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Chapter Four

‘Mint and valerian.’ Lady Albinia smiled, patting the empty spot on the sofa as Christina entered the drawing room in the wake of the King and Princess. Christina sat down with relief, happy to escape another direct encounter with Lord Stanton as he came forward to greet the King. It took her a moment to register Lady Albinia’s strange comment.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Earlier today you asked if I happen to grow horsetail and hyssop, but then we were distracted by his Majesty’s interest in impatiens and periwinkles for the castle gardens. If you need horsetail for stomach ailments, mint and valerian might do, as well. I am not familiar with hyssop’s qualities.’

Christina smiled.

‘Thank you, both will do very well. It is actually for a tisane I sometimes prepare for the King when he has trouble sleeping. I saw you have cowslip and chamomile and woodruff which are wonderful. On Illiakos I grow bird’s foot and pennyroyal, as well.’

‘My mints are mostly down by the lake,’ Lady Albinia replied, leaning forward as if to guard a secret. ‘They are thirsty things, the dears. My pennyroyal never took, but I shall bring you some spearmint if you like. Very soothing.’

Lady Albinia’s faded face was lit from within and Christina almost regretted the topic had ever been broached. Herbs had been her father’s passion and she continued to tend the herb gardens he had planted, but for her they were instrumental, not the passionate occupation they appeared to be for Lady Albinia. By her vague expression Christina guessed the current Marquess’s sister was very used to spending hours propping up walls whenever events at the Hall required her attendance in the absence of Lady Wentworth herself. In thirty or forty years Christina might become much the same at the Castle. Once Ari married perhaps her herb garden would be all that was left to comfort her on Illiakos. The thought terrified her, but she stifled it.

‘That would be very kind, Lady Albinia.’

‘It would be my pleasure. So few people appreciate herbs. Flowers are always popular, but most people find herbs rather dull,’ she said wistfully and Christina smiled.

‘Herbs are often more potent beneath the surface, but even the most beautiful flowers can have hidden depths, like foxgloves, for example. I believe we should judge each plant on its own merits.’ She cringed a little at her pedantic response, but Lady Albinia’s smile warmed.

‘I cannot decide which you are.’

‘Which what?’

‘A flower or an herb. Usually I can tell right away. You have elements of both. I shall reserve judgement.’

She sounded so serious, Christina restrained her urge to laugh and looked around the room, forcing her gaze to skim past Lord Stanton as swiftly as possible. Even a brief glance told her he was magnificent in evening wear, the contrast of black and white accentuating the austere perfection of his features. But it also confirmed that although she had been too shocked by his sudden appearance that afternoon to assess their encounter calmly, she had been right about one thing—he had changed. Or perhaps she had. If she didn’t know better she might have assumed this was that man’s older brother. Incredibly like him in looks, more virile, but less swashbuckling. Just...different. The alternating sardonic charm, flirtatiousness and irritability were gone, replaced by watchful politeness. For a moment in the library he had even appeared a little confused. He had probably been thinking about something else and her presence had been unwelcome, but his manners had prevailed.

He was still the most attractive man she had met, but at least she hadn’t made as much of a fool of herself as she might, especially after being discovered huddled in that corner in her stockings. She flushed again at the memory and pushed it away. She had survived that meeting quite well, certainly better than anticipated. It was a relief that he made no connection between Miss James and his newspaper-reading nurse. And really, why should he? She had been negligible then and was negligible now.

She glanced again in his direction. He stood with the King and Princess, his head bowed slightly towards Ari’s who was laughing at something he said, her silver-and-white fan clutched in her hands in a gesture Christina knew betokened excitement. They looked beautiful together, a perfect melding of north and south and at least outwardly it appeared the King might realise his ambition, but Christina couldn’t help being worried, and not merely because of the lingering damage to her own heart. Lord Stanton might be leagues beyond any of the men who came to pay court to Ari at Illiakos, but she didn’t know if he could make Ari happy. He might have changed, but she remembered bitterness and anger under the flirtatious charm five years ago that she doubted would have just disappeared. None of that was in evidence now, but there was something distant about him despite the charm of his smile and the appealing curiosity he had exhibited while talking with her in the library and which he was clearly exerting on Ari even now. Beyond that something else lay, but she had no idea what it was and it scared her a little.

She drew herself up at that wholly ridiculous thought. He was merely an English diplomat whose only agenda was to secure a treaty with Illiakos. Fear had no place here.

Lady Albinia gave a slight sigh and patted Christina’s arm as the butler entered to announce dinner.

‘Come along, child, we have a long evening ahead of us.’

Christina followed her into the adjoining room. She was accustomed to splendour after years of the King insisting she accompany Ari to all state dinners, so when she entered the Stanton dining hall she was impressed, but not cowed. It could clearly accommodate several dozen people, but the central table had been shortened to fit their modest number and the elaborate silver epergne shaped like an eastern temple had been moved to a side table and replaced by a China bowl bursting with flowers. It was a peculiar touch amidst the sparkle of crystal and silver and gold-embossed dinnerware, both modest and lively. Christina thought the arrangement was not only tasteful but clever. It tied the group together in a warm intimacy and masked their antagonistic agendas.

Lord Stanton was seated at one end of the table and the King at the other, flanked by the Austrian and Russian envoys. Christina noted this concession to the weaker parties as she took her seat between Ari, seated to Lord Stanton’s right, and the Russian Tsar’s envoy, Count Razumov.

Again Christina felt her kinship with Lady Albinia. The older woman sat on Lord Stanton’s left, and as he listened to Ari’s happy chatter, she occupied herself with her food and a calm oversight of the servants who moved about, placing and removing covers with silent efficiency. Had Lady Albinia ever dreamt of being anything else but what she was? Of a family and home of her own? She had a pleasant face and she was not unintelligent. Had life just slipped past her while she tended her herbs and her brother’s family? She didn’t appear unhappy, but was that just resignation or true contentment?

‘...Miss James? Miss James!’

Christina turned at the King’s peremptory use of her name. He was frowning and the envoys were staring at her in surprise and for one mad moment Christina wondered if she had committed some horrid social solecism, but could not for the life of her think of anything she had been doing other than meandering through her own less-than-optimistic thoughts.

‘The trade treaty with Naples, you remember, what year did we sign it?’

Christina’s shoulders eased. The only social solecism was the King’s. Not that he cared it wasn’t acceptable to address anyone at the dinner table other than those directly seated by his sides.

‘Two years ago in May, your Majesty.’

‘Yes, that is right. Was that before or after I went to Rome?’

‘A month after your return, your Majesty.’

‘That’s right. That fellow came, the one with the big ears, what was his name, di Vicenti or something, yes?’

‘Signor di Vicenza, your Majesty.’ She angled her voice lower, but he merely grinned at her unspoken rebuke.

‘What have I said? He was very proud of his big ears, said they got that way from all those years keeping them to the ground.’

Razumov and Von Haas laughed, and without thinking she turned towards Lord Stanton. He was smiling, but there was the same watchful look she noticed in the library and it struck her suddenly that by placing these three men side by side he was not making a gesture of goodwill but setting the stage to gauge their reactions to each other. He appeared relaxed, but she could see the echoes of the tension and intensity that had been so clear in the wounded man of six years ago.

She looked down, her eyes snagging on his long fingers which were idly caressed the stem of his wine glass. With a spurt of alarm she realised she remembered his hands, even the feel of them on hers. They stopped suddenly and she raised her eyes, meeting his gaze. His eyes narrowed, the candlelight throwing gold shards in with the silver, but raising no warmth in them. Convention demanded she look away modestly and if she had been able to think she would have done so, but under his gaze she remembered just how seen she had felt, even under those veils. Seen by someone like her, vulnerable and in need, but holding his own need at bay with a ferocity she could never match. She remembered it perfectly—the knife-sharp intensity of his eyes, stripping away everything that kept her safe, forcing her to acknowledge that she had only one regret in her life and that it was that she had not grasped with both hands his impetuous offer that she join him six years ago. He would have regretted it—she was certain of that, and therefore so would she, but at least she would have had more to regret. It was too late, far too late, but it was still there, a slash in the very material of her life—deep and still bleeding.

‘You have spent many years on Illiakos, Miss James?’ The heavily accented question from the Russian envoy on her right startled her and she struggled to regain her composure.

‘I... Yes, your Excellency.’

‘Did the lovely Princess speak English before your arrival or does she owe her superb diction to you?’

‘She has a natural ear for music, which is useful for acquiring languages. Her French is just as flawless.’

‘Not only a lovely but talented young woman. King Darius is to be commended.’

‘Indeed. Your own English is flawless, your Excellency. Are you perhaps musical as well?’

He smiled.

‘I was sent to an English school at a young age. As a younger son I was marked for a diplomatic life at birth.’

‘Ah.’

‘Yes, “ah”! I know the English quite well, which has proven useful over the years. They remind me of the Baltic Sea in winter—this perfect cover of ice, sparkling when the sun shines on it, that is your peoples’ dry wit, and underneath a chaos of currents that is the real moving force of everything. My father would take me fishing on the ice—the servants chop a hole through the deep cover and we cast our lines into the depths. I remember thinking as a boy that the water beneath looked like the twisting of souls in hell, viscous and luminescent.’

Christina smiled at the descent into the darkly poetic, so typical of the Russians she had met in the King’s court. She could not determine if he was merely making conversation or in search of something. Whatever the case, she was grateful for the distraction.

‘That is a wondrous image, your Excellency, but I am not certain I find it complimentary to have my people compared to an ice-bound hellish chaos whose only redeeming feature is their dry wit.’

His smile widened.

‘I say this with the greatest admiration, Miss James. The English capacity for self-restraint is legend. Take our friend here...’ He lowered his voice and glanced down the table at Alex. ‘You would not guess from seeing him today he was the same man I knew five years ago. That was when he was still engaged in the dubious activities many of us were forced to entertain both before and after Napoleon dragged the Continent into such chaos. Those were very different times. Now we have all become sadly respectable. And older.’ He sighed and patted his receding hairline. ‘But then we were young and rash and a challenge was a challenge.’

‘A challenge?’

He focused back on her, a touch of malice in his dark eyes. ‘Women do love the scent of a duello, don’t they? Hard to believe it of our respectable Lord Stanton, but as I said we were all rather more fiery in those days, him more than most. But he is precisely an example of what I spoke of. The moment the balance between chaos and ice was upset, ice won and chaos was banished and the result is our very esteemed Lord Stanton, rising star of the Foreign Office. Had you told me of this development six or seven years ago I would have toasted your fertile imagination. As it is it reinforces my conviction that we Russians could use a little more ice and a little less chaos. As for wit, we have our own brand, but mostly we have our poetry. And our vodka.’ He glanced mournfully at his wine glass.

‘Don’t worry, you will have your vodka, Dimitri Dimitrovich; though you don’t appear to need its aid to sink into maudlin reminiscences.’

They both turned to Alex and Christina hoped the candlelight disguised her flush. Razumov didn’t appear to share her embarrassment at being caught gossiping about their host, nor did Alex appear bothered about continuing the King’s breach of form by addressing them across Princess Ariadne.

‘Ah, but vodka makes them so much more palatable, for me at least.’ Razumov replied. ‘I am afraid Miss James’s charm is just as effective to that end as the finest vodka.’

Alex’s mouth quirked up at one end, but the same faint question was in his eyes as they settled back on Christina.

‘Slowly. Miss James isn’t familiar with your particular style of...diplomacy.’

‘I presume it is like most diplomacy, a shiny veneer with an agenda beneath it,’ Christina replied. It was a little too honest a reply and she smiled at Razumov to take the sting out of it.

‘You have a low opinion of diplomats, then, Miss James?’ Alex asked.

‘Not at all. It requires talent to keep veneer and agenda untangled; I am all admiration for those who do it well. We meet a great many diplomats at court, don’t we, Princess Ariadne?’

‘Oh, yes,’ Ari said. ‘There are always statesmen coming to see Papa and he insists we be present for most important meetings. After all, I shall be Queen one day and it is important I understand how to be a good ruler.’

‘I am convinced you will be, your Highness.’

Ari returned Alex’s smile and Christina’s heart stuttered. Her mind was still stumbling over Razumov’s words and what they revealed about Alex and she did not need to add jealousy to the mix, especially not of Ari.

‘I will certainly try. Father said one key is finding people you trust and listening especially hard when they disagree with you.’ Ari’s expression sank from seriousness into a grin. ‘Which means I listen especially hard to Tina.’

‘Unfair. I rarely disagree with you.’

‘But when you do, goodness!’

‘Miss James has a temper, then?’ Razumov asked, a little too hopefully.

‘Well, not like Papa. He can make the windows rattle. Tina merely has this look. Her eyebrows go up, just a little. It is terrifying. There, you see?’

Christina shook her head and picked up her wineglass, trying not to smile. It was impossible to be annoyed with Ari when she was so clearly enjoying herself, even at her expense.

‘Formidable.’

She met Alex’s gaze and again felt her stomach clench around a sensation she had not felt for many years.

Ari nodded. ‘Yes, that’s a better word. Formidable. I sometimes practise that look for when I shall be Queen. Shall I show you?’

Alex transferred his gaze to Ari and smiled.

‘Do. Let us see the formidable Queen Ariadne.’

‘Well?’

‘Well what? I’m waiting,’ he said, his eyes softening. Christina tried not to look because this was probably what it felt like to be kicked down a very long flight of stairs, one by one.

‘But that was it! See?’