Read The Cruel Count (Bantam Series No. 28) for Free Online

were saying about her.
    “But she is imaginative,” the Aide-de-camp remarked, “she is also sensitive. How can she possibly deal with a woman like Madame Ziileyha?”
    “Has His Royal Highness not agreed to give her up?” the Captain asked. “When I was last in Katona, the manner in which the people spoke of her, the hatred they showed for her, would have made any ordinary person flee the country in terror.”
    “They will not hurt her while she has the Prince’s protection,” the Prime Minister said dryly, “but I agree with you, Captain, and you do not know half of what I know: she is bad, her influence is appalling and she has done more to damage my country than it is possible to estimate.”
    “But you persuaded His Royal Highness to take a wife,” the Captain said.
    “I persuaded him without much difficulty because he knows that he must marry sooner or later,” the Prime Minister replied.
    “But when he does so he must give up this creature!” the Aide-de-camp cried. “This Turkish woman who has indeed confirmed that the Turks are, and always will be our hated enemies!”
    Again the Aide-de-camp’s voice was passionate and Vesta knew it was because he was enamoured with her.
    She would not have been feminine if she had not realised that every day he was falling more in love.
    Every day he found new excuses to be beside her, to teach her, to talk with her, and yet, because he knew his place, he would never presume to express his feelings.
    “I asked you,” the Captain said, “whether His Royal Highness has agreed to give up Madame Ziileyha?”
    “He implied that he would do so,” the Prime Minister answered, but hesitatingly.
    The Captain and the Prime Minister were old friends, who had known each other ever since they were boys. But neither the Captain nor the Aide-de-camp had any idea that a marriage by proxy had already taken place between Vesta and the Prince.
    That had been kept a close secret. The only people who knew of it outside Vesta’s immediate family were the Foreign Secretary, Lord Castlereagh, and the Earl of Liverpool.
    Vesta was not surprised when the Aide-de-camp said in a voice which revealed all too clearly his inner feelings:
    “If I had my own way I would turn this ship round and take Her Ladyship back to England! Can you imagine the shock it will be when she learns about Madame Ziileyha, when she realises that the man she is already idealising and making into a hero, is besotted by a mistress who is loathed and despised by every decent citizen in our country.”
    Quite suddenly Vesta had realised she could not bear to hear any more. She had crept past the Saloon and gone to her own cabin to lie face downwards on the bed.
    It could not be true! She must have imagined what she had overheard!
    Just like a pack of cards, the castle she had been building in her thoughts collapsed around her, and then because it had been such a shock, because she could not bear to think of what she had learnt inadvertently, she had tried to forget it.
    She had attempted to force it from her mind, to tell herself that when she arrived everything would be well, as she had dreamt it would be.
    Yet despite herself, Madame Ziileyha, whoever she . might be, was now always present with every thought she had of the Prince.
    “An evil woman” the Prime Minister had called her.
    ‘And am I strong enough,’ Vesta asked herself pathetically, ‘to combat evil?’
    She was so deep in her thoughts as they rode on through the woods, the sunshine making strange patterns of gold on the path ahead, that it was with a jerk she came back to reality and realised that the Count had drawn his horse to a standstill just ahead of her.
    Her own animal trotted up to his side and he said:
    “We have now been riding well over three hours and I think it is wise to give the horses a short rest. What is more, we have now come to a difficult part of our route.”
    “A rest would be very nice,” Vesta answered.
    She saw him