The Princess Dehra Part 44

Madeline Spencer, lying in a languorous coil among the cushions in the deep embrasure of an east window, was gazing in dreamy abstraction across the valley to the mountain spur, five miles away as the bird flies, ten as the road runs, where, silhouetted against the blue of the cloudless sky, rose the huge, gray Castle of Dalberg.

For the last hour, she had been training a field gla.s.s on it at short intervals, and presently she levelled it again, and this time she saw what she was waiting for-from the highest tower of the keep the royal standard of Valeria was floating.

For a little while she watched the Golden Lion couchant on its crimson field-lashing its tail in anger with every undulation of the fresh west wind, as though impatient to spring into the valley and ravage and hara.s.s it, much as the fierce first Dalberg himself had doubtless done-then she slowly uncoiled herself, and gliding from the ledge swished lightly across to the far door, that led into the Duke of Lotzen's library.

"Ferdinand," she said, "they have--" he was not there, though she had heard him a moment ago singing softly, as was his wont when in particularly good spirits.

She went to his desk and sat down to wait, her eyes straying indifferently over the familiar papers that covered it, until they chanced upon a slender portfolio, she had never before seen, and which, to her surprise, contained only a sheet of blotting paper, about a foot square, folded down the center. Curious, she opened it, to find, on the inside, the stamp of the royal arms, and the marks of a dozen lines of heavy writing, most of it clear and distinct, and made, seemingly, by two impressions, one at each end of the sheet.

What was it doing here?-and why so carefully preserved?-She looked at the writing more attentively-and suddenly one word stood out plain, even if inverted, and under it a date.

Instantly blotter and portfolio were replaced, and she hurried to her boudoir for a mirror. Laying it face upward on the desk, she held the writing over it. A single glance proved her surmise true. Here and there words and letters were missing or were very indistinct, but there could be no doubt that this was the blotter used by King Frederick when he wrote the decree the night before his death. Her hasty reading had found nothing to show the purport of the Law-indeed, it seemed to be only a few lines of the beginning and of the end, including the signature and date-but possibly a closer inspection would reveal more; and so she was about to copy it exactly, when she heard the Duke's voice in the adjoining room and had time only to hide the mirror and to get the blotter to its place until he came in.

His cold face warmed, as it always did for her, and as it never had done for another woman, and he bowed to her in pleasant mockery.

"Good morning, d.u.c.h.ess," he said; "what are your orders for the day?-you occupy the seat of authority."

She got up. "Having no right to the t.i.tle," she said, giving him her most winning smile, "I vacate the seat-do you think I look like a d.u.c.h.ess?"

"Like a d.u.c.h.ess!" he exclaimed, handing her into the chair and leaning over the back, his head close to hers, "like a d.u.c.h.ess! you are a d.u.c.h.ess in everything but birth."

"And t.i.tle," she added, with a bit of a shrug.

He stroked her soft black hair, with easy fingers.

"The t.i.tle will be yours when Ferdinand of Lotzen reigns in Dornlitz," he said.

She bent back her head and smiled into his eyes. It was the first time he had held out any promise as to her place in event of his becoming king, though she had tried repeatedly to draw him to it.

"Would you do that, dear?" she asked, "do you really care enough for me to do that-to acknowledge me so before the world?"

"Yes, Madeline, I think I do," he said, after a pause, that seemed to her perilously long. "It appears rather retributive that you, who came here, at my instance, to play the wife for the American, should thus have been put, by my own act, into a position where our friendship must be maintained sub rosa. You are quite too clear headed not to appreciate that now, at least, I may not openly parade our relations; to do so would be to end whatever chance I have with the n.o.bles. But once on the Throne and the power firm in my hand, and they all may go to the devil, and a d.u.c.h.ess shall you be-if,"-pinching her cheek-"you will promise to stay away from Paris and the Rue Royale, except when I am with you."

She wound her lithe arms around his neck, and drew his face close to hers.

"I promise," she said presently, "I promise.... But what if you should miss the Crown?-you could not make me d.u.c.h.ess then."

"Why not, ma belle?" he asked, holding her arms close around his neck. "I shall still be a Duke, and you-la d.u.c.h.esse de la main gauche."

She could not suppress the start-though she had played for just such an answer, yet never thinking it would come-and Lotzen felt it, and understood.

"Did that surprise you, little one?" he laughed. "Well, don't forget, if I miss the Throne, and live, I shan't be urged to stay in Valeria-in fact, whatever urging there is, will likely be the other way."

"Banished?" she asked.

He nodded. "Practically that."

"Paris?"-with a sly smile upward.

He filched a kiss. "Anywhere you like, my dear; but no one place too long."

She was thinking rapidly-"d.u.c.h.ess of the left hand";-never his d.u.c.h.ess in name-never anything but a morganatic wife to whom no t.i.tle pa.s.sed; but what mattered the t.i.tle, if she got the settlements, and all the rest.

And Ferdinand was easy enough to manage now, and would be, so long as the infatuation held him; afterward-at least the settlements and the jewels would remain.

Truly she had won far more than she had sought or even dreamed of-and won it, whether Lotzen got the Crown or exile. The only risk she ran was his dying, and it must be for her to keep him out of danger-away from the Archduke and his friends, where, she knew, death was in leash, straining to be free and at him. Hitherto she had thought her only sure reward lay in Ferdinand as king; in his generosity for a little while; and so she had been very willing to stake him for success. Now she must reverse her method-no more spurring him to seek out the Archduke and dare all on a single fight; instead, prudence, discretion, let others do the open work and face the hazards.

She gave a satisfied little sigh and drew him close.

"May be you doubt it, dear," she said, "but I can be very docile and contented-and I shall prove it, whether as d.u.c.h.ess of the right hand or the left."

He laughed, and shook his head.

"You, docile and contented! never in this world; nor do I want you so-I prefer you as you are; you may lose me, if you change."

"Then I'll not change, dear," she whispered, and kissed him lightly and arose.

He reached out quickly to draw her back, but she eluded him.

"Nay, nay, my lord," she smiled; "I must not change, you said."

"Don't go away," he insisted; "stay with me a little longer."

She sat down across the desk from him.

"I almost forgot what I came for," she said. "Do you know they have come?-the flag went up a little while ago."

He nodded. "Yes, I know-a whole train load and half the Household:-the Regent, the American, Moore, Bernheim, De Coursey, Marsov, the scheming Courtney, d.a.m.n him, and a lot of women, including, of course, the Radnor girl. For a pursuit with deadly intent, it's the most amazing in the annals of war. Under all the rules, the American and a few tried swords should have stolen into Dalberg Castle, with every precaution against our knowing they had come; instead, they arrive with the ostentation of a royal progress, and fling out the Golden Lion from the highest tower."

"What are you going to do first?" she asked.

"Nothing-it's their move. They have come for the Book, and they must seek it here."

She was idly snapping the scissors through a sheet of paper and simply smiled her answer.

"Give me a cigarette, dear," she said, after a pause, "I've left mine in my room."

He searched his pockets for his case; then tumbled the papers on the desk, she aiding and very careful to leave exposed the portfolio that contained the blotter.

"Oh, there it is," she exclaimed, "on the table, yonder;" and when he went for it she drew out the blotter and feigned to be examining it.

"Here, little one," he said, tossing her the case-then he saw what she had, and for the shadow of an instant, which she detected, he hesitated-"fix one for me," he ended, and sat down, seemingly in entire unconcern.

"Bring me a match," she ordered, eyes still on the blotter, as she opened the case and took out a cigarette.... "There, I spoil you." She laid down the sheet and lit another Nestor for herself. "Ferdinand," said she, turning half around in her chair and looking up at him, "just where is this wonderful Book of Laws?"

"Here, in this drawer," opening one beside her, showing the same package wrapped in black cloth that Armand and Dehra had seen in Ferida Palace.

"I don't mean that one," said she. "I mean the real Book."