,” Sir Horace replied, “and I need hardly say what this offer meant in a moment when I was in the deepest despair. Meldenstein has always been my second home, I went there when I was young as Third Secretary in the British Legation, my first diplomatic post. The Prince and his beautiful wife were kindness itself. I was sent to Rome, Paris and then back to Meldenstein again as Minister. It was the happiest time of my life.”

“But I have never seen the Prince,” Camilla protested.

“Is he coming to England?” Lady Lambourn asked.

Sir Horace looked uncomfortable.

“You must understand, my dear,” he replied, “that it would not be possible for His Supreme Highness to leave his country at this particular moment, having been away all through the War. There is a great deal for him to do and he has to meet his people. Their loyalty and, I am sure, their adoration of him is undiminished. At the same time von Helm explained that it would be impossible for him to undertake another journey so soon upon his return. That is why von Helm came himself, the Prime Minister! You can understand that it is indeed an honour that a man in such a position should come in person to present his Prince’s suit.”

Camilla rose to her feet, walked to the mantelpiece and stood looking down at the unlit fire.

“Did you – accept, Papa?” she asked quietly.

Again Sir Horace seemed a little uncomfortable.

“Naturally I did not jump at the suggestion without discussion,” he answered. “But the Prime Minister had everything cut and dried. He had details of the Marriage Settlement with him. Shall I tell you what they are?”

Camilla did not reply, so looking at his wife Sir Horace continued,

“His Supreme Highness is prepared to settle on his bride one hundred thousand pounds on the day of the marriage. As he realises that the preparation of her trousseau will involve heavy special expenses, the Prime Minister was empowered to hand me immediately ten thousand pounds.”

“Ten thousand pounds,” Lady Lambourn repeated faintly. “Oh, Horace! What an immense sum!”

“That is the sort of generosity I should expect from Meldenstein,” Sir Horace said enthusiastically, but his eyes went towards his daughter standing with her back to him, her hands gripping the marble mantelpiece as if for support.

There was a moment’s silence.

Then Sir Horace said in a very different tone,

“You are pleased, Camilla?”

“He has never seen me,” Camilla retorted. “How can he wish to marry me?”

“Where Royalty is concerned, these things are always arranged,” Sir Horace replied.

“Surely the – two people concerned – should meet before anything is – decided?”

“Not always,” Sir Horace said “As you know, the Prince Regent had not seen Princess Caroline of Brunswick until she had crossed the English Channel.”

“And that has certainly been – a disastrous marriage,” Camilla commented.

“Of course, there is no comparison,” Sir Horace said, realising his error. “Prince Hedwig has an English mother, who has been a very good friend of ours for years. From all I have heard His Supreme Highness is a delightful young man,”

“How old is he?” Camilla asked.

There was a moment’s pause.

“Thirty-eight or thirty-nine,” Sir Horace said almost as though the words were forced from him.

“Why has he not married – before?”

“I have already explained that,” her father replied, a note of irritation in his voice. “He was in the East. You could hardly expect him to marry out there. Now he has returned and a Wedding will be exceedingly popular in Meldenstein.”

“And so a bride has to be found,” Camilla said in a low voice. “Anyone would do – so why choose me?”

“Camilla, I don’t like your tone,” Sir Horace replied sharply. “This is a great honour that has been accorded us. The same family has ruled in Meldenstein for nearly a thousand years and the fact that it has become a tradition in the last three generations for the reigning Prince to marry an English wife has formed very close links with this country. Indeed, there is no other foreign State where I would wish you to reign save Meldenstein.”

Camilla turned round.

Her cheeks were very pale, her huge eyes dark and fearful and they seemed almost too big for her little face.

“I do not wish to reign anywhere,” she declared passionately. “I am not suited for such a life, as you well know, Papa. What knowledge have I of – Courts? You and Mama are different. You have always held important Diplomatic posts, and have mixed with Kings and Queens, with Princes and their families. But I am different. I have lived quietly here ever since I grew up with the exception of one short visit to London, where I felt lost and insignificant. I should not be accepted in Royal circles. I should be out of place – and you would be embarrassed by my ignorance.”

Sir Horace rose to his feet.

“Camilla, you must not say such things.”

He walked across the room and put his arm round her.

“My dear, you are very beautiful. Wherever you go men will bow to your beauty and women will accept you as being undoubtedly the fairest of your s*x. You will be happy at Meldenstein, I know it. Its Court is not subject to overpowering protocol like that of the Hapsburgs in Vienna or the Court of Spain, where one only has to breathe to do the wrong thing. People in Meldenstein are simple and happy from the Prince down to the lowest subject.”

“But how do you know that I shall be happy,” Camilla asked, “with a man I have never seen, a man who is nearly twenty years older than I am, a man who may dislike me as much as I may dislike him – when he condescends to meet me?”

Sir Horace stared at his daughter. Then he dropped his arm and his expression hardened.

“Very well,” he said in a hard voice. “I see that I have made a mistake. I thought that you would be pleased at the change in our circumstances. I believed you would have felt that to be the reigning Princess in a place like Meldenstein, one of the most beautiful little countries in the world, was preferable to starving slowly to death in this tumbledown house. I was wrong.”

Sir Horace walked across the room and back again to face Camilla.

”I imagined too,” he continued, “that you would be glad that your mother could go to Bath to relieve the suffering she has borne so bravely for so long, that you would have been pleased for our home to be repaired and the estate put in proper order for Gervase’s return, but I was under a misapprehension.”

Sir Horace paused and his tone grew sarcastic.

“You are concerned that you have not met this man, who is prepared to behave so generously towards you and your family. I will write to him and say that my daughter does not consider him a proper suitor for her hand because he will not throw over his Royal commitments to his country at this vital moment in its history to come posting across the Channel and kneel at the feet of a fastidious young wench, who for all her much-vaunted attractions has not yet received a decent offer of marriage!”

Sir Horace had not raised his voice, but his face was pale and his breath came sharply as if he had been running.

It was obviously with a supreme effort at self-control that he added more quietly, but in an icy tone,

“Perhaps, Camilla you will oblige me by ringing the bell and requesting the footman, whose wages I will now be unable to pay, to bring me pen and paper so that a letter expressing your sentiments may be conveyed at once to His Serene Highness Prince Hedwig of Meldenstein.”

Sir Horace stopped speaking, but it seemed as if his voice, almost like the lash of a whip, still echoed in the quietness of the room. Lady Lambourn gave a little sob and put her hands up to her face.

For a moment Camilla stood irresolute and then she said in a dull voice,

“It’s all right, Papa, I will do it. Of course I will marry the Prince. I have no alternative, have I?”

“The choice is, of course, yours, my dear,” Sir Horace said, picking up his glass of brandy and tossing it off as though he felt in need of sustenance.

“You are quite right, Papa,” Camilla went on, “it’s a great honour which I should be extremely thankful for At least the house will be repaired and there will be new ceilings that we can sleep under without getting wet.”

“That’s a sensible girl!” Sir Horace said, the colour returning to his face. “I thought you would see reason. Indeed we shall have to work quickly for the Prime Minister has already returned to Meldenstein. His Serene Highness will be arranging for proper representatives to come here next month to escort you and, of course, your Mama and me to the Wedding.”

“Next month!” Camilla echoed. “It’s impossible for me to be ready so soon.”

“The marriage is to be celebrated in June,” Sir Horace replied. “It is a beautiful month in Meldenstein and all their Royal Weddings have taken place there during the second week of the month. It is the traditional time of good fortune.”

“So the Prime Minister has already left with your acceptance,” Camilla said. “You never thought for one moment – that I might refuse, did you, Papa?”

It seemed for a moment as if Sir Horace would answer sharply. Then his Diplomatic training made him say coaxingly,

“My dearest child, I know only too well what you feel, but what other answer could I give? You are aware of why I went to London. Do you suppose that I was not in the very depths of despair at the position we find ourselves in. I was penniless, Camilla, can you not understand what that means? To have no money in the Bank and to have sold everything that was saleable!”

Sir Horace picked up his wife’s hand.

“Look at your mother’s fingers without a ring,” he commanded. “Look at the safe almost empty of silver and the spaces on the walls where the pictures hung, the furniture gone from the salon and the stables bereft of all our best horses.”

He flung out his arms dramatically like a well-trained actor.

“Do you not think,” he continued, “that I have not been ashamed of letting month after month go by and being unable to pay even Agnes and Wheaton, turning away labourers from the farm, the gardeners from the garden and the keepers from the woods? Old Groves, who has been with us forty years, retired without a pension.”

He then put his hands on Camilla’s shoulders and said softly,

“I have never been a millionaire, Camilla, but I have in the past lived like a gentleman. I am humiliated having my pockets to let, knowing that few people, apparently not even you, my dearest daughter, understand what agonies I am suffering from my impecunity. So when a chance came to right all the wrongs suffered inadvertently but nevertheless disastrously by those we have a responsibility towards, I could not believe that you would make me regret it.”

The gentleness and persuasion in her father’s voice brought the tears to Camilla’s eyes.

“I am – sorry, Papa,” she murmured. “Forgive me. It was just that for a moment I was frightened of what lies ahead. I would marry anyone, even if it was the Devil himself, to make you happy and Mama well. And I love my home, I want it to be repaired and in good shape for Gervase when he leaves the Navy. It was very selfish and wrong of me to speak as I did – I am sorry, Papa.”

She turned her face up to her father’s and now, as the tears ran down her cheeks, he saw, just as Lady Lambourn had done, how thin and fragile she looked.

He caught her in his arms.

“My dearest, my little girl,” he said and his voice broke. “You know that all I want is your happiness and believe me this will make you happy, I swear it.”

“I am happy, I am, Papa,” Camilla said, as if by repeating the words she could convince herself. “It was just the surprise and shock of what you had to say. Now everything is all right and please, before we do anything else, will you pay Agnes and Wheaton and give them much more than they expected.”

Sir Horace pulled her closer.

“I will do it this very minute and I will tell Agnes to cook the saddle of lamb for dinner. I vow that we shall all feel less emotional when we have had some food.”

He kissed Camilla’s wet cheek, gave her a last close hug and went from the room.

For a moment she stood looking after him and then, without speaking, she knelt down beside her mother’s chair and laid her fair head against Lady Lambourn’s breast.

“I am sorry, Mama, I must have – upset you.”

“No, darling,” Lady Lambourn replied, “I know full well what you are feeling. We all want to meet the man of our dreams and fall in love with him.”

She put one hand on her daughter’s soft hair.

“You have not already lost your heart to someone else, have you, my dearest?”

Lady Lambourn’s voice betrayed some anxiety.

There was just a second’s hesitation before Camilla replied,

“No – no – of course not, Mama.”